A solid state switching device (SSSD) for AC and DC high power solid state power controller includes, for DC applications, a MOSFET and an IGBT connected in parallel and an optional zener diode connecting a collector and a gate of the IGBT. For AC applications, the SSSD includes a “back to back” pair of MOSFETs connected in parallel with a pair of counter-parallel IGBTs, each in series with a diode, and, optionally, zener diodes “back to back” with conventional diodes connecting a collector and a gate of each of the IGBT. A method of switching establishes a sequence of turning on/off the MOSFET(s) and the IGBT(s) wherein the IGBT(s) turn on before and turn off after the MOSFET(s). A negative feedback prevents a voltage of SSSD rising above predetermined level.

The present invention generally relates to solid state power controller technology and, more specifically, to devices and methods of switching in high power AC/DC solid state power controllers.
Solid State Power Controller (SSPC) technology is gaining acceptance as a modern alternative to the combination of conventional electromechanical relays and circuit breakers for commercial aircraft power distribution due to its high reliability, "soft" switching characteristics, fast response time, and ability to facilitate advanced load management and other aircraft functions.
While SSPCs with current rating under 15 A have been widely utilized in aircraft secondary distribution systems, power dissipation, voltage drop, and leakage current associated with solid state power switching devices pose challenges for using SSPCs in high voltage applications of aircraft primary distribution systems with higher current ratings.
A typical SSPC generally comprises a solid state switching device (SSSD), which performs the primary power on/off switching, and a processing engine, which is responsible for SSSD on/off control and a feeder wire protection.
Existing aircraft applications employ exclusively a metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) as a basic solid state component for building up the SSSD. It features easy control, bi-directional conduction characteristic, and resistive conduction nature with positive temperature coefficient. To increase the current carrying capability and reduce the voltage drop or power dissipation, the SSSD comprises multiple MOSFETs generally connected in parallel. However, this set up does not warrant an increased capability to handle higher fault current. During SSSD turn-off transients, generally, neither all the MOSFETs turn off simultaneously nor the fault current distributes evenly among the MOSFETs in such a short time. As a result, fault current capability of single MOSFET has to be considered as the worst case scenario in the design of SSSDs. Meanwhile, the resistance and, therefore, power dissipation of the MOSFET turned on increase significantly with its voltage ratings. That increase greatly limits the MOSFET potential applications in the high voltage environments, such as 115VAC, 230VAC, 270VDC, and 540VDC, etc., in the aircraft.
Similar to the MOSFET in gate controls, an insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) features high current carrying capability, low conduction loss at high current, availability of high voltage ratings, etc. However, a greater than 1.7V voltage associated with IGBT on-state is still considered too high and would introduce errors at the voltage zero crossing detection. Furthermore, the limited reverse blocking capability makes use of the conventional IGBT difficult for AC applications and a diode would have to be added, further impacting the on state voltage. A newly developed reverse blocking IGBT (RB-IGBT) is designed for bi-directional power switching. But the inherent "dead band" associated with a greater than 2V on-state voltage of RB-IGBT results in noticeable distortions in the controlled current that are highly undesirable, if not unacceptable to existing Aerospace Electromagnetic Interference and Power Quality requirements, for power distribution applications.
As can be seen, there is a need for to provide a practical solution for the solid state power switch to be used in high power AC/DC SSPCs (either with higher current ratings, e.g. >15 A, or in higher voltage applications, e.g. ≧115VAC), particularly using existing commercially available semiconductors. There is also a need to provide such a solution, which will result in reduced power dissipation, improved reliability and fault current handling capability, and no current distortions.

Method of switching and switching device for solid state power controller applications


A spinal restraint device includes a body member with a head support portion, a neck support portion, and a back support portion. Left and right body wrap portions extend from the back support portion, and left and right head wrap portions extend from the neck support portion, and these portions respectively wrap around an individual's torso and head and are secured to each other to secure the torso and head against movement. A chest flap section is provided in the left and right body wrap portions for folding away from the individual's chest, for comfort or for better access to the chest area. Declaration buckles and straps are also provided for securing the spinal restraint device (and individual) to a support board or stretcher. Other benefits are realized from the positioning of securing straps and leg straps and the dimensions of the body wrap portions.

Care must be taken when removing and carrying an injured person to a location equipped to administer medical treatment. Moving the injured person requires extreme caution whenever moving the body could cause further injury. Hastily removing an individual from the site of an accident and transporting them to a medical center might cause injuries beyond those suffered in the actual accident. This is particularly true in the case of back and/or neck injuries. Thus, if the patient has had an injury to the spine, it is of the utmost importance to immobilize the body during the handling of the patient. This need is recognized, and, to some extent, all litters and stretchers are designed with an eye toward maintaining the patient in an immobile as well as comfortable position.
The problems associated with moving an injured individual are exacerbated when it is difficult to access the injured individual, as, for example, in the case of a car accident in which the structure of the car has been compromised. The present inventor's prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,211,218 provides a spinal restraint device that has been well received because it provides a device that can be employed in location where injured individual is fairly inaccessible. While this device is well received, certain aspects of its structure make the device difficult to use with certain people and in certain situations, and it has been found that specific structural features of known spinal restraint devices can be altered to improve performance and usefulness. Thus, this invention provides a spinal restraint device improving upon those structures of the prior art.


