An IC that performs integer and fractional divisions is disclosed. The IC comprises a plurality of shift registers that forms a shift register ring. Consecutive shift registers are coupled to each other through a multiplexer. The IC also includes a multiplexer controller that determines the shift registers to be activated within the shift register ring. The multiplexer controller determines the activation based upon a divisional factor. The IC also includes a pattern controller that generates the control signal to program the shift register.

A transceiver within an Integrated Circuit (IC) plays an important role to enable high speed digital data communications. Transceivers, typically, include transmitter circuitry to transmit signals and receiver circuitry to receive signals. The receiver circuitry may be built with multiple blocks of specialized circuitry, e.g., First-in-First-out (FIFO) registers, deserializers, and phase lock loop (PLL) and clock and data recovery (CDR) circuitry, etc.
A PLL may be used to generate a clock signal with different phases or frequencies based on an input reference clock. The PLL may include a voltage control oscillator (VCO) and a phase detector circuit. The PLL circuit may further include frequency divider circuits for dividing the frequency of an output signal generated by the VCO. Accordingly, the output signal may be analyzed by a phase detector after it has been divided to determine the phase differences. This improves the PLLs function to generate the clock. Two types of frequency dividers include integer frequency dividers and fractional frequency dividers.
A problem with conventional frequency dividers is that it has a fixed divisional factor. Thus, it limits the ability to carry out functions based on different divisional factors. Add-on logic may be used to provide flexibility to conventional frequency dividers such that they are not fixed to a specific division factor but the drawbacks of the add-on logic is that it may reduce the speed of carrying out frequency divisional. Furthermore, the add-on logic is known to increase power consumption and area utilization within the IC.
It is within this context that the embodiments described herein arise.

IC and a method for flexible integer and fractional divisions


A portable deployable container system has structural elements, including a base, a cover, and a set of panels, which can be manipulated into at least two container configurations. In one configuration, a container is formed by releasably securing the cover to the base to define a first volume. Some or all of the panels may be enclosed within such first volume, defining an undeployed configuration for the system. A second configuration involves removably securing some or all of the set of panels to the base and enclosing the panels with the cover, thereby deploying the system and forming a second, deployed configuration enclosing a volume larger than the first volume. Interconnections between the structural elements benefit from duckbill connections which add strength to the configurations by receiving flanges of first elements into corresponding channels of second elements formed by flared walls on such structural elements.

Various materiel, components, instruments, machinery, weaponry, manufactured articles, and other objects often require special packaging when being shipped or otherwise transported. Items to be transported may assume any number of shapes and sizes; they may be relatively small and thereby difficult to transport efficiently without accommodating packaging; or items may be delicate, valuable, or otherwise fragile and thus risk damage during the travails of shipping or transport—whether in containers, packaging or being shipped unprotected.
The risks to items being transported may be increased when such items are transported as freight, whether in ground vehicles, trains, planes, or ships. Transportation and the vehicles associated therewith generally involve a certain amount of jostling or other undesirable forces exerted on the containers for such items or on the items themselves.
It may be important in certain applications for the contents of such containers to be efficiently and readily accessible to skilled laborers, to hoists, and to other equipment associated with loading or unloading the item, relocating the container associated with the item, or removing the item from the packaging itself
As such, sturdy packaging and containers of the present art may suffer from various drawbacks and disadvantages and may be otherwise unsuitable for the transportation of certain objects and materiel. For example, certain containers and container systems may take up excessive space, even when empty, and thereby cause inefficiencies in return transportation, especially when space is at a premium, such as in aircraft or other confined cargo carrying vehicles and vessels. Weight, likewise, may be undesirably high when the container is empty, especially if the container has been manufactured to be particularly sturdy to protect fragile materiel therein. Loading or unloading associated with containers may be inefficient or otherwise disadvantageous.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to address some or all of the disadvantages and drawbacks of containers for items when being transported.


A method of forming a fluid drop emitting apparatus such as an ink jet printing device that includes forming a portion of a fluid drop generator structure on a first surface of a substrate, forming narrow slots in a second surface of the substrate, and etching the narrow slots to form anchor grooves.

The disclosed invention relates generally to fluid ejecting devices such as ink jet printing devices, and more particularly to a fluid ejecting device having adhesive retaining anchor grooves formed in a portion thereof that is adhesively attached to a cartridge body.
The art of inkjet printing is relatively well developed. Commercial products such as computer printers, graphics plotters, and facsimile machines have been implemented with ink jet technology for producing printed media. The contributions of Hewlett-Packard Company to ink jet technology are described, for example, in various articles in the Hewlett-Packard Journal, Vol. 36, No. 5 (May 1985); Vol. 39, No. 5 (October 1988); Vol. 43, No. 4 (August 1992); Vol. 43, No. 6 (December 1992); and Vol. 45, No. 1 (February 1994); all incorporated herein by reference.
Generally, an ink jet image is formed pursuant to precise placement on a print medium of ink drops emitted by an ink drop generating device known as an ink jet printhead. Typically, an ink jet printhead is attached to a print cartridge body that is, for example, supported on a movable print carriage that traverses over the surface of the print medium. The ink jet printhead is controlled to eject drops of ink at appropriate times pursuant to command of a microcomputer or other controller, wherein the timing of the application of the ink drops is intended to correspond to a pattern of pixels of the image being printed.
A typical Hewlett-Packard ink jet printhead includes an array of precisely formed nozzles in an orifice structure that is attached to or integral with an ink barrier structure that in turn is attached to a thin film substructure that implements ink firing heater resistors and apparatus for enabling the resistors. The ink barrier structure defines ink channels including ink chambers disposed over associated ink firing resistors, and the nozzles in the orifice structure are aligned with associated ink chambers. Ink drop generator regions are formed by the ink chambers and portions of the thin film substructure and the orifice structure that are adjacent the ink chambers.
A consideration with ink jet printheads is the reliability of the attachment of a printhead to a print cartridge body.

Fluid ejecting device with anchor grooves


A system for receiving MR data that includes an RF coil array for a magnetic resonance (MR) imaging apparatus. The RF coil array includes a plurality of non-concentric receiver coils arrayed along a first direction. A receiver coil at a first end of the RF coil array has a perimeter width greater than a perimeter width of a receiver coil at a second end of the RF coil array that is opposite from the first end along the first direction.

The present invention relates generally to medical imaging systems, and more particularly, to a phased array coil for a magnetic resonance (MR) imaging system.
When a substance such as human tissue is subjected to a uniform magnetic field (polarizing field B0), the individual magnetic moments of the spins in the tissue attempt to align with this polarizing field, but precess about it in random order at their characteristic Larmor frequency. If the substance, or tissue, is subjected to a magnetic field (excitation field B1) which is in the x-y plane and which is near the Larmor frequency, the net aligned moment, or "longitudinal magnetization", MZ, may be rotated, or "tipped", into the x-y plane to produce a net transverse magnetic moment Mt. A signal is emitted by the excited spins after the excitation signal B1 is terminated and this signal may be received and processed to form an image.
When utilizing these signals to produce images, magnetic field gradients (Gx, Gy, and Gz) are employed. Typically, the region to be imaged is scanned by a sequence of measurement cycles in which these gradients vary according to the particular localization method being used. The resulting set of received nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signals are digitized and processed to reconstruct the image using one of many well known reconstruction techniques.
Over time, MR systems have progressed from low-field, single-channel systems toward high-field multi-channel systems, allowing highly accelerated parallel imaging. Despite continuous advances in conceptual understanding and MR hardware design, high-field imaging still poses significant challenges in terms of patient-dependent RF-wave interference effects (i.e., receiving sensitivity inhomogeneities in the form of RF-shading). With increasing B0 and object size, the RF fields change from a quasi-static regime into a more wave-like regime and thereby become increasingly determined by the subject's properties. That is, a subject's size, shape and dielectric properties can affect RF fields, causing RF-wave interference effects. These RF-wave interference effects pose significant challenges for the design of high field coil arrays, which are aimed to consistently achieve uniform, high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) performance, when applied to a broad patient population under various conditions.
MR receiver-coil arrays often use equally sized coil elements, with the center of the array co-aligned with the subject's inferior-superior axis. These arrays having equally sized coil elements may suffer from shifting of coil sensitivity patterns relative to the subject, although such shifting may be minimal for B0 values of 1.5 T or lower. This shifting often stems from the local intensity shift artifact (LISA). For larger B0 values, such as 3 T or higher, MR images acquired from these receiver coil arrays having equally sized coil elements often show greater variation in SNR in the plane transverse to the B0 field, which causes shading in the MR image and degrades overall image quality. The direction of the shading depends on the direction of the static B0 field relative to the subject and the placement of the receiver coil array. Take, for example, a B0 field pointing from the subject's feet toward the subject's head and a conventional coil array placed underneath the supine subject. In such an example, the left side of an acquired coronal image, which corresponds to the subject's right side, is typically brighter than the right side of the coronal image. In addition, shading effects can also be seen along the anterior-posterior axis of the MR image. If, on the other hand, the B0 direction is reversed, pointing in the subject's head-to-feet direction, the right side of an acquired coronal image is typically brighter than the left side. In addition, as with the first example, shading effects will also be present along the anterior-posterior axis relative to the image. These shading effects may present themselves to some degree for magnetic field strengths of 1.5 T or lower; however, the effect becomes more severe as field strength increases.
It would therefore be desirable to have a system and apparatus that increases SNR uniformity, thereby reducing shading artifacts.

