A system and method for reducing the corrosive effects of an air/hydrogen front in a fuel cell stack. The method includes shutting down the fuel cell stack and then initiating a hydrogen sustaining process where hydrogen is periodically injected into an anode side of the fuel cell stack while the stack is shut down for a predetermined period of time. The method determines that the hydrogen sustaining process has ended, and then purges the anode side and a cathode side of the fuel cell stack with air after the hydrogen sustaining process has ended and the stack is still shut-down.

Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a system and method for reducing the frequency and impact of damaging air/hydrogen fronts in a fuel cell stack and, more particularly, to a system and method for purging the cathode and anode sides of a fuel cell stack with air while the fuel cell system is shut down after a procedure for periodically injecting hydrogen into the stack during the shut down has ended.
Discussion of the Related Art
Hydrogen is a very attractive fuel because it is renewable and can be used to efficiently produce electricity in a fuel cell with no harmful emissions. A hydrogen fuel cell is an electro-chemical device that includes an anode and a cathode with an electrolyte therebetween. The anode receives hydrogen gas and the cathode receives oxygen or air. The hydrogen gas is dissociated at the anode catalyst to generate free protons and electrons. The protons pass through the electrolyte to the cathode. The protons react with the oxygen and the electrons at the cathode catalyst to generate water. The electrons from the anode cannot pass through the electrolyte, and thus are directed through a load to perform work before being sent to the cathode.
Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) are a popular fuel cell for vehicles. The PEMFC generally includes a solid polymer electrolyte proton conducting membrane, such as a perfluorosulfonic acid membrane. The anode and cathode electrodes, or catalyst layers, typically include finely divided catalytic particles, usually platinum (Pt), supported on carbon particles and mixed with an ionomer. The catalytic mixture is deposited on opposing sides of the membrane. The combination of the anode catalytic mixture, the cathode catalytic mixture and the membrane define a membrane electrode assembly (MEA). Each MEA is usually sandwiched between two sheets of porous material, the gas diffusion layer (GDL), that protects the mechanical integrity of the membrane and also helps in uniform reactant and humidity distribution. MEAs are relatively expensive to manufacture and require certain conditions for effective operation.
Several fuel cells are typically combined in a fuel cell stack to generate the desired power. For example, a typical fuel cell stack for a vehicle may have two hundred or more stacked fuel cells. The fuel cell stack receives a cathode input gas, typically a flow of air forced through the stack by a compressor. The fuel cell stack also receives an anode hydrogen input gas that flows into the anode side of the stack. Not all of the oxygen is consumed by the stack and some of the air is output as a cathode exhaust gas that may include water as a by-product of the chemical reaction taking place in the stack.
The fuel cell stack includes a series of bipolar plates positioned between the several MEAs in the stack, where the bipolar plates and the MEAs are positioned between two end plates. The bipolar plates include anode side and cathode side flow distributors, or flow fields, for adjacent fuel cells in the stack. Anode gas flow channels are provided on the anode side of the bipolar plates that allow the anode reactant gas to flow to the respective MEA. Cathode gas flow channels are provided on the cathode side of the bipolar plates that allow the cathode reactant gas to flow to the respective MEA. One end plate includes anode gas flow channels, and the other end plate includes cathode gas flow channels. The bipolar plates and end plates are made of a conductive material, such as stainless steel or a conductive composite. The end plates conduct the electricity generated by the fuel cells out of the stack. The bipolar plates also include flow channels through which a cooling fluid flows.
When a fuel cell system is shut down, unreacted hydrogen gas remains in the anode side of the fuel cell stack. This hydrogen gas is able to diffuse through or cross over the membranes and react with the oxygen on the cathode side of the stack. As the hydrogen gas diffuses to the cathode side, the total pressure on the anode side of the stack is reduced. Some oxygen will be left in the cathode plumbing, and will slowly re-enter the cathode flow-field, either by convective or diffusive forces. Most of the oxygen will react with hydrogen that is locally present in the cell. Eventually, the local hydrogen will be consumed, and oxygen will start to concentrate. Eventually, oxygen will locally permeate the membrane to the anode.
When air enters the anode side of the stack it generates an air/hydrogen front that creates an elevated potential in the anode side, resulting in a lateral flow of hydrogen ions from the hydrogen flooded portion of the anode side to the air-flooded portion of the anode side. The lateral current combined with the high lateral ionic resistance of the membrane produces a significant lateral potential difference (˜0.5V) across the membrane. A locally high potential is produced between the air-filled cathode side opposite the air-filled portion of the anode side. The high potential adjacent to the electrolyte membrane causes rapid carbon corrosion, which causes the electrode carbon layer to thin. This decreases the support for the catalyst particles, which decreases the performance of the fuel cell.
In automotive applications, there are a large number of start and stop cycles required over the life of the fuel cell system, each of which may generate an air/hydrogen front as described above. Targets of 40,000 start and stop cycles would be considered reasonable. Leaving a stack in an oxygen-rich atmosphere at shut-down results in a damaging air/hydrogen event at both shut-down and start-up, where 2 to 5 μV of degradation per start and stop cycle is plausible. Thus, the total degradation over 40,000 start and stop cycle events is on the order of 100 or more mV. If the stack is left with a hydrogen/nitrogen mixture at shut-down, and the system is restarted before appreciable concentrations of oxygen have accumulated, cell corrosion during the shut-down and subsequent restart is avoided.
It is known in the art to purge the hydrogen gas out of the anode side of the fuel cell stack at system shut-down by forcing air from the compressor into the anode side at high pressure. However, the air purge still creates an air/hydrogen front that causes at least some corrosion of the carbon support, as discussed above, even though it is short in duration. Another known method in the art is to provide a cathode re-circulation to reduce carbon corrosion at system shut-down, as described in the commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/463,622, titled, "Method for Mitigating Cell Degradation Due to Startup and Shutdown Via Cathode Re-Circulation Combined with Electrical Shorting of Stack," filed Aug. 10, 2006, assigned to the assignee of this application and herein incorporated by reference. Particularly, it is known to pump a mixture of air and a small amount of hydrogen through the cathode side of the stack at system shut-down so that the hydrogen and oxygen combine in the cathode side to reduce the amount of oxygen, and thus the potential that causes carbon corrosion.
It is also known to stop the cathode air flow while maintaining positive anode side hydrogen pressure at shut-down, and to then electrically short the stack to allow the oxygen to be consumed by hydrogen, followed by closing the inlet and outlet valves of the anode and cathode sides, as described in the commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/612,120, titled, "Method of Mitigating Fuel Cell Degradation Due to Startup and Shutdown Via Hydrogen/Nitrogen Storage," filed Dec. 18, 2006, assigned to the assignee of this application and herein incorporated by reference.
It has been proposed in the art to reduce the frequency of the air/hydrogen fronts discussed above by periodically injecting hydrogen into the anode side of a fuel cell stack after the stack has been shut-down. For example, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/636,318, filed Dec. 11, 2009, titled Fuel Cell Operation Methods for Hydrogen Addition After Shutdown, assigned to the assignee of this application and herein incorporated by reference, discloses such a method for injecting hydrogen into the anode side of a fuel cell stack during system shut-down. However, at some point, the hydrogen injection process needs to be stopped at which time air will begin to diffuse into the stack. It is necessary to terminate the hydrogen sustaining technique at some point to conserve hydrogen or low voltage battery power for an extended vehicle off times. For these situations, the slow diffusion of oxygen back into the stack causes the catalytic corrosion discussed above. Therefore, it is known to provide cell-to-cell shorting positive temperature coefficient resistors that limit the voltage and electrode damage during the air diffusion. However, to reduce systems costs, it is desirable to eliminate the cell-to-cell resistors because of their expense.

