A power closure panel control apparatus is independent of closure panel configuration and capable of a diverse range of remote and direct activation. Sophisticated safety features utilize an adaptive strategy to facilitate highly sensitive obstruction detection by learning the closure system's force requirement and applying a safety margin to it. The control system allows the closure panel to operate in a totally manual mode.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a power closure control apparatus which is independent of closure panel configuration and capable of a diverse range of remote and direct actuation. It is particularly useful in automotive applications.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Automatic closure of doors and miscellaneous panels is a generally accepted practice and is widely used in the architectural industry. Power garage doors, elevator doors, and secure area (e.g. computer room) sliding panels have been in use for a number of decades. The control and safety features of these systems are generally fairly simple but normally of adequate effectiveness.
More recently, powered movement of vehicle closures has become quite popular with windows, decklids, sliding doors and liftgates all being automated. However, the forces required to close and hold these types of systems effectively against aerodynamic and safety related loadings is significantly higher than those encountered in architectural applications. Additionally, the majority of automotive closure applications are geometrically non-linear, and require sophisticated mechanisms to automate. The inherently large operating forces and complex non-linear motions of such closures result in potentially serious safety concerns as simple obstruction detection systems become completely inadequate. In addition to the safety considerations, automotive systems require higher levels of functionality than their architectural counterparts. Various types of sophisticated remote actuation, final latching co-ordination, and crashworthiness must all be considered.
The most common form of obstruction detection system monitors the speed of the panel during opening and closing operation. When the speed falls below some predetermined limit, it is assumed to be due to an obstruction. When an obstruction is in the path of the closure panel, the force required to move the panel increases. The actuator attempts to supply this additional force but because the system is not stiff, the panel movement slows. A more direct means of detecting an obstruction would be to monitor the force required to move the panel. Existing systems do not use this approach because it is usually more costly to monitor force.
Most speed sensing obstruction detection systems depend on a constant speed throughout the closure panel travel (as illustrated for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,980,618). If the dynamics of the system are such that the speed is not constant, a fixed speed setpoint is inadequate because it allows too large a speed margin during the most rapid and hence most dangerous portion of closure panel movement. Variations to minimize this speed margin are known. It is known, as disclosed by Schindler in U.S. Pat. No. 4,638,433, that a system can be operated in a "learning mode" where, during system installation, the system is operated and determines the limits automatically. This is still a fixed limit and while it eliminates manually setting the limits, still requires the system to be "retrained" in the event the system characteristics change through, for example, regular wear and tear. Jones et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,831,509) improves the sensitivity by "mapping" the motor speed throughout the travel of the panel during a "learning mode". This system also requires "retraining" although it is an improvement. Murray (U.S. Pat. No. 5,278,480) improves on this motion by modifying a lower speed limit each time the panel is successfully closed and increases the sensitivity during the last several inches of travel by "mapping" the motor speed for each revolution. However, this approach is still only appropriate for systems which are not stiff, do not change stiffness with time or conditions, are linear throughout closure panel travel, and for which the force experienced by the obstruction need not be known. Further, all the systems described so far assume that the systems do not change from one operation to the next. In non-stationary systems (ships, automobiles, etc.) this is clearly not the case. For example, a sliding door which must be closed on an incline will close more slowly (or quickly) than on the level.
Perhaps the most serious problem with all speed sensing systems is the assumption that unobstructed movement operates at a similar speed over time, temperature, power source variations and other conditions. In the case of battery powered systems such as seen on automobiles, power source variations in excess of +/-50% are not unusual. Further, depending on the technology, DC motor speed will vary proportionally. Thus any system which relies on a constant unobstructed speed is inappropriate for automobile use.
For mechanically efficient DC systems, motor current is a good approximation of the force applied to a closure panel. Using this notion, Vrabel (U.S. Pat. No. 4,678,975) discloses a method more appropriate for automotive use. His system monitors motor current and operating time. If either of these exceed some pre-determined limit, it is assumed to be due to some obstruction. Goertler (U.S. Pat. No. 4,347,465) discloses a variation which assumes an obstruction is detected if the instantaneous current is above some predetermined level or if the current is above some different predetermined level for some predetermined length of time. However, in both these systems, to account for normal variations with time, environmental conditions and normal wear and tear, these limits must allow a generous margin above normal operation and hence result in excessive forces being experienced by obstructions.
Others have made improvements by explicitly compensating for some variation in environmental condition by explicitly measuring them. For example, Mintz (U.S. Pat. No. 4,220,900) discloses a system which monitors motor current and compares it to a preset limit, as does Vrabel. However, he improves on the system by adjusting the limit as a function of temperature. While this addresses temperature dependencies, it does not address any other environmental or system effects.
Zuckerman (U.S. Pat. No. 5,069,000) is able to reduce these generous margins without compensating for the impact of specific factors. He discloses a system which monitors the instantaneous current in the driving motor (which is a good approximation to closure force for mechanically efficient systems) and compares it to the time average of the current. If the difference exceeds a preset limit, it is assumed to be due to an obstruction. While this is more appropriate for battery powered systems, it ignores system non-linearities and provides no obstruction detection during the first portion of operation. Further, it is inappropriate for systems in which motor current is not an accurate measure of closure forces.
Another form of obstruction detection is often used for "stiff" systems (that is, systems which can supply dangerous forces without slowing). In this case, obstructions are sensed using "light curtains" or some variation thereof. In such a system, a beam of light is shone across the path of travel of the panel. If the beam of light is broken, the system assumes an obstruction is in the path of the closure panel. The advantage of this system is that no contact with the obstruction is necessary to detect the obstruction. However, the beam of light cannot cover the entire edge of the closure panel or other surfaces of the panel and hence cannot be relied on exclusively for obstruction detection. Further, such systems are prone to malfunction due to dirt and other foreign matter.
Another form of obstruction detection is a pressure sensitive strip on the leading edge of the closure panel. In some applications this is appropriate, but the pressure sensing strip is prone to breakage, is difficult to seal against, and does not protect against obstructions which do not directly contact the strip.
Other forms of obstruction detection (for example, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,039,222) rely on mechanical means such as slip clutches, springs and pressure release valves. These uniformly suffer from inaccuracy, tuning difficulty and the inability to respond to changing environmental or system conditions.
The prior art systems disclosed also vary in their response to an obstruction. All respond by either stopping the actuator or reversing the direction of the closure panel. The problem with simply stopping the actuator is that a force may continue to be applied to the obstruction due to the "spring" in the overall system; that is, the obstruction may be "pinched" between the closure plane and the perimeter of the opening or some other stationary object. The difficulty in reversing the direction of the closure panel is that the obstruction may continue to be pinched or another obstruction may be detected. In the case of a second obstruction, it is unclear what evasive action should be taken.


Alternative data selector, a full adder, and a ripple carry adder are disclosed. The alternative data selector includes: a NOR logic circuit configured to receive a selection signal and an inverted first input and generate an intermediate result; and an AND-OR-NOT logic circuit configured to receive the selection signal, a second input, and the intermediate result of the NOR logic circuit and generate an inverted output.

The area occupied by the data selector or the Full Adder (FA) is proportional to the number of transistors used to implement it. Therefore, as the total number of transistors decreases, the area occupied by the data selector or the full adder, also decreases. The reduction in the area of the data selector and the full adder will directly translate into a reduction in chip area and cost savings.

Alternative data selector, full adder and ripple carry adder

SHENZHEN MICROBT ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


The invention discloses a NIR method for fatty acid content of oilseeds, including: selection of oilseed samples, and analyzing the oilseed samples by an near infrared spectrometer to obtain NIR spectra; preprocessing of NIR spectra and establishment of a NIR spectral database of oilseeds; establishment of a fatty acid database of oilseeds based on gas chromatography; establishment of prediction model of fatty acids in oilseeds; acquiring NIR spectrum of a sample to be tested by the near infrared spectrometer, and importing the preprocessed NIR spectrum into the prediction model of fatty acids to obtain the predicted fatty acid content of the tested sample. The method is simple and rapid to operate and is non-destructive, and the detection time of the sample is greatly shortened and the detection cost is reduced.