System and apparatus for reducing high field shading in MR imaging


A composite tubular assembly formed by a core or tube which is reinforced by a multitape product which is wrapped in alternate non-bonded helical wraps on the core or tube. Each tape is first formed by impregnating a fibrous strip with a resin and then such tapes are fed from spools to the core of the tube.

Not applicable.
1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is flexible pipe for conducting petroleum or other fluids subsea or on land and the method of forming same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional bonded flexible pipe is described in American Petroleum Institute document API Specification 17J. These types of pipe are typically used for both xe2x80x9csweetxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9csourxe2x80x9d service production, including export and injection services. Fluids transported include oil, gas, water and injection chemicals and gas. A typical construction is made up of a plurality of tubular layers, starting with an interlocking metal carcass and followed by a liner tube of plastic to retain the fluid within the pipe. Hoop strength armor reinforcement in the hoop direction is provided by helical metal wires which may be in several layers and wound in opposite helical directions. Additional layers may also be used, with a final jacket extrusion to complete the assembly, with a tough wear resistant material.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,261,462 and 5,435,867, both issued to Donald H. Wolfe, et al., are examples of tubular composite pipe in the prior art. Those patents relate to tubular structures having a plastic tube for the fluid conductor, which has an outer layer formed form alternating spirally wound strips of composite and elastomer. It is believed that the prior art composite pipes, such as disclosed in the above patents, have been limited to relatively short commercial lengths, by reason of the method by which such tubular structures have been made.
Typically, composite flexible pipes are made by filament winding, which involves turning the pipe while feeding and moving resin impregnated fibers from bobbins back and forth along the length of the pipe. Such technique limits the length of the reinforced flexible pipe which can be manufactured because of the number of bobbins required for the large number of fibers that are used in each pass. As a practical matter, it was not known how to make relatively long lengths of composite pipe sufficient for subsea use because of such problem.
In single bobbin machines, unloading and reloading time is a function of the time taken to thread each end of the fibers, the number of bobbins, and the time required to replace each bobbin. Also, due to the material payload requirements, a single bobbin-type machine will require each end to travel some distance from its bobbin over rollers, sheaves, eyelets, etc., through the machine to the closing point on the pipe, thus creating a time-consuming task. Because of the hundreds, and even thousands of bobbins, extremely large machines would be required to make a composite reinforced pipe in long lengths by such prior art techniques, consequently, the industry has not had available composite flexible pipes in long lengths suitable for subsea production and well operations. Multiple fiber tows are also not practical for long pipe lengths because of the fiber loading times required.
With the present invention, discrete tapes are first formed from the fibers and resin or the like, so that the tapes are wound on spools which reduces the number of bobbins required as compared to the number of bobbins required for single fiber filaments, whereby it is possible to manufacture long lengths of composite flexible pipe. The tapes are initially formed and then are fed from tape spools rather than the fiber bobbins in the prior art. Also, each tape is composed of a plurality of superimposed thin tape strips formed of predominantly, unidirectional fibers, which are impregnated with an epoxy or other suitable bonding resin which cures with heat, cold, ultraviolet (UV) or other curing methods. The multi-layer tapes are wrapped with a polyethylene or similar plastic or thin metallic strip or covered by thermoplastic extrusion to confine them as a unit together, with bonding adhesive between the tape strips being prevented from escaping from the wrap. Each tape thus made is fed from a tape spool to the tubular core as the tubular core is rotated, or as the spools are rotated relative to the core, which produces helical wraps of each of the tapes on the tubular core in the same or opposite helical directions for reinforcement of the core.

Method of forming a composite tubular assembly


In some implementations a neural network is trained to perform to directly predict thin boundaries of objects in images based on image characteristics. A neural network can be trained to predict thin boundaries of objects without requiring subsequent computations to reduce the thickness of the boundary prediction. Instead, the network is trained to make the predicted boundaries thin by effectively suppressing non-maximum values in normal directions along what might otherwise be a thick predicted boundary. To do so, the neural network can be trained to determine normal directions and suppress non-maximum values based on those determined normal directions.

Various computer-implemented techniques are used to predict where the boundaries between objects depicted in still or video images occur. Some techniques for predicting boundaries utilize machine learning models, e.g., techniques that use encoder-decoder networks trained using examples in which boundaries have been manually identified. These machine learning-based techniques generally predict boundaries that are thicker than desired for many use cases. Techniques for thinning the thick boundaries identified by these machine learning-based techniques generally require post processing of neural network outputs. The post processing involves computations that are expensive in terms of processing, resource requirements, and time.


A system may include a communication medium, a master node, and a slave node. The master node may send several sets of synchronization messages on the communication medium. Each set of synchronization messages includes several synchronization messages. The slave node may receive each set of synchronization messages and to select a synchronization message having an optimal delay from each set of synchronization messages. The slave node may calculate a correction for a slave clock included in the slave node in response to timing information associated with the synchronization message having the optimal delay in each set. The slave node may not calculate a correction for the slave clock in response to timing information associated with at least some of the synchronization messages in each set. The communication medium may convey at least one synchronization message within each of the sets with a minimum delay.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to instrumentation and computing systems and, more particularly, to synchronizing devices in instrumentation and/or computing systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Time-triggered control is often used to synchronize real-time computing systems. In a time-triggered system, all activities are carried out at certain predesignated points in time. To achieve this, nodes in time-triggered systems have a common notion of time, typically through the use of synchronized clocks in each node.
One type of system that may be controlled according to a time-triggered or event-triggered control system is an instrumentation system. An instrument is a device that collects data or information from an environment or unit under test (UUT) and displays this information to a user. An instrument may also analyze and process acquired data prior to displaying the data to the user. Some instruments may be used to provide test stimuli to a UUT. Examples of instruments include oscilloscopes, digital multimeters, pressure sensors, arbitrary waveform generators, digital waveform generators, etc. The information that may be collected by respective instruments includes information describing voltage, resistance, distance, velocity, pressure, frequency of oscillation, humidity, or temperature, among others.
Computer-based instrumentation systems typically include transducers for transducing a physical phenomenon into an electrical signal, signal conditioning logic to perform amplification, isolation, and/or filtering, and analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion logic for receiving analog signals and providing corresponding digital signals to the host computer system.
In a computer-based system, the instrumentation hardware or device is typically an expansion board plugged into one of the I/O slots of the computer system. In another common instrumentation system configuration, the instrumentation hardware is coupled to the computer system via other means such as through a VXI (VME eXtensions for Instrumentation) bus, a PXI (PCI eXtensions for Instrumentation) bus, a GPIB (General Purpose Interface Bus), a serial port or bus, or parallel port of the computer system. The instrumentation hardware may include a DAQ board, a computer-based instrument such as a multimeter, or another type of instrumentation device.
Modern instrumentation systems may also include networked measurement systems. In a networked measurement system, two or more instrumentation or measurement devices may be coupled over a network and may operate together to perform a instrumentation or measurement function.
Some computer-based and/or network-based instrumentation systems include several instrumentation and/or DAQ devices. Each device may generate and/or capture data. Other resources within the system may process captured data. In order to synchronize devices within an instrumentation system so that data may be accurately generated, captured, and/or processed, it may be desirable to use a time-triggered control system to synchronize the instrumentation system devices to a common time. While existing synchronization schemes currently exist, it is desirable to have improved synchronization systems. Such a synchronization scheme may also be desirable in other systems, such as control and monitoring systems.


It is an object of the present invention to provide a conductive ink which enables to form a circuit or the like having excellent adhesion to a substrate and to form a conductor having high film density and low electric resistance. In order to attain the object, a conductive ink comprising metal powder or metal oxide powder dispersed in a dispersion medium, which is characterized in that the dispersion medium contains a metal salt or a metal oxide as a film density improver for increasing film density of a conductor formed by using the conductive ink is adopted. A main solvent constituting the dispersion medium is selected from one or a combination of two or more selected from the group consisting of water, alcohols, glycols and saturated hydrocarbons having a boiling point of 300 deg. C. or less at normal pressure.

