Formants, corresponding to input speech units based either on a known text or the results of a speech recognition procedure, are generated from a formant synthesizer. A frequency response is generated based on the synthesized formants. A second frequency response is generated based on a speech signal which is received and which corresponds to utterances of speech units. The synthesized formants are modified based on a comparison of the frequency response corresponding to the synthesized formants and specific proportional characteristics of a frequency response of the input speech signal. In one illustrative embodiment, the comparison is then recalculated and further modifications are made accordingly to improve accuracy. In one illustrative embodiment, time aligning and frequency warping are utilized as modification functions.

The present invention deals with formant tracking. More specifically, the present invention deals with formant tracking using a formant synthesizer.
The human vocal tract has a number of resonances. The speaker can change the frequency of these resonances to produce different sounds. For example, the speaker can change the configuration of the vocal tract by movement of the tongue or lips and the inclusion or exclusion of the nasal tract. These resonances are excited by the movement of the vocal cords or noise generated at a constriction of the vocal tract. Each sound has an associated set of resonances, and when sounds are strung together in a time wise fashion, they form words. These resonances are referred to as formants.
In speech analysis, the first three resonances (or formants) are generally of primary interest. Higher frequency formants vary minimally, and are usually based on the length of the particular speaker""s vocal tract. Thus, the higher frequency formants do not carry a great deal of information with respect to the words being spoken.
The formants associated with each sound can vary a great deal from speaker-to-speaker. Further, formants can vary from one utterance to another, even for the same speaker. Thus, tracking formants is quite difficult.
Formant trackers are conventionally used to identify and track formants in human speech. This information is useful in speech analysis. Standard formant trackers perform linear prediction on the speech signal in order to identify the resonances or formants associated with the speech signal. In other words, at some point in time, n, the speech signal is represented as follows:       s              (      n      )        =                              a          1                *                  s                                (                          n              -              1                        )                              +                        a          2                *                  s                                (                          n              -              2                        )                              +      …                    xe2x80x83            +              x                          (          n          )                      =                            ∑                      i            =            1                    p                                              a            i                                          s                                      (                              n                -                i                            )                                          +              x                          (          n          )
where s(n) is the speech signal, x(n) is the excitation, and the coefficients ai are the impulse response of the vocal tract.
The roots of the equation represent poles, and a single pole pair has a specific frequency response. Thus, each formant track (each set of three formants) corresponds to three pole pairs.
A conventional formant tracker divides the speech signal into consecutive frames having a predetermined duration (such as 10 millisecond). By taking the roots of the filter defined by Equation 1, the resonances for each frame can be found. However, for each 10 millisecond frame, the linear prediction algorithm may identify a relatively large number (such as seven) of resonances. Although this number can be controlled in performing the linear prediction calculations, more than three resonances must be calculated, in order to model any noise or non-linearities present in the signal. The formant tracker then attempts to find smooth paths for three primary formants at each frame, given the seven resonances identified by the linear prediction algorithm.
Conventional formant trackers have problems. The primary problem associated with conventional formant trackers is that they fail to select the proper resonances identified by linear prediction, and thus fail to find the proper formants. Also, conventional formant trackers can provide discontinuous formant tracks based on inaccurate identification of resonances.
Formant synthesizers are a type of speech synthesizer used to produce speech from a phonetic description of an utterance. Formant synthesizers are generally trained by phoneticians, who in essence codify their knowledge of speech production into the mathematical codes and data tables that the formant synthesizer uses to generate formants from a phonetic representation of an utterance.
During synthesis, the input text is typically broken into the phonemic units, and those units are provided to the formant synthesizer. The formant synthesizer then generates formants or formant tracks which are reasonable and expected based on the speech units input into the synthesizer. Normally, the formant tracks are then used to create synthetic speech.
Formants corresponding to input speech units are generated from a formant synthesizer. A frequency response is generated based on the synthesized formants. A second frequency response is generated based on a speech signal which is received and which corresponds to utterances of the speech units. The synthesized formants are modified based on a comparison of the frequency response corresponding to the synthesized formants and the frequency response of the input speech signal.

System for generating formant tracks by modifying formants synthesized from speech units


A Vertical-Hive Green Box (or V-Hive Green Box) is a modular cultivation system utilized in a modular Vertical Farm or Plant Factory, as well as a warehouse-type or greenhouse-type of vertical farm or plant factory. The V-Hive Green Box includes growing boards, lighting boards, and an irrigation system arranged within a frame structure to maximize the quantity of crops that can be grown within an available volume of space in a modular Vertical Farm unit, warehouse or greenhouse per unit time. The V-Hive Green Box can also include aquaculture boards that can be used for aquaculture of aquatic fish and plants.

People all over the world are drawn to living in cities because cities, quite simply, are the world's undisputed economic engine. Just 600 cities today account for about 60 percent of the global economic output. By 2025, the world's top 600 cities will be home to an estimated 220 million more people of working age and will account for more khan 30 percent of the expansion of the potential global workforce. The biggest economic transformation the world has ever seen is occurring today simultaneously with the population expansion of cities in emerging markets, generating millions of new consumers with rising income and whose spending power will change the way the world shops—including people living in cities buying more of their food locally.
The projected rise in today's global population is approximately 7 billion to 9.5 billion by 2050. This projected rise in global population demands an estimated 70 percent increase in food production from current levels by 2050, necessitating a doubling in crop production from 10 billion tons to 20 billion tons by 2050. Given that agriculture already makes use of almost half of the land surface of the planet, consumes over 70 percent of all current freshwater withdrawals worldwide, and expends 30 percent of the global energy demand to food production and its supply chain, it is easy to see that a doubling of crop production will put enormous pressures on land, water and energy resources worldwide, particularly in arid and semiarid regions of the world. Cities, with their infrastructures and centralized planning for supplying water and energy as well as for treating and reusing wastewater and even generating renewable energy, lend themselves to organized and potentially more efficient utilization of water and energy for crop production.
Urban agriculture takes on several forms, including establishing community gardens on vacant lots and, more recently, rooftop greenhouses. Vertical Farming constitutes a third form of urban agriculture. Vertical Farming is generally defined as "the production of crops in vertically stacked growing shelves or trays typically in an enclosed warehouse-type of environment." Vertical Farms typically employ hydroponics technology, or soil-less agriculture, through which crops are grown in liquid nutrient solutions. The crops are also provided either exclusive or supplemental electric lighting using fluorescent lamps or light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Technology improvements achieved over the years, particularly in lighting technology, have improved the production capacity of Vertical Farms.
Due to the association of the concept of Vertical Farms, fairly or unfairly, with grand architectural designs of awe-inspiring and often futuristic-looking edifices, the prospects for Vertical Farms in recent years have been significantly diminished by their projected high costs, particularly on account of the prohibitive costs of the buildings needed to house the actual farms. Thus, to devise a new strategy for designing and developing vertical farms that can achieve economic feasibility, it has been crucial to decouple the concept of vertical farms from conventional buildings to which they became inadvertently intertwined. Vertical Farming may be employed as a highly promising strategy of urban agriculture to help achieve food security in perhaps most of the world's multiplying mega-cities. Vertical Farming may be designed as either low-tech or high-tech; however, it needs to achieve a certain level of sustainability economic, environmental and social—for it to succeed. The following are two crucial strategies that are designed to help Vertical Farming attain economic, social and environmental sustainability.
SANE Test
Each Vertical Farming enterprise must satisfy the SANE Test to achieve economic and social sustainability: S—Safety of Fresh Food, A—Access to Fresh Food, N—Neighborhood Building and Strengthening, and E—Equity Generation and Growth.
S—Safety of Fresh Food:
Vertical farming operations must continuously maintain and preserve their ability to satisfy the all-important demand for safety and quality of fresh produce. For example, a major factor that has been enabling Vertical Farm enterprises to make rapid and successful inroads in China is the series of high-profile food contamination cases that have scandalized China's citizens in recent years, fueling the demand in cities all over China not only for fresh produce, but also for scalable crop production systems that are demonstrably safe.
A—Access to Fresh Food:
Vertical farms in and around cities should not only collapse the distance that fresh crops travel from the farm to the dinner table, which, in the United States for example, is typically from 1,500 miles to within 100 miles, but should also help make possible the elimination of myriads of food deserts, defined as urban areas in which it is difficult to buy affordable, nutritious and good-quality fresh crops owing to the lack of grocery stores, farmers' markets and healthy food providers. Vertical farms should improve access to fresh crops in urban areas in terms of both geographic access and economic access.
N—Neighborhood Building and Strengthening:
Vertical farms should foster community building and strengthening by encouraging community participation and involvement in its production operations, promoting food and environmental education among the community's residents and students, etc. Each Vertical Farm should not only become an integral part of its community, but each Vertical Farm should deliberately make the community it belongs in an integrated ecosystem unto itself—economically, socially and environmentally.
E—Equity Generation and Growth:
Vertical Farms must generate and grow financial equity to its owners, investors, employees and the whole community.
Implementing Cuello's Law (Analog of Moore's Law) to Improve Resource Productivity of Vertical Farms
There is a crucial need to propel the Vertical Farming industry into achieving further significant improvements in its resource productivity. With the prodigious pressure on the planet to double crop production by 2050 to meet the enormous food demand of 9.5 billion people then—when today almost half of the planet's land area is already being used for agriculture, two-thirds of the Earth's available fresh water is already being used for food production, and as much as 30 percent of the world's energy expenditure is devoted to agriculture and the food supply chain—producing food with less land, less water, less nutrients, less energy and greater yield has become a pressing global imperative. Fortunately, the ultimate potential of Vertical Farms is that they can produce fresh crops with less land, less water, less nutrients, less energy and greater yields.
Moore's Law is the observation that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. More than a mere observation, Moore's Law also became a projected goal for the semiconductor industry that led to the design of ever more powerful integrated circuits that have made today's electronic and internet technologies possible and ubiquitous. Analogous to Moore's law, Cuello's Law is the projected goal that crop productivity with respect to resource use in a tech-dense indoor farm (including Vertical Farm) should double every four to five years. This means that at least every half a decade in the next 10 years, tech-dense Vertical Farms should achieve a doubling of crop productivity per unit land area, per drop of water, per pound of nutrients and/or per kiloWatt of energy. Cuello's Law simply articulates the great need of which most in the Vertical Farming industry are already keenly aware. Cuello's Law aims to serve as a unifying clarion call and a challenge to the Vertical Farming industry to further innovate and help meet this century's massive food demand while securing resource sustainability.
Any feature or combination of features described herein are included within the scope of the present invention provided that the features included in any such combination are not mutually inconsistent as will be apparent from the context, this specification, and the knowledge of one of ordinary skill in the art. Additional advantages and aspects of the present invention are apparent in the following detailed description and claims.

