A system and method for false alarm prevention in unstable locations is presented. In one embodiment, the method comprises activating an asset sensor and a reference sensor, detecting motion in the asset sensor, determining if the reference sensor detects motion, and preventing transmission of an alarm if the reference sensor detects the motion. In another embodiment, the method comprises activating an asset sensor and a reference sensor, detecting motion in the asset sensor and transmitting acceleration data in accordance with the detected motion, sensing local acceleration data from the reference sensor, and signaling an alarm if a difference between the transmitted acceleration data and the local acceleration data is greater than a predetermined threshold. The reference sensor can be mounted in a control panel, and the asset and reference sensors can be enrolled in the control panel.

A wireless asset sensor or alarm device can be attached to or mounted on some valuable object for its protection. The mounted sensor is generally small and unobtrusive so that its presence is not obvious. Such sensors or devices monitor the asset's movement, transmitting an alarm signal if the movement is greater than a pre-determined tolerance. Typically there are three possible conditions that cause an alarm to be triggered. A first is if the object is sensed to be in motion for more than about one second, a second is if the object is sensed to be in motion for more than about five seconds, and a third is if the object is tilted more than 30° off horizontal with reference to the Earth's gravitational field.
These asset sensors generally operate in conjunction with the control panel of a fixed or permanently installed security system in a static environment, such as a building. Each alarm condition can be associated with a loop on its associated security system control panel. Typically a control panel receives alarm signals from sensors, interprets each signal, and transmits alarm notifications in accordance with the signal. The notification may be a display on the control panel, an audible alarm, other visual notification such as flashing lights, or any combination thereof. A central office may be notified of the alarm in addition to, or instead of, local notification on the control panel.
However, there is a need for sensors with similar motion-detection functionality in non-static environments, in which the entire protected premise is subject to motion. Such premises can be boats, houseboats, RVs and other vehicles. For instance, a boat may have fishing gear or navigation electronics exposed on the deck, or removable outboard motors; it is desirable to protect these assets, and the asset sensor is an ideal choice. However, it cannot be used in these applications because the premises are not static. Instead, a moored boat, for example, will sway on the water's surface, and the swaying motion will cause false alarms. Furthermore, sensors as known in the art may cause false alarms in areas of high seismic activity, e.g. certain locations on the West Coast of the United States. Hence there is a clear need for an enhanced sensor capable of functioning even in these sorts of situations.

Method for inertial asset protection on vehicles and for false alarm prevention in unstable locations


An electroluminescent (EL) device having a substrate with a light-emitting portion and a sealing member. The sealing member seals the light-emitting portion from the surrounding air. A groove accommodating a sealant is formed in at least one of seal portions of the substrate and the sealing member.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an organic electroluminescent device, and more particularly, to an electroluminescent device having an improved sealing structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electroluminescent devices have advantageous features suitable for next generation display devices. For example, electroluminescent devices have a wide viewing angle, a high contrast ratio and a high response speed. Electroluminescent (EL) devices are classified as inorganic EL devices and organic EL devices based on the materials which form the light-emitting layers.
FIG. 1 shows an organic EL device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,489,719. The disclosed organic EL device 1 comprises a substrate 2 having a positive electrode 3, a negative electrode 5 and a light-emitting layer 4 disposed between the positive electrode 3 and the negative electrode 5, and a sealing member 6 for sealing the substrate 2. Since the characteristics of the light-emitting layer 4 of the organic EL device deteriorate when exposed to moisture, it is necessary to isolate the light-emitting layer 4 from the moisture in the air.
Even if the substrate 2 and the sealing member 6 provide isolation, the sealing between the substrate 2 and the sealing member 6 is not perfect because of the physical properties of the adhesive 7 applied to adhere the sealing member 6 to the substrate 2. Thus, in order to minimize the amount of moisture infiltrating into the light-emitting layer 4 through the adhesive 7, it is preferable to reduce the thickness of the adhesive 7. In this case, however, there is a limit in reducing the thickness of the adhesive 7 because the adhesive 7 should be sufficiently applied to the substrate 2 and/or the sealing member 6 for the purpose of removing a gap therebetween. Consequently, in the organic EL device shown in FIG. 1 in which the gap (T) between the substrate 2 and the sealing member 6 is equal to the thickness of the adhesive 7 applied, it is difficult to satisfactorily prevent moisture in the air from infiltrating into the light-emitting layer 4, resulting in a shortened life of the organic EL device.


A thin film transistor (TFT) and a method of manufacturing the same are provided. The TFT includes a transparent substrate, an insulating layer on a region of the transparent substrate, a monocrystalline silicon layer, which includes source, drain, and channel regions, on the insulating layer and a gate insulating film and a gate electrode on the channel region of the monocrystalline silicon layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a thin film transistor (TFT) and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a typical TFT used as a switching device for a flat display, e.g., an LCD or an OLED, the channel is formed of amorphous silicon or polycrystalline silicon. When a channel region of a TFT is formed of amorphous silicon, uniformity may be increased, but high speed operation may be difficult due to low carrier mobility. When the channel region is formed of polycrystalline silicon, carrier mobility may be increased as compared to amorphous silicon, but the reduction of the size of the device may be limited by the grain size of the polycrystalline silicon.
A TFT may be formed on a substrate such as a glass substrate or a sapphire substrate. However, using a glass substrate may make it difficult obtain uniform results. Further, the use of a sapphire substrate may result in reduced carrier mobility, as it is difficult to obtain mobility equal to that achieved a system in which there is no compression stress, or tensile stress is applied, since the channel region of a conventional TFT on a sapphire substrate is under a compression stress.

Method of manufacturing thin film transistor


A hardware queue for an integrated circuit device includes an internal queue memory and at least one external queue memory. The internal queue memory and the external queue memory are operated as a continuous hardware queue memory by monitoring occupancy of the internal queue memory and, based on that occupancy, controlling an internal tail pointer indicating a next write point for inserting new data into the internal queue memory, an internal head pointer indicating a next read point for extracting data from the internal queue memory based on order of insertion, at least one external tail pointer indicating a next write point for inserting new data into the external queue memory, at least one external head pointer indicating a next read point for extracting data from the external queue memory based on order of insertion, and wrap pointers indicating transitions between the internal queue memory and the external queue memory.

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the inventors hereof, to the extent the work is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted to be prior art against the subject matter of the present disclosure.
Many integrated circuit devices include hardware memory queues, commonly referred to simply as "queues", which may be used, e.g., for synchronizing logical functions to resolve issues such as, for example, rate-matching, time-synchronization, and ordering.
Hardware queues frequently operate according to a First-In/First-Out (FIFO) scheme according to which data elements are removed from the queue in the order in which they are inserted, regardless to the timing of enqueue and dequeue events. Control logic maintains pointers to the storage location to which the next data element should be written, and to the storage location from which next (i.e., oldest) data element should be read. The former pointer may be referred to as the write pointer, or the "tail pointer," while the latter pointer may be referred to as the read pointer, or the "head pointer."
Some devices include, in addition to an onboard hardware queue, an interface to an off-device memory that can serve as an additional, or overflow, queue memory, to be used when the onboard hardware queue is full. Such an external queue memory is commonly implemented using a different memory technology than the onboard queue memory, and may be less expensive, on a per-bit basis, than the onboard queue memory. The external queue memory also may be slower than the onboard queue memory. Even if the external queue memory is not slower than the onboard queue memory, the external queue memory is further away. Therefore, use of an external queue memory increases latency.

Extendable hardware queue structure and method of operation thereof


A network on which personal ads are stored for distribution to a client includes at least one call center on which the personal ads are entered, at least one ad response machine on which responses to the ads are stored and an ad taking system including a processor and a database. The database includes an identifier of each client, the text of the personal ads to be distributed to each client and a profile of each client. The client profile includes a list of personal ad parameters and a weight associated with each such parameter. Ads are distributed to the client in an order based on the weight assigned to each parameter applicable to the ad. In accordance with one aspect of the invention, the weights are verified with statistics of the productivity of recently published ads in eliciting responses, with such statistics being obtained over the network from an ad response machine servicing the client. In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, at least one box pool for each client is stored in the database and includes box numbers and security codes available for advertisers to access ad responses and the processor is operative to ensure that a predetermined minimum number of box numbers and security codes remain available for each client.

