The present invention relates to a method for squaring pipe ends. The method can be used for squaring the ends of a single pipe length or the facing ends of two cut pipe portions of an existing pipe. The method is particularly useful in inserting a new pipe length into an existing pipe line where the line is cut to form two ends to which the pipe length is to be welded.

Previous arrangement have been propose for grinding pipe ends. For example, in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,625,601, of Brummet is disclosed a hand held pipe lathe. However this has little or no practical use in the field of the present invention. Brummet is intended for cutting a pipe not for squaring. The single scissor type mounting arrangement with the motor driven cutting device does not take into effect that there are flats spots on pipes so the tool actually squaring the pipe is minimal.
Also in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,908,491, of Gilmore, there is a single sided spider mounting arrangement. However this creates a chance of slippage resulting in an unsquared edge. Gilmore also discloses an external tool for cutting grooves, which may resurface if it does not slip.


Disposable nail cutting nippers including a body member having a one piece construction to provide first and second gripping portions pivoted about a front hinge portion to be adjacent to each other, and a removable cutting member having cutting blades disposed at the front end portions of the gripping portions. A spring hinge is disposed between the rear end portions of the gripping portions to tension the gripping portions into an open position so that the cutting blades are spaced apart, the gripping portions being squeezed together against the tension of the spring hinge to place the cutting blades in a closed cutting position. Ridges are provided transversely around a periphery of matching central portions of the gripping portions to facilitate the gripping of the body member. A slot is provided in the front hinge portion to removably receive the cutting member therein. The spring hinge includes a tab member having a centrally located, transverse bend therein. In a modified form, the gripping portions are only connected together by the rear spring hinge, where the first gripping portion is U-shaped to provide an open space therein to receive the second gripping portion when the gripping portions are pivoted together about the rear spring hinge, and the front end portions of the gripping portions are each provided with a slot to removably receive the cutting blades. Preferably, the body member is fabricated from a plastic material, and the cutting blades are fabricated from a metal material.

The invention relates to nail cutting nippers or clippers, and more particularly, to nail cutting nippers or clippers which are disposable, and which have cutting members which can be removed and disposed of, thus permitting the body member thereof to be used several times before disposal thereof.
Nail cutting nippers or clippers are well known in the art, where most of the prior art devices are fabricated from a metal material and therefore are not of the disposable type, though some do have removable cutting blades. Due to the current fear of contracting AIDS, people are very cautious when it comes to utensils which possibly may come in contact with another person's blood, such being the case when cutting a person's finger nails. Therefore, for the person's safety, it would be recommended that the nail cutting nippers or clippers be disposed of after each time it is used on a particular person, where it would even be helpful if only the cutting blades themselves were disposed of after use on the particular person.
Thus, there is a need for disposable nail cutting nippers which can be used for cutting or trimming a person's nails or cuticles, so that the entire nippers or at least the cutting blades of the nippers can be thrown away after cutting a person's nails or cuticles. Accordingly, if any blood is drawn by the cutting blades, these cutting blades when disposed of cannot contaiminate the next person having their nails and cuticles trimmed or cut.
Most of the prior art devices are in the form of scissors or pliers, where the handles thereof pivot around a pin which connects the handles together. U.S. Pat. No. 770,032, No. 806,037 and No. 1,976,067 disclose nail clippers or cutters in the form of a pair of pliers which are activated by pressing the ends of the handles together, each having removable cutting blades disposed at the opposite ends of the handles, the handles being fabricated from a metal material.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,673 discloses a nail clipper having a one piece U-shaped configuration fabricated from a plastic material with removable cutting blades disposed on one side thereof which are connected to a front side edge of each handle, which is activated by squeezing the rear free ends of the handles together, the bight portion at the front end thereof providing a spring hinge at the front end. The nail clipper device of the latter patent contains a safety feature which prevents the user from being cut while clipping his nails, so that there does not appear to be any intention therein to dispose of the nail clipper or the cutting blades thereof after using same on a particular person to avoid being contaminated with AIDS.


A protection circuit for an HID dimming circuit is provided. A resistive component limits the initial current after a relay closes and current flows from a charged capacitor to a second capacitor. An inductive component limits the rate of change of current through the circuit. A voltage limited device limits voltage across the contacts of a solid state relay. The circuit is preferably formed in a small module that is adapted to be plugged into an HID lighting device.

Conventional HID dimming circuits switch capacitive reactance to effect dimming in an HID lamp. An example of such a circuit is illustrated in FIG. 1. The dimming circuit 100 includes a ballast 102 having an input terminal 104, and output terminal 106, and a common terminal 108. A first capacitor 110 is connected between the ballast output terminal 106 and the common terminal 108. In order to turn a dimming effect on or off, a second parallel capacitor 112 is selectively connected between the ballast output terminal 106 and the common terminal 108 by a relay 114. The capacitors 110, 112 are preferably connected to the relay circuit 114 through capacitor connection terminals 116. The relay 114 is preferably a solid state relay, and typically includes control input terminals 118 to selectively activate the relay and thereby connect the second capacitor 112 to the circuit for full power operation of the lamp (lamp not shown).
When the second capacitor 112 is connected to the circuit, any charge stored in the first capacitor 110 dumps current into the second parallel capacitor 112 until the voltage across both capacitors is equal. This sudden rush of current can damage the circuit, and in particular the contacts 116 of the relay 114 that connect to the capacitor. This phenomenon is exacerbated by the low impedance typically used in HID dimming circuits. Therefore, there is a need to protect the circuit and the capacitor contacts 116 when switching the second capacitor 112 into the circuit.
Conventional lighting devices utilize a special semiconductor feature to switch the capacitive reactance when dimming lighting HID ballasts. This feature is known as zero-voltage switching or ZVS. During ZVS, the device waits for the alternating voltage at the switch contact points to cross zero voltage in order to minimize the onrush of current, prevent contact degradation, and to prolong the life of the switch. Another common practice is to place a snubber circuit in-line with the contacts of a switch to protect the contacts. This will also prolong the life of the switch contacts.
The switch is connected in parallel to the main circuit capacitor and will connect another dimming capacitor into the circuit for full power operation of the luminaire ballast. When the switch closes, any voltage in the main circuit capacitor will dump current into the newly established leg of the dimming capacitor branch. The inrush of current can be substantial if the voltage in the main capacitor is large. When a zero-crossing detection circuit is used in conjunction with a switch, the excessive inrush of current due to a charge stored in the first capacitor is avoided. However, in circuits that lack zero-crossing detection, another protection mechanism is needed.

Self-contained, self-snubbed, HID dimming module that exhibits non-zero crossing detection switching


A differential latching inverter uses a pair of cross-coupled inverters having a skewed voltage transfer function to rapidly sense a differential signal on a pair of bit lines in a random access memory and provide high speed sensing during a read operation. The differential latching inverter may also include a pair of symmetrical transfer function output inverters and additional pull-up circuits to enhance high speed operation. The differential latching inverter may be used in a memory architecture having primary bit lines and signal bit lines, with a differential latching inverter being connected to each pair of signal bit lines. The primary bit lines and signal bit lines are coupled to one another during read and write operations and decoupled from one another otherwise. The read and write operations may be internally timed without the need for external clock pulses in response to a high speed address change detection system, and internal timing signals generated by delay ring segment buffers. A high speed, low power random access memory may thereby be provided.