Vertical-hive green box cultivation systems

ARIZONA BOARD OF REGENTS ON BEHALF OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA


A method of coating a metal article by forming a first electrodeposition coating layer having varistor properties on a metal article by an electrodeposition coating method by use of an electrodeposition coating film-forming composition containing from 7 to 50 parts by weight of an electrically semiconductive substance per 100 parts by weight of the solid content of the composition, and then forming a second electrodeposition coating layer on said first electrodeposition coating layer by an electrodeposition coating method by use of an anionic or cationic electrodeposition paint while applying a voltage exceeding the varistor voltage. The coating composition thus-produced has excellent varistor properties with superior corrosion resistance.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrodeposition coating film-forming composition capable of forming a coating film with varistor property and to a an electrodeposition coating method using said composition. In detail, it relates to an electrodeposition coating method capable of forming a coating film which imparts high throwing property, corrosion resistance, and edge cover property, by electrodeposition coating an electrodeposition coating film-forming coating composition containing a powder of an electrically semiconductive substance as a first coating layer, said coating film having varistor property and being smooth and excellent in corrosion resistance, on which a second coating layer can be further provided by electrodeposition coating.
(2) Description of Related Art
Hitherto, it has been considered to be difficult in principle to once provide deposits on a metal article to be coated by the electrodeposition coating method and after baking, further provide a second coating layer on the resulting coating film by electrodeposition coating because the first coating layer becomes electrically insulative.
However, in Japanese Patent Publication No. 24566/74, there is found an example of such two-layer electrodeposition by electrodeposition coating. The method of this Japanese Patent Publication No. 24566/74 is concerned with a method in which using black iron oxide as an essential component and an anionic electrodeposition paint composition as a vehicle, an article to be coated is subjected to electrodeposition coating and baked to form an electrically conductive coating film with marked properties regarding adhesive strength, electrical conductivity, surface characteristics, and corrosion resistance, and a second coating layer is further provided thereon by electrodeposition coating.
Furthermore, in Japanese Patent Kokai (Laid-Open) No. 51958/84, in order to improve the quality of the method of the aforesaid Japanese Patent Publication No. 24566/74, a coating film as a first coating layer is formed from a combination of a cationic electrodeposition paint composition with, as an electrically conductive substance, finely divided carbon, i.e., carbon black and/or graphite, whereby uniformity of the resulting coating film and high throwing property are attained, and in order to further improve the corrosion resistance, lead compounds such as, for example, lead silicate, lead chromate, lead acetate, or lead lactate are added.
As seen in the aforegoing examples, in order to form an electrically conductive coating film by the electrodeposition coating method, the use of an electrically conductive substance is necessary. Up to date, black iron oxide, carbon black, graphite, and metal powders (e.g., zinc, copper) have been known as the electrically conductive substance.
However, in the case of using black iron oxide as an electrically conductive substance in an electrodeposition coating composition as in Japanese Patent Publication No. 24566/74, there is involved a defect that since black iron oxide has a high specific gravity and is used in the state of an aqueous solution in which the electrodeposition paint is diluted, the precipitability is very vigorous so that in the case that an article to be coated has a complicated shape, a uniform coating film in the respective portions is not formed.
Furthermore, in the case that carbon black and/or graphite which is finely divided carbon is used as an electrically conductive substance as in Japanese Patent Kokai (Laid-Open) No. 51958/84, since the electrodeposition coating is carried out by using a cationic electrodeposition paint composition but not an anionic electrodeposition paint composition, the corrosion resistance of a formed coating film is improved. However, since carbon black and/or graphite does not basically have rust resistivity, the electrodeposition paint is inferior to usual cationic electrodeposition paints free from carbon black and/or graphite in terms of the rust resistivity, i.e., corrosion resistance. Moreover, though it is described that in order to improve this corrosion resistance, it is preferable to add a lead compound, there is involved a defect that in the case that an electrically conductive electrodeposition paint contains such a substance(s) in an amount necessary for attaining the generally required corrosion resistance in cationic electrodeposition paints, the dispersion is difficult, and a uniform electrically conductive coating film is hardly obtained.

Electrodeposition coating composition and method


A compact hydraulic unit for slip-controlled brake systems with several hydraulically, mechanically and/or electrically operable functional elements (e.g. accumulator, valve elements, pressure generating and driving elements) arranged in an accommodating member, with several pressure fluid channels connecting the functional elements. The pressure fluid channels create a hydraulically operable connection between at least one pressure fluid supply means and one pressure fluid consumer. A control device can be connected with the valve and the driving elements by means of electrical conductors. The valve elements are arranged in several valve accommodating bores of the valve accommodating member in a first and a second row. Pressure fluid bores are provided between the two diametrically extending valve rows which connect the valve elements and location bores containing the pressure generating element and the driving element. Outside the two valve rows, there are further location bores in the valve accommodating member in which pressure accumulator pistons are positioned.

The present invention relates to a hydraulic unit for slip-controlled brake systems.
The German patent application P 41 07 625.7 discloses a hydraulic unit for slip-controlled brake systems for automotive vehicles, the valve accommodating member of which is directly flanged to a central housing containing the accumulator and pressure generating and driving elements. These functional elements are arranged in location bores which are distributed over the central housing so that, among other things, a number of working positions have to be considered in the work program of the automatic machine tool during the production of the complicated central housing and the valve accommodating member which has to be manufactured separately in the machining center. Besides, the size of the hydraulic unit cannot be reduced due to the described structure, so that the mounting position or the mounting place is more difficult to select.

Hydraulic unit for slip-controlled brake systems


A method for determining false positives calls in a biological data plot is provided. The method includes identifying a first data cluster as non-amplification data points within the biological data plot and identifying a second data cluster as wild-type positives within the biological data plot. The method further includes estimating a position in the biological data plot of a center of the first and second data clusters. The method further includes determining, for each data point within the first data cluster, a probability of belonging to the first data cluster and determining, for each data point within the second data cluster, a probability of belonging to the second data cluster. The method includes applying a probability threshold for each data point within the first and second data cluster to identify false positives.

Detection and quantification of mutant alleles in tumor tissue is important to cancer research. Testing for the presence of mutations in circulating free DNA (cfDNA) is one of the less invasive research methods available at this time. Digital PCR presents a research tool for mutation detection in cfDNA at a sensitivity level of 1% and below.
The digital method segments sample DNA into a large number of reaction partitions. Upon performing PCR, amplification is detected in reactions with DNA template and no amplification is detected in reactions lacking DNA template. This large scale partitioning isolates the rare target within a subset of partitions, elevates the rare to wild-type ratio within any specific partition (compared to the original PCR mix), and enhances the amplification probability and detectability of the rare target. These three effects enable detection of the rare target with high sensitivity.
Challenges associated with digital PCR experiments for rare allele detection include understanding the limit of detection of the assay and platform. Data points corresponding to rare target are by definition far fewer than the data points corresponding to positives for the wild-type target. This makes identification of the rare target challenging. One known approach to addressing this challenge requires overlaying wild-type control data with positive control data to guide the definition for a boundary of the wild-type event in fluorescence space. The data points outside of this boundary are considered true positives for the rare target for unknown sample (and false positives for a control sample with wild-type only target). This strategy only works when the inter-run variation in signal levels is negligible and/or when a specific normalization is applied to account for such variation.
A need therefore exists for a more robust approach that works independent of interrun variations in signal levels.