Advertisements placed by individuals seeking to meet other individuals are often referred to as personal ads, or "personals". Various types of publications print personals, including newspapers and magazines. The method by which a personal ad is placed and/or responded to can vary. For example, a telephone system may be employed to place ads which are then printed in a newspaper or magazine. Responses to personals may be telephone responses in the form of recorded voice messages which are stored for retrieval.
Some publications (referred to herein as the "client") enlist the services of another organization (referred to herein as the "vendor"), such as Tele-Publishing, Inc., the Assignee of the subject invention, for the purpose of collecting and processing personal ads and providing the text of the ads in a convenient form for publication. The vendor operates a plurality of computers, referred to as call centers, to which telephone access is provided. A call center operator, or ad taker, answers telephone calls from individuals seeking to place ads (referred to herein as "advertisers") and enters the text of the personal ads onto the computer, along with other information, such as information identifying the advertiser.
In one system in which responses to personal ads are recorded voice messages, the vendor maintains a plurality of computers (referred to herein as ad response machines) on which the responses are recorded on a voice recording media. The ad response machines are located remotely relative to the vendor and more locally with respect to the clients in order to reduce the cost of placing telephone call responses. The ad taker provides the advertiser with a box, including a box number and a security code, with which telephone access to the responses is achieved. More particularly, the box number identifies a portion of the voice recording media on which responses to the advertiser's personal ad are stored and the security code ensures that the party accessing such responses is authorized to do so.
Conventionally, a predetermined number of boxes are initially allotted for ads placed for publication by each client and, when the number of available boxes falls below a predetermined level, vendor personnel call the ad response machine servicing the client to download additional box numbers and security codes via a modem. The new box numbers and security codes are then entered onto a computer for future use. However, this technique disadvantageously requires frequent monitoring of the number of boxes available for each client and is susceptible to errors which may occur in transcribing the box numbers and security codes onto the computer.
The vendor accumulates a number of personal ads and provides the text of the ads to the client in a convenient form, such as on a computer diskette or a hard copy. Some clients request the "raw text" of the accumulated personals, with little or no processing by the vendor. Other clients have the vendor process the text of the ads and provide the ads in a format and order ready to print (i.e., "camera ready"). Such processing generally includes determining the number of ads to provide for printing in the space allocated by the client and the optimum order in which to print of the ads on the basis of which ads are most likely to elicit responses. Ordering ads in this manner is advantageous since revenue is based on the number and duration of responses placed with "900" calls.
In sorting and ordering personal ads based on their likelihood of response, typically a vendor account executive relies on experience as to which types of ads (i.e., categories of ads and parameters applicable to the ads) historically obtain the most responses when published by the particular client. However, this task is significant in view of the number of clients serviced by the vendor, the frequency with which ads are delivered to the client, the number of different ad categories and possible ad parameters and the frequency with which changing demographics and other factors cause changes in the success of certain types of ads. The account executive may additionally request from the ad response machine "minutes reports" which are printed reports listing the number of minutes that each box is accessed and use such reports in determining which ad types have the greatest likelihood of response. However, the usefulness of such minutes reports in optimizing the order of presentation of ads varies based on the time lapse between issuance of such reports and production of the personal ad text and, further, by the fact that the number of minutes that a box is accessed is not always an accurate indication of the number of responses received.


The rotatable joinder of two sheets is provided by a two-piece interfitting bearing assembly with each element separately attached to one of the sheets so that the sheets are joined but rotation is controlled by the interfitting bearing surfaces. The interfitting parts comprise an inner and outer race which are placed together in superposition with aligned apertures in the sheets. The rotatable attachment of the sheets is accomplished in a single pressing operation in which each race is simultaneously pressed into one of the sheets with a gap remaining between them.

There is recognized in the fastening arts the need for a fastener which will rotatably join two relatively thin sheets of metal. These fasteners are often referred to as pivot bearings or thrust bearings. Examples of such structures are shown for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,435 issued to Davis entitled "Pivot Bearing." Another such device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,860,780 issued to Lenac et al. In both cases, a riveting type process is used to flare over either one of the material sheets or a rivet type fastener as depicted in the patent to Lenac et al. Each of these systems has their disadvantages which include the inability to provide a resilient separation between the sheets or to accommodate axial deflection without impairing the relative rotation between the sheets. Furthermore, installation of the Lenac fastener into the sheets can be complicated. Also, in both of these instances, one of the bearing surfaces is necessarily the sheet material itself. This can result in excessive wear, maintenance problems, and failure of the joint. It also limits the sheet material and its surface condition. Joint assemblies which solve this problem are more complicated, three-component systems.
There is therefore a need in the art to join two sheets of relatively thin sheet metal while allowing rotation between them in a manner which is efficient and economical and which also allows for axial deflection and resilient separation between the sheets. There is also a need in the art for a simplified rotatable joint assembly for thin metal sheets in which neither of the sheets is required to be a frictional bearing surface.


A system and method for providing learning information for visually impaired people based on a haptic electronic board is disclosed. The system for visually impaired people includes a learning information server in conjunction with a lecture and authoring program; a first information output device (PC) for receiving learning information for people with low vision from the learning information server through a wired/wireless network (LAN or WLAN) and having a viewer program for people with low vision, which is install therein, for providing functions of enlarging and reducing a screen; and a second information output device (haptic electronic board) for accessing to the learning information server through a local wireless network (ZigBee or Bluetooth) by using unique device IDs, converting learning information for blind people received from the learning information server to the haptic electronic board into haptic information, and transferring the haptic information to blind people.

G20 countries including Japan, USA, EU, and Republic of Korea, etc. have invested and made lots of efforts in order to improve an educational environment for visually impaired people in government, private industry, research laboratories, etc., and have been continuously made a greater efforts to improve the educational environment for visually impaired people by developing various types of educational assistive engineering devices for visually impaired people.
Conventional educational assistive engineering devices for the visually impaired people were the level which is simply enlarged character information and provided to people with low vision by using a large monitor, a screen enlargement program, a voice recorder capable of making a memo related to voice, voice output software, a braille information terminal, a braille printer, a document cognition terminal, and an enlargement reader.
Recently, educational assistive technology apparatuses have been improved to the level of converting character information into braille or voice and providing blind people with the converted braille or voice by using technologies such as an OCR (Optical Character Reader), a TTS (Text to Speech) system, a braille translator (translating a text to braille), and a reverse braille translator such as a braille information terminal, voice output software and a document cognition program and the like.
According to a survey on the employment status of visually impaired people, among those who desire vocational training, 12.2% (57,546 out of total 472,514, in 2005 year) are engaged in massage, acupuncture, clergy, fortune telling, and teacher. This situation shows that a tendency for visually impaired people to enter the workforce is very limited up to now. The current status implies that the special educational environment is not suitable for the visually impaired people who desire to work for various fields. Accordingly, more specialized educational assistive engineering devices for improving a learning efficiency of the visually impaired people are required.
There is no educational assistive engineering device for simultaneously transmitting educational data such as visual character or video information in real time in a current special education environment for visually impaired people since educational equipment such as a blackboard used in a general education environment is also used in the special education environment. Therefore, visually impaired people need to receive learning information in a form of haptic information and voice information in the special education environment of visually impaired people.
However, the haptic information and the voice information are factors which heavily restrict an amount of information which may be conveyed for a limited education time. Although visually impaired people may be able to easily understand the information when video information is converted to haptic information and then the converted haptic information is provided to the visually impaired people, there is currently no assistive engineering device for automatically converting the video information into the haptic information in real time.
Specifically, people with low vision and blind people receive an education together in the current special education environment for visually impaired people based on characters or voice, and there is no method of converting suitable educational data and video data in real time according to the degrees of visual impairments and then transmitting the converted data.
For example, people with low vision may acquire educational information by using a screen enlargement program. Blind people may acquire educational information by using braille or the sense of touch. However, in the current special education environment in which people with low vision and blind people study together, there is a limitation in suitably converting and providing the educational information according to an information cognition characteristic for each visual impairment rating and then providing the converted information within a limited education time.
The current special education environment based on only characters and voice makes visually impaired people feel many difficulties in acquiring necessary knowledge. As a result, visually impaired people have been appeared a phenomenon which avoid entering a school requiring a high level of knowledge.
When visually impaired people acquire educational data by using haptic information converted from video information, the visually impaired people may easily understand the information, but the amount of haptic information converted from video information is extremely limited in the current special education environment of visually impaired people. However a braille printer and educational equipment for converting the video information into the haptic information exist, there is a practical limitation in terms of time and costs because the video information should be manually converted to the haptic information and manufactured by a special education instructor or an assistant.
According to the current status, an educational assistive engineering device for converting the learning data in a form of a character, a picture, a figure, and an image into the haptic information in real time and then simultaneously transmitting the converted haptic information to the visually impaired people is strongly required in order to provide a special learning environment for the visually impaired people as similar as possible to the general learning environment.

System and method for providing learning information for visually impaired people based on haptic electronic board

GACHON UNIVERSITY INDUSTRY-UNIVERSITY COOPERATION


One embodiment of the present invention discloses a two-phase configuration process (“TCP”) to configure a field-programmable gate array (“FPGA”) to include a configurable microcontroller unit (“CMU”) during a phase I configuration and configuring the CMU during a phase II configuration. TCP, in one aspect, is able to receive first configuration data from a first external storage location via a communication bus. After storing the first configuration data in a first configuration memory for configuring FPGA to contain a CMU for the phase I configuration, second configuration data with MCU attributes is obtained from a second external storage location via the communication bus. The second configuration data is subsequently stored in a second configuration memory for programming the CMU for the phase II configuration.

