On a display, a running power determined in accordance with an accelerator position or the like is displayed. When the hybrid vehicle is controlled in a CS mode, the running power is displayed together with eco-acceleration power greater than a first engine starting power. When the hybrid vehicle is controlled in a CD mode, the running power is displayed together with a second engine starting power in place of the eco-acceleration power. The engine is stopped when the running power is smaller than the first engine starting threshold value in the CS mode. The engine is driven when the running power is equal to or greater than the first engine starting threshold value in the CS mode. The engine is stopped when the running power is smaller than a second engine starting threshold value in the CD mode. The engine is driven when the running power is equal to or greater than the second engine starting threshold value in the CD mode. The second engine starting threshold value is greater than the first engine starting threshold value.

Hybrid vehicles equipped with engines and motors as driving sources are conventionally known. A hybrid vehicle is equipped with a power storage device such as a battery for storing electric power to be supplied to a motor. The battery is charged with electric power generated by a power generator driven by an engine and electric power regenerated using the motor during deceleration of the vehicle.
Such a hybrid vehicle can run using either one or both of an engine and a motor as a driving source, depending on an operation state of the vehicle. Therefore, for example, when the vehicle speed is low, the engine is stopped and only the motor can be used as a driving source for running.
In a running state in which the engine is stopped and only the motor is used as a driving source, no exhaust gas is emitted and therefore the impact on the environment is small. Therefore, it is desired to indicate the current operation state relative to the operation region in which the engine can be stopped, so that the state in which the engine is stopped can be maintained as long as possible.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2008-74321 (Patent Document 1) discloses an indicator apparatus for a hybrid vehicle that incorporates an internal combustion engine and an electric motor as motive power sources, and that is capable of traveling in one of traveling modes including a first mode where traveling is performed while the internal combustion engine is stopped and a second mode where traveling is performed while both of the internal combustion engine and the electric motor are operated. The indicator apparatus includes: a control portion switching between the traveling modes based on an output demand from a driver; a first indicator portion indicating a first state amount that changes in accordance with the output demand from the driver; and a second indicator portion indicating, as corresponded to the first state amount, a second state amount that shows switching of the traveling modes.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2008-74321 further discloses that when starting of the internal combustion engine is demanded based on a prescribed condition, the traveling mode is forcibly switched to the second mode, and the second state amount is changed so as to show that the second mode is selected for an entire range of the first state amount.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2008-74321 further discloses that when a switch for selecting traveling in the first mode is operated by the driver, a threshold value for switching the traveling modes is changed so that a range in which traveling is performed in the first mode is increased, and the second state amount is changed in accordance with the change of the threshold value for switching. The 106-th paragraph of Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2008-74321 describes that the traveling mode is switched to HV mode (second mode) and threshold value TH (second state amount) is returned to a normal value when the state of charge becomes not greater than a prescribed value.

Hybrid vehicle and parameter display method for hybrid vehicle


Disclosed are compounds of Formula (A) or a salt thereof, wherein “Het”, Ra, and Rb are defined herein, which have properties for blocking Nav 1.7 ion channels found in peripheral and sympathetic neurons. Also described are pharmaceutical formulations comprising the compounds of Formula (A) or their salts, and methods of treating neuropathic pain disorders using the same.

Voltage-gated sodium channels play a central role in initiating and propagating action potentials in electrically excitable cells, see for example Yu and Catterall, Genome Biology 4:207 (2003) and references therein. Voltage-gated sodium channels are multimeric complexes characterized by an Alpha-subunit which encompasses an ion-conducting aqueous pore, and is the site of the essential features of the channel, and at least one Beta-subunit that modifies the kinetics and voltage-dependence of the channel gating. These structures are ubiquitous in the central and peripheral nervous system and are believed to play a central role in initiation and propagation of electrical signals in the nervous system.
It has been shown in human patients as well as in animal models of neuropathic pain that damage to primary afferent sensory neurons can lead to neuroma formation and spontaneous activity, as well as evoked activity in response to normally innocuous stimuli. [Carter, G. T. and Galer, B. S., Advances in the Management of Neuropathic Pain, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinics of North America, 2001, 12(2): pp 447 to 459]. Injuries of the peripheral nervous system often result in neuropathic pain persisting long after an initial injury resolves. Examples of neuropathic pain include, for example, post herpetic neuralgia, trigeminal neuralgia, diabetic neuropathy, chronic lower back pain, phantom limb pain, pain resulting from cancer and chemotherapy, chronic pelvic pain, complex regional pain syndrome and related neuralgias. The ectopic activity of normally silent sensory neurons is thought to contribute to the generation and maintenance of neuropathic pain, which is generally assumed to be associated with an increase in sodium channel activity in the injured nerve. [Baker, M. D. and Wood, J. N., Involvement of Na Channels in Pain Pathways, TRENDS is Pharmacological Sciences, 2001, 22(1): pp 27 to 31.
Nine different Alpha-subunits have been identified and characterized in mammalian voltage-gated sodium channels. These structures are designated Nav 1.X sodium channels (X=1 to 9) in accordance with currently accepted nomenclature practice, designating their ion selectivity (Na), the physiological regulator ('v', potential, i.e. voltage), and the gene subfamily encoding them (1.), with the number designator X (1 to 9) being assigned for the alpha subunit present in the structure (see Aoldin et al., Neuron, 28:365-368 (2000)). Nav1.7 voltage-gated sodium ion channels (herein designated "Nav 1.7 channels" in some instances for convenience) are expressed primarily in sensory and sympathetic neurons, and are believed to play a role in nociception, and in particular have a central role in inflammatory pain perception, (see Wood et al. J. Neurobiol. 61: pp 55-71 (2004) and Nassar et al., Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 101(34): pp 12706-12711 (2004)). Accordingly it is believed that identification and administration of agents which interact to block Nav 1.7 voltage-gated sodium ion channels represents a rational approach for providing treatment or therapy for nociception disorders stemming from dysfunction of Nav1.7 voltage-gated sodium ion channels (see Clare et al., Drug Discovery Today, 5: pp 506-520 (2000)).
Because voltage gated sodium ion channels are ubiquitous in the central and peripheral nervous system and conservation of structures in the various Alpha-subunits characterizing voltage-gated sodium ion channels implicates the potential for producing serious side effects when utilizing therapeutic agents that target blocking voltage-gated sodium ion channels, therapeutic agents suitable for use in addressing nociception disorders require specificity in their action, particularly in discriminating between action upon Nav1.5 sodium ion channels, thought to be important in regulation of cardiac function and action upon Nav1.7 sodium ion channels, thought to be central in inflammatory nociception and disorders arising from dysfunctional Nav 1.7 sodium ion channels.
Published international application no. WO09/012242 (the '242 publication) describes compounds having the structure of Formula PA:
wherein R* is a proton, alkyl or heteroalkyl, aryl, or heteroaryl group, Y is an aryl group or a 5 or 6 member-ring heteroaryl group, L is either not present or is a cyclic structure containing nitrogen or substituted with nitrogen, B is a cycloalkyl, heterocycloalkyl, aryl or heteroaryl moiety, and Z is a five or six-member ring heteroaryl moiety, and optionally R*, N, and Y form a cyclic structure which may be a heteroaryl moiety, for example, the compound of Formula PB:
wherein R1, Y, and Z are as defined for the compound of Formula PA, and wherein each X1 is independently N or unsaturated carbon optionally substituted with hydrogen, halogen, CN, OH, alkyl or substituted alkyl. These compounds are said to have activity as Nav 1.7 channel and Nav 1.3 channel blockers but are not shown to have selectivity as specific Nav 1.7 channel blockers.
Recently compounds described in published international application WO 2010/079443 (the '443 publication) having the structure of Formula PC:
wherein X1 is N or C—R3 (R3 is a wide number of substituents including halogen), R1 is an aryl or heteroaryl moiety and R2 is a heteroaryl moiety, for example, the compound of Formula PD:
have apparently shown high affinity for Nav 1.7 sodium channels and low affinity for other Nav 1.X sodium channels. However, the compounds described in the '443 publication are limited to aryl/heteroaryl-sulfonamide aryl/heteroaryl-ethers. There remains a need for additional compounds having high potency for Nav 1.7 sodium channels, are highly selective over Nav1.5 sodium channels, and that offer a variety of cores to facility rational development of therapeutic agents for use as selective Nav 1.7 sodium ion channel blockers.

Benzoxazolinone compounds with selective activity in voltage-gated sodium channels


An integral ceramic insert for a radiant tube. The insert has a helical shape and contains ceramic material; and it has a thermal expansion rate of less than 6.0xc3x9710xe2x88x926 meters/meter/degree Celsius and a thermal conductivity of at least 0.2 calories/centimeter/second/degree Celsius. The diameter of the insert is from about 2 to about 10 inches, and it has a length such that the ratio of its length to its diameter is from about 2/1 to about 8/1. The helical shape of the insert contains one or more pitches of from about 2 to about 32 inches, each which defines a helix angle of from about 15 to about 80 degrees.