An MRI compatible stretcher has a plurality of non-magnetically susceptible and electrically conductive metal members in physically overlapping sections, each having electrically non-conductive spacers separating the overlapping sections to prevent electrical conductivity there between. The insulators break electrical conductivity and thereby prevent the formation of large and continuous metal current loops, while the overlap ensures continuous metal strength and integrity. In particular embodiments, flanges terminate longitudinally extensive metal members, and the electrically non-conductive spacers separate the flanges from adjacent metal members. Fasteners secure the flanges, spacers and adjacent metal members together.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains generally to beds, and more particularly to beds for relocating a person, commonly referred to as a gurney or stretcher. The stretcher may further include a hoisting, lifting, elevating, or raising device and wheels for free traveling. Most particularly, the present invention pertains to such gurneys that are compatible for use with magnetic imaging systems such as MRI and NMR systems commonly found within a health care facility.
2. Description of the Related Art
Throughout the ages, medical practitioners were limited by what they could detect with their senses. Visual inspection of a patient might reveal a joint dislocation or exterior wounds, a sore throat indicative of a disease or infection, or even a color indicative of a condition such as jaundice. Combining information derived from other senses, such as lymph node swelling identified through tactile palpitations, could confirm the diagnosis of a disease or infection. Sounds were amplified with stethoscopes, and a practitioner might detect an unusual odor or smell, such as sweet or foul smells. While much less common, even taste was used, such as to detect a salty sweat consistent with cystic fibrosis. In spite of the centuries of refinement, these diagnostic techniques lacked the ability to give the physician access to the interior of the human body, without harming, hindering or seriously disrupting a person.
A little more than a century ago, with the discovery of x-rays and the refinement of photographic film technology, medical practitioners could for the first time noninvasively view internal body features. This drastically improved a physician's ability to accurately diagnose and treat diseases and injuries, and has become a mainstay of medical practice. While x-rays are very effective in viewing density variations, such as the shape and size of a bone fracture or a tissue mass, they do little in distinguishing the type or biological activity of the tissues.
Much more recently, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines, which may also be referred to as Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) or Magnetic Resonance Tomography (MRT) machines, have been developed that complement the capabilities of x-ray machines. MRI machines develop contrasting images of various soft tissues of the body. This is done without the need for harmful ionizing radiation of x-ray equipment. As a result, modern MRI machines are very common in health care facilities, and are used extensively for medical diagnostics.
As an essential part of proper operation, MRI machines create an extremely strong magnetic field. This magnetic field can undesirably turn common articles made from materials such as iron and steel into dangerous projectiles that can harm patients, medical personnel, and the machines themselves. In addition to human danger and mechanical damage, the result of an accident involving these vital diagnostic machines will often also include shutting down the machine for an extended period of time. Since these machines are typically very expensive, there is rarely excess capacity available. Even short-term shut-down of a machine can lead to costly and life-endangering delays in diagnosing and treating patients. For smaller facilities that rely upon a single machine, this can be particularly critical, since the loss of the diagnostic capability of these machines at an inopportune moment can literally lead to further loss of life. Consequently, much care must be taken to avoid bringing magnetic objects into the vicinity of the strong magnetic field.
While many magnetic objects are visually identifiable, this is not always the case. Some materials are very hard to visually distinguish. In addition, while most modern surgical implants have been designed to be non-magnetic in consideration for the common use of this diagnostic equipment, an occasional patient may unknowingly have either a very old implant or through traumatic injury have a foreign object within their body that is magnetically susceptible. These magnetic objects can cause harm to the patient and equipment, particularly where such objects are relatively large or in troublesome locations within the patient.
Even medical personnel who have been educated about the hazards of MRI machines and who are familiar with the risk of magnetic materials will sometimes forget or otherwise fail to recognize that a particular object is magnetic. In other instances, an emergency may arise and the medical personnel may not have time to consciously consider whether an item or piece of equipment needed for the emergency is magnetic.
While normally considered less dramatic and consequential than magnetic objects flying towards an MRI machine, the presence of small magnetic objects can also disrupt the proper operation of the MRI equipment. MRI machines depend not only upon very strong magnetic fields, but also upon very consistent fields. Unfortunately, even quite small magnetically susceptible materials tend to distort the field undesirably, and so can consequentially degrade the images produced.
In consideration of the foregoing, most MRI facilities are designed with limited and controlled access. This will commonly include a magnetic material detection station, such as a screening portal, through which all patients, medical and service personnel must pass. The magnetic material detection station is generally sufficiently separated from the machine to allow safe detection and correction. For example, if a building repair person unknowingly carrying a steel hammer were to pass through a screening portal, the portal would signal the presence of the hammer in time to allow the building repair person to discard the hammer. The repair person would the pass through the screening portal a second time prior to entering the MRI room to confirm that no other magnetic objects were present. In this manner, the screening portal acts as a vital safeguard and reminder.
Exemplary screening apparatus are described in the following U.S. patents and published patent applications, the teachings and contents which are incorporated herein by reference: U.S. Pat. No. 6,956,369 by Czipott et al, entitled "Screening method and apparatus"; U.S. Pat. No. 7,106,056 by Czipott et al, entitled "Security screening method and apparatus"; U.S. Pat. No. 7,154,266 by Czipott et al, entitled "Screening method and apparatus"; U.S. Pat. No. 7,239,134 by McClure et al, entitled "Screening method and apparatus"; U.S. Pat. No. 7,315,166 by Czipott et al, entitled "Magnetic resonance imaging screening method and apparatus"; U.S. Pat. No. 8,035,377 by Czipott et al, entitled "Method for excluding magnetic objects from magnetic resonance imaging facility"; 2008/0281187 by Massengill et al, entitled "Ferromagnetic threat detection method apparatus"; and U.S. Pat. No. 8,115,480 by Masubuchi et al, entitled "Magnetic body detector".
Within most medical facilities, patients are transported upon gurneys that are fabricated from a steel framework. Many smaller components such as fasteners, casters, and auxiliary components are also commonly fabricated from steel. Steel components used in the fabrication of gurneys are generally of relatively lower cost to fabricate than other components, while providing excellent strength to weight ratios. A steel surface is quite hard and scuff and scratch resistant, and is easily cleaned and sanitized. Furthermore, the condition of steel components can often be ascertained from a simple visual inspection. Consequently, gurneys have been preferentially fabricated from steel for centuries. Unfortunately, steel is magnetic, and so is incompatible with magnetic imaging equipment.
Another common gurney material is plastic. In contrast to metals, over time and particularly when under load, plastic components tend to sag or flow. Imminent failures tend to be harder to detect. Furthermore, the plastic surfaces are softer than metal counterparts, and so are more easily scuffed or roughened. Cleaning and sanitization can be more difficult and complex, and the gurneys may require more frequent replacement.
While some satisfactory gurneys exist that are made entirely from non-metallic materials, it remains desirable to fabricate a gurney from metal components where possible, while avoiding undesirable triggering of screening portals. Since most screening portals used with MRI machines are designed to detect magnetically susceptible materials such as steel and iron, some individuals have tried to fabricate gurneys from non-magnetically susceptible materials. Aluminum, for example, is not magnetically susceptible.
Some alloys of stainless steel are also either not magnetically susceptible, or are drastically less so than steel. As a result, these materials are generally safe to use in the vicinity of MRI machinery. Some gurneys have been fabricated from stainless steel alloys. Depending upon the composition, these alloys may form austenite, which is not ferromagnetic. However, austenite is paramagnetic in nature, and so is still attracted to an externally applied magnetic field, albeit less forcefully than ferromagnetic materials such as steel, martensite alloys and ferrite.
Many MRI screening portals use electromagnetic fields to detect paramagnetic and ferromagnetic materials. These electromagnetic fields can induce electrical current in electrically conductive materials such as aluminum and stainless steel. Unfortunately, induced electrical currents in turn generate magnetic fields, which means that many screening portals cannot adequately distinguish the electrically conductive gurney materials such as austenite stainless steel and aluminum from ferromagnetic gurney materials. As a result, these prior art attempts to fabricate non-magnetic metallic gurneys have failed to gain wide acceptance due to undesirable triggering of screening portal alarms.
A variety of patents and published applications that illustrate various gurneys and patient transport systems, the teachings and contents which are incorporated herein by reference, include: U.S. Pat. No. 5,111,541 by Wagner, entitled "Non-metallic gurney for patient transport"; FR 2,789,302 by Antar; U.S. Pat. No. 6,640,364 by Josephson et al, entitled "Pedestal for use with patient transport system for multiple imaging systems"; U.S. Pat. No. 7,216,383 by Heinl et al, entitled "Support device for a patient"; U.S. Pat. No. 8,132,276 by Klemm et al, entitled "Patient support apparatus"; U.S. Pat. No. 7,490,377 by Ahlman, entitled "Patient single surface system"; U.S. Pat. No. 7,784,121 by Ahlman, entitled "Patient single surface system"; and U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,851 by Ahlman, entitled "Patient single surface system". In addition to the foregoing patents, Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, Second Edition copyright 1983, is incorporated herein by reference in entirety for the definitions of words and terms used herein.

Stretcher compatible with MRI entry systems


A wind power generator system including: a windmill rotor including a blade having a variable pitch angle; a generator driven by the windmill rotor; and a control unit controlling the output power of the generator and the pitch angle of the blade in response to the rotational speed of the windmill rotor or the generator. The control unit performs a first control in which the output power is controlled in accordance with a predetermined power-rotational speed curve until the rotational speed is increased to reach a predetermined rated rotational speed, and performs a second control in which the output power is controlled to a predetermined rated power when the rotational speed exceeds the rated rotational speed; the control unit is responsive to the pitch angle for maintaining a state of performing the second control is or for switching to a state of performing the first control, when the rotational speed is reduced below the rated rotational speed after the control unit is once placed into the state of performing the second control. This provides a wind power generator system which suppresses output power fluctuation and generation efficiency reduction when a transient wind null occurs.

One of the promising control methods for a wind power generator system is a variable-speed and variable-pitch control method, in which the rotational speed of the windmill rotor (that is, the rotational speed of the generator) is variable and the pitch angle of the blades is variable. Advantages of the variable-speed and variable-pitch control method include increased energy capture from the wind and decreased output fluctuation.
With respect to the variable-speed and variable-pitch control method, it is of importance to optimize the control of the output power of the generator and the pitch angle of the blades. Japanese Translation of International Publication No. 2001-512804 discloses a control method in which the torque of the generator is controlled with a field orientation control while the pitch angle is controlled independently of the torque of the generator. In the disclosed control method, desired output power of the generator is determined in response to the rotational speed of the generator using a lookup table, and a torque command for the generator is determined from the desired output power. The torque of the generator is controlled by a field orientation control in response to the torque command. On the other hand, the pitch angle of the blades is controlled by PID control, PI control or PD control responsive to the deviation between the rotational speed of the generator and a desired rotational speed.
One issue for the wind power generator system is how to deal with occurrence of a transient wind null, that is, a short-time reduction in the wind speed. Generally, a wind power generator system is designed to generate rated power in the case where the rotational speed of the windmill rotor is equal to or larger than a rated rotational speed. In such a wind power generator system, the output power is reduced below the rated power, when the rotational speed of the windmill rotor is reduced below the rated rotational speed due to the occurrence of the transient wind null. This causes output power fluctuation and generation efficiency reduction.

Wind power generator system and control method of the same


The invention provides the sequences of two polypeptides comprising the amino acid sequences as shown in SEQ ID NO:1 and SEQ ID NO:2, which can be used for the preparation of monoclonal antibodies against human p28GANK. The invention also provides the monoclonal antibodies against human p28GANK and their use.

P28GANK exists in human hepatocytes. Generally, P28GANK is over-express in HCC compared with normal liver tissues. The coding frame of p28GANK contains 226 amino acids with 6 repeating ankyrin sequence (Gene ID: 5716), and molecular weight is 25 kDa. The inventor has prepared a rabbit-anti-human polyclonal antibody against p28GANK useful for pathological diagnosis of hepatocarcinoma. The polyclonal antibody has been disclosed in the Chinese patent ZL03116825.6, the title of which is "Antibody against p28 for the differentiation and diagnosis of hepatocarcinoma and its preparation".
P28GANK has been reported to promote tumor progression mainly through the regulation of endoplasmic reticulum stress (ER stress), NF-κB, P53 and Rb signal pathways. P28GANK directly binds to RelA/NF-κB to accelerate the nuclear-export of NK-κB; p28GANK can bind to ubiqutin ligase MDM2 to mediate the ubiquitination-degradation of p53; p28GANK can bind to tumor-suppression protein Rb and drive the phosphorylation inactivation of Rb and the releasing of the nuclear transcription factor E2F-1, thus accelerate the cell cycle (See: Li H, et al. Use of adenovirus delivered siRNA to target oncoprotein p28GANK in hepatocarcinoma. Gastroenterology 2005; 128:2029-2041; Dai R Y, et al. p28GANK inhibits endoplasmic reticulum stress-induced cell death via enhancement of the endoplasmic reticulum adaptive capacity. Cell Research 2009 November; 19(11):1243-1257 Chen Y, et al. Oncoprotein p28 GANK binds to Re1A and retains NF-kappaB in the cytoplasm through nuclear export. 2007 December; 17(12): 1020-9).
It has been reported that the main factors affecting the prognosis of hepatocarcinoma were the tumor size and the vascular invasion, and usually accompanied by its multiple feature. At present, more and more researches show that the prediction of the recurrence of hepatocarcinoma still needs more effective prognostic factors. Previous researches show that p28GANK possibly play an important role in hepatocarcinoma progression, but the regulation mechanism of p28GANK is still unclear. Up to now, there isn't any report discloses that the expression level of p28GANK can be directly used as a prognostic factor for hepatocarcinoma recurrence and metastasis, as well as individual treatment index for hepatocarcinoma patients.