As methods for forming a circuit pattern on various substrates, a method which uses etching method with photolithography and a screen printing method have been conventionally applied as disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2. In these conventional methods, a method for subjecting a copper foil of a copper clad laminate to etching processing to form a circuit pattern, and a method for directly forming wiring and an electrode pattern on the surface of a substrate by screen printing using a conductive paste which is made to be paste by kneading metal powder with a solvent and a resin have been widely applied.
A method to directly form a circuit on the surface of the substrate by using a technique such as a screen printing method after processing metal powder into a paste (hereinafter, merely referred to as "conductive paste") or an ink (hereinafter, merely referred to as "conductive ink") have been widely spread. Because the method has fewer process steps than that of the etching method for subjecting the copper foil of the copper clad laminate to etching processing to form the circuit, and can reduce the production cost remarkably.
However, the formation of a finer circuit according to the demand of the miniaturization and weight reduction of electronic equipment or the like have been required for recent electric circuits. The largest problem in directly forming the circuit on the substrate using the conductive paste was in that it was difficult to form the fine circuit using the screen printing or the like. As disclosed in Patent Document 3, in recent years, the circuit formation by applying an inkjet technique that has been applied to a printer as a technique has been tried for forming the fine circuit using the conductive ink.
In recent years, a conductive circuit pattern in a flat display represented by a mobile information device and TV sets has been densified year after year. Examinations have been performed for wirings not only a region having a wiring width of 40 micron meter or less but also for a circuit pattern forming technique on a flexible resin substrate with low-temperature firing. The line width formed in conventionally used screen printing with no open circuit and excellent wiring shape is about 100 micron meter. However, it is difficult to substantially form the wiring finer than a line width of 40 micron meter or less. As a technique for forming a circuit pattern on various substrates with low-temperature firing, as shown in Patent Document 4, a silver ink containing silver nano particles has been examined.
On the other hand, a conductive ink prepared by mixing metal powder with a large quantity of organic solvents and resins has been proposed as an ultra fine circuit pattern formation material using a dispenser coating method and an inkjet printing method shown in Patent Document 3, adhesion strength to the various substrates depends on organic resins. So, minute cracks are easily generated by gas generation in the decomposition of organic resin contents in a reduction firing process using hydrogen and the nitrogen which are generally used for forming wiring and electrode having low resistance. Such a minute crack causes the low bulk density of the wiring or electrode, and as a result, it is difficult to form a circuit having low resistance.
On the other hand, Patent Document 5 discloses a conductive paste consist of an aqueous nickel slurry containing water, nickel fine powder on which an insoluble inorganic oxide is adhered to the particle surface of each fine nickel powder, a polyacrylic acid, an ester or a salt thereof, and organic group-substituted ammonium hydroxide, and a binder as a composition of a conductive ink. In the aqueous nickel slurry, nickel fine powder in a high concentration is dispersed stably without causing the reaggregation of the nickel fine powder. However, when the ultra fine circuit pattern is formed using the inkjet printing technique, the aqueous nickel slurry does not have a surface tension suitable for printing. Thereby, when the circuit is formed with continuous printing, the clogging of an ink is easily generated in a nozzle. Also, since a phenomenon in which the ink does not point at the target print position takes place, it was substantially difficult to form the circuit by continuous printing industrially. Since the ink does not contain a binder applying adhesion strength to the substrate, the adhesion strength to the substrate is substantially zero even if printing can be performed on the substrate by the arrangements of the printing process. Thereby, it was difficult to substantially form the circuit except for an application in which metal powder is sintered in high-temperature firing represented by the internal electrode production of a multilayered ceramic capacitor.    [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-246688    [Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-18190    [Patent Document 3] Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-324966    [Patent Document 4] Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-334618    [Patent Document 5] Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-317201


A first stage turbocharger configured to receive an ambient intake air stream. A compressor of the first stage turbocharger coupled to a first intercooler. The first intercooler coupled to a turboexpander stage. The turbine of the turboexpander discharging an expanded air stream to an intake manifold of an engine. The expanded airstream having a temperature of less than the ambient intake air stream, thereby reducing enabling operation of the engine under high load conditions while maintaining reduced emissions.

The disclosure relates generally to engines, and more specifically to a method of operating an engine to increase the range of speeds and loads under which the engine can operate.
Compression-ignition engines, such as diesel engines, operate by directly injecting a fuel (e.g., diesel fuel) into compressed air in one or more piston-cylinder assemblies, such that the heat of the compressed air ignites the fuel-air mixture. The direct fuel injection atomizes the fuel into droplets, which evaporate and mixes with the compressed air. Compression-ignition engines may also be configured to operate under a premixed combustion operation or partially premixed combustion operation. Typically, compression-ignition engines operate at a relatively higher compression ratio than spark ignition engines. The compression ratio directly affects the engine performance, efficiency, exhaust pollutants, and other engine characteristics. In addition, the fuel-air ratio affects engine performance, efficiency, exhaust pollutants, and other engine characteristics. Exhaust emissions generally include pollutants such as carbon oxides (e.g., carbon monoxide), nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx), and particulate matter (PM). In a compression-ignition engine, the amount and relative proportion of these pollutants varies according to the fuel-air mixture, compression ratio, injection timing, environmental conditions (e.g., atmospheric pressure, temperature, etc.), and so forth.
A dual-fuel engine is an alternative type of internal combustion engine designed to run on more than one fuel, for example, natural gas and diesel, each stored in separate vessels. Dual fuel engines typically operate at much lower combustion temperatures because of improved combustion control and reduce tendency to knock. Furthermore, dual fuel engines result in less energy loss from the engine through heat transfer than found in a typical engine. More particularly, such engines are capable of burning varying proportions of the resulting blend of fuels in the combustion chamber and the fuel injection or spark timing may be adjusted according to the blend of fuels in the combustion chamber to result in premixed combustion. In addition, customization of the fuel blend with respect to fuel chemistry provides for optimal combustion and results in less unburned fuel energy lost in the exhaust and fewer pollutant emissions during the combustion process. For dual fuel operation where one of the fuels is premixed with air, a reduction in nitrogen oxide (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) emissions is enabled by combusting a relatively larger fraction of the premixed fuel.
Premixed combustion strategies, such as those previously described, are of interest in internal combustion engines due to the significant reduction in NOx and PM emissions while often times enabling improvements in efficiency. However, one challenge that plagues these types of engines is operation at high loads. For premixed combustion, the fuel-air mixture needs to be supplied at approximately the same stoichiometry, regardless of the load. That means that for constant intake temperature, as the load increases, the peak cylinder pressures increase. However, when the engine is operated at high load, uncontrolled auto-ignition of the premixed fuel can become a problem and peak cylinder pressures become very high, limiting premixed combustion strategies to lower loads only.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved system and method for engines operating under a premixed combustion configuration that permits engine operation at increased speeds and under higher load conditions without causing auto-ignition and reaching peak firing pressure limits.

Turbocharged power unit and method of operating under high load conditions


A transmission power control system for use in a radio includes a transmission unit having a first variable attenuator for adjusting an intermediate frequency signal level, a converter for converting the output of the first variable attenuator to a higher frequency band signal, a second variable attenuator for adjusting the output level of the converter, and a high output amplifier for amplifying the output of the second variable attenuator to provide an amplified signal to a transmission antenna. The transmission unit also includes a first transmission power controller for controlling transmission power based on the degree of attenuation of the first variable attenuator, and a second transmission power controller for controlling the transmission power based on the degree of attenuation of the second variable attenuator. The first transmission power controller or the second transmission power controller is activated by a switch based on the range of a receiving level data signal.