Operational method for a simplified fuel cell system


A wiring layer includes a signal line and covers a predetermined portion on a source region and a drain region of a crystalline silicon layer. A gate insulating layer is on the crystalline silicon layer and the wiring layer. A gate electrode layer above the gate insulating layer includes a scanning line, a gate electrode corresponding to a channel region of the crystalline silicon layer, and a capacitor electrode corresponding to a predetermined portion of the wiring layer. The capacitor electrode is formed separately from the scanning line and the gate electrode and is configured to form a capacitor with the wiring layer. An interlayer insulating film is on the gate electrode layer and the gate insulating layer. A pixel electrode layer on the interlayer insulating film includes a pixel electrode connected to the wiring layer through a contact hole in the gate insulating layer and the interlayer insulating film.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device and a method of manufacturing the display device. In particular, the invention relates to a display device including a thin film transistor having a crystalline silicon layer as a channel active layer.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, there have been developed active matrix display devices where plural signal lines and plural scanning lines are arranged in matrix, and a thin film transistor (TFT) as a switching element is formed in a pixel area surrounded by the signal lines and the scanning lines. The active matrix display devices excel passive matrix display devices in image quality and thus prevail over other organic EL display devices and liquid crystal display devices. A LTPS TFT including a channel active layer made of low temperature polysilicon (LTPS) has high electron mobility. Performances of the active matrix display devices have been dramatically improved using the LTPS TFT.
For example, the LTPS TFT is applied to a peripheral circuit portion for driving a switching element. If the LTPS TFT is used for peripheral circuits of the display device, it is possible to reduce the number of ICs and IC-equipped substrates for use in devices. As a result, the display device configuration can be simplified and a high-reliability display device with a narrow frame is realized.
Further, in the liquid crystal display devices, if the LTPS TFT is used as a switching element for each pixel, it is possible to reduce not only a capacitance thereof but an area of a storage capacitor connected to the drain side. Therefore, a liquid crystal display device (LCD) of high resolution and high aperture ratio can be attained. Thus, the LTPS TFT plays a leading role in displaying high-resolution images such as QVGA (240×320 pixels) or VGA (480×640 pixels) with a liquid crystal display device with a small panel like a cell phone display panel. In this way, the LTPS TFT is more advantageous than an amorphous silicon (a-Si) TFT in terms of performance.
However, existing LTPS TFTs have problems of many manufacturing steps and low productivity compared with the a-Si TFT. Here, a difference in manufacturing process between the a-Si TFT and the LTPS TFT is described in detail based on the LCD.
As a result of comparing a manufacturing process for an a-Si TFT LCD with that for an LTPS TFT LCD array, the number of patterning steps is 5 for the a-Si TFT LCD but is 8 for the LTPS TFT. A breakdown of the additional three patterning steps necessary for the LTPS TFT is as follows:    (1) a selective doping step for forming a C/MOS structure (unnecessary if the TFT structure is one-conductivity type: N type or P type)    (2) a doping step for reducing a resistance of a lower-electrode-formation polysilicon layer of a storage capacitor    (3) a step of forming contact holes for source/drain lines inclusive of a signal line.
The difference of 3 patterning steps largely influences productivity, and a production cost exceeds a low component cost for ICs and IC-equipped substrates, which is an advantage of the LTPS TFT LCD. As a result, the display device using the LTPS TFT is inferior in product competitiveness to the a-Si TFT. This problem is applicable to active matrix display devices other than the LCD, such as an active matrix organic EL display device (AMOLED).
To that end, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 6-194689 and 2003-131260 (Miyasaka) disclose a technique of forming a source/drain line below a gate insulating layer to directly contact a source/drain region in a silicon layer with the source/drain line to use the line as a lower electrode of a storage capacitor. As a result, it is possible to skip the aforementioned two steps: (2) doping step for reducing a resistance of a lower-electrode-formation polysilicon layer of a storage capacitor and (3) step of forming contact holes for source/drain lines. For example, the technique of Miyasaka directly connects the source/drain line with the silicon layer to reduce the number of steps.
The TFT structure of Miyasaka has a silicon layer formed on a metal line, and many defects occur in the LTPS TFT. The LTPS is generally obtained by forming an a-Si layer and locally-heating the a-Si layer surface with a laser to fuse and crystallize the a-Si layer. Under heating at high temperature, metal contamination proceeds from the base metal line to a silicon layer. Hence, a TFT junction in the silicon layer is deteriorated to increase a leak current.
Further, in general, an a-Si layer is heated by moving a laser beam which has linear spot in a laser annealing step. A crystal structure of a silicon layer differs between a case where a direction in which a region is heated with the linear spot of laser beam is vertical to a direction of a source/drain region having a metal line at the end portion and the case where the two directions are parallel to each other. A difference of the crystal structure causes a difference in TFT characteristics. If the TFT structure of Miyasaka is applied to the LTPS TFT, the TFT characteristics vary, and a current leaks and its reliability lowers due to the defects.

Display device and method of manufacturing the display device


The invention includes a method and apparatus for computing a bill for a wireless subscriber communicating using a converged wireless network. The method includes obtaining service usage information for communications by the wireless subscriber using a wide-area wireless network, obtaining service usage information for communications by the wireless subscriber using a small-area wireless network, and computing a bill value using the wide-area service usage information and the small-area service usage information, and adjusting the bill value using a bill adjustment value that is determined using the small-area service usage information and a bill adjustment parameter. The present invention enables the wireless subscriber to subscribe to a single wireless subscription, track a single set of service credits associated with the service subscription, and receive a single bill for the service subscription, despite different costs of communications by the wireless subscriber using the wide-area and small-area wireless networks.

Wireless service providers continually seek new ways to maximize the capabilities of the current wireless infrastructure in order to improve wireless service. There is a growing effort to integrate capabilities of conventional wide-area wireless networks and newer small-area wireless networks to provide a converged wireless network in which users may use a single dual-mode wireless device, e.g., phone, computer, or personal data assistant, to communicate over both wide-area and small-area wireless networks. The wide-area networks include cellular networks such as Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) wireless networks, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) wireless networks, and various other wide-area wireless networks. The small-area wireless networks include WiFi networks such as Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11a/b/g wireless local area networks (WLANs) and various other small-area wireless networks.
For example, using a converged wireless network, a user may use a dual-mode wireless device to communicate over WiFi networks when the user is at home, at the office, or in a WiFi hotspot, and may use the same dual-mode wireless device to communicate over cellular networks when the user is away from home, the office, and the WiFi hotspot. The trend toward converged wireless networks is primarily driven by two factors. The first factor is the significantly lower cost incurred by a wireless service provide in providing wireless service over a small-area WiFi network versus providing wireless service over a wide-area cellular wireless network. The second factor is increasing demand by users to have a single wireless device which may be used anywhere, irrespective of the type of wireless network available.
Despite the many benefits of converged wireless networks, by enabling communication over different types of wireless networks using one dual-mode wireless device, converged wireless networks result in more complicated service subscription and service billing scenarios. In traditional cellular networks, for example, each user subscribes to wireless service from a wireless service provider. A user typically contracts for a wireless service subscription that is based on a total number of monthly minutes, e.g., 600 peak minutes and 3000 off-peak minutes, e.g., night and weekend minutes, for $50/month. In converged wireless networks, on the other hand, since costs to wireless service providers of providing service over cellular networks and WiFi networks is different, wireless service providers may want to bill customers differently for service provided over cellular networks versus service provided over WiFi networks.
Disadvantageously, the existing approach to wireless service subscription and billing in converged wireless networks requires each user to obtain two wireless service subscriptions, one subscription for communications over cellular networks and another subscription for communications over WiFi networks. As a result, since users typically contract for wireless service subscriptions based on a total number of monthly minutes, existing billing practices for converged wireless networks therefore require users to track two sets of minutes, i.e., cellular minutes and WiFi minutes, as well as receive two separate bills for the two different wireless service subscriptions. This extra tracking of minutes that must be performed by users of converged wireless networks, as well as the additional bill received by the users, may deter the users from switching to converged wireless networks, thereby depriving both wireless service providers and users from various benefits of converged wireless networks.

Method and apparatus for improved billing for converged wireless networks


A calibration site for a gamma-gamma well logging tool for use in mineral exploration, the calibration site having a column consisting of a plurality of blocks of known densities; and a borehole through the column configured to accept the gamma-gamma well logging tool. Further, a method for calibrating a gamma-gamma well logging tool at the calibration site, the method including lowering the gamma-gamma well logging tool into a column consisting of a plurality of blocks of different known densities and having a borehole therein to receive the gamma-gamma well logging tool; raising the gamma-gamma well logging tool at a set rate; capturing a radiation count at a sensor of the gamma-gamma well logging tool; converting the radiation count to a recorded density for a particular depth at a computing device; and comparing the recorded density at each position of the column with the known densities.

Geological drilling constitutes an important component in the exploration of minerals such as iron ore. This drilling provides information on lithologies that compose the geological model used in the estimation of resources and reserves. Geological drilling further allows for the analysis of boreholes, in order to determine percentages of ore in later stages of exploration and exploitation.
However, drilling holes are subject to operational factors that can lead to inaccurate conclusions. Such factors include blistering, recovering and contamination of samples, which interfere with the analysis of in situ densities.
Further, various techniques for borehole analysis may be inaccurate. Such techniques for density measurement and lithological contact determination may lead to inaccurate information due to the impossibility of preserving the core interstitial spaces in the drilling holes or the displacement of material during rods withdrawal. In order to minimize possibility of mistakes regarding drilling holes, additional techniques may be used to provide information on the rocks and their natural state, before removal by core drilling.
One way to provide information on lithological contacts or in situ density utilizes gamma-gamma well logging. Gamma-gamma well logging includes the exposure of a borehole wall to the influence of a radioactive source and then counting gamma radiation that is received by a receiver placed a known distance from the source. However, such tools are typically used for oil exploration and not mineral exploration. Due to the different lithologies involved between the two applications, use of the tool needs to be adapted for mineral exploration.

Method and system for evaluation of gamma-gamma well logging data in mineral exploration


A method and system for audio selection is disclosed. Multiple active videos are rendered in a single video stream and the multiple active videos are simultaneously displayed on a client machine. A user selects a video from among the multiple active videos for which associated audio is presented. As the user selects different videos the previous audio is stopped and the new audio is played. The new audio is synchronized to the selected video.