P28GANK monoclonal antibody and peptides for preparation thereof and use thereof

The Second Military Medical University, The People's Liberation Army


An assembly including a flexible sinker bar (24) including an electrically conductive wire (30) for use in the well drilling industry, particularly oil wells, and more particularly for use in assisting introduction into the wellbore, through the drill pipe or tubing, various types of logging tools and other completion assemblies securable to a tool connector (T), such as chemical cutters, string shots, free point indicators, jet cutters, metal severing tools, split shot cutters, radial cutting torches, pipe recovery logs, temperature logs, noise logs, and perforating guns. Conductive wire 30 is used to send electric power to operate or trigger the various logging tools.

The invention relates to the well drilling industry, particularly oil wells, and more particularly to apparatus for assisting introduction into the wellbore, through the drill pipe or tubing, of logging tools and other completion assemblies, such as chemical cutters, string shots, free point indicators, jet cutters, metal severing tools, split shot cutters, radial cutting torches, pipe recovery logs, temperature logs, noise logs, and perforating guns.
Modern drilling techniques make it possible to drill "extended reach" and "horizontal" wells to exploit fractured formations and to access isolated productive zones away from the vertical wells of a single drilling platform. In wells deviated beyond 60 degrees, special hardware is required to guide, push, or pump the logging tools or completion assembly toward the interval of line that is of interest. During use of a conventional, rigid, sinker bar, the logging tools or other completion assemblies must be forced to pass through the angle of deviation thereby causing problems related to the rigidity and length of the rigid sinker bar assembly.

Flexible sinker bar with electrically conductive wires


An improved rotary cleaning device for removing slag deposits from the surfaces of pendant tubes in a steam generator boiler is characterized by a controlled rotary actuator mechanism which alternately rotates a cleaning lance in opposite directions through an angle less than 90.degree.. By limiting rotation of the lance, the cleaning fluid from the lance is directed only upon a limited tube surface area, thereby reducing the time required to clean the tube surfaces.

Solid fossil fueled steam generation creates a self-imposed spent fuel ash deposit on the fire side of the pendant tube elements making up the interior configuration of the boiler. This ash build up eventually becomes inhibitive to the heat transfer and draft characteristics necessary to efficiently produce steam generation. Removal of the spent ash deposit from external tube surfaces, in many situations, is very difficult. The degree of difficulty for removing spent fuel deposits depends on the amount, hardness, and location of the deposit, as well as on the bond of the deposit to the pendant tube surface. The more difficult the deposit is to remove, the more down time is required to clean the boilers. The present invention relates to an improved rotary cleaning device for quickly and efficiently removing ash or slag deposits from boiler tubes.


A new and distinct cultivar of Poinsettia plant named ‘Duescandic’, characterized by its upright and outwardly spreading plant habit; freely branching habit; early flowering habit; inflorescences with dark red-colored flower bracts; and excellent post-production longevity.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Poinsettia plant, botanically known as Euphorbia pulcherrima Willd., and hereinafter referred to by the name 'Duescandic'.
The new Poinsettia a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Rheinberg, Germany. The objective of the breeding program is to create new freely branching Poinsettia cultivars with attractive floral bract coloration and excellent post-production longevity.
The new Poinsettia originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in October, 2000 of a proprietary selection of Euphorbia pulcherrima Willd. identified as code number 96-2358-004, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent, with a proprietary selection of Euphorbia pulcherrima Willd. identified as code number 95-0458-008, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The cultivar Duescandic was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Rheinberg, Germany in December, 2003.
Asexual reproduction of the new Poinsettia by terminal vegetative cuttings in a controlled environment in Rheinberg, Germany since December, 2003, has shown that the unique features of this new Poinsettia are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.


Described are an adjustable tire spreader and inspection apparatus 10 and method comprising a pallet 14 for supporting a tire 12 to be viewed for inspection, the pallet 14 having an aperture 26 aligned with the hole of the tire; a plurality of a pair of paws 40, 42, the paws vertically aligned and adapted to separate the beads 60, 62 of the tire to allow an optical inspection apparatus to inspect the tire; each pair of paws positioned about the aperture of the pallet and capable of rotating from a closed position 42 A to an open position of the tire beads; each pair of paws spaced about the beads of the tire and simultaneously moves to separate the beads of the tire for inspection of the tire. In the method, one operates the apparatus 10 by placing the tire 12 on the pallet 14; aligning the paws with the bead of the tire; simultaneously moving the paws 40, 42 to separate the beads 60, 62 of the tire; and inspecting the tire.

The inspection of tires has been a technique utilized for many years. An inspection apparatus for tires is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,160,537. A pneumatic tire spreader is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,043,565. A manually operated tire spreader is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,954,031.
Other United States patents that may relate to this field are as follows:
4293,1203790,1343568,9783157,3872966,3352179,8962035,9722028,4401863,7641352,8071352,6011345,849
In order to efficiently and quickly inspect tires, an apparatus is needed that would facilitate the separation of the beads of a tire to allow for a better view of the inside of the tire, especially the inner bead region commonly known in the trade as the turn up. There is also the necessity of quickly and efficiently inspecting a tire after the beads have been separated. Further, the tire spreader apparatus must be capable of separating the beads of tires of different sizes and to different widths. The tire spreader apparatus must therefore be amenable to such variations. A wide variety of inspection techniques is well known in the field. A particularly useful tire inspection apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,934,018, herein incorporated by reference.
This patent describes a technique for shining a laser onto a tire. A camera captures an image of the reflected laser light from the tire, and then the tire is subjected to a stress. Then the camera captures another image of the reflected laser light from the tire and then a computer calculate that digital information giving the results. Other techniques for tire inspecting apparatus are likewise disclosed in the '018 patent.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an adjustable tire spreader and inspection apparatus which can quickly and efficiently separate the beads of a tire of a variety of sizes of tires and likewise quickly and efficiently inspect the tire.

Adjustable tire spreader and inspection apparatus

Abstract: Thereafter, the tire is removed from the pallet and tire spreader assembly.


The present invention is a method and system for pricing and reserving charter aircraft. In a preferred embodiment, itinerary information is received, via computer, from a user and is compared with information contained in maintained databases to identify charter aircraft suitable for accommodating the user. The system then determines a charter price by calculating total charter prices for each of the suitable charter aircraft. Several factors including flight costs, relocation costs, repositioning costs and layover costs are considered in calculating the total charter prices. Finally, the total charter prices are preferably selectively categorized and transmitted, via computer, to the user who is then able to complete the reservation process. In another preferred embodiment, lowest charter prices are transmitted to the user for alternative charter aircraft travel. In another preferred embodiment, users can engage in either a reverse auction or a real-time auction for available charter aircraft travel.

Currently, the most common method for air travel is on a scheduled flight with a commercial carrier. Various methods including accessing on-line databases exist for reserving seats on these scheduled flights. Nevertheless, it is frequently desirable for an individual or group to have an itinerary that cannot be accommodated by commercial carriers. The alternative for such individuals and groups is to contract with a charter aircraft operator to accommodate the desired itinerary. Because charter aircraft operators tend to be relatively small and numerous, the charter aircraft industry is particularly fragmented. Consequently, it is typically difficult for charter aircraft consumers to comparison shop for aircraft charter options and prices. Needs, therefore, exist for a means of consolidating aircraft charter information in a manner that enables consumers of such services to rapidly and easily price and reserve charter aircraft services capable of accommodating a desired itinerary.

Method and system for reserving air charter aircraft


A curable composition, includes a diluent, an epoxy functionalized resin derived from a nutshell oil, an epoxy-rubber copolymer adduct, and a curing agent. There is disclosed a method for making the curable composition, a method of imbuing improved flexibility to a curable composition and a method for improving oily metal adhesion of a curable composition. The method of imbuing improved flexibility to a curable composition includes providing a curable composition, adding an epoxy functionalized resin derived from a nutshell oil and adding a liquid modified hydrocarbon resin derived from a nutshell oil.