Determining the limit of detection of rare targets using digital PCR


A drive system includes first and second power sources, a planetary gearset including an output, and first and second inputs driveably connected, respectively, to the first and second power sources, a pinion supported for rotation, and a synchronizer for alternately releasing a drive connection between the pinion and output and substantially synchronizing a speed of the pinion and a speed of the output before driveably connecting the pinion and the output.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to an apparatus for Hybrid transmission generator selectable mechanical disconnect with synchronous engagement.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In order to realize the benefit of a hybrid electric vehicle transmission running in electric mode, there is an energy loss benefit from disconnecting an electric generator from the rotating gear train, thereby reducing in magnetic, drag and windage losses.
A need exists in the industry for a device or technique that is able to disconnect and reconnect the generator and vehicle wheels depending on the power demanded by the vehicle operator regardless of the vehicle speed.

Synchronous speed disconnect of a generator for a hybrid electric vehicle


Provided are an optical device, optically assisted magnetic recording head and optically assisted magnetic recording apparatus that effectively emit the introduced light, from the apex portion of a waveguide. The optical device includes: an optical element having a substantially parabolic outline which contains a side surface and the apex portion with a light-emitting surface; a light guiding unit for forming a light spot on the core layer; and a light introducing section provided on the core layer at the position at which the light spot is formed. The light introduced into the core layer travels substantially parallel to the axis of the parabola, and is reflected by the side surface so as to be converged at the focal point of the parabola and is then emitted from the apex portion. The position of the point where the light intensity is greatest in the light spot is deviated from the axis.

In the magnetic recording method, the magnetic bit with higher recording density is more affected by the ambient temperature and such. To address this problem, a recording medium having greater coercive force is required. Use of such a recording medium requires a greater magnetic field for recording. The upper limit of the magnetic field produced by the recording head depends on the saturation flux density, and the value of the saturation flux density is so close to the limit of the material that a drastic increase cannot be expected. To solve this problem proposed is the following method: Causing magnetic weakening by local heating for recording, recording while the coercive force is reduced, and stopping the heating to facilitate natural cooling, whereby the recorded magnetic bit is stabilized. This is referred to as a thermally assisted magnetic recording method.
In the thermally assisted magnetic recording method, a recording medium is preferably heated instantaneously, and the heating mechanism must not to be contacted to the recording medium. Therefore, heating is generally performed by absorption of light. The method of using light for heating is called the optically assisted method. A minute light spot having a size smaller than a wavelength of the used light is required when the optically assisted method is used for high-density recording.
Therefore, utilized is an optical head that employs the near-field light produced at an optical opening having a size smaller than the wavelength of the incident light (Specification of U.S. Pat. No. 6,944,112).
The optical recording head disclosed in the Specification of the U.S. Pat. No. 6,944,112 includes a writing magnetic pole, and a plane waveguide containing a core layer and a clad layer adjacent to the writing magnetic pole. The core layer is provided with at least one parabolic edge that reflects an electromagnetic wave inside the core layer and leads it to the focal point. The apex portion, where the focal point of the parabola is located, has a flat surface shape similar to the shape made by cutting off a tip of a parabola. This apex portion is provided close to the air bearing surface (ABS), where the recording head is opposed to a recording medium.
The core layer is provided with a diffraction grating that leads light into the core layer. For example, when the diffraction grating is radiated with a laser beam, the laser beam is introduced into the core layer and converged at the focal point located on the apex portion. The recording medium is radiated with the light emitted from the apex portion and thereby heated.
Although in the optical recording head disclosed in the Specification of the U.S. Pat. No. 6,944,112, the laser beam applied to the diffraction grating is led into the core layer of a plane waveguide and is guided toward the apex portion, the light directly coming to the plane surface having a shape formed by cutting off the tip of the parabola does not converge at the focal point. Thus, there is a problem that the laser beam having a Gaussian distribution of intensity of the light applied to the diffraction grating does not effectively converge at the focal point in some cases, and light cannot be effectively emitted from the apex portion of the core.
In view of the prior art problems described above, it is an object of the present invention to provide an optical device where the light applied to a light introducing section can be efficiently emitted from the apex portion of a core layer, an optical recording head containing this optical device, and an optical recording apparatus including this optical recording head.

Optical device, optically heat assisted magnetic recording head and optically heat assisted magnetic recording apparatus, having intensity point deviated from axis of the core


A percutaneous discectomy system 20 having a bendable discectomy probe 22 and steerable cannula 24 allows for a wide range of positions relative to the discectomy tissue to be severed. The bendable discectomy probe 22 includes a bendable section 78, 86 which can allow the probe 22 to be bent more than 90.degree. and still maintain the function required in order to sever and remove tissue. The steerable cannula 24 has a similar bendable section 102 which can appropriately position the end 50 of the discectomy probe 22 in order to address tissue to be removed.

Presently available from the assignee, Surgical Dynamics, Inc., is a highly successful Nucleotome.RTM. discectomy system manufactured in accordance with the teachings of U.S. Pat. No. Re. 33,258 issued on Jul. 10, 1990 and entitled "IRRIGATING, CUTTING AND ASPIRATING SYSTEM FOR PERCUTANEOUS SURGERY" and U.S. Pat. No. 4,863,430 issued on Sept. 5, 1989 and entitled "INTRODUCTION SET WITH FLEXIBLE TROCAR WITH CURVED CANNULA" both assigned to Surgical Dynamics, Inc., which patents are incorporated herein by references. These patents teach a percutaneous discectomy probe which has been used to greatly minimize the risks of the surgery required for the removal of herniated disc material. Additionally these devices have significantly reduced the time and degree of difficulty required in performing such procedures as well as the recovery time experienced by the patient. Essentially these patents describe a reciprocating or guillotine type cutter which is positioned at the end of an elongated stainless steel probe. With the aid of a straight or curved cannula inserted into the patient, the elongated probe can be used to address a herniated disc located between the various adjacent vertebrae. The curved cannula can be positioned to address the difficult to reach discs located in the lumbar region. Once the curved cannula is positioned using a trocar and fluoroscopic imaging, the curved cannula can to some extent cause the elongate probe to flex as the probe is inserted through the curved cannula in order to address and removed herniated disc tissue.
While these devices have been highly successful, the need has arisen to make the Probe more maneuverable in order to remove more of the herniated disc material without having to reintroduce and reposition the curved cannula and probe relative to the herniated disc. A greater maneuverability would reduce the time required for the operation and the trauma to the adjacent bodily tissues.

Percutaneous discectomy system having a bendable discectomy probe and a steerable cannula


Methods, systems and computer program products are provide which control the operation of a receiver of a wireless device so as to reduce the power consumption of the receiver by setting the third order intercept point of a low noise amplifier based upon at least one of a strength of a signal received by the wireless device or a transmission power of a transmitter of the wireless device. Furthermore, the gain of the low noise amplifier may also be set based upon received signal strength or transmitter power. Also, the gain of an amplifier associated with a mixer of the receiver may be set based upon received signal strength or transmitter power. Preferably, multiple power modes are provided to tailor the power consumption to the operating conditions of the wireless device.