Streaming of video content remains a complex and difficult technical challenge. From locating videos, to head-end storage of video content, to the delivery of the requested videos, all aspects of the video streaming system must be carefully designed and implemented. The complex delivery problem is further complicated when multiple videos may be of interest to the requester or to a viewer. Again, careful techniques and algorithms must be developed in order for proper searching and for content delivery to be efficient, timely, and effective. Complex software and hardware systems are required to implement a video collection and delivery system. In such a system, the software may be stored and executed on a variety of processors.
The following challenging steps may be included in a complex, user-driven, video content delivery system. For example, one difficulty might be to effectively and efficiently locate video content on the web. A search might be fine-tuned through a variety of means to make the search more efficient and targeted toward content of interest. Another significant challenge might be the storage of the video content or information about the video content so that it can be located, retrieved quickly, and used for further analysis. Further, delivering content, both video and audio, within the context of network bandwidth limitations can be cumbersome and have its own logistical challenges. The presentation of video and its associated audio track may be problematic given buffering requirements in order to ensure no gaps in the playback. Networks and their distributed hardware have been designed so that disparate data packets can be distributed far and wide but these packets must be properly reassembled so a viewer can enjoy the video in a high quality viewing environment without thinking about the technical details. Indeed, a viewer often has neither technical understanding nor desire to understand the underlying technology. In all, the various steps must be carefully designed and executed in order to implement an effective video delivery system.

Audio selection from a multi-video environment


System and method to revoke call-back requests, the method including: transmitting a plurality of communication requests from a caller to one or more callees; determining mootness of a request for a call-back from at least some of the callees; initiating, by use of a single command, a plurality of call-back cancellation requests to the at least some of the callees; and transmitting one or more call-back cancellation requests to the at least some of the callees. The method may further include determining a characteristic shared by the communication requests to the at least some of the callees. Determining a characteristic may include determining subject matter from message content, metadata, or sending time of the communication requests. The request for a call-back is determined by the caller or inferred by a callee. Call-back cancellation may include removal of a call indication from a notification list of the callee.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to call-back requests, and, in particular, to a system and method for revoking multiple call-back requests in a coordinated manner.
2. Description of Related Art
Throughout a day, a caller (also referred to as a calling party) may make numerous attempts to call or establish sessions with a callee (also referred to as a called party). If a caller cannot immediately reach a first callee, the caller may call and attempt to reach a second callee. The second callee may also be unavailable, and this process may repeat.
If a called party is not available to accept an incoming request, many current communication systems often leave an indication that a call was missed and provide an easy means of returning the call. For example, browser-based systems based on Web Real-Time Communications ("WebRTC"), as developed by the World Wide Web Consortium ("W3C") and the Internet Engineering Task Force ("IETF"), often provide a popup message notification and create a readily accessible return communication notification list. Traditional phone systems may provide a missed communication notification list that can be used to see who called and to return missed calls. Even if the caller did not leave a message with an explicit request for a call-back, the callee may treat the entry in the missed communication notification list as an implicit request to call back.
However, after some period of time, the need to return the call may no longer exist, or the original calling party may know that they will not be available to accept a return call (e.g., it is after close of business, or the original caller is in a meeting). However, the original callee may be unaware that the need to return the call has passed and may return the original call. The cycle may repeat, and the returned calls create an unnecessary game of "telephone tag."
Traditional systems provide an explicit "leave word calling" feature with an explicit ability to cancel a single outstanding leave word calling request. Likewise, similar revocation notions exist for a single email message sent to one or more parties. However, if there is a series of back-and-forth messages (e.g., calls and call-backs), or single calls to multiple callees, each of the leave word calling requests must be cancelled individually in order to avoid unnecessary call-backs. There is no known method or system to cancel or revoke a series of related leave word calling requests.
Therefore, a need exists to avoid unnecessary returned calls, in order to avoid wasted time and effort, and ultimately improved customer satisfaction.

System and method for coordinated call-back revocation


A system and method for generating an optimized operating schedule for a plurality of heterogeneous wireless network appliances managed by a gateway device in a closed area network is disclosed. An amount of energy consumed by each network appliance as well as preassigned operational priority values assigned to each network appliance per time slot over the designated time period is considered. A plurality of proposed operation schedules are iteratively generated, wherein each proposed operation schedule selectively assigns the network appliances to operate at various time slots based on their assigned operational priority values. An optimized schedule is selected which has a determined lowest aggregated total utility cost and a greatest aggregated operations value for the network appliances in the subset. The selected optimized schedule is then implemented by the gateway device to manage operation of the network appliances in the closed area network.

Home and building automation is becoming even more popular with the support and use of personal area networks that allow local network enabled devices to wirelessly communicate with one another using low-power digital radios.
The Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) has ratified the IEEE 802.15.4 standard for mesh or personal area networks. ZigBee™ is one type of a standards certified suite of high level communication protocols using small, low-power digital radios based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. ZigBee™ specification is thus targeted for use with network enabled appliances and applications that require a low data rate, long battery life, as well as require secure networking Some examples of such appliances and applications include: Home Entertainment and Control (e.g. Home automation, smart lighting, advanced temperature control, safety and security, movies and music); Wireless Sensor Networks; Industrial control; Embedded sensing; Medical data collection; Smoke and intruder warning; Building automation and the like.
ZigBee™ has a defined rate of 250 kbit/s, best suited for periodic or intermittent data or a single wireless signal transmission between network appliances and ZigBee™ enabled network gateway devices. Data transmission rates between ZigBee™ enabled network devices vary from 20 to 900 Kbps.
Any ZigBee™ compatible network appliance can be tasked with running on the ZigBee™ network. Such ZigBee™ appliances are designed to have radios that operate on an established country specific frequency bands (i.e. 868 MHz in Europe, 915 MHz in USA/Australia, 2.4 GHz in most other countries) as well as 60 KB-256 KB integrated flash memory.
However, the ZigBee™ suite was designed to have standardized application profiles that were specific to the type of market application in which the standard was to be used. For example, the ZigBee™ standard includes discreet application profiles for Home Automation; Smart Energy; Telecommunication Services; Health Care; RF4CE—Remote Control, etc. Each application profile has different set communication protocols within the PAN as well as gateway devices and servers, policy and decision making guidelines, memory usage, data rates and the like.
Typically, ZigBee™ network appliances communicate with one or more servers over a wide area network (i.e. Internet), wherein one or more gateway devices sitting on the edge of a Personal Area Network (PAN) relay the communications between the network appliances and the servers. However, considering there can be several different close range ZigBee™ network appliances, many of which utilize different application profiles in a particular PAN, the sheer handling of data as well as load balancing and other optimization processes must be handled by the servers.
Accordingly, the overall wide area network (between the PAN and the servers) can get bogged down with handling machine to machine communications, while also having to handle traditional network messaging.
What is needed is a system and method for locally managing network devices utilizing low cost/lost power wireless machine to machine communication protocols.

System and method for locally optimized managing of network appliances in a closed area network


A structure for a toy comprising a doll body and parts and accessories thereof which can be safely transported without using special cushioning member or holding members such as styrene foam or cardboard stands for their packaging. There are provided a doll body 1 and a runner 2; the runner 2 integrally incorporates a back part which is attached to a portion of the doll body 1, and the back part is attached to a back portion of the doll body 1 which is integrally mounted on the runner 2 by way of a gate portions 8a and 8b.

This invention relates to a doll toy comprising a doll body and accessories thereof.
For transportation of a doll toy made up of a doll body and separate doll body parts and accessories, cushioning members and holding members are necessary so that they do not collide and become damaged inside their packaging. Conventionally, styrene foam containers or cardboard stands or the like have been used as these cushioning members and holding members.
When styrene foam containers are used, cavities are formed therein to match the doll body and its parts and accessories, and the doll body and associated parts are positioned by being fitted into these cavities. For each type of doll body, a container having cavities corresponding to that type are prepared.
Also, when a cardboard stand is used, the doll body and associated parts are positioned by being bound to the stand with rubber bands.
With the conventional technology, when styrene foam containers are used, it has been necessary to prepare a container separate from the doll body and provided with cavities matched to the shape of the doll body and associated parts, and time and labor has been required to fit the doll body and associated parts into these cavities.
Also, for each type of doll body it has been necessary to prepare a different container having cavities matching that type of doll body.
On the other hand, when a cardboard stand is used, it has taken time and labor to bind the doll body and associated parts to the stand with rubber bands or the like.