Curable compositions undergo a transformation called curing upon heating or exposure to a variety of reagents, usually acids or bases. The result is a reaction product, which ordinarily is an extremely hard solid. In some instances, it may be desirable to imbue certain physical properties to the reaction product to make it more attractive for a variety of commercial applications.
However, alterations to the compositions frequently result in a loss of other desired properties, such as the loss of adhesion, leaving the modified composition unable to fulfill its intended purpose.
Until now, despite the desire to provide a flexible composition that can bond to oily metals in both hot and cold environments, the technology has not provided a suitable solution.


A display apparatus that displays a preview of print data includes an input unit that receives input of a sheet handling method of a sheet on which the print data is printed from a user, a generating unit that dynamically generates a three-dimensional image representing a behavior, which is a continuous change in a form of the sheet on which the print data is printed, according to the input sheet handling method, and a display unit that displays, as a moving image, the three-dimensional image that is dynamically generated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display apparatus, a display method, and a computer program product.
2. Description of the Related Art
A printing system that displays a preview image for estimating a print result before actual printing has been known. With the display of the preview image, a user can confirm the print result before printing, so that misprints can be prevented. As for a technology for displaying a preview image, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2011-140135 discloses a technology for displaying, as a preview, a three-dimensional image that represents how a sheet used for printing bends depending on a sheet type.
However, in the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2011-140135, the way that the sheet used for printing bends is represented in only a discontinuous manner, and a behavior of the sheet when the sheet is handled in a general manner is not represented. Therefore, it is difficult to accurately represent the reality of the sheet in a preview display.
In view of the above circumstances, there is needed to provide a display apparatus, a display method, and a computer program product capable of displaying a preview that accurately represents the reality of the sheet.

Display apparatus, display method, and computer program product


Disclosed are methods, systems, and computer program products for receiving input from a multi-function momentary switch by providing feedback from a user interface for each function associated with the switch. According to one method, alphanumeric input values are associated with a momentary switch. Each of the alphanumeric input values is associated with a different active time duration for the switch and at least two of the alphanumeric input values are associated with a same alphanumeric text entry mode. A duration of time the switch is in the active state is monitored. At least one of tactile and audible feedback is provided each time the duration of time matches a duration associated with an alphanumeric input value. The alphanumeric input value associated with the alphanumeric text entry mode and duration for the last feedback provided is selected as input from the switch.

User interfaces for handheld devices and other devices that utilize a small form factor for a data keypad or touch pad interface are becoming more and more prominent in the electronics marketplace. The small form factor associated with the keypad or touch pad interface has resulted in a user interface where multiple functions are associated with each key of the keypad or touch pad interface. Each key is typically assigned multiple entry modes and multiple character possibilities for each entry mode. For example, FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary input key for such a user interface. As can be seen from FIG. 1, input key 102 may be used to enter two different modes of characters. Both alpha-mode and numeric-mode characters may be entered with input key 102. For the alpha mode, three alpha characters, the letters "a," "b," and "c," may be entered. For the numeric mode data entry, the numeral "2" may be entered. As user interfaces that use smaller form factors for data entry become denser through the provisioning of more user modes, the number of modes and character availability will also increase.
Unfortunately, traditional multi-function keys associated with these small form factor devices require multiple key presses to iterate through the available characters for each mode of data entry. These "multi-tap" keys require a user to press and release an input key, such as input key 102, for each character selection. Further, when a user wishes to enter multiple characters associated with the same input key 102, the user must wait a specified, and usually lengthy, debounce period between each sequential depression of input key 102. This debounce period is typically long enough to allow a user to depress and release the multi-tap keys without accepting a new character input for each depression of input key 102 so that the user may repeatedly tap the input key to iterate through the character choices. Unfortunately, this debounce period is often so long that when a user wishes to enter multiple characters associated with the same multi-tap key, the user must wait the entire debounce period in order to preserve a character selection. If the user does not wait long enough and presses the key again, the user interface cycles to the next character in the sequence instead of preserving the last character entered. The user then has to iterate through all available characters again in order to select the desired character for the current position in the input sequence. The user must then wait another debounce period before depressing the multi-tap key again in order to begin entry for the next character in the input character sequence. This proves to be a burdensome arrangement often frustrating character entry.
Some interfaces allow the user to press and hold a key to alternate between alpha entry modes and numeric entry modes. This is unsatisfactory because it still requires the user to enter a multi-tap input mode in order to iterate through the available characters for a given mode of input.
Predictive text entry uses a dictionary lookup feature coupled with a multi-tap character selection. Predictive text entry has become popular but is plagued by user confusion as users attempt to determine when to deviate from multi-tap entry mode and search a dictionary for the correct word based upon a few characters entered. Though training the devices may be possible, words that users enter in the dictionary still may only be accessible when the user transitions from a multi-tap entry mode to a dictionary lookup mode. This transition from a multi-tap entry mode to a dictionary lookup mode tends to break a user's train of thought and slows the data entry. Likewise, as word databases grow, users will have more selections to choose from within the dictionary and may be burdened with a longer lookup time than an alternative data entry time.
Because of the problems described above, traditional systems for multi-function keypad entry are complex and force a user to conform to limitations of the user interface. Accordingly, in light of these difficulties associated with conventional multi-character multi-mode data entry, there exists a need for improved methods, systems, and computer program products for iteratively providing feedback via a user interface for multi-character, multi-mode alphanumeric data entry.

Methods, systems, and computer program products for iteratively providing feedback via a user interface for multi-character, multi-mode alphanumeric data entry


A plasma display apparatus, in which the supply of a sustain pulse can be controlled for each display line and power consumption can be reduced by terminating the supply of the sustain pulse to the display line in the non-display area, has been disclosed. In this plasma display apparatus, a switch circuit is provided respectively on each wiring path of the sustain pulse to each electrode of a first electrode (X electrode) and a second electrode (Y electrode) and it is possible to control whether or not to supply the sustain pulse for each electrode.