An insert for a radiant tube which consists essentially of ceramic material with a specified rate of thermal expansion and a specified thermal conductivity, wherein the insert is the shape of a helix with a specified number of turns per unit of length and per unit diameter and a specified number of cross-sectional wings.
Many industrial process furnaces require special atmospheres and, thus, cannot be directly heated by means of gas combustion. These special atmosphere furnaces are often heated by means of a system in which gas-air combustion takes place within long metal alloy tubes which exit to the outside of the furnace wall to prevent contamination of the furnace""s atmosphere. These furnaces are primarily heated by radiation coming off of the tubes; thus these tubes are called xe2x80x9cradiant tubes.xe2x80x9d
Such xe2x80x9cradiant tubesxe2x80x9d are well known to those skilled in the art and are described, e.g., in applicant""s U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,655,599, 5,071,685, and 4,789,506; the disclosure of each of these United States patents is hereby incorporated by reference into this specification.
The radiant tubes sometimes contain xe2x80x9cinsertsxe2x80x9d to increase heat transfer from the combustion gases to the inside surface of the radiant tube. Thus, by way of illustration, U.S. Pat. No. 4,869,230 describes a xe2x80x9cturbulator insertxe2x80x9d in a radiant tube which is formed as a corrugated strip of metal alloy material (such as nickel-chromium alloy or iron-nickel-chromium alloy material) twisted to form a helix; the entire disclosure of this United States patent is hereby incorporated by reference into this specification.
Such metal alloy material inserts, while initially effective, are not very durable. Thus, some work has been done to replace these metal alloy material inserts with ceramic inserts. Illustrative of such work is the xe2x80x9cFLAME BUSTERxe2x80x9d ceramic inserts sold by Ipsen Industries, Inc. of Rockford, Ill. in the 1950""s. These inserts met with only limited commercial success, primarily because they would tend to break while in use and often damage the burner assemblies. By way of further illustration, reference may be had to the heat exchanger baffle system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,861,596 of Ipsen, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference into this specification; it is believed that the insert described in this patent is similar to such xe2x80x9cFLAME BUSTERxe2x80x9d insert.
These ceramic inserts were discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,153,035 of Carl-Heinz Stiasny, wherein it is disclosed that xe2x80x9cSuch flame breakers may be made of ceramic material. With a design of this type, heat losses . . . may be relatively high . . . . Furthermore, flame breakers of this type . . . involve the risk of breakage particularly where vibrations in the furnace occur . . . xe2x80x9d
The Stiasny patent issued in 1979. Since that time, to the best of applicant""s knowledge, no flame breaker has been described in the prior art which is made of ceramic material, which has a substantially helical shape, and which provides efficient heat transfer and consequent low energy consumption and, additionally, is durable.
It is an object of this invention to provide a flame breaker with a substantially helical shape which consists essentially of ceramic material, and which has a thermal expansion of less than 6xc3x9710xe2x88x926 meter/meter/degree Celsius, which has a thermal conductivity of greater than 30 watts/meters/degree Celsius.


Short haul optical communication networks using multi longitudinal mode lasers are susceptible to significant degradation from mode partition noise. Losses from such noise in short haul networks are substantially reducible by employing an additional fiber with specific properties. This additional fiber is chosen to have a slope for its wavelength versus dispersion behavior that is the negative of that for the transmission fiber.

Much effort has been expended to limit bit error rates in long haul optical communication systems, i.e. systems having bit rates greater than 10 Gbps and a distance between reshaping points for the optical pulses of more than 100 Km. For a given transmission distance, a variety of dispersion effects significantly influence this bit error rate. For example, chromatic dispersion involves effects stemming from the dependence of fiber traversal rate on signal wavelength. Since the signal is always a spectral composite of different wavelengths (although often a very narrow spectral composite) one end of such spectrum trails the other as the fiber is traversed. This spreading of the signal leads to the overlap of adjacent signal pulses and the concomitant increase in error.
Initially to mitigate this error optical fiber was employed in long haul systems that had a wavelength (approximately 1300 nanometers) where dispersion (but not the change of traversal rate with wavelength) was essentially zero. Thus wavelengths closely surrounding 1300 nm experience little dispersion. However, as fiber run distances became longer, systems were designed to operate in the region between 1480 and 1610 nanometers rather than around 1300 nm because, among other things, the theoretical minimum signal attenuation per kilometer for glass fiber is at approximately 1550 nanometers. In addition, wavelength division multiplexed signals are most efficiently amplified together rather than by separating the channels and individually providing amplification. Multichannel amplifiers such as those used in long haul systems have a useful operating range around 1550 not 1300 nanometers.
For typical operating parameters used in long haul wavelength-division-multiplex communication, it is essential that the transmission fiber have a non-zero dispersion at the operating wavelength to avoid the significant adverse consequences associated with non-linear effects. As a result, long haul fiber is designed to have non-zero dispersion at 1550 nanometers. The adverse effects resulting from non-zero dispersion have been substantially reduced in such systems using cumulative dispersion compensation modules. These modules contain a suitable length of fiber that produces a dispersion approximately equal to that incurred on the transmission line but of opposite sign. Accordingly, the cumulative transmission line dispersion is substantially compensated. Thus, the use of dispersion compensating modules in long haul applications has become routine.
In summary, long haul communication systems have evolved to approaches employing operating wavelengths in the range 1480 to 1610 nm (designated S, C, and L bands) with typical standard single mode fibers (SSMF) having significant dispersion at such operating wavelengths and with the effects of such dispersion compensated using a dispersion compensating module. Because system penalties due to dispersion are compounded by large transmitter spectral widths, single longitudinal mode lasers (SLMs) that have narrow spectral widths are routinely favored over multi-longitudinal mode lasers (MLMs). Such SLMs are quite expensive (presently as much as several thousand dollars depending on bit rate and other requirements). However, since SLMs emit a single longitudinal mode, complications involving wavelength broadening due to multiple laser modes are avoided.
The approach is significantly different for short haul transmission, i.e. transmission lengths between transmitter and receiver of less than or equal to 20 Km. In local area networks presently contemplated for high bit transfer rates (greater than 1 Gbps) between, for example, a local central office and a consumer, the use of multiple SLMs is not economic. Typically, for such systems, MLMs having a current price on the order of $50 (fifty dollars) appear to be an economic necessity. Such lasers generally emit in the wavelength range 1260 to 1360 nm and thus transmission fiber (e.g. SSMF) having zero dispersion near 1310 nanometers is usually employed with such lasers. Since local area networks have fiber lengths between sender and receiver of 20 Km or less the lower attenuation of the 1500 nanometer operating range is not essential, and the use of fiber having a zero dispersion at approximately the operating wavelength is employed beneficially. This benefit seems especially advantageous since non-linear effects are substantially less significant for such local area networks and dispersion compensation at 1300 nm does not seem needed.
Nevertheless, the use of MLMs introduces an error source not present when SLMs are used. In particular, an effect denominated mode partition noise (MPN) becomes significant. (See Agrawal, G. P. et. al. Journal of Lightwave Technology, 6(5), 620 (1988) and Ogawe, "Analysis of Mode-Partition Noise in Laser Systems," IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, QE-18, 849 (1982) which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety for a discussion of MPN.) This noise results from the interaction of the fiber dispersion with the constantly changing power distribution among laser modes. A typical instantaneous power distribution among modes for MLMs is shown in FIG. 1. As time progresses, the power present in each such mode changes due to factors such as fluctuations in drive current and diode temperature. The manner of such change is typically quantified by a mode partition coefficient, k, that is given values between zero and one. A laser having k=1 emits all its power in a single mode but that mode having the entire power output is constantly changing. In such a laser at time zero the mode power spectrum would be shown in FIG. 2 while at time t=t1, the power output would be in a different mode at a different wavelength, as shown in FIG. 3. For a laser with mode partition coefficient equal 0, all modes are emitted at the same time and the distribution of power remains substantially constant with time.
A laser having a mode partition coefficient equal 1 is the least desirable since the entire power of the laser continuously shifts all from one wavelength to all in another wavelength. Although lasers with low partition coefficients are more desirable, they are difficult to reliably produce, and thus it is not currently feasible to base a system on a requirement for low partition coefficient lasers.
However, even for lasers of relatively low mode partition coefficient, (k, in the range 0.2 to 0.5) the transmission of a multitude of modes (typically between 30 and 50 detectable modes) having a spectrum of wavelengths (modes) exhibiting time dependent power fluctuations yields a significant source of error. As denominated by Agrawal et.al. supra, this error results from the interaction of these transmitted modes having time dependent power fluctuations and the wavelength dependent effects introduced by the fiber. Further, the mode spectrum of the laser varies with temperature often changing as much as 0.3 nanometers per degree centigrade. This temperature effect also contributes to the difficulty associated with the use of MLMs because the center wavelength shifts and results in a change in wavelength dependent fiber dispersion. In addition to these temperature-dependent spectral effects, there is (for a given temperature) significant variation in center wavelength (up to 100 nanometers) among lasers.
Generally, the method employed to satisfactorily reduce MPN has been to narrow the spectrum actually injected into the fiber by employing expedients such as fiber Bragg gratings, high-pass filters, or even to revert to the more expensive SLMs. (See, for example, Journal of Lightwave Technology, 21(9), 2002 (2003) and IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, 7(2), 328 (2001).) Nevertheless an approach that significantly reduces MPN without the substantial increased cost of single mode lasers or the additional cost associated with other optical components is quite desirable.


