A beacon anchor may include a signal generator configured to generate an ultra-wide band signal inclusive of a unique identifier associated with the beacon anchor, where the UWB signal is a pulse sequence. A transceiver may be in communications with the signal generator. Responsive to receiving the UWB signal from the signal generator, the UWB signal may be broadcast. A processing unit may be in communication with the transceiver, and, responsive to receiving a unicast communications session request from a portable device, be configured to establish a unicast communications session with the portable device to enable a distance between the portable device and beacon anchor to be determined. Through use of UWB signals, relative position (e.g., in front of or behind the beacon anchor) may be determined, thereby enabling different actions to be taken in response to determining the relative position.

Retail stores have incorporated beacon technology into stores in recent years in order to communicate with customers in ways previously not possible. Through use of beaconing technology, localized promotional advertising to customers within the retail stores is possible. For example, a retailer who wants to promote children's shoes to shoppers near a shoe section of a retail store can broadcast a promotional message to portable devices, such as smartphones, of shoppers when the shoppers come within a certain range of a fixed-position broadcast beacon or beacon anchor. One example of beacon technology is the iBeacon™ produced by Apple Inc.
Currently, technology used for beaconing is implemented using Bluetooth® low-energy (BLE) devices and protocol stacks. The BLE devices and protocol stacks have several drawbacks, including ranging data being based only on a received signal strength indication (RSSI) measurement that has low stability and is severely affected by the environment, "clutter" (or unwanted echo signals), and other noise-producing parameters, which results in range measurement inaccuracy. The RSSI measurement is used to determine a distance zone at which a portable device is located from the beacon, where the zones are defined as immediate (a few centimeters), near (a few meters), and far (approximately 10 meters).
As a result of RSSI having low stability, a condition in which "hot zone" indications are unstable and lead to false positives or alarms is created. The RSSI measurement is critical because signal strength decreases rapidly. As understood in the art, signal strength decreases with a square of the distance, and, in this case, between the beacon anchor and mobile device. Moreover, the presence of structures and otherwise, such as shelves, floor, people walking within a field of an antenna, and other items in stores and other indoor environments, creates "clutter" or echo signals, which makes it even more difficult to distinguish a primary beacon signal from signal bounces and reflections that affect the primary BLE beacon signal. Such alteration in signal strength reduces accuracy of location estimates as the RSSI measurement is generally lower as a result of the "clutter," and, thus, the beacon anchor appears to be farther from a portable device measuring the signal strength.
Another problem that results from the use of BLE devices within retail stores is the inability to determine relative position of a portable device from a beacon anchor. Antennas used with BLE devices typically broadcast a generally symmetric antenna pattern around the beacon anchor, which means that a portable device that measures the beacon signal in front of the beacon anchor typically has the same RSSI measurement as a portable device that measures the beacon signal behind the beacon anchor. As a result, false positives result when a portable device is behind the beacon anchor. Accordingly, there is a need to improve accuracy and to reduce false alarms for indoor locating systems.


A method for automatically generating test cases from a domain specific description language specification makes use of the properties of the language to derive domain specific axioms and language specific predicates. These properties are embedded into an extended finite state machine which is in turn supplied to the input of a test case generator. The enhanced extended finite state machine, referred herein as an extended finite state machine accounting for axioms and predicates (EFSMAP) contains states and transitions associated with information on implied behavior of the specified system within a particular problem domain. The implicit behavior, defined by the axiomatic properties of the operators of the domain specific language, provide test capability of the associated system that was not explicitly set forth in the formal specification, but nevertheless should be tested to increase confidence in the reliability of the finished product.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to the automated design of reliability testing. Specifically, the invention is a specification-based test automation technique that captures implicit domain specific properties in system test models automatically by exploiting type-specific axioms of syntactical relationships between morphemes of domain specific system description languages.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Reliability test automation is an effective means by which aggressive product deadlines may be met and by which a quality final computing application may be delivered. However, the automated testing methods that are heretofore available may fail to scrutinize all of the requirements of a specific problem domain associated with the system under development. This is mainly due to the fact that domain specific requirements are not usually specified explicitly. To illustrate, consider the functional specification fragment, "The system must power down if backup power is unavailable." A system modeler may translate the fragment into a description language specification fragment "if (backup!=available) then power:=off". A test case generator may then provide a test script to test the system for the specified requirement, but prior automatic test suites would not automatically test an implicit "else" case, i.e., "if (backup==available) then . . . ". Essential, the lack of the ability to automatically test for the implicit content of a specification leaves a gap in a complete reliability test of a system.
As another example, consider any database application throwing queries to a static database. It is unlikely that there will be an explicit requirement for the application to handle database related errors such as throwing queries for a non-existent field of the database. This null field requirement is nevertheless important to insure proper operation of the application and, hence, such functionality should be tested.
For the past several decades, computing applications in particular have become increasingly sophisticated and feature-rich. As more complex designs are being attempted, the character of software development has changed. As the modest designs of yesteryear give way to more elaborate systems, the greater chance of error exists in implementing the design. Adding to the possibility for error is the fact that the present users of software are not primarily programmers as in times gone by, but are persons of all ages and computer skill levels. Thus, it becomes critical that software be tested not only for functionality according to the design specification, but also for implied functionality, such as handling erroneous user input.
Recently, the application of the extended finite state machine (EFSM) to functional test generation has increased the thoroughness of automated procedures. The EFSM extends the simple finite state machine by adding data variables. The data variables allow transitions from one state to another based on the value associated therewith. The state which follows when a specific input is processed is not just determined by the existing state and input, as is the case with the simple state finite machine. A state transition may also occur in an EFSM in accordance with information passed in signals or through parameters of a function call. Thus, the extended finite state machine is particularly useful in modeling not only certain systems, but also various types of software applications.
In the Journal paper "Automatic Functional Test Generation Using the Extended Finite State Machine Model", by K. Cheng and A. Krishnakumar (30th Proceeding of the ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference, June 1993), the authors present a method of generating functional vectors for sequential circuits from a high-level description of the circuit in VHDL or C programming language. The method guarantees, according to the authors, that the generated set of vectors cover every statement in the high-level description at least once. Whereas, such generalized syntheses of an EFSM from a high-level specification have produced favorable results, such does not insure that a complete set of properties peculiar to the specific problem domain are included in the model. Thus, some features of the system may be excluded from testing. This is especially true when certain functionality of the system that was not explicitly set forth in the formal specification.
The shortcomings of automated test design discussed above are prevalent in the prior art. In light of these shortcomings and to further advance the technology in the field of automated reliability test design, there exists a need for a method for automatically generating test cases for behaviors of a system operating within a problem domain which are both explicitly set forth in the formal specification and implicit to the formal specification.

Method for domain specific test design automation


A method and apparatus for unlocking a lock screen in an electronic device are provided. A method for unlocking a lock screen in an electronic device includes displaying a lock screen in which objects of the On and Off state have been randomly disposed, detecting a gesture for unlocking the lock screen, determining whether or not a first unlocking value generated in response to the gesture is identical with a predetermined second unlocking value, and unlocking the lock screen if the first unlocking value is identical with the second unlocking value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure generally relates to a method and apparatus capable of unlocking a lock screen in an electronic device.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the development of digital technology, electronic devices, such as smart phones and tablet Personal Computers (PCs), are commonly used. The electronic device provides convenience by providing various functions, such as the photographing and playback of photos or videos, gaming, document and e-mail writing functions, and the Internet.
The electronic device can provide a function of storing personal information or information related to business which may not be public to other users, of the various functions. The electronic device supports a screen lock function so that users can protect their personal information and information related to business that are stored in the electronic device as described above.
Furthermore, the electronic device provides various unlocking methods, such as a pattern lock and a password lock, as a method for unlocking a locked screen.
The conventional method of unlocking a pattern lock or a password lock includes displaying a pattern input window and a password input window and performing unlocking using a specific pattern input to the displayed input window. Such a pattern input and password input are likely to be exposed to surrounding people. That is, the unlocking method using the pattern lock method is disadvantageous in that people other than a user may easily unlock a lock screen using a corresponding pattern.

Method and apparatus for unlocking lock screen in electronic device


A magnetic set-up for use in a rotary encoder is disclosed. The set-up includes a permanent magnet arrangement including at least one permanent magnet, which is rotatable with respect to a rotation axis, and a soft magnetic sleeve encompassing the rotation axis and thus the permanent magnet arrangement for shielding against external magnetic fields. The at least one permanent magnet includes a through-hole, which extends along the rotation axis, so that the permanent magnet fully extends around the rotation axis.

For operation in harsh environments, it is good practice to use angle sensors based on magnetic principles. They cover a large temperature range from 50 degrees to 170 degrees Celsius, show practically no wear, and are robust against many kinds of contaminations. Automotive applications reach from small angular excursions of a few (angular) degrees (as used, e.g., in torque measurement) to medium angular excursions of 30 to 120 degrees (as used, e.g., in headlight levelling or throttle valve positioning) to complete 360 degree detection in motor position sensing and even to multi-turn detection for steering wheels. Particularly for angle ranges exceeding 180 degrees the most common systems use a small permanent magnet attached to the end surface of the rotating shaft. The magnetization is usually perpendicular to the rotation axis thus giving rise to a magnetic field, which is thus predominantly perpendicular to this axis. A magnetic field sensor is placed in front of the magnet. If the axis rotates the magnetic field also rotates and the rotation can be detected by the magnetic field sensor.
In practical implementations, the magnetic field generated by the permanent magnet used in the rotary encoder can be distorted by undesired external magnetic fields. Without countermeasures such distortion will results in a deteriorated measurement of the angular position or speed of the shaft. Thus, there is a need for rotary encoders which have a reduced sensitivity with regard to external magnetic fields in order to improve the accuracy of the encoder.