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the present invention. The subject matter discussed in the background of the invention section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in the background of the invention section Similarly, a problem mentioned in the background of the invention section or associated with the subject matter of the background of the invention section should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter in the background of the invention section merely represents different approaches, which in and of themselves may also be inventions.
China is the largest country of food production and consumption. The quality and safety of foods have an important impact on human health. The quality and safety of agricultural products as raw materials are an important and decisive basis. In recent years, the world's attentions to food safety issues have also been increasing, and a great stress has been laid on the quality and safety of agricultural products. After the accession of China to the World Trade Organization (WTO), tariff barriers for China's agricultural products being exported to the world will gradually be replaced by technical barriers, and the functionality and safety of foods are ever more emphasized. On the other hand, the requirements of food manufacturers, government regulators and consumers for food quality analysis methods are shifting toward a real-time, rapid and non-destructive direction. Edible oils are an indispensable part of people's dietary structure. Edible Oils provide energy, essential fatty acids and other nutrients, including fat-soluble vitamins, phytosterols, polyphenols and other functional ingredients for human body, and are also important basic raw materials for the food and feed industries. Quality of edible oils depends on the quality of oilseeds. In this context, new, rapid and efficient detection technology and equipment have become major technological needs in this field.
The traditional detection methods for fatty acid content of oilseeds, such as gas chromatography or gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, require pretreatment of a sample and long detection time. The large amount of chemical reagents used in the detection process will cause certain pollution to the environment, which are not suitable for on-site detection or for nondestructive inspection needs of today's large commodity trading context. For breeders, the amount of sample is limited; for producers, merchants, and regulators, these methods cannot be used for on-site detection, and are not rapid or efficient. Therefore, it is urgent to establish a rapid, non-destructive and environment-friendly detection method for fatty acid content of oilseeds.
Fatty acid content usually refers to relative contents of fatty acids in oilseeds and oilseeds. NIR (NIR) spectroscopy is a rapid, non-destructive and environment-friendly and low-cost measurement and therefore used in quantitative and qualitative analysis of agricultural products and foods. The rapid detection methods currently used need to be combined with chemometric methods to establish a prediction model. Generally, the prediction models are directly constructed by using the relative content of fatty acids in oilseeds and NIR spectra. However, NIR spectrum reflects the information on the absolute content of fatty acids, the absolute contents of fatty acids therefore comply with Lambert Beer's law, but relative contents of fatty acids not. So, such models have poor stability and accuracy and thus cannot be used effectively in practice. The main reason is that the influence of oil content is often neglected. In practice, oil content largely ranges. Taking Chinese rapeseeds as an example, the oil contents are from 30% to 50%.
Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop a rapid detection technique for fatty acids in oilseeds from another perspective.

NIR spectroscopy method for fatty acid content of oilseeds

OIL CROPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE, CHINESE ACADEMY OF ARGICULTURAL SCIENCES


The present invention is to store a content list that stores at least one pair of content related to a position and the position in relation to the content, determine a content acquisition region to acquire the content based on a current position, select content in relation to a position associated with the determined content acquisition region from the content list, acquire part of the selected content in advance, determine whether remaining part of the selected content will be referred to based on a position subsequent to the part of the selected content being acquired, thereby determining whether or not to acquire the remaining part of the selected content, and when determining to acquire the remaining part of the selected content, acquire the remaining part of the selected content.

In recent years, with improvement of wireless communication networks including mobile telephone networks, service has become widespread that provides content to a terminal apparatus which is mounted and used on a mobile unit such as a car. It is preferable that the content to provide to the terminal apparatus mounted on a mobile unit is content related to positions through which the mobile unit passes.
The mobile unit and a provision source (for example, content server) of data (content data) that expresses the content are connected by communication paths including a wireless communication path. Data transmission rate is lower in the wireless communication path than in a wired communication path. Therefore, it is required to provide appropriate content at proper timing corresponding to the position to the terminal apparatus mounted on the mobile unit whose position changes with time.
As a conventional technique for providing content related to positions through which a mobile unit passes to the terminal apparatus, for example, the technique as disclosed in the following document is known.
Document: Sato, et al. "A Caching Algorithm for Location-aware Information Disseminated through Broadcast Media", Information Processing Society of Japan, Vol.41, No.9, pages 2434 to 2444, September, 2000.
The conventional technique as disclosed in the document has a premise that a car (mobile unit) mounted with the terminal apparatus moves along a beforehand planned path. Then, the mobile unit acquires content data that expresses content via broadcast before presenting the information (content) related to a position on the moving path to a user, and stores the data in a cache of the terminal apparatus. Thus, it is intended to present the content at proper timing while apparently eliminating a waiting time for a user to access.
As described above, the conventional technique as disclosed in the document has the premise that the mobile unit mounted with the terminal apparatus moves along the beforehand planed path (scheduled path). Hence, the mobile unit acquires in advance content data that expresses the content related to a position near the scheduled path.
Therefore, according to the conventional technique, when the scheduled path is not set, the mobile unit cannot acquire the content data in advance.
Then, it is considered predicting a path of a mobile unit based on a current position of the mobile unit, and acquiring in advance content data that expresses the content related to a position near the predicted path. However, in this case, the mobile unit may move out of the predicted path. Therefore, the mobile unit has to acquire content data of wide range in advance. Accordingly, the mobile unit needs to store a number of items of content data that are not presented eventually, and as a result, cannot use the storage capacity of the terminal apparatus efficiently.
Further, in the above-mentioned document, a case is not considered where the time is long which is required for transmission from a content providing source to a terminal apparatus because the size is large of the content data that expresses the content. As in this case, when the time required for transmission of the content data is long, there is a possibility that the mobile unit has already passed through a position in relation to the content at the time transmission of the content data has been completed. In this case, it is not possible to present the acquired content data at appropriate timing, and the acquired content data becomes waste. As a result, the usage efficiency of the transmission path deteriorates.

System and method for obtaining content relating to a predicted location of a terminal apparatus

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A method includes depositing a resist layer onto a hard mask layer to form a multi-layer patterning material film stack on a semiconductor substrate, directing patterning radiation onto the film stack to form a developed pattern in the resist layer and exposing the film stack to at least one gas precursor in connection with a sequential infiltration synthesis process. The film stack is configured to facilitate selective infiltration of the at least one gas precursor into the resist layer.

The present application relates to manufacturing of semiconductor integrated circuits, and more particularly to patterning of semiconductor integrated circuit features using lithography processes incorporating a Sequential Infiltration Synthesis (SIS) technique.
As part of the ongoing world-wide effort to reduce integrated circuit device dimensions, a variety of single-pattern and multiple-pattern lithography processes based on deep ultraviolet (DUV) radiation wavelengths such as 193 nanometers (nm) have come into widespread use, although further extension of such arrangements to the patterning of features at production nodes below 10 nm may be too complex. Recent development of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography processes using wavelengths such as 13.5 nm are expected to facilitate patterning of features at sub-10 nm production nodes with simpler patterning schemes, but there remains significant difficulties in the practical implementation of EUV processes. For example, conventional techniques in some cases fail to provide a resist layer that exhibits sufficient etch selectivity relative to an underlying hard mask layer. This can lead to, or increase, pattern transfer defects such as line breaks and line bridging in the photoresist during an etching process. Additionally, elimination of line bridge defects caused by scumming of EUV resist between lines generally requires a resist descum process after lithographic pattern development which further reduces resist thickness available for a subsequent hard mask etch.

Sequential infiltration synthesis extreme ultraviolet single expose patterning

International Business Machines Corporation


A method for joining of biological elements is disclosed. A plate is placed over a first segment and a second segment. The plate is attached to the first segment and the second segment. A dowel channel is drilled thru a dowel hole of the plate. A dowel is inserted into the dowel channel, wherein the dowel crosses a joining plane of the first segment and the second segment. A locking screw is placed on a top side of the dowel to lock the dowel in place.

Bone dowels have conventionally been used for spinal fusions. However, certain disadvantages are prevalent with the usage of bone dowels, such as low strength and risk of migration of the bone dowels. Bone dowels may also migrate if implanted in a loaded application, especially in the case of multiple bones or bone fragments. Crushed or damaged bones may also pose a problem.
Plates have been conventionally used to fix joints or for joint fusion. Plates are strong, but were meant only to be used with bone pastes. Bone pastes, or injectible bone growth enhancers could be used.


