An image and sound output system includes an image and sound data output device, and an image display device that is connected to the image and sound data output device through a transmission path. Further, the image and sound data output device includes an image and sound data separating unit, an image data transmitting unit that transmits the separated image data to the image display device, a sound data output unit that outputs the separated sound data, an image data analyzing unit that analyzes image data transmitted to the image display device by the image data transmitting unit, a sound output adjusting time creating unit, and a sound output synchronization adjusting unit. Furthermore, the image display device includes an image data receiving unit that receives image data transmitted by the image and sound data output device, an image processing unit.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image and sound output system, to an image and sound data output device, and to a recording medium.
2. Related Art
In recent times, with an image process by a computer improved, a system has been suggested in which an image process having been generally performed by an image display device is performed by the computer, a format of image process data after the image process is converted into a digital format, the image process data is transmitted to an image display device, such as a projector, and an image is displayed by the image display device (for example, see JP-A-2004-69996 (FIG. 1)).
In this system, a serial transmission interface, such as USB or IEEE 1394, is used as a transmission path. When comparing a cable for connecting the serial transmission interface with a general RGB video cable or the like according to the related art, since the cable for connecting the serial transmission interface is thin, it can be easily installed. Therefore, it is expected that the serial transmission interface has been increasingly used as the transmission path.
Meanwhile, image display devices, such as projectors, have been mainly used for a home theater or the like There are cases in which image data obtained by performing an image process using the above-described computer is outputted to the image display device to be displayed thereon. It is considered that a moving picture, such as a video image or a game image, is displayed on an image display device, and a sound according to the moving picture is reproduced and outputted by a data output device, such as the computer.
In this case, the moving picture data is transmitted and received through a serial transmission path between the image display device and the data output device. At this time, the moving picture data is transmitted after being encoded in a format suitable for transmission.
Since the moving picture data is encoded, a decoding process needs to be performed so as to restore an original moving picture in the display device, and both the image display device and the data output device need to perform a buffer process for appropriately transmitting the encoded data at the time of transmission.
At the time of performing the buffer process and the decoding process, and scanning and forming images, a unique process time of the image display device necessarily needs to be ensured. Therefore, in a case in which the data output device transmits the moving picture data to the image display device, and at the same time, a sound attached to the moving picture is reproduced and outputted, reproducing output of the sound data may be earlier than reproducing output of the moving picture, and moving picture output timing and sound output timing, that is, so-called lip-sync does not coincide, which results in applying uncomfortable feeling to viewers.
In order to solve these problems, another system as been suggested in which delay time information based on a unique delay element in a video display device, that is, information of a time necessary until video data is received and then displayed is transmitted to a video and audio output device or an audio adjusting device, such as an amplifier, and a delay buffer of each element is appropriately operated on the basis of the delay time information (for example, see JP-A-2002-344898 (FIG. 4)).
However, according to a technology disclosed in JP-A-2002-344898, a predetermined communication process needs to be performed between devices so as to transmit and receive delay time information, and a communication processing program that becomes a scheme for performing a communication process should be installed in each device. As a result, the development cost and the manufacture cost of each device may increase.

Image and sound output system, image and sound data output device, and recording medium


The present invention relates to producing a disulfonyl fluoride compound easily and efficiently by utilizing coupling reaction where a compound (2) is obtained by subjecting a compound (1) wherein Y is a fluorine atom to photocoupling reaction, or subjecting a compound (1) wherein Y is a hydroxyl group, —OMa wherein Ma is an alkali metal atom, or —O(Mb)1/2 wherein Mb is an alkaline earth metal atom to electrolytic coupling reaction, and derivatives such as the following compound (7A) are obtained from the compound (2):FSO2-E-CX2—COY  (1)FSO2-E-CX2—CX2-E-SO2F  (2)

As a method for producing a disulfonyl fluoride compound, the following methods have been proposed.
(1) A method of subjecting FSO2(CH2)3SO2F to electrolytic fluorination reaction to obtain FSO2CF2CF2CF2SO2F (Non-Patent Document 1).
(2) A method of subjecting cyclic tetrafluoroethylene polysulfide to oxidative ring opening with chlorine and hydrogen peroxide to obtain ClSO2(CF2)2SO2Cl, and fluorinating it with potassium fluoride to obtain FSO2(CF2)2SO2F (Non-Patent Document 2).
(3) A method of converting I(CF2)pI (wherein p is 3, 4 or 6) to ClSO2(CF2)pSO2Cl with sodium sulfinate and chlorine and fluorinating it with potassium fluoride to obtain FSO2(CF2)pSO2F (Non-Patent Document 3).
(4) A method of subjecting ethylene and a compound represented by the following formula (A) to electrolytic coupling reaction to obtain a compound represented by the following formula (C) (wherein q is 1 or 2) (Non-Patent Document 4):FSO2(CF2)2OCFCF(CF3)COOH  (A)FSO2(CF2)2OCFCF(CF3)(CH2CH2)qCF(CF3)O(CF2)2SO2F  (C)
Further, a method of reacting FSO2CF2CF2CF2SO2F obtained by electrolytic fluorination with ammonia to obtain a cyclic perfluoroaliphatic disulfonimide ammonium salt (Patent Document 1) has been known.    Patent Document 1: JP-A-57-146766, Example 3    Non-Patent Document 1: "Journal of Fluorine Chemistry", 1987, vol. 35, pages 329 to 341    Non-Patent Document 2: "Journal of Fluorine Chemistry", 1998, vol. 89, pages 107 to 109    Non-Patent Document 3: "Journal of Fluorine Chemistry", 1993, vol. 63, pages 85 to 100    Non-Patent Document 4: "Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry", 1992, vol. 325, pages 167 to 184

Method for producing disulfonyl fluoride compound

Abstract: wherein E is a single bond, —O—, a C1-20 alkylene group which may contain an etheric oxygen atom, or the like, X is a fluorine atom or the like, and Y is a fluorine atom, a hydroxyl group, or the like.


The HID lamp mount has a discharge tube with two ends. A shroud surrounds the tube. Shroud clips position the shroud ends. The shroud clips have arcuate portions engaging the shroud periphery and transverse portions spanning the shroud diameter and grasping and positioning the tube ends. A shroud rod attaches between the clips to maintain their positioning. An electrical lead-in connects the second electrode terminus and has a first leg extending transversely from the terminus and a second leg extending parallel to the electrode. An offset electrical lead-in connects the first electrode terminus, and has a first section extending transversely to the first electrode, a second section extending parallel to the shroud, a third section extending toward the shroud, and a fourth section extending parallel to the shroud. An offset electrical lead-in retaining clip is affixed to the shroud and the fourth section of the offset electrical lead-in retaining clip.

Mounts for arc discharge lamps generally employ the arc tube itself, a tubular shroud, strapping for supporting the arc tube and shroud and electrical lead-ins for connection to a power source. It is often necessary or expedient to manufacture the various pieces of the lamp, such as the mount, the base and the outer envelope in different locations and ship them to yet another location for final assembly into a lamp. It is important to maintain the tolerances and the electrode positioning built into the mount during shipping so that automated assembly of the mount to the lamp envelope can easily be accomplished. The automated assembly includes the step of inserting the electrical lead-ins into ferrules that are sealed into a lamp envelope. Because one of the electrical lead-ins is generally much longer than the other, it has been difficult to maintain the desired spacing integrity between the lead-ins during packaging, shipping, unpacking and assembly.


A coupling arrangement for coupling a light source subsystem with a scanner subsystem in a UV lithography system is disclosed. The arrangement includes a source flange having a plurality of ramped eared flanges coupled to one of the light source subsystem and the scanner subsystem. The arrangement also includes a collar coupled with the other of the light source subsystem and the scanner subsystem. The collar has a plurality of tangs disposed such that inter-tang spacings accommodate insertion of the plurality of eared flanges, wherein at least one of the source flange and the collar is rotatable to permit the plurality of ramped eared flanges to cam against the plurality of tangs, thereby coupling the light source subsystems to the scanner subsystem.

Ultraviolet (UV) lithography systems have long been employed to manufacture integrated circuits (ICs). Generally speaking, a UV lithography system may include at least two main subsystems: a light source subsystem designed to generate the UV light (which may be of any suitable wavelength, including wavelengths that are in the deep UV or extreme UV regions) and a scanner subsystem designed to imprint a pattern onto the photoresist using the UV light generated by the light source subsystem. Other subsystems are also furnished with a typical UV lithography system. However, they are not relevant to the present invention and will not be discussed in details herein.
Generally speaking, the two UV lithography subsystems (i.e., light source subsystem and scanner subsystems) tend to be designed as separate subs stems to facilitate ease of manufacturing and assembly and maintenance. During system final assembly, these two subsystems are coupled together to enable the scanner subsystem to utilize the UV light generated by the light source subsystem for lithography purposes.
As UV lithography systems become more complicated, and lithography system physical footprint and other requirements become more stringent, manufacturers continually look for ways to improve system quality, system manufacturability and ease of assembly. In the prior art, the alignment and coupling of the light source subsystem and the scanner subsystem tends to be a manual process that requires manual alignment and manual coupling (using for example appropriate fastening tools and fasteners) be highly skilled technicians. Because manual alignment and manipulation is involved, space is typically engineered into the interface area to accommodate the hands of the assembling technician as well as to accommodate fastening tool access. The space allotment for manual access increases the system footprint and in some cases, complicates UV lithography system design, particularly as UV lithography systems become more complex. In other cases, such space allotment is not possible due to the presence of other hardware components in the vicinity.
Furthermore, the quality of the alignment and coupling, as well as the efficiency with which the coupling is accomplished, tends to vary according to the skill level of the technician. The interface is nevertheless critical because of the need for precise alignment of the light beam with the scanner mechanisms and the need to maintain a vacuum seal during operation. With human involvement in the coupling process, however, there tends to be variability with respect to the quality of the assembled lithography systems, which increases the possibility for system defect and complicates trouble shooting and maintenance.
In view of the foregoing, improved arrangements and methods for coupling a UV light source subsystem to a UV scanner of a UV lithography system is desired.

