A stylus pen (15) includes a correction circuit that corrects difference between the number of controller clocks generated by a touch panel controller (2), which controls operation of a touch panel (3), for outputting a synchronization signal by the touch panel controller (2) and the number of pen clocks generated by the stylus pen (15) for receiving, by the stylus pen (15), the synchronization signal output from the touch panel controller (2).

A touch panel system is widely used in various electronic devices such as a PC (personal computer), a mobile terminal and a tablet.
In the touch panel system, when a user causes his/her finger or a touch pen to be in contact with a touch panel, input operation to the touch panel is performed. In a touch panel system of an electrostatic capacitance method, change in an electrostatic capacitance in a touch panel, which is caused when a finger of a user or a touch pen is in contact with the touch panel, is detected, and a position at which the change in the electrostatic capacitance is caused in the touch panel is recognized as an input position to the touch panel.
In recent years, various stylus pens such as an active stylus pen have been developed as touch pens having a function of outputting a signal. It has been expected to further enhance performance of a touch panel system by applying the stylus pens to the touch panel system.
PTL 1 discloses a touch panel system that when input operations are performed by a plurality of stylus pens (electronic pens) to a touch panel, individual touch positions are able to be detected accurately.

Stylus pen, touch panel system and electronic device


The present invention relates to a prophylactic agent or a therapeutic agent of pancreatitis, containing an adenosine uptake inhibitor or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof.

Pancreatitis is a disease of which the onset is triggered by activation of pancreatic enzymes in pancreas, so that pancreas is auto-digested by activated pancreatic enzymes. As therapeutic agents of pancreatitis, use is made of for example gastric acid secretion suppressing agents, proteinase inhibiting agents, analgesics and anti-spasmodics, antibiotics and the like (Practice of Gastro-Intestinal Diagnostics 6, edited by Tadahiko Kozu, chief editor, Bunkodo, Tokyo, 1993).
More specifically, histamine H.sub.2 receptor antagonists (blockers) including cimetidine, ranitidine, famotidine and the like are used as gastric acid secretion suppressing agents (Therapeutic Medicine Guide, '96 edition, edited by Medical Practice Editorial Committee, Bunkodo, Tokyo, 1996). Proteinase inhibiting agents include high-molecular urinastatin extracted from human urine and gabexate mesilate and nafamostat mesilate as lower molecular synthetic products Mebio, 13(6), 74-80 (1996)!. As the analgesics and anti-spasmodics, use is made of non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory analgesics (indomethacin) and non-opioid analgesics (pentazocine). As the antibiotics, use is made of penicillin-series antibiotics with wide spectrum (piperacillin), and cefem-series antibiotics of first and second generations (cefazolin and cefmetazole) (Practice of Gastro-Intestinal Diagnostics 6, edited by Tadahiko Kozu, chief editor, Bunkodo, 1993). However, the pharmacological effects of any of these pharmaceutical agents are not sufficient. Thus, more excellent prophylactic or therapeutic agents of pancreatitis have been needed.
Adenosine causes various physiological effect through receptor (A.sub.1, A.sub.2A, A.sub.2B, A.sub.3) which present on plasma membrane. Adenosine uptake inhibitor maintains adenosine concentration around adenosine receptor and increase adenosine effect by inhibiting adenosine uptake into tissue.
Most of quinazoline derivatives represented by the following formula (I) to be used in accordance with the present invention have been known, and it has been known also that such derivatives have an adenosine uptake inhibitory activity and are effective for myocardial protection and prophylaxis or treatment of inflammation such as paw edema (WO94/19342, WO96/06841). Additionally, Chemical Pharmaceutical Bulletin, 38, 1591-1595 (1990) describes a 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-2,4-dioxoquinazoline derivative with 1-(6,7-dimethoxy-4-quinazolyl)-4-piperidinyl group at position 3 and hydrogen, chloride atom or nitro group at position 6.
It has also been known that an N-aryl piperazine alkaneamide derivative with some relation to the compound represented by the following Formula (II) has various pharmacological actions. More specifically, Japanese Published Examined Patent Application No.232/69 describes that the derivative has coronary vasodilator action, central stimulant action, local anesthetic action, or anti-carrageenan action; Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 4774/83 describes that the derivative has an action of myocardial protection; Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 290869/88 describes that the derivative has an action of ameliorating sleep quality; and European Journal of Pharmacology, 172, 273-281 (1989) describes that the derivative has an action of inhibiting adenosine uptake. Furthermore, Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 157472/94 describes that N-piperazine acetamide derivatives of 4,5-diphenyloxazol, thiazole and imidazole have an action of inhibiting adenosine uptake and a neuroprotective action. Still additionally, Nucleosides & Nucleotides, 10, 975-982 (1991) describes that dipyridamole, dilazep, hexobendine, lidoflazine and R75231 have an action of inhibiting adenosine uptake.
However, it has not yet been known that the compound represented by Formula (I) or Formula (II) is effective for the prophylaxis or treatment of pancreatitis. No report has been published yet, indicating that a compound with an action of inhibiting adenosine uptake is effective for the prophylaxis or treatment of pancreatitis.