The present invention relates to receiver down converters and more particularly to receiver down converters for use in radiotelephones and radiotelephone equipment.
With ever increasing demands for increased talk time and standby time in wireless telephones, the power consumption of each circuit in the telephone can be critical to the overall performance of the telephone. Thus, it has become more important to assure that each circuit uses as little current as possible to thereby extend battery life of the telephone.
While reducing power usage in the telephone is important, this goal is generally at odds with other performance goals for the telephone. For example, as the number of wireless telephone users utilizing fixed amount of radio spectrum increase, the need to reject undesired interference can become very important. However, when operating in strong signal environments higher current is generally required by the down converter of the telephone receiver to compensate for the strong signal environment.
In particular in wireless telephone modes such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) mode the linearity of the low noise amplifier, as reflected by the third order intercept point of the amplifier, may be critical to meeting the requirements of CDMA. However, increasing the third order intercept point to increase the linearity of the amplifier generally requires an increase in the current drawn by the amplifier. Thus, the requirements of CDMA may directly conflict with the goal of low power consumption.
Previous attempts to address the strong signal condition have included switching off the low noise amplifier of the receiver down converter. When the low noise amplifier is switched off it acts like an attenuator which would increase the signal handling ability of the telephone. Furthermore, since the low noise amplifier is off the power consumed may be reduced. However, such an approach not meet the performance requirements of CDMA.
Other possible solutions to the strong signal problem may include switching an attenuator in the signal path in the down converter. While this solution may provide a solution to the strong signal problem it would not reduce the power consumption of the down converter.
Similarly, down converter integrated circuits have been developed to accommodate multi-mode wireless telephones. Thus, for example, the RF Micro Devices RF9906 down converter includes adjustable mixer gain which allows for high gain to overcome the higher filter loss of CDMA mode and a low gain for use in AMPS/DAMPS mode. Similarly, the RF9986 device of RF Micro Devices allows for strong signal conditions in CDMA mode by having a switchable third order intercept point which may be increased by 10 db by connecting Vcc to the IP3 pin of the device which causes the LNA current consumption to increase by 10 mA. While these devices allow the wireless telephone to meet the various requirements of the modes of operation of the wireless telephone, there continues to be a need to reduce the down converter""s power requirements while still meeting the operational requirements of the wireless telephone.
In view of the above discussion, there exists a need for improvement in power management in wireless telephones while still meeting the signal handling requirements of the modes of operation of the wireless telephone.
In view of the above discussion, it is an object of the present invention to allow reduced power consumption of a down converter.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a down converter capable of handling strong signal conditions.
Still another object of the present invention is to allow an increase in the battery life of radiotelephones.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a down converter with reduced power consumption in multiple modes of operation of a radiotelephone.
These and other objects of the present invention are provided by methods and systems which control the operation of a receiver of a radiotelephone so as to reduce the power consumption of the receiver by setting the third order intercept point of a low noise amplifier based upon at least one of a strength of a signal received by the radiotelephone or a transmission power of a transmitter of the radiotelephone. Furthermore, the gain of the low noise amplifier may also be set based upon the received signal strength or the transmission power of the transmitter of the radiotelephone. Also, the gain of an amplifier associated with a mixer of the receiver of the radiotelephone may be set based upon the strength of the signal received by the radiotelephone or the transmission power of a transmitter of the radiotelephone.
By adjusting the third order intercept and/or gain of the low noise amplifier and the gain of the mixer amplifier based on the transmitter power or the received signal strength, the performance of the down converter may be adjusted to the operating conditions of the telephone. Furthermore, the gains and third order intercept point may be adjusted to reduce the power consumption of the down converter. Thus, as the signal strength increases the performance of the down converter may be maintained while reducing the power required by the down converter. The total power required to operate the radiotelephone may be decreased and battery life correspondingly increased.
In certain embodiments of the present invention the gains of the low noise amplifier and mixer amplifier of the down converter may be set by bypassing the amplifiers. Thus, the gains are selected between two gain levels for the amplifiers.
In particular embodiments of the present invention, the third order intercept point of the low noise amplifier is set to a low third order intercept point, the gain of the low noise amplifier to a high gain and the gain of the mixer amplifier to a high gain if the transmitter is off.
In alternative embodiments of the present invention in which the radiotelephone is operating in CDMA mode, if the transmitter is operating at an output power above a predefined threshold or the received signal strength is below a predefined threshold, the third order intercept point of the low noise amplifier may be set to a high third order intercept point, the gain of the low noise amplifier set to a high gain and the gain of the mixer amplifier set to a high gain. If the transmitter is operating at an output power below the predefined threshold or the received signal strength is above a predefined threshold, the third order intercept point of the low noise amplifier may also be set to a high third order intercept point, the gain of the low noise amplifier set to a high gain and the gain of the mixer amplifier set to a low gain. The third order intercept point of the low noise amplifier may also be set to a high third order intercept point, the gain of the low noise amplifier set to a high gain and the gain of the mixer amplifier set to a low gain if the transmitter is operating at an output power below the predefined threshold output power and the received signal strength is greater than a first predefined signal strength threshold and less than a second predefined signal strength threshold. The gain of the low noise amplifier may be set to a low gain and the gain of the mixer amplifier set to a high gain if the transmitter is operating at an output power below the predefined threshold output power and the received signal strength is greater than the second predefined signal strength threshold and less than a third predefined signal strength threshold. Finally, the gain of the low noise amplifier may be set to a low gain and the gain of the mixer amplifier to a low gain if the transmitter is operating at an output power below the predefined threshold output power and the received signal strength is greater than the third predefined signal strength threshold.
By providing several thresholds of power conservation, the present invention may provide the high linearity required by the CDMA mode of operation while still reducing the total power consumed by the down converter. Thus, the present invention can allow the down converter to meet the performance criteria of CDMA while still conserving power.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the receiver of the radiotelephone is disabled if the radiotelephone is in sleep mode.
In an embodiment of the present invention where the radiotelephone is operating in Advanced Mobile Phone Service/Digital Advanced Mobile Phone Service(AMPS/DAMPS) mode, the third order intercept point of the low noise amplifier may be set to a low third order intercept point, the gain of the low noise amplifier set to a high gain and the gain of the mixer amplifier set to a low gain if the received signal strength is less than a first predefined signal strength threshold. The third order intercept of the low noise amplifier may be set to a low third order intercept point, the gain of the low noise amplifier set to a high gain and the gain of the mixer amplifier set to a low gain if the received signal strength is greater than the first predefined signal strength threshold an less than a second predefined signal strength threshold. The gain of the low noise amplifier may also be set to a low gain and the gain of the mixer amplifier set to a low gain if the received signal strength is greater than the second predefined signal strength threshold.
In still another embodiment of the present invention, the operation of a receiver of a radiotelephone so as to reduce the power consumption of the receiver by determining the received signal strength of a signal received by the radiotelephone and controlling the power consumption of a down converter of the receiver of the radiotelephone based upon the determined received signal strength. This determination may include determining if the received signal strength is above a first threshold value, if the received signal strength is between the first threshold value and a second threshold value and if the received signal strength is above the second threshold value. The gain of the low noise amplifier may then be set to a low gain and the gain of the mixer amplifier to a low gain if the signal strength is above the second threshold value, the gain of a low noise amplifier of the down converter set to a high gain and the gain of a mixer amplifier of the down converter set to a low gain if the received signal strength is between the first threshold value and the second threshold value and the gain of a low noise amplifier of the down converter set to a high gain and the gain of a mixer amplifier of the down converter set to a high gain if the received signal strength is below the first threshold value. In a particular embodiment, the first threshold value is about xe2x88x9294 dBm, and the second threshold value is about xe2x88x9260 dBm.
By controlling the gains of amplifiers in AMPS/DAMPS mode based upon several threshold values the power consumption of the down converter may be reduced without sacrificing performance.

Systems and methods for management of current consumption and performance in a receiver down converter of a wireless device


A multiplexed output circuit (200) for use in an integrated circuit (500) such as a static random access memory locates a plurality of amplifiers (206, 208), a plurality of output buffers (210, 212), and an output driver (201) on the integrated circuit (500), such that the routing parasitic delay between the plurality of output buffers and the output driver (218-224) is greater than the routing parasitic delay between any output buffer (e.g. 212) and its corresponding amplifier (e.g. 206).

When creating new generations of memory designs, improvement in speed and reduction in power consumption of the memory are prime considerations. With the adoption of revolutionary pin-out configurations, where the corner power and ground pins have been moved to center positions on both sides of the chip and output pads have been moved from one side of the periphery to both sides, and with the greater density of new generations of memory chips increasing the routing line distance between memory cells and output pins, new design strategies are required to further improve the speed/power product of the memory.
FIG. 1 shows a prior art multiplexed output circuit for a multiple core memory array. Multiplexed output circuit 110 receives a global data line differential signal GDL1 13O/GDLB1 131 from a first memory core at amplifier 112. Multiplexed output circuit 110 receives a global data line differential signal GDL2 132/GDLB2 133 from a second memory core at amplifier 114. The differential signals provide a differential input into each amplifier, except when the sending core is deselected. Because multiplexed output circuit 110 reads from two separate cores, ENABLE1 134 and ENABLE2 135 are set to enable either amplifier 112 or amplifier 114, respectively, as each core is addressed and read. Amplifiers 112, 114 are generally located as close as possible to the sense amplifier reading data from a particular memory block. Therefore, a significant RC delay is introduced by the parasitic capacitance of the long routing lines driven by amplifiers 112, 114 to the corresponding output buffer 120. This can be seen in FIG. 1 where RC delays 116-119 represent the parasitic routing delay affecting the amplifier output signals 136-139. The resultant delayed signals DATA 140 and DATAB 141 are received at the output buffer 120, located at the periphery of the chip in proximity to the output driver 122 and data pad 124. Output buffer 120 often includes a rise/fall control 121 to introduce rise time and fall time components in the pull up signals 142 and pull down signals 143. These additional rise and fall times are introduced into the signals to prevent reflections, noise and glitches in the output driver signal DQ 144.
As will be appreciated, to maintain the speed performance of the output circuit, amplifiers 112 and 114 need increased switching current capability to drive larger parasitic routing components. This requires the amplifier, which is generally a DC current consuming device, to consume additional power to compensate for the increased parasitic routing delay seen for greater density memory arrays. Thus, multiplexed output circuits in the prior art do not provide the best speed-power product for new generations of higher density memory devices utilizing the revolutionary pin-out configurations.