Packaging apparatus mounting a displayed article using a component of the article


A thermal transfer device comprising a thermal transfer surface and a passageway for conducting a thermal transfer fluid from an inlet to an outlet while passing in thermal contact with the thermal transfer surface. The passageway has at least two spiral passages and a connection channel connecting the at least two spiral passages to permit flow of the heat transfer fluid from a first spiral passage to a second spiral passage; thereby forming a path for the flow of the thermal fluid from the inlet, through the passageway, along the first spiral passage to the connection channel, then along the connection channel to the second spiral passage, and then to the outlet.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to a thermal transfer device, such as a cold plate for use in indirectly cooling objects with a cooling liquid and, more particularly, to a thermal transfer device having spiral fluid pathways for efficiently conducting a cooling fluid into indirect thermal contact with an object to be cooled.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cold plates are well-known thermal transfer devices used for cooling objects that generate excessive heat, such as, without limitation, computer chips. Cold plates are generally placed into thermal contact with the object to be cooled, and pass a cooling liquid over a surface which separates the liquid from the actual object to be cooled. In this fashion, heat may be transferred between the fluid and the object, without the fluid ever coming into direct contact with the object.
Direct contact is generally avoided, because the properties of many cooling fluids may be deleterious to the object to be cooled, or toxic to the environment, so it is preferred that the fluid be contained within a sealed environment. At the very least, it is preferred that the cooling fluid be re-circulated for efficiency and economy.
To improve the efficiency of heat transfer, it is widely known to maximize the amount of surface area of the heat transfer surfaces that comes in contact with the heat transfer fluid. There is a limit, however, as to how this has been accomplished to date. For example, it is common to form the heat transfer surface which comes into contact with the heat transfer fluid with protrusions, such as fins, to increase the amount of surface area which interfaces with the heat transfer fluid. The addition of fins, however has the unwanted effect of interfering with the flow of the thermal transfer fluid, thereby lowering the rate of thermal transfer and impairing the overall efficiency of the thermal transfer device.
Although cold plates are generally well known and widely used, there is a continuing need to make cold plates more efficient, and, therefore, more competitive, cost-effective and useful. It is especially useful to provide a single cold plate that can be used for cooling two objects at the same time, such as two computer chips operating in a computer without having to install two separate cold plates.
It will also be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art that a "cold plate" can be used to heat an object, if the application calls for it, so that the heat transfer fluid is at a higher temperature than the object to be warmed. For ease of reference, however, thermal transfer devices may be called herein "cold plates" even though the same structure, in a different application, may in fact be used to heat an object.

Thermal transfer device with spiral fluid pathways


An ammunition system for a rapid fire gun. The ammunition system includes a bullet having a tip that is stored in a retracted position and during flight is deployed to create an aerodynamic shape. Another aspect of the ammunition system is that the bullet has a cylindrical body having a first length in storage and a second longer length after ignition of the propellant.

The present invention relates generally to bullets/projectiles utilized in ammunition systems for rapid fire weapons. More particularly, the present invention relates to a bullet having an expanding length and/or a deployable aerodynamic tip.
Many of the multitude of prior bullet designs were brought about by a need to enhance the effectiveness of a soldier during a military conflict. Designers of modern military hardware are well aware that various forms of projectiles for use in ammunition for firearms have been proposed over the years. For example, prior designers have suggested the use of hollow or expanding diameter projectiles, which upon impact expand in diameter to cause infliction of greater damage on the target. Further, some prior designers have suggested the use of composite projectiles, which are found to be of general unitary configuration thereby adding length to the projectile. The added length was mainly to enhance long range accuracy, but upon impact with the target, the composite projectile separates into two separate relatively short projectiles. The short projectiles tend to tumble within the target thereby increasing the damage inflicted on the target.
The above brief description of prior systems reflects that weapon designers have been primarily concerned with the question as to how to inflict greater damage to the target upon impact therewith. However, these designers have not addressed the desirability of increasing the storage capacity of the weapons, nor the desirability of having bullets with expanding lengths and/or deployable aerodynamic tips to enhance flight, and/or increasing the rate of fire of the weapon. The present invention satisfies these and other needs in a novel and unobvious fashion.


There is provided in the present disclosure a shift register unit, including: a pull-up control circuit, connected to a signal input terminal and a pull-up node; a pull-up circuit, connected to the pull-up node, a first clock signal terminal and a signal output terminal; a pull-down circuit, connected to a pull-down node, the pull-up node, the signal output terminal and a power supply voltage terminal, and configured to pull down voltages of the pull-up node and the signal output terminal to a voltage of the power supply voltage terminal under the control of the pull-down node; a first pull-down control circuit, connected to a second clock signal terminal, a pull-down control signal terminal, the pull-down node and the power supply voltage terminal, and configured to pull up the voltage of the pull-down node to a valid pull-down level under the control of the pull-down control signal terminal.

A liquid crystal display panel is composed of vertical and horizontal array pixel matrixes. In the process of displaying, a gate scanning signal is outputted through a gate driving circuit, and respective pixels are scanned and accessed progressively. The gate driving circuit is used to produce gate scanning voltages of pixels. Gate On Array (GOA) is a technique of integrating the gate driving circuit on a thin film transistor substrate. As a shift register unit, each GOA unit delivers scanning signals to a next GOA unit sequentially, to progressively start the switches of the thin film transistor, and thus complete data signal input of pixel units. Compared with a conventional IC driving mode, the GOA driving has advantages of low cost and few processes and so on.
On the other hand, as panel display develops, high resolution and narrow framework becomes a development trend. With respect to this trend, the GOA technique directly integrates and manufactures a TF-LCD gate driving circuit on an array substrate, thereby taking place of a driving chip which is made of a silicon chip and adhered to the outside edge of the panel. Since the technique can manufacture the driving circuit on the array substrate directly, it is unnecessary to adhere IC and arrange wirings around the panel, which reduces the manufacturing procedure of the panel, reduces the cost of products, and at the same time raises integrity of the TFT-LCD panel, so that the display panel is more advantageous to satisfy the requirement for narrow framework and high resolution.

Shift register unit and driving method thereof, driving apparatus and display apparatus

Hefei Xinsheng Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd.


An improved method for determining an initial flat spot magnitude on a tire that has been resting for a period of time on a substantially flat surface uses regression analysis. In accordance with the method, values of a tire flat spot magnitude for a particular type of tire are determined at a number of measurement intervals by a uniformity machine that spins the tire. An equation having at least two exponentially decaying terms is then determined that corresponds to the measured data points. Regression analysis is then used to determine an estimate for an initial flat spot magnitude. The method can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of different tire designs with respect to flat spot recovery rates.

The tires of an automobile that has been parked for a period of time form flat spots where they come into contact with the hard surface on which the automobile is parked. Later, when the automobile is started and begins to travel, the flat spot remains for a period of time before the tire returns to its normal, substantially round shape. During this period, the vehicle could experience sometimes severe vibrations as the flat spot is repeatedly and forcefully brought into contact with the road surface upon which the vehicle is being operated. These vibrations may be harmful to the automobile and uncomfortable for the driver. In order to diminish these deleterious effects, tire manufacturers try to build tires which either form smaller flat spots or return to their round shape as rapidly as possible.
In order to design tires which minimize the adverse effects of the flat spot phenomenon, a method for determining the rate at which the flat spot disappears or decays is needed so that tires can be classified according to their flat spot performance. Currently, a uniformity machine is used to measure the decay of a flat spot on a tire. Unfortunately, a uniformity machine must spin a tire for a short period of time, during which the flat spot decays, before it can measure the initial magnitude of the flat spot and its rate of decay. Thus, a uniformity machine can not accurately measure the magnitude of decay of a flat spot during the initial period of rotation. Therefore, what is needed is an improved method of determining the initial flat spot magnitude and the rate of decay of the flat spot at any given period during tire use.

Method for approximating tire flat spot decay and magnitude using regressive analysis

Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire, LLC


A mechanism is provided for chaining server applications. A chaining module is provided that receives a series of server applications and chains them together passing the output of one to the input of the next. The series of server applications may be passed to the chaining module in a chain option. A properties file may be provided to register names of server applications. A name may be associated with the chaining module and the options may be specified in the properties file. Thus, a chain of server applications may be registered by name.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to data processing systems and, in particular, to providing applications on servers in a network. Still more particularly, the present invention provides a method, apparatus, and program for chaining server applications.
2. Background of the Invention
Machine translation (MT) is a computer technology wherein a computer software program or computer hardware translates a textual source human language into some textual target human language. An example is translation from English to German. Machine translation services are provided for many pairs of languages. Typically, a language pair supplier may develop language pair engines that can provide translation for common language pairs. However, to provide a machine translation for every possible combination of source language and target language would require an extremely large amount of time and code. Thus, it is unrealistic to provide a language pair for every possible combination, especially considering that demand for most pairs may be very low or nonexistent.
Machine translation may be provided for some pairs by chaining pairs together. For example, translation from German to French may be provided by chaining a German-to-English translation with an English-to-French translation. Providers may also wish to add other applications, such as verification or statistics services, in a chain. For example, a provider may develop a new application for counting the number of words to be translated. This application may be added to the beginning of the chain. However, to do so may require specific modifications to the server software.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to provide an improved mechanism for chaining server applications.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method, apparatus, and program for chaining server applications

International Business Machines Corporation


The present invention provides bioactive serum fractions and bioactive extracts derived from an Achachairu (Garcinia humilis) plant. The bioactive serum fractions and bioactive extracts are free of or substantially free of benzophenone and/or free of or substantially free of proteins. The present invention also provides products comprising the bioactive serum fractions and/or bioactive extracts. The present invention further provides methods of making the bioactive serum fractions and/or bioactive extracts.