According to a question displayed on a computer screen, a to-be-examined person selects, out of constituent elements (components) displayed on the screen, constituent elements that he considers optimum for the question and then makes a design by constructing them on the screen, and the content of the design on the screen is evaluated by using predetermined evaluation data. Further, there is provided a system which enables assembling an actual apparatus (an apparatus to be evaluated) according to the content of design, measures the performance of the assembled actual apparatus and evaluates the ability of the to-be-examined person to assemble the actual apparatus from the measured data by using a computer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for evaluating the technical ability of a to-be-examined person and more particularly relates to a system for determining and evaluating the abilities of a to-be-examined person to design a technical system and to construct an actual apparatus using a computer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, in various technical fields, private and public organizations have sponsored ability examinations and have given certain recognitions to people who have the abilities and, for example, they have given certain qualifications to people who passed the examinations. In this case, persons who have certain qualifications such as the qualification of Information Processing engineer have advantages in finding employment over persons having no qualification, and therefore it is deemed that this kind of ability examination systems will be increasingly conducted in more technical fields, in the future.
In reality, there is no system for objectively examining and evaluating the ability of a person who is involved in designing of, for example, an automatic manufacturing line for products or various types of automatic apparatuses for the lines and also in constructing automatic apparatuses having desired performance on the basis of the design (hereinafter, referred to as "an automation engineer") (the reason for this will be described later).
An automatic apparatus is temporally defined here as an apparatus which autonomously performs target operations on the basis of certain programs (software) and description of such an automatic apparatus will be given later when a concrete definition thereof is required.
The history of automation technologies can be classified into first to fourth generations, wherein the fourth generation is a generation which is expected to grow. Technical evaluations which form the substance of the present invention are based on the technologies of the respective generations and, therefore, the automation technologies of the respective generations will be described hereinafter.
Automation technologies can be conceptually represented as follows.
Referring to FIG. 4, in an automatic apparatus for causing an apparatus element (tool/designated by the character T) to perform desired operations for a certain object (work/designated by the character W) such as a mechanical member, for example, moving the work W that is the object to a predetermined position, there is provided a tool driving/controlling portion 50 consisting of a mechanism M (designated by the character M) for causing the tool T to perform predetermined operations, an actuator (designated by the character A) for providing a driving force to the mechanism M, a controller (designated by the character C) for controlling the operation of the actuator A and a sensor (designated by the character S) for providing predetermined information to the controller C through feedback control.
In the first generation, the mechanism M is configured to be of a non-uniform-conversion type (Mb) constituted by hinges and slides or the like. The actuator A for driving the mechanism M which is of the non-uniform-conversion type Mb is of a constant-velocity type Aa selected from motors which rotates at a constant speed or cylinders with piston rod which linearly moves. Accordingly, the controller C for controlling the actuator A which is of the constant-velocity type Aa is of an ON/OFF type Ca and the sensor S is of an ON/OFF type Sa capable of acquiring information about the operation of the mechanism M (indicated by the number 51) which is of the non-uniform-conversion type Mb.
Namely, in the first generation, the operation of the actuator A which performs simple constant-velocity operations Aa is converted into operations such as a velocity reduction at the stroke end through a crank mechanism, a rapid return through a lever-slider mechanism or a prevention of return through a toggle mechanism and the like to realize an ingenuity of the mechanism. The present inventors describe the first generation as "a generation of circles and straight lines" in many technical books and the like. Namely, the mechanism M, the actuator A, the controller C and the sensor S (hereinafter, referred to as "M•A•C•S") in the tool driving/controlling portion are configured as "(the non-uniform conversion type Mb)•(the constant-velocity type Aa)•(the ON/OFF type Ca)•(the ON/OFF type Sa). Namely, the M•A•C•S is configured as Mb•Aa•Ca•Sa.
The first-generation technology did not be discarded at the transition of the technology from the first generation to the second generation, and the first generation technology is still very usable now. The same is applied to the second generation and the subsequent generations which will be described later to increase the ingenuity of the apparatus. The configuration of the aforementioned mechanism Mb is a factor which significantly affects the ingenuity of the entire automatic apparatus of any of the generations including the first generation.
When the fabrication of cams was made easier with the development of machining tools, the second generation came. In the second generation, the ingenuity of the non-uniform conversion Mb of the mechanism M was improved by configuring the cam with high accuracy and complicacy. Although the M•A•C•S of the second generation is Mb•Aa•Ca•Sa similarly to the first generation, the non-uniform-conversion Mb realized by the cam used as the mechanism had significantly-improved ingenuity. Namely, it can be said that the second generation is "a generation of mechanical cams".
It is obvious that dedicated mechanical cams must be configured for respective operations of the tool T. However, with advancing manufacturing of a wide variety of products in small quantities due to variations of markets, it had become more difficult to cope therewith by the method of fabricating respective mechanical cams with the machining tools. Namely, it can be said that the third generation is "a generation in which the second-generation mechanical cam was changed to an information cam".
Namely, there was a need for a method which enables fabricating the cam with enhanced softness and the third generation realized that.
From a viewpoint of the functions of the second-generation cam, the cam had two functions which are "the function of transferring forces" and "the function of possessing information about position/time", thus enabling transferring the driving force of the actuator A through the mechanical cam to cause the tool T to perform predetermined operations.
On the contrary, the information cam is configured only to possess information while "the transfer of forces" is implemented through a servo.
Thus, an information cam configured only to possess information is realized in the following aspects.
(a) "template cam" like a cut-out paper pattern
(b) "picture cam" which is simply a drawn picture
(c) "software cam" stored in a memory of a computer
Particularly, in the case of a software cam, when the product item is to be changed over, it is possible to achieve changeover of the cam (changeover of the cam curve) within an extremely short time by operating the computer through key-board inputting or through item-changeover signals from the outside, thus enabling largely enhancing the flexibility of the automatic apparatus.
Consequently, in the third generation, the mechanism M is mainly of a uniform-conversion type Ma, the actuator A is of a variable-velocity type Ab such as a servomotor, the controller C is of a numerical-quantity type Cb for controlling the actuator A of the variable-velocity type Ab, and the sensor S is of a measurement type Sb which outputs information of measurement values for ensuring the controlled operation with the controller C of the measurement type Cb, wherein the measurement information is, for example, the operation information 52 about the actuator A of the variable-velocity type Ab. Namely, the M•A•C•S is Ma•Ab•Cb•Sb.
As described above, the performance of automatic apparatuses has improved in terms of ingenuity and flexibility and the like, with the transitions from the first to the third generations. However, there were problems common to these three generations. That is, apparatuses of any of these generations can perform proper operations on the precondition that the condition of the to-be-operated work W and tool T is maintained constant (hereinafter, referred to as "work side consistency").
For example, when the work side consistency is maintained, such as when all of the to-be-operated works W have an identical shape and are placed at the same position, the aforementioned apparatuses of the respective generations can repeatedly perform ingenious operations at high speeds.
However, in the event of the occurrence of changes of the condition of the works W, such as deviation of the position at which the works W are placed, partial differences of the shapes of the individual works and stop of feeding of the works W to the tool T, namely in the event of impairment of the work side consistency, malfunctions will occur as follows. For example, the works W can not be properly handled with predetermined operations of the tool T, the works W can not be handled at all, or the predetermined operations are repeatedly performed even though there exists no work W. These problems may be caused by changes of the condition of the tool T such as wear of the tool T, as well as by changes of the works W.
Namely, the automatic apparatuses of the first to third generations are identical in the respect that they repeatedly perform the same operations for the same type of works. Even though the third-generation apparatus employing an information cam has significantly-improved flexibility in the respect that the cam can be rapidly changed, the respective cams are associated with the operations of the tool T with one-to-one relationship and also the third-generation apparatus operates relying on the work side consistency, similarly to the first and second generations.
In view of the aforementioned facts, the forth-generation apparatus forms a tool driving/controlling portion 50 configured to check the condition of the work W, detect the operating condition of the tool T which handles the work W and properly set and control the operation of the tool T in accordance with the condition of the work W and tool T.
Namely, as indicated by the numbers 53 and 54, the tool operating/controlling portion 50 is configured such that the sensor S directly acquires information about the work W and/or the tool T from the work W or the tool T and, on the basis of the information, the tool T is caused to perform proper operations in accordance with the conditions of the work W or the tool T. The forth-generation apparatus is configured by incorporating algorisms for determining the amount of movement of the tool T and/or the direction of driving of the tool T and the like in accordance with the condition of the work W or the tool T into the controller C of the tool driving/controlling portion 50 in order to enable ingenious control of the actuator A for properly controlling the operation of the tool T anytime.
Accordingly, the tool driving/controlling portion 50 is structured such that the mechanism M is of a uniform-conversion type Ma, the actuator A is of a variable-velocity type Ab such as a servo motor, the controller C is of a numerical-quantity type Cb, the sensor S is of a measurement type Sb, similarly to that of the third generation, wherein the setting for detection of the condition of the work W (the arrow 53) and/or the setting for detection of the condition of the tool T (the arrow 54) are utilized to make feedback signals and further the operation information 51 and 52 of the mechanism M and the actuator A is also utilized as required.
The automation technologies have been successively advanced from the first generation to the forth generation as described above. With advancing technologies, the number of automation engineers who deal with these technologies has been increased and such automation engineers have been required to have higher technical skills, year by year. Further, it is deemed that needs for automation engineers will be further increased in the future for realization of laborsaving, manufacturing of a wide variety of products in small quantities and consistency of products and the like in business organizations and the like. From this view point, business organizations which are employers eagerly desire to know the actual grades of skills of people referred to as automation engineers. However, at the present time, there is no system for evaluating the skills of automation engineers and for giving certain qualifications.
This is because of the following reasons.
For example, in the case of information processing engineers for whom there exist ability evaluation systems, the subjects of evaluations are substantially limited to software such as development and processing of software in essence. On the contrary, in the case of automatic apparatuses, the mechanisms constituting the apparatus and the software for operating the mechanisms are associated with each other in a complicated manner. Furthermore, there are various types of skills of automation engineers such as the ability to design an apparatus, the ability to construct an actual apparatus, the abilities for testing the performance of the constructed actual apparatus and to modify and repair it on the basis of the result of test. Therefore, there are a great number of determination factors for evaluating the skills of automation engineers, and the evaluations are complicated. Consequently, it will be necessary to process an enormous amount of information and thus the subjects of evaluations must be limited in advance in the case of manually conducting such evaluations. Further, since proper evaluations have been impossible at the present time for various reasons such as the difficulty of eliminating arbitrariness in evaluations, it has been considered that it is actually impossible to evaluate the skills of automation engineers objectively and fairly even though there has been strong needs therefore.
Next, in the case of mainly evaluating the automation-engineer's skills of constructing a mechanism or the like or mainly evaluating their skills about software for operating a mechanism, it is necessary to select and set questions suitable for such evaluations. Further, in the case of evaluating the ability of constructing an actual apparatus on the basis of the performance of the constructed actual apparatus, it is necessary to process and evaluate various types of items and, for example, it is necessary to process measured performance data about the actual apparatus. This will require an automated processing system employing a computer. However, there has not existed such a system at all prior to the present invention.
Namely, automation engineers are required to have various types of abilities as follows.
(1) the ability to select and design mechanisms constituted by selecting from a great number of combinations of hinges and slides
(2) the ability to design mechanical cams for realizing various types of operation characteristics
(3) the ability to design means for driving an electrical actuator such as an alternating-current motor, a direct-current motor, a solenoid and many others
(4) the ability to design means for driving a fluid actuator such as an air cylinder, a rotary actuator and many others
(5) the ability to design means for driving a pulse driven actuator such as a servo motor, a stepping motor and the like
(6) the abilities to select various types of sensors such as photoelectric sensors, magnetic sensors and the like, select the portions for detections and select signal functions
(7) the ability to program the setting of input and output of the control by a programmable sequence controller
(8) the ability to set the input and output of control by a computer and to program therefor
(9) the ability to set and design an input/output interface circuit along with the aforementioned (7) and (8)
The aforementioned items (1) to (9) are items which make respective specialized fields and, in actual, some of the items are treated as independent education subjects in universities and professional schools in technical fields.
The aforementioned items (1) to (9) are all means for attaining objects and automation engineers are required to have the abilities to select/set or design optimum items from the respective items and combine them. However, in practice, all engineers who have considerable knowledge do not have excellent ability to construct an overall system according to the object.
From the aforementioned viewpoints, it is likely that it is impossible to determine the actual ability to construct systems with the method of "determining the ability on the basis of means" which determines the technical abilities individually for the aforementioned respective means, since the method involves extremely a great number of determination factors, thus making the description of evaluations significantly complicated and also it is impossible to evaluate the ability to combine optimum selections for objects.
The present invention is characterized in that the evaluation is basically structured by "designation of target operation characteristics" for the to-be-examined person and "verification of the target attainment level" on the basis of the apparatus constricted by the person, in order to "determine on the basis of the target" and also in that, in order to attain the basic structure, significantly-complicated determination factors are all processed by a computer for making the determination of the overall technical ability of the to-be-examined person easy and accurately and also for enabling objective determinations.
Further, for the controller out of the constituent elements of the aforementioned automated apparatus, the following evaluation and determination have been locally conducted. That is, in the case of simple control using a programmable sequencer, a simple mechanism portion which operates with the sequencer is prepared and the technical ability to construct a program for driving the mechanism portion with the sequencer is evaluated and determined. As evidenced by the above description, this is far from the determination of the skill of an automation engineer. In other words, only limited skills can be evaluated with conventional methods which do not employ W. T. MACS overall automation evaluation systems with computers.
Although there has been found no prior-art technique similar to the present invention in terms of the technical field as previously described, the following Patent Documents are listed as literatures relating to the present invention. The following Patent Document 3 discloses a system in which designs are made using a computer and technical evaluations are conducted on the basis of the contents of the designs. However, this system merely determines and evaluates the content of designs made using the computer and does not have the viewpoint of constructing an actual apparatus or machine on the basis of the designs and evaluating the performance of the apparatus or machine for comprehensively evaluating the technical ability of the to-be-examined person. This is considered to be naturally resulted from the fact that Patent Document 3 aims at evaluating the ability to effectively utilize predetermined "designing software", namely the ability for the utilization of the software. Consequently, the "designing software" is different from "designing means" according to the present invention, which will be described later.    [Patent Document 1] JP-A No. 2002-024451    [Patent Document 2] JP-A No. 2002-132839    [Patent Document 3] JP-A No. 2004-110333
In automation techniques, it is most important to properly select elements from respective groups of, tools T which is moved in accordance with target operations for the work W, and mechanisms M, actuators A, controllers C and sensors S for realizing the movement of the tool T and also construct the apparatus with the elements, and the system for evaluating the skills of automation engineers is required to properly evaluate these points.
For these points, there are many items to be considered such as the velocity characteristics and force characteristics, the cycle time of movement, the amount of movement, the accuracies of movement and stoppage, the characteristics changes due to the changes of the load and the friction coefficient, the setting of interlock with respect to the operations of other mechanisms which cooperate therewith, the setting of overlap of the operation and the like. Proper evaluations must be conducted in terms of such items.
For setting relating to the aforementioned items, it is necessary to actually construct an apparatus using actual equipment, operate the apparatus and verify it for inspecting whether or not the accuracy of the actual apparatus matches the theoretical accuracy, as well as merely setting values on paper. Namely, there is a need for equipment for enabling construction of an actual apparatus for evaluating the skill (practical skill) of constructing an actual apparatus and a system for evaluating the performance of the actual apparatus constructed using the equipment. Also, it is necessary to incorporate such a practical-skill evaluation system into the skill evaluation system.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a skill evaluation system using a computer which is made for overcoming the aforementioned problems and includes at least means for determining the ability to design, out of determination means for determining the ability of a to-be-examined person to design, assembling equipment for assembling an actual apparatus according to the content of the design, means for measuring the performance of the assembled actual apparatus and means for determining the ability of the to-be-examined person to construct an actual apparatus from the measurement data acquired by the measuring means.