A brazing material outer coat and a method for preparing the same, an in-situ synthetic metal-coated flux-cored silver brazing material and a method for preparing the same, a welding method and a joint body, wherein the in-situ synthetic metal-coated flux-cored silver brazing material comprises a flux core and a brazing material outer coat wrapping the flux core, the brazing material outer coat comprises, in percentage by weight: silver Ag 20.0˜36.0%, copper Cu 35.0˜45.0%, zinc Zn 27.0˜37.0%, tin Sn 1.0˜3.0%, phosphorus P 0.1%˜0.5%, nickel Ni 0.5˜2.0%, germanium Ge 0.1˜0.3%, and lithium Li 0.1˜0.3%, the flux core comprises, in percentage by weight: elemental boron micropowder 5.0˜10.0%, sodium borohydride 5.0˜10.0%, potassium fluoroborate 15.0˜30.0%, boric anhydride 25.0˜40.0%, sodium fluoride 10.0˜30.0%, sodium bifluoride 2.0˜4.0%, and copper sulfate 1.0˜5.0%. The in-situ synthetic metal-coated flux-cored silver brazing material in the present disclosure realizes self-reaction in a brazing process to coat a layer of copper film on a surface of a brazed metal, the core of the brazing material has good wettability, good flowability, self-brazing function, and zinc being hard to volatilize, the flux coat has high activity, low hygroscopicity, few carbon residues, good plasticity and toughness, etc. The present disclosure is particularly suitable for brazing pipeline components of stainless steel, manganese brass and so on.

Currently, with development of high-frequency induction welders, application of the induction brazing technology in connection of pipelines is booming. Induction brazing is simple and convenient in operation, relatively uniform in heating, and good in economy, and it does not need to heat a whole part, and allows rapid local heating, thus connecting high-strength elements with the minimum strength loss. In order to save the brazing material and produce a joint of stable quality, and control a usage amount of the brazing material, pre-molded brazing materials are used more and more (the pre-molded brazing material refers to a brazing material customized to have a certain form according to a form of a weld). A commonest form is a ring shape.
Brazing material rings of a composite type of brazing material and flux used in the brazing of pipelines include flux-cored brazing material rings and flux-coated brazing material rings. At present, the flux-cored brazing material rings have the following defects: a flux of a core of a flux-cored silver brazing material usually contains boric anhydride, potassium fluoride, potassium bifluoride and other inorganic matter, and thus easily absorbs moisture, and a flux layer which has absorbed moisture is corrosive, and seriously corrodes a brazing material outer coat wrapping the flux of the core, then the brazing material outer coat easily "rusts" due to the corrosion, and the brazing material outer coat having "rusted" seriously affects operational performances and storage stability of the flux-cored silver brazing material.
In order to prevent the flux of the core from corroding the brazing material outer coat, a flux having low activity has to be used (the flux mainly serves functions of removing an oxidation film on a surface of a welded metal and protecting the welded metal against oxidation, and the activity of the flux mainly refers to capability of removing the oxidation film). When a stainless steel and manganese brass are brazed, Cr2O3, TiO2, and MnO2 on surfaces are relatively stable, and difficult to remove, seriously affecting brazing reliability of the flux-cored silver brazing material. Currently, in engineering, a layer of copper or nickel is plated on a surface of metals that are hard to braze for improving brazability thereof, but regardless of electroplating or chemical plating, one procedure is added, then an operation is complex, a cost is also correspondingly increased, and serious pollution to environment is caused.

Brazing material outer coat and preparation method thereof, in-situ synthetic metal-coated flux-cored silver brazing material, preparation method thereof, welding method and joint body

ZHENGZHOU RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING CO., LTD.


Systems for detecting, locating and mitigating impact forces directed towards a person's head are described herein. The systems include devices for wearing on a wearer's head. The devices include a base configured to conform to the wearer's head and retain a plurality of pouches on an outer surface of the base. The plurality of pouches are configured to absorb at least a portion of the impact force directed towards the outer surface of the base, provide an indication when the impact force directed towards the outer surface of the base has a magnitude exceeding a concussion-indicating level of force, and provide a location of impact when the impact force directed towards the outer surface of the base has a magnitude exceeding the concussion-indicating level of force.

Sports and other activities (e.g. employment) that involve a risk of high-impact hits to the head typically require participants to wear protective helmets to minimize the risk of serious head injury such as but not limited to concussions.
Existing protective helmets generally include an outer shell made of a hard material and an inner liner arranged on the inner side of the outer shell. The inner liner is generally made of a soft material and, in some cases, functions as a shock-absorbing system that absorbs an impact force directed towards the head of a wearer of the helmet.
Existing protective helmets and ancillary devices have many disadvantages. First, existing protective helmets and ancillary devices suffer from a limited ability to absorb hard impacts that lead to head and brain injuries of wearers. Second, existing protective helmets and ancillary devices lack effective systems for detecting the strength, direction and positioned of concussive impact forces. Third, existing helmets and ancillary devices have no mechanism to adequately alert the wearer, or those around them (e.g. a companion, co-participant, coach, trainer, referee, etc.) that the wearer has suffered a potentially concussion force injury and should be withdrawn from the activity and provided with medical attention to confirm if such an injury has occurred. This lack of signal can lead to a second impact, triggering "Second Impact Syndrome", significantly increasing the risk of serious injury.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved systems and devices for detecting, locating and mitigating concussive impact forces.

Systems and devices for detecting, locating and mitigating concussive impact forces


A low pressure drop structured packing sheet with diversion windows, which are formed on both crests and troughs. When in the expanded state where the diversion window and packing sheet are flat on the same plane, the diversion window has an opening and a fan-shaped portion, with the area of the opening being 0%-1000% of that of the fan-shaped portion. Two side intersection lines between the fan-shaped portion and packing sheet is symmetrical with respect to a central folding line which divides the fan-shaped portion into a left part and a right part. The two side intersection lines intercept to each other with an angel of about 10°-170°. When in the operating state where the diversion window and packing sheet are partially folded towards opposite directions, the fluid at the trough flows to a crest of the other side of the packing sheet with the help of diversion windows, thus increasing the area of vapor-liquid mass transfer. Additionally, when liquid goes across the diversion window, liquid at the bottom of the layer flow becomes the liquid on the liquid film, hence effectively facilitating update of the liquid film and turbulence, increasing mixture between the liquid and vapor, and improving rate of the mass transfer between vapor and liquid.

When corrugated packing sheets are used in operations such as rectification, absorption, extraction and the like, gas rises through corrugated channels, while liquid flows downwardly through surfaces of the packing sheets and forms films thereon, thereby mass transfer is completed by counterflow contact between gas and liquid. The corrugated packing sheets have their own crests and troughs and, liquid flows downwardly mainly along the troughs. By this way, thick films are formed on the troughs and, the crests are in an exposed state, thus resulting in un-uniform distribution of liquid in column. When liquid is presented in troughs, then entire liquid channels inside the column will be kept unchanged for a long time, hence leading to unfavorable influence on vapor-liquid mass transfer and adversely influencing separation effects of the column.
To overcome the above-mentioned problems and improve separation efficiency of the corrugated packing sheet, the present laboratory (Tianjin Branch of State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering) firstly developed a "structured packing sheet with diversion windows and its structured packing (Chinese Patent Application No. 200810151274.5 has been filed for the subject matter)". In this technical scheme, diversion windows are formed in both crests and troughs of the corrugated packing and, the directions of the diversion windows are opposite to the crests or troughs. When liquid flows downwardly, liquid at the troughs flows around the diversion windows and finally arrives at the back portion of the packing. So, the flow state can be reformed, which makes the vapor-liquid mass transfer more effective. To obtain better separation effects and lower the pressure drop, further improvements are made to the packing with diversion windows by the present laboratory. For example, in Chinese Patent Application No. 200910068166.6, square grooves are defined in the packing sheet. In Utility Model No. 200920307714.1, cosine flow-conducting baffles are added. In Chinese Patent Application No. 201010530832.6, both perforations and windows are formed. In Chinese Patent Application No. 201010577155.3, eccentric windows are formed. All above-mentioned novel packings have their individual features.