The Clusiaceae (or Guttiferae) family is distributed mainly in tropical regions and comprises about 40 genera and 1,200 species, the genus Garcinia (ex-Rheedia) being the most numerous, with about 400 species widely distributed in tropical Brazil, Polynesia, New Caledonia, Africa, and Asia (Ampofo S A, Waterman P G (1986) Xanthones and neoflavonoids from two Asian species of Calophyllum. Phytochemistry 25: 2617-2620).
Achachairu (Garcinia humilis), also known as Achacha, belongs to the Clusiaceae (or Guttiferae) family, the genus Garcinia; it is widely distributed in the region of Santa Cruz, Bolivia and is well-adapted in Brazil, Australia and Puerto Rico. This plant is used in Bolivian folk medicine for its healing, digestive, and laxative properties (Barbosa W, Artiole F A (2007) A fruta achachairu. infobibos.com/Artigos/2007_1/achachairu/index.htm). In Brazil, it is popularly known as "achachairu" and is used in folk medicine to treat rheumatism, inflammation, pain and gastric disorders (Alves T M A, Silva A F, Brandão M, Grandi T S M, Smânia E F et al. (2000) Biological Screening of Brazilian Medicinal Plants. Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz 95: 367-373 and Barbosa W, Chagas E A, Martins L, Pio R, Tucci M L et al. (2008) Germinação de sementes e desenvolvimento inicial de plântulas de achachairu. Rev Bras Frutic 30: 263-266).
The antibacterial activity of four species from the Brazilian flora (Garcinia achachairu, Macromphonia velame, Rubus niveus and Pilea microphylla) against Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus and S. saprophyticus (Gram-pos. bacteria), Escherichia coli (Gram-neg. bacterium) and Candida albicans (yeast) was investigated. The extracts of R. niveus and M. velame showed promising antibacterial activity with MICs, ranging from 1000 to 125 μg/mL. Bio-guided fractionation of M. velame yielded four compounds, with the highest inhibition being obsd. for compd. 3, with a MIC of 125 μg/mL against S. aureus (Melim, Carla; Guimaraes, Karoliny; Martin-Quintal, Zhelmy; Alves, Aurea Damaceno; Tabajara de Oliveira Martins, Domingos; Monache, Franco Delle; Filho, Valdir Cechinel; Cruz, Alexandre Bella; Niero, Rivaldo. Antimicrobial activity of extracts and fractions from aerial parts of selected plants (Garcinia achachairu, Macromphonia velame, Rubus niveus and Pilea microphylla) against some pathogenic microorganisms. Nat Prod Commun. 2013 November; 8(11):1567-9). This particular reference suggests that the antimicrobial activity of Garcinia achachairu extract was not as promising as activity of the extracts of R. niveus and M. velame.
Phytochemical characterization of seed extract of G. achachairu reveals the presence of benzophenones, xanthones and bioflavonoids, such as guttiferone N, garcinol, isogarcinol, guttiferone M, camboginol, xanthochymol and guttiferone A, with benzophenone guttiferone A as the major compound (Molin M M D, Silva S, Alves D R, Quintão N L M, Monache F D et al. (2012) Phytochemical analysis and antinociceptive properties of Garcinia achachairu Rusby (Clusiaceae) seeds. Arch Pharm Res 35: 623-631 and Marques E S, Silva S, Niero R, Andrade S F, Rosa P C P et al. (2012) Genotoxicity assessment of Garcinia achachairu Rusby (Clusiaceae) extract in mammalian cells in vivo. J Ethnopharmacol 142: 362-366).
Benzophenones are known to exhibit various biological activities, such as cytotoxic, antimicrobial, antiviral and antioxidant (Acuña U M, Jancovski N, Kennelly E J (2009) Polyisoprenylated benzophenones from Clusiaceae: potential drugs and lead compounds. Curr Top Med Chem 9: 1560-1580). Benzophenones are major intermediates in the biosynthetic pathway of xanthones, and are rarely reported to occur outside the Clusiaceae family (Beerhues L (1996) Benzophenone synthase from cultured cells of Centaurium erythraea. FEBS Lett 383: 264-266). Benzophenones are non-polar phenolic compounds, which show increased hydrophobicity as the number of attached prenyl functional groups increases. Potent biological properties of benzophenones have been the subject of several studies (Acuña U M, Jancovski N, Kennelly E J (2009) Polyisoprenylated benzophenones from Clusiaceae: potential drugs and lead compounds. Curr Top Med Chem 9: 1560-1580).
Niero et al. reported that extracts obtained from G. achachairu, and its major benzophenone compound Guttiferone A, produce gastroprotective effects against induced gastric lesions in mice (Niero R, Dal Molin M M, Silva S, Damian N S, Maia L O et al. (2012) Gastroprotective effects of extracts and guttiferone A isolated from Garcinia achachairu Rusby (Clusiaceae) against experimentally induced gastric lesions in mice. NaunynSchmiedebergs Arch. Pharmacologist 385(11): 1103-1109).
The same research group reported that the seed extract of G. achachairu and the compound Guttiferone A present antinociceptive effects (Molin M M D, Silva S, Alves D R, Quintão NLM, Monache F D et al. (2012) Phytochemical analysis analysis and antinociceptive properties of Garcinia achachairu Rusby (Clusiaceae) seeds. Arch Pharm Res 35: 623-631).
Thus, benzophenones from natural sources and those of synthetic analogues present potent biological properties, and Guttiferone A could represent a promising medicinal natural compound with analgesic and gastroprotective profiles.
The molecular structure of Guttiferone A isolated from Garcinia achachairu is presented below:

The genetic toxicity of Guttiferone A from seeds of Garcinia achachairu was investigated in terms of DNA damage in different cells of Swiss albino mice using the comet assay. Clastogenic/aneugenic effects Guttiferone A were investigated in bone marrow cells in vivo by the micronucleus test. Since the Guttiferone A is not used by humans yet, the treatment regimen and the administration method used in this study was considered the most suitable for humans, and the tested doses were chosen on the basis of its gastroprotective effects previously evaluated in rodents by Niero et al. Cytotoxicity was assessed by scoring polychromatic (PCE) and normochromatic (NCE) erythrocytes ratio. Guttiferone A was administered by oral gavage at doses of 15, 30 and 60 mg/kg. The PCE/NCE ratio indicated no cytotoxicity. The results showed that Guttiferone A produced genotoxic effects in leukocytes, liver, bone marrow, brain and testicle cells and clastogenic/aneugenic effects in bone marrow erythrocytes of mice.
Since it was discovered that Guttiferone A is harmful to the genetic material, a caution in its use by humans was suggested (Terrazas P M, de Souza Marques E, Mariano L N B, Cechinel-Filho V, Niero R, Andrade S F, et al. (2013) Benzophenone guttiferone A from Garcinia achachairu Rusby (Clusiaceae) Presents Genotoxic Effects in Different Cells of Mice. PLoS ONE 8(11): e76485).
Another naturally occurring benzophenone that is found in some flowering plants is Benzophenone-3 (BP-3, AKA Oxybenzone). According to the CDC (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), BP-3 absorbs and scatters the sun's harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays. For this reason, it is produced for use as sunscreen in lotions, conditioners, and cosmetics. BP-3 also is used in plastic products to block and prevent UV rays from altering the plastic and the contents inside. Once applied, a small amount of BP-3 passes through the skin into the body. BP-3 has been shown to cause weak hormonal activity in laboratory animals. More research is needed to assess the human health effects of exposure to BP-3. CDC scientists found BP-3 in the urine of nearly all of the people tested, indicating widespread exposure to BP-3 in the U.S. population. Finding a measurable amount of BP-3 in urine does not imply that levels of BP-3 cause an adverse health effect. Biomonitoring studies on levels of BP-3 provide physicians and public health officials with reference values so they can determine whether people have been exposed to higher levels of BP-3 than are found in the general population. Biomonitoring data can also help scientists plan and conduct research on exposure and health effects (www.cdc.gov/biomonitoring/Benzophenone-3_FactSheet.html).
BP-3 is a lipophilic, photostable, and bioaccumulative compound, and can be rapidly absorbed via oral and dermal routes. An increasing number of in vitro studies have indicated the endocrine disrupting capacity of BP-3. Based on a receptor binding assay, BP-3 has shown strong anti-androgenic and weak estrogenic activities but at the same time BP-3 displays anti-estrogenic activity as well (Kim S, Choi K., Occurrences, toxicities, and ecological risks of benzophenone-3, a common component of organic sunscreen products: a mini-review. Environ Int. 2014 September, 70:143-57).
Proteins including those in bioactive ingredients for topical applications can cause protein contact dermatitis in sensitive individuals. Shortly after contact with the causative proteinaceous material, such individuals can experience symptoms such as acute urticarial or vesicular eruption on the skin, often accompanied by pruritus, burning, and/or stinging (V. Janssens, et al., "Protein contact dermatitis: myth or reality?", British Journal of Dermatology 1995; 132: 1-6).
The above references indicate that both groups of compounds, benzophenones and proteins, could be considered as unwanted compounds of concern—if they are present in certain plant derived bioactive compositions (ingredients) at certain concentrations.
Achachairu (Garcinia humilis) is a potential source of bioactive compositions (ingredients), especially if certain unwanted components of concern (e.g., benzophenones, proteins) are removed or their concentrations are substantially reduced in these compositions.
Thus, it is highly desirable to obtain bioactive compositions from Achachairu (Garcinia humilis) that contain as little benzophenones and as little protein as possible.
A significant task exists in simultaneously removing or substantially reducing the concentrations of benzophenones and protein in the bioactive compositions obtained from Achachairu (Garcinia humilis).
In addition, it is feasible to assume that certain parts of Achachairu (Garcinia humilis) fruit could be used to obtain natural benzophenone-enriched bioactive compositions, suitable for certain applications.
The present invention is directed toward addressing these and other deficiencies in the prior art.