System for evaluating skills of to-be-examined person


A system and method for typing assistance is provided. One or more letter selections are received from a user via a keyboard. Examples of one or more words including the received letter selections are selected from a dictionary list during predictive typing and provided to the user. An additional letter selection is received. A determination is made that no words with the letter selections and the additional letter selection exist in the dictionary list. Keys for all letters on the keyboard are disabled. Artificial intelligence functionality is activated and one or more of the disabled keys are enabled via the artificial intelligence functionality.

Generally, text input receiving systems accept typed text via a standard QWERTY or ALPHANUMERIC keyboard, which is often provided as physical hardware or virtual software, such as one displayed by a graphical user interface. A user enters text by pressing the keys of the keyboard one at a time, forming words. Text input receiving systems use internal dictionary lists as data sources in order to provide grammar related services in conformance with the selected language, such as providing word suggestions for the particular combination of letters typed.
Standard typing on a physical hardware or virtual software keyboard can result in user mistakes. Specifically, typing is error-prone, especially in small hosting devices with relatively small or restricted screen areas, like in mobile phones and tablet devices. Words are often misspelled and are most commonly due to a user's fingertip, which creates a larger pressing area than a keyboard's key or button area since the keyboard's keys and buttons are situated very close to each other.
Current typing assistance methods often provide suggestive typing assistance in form of word completion but do not take into consideration the keys and buttons on the keyboard as words are being typed. For example, suggestive typing assistance can result into an incorrect word completion when the intended key to be pressed is missed. The possibility of this adverse result can be greatly reduced if typing assistance could guide the user not to press incorrect keys and therefore take into consideration the keys and buttons on the keyboard.
Another current typing assistance solution implemented on virtual keyboards employs a technique that requires typing text by sliding one's fingertip across the keyboard. Sliding the fingertip to type text has a high learning curve, demands a lot of practice and requires its users to be technology savvy.
Accordingly, a typing assistance method that is easy to use and that prevents misspelled words by pressing wrong keys is needed.


A polypropylene resin foamed sheet for thermoforming having compounded therein an inorganic fine powder is disclosed. The sheet contains 10 to 50% by weight of the inorganic fine powder, has a density of 0.2 to 1.2 g/cm and a thickness of 0.2 to 3 mm and having a percent shrinkage of 5 to 30% in each of the longitudinal and crosswise directions on heating at 190.degree. C. for 30 minutes, with the ratio of a residual rate in the longitudinal direction to that in the crosswise direction being from 1:0.7 to 1:1.1. The sheet is produced by extruding and foaming a compounded resin from a ring die of an extruder, and taking off the extruded tubular foamed sheet along a cylindrical drum whose diameter is 2.0 to 3.0 times that of said ring die.