The present invention relates to a plasma display apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a power saving technique for a plasma display apparatus.
The plasma display apparatus has been put to practical use as a plane display and is a thin display with high luminance. FIG. 1 is a diagram that shows the general configuration of a conventional three-electrode AC-driven plasma display apparatus. As shown schematically, the plasma display apparatus comprises a plasma display panel (PDP) 1 composed of two substrates, between which a discharge gas is sealed, each substrate having plural X electrodes (X1, X2, X3, . . . , Xn) and Y electrodes (Y1, Y2, Y3, . . . , Yn) arranged adjacently, plural address electrodes (A1, A2, A3, . . . , Am) arranged in the intersecting direction thereto, and phosphors arranged at the intersections, an address drive circuit 2 that applies pulses such as an address pulse to the address electrode, an X common drive circuit 3 that applies pulses such as a sustain discharge pulse to the X electrode, a scan circuit 4 that applies pulses such as a scan pulse sequentially to the Y electrode, a Y common drive circuit 5 that supplies pulses such as a sustain discharge pulse to be applied to the Y electrode to the scan circuit 4, and a control circuit 6 that controls each part, and the control circuit 6 further comprises a display data control circuit 7 that contains a frame memory and a drive control circuit 8 composed of a scan drive control circuit 9 and a common drive control circuit 10. As the plasma display apparatus is widely known, more detailed description about the general apparatus is omitted here, but only the X common drive circuit 3, the scan circuit 4, and the Y common drive circuit 5 that relate to the present invention are further described.
FIG. 2 is a diagram that shows an example of the conventional configuration of the X common drive circuit 3, the scan circuit 4, and the Y common drive circuit 5. The plural x electrodes are connected commonly and driven by the X common drive circuit 3. The X common drive circuit 3 comprises a voltage source +Vs, a ground (GND), and output elements (transistors) Q7, Q8, and Q9 provided between −Vwx and the common X electrode terminal. A pulse of a voltage that corresponds to the common X electrode terminal is supplied by turning one of the transistors on and off.
The scan circuit 4 is composed of individual drivers provided for each Y electrode and each individual driver comprises transistors Q1, Q2 and diodes D1, D2 provided in parallel thereto. One end of the transistors Q1, Q2 and the diodes D1, D2 of each individual driver is connected to each Y electrode and the other end is connected commonly to the Y common drive circuit 5. A scan pulse is applied sequentially to the gates of the transistors Q1 and Q2. The Y common drive circuit 5 comprises transistors Q3, Q4, Q5, and Q6 provided between a voltage source +Vs, GND, +Vwy, and −Vy, and the transistors Q3, Q5, and Q6 are connected to the transistor Q1 and the diode D1 and the transistor Q4 is connected to the transistor Q2 and the diode D2.
In the reset period, +Vwy is applied to the Y electrode and −Vwx to the electrode by turning Q5 and Q9 on and other transistors off to produce an entire surface write/erase pulse, and the display cells of the panel 1 are brought into an identical state. At this time, the voltage +Vwy is supplied to the Y electrode via Q5 and D1. In the address period, GND is supplied to the X electrode, GND to the terminal of Q2, and −Vy to the terminal of Q1 by turning Q4, Q6, and Q8 on and other transistors off. Further, a scan pulse, which switches the state in which Q1 is turned off and Q2 is turned on to that in which Q1 is temporarily turned on and Q2 is turned off, is supplied sequentially to the individual drivers. At this time, Q1 is turned on and Q2 is turned off in the individual drivers to which the scan pulse is supplied, therefore, −Vy is supplied to the Y electrode, to which the scan pulse is supplied, via Q1, GND is supplied to other Y electrodes via Q2, and an address discharge is caused to occur between the address electrode to which a positive data voltage is supplied and the Y electrode to which the scan pulse is supplied. In this manner, each cell of the panel is brought into a state in accordance with the display data.
In the sustain discharge period, the pair of Q3 and Q8 and that of Q4 and Q7 are turned on alternately, in the state in which Q1, Q2, Q5, Q6, and Q9 are turned off. By this, +Vs and GND are supplied alternately to the Y electrode and the X electrode and a sustain discharge is caused to occur in the cell in which an address discharge has been caused to occur in the address period, thereby a display is achieved. If Q3 is turned on at this moment, +V1 is supplied to the Y electrode via D1, and if Q4 is turned on, GND is supplied to the Y electrode via D2. In other words, pulses of the voltage Vs of the opposite polarity are supplied alternately between the X electrode and the Y electrode in the sustain discharge period. This pulse is referred to the sustain pulse here.
The above is just one example, and there are various examples of modifications to what kind of voltage is applied in the reset period, the address period, and the sustain discharge period. There are also various examples of modification of the scan circuit 4, the Y common drive circuit 5, and the X common drive circuit 3.
Recently, global warming caused by the emission of carbon dioxide is seen as a problem and it is important to reduce the power consumption of devices that use electricity. Therefore, it is an important point to reduce the power consumption of a plasma display apparatus.
What consumes a large power in a plasma display apparatus is the action to supply a pulse to the electrode of the panel. In particular, a sustain pulse consumes much power because it is applied many times to every X electrode and Y electrode alternately. In the above-mentioned conventional plasma display apparatus, the sustain pulse is supplied to every X electrode and Y electrode regardless of the display state of the screen, that is, regardless whether light is emitted or not. By this, a sustain discharge is caused to occur and light is emitted in the image display area. In the non-display area, on the other hand, a sustain discharge is not caused to occur even though the sustain pulse is supplied to the X electrode and the Y electrode, but a charge/discharge current flows through the panel capacitor because the sustain pulse is supplied, and power is consumed. This means that the power consumption due to the sustain pulse to be supplied to the image display area is necessary for the video display, but that due to the sustain pulse to be supplied to the non-display area is reactive power that does not contribute to the video display.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 11-190984 has disclosed the technique to reduce such a reactive power. In this technique, power consumption is reduced by detecting whether or not there exists display data in a single field period and terminating the supply of the sustain pulse in fields and subfields where no display data exists. Furthermore, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 11-190984 has proposed to control the supply of the sustain pulse for each display line by detecting whether or not there exists display data for each display line. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 11-190984, however, has neither disclosed nor proposed any concrete configuration with which to control the supply of the sustain pulse for each display line.
As described above, in the conventional plasma display apparatus, the configuration is so designed that the sustain pulse is supplied from the X common drive circuit and the Y common drive circuit and supplied simultaneously to every x electrode or Y electrode. Therefore, it is possible to terminate the supply of the sustain pulse when there is no display data on the entire screen, but it is impossible to control the supply of the sustain pulse for each display line when the display data does not exist only on a part of the screen.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2000-89721 has disclosed the technique in which the luminance is improved by lengthening the sustain period by the time saved by the strategy that the scan pulse is supplied only to the display line that has display data and not supplied to the display line that does not have display data by detecting whether or not there exists display data for each display line. A concrete configuration, however, to control the supply of the scan pulse to each display line has neither disclosed nor proposed. Moreover, there has not been any reference in particular to the supply of the sustain pulse.
On the other hand, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 7-261699 has disclosed a configuration to reduce power consumption in the interlaced plasma display apparatus, in which two of the common drive circuits are provided respectively so that the pair of the odd-numbered x electrode and Y electrode and the pair of the even-numbered X electrode and Y electrode can be driven alternately, and while the sustain pulse is being supplied from one of the circuits, the output of the other circuit is made to enter the high impedance state. This configuration, however, cannot control the supply of the sustain pulse to the desired X electrode and Y electrode.
As described above, no configuration to control the supply of the sustain pulse for each display line is known concerning the conventional technique and it has been impossible to reduce reactive power consumption due to the sustain pulse supplied to the non-display area.


Certain embodiments herein relate to efficient location determination by wireless stations using one-to-many communication techniques. Location determination can be facilitated by using one-to-many communication techniques to provide for efficient timing message exchange between an initiating wireless station and one or more responding wireless stations. Based at least in part on the time-of-flight of the exchanged messages, the initiating wireless station can determine its distances from the respective one or more responding wireless stations. Based at least in part on the determined distances, the wireless initiating station can determine its location using trilateration or multilateration techniques.

Wireless devices are increasingly dependent upon their location as context for various applications. In some approaches, an initiating wireless station (e.g., a wireless communication device) can determine its relative location by communicating with responding wireless stations (e.g., wireless access points). Such approaches can involve analyzing communications between the initiating wireless station and the responding wireless station to help determine the initiating wireless station's location relative to the responding wireless stations. In high volume settings, in which a relatively large number of initiating wireless stations are simultaneously, or nearly simultaneously, attempting to determine their positions using responding wireless stations, the resource load on the responding wireless stations can lead to significant decreases in responding wireless station performance. For example, increased loads on a responding wireless station can result in reduced performance, inefficiencies and lack of availability for other, non-location determination functions. Additionally, location determination services can also lead to significant decreases in performance of wireless stations (e.g., access points) that do not provide location determination functionality. For example, in a high volume setting, the shared medium can be over used (e.g., crowded), leading to reduced performance on wireless stations not involved in providing location determination functionality. In one such example, a wireless access point downloading streaming video or audio will have limited available bandwidth due to the bandwidth being used by the location determination functionality of other wireless access points.
Certain implementations will now be described more fully below with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which various implementations and/or aspects are shown. However, various aspects may be implemented in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the implementations set forth herein; rather, these implementations are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.

Location determination of wireless stations using one-to-many communication techniques


A multi-tip semiconductor laser comprises: a substrate; a cladding layer; an active layer formed of alkali-halide crystal on the cladding layer; at least a field emission tip formed on a surface of the substrate to have a substantially corn shape, the field emission tip being so arranged to confront the active layer; a vacuum space structure for providing a space between substrate and the cladding layer with the field emission tip confronting the active layer and for maintaining the space in a vacuum state; and an electrode structure for a producing electrostatic field between the field emission tip and the same in response to an external voltage supply such that the field emission tip emits an electron beam toward the active layer. The active layer may be doped and be made of organic crystal. It may further comprises a conducting layer covering at least a portion of said active layer. The active layer may be formed in a channel formed in the anode layer. The active layer may be formed in a capillary buried in a channel formed in the anode layer. This multi-tip semiconductor laser emits blue laser light.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a multi-tip semiconductor laser and particularly relates to a multi-tip semiconductor laser for emitting a visible light.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A multi-tip semiconductor laser for emitting a short wavelength laser light is known which comprises an active layer and a cathode layer having a multi-tip field emission array, the cathode layer being so arranged that multi-tip field emission array confronts the active layer. The active layer is excited to emit laser light by electron beams radiated from respective tips of the multi-tip filed emission array by electrostatic fields applied therebetween. Such semiconductor laser is disclosed in Japanese patent application provisional publication No. 2-188980. FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of this prior art multi-tip semiconductor laser.
In FIG. 5, numeral 101 is a GaAs substrate, numeral 102 is a ZnS clad layer, numeral 103 is a Zn S active layer, numeral 104 is SiO.sub.2 film, numeral 105 is SiO.sub.2 film, numeral 106 is a field emission tip, numeral 107 is a Si substrate, numeral 108 is a vacuum space, and numeral 109 is a Mo electrode film.
In the prior art multi-tip semiconductor laser, the active layer 103 comprises II-VI group compound semiconductor and it emits a blue laser light by a slab type light waveguide structure.
However, there is a problem that oscillation wavelength is limited by use of II-VI group compound semiconductor for the active layer, that is, it cannot provide a laser light of other wavelength. Further, there is a problem that it is difficult for this slab type light waveguide structure to provide only single transverse mode oscillation.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A method of minimizing an audible click noise from a speaker in a Class D audio power amplifier upon shutdown or startup of a switching stage having two switches series connected at a node, the speaker being connected to the node via an output filter comprising an inductor and a capacitor, the switches being controlled by a controller. The method including the steps of determining a timing interval at the node to transition a peak voltage of the capacitor, the capacitor voltage being a speaker voltage; and eliminating the audible transient voltage excursion across the speaker that causes a click noise during the timing interval, wherein at startup ON and OFF times of the switches are incrementally increased from zero to a normal mode and at shutdown the ON OFF times of the switches are incrementally decreased from the normal mode to zero.