Read/write memories, also referred to as Random Access Memories (RAM) are widely used to store programs and data for microprocessors and other electronic devices. The availability of high speed, high density and low power RAM devices has played a crucial role in the price reduction of personal computers and in the integration of computer technology into consumer electronic devices.
A typical RAM includes a large number of memory cells arranged in an array of rows and columns. Each memory cell is typically capable of storing therein a binary digit, i.e. a binary ONE or a binary ZERO. Each row of the memory cell array is typically connected to a word line and each column of the memory cell array is typically connected to a pair of bit lines. Read and write operations are performed on an individual cell in the memory by addressing the appropriate row of the array using the word lines and addressing the appropriate cell in the addressed row using the bit lines. Depending upon the signals applied to the bit lines, a write operation may be performed for storing binary data in the RAM or a read operation may be performed for accessing binary data which is stored in the RAM. When read and write operations are not being performed, the RAM is typically placed in an idle operation for maintaining the binary data stored therein.
RAMs are typically divided into two general classes, depending upon the need to refresh the data stored in the RAM during the idle state. In particular, in a Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), the data stored in the memory is lost unless the memory is periodically refreshed during the idle operation. In contrast, in a Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) there is no need to refresh the data during an idle operation, because the data stored therein is maintained as long as electrical power is supplied to the SRAM. In the present state of the art, it is generally possible to fabricate higher density DRAM arrays than SRAM arrays because the individual memory cells of a DRAM include fewer transistors than the individual cells of an SRAM. However, SRAMs tend to operate at higher speeds than DRAMS, because there is no need to refresh the data stored therein. Accordingly, both SRAMs and DRAMs are typically used in computer systems, with the SRAMs being used for high speed memory (often referred to as "cache" memory), while the DRAM is typically used for lower speed, lower cost mass memory.
Three general design criteria govern the performance of random access memories. They are density, speed and power dissipation. Density describes the number of memory cells that can be formed on a given integrated circuit chip. In general, as more cells are fabricated on a Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) chip, cost is reduced and speed is increased.
The performance of random access memories is also limited by the power consumption thereof. As power consumption increases, more sophisticated packaging is necessary to allow the integrated circuit to dissipate the high power. Moreover, high power circuits require expensive power supplies, and limit applicability to portable or battery powered devices.
Finally, speed is also an important consideration in the operation of a random access memory because the time it takes to reliably access data from the memory and write data into the memory is an important parameter in the overall system speed. It will be understood by those having skill in the art that the parameters of speed, density and power dissipation are generally interrelated, with improvements in one area generally requiring tradeoffs in one or more of the other areas.
In designing high density, high speed, low power random access memories, two general design areas may be pursued. The first is the design of the memory cell itself. For example, in a static random access memory, improved memory cell designs can permit high speed memory operations at low power consumption. One such improved design is described in copending application Ser. No. 07/619,101 entitled Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) Including Fermi Threshold Field Effect Transistors, by the present inventor Albert W. Vinal and assigned to the assignee of the present invention. A high density, high speed, low power SRAM cell is described.
A second major area in designing a high speed, high density, lower power random access memory is the design of the supporting circuits which allow reading of data into, writing of data from, and operational control of, the random access memory array. These circuits for reading, writing and controlling the operation of the RAM cell array are often critical limitations in the design of a high speed, high density, low power random access memory.
One particular criticality in the design of random access memory is the sense circuitry which is used to detect a binary ONE or binary ZERO from one or more cells in the random access memory during a read operation. Known sensing designs are slow, power hungry, and have consumed a disproportionate amount of chip "real estate" (area). In particular, a linear analog sense amplifier is typically used to amplify the signal from a selected cell in the memory in order to detect a binary ONE or binary ZERO, which is typically represented by a particular voltage level at the output of a selected cell.
In order to properly sense one of two voltage levels at the output of a particular cell, linear analog sense amplifiers typically require a reference or bias voltage, midway between the two voltage levels. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,914,634 to Akrout et al. entitled Reference Voltage Generator for CMOS Memories. Unfortunately, reference voltage generating circuits typically consume relatively large amounts of power on the integrated circuit and also take up critical chip area.
Linear analog sense amplifiers have also required equalization of the bit lines prior to sensing, in order to prevent an imbalance in the bit lines from producing false data values. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,893,278 to Ito entitled Semiconductor Memory Device Including Precharge/Equalization circuitry For The Complementary Data Lines. Unfortunately, the need for equalization adds to the complexity of the circuitry on the memory. Equalization also generally requires balanced transistors in the entire memory, thereby requiring tighter transistor tolerances and lowering the yield of the integrated circuit devices.
High gain, high speed linear sense amplifiers have reduced tolerance for imbalance, thereby decreasing the number of cells that can be coupled to the sense amplifier and further limiting the density of the memory array. The linear sense amplifier also limits the speed of the memory because linear sense amplifiers are limited by a given gain-bandwidth product, so that the higher the gain required, the slower the speed of the linear sense amplifier and vice versa.
Since linear sense amplifiers consume high power, many memory designs deactivate the sense amplifiers when a read operation is not being performed. Unfortunately, deactivation reduces the speed of the memory device because the sense amplifiers must be reactivated prior to a read operation.
Finally, at some point during the linear amplification of a read signal, the linearly amplified signal must be nonlinearly converted into a binary ONE or ZERO. Accordingly, the output of a sense amplifier is typically coupled to a latch, to thereby produce one or the other binary state. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,843,264 to Galbraith entitled Dynamic Sense Amplifier For CMOS Static RAM, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,831,287 to Golab entitled Latching Sense Amplifier. Unfortunately, sense amplifiers which include a combination of a linear analog sense amplifier and a nonlinear latch are complicated and are difficult to accurately control for high speed operation.

Differential latching inverter and random access memory using same


A reinforcement structure containing: at least one elevation reinforcement profile extending along an elevation direction; at least one transversal reinforcement profile extending along a transversal direction, substantially perpendicular to the elevation direction and at least one compartment panel extending against the elevation reinforcement profile and transversal reinforcement profile; and at least one reinforcement member extending along at least part of the elevation reinforcement profile between the elevation reinforcement profile and the compartment panel, the reinforcement member made of a material having a tensile strength greater than the tensile strength of the material forming the elevation reinforcement profile.

A reinforcement structure is arranged to form the back face, or back wall, of a heavy goods vehicle compartment and extends between the floor and the roof of the vehicle compartment. Such a reinforcement structure forms the "backbone" of the vehicle compartment and is arranged to distribute the loads imparted on a vehicle compartment in case of an impact against the vehicle compartment between the various reinforcement members provided in the vehicle compartment to absorb the energy of the impact without deforming the space where the occupants of the vehicle are seated to prevent injuring the occupants. To this end, the reinforcement structure comprises reinforcement profiles extending along the elevation direction and the transversal direction of the vehicle compartment against a compartment panel forming the back wall of the vehicle compartment. The reinforcement profiles are arranged to distribute the loads along the elevation and transversal directions and to be deformed to absorb energy in case of an impact. However, the deformation has to be limited in order to preserve the space where the occupants are seated and in some areas, in particular where the reinforcement structure is attached to other elements, no deformation at all is required to prevent a detachment between the reinforcement structure and the other elements attached to the reinforcement structure.
Such a behavior can be obtained by increasing the strength of the steel used to make the reinforcement profiles to increase the mechanical properties of the reinforcement structure. However, in view of the complex geometry of the profiles and of the structure, the grade of the steel is necessarily limited to preserve a good formability of the steel to realize the reinforcement structure. Furthermore, the reduction of the wall thickness of the profiles to reduce the weight of reinforcement structure is also limited because the reinforcement structure then becomes too deformable in case of a front impact and the base of the reinforcement structure becomes too fragile in case of an impact against the roof of the vehicle compartment for example during a barrel roll. Consequently, the reinforcement structure has to remain quite heavy to preserve a good behavior in case of an impact.

Reinforcement structure for the back face of a vehicle compartment


Methods and systems for managing and transmitting content are disclosed. A sample method can comprise determining signal-to-noise ratio information relating to one or more data blocks and determining a threshold signal-to-noise ratio. At least one of the one or more data blocks can be requested based upon respective signal-to-noise ratio information and the threshold signal-to-noise ratio.

Data such as content can be provided by multiple sources. Multibitrate (MBR) delivery can be implemented to provide various versions of the same content asset. For example, different versions of a content asset can relate to different quality levels. MBR may be used for live streaming. Usually the client applications select which rate they can support based on available bandwidth. However, such rate selection may not be preferred for all types of data reception. These and other shortcomings are addressed by the present disclosure.


A toner cartridge includes a housing, which has a receiving portion, a tubular portion, a first accommodating chamber defined in the tubular portion, a second accommodating chamber defined in the receiving portion in communication with the first accommodating chamber, and an outlet formed in the tubular portion in communication with the first accommodating chamber and the outside of the housing, an inner tube, which is rotatably mounted in the first accommodating chamber of the housing and which has plate portions and a slot communicatable with the outlet, and a seal, which is fixedly provided at an outer side of the inner tube and attachable to an inner surface of the tubular portion to prevent leakage of toner and which has a slot in communication with the slot of the inner tube.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic image forming apparatus and more particularly, to a toner cartridge for use in an electronic image forming apparatus, which effectively prevents leakage of toner.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIGS. 1 and 2 show a toner cartridge according to the prior art. According to this design, the toner cartridge 1 is comprised of a housing 2 and an inner tube 3. The housing 2 comprises a tubular portion 4 and a receiving portion 5 for holding toner. The tubular portion 4 is a cylindrical member. The inner tube 3 is rotatably mounted in the tubular portion 4. The receiving portion 5 has an irregular shape fitting the holder of toner cartridge. The inner tube 3 has a slot 6 at the bottom side for communicating the outlet 7 of the housing 2, and an open-space portion 8 at the top side for communication between the inside space of the inner tube 3 and the inside space of the housing 2.
Toner is allowed to pass from the housing 2 to the inner tube 3 through the open-space portion 8. When rotated the inner tube 3 to the open position as shown in FIG. 1, the slot 6 is in communication with the outlet 7, allowing toner to pass from the inner tube 3 through the slot 6 and the outlet 7 to the outside of the housing 2. On the contrary, when rotated the inner tube 3 to the close position, as shown in FIG. 2, the slot 6 is blocked from the outlet 7, and toner is stopped from passing to the outside of the toner cartridge 1.
In order to prevent leakage of toner through gaps between the inner tube 3 and the tubular portion 4 of the housing 2, sealing members 9 (for example, sponge members) may be fixedly fastened to the outside wall of the inner tube 3. However, because the inner tube 3 and the tubular portion 4 of the housing 2 are cylindrical members, the clearance between the outside wall of the inner tube 3 and the inside wall of the tubular portion 4 of the housing 2 maintains unchanged during rotary motion of the inner tube 3 relative to the housing 2, the sealing members 9 wear quickly with use, causing leakage of the toner, and toner may be accumulated in gaps between the sealing members 9 and the housing 2.


A method for diagnosing the valve timing of an internal combustion engine, a characteristic curve of an actual intake manifold pressure signal being ascertained as a function of a crankshaft signal, the characteristic curve of the actual intake manifold pressure signal being compared to a characteristic curve of a setpoint intake manifold pressure signal and a shift of the valve timing being diagnosed in the event of a specifiable deviation of the actual intake manifold pressure signal from the setpoint intake manifold pressure signal.