Known thermoforming foamed sheets include a polystyrene resin foamed sheet containing a large quantity of an inorganic fine powder as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,426,065 and a polypropylene resin foamed sheet containing a large quantity of an inorganic fine powder as disclosed in JP-A-60-141728 (the term "JP-A" as used herein refers to a "published unexamined Japanese patent application"). Since the polystyrene resin foamed sheet is poor in heat resistance and oil resistance, formed articles such as trays and containers obtained therefrom are incapable of use in a radar range, and the sheet is unsuitable for producing deep draws such as cups. Further, it is poor in impact resistance and tensile strength.
The above-stated polypropylene resin foamed sheet shows improved heat resistance permitting of use in a radar range and improved deep drawing properties as compared with the polystyrene resin foamed sheet. However, when the sheet having printed thereon a prescribed pattern is subjected to thermoforming, the pattern is liable to be shifted or deformed each time it is formed. Further, when the extruded sheet is taken off along a drum, it shows resistance against the cylindrical drum to slow down the take-off speed or cause tearing of the sheet.

Polypropylene resin foamed sheet for thermoforming and process for producing the same


A 2D/3D switchable display device including a display panel and a switch unit is provided. The display panel includes a first substrate, a second substrate and a display unit located between the first and second substrates. The first substrate includes a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface, and the display unit is located above the first surface. The switch unit located on the second surface includes a third substrate, a first electrode layer, a second electrode layer and a switchable medium layer between the first and second electrode layers. The second electrode layer is located on the second surface, the first electrode layer is located on the third substrate, and the switchable medium layer and the third substrate are respectively located on two opposite surfaces of the first electrode layer. A manufacturing method of a 2D/3D switchable display device is also provided.

In recent years, as display technology continuously advances, users have become more and more demanding on display quality of displays, such as image resolution, color saturation, and so forth. In process of purchasing a display, whether or not the display is capable of displaying a 3D image is also taken into consideration in addition to high image resolution and high color saturation.
Currently, a fixed beam splitter is mainly employed in a 3D image display technique, such as adhering a parallax barrier or a lenticular lens onto a display panel to respectively project an image provided by the display panel to the left and right eyes of an user, thereby forming a 3D image in the human brain through binocular parallax generated after the two eyes respectively received the image. It should be noted that a 3D image can be produced by employing a fixed beam splitter in a spatial-multiplexed manner, such that the resolution of the 3D image is reduced although a 3D display effect of a display panel can be achieved. Besides, the 3D display equipped with the fixed beam splitter can only display 3D images but not 2D images. Thus, the practicality of such 3D display is relatively low.
To resolve said issue, a 2D/3D switchable display device including a switch unit and a display panel has been developed under the existing techniques. In general, the switch unit includes two substrates, electrode layers respectively disposed on the two substrates, and a liquid crystal layer disposed between the two substrates. The 2D/3D switchable display device mainly utilizes the optical characteristics of the liquid crystal layer to control display light, so that the switch unit has the splitting ability. By this way, the 2D/3D switchable display device is capable of displaying 2D images when the switch unit is turned off and displaying 3D images when the switch unit is turned on.
However, the current 2D/3D switchable display device at least needs to include two substrates for the display panel and two substrates for the switch unit, which the total number of substrates comes to four. As such, under the condition that the thickness of the display device can not be further reduced, the applications thereof will be limited and its commercial competitiveness will also be decreased.

2D/3D switchable display device and manufacturing method thereof


A nozzle arrangement for a gas turbine engine includes an engine nozzle and an ejector nozzle arranged axially downstream thereof. A gap S is formed between the outlet of the engine nozzle and the inlet of the ejector nozzle, and a flange which reduces the gap S is arranged at the outlet of the engine nozzle.

This application claims the priority of German patent document number 10 2007 036 527.8-13, filed Aug. 2, 2007, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
The invention relates to a nozzle arrangement for a gas turbine engine.
During the operation of gas turbine engines, particularly in aircraft, exhaust gases which flow out through the nozzles of the engines are directed through an ejector, for the purposes of noise reduction, infrared blocking and engine compartment exhaust, for example. In the conventional design of nozzle and ejector, aerodynamic vibrations are excited when the airflows merge, resulting in high noise pollution.
To reduce noise in jet engines, the conventional procedure has been to mix the ambient airflow with the jet engine flow in order to reduce its velocity and the associated noises (U.S. Pat. No. 3,710,890). To achieve a great noise reduction, large ejector inlets with pronounced secondary airflows have been used, resulting in an unacceptable loss of thrust at cruising speeds.
In a known noise reducing nozzle for an aircraft gas turbine engine disclosed in German patent document DE 41 14 319 A1, an ejector nozzle receives the exhaust gases from an outlet of a core engine of the aircraft gas turbine engine. A gap is formed between the outlet of the engine nozzle and the inlet of the ejector nozzle, and ambient air flows in through the gap and mixes with the accelerated exhaust gases of the engine. For further noise reduction, during take-off of an aircraft, a plurality of mutually spaced, retractable channel flaps, which are arranged on the ejector nozzle, are deployed into its inner region through which the exhaust gases are directed. The channel flaps thereby reduce the cross-section of the ejector nozzle.
A disadvantage of this arrangement is that moving parts are required in order to achieve the noise reduction. Such parts are extremely susceptible to damage under the high thermal loading by the exhaust gases.
A further noise reducing nozzle and ejector arrangement is disclosed in German patent document DE 694 06 370 T2. In this arrangement, an attempt is made to achieve the noise reduction by specifically influencing the exhaust gas flow on entry into the ejector.
One object of the present invention is to provide a noise reducing ejector nozzle arrangement which prevents the excitation of aerodynamic vibrations, and thus greatly reduces the noise and vibrations.
This and other objects and advantages are achieved by the nozzle arrangement according to the invention, in which an ejector nozzle is arranged axially downstream from the engine nozzle. A gap is formed between the outlet of the engine nozzle and the inlet of the ejector nozzle, with a flange which reduces the width of the gap being arranged at the outlet of the engine nozzle.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Nozzle arrangement for a gas turbine engine


Disclosed is a directly solderable circuit board assembly including a main circuit board directly connected to an auxiliary circuit board without the use of interfacing terminals. The main circuit board has a slot formed therein and the auxiliary circuit board has a projection which is received in the slot of the main circuit board. Conductive pads are formed on both circuit boards at substantially right angles adjacent the intersection of the two circuit boards. A solder fillet is formed bridging the copper pads on each circuit board to provide electrical and mechanical connection.

Many structures provide an electrical connection between a main circuit board and an auxiliary circuit board in fixed relationship with each other. However, such constructions utilize interfacing terminals which are expensive and require numerous steps to attach the interfacing terminals to the boards. Thus, it would be desirable to have a method of connecting an auxiliary circuit board to a main circuit board in fixed relationship to each other without the use of interfacing terminals and which is inexpensive, easy to assemble and provides a sturdy structure. Further, it would be desirable to have a method of attaching an auxiliary board to a main circuit board which is confined from expansion, in the same plane, by a housing.

Directly solderable auxiliary circuit board assembly and methods of making and using the same


Aspects and implementations of the present disclosure are directed to a network device. The network device includes memory for storing a first dataset comprising first data structures, a second dataset comprising second data structures, and a set of Boolean values. Each first data structure includes an address and a corresponding instruction parameter. Each second data structure includes an address prefix and at least one intermediary value. Each Boolean value corresponds to a respective address prefix and indicates whether the second dataset includes a second data structure with the respective address prefix. The network device is configured to identify a first address and a first address prefix for a first data packet, identify one or more intermediary values for the first address prefix using the set of Boolean values, and identify a packet processing instruction parameter using the one or more identified intermediary values.

Network devices generally process data packets based on address information associated with the data packets. For example, a router typically forwards a received data packet to a next network destination (a "next-hop") based on an address associated with the data packet, e.g., a destination address indicated in header information for the received data packet. In general, the router identifies a next-hop address (or network interface connected thereto) by identifying a next-hop for the address associated with the data packet using a routing table or forwarding information base ("FIB"). Identification of the next-hop may be memory and/or processor intensive, and may benefit from special purpose hardware.

Efficient address-based rule resolution in a network employing a bit-mapped index


Methods, apparatus and machine-readable medium are described that attempt to protect secrets from sleep attacks. In some embodiments, the secrets are encrypted and a security enhanced environment dismantled prior to entering a sleep state. Some embodiments further re-establish a security enhanced environment and decrypt the secrets in response to a wake event.

Financial and personal transactions are being performed on computing devices at an increasing rate. However, the continual growth of such financial and personal transactions is dependent in part upon the establishment of security enhanced (SE) environments that attempt to prevent loss of privacy, corruption of data, abuse of data, etc. An SE environment may employ various techniques to prevent different kinds of attacks or unauthorized access to protected data or secrets (e.g. social security number, account numbers, bank balances, passwords, authorization keys, etc.). One type of attack that an SE environment may attempt to prevent is a sleep attack.
For example, many computing devices support a suspend-to-memory sleep state such as, for example, the S3 sleep state described in the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) Specification, revision 2.0, 27, Jul. 2000. Upon entering the suspend-to-memory sleep state, the computing device removes power from various components and/or subcomponents of the computing device but continues to power the system memory to retain the contents of the system memory. As a result of removing power, the computing device may remove power from circuitry used to protect secrets stored in the system memory. Upon waking from the sleep state, the computing device may return power to the circuitry used to protect secrets stored in system memory. However, after returning power, the protection circuitry may be in a reset state and may not actually protect secrets in system memory. An attacker may successfully gain access to stored secrets prior to re-establishing the protections provided by the protection circuitry.


A measuring system measures forces, deformations, and movements. The measuring system comprises at least one LC-circuit, at least one power supply for generating a voltage and a current in the LC-circuits, whereby the frequency, the amplitude, and the phase difference between the current and the voltage in a default situation are known and are furthermore a function of the variable to be measured, as well as at least one detection unit for detecting the frequency and/or the phase difference and/or the amplitude in the LC-circuit. The invention provides therewith a compact, simple and multifunctional measuring system by means of which a reading of the measured value is possible without contact with the subject.