The present invention relates to a poly(allylamine) polymer and, more generally, a hydrocarbon amine polymer. Preferably, these polymers are crosslinked. The present invention also relates to methods of forming these polymers and methods for their use. Further, the present invention relates to alkylating agents that can be employed to form the polymers and to methods for forming the alkylating agents. Generally, the polymer sequestrant includes a substituent bound to an amine of the polymer. The substituent includes a quaternary amine-containing moiety having one, two or three terminal hydrophobic substituents. A method of preparing quaternary amine-containing alkylating agents includes reacting an unsymmetrical dihalide with a tertiary amine having at least one hydrophobic substituent. A method for binding bile salts of bile acids in a mammal includes orally administering to the mammal a therapeutically-effective amount of the polymer sequestrant.

Salts of bile acids act as detergents to solubilize and consequently aid in digestion of dietary fats. Bile acids are derived from cholesterol and consequently, removing bile acids can result in reduction in cholesterol. Following digestion, bile acids can be passively absorbed in the jejunum, or reabsorbed by active transport in the ileum. Bile acids which are not reabsorbed are lost.
Reabsorption of bile acids from the intestine conserves lipoprotein cholesterol in the bloodstream. Conversely, blood cholesterol level can be diminished by reducing reabsorption of bile acids.
One method of reducing the amount of bile acids that are reabsorbed is oral administration of compounds that sequester the bile acids and cannot themselves be absorbed. The sequestered bile acids are consequently excreted.
Many bile acid sequestrants, however, do not bind conjugated primary bile acids, such as conjugated cholic acid well enough to prevent substantial portions from being reabsorbed. In addition, the volume of sequestrants that can be ingested is limited. As a result, the effectiveness of many sequestrants to diminish blood cholesterol levels is also limited.
Further, the synthesis of many sequestrants can be limited by the expense and reaction yield associated with preparing suitable precursors. For example, alkylating agents employed to modify polymers can be difficult to prepare. In addition, the ability of an alkylating agent to react with a polymer can also limit the effectiveness of the resulting sequestrant.
A need exists, therefore, for a sequestrant and a method which overcomes or minimizes the referenced problems.

Hydrophobic sequestrant for cholesterol depletion


A full-color organic light emitting display device and a method of fabricating the same, including a substrate, at least one color conversion layer, a color filter, and an organic light emitting diode having a lower electrode disposed on the substrate, an upper electrode disposed on the lower electrode, and an organic layer with at least a first emission layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electroluminescent display devices. In particular, the present invention relates to a full-color electroluminescent display device and a method of fabricating the same having a structure providing enhanced blue, green, and red color purity and luminescent efficiency.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electroluminescent (EL) display device is a display device where voltage may be employed in light emitting layers to combine electrons and holes to form images. EL display devices have superior characteristics as compared to other display devices, such as excellent visibility, light weight, wide viewing angle, high color purity, and relatively low power consumption.
An EL display device may include a substrate, a light emitting diode having two electrodes, i.e., pixel electrode and counter electrode, and at least one light-emitting layer. The light-emitting layer may include a hole injection layer (HIL), a hole transport layer (HTL), an emission layer (EML), an electron transport layer (ETL), and an electron injection layer (EIL) arranged sequentially between the pixel electrode and the counter electrode. When voltage is applied between the pixel electrode and the counter electrode, holes may be emitted from the pixel electrode through the HIL and the HTL into the EML, and electrons may be emitted from the counter electrode through the EIL and the ETL into the EML. The holes and electrons may recombine in the EML to generate excitons that emit light, which may be evaluated in terms of its color and luminescent efficiency.
Luminous efficiency may depend on the driving voltage of the light emitting diode, the emission dopant concentration in the light emitting diode, and the life span of the excitons. Accordingly, it may be advantageous, for example, to control the concentration of the emission dopant in order to lower the driving voltage of the light emitting diode and, thereby, increase the luminous efficiency. It may also be advantageous to control the life span of the excitons and their diffusion distance within the EML to further increase the luminous efficiency.
The color of light emitted from the light emitting diode may depend on the specific combination of light emitting layers in the light emitting diode. In particular, a light emitting diode capable of exhibiting natural full-color, i.e., capable of forming pure red, green, and blue light colors, may require a specific configuration of light emitting layers.
For example, in a conventional color conversion matrix (CCM) method, a light emitting diode may include a cyan emission source as a light source with separate red, green, and blue conversion layers to absorb the cyan light and emit red, green, and blue colors, respectively. However, the cyan emission material may have a low lifespan and luminous efficiency, while the overall CCM method may require a complicated manufacturing process.
In another exemplary conventional method, red light emission may be achieved by combining either blue and green organic light emitting diodes or cyan and green organic light emitting diodes having a blue color filter. However, both combinations provide low efficiencies due to insufficient red and blue color emissions, respectively. Further, if the light emitting diodes are inorganic, they may require high voltage application and complicated driving circuits, thereby rendering the manufacturing process long and complicated, and provide low efficiency and luminance as compared to the organic light emitting diodes.
Accordingly, there remains a need to improve the structure of the full-color EL display device in order to provide a device capable of providing a single-color light without forming separate red, green, and blue emission layers having different life spans. More importantly, there exists a need for a full-color EL display device exhibiting pure blue, green, and red coordinates with improved luminescent efficiency.