The present invention relates to a transmission power control system in a radio apparatus for controlling transmission power on the transmission side of a radio communication system.
Generally speaking, in a radio communication system for transmitting signals in free space, there is a possibility that the radio communication state will deteriorate due to fading caused in a space or due to interference from other radio communication systems. Therefore, when the propagation state is good, the transmission power is lowered to decrease interference with other systems. However, when the propagation state is bad, the transmission power is raised. Therefore, without causing an interference, the fading problem is solved and the transmission power is controlled in accordance with a receiving level data signal.
FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of the transmission power control system in a general wireless apparatus. The system comprises a transmitter 1 (transmitting unit), a transmission antenna 2 for transmitting a transmission signal from transmitter 1, a receiving antenna 3 for receiving a signal from transmission antenna 2, a receiver 4 (receiving side), a level detecting process circuit 5 for detecting the receiving level of the receiver 4 and for transmitting the receiving level to the transmission side, and a transmission control circuit 6 for receiving receiving level information from the level detecting process circuit 5 and for controlling the transmission power of the transmitter 1.
Next, transmitter 1 and a conventional transmission power control system will be explained in detail by referring to the first prior art example shown in FIG. 2. Transmitter 1 comprises a variable attenuator (VATT) 1a for adjusting an intermediate wave (IF) signal level, a distortion compensator (PD) 1b for compensating the distortion of the output of the high output amplifier 1e, an up-converter 1c for converting the output of the distortion compensator 1b to a signal of higher frequency, a high power amplifier (HPA) 1e, as mentioned above, for amplifying the output of up-converter 1c and outputting it to transmission antenna 2, and local oscillator 1f for an up-converter.
Transmission control circuit 6 controls the transmission power by controlling variable attenuator 1a based on a detection signal having an output level obtained from high output amplifier 1e and based on receiving level information obtained from a level detecting process circuit 5. However, the transmission power control system shown in FIG. 2 may sometime produce distortion because the level relation between distortion compensator 1b and high power amplifier 1e changes when the gain change of the high output amplifier 1e is corrected by the intermediate frequency signal side.
Another prior art transmission power control apparatus is shown in FIG. 3. In the second prior art shown in FIG. 3 a second variable attenuator 1d (when attenuator 1a is called the first variable attenuator) is inserted between up-converter 1c and high output amplifier 1e. The second variable attenuator 1b is controlled by comparator 6a. Comparator 6a receives a detecting signal with output level information obtained from high output amplifier 1e and a previously set reference voltage, and then controls the second variable attenuator 1d based on the difference between the detecting signal and a reference voltage. The apparatus forms a transmission control unit by using transmission control circuit 6, which is the same as the apparatus shown in FIG. 2, and the above-described comparator 6a.
With this structure, the transmission power determined by the receiving level information is controlled by the first variable attenuator 1a and the gain variable portion of high output amplifier 1e is corrected by the second variable attenuator 1d.
However, the prior art transmission power control system shown in FIG. 3 comprises a controlling system with a double loop structure, which makes the structure and control complicated.

Transmission power control system in a radio apparatus


Described embodiments enable the presentation to a user of news articles or other content that is of likely interest to a user and that is temporally and/or geographically relevant to the user's location or region of interest. A news delivery system includes an ingest module that assigns topics, locations and dates to available content, a profile engine that determines profile topics and geographic locations that a particular user finds relevant, and a news delivery module that selects content for the user based on the operation of the ingest module and the profile engine and the desired timeframe. In one embodiment, the profile engine performs decay processing to remove stale topics and locations from a user's profile. In related aspects, the profile engine maintains multiple profiles for the user.

Field
Described embodiments concern the display of news articles to users of computing devices, and in particular the selection and display of news articles related to particular topics over time.
Description of the Related Art
Users of computers, tablets, smartphones and other network-enabled devices can access news content over a network. For example, many newspapers and periodicals have online editions available to readers either for free, or through various subscription policies.
While many news consumers access this content directly, e.g., by accessing a URL for a web site associated with the news source itself, other consumers take advantage of news aggregators, which present news content from disparate sources to a user in a single user interface. The news consumer can then select particular content of interest and be directed to that content via the news aggregator.
Many topics vanish from the headlines and reappear weeks, months or years later. Some news consumers may not be familiar with the historical context of a particular topic, potentially resulting in a negative user experience, for example the diminished ability to appreciate the significance of a current story.


The invention provides a plastic-sheathed roller, typically a tension roller of plastic for a belt drive. The roller comprises a wheel comprising an inner ring and an outer ring that are connected through radially oriented ribs arranged spaced apart on a periphery and through a central web. The wheel is mounted for rotating through a rolling bearing on a carrier element, while being supported through a running surface on a belt of the belt drive, and injection gates for injection molding are arranged distributed on a lateral surface while being spaced apart angularly non-uniformly from one another.

A desired belt tension can be set in a belt drive with the help of a tension roller. Hitherto known plastic tension rollers have flat portions on their running surface that are caused by conditions inherent to their manufacturing methods and their base materials. Instead of the desired, fully cylindrical peripheral surface, flattened portions are formed between the ribs of the tension roller wheel with the result that the belt is periodically tightened in the region of the ribs and relaxed in the intervening regions. This causes a vibration excitation with a concomitant disadvantageous noise development of the belt bearing against the running surface of the tension roller wheel.
In tension rollers known from the documents DE 32 26 419 A1 and DE 36 25 800 A1, a plastic wheel is mounted for rotation on a carrier element. In the configuration of the wheel of these documents, an inner ring is arranged exclusively on the peripheral surface of a rolling-bearing outer ring, and said inner ring is connected to an outer ring through radially oriented ribs that are uniformly distributed on the periphery. The tension roller is supported on the belt through the peripheral surface or running surface of the outer ring of the wheel.
Due to the uniformly spaced ribs and the material-related non-circularity, the peripheral surface of the plastic wheel has uniformly configured flattened portions. In certain speed ranges, such a plastic wheel leads to resonance in the belt drive that intensifies wear and running noise.
To avoid these problems, it has already been suggested in DE 44 99 780 C1 that the successive ribs should enclose different angles with each other relative to a center point of the wheel.
The compact spacing of the ribs results in a substantially cylindrical peripheral surface or running surface of the wheel. The short running surface sections between adjacent ribs therefore result in a negligible non-circularity of the peripheral surface. In addition, due to the different angles between the adjacent ribs, the remaining, extremely minor non-circularity is different in each case, so that the occurrence of resonance in the belt drive is prevented for thus obtaining a noise-optimized belt drive.
However, practice has shown that only a relatively limited damping of disturbing vibrations can be achieved with these measures.

Plastic-coated roller, especially tension roller for a belt drive


Embodiments describe techniques for reducing resource overhead in verbose trace operations by recursively pruning object data prior to string serialization. According to one embodiment, a trace operation is initiated. The trace operation generates a string and specifies one or more objects to serialize and append to the string. At least one object is a nested object. The trace operation recursively parses the nested object while generating the string. Data associated with one or more of the objects to prune from the serialization is determined based on a current prioritization level. The one or more objects is serialized into the string.

Effective software trace is a valuable technique used to identify defects in a computer system. An example of where software trace is particularly useful is with computer appliances. A computer appliance is a discrete hardware device that is designed to provide specific computing tasks. Computer appliances include integrated firmware configured to perform the specified tasks. For example, the DataPower and PureApplication line of appliances from the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) provide customers with security, control, integration, and access for a variety of workloads and services. Generally, hardware and software components of a computer appliance are configured before being delivered to a customer. Further, appliances generally do not allow the customer to reconfigure the hardware or software components. Because a computer appliance is typically a closed system, developers often configure the appliance to perform verbose tracing. Doing so allows the appliance to capture information that the developers need to identify defects or other performance issues.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Reducing resource overhead in verbose trace using recursive object pruning prior to string serialization

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


A wireless communication system capable of obtaining diversity gain without fail even when the distribution of the reception qualities is large. In a radio transmitter apparatus (100) of the wireless communication system, a repetition/constellation pattern ratio deciding part (113) adjusts the number of constellations to be used by a modulating part (102) and also adjusts the number of replicas of a repetition part (103) in such a manner that the product of the number of constellation patterns to be used by the modulating part (102), that is, the number of outbound symbols to be generated and the number of outbound symbols as replicated by the repetition part (103) becomes equal to the number of outbound symbols generated from a single transmission data notified from a control information extracting part (112).

Conventionally, in a multicarrier communication system, a technique has been used where a multicarrier communication apparatus on a receiving side combines a last received packet and re-received packet and performs decoding, thereby obtaining the diversity gain in the time domain and reducing a bit error rate of the packet.
Further, another technique has been developed where a multicarrier communication apparatus on a transmitting side modulates a packet using a different constellation pattern from that of the last transmitted packet when re-transmitting the packet, and exchanges higher-order bits and lower-order bits of the last transmitted packet to obtain the diversity gain in the time domain, thereby reducing a bit error rate of the packet (for example, see Patent Document 1).    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-309535

Radio transmitter apparatus, radio receiver apparatus, and wireless communication system


In a front and rear wheel steering system for steering rear wheels of a vehicle at a certain ratio to front wheels of the vehicle, the rear wheel steering angle is determined according to the steering input and/or the operating conditions of the vehicle, additionally, taking into account the kind of the particular tires that are being used. In particular, it is advantageous to distinguish between normal tires and studless tires as they demonstrate significantly different properties. The kind of tires can be identified either by computing the frictional coefficient of the road surface or by a manual switch. Thus, the handling of the vehicle can be kept unchanged without regard to the kind of the tires that are being used.