Multiplexed output circuit and method of operation thereof


The present invention relates generally to a new multi-density ceramic structure and process thereof. Basically, the present invention relates to a structure and method for forming laminated structures and more particularly to a structure and method for fabricating multi-layer ceramic products using very thin green sheets and/or green sheets with very dense electrically conductive patterns on top of thicker green sheet. The structure and method of the present invention enables the screening, stacking and handling of very thin green sheets and/or green sheets with very dense metallized patterns in the manufacture of multi-layer ceramic packages. The thin punched green sheets were tacked/bonded to thicker punched and screened green sheets to form a sub-structure which had excellent stability in screening and enabled further processing.

Multi-layer ceramic (MLC) structures are used in the production of electronic substrates and devices. The MLCs can have various layering configurations. For example, a MLC circuit substrate may comprise patterned metal layers which act as electrical conductors sandwiched in between ceramic layers which act as a dielectric medium. For the purposes of interlayer interconnections, most of the ceramic layers have tiny holes or via holes. Prior to lamination, the via holes are filled with an electrically conductive paste, such as, a metallic paste, and sintered to form vias which provide the electrical connection between the layers. In addition, the MLC substrates may have termination pads for attaching semiconductor chips, connector leads, capacitors, resistors, to name a few.
Generally, conventional ceramic structures are formed from ceramic green sheets which are prepared from a slurry of ceramic particulate, thermoplastic polymer binders, plasticizers, and solvents. This composition is spread or cast into ceramic sheets or slips from which the solvents are subsequently volatilized to provide coherent and self-supporting flexible green sheets. After punching, metal paste screening, stacking and laminating, the green sheets are fired or sintered at temperatures sufficient to burn-off or remove the unwanted polymeric binder resin and sinter the ceramic particulate together into a densified ceramic substrate. The present invention is directed to the screening, stacking and lamination steps of this process.
In the MLC packaging industry it is very common to use green sheets of various thicknesses. The thicknesses can typically vary from 6 mils to 30 mils and in general the art of punching and metallizing these layers are well known. Green sheet thicknesses below 6 mils, in general, are very scarcely used. This is due to a variety of reasons, such as, for example, handling, screening and stacking of green sheets thinner than 6 mils pose tremendous challenges. In fact the use of one to two mils thick ceramic green sheets, which are punched and screened, using traditional MLC technology does not exist in the prior art.
Also, in the MLC packaging industry it is very common to use capacitor layers. The capacitance necessary in a package depends on the design and such capacitance is obtained by choosing proper dielectric layer thickness and metal area within a layer. The industry is always striving for higher capacitance and since the metal area is maxing out for a given substrate size it is necessary to use thinner dielectric layers between electrodes to obtain the required capacitance. For example, as a rule of thumb one could double the capacitance for a given dielectric system and electrode metal area by decreasing the dielectric layer thickness by half. Additionally the number of layers needed for capacitance in a package as well has been reduced by about 50 percent. The reduction in the number of layers is desirable, as it reduces the cost and the process of making the substrate.
The term thin sheet or layer as used herein means that the thickness of the sheet can be anywhere from about 0.5 mil to about 6.0 mils. Production level screening and stacking of thin sheets is not possible with the current technology as the thin sheets tend to shrink a lot and they also tend to distort during the process.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,176,772 and 5,300,163, addresses a method of forming a thin sintered ceramic board by laminating punched and screened green tapes on a presintered ceramic body and sintering the assembly to obtain a flat board. This method essentially enables one to obtain a flat laminate. But, with ceramic substrates with materials like alumina and aluminum nitride there is typically a 14 to 20 percent X-Y shrinkage. So there will be delamination and distortion involved in sintering due to presintered base. Furthermore, one needs to handle these sheets through screening in free standing state.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,368,667, teaches preparing a multi-layer capacitor which is one to two mils thick by extruding a thick dielectric layer and a metal containing layer through a roll laminator. This approach is good for using a thin layer having the blanket metallurgy. But in almost all multi-layer ceramic packages, one needs to have vias for electrical connectivity. However, this patent does not address the problem of handling the thin sheets in via filling and stacking.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,480,503, teaches releasably-supporting the thin green sheets on a temporary carrier support having an ablatable release layer over a patterned conductive layer, and filling the vias with conductive metal paste, whereby the thin green sheets are supported against warpage and distortion. The supported green sheets are formed as single layers, pairs and stacks thereof, and separated from temporary support for use. The suggested temporary support is a glass plate. The metallization technique is CVD type plating and in the process has to use non-ablatable and ablatable films on the green sheet. These films inherently will distort the green sheet during temperature and pressure processing. Further the non-ablatable film stays with every single green sheet layer and will create delamination and density difference in sintering. This is a very complicated and very expensive process.
The structure and method of the present invention enables the screening, stacking and handling of very thin green sheets and/or green sheets with very dense metallized patterns in the manufacture of multi-layer ceramic packages. With the preferred embodiment, thin punched green sheets were tacked and bonded to thick punched and screened green sheets to form a sub-structure which yielded excellent stability in screening and enabled excellent handling and alignment in stacking. The green sheet may have electrically conductive features within them, such as, a via, or over them, such as, a line, cap, to name a few.

Multi-density ceramic structure and process thereof

International Business Machines Corporation


Autonomous mobile robots include transfer systems that may receive multiple items for delivery to one or more destinations. The transfer systems may be specifically configured to detect and identify items that are placed on loading surfaces, and to independently discharge specific items at selected destinations or to selected recipients. The transfer systems feature loading surfaces that may be defined by a plurality of independently operable conveyors to receive or discharge items, by independently operable floors that allow items to pass therethrough, or by independently operable diverters for detecting and expelling items therefrom. The transfer systems may receive items from, or discharge items to, one or more humans, other robots, or other systems such as conveyors, chutes, robotic arms or other mechanical implements or effectors, and be aligned at any angle or provided at any height, as desired.

An order fulfillment center is a facility, a warehouse or another like structure that is constructed in a distributed, centralized location and adapted to receive items from sources of items (e.g., manufacturers, merchants, vendors or other fulfillment centers). A fulfillment center may include stations for receiving shipments of items, for storing such items, for preparing such items for delivery to customers, and/or for sorting packages of such items according to delivery locations. When an order for the purchase of one or more of the items stored in a fulfillment center is received from a customer, the ordered items may be retrieved from the spaces or areas in which such items are stored, and prepared for delivery to the customer, e.g., by packing the ordered items into one or more appropriate containers with a sufficient type and amount of dunnage, and delivering the containers to a destination designated by the customer. Once packaged, the packaged item may be grouped with other packages that are headed towards a similar geography and/or delivery route. The present disclosure relates to a system that may be used to facilitate the order fulfillment process, including sorting packages according to delivery route.

Mobile sortation and delivery of multiple items


AC/DC power converter device comprising a full-wave rectifier (R) the output of which is applied to a direct current module which has two outputs: the main output is connected to the load via a capacitor (C1) which transfers a first power level (P1), and the auxiliary output is formed by a capacitor (C2) and a direct current converter (DC) which stores a second power (P2) and transfers it to the load during the full cycle of the input power wave (PE). As a result the second power level (P2) is continuously topping up the first power level (P1).