Super low pressure drop packing sheet with diversion windows and its structured packing


A housing type cup holder includes: a holder housing in which a receiving part is formed; a holder including a main receiving part and a sub receiving part which is slidably connected to a lower portion of the main receiving part so as to descend by weight thereof when the main receiving part is drawn out and a holder support which includes a support lead having one end of which is connected through a hinge to the sub receiving part and the second end which is extended toward the inside of the holder housing; a support link which is connected through the hinge to the support lead and the second end which is housed in the receiving part in a state that the holder is drawn out, and a guide lead guiding the holder position of the support link.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a housing type cup holder for a vehicle.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A cup holder in a vehicle receives and holds a beverage container, a can, or a cup. A cup holder may be divided into a lead type cup holder and a housing type cup holder.
A lead type cup holder uses a foldable lead without separate housing. If a cup holder is opened, the lead is unfolded so as to form a cup holder. If a cup holder is closed, the lead is folded so that the cup holder is housed.
In a housing type cup holder, a cup holder which can be opened and closed, like a drawer, is mounted to a separate housing. The cup holder can be drawn out for use, and after use, the cup holder is pushed into the housing. However, the housing type cup holder can be unstable when a vehicle is in motion.
Therefore, the present invention provides a housing type cup holder for a vehicle with an improved structure of holding a beverage container or can with an increased depth of receiving space of the cup holder so as to enhance stability of the cup or container.


The present invention includes a gift card custom messaging system for creating gift card accounts on a database that includes custom messages created by the purchaser for display on receipts of purchase transactions made by the gift card recipient to convey custom messaging information that can include a greeting, celebratory phrase or a commercial message that can include company logos and electronically sounds and animations and also includes the monetary balance remaining on the gift card to allow the recipient to more easily track the balance. The present invention further includes a variety of gift card formats and receipt display methods that allow various methods of delivery to and use by the recipient.

Gift cards currently are plastic cards with preprinted messages and a magnetic stripe. The gift card uses the magnetic stripe as a digital storage media. Information recorded on the magnetic stripe includes a card identification, payor electronic access information and an authorization code recorded when purchased and activated using a card reading device. The payor electronic access information is read from the magnetic stripe by a card reading device when a purchase is made using the gift card for payment. The purchase receipt is printed including the card identification to show the payment source. The preprinted messages may include instructions for monetary balance inquiry by telephone or website access.


A sequence code verification system can be designed to include a data reader, a validity engine, and an error notifier. The data reader can read sequence codes from consecutive logical blocks. The validity engine can invalidate write operations in response to checking data validity by applying comparison operations to sequence codes and block offsets of batch write operations. The error notifier can notify a user of an error for each invalidated write operation batch. The system can validate data written to logical blocks on a storage subsystem adapted so that, during write operations, an additional sequence code is written to each logical block of data. The sequence code can remain constant for each write operation batch and the sequence code can be incremented for each new write operation batch.

In a storage subsystem under test it is challenging to detect defective behavior for erroneous writes including torn writes and dropped writes. A dropped write occurs when a write operation to a storage subsystem acknowledges completion but the storage subsystem does not receive the complete set of data.
A torn write occurs when a write operation to a storage subsystem experiences an error and the storage subsystem does not receive the complete set of data. The actual storage subsystem data is expected to be a mix of the old data that was on the storage system disk before the write operation started and the new data that is associated with the planned write to the storage subsystem. The actual data on the storage subsystem could be all old data, all new data, or any mix in-between.
When an error occurs, a storage subsystem will perform one of the following actions: write a complete logical block (for instance five hundred and twelve bytes); not write the logical block at all; or return a medium or hardware error for that logical block if the logical block is partially written to. Therefore, for an unknown torn error, it can be expected that data boundaries between old and new data will occur at logical block boundaries. A storage subsystem will guarantee that the boundary between the old and the new data will occur in certain places. It would desirable to be able to use these characteristics to determine errors.
When developing a storage subsystem, test engineers will run test programs on application hosts. The test programs perform read and write operations to the storage subsystem to validate that the storage subsystem is behaving as intended. Under normal conditions (that is when there are no error conditions present), test programs will expect the data read from the storage subsystem to match exactly the data that was written to the storage subsystem. If, however, an error occurs (such as a broken cable, or software failure), then the read and/or write operations to the storage subsystem will not complete reliably. The test program cannot expect the data read back from the storage subsystem to match exactly the data that was previously written. Even though a write has failed, however, the storage subsystem specification may state that there are some constraints on what data can be returned to a subsequent read from the same area of the storage subsystem. It would be desirable to be able to confirm that these constraints are met.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

International Business Machines Corporation


There is provided a method for producing arylvinylsulfone of the formula: ##STR1## wherein, R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 denote each independently a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, a lower alkyl group, a lower alkoxy group,. a nitro group, an amino group, a lower alkylamino group and PA1 a lower di(alkylamino) group,. which comprises reacting .beta.-haloethylarylsulfone of the formula: ##STR2## wherein, R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 are as defined above and X denotes a halogen atom, with an alkali metal carbonate or an alkali metal hydrogencarbonate in the presence of a catalytic amount of an amine or its inorganic acid salt or a quaternary ammonium salt.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for producing arylvinylsulfone.
2. Description of the Related Art
Vinylsolfone is widely used as an important functional group and has been prepared, for example, by reacting .beta.-chloroethylphenylsulfone with a stoichiometric amount of sodium hydroxide or triethylamine. U.S. Pat. No. 2,554,576, DE 877607, J. Org. Chem., 58, 4506 (1993) and J. Chem. Soc., 1754 (1949)!
Alternatively, a readily available 2-phenylsulfonylethanol is mesylated and then the mesylate is reacted with triethylamine Bull. Korean Chem. Soc., 16, 670 (1995)!.
These processes were not always satisfactory, however, in that the yield of the desired product was not satisfactory when sodium hydroxide was used or a further tedious process was required to cope with a large amount of used triethylamine in wastewater, or the expensive mesyl chloride was required.
Therefore, a further method to provide arylvinylsulfone has been desired.


A rotation sensor includes a magnetic sensor array including magnetic sensor elements in line, a rotatable magnet confronting the magnetic sensor array, a signal readout circuit to read out a signal from the magnetic sensor array, a repeating section to cause the signal readout circuit to repeat reading out the signal from the magnetic sensor array several number of times, and to calculate a summation or an average of several readout signals, and an angle calculating circuit to detect an angle of rotation of the magnet from the summation or the average of the signals calculated by the repeating section.

As a rotation sensing device capable of being incorporated into small-sized equipment and detecting an angle of rotation with high precision, a device utilizing a sensor arrays has been suggested (e.g. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-148999). This known device includes sensor arrays having a large number of arrayed magnetic sensor elements (MAGFET) integrated on a sensor chip together with a signal amplifying circuit, an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter circuit and a digital signal processing circuit, in which the sensor chip is arranged in face-to-face relation with magnetic generating means mounted on a rotatable member. With the rotation sensor of known structure discussed above, the magnetic sensor arrays detect distributions of magnetic fields generated by the magnet generating means, and from the distributions an angle of rotation of the magnet generating means are detected.
However, in a semiconductor circuit of the sensor, a thermal noise or a 1/f noise generated by the circuit is superimposed on output signals from the sensor elements integrated on a silicon chip, and therefore the accuracy of measuring the angle of rotation tends to be reduced.
Accordingly, there have been suggested: a device where the magnetic sensor elements in the above-mentioned sensor arrays are arranged in line to increase an effective area of the sensor and thus reduce the 1/f noise, so as to avoid the reduction of accuracy (e.g. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-037133); and a device where a plurality of magnetic sensor lines are arranged in parallel and each of the averages of outputs from sensor elements in the sensors line is calculated, so as to avoid the reduction of accuracy (e.g. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-043070).

Rotation sensor and bearing assembly using the same


A system for manipulating engine exhaust gases away from inhabited areas comprises an air pressurization system coupled in fluid communication to a housing. The housing is adapted to reside adjacent a terminal portion of an exhaust pipe so that pressurized air injected into the housing entrains the exhaust gases and disperses them from the housing.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to manipulating the flow of exhaust gas from an internal combustion engine and, more specifically, to a method and apparatus for creating a high volume, high velocity air stream to direct an engine's exhaust gas away from a specific area and to dilute the exhaust gas.
2. Description of the Related Art
Internal combustion engines are used as energy sources in a variety of industries. The exhaust gases from such engines are typically noxious and otherwise unpleasant for humans, fauna, and flora. In those environments where workers are adjacent the internal combustion energy source, contact with the exhaust gases creates an unpleasant and potentially unhealthy working environment. By way of example and not limitation, offshore structures such as oil well drilling rigs or production platforms, seem particularly susceptible to contamination of working and other inhabited areas with internal combustion exhaust gases. Perhaps because usable square footage is at such a premium on offshore structures, stationary internal combustion engines are by necessity relatively near inhabited spaces. Disposing of the exhaust gases in a manner that minimizes contamination of inhabited areas is or should be a major concern. Factors such as exhaust exit placement and wind and weather conditions affect exhaust gas dispersion and dilution. In other words, low exhaust gas velocity may allow wind and other weather conditions to redirect exhaust gas back toward the exhaust discharge and/or inhabited areas.
Conventional efforts to prevent exhaust gases from contaminating inhabited areas usually involved increasing the exhaust gas pipe height, length, and/or location. However, increasing the exhaust pipe length does not increase the exhaust gas exit velocity or improve the dilution of the exhaust gas. Oftentimes, increasing the length also increases engine backpressure, which decreases engine efficiency. This is especially true for diesel engines, which are notoriously sensitive to exhaust backpressure. In some circumstances, it may have been necessary to move the stationary energy source to another location farther away from the inhabited areas.
The inventions disclosed and taught herein are directed to improved systems and methods for creating a higher fluid velocity adjacent the engine exhaust gas discharge and, thereby, improving dispersal and dilution of the engine exhaust gas to reduce or prevent contamination of inhabited areas.