A kitchen appliance in the form of an oven for baking, roasting and broiling is associated with a bread making apparatus featuring a bread baking pan adapted to be selectively placed into the oven. The oven includes heating elements at least at the top and bottom of the oven chamber. The bread making apparatus includes a metallic pan with a structure for locating the pan at a predetermined position within the oven chamber. In this position, a drive mechanism can rotate a blade for kneading dough in the pan.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to cooking apparatus and more particularly to a combined baking oven and automatic bread making apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
During the past two decades different kinds of bread-making machines have been introduced to the consumer market. Each is adapted for automatically mixing and kneading dough after the necessary ingredients have been put into a receptacle or pan, letting the dough rise and baking a loaf of bread at a predetermined temperature and time. Programmed electronic circuitry is integrated into this apparatus to execute the different steps in their correct order and timing in respect of the kind of bread chosen. In this way all the user has to do is to place the correct ingredients into the baking pan and select the bread type corresponding to the ingredients.
Conventional bread-making apparatus essentially includes a baking pan provided with a kneading blade or blades in its bottom portion to be rotated by an electric motor for a predesignated period. The pan has an open top and is removable from the appliance for extracting the ready loaf and for cleaning purposes. When the pan is inserted in a baking chamber, the open top is closed tightly by a cover. The baking chamber contains a bottom heating element to be energized to the correct temperature and timing by electronic control circuitry. The air heated in the baking chamber transmits the heat energy to the dough in the baking pan. An outer housing encloses the baking chamber and contains, inter alia, the electric motor and drive for rotating the kneading blade or blades, the electronic circuitry and a keyboard for selecting the desired bread type.
U.S. Letters Pat. No. 5,584,233 (1996) to Glucksman et al. and assigned to the same assignee as the present invention discloses a bread-making apparatus that overcomes certain drawbacks of prior art bread-making apparatus. The apparatus disclosed in the patent is characterized by hot-air circulation through the space between the baking chamber and the outer housing. This arrangement highly improves the baking procedure by creating uniform temperature all over the side, the bottom and the top of the baking pan, and, as a consequence, uniform bread quality. Another feature of this bread maker is the cool outer housing permitting its manufacture from a plastic material.
U.S. Letters Pat. No. 5,445,061 (1995) to Barradas discloses a combination bread-making machine and cooker. The appliance is rectangular in shape and includes a lateral chamber, a bottom chamber and an oven chamber. An intermediate wall between the oven chamber and lateral chamber carries a heating element and fan with a baffle to conduct and direct heated air into the oven chamber and against the side walls thereby to augment the heat in the chamber. The bread pan has a central aperture through the bottom that resides on a bottom support plate within the oven chamber. A motor-driven shaft extends up through that opening and is connected to a kneading blade. With this construction the ingredients can be added to the bread pan only after the bread pan is installed in the oven. If one attempts to fill the pan outside the oven chamber, steps must be taken to seal the central bottom aperture of the pan to prevent the ingredients from leaking. Consequently the housing surrounding the oven chamber of the Barradas patent opens to the front and back to provide top access to the pan.
U.S. Letters Pat. No. 5,493,955 to Belongia et al. is representative of a group of patents that disclose other embodiments of combined automatic breadmakers and oven appliances. This particular appliance has a laterally opening wide door. Specifically in this appliance a floor, enclosing surfaces and a door form the oven chamber. The door swings horizontally to create a front opening extending substantially to the oven floor to allow wide-side insertion and removal of a baking pan. When closed the door extends upwardly along the oven floor and rearwardly to a position directly above the pan. The pan has two driven kneading members based along its bottom for mixing dough. As in the Barradas patent it appears that the pan must be in position in the bottom of the oven chamber prior to the addition of ingredients to the pan. Consequently top access through the housing to the baking pan is required and the door is constructed to provide that access when it is opened.
U.S. Letters Pat. No. 5,590,585 to Morishita discloses another version of a breadmaker in which a pan is installed in a bread-making apparatus with a shaft that penetrates the bottom of the bread-making pan. As in the Belongia et al. patent a top cover is removed in order to add ingredients to the pan after it is installed in the bread making appliance.
Thus, each of the foregoing references are representative of appliances in which the bread-making pan must be positioned in the apparatus before ingredients can be added. This necessitates some access from the top of the apparatus as opposed to access merely from the front. If top access is not provided by a top opening member of the oven chamber, the overall height of the apparatus would be prohibitive. Top opening ovens pose another problem. Such construction eliminates the possibility of locating any type of heating element centrally of the top wall of the oven chamber. Using single heating elements, as in the floor can produce uneven heating and baking.
Generally such appliances sit on a counter to be stored and used under a wall cabinet. Other appliances are actually hung from a wall cabinet. With the popularity of such under-cabinet mounting there is a practical requirement for access to an oven chamber or the like solely through a front opening. For bread making appliances this means ingredients need to be added remotely from the oven chamber.
U.S. Letters Pat. No. 4,959,517 (1990) to Jump et al. discloses a microwave cooking assembly for various foods in which ingredients are added to a conventional mixing bowl. A top assembly serves as a cover and includes a self-contained stirrer with a paddle that moves through the food to mix the food. Various types of motor drives are disclosed including mechanical and electrical drives. However, the utilization of a separate cover with any sort of driving means complicates the overall structure and thereby increases the expense over other approaches in the prior art.
Consequently a need remains for a combined baking oven and automatic bread baking appliance that is adapted for front loading and that enables ingredients to be added remotely from the apparatus. Moreover, a need exists for an oven chamber in such an appliance that produces even heating and uniform cooking.

Combined baking oven and automatic bread baking apparatus


Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for assessing cyber threats. In some implementations, data indicating a time window is received. Data indicating at least one dynamic Bayesian network (DBN) is accessed. A plurality of simulations are performed using the DBN, and outcomes of the plurality of simulations are sampled according to the state of the DBN representing the end of the time window. Based on the sampled outcomes of the simulations, a measure of impact of the computer-based threats to the organization over the time window is determined. The determined measure is provided for output to a user.

This disclosure relates generally to assessing cyber threats and the risks they pose to organizations.
Computer-based threats to organizations have increased significantly in recent years. Organizations frequently are unable to determine the potential damage caused by cyber threats or the manner in which different attacks will evolve over time. While organizations may deploy some systems or procedures in attempt to mitigate computer-based threats, it is often difficult to determine the extent that mitigation measures may be effective in actually protecting an organization from intrusion and loss.


Optically variable security devices, including security threads, patches, labels, strips, are disclosed herein. Certain security devices according to the present disclosure utilize a lens-less construction whereby multiple icon layers are coupled to produce a synthetic image or synthetic color that has an optically variable effect. Each icon layer includes an array of high-resolution icon elements that are aligned relative to each other and spaced apart from each other to produce the desired optically variable effect. Such security devices are particularly, though not exclusively, useful for authenticating security documents.

Suppliers of authentic articles (products) of value often struggle against counterfeiters who seek to use less expensive processes to produce imitations of authentic products and transfer these counterfeits, as authentic versions, to unsuspecting consumers. For example, counterfeiters often produce counterfeit security documents by using sophisticated printing and copying technologies to photocopy authentic security documents and pass the counterfeits off as authentic documents. Some consumer products do not rely on security labels for authentication, in which case counterfeiters will simply duplicate the consumer product and pass it off as authentic. However, some consumer products use security labels to authenticate their consumer products; in which case counterfeiters will have to duplicate the consumer product—including the security label.
To thwart the efforts of counterfeiters, certain manufacturers of authentic articles of value utilize security devices that display optically variable images. These devices have become useful tools in combatting counterfeits and forgeries since even the most sophisticated copying and printing technology is unable to replicate the optical variability produced by these security devices.
There are several kinds of optical security devices. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,333,268, 7,738,175, and 7,468,842 to Steenblik et al. describe one or more optical security devices that produce synthetic images when an array of image elements are viewed through an array of focusing elements. These synthetic images may demonstrate optical variability as they show a number of different optical effects (e.g., change in location, color, size, shape, number, etc.) when viewed from various points of view. Material constructions capable of presenting such effects are also described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,738,175 to Steenblik et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,830,627 to Commander et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,149,511 to Kaule et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 8,878,844 to Kaule et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 8,786,521 to Kaule et al.; European Patent Application No. EP2162294 to Kaule et al, and European Patent Application No. EP2164713 to Kaule.
While there are several optical security devices that are suitable for providing enhanced security and authentication to various high security or high value products, opportunities for enhancing the performance and functionality of optical security devices remain. For example, devices such as described in the above-listed references can often require multiple manufacturing processes in order to separately create the image layer and the focusing layer. This can be expensive and can introduce variability into the manufacturing process. Moreover, the optical security devices described above can require strict post-manufacture registration between the array of focusing elements and the array of icon elements, which adds increased complications to the process. Optical security devices are often lens-based systems, comprising an array of lenses as focusing elements in the focusing layer. Lenses are susceptible to soiling, which can distort or obstruct the synthetic image produced by the security device.
One alternative to the lens-based security device is disclosed in Australian Patent Application No. AU2017101291 (the "'291 application"). Disclosed therein is a device having at least two layers with a first layer including a first pattern and a second layer having a second pattern. The second layer is separated from the first layer by a distance and the second pattern includes at least one discrete region that is a scaled version of a corresponding region of the first pattern. The device allegedly produces a three dimensional visual effect when viewing the device due to moiré interference. This moiré interference effect is produced from global scaling where both the size of lines or dots and their spacing are scaled up or down in one layer relative to the other.
The device described in the '291 application has its own deficiencies. Particularly, the lines or dots are low resolution lines which are printed or embossed using conventional printing presses, such as a Simultan printing press. The lack of high resolution lines or dots limits the resolution of any image that is projected by the device. This is important where the thickness of the device is a critical part of authenticating an article of value, such as where the device is to be used in authenticating security documents (e.g., banknotes).