Bioactive serum fraction from achachairu (


A method for updating ring network topology information includes: receiving a topology discovery packet from an originating node, where the topology discovery packet at least carries identifiers of nodes traversed by the topology discovery packet when the packet is transferred from the originating node to a current node; and updating ring network topology information of the current node according to the identifiers of the nodes carried in the topology discovery packet. The apparatus includes a receiving module and an updating module. The system includes an originating node and a receiving node.

A ring network is a network protection solution widely applied by operators for networking. The ring network has such advantages as simple configuration, good maintainability, and high reliability. Conventional ring networks include SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) ring networks and WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing) ring networks. With the emergence of packet transport networks, packet ring networks are developed gradually, for example, an MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching) ring network protection solution is developed.
The MPLS ring network protection technology is a mature packet ring protection technology in this field. In the MPLS ring network protection technology, the MPLS protection ring is a two-fiber bi-directional ring, on which the working channel and the protection channel are in opposite directions. Under normal circumstances, services are transmitted on the working channel. When a link on the MPLS protection ring fails, the MPLS ring network protection technology provides two switching modes, one is a wrapping switching mode, and the other is a steering switching mode. Either of the two modes may be used to change the service transmission path to guarantee the normal transmission of services when the link fails. When the failed link is restored, the MPLS protection ring transits from the switching state to a wait to restore (WTR) timing state. When the wait to restore timing ends, each node on the protection ring directly enters the Idle (idle) state, the switching state is cancelled, and the service path is restored to the original normal path.
In the prior art, each node on the protection ring is required to have the topology information of the entire ring in the protection switching process; however, if the topology of the protection ring is changed when link failures occur, ring protection abnormality may be resulted.

Method, apparatus, and system for updating ring network topology information


The present invention provides a static pressure type non-contact gas seal which, even when supply of seal gas 6 to the space between sealing end surfaces 3a and 4a has stopped unexpectedly, can be safely used with no possibility that the sealing end surfaces 3a and 4a collide severely against each other and consequently the sealing end surfaces 3a and 4a are damaged or destructed. In this static pressure type non-contact gas seal, the seal gas 6 is supplied to the space between the sealing end surfaces 3a and 4a from a seal gas passage 5, thereby generating an opening force that acts on the stationary sealing ring 4 in a direction that the space between the sealing end surfaces 3a and 4a is opened. An annular-spaced back pressure chamber 25 blocked by two O-rings 12 and 13 is formed between the facing peripheral surfaces of a seal case 1 and the stationary sealing ring 4, to introduce the seal gas 6 to be supplied to the seal gas passage 5 into the back pressure chamber 25, thereby generating a closing force that maintain the balance with the opening force, as a back pressure acting on the stationary sealing ring 4. A spring is not used as a means for generating the closing force.

As conventional static pressure type non-contact gas seals, a static pressure type non-contact gas seal configured as below is known (for example, refer to Patent Document 1). That is, the static pressure type non-contact gas seal includes a tubular seal case; a rotary sealing ring fixed to a rotary member; a stationary sealing ring held in an inner peripheral surface of the seal case so as to be axially movable in a state in which it faces the rotary sealing ring; an opening force generating means that supplies seal gas to the space between sealing end surfaces as facing end surfaces of both the sealing rings, from a joined seal gas passage passing through the seal case and the stationary sealing ring, to thereby generate an opening force acting on the stationary sealing ring in a direction in which the space between the sealing end surfaces is opened; and a closing force generating means that generates a closing force acting on the stationary sealing ring in a direction in which the space between the sealing end surfaces is closed with a biasing force generated by a spring interposed between the seal case and stationary sealing ring. The balance of an opening force acting on the stationary sealing ring in which the space between the sealing end surfaces is opened, an opening force generated by the opening force generating means, and a closing force generated by the closing force generating means is maintained by a pressure of a sealed fluid acting on a portion of an outer peripheral surface of the stationary sealing ring that faces a sealed fluid region excluding the sealed end surfaces so that the sealing end surfaces are kept in a mutual non-contact state.
Specifically, in the static pressure type non-contact gas seal (hereinafter referred to as "conventional gas seal") having such a configuration, the sealing end surfaces are kept in a mutual non-contact state in which an opening force (an opening force resulting from a pressure (static pressure) of the seal gas introduced between the sealing end surfaces (according to the shape, etc. of the stationary sealing, further including an opening force resulting from a pressure of the sealed fluid acting on the portion of the outer peripheral surface of the stationary sealing ring that faces the sealed fluid region excluding the sealing end surfaces)) acting on the stationary sealing ring in a direction in which the space between the sealing end surfaces is opened is balanced with a closing force (a closing force generated by a spring that presses and biases the stationary sealing ring toward the rotary sealing ring) acting on the stationary sealing ring in a direction in which the space between the sealing end surfaces is closed. Here, the pressure of the seal gas introduced into sealing end surfaces is set to be higher than the pressure of the sealed fluid region so as to vary according to this pressure, and the spring force (spring load) of the spring that determines the closing force is set according to the pressure of the seal gas so that the gap between the sealing end surfaces is set appropriately (generally, 5 to 15 μm).
Thus, similar to a dynamic pressure type non-contact gas seal in which the sealing end surfaces are kept in a mutual non-contact state by generating a dynamic pressure resulting from the sealed fluid in the space between the sealing end surfaces, the conventional gas seal can keep the sealing end surfaces in a mutual non-contact state to seal the sealed fluid well for a prolonged period of time without causing seizing of the sealing end surfaces. Moreover, the conventional gas seal can also satisfactorily seal the gases, which could not be sealed by the dynamic pressure type non-contact gas seal, and thus it can has wide applications as compared with the dynamic pressure type non-contact gas seal. Specifically, the dynamic pressure type non-contact gas seal, as widely known, is configured such that a dynamic pressure generating groove is formed in one of sealing end surfaces that rotates relative to each other, and a dynamic pressure resulting from a sealed fluid is generated between the sealing end surfaces by the action of the dynamic pressure generating groove, thereby keeping the sealing end surfaces in a mutual non-contact state. Basically, the dynamic pressure type non-contact gas seal allows the sealed fluid to leaks to the outside of an apparatus from the space between sealing end surfaces. Accordingly, in a case in which the sealed fluid is a fluid, such as a toxic gas, an inflammable gas, or an explosive gas, having the property that does not allows leaking to the outside, the dynamic pressure type non-contact gas seal cannot be used. In contrast, in the conventional gas seal that is a static pressure type non-contact gas seal, the seal gas is jetted toward the sealed fluid region (and non-sealed fluid region) from the space between the sealing end surfaces. Therefore, even in rotary apparatuses which deal with gases, such as toxic gases, flammable gases, and explosive gases, which do not allow leaking, the conventional gas seal can be suitably used.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-329238 (FIG. 1)
However, in the conventional gas seal, if supply of the seal gas to the space between the sealing end surfaces has stopped due to certain factors (failure, erroneous operation, and the like of a seal gas supply system) during operation (or during driving of a rotary shaft) of a rotary apparatus equipped with the gas seal, the following problems will occur.
That is, in the conventional gas seal, since the spring is used as the closing force generating means, a closing force generated by the spring acts at all times. Accordingly, as described above, if supply of the seal gas has stopped unexpectedly and thereby a closing force resulting from the seal gas vanishes, the stationary sealing ring is suddenly moved to the rotary sealing ring by the biasing force (closing force) of the spring, and collides severely against the rotary sealing ring. As a result, there is a possibility that the sealing end surfaces may be damaged or destructed. This problem becomes remarkable, particularly under high-pressure conditions in which the pressure of the sealed fluid is high. Specifically, under the high-pressure conditions, the pressure of the seal gas is required to be set higher according to the pressure of the sealed fluid. Therefore, the load of the spring to be balanced with an opening force resulting from the seal gas is also compelled to be increased. Accordingly, when supply of the seal gas has stopped, the stationary sealing ring collides extremely severely against the rotary sealing ring, and therefore the damage or destruction of the sealing end surfaces is increased.
The invention has been finalized in consideration of the above-described problems, and it is the object of the invention to provide a static pressure type non-contact gas seal which, even when supply of seal gas to the space between sealing end surfaces has stopped unexpectedly, can be safely used with no possibility that the sealing end surfaces collide severely against each other and consequently the sealing end surfaces are damaged or destructed.

Static pressure type non-contact gas seal


An image recognition system, in particular for document image recognition, using an imaging model employing a 2-dimensional finite state automaton corresponding to a regular string grammar. This approach is not only less computationally intensive than previous grammar-based approaches to document image recognition, but also can handle a wider variety of image types. Features of the imaging model include a sidebearing model of glyph positioning, an image decoder based on linear scheduling theory for regular interative algorithms, the combining of overlapping image sub-regions, and a least-squares estimation procedure for measuring character parameters from character samples in the image.