Various specialized tires such as high performance tires, snow tires and studless tires are now available on the market, and are selected according to the particular need and desire of the user. In particular, studless tires are receiving a wide acceptance because they allow the vehicle to travel over snowy or icy road surfaces without losing traction, and over normal road surfaces without damaging the ride comfort of the vehicle.
However, those specialized tires are known to significantly change the handling of the vehicle, in particular in high speed ranges. Therefore, the vehicle operator is required to adapt himself to the different handling of the vehicle owing to the changing of the tires, and this may cause a significant stress on him. FIGS. 9(a) to 9(d) show graphs for demonstrating the handling of a conventional front wheel steering vehicle. According to these graphs, it can be seen that studless tires give rise to significantly reduced gains and large phase delays of the lateral response of the vehicle, such as yaw rate and lateral acceleration, near 1 Hz as compared to normal tires. In this application "normal tires" refers to radial tires commonly used on vehicles.
A number of proposals have been made to improve the steering stability of a vehicle by using a front and rear wheel steering system. Two different ways of controlling the steering angle of the rear wheels are known. The rear wheels may be steered according to the principle of feed-forward control or according to a predetermined pattern which is given as a mathematical function of the steering wheel angle, the angular speed of the steering wheel, the vehicle speed and other data. The rear wheels may also be steered according to the principle of feedback control or according to the response data of the vehicle such as lateral acceleration and yaw rate. However, these control principles are designed for predetermined control parameters, and produce optimum results only under standard conditions. When the tires are changed to specialized tires such as studless tires, the vehicle demonstrates a different lateral response; the gain diminishes, and the phase delay increases in terms of yaw rate or lateral acceleration for a given steering input. Such deviations from standard conditions could prevent the rear from being steered in a satisfactory fashion.

Adaptive front and rear wheel steering system


A process for producing a vacuum ultraviolet ray-excited light-emitting phosphor comprising the steps of                mixing a phosphor with a aluminum-based coupling agent, and calcining the mixture.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for producing a vacuum ultraviolet ray-excited light-emitting phosphor. Particularly, the present invention relates to a process for producing a vacuum ultraviolet ray-excited light-emitting phosphor used in various displays of light emitting type such as a plasma display panel (hereinafter, sometimes abbreviated as "PDP") and the like, and the phosphorpaste. More particularly, the present invention relates to a process for producing a vacuum ultraviolet ray-excited light-emitting phosphor having excellent life property of brilliance, which is suitable as a material of a fluorescent surface of the display, and the phosphor paste.
2. Description of the Related Art
In cathode-ray tubes and color liquid crystal displays, increase in size of images is difficult, on the other hand, PDP is a flat panel display enabling it, and expected to be used for indication or as a large screen television in public spaces. PDP is a display element constituted by placing a large number of fine discharging spaces (hereinafter, sometimes abbreviated as "display cell") into matrix form, and wherein a discharge electrode is provided in each display cell and a phosphor is applied on the inner wall of each cell. In a space in each display cell, a rare gas such as He—Xe, Ne—Xe, Ar and the like is filled and by applying voltage on a discharge electrode, discharge occurs in the rare gas and vacuum ultraviolet ray is radiated. The phosphor is excited by this vacuum ultraviolet ray and emits visible ray. Images are displayed by allotting positions of display cells emitting light. By use of phosphors emitting three primary colors, blue, green and red, full color display can be carried out.
Recently, there are intense developments on phosphors for PDP and a rare gas lamp emitting light by utilizing vacuum ultraviolet ray radiated by rare gas discharge and the like. However, a practically used phosphor for a vacuum ultraviolet ray-excited light-emitting device has insufficient life property of light-emitting brilliance.
As a method for improving life property of light-emitting brilliance of a phosphor, namely as a method for suppressing reduction by time of the brilliance of a phosphor when excited by vacuum ultraviolet ray having constant strength, there is suggested a method for protecting the surface of a phosphor from plasma by coating the surface with a film of a metal oxide or with fine particles. For example, JP-A No. 10-195428 discloses a technology to coat the surface of a phosphor particle with a film of a metal oxide or with fine particles, by allowing a metal alkoxide to adhere to the surface of a phosphor particle and by calcining this. However, since a metal alkoxide manifests quick hydrolysis speed and it is difficult to form on the surface of a phosphor particle a metal oxide film having uniform thickness or metal oxide fine particles having uniform particle size, life property of light-emitting brilliance by vacuum ultraviolet ray excitation is not sufficient.

Process for producing light-emitting phosphor


An automatic gain control technique integrates samples of an incoming analog signal a controlled amount of time so that the magnitudes of the samples lie within the desired input window of an analog-to-digital converter or other signal processing device. The values of the samples are then determined from a combination of the output of the signal processing device and their integration time. This is utilized in a system for determining the temperature of a surface of an object, without contacting the surface, by measuring the level of its infra-red radiation emission. A particular application of the system is to measure the temperature of a semiconductor wafer within a processing chamber while forming integrated circuits on it. The measuring system is configured on a single printed circuit board with an extra height metal heat sink structure to which a cooling unit is mounted. A photodetector and a circuit chip which performs the signal integrations are mounted within the cooling unit and operated at a uniform temperature. The combination of the variable time integration and cooling techniques greatly increases the signal-to-noise ratio of the measuring system. This allows surface temperature measurements to be made down to about 250.degree. C. by measuring object emissions at slightly less than one micron in wavelength, conditions which provide signal levels which are normally too weak to measure accurately.

This invention relates generally to electronic automatic gain control techniques, and, more specifically, to the use of such techniques in the measurement of a level of infra-red radiation emitted by an object surface whose temperature is being measured.
There are many applications where the intensity of the emission from an object surface of infra-red radiation is detected by a photodetector and measured in order to determine the temperature or some other parameter of the object surface. One such application utilizes a small black-body cavity formed on an end of an optical fiber as a temperature sensor, emissions from the cavity being transmitted to a photodetector at the other end of the optical fiber. The temperature of the environment in which the black-body sensor is positioned is thus measured. An example of such a system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,750,139. Since the intensity level of the infra-red emissions varies considerable over a temperature range of interest, as much as an order of magnitude or more, an automatic gain control circuit is used in a front end of a measuring instrument in order to maintain a temperature proportional analog signal at a level within a desired input range of an analog-to-digital converter (DAC) or other signal processing device. The automatic gain control is typically formed of an analog circuit including at least one amplifier whose gain is set through a switched resistor network.
Pyrometers have also been used for a long period of time for measuring the temperature of a surface without having any contact with that surface. Infra-red emissions from the surface are remotely imaged onto a photodetector and processed in order to determine the surface temperature. More recently, optical fibers or other light pipes are used as part of the infra-red radiation transmission and imaging system.
One important current application of such non-contact temperature measurement is in the field of the formation of integrated circuits. Several steps of forming an integrated circuit on a semi-conductor wafer are performed within a reaction chamber. The temperature of the wafers is rapidly cycled through a predetermined temperature profile in a class of processes referred to as rapid thermal processing (RTP). The necessity to follow predetermined temperature profiles during the time of processing is a result of the very small dimensions of the various regions and components of the integrated circuits so formed. Accurate, real time measurement of the wafer's temperature is thus quite important to the success of RTP.
Almost all semi-conductor processing is performed on silicon wafers. Silicon has the characteristic of being transparent to radiation having a wavelength in excess of about one micron. Therefore, it is usually desired to measure the level of infra-red emissions from a silicon wafer at a wavelength of less than one micron. Heretofore, such a technique has been useable to measure temperatures only down to about 500.degree. C. This is because the infra-red emissions from the wafer surface, as with any such surface, drop to a level that is so low at low temperatures that current techniques cannot accurately measure the emissions. The signal-to-noise ratio becomes quite low, making accurate measurements very difficult.
Therefore, it is a principle object of the present invention to provide individual techniques and a combination of techniques which allow making such temperature measurements with improved accuracy.
It is a specific object of the present invention to provide individual techniques and a combination of techniques for allowing the measurement of semi-conductor wafer temperatures by monitoring emission wavelengths less than one micron of temperatures in wider ranges than now possible to be made with a high degree of accuracy.
It is a more general object of the present invention to provide an improved automatic gain control technique for use in the front end of instruments used to make such measurements.
It is an even more general object of the present invention to provide a technique for digitizing analog signals which can vary over a range that is much larger than a preferred input range to an analog-to-converter or other signal processing device.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide an improved physical arrangement of optical and electronic components for detecting the level of radiation emissions.

Electro optical board assembly for measuring the temperature of an object surface from infra red emissions thereof including an automatic gain control therefore


A method of entering and saving data using a spreadsheet program, includes providing a spreadsheet template that defines a spreadsheet form, and creating multiple instances of the spreadsheet form defined by the spreadsheet template. Each instance of the spreadsheet form has data-entry cells containing variable data. The method includes a step of associating each form instance with a different record of a database, wherein each database record has record fields corresponding respectively to data-entry cells of the form instances. When the user saves a particular form instance as a spreadsheet using the spreadsheet program, instructions associated with the form instance also save the variable data from the data-entry cells in corresponding record fields of an associated database record.