Blind motorized coupling arrangements for coupling UV light source subsystem and scanner subsystem in a UV lithography system and methods therefor


A paste composition for an electrode of a solar cell according to the present invention comprises a conductive powder, an organic vehicle, and a glass frit, and the glass frit includes a first glass frit having a first glass transition temperature and a second glass frit having a second glass frit temperature lower than the first glass transition temperature.

The present disclosure relates to a paste composition for an electrode of a solar cell and a solar cell including an electrode prepared by using the paste composition.
Importance in the developments of next generation clean energies has been increased due to the depletion of fossil fuels in recent years. Among the clean energies, solar cells are expected as an energy source that can resolve future energy problems because of less pollution, unlimited resources, and semi-permanent lifespan.
Such solar cells may include front and rear electrodes formed on a silicon substrate. Paste compositions including conductive powders and glass frits are printed and then these electrodes may be formed by sintering. However, when sintering temperature ranges of the paste compositions are narrow, adhesions between the electrodes and the silicon substrate may decrease because sintering is not facilitated when there is a difference between a set sintering temperature and an actual sintering temperature. Therefore, a paste composition having a wide sintering temperature range is required.

Paste composition for electrode of solar cell and solar cell including the same


A method and device for controlling a cooling fan within an electronic device based on the temperature within the electronic device and the audio output level of the electronic device and/or the ambient noise level.

The invention relates in general to cooling fans used in electronic devices and in particular to cooling fans which are controlled in part based on the audio output level of the electronic device and/or the ambient noise level.
The power dissipated during operational use of an electronic circuit reveals itself as heat. The heat generated by an integrated circuit typically increases with increasing transistor density and with increasing clock frequency. The eventual temperature of a semiconductor substrate in a stationary state is determined by the balance between the heat generated and the heat carried off of the substrate. A conventional way to handle excessive heat is providing forced cooling using a fan.
The problem with using a fan is that a fan is typically turned on and left on during operation of the electronic device causing fan noise to interfere with the playing of music or other audio or the general quiet of an environment in which the device is used. Certain circuits requiring cooling however, tend to operate in bursts. That is, the circuit may alternatively remain idle for a period of time and then operate at its maximum or near maximum capacity for another period of time. In fact depending on the audio output of the computer, the fan noise can be quite annoying, such as when trying to listen to a CD. At other times during computationally intensive activities, such as a computer game that can be quite loud, the fan is hardly detectable in the background noise.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a cooling fan control mechanism that is responsive to heat generated within the electronic device and/or semiconductor substrate as well as being responsive to the audio output of the electronic device.
It is another object of the invention to control the cooling fan based on the heat generated within the electronic device and/or semiconductor and the ambient noise.

Cooling fan in sync with audio output level


A method which determines by an optimizing compiler whether any variable in the given program equals to the given acyclic mathematical function applied to given variables in the program and the method includes expressing the bits of the value of the function as a Boolean function of the bits of the inputs and expressing for every variable and statement the value taken by v when s is executed as a Boolean function and expressing, for every statement the condition under which the statement is executed as a Boolean function, and Finally, a determination is made using a Boolean satisfiability oracle of whether, for the given variable and program statement, the a particular Boolean expression holds and a determination is of whether for a given variable and program statement whenever the predicate and the condition are true.

Reference made herein and listed at the end are incorporated herein as necessary for understanding and implementing of the present disclosure.
Fixed-point saturating arithmetic is used widely in media and digital signal processing applications. Given a B-bit two's complement operation OP, its saturating counterpart detects overflow and sets the result to the limits of the representable number range:
                                          OP            sat                                          (                          x              ,              y                        )                          =                                                            MaxB                                                                                if                                                                                OP                                                        (                                          x                      ,                      y                                        )                                                                                overflows                                                                                MinB                                                                                if                                                                                OP                                    }                                                                  (                                      x                    ,                    y                                    )                                                                                underflows                                                                                OP                                                        (                                          x                      ,                      y                                        )                                                                                otherwise                                                                        (        1        )
For example, speech codecs in the GSM standard are expressed in terms of saturating arithmetic operations (Refs 1 and 2). A number of modern processor architectures, such as TI C6x, Intel IA-32 and ARM implement saturating arithmetic instructions.
Standard programming languages, such as ANSI C, do not provide operators for saturating arithmetic. Typically, application developers include libraries of functions or macros that implement these operations in terms of basic two's complement arithmetic. In order to obtain high performance on a given architecture, these libraries have to be coded either in assembly or using vendor-specific libraries or language extensions. This clearly complicates software development and maintenance. Various language extensions and standards have been proposed (Ref. 3). Their future is unclear, given the usual reluctance of established vendors to standardize. Thus, programmers are forced into the trade-off between portability and efficiency.
The way to resolve this trade-off is for a compiler to automatically recognize code fragments that implement saturating arithmetic and convert them into appropriate machine instructions. For this solution to be effective, the recognition algorithm must be robust and work across different coding styles. One can start with simple pattern matching on abstract syntax trees.
However, the limitations of such approach become evident as one consider various implementations of saturating addition. Examples are show in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/382,578. In order to prove, two saturated addition instructions are both equivalent to the definition in equation 1, one needs to prove equivalence between the results of the sequences of various bit manipulation and logical operations. Instead of an ad-hoc approach, a method that has a formal algebraic foundation is needed.
In the U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/382,578, a method is described for recognition of saturated addition and subtraction specifically. The present disclosure recognizes that the principles in the previous application are applicable to any acyclic operation and may be expressed in generic terms.
The method of the present disclosure determines by an optimizing compiler whether any variable in the given program equals to the given acyclic mathematical function f(x,y, . . . ) applied to the given variables x, y, . . . in the program. In one embodiment, the method includes expressing the bits of the value of the function f(x,y, . . . ) as a Boolean function of the bits of the inputs x, y, . . . ; expressing, for every variable v and program statement s, the value taken by v when s is executed as a Boolean function V(s,v)(x, y, . . . ) of the bits of x, y, . . . ; and expressing, for every statement s, the condition under which the statement is executed as a Boolean function C(s)(x, y, . . . ) of the bits of the inputs x, y, . . . . Finally, a determination is made using a Boolean satisfiability oracle of whether, for the given variable v and program statement s, the following Boolean expression holds: C(s)(x,y, . . . )=>V(s,v)(x,y . . . )=f(x,y, . . . ).
In a second embodiment, the method includes expressing the value of f(x,y, . . . ) as a plurality of functions fj(x,y, . . . ) having the corresponding predicate Pj(x,y, . . . ); expressing, for every variable v and program statement s, the value taken by v when s is executed as a plurality of functions Vj(s,v)(x,y, . . . ), one for each predicate Pj(x,y, . . . ); and expressing, for every statement s, the condition under which the statement is executed as a plurality of functions Cj(s)(x,y, . . . ), one for each predicate Pj(x,y, . . . ). Finally, a determination is of whether for the given variable v and program statement s, Vj(s,v)(x,y, . . . )=fj(x,y, . . . ) whenever the predicate Pj(x,y, . . . ) and the condition Cj(s)(x,y, . . . ) are true.
In either embodiment, the program may be transformed so that the value of each variable v that takes on the value of the function f(x,y, . . . ) is computed by the available function f(x,y, . . . ) by adding the invocation of the instruction t=f(x,y, . . . ); and replacing each reference to variable v at each statement s, such that the value of v at s equals f(x,y, . . . ), with the reference to t. The instructions that are unused after the program transformation are eliminated by dead-code elimination. Where the mathematical function f(x, y, . . . ) is computable in hardware, the program may be transformed so that the value of each variable v that takes on the value of the function f(x,y, . . . ) is computed by the available hardware instruction for f(x,y, . . . ).
These and other aspects of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention, when considered in conjunction with accompanying drawings.

Method for recognition of acyclic instruction patterns


A method and system of position determination of an implement on a work vehicle. The method includes determining a position of a first radio frequency (RF) device relative to a local reference frame using ultra-wideband ranging between the first RF device and at least one additional RF device. The first RF device is coupled to a fixed location on the implement, and the additional RF device is mounted at a fixed location relative to the local reference frame. The implement is controllably movable relative to the local reference frame. A position and orientated of the implement is determined relative to the local reference frame based at least in part on the determined position of the first RF device relative to the local reference frame.