The invention relates to a system for measuring forces, deformations and movements which appear in dynamic endless organs such as driving belts, driving chains, transmission belts, conveyor belts etc, comprising at least one sensor attached to the endless organ.
A measuring system of this type is for instance known from GB-2,267,973 and GB-2,142,146.
The system described in GB-2,267,973 is specifically embodied for measuring forces within a metallic endless V-shaped transmission belt. The system comprises a transmitter which is mechanically connected to the transmission belt and electrically connected to the sensor. Furthermore, a battery is mechanically connected to the endless belt and electrically connected to the transmitter and the sensor to supply power to these components.
The system described in GB-2,142,146 is embodied for measuring tensile forces within a conveyer belt. For that purpose the conveyer belt is adapted by. installing a measuring section within the belt. The measuring section comprises one or more sensors, a transmitter circuit for transmitting the measured signals and a battery for supplying power to both the transmitter and the sensors.
The use of transmitters is considered as a serious disadvantage because these transmitters are relatively voluminous, and need a power source in the form of an accumulator or battery which is also attached to the endless organ. The battery itself is not only a voluminous component itself but needs to be changed or reloaded from time to time. Furthermore, the mass of the measuring system will have influence on the functioning thereof certainly if the endless organ is moving at higher speed and the resulting centrifugal forces acting on the measuring system will increase.

Inductor/capacitor-based measuring system for a moving body


According to one embodiment, a semiconductor light emitting device includes a stacked body, first and second electrodes. The stacked body includes a light emitting layer. The first and second electrodes are provided on the stacked body. The device further includes an insulating layer covering the stacked body, a first conversion electrode electrically connected to the first electrode, a second conversion electrode electrically connected to the second electrode (50), and a light blocking body covering a side surface of the stacked body. The first conversion electrode, the second conversion electrode, and the light blocking body include, in a portion contacting with the insulating layer, a member with a reflectance of 80 percent or more for light emitted from the light emitting layer.

A lighting apparatus is being developed using a semiconductor light emitting element such as an LED (light emitting diode). For example, a semiconductor light emitting device that emits white light can be formed by combining a nitride semiconductor LED that emits blue light and a fluorescent substance that absorbs blue light and emits yellow-based light. In such a semiconductor light emitting device, it is important to enhance the extraction efficiency of light emitted from a light emitting layer.


A method for continuously preparing stable-type vitamin A microcapsules is disclosed. The method comprises the following steps: adding vitamin A crystals and an antioxidant into a crystal melter continuously according to a certain ratio under the protection of nitrogen to prepare vitamin A melting oil containing the antioxidant; pumping the above melting oil into a high gravity rotary packed bed emulsifier with a liquid distributor by a pump, and pumping aqueous solution containing gellable modified starch into the above high gravity rotary packed bed emulsifier after deoxidation treatment to obtain vitamin A emulsion at the outlet of the high gravity rotary packed bed emulsifier; and atomizing and spraying the emulsion continuously in a cooled starch bed for granulating, and performing fluidization drying and gelation treatment in a fluidized bed by taking nitrogen as a drying medium to obtain the stable-type vitamin A microcapsules. Above method has the advantage of capability of continuous production, and has good embedding effect due to adopting the gellable modified starch, granulating and gelation treatment, thus the product has good storage stability.

Vitamin A, which is a fat-soluble vitamin, is easily soluble in organic solvent and fat, and is insoluble in water. Vitamin A is perishable when exposed to light, heat, acid, or oxidant, so it is generally required to be prepared into a microcapsule form to use it.
The microcapsulation of vitamin A is generally, first heating vitamin A crystals, accessory oil and aqueous solution containing protective colloid together, emulsifying, and then spray drying the emulsion, to obtain the microcapsule.
China patent CN1965657(A) describes a method for preparing vitamin A microcapsules, said method is adding vitamin A oil into a solution of modified starch pre-formulated several hours earlier, and dispersing and emulsifying at high speed with a rotating speed of 5000˜20000 rpm, then homogenizing twice at 10˜40 MPa at room temperature, and finally centrifugal spray drying, to obtain the vitamin A microcapsule. Due to the fine particle size of the obtained product, it is mainly used for the fortification of flour.
China patent CN101214219(A) reports a method for preparing vitamin A, vitamin E microcapsules, and the emulsifying process thereof employs 10000˜20500 rpm high-speed shearing, and homogenization at 40˜60 MPa for 3 times is required, and then the microcapsule is prepared by spray-drying.
The above-mentioned method for preparing vitamin A microcapsules by high-speed shearing emulsification plus high-pressure homogenization and then spray-drying, has the following insurmountable problems:
1) the emulsifying process is carried out batchwise in an open environment, and the emulsifying time for a single batch is long, and when emulsifying, the temperature at the shearing site is high, which causes vitamin A perishable;
2) the motor power required by the high speed shearing machine and the high pressure homogenizer is high, and the energy consumption is high;
3) due to the batchwise operation, during the spray-drying process after completing the emulsification, the emulsion is prone to stratify, and the gathered small oil bead is easily coalesced into large particles, thus affecting the embedding effect and the bioavailability of the final product.
4) It is difficult for vitamin A to disperse into the microcapsule in nano-scale dimensions by the high pressure homogenization, thus affecting the use thereof in certain products.
In view to the above-mentioned problems, the present inventors have proposed a method for continuously preparing nano-dispersed vitamin A microcapsule in CN101513394. In this method, vitamin A crystals are first ground with antioxidant and solvent into a dispersion liquid of vitamin A, then the above-mentioned dispersion liquid is cooled by a pump after pre-heating and warming to dissolve, then pumped into a high gravity rotary bed crystallization device, meanwhile an aqueous solution containing protective colloid is pumped into the same high gravity rotary bed crystallization device, to obtain a nano-dispersed dispersion liquid of vitamin A at the outlet. The dispersion liquid is spray-dried in a spray dryer equipped with a fluidized cooling device, to obtain the nano-dispersed microcapsule of vitamin A. This invention employs a high gravity rotary bed crystallization device as the means for the nano-crystallization of vitamin A, so that the bioavailability of vitamin A is increased, and the applicability of the product is broadened.
However, vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin with poor stability, even after the microencapsulation by spray-drying, the effective content thereof will still significantly decrease during the storage, due to the effects of light, heat, oxidant, and acid. Through further studies, we found that, if avoiding the long-time heating and minimizing the chances to contact with oxygen during the microcapsulation of vitamin A, meanwhile increasing the oxygen-preventing and water-preventing measures of the outer layer of microcapsule, the stability of vitamin A can be effectively increased.

Method for preparing stable-type vitamin A microcapsules continuously


Coated articles are provided with an anti-reflection system(s) which enables high visible transmission and/or low visible reflection. Neutral color is also achievable in certain example embodiments. In certain example embodiments, the anti-reflection system(s) is used in conjunction with a double silver (Ag) layer stack which provides low sheet resistance and/or emissivity.

The Ser. No. 09/794,224 application discloses coated articles having the following layer stack, as shown in FIG. 1 herein, from the glass substrate outwardly:
TABLE 1Example Materials/ThicknessesLayerSubstrate(1–10 mm)Preferred Range ({acute over (Å)})More Preferred ({acute over (Å)})Example (Å)TiO20–400{acute over (Å)}50–250{acute over (Å)}100ÅSixNy0–400{acute over (Å)}50–250{acute over (Å)}170ÅNiCrOx5–100{acute over (Å)}10–50{acute over (Å)}18ÅAg50–250{acute over (Å)}80–120{acute over (Å)}105ÅNiCrOx5–100{acute over (Å)}10–50{acute over (Å)}16ÅSnO20–800Å500–850Å650ÅSixNy0–800{acute over (Å)}50–250{acute over (Å)}170ÅNiCrOx5–100{acute over (Å)}10–50{acute over (Å)}18ÅAg50–250{acute over (Å)}80–120{acute over (Å)}105ÅNiCrOx5–100{acute over (Å)}10–50{acute over (Å)}16ÅSnO20–500Å100–300Å150ÅSi3N40–500{acute over (Å)}100–300{acute over (Å)}250Å
In other embodiments of Ser. No. 09/794,224, the bottom titanium oxide layer may be removed or replaced with a silicon nitride layer.
While the aforesaid coated articles described in the Ser. No. 09/794,224 application provide good color, and good ultraviolet (UV) and/or infrared (IR) reflection, increased visible transmission and/or reduced visible reflection would sometimes be desirable.
Neutral color is also desirable for coated articles in certain applications. Many conventional methods of making color of a coated article more neutral result in decreased visible transmission and/or increased visible reflection. Heretofore, it has been difficult to increase visible transmission and reduce visible reflection, while at the same time providing or maintaining rather neutral color and satisfactory solar control or thermal characteristics. Whether a color is "neutral" or not is subjective, and is a function of personal taste. However, generally speaking, color moving toward a neutral color target (e.g., a*=0, b*=0, or some other neutral color target such as transmissive a*=−2 and transmissive b*=−3.4) is desired, although such targets do not have to be met in all embodiments of this invention.
In view of the above, it is an object of certain embodiments of this invention to provide a solar controlling coated article (i.e., an article including at least one and preferably two or more layers such as Ag and/or Au for reflecting IR and/or TV) having increased visible transmission and/or reduced visible reflectance. In certain example non-limiting embodiments of this invention, it is an object to combine such high visible transmission and/or reduced visible reflection with neutral color of the coated article. Alternatively, the use of an improved anti-reflection layer(s) system(s) may enable coatings to have or utilize more robust contact layer(s) (e.g., thicker for better durability) and/or thicker silver (Ag) layer(s) (i.e., improved thermal performance) while maintaining similar transmission characteristics if increased transmission is not a most desired feature (e.g., if durability is a most desired feature).
Another object of this invention is to fulfill one or more of the above-listed objects and/or needs.