One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates phase-buffering on a bit-by-bit basis using a control queue. The system includes a control queue, wherein a stage in the control queue is configured to accept both a first control signal and a second control signal, wherein the first control signal and the second control signal are mutually exclusive, wherein the first control signal being asserted indicates the value of a corresponding bit is zero, while the second control signal being asserted indicates the value of the corresponding bit is one. A forward-transfer mechanism couples the first control signal or the second control signal from the input of the stage through storage elements to the output of the stage. A reverse transfer mechanism accepts an acknowledgement signal at the output of the stage and transfers the acknowledgement signal through a storage element to the input of the stage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to computer systems. More specifically, the present invention is related to an apparatus and a method for phase-buffering signals on a bit-by-bit basis using control queues.
2. Related Art
As computer systems become increasingly faster, signal propagation delays are becoming more critical. If propagation delays for data signals are not properly matched with corresponding clock signals, signals sent from one sub-unit of a computer system to another sub-unit may not have the correct timing in relation to the clock signal at the receiving end. This is true even though both the sending clock signal and the receiving clock signal are derived from the same clock source. The clock signals going to the source and destination travel through different paths and may incur different delays, which can cause skew in the data signals relative to the receiving clock signal. Reference is made here to the difference in arrival time of the clock signals at the transmit end and the receiving end as the phase-delay of the clock. This phase delay can be positive or negative. Note that temperature and voltage differences may affect the timing of the data and clock signals. Furthermore, coupling and interference from signals on adjacent wires may also affect the timing of the data and clock signals.
FIG. 1 illustrates a phase buffer 106 interposed between a transmitter module 104 and a receiver module 108. Transmitter module 104 and receiver module 108 receive a clock signal from clock source 102. The clock signal received at transmitter module 104 is delayed by delay A 114, while the clock signal received at receiver module 108 is delayed by delay B 116. Delay A 114 and delay B 116 are typically different from each other and are due to various causes, such as different components in their propagation paths, different temperatures of these components and different supply voltages of these components. Additionally, transmitter module 104 and receiver module 108 may be located in different integrated circuits. Note that delay A 114 and delay B 116 may include delays within transmitter module 104 and receiver module 108, respectively.
During operation, transmitter module 104 sends data 110 for consumption by receiver module 108. However, due to the differences in delay A 114 and delay B 116, transmitter module 104 cannot send data 110 directly to receiver module 108. Instead, transmitter module sends data 110 to phase buffer 106 using TX clock 118, which is derived from the clock signal delayed by delay A 114. Phase buffer 106 stores data 110 until such time as it is delivered to receiver module 108 as data 112. Data 112 is delivered to receiver module 108 using RX clock 120, which is derived from the clock signal delayed by delay B 116.
FIG. 2A illustrates a typical 3-stage flow-through FIFO. The upper portion of FIG. 2A depicts the control path, while the lower portion of FIG. 2A depicts the data path. Note that the data path may be a bus carrying several bits of data between data in 210 and data out 212.
In an asynchronous FIFO, typically control signals are bundled with the data bits, as shown in FIG. 2A. The forward-going "ready" control signal, often called "request," announces that the data are valid. Thus, there is a bundling delay constraint that the delay of the forward-going control signal must be the same as or greater than the delay of the forward-going data. The control must not announce that "the data are valid" when the data are not valid yet. Thus, care must be taken in the circuit design and chip layout to ensure that this bundling constraint is met.
The control path includes control stages 201-203 and the data path includes pass-gates 204-206 and sticky buffers 207-209. Sticky buffers 207-209 are described below in conjunction with FIG. 2B. Prior to data being stored within the FIFO, ready signals 222, 224, 226, and 228 and acknowledge signals 214, 216, 218, and 220 are all inactive. The combination of pass gate 204 and sticky buffer 207 form a latch. The same is true for the combination of pass gate 205 and sticky buffer 208, and the combination of pass gate 206 and sticky buffer 209.
When data becomes available at data in 210, the data source brings ready signal 222 to an active state. In response, control stage 201 causes pass-gate 204 to momentarily open and provide data in 210 to sticky buffer 207. Sticky buffer 207 holds the received state of data in 210 until control stage 201 is cycled again. Control stage 201 also activates ready signal 224 which passes to control stage 202 and acknowledge signal 220 to the data source. Note that acknowledge signal 220 and the control signal to pass-gate 204 both are designed to have an inherent delay, which allows data in 210 to be captured before the corresponding acknowledge signal 220 is set to active.
At a future time, acknowledge signal 218 from control stage 202 is activated, which causes control stage 201 to deactivate acknowledge signal 220 and to deactivate ready signal 224. This returns the first stage of the FIFO to its initial state. The second and third stages of the FIFO operate in a similar manner. For proper operation, the delay in a given control stage must be longer than the delay in the associated data stage. This is referred to as the control-to-data bundling constraint. Note that there can be more or fewer stages in the FIFO than is shown in FIG. 2A. Such a flow-through FIFO functions as a phase-buffer between clocked modules because each stage of the FIFO operates in less than one clock cycle. The difference between the delay of one stage of FIFO and the clock period is the amount of phase buffering each stage of the FIFO can provide.
FIG. 2B illustrates an exemplary sticky buffer 207. Sticky buffer 207 includes inverters 250 and 252 coupled back-to back, which forms a latch. Note that inverter 252 is smaller than inverter 250, thus the output of inverter 252 can be easily overridden by an external input to inverter 250. Inverter 254 restores the output polarity of sticky buffer 207 to match the input polarity of sticky buffer 207.
Exemplary prior art solutions are described by William J. Dally and John W. Poulton in Digital Systems Engineering, Cambridge University Press, 1998, pages 470-485. Note that on page 475, the authors describe the task of phase-buffering as "synchronizing a mesochronous signal." The task is not really "synchronizing," but the circuits used are very similar to those used when synchronization is carried out, thus the authors included them in the synchronizer design section. Notice that the FIFO designs shown in this text are ring-buffer FIFOs rather than the flow-through FIFOs. Either style will work.
Determining the proper depth for the FIFO is critical. The FIFO must have sufficient stages to ensure that the FIFO will not overflow, causing loss of data, but must not have too many stages so that data is needlessly held in the FIFO. Furthermore, if the FIFO has too few stages, it is possible to inadvertently empty it thus causing erroneous data to be read by the receiver. Thus, a phase buffer circuit design that offers more phase buffering per stage will have the advantage that it will require fewer stages to achieve a specified amount of phase buffering.
Use of a FIFO as a phase buffer has several drawbacks. The primary issue is managing the control-to-data bundling constraint. Extra delay margin must be added into the forward control path of the FIFO to guarantee that the bundling constraint is satisfied over all operating conditions. This extra delay slows down each FIFO stage, reducing its effectiveness at phase buffering and thus more stages will be required to achieve the specified amount of phase buffering.
Another issue with the use of FIFOs occurs when the input data bits are spatially distributed, which occurs, for example, when the input data comes from input pins of a chip. This can result in running long wires to bring all the bits together to deliver the data to the FIFO, thus adding delay to each data bit proportional to the length of its wire. This additional delay subtracts from the phase buffering capability of the first stage of the FIFO. Alternatively, multiple 1-bit wide FIFOs can be used, one FIFO for each input data bit. This can reduce the wire lengths, and thus reduce additional delays. However, although flow-through FIFO stages, such as shown in FIG. 2A, are small, use of multiple 1-bit FIFOs also duplicates the control circuits.
Hence, what is needed is an apparatus and a method for phase-buffering of signals between a source and a destination within a computer system, which do not have the problems described above.

Apparatus and method for phase-buffering on a bit-by-bit basis using control queues


A mixer circuit is disclosed that includes a first mixer stage including first and second transmission gates. The mixer circuit also includes a second mixer stage including third and fourth transmission gates. The mixer further includes a first base band signal terminal coupled with the first and second transmission gates and a second base band signal terminal coupled with the third and fourth transmission gates. The mixer circuit processes signals so as to mix a base band signal communicated to the first and second base band signal terminals with a differential LO signal communicated to first and second LO signal terminals to create a first mixed differential signal. Alternatively, the mixer extracts a base band signal from a mixed signal communicated to the first and second mixed signal terminals signal using the LO signal communicated to the first and second LO signal terminals.

1. Field
This disclosure relates to mixer circuits.
2. Description of Related Art
Mixer circuits are commonly used in a number of applications. As one example, they are often used in radio frequency (RF) applications for up-converting (up-mixing) or down-converting (down-mixing). In this context, up-converting is the process of mixing a base band signal, such as a differential base band signal, with an RF signal, such as a differential RF signal that is generated by a local oscillator circuit that operates in the RF range. This process generates a mixed RF signal with the base band information included with (mixed with) the RF signal generated by the local oscillator. Down-converting is the process of separating (un-mixing) the base band signal from the mixed RF signal. This is typically accomplished by using a mixer circuit with a local oscillator of substantially an identical frequency as was used to mix the mixed RF signal.
One typical type of mixer circuit is a passive mixer circuit, which may be implemented using a complementary-metal-oxide semiconductor circuit fabrication process (e.g. an integrated circuit). In such circuits, the operation of such mixer circuits is dependent on the linear range of those circuits. In this respect, the linear range of the circuit affects the one decibel (1 dB) compression point and the third intercept point (IP3), which are measures of the adverse affects of non-linearities on the gain and performance of such circuits. In this respect, current approaches for implementing passive mixer circuits have certain limitations. These limitations include included limited linear ranges, which result in 1 db compression points and IP3 points that are unacceptable for RF signals with higher amplitudes (e.g. these circuits have insufficient gain when processing such signals). Therefore, alternative approaches for implementing such circuits are desirable.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.