Some work vehicles may be equipped with position sensors that detect a change in position of an implement of the work vehicle along a given direction. For example, a work vehicle may be equipped with rotation sensors or cylinder position sensors that detect positional changes of implements on the work vehicle (for example, a blade on a road grader or a boom on an excavator). However, position sensors may have limited precision in sensing position due to hysteresis in gearing or linkage that control the movement of the implement.
Another method of position determination of an implement on a work vehicle is attaching a global positioning system (GPS) receiver to the implement. For example, a road grader may include one or more masts extending from the blade that have a GPS receiver installed thereon. The GPS receiver provides the work vehicle with an approximate location of the mast. However, using GPS technology provides only rough approximation of the position of the implement and the size and position of the masts can restrict movement, usage, and design of the implement.

Ultra-wideband radio frequency tracking of an implement on a work vehicle relative to a main body of the work vehicle


Financing obtained from a lender may be processed by a retailer in a manner similar to a credit card. For example, transaction data associated with a transaction to acquire one or more items from the retailer may be entered at a point of sale terminal of the retailer. A request may be sent for a temporary shopping pass associated with an account of a consumer at the lender. The temporary shopping pass may be used as a virtual payment instrument to access financing (e.g., a loan, a lease, or a credit) provided by the lender. After receiving the temporary shopping pass, the shopping pass data included in the temporary shopping pass, such as a one-time card number, may be entered into the point of sale terminal. The transaction may be completed by processing the shopping pass data as a credit card type tender using the point of sale terminal.

A retailer may desire to offer consumers access to financing from more than one provider of financing because having more than one lender may enable the retailer to complete more transactions and thereby increase sales. However, integrating different types of lenders to enable transactions to be quickly and smoothly processed may prove cumbersome. For example, each lender may each have a different way in which they provide financing, resulting in the retailer having to follow a lender-specific procedure to process each transaction.


In measuring an optical path length difference, light from a light source is guided through a first and a second path. A three-way coupler combines light from the first and the second path in at least three combination, with at least three mutually different added relative phase displacements. A detector measures interference intensities of the at least three combinations. From the intensities, a calculation unit determines a phase difference between the light from the first and second path while eliminating an effect of a contrast between the light from the first and second path.

Optical interference measurements make it possible to measure path length differences between different light paths with great accuracy. Here, light components which have first been guided through different paths are combined. The intensity of the combined light depends on the relative phase of the components which is caused by the path length difference. Thus, by measuring this intensity, information is obtained about the path length difference.
Such measurements are often used in control systems in which the path length difference between the different paths has to be controlled out. When there is no path length difference, the intensity of a combination of the components in which the polarity of one of the components is inverted prior to combining is minimal. This can be used to control out the path length difference. A method of accurately determining the minimum is to use a measuring signal which "crosses zero" when the path length difference is zero (i.e. the measuring signal is negative for a path length difference in one direction and is positive for a path length difference in the opposite direction). Such a measuring signal can be made by slightly modulating the path length difference and synchronously measuring the in-phase component of the resulting modulation in the intensity of the combined signal. This in-phase component crosses zero at the minimum of the intensity, i.e. when the path length difference is zero.
However, in practice, a modulation of the path length difference is often undesired. For that reason, the measuring signal crossing zero, without modulation, is sometimes made by measuring the intensity of two combinations of the components, in which the components are combined directly and after one of the components has been phase-displaced by 180 degrees respectively. The ratio between the difference and the sum of the intensities measured in this manner crosses zero when the path length difference has been controlled out. By calculating this ratio, a measuring signal is obtained by means of which the path length difference can be controlled to zero without modulation being necessary.
The measuring signal obtained in this manner is, inter alia, proportional to the amplitude ratio of the light components which are combined. This amplitude ratio has no effect on the path length difference when it is controlled out. However, the amplitude ratio does play a role when the path length difference is to be controlled to a fixed value which is not equal to zero. Also, the amplitude ratio can affect the gain of a control loop by means of which the path length difference is controlled. Unfortunately, the amplitude ratio of the light components is not always constant. Therefore, it is often necessary to measure the amplitude ratio separately to compensate for its effect. However, this generally requires complicated additional measurements which, moreover, make the apparatus more susceptible to fluctuations in the sensitivity.

Device for measuring an optical path length difference

Nederlandse Organisatie Voor-Toegepast Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek Tno


A magneto-optic recording system employing near-field optics which includes a read/write head having a pair of crossed tapered optical waveguides closely adjacent to the recording medium to provide light coupling between the tapered ends of the waveguides and the recording medium. The length of the waveguides being greater than one-half the wavelength of the light transmitted by the waveguides to transmit all light entering the waveguide to the tapered end and the width being a fraction of a wavelength of the light.

In magneto-optic recording systems, digital information is stored in a thin magnetic storage medium by locally magnetized regions or domains. The regions are magnetized to represent either ones or zeros. The information is written into the magnetic storage medium by raising the temperature of localized small regions of the magnetic medium to the Curie point temperature of the medium at the localized regions. This lowers the coercivity to a point which enables orientation of the magnetic domain by an external magnetic field. The size of the regions or domains determine the density of the digital information. The size of the localized region is limited by diffraction and is marginally improved by use of shorter wavelengths of light and higher numerical aperture lens. Stored information is read by Kerr or Faraday rotation of a polarized light beam incident on the magnetic medium by the magnetic fields at the magnetized regions or domains. The shift in polarization is in the order of 1 degree. This shift is employed to detect ones and zeros. Systems for reading out these small rotational changes are well established in the optical storage industry. Optical recording and the design of conventional read/write heads is described in the book entitled "Optical Recording" authored by Alan B. Marchant, Addison-Wesley Publishing, 1990.
Betzig and others have overcome the diffraction limitation definition by employing near-field optics. They have demonstrated orders of twenty nm or better for the magnetized regions or domains. (E. Betzig, J. K. Trautman, R. Wolfe, P. L. Finn, M. H. Kryder and C. H. Chang, "Near-Field Magneto-Optics and Hi-Density Data Storage", Appl. Phys. Lett. 61, 142-144, (1992)). The basic idea of near-field optics is to pass an optical beam into a metal covered optical fiber which is tapered down to a small size with a pinhole at its end. If this pinhole is placed close to the object being illuminated or imaged, in this instance the magnetic media, the definition is controlled by the size of the pinhole, rather by diffraction limits.
The problem with the use of a tapered fiber is that it does not propagate waves in the region where the diameter of the fiber is less than approximately 0.3 wavelengths of the light. Propagation through wave guide in this region is cut off and the loss of energy is extremely high, of the order of 30 dBs. Thus the amount of light energy which is applied to the medium is limited and heating of the medium to the Curie temperature requires a finite time. This makes it impractical for use with high speed storage systems. For example, with light penetration into the magnetic media of about 15 nm and an illumination wavelength of 546 nm, using quartz with fiber reflective index of 1.5, the minimum effective size of the beam in the propagating region of the quartz fiber is 140 nm. If the fiber is tapered to a size much smaller than this amount, the attenuation in the cutoff region is very high. Because of this high attenuation, the technique is unsuitable for optical storage at high data rates.

Magneto-optic recording system employing near field optics

The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University


An improved processing of sugar beet molasses (MDS—Molasses Desugarized Solubles) with the addition of applied heat at about 140° F. to about 180° F. for a time sufficient to, along with alkali degradation, at any given concentration of MDS, show an increase in overall melt value performance when compared to non-use of the heat step.