With increasing popularity of network communication, artificial intelligence (AI), IoT (Internet of Things), and/or robotic control, the demand for more and faster data is constantly growing. To handle and facilitate voluminous data between electronic systems or computers, high speed interfaces components are typically required. To properly handle various different types of interface standards or protocols, various different types of microcontrollers ("MCUs") are generally employed.
A typical microcontroller ("MCU") contains one or more processors integrated in a single integrated circuit ("IC"). A conventional MCU includes memory devices and logical circuits used for embedded applications such as input/output ("IO") management. In application, MCU can be used in managing products and devices, such as automobile control systems, computer network systems, medical systems, remote controls, vehicle controls, robotic applications, machinery controls, office machines, appliances, power tools, toys and the like. Various different types of peripherals require diverse types of MCUs to handle various digital computing and/or network industry(s). Different peripherals may require MCUs in different environments, sensing and/or controlling electrical systems, industry control, automobile, network communications, and so on.
A drawback associated with typical MCUs is that, in general, a specific MCU configuration is required for a specific type of interface communication.

Method and system for providing programmable microcontroller unit (MCU) using two-phase configuration process


A method is provided for suppressing redundant packet message transmissions a multi-hop message delivery system. The vehicle receives message packets from any one of a plurality of vehicles within a broadcast range of the vehicle. The vehicle includes a buffer for holding the received message packets prior to re-broadcasting the message packets. A first estimation value is calculated as a function of a signal strength of the vehicle receiver for a respective received message packet. A second estimation value is calculated as a function of the buffer. A re-broadcast estimation threshold value is determined as a function of the first estimation value and the second estimation value. At least one triggering function is provided for generating an at least one triggering indicator. The respective message packet is re-broadcast in response to the re-broadcast estimation threshold value satisfying the at least one triggering indicator.

The present invention relates generally to suppressing the re-broadcast of redundant messages in a vehicular ad hoc network.
Multi-hop geocast protocols provide for the periodic broadcasting of vehicle driving awareness conditions such as slow moving vehicles (SVA) and post crash notification (PCN). Vehicles disseminate messages conditions containing warning information to other vehicles within a broadcasting range for notification of the various driving conditions. The objective of message dissemination is to reduce accidents by forewarning vehicle drivers of such conditions. When a vehicle receives a notification message, the receiving vehicle attempts to re-broadcast the message to other vehicles within its broadcasting range for alerting other vehicles of the existing condition.
The drawback with the above described system is the flooding of messages (e.g., broadcast storm) within the network. When the majority of the vehicles within a broadcast range attempt to re-broadcast messages, the wireless channel becomes overloaded, resulting in packet collision. The result of such an overload is performance degradation with respect to communication reliability.

Redundant message packet suppression for in-vehicle ad hoc network


A process for device fabrication and resist materials that are used in the process are disclosed. The resist material contains a substituted amine-containing component and a polymer. The substituted-amine containing component is either a photoacid generator, or an amine additive to the resist material that also contains a photoacid generator. The resist material contains acid labile groups either pendant to the polymer or to a dissolution inhibitor that is combined with the polymer. The acid labile groups significantly decrease the solubility of the polymer in a solution of aqueous base. A film of the resist material is formed on a substrate and exposed to delineating radiation. The radiation induces a chemical change in the resist material rendering the exposed resist material substantially more soluble in aqueous base solution than the unexposed portion of the resist material. The image introduced into the resist material is developed using conventional techniques, and the resulting pattern is then transferred into the underlying substrate.

1. Technical Field
The invention is directed to a process for device fabrication in which an energy sensitive resist material is used.
2. Art Background
Devices such as integrated circuits are complex structures made of a variety of materials. These materials are precisely configured to form the desired device by a variety of processes. A lithographic process is frequently used to transfer the desired configuration into a substrate to fabricate such devices.
Lithographic processes use intermediate materials frequently referred to as resists. A positive or negative image of the desired configuration is first introduced into the resist by exposing it to patterned radiation which induces a chemical change in the exposed portions of the resist. This chemical change is then exploited to develop a pattern in the resist, which is then transferred into the substrate underlying the resist.
The efficacy of a lithographic process depends at least in part on the resist used to transfer the pattern into the substrate. Certain types of resists offer particular advantages in the context of specific lithographic processes. For example, solution-developed resists are designed to have absorption characteristics appropriate for use at certain exposure wavelengths. It is axiomatic that, if the resist material is opaque to the exposing radiation, the exposing radiation will not be transmitted into the resist material and the desired chemical change will not occur. Therefore it is important to select a resist material that has the appropriate light transmission characteristics at the wavelength of the exposing radiation. Other considerations that drive the selection of an appropriate resist material include the etch resistance of the resist after it has been exposed and developed.
A variety of resist materials are employed in lithographic processes for device fabrication. One class of resist materials contains a polymer which has certain functional groups (e.g. alcohol (OH); phenol (C.sub.2 H.sub.5 OH); carboxylic acid (COOH); etc.). A certain portion of these functional groups are "masked," i.e., the hydrogen atom is removed and replaced by moieties referred to as protecting groups. These protecting groups are removable from the polymer by acidolysis or hydrolysis. A polymer with a significant number of these protecting groups has a very different solubility in developer solutions (typically aqueous base solutions) than a polymer with substantially fewer of these protecting groups. Examples of protecting groups include acetals, ketals, bis(trimethylsilylmethyl)methyloxy, t-butoxycarbonyloxy, t-butyl esters, and t-butyl ethers which are cleavable from the functional groups by acidolysis or hydrolysis. The functional groups from which the protecting groups have been cleaved are referred to as unmasked functional groups.
The resist materials also contain an energy-sensitive material in combination with the polymer. When exposed to a certain energy (energy of a particular wavelength (e.g. 248 nm) or type (electron beam)) a moiety is generated from the energy-sensitive material which effects the cleavage of the protecting group, thereby "unmasking" the functional group. When the protecting group is an acid labile group, i.e. it is removed in the presence of acid, the energy sensitive material is typically a photoacid generator (PAG). The greater the number of protecting groups that are cleaved from the polymer, the greater the chemical contrast between the polymer exposed to radiation and the polymer not exposed to radiation. This chemical contrast between the unexposed resist material and the exposed resist material is exploited to develop a pattern in the resist material.
The chemical contrast is typically a difference between the solubility of the exposed resist compared to that of the unexposed resist in a developer solution. The developer solution is typically an aqueous base solution. Ideally, all of the resist material in one area (the exposed area in a positive resist, the unexposed area in a negative resist) is removed and the resist material in the other area remains. In positive resists in which the basis for contrast is the relative solubility of the exposed and unexposed resist in developer solution, however, there is a tendency for the moiety that effects deprotection to diffuse from the exposed resist into the unexposed resist. Such diffusion, if significant enough, will erode the developed features. The result is features that do not have the desired dimensions. This problem is exacerbated the longer the time that elapses between exposure and development, because, over time more of the moiety that effects deprotection diffuses into the unexposed region.
In integrated circuit devices, feature sizes are decreasing (0.35 .mu.m to 0.25 .mu.m to 0.18 .mu.m, etc.) in order to increase the number of semiconductor devices that can be formed on an integrated circuit chip. As feature size decreases, the amount of feature erosion that is acceptable also decreases. Therefore solution-developed resist materials are sought that reduce the degree to which features are eroded during imaging and development.

Energy-sensitive resist material and a process for device fabrication using an energy-sensitive resist material


A method of manufacturing a window surround for a vehicle, a window surround for a vehicle, and a device for manufacturing a window surround. The window surround includes a first component to serve as a circumferential support frame to hold a window glass panel, a second component, composed of a material of less hardness than the material of the first component, onto the first component, to serve as a circumferential sealing element, and a third component that is composed of a high gloss material. The method includes injection molding the first component onto a window glass panel, then injection molding the second component onto the first component, and then injection molding the third component onto the first component.

Window surrounds, encapsulating glass panels, are used, together with the inserted glasses, as windows in vehicles and are generally known in the art.
The window surround is typically bonded to the window glass panel via a primer. Said differently, the window surround usually bonds to a primer, which is bonded to the glass, thereby bonding the window surround to the glass panel.
Meanwhile it is also known to construct vehicle windows without using primer. The glass is then held by form-fit, typically on three sides at the edges of the glass panel, in a frame-like manner.
It is also known that such window surrounds can be constructed using two different materials, a hard, more rigid, material that serves as a support frame to hold the glass panel by form-fit. And a second, less rigid material, that serves as a sealing to the further surrounding area of the window surround.
Such window surrounds are often produced by extrusion, but it is also known to use injection-molding techniques.
Injection-molded window surrounds are revealed for example by German Patent Publication No. DE 195 39 960 A1.
From German Patent Publication No. DE 298 23 612 U1 it is known, that a trim strip can be attached to a window surround using form fit.