Full-color electroluminescent display device with multiple emission layers and method of fabricating the same


A device includes a resonator having an oscillating portion with dimensions chosen to lead to a desired resonant frequency. A light source is positioned to provide light along the length of the oscillating portion at a specific wave length. A detector detects a change in oscillation of the resonator responsive to the wave pressure produced by the light source heating a gas. The light source is modulated with a frequency the same as the resonant frequency of the resonator.

Photo acoustic spectroscopy (PAS) is a widely used method for trace gas detection. It is based on the photo acoustic (PA) effect, i.e. the conversion of light to sound in all materials (solids, liquids and gases). It applies to many chemical compounds, and, unlike conventional absorption spectroscopy, its sensitivity scales inversely with the volume of the sampling chamber.
To date, limited research has been done to demonstrate the feasibility of a miniaturized photo acoustic sensor. In order to realize the advantage of photo acoustic sensor miniaturization, light sources and detectors of comparable size are required. In order to achieve spectrometric performances, lasers are typically suggested as light sources. In recent years a large effort has been paid to develop semiconducting lasers (VCSEL, DFB, QCL) for spectral ranges of interest.
A "classical" spectrometric PAS has, beyond the laser, a chamber and a detector. The detector is usually in a form of a microphone. To increase the sensitivity of the system, a non-resonant chamber may be replaced with a resonant-one that is designed to have a resonant frequency equal to the modulation frequency of the laser. Thus, the amplitude of the pressure wave generated inside the chamber is amplified by the chamber that works at resonance.
A second approach to increase the sensitivity is to replace the microphone with an acoustic resonant detector. A solution developed by researchers from Rice University uses a quartz tuning fork (QTF) from an electronic watch (QEPAS—Quartz Enhanced Photo Acoustic Spectroscopy) as a resonant detector. In such a system the laser (chosen to fit an absorption line of the gas to be detected) is additionally modulated at a frequency related to the resonant frequency of the tuning fork. As the laser beam passes between and transverse to the two prongs of the fork, the laser light is absorbed by the target gas which heats up and creates a pressure wave. These pressure waves impinge on the prongs of the QTF which start to move in opposite directions. These deflections are finally converted by a piezoelectric effect to a current with an amplitude proportional to the concentration of the target gas.
The advantages of QEPAS systems are its small dimensions, high sensitivity and the elimination of the detection chamber replaced by the gap between the prongs of the QTF. While this concept has been proven in a laboratory setting, it seems difficult or impossible to adapt it to large scale manufacturing and to reap the benefits of further miniaturization.


An atomic absorption photometer includes a microprocessor which is programmed so as to affirmatively create an unsafe condition by lowering the pressure inside the flow route of a combustion improving gas and to check if the gas switch in this flow route indicates this unsafe condition. If it is found that this unsafe condition is not being indicated by the switch, a warning signal is outputted and the use of flame by the photometer is prevented.

This invention relates to atomic absorption photometers and more particularly to atomic absorption flame photometers which use a flame generated by burning a gas to atomize a sample.
Such an atomic absorption flame photometer typically uses a burner to subject a sample to a burning process by generating a flame above a slot provided to a burner head. A mixture of a combustion gas and a combustion improving gas is usually burnt together to generate a flame. Examples of combustion gas include acetylene (C.sub.2 H.sub.2), and examples of combustion improving gas include air and N.sub.2 O. An atomic absorption flame photometer is usually provided with a safety device for monitoring whether the burning of the flame is proceeding safely or not. Examples of such a device include gas pressure monitors.
Gas pressure monitors are for monitoring the pressure of the gas which is being supplied so as either to prevent the use of a flame if the gas pressure becomes low or to automatically shut off the supply of gas in the midst of a combustion process and to extinguish the flame safely.
If such a monitor malfunctions, and in particular if the malfunctioning is such that the monitor would regard an unsafe condition as being safe, the situation is very serious because the safety device is not functioning as such. The cause of a malfunctioning may be electrical in nature such as a broken cable or an imperfect connection by a connector. In the case of a gas pressure monitor, it may be due to a mobile part of the pressure switch getting stuck somewhere.
Prior art attempts at preventing accidents due to such malfunctions included using a more reliable and hence more expensive monitor and using two or more sensors. All these methods were costly, causing an increase in the production cost of the monitor.