De-icing compositions are widely used in northern areas of the country, particularly in northern climates subject to heavy ice and snow conditions in the winter months. One of the inventors of the present composition has numerous patents on ice melters. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,122,127, which relates to liquid ice melters, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,619 which relates to solid ice melting compositions which are environmentally friendly. The disclosure of these patents is incorporated herein by reference.
A good ice melter for roads, sidewalks, parking lots, etc. is inexpensive, easy to manufacture, effective in melting snow and ice and easy to apply. The best ones also provide reduced corrosion to application equipment while also having beneficial effects to vegetation. All of these advantages in one ice melter has been a goal of the ice melting industry for some time.
Effective in melting means a product capable of melting below zero degrees F. Ease of application is also important because labor cost is one of the largest components of melting snow and ice. Liquid ice melters bring ease to the application process.
In Ossian, Inc.'s earlier U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,619 (Ossian & Steinhauser), created a product that melted below zero and could have a positive effect on vegetation. The major disadvantage to this earlier invention was the high cost to produce the product and the cost of application. It used calcium chloride and urea in a dry melter composition. When calcium chloride is manufactured for industrial use it starts out as a liquid. The water is then evaporated to form a flake or pellet. This manufacturing process uses considerable energy adding cost of manufacture for the raw material. Some of this cost could be avoided if the ice melter were liquid as a finished product.
The solid ice melter of U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,619 is advantageous in that it is an effective melter, and it brings a positive effect on vegetation. It is in content a combination of urea and calcium chloride in a solid particle format. However, in recent times it has been of interest to develop liquid ice melters. In some environments, liquid ice melters are preferred to solid ice melters in that they give better coverage, they are much quicker acting melters, and they are more economical to prepare.
The liquid ice melter of U.S. Pat. No. 7,122,127 is a product that is less expensive to manufacture, easy to use, melts below zero and can have a positive effect on vegetation. In that invention, Ossian, Inc. used liquid calcium chloride solution combined with either dry or liquid urea, in critical ratios to achieve an effective liquid ice melter that is beneficial to vegetation.
Ossian, Inc.'s most recent U.S. Pat. No. 7,473,379 the two inventors (Ossian & Behrens) chemically degraded carbohydrates and protein in sugar beet molasses (desugarized solubles) with alkali to a pH of at least 11 followed by an acid addition to lower pH to at least 10. These steps substantially and surprisingly increased melt value. The disclosure of this patent is incorporated herein, in its entirety, since the present case is an improvement on this process.
The industry has long looked for ways to either reduce or eliminate the use of salt for de-icing roadways, parking lots, sidewalks, etc. One of the more successful approaches of the past has been the use of prewetting and anti-icing. The present invention is suitable for this use.
Prewetting is the process of coating salt with different solutions as the salt is being applied to the roadway. These solutions are traditionally brines of sodium chloride, magnesium chloride and calcium chloride. In addition, various molasses agriculture by-products (e.g., Raffinate) are sometimes included with the solution. These by-products increase the viscosity of the prewet solution. The prewet process increases the melt value of the salt and reduces the bounce and scatter of dry salt when it hits the pavement. "Melt value" as used here refers to the ability to melt ice to brine at a given temperature, and it is measured by the volume of brine achieved within a specified amount of time.
Anti-icing is the process of placing the ice melter down in liquid form prior to any weather event. The concept being, it is easier to melt snow and ice from the bottom up as opposed to melting snow and ice from the top down. The concept uses less salt and is practiced by a number of State and Municipal governments. However, this method has its limits because common liquid ice melters such as solutions of calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, sodium chloride and potassium acetate all have relatively low viscosities causing run off problems. That is to say, these products do not stay in place but will instead easily penetrate into the concrete and will not have enough residual left on top of the pavement for very much melting action to occur. The problem is even more of an issue when liquid sodium chloride solution is used. The water in the solution will evaporate leaving a chalky salt residue that in some cases may dry up and blow away before a weather event even occurs.
To address this issue many have turned to a molasses type by-product derived from sugar beet (raffinate), sugar cane, corn sugars and steep water, brewers condensed solubles, distillers solubles, or mixtures thereof to increase viscosity. These by-products can provide value to the various solutions of calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, sodium chloride and potassium acetate by keeping them in place before, during and sometimes after the melting process. Adding these compositions to various solutions of ice melt chemicals helps keep them in place longer. See Patents: Bloomer U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,416,684; 6,641,753; 6,080,330; Hartley U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,299,793; 6,436,310; 6,440,325; 6,582,622; 6,596,188; 6,599,440; 6,770,217; 6,805,811; 6,827,873; 6,905,631; 7,014,789; Koefod U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,398,979; 6,800,217; Roderick U.S. Pat. No. 6,605,121.
However, all these patented products have a major limitation. The sugar by-products alone are very poor ice melters and their value potential is only to increase viscosity and act as a corrosion inhibitor. They, therefore, raise the overall costs and in most cases add little to no melting value to the liquid solution.
There has been some effort to improve the melt values of the sugar/molasses mixtures in U.S. Pat. No. 6,605,232. This patent degrades reducing sugars to a pH of 6.0 to 9.0 from steep water waste stream of agribusiness with an alkali. It requires a reducing sugar concentration of 10 to 70 parts by weight. This process is limited in availability of raw materials and in the increased melt value. In addition, it does not include the use of chloride salts. U.S. Pat. No. 6,080,330 uses raffinate but only to increase viscosity without providing any melt value enhancing pretreatment of the raffinate. Our earlier U.S. Pat. No. 7,743,379, uses treated raffinate to increase melt value. This present process improves upon U.S. Pat. No. 6,080,330.
It has now been found that by adding heat at elevated temperatures for a substantial length of time during the alkali degradation process for beet industry by-products, such as desugared sugar beet molasses, a significant melt value benefit can be achieved over our current U.S. Pat. No. 7,473,379.
A yet further benefit, can be achieve, by changing the alkali in our first U.S. Pat. No. 7,473,379 from the Group I metal sodium hydroxide to a different Group I metal, hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, one can achieve an even more significant melt value than just through use of adding heat processing during chemical degradation; in fact, this also allows production of a non-chloride ice melter for sensitive environmental areas that cannot tolerate chlorides, that still has excellent melt value properties.

Process of improving melt value of melters using processed desugarized solubles (MDS)


An animal chew for chewing by an animal comprising a body portion including an outer layer having a first hardness, the body portion having a first and second end sections with an edge thereof. An end piece is supplied having a hardness that is greater than the first hardness, the end piece configured to engage with the body portion, wherein the end piece protects the edge section of the end piece from contact by the animal during chewing.

Most dogs enjoy chewing on things although preferences vary as to the hardness of the substances favored. Some dogs like to chew on very hard materials such as cow bones, wood, nylon or polyurethane, others prefer softer chews such as rawhide, while still others favor freeze dried snacks. Some dogs, due to their age, may not be able to chew on the hard substances. Young dogs have insufficiently developed teeth, while old dogs may have diseased gums or may have lost some of their teeth.
In addition to the variety of chewing desires and needs of different dogs there is also the consideration that as one lowers the hardness of a material designated for chewing, the strength of a given chewing action may overcome the strength of the material, and the chew is susceptible to more rapid destruction. In that regard, efforts have been made to provide a chew toy that maintains the interest of an animal in a soft chewing medium, but which soft chew medium maintains itself intact in the chewing environment.
Along such lines, attention is directed to U.S. Pat. No. 6,474,268 entitled "Composite Chew Toy". A synthetic chew toy is disclosed which is said to be formed of two different materials. The toy is described as requiring a rigid synthetic frame, supporting a softer chew portion. More specifically, a frame is shown (FIGS. 1-4) with what is described as four bulbous portions 210 at the ends thereof to simulate a bone shape. The frame is said to include a support shelf 220 having an inner wall 225 defining an opening 226 in the shape of an elongated oval. The frame 200 is also said to include a support wall 230 surrounding and perpendicular to the shelf 220 such that the shelf extends inward and perpendicular to an inner wall 231 of support wall 230. The '268 patent states that the rigidity of the frame provides structure, support and durability for the chew toy, and that the relatively softer chew portion can provide beneficial effects to a pet's teeth and gums, or provide greater chewing pleasure.
Attention is also directed to U.S. Pat. No. 5,263,436 entitled "Bone-Shaped Therapeutic Device". A bone-shaped therapeutic chew toy device is disclosed for a dog consisting of material molded in a form having sharp conically shaped spikes distributed over its surface. The materials mentioned include polyethylene or a polyester or a polyamide having a durometer of 50-90.
The field of animal chews has also developed wherein a number of disclosures have occurred directed at those types of chews that may be characterized as edible based compositions. For example, attention is also directed to the following U.S. Patents, commonly owned by the assignee herein: U.S. Pat. No. 5,476,069 entitled "Molded Rawhide Chew Toy"; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/923,070 filed Sep. 3, 1997 entitled "Vegetable Based Dog Chew" now U.S. Pat. No. 6,093,427; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/738,423 filed Oct. 25, 1997 entitled "Edible Dog Chew" now U.S. Pat. No. 5,827,565; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/784,834 filed Jan. 17, 1997 entitled "Carrot-Based Dog Chew" now U.S. Pat. No. 5,941,197; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/114,872 filed Jul. 14, 1998 entitled "Heat Modifiable Edible Dog Chew" now U.S. Pat. No. 6,180,161; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/138,804 filed Aug. 21, 1998 entitled "Improved Edible Dog Chew" now U.S. Pat. No. 6,126,978; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/116,070 filed Jul. 15, 1998 entitled "Wheat & Casein Dow Chew With Modifiable Texture" now U.S. Pat. No. 6,110,521; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/116,555 filed Jul. 15, 1998 entitled "Heat Modifiable Peanut Dog Chew" now U.S. Pat. No. 6,093,441; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/227,767 filed Jan. 8, 1999 entitled "Method of Molding Edible Starch" now U.S. Pat. No. 6,159,516.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an animal chew that offers chewing surfaces having different hardness values to satisfy different chewing preferences, and which provides a simpler, more economical, improved and longer-lasting design over the prior art.
It is therefore a related and more specific object of the present invention to provide an animal chew that offers chewing surfaces having different hardness values, wherein the edges of the softer surface are strategically concealed, at least in part, and wherein said edges may also be employed to secure the softer surface to the chew, thereby reducing the tendency to tear at an edge location, which therefore increases the life expectancy of the chew toy in the chewing environment.