1. Technical Field of the Invention
Compliance with the standard IEC 555-2 (IEC 1000-3-2) by AC/DC converters requires the latter to reduce the injection of harmonics into the AC mains supply which otherwise impair its quality. Consequently there exists a concern among designers of AC/DC converters to improve the power factor correction of the converter in order to suppress the harmonics which these devices inject into the AC mains supply.
The AC/DC power converter device of the invention corrects the power factor and is of special, but not exclusive, application in communications systems in which high efficiency converters are required which are light in weight, small in size and inexpensive.
2. Description of Related Art
To satisfy the content of the standards currently in force, AC/DC converters with power factor correction are based on power flow analysis.
This technique for AC/DC converter design is known, for example, from the article "A NOVEL SINGLE-PHASE POWER FACTOR CORRECTION SCHEME", by Yimin Jiang, Fred C. Lee, Guichao Hua and Wei Tang, Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC'93), Mar. 7-11, 1993, San Diego, California, U.S.A., pages 287 to 292.
In this article it is shown that, in parallel with the path followed by the main power flow, there is another power flow that is transferred to the load through what is termed the power factor correction circuit, in such a manner that the correcting circuit does not process all the power that is transferred to the load.
Consequently, there is a part of the input power, representing about the 68% of the average input power, that is transferred directly to the converter output and which is therefore only processed once; the rest of the input power, representing about the 32% of the input power, is processed twice by the power factor correction circuit.
In other words, the power factor correction circuit only transfers power to the output when the input power is less than the average value of the output power, assuming the input power to be a sine squared function. Likewise, when the input power is greater than the output power, the excess energy is stored in the power factor correction circuit, specifically in its capacitor.
Thus the main power flow is transferred directly to the load through a full-wave bridge booster converter and the power factor correction circuit, which transfers the stored power to the load, is formed by a capacitor and a forward converter.
The problem with this technique lies in the control of the switching elements in the full-wave bridge booster converter, since it must distinguish between the periods when the power level is greater than or less than the average value of the output power. Consequently the switching control signals for the switching elements take different values in each cycle.
So, the objective is to achieve an AC/DC converter designed around a simple topology, with few components and simple switching control, and which provides a high power factor and a high efficiency.


A thermoplastic tube, and method for forming such a tube, has a tube body portion formed from an inner layer of thermoplastic material, a barrier layer, and an outer layer of thermoplastic material. The outer layer does not extend completely about the periphery of the tube body and a strip of thermoplastic material having the same composition as the inner layer, fills each gap in the outer layer to form a smooth surface about the tube. The strip may be transparent or of a color different than the color of the outer layer. In a preferred tube, a first layer of adhesive material is provided between the inner layer and the barrier layer, and a second layer of adhesive material is provided between the barrier layer and the outer layer and strip.

Thermoplastic tubes in the form of squeeze tubes have been commercially available for use in the packaging of toothpaste, shampoo, cosmetics, foodstuffs, and the like. Such tubes may be produced by severing a tube blank from an extruded tubular cylinder, which tube blank has open ends, and forming a head on one end of the tube blank which has a threaded neck or other means for releasably securing a cap on that end of the tube. After filling the capped tube from the other open end, that other open end is then sealed, such as by heat sealing, to protect the tube contents and to complete the filled tube for subsequent sale.
The formation of such thermoplastic squeeze tubes from multi-layered material, or extruded composites, has been found useful in that a barrier layer may be provided, such as an oxygen impermeable layer, which barrier layer prevents escape of essential oils, or the like, from the tube contents, and protects the contents of the tube from discoloration, change in taste, or other detrimental affect of oxygen on the tube contents. The formation of extruded composite tubular cylinders for use in forming tube blanks is a known procedure, as for example described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,723,902, entitled Balanced Flow Extrusion Crosshead and Die Assembly, assigned to the assignee of the present invention, the contents of said patent incorporated by reference herein. As described, such tubes generally have five layers which comprise innermost and outermost layers of a thermoplastic material, a central layer of a barrier polymeric material, and adhesive polymeric material layers, one between the innermost thermoplastic layer and the barrier layer and the other between the outermost thermoplastic layer and the barrier layer. In some instances, where the inner and outer layers adhere sufficiently themselves to the barrier layer, the separate adhesive layers may not be necessary, and a three layered extruded composite tube may be provided.
Such thermoplastic multi-layered tubes have been readily accepted and have been provided with various decorative features and indicia. Indicia, decorative features, and printed matter may be applied to thermoplastic tubes by hot stamping or dry printing, or application of a foil pattern to the tube outer surface. When the thermoplastic multi-layered tube is formed from transparent or translucent material, the tube contents of the tube are visible to the user, but readability of the printed matter on the tube may be less than desired due to the clear background. Or, when the tube has a colored component as one of the layered materials of the multi-layered tube, the readability of the printed matter can be enhanced, but the tube contents are no longer visible to show the amount of contents remaining after partial use by a purchaser. Also, the added step of providing decorative features increases the cost of the tube.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a thermoplastic composite layered tube that has at least one strip of material along the length of the tube that is either transparent, while the remainder of the tube is non-transparent, or is of a color different from the color of the remainder of the tube.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of forming a thermoplastic composite layered tube that has at least one strip along the length of the tube that is either transparent, while the remainder of the tube is non-transparent, or is of a different color from the color of the remainder of the tube, during the tube manufacturing process, without the subsequent need to apply ink or foil along the length of the tube.

Method of making thermoplastic composite layered squeeze tube


A method for controlling the attenuation of an optical element. A base material, such as a resin, is selected from which to fabricate the optical element. The base material has an intrinsic attenuation or intrinsic absorption spectrum. A predetermined concentration of a first type of dye molecule is then added to the base material to vary the intrinsic attenuation of the base material to achieve a predetermined absorption spectrum.

Communicating information through light instead of electrical signals has many useful applications. The medium for light travel is typically a fiber optic cable. A transceiver circuit is typically coupled to each end of the fiber optic cable and includes an optical transmitter that performs transmission functions and an optical receiver that performs receiving functions. The transmitter includes a laser that acts as a source of light. An important component in the transceiver is an optical element that receives the light generated by the laser and launches the light into the fiber optic cable in a manner that minimizes reflections back to the laser and that provides favorable launch conditions to increase the bandwidth of the system. There are some situations in which it is desired to decrease the optical power of the laser signal.
There are several current prior art approaches to decrease the optical power of the laser signal. One approach to decrease the optical power of the laser signal is to apply partially reflective coatings on a surface of the optical element. Although these coatings provide tolerable control over the direction in which unwanted light is reflected, these coatings tend to be expensive. Furthermore, these coatings are prone to de-adhesion from the optical element, which can lead to undesirable results in the field.
Another approach to decrease the optical power of the laser signal is to machine or otherwise cause one surface of the optical element to become a textured surface. For example, surfaces of the optical element can be roughened surfaces. These textured surfaces act to scatter incoming light by re-distributing the light in a wide range of directions. It is noted that these textured surfaces do not absorb the incoming light. Unfortunately, the scattered light may cause interference or other problems with components adjacent to the optical element.
Yet another approach to utilize diffractive optical elements and partial beam blockers in the optical signal path between the laser and the fiber optic cable. Unfortunately, the diffractive optical elements and partial beam blockers tend to influence the optical signal's modal behavior. Consequently, these elements tend to complicate the design and placement of the laser, especially in terms of determining the appropriate launch intensity.
Based on the foregoing, there remains a need for a method and apparatus that controls the attenuation of an optical element that overcomes the disadvantages set forth previously.

Method for controlling attenuation of an optical element

Avago Technologies Fiber IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.


Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described. In some wireless communications systems, wireless devices (e.g., user equipment (UEs) and base stations) may communicate using beamformed transmissions. If a wireless device receives a transmission over multiple receive beams, the device may utilize signal measurements over the beams to determine a signal direction, a type of noise associated with the transmission, or both. The device may determine a signal direction based on received signal strength measurements over at least two receive beams and may select a beam for communication based on the determined signal direction. Additionally or alternatively, the device may compare noise measurements for the signal over at least two receive beams and may determine whether the noise corresponds to interference or white noise. The device may detect the direction of an interferer and may modify reception or demodulation based on the type of noise detected.

The present disclosure relates to wireless communications, and more specifically to determining signal direction and interference using multiple receive beams.
Wireless communications systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include fourth generation (4G) systems such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) systems, or LTE-A Pro systems, and fifth generation (5G) systems which may be referred to as New Radio (NR) systems. These systems may employ technologies such as code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), or discrete Fourier transform-spread-OFDM (DFT-S-OFDM). A wireless multiple-access communications system may include a number of base stations or network access nodes, each simultaneously supporting communication for multiple communication devices, which may be otherwise known as user equipment (UE).
In some wireless communications systems, wireless devices (e.g., UEs and base stations) may communicate using beamformed transmissions. For example, base stations may transmit to UEs using one or more downlink transmit beams, and the UEs may receive the transmissions using downlink receive beams. In some cases, to determine a beam for transmission or reception, a wireless device may implement a beam refinement procedure. Beam refinement may involve iterating through a set of beams for transmission or reception in order to determine a "best" beam (e.g., a beam with the greatest receive signal strength, a beam with the most reliable throughput, etc.). In some cases, beam refinement may involve iterating through a set of wide beams, selecting a wide beam for transmission or reception, and further iterating through a set of narrow beams associated with the selected wide beam. While beam refinement may result in a reliable beam for communication, the iterative nature of the procedure may lead to a large amount of latency, redundancy, or signaling overhead.