In modern vehicles, the valve timing system is an important component for optimizing the internal combustion engine. The valve timing system is a control system that controls the valves in a reciprocating engine and consequently the charge exchange by opening and closing the air intake and exhaust gas outlet ducts. It is used in almost all four-stroke engines. For this purpose, a valve is opened by a camshaft via a cam and is normally closed again by the pressure force of a spring. When a valve opens and closes has a considerable influence on the mixture to be ignited and therefore also on the exhaust gases correspondingly formed during the combustion.
Currently, an unintended shift of the opening and closing times may be ascertained by detecting and shifting the sensed pattern of a camshaft sensor wheel. Ascertaining a shift of the valve timing is legally required because of its relevance for emissions.

Method for diagnosing the valve timing of an internal combustion engine


Fast general multipath correction in time of flight imaging is described, for example, to obtain accurate depth maps at frame rate from a time of flight camera. In various embodiments accurate depth maps are calculated by looking up corrected depth values stored in a look up table. In various embodiments the corrected depth values are highly accurate as they take into account three or more possible light ray paths between the camera and a surface in a scene being imaged. In an example accurate depth maps are computed at a frame rate of a time of flight camera. In an example accurate depth maps are computed in less than 30 milliseconds for an image having over 200,000 pixels using a standard CPU.

Time of flight imaging is a type of depth sensing technology used in many computer vision applications such as object tracking and recognition, human activity analysis, hand gesture analysis, and indoor 3D mapping, amongst others.
A time of flight system comprises one or more light sources which emit rays of light into a scene, and a light sensor such as a camera. A time of flight system works by computing the time, measured as a phase shift, it takes a ray of emitted light to bounce off a surface and return to a camera at the system. This gives a measurement of the depth of the surface from the camera. Time of flight systems are generally able to achieve reasonable accuracy, and, where they use light in the infrared spectrum, to operate in low illumination settings.
However, time of flight systems suffer from multipath interference (henceforth simply "multipath"). Where the emitted rays of light are sent out for each pixel, and since light can reflect off surfaces in myriad ways, a particular pixel may receive photons originally sent out for other pixels as well. This results in corrupted sensor measurements. These corruptions do not look like ordinary noise, and can be quite large, resulting in highly inaccurate depth estimates. For example, significant multipath is observed in scenes with shiny or specular-like floors.
Removing the effect of multipath is therefore a crucial component to enable accurate time of flight systems. Attempts to remove the effect of multipath have involved using additional sensors. Other approaches have used radiometric models; or radiometric and photometric models. There is an ongoing need to improve the accuracy of time of flight systems by improving multipath removal. However, for many practical applications such as object tracking, hand gesture recognition and others, the time of flight system needs to be both accurate and fast so that accurate depth measurements are output in real time, for example, at a frame rate of a camera capturing a stream of images of the scene.
The embodiments described below are not limited to implementations which solve any or all of the disadvantages of known time of flight depth measurement correction systems.

Fast general multipath correction in time-of-flight imaging


Described are a dose counter (200) for use with an inhaler (5), and an actuator (20) for use with or as part of a dispenser. Further described is a dispenser containing a dose counter.

Since the metered dose pressurised inhaler was introduced in the mid-1950's, inhalation has become a widely used route for delivering bronchodilator drugs and steroids to the airways of asthmatic patients. More recently, inhalation from a pressurised inhaler has been a route selected for administration of other drugs that are not primarily concerned with treatment of a bronchial malady.
A pressurised metered dose inhaler generally comprises an aerosol container equipped with a metered dose dispensing valve (which is generally herein referred to as a canister) and an actuator. The actuator generally comprises a nozzle block to retain the canister (typically the valve stem of the metering valve) and a user-port such as a mouthpiece, as well as an optional, but typically used, cylindrical housing for housing the aerosol container. The aerosol container contains a pressurised aerosol formulation that generally comprises a liquefied propellant and a medicament and, if desired and/or needed, one or more excipients such as a surfactant or a solvent. The medicament may be in the form of a dispersion or in solution in the aerosol formulation. Metered dose dispensing valves generally comprise a valve stem that is moved inwardly with respect to the container to dispense a metered dose of aerosol formulation. The canister is inserted into the actuator with the valve stem engaging the nozzle block of the actuator. In use, a patient places their lips round the mouthpiece and presses the base of the aerosol container causing the container to move relative to the valve stem to fire a dose of medicament through the mouthpiece.
One of the disadvantages arising from the use of such known inhalers is that the patient cannot readily determine the amount of medicament in the container at any given time. In an extreme case this could mean that a patient in need of a dose of medicament might find that the inhaler will not dispense a dose because its contents have already been exhausted.
There have been many proposals for dose counters for use with metered dose inhalers, in particular pressurised metered dose inhalers, including e.g. dose counters described in DE 10 2006 049 614 (RPC Formatec GmbH), WO 2000/059806 (Allsop et al.), WO 1998/056444 (Rand et al.), WO 2005/060535 (Purkins et al.), WO 2007/124406 (Stuart et al.) and WO 1993/024167 (Holroyd). Some are mounted onto the base of the aerosol container (e.g. WO 1993/024167), some are mounted onto the ferrule of the aerosol container (e.g. WO 1998/056444) and others are retained within the interior of the actuator beneath the aerosol container in the space near and or around the nozzle block (e.g. WO 2007/124406 and WO 2005/060535).


A stacker for sheets, e.g. of cardboard or paper, is equipped with a device for inserting Marker strips or tabs within the stack to indicate predetermined numbers of sheets therein, e.g. for identification of reams. The inserter has a rigid channel Mounted on a frame moveable on a traverse transverse to the direction of sheet feed and the channel at its outlet is rigidly connected to a tongue having a substantially horizontal underside and moved with the outlet of the channel in a rectangular pattern with only vertical and horizontal path segments so that the tongue can be withdrawn from the stack without changing its orientation horizontally after a strip has been inserted into the gap formed by the tongue in the stack and alongside the tongue.

In the stacking of sheets, generally in conjunction with a transverse cutting of the sheets from a continuous web of the paper or cardboard as the sheets are advanced to a stacking location, it is known to provide indicia between reams or collections of predetermined numbers of sheets in the stack, in the form of tabs or marking strips which are laid into the stack as the stack is formed.
Since the insertion of a marking strip can leave a gap in the region of the edges of the sheets, it is preferred in prior art systems to provide the marker insertion device at the sheet-supply side of the stack, corresponding to the rear of the stack.
In this case, the gap formed as the sheets fall on the stack is used to provide the space into which the marker tab or strip is inserted. An apparatus of this type is described in German Patent 38 23 806.
In stacking devices in which a continuous deposition of sheets if provided even during a stack replacement, i.e. removal of a completed stack, the feed side is generally occupied by stack forming and stack replacement elements to the extent that the arrangement of one or more marker inserters at this side is not possible. This is especially the case when the marker insertion device must be adjusted transverse to the feed direction to accommodate different sizes of the sheets.
German Patent 35 39 099 describes an apparatus in which the marker strips are inserted in a direction opposite to the sheet transport direction for stacking on the freely accessible front side of the stack. A tongue in the form of flat wedge with downwardly inclined flanks can be introduced into the outline of the stack, lowered onto the stack and retracted with only slight lifting out of the outline of the stack before a new introduction of the tongue into position to be lowered onto the stack.
The marker strip is fed from a supply roll through a passage within the tongue opening onto the stack and is cut from the continuous web. The marker strip is thus introduced into a gap in the stack maintained by a downwardly inclined flank of the tongue. As a consequence, as the tongue is retracted below the sheets piled on top of it, it will not pull out the marker strip of paper which has been introduced, especially since the tongue is slightly lifted during the retraction.
Since only the tongue is moved while the guide passage for the marker strip is of fixed height, the strips can only be inserted at a single level of the apparatus. The apparatus cannot accommodate significant changes in height of the stack surface at which the marker strip is to be inserted, for example resulting from bulging at the edges of the sheets because of the trapping of air in the stack or profile fluctuation of the stack or upon stacking on auxiliary stacking platforms during a stack change. As a result, the marker strip insertion can interfere with stacking, the insertion tongue can damage the stack or the stack can cause the tongue to tilt.
In short, while the aforedescribed apparatus can operate relatively efficiently if the marker strip insertion is always to be effected at a single level and the disturbances described do not occur, in the presence of such disturbance factors, it may become unreliable and a detriment to the stacking operation.

Apparatus for inserting a marker strip in a stack of sheets during the stacking thereof


The present invention relates to a novel human Ependymin protein which is a member of the ependymin family. In particular, isolated nucleic acid molecules are provided encoding the human Ependymin protein. Ependymin polypeptides are also provided as are vectors, host cells and recombinant methods for producing the same. The invention further relates to screening methods for identifying agonists and antagonists of Ependymin activity. Also provided are diagnostic methods for detecting nervous system-related disorders and therapeutic methods for treating nervous system-related disorders.