Animal chew containing hard and soft chewing surfaces


Provided herein is a vehicle having high driving operability during turning. The vehicle having a right wheel provided at the right of a main body and a left wheel provided at the left of the main body, includes a right lower arm that connects the main body to the right wheel, a left lower arm that connects the main body to the left wheel, and foot placement sections that are respectively mounted to the right and left lower arms in order to place feet of a driver thereon. A mounting position of the right lower arm to the main body is to the left of the main body and a mounting position of the left lower arm to the main body is to the right of the main body.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle.
2. Related Background Art
Conventionally, a vehicle in which a driver sits on a driver seat and performs a driving operation is known, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2012-111305. Such a vehicle includes a driver seat on which a driver sits, and the driver seat has a backrest section extending upward from the rear of a seat section directed in a horizontal direction. The driver sits on the driver seat, rests the driver's waist and back against the backrest section, stretches legs in a forward direction from the driver seat to take the seat, and performs a driving operation. That is, the driver drives the vehicle in a posture of putting feet ahead of the waist and knees and leaning the back against the backrest section.
Incidentally, in a vehicle in which a driver has a driving posture of sitting by straddling a seat sheet and leaning the driver's back against a backrest section as in a motorcycle, it is difficult to stabilize the driving posture. Particularly, a stable driving posture is required during turning or the like.
Accordingly, in the field of the present technique, it is desired to develop a vehicle having high driving operability during turning.
According to an aspect of the present invention, a vehicle is a vehicle having a right wheel provided at the right of a main body and a left wheel provided at the left of the main body, the vehicle includes a seating section configured such that an occupant is able to take a seat by straddling the same, a right arm member that connects the main body to the right wheel, a left arm member that connects the main body to the left wheel, and foot placement sections that are respectively mounted to the right and left arm members in order to place feet of the occupant thereon, wherein the main body is configured to be capable of being inclined to the left and the right with respect to the right and left arm members, and a mounting position of the right arm member to the main body is to the left of the main body from a mounting position of the left arm member to the main body.
According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a vehicle having high driving operability during turning.


A wireless network [100] includes a number of first wireless terminals configured to operate as cluster heads [110] by communicating with at least one other cluster head over a relatively long range backbone link [115]. Each one of the first wireless terminals includes a backbone transceiver. The backbone transceivers may operate in a first frequency range. At least one second wireless terminal is configured to operate as a cluster member [120] by communicating with an associated cluster head over a local link. Each one of the second wireless terminals includes a cluster transceiver. The cluster transceivers may operate in a second frequency range that is different from the first frequency range of the backbone transceivers. At least one of the first and second wireless terminals includes both a backbone transceiver and a cluster transceiver.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wireless data communication networks and more particularly to such a network that employs mobile wireless terminals and that automatically organizes itself for efficient operation.
2. Description of Related Art
Wireless data communications networks may be constructed where a number of (possibly mobile) stations will automatically organize themselves into a hierarchical network. The hierarchical network may contain one or more clusters of stations, each cluster having one cluster head and zero or more cluster members. The cluster heads may operate at a relatively high power level to provide longer distance network links, also known as backbone links, for the network. The cluster members may operate at a lower power in the same frequency band to communicate with the cluster heads. Such self-organizing, or ad-hoc, networks may adaptively reorganize in the face of movement or destruction of cluster heads.
FIG. 1 illustrates a communications network 100 that employs a group of similar (possibly mobile) stations, some of which operate as cluster heads 110. The cluster heads 110 may be interconnected by one or more backbone links 115. Each cluster head 110 defines a cluster, and the cluster may include zero or more cluster members 120. The cluster members 120 communicate directly with the cluster heads 110 through communication links. The dashed line 130 illustrates one such cluster, containing cluster head 110 and two cluster members 120.
The cluster heads 110 and the cluster members 120 may be similar in construction, for example a single model of radio that may transmit at different signal powers. In the exemplary network 100, each station 110/120 may transmit at either a relatively high power level that is suitable for relatively long network links (e.g., cluster heads 110) or at a relatively low power level that is suitable for relatively long or relatively short network links (e.g., cluster members 120). Likewise, each station 110/120 may operate in at least two basic modes. One of the modes (e.g., for cluster heads 110) may be as a "backbone radio" for providing message transit between a number of cluster members and another cluster head. The other mode (e.g., for cluster members 120) may be as a "cluster radio" for providing relatively local message access to the cluster head 110 or to other cluster members 120. The cluster head stations operate at the relatively high power level to communicate with other cluster head stations, and thereby form network backbone 115.
Each station 110/120 has both transmitting and receiving capabilities (i.e. operates as a transceiver). The network 100 may, for example, be operated as a packet switched digital data network for communicating messages from one station to another once its configuration is established. As is understood by those skilled in the art, procedures exist for routing messages over a network, even when the configuration of the network may occasionally change. Likewise, there are procedures for measuring or rating the connectivity of a network in particular configurations.
Though FIG. 1 illustrates a particular interconnection of the various stations 110/120 shown, it should be understood that other patterns of connections are possible. Further, the pattern of connections can change during operation, both to accommodate the introduction of new stations and to allow for the withdrawal or movement of one of the existing stations. The mode of operation of each station may be controlled by an embedded microprocessor in accordance with known network self-organization and communication algorithms.
Using a similar station for both cluster heads 110 and cluster members 120 may result in the overall system 100 being too expensive. For example, if the majority of the stations become configured as cluster members 120, the added functionality for becoming cluster heads in these stations may increase the per-station cost over, for example, dedicated cluster member stations. Further, if both cluster heads 110 and cluster members 120 utilize the same wireless channel, system throughput may suffer. Also, networks that use a single type of transceiver necessarily are limited in future expandability (i.e., incorporating new or different transceivers within the network). Thus, systems with a single transceiver may not be able to employ a mixture of microwave and VHF radio links in a single network, nor a mixture of acoustic and radio links, nor a mixture of infrared broadcast and laser links, etc.
Accordingly, there exists a need for self-organizing communication networks that avoid the shortfalls of such networks that utilize only one type of transceiver for both cluster heads and cluster members.

Wireless terminals with multiple transceivers


Methods for growing living organisms in a series of growing units, including delivering a fluid by continuous horizontal flow from a source of fluid to each growing unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for growing living organisms and, more particularly, to such an apparatus which is operable to promote the growth of living organisms, such as plant life, and to maintain such growth in a desired state of development, for a predetermined period of time, and/or with other operational parameters.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The growth of living organisms, including plant life, is essential to sustaining virtually all life forms. Plant life, for example, provides sustenance for humans, animals and other living organisms. Plant life, in part, uses carbon dioxide from its environment and, through photosynthesis, produces oxygen necessary for creating an atmosphere sufficient to permit all forms of life to be created and sustained.
In its natural form, plant life serves as food for animals, humans and a wide variety of other creatures and organisms. In addition, of course, plant life can be used, processed, or otherwise modified to form a multiplicity of products. Furthermore, new varieties of plant life are continuously being created both spontaneously in nature as well as by human experimentation, plant breeding and the like. Such plant breeding and discovery result both in new forms of plant life which can be employed in a multitude of uses as well as yielding new types of commodities produced thereby. Examples abound in the form of food products such as fruits, nuts, vegetables and the like, and new types of plant life employed for other uses such as in landscaping, construction, heating, medicine and virtually endless other uses.
Plant patents and other forms of protection are available in the United States and in other nations of the world under laws intended to promote the creation, discovery, experimentation and development of new forms or varieties of plant life.
Such creation, discovery, experimentation and development has led to the invention of new methods and apparatuses to assist in the achievement of these objectives. For example, throughout an extensive history, various hydroponic devices, systems and methods have been developed for these and other purposes. Hydroponics is, by definition, the cultivation of plant life in nutrient solution rather than in soil. The purposes for such technology include inexpensively and with a minimum of attention and care to produce and maintain superior specimens of plant life. Concomitantly, there has been a desire to create hydroponic systems which can be employed for virtually all forms of plant life.
Other considerations include the creation of hydroponic systems of virtually any capacity, whether large or small; of systems which can be employed using ambient light as well as, artificial light; which are readily controlled to accommodate changing conditions, both as to the environment in which they are used as well as to the changing requirements of the plant life as it is grown; and which achieve many other long recognized but unrealized objectives. These objectives have eluded achievement notwithstanding the development of various types of hydroponic systems virtually from the beginning of recorded history.
Thus, while some progress has been attained with such efforts, the success, particularly from a commercial standpoint, has been marginal. Without practical and dependable commercial application, true hydroponics has little value other than for limited scientific experimentation as in the case of a plant breeding programs. The production of seedlings for commercial planting is limited by the restricted capacity of conventional hydroponic systems. There is, thus, no prior art hydroponics system capable of providing a sufficient number of seedlings and/or plants necessary for practical commercial application. In summary in this respect, the prior art is replete with hydroponic systems incapable, as a practical matter, of being expanded to produce commercially viable yields.
Therefore, it has long been recognized that it would be desirable to have an apparatus for growing living organisms which is capable of producing commercially practical yields of superior quality plant life and other living organisms; which is operable to provide an optimum growing environment; which is operable to provide superior aeration of the fluid provided to the plant life or the like grown therein; which is operable to provide optimum nutrients in a manner most suited to the particular plant life to be grown; which permits modification thereof to accommodate the changing requirements of the plant life throughout its growth and maturation; which can readily be expanded to provide additional capacity or reduced in size to accommodate a particular desired capacity; which is adapted to provide improved operation in a hydroponic system; and which is otherwise entirely successful in achieving its operational objectives.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A method is disclosed, the method comprising the steps of receiving, at a first time interval from a first sensor configured to output data indicative of a first position of an eye, first data; receiving, at a second time interval from a second sensor configured to output data indicative of a delta position of the eye, second data; determining, based on the first data, a first position of the eye; determining, based on the second data, a delta position of the eye; determining, using the first position of the eye and the delta position of the eye, a second absolute position of the eye; and in response to determining the second position of the eye, generating an output signal indicative of the second position of the eye.