Determining signal direction and interference using multiple receive beams


A method for structuring a debt that comprises: establishing a holding company as an owner of a closed block business entity, wherein the holding company is a subsidiary of a parent company and further wherein an on-going business is a subsidiary of the parent company; issuing debt from the holding company, wherein: (a) the debt is issued for raising capital for the parent company and the capital is provided to the on-going business; and (b) the debt is serviceable from the cash flow of the closed block business entity and the debt has a limited recourse only from the closed block business entity.

A corporation or other entity, which utilizes shares or stock to represent ownership therein, has as one of its objectives to maximize the value of shares or stock. There are a number of factors which can influence the value of a business and, hence, the value of the shares or stock of the business. Among these factors are the financial condition of the respective business that can be reflected in certain financial statements, such as, but not limited to, balance sheets, income statements, and other financial reporting statements. Ideally, business managers desire to report the most favorable conditions that are allowable under applicable laws, rules and regulations, which govern financial reporting activities.
It is not uncommon for a business to have, as part of its on-going operations, an operating unit or segment which, for one reason or another, may be viewed as a "drag" on, or adversely effect, the business' financial condition. For example, a business may have an operating unit that may be a low-margin or low-growth unit. Nevertheless, the business may be legally or morally obligated to maintain this low-margin or low-growth unit in operation. In other words, a business may, for one reason or another, be prevented from selling or "spinning-off" an otherwise financially undesirable operating unit.
Low-margin or low-growth operating units may have certain less than favorable financial operating characteristics associated therewith which, when included in the financial reporting statements of the business as a whole, can have adverse effects on the financial condition of the business and, correspondingly, can prevent the shares or stock in the business from attaining desired value levels. For numerous reasons such as legal and/or regulatory, the low-margin or low-growth operating unit(s) may not be able to be severed from the business.
As an example, one can look to insurance companies that typically may have been characterized as a low-margin or low-growth entity. While insurance companies have historically been known to provide a steady and predictable income stream for a business, laws, rules and/or regulations, which govern the operation of same can serve as an impediment to a business. Insurance may serve as an impediment to a business which owns same and which operates other unrelated on-going business units. Insurance companies and/or insurance policies typically provide policyholders with a dividend or bonus at the end of an operating period that can reflect profits made by the insurance company during that period.
Although, the current trend in the insurance business has been to de-mutualize insurance companies, insurance companies which have insurance policies outstanding are still required to service these policies under existing policy guidelines. As will be readily appreciated, a conflict arises when a business desires to "spin-off" or issue an initial public offering for an insurance company or operating unit. The shareholders investing in the "spin-off" or in the initial public offering would reasonably expect to share in the profitability of the insurance entity, but the insurance entity would be obligated to dividends or bonuses, or in other words, shares its profits, with existing policyholders.
Another drawback associated with life insurance operating companies in general is that they are typically constrained from issuing unregulated debt instruments in financing operations. Traditionally, insurance companies would utilize existing assets including policy holders surplus, and expected policy premiums, in order to fund its operations while obtaining reinsurance in order to protect itself from financial downturns. A parent company of an insurance business may also, in order to protect existing client relationships and/or to protect its good will, elect to maintain the operations of the insurance unit.
As a result of the above, a business having an obligation to try to achieve maximum share value or stock value for its respective shareholders or stockholders may have to contend with maintaining an otherwise low-margin or low-growth business unit in operation to the detriment of its shareholders or stockholders. This may prove to be most disadvantageous to a business as it attempts to execute new business initiatives or operating strategies.

Method for structuring a debt issue utilizing a closed block business entity


The present invention discloses a liquid crystal display apparatus and a liquid crystal television which are provided with a backlight to be lighted up by a separately-excited inverter circuit and realize improvement of contrast in low brightness. A microcomputer 50 obtains a brightness average value of image data from a brightness average value detecting circuit 22, directs an inverter circuit 62 to oscillate at a duty factor corresponding to the obtained brightness average value, and directs an output processing circuit 33 to perform gamma correction processing with gamma correction data corresponding to the obtained brightness average value. When the brightness average value is lowered, the microcomputer 50 lowers the duty factor to be outputted therefrom and lowers the brightness of the backlight 61. Moreover, when the brightness average value is lowered, the microcomputer 50 directs the output processing circuit to perform gamma correction processing with gamma correction data for widening a brightness range.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display apparatus and a liquid crystal television.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a liquid crystal display apparatus such as a liquid crystal television, performing of gamma correction in such a manner to cause a drive voltage-transmissivity characteristic to become linear is common. However, in such general gamma correction, if the brightness average value level of a video signal is inclined to either a high level or a low level, there is a problem that the variable range of a brightness level becomes narrower and the contrast of a display screen is decreased. It has been known that, in order to solve such a problem, the gamma correction is dynamically performed according to a brightness average level (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 6-6820).
Further, it has also been known that, as a technology for dynamically performing the gamma correction, gamma correction data is used properly according to atmospheric illumination of the exterior of a display apparatus (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 11-234539).
Incidentally, in the liquid crystal display apparatus including the liquid crystal television, the transmissivity of backlight is adjusted by controlling the aperture factor of liquid crystal cells, whereby the brightness of respective pixels are determined. Therefore, as well known, even if the aperture factor of the liquid crystal cells is reduced to a minimum, the liquid crystal cells can not perfectly interrupt the transmission of the backlight and can not perform complete black display. Because of such a physical limitation, even if the dynamic gamma correction that has been discussed above is performed, there is a limit to improvement in contrast on the low brightness side (in the vicinity of 0% luminous intensity).
On the other hand, there is also a technology for saving electricity by recognizing a non-displaying region of a liquid crystal panel and controlling the supply of electric power to lamps corresponding to the recognized non-displaying region (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-66929). That is, this is a technology where, in a region where one lamp takes charge of light-irradiating, when image display is not performed in all of liquid crystal cells in this region, the lamp is caused to be dimmed. However, although this technology is available for a display apparatus in which display is performed so as to create a positive division of lightness and darkness on its screen, it is not suitable for a display apparatus which displays motion pictures such as movie, drama. That is, in such a display apparatus, a continuous image is displayed over the entire screen, so that it is difficult to set the region. If improvement of contrast in an image in which a brightness distribution is inclined is realized by utilizing the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-66929, brightness must be monitored at a level at the vicinity of pixels and processing amount becomes enormous.

Liquid crystal display apparatus and liquid crystal television, which can improve contrast


A method and system of a machine learning architecture for predictive and preventive maintenance of vacuum pumps. The method includes receiving one of a motor sensor data and a blower sensor data over a communications network. The motor sensor data is classified into one of a vacuum state sensor data and break state sensor data. The vacuum state sensor data is analyzed to detect an operating vacuum level and an alarm is raised when the vacuum state sensor data exceeds a pre-defined safety range. Vacuum break data is classified into one of a clean filter category and clogged filter category and an alarm is raised if an entry under the clogged filter category is detected. The blower sensor data in association with the motor sensor data is analyzed based on machine learning to detect one of a deficient oil level and a deficient oil structure.

Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of uniquely-identifiable and purposed "things" that are enabled to communicate data over a communications network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. The "thing" in the Internet of Things may virtually be anything that fits into a common purpose thereof. For example, a "thing" could be a person with a heart rate monitor implant, a farm animal with a biochip transponder, an automobile comprising built-in sensors configured to alert its driver when the tire pressure is low, or the like, or any other natural or man-made entity that can be assigned with a unique IP address and provided with the ability to transfer data over a network. Notably, if all the entities in an IoT are machines, then the IoT is referred to as a Machine to Machine (M2M) IoT or simply, as M2M IoT.
It is apparent from the aforementioned examples that an entity becomes a "thing" of an M2M IoT especially, when the entity is attached with one or more sensors capable of capturing one or more types of data pertaining to: segregation of the data (if applicable); selective communication of each segregation of data to one or more fellow "things"; reception of one or more control commands (or instructions) from one or more fellow "things" wherein, the control commands are based on the data received by the one or more fellow "things"; and execution of the commands resulting in manipulation or "management" of an operation of the corresponding entity. Therefore, in an IoT-enabled system, the "things" basically manage themselves without any human intervention, thus drastically improving the efficiency thereof.
EP Patent No. 1836576 B1 discusses a diagnostic method of failure protection of vacuum pumps. Based on comparison of the currently evaluated diagnostics analysis results and an initial data, maintenance engineers would decide the replacement of the considered vacuum pump, according to the evaluated pump performance indicators. However, in this prior art invention, there is no mention of machine learning or use of machine wearable sensors. Also, the remedial decisions are left to the maintenance engineers.
US Patent application 20120209569 A1 discusses a method for predicting a failure in rotation of a rotor of a vacuum pump. The prior art invention fails to disclose machine learning capabilities and also is dependent on an observation time prediction window. Further, the prior art fails to disclose machine wearable sensors and Internet of things.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,882,394 B2 discusses fault diagnostics through a data collection module. The prior art discloses a system for condition monitoring and fault diagnosis that includes: a data collection function that acquires time histories of selected variables for one or more of components; a pre-processing function that calculates specified characteristics of time histories; an analysis function for evaluating the characteristics to produce one or more hypotheses of a condition of the components, and a reasoning function for determining the condition of the components from one or more hypotheses. The prior art invention however, fails to suggest the concept of IoT. Further, the prior art invention does not mention machine learning for effective predictive or preventive maintenance of vacuum pumps or similar devices.
It is evident from the discussion of the aforementioned prior art that none of them discloses or suggests regarding predictive and preventive maintenance of vacuum pumps through machine learning. Therefore, there is a need in the art for a solution to the aforementioned problem.