Immunoassays for detecting hepatitis C virus protein and immune complexes between hepatitis C virus protein and antibodies in biological samples, methods of screening blood products for hepatitis C virus, and kits employed therefor are provided.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) was first identified and characterized as the primary cause of post transfusion non-A, non-B hepatitis (NANBH) by Houghton, et al. In addition to providing substantial information concerning HCV, Houghton, et al., and their collaborators have disclosed a number of general and specific immunological reagents and methods. See, e.g. Houghton, et al., EPO Pub. No. 318,216; Houghton, et al., EPO Pub. No. 388,232; Choo, et al., Science, 1989, 244, 359–362; Kuo, et al., Science, 1989, 244, 362–364; Takeuchi, et al., J. Gen. Virol., 1990, 71, 3027–3033; Takeuchi, et al., Gene, 1990, 91, 287–291; Takeuchi, et al., Nucl. Acids Res., 1990, 18, 4626; Miyamura, et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 1990, 87, 983–987: Saito, et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 1990, 87, 6547–6549; Choo, et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 1991, 88, 2451–2455; Han, et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 88, 1711–1715; Houghton, et al., Hepatology, 1991, 14, 381–388; and Weiner, et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 1992, 89, 3468–3472. These publications provide the art with an extensive background on HCV generally, as well as the manufacture and uses of HCV polypeptide immunological reagents. For brevity, therefore, the disclosure of these publications in particular are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Others have readily applied and extended the work of Houghton, et al. See, e.g. Highfield, et al., UK Pat App. 2,239,245 (The Welcome Foundation Ltd.); Wang, EPO Pub. No. 442,394 (United Biomedical Inc.); Leung, et al., EPO Pub. No. 445,423 (Abbott Laboratories); Habits, et al., EPO Pub. No.451,891 (Akzo N.V.); Reyes, et al., PCT Pub No. WO 91/15516 (Genelabs Inc.); Maki, et al., EPO Pub. No. 468,657 (Tonen Corp.); and Kamada, et al., EPO Pub. No. 469,348 (Shionogi Seiyaku K.K.). See also, Matsuura, et al., J. Virology, 1992, 66, 1425; Kato, et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 1990, 87, 9524–9528; Takamizawa, et al., J. Virol., 1991, 65, 1105–1113; Chiba, et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 1991, 88, 4641–4645; Harada, et al., J. Virol., 1990, 65, 3015–3021; Hijikata, et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 1991, 88, 5547–5551; Okamoto, et al., Jpn. J. Exp. Med., 1990, 60, 167–177; Yuasa, et al., J. Gen. Virol., 1991, 72, 2021–2024; and Watanabe, et al., Int. J. Cancer, 1991, 48, 340–343.
Sensitive, specific methods for screening and identifying carriers of HCV and HCV-contaminated blood or blood products, as well as monitoring patients undergoing treatment, are important advances in medicine. Post-transfusion hepatitis (PTH) occurs in approximately 10% of transfused patients, and HCV has accounted for up to 90% of these cases. The major problem in this disease is the frequent progression to chronic liver damage (25–55%) relative to other hepatitises, such as type B.
Patient care as well as the prevention of transmission of HCV by blood and blood products or by close personal contact require reliable diagnostic and prognostic tools, such as, for example, HCV antibodies, to detect proteins related to HCV infection. Such antibodies are also useful as agents for monitoring treatment regimens for patients with HCV. Since HCV is a relatively new agent, a continuing need exists to define additional immunological reagents that will allow further study of the clinical course of disease and the epidemiology of HCV in the population.
Current methodology for detecting HCV focuses on detecting HCV-specific antibodies. See, for example, Hada, et al., Acta Med. Okayama, 1992, 46, 365–70; Miyamura, et al., EPO Pub. No. 0537626; Lok, et al., Hepatology, 1993, 18, 497–502; Wang, et al., Vox Sang, 1992, 62, 21–4; Kleinman, et al., Transfusion, 1992, 32, 805–813; Leon, et al., Vox Sang, 1996, 70, 213–16; Lesniewski, et al., J. Med. Virol., 1995, 45, 415–22; and Inoue, et al., J. Gen. Virol., 1992, 73, 2151–54. A major disadvantage to detecting antibodies which react with HCV is that seroconversion has already occurred and the patient may already have a well-established viral infection. Alternatively, if an individual is determined to be HCV antibody reactive, it may simply mean that the individual has been exposed to HCV sometime in the past and may not be presently infected.
Other methods for detecting HCV comprise using PCR. See, for example, Francois, et al., J. Clin. Microbiol., 1993, 31, 1189–93. HCV envelope proteins have also been detected by immunohistochemical analysis of hepatocytes in patients with chronic liver disease. However, these assays do not easily lend themselves to a clinical setting. Hiramatsu, et al., Hepatology, 1992, 16, 306–311.
Other methods also are directed to detecting HCV core protein. See, for example, Orito, et al., Gut, 1996, 39, 876–80 and Kashiwakuma, et al., J. Immunol. Methods, 1996, 190, 79–89. These methods include a protein-capture fluorescence enzyme immunoassay (FEIA), a traditional sandwich ELISA assay, using monoclonal antibodies reactive with recombinant HCV core protein. The method consists of using one monoclonal antibody coated on a solid phase as a capture antibody and beta-D-galactosidase conjugated monoclonal antibody as the antigen detection signal antibody. These assays, however, require very tedious sample preparation procedures including, for example, polyethyleneglycol precipitation, NaOH denaturation, retritration of the sample to neutral pH and addition of Triton X-100 to the sample preparation prior to starting the assay. Such assays are not convenient in the clinical setting. Indeed, what is required is an easy, fast immunoassay for detection of HCV antigens.
Applicants have developed an immunoassay system which can detect HCV envelope antigens, E1 and E2, without tedious sample preparation procedures. Applicants' invention provides a means to detect free HCV antigens prior to seroconversion, antigen disappearance after acute infection, and/or interferon therapy and, thus, is useful as a diagnostic and for blood screening and evaluating the effectiveness of drug treatment. Thus, Applicants' invention is a significant improvement for detecting HCV in biological samples.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Hepatitis C viral antigen immunoassay detection systems


The embodiments of the present disclosure provide a data transmission method and apparatus, and a terminal. The method includes a terminal sending a first preamble to a base station and receiving a first random access response message sent by the base station. The method further includes the terminal acquiring an uplink transmission resource based on the first random access response message and transmitting first uplink data on the uplink transmission resource. The size of the uplink transmission resource supports the transmission of the first uplink data.

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to the technical field of mobile communications, and more particularly relates to a method and apparatus for transmitting data, and a terminal.
When a terminal is in a connected state, a random access (RA) process would be triggered due to a switching event or a beam failure recovery (BFR) event, and the following cases exist in one triggered RA process: switching from a contention based random access (CBRA) to a contention free random access (CFRA), or from the CFRA to the CBRA.
Since the terminal may be switched between the CBRA and the CFRA in a same RA process, the size of an uplink transmission resource authorized in an msg2 cannot match the size of to-be-transmitted uplink data.

Data transmission method and apparatus, and terminal

GUANGDONG OPPO MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORP., LTD.


A vehicle seating assembly for a vehicle has a lower seat with a center seat cushion and a forward thigh supporting portion having a first refracted position and a second extended position. A leading edge of the forward thigh supporting portion is longitudinally displaced forward of the lower seat in the second extended position relative the first retracted position. A seat bolster is coupled with the forward thigh supporting portion extending laterally from at least one side of the seat, wherein the seat bolster has a first retracted position and a second extended position. A user control is operational to move the forward thigh supporting portion between the first retracted position and the second extended position, which simultaneously moves the seat bolster relative to the center seat cushion, respectively, between the first retracted position and a second extended position of the seat bolster.

Seat bolsters are generally configured to provide supplemental support to the back and thighs of a vehicle passenger. In combination with extendable thigh supports that articulate in the forward direction, existing bolsters of existing seat designs remain fixed. In the case of larger passengers, an uncomfortable gap between the bolster and the extended thigh support can occur where the outer edges of the passenger thighs are not supported because the bolsters do not extend with the thigh supports. Accordingly, there is a need to have a vehicle seating assembly having an articulating thigh support that simultaneously maintains support of the passenger thighs when the thigh support is extended.

Vehicle seat having extendable bolsters and thigh supports


A cable modem that supports stateless requesting and/or limited contention-based requesting is provided herein. In an example, a physical layer (PHY) configured to communicate over a plurality of upstream channels is provided. A bandwidth requester is provided to request bandwidth using contention-based requesting over a first subset of the upstream channels for contention-based flows and request bandwidth using stateless requesting over a second subset of the upstream channels for stateless flows.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is generally relates to upstream channel bonding.
2. Background Art
Cable television (CATV) systems are no longer limited to only providing television programs to viewers. In addition, CATV systems provide internet access, and/or other services to consumers via signals transmitted to customer premises by optical fibers, coaxial and other cables, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth®, etc., all in contrast to traditional over-the-air radio wave broadcasting of television programming.
The CATV system may utilize Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) compliant equipment and protocols to carry out a transfer of information, such as video, audio, and/or data between one or more set-top devices and one or more cable modem termination systems (CMTS). The DOCSIS Specification generally refers to a group of specifications published by CableLabs® that define industry standards for CMTS, cable modems (CMs) and control for set-top devices. In part, the DOCSIS specification sets forth requirements and objectives for various aspects of cable modem systems including, but not limited to, operations support systems, management, data interfaces, network layer, data link layer, and physical layer transport for data over cable systems. The DOCSIS interface specification entitled "Data-Over-Cable Service Interface Specifications, DOCSIS 3.0, MAC and Upper Layer Protocols Interface Specification, CM-SP-MULPIv3.0416-110623" is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
A DOCSIS cable system includes two primary components: one or more cable modems at a customer premises, and a CMTS located at a headend. As used herein, the term "downstream" refers to the transfer of information in a direction from the CMTS to the cable modems. The term "upstream" refers to the transfer of information in a direction from cable modems to the CMTS.
As the number of upstream channels for a cable modem increases, the complexity of upstream channel bonding increases exponentially. For each channel added to an upstream bonded channel group, monitoring and tracking functions performed by a cable modem for each additional upstream channel increases as well. For example, for each upstream channel, a cable modem has to store and monitor the time of a request for bandwidth, how much bandwidth is requested, which upstream channel the bandwidth is requested on, how much bandwidth was granted, a time at which a bandwidth grant was received and on which downstream channel the grant was received on. Thus, increased hardware and software complexity is required of the cable modem to store and monitor bandwidth requests as more upstream channels are added.
The present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numbers may indicate identical or functionally similar elements.