Method and apparatus for manipulating and diluting internal combustion engine exhaust gases


The object of the invention is to provide a spinning machine which the manufacturing expenses and maintenance/checkout expenses are held down and the operation of the low voltage circuits is stabilized. In a spinning machine having a spindle motor control system, each three-phase power supply line is provided with a pair of conductive contacts electrically connected to at least two phases on the way thereof, and the pair of conductive contacts are structured to be separated when inserting an insulating unit therebetween and to come in contact with each other again when pulling out the insulating unit.

Referring to FIGS. 26 through 33, a ring spinning frame as one of spinning machine will be described. The ring spinning frame is used in a spinning process, the final stage in the spinning process for making yarn from a fiber lump. FIG. 26 is an entire perspective view the spinning frame 1, FIG. 27 is a view showing a bobbin 9b of a spindle unit 8 and a full bobbin 18, FIG. 28 is a view of a spindle 9s taken from the above, FIG. 29 is an enlarged view of main components of a individual stop control unit 13, FIG. 30 is a view taken in the direction of arrows substantially along the line V--V of FIG. 29, FIG. 31 is a view showing a state where the full bobbin 18 is pulled out of the spindle blade 9s, FIG. 32 is a view showing the full bobbin 18 and the spindle blade 9s covered by the bobbin 9b, and FIG. 33 is a virtual sectional view taken in the direction of arrows substantially along the line VIII--VIII of FIG. 31.
As shown in FIG. 26, the ring spinning frame 1 is generally structured as follows. That is, the ring spinning frame 1 mainly comprises a roving unit 3 positioned at the top thereof and having a plurality of rovings 3r as fiber lumps, a draft unit 5 positioned just below the roving unit 3, a snail wire unit (guiding member) 7 for introducing the yarns 6 from the drift unit 5, a spindle unit 8 positioned for winding the yarns 6, introduced by the snail wire unit 7, from the underside, a spindle motor unit (driving member) 11 for driving the spindle unit 8 from the underside, and a individual stop control unit 13 (hereinafter, simply referred to as "control unit") for individually stopping respective spindle motors. It should be understood that the number of members are the same to correspond to each other unless description will be specifically made because all of the number of the rovings 3r, the number of components of the draft unit 5, and the number of components of the snail wire unit 7 are the same (6 in this example).
The roving unit 3 is structured as follows. That is, the roving unit 3 comprises a creel C composed of supporting poles arranged in parallel with each other and 6 rovings 3r, 3r, . . . which are suspended from the creel C. Yarns pulled from the rovings 3r are extended to the draft unit 5 via a guiding rod 14. The draft unit 5 comprises a plurality of roller groups 5r, which each comprise a back roller 5r.sub.1, a middle roller 5r.sub.2, and a front roller 5r.sub.3. The surface velocity ratio of the rollers 5r.sub.1, 5r.sub.2, 5r.sub.3 is set, for example, to 1:2:20. This allows the roving 3r to be drafted and gives a predetermined size, great strength, and elasticity to the roving 3r.
The snail wire unit 7 is structured as follows. That is, the snail wire unit 7 comprises spiral-wound wires 7w and a supporting rod 7s onto which the wires 7w are disposed. The respective wires 7w are positioned corresponding and just below the respective roller groups 5r. The respective yarns 6 from the draft unit 5 are passed through the respective wires 7w so as to prevent the adjacent yams from interlocking.
The spindle unit 8 comprises a plurality of spindles 9. Each spindle 9 is structured as follows. Each spindle 9 generally comprises a spindle blade 9s as a pole-like rotator (see FIG. 31 and FIG. 33), a bobbin 9b covering the spindle blade 9s and onto which the yarn 6 is wound, a ring-like traveler 15 which slides around the bobbin 9b to twist the yarn 6 delivered from snail wire unit 7, and a ring 17 guiding the traveler 15. The traveler 15 is, as shown in FIG. 28, structured as to slide around the bobbin 9b to wind the twisted yarn 6 onto the bobbin 9b. In FIGS. 27 and 28, the reference numeral 18 designates a full bobbin which is made of yarn wound onto the bobbin 9b. FIGS. 31 and 32 show the state where the full bobbin 18 is pulled out of the spindle blade 9s and the state where the spindle blade 9s is covered by another bobbin 9b to make another fill bobbin 18, respectively.
It should be noted that the spindle blade 9s is rotatably supported to a bolster 11b (described later) via an insert 9i. The insert 9i is disposed to dissipate vibration energy of the spindle blade 9s. Disposed around a lower surface of the spindle blade 9s is a rotor 9r corresponding to the spindle motor unit 11.
In FIG. 26, the reference numeral 19a designates respective anti-node rings. Each anti-node ring is positioned above the spindle 9 to stabilize the yarn 6. The reference numeral 19b designates a ring rail. The ring rail 19b is a plate member for supporting the rings 17. The ring rail 19b have, in the longitudinal direction, a plurality of through holes (not shown), into which the spindles 9 are inserted, respectively.
The spindle motor unit 11 comprises, as shown in FIGS. 26 and 27, a plurality of spindle motors 12. The spindle motors 12 supported by a spindle rail 20 are disposed directly to the spindles 9, respectively. That is, incorporated in each spindle motor 12 is a stator 12s onto which a primary winding is wound in a box-like hollow casing 12c. As stated above, the rotor 9r corresponds to the stator 12s. As shown in FIG. 26, the control unit 13 is actuated by operating each switch 11s so as to stop or restart the corresponding spindle motor 12.
The control unit 13 is structured as follows. That is, the control unit 13 comprises, as shown in FIG. 29, a duct 21 as a casing having dust-proof and waterproof structure, a plurality of control circuit substrates 23 incorporated in the duct 21, and a plurality of power line substrates 25. Connected to the power line substrates 25 is an output of an inverter power source 26 disposed out of the control unit 13 via a power supply line 32 surfaced by a coating. A low-voltage signal line and low-voltage power supplying line 29 is also connected to the power line substrates 25 to supply low voltage to the control circuit substrates 23. It should be noted that the reference numeral 31 in FIG. 29 designates a power connecting line for connecting the control unit 13 to another control unit 13.
The operating state of the ring spinning frame will be described according to FIGS. 31 through 33. The spindle motors 12 are powered and driven by the inverter power source. The drive of the spindle motors 12 allow the spindles 19s integrated with the spindle motors 12 to rotate and therefore allow the bobbins 9b to rotate. The travelers 15 on the rings 17 are pulled by yarns 6 about to be wound onto the bobbins 9b so as to start to revolve at nearly the same speed as the bobbins 9b (spindles 9s). At this time, rotational differences between the bobbins 9b (spindles 9s) and the travelers 15 allow the yarns 6 to be wound onto the bobbins 9b. The speed of letting off the yarns 6 from the front rollers 5r.sub.3 is the same as the speed of winding the yarns onto the bobbins 9b. In addition, one twist of the yarn 6 is produced by one revolution of the traveler 15.
By the way, as shown in FIGS. 31 and 32, the yam 6 sometimes snaps during forming the full bobbin 18 between the snail wire unit 7 and the spindle unit 8 or between the draft unit 5 and the snail wire unit 7. One cause of yarn snapping is that the rotation of the spindle is unsuitable so that the extra force is exerted onto the yarn 6. The aforementioned problems are not limited to the ring spinning frame and are the same for other spinning machines each having a spindle motor control system such as a ring twister and a two-for-one twister.
To tie the snapped yarn, first the spindle motor 12 must be stopped. The spindle motor 12 is stopped by actuating the corresponding switch 11s to separately function the control circuit of the control circuit substrate 23. The control circuit substrate 23 must be provided for each spindle motor 12. There are some big spinning frame each having substantially 1000 spindle motors. In this case, substantially 1000 control circuit substrates are necessary. However, it is impossible that all of 1000 yarns snap at the same time so that there may be no situation that the all of the control circuit substrates are needed at the same time. It is quite poor economy to always prepare many control circuit substrates, though nobody knows when they will be actually needed, in view points of manufacturing expenses and maintenance/checkout expenses. To solve the aforementioned economical problem is the first object to be solved by the present invention.
Some of big spinning frames are 40 meters in overall length. Such a ring spinning frame is provided with about 1000 spindles. In such a spinning frame, power is supplied to at control unit 13 of an adjacent mechanical block by an inverter power source 26 through a power connecting line 31. The same is true for low voltage power supply, that is, low voltage power or signal is transmitted to control circuit substrates 23 of the control unit 13 through low voltage signal lines/low voltage power supplying lines 29 at a long distance e.g. tens meters. Since using the low voltage signal lines/low voltage power supplying lines renders undesired signal to be easily caught, the operation of circuit quite may become unstable and the control of the whole ring spinning frame may be seriously effected. To eliminate the serious effects is the second object to be solved by the present invention.
The final object to be solved by the present invention is to increase the efficiency of the power supply, i.e. to inhibit the voltage drop due to electrical resistance of the power supply line 27 and to increase the efficiency of the wiring. That is, a housing duct 67 has the power supply line 27 surfaced by a coating and the like incorporated therein. To minimize the electrical resistance, the power supply line 27 should be as thicker as possible (the cross section should be as greater as possible.). However, there is a limit to make the power supply line 27 thicker because of the size of the housing duct 67. Since it is necessary for the wiring to strip the coating from the power supply line 27, it is not necessarily effective. To solve this problem is the third object.