Atomic absorption photometer with a safety monitor


The transmission power is adjusted of a Forward Access Channel (FACH) from a base station to a mobile user terminal in a network for mobile telecommunications. The method comprises steps as follows. The base station sends a signal at a first transmission power level to the mobile user terminal. The mobile user terminal then sends a report of one or more parameter values dependent upon measured signal quality provided a predetermined reporting criterion is met. The base station then adjusts its transmission power to the mobile user terminal in consequence so as to maintain the measured signal quality within acceptable limits.

As part of radio resource management, a mobile user terminal (user equipment, UE) is moved from one resource state to another in order to maximise the efficiency of the available radio resources (e.g. power, bandwidth). The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) standard requires each mobile user terminal to take either of two states for active data transmission, namely cell forward access channel (Cell-FACH) state and cell dedicated channel (Cell-DCH) state, (see for example Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Technical Specification 25.331).
In Cell-FACH state, a shared channel, specifically the forward access channel (FACH), is used shared between a group of mobile user terminals and having no associated dedicated physical control channel. The forward access channel (FACH) is used for low volume data and is similar to the broadcast channel and random access channel of older mobile technologies. It may typically be used e.g. for the viewing time after a Web page download. Use of the forward access channel (FACH) gives improved cell capacity at low data rates and thus improves the battery life of the mobile user terminal due to the lower transmission power that is required.
On the other hand, Cell-DCH state uses a dedicated channel (DCH) to a mobile user terminal which has a dedicated physical control channel, including transmit power control information and pilot information, continuously transmitted. A dedicated channel (DCH) of a cell is typically used for high volume data or voice.
Whilst in Cell-DCH state, the mobile user terminal reports to the base station when criteria are met such as when the measured signal from a monitored base station goes above or below a threshold, whereupon the base station may choose to add or remove a soft handover leg (i.e soft handover connection, also known as soft handoff connection).
The standards provide a variety of measurement reporting methods for reporting handover measurements (3GPP Technical Specification 25.331 Section 14.1.2), but whilst the mobile user terminal is in Cell-FACH state, measurements on received signals are disabled as they might result in frequent measurement reports back to the base station thereby reducing the capacity of the channel for user data or voice.
Furthermore, the standards provide no reliable means for determining the transmit power at which each Forward Access Channel (FACH) frame should be broadcast to the mobile user terminal (UE), so the FACH channel is always broadcast at a high power sufficient to cover the whole cell.
Furthermore, as regards criteria for transiting between Cell-FACH state and Cell-DCH state, a known criterion is level of occupancy of the buffer (in the mobile user terminal) which stores data to be sent. A buffer occupancy measurement is passed from the mobile user terminal to the base station where a decision to instruct a change of state is made.
As further background, Dynamic Bearer Control (DBC) is a commonly understood mechanism defined within the 3GPP standards which determines whether, and to what extent, to grant resources, i.e to allocate a data rate, based upon the estimated power consumption. The DBC functional block usually receives no power information or soft handover information. Accordingly, the DBC functional block assumes that a mobile user terminal requires maximum power when transiting into a Cell-DCH state so may allocate a lower data rate than it needs to, or even refuse to provide DCH resources.
When the base station decides that the mobile user terminal in the Cell-FACH state should transition to Cell-DCH state, it must do so without any soft handover legs i.e. without second or further radio connections between the mobile user terminal and other cells than the primary one. This is because there are no soft handover connections to mobile user terminals in the Cell-FACH state. Also the base station and mobile user terminal must start with a high initial transmit power in order to ensure a rapid synchronisation between the mobile user terminal and the base station. These result in a reduction in the traffic capacity, particularly in cases where the transitions between the two states are frequent.

Adjusting the transmission power of a forward access channel (FACH), and a corresponding network for mobile telecommunications


A coated steel substrate has a steel substrate having a surface. A coating layer is atop the surface. The coating layer includes: aluminum activated by indium; and a ceramic binder. The coating also may comprise of multiple layers with different properties to facilitate the galvanic protection capability.

The disclosure relates to gas turbine engines. More particularly, the disclosure relates to coated steel shafts in gas turbine engines.
Gas turbine engines (used in propulsion and power applications and broadly inclusive of turbojets, turboprops, turbofans, turboshafts, industrial gas turbines, and the like) use shafts in one or more locations to transmit rotation. In the high pressure turbine (HPT) section a two-spool (or greater) engine, the temperature may be so high as to require use of a nickel-based superalloy. In the low pressure turbine (LPT) section of a two-spool (or greater) engine, temperatures may be low enough to allow use of steel to reduce cost. Exemplary shaft material is a low-alloy, high strength, steel. The low alloy steels contain minor non-ferrous elements and have yield strengths greater than 275 MPa. Examples include AISI 4130, AISI 4340, AISI H-11 and the like.
High strength alloys are generally prone to atmospheric corrosion and require protective treatments such as coatings. However, elevated operating temperatures in an engine environment greatly limit the choices of corrosion protection coatings. Specifically, organic corrosion inhibitors would be compromised by thermal decomposition. Although inorganic corrosion inhibitors such as chromate have been found to be effective in retarding metal corrosion, chromate is a carcinogen and is being phased out in industries. In addition, due to the inability to form passivation layer, the high strength steel alloys rely upon sacrificial coatings to impart corrosion resistance.
For elevated temperature applications, an aluminum-ceramic coating is an attractive option. An exemplary coating is aluminum powder in alkali metal silicate (e.g., sodium silicate). See, U.S. Pat. No. 9,739,169, of Klotz, et al., Aug. 22, 2017, entitled "Formation of corrosion-resistant coating" (hereafter the '169 patent). Such coatings may be applied as aqueous slurries and may include additives such as wetting agents, organic solvents, and the like. The sacrificial Al-ceramic coatings are qualified mostly in accelerated salt fog tests such as ASTM B-117 wherein high concentration chloride promotes and accelerates corrosion. Such a corrosive environment is considered representative of only coastal applications at ambient temperatures.