The navigation device includes vehicle condition discriminating unit for discriminating whether the vehicle is stopped or not, angular velocity detecting unit for detecting change of direction of the vehicle and producing angular velocity data on the basis of the detected change of direction, absolute direction detecting unit for detecting geomagnetism and producing absolute direction data on the basis of the detected geomagnetism, offset processing unit for producing corrected angular velocity data from the angular velocity data and a first reference value, and offset reset unit for renewing the first reference value. The offset reset unit renews the first reference value with the angular velocity data which is obtained when the vehicle is discriminated to be stopped, a change rate of the angular velocity data is within a predetermined second reference value and a change rate of the absolute direction data is within a predetermined third reference value.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a navigation device which supports driving of a vehicle such as a car or the like by displaying and informing current position and travel direction of the vehicle, and more particularly to an offset processing of the navigation device for correcting an angular velocity data measured by an angular velocity sensor such as a gyro.
2. Description of Prior Art
A navigation device installed in a vehicle such as a car or the like has been required to precisely measure current position and travel direction of the vehicle and then accurately and rapidly display the current position, the travel direction of the vehicle and other information for satisfying user's demands together with a map information corresponding to the current position for assistance of a driver.
One type of navigation devices calculates the current position and travel direction of the vehicle from electric waves transmitted from a GPS (Global Positioning System) satellite (hereinafter referred to as "GPS measurement method"). Another type of navigation device calculates them from data of a direction sensor such as a gyro, a geomagnetic sensor or the like and a travel sensor for measuring a travel distance or the like, each installed in the vehicle (hereinafter referred to as "stand-alone type measurement method"). The GPS measurement method has such various advantages that it is not required to set in advance a vehicle position on a map and that the measurement error of the vehicle position is remarkably small and accordingly high reliability can be achieved. Therefore, the GPS measurement method is broadly used. However, the GPS measurement method can not used when the vehicle travels through a shade of buildings, woods or in a tunnel. On the other hand, the stand-alone type measurement method has such disadvantage that the measured data is not always accurate because of the accumulated error, influences from variations of temperature or condition in the vehicle, and bad influence on the geomagnetic sensor resulting from traveling on iron bridges. Accordingly, the two types of measurement methods are used in combination in order to make up for the above deficiencies with each other.
Since output data of an angular velocity sensor used for the stand-alone type measurement, such as a gyro, varies according to the variation of temperature or humidity, the output data is corrected by using an offset value which is occasionally reset (renewed).
However, the above angular velocity correction method can not accurately detect the change of the direction when the vehicle is rotated by a turntable or the like in a parking zone, for example. This is because, in such a case, since the vehicle is stopped even though the turntable is rotated, the reset (renewal) of the offset value is erroneously executed.

Navigation device and direction detection method therefor


A device for reducing interference among antennas of multiple base stations is provided, which includes an antenna module placed on a base station and configured to transmit and receive radio waves, a holding pole placed on the base station and configured to support the antenna module, a mounting bracket coupled to the antenna module and the holding pole, and a shielding apparatus placed on the holding pole or the antenna module and capable of being adjusted in directions. The device has a simple structure; it is easy to manufacture and install the device; it can be applied to the base station's antennas in network use. In addition, the device can efficiently increase isolation and reduce interferences among the antennas of the multiple base stations.

In the field of communications, the same base station may have antennas of a plurality of communications systems. Due to restriction to geological locations, distances among some antennas are very small, leading to isolation reduction among antennas, giving a plurality of wireless signals a chance to simultaneously enter into a receiver, thus causing severe interferences to available signals. Therefore, improving isolations among antennas from different systems to enhance anti-interference capabilities has significantly crucial meanings to the communications system.
In communication systems, because of close distances among antennas and poor isolation, interferences exist among different base station systems. Hitherto there are mainly two solutions provided. One is to increase isolations among antennas by changing heights, distances and pitch angles of the antennas. Being restricted to the size of the space, degrees of difficulty for the construction and requirements for the coverage, the method is limited in terms of improvement. Another method is to improve the anti-interference of the technical index in the antenna design. This method is to change the design at the module phase and has difficulty in realization of antennas, thus being not suitable for the base station's antennas in network use.
Chinese patent (CN201010276357) describes an anti-interference wide-beam WLAN base station antenna, including a metal reflector, a microstrip plate fixed on the metal reflector through an insulating shore, and a radiate array antenna laid on the microstrip plate. The radiate array antenna includes a set of microstrip transmission lines laid on the back of the microstrip plate and a plurality of radiation units laid on the front of the microstrip plate and arranged in columns. The antenna involves a simple manufacture technology, has a light structure, needs a low cost, and is easy to be put into large-scale industrial production and broadened in the aspect of beam-width in the horizontal plane, as well as solves the interference problem between the same polarization when current available antennas of a vertically polarized kind are used in practice. The patent increases anti-interference to the design of the antenna per se, mainly aiming at the interference problem the same polarization of antennas of vertically polarized kind.
According to the Chinese patent (CN2399833), it discloses an apparatus for absorbing and shielding electromagnetic waves of a mobile phone antenna, including a half-shielding apparatus on an antenna body, wherein the apparatus mainly includes at least one small absorbing slice and a spacer which can efficiently shield electromagnetic waves directed to a user. An inner diameter of the spacer is not greater than an outer diameter of the antenna. The spacer is a metal slice or an absorbing material. The absorbing slice is connected to or embedded in the spacer. Outside the spacer there is a housing. The implementation process of the patent impacts a radiation pattern. The cell phone antenna is an omni-directional antenna. By shielding radiation signals radiated to a brain direction, the patent mostly lowers a detriment to a human body from the electromagnetic waves. The patent has greatly changed a main beam pattern per se, thus not being suitable to handle interferences among antennas of multiple base stations.

Device for reducing interference among antennas of multiple base stations


An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of image bearing members and a control unit. After an image forming mode starts until a toner image is primarily transferred onto an intermediate transfer member from an uppermost-stream image bearing member of the plurality of image bearing members provided at an uppermost stream position, the control unit is configured to provide a toner patch onto at least one of primary transfer portions. The toner patch is formed by developing an electrostatic latent image formed on at least one of the plurality of the image bearing members, and in the image forming mode a timing at which a trailing edge of the toner patch that passes through one of the plurality of the primary transfer portions reaches a secondary transfer portion is earlier than a timing at which the recording material reaches the secondary transfer portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrophotographic image forming apparatus such as a copying machine and a printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a color image forming apparatus capable of outputting a full-color image in the following manner has been put into practical use. That is, toner images formed on surfaces of respective image bearing members are sequentially and temporarily transferred onto a surface of an intermediate transfer member for each color (hereinafter referred to as "primary transfer") so that a full-color superimposed image is formed on the surface of the intermediate transfer member. After that, the full-color toner image on the surface of the intermediate transfer member is transferred onto a recording material (hereinafter referred to as "secondary transfer").
In such an image forming apparatus, when there is a speed difference between the moving speed of the surface of the intermediate transfer member and the moving speed of the surface of the image bearing member, in a primary transfer step of superimposing the toner images of the plurality of colors from the image bearing members onto the intermediate transfer member, a phenomenon that images of the respective colors are misaligned may occur in some cases. In particular, a significant misregistration tends to occur between the toner image of a color that is primarily transferred onto the surface of the intermediate transfer member at the beginning and the toner image of a color that is primarily transferred onto the surface of the intermediate transfer member at the end. This phenomenon occurs because the amount of toner that exists at a contacting portion between the image bearing member and the intermediate transfer member (hereinafter referred to as "primary transfer portion") differs when the toner image of each color is transferred. In a primary transfer step of the first color, the primary transfer is performed on the surface of the intermediate transfer member under a state in which substantially no toner is provided on the surface, whereas in primary transfer steps of the second and subsequent colors, the primary transfer is performed on the surface of the intermediate transfer member under a state in which toner is already provided. Therefore, the frictional force acting between the image bearing member and the intermediate transfer member at the primary transfer portion differs depending on the presence and absence of toner at the primary transfer portion. Therefore, the moving speed of the surface of the intermediate transfer member changes, and thus misregistration of toner images occurs among the colors.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2012-42754 discloses the following configuration. At the primary transfer portion between the intermediate transfer member and the image bearing member arranged on the uppermost stream, waste toner is supplied as a lubricant. In this manner, fluctuations in circumferential surface speed, which are generated in the intermediate transfer member during an image forming operation, can be reduced, and thus occurrence of color misregistration can be reduced.
However, the waste toner remaining on the intermediate transfer member after a secondary transfer step may contain paper powder generated from the recording material in some cases. The waste toner containing paper powder has low flowability because foreign matters are mixed therein. The waste toner having low flowability is unstable in lubricity. Therefore, when the waste toner is used as a lubricant, it is difficult to reduce the fluctuations in circumferential surface speed, which are generated in the intermediate transfer member during the image forming operation.