Reference is made to a U.S. Pat. No. 5,020,112, and to a related publication by one of us (Chou) in SPIE, Vol. 1199, Visual Communications and Image Processing IV, pages 852-863 (1989), whose contents are herein incorporated. The patent describes a background which equally applies here, and explains the difference between object recognition with and without distinguishing the underlying structure in the image, the former being referred to as intelligent image recognition. Both the patent and the paper describe intelligent recognition of a bitmapped binary image file generated by any commercial scanning device, and goes on to describe a method, including the code in an appendix of the patent, for processing this binary image to intelligently recreate the hard copy source document from which the binary image file was generated.
The paper in particular describes how such binary images are decoded, using a stochastic type of grammar that has proved of value in speech recognition. The conclusion reached by the author was that, for this particular application of recognition systems, i.e., image instead of speech, a stochastic grammar of the context-free type is most suitable, and regular stochastic grammars, despite the latter's inherent shorter parsing time, are unsuitable.
It will be appreciated that any graphics system is based on an imaging model, which is the set of rules that determine how the image of an object is generated from a description of the object's underlying structure, and the formal grammars used to parse the resultant pixel image are based on that same imaging model.
Previous attempts to use formal grammars to describe a 2-dimensional (2-d) image structure, as in the referenced patent and paper (see also Tomita, ACM International Workshop on Parsing Technologies, 1989), have all taken the approach of generalizing 1-dimensional (1-d) formalisms by replacing the notion of a 1-d phrase with the notion of a 2-dimensional (2-d) rectangular region. The resulting grammar rules typically describe how a region corresponding to some phrase is formed by combining a pair of horizontally or vertically abutting subregions. Rectangular subregions may be combined only if they do not overlap and if their dimensions and relative positions are such that the composite region is also rectangular. One disadvantage of this approach is that the 2-d counterparts to regular (finite-state) string grammars are not particularly useful for image modeling, with the result that only context-free 2-d grammars have been investigated. As mentioned in the paper, the computational consequence of using a context-free grammar is that parsing time, in general, is 0(n.sup.3) in the number of terminal symbols (e.g. pixels), compared with 0(n) for regular grammars. As a result, applying context-free grammars directly to image pixels does not produce a particularly practical system.
Moreover, an imaging model based on the requirement that regions do not overlap, is a minor problem in applying this approach to images of text or equations since characters (e.g. `j`) may have negative sidebearings, and is a significant impediment to applying this approach to more complex graphical images, such as music notation. Another disadvantage of these previous attempts is that a recognition grammar is typically validated by using it to recognize examples of the images being modeled. This process can be time-consuming and inconvenient if recognition time is long.

Image recognition method using finite state networks


A system on chip (SoC) may have an array ferroelectric bit cells. The array may include a plurality of bit cells organized into a plurality of rows and columns. A set of word lines is configured such that one of the plurality of word lines is connected to each bit cell in a row of bit cells. A set of column oriented platelines is provided, wherein each column of bit cells has one of the plurality of platelines connected to each bit cell in the column of bit cells. A set of bitlines is provided, wherein each column of bit cells has one of the plurality of bitlines connected to each bit cell in the column of bit cells. Multiplexors may be used to allow one plateline drivers, bitline drivers, and sense amps to be shared between multiple platelines and bitlines.

System on Chip (SoC) is now a commonly used concept; the basic approach is to integrate more and more functionality into a given device. Many SoC designs pair a microprocessor core, or multiple cores, with various peripheral devices and memory circuits, some of which may be non-volatile.
Ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM) is a non-volatile memory technology with similar behavior to DRAM (dynamic random access memory). Each individual bit can be accessed, but unlike EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read only memory) or Flash, FRAM does not require a special sequence to write data nor does it require higher programming voltages. Each ferroelectric memory cell contains one or more ferroelectric capacitors (FeCap).
Other features of the present embodiments will be apparent from the accompanying drawings and from the detailed description that follows.


A recipient computer system submits an anonymous electronic message address to a source computing system for use when the source computing system is to send electronic messages to the recipient. When the electronic message server receives an electronic message, it reads the electronic message address and determines that the address corresponds to the recipient, but only if the electronic message originated from the source. If the electronic message were to originate from a different source computing system, the same electronic message address would not be respected for delivery to the recipient. Accordingly, the electronic message address is specific to a source, and thus sharing the electronic message address has little avail. The association between the address and the recipient may be revoked when the recipient no longer desires to receive messages from the source.

1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic messaging, and more particularly, to mechanisms for electronic message addressing in which the address of a given recipient depends on the source of the electronic message.
2. Related Technology
Computing technology has transformed the way we work and play. Modern computer networking technologies and infrastructures allow for different applications and users to communicate data electronically even over vast distances relatively quickly using readily-available computing systems. Such computing systems may include, for example, desktop computers, laptop computers, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), digital telephones, or the like.
Currently, computing systems are so interconnected that one computing system is literally capable of communicating with any one of many millions of other computing systems spread throughout the globe. Electronic messaging is a process whereby one computing system communicates with another whether the message be an e-mail message, an instant message, a Short-text Messaging Service (SMS) message, or any other electronic message.
One problem with the large degree of connectivity that modern networking technology affords is that almost anyone can send an electronic message to anyone else, so long as the recipients each have access to an addressable computing system. Unfortunately, however, some of the electronic messages are unwanted. Such electronic messages are often referred to as "spam". For example, sometimes one can receive unsolicited electronic messages in the form of advertisement of product the recipient is not interested in.
There are conventional methods for sending out mass quantities of spam. Accordingly, the use of electronic messaging is tainted since one often finds an in-box full of unwanted spam. It can be quite difficult to differentiate between spam and legitimate electronic messages since the subject line is often designed to appear legitimate such as "Re: in response to your query regarding your credit line", when, in fact, you did not issue any query and the spam contains an unsolicited and unwanted advertisement for a home equity loan. Unwanted electronic mail may even dominate over desired electronic messages in a typical user's in-box.
One fact that enables spamming is that individuals and entities who are highly motivated to generate and issue large quantities of spam often gain knowledge of a given user's electronic mail address. One can often avoid spamming by simply refusing to give out e-mail addresses. However, sometimes it is necessary to give out one's e-mail address. For example, perhaps one wants to subscribe to notifications of events of great interest to the user. Without giving out a legitimate electronic mail address, such desired notifications would never be received.
Even after giving out an electronic message address in order to receive notifications, one may thereafter lose interest in such notifications. Furthermore, the entity to whom the recipient subscribed may abuse the trust of the recipient by sending notifications or advertisement unrelated to the topic of interest to the user. Also, the entity may sell the electronic message address to others.
The problem of spam is so pervasive and intrusive, that some users have an electronic mail address that they give out publicly when subscribing to web sites or the like, while reserving another private electronic mail address that they only give out to trusted friends, family, or work associates. However, often who one trusts may dynamically change over time. For example, perhaps someone who has access to the private electronic mail address starts harassing or subscribes to a web site using the recipient's electronic mail address. Also, perhaps a web site becomes trusted to the recipient even though they were originally only provided with the public electronic mail address.
Accordingly, there is a need for a given recipient to control who is permitted to send electronic mail to the given recipient. The recipient may always unsubscribe from a web site that is sending spam. However, sometimes web sites do not respond to the unsubscribe request, and may even use the unsubscribe information to further harass the recipient. Furthermore, the web site may have already distributed the electronic mail address to others, leaving it to the recipient to figure out a way to stop unwanted electronic mail from those others sources as well.
Another problem with giving out an electronic mail address is that often behaviors and characteristics of the owner of the electronic mail address may be correlated through collaborative efforts of all those having knowledge of the electronic mail address. This owner of the electronic mail address may desire to keep his behavior and characteristics private.
Accordingly, mechanisms are desired that allow users more control over who is permitted to send electronic mail to the user, and that may allow electronic messaging without giving away information regarding the user.

Source-specific electronic message addressing


Embodiments relate generally to power conversion systems. The system may include an inverter subsystem, inverter housing assembly, and processing subsystem. The inverter subsystem may include an input section for receiving input DC voltage and output section for providing output AC voltage. The inverter housing assembly may include side walls, main cavity, air inflow section, and air outflow section. The main cavity may be formed so as to house the inverter subsystem and form a ventilation channel. The air inflow section may be for use in allowing an inflow of air. The air outflow section may be for use in allowing an outflow of air. The processing subsystem may include a monitoring assembly and communication assembly. Monitoring assembly may be electrically connected to the inverter subsystem and configurable to perform measurements. Communication assembly may be in communication with the monitoring assembly, and configurable to communicate measurements performed by the monitoring assembly.

There are a variety of power conversion systems and devices available and in use today. Inverters, for example, are available to convert direct current (DC) power from a DC power source to alternating current (AC) power. Inverters are generally available as an integrated unit having an external metal casing, or the like, one or more power cables connectable or permanently connected to the inverter, and one or more electrical outlets. In respect to the power cables, such cables are used to connect to and receive DC power from a DC power source. In respect to the electrical outlets, which may vary in configuration depending on, among other things, country and/or region, an electrical outlet may be provided on an exterior side of the inverter to receive an electrical plug of an electrical device. When in safe, controlled, and sufficiently dry operation (i.e., not exposed to liquid), inverters may be operable to supply AC power to electrical devices.