A MOSFET comprising a gate oxide layer on a silicon substrate, a polysilicon gate formed on the gate oxide layer, the width of which gradually widens going from bottom to top, a side gate oxide layer formed by an oxidation process surrounding the polysilicon gate, the side gate oxide layer also gradually widening from bottom to top, a source/drain region beside the gate oxide layer, a connection element having a stacked structure of an oxide layer and a polysilicon or polycide layer on the field oxide, a doped polysilicon side wall beside the side gate oxide layer and making electric connection between the source/drain region and the connection element.

FIG. 1 illustrates the structure of a MOSFET manufactured by a conventional method. This MOSFET is manufactured in the manner described below.
That is, gate oxide film 85 is formed on silicon substrate 1, a polysilicon film is deposited thereupon, and poly gate 95 is patterned by etching the polysilicon film. An ion implantation process is carried out to form source/drain regions 22. Thereafter, oxide side wall 75 beside poly gate 95 is formed, and then insulating layer 77 (an oxide film) is deposited thereon. Finally, a contact hole is opened, and metallic contacts 79 are formed for making contact with the source/drain regions.
With such a conventional manufacturing process, there are various disadvantages as described below.
First, if a conventional photolithographic process is used and the pattern size is reduced to a very fine scale, optical interference and diffraction effects are increased. Consequently, the resolution is not enough to perform a process for elements of 0.5 .mu.m scale or below.
Second, even if a phase shifting photolithographic technique is used, a self aligned gate formation process is not utilized, and the characteristics of the MOSFET can become unstable.
Third, even though a 0.2 .mu.m scale device may be formed, the area of the source/drain regions has to be sufficiently large in order to form the source/drain contacts.


A method, apparatus and system for providing process-level forensics for a plurality of application containers includes for each of the plurality of application containers; monitoring forensics information of the application container, encoding the monitored forensics information using an encoder of a predetermined encoder/decoder pair to determine a forensics model, decoding the forensics model to determine a reconstructed representation of the forensics information, comparing the reconstructed representation of the forensics information to the monitored forensics information to determine an error and comparing the error to a threshold to determine if an error above the threshold exists. If the error is below the threshold, the forensics model is communicated to a higher-level manager to be used for higher-level management. If the error is above the threshold, the monitored forensics information of the application container is also communicated to the higher-level manager. The predetermined encoder/decoder pair is determined using an autoencoding process.

Containers are utilized widely to decompose complex production Internet services into manageable (componentized) microservices. The use of containerization technologies for virtual application deployment, particularly for the scalable instantiation of production microservices, has grown at an astonishing rate. However, while inter-container networking is indispensable for microservices, the question of the operational stability of container networking has not been well scrutinized. For example, there has not been a lot of work done in the area of process-level container forensics for facilitating incident detection and damage assessment.
Notably, process-level activity forensics collection typically increases CPU, IO, network transport, and data storage requirements. In addition, streaming forensics data to data repositories for indexing consumes bandwidth and storage and such workload intensity increases syscall volume, which further increases forensics costs. As container parallel orchestration increases, digital forensics production loads may lead to overload and saturation.