Generally speaking, eye tracking systems generate one or more signals corresponding to a position and/or movement of a user's eye. (Throughout the disclosure, "position" should be understood to include a position and/or an orientation, and "movement" should be understood to include a movement and/or a rotation, of an eye.) These signals may be used as input to various computer systems, and find use in applications as diverse as gaming, navigation, sports training, communications, and medical research; or in other situations in which it is beneficial to know where a user is looking. In particular, eye tracking systems may find use in 3D virtual environments, such as employed by some "augmented reality" (AR) systems, where knowledge of a user's eye movements can enhance a feeling of immersion in the virtual environment. In some examples, eye tracking systems involve a mobile apparatus, such as a head-mounted device with sensors oriented toward the wearer's eye.
It is desirable for eye tracking systems to accurately reflect eye positions and movements, even under dynamic or unpredictable conditions (such as varying weather and lighting conditions). Further, as with most computer systems, it is desirable to reduce the power consumed by eye tracking systems, for example to preserve battery life in mobile systems. These goals are not always compatible: for example, high resolution optical scanning may generate accurate eye tracking results, but at the expense of high power consumption. Updating sensor data at a low refresh rate may conserve power, but fail to accurately capture high frequency eye movements. The disclosure is directed to multimodal systems and methods for combining sensors, such as optical sensors and electro-ocular voltage sensors, to enhance the accuracy and/or power consumption of eye tracking systems. The disclosure is further directed to systems and methods for using such sensors to characterize the behavior of an eye, which information may be used to further enhance eye tracking accuracy and/or power consumption.


A water heater (10) is suitable for point-of-use applications. The water heater includes a tank housing (12) and one or more electrically powered heating elements (18). A water inlet line (20) and a water outlet line (24) may be molded as a unitary structure with the tank housing. The water outlet line includes a lower port (68) and an upper port (70) for mixing water in the outlet line. The housing may be mounted such that its axis is either vertical or horizontal.

Various types of tankless water heaters have been devised over the years, including water heaters with electrically powered heating elements in a plastic housing. Tankless water heaters have frequently been directed to point of use, meaning the water heater was placed immediately upstream from a heated water use device, such as a sink or a shower.
Several tankless water heater manufacturers provide multiple water housings, which may be plumbed in parallel and/or in series. Another manufacturer employs a single metal tank for receiving the electrically powered heater. The water inlet to the one or more housings and the water outlet from the one or more housings typically have reduced diameters of ⅜ inch tubing. This restricted tubing in part tends to create a high fluid velocity in portions of the tank to entrain air bubbles in the fluid passing to the outlet, thereby attempting to avoid undesirable air pockets within the housing chamber. Moreover, restricted inlets and outlets create a high pressure drop such that the unit may not be suitable for various applications. Water outlets from many heaters extend from the bottom of the tank housing.
Prior art tankless water heaters have disadvantages in that the mounting orientation of the water heater is limited; most heaters must be mounted with the central tank axis vertical. Many prior tankless art water heaters subject the user to a scalding condition when latent heat after shut-down creates water hotter than desired remains in the housing chamber after the heater is shut off. After shut off, water temperature continues to increase in the housing due to the heated surroundings and the still hot heating element, and overheated hot water is subsequently released when the same or another user turns the water back on. Other tankless water heaters contain very little water, and the second user of the water does not benefit from the stored quantity of water in the heater after the first user is completed. Still other tankless water heaters use expensive flow control sensors or do not accurately detect a "flow" condition, thereby minimizing the effective control of heat to the water. Some tankless water heaters incorporate mixing valves to mix hot water discharged from the heater, thereby creating another expense to the user.
Prior art patents include U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,216,743, 7,616,873, 5,866,880, 6,080,971, and 6,246,831. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,216,743, 5,866,880, 6,080,971, 6,246,831, and 7,616,873 disclose tankless water heaters with a plastic housing and improved heater controls. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,909,843, 7,567,751 and 7,779,790 disclose a single chamber heater with one or more heating elements therein.
The disadvantages of the prior art are overcome by the present invention, an improved tankless water heater is hereinafter disclosed.


A protein isolated from crude Haementeria officinalis extract which blocks stimulation of platelet aggregation by collagen. The protein has a molecular weight of approximately 16,000. A method of isolating the protein and using the protein to prevent or delay blood coagulation by blocking the stimulation of platelet aggregation by collagen is also described. The protein is useful in the prevention, prophylaxis, therapy and treatment of thrombotic diseases.

Normal hemostasis in man is governed by a complex series of interrelated mechanisms involving both cellular and humoral biochemical components. The biochemical pathway involves injury to intact endothelial cells, stimulation of platelets and activation of coagulation mechanisms. When a vessel is damaged and the subendothelium is exposed, platelets very rapidly adhere to some of the constituents of the vessel wall, notably collagen. Although platelets also adhere to other subendothelial constituents, only collagen has been reported to stimulate platelets to release their granule contents and recruit other platelets to the injury site.

Protein for inhibiting collagen-stimulated platelet aggregation


An optical trace detecting module includes a light-pervious plate, a light source, an optical sensor, an imaging lens, and an optical path diverting element. The light-pervious plate contacts an object and allows the object to move on a surface thereof. The imaging lens is disposed between the light-pervious plate and the optical sensor. The optical path diverting element is disposed between the imaging lens and the optical sensor. A sensing light projected from the light source is refracted to the optical sensor under the guide of the optical path diverting element.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a trace detecting sensor, and more particularly, to an optical trace detecting module with an optical path diverting element.
2. Related Art
With the development and progress of science and technology, computer equipments, no matter the personal computers (PCs) or notebooks, have become indispensable tools for providing convenience in people's daily life or work. However, window interfaces of the computer equipments can only be manipulated through pointing input devices, such as a mouse, touchpad, and trackball.
For example, in an optical mouse, an optical sensor module mounted on the bottom projects a light. The light is refracted at the surface of an object into an optical sensor of the optical sensor module, so as to detect a change of the light refracted by the surface of the object, and generate a corresponding cursor movement signal.
In recent years, a touch control module capable of manipulating a cursor and executing a preset function is further developed to completely replace the functions of the optical sensor module and buttons of a conventional mouse. The touch control module is disposed in an upper housing of the mouse. A user may selectively manipulate the position of the cursor through the optical sensor module on the bottom of the mouse or slide a finger on the touch control module to generate a corresponding control signal.
The optical elements of the conventional touch control module are stacked to form a complete optical path. Therefore, a projection distance between a light projecting diode (LED) and the optical sensor has to be relatively elongated, such that a light from the LED may be accurately refracted into the optical sensor. However, as a result, the touch control module must occupy more space, and accordingly, an electronic device installed with the touch control module is unable to be thinned due to its greatly increased volume, thus deviating from the current requirements of a light, thin, short, and small electronic device. In addition, in the manufacturing, the layout of the components and the touch control module inside the mouse must be considered, such that the manufacturing processes are increased.

Reflecting optical trace detecting module having an optical path diverting element


A method for forming a composite profile having a foam material introduced therein. The invention provides an inline method for the introduction of a foam material into a composite profile.

One method used to manufacture composite or reinforced plastic articles is the pultrusion process. In a fairly simple form, pultrusion is a process in which continuous glass fibers or other reinforcing materials are coated or saturated with a plastic material and then pulled through a die to form an article having a desired cross-sectional profile. The reinforcing material within the article provides strength, durability, and other desirable properties. See, for example, Modern Plastics Encyclopedia, "Pultrusion and Pulforming" (1986).
Pultrusion may be used to prepare articles having nearly any desired cross section. Due to the versatility of the process, pultrusion may be used to prepare a wide variety of structural materials, such as building panels, window lineals, ladder rails, and so on.
While many of the pultruded profiles are hollow because of cost, weight, and processing considerations, for certain applications a composite profile surrounding a filled core is desired. A pultruded profile filled with foam, for example, has superior insulating and structural properties. A pultruded composite with a foam core will have improved resistance to temperature change because the foam will provide increased resistance to the transfer of heat.
Further, a foam core will allow pultruded forms to be joined or have articles secured thereto in the same manner as a more homogeneous material such as wood, due to the good fastener retention capability of structural foams. This fastener retention capability will also provide the ability to fasten parts along the lineal portion of the pultruded profile.
A number of attempts have been made in the prior art to provide a pultruded article with a structural foam core. Staneluis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,828,897, describe a method for preparing a reinforced composite having an outer polymeric skin and an inner polymeric foam core bonded together by means of strands of high modulus material. In this process the pressure of the expanding foam material forces the polymeric skin into the mold, thereby forming the proper shape.
McGrath et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,286,320, teaches the preparation of a pultruded panel by arranging reinforcing fibers on a preformed foam core, applying liquid resin to the reinforcements, and passing the materials through a pultrusion die. Process heat allows the resin to flow and permeate the reinforcements, thereby causing the resin to penetrate both the reinforcements and the core.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,120,380, an in-line cored pultruded profile is prepared by placing core-forming materials into a pre-die former that is larger than the pultrusion die. As the core-forming material passes through the pre-die former, it progressively conforms to the cross-sectional shape of the die as it approaches the die station.
All of the known methods for forming a foam filled pultruded profile require multiple processing steps, in the pre-forming of a foam core, or added steps to bond the core and the shell, or curing steps.
Accordingly, a need exists for a method involving minimal steps in preparing a foam filled pultruded profile.