Disclosed is a method for producing a substrate with a multilayer reflective film for EUV lithography including a multilayer reflective film disposed on a principal surface of a substrate, the method including a multilayer reflective film formation step of forming the multilayer reflective film on the principal surface of the substrate in such a manner that the multilayer reflective film has a slope region in which the film thickness is decreased in a direction from the inside to the outside of the substrate on a peripheral portion of the principal surface, and a fiducial mark formation step of forming fiducial marks in the slope region by removing at least a portion of the multilayer reflective film, the fiducial marks serving as references for a defective location indicated by defect information with respect to the surface of the substrate with the multilayer reflective film.

Extreme ultra violet (hereinafter, EUV) lithography is an exposure technique utilizing EUV light and has a potential in application in the semiconductor industry which has recently pursued the manufacturing of semiconductor devices with finer designs. Here, the term "EUV light" indicates light having wavelengths in the soft X-ray region or the vacuum UV region, specifically, wavelengths of about 0.2 to 100 nm. For example, Patent Literature 1 proposes a reflective mask for exposure as a mask used in the EUV lithography.
In the reflective mask described in Patent Literature 1, a multilayer reflective film capable of reflecting exposure light is disposed on a substrate, and a pattern of an absorber film capable of absorbing the exposure light is disposed on the multilayer reflective film. The light incident on the reflective mask mounted on an exposure apparatus (a pattern transfer apparatus) is partly absorbed by the absorber film and is partly reflected by the multilayer reflective film exposed from the absorber film. The light reflected by the portions exposed from the absorber film is transferred onto a semiconductor substrate via a reflective optical system.
Patent Literature 2 describes a mask blank defect inspection method including a step of applying EUV light from a light source to a prescribed inspection region of a mask blank. Further, Patent Literature 2 describes that recesses with a narrow width are formed beforehand by a method such as a focused ion beam (FIB) process in portions of the surface of a mask substrate (a super smooth substrate) for constituting the mask blank, and a multilayer film is deposited over the recesses for forming fiducial marks.
Patent Literature 3 describes a reflective mask blank substrate for EUV lithography characterized in that at least three marks satisfying prescribed conditions are disposed on a film-production surface of the substrate. The prescribed conditions are (1) that the size of the marks is 30 to 100 nm in terms of circular equivalent diameter and (2) that three of the marks on the film-production surface are not on the same virtual straight line. Further, Patent Literature 3 describes that the prescribed marks are formed by a lithography process.

Method for producing substrate with multilayer reflective film, method for producing reflective mask blank and method for producing reflective mask


A hierarchical multi-rate multi-precedence policer is disclosed. The policer discards packets based on assigned precedence levels. When traffic exceeds an available service rate, the policer drops packets of lower precedence levels to make room for packets of higher precedence levels. In certain implementations, the policer also guarantees bandwidth to each level, thus preventing complete loss of lower precedence traffic when there is a large amount of higher precedence traffic.

The present invention relates to data networking and, in certain implementations to the operation of a policer.
The Defense Information Systems Agency of the United States Department of Defense, with its contractors, has proposed a service architecture for military (NATO and related agencies) telephone systems. This is called the Assured Service, and is defined in two documents: Pierce, et al. "Architecture for Assured Service Capabilities in Voice over IP", Internet Draft, Internet Engineering Task Force, June 2003 and Pierce, et al. "Requirements for Assured Service Capabilities in Voice over IP", Internet Draft, Internet Engineering Task Force, June 2003. The Assured Service environment provides voice calls with different levels of precedence. In the event of traffic congestion, mission critical calls will be unaffected while calls of lower level precedence may experience reduced quality.
It has been determined that Call Admission Control (CAC) procedures are also necessary to achieve the desired Assured Service capabilities. See Baker, et al., "MLEF Without Capacity Admission Does Not Satisfy MLPP Requirements," Internet Draft, Internet Engineering Task Force, February 2004. In particular, CAC ensures that, during contention within one level of priority, the system does not end up degrading the quality of service of all the calls at that priority so that no effective communication can actually happen at that priority. Rather, in case of contention, CAC can reject the excessive calls which are beyond the current system capacity to make sure that all the calls within the system capacity experience satisfactory quality of service allowing effective communication at that priority.
It has been found that the well-known RSVP protocol can be used to provide such CAC procedures in combination with certain other mechanisms to fully support the Assured Service Capabilities using EF (Expedited Forwarding) PHB (per hop behavior) in the data path. See Baker, et al. "Implementing MLPP for Voice and Video in the Internet Protocol Suite," Internet Draft, Internet Engineering Task Force, February 2004. The CAC procedures operated by the control plane avoid contention by data packets under normal (non-transient conditions). Some loss could potentially occur, however, in some special circumstances such as routing transients and variable rate beat frequencies.
Under these transient conditions a policer can be used to discard packets based on their precedence levels. The policer should not drop any packets when the traffic does not exceed the aggregate policing rate. When the traffic exceeds the aggregate policing rate, the policer should drop packets of lower priority levels to make room for packets of higher priority levels.
In other environments, it is also very common to want to enforce a division of bandwidth across arbitrary subsets of traffic (which we refer to as "traffic classes") in a hierarchical manner where the highest priority class should be able to use any fraction of the available bandwidth, then the next priority should be able to use whatever is left, and so on (possibly with some limitation at each level). It may also be desirable to assign a guaranteed rate to each "traffic class" irrespective of its priority and in addition, divide the remaining bandwidth in the order of priority, as above. A policer can be used to enforce such policies. The policer can operate to discard packets, or alternatively to remark packets to lower their precedence level.

Hierarchical multi-rate multi-precedence policer


One embodiment of the present invention is directed to a control system. The control system may be adapted to control one or more lighting systems (e.g. stand-alone or networked lighting systems). The control system may also have a user interface (e.g. dial or button) such that a user can make a program selection and/or alter a lighting control feature. The control system may also include an enablement system. In an embodiment, the enablement system may be arranged to provide a user and/or installer with the ability to enable a program, program setting or the like. For example, the control system may be programmed with three lighting control programs and the user may only want to select from two of the three programs once the control system is installed. The user may make a selection on the enablement system such that only the two desired programs are available from through the user interface.

Programmable Light Emitting Diode (LED) illumination systems are becoming increasingly popular due to the system's efficiencies, long life and dynamic controllability. Control systems for programmable lighting systems, such as LED illumination systems and the like, are available and can be used to generate complicated lighting effects. Many such control systems are adapted to control networked lighting devices. These systems tend to be complex and require significant expertise to set up and operate.

Systems and methods for controlling programmable lighting systems


This document provides methods and material related to natriuretic polypeptides. For example, substantially pure polypeptides having a natriuretic peptide activity, nucleic acids encoding polypeptides having a natriuretic peptide activity, host cells containing such nucleic acids, and methods for inducing a natriuretic or diuretic activity within a mammal are provided.

1. Technical Field
This document relates to methods and materials involved in inducing natriuretic or diuretic activity.
2. Background Information
Natriuretic polypeptides are polypeptides that can cause natriuresis (e.g., excretion of an excessively large amount of sodium in the urine). Such polypeptides can be produced by brain, heart, and/or vasculature tissue.

Polynucleotides encoding for fusion proteins with natriuresis activity

Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research


An inside door release mechanism for a vehicle comprises first and second inputs arranged to be mounted in a mutually spaced relationship on a door inner face and an output to a latch wherein the mechanism is so constructed and arranged to be capable of causing the latch to be unlatched when both inputs are actuated simultaneously.

The present invention relates to an inside door release mechanism. More particularly, the present invention relates to an inside door release mechanism for a vehicle.
Vehicle doors, in particular vehicle passenger doors are provided with a separate inside door engagement means such as a pull handle and inside release means such as an inside release handle. The use of two separate components for these functions increases the part count and door assembly time, and hence the overall assembly cost. It also restricts the design freedom of the inside door trim upon which these components are typically mounted.
It is known to fit power unlatching systems to vehicles. Some systems merely require a switch to be pressed in order to send an unlatching signal to a corresponding door latch. However, there is a risk of accidental actuation if such switches are mounted at an accessible location in the vehicle interior. This is dangerous for the vehicle occupants, particularly if the vehicle is in motion, since they risk falling out of the vehicle.

ArvinMeritor Light Vehicle Systems (UK) Ltd.