A spreadsheet program is a computer application program commonly used for budgets, forecasting, and other finance-related tasks. In a spreadsheet program, data and formulas are entered in ledger-like forms (spreadsheets or worksheets) for analysis, tracking, planning, or "what-if" evaluations of the impacts of real or proposed changes on an economic strategy. Spreadsheet programs use rows and columns of cells; each cell can hold text or numeric data or a formula that uses values in other cells to calculate a desired result. The columns are often organized by letter--Columns A, B, C, etc.--and the rows are organized by number--Rows 1, 2, 3, etc. Each cell is identified by a combination of column letter and row number. Cell "B3," for instance, is in column B and row 3. Numerical and textual data are entered into the cells of the spreadsheet according to the organization imposed by the author. The cells can be formatted to present the numbers and text in a desired appearance.
Conventional spreadsheets also permit an author to define mathematical functions within individual cells. The functions are set apart from normal data by use of a leading descriptor entry, such as an "=" sign. It is common for the mathematical functions entered in one cell to use data contained in other cells. The function itself is not displayed in the cell; rather, the cell displays the results of the function.
Depending on the program, a single spreadsheet can contain anywhere from thousands to millions of cells. Some spreadsheet programs can also link one spreadsheet to another that contains related information, and can update data in linked spreadsheets automatically. Spreadsheet programs may also include s programming or "macro" facilities, and some can be used for creating and sorting databases. For printed output, spreadsheet programs usually provide graphing capabilities and a variety of formatting options for both printed pages and text, numeric values, and captions and legends in graphs.
Microsoft Excel.RTM., distributed by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash., is an example of a popular spreadsheet program that is widely available.
A spreadsheet is a very convenient way to implement a form, which is used repeatedly to enter different sets of data. In practice, a user typically creates an instance of a spreadsheet form that mimics a paper form. The spreadsheet contains fixed data and formulas, as well as variable data that changes with each data set. To create additional data sets, the user opens an existing instance of the form, changes the variable data, and saves the modified spreadsheet under a new filename.
A common user mistake is to open an existing instance of a spreadsheet form, change the data, and then save the instance without renaming the spreadsheet--thus overwriting and losing the original data. Such a mistake can be avoided by using the template feature of Microsoft Excel.RTM.. A spreadsheet template in Excel.RTM. is like any other spreadsheet except that it is stored in a special location and protected from overwriting. Before saving a spreadsheet that is based a template, Excel.RTM. prompts the user for a new filename.
A template can be used to define a spreadsheet form. When a user wants to enter new data, he or she opens the template (using the "File:New" command in Excel.RTM., resulting in a new instance of the spreadsheet form. The user enters the appropriate data, and saves the spreadsheet form (using the "File:Save" command in Excel.RTM.). Before actually saving the spreadsheet, the spreadsheet program asks the user for a filename. The spreadsheet is then saved under this filename.
Even with the convenience of the template feature, the use of spreadsheet forms as described above results in many unique instances of the form, each with a different set of data. There is no easy way to combine and analyze the data from the different form instances, and it is often difficult to locate any particular form instance containing a desired set of data.


A method and a composition for treatment of pulmonary bacterial infections caused by gram-negative bacteria suitable for treatment of infection caused by Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Klebsiella oxytoca, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Haemophilus influenzae, Proteus mirabilis, Enterobacter species, Serratia marcescens as well as those caused by Burkholderia cepacia, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Alcaligenes xylosoxidans, and multidrug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa, using a concentrated formulation of aztreonam, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, delivered as an aerosol or dry powder formulation.

Field of the Invention
Background and Related Disclosures
A wide variety of gram-negative bacteria cause severe pulmonary infections. Many of these bacteria are or become resistant to commonly used or specialty antibiotics and require treatment with new types of antibiotics. The pulmonary infections caused by gram-negative bacteria are particularly dangerous to patients who have decreased immunoprotective responses, such as for example cystic fibrosis and HIV patients, patients with bronchiectasis or those on mechanical ventilation.
Therefore, the bacterial respiratory infections caused by organisms resistant to antibiotics continues to be a major problem, particularly in immunocompromised or hospitalized patients, as well as in patients assisted by mechanical ventilation, as described in Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases, Eds. Mandel, G. L., Bennett, J. E., and Dolin, R., Churchill Livingstone Inc., New York, N.Y., (1995).
Currently accepted therapy for severe bacterial respiratory tract infections, particularly for treatment of pneumonia in patients with underlying illnesses, includes treatment with various intravenous antibacterial agents, often used in two or three way combination. Most of these agents are not suitable, available or FDA approved for either oral or aerosol dosing. In some cases the efficacious systemic intravenous or oral dose, if oral delivery is possible, requires doses which are borderline or outright toxic thus often preventing a use of perfectly good antibiotic for treatment of the pulmonary infections.
Thus it would be desirable to have available other modes of delivery routes of these antibiotics enabling a targeted delivery of smaller amounts of the antibiotic to endobronchial space of airways for treatment of these bacterial infections rather than administering the antibiotic systemically in large amounts.
Additionally, chronically ill patients are often affected with infections caused by bacteria which are largely resistant to commonly used antibiotics or, upon extended use of certain antibiotic, often develop strong resistance to such antibiotic. For example, chronic pulmonary colonization with Pseudomonas aeruginosa in patients with cystic fibrosis is a principal cause of their high mortality. When established, the chronic pulmonary infection is very difficult, if not impossible, to eradicate. More than 60% of cystic fibrosis patients are colonized with Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacterium strains which are largely resistant to regular and specialty antibiotics, such as piperacillin, ticarcillin, meropenem, netilmicin and only little sensitive to azlocillin, ciprofloxacin, timentin and ceftazidime. Many strains have also been shown to develop resistance to tobramycin and to colistin, if used continuously.
Often, after prolonged antibiotic therapy, a superinfection with organisms intrinsically resistant to oral, intravenous or inhaled antibiotics develops in patients with cystic fibrosis and other chronic pulmonary infections. The four most common drug resistant organisms are Burkholderia cepacia, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Alcaligenes xylosoxidans, and multidrug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Cystic fibrosis patients infected with Burkholderia cepacia have an increased rate of mortality compared to those patients with Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections. In some cystic fibrosis patients, Burkholderia cepacia can cause a rapid fatality, as described, for example in Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., 160: 5, 1572-7 (1999).
The high level of antibiotic resistance demonstrated by most strains of Burkholderia cepacia severely limits therapeutic options for its treatment (Clinics Chest Med., 19:473-86 (September 1998)). Furthermore, unlike Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Burkholderia cepacia can cause epidemic spread among cystic fibrosis patients and therefore any patient infected with Burkholderia cepacia is usually isolated from other patients. This causes both additional expenses connected with caring for these patients and may also be psychologically devastating to the patient. Furthermore, most lung transplant centers will not perform a lung transplant on patients infected with Burkholderia cepacia (Clinics Chest Med., 19:473-86 (September 1998)). Therefore, the Burkholderia cepacia infection is often viewed as a death sentence by patients with cystic fibrosis.
Burkholderia cepacia is usually resistant to the parenteral delivery of various antibiotics, including aztreonam, with showing only 5% of isolates to be sensitive to such treatment (Antimicrob. Agents Chemother., 34: 3, 487-8 (March 1990)). Thus it would be advantageous to have available treatment for Burkholderia cepacia infections.
Other gram-negative bacteria intrinsically resistant to tobramycin can also complicate the care of a cystic fibrosis patient. These bacteria include Stenotrophomonas maltophilia and Alcaligenes xylosoxidans. Antibiotic therapy of these infections is usually also ineffective or leads to rapid emergence of drug resistance. Therefore, the successful treatment of all these infections requires that samples of these isolates are sent to a laboratory for complex antibiotic synergy determination of proper therapy for each individual patient (Ped. Pulmon., S17: 118-119 (1998)). It would, therefore, be also advantageous to provide a therapy for these rare but hard to treat bacterial infections.
Similarly, the development of P. aeruginosa infection with strains which are resistant to, that is which have a high minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) to a majority of antibiotics including tobramycin, predicts declining lung function and also may disqualify the patient from consideration for lung transplant (Clinics Chest Med., 19:535-554 (September 1998)).
Existing antibiotic treatments for Burkholderia cepacia, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Alcaligenes xylosoxidans, and multidrug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa pulmonary infections are either ineffective, or lead to rapid emergence of drug resistance.
From the brief description above, it is clear that there is a continuous need for an effective therapy for treatment of acute and chronic pulmonary bacterial infections caused by gram-negative bacteria and particularly those caused by Burkholderia cepacia, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Alcaligenes xylosoxidans, and multidrug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa lung infections. Such therapy would preferably comprise an inhalation of the aerosolized drug formulation delivering a therapeutically effective amount of the drug directly to the endobronchial space of airways to avoid systemic treatment. The problems connected with infections caused with these antibiotic resistant bacteria are very serious and it would be advantageous to have available more efficient modes of treatments with different types of antibiotics.
Aztreonam is a synthetic antibiotic which has a good biological activity against gram-negative bacteria and it has previously been used for intravenous treatment of bacterial infections. However, its use is severely limited due to its low efficacy requiring administration of very large intravenous doses between 1000 and 4000 mg a day in order to treat the infections caused by gram-negative bacteria. Although it would be an antibiotic of choice for complementary treatment of patients treated with tobramycin or other antibiotics, particularly in cystic fibrosis patients, such treatment is not practical because of the high doses required.
Moreover, aztreonam is currently only available as an arginine salt. Arginine has been shown to be toxic to the lung and causes lung tissue irritation, inflammation, bronchospasm and cough and therefore is not suitable for a delivery by aerosolization. Consequently, aztreonam arginine salt is not approved for inhalation use in the United States or elsewhere.
However, as the antibiotic for treatment of pulmonary bacterial infections caused by gram negative bacteria, aztreonam could become a drug of choice for such treatment, if it could be delivered by inhalation in therapeutically effective concentrations directly to the lungs and if the problems connected with the aztreonam arginine can be overcome.
However, the efficacious administration of aztreonam by inhalation is further complicated by a lack of safe, physiologically acceptable and stable formulations for use by inhalation. Such formulation must meet several criteria, such as certain size range of inhalable particles, certain pH range and certain degree of salinity. When the aerosol contains a large number of particles with a mass medium average diameter (MMAD) larger than 5μ, these are deposited in the upper airways decreasing the amount of antibiotic delivered to the site of infection in the endobronchial space of airways. Similarly, both highly acidic and alkaline or hypotonic or hypertonic conditions lead to respiratory complications, such as bronchospasm and cough, preventing inhalation of the drug.
Thus it would be advantageous and desirable to provide an inhalable formulation for delivery of aztreonam by aerosol or a dry powder formulation for treatment of pulmonary gram-negative bacterial infections and particularly those caused by drug resistant strains Burkholderia cepacia, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Alcaligenes xylosoxidans, and multidrug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa, wherein the formulation comprises a smallest possible therapeutically effective amount of drug in a form which does not cause pulmonary inflammation, wherein the pH is adjusted to physiologically acceptable levels, wherein the aqueous solution is isotonic and wherein said formulation has adequate shelf life suitable for commercial distribution, storage and use.
It is, therefore, a primary object of this invention to provide a method for treatment of gram-negative infections, especially those caused by Burkholderia cepacia, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Alcaligenes xylosoxidans, and multidrug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa by providing a safe, physiologically acceptable and efficacious formulation for inhalation using a pure concentrated aztreonam free base, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, which formulation contains sufficient but not excessive concentration of the active drug, which formulation can be efficiently aerosolized by nebulization using jet, ultrasonic or atomization nebulizers, into an aerosol having particle sizes within a range from 1 to 5μ, or administered as a dry powder, both well tolerated by cystic fibrosis patients and by patients with impaired pulmonary function due to infections, inflammation or another underlying disease.
All patents, patent applications and publications cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference.