Within the last several years, a number of ependymins have been molecularly cloned from a variety of teleost fish including Oncorhynchus mykiss (rainbow trout; Muller-Schmid, A., et al., Gene 118:189-196 (1992)), Salmo salar (Atlantic salmon; Muller-Schmid, A., et al., Gene 118:189-196 (1992)), Esox lucius (pike; Muller-Schmid, A., et al., J. Molec. Evol. 36:578-585 (1993)), Carassius auratus (goldfish; Konigstorfer, A., et al., J. Neurochem. 52:310-312 (1989); Konigstorfer, A., et al., J. Biol. Chem. 264:13689-13692 (1989)), Brachydanio rerio (zebrafish; Sterrer, S., et al., Neurosci. 37:277-284 (1990)), and Clupea harengus (herring, Muller-Schmid, et al., J. Molec. Evol. 36:578-585 (1993)). The ependymins produced by these organisms are synthesized as precursors which contain N-terminal, hydrophobic signal sequences. Each of these molecules contains multiple N-linked glycosylation sites, only some of which are conserved between species (Schmidt, R. and Shashoua, V. E. J. Neurochem. 36:1368-1377 (1981); Schmidt, R. and Shashoua, V. E. J. Neurochem. 40:652-660 (1983); Ganb, B. and Hoffman, W. Eur. J. Biochem. 217:275-280 (1993)). The precursor ependymins range in apparent molecular mass from 23.7 to 24.5 kDa, while the secreted mature forms of these molecules are typically 21.6-22.3 kDa in size.
The piscine ependymins characterized thus far may be categorized according to the number of cysteine residues present in the mature polypeptide. Mature salmoniform (O. mykiss, S. salar, and E. lucius) ependymin polypeptides contain only four cysteine residues, whereas mature cypriniform (C. auratus and B. rerio) and clupeiform (C. harengus) ependymin polypeptides contain five and six cysteine residues, respectively (Hoffmann, W. Int. J. Biochem. 26:607-619 (1994)). Correspondingly, disulfide-linked dimerization of the salmoniform ependymin polypeptides is not observed after non-reducing SDS-PAGE. However, cypriniform and clupeiform ependymins are observed as disulfide-linked dimers under non-reducing conditions. It is speculated that the dimerization occurs via the cysteine residue conserved only between the salmoniform ependymins (this cysteine residue aligns with the lysine residue at location 133 of human ependymin of the present invention as shown in SEQ ID NO:2).
Several lines of evidence have provided the basis for an understanding of the functional role(s) of the ependymins. Ca2+-binding has been demonstrated for at least goldfish and rainbow trout ependymins (Schmidt, R. and Makiola, E. Neuro. Chem. (Life Sci. Adv.) 10:161-171 (1991); Ganb, B. and Hoffman, supra). Further, ependymins are the primary cerebrospinal fluid component in a number of teleost fish (Schmidt, R. and Lapp, H. Neurochem. Int. 10:383-390 1987). Finally, roughly two-thirds of Ca2+ in the CSF of rainbow trout is protein-bound (Ganb, B. and Hoffman, supra). As a result, it is thought that ependymins may function in Ca2+ homeostasis of the teleost piscine brain (Hoffman, W., supra).
In situ hybridization analyses have shown that ependymins are apparently synthesized exclusively in miningeal fibroblasts of the mininx (also termed the endomeninx of leptomeninx) of teleost fish (Konigstorfer, A., et al., Cell Tissue Res. 261:59-64 (1990)). Ependymins have also been found to associate with collagen fibrils of the extracellular matrix (ECM; Schwarz, H., et al. Cell Tissue Res. 273:417-425 (1993)), and, further, have the capacity to serve as a substrate for outgrowing retinal axons (Schmidt, J. T., et al., J. Neurobiol. 22:40-54 (1991)).
An additional role for ependymins has been identified in the field of learning and memory. Using an experimental approach in which goldfish learn to swim to a specific compartment of its environment to avoid an electric shock, investigators have determined that the amount of unbound or unincorporated extracellular ependymins decreases after learning (Piront, M.-L., and Schmidt, R. Brain Res. 442:53-62 (1988); Schmidt, R. J. Neurochem. 48:1870-1878 (1987)). Further, blockage of functional ependymin molecules, either with antibodies or antisense polynucleotides, resulted in the reversible inability of the experimental animal to remember the task which it had learned. Removal of the inhibitory substance then resulted in a reappearance of the learned ability (Schmidt, R. J. supra; Shashoua, V. E. and Moore, M. E. Brain Res. 148:441-449 (1978)).
Thus, there is a need for polypeptides that function as neurotrophic factors in the regeneration of the optic and other nerves and in long-term memory consolidation, since disturbances of such regulation may be involved in disorders relating to the complex molecular and cellular process regulating neuronal and nervous system function. Such disorders may include Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, pain, stroke, depression, anxiety, epilepsy, and other neurological and psychiatric disorders. Therefore, there is a need for identification and characterization of such human polypeptides which can play a role in detecting, preventing, ameliorating or correcting such disorders.


The present invention includes a reception section which receives a change occurring in an event generated by an information terminal, and an automatic creation section which automatically creates a template in accordance with a change in the event received by the reception section.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to peripheral equipment of a computer which performs automatic generation or automatic deletion of a template.
2. Description of the Related Art
As peripheral equipment of a computer, there has heretofore been a composite apparatus including many types of functions such as a copying function, a facsimile function, a print function and others. This composite apparatus includes a job template called a "template" as a job using, e.g., a scanner. This job template includes two settings, i.e., a scan setting and an agent setting.
The scan setting consists of a setting of a resolution for scanning, a setting of both sides or a single side, a setting of presence/absence of rotation, a setting of a paper size, a setting of a scan mode and others. The agent setting consists of settings of TWAIN, File Share, Email, iFax and others.
Before using the template, a user must set the template from the Web in advance.
Conventionally, a user must manually create the job template before use. Further, he/she must manually delete the job template.
It is an object of the present invention to automatically create or delete the template.


Water contained in cathode effluent from a cathode (1B) of the fuel cell power plant is condensed by a condenser (8) and recovered to a water tank (10). Water in the water tank (10) is supplied from a pump (17) to a humidifier (4) which humidifies hydrogen-rich gas supplied to an anode (1A) via a water passage (9B). When the power plant stops operating, a controller (30) first recovers water in the water passage (9B) to the water tank (10). Also, the freezing probability of the water passage (9B) is determined from the temperature detected by an outside air temperature sensor (31), and a wait time is set according to the freezing probability. By opening a drain valve (15) and draining residual water in the water passage (9B) after the wait time has elapsed, freezing of the water passage (9B) can be prevented with a minimum water drainage amount.

A fuel cell generates power by an electrochemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen, and water vapor is produced at the same time. Further, the hydrogen or air used by the fuel cell is humidified before it is supplied. Therefore, there is always water in the fuel cell power plant, and when the fuel cell power plant stops operating under low temperature conditions, this water freezes during the period when the fuel cell power plant is not operated, and may interfere with the restarting of the power plant when it next starts up.
JP10-223249A published by the Japanese Patent Office in 1988 proposes discharging condensed water in the fuel cell power plant after a certain time has elapsed from when the power plant stops operating, so as to avoid this water freezing in the fuel cell power plant.
Specifically, the water remaining in internal passages is discharged by opening drains provided at certain sites in the power plant. The reason why the drains are opened after a certain time from when the power plant stops operating is that a predetermined time is required for water vapor to condense due to the temperature drop after operation has stopped.


A sod harvesting apparatus comprises at least two different configurations. In at least one configuration, the sod harvesting apparatus is set up to harvest sod from a field. In at least one configuration, the sod harvesting apparatus is set up for transportation, storage, or the like, by reducing the overall size of the sod harvesting apparatus.

The concept of sod harvesting is old in the art. Typically, a sod slab is cut free from a sod field and then rolled up into a cylindrical sod roll. Sod rolls are then transferred to a pallet by a sod roll pickup mechanism. Once a group of sod rolls are transferred to a pallet, the pallet is then transported to a delivery truck or the like to ship the sod rolls to a desired destination.
Numerous devices for mechanizing the sod harvesting and delivery process are also known in the art. Such devices typically comprise a tractor-like vehicle modified with apparatus for cutting free slabs of sod from a sod field as the tractor is driven through a sod field, rolling the sod slabs into cylindrical sod rolls, accumulating a plurality of sod rolls in a queue, and transferring the queue of sod rolls to a sod carrier. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,296,063 to Tvetene et al., hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, discloses an automatic sod harvester. As shown in FIG. 1, the sod harvester of the '063 patent includes a cutting mechanism 11 for freeing a section of sod from a sod field, a sod roller 12 for rolling the section of sod into a sod roll, a sod roll accumulator 13 having sod troughs therein for receiving and holding sod rolls therein, a sod roll pickup mechanism 14 for lifting the sod roll onto the sod roll accumulator 13 and transferring the sod roll to a sod roll carrier 15a for delivery of the sod roll.
As can be seen from the sod harvester disclosed in the '063 patent and illustrated in FIG. 1, devices for mechanizing sod harvesting are typically very large. The large sod harvesters are therefore difficult to transport, such as when shipping a sod harvester to a customer. Normally the sod harvesters are loaded in larger containers to protect the sod harvester from damage during shipping, and consequently the containers must be as large as the sod harvester. The larger the container, the fewer containers can be shipped on a single flat bed truck, freighter or the like, thereby increasing shipping costs. Alternatively, the containers are a pre-set size, and if the sod harvester is larger than the container, the sod harvester cannot be shipped in the container, which leads to further increases in shipping costs.
Accordingly, a need exists for a sod harvester that is compact or may be made compact for ease of transportation without sacrificing any of the functionality of the sod harvester.