The present invention relates to a Class D audio power amplifier and more specifically to a method for minimizing audible click noise from a speaker upon shutdown or startup.
FIG. 1 shows an example of a Class D audio amplifier including a switching stage of two switches 4 and 5 series connected at a node VS. Gates of the switches 4 and 5 are controlled by a controller 7 that receives PWM signals for driving and shutdown/startup signals 1 to start and stop the switching stage. The circuit further comprises an LC filter that includes an inductor 2 connected between the VS node and a capacitor 3. As illustrated in FIG. 1, a speaker cut-off switch 6 connects a speaker to the node between the inductor 2 and the capacitor 3.
In the Class D amplifiers, during transition intervals from a total shutdown state to a normal operation state at startup and from the normal operation state to the total shutdown state at shutdown, the energy stored within the output demodulation filter stage 2 and 3 of the amplifier is transitioning to or from a zero energy state. These energy transfers and/or dissipation stages cause a transient voltage excursion on the speaker that contains audible frequency components. Hence click noise is heard from the speaker. The energy that is transferred to the speaker is dependent on both, the current in the output filter inductor 2 and the voltage across the output capacitor 3. Since this noise is an unwanted feature, a bulky speaker cutoff relay 6 is commonly inserted between the amplifier and the speaker to disconnect the speaker during times when these transients are active.
At startup there is a transient, from the initial no energy shutdown state to the normal operation state. The transient is stored within the output filter stage, where a certain amount of energy is circulating between the output stage inductor 2 and capacitor 3. To transition between these two states, energy is transferred to the output filter. This transient causes a rapid change in the voltage across the output filter capacitor and therefore the speaker, which contains audible frequency components.
At shutdown there is a transient from the normal operation state to the shutdown state. A certain amount of energy, circulating between the output stage inductor and capacitor having no energy, is stored within the output filter stage. To transition between these two states, energy within the output filter has to be recovered and/or be dissipated. This transient causes a rapid change of the voltage across the output filter capacitor 3 and therefore the speaker, which contains audible frequency components.
As illustrated in FIG. 2a, during the OFF period t0, both switches 4 and 5 are OFF, resulting in a high impedance state at the node VS. At transition over to the normal operation state at period t2, the PWM driven switching at the node VS is started, and depending on the initial timing, the audible transient response, illustrated by speaker voltage, can be quite significant. Because of this transient, the speaker is only connected to the output after the transient has passed using the switch or relay 6. FIG. 2b is an enlargement of the graphs of FIG. 2a, it illustrates a steady increase in the speaker voltage during the first four switching cycles.
Similarly at shutdown, the speaker is disconnected prior to the shutdown voltage transient is dissipated. As illustrated in FIG. 3a, depending on the final switching timing, the audible transient response can also be quite significant. With the switching ending at maximum inductor energy and current, the audible transient speaker voltage will be maximum. FIG. 3b is an enlargement of the graphs of FIG. 3a, it illustrates the last two switching cycles and speaker voltage at period t2.
What is needed is a click noise-less startup and shutdown method that eliminates a need of a speaker cut-off switch, saving system cost and space.

Startup and shutdown click noise elimination for class D amplifier


A system and method for locating peripheral devices by determining a current location of a computing device, searching for peripheral devices based on the current location of the computing device, displaying an indication of the peripheral devices based on the current location of the computing device, receiving a selected peripheral device of the peripheral devices, and transmitting information to the selected peripheral device.

Current mobile and cloud technologies can allow users to utilize shared and/or third-party peripheral devices, such as printers. For example, a user can find a printer in a new location, can connect to the printer, and can use the printer to print a document stored on a mobile computing device or stored in a cloud. However, if a user is unaware of where to find a printer in a new location, the user may not be able to print a document.
Therefore, mobile and cloud technologies can be improved by methods and systems that locate local peripheral devices based on a current location of a computing device.

Methods and systems for locating peripheral devices


To reduce, at the time of sheet replenishment, breakage of a floating regulation member that regulates floating of a sheet floated by air blowing in a sheet storage apparatus that loosen stored sheets by means of air blowing. Air is blown to sheets stored in a storage part to loosen the sheets. One of a pair of side regulation members for regulating both ends of the sheets stored in the storage part has a floating regulation member for regulating floating of a sheet floated by means of air blowing. The floating regulation member is configured to be turnable in a sheet stacking direction about a rotation axis provided to one of the side regulation members on the side at which the floating regulation member is provided. A load applied to the floating regulation member differs between when the floating regulation member is turned upward and when it is turned downward.

Image forming apparatuses, such as copying machines and printer, are configured to take out sheets one by one from a deck storing stacked sheets while separating them one from another, perform image forming processing for the sheet, and then discharge the image-formed sheet. However, when adhesion between the stacked sheets in the deck is high, separability between the sheets deteriorates. As a result, a multi-feed (phenomenon where two or more sheets are fed simultaneously in an overlapping manner) and a feeding failure (sheet conveyance delay, etc.) are more apt to occur in the course of sheet feeding from the deck. In particular, under a high humidity environment, the sheets highly adhere to each other to make the multi-feed and feeding failure more likely to occur.
In order to cope with the above problem, there is proposed a method that blows air to the end portions of the sheets stored in the deck so as to make the air flow between the sheets, thereby floating the sheet for easy separation of the sheets. However, when the air blowing pressure is high, the sheets may be blown, or the sheets may adhere to each other once again due to a negative pressure generated when the air enters between the once separated sheets.
In view of this, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2011-236058 (Patent Document 1) proposes an apparatus which is configured to loosen stored sheets one from another by air blowing and feeds them and which has a floating height regulation member that regulates the floating height of the sheet by abutting against the topmost surface of the stacked sheets floated by the air blowing.
Further, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2016-113269 (Patent Document 2) proposes a configuration provided with a stopper member, which has a fixed canopy structure, for regulating sheets being floated by air blowing.


In a control circuit that controls an interleaved power supply, a clock generator generates a clock pulse having a predetermined frequency. A signal doubler generates a master switch on-interval pulse signal indicating information concerning an on-interval of the master switch based on the clock pulse and a master drive pulse signal that drives the master switch, and generates a doubled duty pulse signal having a duty that is double that of the master switch on-interval pulse signal. An edge pulse generator generates a first edge pulse signal based on the master drive pulse signal, and generates a second edge pulse signal based on the doubled duty pulse signal. A slave drive pulse signal generator generates, based on the first and second edge pulse signals, a slave drive pulse signal that drives the slave switch so that an on-interval of the slave switch is identical to that of the master switch.

One of interleaved switching-mode power supplies of related art is disclosed in FIG. 1 of Patent Document 1. Regarding the interleaved switching-mode power supply of the related art, for example, each of two critical-mode boost-chopper converters includes a control circuit that controls on/off of a switch element provided between the other terminal of a transformer and a ground. The control circuit of the first critical-mode boost-chopper converter generates an on-timing of the switch element of the first critical-mode boost-chopper converter based on the voltage of a control coil of the first critical-mode boost-chopper converter. The control circuit of the second critical-mode boost-chopper converter generates an on-timing of the switch element of the second critical-mode boost-chopper converter at the timing at which the switch element of the first critical-mode boost-chopper converter turns off.
The interleaved switching-mode power supply disclosed in FIG. 1 of Patent Document 1 has the configuration such that FB terminals of the two critical-mode boost-chopper converters are commonly coupled and GND terminals thereof are commonly coupled, thereby achieving the interleaved switching-mode power supply that can be controlled by the extremely simple configuration.
In such the system having the above configuration that the FB terminals of the two critical-mode boost-chopper converters are commonly coupled and GND terminals thereof are commonly coupled, it is necessary to use the control circuits for the first and second critical-mode boost-chopper converters that have substantially approximate relationships between the voltage of the FB terminal (VFB) and the on-interval of the switch element Q31 (TON) as shown in FIG. 4 of Patent Document 1.

Control circuit and interleaved power supply including that control circuit

SHINDENGEN ELECTRIC MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.


A combined imaging apparatus in which heterogeneous imaging devices are combined and a method for controlling the same are disclosed. The combined imaging apparatus includes a photoacoustic imaging unit to irradiate an energy beam to a target part, an ultrasonic imaging unit to generate an ultrasonic wave, irradiate the ultrasonic wave to the target part, and collect an echo ultrasonic wave reflected from the target part to which the ultrasonic wave is irradiated or an ultrasonic wave generated from the target part in response to energy beam irradiation of the photoacoustic imaging unit. The ultrasonic imaging unit starts or stops operation according to an operation state of the photoacoustic imaging unit.

1. Field
One or more exemplary embodiments relate to a combined imaging apparatus in which heterogeneous imaging apparatuses are combined, and a method for controlling the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
An ultrasonic imaging apparatus receives ultrasonic waves from a target object contacting an ultrasonic probe, focuses the received ultrasonic signal by beam forming the received ultrasonic signal, and performs predetermined image processing on the basis of the focused signal, such that an ultrasonic image is created.
An ultrasonic transducer capable of generating ultrasonic waves is installed at a front end of the ultrasonic probe of the ultrasonic imaging apparatus. The transducer converts one form of energy (for example, electric energy) into another form of energy (for example, vibration or light). The ultrasonic transducer located at the front end of the ultrasonic probe vibrates in response to a general input pulse current so as to generate ultrasonic waves. In addition, the ultrasonic transducer vibrates in response to received external ultrasonic waves so that a predetermined electric signal having a specific pulse is generated.
The ultrasonic imaging apparatus focuses the generated electric signal, generates an ultrasonic image on the basis of the focused signal, obtains an ultrasonic image showing an internal image of the target object, and displays the obtained ultrasonic image to a user such as a doctor or patient.
If a laser beam is focused on a target part of a target object, acoustic waves such as ultrasonic waves are generated from the target part. In this case, the ultrasonic transducer of the ultrasonic probe receives the acoustic waves generated by laser, such that it may generate an ultrasonic image showing an internal image of the target object using the same or similar process as described above.