Spinning machine with spindle motor control system


A cap with a tamper-evident ring is designed to snap engage a container that is provided with an upper and lower bead. A ring of teeth provided along an inside skirt of the cap engage teeth located along an inside wall of the container. When the cap is snapped onto the container, both sets of teeth automatically engage and a plug seal provided on the cap engages the container upper bead. By turning the cap clockwise or counterclockwise, the side angles of the teeth force the cap to disengage upwards over the upper bead and unsnap from the container. When the closure is opened for the first time, the ring breaks away from the cap and slides down the container below the lower bead, which keeps the ring from coming off the container and provides evidence that the cap had been opened.

A twist closure for a container, such as a cap for a soft drink bottle having a threaded neck portion, is typically provided with a top portion and an elongated skirt portion downwardly depending therefrom that circumscribes the outer periphery of a threaded container neck. Removing the closure from the container is conventionally accomplished by rotating the closure along the threaded neck in the counterclockwise direction, while securing the closure onto the container is conventionally accomplished by rotating the closure along the threaded neck in the clockwise direction. The threading on the container neck usually restricts the rotating direction of the closure to one direction for removal and one direction for attachment. This unidirectional movement is somewhat limiting and can be inconvenient at times. In addition, the conventional, elongated skirt portion tends to prolong the process of attaching and removing closures from containers.
Recognizing some of the limitations of prior art twist closures, the present inventors have designed a closure that is economical to manufacture, requires less material, is simple and easy to manipulate and is further provided with a tamper-evident feature that depends from an abbreviated skirt portion. The inventive closure interacts with a container neck that enables attachment of such closure by a downward pressing of such closure onto the container neck, yet enables removal from the container neck by a shortened rotation of such closure in either the clockwise or counterclockwise direction.


An economic low-complexity system and method for echo cancellation are disclosed. The system and method are particularly suited for multi-carrier VDSL using the U0 band. The techniques taught herein may be implemented in VDSL and VDSL2 systems and used to receive signals in three bands (e.g., U0, U1 and U2) simultaneously.

Very-High-Data-Rate Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL) is a bi-directional data transmission technology. Orthogonality of upstream versus downstream signals generally helps to mask echo. However, the orthogonality of downstream and upstream is difficult to maintain when the U0 band (e.g., 25 kHz-138 kHz) is utilized for data transmission to boost rate performance for longer loops. Thus, echo from upstream typically generates interference downstream in the customer side. Further, VDSL upstream and downstream typically employ a very wide-frequency bandwidth. Echo cancellation in such high bandwidth environments is generally very computationally expensive.
The International Telecommunications Union defines the Very-High-Data-Rate Digital Subscriber Line 2 standard (VDSL2) in a document entitled ITU-T G.993.2. Although this standard permits simultaneous reception of U0, U1, and U2 bands, it gives no technical details as to how such a reception may actually be implemented.


A method to copy information to two data storage devices. The method provides a first data storage device and a second data storage device, where the first data storage device is capable of communicating with the second data storage device. The method provides first information and a write command to the first data storage device at a first time. The method determines if the write command comprises a synchronous copy attribute. If the write command comprises a synchronous copy attribute, then the method synchronously provides the first information to the second data storage device. Alternatively, if the write command does not comprise a synchronous copy attribute, then the method provides the first information to the second data storage device at a second time, where that second time is later than the first time.

Many data processing systems require a large amount of data storage, for use in efficiently accessing, modifying, and re-storing data. Data storage is typically separated into several different levels, each level exhibiting a different data access time or data storage cost. A first, or highest level of data storage involves electronic memory, usually dynamic or static random access memory (DRAM or SRAM). Electronic memories take the form of semiconductor integrated circuits where millions of bytes of data can be stored on each circuit, with access to such bytes of data measured in nanoseconds. The electronic memory provides the fastest access to data since access is entirely electronic.
A second level of data storage usually involves direct access storage devices (DASD). DASD storage, for example, includes magnetic and/or optical disks. Data bits are stored as micrometer-sized magnetically or optically altered spots on a disk surface, representing the "ones" and "zeros" that comprise the binary value of the data bits. Magnetic DASD includes one or more disks that are coated with remnant magnetic material. The disks are rotatably mounted within a protected environment. Each disk is divided into many concentric tracks, or closely spaced circles. The data is stored serially, bit by bit, along each track. An access mechanism, known as a head disk assembly (HDA) typically includes one or more read/write heads, and is provided in each DASD for moving across the tracks to transfer the data to and from the surface of the disks as the disks are rotated past the read/write heads. DASDs can store gigabytes of data, and the access to such data is typically measured in milliseconds (orders of magnitudes slower than electronic memory). Access to data stored on DASD is slower than electronic memory due to the need to physically position the disk and HDA to the desired data storage location.
Having a backup data copy is mandatory for many businesses for which data loss would be catastrophic. The time required to recover lost data is also an important recovery consideration. With tape or library backup, primary data is periodically backed-up by making a copy on tape or library storage. One improvement over this arrangement is "flash copy," which mirrors contents of a primary device with a nearly identical secondary device. An example flash copy involves providing additional DASDs so that data is written to the additional DASDs substantially in real time along with the primary DASDs. Then, if the primary DASDs fail, the secondary DASDs can be used to provide otherwise lost data. A drawback to this approach is that the number of required DASDs is doubled.
A different data backup alternative that avoids the need to provide double the storage devices involves writing data to a redundant array of inexpensive devices (RAID). In this configuration, the data is apportioned among many DASDs. If a single DASD fails, then the lost data can be recovered by applying error correction procedures to the remaining data. Several different RAID configurations are available.
The foregoing backup solutions are generally sufficient to recover data in the event that a storage device or medium fails. These backup methods are useful only for device failures since the secondary data is a mirror of the primary data, that is, the secondary data has the same volume serial numbers (VOLSERs) and DASD addresses as the primary data. Data recovery due to system failures or storage controller failures, on the other hand, is not available using mirrored secondary data. Hence still further protection is required for recovering data if the entire system or even the site is destroyed by a disaster such as an earthquake, fire, explosion, hurricane, etc. Disaster recovery requires that the secondary copy of data be stored at a location remote from the primary data. A known method of providing disaster protection is to periodically backup data to tape, such as a daily or weekly basis. The tape is then picked up by a vehicle and taken to a secure storage area usually located kilometers from the primary data location. Nonetheless, this backup plan has its problems. First, it may take days to retrieve the backup data, and additional data is lost waiting for the backup data to be recovered. Furthermore, the same disaster may also destroy the storage location. A slightly improved backup method transmits data to a backup location each night. This allows the data to be stored at a more remote location. Again, some data may be lost between backups since backups do not occur continuously, as in the dual copy solution. Hence, a substantial amount of data may still be lost and this may be unacceptable to some users.
More recently introduced data disaster recovery solutions include "remote dual copy," where data is backed-up not only remotely, but also continuously (either synchronously or asynchronously). In order to communicate duplexed data from one host processor to another host processor, or from one storage controller to another storage controller, or some combination thereof, a substantial amount of control data is required for realizing the process. A high overhead, however, can interfere with a secondary site's ability to keep up with a primary site's processing, thus threatening the ability of the secondary site to be able to recover the primary in the event a disaster occurs.
Disaster recovery protection for the typical data processing system requires that primary data stored on primary DASDs be backed-up at a secondary or remote location. The physical distance separating the primary and secondary locations can be set depending upon the level of risk acceptable to the user, and can vary from several kilometers to thousands of kilometers. The secondary or remote location, in addition to providing a backup data copy, must also have enough system information to take over processing for the primary system should the primary system become disabled. This is due in part because a single storage controller does not write data to both primary and secondary DASD storage at the primary and secondary sites. Instead, the primary data is stored on a primary DASD storage attached to a primary storage controller while the secondary data is stored on a secondary DASD storage attached to a secondary storage controller.
The secondary site must not only be sufficiently remote from the primary site, but must also be able to backup primary data in real time. The secondary site needs to backup primary data in real time as the primary data is updated, with some minimal delay. Additionally, the secondary site has to backup the primary data regardless of the application program (e.g., IMS, DB2) running at the primary site and generating the data and/or updates. A difficult task required of the secondary site is that the secondary data must be "order consistent," that is, secondary data is copied in the same sequential order as the primary data (sequential consistency) which requires substantial system considerations. Sequential consistency is complicated by the existence of multiple storage controllers each controlling multiple DASDs in a data processing system. Without sequential consistency, secondary data inconsistent with primary data would result, thus corrupting disaster recovery.
Remote data duplexing falls into two general categories, synchronous and asynchronous. Synchronous remote copy involves sending primary data to the secondary location and confirming the reception of such data before ending a primary DASD input/output (I/O) operation. Synchronous copy, therefore, slows the primary DASD I/O response time while waiting for secondary confirmation. Primary I/O response delay is increased proportionately with the distance between the primary and secondary systems, a factor that limits the remote distance to tens of kilometers. Synchronous copy, however, provides sequentially consistent data at the secondary site with relatively little system overhead.
In contrast to synchronous remote copy, asynchronous remote copy provides better primary application system performance because the primary DASD I/O operation is completed without waiting for data to be confirmed at the secondary site. Therefore, the primary DASD I/O response time is not dependent upon the distance to the secondary site and the secondary site can be thousands of kilometers remote from the primary site.
What is needed is a method that can implement a synchronous copy mode where that mode is required, but which can implement an asynchronous copy mode otherwise. Applicants' invention comprises such a method.