A connector for a communications system concentrates crosstalk in the front of a plug housing. The plug housing has front and rear ends. An internal chamber opens on the rear end and is defined by housing walls. A plurality of slots extend through one of the housing walls adjacent the front end and into the internal chamber. A plurality of contacts are mounted in the slots for movement between retracted positions spaced from the internal chamber and inserted positions extending into the internal chamber. An insert assembly has at least one insert member disposed adjacent at least one of the plurality of contacts. The insert assembly is made of a higher dielectric material than the plug housing.

In telecommunication systems, signals are transmitted over cables having balanced twisted pairs of wires. Typical cables have four pairs of twisted wires in them. For connecting wires to other cables or to other apparatus, connectors are mounted on the ends of the cables. Although connectors can be mounted in the field after the cables and wires therein are cut to the appropriate length for the particular installation, high performance connectors are preferably assembled in a controlled environment so they can be tested and qualified for use.
Due to advances in telecommunications and data transmissions, connectors, particularly including plugs, have become a critical impediment to good performance of data transmission at new, higher frequencies. Some performance characteristics, particularly near end crosstalk and return loss, degrade beyond acceptable levels at these higher frequencies.
One way to overcome this crosstalk problem is to increase the spacing between the signal lines. Another method is to shield the individual signal lines. However, in many cases, the wiring is pre-existing and standards define geometries and pin definitions for connectors such that making such changes to those systems is cost prohibitive.
When electrical signals are carried on a signal line or wire that is in close proximity to another signal line or other signal lines, energy from one signal can be coupled onto adjacent signal lines by means of the electric field generated by the potential between the two signal lines and the magnetic field generated as a result of the changing electric fields. This coupling, whether capacitive or inductive, is called crosstalk when the coupling occurs between two or more signal lines. Crosstalk is a noise signal and degrades the signal-to-noise margin (s/n) of a system. In communications systems, reduced s/n margin results in greater error rates in the information conveyed on the signal lines.
Performance requirements for modular plugs are defined in ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-B, "Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standard". In the Category 6 Addendum TIA-568-B.2-1 to that standard, the acceptable performance ranges are detailed in Section E.3.2.2, and summarized in Table E.3.
Additionally, in communications systems certain standards have been developed that define connector geometry and pin out definitions. Those standards were created prior to the need for high speed data communications, and have created a large installed base of wiring connectors. Additionally, those standards have created a need for connectors capable of maintaining the requirements of higher speed communications, while maintaining compatibility with original connectors.
The standard connector geometry and pin outs can generate a great deal of crosstalk at higher signal frequencies. Connectors addressing this problem include U.S. Pat. No. 5,432,484 to Klas et al and U.S. Pat. No. 5,414,393 to Rose et al, the subject matters of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,080,007 to Milner et al., and which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, discloses a connector for a communications system. However, the rear sled 34 (FIG. 4) provides individual conduits for each wire passing therethrough. Additionally, the rear end of the rear sled is flush with the rear end of the plug housing, so that it cannot control the distance between the cable sheath and the rear sled.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,439,920 to Chen discloses an electronic connector for high speed transmission. The end of the cable sheath 30(FIG. 3) is spaced from the point at which the wires enter the inserts tunnels 61-64 (FIG. 2) so the insert element restricts the spacing of the wires through the insert element, thereby preventing control of the crosstalk level.
In addition to the crosstalk reduction provided by the inventions of the above cited patents, crosstalk generated at the connection between the cable wires and the connectors, particularly the plug connectors, has become significant. Variations in the placement of the wiring creates varying amounts of crosstalk. Additionally, the wires must be accurately and precisely located within the connector to facilitate termination by the insulation contacts.
A recent trend in communication connectors is operation at higher frequencies. To optimize performance when communication connectors are mated, crosstalk should be substantially eliminated in the rear of the connector and concentrated at the front of the connector. Thus, a need exists for a communication connector that concentrates crosstalk at the front of the connector.
Thus, there is a continuing need to provide improved connectors for communications systems.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Dielectric insert assembly for a communication connector to optimize crosstalk


A method, apparatus, and program product improve the computational efficiency of a multipoint geostatistics method by employing an ordered path through unassigned cells in combination with a non-symmetric search mask that excludes one or more not-yet-simulated cells from the search mask during simulation.

Geostatistics is a discipline concerned with spatially distributed random variables (also called "regionalized variables"), usually applied to problems in the earth sciences, such as estimation of mineral reserves and delineation of mineral deposits, hydrocarbon reservoirs, and groundwater aquifers. Typically, geostatistics makes use of two-point statistics summarized in a variogram. Multipoint (or multiple-point) geostatistics (MPS) differs from other variogram-based geostatistics primarily in that it characterizes spatial variability using patterns (sets of points and their configurations) that involve higher order (much greater than order 2) statistics.
One of the goals of multipoint geostatistics is simulation, namely the generation of numerical values along a line, on a surface, or in a volume, such that the set of values match certain given spatial correlation or structural properties (usually derived from a data set called an "analog" or "training image" or "template") while optionally (in the case called "conditional simulation") matching predetermined data. In practice, the "analog" may be, for example, a well-known rock volume that is statistically similar to a currently uncharacterized oil reservoir being delineated, and the predetermined data to be matched may be lithology observations at wells, or probabilities of lithologies derived from seismic data. MPS simulations are developed to match two types of constraints: absolute constraints are matched exactly; partial constraints are matched probabilistically, as closely as possible to the constraint value, but they are not guaranteed to match exactly. In the case of petroleum reservoir modeling, examples of absolute constraints are typically data acquired in wells or geological outcrops. Partial constraints are typically derived from seismic data; 1D, 2D, or 3D interpreted spatial trend information; geological category probability fields; or rotation and affinity (or scale) constraints on the size and direction of geological features. Such data are used in a stochastic modeling process to generate one-dimensional (ID), two-dimensional (2D), and/or three-dimensional (3D) spatial distribution of geological categories or rock properties. Since there is a random component involved in MPS simulations, individual stochastic realizations of property fields created by MPS algorithms differ, but the ensemble of realizations provide modelers with improved quantitative estimates of the spatial distribution and uncertainty of values in a modeled volume of interest.
Multipoint geostatistical methods often use a numerical training image to represent the spatial variability of geological information. The training image provides a conceptual quantitative description of the subsurface geological heterogeneity, containing possibly complex multipoint patterns of geological heterogeneity. Multipoint statistics conditional simulation anchors these patterns to well data (and/or outcrop data) and to the seismic-derived information (and/or probability field information or constraint grid(s)).
One multipoint geostatistics method, referred to as "Single Normal Equation Simulation" (SNESIM), is generally considered useful for practical applications such as modeling categorical or discrete data types, especially for categorical data in 3D property modeling. In the SNESIM method, the conditional probability density function of all categories at one point is computed using knowledge of the value at a number of nearby points and statistics provided by the training image. SNESIM works with discrete values only (i.e., a finite and usually small number of categories, such as for example five different rock types). Assume there are two categories to be simulated: A ("non-channel") and B ("channel"). The training image contains a complete representation (i.e., an example) of a spatial distribution of A and B. Assume further that the category present at 4 points, which could represent wells, is known. Conceptually, the SNESIM method computes the probability of finding categories A or B at an unsampled point by scanning the training image for all occurrences of the "pattern" (that is, the pattern is defined by the relative spatial locations of all five points, and by the categories found at the four points where a value already has been assigned). If five such pattern occurrences (called replicates) are found, and 4 out of 5 replicates show category B at the relative position of the unknown point, then the method computes the probability of B at the unknown point, given the particular five-point pattern, to be ⅘ or 80% (while that of A is set to ⅕ or 20%). Furthermore, the method can assign a category to the unknown point by randomly drawing a value from a distribution with 80% probability of B and 20% probability of A if there are no replicates of the four-point pattern or its sub-patterns found in the training image.
In practice, the SNESIM uses pixel-based (or voxel-based in 3D) sequential simulation method. It starts with a volume to be modeled where all property values are unassigned at all grid cell locations, or one that contains only a few data points to be matched. These volumes are usually represented by a Cartesian grid, where each grid location is called a cell. First, SNESIM decides on a random path for visiting each unassigned cell once and only once. In the first cell, the method searches for nearby known points within a search volume, usually an ellipsoid or rectangular volume around the known point. If one or more known (or already assigned) cells are found, it proceeds as to the next point on the random path as described above to find the probability of finding categories A or B at the unknown point. Armed with the probabilities for each category at the unknown point, the method randomly draws a value (category A or B) from the inferred probability distribution and assigns it to the unknown point. The process repeats at the next cell in the initially assigned random path until all cells are assigned.
The SNESIM method also provides an advantage over other MPS algorithms in that it reduces computations by storing the information for a training image in a tree-like structure to help search for a pattern in the training image. The pattern is only known on a subset of points within a neighborhood of the points to be simulated, which means that the set of locations in the training image that match the pattern generally cannot generally be found with one single search in the tree.
One alternative approach to SNESIM, referred to as a Markov mesh method, is to use a structured path instead of a random path for visiting unassigned cells. Similar to SNESIM, Markov mesh methods emulate one dimensional stationary Markov chains in that, when simulating a point, they have a 'history' of points which have been simulated already, and a 'future', which are the points that have not yet been simulated. The search neighborhood of a point to be simulated selects a subset of the points from the history. The major differences with SNESIM are due to the fact that the set of points in the search neighborhood are the same for each point to be simulated, which is important in two ways. Firstly, this makes the random function stationary, which helps with the reproduction of the training image patterns in that smaller search neighborhoods can often be used, thereby making the simulation faster. Secondly, the search neighborhood is full, which makes the tree search faster than the case of a random path, where the search needs to account for the missing cells in the search neighborhood. A unilateral path method ensures that only one traversal of the tree is needed to find the examples of the pattern within the training image as opposed to the multiple traversals needed with the random path method. The most significant problem for unilateral methods is that it is far more difficult to condition to well data, as well data points can occur in the future of points that are to simulated. While this may not be a significant problem for typical applications of unilateral methods in image analysis that do not have to account for data, it is a significant issue for applications to geological modeling where conditioning to data, in the form of wells or observations, is important.
Furthermore, the SNESIM method visits each unassigned cell in a random path, which in practice results in search neighborhoods, or a "search mask" with many unassigned cells. When an unassigned cell lies within a search mask, the calculation of the conditional probability becomes more computationally intensive due to traversal of more paths within the tree.
Moreover, the SNESIM method shows a computational drawback when simulating cells where the search neighborhood extends past the simulation grid, as in practice the method assumes all cells outside of the grid are equivalent to unassigned, not-yet-simulated, cells. Again the introduction of unassigned cells into the search neighborhood dampers the performance of the algorithm.
Therefore, a substantial need continues to exist in the art for an improved manner of performing geostatistics models that is less computationally intensive than conventional approaches.