Methods, apparatuses and systems for providing forensics to manage containers


A lamp control system includes: a lamp configured to form a light distribution pattern ahead of a vehicle using a non-illumination region forming unit, wherein the light distribution pattern includes a non-illumination region, and the illumination region includes at least one longitudinal cutoff line; a detector configured to detect a front vehicle in front of the vehicle; an information acquiring unit configured to acquire a displacement direction and a displacement speed of the front vehicle; and a light distribution controller configured to control the light distribution pattern using the non-illumination region forming unit such that the front vehicle is positioned in the non-illumination region. When the front vehicle is approaching the longitudinal cutoff line, the light distribution controller controls the light distribution pattern based on the displacement direction and the displacement speed to increase an interval between the longitudinal cutoff line and the front vehicle.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a system and a control device for controlling the light distribution of lamps which illuminate a front region of a vehicle.
2. Related Art
Among systems of the above kind, there is a system which is equipped with a headlight which can emit a low beam and a high beam, a non-illumination region forming unit for forming a non-illumination region by blocking a portion of the high beam, and a detector for detecting a front vehicle (a preceding vehicle or an oncoming vehicle) based on an image of a front region captured by a camera (see JP-A-2011-16505, for example). Glare given to the front vehicle can be suppressed by controlling the non-illumination region forming unit so that the detected front vehicle is positioned in the non-illumination region. Meanwhile, a region other than the non-illumination region continues to be illuminated with the high beam, whereby the sufficient visibility of the front region is secured.
For example, when a vehicle is running on a curved road, the relative position of a front vehicle is varied to a large extent in the left-right direction and the front vehicle may deviate from a non-illumination region. In this case, a portion of high beam may give glare to the front vehicle. To solve this problem, the system disclosed in JP-A-2011-16505 is configured such that when running on a curved road is detected, high-beam illumination by at least one of the left and right headlights is stopped. In other words, the entire high-beam illumination region is made a non-illumination region. In this case, although it is possible to prevent the driver of the front vehicle from being given glare, the visibility of the front vehicle is unavoidably lowered.


An ultrasound device, an ultrasound method, and computer-readable medium are provided. The ultrasound device includes: a sensor data receiver configured to receive ultrasound measurement data; a pre-processor configured to reduce noise of the ultrasound measurement data to obtain denoised data based on non-local self-similarity and phase information; a transfer function generator configured to generate a transfer function based on the denoised data; and a visualization circuit configured to generate a visualization of the ultrasound measurement data based on the transfer function and based on the denoised data.

With the development of ultrasound imaging technology, 3D (three dimensional) ultrasound has become more and more popular in clinical practice. By integrating varying 2D (two-dimensional) images generated by reflected waves with different angles, volumetric ultrasound data, i.e. 3D ultrasound data, may be acquired. Compared with 2D ultrasound data, 3D ultrasound data can provide more anatomical information for more precise diagnosis and treatment.
One of the most important applications of 3D or 4D (four-dimensional, i.e. involving a time series of 3D data) ultrasound is fetal examination. It has been evidenced that 3D ultrasound can enhance detection accuracy of congenital defects.
Compared to its 2D counterpart, 3D ultrasound is especially helpful for assisting obstetricians to precisely evaluate the severity of abnormalities and take necessary actions to cope with them because 3D ultrasound is capable of displaying the abnormalities from different angles, and hence providing more diagnostic information.
However, nowadays, it is still challenging to visualize 3D fetal ultrasound data offering high-fidelity details in a real-time manner due to speckle noise, low signal-to-noise ratio and the complicated anatomical environment involving different tissues and organs in many cases. Existing visualization systems are incompetent at detail-aware visualization for precise diagnosis and treatment.
Thus, there is a need for a high-fidelity and real-time 3D (fetal) ultrasound visualization system. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the disclosure.

Ultrasound devices, ultrasound methods, and computer-readable media


An intrusion detection technique involves: emitting a wireless signal within a container; detecting the wireless signal near the container; and responding to detection of a change in a characteristic of the detected wireless signal by transmitting a wireless notification to a location remote from the container. A different technique involves: responding to a determination that a condition representative of unauthorized intrusion is present while the container is stationary by transmitting a wireless notification; and responding to a determination that the container is moving by ignoring whether the condition is present. Yet another technique involves: monitoring whether a door of a container is in a closed position; and emitting a wireless signal indicating whether the container door is in the closed position.