Inhalable aztreonam for treatment and prevention of pulmonary bacterial infections


An improved reprogrammable memory device permits definition of a page within an array of memory cells which is variable in size, erasure of only that data contained within the defined variable page while uneffecting the remaining data in the array of memory cells and reprogramming the defined variable page. The improved reprogrammable memory device with variable page size comprises an array of memory cells where the memory cells are arranged in rows and columns; address decode logic coupled to the array of memory cells for accessing the array of memory cells; amplifier logic coupled to the array of memory cells for amplifying the voltage levels between a plurality of the memory cells and data bus when accessing the array of memory cells; column select logic coupled to the array of memory cells for determining which word from a selected row of the array of the memory cells is accessed and for connecting the plurality of memory cells to the amplifier logic; control signals coupled to the amplifier logic for accessing the array of memory cells; and, block enable signals coupled to the address decode logic for varying page size within the array of memory cells to be erased.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to reprogrammable memory devices and specifically to microcontrollers (hereinafter MCU) with internal electrically erasable programmable read only memory devices. This invention allows the improved reprogrammable memory device to define a page within an array of memory cells which is variable in size, erase only that data contained within the defined variable page while uneffecting the remaining data in the array of memory cells and then write new data to the defined variable page.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The current state of the art describes two types of reprogrammable memory devices for the purpose of erasing and writing to a program memory device. The first and traditional type of reprogrammable memory device may erase and write to the least addressable program memory location within an array of memory cells. The least addressable program memory location is typically defined as a word. Thus, the page size for this type of device is a word. To erase and program X number of pages, the reprogrammable memory device must execute X number of erase/write commands. The result of this technology is an independent erase and write cycle for each page of memory and is therefore a time consuming process.
The second type of reprogrammable memory device described by prior art defines a page as the entire physical contents of the program memory accessible by the MCU. Thus, the reprogrammable memory device sends a single erase command that erases the entire contents of the program memory. Each program memory word is subsequently reprogrammed by an independent write command. Devices that fall in this second category of reprogrammable memory devices are typically referred to as flash memory devices. While flash memory devices offer the benefit of reducing the time consumed in reprogramming the entire physical program memory over the traditional reprogrammable memory device, they suffer the detriment of an all or nothing approach. That is, flash memory devices are not capable of erasing and writing to selective addresses of program memory, but instead erase the entire physical program memory and require the rewriting of the entire program memory.
A recent development has employed flash memory in blocks at the chip level. That is, rather than having one large flash memory, there may be several smaller blocks of flash memory which allow the MCU to selectively erase and rewrite on a block by block basis. However, even with block flash memory, the MCU is not capable of subdividing individual blocks for erasure and rewriting nor is the MCU capable of word selective erasure as with the traditional reprogrammable memory device.
Finally, under prior art, semiconductor manufacturers have included both traditional reprogrammable memory and flash memory on the same device. However, this implementation requires the physical presence of both traditional reprogrammable memory device and flash memory. The result of this application are two separate program memories each controlled according to their respective technology. Thus, there exists a need for an improved reprogrammable memory device with variable page size because under prior art reprogrammable memory devices permit only the selective erase and write of the least addressable program memory location or bulk erase and write of the entire program memory.

Reprogrammable memory device with variable page size


A shopping cart includes a frame, a number of front wheel assemblies and a number of rear wheel assemblies that are coupled to and support the frame, and a main container coupled to the frame. The main container includes a base, a front panel, a rear panel, and a pair of opposing side panels each having a tope edge. The front panel and the pair of opposing side panels are coupled together and extend upward from the base. The rear panel is pivotally coupled to the frame. A portion of the main container is structured to engage each of the corresponding top edges of the opposing side panels of another similarly constructed cart as the other cart is nested into the shopping cart. The engagement causes the number of rear wheel assemblies of the shopping cart to be moved from a first position to a second position generally above the first position.

Shopping carts are known in the art and generally include a frame, a main container, wheel assemblies and a handle for pushing the cart. Traditionally, such carts were made primarily of metal for durability and ease of fabrication. However, several factors, including increases in production costs due to rising material and labor costs, as well as maintenance costs related to repairing seat mechanisms and wheel assemblies have made such traditional designs less desirable.
Known shopping carts are commonly designed to be nestable into another, similarly constructed cart and to enable a following, similarly constructed cart to be nested into the shopping cart. Commonly, in retail stores and in parking areas near retail stores, long lines of nested shopping carts may be formed which must be moved by store personnel.
Typically, the rear casters of a shopping cart, unlike the front casters, does not swivel. Such arrangement is generally desirable as it allows for ease of control and maneuvering of a single shopping cart with little effort. However, such arrangement commonly results in high stresses applied to the rear casters and wheels when a line of nested shopping carts is moved. Such stresses tend to cause portions of the rear castors to bend and break and tends to cause the bearings and treads of said castors to wear excessively, particularly as attempts are made to turn a line of nested shopping carts.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,923,456 B2 and 7,216,875, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein, describe shopping carts being nestable similarly and having a rear caster-lifting capabilities. However such designs are directed toward use on traditional metal carts which leave much room for improvement.
Accordingly, a need exists in the art for shopping carts that are less expensive to manufacture and to maintain.


An optical module 1 includes an optical component 30, a body 10 incorporating an optical element 14, and a metallic sleeve 40 having a tubular shape. The optical component 30 includes a nonmetallic ferrule 32 having an optical fiber insertion hole 36, and a metallic holder 34 which covers part of the ferrule 32. In this optical module 1, part of the holder 34 is inserted into the sleeve 40, and is positioned and welded to the sleeve 40. The sleeve 40 is positioned to a tubular portion 29 of the body 10 and welded thereto.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical module.
2. Related Background of the Invention
Reference 1 describes an optical module. In this optical module, an optical fiber is mounted on a silicon bench via a nonmetallic ferrule by the passive alignment and is thereby aligned to a laser element (Japanese Laid Open No. H11-258467, for example).
Reference 2 describes an optical module using a resin-molded connector (Japanese Laid Open No. H11-248974, for example).