Ordered multipoint geostatistics simulation using non-symmetric search mask


A structure is provided herein which includes an array of trench capacitors having at least portions disposed below a buried oxide layer of an SOI substrate. Each trench capacitor shares a common unitary buried capacitor plate which includes at least a portion of a first unitary semiconductor region disposed below the buried oxide layer. An upper boundary of the buried capacitor plate defines a plane parallel to a major surface of the substrate which extends laterally throughout the array of trench capacitors. In a particular embodiment, which starts from either an SOI or a bulk substrate, trenches of the array and a contact hole are formed simultaneously, such that the contact hole extends to substantially the same depth as the trenches. The contact hole preferably has substantially greater width than the trenches such that the conductive contact via can be formed simultaneously by processing used to form trench capacitors extending along walls of the trenches.

The present invention relates to semiconductor devices and processing, and more particularly to a structure and method of providing a buried plate for an array of trench capacitors in a semiconductor-on-insulator chip.
Some types of semiconductor chips include capacitors that are referred to as "trench capacitors" because at least part of the capacitor is formed within a trench that extends into the interior of a semiconductor substrate. Such capacitors are advantageously used because they take up relatively little area of the surface of the substrate in relation to the amount of capacitance they provide. Trench capacitors also include a capacitor dielectric, often called a "node dielectric", which extends along a sidewall of the trench. Frequently, one of the conductive plates of the capacitor is an inner plate provided inside the trench. Another one of the conductive plates is an outer plate extending along the sidewall of the trench on a side of the capacitor dielectric opposite the conductive plate inside the trench. Most typically, the inner plate, also referred to as a "node electrode", is the plate on which a variable voltage is maintained from one point in time to another. The inner plate is subject to being charged or discharged during operation, while the outer plate is typically held at a constant voltage.
The outer plate is often provided as a region of doped semiconductor material in the exterior region of the substrate surrounding the trench, in which case the second conductive plate is referred to as a "buried capacitor plate" or "buried plate". In order to maintain the buried plate at a constant voltage during operation, the buried plate must be connected through a conductive contact structure to an external source of potential. In some earlier techniques of fabricating trench capacitors, the function of the buried plate is provided by a bulk semiconductor region of the substrate which has a uniform p-type dopant concentration, in which case such conductive contact can be provided through a direct contact to any exposed surface of the bulk semiconductor region.
However, in more recent techniques, the buried plate is provided as an n-type doped region in the immediate vicinity of the sidewall of the trench, such buried plate being conductively connected to the buried plates of other trench capacitors by a laterally extending, vertically confined n-type doped region of the semiconductor substrate referred to as an "n-band." In order to form maintain the buried plates of such trench capacitors at a constant potential, a conductive contact structure must be provided which extends from a surface of the substrate into the vertically confined n-band found below the surface.
Conventionally, the formation of a buried plate, the n-band and a conductive contact structure contacting the n-band have required a complicated and relatively expensive fabrication process. This is particularly true when trench capacitors are provided in semiconductor-on-insulator substrates, such as silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates. Such complicated processing is best understood with reference to the stages of processing in a prior art method illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2. As shown in FIG. 1, an SOI substrate 10 has a plurality of trenches 12 extending downwardly from a major surface 14 of the substrate through a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) layer 16, a buried oxide layer 18, and at least somewhat into a p-type doped bulk region 20 of the substrate. An insulating dielectric 22 covers the major surface 14 of the substrate 10.
Trench capacitors are formed which extend along sidewalls of each of the trenches 12 in the following way. Trenches 12 are etched into the substrate, after which a buried plate 24 of each trench capacitor is formed within the bulk semiconductor region surrounding each trench 12 but not within the SOI layer 16 by outdiffusion of an n-type dopant from inside each trench. During such processing, the SOI layer 16 is protected from unwanted outdiffusion of the n-type dopant. Thereafter, the node dielectric 26 and node electrode 28 of each trench capacitor 30 are formed, which completes the individual trench capacitors.
However, further processing is still required to form the n-band 32 and the conductive contact structure. Typically, the n-band 32 is formed after completing the trench capacitors by implanting an n-type dopant into a vertically confined and laterally extending region of the semiconductor substrate. Such processing requires the formation of a patterned mask layer above the insulating layer 22 on the substrate, the patterned mask layer permitting a high energy ion implant to proceed into the region of the n-band 32 while at the same time protecting other portions of the semiconductor substrate from damage.
In addition, either subsequently or prior thereto, a conductive contact via 34 as shown in FIG. 2 must be formed to extend from a position at or above the major surface 14 of the substrate 10, through the SOI layer 16, the buried oxide layer 18, and into the bulk region 20 and n-band 32 that connects the buried plates 24 of the trench capacitors. The formation of the conductive contact via requires the formation and photolithographic patterning of an additional patterned mask layer, typically a hard mask layer, above the major surface 14 of the substrate. Thereafter, a contact hole is etched through the insulating layer 22, the SOI layer 16, the BOX layer 18, and into the n-band region 32 of the bulk region 20 of the substrate. Subsequently, the contact hole is filled with a conductive material such as n+ doped polysilicon to form the conductive contact structure 34. As apparent from the foregoing, not only is separate masking required to form the conductive contact structure, but a separate step is required to conductively fill the contact structure from that used to form the node electrodes 28 of the trench capacitors 30 (FIG. 1), as well as a separate step to etch back or planarize the conductive fill to the top surface of the substrate. Such methods of forming the buried plate, n-band and conductive contact structure are not only complicated, involving many dedicated processing steps, but are also expensive. The two mask levels produce difficulties relating to process control, potential misalignment of the masks, and inevitable defects resulting therefrom.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a less complicated, less expensive way of forming a structure in which the buried plates of an array of trench capacitors are tied to a common potential available at a surface of the substrate.

Simplified buried plate structure and process for semiconductor-on-insulator chip

International Business Machines Corporation


Discrete bleed behind stator vane platform is provided. The discrete bleed behind stator vane platform relates to a system for bleeding off a working fluid from an inner volume (Vi) of a turbo-machine. The system includes a vane carrier with an annular rail and a vane device comprising at least one vane element, a vane platform and a vane root. The vane element is mounted to the vane platform and the vane root is mounted to the annular rail. A first annular cavity is formed between the vane platform and the annular rail, wherein an annular gap is formed between an edge of the vane platform and the vane carrier such that a part of the working fluid of the turbo-machine is bleedable through the annular gap into the first annular cavity. A second annular cavity is formed between the vane root, the annular rail and the vane carrier, wherein at least one inlet hole is formed into the annular rail for coupling the first annular cavity and the second annular cavity.

In turbo-machines, such as in axial compressors, a working fluid flows through an inner volume. A part of the working fluid is bled off from the inner volume and is usually used for compressor management and for cooling or seal buffering purposes, e. g. in bearing areas. The bled off fluid may also be used to cool components in the turbine section of a gas turbine.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,155,680 discloses a compressor protection means. A compressor comprises a casing with a passage adapted to pass bleed air to a circumferentially extending bleed manifold surrounding the casing. Through apertures on a split line of adjacent vane platforms air is extracted into the circumferentially extending bleed manifold.
JP 2002 195196 A discloses a bleed structure of an axial compressor, wherein a casing of the compressor comprises the plurality of bleed holes for bleeding off an inner volume of the compressor.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,000,462 B discloses a compressor bleed air manifold for a blade clearance control. A compressor bleed air manifold includes annular outer flanges on opposite sides of a generally annular manifold plenum. Between two casing sections air from the compressor is bled off through a duct into the annular manifold plenum.
In many conventional systems for bleeding off air from an inner volume of a compressor, the air is injected directly into an annular main bleed chamber. Moreover, the channel between the main bleed chamber and the inner volume has to be casted into a vane carrier or a housing of the compressor. Alternatively, in a vane platform of a stator vane, holes are drilled for generating a fluid connection between the inner volume and the main bleed chamber.
EP 1 609 999 discloses a turbo-machine, wherein between a stator vane and a rotor blade air injection nozzles are formed at a stator housing. Air flows from an air chamber through the injection nozzle inside an inner volume of the turbo-machine.