Metal cargo containers are designed with provisions to secure the entry doors in order to prevent unauthorized entry into the container while it is in transit. One known approach is to secure the door handle or latch with a conventional lock. Another approach is to secure the door handle or latch with a steel bolt that is fitted with a non-removable retainer. The bolt must be cut with bolt cutters in order to release the handle or latch so that the doors can be opened.
Still another approach is to provide a device which includes a steel bolt and non-removable retainer in combination with a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag. Once the retainer has been coupled to the bolt, the RFID tag monitors the retainer and bolt and, if any tampering is detected, the tag transmits a radio signal to a remote receiver known as a reader, so that an alarm condition can be brought to the attention of a human operator and/or security personnel, who will then deal with the intrusion into the container.
Despite security measures of the type discussed above, it can be possible for the container doors to be opened without directly defeating security measures of the type discussed above. For example, it may be possible to cut the door handle or the latch. Similarly, where a door handle is fixedly connected to a rotatable connecting link which has at each end a dog that engages a recess provided in the container housing, it may be possible to cut through the connecting link and thus permit the ends of the link to be rotated so as to free the dogs from the recesses, thereby permitting the door to be opened. Still other approaches include drilling out the door handle joint, removing the door hinge pins, or cutting a hole in the sheet metal walls or roof, or through the wooden floor. There is a need for an effective technique for detecting any of these types of intrusion, in a manner that is reliable and avoids false alarms.
A further consideration is that there are some situations in which it is helpful to take into account the effects of container movement during shipment. For example, when a container is lifted from the ground and placed on a vehicle such as a truck or a ship, the position of the cargo within the container may shift. Alternatively, after the container has been loaded on a vehicle, normal vehicle movement could cause the cargo to shift position within the container. The shifting cargo should not be misinterpreted by a security system as human movement, or the security system may produce a false indication of human intrusion.
As another example, a typical cargo container is normally made of steel except for the floor, which is usually made of wood. If a monitoring system is relying on some form of electromagnetic field for the purpose of detecting unauthorized human intrusion, movement of the container may affect the electromagnetic field. For example, energy of an electromagnetic field will not readily pass through the steel walls, but will more readily pass through the wooden floor. When the container is sitting on the ground, the ground may influence characteristics such as the strength of any electromagnetic field which may be passing through the wooden floor.
If the container is then lifted off the ground, for example while it is loaded on a vehicle, the wooden floor will be spaced from the ground, thereby reducing the extent to which the ground can influence characteristics such as the strength of any electromagnetic field which may be passing through the wooden floor. To the extent a security system is relying on the electromagnetic field to try to detect human intrusion into the container, this change in the electromagnetic field as the container is lifted off the ground may be misinterpreted as human activity, and may cause the security system to produce a false indication of human intrusion. With these considerations in mind, it will be recognized that there is a need for a technique which can reliably detect unauthorized human intrusion into a cargo container, with little likelihood of false indications of intrusion as a result of factors such as container motion.

Method and apparatus for detecting unauthorized intrusion into a container


A bridge system which is individually adapted to elements implanted in dentine, joints, or the like and/or to parts secured in the implanted elements, comprises at least two module units which are attachable to the implanted elements or parts and have first surfaces for attachment to the elements and second surfaces separate from the first surfaces, and an elongate, curved member which is securable in the module units at the second surfaces. The elongate, curved member is designated with a profile and made of a material having a quality of titanium and a tissue affinity equivalent to that of titanium. The profile of the elongate member is designed in its cross-section with a plane underside adapted to be applied against the second surfaces and with elements projecting from the underside to facilitate holding of a prosthesis part (tooth/tooth part), abutment or the like which is being secured in the bridge, the material and the profile permitting bending without essentially impairing the strength of the elongate element in the bridge.

It is already known to use different module units in the construction of dental bridges. The module units are in this case available in a number of variants, and a number of module units are chosen to form part of the bridge being constructed. It is also already known to use curved, beam-shaped elements which are connected to the "free" end surfaces after these have been ground to form a common plane, to which the curved element or the beam has been applied. The bridge produced in this way is intended to constitute a structure for supporting the actual prosthesis, abutment, and the like.
In bridges of these types it is particularly desirable to use titanium which has affinity for tissue. Characteristic features of this material are its hardness and the fact that it is comparatively brittle. This has meant that it has been necessary to cast the elongate, flexible element or rail. The product of cast, curved rails imposes considerable demands on the casting method. It has proven difficulty to obtain cast, elongate and curved elements having the strength which is required in this connection. It is not possible to leave the casting to a less individual working by a dentist or dental technician and in so doing obtain satisfactory results from the stability point of view of. The method of casting the curved elements/rails also has the disadvantage that it is difficult to make adjustments, during and after casting, to the curved shape of the elongate element/rail.
The present invention aims to solve these problems and proposes a method of producing the curved element/rail in which the latter is bent in a bending tool. However, this entails other requirements on account of the brittleness of the material. In the present invention method it is important to obtain the curved or bent shape without causing substantial deterioration from the point of view of its strength. There is also a requirement for devices and methods which are simplified from all manufacturing aspects and which are easy to use and carry out, respectively, by practising dentists or dental technicians. Manufacture should also be possible with a high prescribed degree of accuracy (1/100 mm).

System individually adaptable to elements implanted in the dentine and the like


The present disclosure refers to base stations, user equipment and a system for wireless communication, as well as the corresponding wireless communication methods implementing mechanisms enabling fast, reliable and resource efficient retransmissions between a base station and one or a plurality of user equipment. The present disclosure is specifically directed to an uplink unicast case and a downlink multicast case and cooperates a proactive allocation of resources for a retransmission of the initial data in case that the initial data transmission fails, and a new data transmission if the initial data transmission successes.