The present invention is intended to record image data having a wide dynamic range is a file together with image data having a narrow dynamic range. First, an image recording apparatus separately gradation-converts image data to be recorded into primary data having a narrow dynamic range and secondary data having a wide dynamic range. Then, the image recording apparatus calculates data that determines correlation between the primary data and secondary data and employs the calculated data as tertiary data. The image recording apparatus records the primary data and the tertiary data in a file. On the other hand, an image reproducing apparatus reads out primary data and tertiary data that were recorded in the above manner and reproduces secondary data having a wide dynamic range based on the primary data and the tertiary data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus and method for recording image data as well as to a recording medium on which an image processing program for realizing the above image recording apparatus on a computer is recorded. The invention also relates to an image reproducing apparatus and method for reproducing a file generated by the above image recording apparatus as well as to a recording medium on which an image processing program for realizing the above image reproducing apparatus on a computer is recorded.
2. Description of the Related Art
In image recording apparatuses, usually, 8-bit-gradation (24 bits total in the case of 3-color data) image data are compressed and recorded in the form of a general-purpose compressed image file. Capable of being expanded by a general-purpose image-browsing program, such a general-purpose compressed image file has an advantage that it can be printed or displayed easily without using any dedicated software.
In recent years, there have been developed image recording apparatuses such as a digital still camera that can record raw data (i.e., data obtained by merely digitizing an output of an imaging device).
Raw data are image data that are faithful to an output of an imaging device and include fine gradation components (gradation signals). Therefore, raw data have an advantage that they are not easily impaired by complex data processing for designing, printing, and like purposes and their subtle gradation signals are not easily lost.
Incidentally, a general-purpose compressed image file of about 8-bit gradations as mentioned above has a relatively narrow gradation reproduction (tone reproduction) range and allows a high-luminance-side portion of an object to be reproduced with a gradation reproduction range of 140% white at most. Such a general-purpose compressed image file has a problem that high-luminance-side/low-luminance-side gradation components cannot be reproduced affluently with sufficient performance. It is desired that a general-purpose compressed image file have a gradation reproduction range of up to 200% white, and if possible, 400% white.
A general-purpose compressed image file is expressed with 8-bit gradations. This results in a problem that discontinuity of gradations becomes conspicuous when a file is subjected to image processing such as a contrast conversion.
On the other hand, raw data as mentioned above have a large number of quantization bits and hence allow fine middle range signals to be reproduced affluently with sufficient performance. However, raw data are given gradation characteristics and a data format that are specific to hardware such as a digital still camera. In standard form, general-purpose external apparatuses such as a printer and a monitor cannot deal with such raw data. That is, raw data are associated with a problem that it requires dedicated image processing and cannot be printed or displayed easily by a general-purpose external apparatus.
Image data such as raw data having a large number of quantization bits include fine middle range signals affluently. The degree of spatial redundancy of raw data is extremely lower than 8-bit-gradation image data. This results in a problem that conventional image compression methods that eliminate spatial redundancy cannot compress raw data into a file of a small size.

Image recording apparatus and method, image reproducing apparatus and method, and recording medium on which image processing program is recorded


A locking system for an enclosure (10) wherein the enclosure (10) includes a base (12) and a moveable cover (14). The cover (14) is moveable only when a key operated slide (70) is moved by a key (26) inserted into a key slot (24). Once the cover (14) is moved, the key (26) cannot be removed from the key slot (24) until the cover (14) is returned to the closed positioned. A moveable latch (50) holds the cover (14) to the base (12). The key operated slide (70) selectively connects and disconnects from the latch (50) to allow the cover (14) to be moved. The latch (50) cooperates with a clip (94) on the slide (70) which allows the slide (70) to return to the locked position to allow the key (26) to be removed from the key slot (24) only when the cover (14) and the latch (50) are closed. One or two latches can be provided with a corresponding number of key operated slides (70). The key (26) is rotatable to move the slide (70) from an extended and locked position to a retracted and unlocked position.

Enclosures are known for managing telecommunications cables and connectivity equipment, including splices, splitters, wave division multiplexers and termination. The enclosures may be mounted outside and include movable covers for accessing an interior of the enclosures. There is a need for maintaining the covers in the closed positions. There is also a need for providing limited access to the interiors, such as with a security feature.


A system (10, 80) for detecting modulating laser signals having a memory (28) for storing the occurrences of a plurality of different pulse intervals in accordance with at least one preselected characteristic of the different pulse intervals and outputting a signal when a weighted sum of the number of different pulse intervals counted exceeds a preselected threshold number.

The present invention generally relates to a system for detecting modulated laser signals and, in particular, relates to one such system having means for storing the occurrences of a plurality of different pulse intervals in accordance with at least one preselected characteristic of the different pulse intervals and outputting a signal when a weighted sum of the number of different pulse intervals counted exceeds a preselected threshold number.
Many modem weapon systems employ modulated laser signals to locate and/or aim a weapon at a target. As used herein the term "modulated" includes laser signals that are generated either by pulsing a laser on and off of by chopping the output of a continuous wave laser. Ordinarily, the modulated laser signal generated by pulsing the laser on and off will result in a signal having relatively short high intensity pulses spaced apart by long intervals. The modulated laser signal generated by chopping a continuous wave laser usually has relatively longer pulses than that of the pulsed laser.
It is therefore quite important to be able to detect the presence of modulated laser signals reliably and rapidly.
Presently, modulated laser signals are detected by systems that have a single channel. The system counts the temporal interval between successive detected pulses and stores, or bins, the information according to the interval between each pulse. When the number of occurrences of any given pulse interval reaches a preselected threshold the system indicates the presence of a modulated laser signal.
Such a system has a number of drawbacks, the first of which is the fact that only the occurrence of one specific pulse interval, i.e., information from only one bin, is used to determine the presence of a modulated signal while information from other bins is not used to make a determination. This approach resulting in an unnecessarily low system sensitivity. For example, if a signal is detected, i.e., the signal has sufficient intensity above the background noise, the interval counter begins counting the interval. The next signal detected stops the counter for the first interval and starts a new interval count, the first interval being stored in a bin for that specific time interval and the occurrence count for that bin is incremented by one. When many pulses have occurred, in fact, there may have been regular pulse intervals undetected due to background noise or the like during the first counted interval. Present systems are unable to correct for or make use of this information.
Further, modem systems cannot account for common slightly changing pulse intervals originating from the same source. Modern modulated laser signal detection systems store such signals in different pulse interval bins. As a result, the signal presence threshold would take an excessive time to be reached.
Still further, since such conventional systems are single channel systems, all of the background noise reaching the system input is placed into the same bin as the signal.
In addition, present systems operate using only a single threshold regardless of the signal strength received. Hence, since the sensitivity of the system must be set to detect the lowest possible source intensity, indication of a relatively high intensity source may be delayed.
Further still, present systems, being single channel systems can not make use of known threat characteristics nor can they distinguish between pulsed and chopped continuous wave laser signals. Finally, present systems generally use a relatively large field of view. This results in a high noise input if the sun is anywhere in the field of view.
Consequently, it is readily recognized that a system for detecting modulated laser signals that overcomes these drawbacks is highly desirable.

System for detecting modulated laser signals


A communication apparatus (image forming apparatus) according to an aspect of the present invention is capable of communication with an external apparatus via short-range wireless communication (NFC) and while in a powered-on state (first state), registers a piece of data being held by the communication apparatus as NFC transmission data that is to be transmitted by the communication apparatus in a powered-off state (second state). Furthermore, when shifting from the powered-on state to the powered-off state, the communication apparatus sets the registered NFC transmission data in an NFC controller as data that is to be transmitted to an external apparatus such as a mobile terminal via NFC communication.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to communication apparatuses, methods for controlling the same, and storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, Near Field Communication (NFC), which is a short-range wireless communication technique that is compatible with RFID, has started to be implemented in mobile terminals such as a smartphone and a tablet computer. Three functions are defined with the NFC standard, namely a reader/writer function, a card emulation function, and an inter-device communication (peer-to-peer (P2P)) function. The reader/writer function is a function of performing reading and writing of data between NFC-compatible devices, such as NFC cards and NFC tags, and it is similar to an RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) reader/writer. The card emulation function is a function of operating similarly to an NFC card or an NFC tag. The P2P function is a function of performing data exchange between NFC-compatible devices. A reader/writer is implemented in a mobile terminal equipped with an NFC function, and by using the implemented reader/writer, reading and writing of data can be performed between NFC cards, NFC tags, RFID tags, and the like.
In image forming apparatuses as well, an authentication function for performing control of whether or not to permit use of the apparatus by a user has previously been realized using RFID tags, but this function can be realized using NFC. Also, if an image forming apparatus is equipped with an NFC function, it is possible not only to use the reader/writer function to execute an authentication function such as that above, but it is also possible to use the card emulation function to perform communication with a mobile terminal equipped with the NFC function. According to this, information regarding the image forming apparatus, such as information regarding consumables (i.e., the amount of paper remaining in the paper feeding tray of the image forming apparatus), the processing status of print jobs being processed by the image forming apparatus, and setting information of the image forming apparatus, can be displayed on the mobile terminal.
With an apparatus that uses the NFC function, much less power is consumed in the case of using the card emulation function than in the case of using the reader/writer function and the P2P function. For this reason, with an apparatus that uses the NFC function, it can be said that it is desirable to perform control such that the card emulation function is used as much as possible so as to reduce power consumption.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-60046 proposes a technique in which, according to the operation state of an information processing apparatus that includes an NFC device, the communication mode of the NFC device is switched between an operation mode for functioning as a reader/writer and an operation mode for functioning as an active tag. Specifically, the NFC device is operated in an active tag mode if the operation state of the information processing apparatus is a powered-off state or a power-saving state, and the NFC device is operated in a reader/writer mode if the operation state is a normal power state.
However, there is a trade-off between the amount of data that can be exchanged and power consumption in the case of using the card emulation function. For example, in the case of exchanging a large amount of data, a large-capacity buffer and energization of a circuit that performs communication control for exchanging large amounts of data are required, and therefore power consumption increases. On the other hand, in the case of using the card emulation function in an electromagnetic induction mode, the number of circuits that can be energized is limited, and therefore only a small amount of data can be exchanged. For this reason, with a device equipped with the NFC function, it is necessary to appropriately select the data that is to be exchanged when operating using the card emulation function.