Easily adaptable compressor bleed system downstream of a vane platform


An electronic device with a slot antenna comprises a surface C, which includes a keyboard area for inputting using a keyboard, a touch area for inputting using a touchpad, and a palm rest. The palm rest is made of a metal material, and a radiating slot is disposed in the palm rest to form the slot antenna.

Currently, a mainstream wireless communication manner of a notebook computer is communication based on a wireless-fidelity (Wireless-Fidelity, Wi-Fi) network. With reduction of network tariffs of an Nth generation mobile communications (for example, 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G), a requirement for a notebook computer to perform wireless communication by using the Nth generation mobile communications, and in particular, by using the 4G mobile communications is increasingly strong. The 4G mobile communications is mainly based on a long term evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE) technology. In an existing solution, an LTE antenna in the notebook computer is usually located at a top or a bottom of a display screen. This is unfavorable to a development direction of a full-screen of the notebook computer. In addition, in the existing solution, mobile communication antennas in some notebook computers are disposed between a surface C and a surface D. This is unfavorable to a development direction of a metallic body of the notebook computer.


A surface acoustic wave device comprises lithium tetraborate single crystal substrate to make use of surface acoustic waves with higher propagation velocities and smaller propagation losses, whereby frequencies to be signal-processed can be as high as above 1 GHz. The surface acoustic wave device comprises a metal film formed on a surface of a lithium tetraborate single crystal substrate, the metal film being for exciting, receiving, reflecting and/or propagating surface acoustic waves, the metal film being so formed that a cut angle of the substrate, and a propagation direction of the surface acoustic waves are in an Eulerian angle representation of (39.degree.-51.degree., 66.degree.-114.degree., -20.degree.-20.degree.) and directions equivalent thereto. In this propagation direction few Rayleigh waves exit, and only surface acoustic waves of high propagation velocity are generated. Propagation losses can be eliminated.

The present invention relates to a surface acoustic wave device using lithium tetraborate single crystal (Li.sub.2 B.sub.4 O.sub.7).
The surface acoustic wave device is a circuit element for processing signals by converting an electric signal to a surface wave, and is used in filters, delay lines, etc. Usually the surface acoustic wave device comprises a metal electrode which is the so-called interdigital transducer (IDT) disposed on a piezoelectric elastic substrate (piezoelectric substrate), whereby an electric signal is converted and reconverted into and from a surface wave. The surface acoustic wave device mainly uses, as the surface acoustic wave, surface acoustic waves called Rayleigh waves which propagate over elastic surfaces without losses.
Materials of the substrate of the surface acoustic wave device are quartz, lithium tantalate (LiTaO.sub.3), etc. Quartz has good temperature stability but poor piezoelectricity. Lithium tantalate has good piezoelectricity but poor temperature stability. Recently lithium tetraborate single crystal has been noted as a material satisfactorily having these properties (e.g., Japanese Patent Publication No. 44169/1990 and Japanese Patent Publication No. 40044/1988).
But the surface acoustic wave device using lithium tetraborate has found it difficult to process higher frequencies of signals.
A width of the finger electrodes of an interdigital transducer (IDT) and a gap between the respective finger electrodes and their adjacent ones are set at 1/4 of a wave length of a surface acoustic wave corresponding to a signal frequency to be normally processed (.lambda./4). But the propagation velocity of Rayleigh waves over lithium tetraborate single crystal is about 3400 m/sec, and for the processing of signal frequencies above 1 GHz, the finger electrode width and electrode gap must be below 1 .mu.m. Accordingly fabrication yields of the interdigital transducer lower, which makes the fabrication of the surface acoustic wave device very difficult.
But the fabrication of the interdigital transducer is facilitated by raising an acoustic velocity (propagation velocity) of the surface acoustic waves to thereby allow the finger electrode width and the gap between the finger electrodes to be increased. It is proposed to use, as the surface acoustic waves, leaky surface acoustic waves, the so-called leaky waves, which propagate, radiating a part of their energy in the direction of depth of an elastic substrate. Generally leaky waves have too large propagation losses to be used in surface acoustic wave devices. But their propagation losses can be reduced depending on specific cut angles or propagation directions, and leaky waves can be used. For example, 36.degree. Y-X lithium tantalate is proposed.