Low-e coating with high visible transmission


A touch panel device with the tactile sense presenting function according to this embodiment includes the plurality of electrodes 1 arranged on the single plane, and the controller 20. The controller 20 performs a first operation and a second operation in a time division manner. The first operation includes applying the first voltage which changes temporally, to some of the electrodes 1, detecting voltages generated on at least some of the remaining electrodes 1 in this state, and detecting the position of the dielectric which is in proximity to the touch panel device, on the basis of the detected voltages. The second operation includes applying the second voltage which changes temporally, to some of the electrodes 1, and generating electric field with the some working electrodes 1.

In recent years, a touch panel has been laminated on a screen of a mobile phone, banking terminal, game machine or the like in some cases. A user manipulates such an apparatus by touching a specific portion on the touch panel with his/her finger, a pen or the like while visually identifying a button or an icon displayed on the screen of the apparatus.
Further, in recent years, there are developed techniques for presenting a tactile sense to a user when the user touches a screen of an apparatus. As the techniques, there are a technique disclosed in Patent Literature 1, and a technique disclosed in Patent Literature 2.
Patent Literature 1 discloses a tactile sense presentation device including a touch panel having a plurality of planar electrodes is disposed for presenting a tactile sense on a rear surface thereof. In this device, a voltage which changes temporally is applied to the planar electrode. When a finger approaches the electrode to which the voltage is applied, an electrode-finger-electrode circuit is formed. Herein, an electric field is generated between the finger and the electrode, and an electrostatic force based on the electric field forms a tactile sense to be presented to the finger.
Patent Literature 2 discloses a touch panel device with a tactile sense presenting function, the touch panel device including piezoelectric elements. According to this disclosed technique, the touch panel device with the tactile sense presenting function realizes a function as a touch panel and a function as a tactile sense presentation device, with one panel having the piezoelectric elements.

Touch panel device with tactile sense presenting function

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.


Provided is a charging system having a circuit for delaying power supply, and more particularly, a charging system having a circuit for delaying power supply installed on a side of a power supply apparatus, wherein the circuit for delaying power supply prevents a spark from being generated when an electronic device and the power supply apparatus are connected to each other.

When a power supply apparatus (e.g., an apparatus supplying power to an electronic device, such as an adaptor, or the like) is connected to the electronic device, the power supply apparatus and the electronic device may be connected to each other by a magnetic connector.
Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 disclose technologies in which the electronic device and the power supply apparatus are connected to each other by the magnetic connector.
Since the magnetic connector disclosed in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 connects the electronic device and the power supply apparatus to each other in the case in which the electronic device and the power supply apparatus contact only at a specific angle and use a plurality of V+ pin and V− pin having a symmetrical structure, it is not economical. Patent Document 3 discloses a technology in which electrodes of a magnetic connector are concentrically formed so that the electronic device and the power supply apparatus may be electrically connected to each other even in the case in which they are rotated at any angle and contact each other.
However, when the electronic device and the power supply apparatus are connected to each other by the magnetic connector, a spark may be generated in the moment of the connection, may affect the electronic device and the power supply apparatus, and cause a failure. In Patent Document 3, in readiness for a case in which a power supply terminal in the power supply apparatus is electrically shorted, a power delaying circuit unit is installed in the power supply apparatus. However, the invention disclosed in Patent Document 3 is effective in a charging apparatus of a mobile terminal (e.g., a smart phone) consuming a relatively small amount of current, but is not effective in a tablet PC, a notebook computer, and the like consuming a large amount of current.
Patent Document 4 discloses a magnetic connector module including a circuit for blocking power supply. When the circuit for blocking power supply is installed in the power supply apparatus, the spark is decreased in the moment of the connection, but it is not sufficient.
Patent Document 5 discloses a technology allowing power to be supplied to the electronic device after a predetermined time is elapsed when connecting the electronic device and the power supply apparatus to each other by the magnetic connector by installing a circuit for preventing a charging terminal foreign material occurrence on a side of the electronic device. However, a circuit for preventing a spark occurrence may need to be installed on a side of the power supply apparatus, but the circuit for preventing the charging terminal foreign material occurrence may be installed only on a side of the electronic device and may not be installed on a side of the power supply apparatus.
As disclosed in Patent Document 3 or Patent Document 4, in the case in which the electrodes are concentrically formed on a side of the electronic device, since the electrodes on an outer circle are formed to be very long, two pin terminals of V+ and V− on a side of the power supply apparatus may instantaneously contact one electrode, thereby causing overload on a side of the power supply apparatus.

Charging system having circuit for delaying power supply

Abstract: The circuit for delaying power supply blocks the power supply to the Vcc power terminal in the case in which the GND ground power terminal and the D signal terminal are not in an electrically shorted state and releases the blocking of the power supply to the Vcc power terminal because an operation of the transistor is changed and a charging state of the capacitor is changed in the case in which the GND ground power terminal and the D signal terminal become the electrically shorted state.


The present invention addresses the problem of providing a technology for efficiently separating carbon dioxide in a method for separating carbon dioxide from a mixed gas by using a membrane separation method. The problem is solved by a method including supplying a mixed gas to a separation membrane module to separate carbon dioxide from the mixed gas, in which the mixed gas is supplied to the separation membrane module at a high linear velocity in order to sufficiently mix a mixed gas in the vicinity of a membrane.

Examples of methods for separating and concentrating gases include a membrane separation method, an adsorption separation method, an absorption separation method, a distillation separation method, and a cryogenic separation method. The membrane separation method is a technique in which a phase change is hardly induced during separation, and the separation is caused by a difference between the velocities of gases that permeate a membrane with a difference in pressure as drive energy. Separation by adsorption/absorption requires a step of desorbing an adsorbed/absorbed gas, and becomes batch treatment. Therefore, plural units are required for allowing the separation to be a continuous process. However, in the membrane separation method, continuous separation is possible, and a facility scale can be made to be relatively small. In the distillation/cryogenic separation methods, a phase change is induced in separation, and a large amount of energy is required although continuous treatment is possible. However, in the membrane separation method, energy-saving separation with a difference in pressure as drive force is possible.
Since the 1970s, methods using polymer membranes have been proposed as methods for separating gases by membranes. However, although the polymer membranes have had characteristics of being excellent in processability, the polymer membranes have had problems that deterioration and reduction in performance are caused by heat, chemical substances, and pressure, and have been insufficient in view of usable condition ranges.
Inorganic membranes having favorable chemical resistance, oxidation resistance, heat resistance, and pressure resistance have been proposed in order to solve the problems. Examples of the inorganic membranes include: dense membranes such as Pd membranes and composite oxide membranes; and porous membranes such as silica membranes and zeolite membranes. Separation by the dense membranes is based on the principle of solution-diffusion while separation by the porous membrane uses molecular sieving and adsorptivity. The membranes can be directed at separating even components that do not dissolve in the membranes, from each other. Among them, the zeolite membranes have uniform pore diameters, high molecular-sieve effects, and excellent separation performance because of having crystallinity and subnanometer regular pores. Adsorptivity can also be expected to be controlled by changing the composition thereof. Further, the zeolite membranes are crystalline, and therefore have excellent stability in comparison with the silica membranes and the like which have amorphous forms.
As a method for separating a gas with the use of a membrane separation method, there has been disclosed a method of making a structure in which a partition wall is disposed in the housing of a separation module to partition the housing into at least two or more spaces, circulation pores for enabling a gas to move between the spaces into which the housing is partitioned exist in the partition wall, and both high-pressure-side gas flow and low-pressure-side permeate gas flow in a membrane put in the two or more spaces can move in series over a distance two or more times the effective length of the membrane and can come in contact with the membrane, whereby the original separation performance of the membrane can be exhibited (see Patent Literature 1).
As a method for operating a gas separation apparatus capable of separating a gas with a high separation ability and a high treatment ability, there has also been disclosed a method in which in a module including plural separation membrane modules, the separation membrane modules are operated to place a predetermined interval between the cycle of operating one separation membrane module and the cycle of operating another separation membrane module just before the cycle (see Patent Literature 2).
In contrast, a method using a SAPO-34 membrane having high permeability has been known as a method for separating carbon dioxide from a mixed gas. It has been disclosed to insert a spacer made of Teflon (registered trademark) into a membrane pipe because permeability at a feed pressure of 1 MPa or more is greatly affected by concentration polarization (see Non Patent Literature 1).
A method for selectively separating CO2 from a CO2/CH4 mixed gas by using a hybrid FSC membrane has been known. It has been disclosed that the hybrid FSC membrane prepared under optimal conditions exhibits high CO2 permeability and relatively favorable CO2/CH4 selectivity in a gas permeation test at high pressure (see Non Patent Literature 2).