Communication apparatus, method and storage medium for short range communication


For use with a reserve battery couplable to a source of electrical power, a battery connect/disconnect circuit, including: (1) a switching subcircuit comprising a series-coupled controllable switch and diode and connected in electrical series with the reserve battery, the diode reverse-biased with respect the source of electrical power, (2) a contactor coupled in electrical parallel with the switching subcircuit and (3) a control circuit, coupled to the switching subcircuit and the contactor, that selectively closes the contactor to couple the reserve battery to the source of electrical power to charge the reserve battery.

In a variety of telecommunications and other applications, batteries, e.g., valve-regulated lead acid (VRLA) batteries, are employed to provide reserve energy to the equipment powered thereby. With the increasing trend toward distributed power systems, battery reserve systems are often remotely located in outdoor uncontrolled environments. When deployed in outdoor environments, the batteries are generally placed in closed cabinets with poor heat-exchange characteristics. The batteries are, therefore, exposed to high temperatures with poor ventilation.
While reducing the temperature of the operating environment of the battery is an important factor in sustaining the life of the battery, there are other ancillary considerations as well. The system employed to maintain the battery in a state of readiness, i.e., fully charged, is another important consideration in battery reserve systems. Generally, the battery is "floated" or connected to a rectifier that also provides power to the electrical load and the output voltage of the rectifier is selected to maintain the battery in a fully charged condition. If the DC power from the rectifier is interrupted, the battery will immediately provide power to the load. The uninterruptable supply of power is typically an important consideration in the design of battery reserve systems. Since elements of the battery experience aging during float charging, e.g., excess current contributes to grid corrosion of the positive plate of the battery and water loss, it is advantageous to decrease the period of time that the battery is in the float mode.
In "A New Concept: Intermittent Charging of Lead Acid Batteries in Telecommunication Systems," by D. P. Reid, et al. (Reid), Proceedings of INTELEC 1984, pp. 67-71, which is incorporated herein by reference, an intermittent charging system is disclosed. Since the commercial AC power source is typically available about 99.9% of the time, the battery is conventionally maintained in a float mode whereby the battery is fully charged and is essentially being topped-off continuously. With an intermittent charging system, the battery is only charged a fraction of the time and, otherwise, the battery is disconnected from the charging circuit. In other words, the life of batteries may be extended by reducing the time the batteries are on float. This is accomplished by maintaining the batteries at their open circuit potential for most of the time with periodic recharging. As disclosed in Reid, the life of a battery may double by employing a 50% float duty cycle over a full float duty cycle operation for a particular battery design. Therefore, a reduction in the float mode duty cycle significantly increases the life of the battery.
Additionally, it has been found highly undesirable to allow the batteries in the battery strings to discharge completely. When a battery of the type employed in such units is completely discharged, it becomes impractical to recharge, and the batteries are usually discarded. This is both expensive and wasteful. It is far better to discharge a battery string only as far as possible without permanently damaging it and then to disconnect the battery string to prevent it from being discharged further. Accordingly, commercially-available battery backed-up power units frequently provide a low voltage disconnect (LVD) that detects the output voltage of each battery string or group of parallel strings and, in response thereto, decouples battery strings as their voltage drops below a predetermined minimum level.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a solution to the above-described battery life problem. More specifically, what is needed in the art is a line-replaceable battery disconnect circuit that can provide such solution.

Connect/disconnect circuit for a reserve battery and method of operation thereof


This application provides an enhanced method and equipment for forging bow-shape Conjointed rake with one-piece steel. The methods of the present application include: S1: heating the rectangular blank to target temperature; S2: stamping the rectangular blank to mold rake tooth with rake handle blank reserved at both sides, and conduct cutting at the shoulder; S3: horizontally forging and stamping the rake handle blanks at both sides respectively to columnar; S4: heating the rake handle blank locally, stretching the rake handle blank with roll forging machine to mold rake handle, and bending the rake handle back in reverse to the rake tooth; S5: bending the rake handle stretched out from the sides inward and forge the two ends of the rake handle together to form the main body of the bow-shape rake; S6: placing the main body of the bow-shape rake between the convex stamping equipment to stamp the rake tooth.

Garden implements refer to the implements used in gardening. According to usage place, garden implements may be classified as horticultural tools and garden tools; and according to users, garden implements may be classified as household tools and professional tools.
Of the garden implements, rake is very important and can be used for plowing in surface soils with plowing depth no more than 15 cm. A rake consists of a wood handle and a rake head, and the rake head is equipped with iron tooth used to crush soils in flat lands, harrow soils, pile up fertilizers, harrow grasses, and level vegetable gardens.
The rake head of the existing garden implements is stamping welded separately. Such products have problems in their materials as well as in the processing methods, therefore, in the using process, the rake head would have problems, such as rake tooth deformation, breakage at the joint between bow-shape handle and rake body.
The existing technology (CN201110102157) discloses a method of one-piece forging bow-shape Conjointed rake, by which a bow-shape rake is formed through five times of stamping and forging under heating. However, such method is complicate, and it is found that, when the forging method of such technology is adopted, the production yield and the degree of the product standardization are low, moreover, in the forging process, it is easy to form bulges in the middle part, and the bulges need to be handled by significant increasing of forgings or secondary cutting or forging.
U.S. Ser. No. 08/248,652 discloses a foldable rake implement includes an elongated handle having a proximal end to be grasped by the user and a distal end. An articulated frame structure is attached to the handle at the distal end. The articulated frame structure includes a central axis of articulation dividing the frame structure into two mirror-image first and second frame halves. The axis of articulation is coaxial with the handle and defines an axis about which the articulated frame structure moves between an unfolded position whereat the first and second frame halves of the frame structure symmetrically project outwardly to opposite lateral sides of the handle and a folded position whereat the first and second frame halves are moved toward each other and into generally mutual overlaying relationship. The articulated frame structure further includes a plurality of spaced-apart tines, a plurality of first transverse fingers projecting outwardly from one side of the first frame half, and a plurality of second transverse fingers projecting outwardly from one side of the second frame half opposite the first fingers.
However, the rake in this application adopts an articulated frame structure attached to the handle at the distal end, which is not made of one-piece steel. Thus, it is not that firm.
U.S. Ser. No. 08/423,973 discloses a Lawn rake and rake head. In this application, an array of tines are connected to and extend out from a rake head support bar at right angles thereto and are connected thereto in two sets with shank portions of a first set of tines disposed in a first plane and shank portions of a second set of tines disposed in a second plane parallel to said first plane. Action ends of the first set of tines are disposed in a first row which is parallel to and spaced further from said rake head support bar than action ends of the second set of tines which are disposed in a second row. A coil spring is formed from the material of the shank portion of each of the tines so as to unwind if a force is applied to the tine as in effecting a raking action. An alternate embodiment includes a third set of tines similar to the first and second set but with its shank portions in a third plane parallel to the first and second planes and with its tine ends in a third row parallel to the first and second rows. Another alternate forms the tines as substantially "U" shaped members each with a pair of spaced legs each such leg having a shank portion, coil spring and action end and with threaded members connecting a connecting portion of each tine to the rake head. Another embodiment includes wheels carried by the rake head.
However, the array of tines in the rake of U.S. Ser. No. 08/423,973 are connected to the rake head, which is not firm enough and easy to fall off.

Enhanced method and equipment of forging bow-shape conjointed rake

TANGSHAN SHUSHI HARDWARE TOOLS MANUFACTURE CO., LTD.