Real time machine learning based predictive and preventive maintenance of vacuum pump


In a powertrain for motor vehicle that includes an engine, an electric machine able to function alternately as a motor and a generator, and a transmission whose input is driveably connected to the engine and the electric machine, a method for controlling transmission input torque during an upshift including using the engine to produce torque transmitted to the transmission input, during the ratio change phase of the upshift, operating the electric machine as a generator, and during the ratio change phase of the upshift, controlling a net torque transmitted to the transmission input by using the engine to drive the transmission and the electric machine concurrently.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a powertrain for a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), and, in particular to a method for performing transmission input torque modulation during a change to a higher gear.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a conventional vehicle equipped with a transmission that produces step changes among gear ratios, the driver can experience driveline disturbances during a gear shift. The driveline disturbances occur due to the acceleration and deceleration of the engine and transmission component inertias, which produce an inertial torque during the gear shift. In the case of an upshift, the transmission output torque increases during the ratio change phase of the gear shift as a result of the engine speed changing.
This output torque disturbance is directly felt by occupants of the vehicle and affects shift quality. The level of output shaft torque disturbance increases with the speed of the upshift since engine deceleration is greater with faster gear shifts. By reducing engine torque produced during the upshift, inertial torque can be offset and the output shaft torque increase can be minimized, thereby improving shift quality. The method of reducing engine torque produced during the upshift is referred to as "input torque modulation" control.
In the case of a downshift, the transmission output torque decreases during the ratio change phase as the engine and transmission components accelerate to the synchronous speed for the lower gear. Moreover, during the torque transfer phase of the downshift, the transmission output torque can spike near the completion of the downshift as the engine accelerates. The drop in output torque during the ratio change is directly felt by the vehicle occupants and can give the sense of an acceleration discontinuity as the downshift is performed. The output torque spike at the end of the downshift can affect shift quality and produce a feeling of a rough shift. Furthermore, the level of output shaft torque drop and spike near the end of the downshift will increase in proportion to speed of the downshift.
By using input torque modulation, the engine combustion torque can be reduced near the end of the downshift in order to reduce the engine's acceleration as the shift ends. As a result, the transmission output torque spike can be minimized and avoided, thereby reducing the shift disturbance.
In conventional vehicle applications, limitations and problems with input torque modulation during gear shifts include limited engine torque reduction authority due to constraints, such as emissions; delayed engine torque response to torque modulation requests, further degrading shift quality; and poor fuel efficiency, since spark retardation is commonly used for achieving torque modulation requests.

Transmission upshift input torque modulation for a hybrid electric vehicle


A lens includes an incident surface and a light output surface. A plurality of light diverging portions is arranged on the light output surface and around a center of the light output surface. The light diverging portions each are a ring and are spaced from each other. An inner light diverging portion has a refraction angle larger than that of an outer light diverging portion. Light emitted into the lens from the incident surface is diffused by the light output surface and the light diverging portions to radiate out of the lens. A cross section of each light diverging portion has a shape of a triangle. The present disclosure also relates a backlight module using the lens.

1. Technical Field
The disclosure generally relates to lenses, particularly, to lenses employed in direct-type backlight modules, which can evenly diffuse light emitted from LED packages of the direct-type backlight module.
2. Description of Related Art
A typical backlight module includes a substrate, a plurality of light emitting diode (LED) packages arranged on the substrate, and a light diffusion board spaced from and located over the LED packages.
However, each LED package generates a smooth round light field, and the light emitted from the LED package is mainly concentrated at a center thereof. The light at a periphery of the LED package is relatively poor to illuminate. Therefore, the light emitted from the LED packages can not be uniformly emitted into the light diffusion board. When this happens, the performance of the backlight module will be unfavorably affected.
What is needed, therefore, is a lens and a direct-type backlight module having the lens which can overcome the above-described shortcomings.

Lens and backlight module having the lens


The invention relates to a radar method for determining the angular position, the location, and/or the velocity, in particular the vectorial velocity, of a target, wherein a first transceiver unit and at least one second transceiver unit, which is spatially separated in particular from the first transceiver unit, are not synchronized, but a measurement beginning of the first transceiver unit and the second transceiver unit is triggered in a wireless or wired manner with a chronological deviation Δtn, wherein measurements of the transceiver units are coherently processed.

Known radar methods, in particular for estimating a vectorial velocity (cf. [1]-[3]), use distributed radar devices, which measure a Doppler velocity in relation to an object (target) individually and independently of one another. The Doppler velocity can be interpreted as the projection of the vectorial velocity on a connecting vector between the radar and the target. If the positions of the radars and the target are known and/or can be determined, the vectorial velocity can then be determined from the individual projections by solving the linear equation system. However, the accuracy of this method is strongly dependent on the geometrical distribution of the stations in relation to the target ("dilution of precision").
A further possibility for a radar measurement, in particular for determining the vectorial velocity, consists of the analysis of the phase curve differences between two antennas (cf. [4]-[11]). This method enables higher accuracies and is less dependent on the problem geometry. However, the prior art according to [4]-[7] only relates to the case in which the target is located at 0° azimuth (boresight) and in the array far field. Documents [8]-[11] also relate to the case azimuth≠0°, but not the array near field. The methods of the prior art according to [4]-[11], which are based on phase curve differences, use two antennas which are connected to a radar device.
Since comparatively large apertures are necessary for the accurate measurement of the tangential velocity, the case in which the target is not located at 0° azimuth and/or in the near field is of great interest.    [1] D. Kellner, M. Barjenbruch, K. Dietmayer, J. Klappstein, and J. Dickmann, "Instantaneous lateral velocity estimation of a vehicle using doppler radar," In Information Fusion (FUSION), 2013 16th International Conference on, 2013, pp. 877-884.    [2] H. Rohling, F. Folster, and H. Ritter, "Lateral velocity estimation for automotive radar applications," In 2007 IET Int. Conf. on Radar Systems, Edinburgh, UK, 2007, pp. 181-181.    [3] W. Montlouis and P.-R. J. Comely, "Direction of Arrival and Angular Velocities (DOAV) Estimation using Minimum Variance Beamforming," in Radar Conference, 2007 IEEE, 2007, pp. 641-646.    [4] A. W. Doerry, "Patch diameter limitation due to high chirp rates in focused SAR Images," IEEE transactions on aerospace and electronic systems, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 1125-1129, 1994.    [5] A. Doerry, "Tangential Velocity Measurement using Interferometric MTI Radar," 2002. [Online]. Available: http://prod.sandia.gov/techlib/access-control.cgi/2002/023614.pdf. [Accessed Sep. 26, 2017]    [6] A. Doerry, B. Mileshosky, and D. Bickel, "Tangential velocity measurement using interferometric MTI radar," U.S. Pat. No. 6,982,668 B1, Jan. 3, 2006.    [7] J. A. Nanzer, "Millimeter-Wave Interferometric Angular Velocity Detection," IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, December 2010.    [8] J. A. Nanzer and A. H. Zal, "Correction of frequency uncertainty in wide field of view Interferometric angular velocity measurements," in Microwave Symposium Digest (MTT), 2012 IEEE MTT-S International, 2012, pp. 1-3.    [9] J. A. Nanzer, K. Kammerman, and K. S. Zilevu, "A 29.5 GHz radar interferometer for measuring the angular velocity of moving objects," in Microwave Symposium Digest (IMS), 2013 IEEE MTT-S International, 2013, pp. 1-3.    [10] J. A. Nanzer, "Resolution of interferometric angular velocity measurements," in Antennas and Propagation (APSURSI), 2011 IEEE International Symposium on, 2011, pp. 3229-3232.    [11] J. A. Nanzer, "Micro-motion signatures in radar angular velocity measurements," in Radar Conference (RadarConf), 2016 IEEE, 2016, pp. 1-4.    [12] T. Wagner, R. Feger, and A. Stelzer, "Wide-band range-Doppler processing for FMCW systems," in Radar Conference (EuRAD), 2013 European, 2013, pp. 160-163.

Radar method and system for determining the angular position, the location, and/or the velocity of a target