Power conversion systems and devices, methods of forming power conversion systems and devices, and methods of using and monitoring power conversion systems and devices


A fuel injection system (18) is calibrated as an assembled system. The fuel injection system (18) includes a unit pump (10) a cam follower (24), a joined fuel injection line (14) and injection nozzle (16). The fuel injection system (18) is mounted to a test stand an is subsequently calibrated to a specified fuel delivery and timing. The relative positions of the unit pump (10) and fuel injection nozzle (16) are fixed during calibration. The assembled fuel injection system is packaged and delivered so that the calibrated system can be installed in the relative positions fixed during calibration.

This invention relates generally to vehicle fuel delivery systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system for calibrating an integrated injection nozzle and injection pump.
Common practice for conventional diesel fuel injection systems has been to calibrate the injection pump with standardized, calibration-only injectors and standardized, calibration-only injection lines. When installed on the engine, the injection system is composed of the calibrated pump together with different injectors and different injection lines. Since variables in both the injectors and injection lines influence injection system performance, additional tolerance must be added to the fuel delivery and timing capabilities since the individual components were not calibrated together as a system.
Government mandated requirements to continually reduce both diesel engine emissions and fuel consumption, combined with commercial pressures to provide satisfactory performance to the customer, result in a need to more accurately calibrate diesel fuel injection systems and reduce system performance tolerances.

System for calibrating an integrated injection nozzle and injection pump


A wavelength division multiplexed self-healing passive optical network using a wavelength injection method includes a central office for coupling modulated multiplexed optical signals (MMOS) and broadband optical signals (BOS)for an upstream light source into one signal transmitted to a plurality of optical network units (ONUs) through a working main fiber and a protection main fiber. A remote node connects to the central office via the main fiber and protection main fiber and to the ONUs through working distribution fibers and protection distribution fibers. The remote node demultiplexes the MMOS and the (BOS) for an upstream light source. The remote node transmits demultiplexed signals to the ONUs, which receive the modulated optical signals and the BOS for an upstream light source which corresponds to predetermined ONUs, and demodulate the modulated optical signals, and modulate upstream optical signals via demultiplexed BOS for an upstream light source.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a self-healing passive optical network capable of detecting and healing cuts or deterioration of a feeder fiber or distribution fiber, thereby restoring the network by itself.
2. Description of the Related Art
A wavelength division multiplexing passive optical network (WDM-PON) can ensure the secrecy of communication and can easily accommodate special communication services required from each subscriber unit. The WDM-PON can enlarge channel capacity by assigning a specific wavelength to each subscriber unit and communicating with each subscriber unit. Also, the WDM-PON can easily increase the number of subscriber units by adding specific wavelengths to be assigned to new subscribers.
Generally, a WDM-PON uses a double star structure. That is, a central office (CO) and a remote node (RN) installed at an area adjacent to optical network units are connected to each other through one feeder fiber. The remote node and each optical network unit are connected to each other through a separate distribution fiber.
Multiplexed downstream optical signals are transmitted to the remote node through one feeder fiber. The multiplexed downstream optical signals are demultiplexed by a multiplexer/demultiplexer installed in the remote node and the demultiplexed signals are transmitted to subscriber units through the distribution fibers separately connected to optical network units.
Upstream signals outputted from the subscriber units are transmitted to the remote node through the distribution fibers separately connected to the optical network units. Then the multiplexer/demultiplexer installed in the remote node multiplexes the upstream signal according to each optical network unit, and transmits the multiplexed signal to the central office.
In the WDM-PON as described above, when an unexpected error occurs, such as a cut of a feeder fiber or a distribution fiber, a large quantity of transmitted data may be lost even though the error time period is short. For this reason, the error must be quickly detected and corrected.
Accordingly, it is necessary to develop a self-healing passive optical network (PON) capable of quickly detecting an error, such as a cut of a feeder fiber or a distribution fiber, on an installed optical link and correcting the error by itself.
FIGS. 1a and 1b are views of a conventional WDM self-healing ring network.
Generally, in a WDM optical communication network, a ring network connecting each node in a ring type is mainly used to smoothly cope with an error such as a cut of a transmission optical fiber.
The aforementioned conventional self-healing ring network connects a central office 100 to a first remote node 200 by means of two strands of optical fiber. Further, the self-healing ring network connects the central office 100 to a second remote node 300 by means of two strands of optical fiber.
Here, the two strands of optical fiber are a working fiber and a protection fiber. The central office 100 in a normal state transmits optical signals equal to each other, into which several wavelengths (e.g., λ1, λ2) of signals are multiplexed, through the two strands of optical fibers. The first remote node 200 or the second remote node 300 drops the optical signals inputted through the two strands of optical fiber to add/drop multiplexers 108 and 109 or add/drop multiplexers 112 and 113 and receives an optical signal having good characteristics from among the inputted optical signals by means of optical switching devices 110 and 111 or optical switching devices 114 and 115.
Meanwhile, the first remote node 200 or the second remote node 300 transmits optical signals equal to each other through the two strands of optical fiber. Then, the central office 100 demultiplexes optical signals according to each wavelength, and selects and receives one of two signals by means of optical switching devices 104 and 105.
FIG. 1b is a view illustrating a case in which an abnormality such as a cut of an optical fiber occurs in a working fiber.
When an abnormality occurs in the working fiber, the conventional self-healing ring network performs the following self-healing operation.
If the second remote node 300 cannot receive a second channel λ2 through the working fiber in a counterclockwise rotation it is assumed that the working fiber between the first remote node 200 and the second remote node 300 is cut., When it is assumed that the working fiber is cut, the second remote node 300 receives the second channel λ2 transmitted in a clockwise rotation through the protection fiber. Since the first remote node 200 cannot add and transmit a first channel λ1 through the working fiber in a counterclockwise rotation, the first remote node 200 switches the optical switching device 110 to transmit the first channel λ1 through the protection fiber in a clockwise rotation.
The aforementioned conventional self-healing ring network is efficient when a central office and a plurality of remote nodes are spaced away from each other by about several tens of kilometers. However, it is insufficient to introduce the aforementioned ring network structure to a PON which connects a central office to a remote node and connects the remote node to an optical network unit. That is, since a conventional PON has a star structure, a self-healing method having a concept different from a self-healing method in a ring network structure must be developed.
Furthermore, in the case of a WDM-PON using a wavelength injection method, an upstream/downstream injection light source exists and the directionality of the light source must be considered.

Wavelength division multiplexed self-healing passive optical network using wavelength injection method

Maetan-Dong, Yeongtong-Gu, Suwon-Si, Gyeonggi-Do


A conveying apparatus for sequentially feeding a plurality of stacked carrier members, each carrying a plurality of components to be assembled, to an automatic assembly retrieval area where the plurality of components can be retrieved to manufacture a desired product. The conveying apparatus includes a supply bin for storing a desired quantity of stacked carrier members and a feed mechanism which sequentially feeds one of the stacked carrier members from the supply bin to a conveyor mechanism. The conveyor mechanism conveys the supplied carrier member to the automated assembly retrieval area where the components are retrieved. Once all of the components are properly placed on a desired product, the conveyor mechanism conveys a new carrier member, containing a fresh supply of components, to the automated assembly retrieval area and simultaneously conveys the emptied carrier member to a collection bin which facilitates collection of the emptied carrier member. The supply and collection bins can be provided with an elevator assembly which maintains a desired spacing between an exit of the conveyor mechanism and a collection surface of the collection bin.

A variety of automated assembly systems currently exist for assembling various electronic and computer components. However, all of the known prior art automated assembly systems typically work as batch cycles when retrieving components from waffle packs. One such automated assembly system 2 is diagrammatically shown in FIG. 1. Once all of the supplied components are assembled on the end product(s), the automated assembly system 2 must be temporarily shut down to replenish the supply of components. This is typically done by opening a side panel or door 4, of the automated assembly system 2, and replacing an empty tray 6 with a new tray 6 containing a plurality of carrier members 8 which each support additional components to be assembled into end product(s). Once a new supply of components is provided, the automated assembly system 2 then recommences operation to place the additional components, as required, and assemble the desired end product(s).
As the known prior art automated assembly systems 2 work very rapidly, the supply of provided components is utilized fairly quickly, e.g. usually within a few seconds to a few minutes or so. Each time the quantity of supplied components is completely retrieved from the carrier members, the automated assembly system 2 must be temporarily interrupted or shutdown so that a new reserve of components can be supplied to the automated assembly system 2. Once the supply of components is replenished, a further batch cycle can occur. This procedure is continuously repeated throughout a work shift of each work day.
As is apparent from the above brief discussion, the known prior art automated assembly systems have a couple of associated drawbacks. In particular, such automated assembly systems are batch cycle systems rather than continuous feed systems thus requiring numerous interruptions in the manufacturing process during the work shift of each work day. In addition, as a relatively bulky carrier tray is utilized to supply components to be assembled, a significant amount of important working space or area, within the interior of the automated assembly system, is utilized to accommodate the carrier members supporting the components to be assembled. Further, the automated assembly system must to be programmed to pick up components to be assembled from a plurality of different locations on the tray, rather than a single location or a relatively small number of locations, and assemble them properly on the product being manufactured by the automated assembly system.

Automatic conveying apparatus for waffle pack carrier member