Method and apparatus for determining using least recently used protocol if one or more computer files should be written to one or more information storage media and synchronously providing one or more computer files between first and storage devices


A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate including first and second surfaces, and a first semiconductor layer of a first conductivity type, a first electrode on the first surface, a first control electrode that is inwardly from the first surface and electrically insulated from the semiconductor substrate and the first electrode, a second control electrode that is inwardly from the first surface, electrically insulated from the semiconductor substrate and the first electrode via a fourth insulating film, and biased independently from the first control electrode, a third control electrode on the second surface and electrically insulated from the semiconductor substrate, and a second electrode on the second surface and electrically connected to the semiconductor substrate.

An insulated gate type bipolar transistor (hereinafter, Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor: IGBT), for example, is used as a semiconductor device to control large currents with high breakdown voltages of 600 V or more. The IGBT is used, for example, for power conversion. A low, constant on-resistance and a low switching loss, which provides high switching speed are both desired to increase conversion efficiency.
In recent years, an increasing number of IGBTs have a trench gate structure extending deeply from a p-type base layer into an n-type base layer in order to reduce the on-resistance. Accordingly, carriers can be efficiently accumulated in the n-type base layer by increasing channel density and by utilizing a shape of an adjacent trench gate in the n-type base layer, which reduces the continuous on-resistance. However, when carrier concentration is increased to achieve the low on-resistance, the number of carriers that need to be discharged at turn-on time increases. Therefore, the turn-off time period becomes prolonged, and loss during the turn-off time increases. That is, improvements in reducing on-resistance are traded off with reduction in the turn-off loss.

TOSHIBA ELECTRONIC DEVICES & STORAGE CORPORATION


A single polysilicon layer electrically programmable and electrically erasable read only memory cell is described. The cell utilizes an n-well inversion capacitor, formed in a semiconductor substrate as the control gate. One plate of the capacitor is formed from the same polysilicon layer as the floating gate of the memory device, thus capacitively coupling the floating gate and the inversion capacitor control gate. Additional erase performance is achieved by addition of a dedicated erase capacitor to the basic cell. Still further improvement in programming performance and protection against over-erase failure in a flash type EEPROM device is achieved by the addition of a select transistor. Prevention of program disturb and DC erase is also described.

1. Field Of The Invention
The present invention relates to the field of electrically programmable and electrically erasable MOS devices.
2. Prior Art
Numerous read-only memories employing floating gate memory cells are well-known and commercially available. Typically, these memories are fabricated with MOS technology. Each cell includes a polycrystalline silicon (polysilicon) floating gate which is completely surrounded by electrical insulation such as silicon dioxide. Various mechanisms are used to transport charge onto the floating gate and to remove the charge from this gate. In one class of memories (EPROMs), charge is transported to the floating gate through channel hot electron injection or avalanche injection and is removed by exposing the memory to ultraviolet radiation. Another class of memories, EEPROMs, may be electrically erased as well. EEPROMs utilize a thin oxide between the floating gate and the substrate through which charge is tunneled onto and from the floating gate. In both types of devices, a second polysilicon control gate is generally employed. The control gate is electrically coupled to a supply potential and is generally used during reading and writing operations.
It is desirable to implement memory cells such as those described above on logic manufacturing technologies, so that logic functions and memory elements can be incorporated on a single chip, to form electrically programmable logic devices (EPLDs). Use of EPROM-like cells on logic technologies enhances the performance of the logic devices by allowing them to be custom configured by the user. One problem with the above-described EPROM and EEPROM technologies is that two layers of polysilicon are usually required, one for the floating gate and one for the control gate. However, double polysilicon processing is not otherwise required to manufacture MOS or CMOS logic circuits. Therefore, implementing a double poly-EPROM on current logic manufacturing technologies greatly increases processing complexity, thereby increasing costs and reducing yields.
Recently, a single polysilicon layer EPROM has been proposed (see "A Single Poly-EPROM for Custom CMOS Logic Applications" by R. Kazerounian and B. Eitan, IEEE/CICC 1986). In that paper, a memory cell utilizing a single polysilicon floating gate is described. The cell includes a floating gate n-channel transistor and a control gate. The "control gate" is an n-well which is capacitively coupled to the floating gate. The single poly-EPROM is programmed by channel hot electron injection into the floating gate and erased by exposure to UV light.
While the above memory element is compatible with single polysilicon CMOS technology, it is further desirable to produce a CMOS compatible memory cell which is electrically erasable as well as electrically programmable. It is further desirable that the memory cells should be capable of preventing "over-erase" mechanisms which occur in "flash" type devices. Finally, the memory cell should be capable of preventing "program disturb" and "D.C. erase" problems which occur in flash type devices.


Disclosed is a filling device of a fluid conducting system of an extracorporeal blood treatment device that includes a spike for connecting to the single fluid connector of a medical fluid container and a manually operable fluid blocking mechanism arranged directly downstream of the spike that fluidly connects with the spike while the filling device is in operation. The fluid blocking mechanism has at least one fluid outlet connector that is adapted so that a line section or hose of the fluid conducting system such as the arterial line section of a blood purification device can be connected to it in a detachable manner while the filling device is in operation.

The hydraulic system (blood-side fluid system) of a blood treatment device, for example a dialysis machine, has to be filled with fluid, for example an NaCl solution or another sterile physiological solution, before being connected up to a patient, in such a way that air pockets in the system that would be dangerous for a patient connected up to the fluids of the system are eliminated. Furthermore, the hydraulic system can be flushed with the filled-in fluid for a certain period of time in order to filter/wash out any contaminants, dirt particles, etc. that may have deposited in the system before the system is connected up to the patient. On an extracorporeal blood treatment device, these two procedures are performed in the scope of a filling—circulation cycle.
In the state of the art, there are fluid containers preferably in the shape of plastic bags designed especially for extracorporeal blood treatment devices of this relevant type in order to enable, among others, the device functions as described above. This kind of fluid containers is also manufactured and sold by the applicant filing the application in hand.
As a rule, such a fluid container has a fluid intake chamber and two, preferably closable, fluid connectors. On a first of the two connectors, an arterial line section, and on the second connector, a venous line section of the hydraulic system (fluid system or also referred to as fluid conducting system) of the extracorporeal blood treatment device can be connected. The fluid bag as well as the two line sections together constitute a circulation device of the extracorporeal blood treatment device.
For the fluid system filling process, first the arterial line section is connected to the first fluid connector of the bag, and after opening of the first fluid connector, the hydraulic system is filled. The venous line section of the system first remains open to the atmosphere or is connected to a drain, a container or a bag so that air inside the system can escape/be vented. As soon as the filling process is completed, the venous line section is connected to the second fluid connector of the bag in order to circulate the fluid inside the hydraulic system of the extracorporeal blood treatment device for a certain period of time or a certain volume of flow through the bag chamber.
During this optional circulation process, the fluid flows through internal filtering devices of the system in which remaining air pockets are removed/filtered out with the fluid. If necessary, the venous line section of the hydraulic system can again be disconnected from the second fluid connector of the fluid bag and the fluid inside the hydraulic system can be flushed out again under constant supply of fluid from the container.
Upon termination of the optional circulation process, the filling/circulation cycle preparing for patient treatment is completed so that the two line sections (venous and arterial) can be disconnected from the fluid bag and connected up to the patient for treatment.
The description above of the filling/circulation cycle of a hydraulic system/fluid conducting system of an extracorporeal blood treatment device (dialysis machine) known from the state of the art indicates that the fluid bag remains in the system circuit for the filling and circulation processes, i.e. that the fluid inside the system is circulated through the fluid bag and/or its fluid chamber. As a result, the fluid in the fluid bag may get contaminated. The consequence of this is that with each new treatment preparation of the extracorporeal blood treatment device, a new fluid bag with fresh, uncontaminated fluid is used for the following filling/circulation cycle, whereas the fluid bag for the filling/circulation cycle performed before is disposed of independently of its residual content. It is obvious that this procedure results in the wasting of a large quantity of fluid in case of a high patient treatment number because the fluid content of a fluid bag can only be used (incompletely) for one filling/circulation cycle.
Furthermore, the fluid bags for blood treatment devices effectively concern a custom-made design with two separate fluid connectors, as a result of which manufacturing becomes more expensive due to smaller numbers as compared with conventional NaCl bags/bottles on the whole. In the end, the handling of the filling device according to the description above is not ideal. As a result, at least the arterial connector has to be connected to the fluid bag for filling the system with fluid in order to fill the system with fluid from the fluid bag and to vent it based on the "single-pass principle," with the venous connector being open to a drain, a container or bag or to the atmosphere. Then the arterial connector has to be disconnected from the fluid bag and connected to an arterial patient access.