In-line process for injection of foam material into a composite profile


A MEMS electrostatic actuator that achieves autofocus and super resolution imaging in cameras is disclosed. The actuator is able to provide multi-degrees of freedom motion (of up to 5-degrees-of-freedom). It consists of a moving and fixed parts. The moving part comprises an inner and outer rotor. The inner rotor contains a load stage and the moving plates of the parallel-plate electrodes and is attached to the outer rotor via a plurality of mechanical springs. The outer rotor holds the inner rotor and contains a plurality of openings or tubes surrounded by walls and are attached to the outer periphery of the actuator via multiple mechanical springs. The present device can be used to achieve super resolution functionality in compact cameras.

Super resolution imaging requires high accuracy and high speed motion actuators, so that multiple images that are pixel-shifted with respect to each other can be processed to create higher definition images, usually double the resolution of the image sensor. The required translation stroke for the image sensor to enable super resolution imaging is in the range of the width of a sub-pixel to a single pixel (usually sub-micron to few microns) with an accuracy of 10's of nanometers. The importance of the actuator speed can be understood in view of the fact that the hand-shake motion has a frequency of about 20 Hz, which means that within 10's of milliseconds, the image frames will shift by few microns due to handshake motion. If the actuator speed is higher (settles within a millisecond), then the effect of the handshake on super resolution imaging will be significantly mitigated.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 9,264,591B2, 9,578,217B2, and 10,582,100B1 disclose image sensor MEMS actuators that provide in-plane motion along the x and y axes to mainly achieve optical image stabilization by translating the sensor along the x and y axes larger strokes to counteract the hand shake. However, the same electrostatic electrodes (in all cases comb-drive electrodes) that provide the translations are also used to provide sub-micron motion for super resolution imaging. This is very challenging since the stiffnesses of the moving parts (rotors) have to be made relatively low such that larger translational strokes are feasible to compensate for hand-shake (the required stroke range for handshake compensation is usually in the range of 70-100 microns) and thus significantly compromising the accuracy and speed of the actuator when the same electrodes are used for super resolution functionality, which usually requires a much smaller micron range motion. When the target stroke is limited to few microns, then the rotor stiffness can be made large. This makes the natural frequency of the actuator high (as actuator natural frequency can be approximated as square root of stiffness over mass). The second issue of these designs is that they all use comb-drive electrode configuration to generate the motion which has significantly less damping as opposed to the parallel plate electrode configuration which is known to have large thin film damping due to the air trapped between the large areas between the plates. This large air-damping is very important to have less overshoot in the response of the actuator and thus enables the actuator to settle fast.
The third issue in a number of these designs (U.S. Pat. No. 9,264,591B2, 957821762), is coupling across the different axes of motion and flexure mechanisms are used to reduce the coupling effects, however, these flexures do not completely eliminate the couplings as they transmit part of the motion across the moving parts of the actuators. Such coupling becomes a significant issue for the actuator accuracy if micron level motion is desired. Although the actuator presented in U.S. Pat. No. 10,582,100B1 provides totally decoupled motions by mechanically segmenting the moving parts of the actuator across all axes, the middle rotor that provides the y-axis motion holds the entire inner rotor and the inner stator. That is a significant load added to the middle rotor in addition to the image sensor load, which results in a slower response of the actuator along the y-axis. In addition, the size of the actuator is relatively large due to the decoupling between the moving parts through stators segmentation (3 stators and 3 rotors).
Therefore, there is an increasing need for a super resolution actuator that utilizes dedicated electrodes to achieve super resolution imaging so that the actuator can provide highly accurate, fast, and totally decoupled translations, while other parts of the actuator can achieve other camera functionalities like AF.

MEMS electrostatic actuator for super resolution and autofocus in cameras


The frequency of a differential circuit can be advantageously adjusted using a switchable inductor. Specifically, the switchable inductor allows a base inductance to be increased by activating one of a plurality of inductor stages. A switch in an inductor stage can be opened to activate that inductor stage. In one embodiment, the switch can be implemented using a PMOS transistor and closing the switch means turning on the PMOS transistor. Advantageously, the switches have non-ideal behavior when closed which may be mitigated by disposing the switch between differential sides of a circuit, thereby providing a more optimal Q for certain applications. Moreover, the switches ensure that the first and second sides of the differential circuit receive an equal resistance to a virtual ground.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to inductors and in particular to the use of a switchable inductor to change the tuned frequency of a differential circuit.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Radio-frequency (RF) integrated circuits commonly use a tuned circuit in which an on-chip inductor resonates with parasitic and non-parasitic capacitances. To tune the frequency of a tank, i.e. a parallel L/C (inductor/capacitor) circuit that can provide high impedance at the frequency of operation, variable capacitors can be used. For example, FIG. 1A illustrates a simplified, tunable gain stage 100 with variable capacitive tuning.
In FIG. 1A, a tank 101A is connected between a high voltage source VDD and a drain of an NMOS transistor 102A. The source of NMOS transistor 102A is connected to a drain of an NMOS transistor 103A. The source of NMOS transistor 103A is connected to a current source 104, which in turn is connected to a low voltage source VSS. Similarly, a tank 101B is connected between a high voltage source VDD and a drain of an NMOS transistor 102B. The source of NMOS transistor 102B is connected to a drain of an NMOS transistor 103B. The source of NMOS transistor 103B is connected to current source 104. In this configuration, tunable gain stage 100 can be implemented as a cascode amplifier, wherein voltage Vc can be a bias voltage of the gates of this amplifier. Voltages Vin(+) and Vin(−) represent the positive and negative voltages applied to gain stage 100.
Notably, a variable capacitor 105, which is connected between tanks 101A and 101B, allows gain stage 100 to be tuned capacitively. Variable capacitors can be implemented as fixed capacitors that are connected using switches. For example, FIG. 1B illustrates an exemplary implementation for variable capacitor 105 in gain stage 100. Specifically, variable capacitor 105 can be implemented as switchable capacitors 105A and 105B, wherein each switchable capacitor includes a capacitor and a switch (e.g. implemented using a transistor). FIG. 1C illustrates another exemplary implementation for variable capacitor 105 in which switchable capacitors 105A and 105B share a common switch.
Unfortunately, variable capacitors can have significant disadvantages. For example, variable capacitors can have significant capacitance even in the low capacitance state. Therefore, the inductor in the circuit must be smaller and the gain of the stage must be lower than if variable capacitance was not used.
Additionally, the performance in the low frequency band suffers because the equivalent parallel resistance is lower than in the higher frequency band. To better understand this phenomena, note that each tank has an associated loss. For example, FIG. 1D illustrates a tank 110 in which this associated loss can be shown as a parallel resistance Rp. Equation (1) computes the parallel resistance Rp for a tank in term of the series resistance Rs of the inductor and the quality factor Q.Rp=Rs(1+Q2)  Equation (1)Equation (2) recognizes that the quality factor Q is equivalent to Lw/Rs, wherein L is the inductance and w is the angular frequency of operation.Rp=Rs(1+(Lw/Rs)2)  Equation (2)Logically, referring to Equation (2), the parallel resistance Rp drops at lower frequencies.
However, note that w=1/√{square root over (LC)}, (Lw/Rs)2=L/CRs, wherein C is the capacitance. Thus, for higher performance (and thus higher parallel resistance Rp), the inductance L is preferably increased or the capacitance C decreased. Therefore, a need arises for a tunable differential circuit that can advantageously increase inductance.

Tunable circuit including a switchable inductor


A wireless suspension design is described that can be used in varying types of drive designs. In one embodiment, a flex circuit is provided with at least two indicia to indicate where the flex circuit is to be bent when attaching it to a head stack assembly.