Combined imaging apparatus and method for controlling the same


Provided herein are compositions and methods for generating phase-shift barcode oligonucleotides for library construction for next-generation sequencing. In some cases, barcode oligonucleotides are attached to particles or beads. Also provided are methods and kits for using the phase-shift barcode oligonucleotides in sequencing assays.

Next-generation sequencing can be used to assess the sequence of millions of DNA strands in parallel. For instance, in Illumina's sequencing technology, multiple clonal clusters of DNA are formed randomly on a surface, and sequencing by synthesizing is performed by using the cluster DNA as a substrate. During each sequencing cycle, one new base is evaluated on each of the DNA strands in parallel. Thus, it is important that the clusters be unambiguously identified during the synthesis steps. If all the clusters on a flowcell contain the same base at the same location, the software is unable to distinguish the base correctly and the sequencing quality can decrease, or the sequencing run can fail. Most sequencing platforms encounter this technical problem when a majority of the DNA strands to be sequenced have an identical base at the same position.
For some applications, it is desirable to label, tag, or barcode certain DNA molecules before sequencing. This means that the molecules to be sequences can contain at least two regions: (1) a barcode, and (2) capture nucleotides. It is typically necessary to have a large number of different barcodes as well as have identical copies of these barcodes. It is desirable to label DNA molecules that are meant to be grouped together with the same barcode. Identical barcodes can either be included in different wells or tubes, or in other cases, they can be physically linked to a plurality of beads.
There are a number of different ways to create the barcode and capture nucleotides. For instance, primer extension can be used for synthesis. By employing this method, the barcode nucleotides can have at least two regions: (1) nucleotides used as a barcode, and (2) nucleotides used as either priming, hybridization, or linking sites. As such, the entire barcoding region can be synthesized using building blocks by piecing the blocks together by, e.g., ligation, hybridization or PCR utilizing constant, universal priming sites. These constant, universal priming sites can cause sequencing problems. For example, the majority of the sequences can have identical or nearly identical nucleotide patterns (sequences) at the same positions along the DNA strands. In some cases, the sequences may have low diversity at every position.
Solutions to this problem include using random, non-relevant sequences such as a PhiX control (Illumina) in the sequencing run to increase diversity across the clusters. This creates sufficient variation during each sequencing cycle, but dilutes the accurate samples and reduces the sequencing capacity.

Synthesizing barcoding sequences utilizing phase-shift blocks and uses thereof


A portable lighted microphone formed in a configuration which outputs light, sound and color simultaneously. The lighted microphone includes a hand-held housing having a microphone assembly for detecting an external voice sound. A speaker assembly is positioned in the housing and is coupled to the microphone for outputting the external voice sound. A light source is mounted in the housing and is coupled to the microphone for emitting a beam of light. A modulating circuit within the housing is coupled to the microphone and the light source for modulating the beam of light in time sequence with the voice sound received by the microphone.

This invention is directed to a lighted microphone and, in particular, to a portable lighted microphone which creates amplified sound, light and color to provide enhanced play value.
Toy microphones and flashlights have taken many shapes, forms and styles over the years. In fact, toy flashlights have existed with strobing lights to provide certain types of play value, while microphones have existed in an attempt to simulate a concert-like environment by the user. However, these microphones are not typically portable and a child cannot easily manipulate and use the device with one hand. Rather, the toy microphones are tall and bulky. Moreover, with the proliferation of wireless remote microphones in the entertainment business, children want to imitate their favorite performers. Although flashlights and microphones individually can provide considerable enjoyment for a child, on their own they do not offer a variety of different elements to provide longlasting enjoyment. In addition, applicant is not aware of any device which includes a microphone with a flashlight with a strobing feature to provide and offer distinct play value.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a lighted microphone which has high technology-like special effects. More specifically, the lighted microphone of the present invention includes means for creating amplified sound, light and a variety of colors while producing a rapidly blinking beam of light. Accordingly, a lighted microphone provides enhanced play value.


A transfer start/end detecting section detects timing at which a DMARQ signal becomes an H level or an L level. A transfer time-measuring section measures a transfer time during which data transfer is actually performed within a period in which a predetermined number of data blocks are transferred. A transfer byte count-measuring section measures a transferred byte count of data that have successfully been transferred. An effective data transfer rate-computing section computes an effective data transfer rate by dividing the transferred byte count by the transfer time. A transfer rate-comparing section compares the effective data transfer rate with a transfer rate that is one step slower than a current transfer rate output from a selectable transfer rate-storing section. If the former is slower, a transfer rate-switching section switches to the transfer rate that is one step slower. A large decrease in the effective data transfer rate caused by data corruption is prevented.

The present invention relates to data transfer for writing data and read data between a host computer and an optical disk device or the like, and more particularly, to data transfer devices in the host computer and the optical disk device or the like. The invention also relates to a data transfer system performing data transfer between these devices, and data transfer methods.
Conventionally, IDE bus (ATA/ATAPI interface standard) has frequently been used for connecting between the main unit of a personal computer, which serves as a host computer, and peripheral devices, such as optical disk devices or the like, for example, a DVD-ROM drive and a CD-R/RW drive, and Ultra DMA has been used for the protocol. In the standard of the Ultra DMA, previously-known transfer modes 0 to 2 have been enhanced to transfer modes 3 and 4, enabling data to be transferred at a transfer rate of 16.77 to 66.7 Mbytes/sec. The standards for transfer modes 5 and 6 (100, 133 Mbytes/sec) are also under development.
The above-described transfer modes have upward compatibility, and the device with a higher transfer mode can select a plurality of transfer rates so that when a partner device has a lower transfer mode, the device with the higher transfer mode can perform transfer at the highest possible rate that the partner device can manage. In other words, the transfer rate between two devices is uniquely decided according to the transfer modes of the two devices.
Generally, when a data transfer rate is higher, data corruption is more likely to occur because of subtle mismatching in bus timing or the like. Even when this happens, it is possible to perform the data transfer successfully by repeatedly transfer the same data; however, the effective data transfer rate decreases according to the number of times the data transfer is repeated.
As mentioned above, in conventional data transfer devices, the data transfer rate between transfer devices is uniquely selected according to the transfer modes of the transfer devices, but the possibility of data corruption is not taken into consideration. It has been found that the selected transfer rate, therefore, does not necessarily produce the optimum effective data transfer rate.
More specifically, according to a trial carried out by the present inventors, data corruption occurred relatively frequently in, for example, a personal computer having a CD-R/RW drive and a DVD-ROM drive connected thereto, when the DVD-ROM drive read out data and transferred them to the personal computer while the CD-R/RW drive was performing a writing operation into a storage medium from the buffer therein in which data have been transferred. When measuring the effective data transfer rate, it was revealed that the transfer rate was sometimes reduced to a transfer rate that is one step slower. It has been common that the data corruption as described above is dealt with by improvement in transfer lines, setting of signal processing timing, or the like. For this reason, decreases in effective data transfer rates have not been perceived as a problem.

Data transfer device, data transfer system, and data transfer method

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A pitch adjustment device for selectively adjusting the pitch of the string(s) of a stringed musical instrument. Each string of the instrument is attached to a respective pitch adjustment device. Each pitch adjustment device includes a pivotable string puller wherein pivoting of the string puller adjusts the pitch on the string. A pulley is rotatably mounted to the string puller such that movement of the pulley causes the string puller to pivot. A cable is wrapped around the pulley and has a first side extending from one side of the pulley and a second side extending form the other side of the pulley. A plurality of actuators are operably coupled to the first and second sides of the cable. The actuators move the cable, which moves the pulley, which in turn pivots the string puller, thereby adjusting the pitch of the string.

In the past, various pitch adjusting mechanisms for stringed musical instruments have been provided. These pitch adjusting mechanisms generally operate by selectively increasing or decreasing the tension or pitch of a string by moving one of the secured ends of the string to either increase the tension (to raise the pitch) or decrease the tension (to lower the pitch).
These types of pitch adjusting mechanisms have found widespread application on steel guitars. In general, a steel guitar is a generally horizontally mounted guitar having a head end and a tail end and a plurality of strings extending therebetween. The head end is provided with a plurality of tuning keys (one for each string) to which one end of a string is secured. The tuning keys allow adjustment of the pitch of each string to tune the guitar. The other end of the string is secured to a bridge at the tail end of the guitar.
Typical examples of pitch adjusting mechanisms for string instruments, such as a steel guitar, are found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,688,631 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,390,600. These patents are expressly incorporated by reference herein in their entireties. Each of these patents discloses a pitch adjusting mechanism for adjusting the pitch of an individual string both upwardly or downwardly. The mechanisms in both of these two patents also have in common that the pitch adjusting mechanism is provided at the bridge end of the strings and the mechanisms comprise relatively complicated systems of levers, springs and linkages. In order to provide for both raising and lowering the pitch of the string with a single lever attached to the string, these mechanisms provide for a system which allows the single lever to be selectively actuated in both directions, i.e. clockwise and counter-clockwise, and also provide a means for returning the string to the open tune position (this means the normal pitch of the string without actuation of the pitch adjusting mechanism) upon de-actuation. Accordingly, the springs and lever arms of each of the parts of these mechanisms must be delicately balanced to provide proper operation and to minimize or avoid mis-tuning.
Therefore, there is need for a pitch adjustment device for stringed instruments which overcomes the problems associated with prior devices.