A detachable storage box including a box body formed by folding up a sheet element and securing it into shape by hook and loop materials and having male fastening elements, and a collapsible lattice type partition device mounted inside the box body and defining a plurality of separated open spaces for keeping small items and having female fastening elements respectively fastened to the male fastening elements of the box body.

The present invention relates to storage boxes for keeping personal small items, and more particularly to a detachable storage box which is comprised of a collapsible box body, and a collapsible lattice type partition device fastened to the inside of the box body.
A variety of cabinets and storage boxes have been disclosed for keeping clothes, and any of a variety of small personal items. These storage devices are commonly not collapsible, therefore they occupy much room spaces when not in use. Furthermore, when small personal items are stored in a cabinet or storage box, it is difficult to classify the storage items.


A heat-assisted magnetic recording head (HAMR) head includes a magnetic recording head including a recording pole for applying a magnetic recording field on a magnetic recording medium and a return pole magnetically connected to the recording pole to form a magnetic path, a light source for emitting light, and an optical transmission module including an photonic crystal waveguide disposed at a side of the magnetic recording head to guide light incident from the light source and a nano aperture for enhancing an optical field by varying an intensity distribution of the light guided through the photonic crystal waveguide.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heat-assisted magnetic recording head and a method of manufacturing the same and, more particularly, to a heat-assisted magnetic recording head with which an optical transmission module can be easily integrated and which can easily be changed to have an optical path in a desired direction and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Previously, it has been difficult to achieve a recording density above 500 Gb/in2 using a conventional magnetic recording method.
In the field of magnetic information recording, many studies have been performed to overcome magnetic recording density limitations and thus achieve such a high recording density.
In order to increase recording densities, a bit size of magnetic recording mediums on which unit information is recorded must be reduced. To reduce the bit size, a grain size of the recording medium must be reduced. Since reduction of the grain size increases thermal instability of a recorded bit, a medium having a relatively high coercive force is necessary.
Since a magnetic field generated by a magnetic recording head and applied to a magnetic recording medium has a limited intensity, it is difficult to record information in a magnetic recording medium when the magnetic recording medium is formed of a material having a relatively high coercive force for providing good thermal stability.
To solve the above problem, a heat-assisted magnetic recording method has been developed, in which a recording medium formed of a material having a relatively high coercive force for overcoming the thermal instability of a small recorded bit is used and heat is locally applied to the recording medium to temporarily lower the coercive force thereof and allow the recording to be performed by a magnetic field applied by a magnetic recording head. That is, according to the heat-assisted magnetic recording method, the coercive force of a local portion of the recording medium is lowered by heating the local portion so that the heated local portion of the magnetic recording medium can be effectively magnetized to perform the recording using the magnetic field applied by the magnetic recording head. Therefore, even when the grain size of the magnetic recording medium is reduced, the thermal stability can be realized.
An optical transmission module that heats a local portion of a magnetic recording medium by emitting light to temporarily reduce the coercive force of the local portion of the recording medium and thus expedite the recording may be applied to a heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) head.
FIG. 1 is a diagram of a conventional HAMR head disclosed in U.S. patent application Publication No. 2003/0198146A1.
Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional HAMR head includes a magnetic recording unit 22 and an optical transmission module for heating the magnetic recording medium 16.
The magnetic recording unit 22 includes a recording pole 30 for applying a magnetic recording field on the magnetic recording medium 16 and a return pole 32 magnetically connected by a yoke 35 to the recording pole 30 to form a magnetic path H.
The optical transmission module heats a local portion A of the magnetic recording medium 16 using a beam of light. The optical transmission module includes a light source 52 and a waveguide 50 for guiding light generated by the light source 52 through an optical fiber 54. An electromagnetic (EM) radiation emission structure 46 is attached to an extreme end of the waveguide 50 near an air bearing surface (ABS) of the magnetic recording medium 16.
The local portion A is located near to the recording pole 30 with respect to the relative motion of the magnetic recording medium 16. As a result, the recording pole 30 vertically records data on the local portion having a coercive force which has been temporarily reduced by heating. That is, magnetic recording can be performed in a state where the thermal instability is solved.
In the above-described conventional HAMR head, the optical transmission module is installed to emit the light to the magnetic recording medium 16 prior to the operation of the recording pole 30. At this point, the waveguide 50 is attached on a side portion of the recording pole 30. As the magnetic recording medium 16 rotates, dynamic air pressure is generated to provide an air-bearing effect by which the magnetic recording unit 22 is floated from the magnetic recording medium 16. At this point, a predetermined gap is maintained between the waveguide 50 and the magnetic recording medium 16.
Since the waveguide 50 collimates an incident light and guides the collimated light to the EM radiation emission structure 46, the optical path is limited to be formed in a predetermined direction. Therefore, the installation position of the light source is limited. The limitation of the installation position of the light source reduces overall design flexibility of the HAMR head as well as an actual manufacturing flexibility.
In addition, since the EM radiation emission structure 46 is separately prepared and attached to an extreme end of the waveguide 50, it is difficult to manufacture the HAMR head through a semiconductor wafer fabrication process.

Heat-assisted magnetic recording head and method of manufacturing the same


Preparing dyes suitable for cosmetic use that start with known dyes and link them, for example, with 1,3,5 triazine to bulky organic groups that control solubility.

There is a need for dyes which have controlled solubility which would then allow their incorporation into cosmetic vehicles, without having them leech onto the other components of the formulation or emulsion, which could alter their optical properties. For example, the problem with many food dyes for use in cosmetics is that they are water soluble, which limits their use in cosmetics because they dissolve in perspiration and run.
Dyes are historically among the most widely used industrial chemicals, with applications for food, cosmetics, toiletries, and textile industries, to name a few. They impart a visual stimulus to consumers, and offer an enhanced psychological impact. While this is a mature field, there are still inherent problems associated with many dyes for cosmetic use due to their chemical nature. For instance, iron oxide is the primary colorant of rouge makeup, despite the availability of many organic dyes and pigments. The reason for this is many dyes are comprised of conjugated chromophores, which tend to aggregate, causing non-ideal color changes such as dullness, loss of color purity, and fluorescence quenching. Iron oxide on the other hand is stable. Many food dyes and D&C dyes that might therefore be considered for use are water soluble, which limits their use in cosmetics because they may dissolve in perspiration causing the cosmetic to run or leech out. There have been previous efforts to make pigments from water soluble materials that potentially migrate. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,630,019 shows mixing aluminum hydroxide with calcium phosphate slurry and then applying an FD&C dye mix. As used herein "FD&C" dyes and "D&C" dyes means any dye listed in Title 21, Part 82 of the Code of Fair Regulations, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,143,280 adheres FD&C dyes to silica and depositing alumina in the pores of the silica in order to resist dye migration.
Other techniques involve encapsulating dyes in order to prevent aggregation and to maintain the desirable spectral properties of the dye. For example, International Publication No. WO2006010728 of Feb. 2, 2006, describes the use of polymer microparticles of fluorescent whitening agents for use in cosmetics. Alternatively, large macrocycles such as cyclodextrins have been used to encapsulate chromophores non-covalently, and are commonly used as an additive when dyeing fabrics to enhance brightness. In these instances the dye and macrocycle form an inclusion complex; however only a certain number of dyes will fit in the cavity of the cyclodextrin. JP2006249012 describes fluorescent cosmetics by using molecularly encapsulated dyes, non-covalently bonded.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,150,764 of Dec. 19, 2006 describes the use of water-soluble fluorescent dyes and an insoluble conditioning agent for use in dyeing keratin fibers, whereas U.S. Pat. No. 6,753,002 of Jun. 22, 2004 teaches the use of fluorescent mineral powders with cosmetically acceptable vehicles to solve stability problems caused by moisture. Triazine-stilbene fluorescent brighteners have been reported (Dyes and Pigments, 2005, 63), as well as naphthol-triazine compounds as UV light absorbers as inhibitors for plastic degradation (EP1298126).
In all of the above approaches, to overcome the problem of stability to make cosmetic compositions that are cosmetically acceptable the approach has been adding things to the formulation to protect color; this changes the properties of the formulation and sacrifices some cosmetic elegance, as well increases expense. Thus, if wholly insoluble materials are used, caking can become a problem. If, on the other hand, encapsulation is used, sacrifice of color appearance may occur. These problems have limited the ability of any of these techniques to work easily with all FD&C and D&C dyes for cosmetics.
Accordingly, it can be seen that there is still a need for controlling dye solubility and for a methodology that meets current safety standards for each application, while allowing easy to manufacture dyes, which themselves have their properties controlled such that they are adaptable to current formularies while being cosmetically elegant, i.e., formulations that are stable, do not run or migrate, and which do not have color changes, such as dullness or loss of color when in use.
It is a primary object of the present invention to fulfill the above needs.
Another object of the present invention is to modify dyes themselves so that water solubility or lack of solubility are carefully controlled resulting in "tailor made" molecules, favorable for the cosmetic use in question. As a result, many FD&C and D&C dyes can now be used, where they could not otherwise be.