Method for separating carbon dioxide and apparatus for separating carbon dioxide


A 6-bit output code word is generated in response to every 4-bit input code word by referring to a set of encoding tables. The encoding tables contain output code words assigned to input code words, and contain encoding-table designation information accompanying each output code word. The encoding-table designation information designates an encoding table among the encoding tables which is used next to generate an output code word immediately following the output code word accompanied with the encoding-table designation information. The generated output code words are sequentially connected into a sequence of the generated output code words which follows predetermined run length limiting rules (1, k)RLL, where “k” denotes a predetermined natural number between 7 and 12.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a modulation method, a modulation apparatus, a demodulation method, a demodulation apparatus, an information recording medium, an information transmission method, and an information transmission apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some modulation (encoding) procedures used for digital signals recorded on recording mediums are of a (1, 7)RLL type, where "(1, 7)RLL" means run length limiting rules such that 1 to 7 successive bits of "0" should be between bits of "1" in a modulation-resultant bit stream. The (1, 7)RLL modulation tends to insufficiently suppress DC and near-DC components of a modulation-resultant bit stream. Therefore, in specified conditions, the spectrum of an information signal enters a frequency band assigned to a servo signal. In this case, the information signal interferes with servo control.
Japanese patent application publication number 6-195887/1994 discloses first and second modulation apparatuses.
The first modulation apparatus in Japanese application 6-195887 processes an input signal which has a sequence of symbols each having one byte. The first modulation apparatus includes an inverting circuit, a parallel-to-serial converting circuit, and a (1, 7)RLL modulation circuit. The inverting circuit receives the input signal, and inverts all bits in every odd-numbered symbol. The inverting circuit keeps every even-numbered symbol unchanged. The output signal from the inverting circuit is converted into a first bit stream by the parallel-to-serial converting circuit. The (1, 7)RLL modulation circuit subjects the first bit stream to (1, 7)RLL modulation, thereby generating a modulation-resultant bit stream (a second bit stream). The inversion of every odd-numbered symbol by the inverting circuit causes the suppression of a DC component of the modulation-resultant bit stream.
The second modulation apparatus in Japanese application 6-195887 includes a randomizing circuit and a (1, 7)RLL modulation circuit. The randomizing circuit receives an input signal, and randomizes the input signal. The randomizing circuit outputs the randomizing-resultant signal to the (1, 7)RLL modulation circuit. The (1, 7)RLL modulation circuit subjects the randomizing-resultant signal to (1, 7)RLL modulation, thereby generating a modulation-resultant bit stream. The signal processing by the randomizing circuit causes the suppression of a DC component of the modulation-resultant bit stream.
Japanese patent application publication number 10-340543/1998 discloses (1, 7)RLL modulation provided with DSV (digital sum variation) control for suppressing DC and low-frequency components of a modulation-resultant bit stream. According to the (1, 7)RLL modulation in Japanese application 10-340543, three successive bits in every prescribed position in a (1, 7)RLL code string is replaced by six successive DSV control bits of a pattern chosen so that the rules "(1, 7)RLL" will be observed.
Japanese patent application publication number 2000-105981 discloses (1, 8)RLL modulation provided with DSV control for suppressing DC and low-frequency components of a modulation-resultant bit stream. The (1, 8)RLL modulation in Japanese application 2000-105981 includes 8–12 modulation. The 8–12 modulation refers to a table containing 12-bit output code words assigned to 8-bit input code words respectively. Input data are divided into 8-bit segments each handled as an input code word. Every input code word is converted into an output code word by referring to the table. Specifically, the output code word assigned to the input code word is read out from the table. As a result, the input data are converted into a modulation-resultant bit stream formed by a sequence of output code words read out from the table. The output code words in the table and the output code words read out therefrom to form the modulation-resultant bit stream are designed so that the modulation-resultant bit stream will follow the rules "(1, 8)RLL". Specifically, a succession of a preliminary current output code word and a next output code word is generated in response to every two successive input code words. Conditions of the connection between the preliminary current output code word and the next output code word are checked to decide whether or not the succession follows the rules "(1, 8)RLL". When it is decided that the succession does not follow the rules "(1, 8)RLL", the preliminary current output code word is replaced by another current output code word.
Japanese patent application publication number 2000-286709 discloses a modulation system which includes a formatter, an 8–15 modulator, and an NRZI converter. The formatter converts an input digital signal into a second digital signal of a predetermined format. The formatter outputs the second digital signal to the 8–15 modulator. The 8–15 modulator contains a set of seven different encoding tables. The 8–15 modulator converts or encodes every 8-bit block of the output digital signal from the formatter into a 15-bit code word by referring to the set of the encoding tables. The 15-bit code word forms a 15-bit block of a modulation-resultant bit stream (a modulation-resultant digital signal). The 15-bit code word is chosen to enable its NRZI conversion result to follow run length limiting rules such that a minimum run length is 3T and a maximum run length is 11T where T denotes the length or period of one bit (one channel bit). The 8–15 modulator outputs the modulation-resultant bit stream (the modulation-resultant digital signal) to the NRZI converter. The NRZI converter subjects the output digital signal of the 8–15 modulator to NRZI modulation, thereby generating a digital signal of an NRZI code.
In the modulation system of Japanese application 2000-286709, each of the encoding tables stores 15-bit code words assigned to different states of an 8-bit input block respectively. In addition, each of the encoding tables contains state information for selecting one from the encoding tables which will be used to convert a next 8-bit input block. This design is to enable the NRZI conversion result of a succession of two selected 15-bit code words to follow the run length limiting rules. The contents of the encoding tables are optimized in view of information about the frequencies of occurrence of different states of an 8-bit input block. Furthermore, first and second specified ones of the encoding tables are designed so that the NRZI modulation results of 15-bit code words in the first specified encoding table which correspond to prescribed 8-bit input blocks will be opposite in polarity ("odd-even" in the number of "1") to those of 15-bit code words in the second specified encoding table.
In the modulation system of Japanese application 2000-286709, two candidate 15-bit code words may be selected from the first and second specified encoding tables in response to a given 8-bit input block. DSVs (digital sum variations) are calculated for the candidate 15-bit code words, respectively. The absolute values of the DSVs are compared. One of the candidate 15-bit code words which corresponds to the smaller of the absolute values of the DSVs is finally selected as a 15-bit output code word. In this way, DSV control is implemented.
Japanese patent application publication number 2000-332613 discloses a 4–6 modulator. The 4–6 modulator contains a set of four different encoding tables. The 4–6 modulator converts or encodes every 4-bit input code word into a 6-bit output code word by referring to the set of the encoding tables. The 6-bit output code word forms a 6-bit block of a modulation-resultant bit stream. Each of the encoding tables stores 6-bit output code words assigned to 4-bit input code words respectively. In addition, the encoding tables contain next-table selection numbers accompanying the respective 6-bit output code words therein. Each of the next-table selection numbers designates one among the encoding tables which will be used to convert a next 4-bit input code word. The output code words and the next-table selection numbers in the encoding tables are designed so that the modulation-resultant bit stream formed by a succession of selected output code words will follow (1, 7)RLL. First and second specified ones of the encoding tables are designed so that 6-bit output code words in the first specified encoding table which correspond to prescribed 4-bit input code words will be opposite in polarity ("odd-even" in the number of "1") to those of 6-bit output code words in the second specified encoding table.
In the 4–6 modulator of Japanese application 2000-332613, two candidate 6-bit output code words may be selected from the first and second specified encoding tables in response to a given 4-bit input code word. DSVs (digital sum variations) are calculated for the candidate 6-bit output code words, respectively. The absolute values of the DSVs are compared. One of the candidate 6-bit output code words which corresponds to the smaller of the absolute values of the DSVs is selected as a final 6-bit output code word. In this way, DSV control is implemented.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


An internal combustion engine and a method of operation are described involving: supplying intake gas from an intake manifold (18) to an air intake port of a combustion chamber in a cylinder (11); selectively operating an air intake valve using a first operating profile (30) and, on demand, switching selective operation of the air intake valve to a second operating profile (31) in which the closing of the air intake valve is delayed compared to the closing of the air intake valve using the first operating profile; wherein at the point (43) of or prior to switching from the first operating profile to the second operating profile the pressure of the intake gas in the intake manifold is increased.

Internal combustion engines comprise inlet and exhaust valves to control the flow of gases into and out of the combustion chamber of each engine cylinder. Ordinarily the valves are mechanically controlled by means of a camshaft. Profiled cams on the camshaft are used to control timing of opening and closing of each valve.
Since the physical shape and profile of the cams may only be optimised for one particular operating condition of the internal combustion engine, it is known to use a variable valve actuation system where the operation of the valves may by adjusted to suit changing demand. For example, a standard profile may be utilised during periods of medium or high engine demand and a late inlet valve closing (LIVC) profile may be utilised for the inlet valve during steady state conditions when the demand on the internal combustion engine is relatively low. In a LIVC profile the closing of the intake valve at about the end of the intake stroke is delayed, so that the intake valve remains open for a portion of the compression stroke. This results in a lower pressure within the cylinder. Consequently, the cylinder piston does less work during the compression stroke which leads to improved fuel efficiency.
A problem with use of an LIVC profile is that when instantaneously switching from the standard profile to the LIVC profile there is a sudden drop in the air-to-fuel ratio within the cylinder. This leads to a rich mixture which tends to produce unwanted soot particulates and smoke. In order to attempt to overcome this problem it is known to employ a control system that gradually switches from the standard profile to the LIVC profile over relatively large number of engine cycles—typically around 20 cycles. However such control systems are complicated and expensive.

Internal combustion engine and a method of operation of an internal combustion engine