Pitch adjustment device for string instruments


A control device converts a torque instruction value of an AC motor into a current instruction of AC motor, and employs current control in which feedback is performed by PI control to match an actual current value with the current instruction. Further, the control device sets a target flow rate of cooling water flowing through a coolant passage based on the converted current instruction, produces a signal for driving a water pump to circulate the cooling water at the target flow rate thus set and provides the signal to the water pump. A revolution speed of the water pump is restricted according to a signal of the control device such that the cooling water circulates through the coolant passage at the flow rate matching with the target flow rate.

Usually, vehicles such as an Electric Vehicle (EV) and a Hybrid Vehicle (HV) obtain a drive power from an electric energy by converting a DC power supplied from a high-voltage battery into a three-phase AC power by an inverter and driving a three-phase AC motor by the three-phase AC power. Conversely, during a decelerating operation of the vehicle, a regenerative energy obtained by regenerative power generation of the three-phase AC motor is stored in the battery so that the driving is performed without wasting the energy.
In the above hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles, the inverter generates heat due to a switching operation of a switching element, and therefore may be thermally destroyed. For protecting the inverter from overheating, a cooling device is employed for the inverter (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Laying-Open Nos. 2003-018861, 2004-324613 and 11-294164).
Various cooling control devices for inverters have been studied. In an example, a temperature sensor is arranged near a cooler of an inverter, and a loss (heat value) of a switching element is arithmetically obtained from a temperature of the cooler sensed by the temperature sensor. A temperature of a joint portion where the switching element is joined to a substrate is arithmetically obtained based on the temperature of the cooler and the loss of the switching element, and the activation and deactivation of a water pump passing the cooling water through the cooler and on/off of a radiator fan for cooling the cooling water are controlled based on the temperature of the joint portion.
As another example, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2003-018861 has disclosed an inverter cooling control device including cooling means that cools switching elements included in a plurality of inverters, respectively, temperature estimating means that estimates a temperature of a joint portion of the switching element of each inverter, and drive means that controls a cooling temperature of a coolant of the cooling means based on the estimated joint portion temperature.
More specifically, the temperature estimating means arithmetically obtains the joint portion temperature of the switching element of each inverter by thermally modeling the temperature of the inverter sensed by a temperature sensor, coolant and thermal resistances of the plurality of inverters. The drive means drives and controls a water pump and a radiator fan based on the arithmetically obtained joint portion to control the temperature of the coolant, and thereby controls the cooling capacity or power by controlling the coolant temperature. This structure can arithmetically obtain the joint portion temperature with precision. Therefore, an operation frequency of the drive means can be reduced and the power consumption can be suppressed, as compared with a conventional cooling control device of an inverter that cannot arithmetically obtains joint portion temperatures of a plurality of inverters with precision.
In the conventional cooling control device of the inverter described above, however, the estimation of the joint portion temperature of the switching element in the inverter can be performed with high precision, but requires complicated arithmetic processing. This results in a problem that the control of the cooling capacity of the cooler performed by the drive means cannot follow the actual rising of the joint portion temperature.
For example, when a motor drive current passing through the inverter rapidly increases in response to rapid variations in required motor output, a rising rate of the joint portion temperature is high so that it is necessary to increase rapidly the cooling capacity of the cooler. However, the cooler is controlled only after the temperature estimating means executes the estimation. Therefore, it is difficult to suppress the rising of the joint portion temperature, and may cause thermal destruction of the inverter.
For ensuring a control response of the cooler, such a manner may be employed that controls the cooler while fixing the cooling capacity at the value that is required when a thermal load attains the maximum, independently of the joint portion temperature.
However, this manner unnecessarily increases the power consumption of the cooler, and therefore may impair fuel efficiency of a vehicle equipped with the cooling control device of the inverter.
The invention has been made for overcoming the above problems, and an object of the invention is to provide a motor drive device that can achieve thermal protection of a drive circuit that drives and controls a motor as well as low electric power consumption of a cooling device.

Motor drive device and vehicle provided with the same


An extended microphone for a radio communication equipment is disclosed. The extended microphone includes a microphone body; an adapter for connecting the extended microphone with the radio communication equipment; a GPS module disposed on the microphone body for providing a positioning message; and a display module disposed on the microphone body and connected with the GPS module for receiving the positioning message and displaying the positioning message thereon.

(a) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an extended microphone, and more particularly to an extended microphone with a positioning display applied in a radio communication equipment.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
Generally speaking, radio communication equipments are used for transmitting and receiving voice messages. According to the prior art, radio communication equipments could include at least a transmitter, a receiver, a microphone and a loud speaker. As shown in FIG. 1, the traditional radio communication equipment 1 includes a microphone 11, a loud speaker 12, an aerial 13 and a power set 14, wherein a transmitter and a receiver (not shown in FIG. 1) are also included therein for transmitting and receiving voice messages. This kind of radio communication equipments always is provided powder via batteries; but some radio communication equipments disposed in a car are provided powder via the powder of the car.
When a user speaks to a microphone, his voice messages are transferred into electronic messages. These electronic messages are produced by the transmitter and amplified into radio messages for transmitting to the aerial, and then the radio messages are transmitting into air via the aerial. On the other hand, the aerial of accepting side will receive the radio messages and transmit them to the receiver thereof. The receiver further transfers the radio messages into the original voice message, and then the voice messages are broadcasted via the loud speaker of the radio communication equipment, thereby accepting-side user being able to hear the original voice message from remote user.
In practice, the volume and the weight of the radio communication equipment are too large to be held or carry. Therefore, the radio communication is always performed with an extended microphone 2, as shown in FIG. 1, for facilitating to be performed. Meanwhile the extended microphone 2 further includes a control button 21, an extended line 22, an adapter 23, a microphone 23 and a loud speaker 25. The extended microphone works by means of inserting the adapter 23 of the extended microphone into an interface hole 15 of the radio communication equipment. However, the extended microphone of prior art is introduced for facilitating to perform, but without adding another new functions.
On the other hand, Global Positioning System (GPS) is widely introduced into the car positioning system since 1993. GPS, which is different from the radio communication system, defines longitude and latitude via electric waves from plural artificial satellites, thereby obtaining the present location. GPS, including three parts—positioning satellites, ground control set, and receiver set, is developed by the Ministry of National Defense of USA, and has been make open to public access or use for commercial and civil use. Positioning system of GPS has 24 satellites respectively disposed on 6 orbits, wherein each one is away from the ground about 20200 kilometers and takes only 12 hours to revolve around the earth. The electronic wave of orbit and time data from each satellite set is provided to the receiver for decoding and transferring into coordinate data. Furthermore, the ground control set is used for tracing and controlling GPS satellites thereby modifying the parameters of normal running and being sure the received coordinate data thereof is correct. The receiver calculates the present location thereof by means of trigonometrical survey in response to the positioning data of at least three satellites. Moreover, the moving speed and time of the receiver could be calculated by harmony with application software. If the weather is fair, the location of the receiver could be calculated more correctly via the data from 4 or more satellites. However, the prior radio communication equipment is limited in radio communication system and could not provide the similar positioning service.
Because the prior radio communication equipment is limited in radio communication system, it can't provide positioning service. Therefore, it needs to provide an extended microphone, which is capable of being attached to a radio communication system and providing positioning service, and can rectify those drawbacks of the prior art and solve the above problems. Meanwhile a traditional radio communication equipment could provide the positioning service by means of introducing the extended microphone according to the present invention without disassembling the radio communication equipment for adding extra functions.

Extended microphone with positioning display


A lock structure for a container having a first part carrying a resilient latch and a second part carrying a latch retainer, the lock structure including a first housing mounted on the second part and having a chamber for containing the latch retainer, and a second housing mounted on the second part of the container and containing a key-operated latch-moving member for biasing the latch out of latching engagement with the latch retainer, the latch-moving member being of a configuration to be moved to a non-unlatching position by the resilient latch when the latch-moving member is not actuated to an unlatching position by a key.

The present invention relates to an improved latch-lock structure for a container.
By way of background, there is in use a plastic hinged container having an exposed resilient latch structure. This latch structure consists of a latch member molded on one part and a keeper molded on the other part. The latch is exposed and it can be digitally pressed to unlatch the container. However, it is desirable to prevent unauthorized unlatching of the container.