Image forming apparatus having misregistration control


A method, system and apparatus for efficiency coupling a LTO HH tape drive device having a Serial Attached SCSI connector to a SAS-Cable. The method for coupling a LTO HH tape drive device having a Serial Attached SCSI connector to a SAS-Cable includes employing an adapter having a structure featuring an offset between the centerlines of the LTO side and the SAS-Cable side. The method also includes reducing the overmold structure of the adapter on the SAS Cable Side of the adapter to prevent interference from excess structure contained on the connector during the insertion of the SAS Cable as well as enhancing the overmold structure of the adapter on the LTO drive side of the adapter to facilitate a secure grip on the adapter. The method further includes offsetting the centerlines of the LTO side and the SAS-Cable side to enhance the applicability of the adapter to a wide range of SAS-Cables and guiding the insertion of the adapter into a LTO drive via insertion guide pins to prevent the damage to the adapter pins on the LTO drive side of the adapter.

The LTO (Linear Tape Open) HH (Half-High) tape drive is commonly configured to have a SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) connector at the rear of the drive, near the bottom surface of the drive. When a user mounts the drive to a flat bottom surface and attempts to connect a mating SAS cable to the LTO HH tape drive, the connector of the cable often interferes with the mounting surface that the drive is mounted to. This problem usually is caused by the existing overmold structure or overmold of the connector on the cable. The dimensions of the overmold vary depending upon the supplier of the cable. Often times a user has an existing cable that works with may of the other devices in a server or library however it is not uncommon that this cable will not work with the LTO HH tape drive because of the interference discussed above. This condition is problematic adding to the complexity of system installations since connecting the tape drive through existing cables supplied by various vendors is a hit or miss proposition. Because of the added complexity of the installation, customers are confronted with the added costs of replacing cables that won't fit the drive, but are otherwise serviceable. What is needed is a low-cost adapter to enable customers to use the LTO HH tape drive with the existing SAS cables.

System and method for coupling a LTO HH tape device with a serial attached SCSI connection to a SAS-cable


N-Cyclohexylmaleimide having a cyclohexylaminosuccinic anhydride content of 0.001 to 1 wt. % is used as the main raw material for the production of heat-resistant resins. The resins are produced by a process of copolymerizing the above material with at least one monomer copolymerizable therewith which is characterized by the use of a monomer having a low yellowness, the addition of a compound which can inhibit the evaporation of the non-radical compounds contained in the monomer through reactions, the addition of an antioxidant, the use of a solvent containing alcohol, or the presence of a non-radical-polymerizable acid anhydride or carboxylic acid. The heat-resistant resins produced by the use of the above raw material or the above process are excellent in transparency, i.e., less discolorable, even when an increased amount of N-cyclohexylmaleimide is used for the purpose of imparting more excellent heat resistance. Accordingly, the heat-resistant resins can be suitably used in the fields necessitating both a low discolorability and a high heat resistance.

Methacrylic resins made from methyl methacrylate as a principal component have excellent weatherproof and optical properties, and relatively balanced mechanical, thermal and fabrication properties. The methacrylic resins are used in various fields, such as automobile parts, electrical equipment parts, face plates, signs, covers for lights, ornaments, and variety goods, because of their properties mentioned above.
However, the methacrylic resins are insufficient in terms of heat resistance, and therefore their use in the fields requiring shape stability at high temperatures is limited. Thus, there is a strong demand for an improvement of the heat resistance of the methacrylic resins.
Many methods have been proposed for improving the heat resistance of the methacrylic resins. Examples of the proposed methods include the copolymerization of methyl methacrylate and N-aryl maleimide (Japanese Publication for Examined Patent Application, No. 9753/1968), and blending the copolymer of methyl methacrylate, .alpha.-methyl styrene and maleic anhydride with a methyl methacrylate copolymer (Japanese Publication for Unexamined Patent Application, No. 122536/1984).
Moreover, as known methods for producing transparent methacrylic resins of improved heat resistance and reduced coloring factor, there are methods including copolymerizing methyl methacrylate and N-cyclohexylmaleimide within a specific range (Japanese Publication for Unexamined Patent Application, No. 156115/1987 and 177009/1987), and a method including copolymerizing methyl methacrylate and N-cyclohexyl maleimide and then reducing raw material monomers remaining in the resultant copolymer (Japanese Publication for Unexamined Patent Application, No. 112612/1987).
By copolymerizing a methacrylic ester such as methyl methacrylate and N-substituted maleimide such as N-cyclohexylmaleimide, it is possible to achieve some improvements in respect of the heat resistance, transparency, and coloring factor, thereby providing a transparent heat-resistant resin for optical uses.
However, in such a heat-resistant resin, the improvement of the heat resistance depends on the amount of N-substituted maleimide. Therefore, in order to obtain a heat-resistant resin of improved heat-resistance, it is necessary to increase the N-substituted maleimide unit in the heat-resistant resin. However, the increase of the N-substituted maleimide unit causes a problem that the resultant heat-resistant resin tends to color (yellow).
In the case of N-substituted maleimide-based heat-resistant resins produced from N-substituted maleimide as one of the raw materials, the coloration of resin products is generally known. However, some uses of the resin products strongly require a reduction in the coloration of the resin products. Thus, there has been a demand for the development of N-substituted maleimide-based heat-resistant resins of reduced coloration (referred to as "low coloring factor" in the present invention).
In the production of molded articles by molding the heat-resistant resins obtained by the above-mentioned methods, the molded articles sometimes had lowered surface smoothness, and showed deterioration in their optical properties including transparency, and appearance.
The present inventor studied to find the cause of the lowering of the smoothness, and discovered that non-polymerizable impurities derived from the raw material in producing the N-substituted maleimide were the causes of such a lowering of the smoothness.
Since most of such impurities have their melting points at temperatures lower than 200.degree. C., when a heat-resistant resin containing the impurities is molded, the impurities volatilize due to heat in molding, and adhere to the mold surfaces. As a result, the smoothness of the mold surfaces is impaired. The impairing of the smoothness of the mold surfaces deteriorates the smoothness of the surface of the molded article obtained by the molding, and worsens the appearance and transparency of the molded article.
It was also discovered by the present inventor that such impurities adhere to an air pressure-reducing line and adhere as gum to an outlet of the heat-resistant resin in the process of producing a heat-resistant resin by copolymerizing the N-substituted maleimide and a monomer components containing, for example, methacrylic ester as a principal component, for example, in the solvent removing step of removing a solvent, etc. under conditions of heat and reduced pressure by an extruder, a flash tank, etc. after solution polymerization. Such adhesion of impurities may prevent stable production of heat-resistant resins.
Examples of the impurities are non-radical polymerizable compounds having a functional group, such as carboxyl group, acid anhydride group, primary amino group and secondary amino group. According to Japanese Publication for Unexamined Patent Applications, No. 221974/1993, 201972/1993, and 135931/1994, when the resultant N-substituted maleimide is stored, these impurities cause a change in the color of the N-substituted maleimide with time. These publications also disclose the inclusion of another purifying step like water treatment in the production steps as a method for reducing the impurities.
However, the conventional method disclosed in the above-mentioned publications can not easily eliminate disadvantages of the resultant heat-resistant resin and the production thereof which are caused by the impurities. The reason for such disadvantages is that this method additionally requires a special purifying step like water treatment in order to reduce the impurities, or has difficulty in reducing the impurities depending on the type of N-substituted maleimide.
In the case where an increase in the heat-resistance of the resultant heat-resistant resin is required, it is necessary to increase the amount of N-substituted maleimide units. However, if a monomer mixture containing a large amount of N-substituted maleimide is polymerized, the heat-resistant resin tends to color during polymerization and heating in the molding process. Consequently, it is difficult to obtain heat-resistant resins of low coloring factors.
Therefore, the use of antioxidant such as a phosphorus-based antioxidant and a phenol-based antioxidant was proposed as a method for reducing the coloring factor of a heat-resistant resin containing a large amount of N-substituted maleimide units in heating.
For example, Japanese Publication for Unexamined Patent Application, No. 256551/1989 discloses a method for producing a styrene-methyl methacrylate-based resin composition by mixing a thioether-based organic sulfur stabilizer and a phosphite compound with a styrene-methyl methacrylate-based resin obtained by polymerizing monomer components containing methyl methacrylate, styrene and a maleimide compound, and further mixing a bisphenol-based antioxidant with the styrene-methyl methacrylate-based resin, if desired, for the purpose of improving the thermal stability.
On the other hand, Japanese Publication for Unexamined Patent Application, No. 304045/1988 discloses the addition of an organic phosphorus-based compound to a methacrylate-based polymer obtained by copolymerizing methyl methacrylate and a maleimide compound as a method for producing a methacrylate-based resin composition of improved heat decomposition resistance. Additionally, this publication discloses the addition of an organic sulfur-based compound to the methacrylate-based polymer, and the addition of an organic sulfur-based compound as a chain transfer agent during polymerization based on the above-mentioned method.
Japanese Publication for Unexamined Patent Application, No. 116331/1994 discloses a method for producing a transparent heat-resistance resin by polymerizing a composition formed by adding a phosphorus-based compound to a monomer mixture containing N-substituted maleimide for the purpose of reducing yellowing in the heating step.
Thus, the above-mentioned publications describe the use of antioxidants, such as phosphorous-based compound and phenol-based compound, to achieve improvements in respect of the thermal stability and coloring factor.
However, in the methods disclosed in Japanese Publication for Unexamined Patent Application, No. 256551/1989 and 304045/1988 above, since the antioxidant is not added during polymerization, i.e., the antioxidant is all added after the completion of the polymerization, the effect on a coloring source produced during the polymerization may not be fully exhibited.
Furthermore, in the method disclosed in Japanese Publication for Unexamined Patent Application, No. 116331/1994 above, since the antioxidant is all added to the monomer mixture and then cast polymerization is performed, the polymerization of the monomer mixture is interfered by the antioxidant, and the conversion rate of the monomers to polymer may be lowered. Namely, the methods disclosed in the above-mentioned publications suffer from the problems that the efficiency of producing heat-resistant resins is low, and the heat-resistant resins tend to color more easily.
In the method disclosed in Japanese Publication for Unexamined Patent Application, No. 304045/1988, even when the organic sulfur-based compound as the chain transfer agent is added during polymerization, a sufficient coloration reducing effect is not produced in the polymerization.
In addition, for example, the following publications propose a method for reducing the coloration of heat-resistant resins containing N-substituted maleimide units during polymerization and molding. Japanese Publication for Unexamined Patent Application, No. 252211/1986 proposes reducing the residual maleimide by washing polymer beads obtained by suspension polymerization with an alcohol having 1 to 4 carbons. Japanese Publication for Unexamined Patent Application, No. 304013/1988 proposes polymerization using a specific initiator. Japanese Publication for Unexamined Patent Application, No. 310853/1993 proposes performing cast polymerization by adding a benzyl alcohol or substituted benzyl alcohol to the monomer mixture.
However, these conventional methods suffer from the problems that the number of production steps is increased, and the coloration reducing effect is not sufficient. The method disclosed in Japanese Publication for Unexamined Patent Application, No. 310853/1993 is cast polymerization, and alcohol is not removed. In this method, if a large quantity of alcohol is used, a lowering of the heat resistance and the expansion of the heat-resistant resin in heating tend to occur due to the alcohol remaining in the resin. Thus, there is a possibility of impairing the appearance. Consequently, in this method, the amount of alcohol to be added is limited to a small amount not greater than 1 percent by weight of the total amount of monomers, for example, 0.5 percent by weight. As a result, a sufficient coloration reducing effect is not exhibited.
As a method for reducing the coloration of heat-resistant resins containing N-substituted maleimide units during polymerization or molding, Japanese Publication for Unexamined Patent Application No. 234063/1987 discloses heat stabilization of N-cyclohexyl maleimide by adding maleamic acid, etc. to the N-cyclohexyl maleimide. In this method, suspension copolymerization of N-cyclohexyl maleimide and vinyl chloride is performed to produce a copolymer of a reduced coloring factor.
However, in this conventional method, since the N-cyclohexyl maleimide to which the maleamic acid is added is copolymerized, a radical polymerization (polymerization reaction) of radical polymerizable maleamic acid and monomers of N-cyclohexyl maleimide, etc. proceeds. This may impair the transparency and heat-resistance of the resultant heat-resistant resin.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a raw material used for producing heat-resistant resins of a low coloring factor, more particularly an N-substituted maleimide-based heat-resistant resin having excellent heat resistance, fine appearance including transparency, and a lower coloring factor.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a heat-resistant resin produced from the above-mentioned raw material, more particularly an N-substituted maleimide-based heat-resistant resin having excellent heat resistance, fine appearance including transparency, and a lower coloring factor, and to provide a process for producing such a heat-resistant resin.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a process for stably and simply producing a heat-resistant resin having excellent transparency, heat resistance, and a low coloring factor.