A multiple pole arc-fault circuit breaker includes a first pole assembly, a second pole assembly, a microprocessor, and a single test button. At least one of the first pole assembly and the second pole assembly has a trip mechanism. The microprocessor is electrically coupled to the first pole assembly and to the second pole assembly, and, in response to receiving a single test signal, is operative to perform electrical tests for both the first pole assembly and the second pole assembly. In response to successful completion of the electrical tests, the microprocessor is further operative to actuate the trip mechanism. The single test button is mounted to the housing and includes a single test position which causes the sending of the single test signal for initiating the electrical tests.

Multiple pole (also referred to as "multi-pole") arc-fault circuit breakers are typically used in residential applications. Some current circuit breakers require periodic user-initiated testing, which is performed via a test button (also know as a push-to-test button or "PTT").
Current multi-pole circuit breakers require either a plurality of test buttons (e.g., one test button for each pole) or a single test button having multiple button positions (e.g., a single button having a first position for a first pole and a second position for a second pole). One problem associated with these types of circuit breakers is that they are unnecessarily complex, requiring additional parts and board space. Each test button requires additional hardware components for mounting the test button to the breaker housing and for coupling the test button to the breaker microcontroller. Thus, manufacturing costs and design considerations are unnecessarily increased. Similarly, a single test button having multiple positions requires additional hardware components and design considerations.
Some design considerations include selecting an appropriate size and position for components such as the circuit breaker microcontroller. One design consideration of the microcontroller is related to the required number of I/O inputs, which are selected based on the number of test buttons or test button positions. For example, the higher the number of test buttons or test button positions, the higher the pin count and cost of the microcontroller. As such, using a plurality of test buttons or a plurality of test button positions increases the cost and size of microcontroller. Furthermore, a larger-sized microcontroller generates additional heat and, accordingly, provides additional design problems related to removal of excess heat from the circuit breaker.
What is needed, therefore, is a multi-pole circuit breaker having a single position—single test button that addresses the above-stated and other problems.

Multiple pole arc-fault circuit breaker using single test button


In a crystal pulling method in which a growing single crystal is initially pulled by a seed chuck and subsequently pulled by lifting jig in the middle of the pulling operation, the speed Va of the seed chuck relative to the lifting jig is decreased, while the rising speed Vb of the lifting jig increases, from a first point where switching of the pulling mechanism from the seed chuck to the lifting jig is started. The total speed Vt=Vb+Va is constantly maintained at a desired pulling speed V up to a third point where the shifting of the load from the seed chuck to the lifting jig is started. Subsequently, the total speed Vt is made less than the desired pulling speed V from the third point where the shifting of the load from the seed shuck to the lifting jig is started. This enables accurate growth of a crystal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a crystal pulling method employing, for example, the Czochralski method (the CZ method), and particularly to an improvement on a technique for mechanically holding a heavy single crystal in order to pull the crystal safely and reliably, which improvement reduces variations in the diameter of a growing crystal at a point of time when the crystal is held, thereby enabling accurate growth of the crystal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Regarding a method of pulling a single crystal from a melt of a semiconductor material, such as silicon, contained in a crucible, the present inventors have proposed an improved pulling method as described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application No. 8-212055.
As shown in FIG. 4, in the pulling method, a seed crystal 53 held by a seed chuck 52 at the lower end of a wire 51 is brought into contact with material melt contained in an unillustrated crucible, and the seed crystal 53 is pulled by a seed chuck lifting mechanism 54 in order to grow a single crystal C below the seed crystal 53. In order to enable safe growth of the single crystal C, the pulling method employs an apparatus having the following structure: a retaining case 57 is mounted on a slider 56 which is vertically moved by an unillustrated slider moving mechanism; the seed chuck lifting mechanism 54 for winding the wire 51 is provided within the retaining case 57; and a lifting jig 60 composed of paired members is provided below the retaining case 57. The lower ends of the paired members of the lifting jig 60 are opened and closed through operation of cylinder units 58. At the beginning of pulling, the single crystal C is pulled by the seed chuck 52, and pulling by the seed chuck 52 is switched to pulling by the lifting jig 60 when the single crystal C grows and becomes heavy.
That is, initially, with the slider 56 fixed at a certain position, the seed crystal 53 held by the seed chuck 52 is brought into contact with the material melt, and subsequently the seed chuck 52 is pulled by the seed chuck lifting mechanism 54. As a result, as shown in FIG. 4A, a neck portion 59, a corrugated portion Ck, and the single crystal C are formed below the seed crystal 53.
When the corrugated portion Ck rises to a predetermined position shown in FIG. 4B, the lifting jig 60 is operated as shown in FIG. 4C such that the lower end portions of the paired members of the lifting jig 60 approach the smaller-diameter portion of the corrugated portion Ck with a clearance remaining therebetween. Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 4D, the slider 56 is raised, while the seed chuck lifting mechanism 54 is operated in reverse in order to lower the single crystal C relative to the slider 56, such that the larger-diameter portion of the corrugated portion Ck comes into contact with and sits on the lifting jig 60.
At this time, as shown in FIG. 5, control is performed such that the total speed Vt=Vb+Va (where Vb represents the rising speed of the slider 56 and Va represents the speed of the seed chuck 52 relative to the slider 56) becomes constant. It is to be noted that when the seed chuck 52 moves downward relative to the slider 56, the value Va becomes negative. During the second half of the control, the corrugated portion Ck contacts the lifting jig 60 at, for example, point x, and a predetermined portion of the entire load of the crystal is shifted to the lifting jig 60 before point y, and the seed chuck 52 is stopped at the point y. With this operation, pulling by the seed chuck lifting mechanism 54 is switched to pulling by the lifting jig 60 (4E).
In the above-described technique, since the total speed Vt=Vb+Va is controlled so as to be constant when the pulling means is switched from the seed chuck to the lifting jig, the actual pulling speed (growth rate) of a crystal is constantly maintained at a desired pulling speed V. This control is effective for growing a crystal while guaranteeing high accuracy of, for example, the diameter of the crystal. However, through further experimental studies, the inventors of the present invention have found that accuracy of a crystal, particularly the accuracy of the diameter of the crystal, can be improved further if the control conditions are changed at a point (point x) in time when the shifting of the load to the lifting jig is started.


A motor assembly (20) includes a motor (22) and an end cap (26). The end cap (26) includes an electrically insulating body (28) having a peripheral edge (30) that interfaces with a conductive housing (24) of the motor (22). Motor terminals (94, 102) and an electromagnetic suppression (EMD) chip device (54) are located within the body (28). The chip device (54) has an input terminal (74) in electrical communication with the motor terminal (94), an input terminal (76) in electrical communication with the motor terminal (102), and an earth terminal (78). A conductive ground strap (56) is in electrical communication with the earth terminal (78). The ground strap (56) encapsulates and retains the chip device (54) in the end cap (26) and has an end (60) fitted onto the peripheral edge (30) of the end cap (26) between the end cap (26) and the conductive housing (24) of the motor (22).

Electric motors are a significant source of radiated and conducted electromagnetic emissions, referred to herein as electromagnetic disturbance (EMD), which can degrade the performance of a device, equipment, or system. EMD can be radiated and conducted through electrical lines from sources such as the motor, electronic devices, and the like. Controlling conducted and radiated emissions produced by different electrical and electronic devices, including electric motors, is critical for protecting electronic equipment in the surrounding environment.
Many electric motor assemblies include EMD suppression components such as capacitors and inductors mounted within the motor itself. However, as packaging space becomes more limited, it has become increasingly difficult to package these components within the motor housing. Moreover, as electromagnetic interference (EMI) requirements are becoming more strict, improved EMD suppression is required.
EMD suppression chip devices have been developed to mitigate some of the problems of the prior art. An EMD suppression chip device is a generally rectangular prism element that can be located inside the motor housing and is capable of suppressing noise generated by the electric motors. An EMD suppression chip device has two input terminals, respectively connectable to the two motor terminals, and at least one earth terminal electrically connectable to a conductive ground path.
A problem associated with the incorporation of an EMD suppression chip device into a motor assembly is that of securing the EMD suppression chip device, especially in a high vibration environment. For example, when the motor assembly is in a vehicle, the motion and vibration of the vehicle can cause the EMD suppression chip device to move or vibrate out of contact with one or both motor terminals and/or the ground path. Of course, should the EMD suppression chip device become disconnected from the motor terminals and/or the ground path, its ability to suppress noise generated by the motor is severely compromised. Thus, what is needed is a motor assembly incorporating a securely positioned EMD suppression chip device for electromagnetic disturbance suppression.

Motor assembly incorporating a securely positioned electromagnetic disturbance suppression device