A butterfly valve comprises a valve housing with a valve opening and a valve seat, this valve housing enclosing a vacuum area of the valve; a valve plate which is mounted at a valve rod guided through the valve housing and which is pressed against the valve seat in a closed position of the valve, tilted relative to the valve seat in a partially open position of the valve through tilting of the valve rod about a tilting axis, and tilted and rotated relative to the valve in a completely open position of the valve by subsequent rotation of the valve rod about its longitudinal axis; wherein the valve rod has portions extending on both sides of the tilting axis, the portion located on one side of the tilting axis acting centrally at the valve plate and the portion located on the other side of the tilting axis being connected, via a link guide which is located outside the vacuum area and which has a link with a part extending at an inclination to the longitudinal axis of the valve rod and a helical surface-shaped part and a journal which is guided in the link, to an actuating member which is mounted so as to be displaceable in axial direction of the valve rod.

a) Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to a butterfly valve. In particular, the invention relates to a butterfly valve comprising a valve housing with a valve opening and a valve seat and a valve plate which is pressed against the valve seat in a closed position of the valve, is tilted relative to the valve seat in a partially open position of the valve and is tilted and rotated relative to the valve seat in a completely open position of the valve.
b) Description of the Related Art
Vacuum valves in the form of butterfly valves, as they are called, are known in different embodiment forms. In these butterfly valves, the valve plate is initially swiveled relative to the valve seat in order to open the valve and is then rotated by about , 90xc2x0 so that when the valve opening is viewed from the end only the narrow side of the valve plate is visible: and the valve plate accordingly essentially releases the valve opening. In order to impede the through-flow through the valve opening as little as possible, the valve plate is constructed so as to be correspondingly narrow and the bearing parts of the valve plate have the smallest possible cross section. Butterfly valves of this type are known in particular from U.S. Pat. No. 4,634,094 and German Patent DE 35 33 937 C1. A supporting shaft carrying a joint ball which is mounted in the housing so as to be swivelable on all sides is provided at the edge of the valve plate on one side and, in a diametrical arrangement, a connection part is provided at the other side. This connection part carries a pin or journal which is guided in a gate or link of an axially displaceable selector shaft or switching rod. The opening movement and closing movement of the valve plate is conveyed through an axial movement of the switching rod via this link.
A disadvantage in these known butterfly valves consists in that particles are released into the vacuum by the rolling and sliding movements of the joint ball in the housing and of the journal in the link during the adjustment of the valve. Further, these parts which move relative to one another require lubrication, so that a lubricating grease must be disadvantageously provided in the vacuum. In order that the free through-opening is as large as possible in the opened state of the valve, the links and the connection part with the journal must be constructed so as to be relatively small, so that the construction of these guide parts is delicate and comparatively prone to disturbance on the whole. Further, when the valve plate is adjusted, an axial force is exerted on the joint ball which is swivelably mounted in the housing. After prolonged use of the valve, these axial forces lead to increased friction on the ball relative to the seat. This in turn causes an increase in axial forces and so on, so that the bearing and joint ball are ultimately destroyed and the valve is unusable.
It is an object of the invention to provide a butterfly valve in which the release of particles in the vacuum when the valve is actuated is reduced. A further object of the invention is to provide a butterfly valve in which a lubricating grease need not be used in the vacuum. It is another object of the invention to provide a butterfly valve having no parts moving relative to one another in the vacuum. It is a further object of the invention to provide a butterfly valve which is less susceptible to malfunction and which has a longer life. It is another object of the invention to provide a butterfly valve which can be manufactured using simple techniques and which is easy to service.
A butterfly valve according to the invention comprises a valve housing with a valve opening and a valve seat, this valve housing enclosing a vacuum area of the valve; a valve plate which is mounted at a valve rod guided through the valve housing and which is pressed against the valve seat in a closed position of the valve, tilted relative to the valve seat in a partially open position of the valve through tilting of the valve rod about a tilting axis, and tilted and rotated relative to the valve seat in a completely open position of the valve by subsequent rotation of the valve rod about its longitudinal axis; wherein the valve rod has portions extending on both sides of the tilting axis, the portion located on one side of the tilting axis acting centrally at the valve plate and the portion located on the other side of the tilting axis being connected, via a link guide which is located outside the vacuum area and which has a link with a part extending at an inclination to the longitudinal axis of the valve rod and a helical surface-shaped part and a journal which is guided in the link, to an actuating member which is mounted so as to be displaceable in axial direction of the valve rod.
Accordingly, in a butterfly valve according to the invention, the link guide for generating the closing movement of the valve is located outside of the valve opening and also outside of the vacuum. Therefore, this guide can be constructed in a correspondingly robust manner without impairing the through-flow cross section of the valve in the opened state. Further, the lubrication of the link guide located outside of the vacuum does not present a problem. Further, in a butterfly valve according to the invention, other guide parts moving relative to one another can also be avoided in the vacuum. This minimizes the release of particles in the vacuum when opening and closing the valve. A vacuum valve according to the invention can also be designed for a long service life.
In a preferred embodiment example, the tilting axis of the valve rod is formed by a journal which penetrates the valve rod, this journal being mounted in a ball bearing surrounding the valve rod so that it can swivel about the longitudinal axis of the valve rod in this way. This results in a low-friction, durable rotating/tilting joint which has only slight play.
The various features and developments according to the invention are given in the claims.
Further advantages and details of the invention are mentioned in the following with reference to the embodiment example shown in the drawing and further objects of the invention follow therefrom.


Computer-implemented methods, systems, and computer readable mediums for solving large systems of linear equations, such as for aircraft traffic control and analysis, are disclosed. A method for aircraft traffic control, includes receiving as input, airspace sector information and aircraft traffic information, configuring a homogeneous system of linear inequalities comprising a plurality of linear inequalities based upon the airspace sector information and the aircraft traffic information, and resolving the homogeneous linear system to determine a second airspace sector information and a second aircraft traffic information, wherein the second airspace sector information and the second aircraft traffic information are based upon a predetermined future point of time, and wherein the resolving includes at least one of reducing a maximum infeasibility of the homogeneous linear system and reducing a sum infeasibility of the homogeneous linear system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computer-implemented methods of solving systems of linear inequalities as a generic linear inequalities solver, and more particularly to air traffic analysis and control using a system of linear inequalities.
2. Background
Air traffic analysis and control can be represented as a problem that includes numerous linear variables and constraints. A simple example is documented Niedringhaus, "Stream Option Manager (SOM): Automated Integration of Aircraft Separation, Merging, Stream Management, and Other Air Traffic Control Functions" IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Vol. 25, No. 9, September 1995. Variables include the horizontal and vertical positions of aircraft at future times. Constraints for each aircraft include miles-in-trail spacing, due to airspace sector boundaries, sector entry/exit guidelines, aircraft capabilities, and separation from other aircraft. The number of variables and constraints grows with the number of aircraft.
The runtime for conventional methods of solving systems of linear inequalities grows as the cube of the number of aircraft, which may make it impractical to use these methods for, say, the entire Continental US (CONUS) airspace.
Therefore, efficient and accurate methods and systems for solving large systems of linear equations are needed.

Air traffic analysis using a linear inequalities solver


An information recording and reproducing apparatus having a self-diagnosis information storage mechanism is provided. This apparatus stores self-diagnosis information without increasing the storage capacity thereof and erasing important error information. According to the present invention, any inconforming of the apparatus itself or the quality of a signal recorded in the recording medium and error information regarding thereon is stored in a memory through discrimination/control device so that the information is read out from outside and at the same time, when a vital error occurs, storage of error information thereafter is inhibited while, as regards, information not stored, only the logic sum thereof is stored.

The present invention relates to information recording and reproduction apparatuses such as data recorders, digital VTRs, DATs, optical disks, etc., and more particularly to such type of apparatus that is digital information recording and provided with a self-diagnosis information storage mechanism.
Conventionally, in the case of self-diagnosis of a DVR or DCR type digital recorder system for broadcasting, it has been practiced that when an error occurs in the recorder system or memory data, the error information and a time code for the time at which the error occurred are stored in the main body so that they can be read out by a control panel operation. In this case, although the generated error information is stored in a predetermined memory, since the capacity of this memory is limited, a method is employed wherein when the memory is full of data, they are erased in sequence from the oldest one.
Now, when a vital inconformity occurs which generally causes the operation of a recorder to cease, there occur various types of errors associated therewith. For example, if the reel motor cases to rotate while the tape is travelling, it is expected that after detecting the "reel motor failure," failures such as "undesired tape travelling," "data-read-after-write collation failure," "ID (an identification signal such as a time code showing the position of data recorded on the tape) read error," etc., will take place in sequence.
In addition, it is general that, if a recorder stops, the user often checks whether the power supply is properly connected, or tries to extract the tape, or is otherwise compelled to try to restart the recorder, and in such a case as this, even if the abnormal state is correctly identified in the first instance, the next time the recorder is connected, the result may be "tape doesn't move," and an erroneous judgment may be made.
Thus the conventional methods have had the problem that the memory becomes full due to the recording of non-essential errors such as incidental errors, errors generated when the user turns on the power again and the most important "initial vital errors" are erased by an overwrite.
In order to avoid this, methods such as mounting a memory with enough capacity not to fill up even if many errors occur, or providing a separate memory for storing transferred data at the time of generation of an abnormality (refer to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 1-243103), etc. can be considered, but in either case there are disadvantages associated with increases in the cost and size of the apparatus.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to obtain an information recording and reproduction apparatus having a memory mechanism for self-diagnosis information in which the memory capacity does not need to be increased and error information does not need to be erased.