Raw material used for producing heat-resistant resins, heat-resistant resins, and process for producing heat-resistant resins


A detection signal processor that includes a signal processing unit, bias current supply components, and a bias current control component is provided. The signal processing unit applies a first signal processing in parallel to plural detection signals input in parallel, converts the plural detection signals to serial detection signals by applying a parallel-to-serial conversion processing to the plural detection signals, and applies a second signal processing to the converted serial detection signals in turn. The bias current control component switches amount of the bias currents supplied to the each circuit configuring the signal processing unit by the bias current supply components, the bias currents including first bias currents supplied to the first circuits carrying out the first signal processing and second bias currents supplied to the second circuits carrying out the parallel-to-serial conversion processing and the second signal processing in turn.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a detection signal processor and, more particularly, to a detection signal processor for performing signal processing including parallel to serial conversion of plural detection signals input in parallel.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a known radiography system for medical diagnoses, radiations transmitted through an object are made to hit a radiation detector equipped with a photoelectric conversion layer that is sensitive to the radiations. Electric charges are accumulated in the radiation detector in response to the radiation dose to the detector. The electric charges are successively read out as an electric current for each unit region of readout. The current read out is converted into digital data. Thus, a digital radiation image is obtained. A radiation detection panel is also known as such a radiation detector. The radiation detection panel has a glass substrate on which a large number of TFTs (thin-film transistors) and signal lines are formed to provide a TFT active matrix substrate, the TFTs being arranged like a matrix. A photoelectric conversion layer is formed on this substrate.
A signal processing unit is connected with the radiation detector. An integrator circuit for integrating a signal charge outputted as an electric current from the radiation detector for a given period, a first amplifier circuit for amplifying the output signal from the integrator circuit, a parallel to serial converter for converting the parallel signal outputted from the first amplifier circuit into serial form, a second amplifier circuit for amplifying the output signal from the parallel to serial converter, and an A/D converter for converting the output signal from the second amplifier circuit into digital data are connected in turn to constitute the signal processing unit.
Regarding readout of electric charges from a MOS solid-state image pick-up device in which image information is stored as electric charges in the same way as in a radiation detection panel, a technique for achieving power consumption reduction and random noise reduction is disclosed in JP-A No. 2002-209149. In particular, the system is composed of an output amplifier or AGC circuit and an A/D converter, as well as an output unit. A signal that was outputted from the sensor unit of the MOS solid-state image pick-up device and has undergone offset correction in a CDS/signal holding circuit and a parallel to serial conversion is applied to the output unit. The amount of a bias current supplied to the output unit is varied with the frequency of the driving signal according to a driving mode signal.
As mentioned previously, in the technique described in JP-A No. 2002-209149, the amount of the bias current supplied to the output unit to which the signal undergoing a parallel to serial conversion is applied is varied with the frequency of the driving signal according to the driving mode signal. The signal processing unit connected with the radiation detector or the like is made up of a larger number of circuits. The system is so configured that bias currents are supplied to the circuits to operate them. Therefore, where the technique described in JP-A No. 2002-209149 is applied to the signal processing unit connected with the radiation detector or the like, it is conceivable to switch the bias currents supplied to the circuits disposed on the upstream side of the circuits for processing the signal undergone a parallel to serial conversion in an attempt to reduce noise, as well as the bias currents supplied to the circuits for processing the signal undergone the parallel to serial conversion.
In this configuration, however, when high-speed operation is required, relatively large bias currents are supplied to all the circuits of the signal processing unit. The signal processing unit connected with the radiation detector is often accommodated within the same enclosure together with the radiation detector. Meanwhile, the radiation detector may have low heatproofness. Therefore, if relatively large bias currents are supplied to all the circuits of the signal processing unit, the amounts of heat generated by the circuits of the signal processing unit increase. Consequently, the inside of the enclosure gets hot. This creates the danger that the radiation detector is damaged. Furthermore, there is a possibility that characteristic variations such as offset take place as the temperature is increased. Especially, X-ray detectors used in medical applications are required to have high reliability and high stability.
Furthermore, in the above-described configuration, in a case where low-speed operation is tolerated, relatively small bias currents are supplied to all the circuits of the signal processing unit. In this case, the amounts of heat generated by the circuits of the signal processing unit decrease, resulting in decrease in thermal noise. However, this is overcome by the effects of noise components superimposed in a signal transmission path because of decrease in the gain of the amplifier circuit. Eventually, there arises the problem that the S/N deteriorates. Low-speed operation is allowed in the signal processing unit of the radiation detector in a case where a high-definition image is outputted. Where a high-definition image is outputted, it is undesirable that the S/N of the detection signal deteriorates.