Dyes of improved optical brightness and/or fluorescence and compositions containing them


In one embodiment, an apparatus comprises a plurality of memory cells; first and second bit lines coupled to the plurality of memory cells; a first and second bit line precharge circuits coupled to the first and second bit lines; and a control circuit coupled to the first and second bit line precharge circuits. The first and second bit line precharge circuits are each configured to precharge the first bit line and the second bit line. The control circuit is coupled to receive an indication that one or more clocks are being restarted after a period of stopped clock operation, and is configured to activate both the first and second bit line precharge circuits responsive to the indication and independent of an operation to the memory that was interrupted by the period of stopped clock operation, if any.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to the field of integrated circuits and, more specifically, to recovering bit lines in a memory array.
2. Description of the Related Art
Integrated circuits may include embedded memory such as static random access memory (SRAM). Some integrated circuits may include only SRAM (e.g. SRAM chips designed for attachment to a circuit board with other integrated circuits). Other integrated circuits may include SRAM to store data used by logic circuitry also integrated into the integrated circuit.
Typical SRAM memory arrays include a plurality of memory cells coupled to a pair of bit lines used to access the memory cells. Generally, the bit lines are precharged (e.g. to the supply voltage) to prepare for a read/write operation. Multiple sets of memory cells coupled to different pairs of bit lines are used to provide a multiple bit input/output "word" of the memory array.
A read operation typically includes selecting one of the memory cells to output its stored bit, and the selected memory cell discharging one of the pair of bit lines based on the value of the bit stored in the memory cell. A sense amplifier (senseamp) circuit senses the differential between the voltages on the bit lines and amplifies the differential to output the bit from the memory array (either as a single bit or a differential pair with full signal swing). The memory array is designed such that the bit line is not fully discharged for a read operation. Subsequent to the senseamp sensing the bit lines, the bit lines are precharged to prepare for the next operation.
A write operation typically includes selecting one of the memory cells to be written, and driving the bit lines to write the bit into the selected memory cell. Since the bit lines are precharged prior to the start of the write operation, one of the bit lines is discharged based on the bit being written. Typically, the bit line is fully discharged (or almost fully discharged) for a write operation. The bit lines are subsequently precharged again to prepare for the next operation.
Since the discharge of a bit line for a read operation differs from that of a write operation, the current capability of the precharge circuits for each operation may differ. For most memory arrays, a large number of bit line pairs are present and thus the precharge control signals that cause the precharge drive a large number of precharge circuits. The capacitive load on the precharge control signals is proportional to the current capability of the precharge circuits, and thus the power dissipated in driving the precharge control signals is also proportional to the current capability. Accordingly, many memory arrays provide two precharge circuits for each bit line. One of the precharge circuits is designed to precharge the bit lines after a read operation, and thus has a relatively low current capability since the circuit need not be able to precharge all the way from ground to the supply voltage. Thus, less power is dissipated when a read operation is performed. Both precharge circuits are activated after a write operation, and the combination is designed to precharge a fully discharged bit line (e.g. from ground to the supply voltage).
Additionally, many integrated circuits may permit the clock or clocks in the integrated circuit to be stopped for a period of time without loss of state. For example, the clocks may be stopped for test purposes (e.g. to read the state of the integrated circuit or to change the state). The clocks may also be stopped for power management purposes.
While stopping the clocks is supposed to avoid a loss of state, if the clocks are stopped during a read operation prior to a precharge, the bit line may continue to discharge. If the clock is stopped for long enough, the bit line may discharge to a voltage that is lower than the precharge circuit is able to recover. When the clock starts again, the state of the integrated circuit indicates that a read was in progress and the read precharge circuit is activated. An incomplete precharge may thus occur.

Recovering bit lines in a memory array after stopped clock operation


A Chinese text entry system and method is provided to allow users to enter a character to a device such as a cellular phone or a PDA by adding a first few strokes required for the character using a joystick or its equivalent. By simply moving the joystick to add one or more strokes which are used to start writing a character, or in some case even before any stroke is added, a user can find a desired character from a displayed selection list. The selection list is context sensitive, varying depending on the last character entered, so that the user can be provided with the most possible candidates of the desired character.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to text input technology. More particularly, the invention relates to a system and method that allows a user to use a joystick to input Chinese characters to a data processing device by entering only the first few strokes required to write each character, such that the user can perform Chinese input tasks in a fast, predictive way.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Chinese is written with characters known as hanzi (*). Each character represents a syllable of spoken Chinese and also has a meaning. The characters were originally pictures of people, animals, or other things, but after several thousands years evolution they have become increasingly stylized and no longer resemble the things they represent. Many of the characters are actually compounds of two or more characters. To read Modern Chinese, one should know 2000–3000 characters. To read classical Chinese, knowledge of 5000–6000 characters is required. The largest Chinese dictionaries include 56,000 characters, but most of them are archaic, obscure or in rare variant forms.
A Chinese character (zi, ) can be used as an independent single-character word. It can also be used in combination with other character or characters to constitute a word (ci, ) or phrase (cizu, ). In daily life, two-character words are most frequently used. For example, the character "" means horse and one can make many different words by appending another character to this character:    (horse)+(force, power)=(horse power);    (horse)+(house)=(stable, "horse house");    (horse)+(up, on)=(immediately, "on horse back");    (horse)+(man, worker, husband)=(groom,+"horse man");    (horse)+(road, street)=(road, street, "horse path");
A Chinese character is written using strokes following a specific sequence. There are many different ways to classify Chinese strokes. Traditionally, strokes are classified into eight basic forms as illustrated in FIG. 1. These eight basic strokes can be further grouped into five or six categories depending on different classification criteria.
A Chinese character may consist of between 1 and 64 stokes. The strokes for a character are always written in a specific sequence and each stroke is written in a determined direction. In dictionaries, characters are ordered partly by the number of stokes they contain. FIG. 2 shows various sample characters with different number of strokes and a sample four-stroke character with stroke ordinal number and stroke direction indicated.
In handwriting, it is essential to write a character in the correct sequence. This is not an issue for most of native Chinese speakers because the correct sequence is taught in the first grade and repeated in daily life. There are several basic rules for the sequence, for example: writing top before bottom, writing left before right, left vertical stroke before top horizontal stroke, bottom horizontal stroke last, center stroke before wings, horizontal strokes before intersecting vertical strokes, left-falling strokes before right-falling strokes, minor strokes (often) last, etc.
With the broad use of computers, many Chinese input systems and methods have been developed. The systems and methods are primarily classified into two categories: keyboard-coding and handwritten stroke recognition. In a keyboard-coding approach, such as in Three Corners, Goo, 5-stroke (Wubi), or Changjie, the user enters the strokes of a character by pressing on the corresponding key or keys and chooses a desired character from a set of candidate characters generated and presented on a display as matching alternatives. This approach can also be found in Motorola's CD928C cellular telephone.
In a handwritten stroke recognition approach, such as in Apple-SS, Tegic's T9, or Synaptics' QuickStroke, the user writes a stroke using a special device such as electronic pen or a stylus and the computer compares the user's stroke with a large number of collections in the database to recognize it. Some of those input systems, such as Zi Corporation's text input solution, have incorporated an intelligent indexing means to intuitively predict and display desired candidates. Some of those systems also include personalization and learning capabilities providing prediction of user-created terms and frequently used vocabulary.
The purpose of this invention is to provide an alternative Chinese input system and method which uses neither keyboard/telephone keys nor handwriting recognition devices, but uses a joystick or its functional equivalent as a primary input means.

System and method for chinese input using a joystick


A fingerprint image capturing module includes a light-emitting element, a light-splitting element, a first light-reflecting element, a second light-reflecting element, a lens assembly and a fingerprint image sensing element, characterized in that: a projection light beam generated by the light-emitting element is reflected by the light-splitting element and the first light-reflecting element in sequence to form an illumination light beam that passes through a light-transmitting element and is projected onto a fingerprint of a finger, the illumination light beam is reflected by the finger to form an image light beam that is reflected by the first light-reflecting element, the image light beam sequentially passes through the light-splitting element and the lens assembly and is projected onto the fingerprint image sensing element through the second light-reflecting element, and the fingerprint image sensing element receives the image light beam to obtain a fingerprint image of the fingerprint of the finger.

1. Field of the Invention
The instant disclosure relates to an image capturing device and an image capturing module thereof, and more particularly to a miniaturized fingerprint image capturing device and a miniaturized fingerprint image capturing module thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
In general, the fingerprint recognition apparatus reads information about people's fingerprints by scanning their fingerprints on the apparatus. For example, when the finger touches a fingerprint touch plate, several light sources emit light for the lens to capture the fingerprint image. Because the angles between the lens and fingers, and the angles between the light source and fingers have to be adjusted to specific angles for achieving total reflection so that the fingerprint recognition apparatus can capture a clear and distinct fingerprint. Therefore, the optical fingerprint recognition apparatus in the prior art are large in size and cannot be miniaturized.

Fingerprint image capturing device and fingerprint image capturing module thereof