A safety device for an automatic window opening and closing mechanism which includes a first detector for detecting a foreign object caught in the window, when the relative velocity decrease detected by a first relative velocity detector is greater than a first reference value, with the window in a safety control range; and a second velocity detector to detect a yielding foreign object caught in the window. When a plurality of successive changes in closing velocity of the window are detected and the sum of the changes calculated by calculator is greater than a second reference value, a release instruction is given to the motor driving circuit based on the detection result of the first or second detecting means to stop or drive the motor in an opening direction, thereby ensuring stable detection of the foreign object, even if it is soft, and to prevent the foreign object from being caught in the window.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a safety device for an automatic window opening and closing mechanism which is adapted to prevent a window in a vehicular door and roof from catching vehicle occupant's hand, neck and head when the window is closed by the automatic window opening and closing mechanism.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, window panes of power windows and motor driven sunroofs are driven to automatically open and close by a motor, and such an accident sometimes happens that a vehicle occupant catches his hand and neck between a window pane and a window frame due to carelessness. To prevent such an accident, various safeguards have been devised for detecting a foreign object caught in a closing window pane to release the foreign object. An example of the safeguards includes a device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-321530 (1993).
Referring to FIG. 4, the device is designed such that an automotive window pane 1 is opened and closed by an opening and closing mechanism 2 provided in a vehicular body under the window pane 1. Specifically, the opening and closing mechanism 2 includes a rail 3 extending in the vertical direction of the body, a slider 4 slidable vertically along the rail 3, and a wire 5 coupled to the slider 4 and mounted on pulleys 6 disposed at upper and lower ends of the rail 3 to be coupled to a power window driving portion 7 in such a manner that the slider 4 moves up and down by way of the wire 5 when the power window driving portion 7 is driven. The slider 4 is secured to a lower portion of the window pane 1, and a window space defined by a window frame 8 is opened and closed when the window pane 1 is moved upwardly and downwardly together with the slider 4.
The power window driving portion 7 includes a motor 9 serving as a driving power source. The motor 9 moves the wire 5 round to vertically move the window pane 1. For example, the window pane 1 moves upwardly to close the window when the motor 9 rotates in the forward direction, and moves downwardly to open the window when the motor 9 rotates in the reverse direction.
Referring to FIG. 5, a circular magnet 10 is fixed on a rotary shaft 9a of the motor 9. A pair of Hall elements 11a and 11b are disposed in different angular positions at a 90.degree. interval with respect to the rotary shaft 9a around the magnet 10 to form a pulse signal generating means 11. Since the Hall elements 11a, 11b produce a current upon detection of the magnetic poles of the magnet 10, the rotation of the magnet 10 resulting from the rotation of the motor 9 causes each of the Hall elements 11a, 11b to output a pulse signal having a frequency responsive to the speed of rotation.
FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the device. As illustrated in FIG. 6, the power window driving portion 7 is connected to a vehicle mounted power supply 21 and a function switch 22 such as a window opening switch and a window closing switch through a control unit 20. The control unit 20 includes a microcomputer 30. Output terminals of the Hall elements 11a, 11b serving as the pulse signal generating means 11 are connected to the microcomputer 30 through a sensor input circuit 23, and the microcomputer 30 is adapted to detect the speed and direction of rotation of the motor 9 in response to input pulse signals from the Hall elements 11a, 11b.
Opposite ends of the motor 9 serving as a driving power source are connected to the vehicle mounted power supply 21 through change-over contacts of two relays 24a, 24b and are grounded. Relay coils of the relays 24a, 24b are connected to the microcomputer 30 through a relay output circuit 26. Switching of the relays 24a, 24b under control of the microcomputer 30 allows the motor 9 to rotate in the forward and reverse directions.
The function switch 22 is connected to the microcomputer 30 through a switch input circuit 27 to select functions for switching between automatic and manual operations of the window and switching between opening and closing of the window. The vehicle mounted power supply 21 is connected to a power supply terminal of the microcomputer 30 through a constant voltage source 28 and is connected to the microcomputer 30 through an A/D converter 29 for analog-to-digital conversion of the output voltage from the vehicle mounted power supply 21.
FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating functions of the microcomputer 30. As shown in FIG. 7, the microcomputer 30 includes a system for detecting a safety control range in which the window pane 1 catching a foreign object should release the foreign object from a current position of the window pane 1, and a system for detecting the foreign object caught in the window pane 1.
The system for detecting the safety control range includes an opening and closing direction detecting means 31 for detecting the opening and closing directions of the window. The opening and closing direction detecting means 31, for example as shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B, binarizes the pulse signals outputted from the Hall elements 11a, 11b into two-bit signals to detect the direction of rotation of the motor 9 by detecting periodicity of variations in the two-bit signal values, thereby to detect the resultant opening and closing directions of the window. For example, when the order in which the two-bit signal values change is "2, 3, 1, 0" as shown in FIG. 8B, then it is judged that the motor 9 rotates in the forward direction. When the order in which the two-bit signal values change is "1, 3, 2, 0" as shown in FIG. 8A, then it is judged that the motor 9 rotates in the reverse direction.
The system for detecting the safety control range further includes a current position detecting means 32 having an up-down counter for detecting the current position of the window pane 1 indicative of the degree of opening and closing of the window pane 1. The current position detecting means 32 initially sets the count to zero when the window is fully closed. For example, the current position detecting means 32 counts the pulse signal in the negative direction when the motor 9 rotates in the forward direction and in the positive direction when the motor 9 rotates in the reverse direction to detect the current position of the window pane 1 in response to the count.
The system for detecting the safety control range further includes a safety control range judging means 33 for judging a predetermined range between a fully open position of the window and a nearly closed position thereof in response to the output from the current position detecting means 32 to perform control such that the window pane 1 catching the foreign object releases the foreign object only in the predetermined range.
In the nearly closed position of the window, the window pane 1 contacts the window frame 8, and the contact resistance causes a state similar to the state in which the foreign object is caught in the window pane 1. This position is used to prevent faulty detection at this time. In this device, the safety control range is defined as extending from the fully open position of the window to about 90% closed position of the window as shown in FIG. 4. A first output of the safety control range judging means 33 is applied to a first input of an AND gate 34, and a second output thereof is applied to an operation instructing means 35 serving as a catch release instructing means.
The system for detecting the foreign object caught in the window pane 1 includes an absolute velocity detecting means and a relative velocity detecting means.
The absolute velocity detecting means 36 detects a time interval between the turning on of a switch for opening and closing the window and the next rising edge of the pulse signal or between the adjacent rising edges of the pulse signal to judge whether or not the rotational speed of the motor 9, or the absolute velocity of the opening and closing window pane 1, is higher than a preset reference velocity. A first catch detecting means 37 detects the catch of the foreign object in the window pane 1 when the absolute velocity detected by the absolute velocity detecting means 36 is lower than the reference velocity, e.g. when the rotational speed of the motor 9 is less than 20 ms/rotation.
The relative velocity detecting means 38 detects time intervals between successive cycles of the pulse signal to derive angular velocity components of the motor 9 from the reciprocals of the time intervals. The relative velocity detecting means 38 then determines the amounts of change in opening and closing velocity which are detected as relative velocities. A second catch detecting means 39 detects the catch of the foreign object in the window pane 1 when the relative velocities are lower than a constant value, e.g. when the relative velocities are lowered by 10% or more from a steady value.
The outputs from the first and second catch detecting means 37, 39 are applied respectively to first and second inputs of an OR gate 40 which in turn provides an output to a second input of the AND gate 34. The output from the AND gate 34 is applied to a safety control operation instructing mean 41. Upon receipt of a catch detection signal from at least one of the first and second catch detecting means 37, 39, with the current position of the window pane 1 falling within the safety control range, the safety control operation instructing means 41 permits the operation instructing means 35 to operate to provide a catch release instruction to a motor driving circuit 42 to be described later. The motor driving circuit 42 in turn controls the motor 9 to open the window pane 1, for example, so that the window pane 1 moves 12 cm from the current position thereof in the opening direction.
It is needless to say that the operation instructing means 35 receives a signal from the function switch 22 to cause the motor 9 to rotate in the forward or reverse direction. The output from the operation instructing means 35 is applied to the motor 9 through the motor driving circuit 42 including the relay output circuit 26 and the relays 24a, 24b to control the rotation of the motor 9.
FIG. 9 illustrates characteristics (relation between an angular velocity .omega. and a load torque T) of general d.c. motors. A threshold level of the absolute velocity of the opening and closing window pane 1 determines a threshold level .omega.0 of the angular velocity of the motor 9 associated therewith, thereby determining a threshold level T0 of the load torque.
However, the conventional safety device for detecting the catch of the foreign object in the window pane 1 on the basis of the relative velocities does not ensure the detection of the catch since the relative velocities do not become lower than the constant value if the absolute velocity of the opening and closing window pane 1 changes gradually, e.g. when the window pane 1 catches a soft object.
In such a case, the device detects the catch on the basis of the absolute velocity, not on the basis of the relative velocities. However, when the window is opened and closed under the above described motor characteristics conditions, variations in friction between the window pane 1 and the window frame 8 or between the rail 3 and the slider 4 and in load such as an external force due to other factors might cause the angular velocity of the motor 9 to vary to .omega.1, .omega.2 depending upon the current position of the window pane 1 if the load torque T0 is constant as shown in FIG. 9. The variations in angular velocity vary the load torque of the motor 9 by T1, T2 from the threshold level T0 serving as a detection reference of the absolute velocity, resulting in unstable catch detection independently of the current position of the window pane 1.

Safety device for automatic window opening and closing


A power sensor circuit including an input terminal, a switch, a nonlinear voltage drop element, and a switching unit, wherein the switching unit provides an output voltage. In response to a voltage difference between a first reference voltage and a second reference voltage, the power sensor circuit outputs a voltage that varies between two states. In one embodiment, the first state is substantially equal to the second reference voltage and the second state is substantially equal to ground. In another embodiment, the power sensor circuit is composed of four metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) that compare a first reference voltage with a second reference voltage and determine whether the second reference voltage exceeds the first reference voltage by a predetermined voltage. If so, then the second reference voltage is produced at the output terminal of the power sensor circuit. Conversely, if the second reference voltage does not exceed the first reference voltage by the same predetermined level, then the output terminal is substantially at ground. The invention also relates to a method for generating a power sensing circuit.

A power sensor circuit is used to monitor the power requirements of a circuit. In general, such a power sensor circuit may be used with, but not limited to, systems containing an internal battery and powered by an external power supply. For example, if in such a circuit a reduction of power provided by an external power supply is detected, then the battery is selected to provide power to the circuit. When the external power from the external power supply is restored above the predetermined voltage, the battery then ceases to deliver power until the next event occurs. However, for such power sensor circuitry to be useful, the circuit must detect the loss of power from the external source and not consume much power on their own. The present invention relates to a low power consumption power sensor circuit.


Apparatus for processing acoustic features extracted from a sample of speech data forming a feature vector signal every frame period includes a first linear prediction analyzer, a vector quantizer, at least one partitioned vector quantizer and a scalar quantizer. The first linear prediction analyzer performs a linear prediction analysis on the feature vector signal to generate a first error vector signal. Next, the vector quantizer performs a vector quantization on the first error signal thereby generating a first index corresponding to a first prestored vector signal which is an approximation of the first error vector signal. The vector quantizer also generates a residual vector signal which is the difference between the first error vector signal and the first prestored approximation vector signal. Next, the at least one partitioned vector quantizer performs a partitioned vector quantization on a first portion of the residual vector signal thereby generating at least one second index corresponding to a second prestored vector signal which is an approximation of the first portion of the residual vector signal. Next, the scalar quantizer performs a scalar quantization on a second portion of the residual vector signal thereby generating a third index corresponding to a prestored scalar signal which is an approximation of the second portion of the residual vector signal. The first, second and third indices are combined to form an encoded vector signal which is a compressed representation of the feature vector signal. The encoded vector signal may be transmitted and/or stored as desired. The feature vector signal may be reconstructed from the encoded vector signal by adding the corresponding prestored signals to the encoded vector signal to form a decompressed representation of the feature vector signal.

This invention relates to data compression and data decompression of acoustic features associated with sampled speech data in a speech recognition system.
Typically, an initial step in a computerized speech recognition system involves the computation of a set of acoustic features from sampled speech. The sampled speech may be provided by a user of the system via an audio-to-electrical transducer, such as a microphone, and converted from analog representation to a digital representation before sampling. An example of how these acoustic features may be computed is described in the article entitled "Speech Recognition with Continuous Parameter Hidden Markov Models," by Bahl et al., Proceedings of the IEEE ICASSP, pp. 40-43 (May 1988). These acoustic features are then submitted to a speech recognition engine where the utterances are recognized. In a speech recognition system employing a client-server model, the acoustic features are computed on the client system and then have to be transmitted to the server system for recognition. It is necessary to compress the acoustic features to minimize the bandwidth requirements for the transmission. Compression is also necessary in more general speech recognition systems where storage of the acoustic features is desired.
The topic of speech compression has been well researched over the years (e.g., "Speech Coding and Synthesis," by Klein et al., Elsevier (1995)), but all of the proposed solutions only address the problem of compressing and reproducing speech that sounds acceptable to a human ear. The problem addressed by the present invention, on the other hand, is to compress (and decompress) the acoustic features computed (i.e., extracted) from spoken utterances for the purpose of subsequent machine recognition of speech.

System and method of compression/decompressing a speech signal by using split vector quantization and scalar quantization

International Business Machines Corporation