Information recording and reproducing apparatus with self-diagnosis information storage mechanism


This application discloses a background subtraction-mediated data dependent acquisition method useful in mass spectrometry analysis. The method includes subtraction of background data from precursor ion spectra of a sample in real-time to obtain mass data of component(s) of interest and performs data-dependent acquisition on the component(s) of interest based on the resultant mass data from the background subtraction step. The present invention also encompasses mass spectrometer systems capable of background subtraction-mediated data-dependent acquisition and computer programs adapted for use in the background-subtraction-mediated data-dependent acquisition. The invention thus provides highly sensitive data-dependent acquisition for minor components of interest in a sample.

A precise and thorough background subtraction method is described in US 20100213368, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. The method uses a sample dataset and one or a few of its control datasets to reduce chemical noise and irrelevant signals in the sample matrix so that components of interest in the sample could be effectively identified. Also described is a form of this method for effective identification of fragment ions of components of interest. This was achieved using non-specific fragmentation data acquired for the sample and its controls. Non-specific fragmentation data could be obtained using techniques such as in-source fragmentation or MSE (see, e.g., Plumb, et al., RCMS, 2006, 20:1989-1994). The fragment ions of a component of interest could be correlated to its corresponding precursor/molecular ions based on their comparable retention time and chromatographic profiles. However, chromatographic correlations between fragment ions and their precursor ions would not be definitively ascertainable in cases where several components co-eluted and multiple possible molecular ions exhibited. In such situation it would be desirable to have hardware-based, true MS/MS data available to unambiguously correlate fragment ions with their respective precursor ions.
Hardware-based MS/MS technique, or tandem mass spectrometry, is a technique where specific precursor ions in a mass spectrometer are first selected and then activated and fragmented, followed by recording of fragmented ions (a.k.a. product ions) of the specific precursor ions. In contrast to the aforementioned chromatographic correlation of non-specific fragmentation data with their potential precursor ion data, in data obtained with MS/MS experiments the relationship between fragment ions and their corresponding precursor ions are concrete and specific. Fragment ion information obtained in MS/MS experiments is useful for confirmation and structural elucidation of their respective precursor ions. MS/MS experiments are carried out with individual acquisition functions designed on individual expected precursor ions. However, this may require multiple sample injections for multiple precursor ions. In addition, it requires prior knowledge of expected precursor ions of interest to get their respective MS/MS data. An alternative is to conduct MS/MS acquisition in data-dependent mode so that MS/MS data are obtained for multiple components in one scan function without presetting specific precursor ions.
In a data-dependent MS/MS acquisition mode (DDA MS/MS), in order to obtain MS/MS data for different precursor ions of potential interest, typically a criterion is applied to examining the mass spectrum of a precursor ion acquisition (PIA) scan acquired at a chromatographic time point (either from a regular scan event or a survey scan event) to make real-time decision on (1) whether any precursor ion in the spectrum is worthy of selection, and (2) which precursor ion(s) is(are) to be selected for the subsequent MS/MS scans. For example, in some embodiments, criteria are set to determine the most intense ions in the precursor ion mass spectrum and to trigger MS/MS scans on the determined most intense ions. In other embodiments, assisting methods of, e.g., dynamic list exclusion or dynamic background exclusion (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,351,956 and 7,297,941) are applied to further increase the opportunity of obtaining MS/MS data for more components by way of preventing and/or limiting repetitive selection of the same precursor ions (e.g., intense background ions) over a wide chromatographic time range. However, all the aforementioned DDA criteria in themselves do not differentiate between components of interest and those of non-interest, e.g., irrelevant signals from sample matrix. Therefore, the handling of the resultant MS/MS data obtained in such manners is often challenging because of an overwhelming number of irrelevant MS/MS spectra of precursor ions of sample matrix components. In addition, despite increased chances of obtaining MS/MS data for more components, precursor ions of components of interest that have relatively low intensities may still miss triggering MS/MS scans due to the presence of higher intensity sample matrix components and the limitation of instrument duty cycle. Therefore, development of a system or method that could subtract background data and acquire only or substantially only mass data of components of interests is highly desirable and needed.

Background subtraction-mediated data-dependent acquistion


A polyurea resin molding composition for RIM use comprising (a) polyoxyalkylenpolyamine having an average molecular weight greater than about 400 and a plurality of terminal primary or secondary amino groups, (b) an aromatic polyamine and/or xylylenediamine and (c) a polyisocyanate. The component (a) contains dispersed therein a polymer prepared by the in situ polymerization of at least two different olefinically unsaturated monomers in the presence of a radical polymerization initiator, the ratio of the average amino equivalent of said polyamines (a) and (b) in combination to the average NCO equivalent of said polyisocyanate (c) being between about 1:0.7 to 1:1.5.

Recent years have witnessed a mounting interest in the RIM technology, that is a technology by which an automotive bumper, for instance, is manufactured by simultaneous polyurethane-forming reaction and molding of the resulting resin in a metal mold, and several versions of such technology have been disclosed in, inter alia, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,254,069, U.S. Pat. No. 3,838,076, U.S. Pat. No. 4,216,543, U.S. Pat. No. 4,246,363 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,269,945.
However, the technology of reacting a polyalkylenepolyol with a polyisocyanate in a mold cavity to give a polyurethane molding in situ not only encountered various difficulties due to the relatively poor heat resistance and coatability of the polyurethane but entailed a high production cost. For this reason, attention was paid to polyurea resins which are more heat-resistant and there has been proposed a technology for producing polyurea moldings which are superior to polyurethane moldings in mechanical strength, heat resistance and other physical properties. This technique comprises reacting a polyoxyalkylenepolyamine having an average molecular weight of at least 1500, an amine terminal chain extender and a polyisocyanate in a closed mold. A method in this category is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 188643/83.
One of the important advantages derived from the use of polyurea moldings as automotive parts, such as bumpers, resides in the fact that polyurea parts may be attached to an automotive body before the entire assembly is finished with a thermosetting paint to reduce the number of necessary steps. This may be performed by attaching polyurea exterior parts to the automotive steel body, applying the same thermosetting paint onto the polyurea parts as well as the steel body, and then baking the paint film in all areas simultaneously. Therefore, it is required that the polyurea moldings are not thermally deformable at the baking temperature of conventional automotive coating lines. However, improvements in heat resistance may generally decrease toughness and impact strength, particularly at lower temperatures.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 143611/89 discloses as a solution to this problem the use of an isocyanate prepolymer produced by reacting a polyisocyanate compound with a hydroxy-, carboxyl-, amino-, or epoxy- terminated liquid polybutadiene in the polyurea RIM. This method, however, suffers from certain defects that the starting liquid polybutadiene is relatively expensive and also too viscous. These defects limit its formulation in the RIM compound to a lower proportion.
Accordingly, a need exists for a polyurea RIM composition which is cost effective and has an improved impact strength while retaining good moldability. The present invention meets this need.

Reaction injection molding polyurea resin composition


A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus imaging a subject on the basis of a magnetic resonance signal radiated from the subject in a static magnetic field, includes a radio frequency coil which receives the magnetic resonance signal and has a direction dependency on a flux direction of the static magnetic field, and a support member which rotatably supports the radio frequency coil.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus, which images the inside of a subject on the basis of a magnetic resonance signal radiated from the subject placed in a static magnetic field, and a radio frequency coil unit used in the magnetic resonance imaging apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In magnetic resonance imaging apparatuses, QD (quadrature) has been used for a signal-receiving radio frequency coil to obtain images of a good SN ratio. For example, a QD coil formed of a circular coil and a saddle coil can obtain an SN ratio of about 1.4 times that of a circular coil alone.
On the other hand, general-purpose surface coils are used to image a region which cannot be imaged by a radio frequency coil dedicated to a specific region. A general-purpose surface coil is attached to the subject by a holding member when used.
The general-purpose surface coil is attached to the subject so as to be close to a region to be imaged as much as possible. Therefore, the general-purpose surface coil changes in attitude with respect to the static magnetic field, according to the region to be imaged.
Because of the above circumstances, a coil having a direction dependency is not used as the general-purpose surface coil. A saddle coil used for a QD coil has a direction dependency with respect to a flux direction of the static magnetic field. Therefore, a QD coil cannot be used as the general-purpose surface coil to further improve the SN ratio.
Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Pub. No. 2005-192804 discloses an RF coil, whose rotation angle in a plane parallel to the coil surface is adjustable. However, the rotation angle of the RF coil is only adjustable without changing relative positions of a plurality of unit coils.

Magnetic resonance imaging apparatus and high-frequency coil unit used in the same