The present invention is directed to suspension designs in disk drives. More particularly, the present invention pertains to wireless suspension designs that may be used in multiple drive designs.
Hard disk drives that utilize magnetic read/write heads are well-known in the art. A common component of a hard disk drive is a head stack assembly (HSA). An HSA includes an actuator (which incorporates an E-block), a head gimbal assembly (HGA) and an actuator flex assembly. The flex assembly is a flex circuit that is typically attached to an integrated circuit chip that processes data read from the disk and data to be written to the disk. The actuator flex assembly is connected to the HGA. The end result for the HSA is that the magnetic head of the HGA is electrically connected to the integrated circuit chip.
A typical HGA includes a magnetic read/write head that is attached to or incorporated into a slider (which typically include an air bearing surface to allow the head to "fly" over the moving disk). The slider is attached to a flexure, which provides support for the slider and controls the pitch and roll of the slider relative to the moving disk. The high speed rotation of a magnetic disk generates a stream of air flow or wind along its surface in a direction substantially parallel to the tangential velocity of the disk. The air flow cooperates with the ABS of the slider body which enables the slider to fly above the spinning disk. In effect, the suspended slider is physically separated from the disk surface through this self-actuating air bearing. The ABS of a slider is generally configured on the slider surface facing the rotating disk, and greatly influences its ability to fly over the disk under various conditions.
As shown in FIG. 1 an ABS design known for a common catamaran slider 5 may be formed with a pair of parallel rails 2 and 4 that extend along the outer edges of the slider surface facing the disk. Other ABS configurations including three or more additional rails, with various surface areas and geometries, have also been developed. The two rails 2 and 4 typically run along at least a portion of the slider body length from the leading edge 6 to the trailing edge 8. The leading edge 6 is defined as the edge of the slider that the rotating disk passes before running the length of the slider 5 towards a trailing edge 8. As shown, the leading edge 6 may be tapered despite the large undesirable tolerance typically associated with this machining process. The transducer or magnetic element 7 is typically mounted at some location along the trailing edge 8 of the slider as shown in FIG. 1. The rails 2 and 4 form an air bearing surface on which the slider flies, and provide the necessary lift upon contact with the air flow created by the spinning disk. As the disk rotates, the generated wind or air flow runs along underneath, and in between, the catamaran slider rails 2 and 4. As the air flow passes beneath the rails 2 and 4, the air pressure between the rails and the disk increases thereby providing positive pressurization and lift. Catamaran sliders generally create a sufficient amount of lift, or positive load force, to cause the slider to fly at appropriate heights above the rotating disk. In the absence of the rails 2 and 4, the large surface area of the slider body 5 would produce an excessively large air bearing surface area. In general, as the air bearing surface area increases, the amount of lift created is also increased. Without rails, the slider would therefore fly too far from the rotating disk thereby foregoing all of the described benefits of having a low flying height.
As illustrated in FIG. 2, a head gimbal assembly 40 often provides the slider with multiple degrees of freedom such as vertical spacing, or pitch angle and roll angle which describe the flying height of the slider. As shown in FIG. 2, a suspension 74 holds the HGA 40 over the moving disk 76 (having edge 70) and moving in the direction indicated by arrow 80. In operation of the disk drive shown in FIG. 2, an actuator 72 moves the HGA over various diameters of the disk 76 (e.g., inner diameter (ID), middle diameter (NM) and outer diameter (OD)) over arc 75.
A preamplifier is typically connected to the head to supply write currents to the write head and receive currents from the read head. The suspension provides two functions: mechanical support and electrical connection between the head and the preamplifier. Rather than using physical wires to connect the head to the preamplifier, metal traces on the suspension are quite often used.
The preamplifier resides in a subassembly common referred to as the Actuator Flex Preamp Assembly (AFPA) The preamplifier is usually soldered to a flexible circuit. This flexible circuit provides the areas to which the HGA traces will be connected to complete the circuit connecting the preamplifier to the read and write elements of the head.
Generally, there are two types of HGAs—wired and wireless. A wired HGA is one where separate lead wires are connected between the flex circuit of the HSA and the read write head. A wireless HGA is one where conductive traces are integrated with the flexure and provide conductivity between the flex circuit of the HSA and the read write head of the slider. In the art, there are typically two types of wireless suspensions. In the first type, such as trace suspension assemblies (TSAs) and circuit integrated suspension (CISs), traces are built though a subtractive process (e.g., an etching operation) or through an additive process (e.g., a plating or deposition process) on the stainless steel flexure, with an insulative layer between the trace and the flexure. After the traces are set in place, the flexure can then be welded to other parts of the suspension. In the second type, such as flex suspension assemblies (FSAs) and flex on suspension (FOS), the traces are built on an insulation layer and then covered with another insulation layer to form a flex circuit. This circuit is then attached to the suspension with adhesive. Alternatively, an additional metal layer called a ground plane can be attached to the flex circuit before it is adhered to the suspension. In an FSA, the flexure is integrated with a load beam and a mount plate along with the integrated traces for connectivity.
Typically four traces are supplied for a single head: one pair for the connection between the read head and the pre amplifier and one pair for the connection between the write head and the preamplifier.
As seen from the above, there are various types of HGA and HSA designs. The designs that are selected depend on the disk drive under consideration. Once the designs are selected, the flex circuit will require electrical connection in the process of manufacturing HSAs. As is known in the art, the flex circuit of the HGA usually requires attachment at two ends of the circuit. On one end, the flex circuit will be attached to the side of the assembly that includes the slider's air bearing surfaces. For a wireless HGA like the so-called TSA suspension, bonding pads are provided adjacent to the slider which are soldered or otherwise electrically connected to the conductors of the flex circuit. On the other end of the HGA circuit, the traces will be attached to areas in the AFPA that will lead to the preamplifier. Because of the placement of the integrated circuit chip, the flex circuit is usually attached to a side of the AFPA that is orthogonal to the surface of the HGA where the circuit is bonded. During manufacture, the flex circuit is usually bent at a 90 degree angle before attaching it to the AFPA. Because of differing dimensions for the various designs set forth above, manufacturers typically fabricate a variety of flex circuits specific to the designs and/or the disk drives that contain the flex circuits. Such a process leads to the potential for increased costs in manufacture and lost costs in unneeded flex circuits.

Wireless suspension design to accommodate multiple drive designs


A method for moving the data between the memory addresses in a computer system in which data referenced by memory addresses is stored in physical memory. The method comprises providing a translation mechanism for mapping respective pages of contiguous memory addresses to corresponding locations in the physical memory in accordance with a specified mapping, whereby a first page of memory addresses is mapped to a first location in the physical memory and a second page of memory addresses is mapped to a second location in the physical memory; and changing the specified mapping of the translation mechanism to a new mapping in which the second page of memory addresses is mapped to the first location in the physical memory, thereby effectively moving the data stored at the first location from the first page of memory addresses to the second page of memory addresses without moving the data between locations in the physical memory.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate to systems which can directly manipulate pages of memory by modifying a Translation Table (TT) associated with the dynamically allocated main memory.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In computer systems it is customary that there be a one-to-one correspondence between a memory address produced by a processor and a specific area in a physical memory of a system. It is an error for the processor to request access to an address which does not have an associated physical memory area. This limits the operating system (OS) and applications to an address space determined by the actual physical memory installed in the system. Modern computer systems have overcome this limitation through the use of virtual memory that implements a Translation Table (TT) to map program addresses to real memory addresses.
With virtual memory the program works in an address space limited only by processor architecture. It is a function of the OS to ensure that data and code of a program is in main memory and that the TT can map the virtual address to the real address correctly.
In a virtual memory system, the allocation of memory is most commonly performed by operating system software. This requires an interrupt of an instruction sequence so that privileged kernel code can allocate physical memory to the area being accessed so that normal program flow can continue without error. This interrupt and the kernel processing to allocate physical memory require a significant amount of processing time and upset the normal pipelining of instructions through a central processing unit (CPU).
However, in a computing system that has introduced a central storage mechanism which increases the maximum amount of central storage in the system above a previously architected limit, such as the IBM z/OS operating system, the majority of applications that run on that system are not able to easily take advantage of the additional central storage.
The z/OS operating system is a 64-bit server operating system from IBM. It is the successor to the IBM mainframe operating system OS/390, combining Multiple Virtual Storage (MVS) and UNIX System Services (a POSIX-compliant mainframe implementation of UNIX formerly known as MVS Open Edition). z/OS is a highly secure, scalable, high-performance enterprise operating system on which to build and deploy Internet and Java-enabled applications or legacy applications, providing a comprehensive and diverse application execution environment.
An important feature of new software products is the ability to work with a company's legacy applications, or at least be able to import data from them. In information technology, legacy applications and data are those that have been inherited from languages, platforms, and techniques earlier than current technology. Most enterprises that utilize computers have legacy applications and databases that serve critical business needs.
In the case being addressed here, these legacy applications function based on old architectural limits of central storage addressability. Under certain circumstances, these legacy applications place "constraint" on the management of central storage up to the old architected limit disproportionate to the system's central storage as a whole.
Therefore, in the software operating system (e.g., IBM z/OS) there exists a need to design a means to specifically handle disproportionate "constraint" placed on a central storage below the old limit. This mechanism must also perform its function with maximization of efficiency to minimize the intrusion of the operating system with regard to the number of machine "cycles" used to perform the function. The more cycles consumed by the operating system, the fewer cycles that are available to the customer's applications being used to achieve the customer's business goals.
During the new legacy storage relief process considerable central processing unit (CPU) resources are expended when the legacy storage becomes constrained. Under severe constraint conditions the result can be movement of thousands of pages per second from legacy frames to high frames (central storage in the addressing range beyond the previously architected limit.)
Considering the fact that the movement must copy bits and bytes from one physical storage location to another it is no surprise that the result is high CPU consumption.
Consequently, it would be highly desirable to provide a computer system that uses dynamically allocated physical memory and a Translation Table (TT) for managing this memory and a mechanism for performing these page operations without requiring the use of the processor. It would also be desirable to successfully manage disproportionate "constraint" placed on the central storage, minimize the number of machine "cycles" used to perform functions and minimize CPU consumption and to present a system that has the ability to virtually remove physical storage from the computing environment.

Method, system, and computer program products for data movement within processor storage

International Business Machines Corporation