Future generations of wireless communication networks are envisioned to support diverse sets of usage scenarios with varying performance requirements. One such family of usage scenario includes: Ultra-Reliability and Low Latency Communication (URLLC) as in 3GPP TR 38.913. The reliability requirement for URLLC is as stringent as 99.999% with user plane latency of few millisecond as in 3GPP TR 38.913. Reliability here is considered as the success probability of transmitting a certain number of bytes in a certain time duration. Achieving such strict requirements over the unreliable wireless link is a challenge.
One of the ways to improve reliability is by retransmitting the data in case of an erroneous reception. Mechanisms such as Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ) at the RLC layer and Hybrid-ARQ (HARQ) at the media access control (MAC) layer are incorporated in the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard to detect and correct errors by considering message retransmissions. In the case of erroneous reception of data in ARQ, the data packet is completely discarded, and a new transmission is requested. Whereas in HARQ, Forward Error Correction (FEC) is first applied to correct the errors caused due to the time varying wireless channel. If the decoding is still unsuccessful, retransmission is triggered. Unlike in ARQ, in HARQ the erroneous data is not discarded but buffered at the receiver. Upon receiving the retransmitted data, the newly arrived data is combined with the buffered data to improve the probability of successful decoding. Retransmissions from the sender are triggered based on feedback from the receiver. In LTE 1-bit information, ACK or NACK, transmitted in Physical Hybrid-ARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH) or Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH)/Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) for uplink, UL, and downlink, DL, data transmissions respectively indicate the status of message decoding at the receiver as in 3GPP TS 36.213.
The two retransmission mechanisms ARQ and HARQ operate in a hierarchical manner in LTE, that is, the operation of ARQ is triggered after reaching the maximum limit of HARQ retransmissions to correct the residual errors. While these feedback based retransmission schemes improve reliability, this comes at the cost of additional delay and resource utilization. With future wireless networks envisioned to support shorter frame structures, the overall delay could also be linearly reduced; however, this could result in HARQ retransmissions occurring in the same channel conditions.

Base stations, user equipments and a system for wireless communication, as well as the corresponding methods


A toilet ventilation unit including a vacuum motor mounted in the wall voids surrounding the toilet that is connected to the back of the tank and utilizes the water passageway of a conventional toilet to draw odors and aromas from the toilet. A vacuum shut off valve is mounted adjacent the back of the tank and is actuated concomitantly with the rising and lowering of the water level to cut off the air flow from the toilet. An additional valve is also mounted adjacent the tank to act in opposition to the shut-off valve and provide relief from the vacuum created from the drop of the water level during flushing. A release valve is adjacent the vacuum motor to draw air from an air source alternative to the toilet, when the shut-off valve is activated.

Ridding a bathroom of the unpleasant odors and aromas associated with a toilet may be solved by using chemical type deodorizers that are often perfumed and injected into the water of the toilet. However, these are often short lived and may otherwise not adequately solve the problem of deodorizing odors in a bathroom.
Additionally, toilets have been adapted or modified to include means to draw odors from the toilet where such odors are further exhausted or deodorized. At least one invention, U.S. Pat. No. 4,153,956 uses a device to draw the odors through the water passages present in a conventional toilet having a water tank and bowl. Unfortunately, this invention requires significant modification or adaptation to the lid of the water tank of a toilet. Moreover, the actual deodorizing device is visible. Other devices known in the art require additional significant adaptations that may not be readily and economically incorporated into conventional toilets and building constructions.


In a semiconductor memory device, a characteristic changing circuit is connected with a signal line for transmitting an output control signal. If a fuse is normally blown, a fuse is blown together with a fuse for redundant replacement, and otherwise both fuses are not blown. If the fuse blowing is defective, the potential of a signal line is brought to a ground potential level based on a wafer test control signal. As a result, the output control signal is fixed at an L level, and the potential of a data input/output terminal is brought to a high impedance state.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a semiconductor memory device having a circuit for changing electrical characteristics, and more particularly to a semiconductor memory device permitting the normality/abnormality of fuse blowing therein to be checked in the molded state.
2. Description of the Background Art
There have been semiconductor memory devices which permit adjustment of internal power supply potentials or replacement with redundant memory cells by blowing fuses.
An example of the configuration of such a conventional semiconductor memory device having a replaceable redundant circuit will be described.
A conventional semiconductor memory device 2000 shown in FIG. 20 includes a memory block #1, a redundant memory array #11, a main decode circuit 2, a redundant decode circuit 3, and a redundant comparator circuit 4.
Memory block #1 includes a plurality of memory cells (not shown) arranged at crossings of word lines and bit lines.
Main decode circuit 2 which selects a memory cell in memory block #1 has a column decode circuit and a row decode circuit.
Redundant memory array #11 has a plurality of redundant memory cells which are not shown. Redundant decode circuit 3 which selects a memory cell in redundant memory array #11 has a column decode circuit and a row decode circuit.
Redundant comparator circuit 4 controls main decode circuit 2 and redundant decode circuit 3 in order to replace a memory cell with a defect (hereinafter referred to as "defective cell") with a redundant memory cell.
In semiconductor memory device 2000, a defective cell found in memory cell block #1 during processing wafer is replaced with a redundant cell in the following procedure.
The address of the defective cell (hereinafter referred to as "defective address") is searched, and checked for the possibility of replacement with a redundant memory cell. If the defective address is replaceable, a polysilicon fuse portion corresponding to the defective address in redundant comparator circuit 4 is blown.
After this operation and the step of forming a protection film, only the products which have passed the final selection test are marketed.
Thus, if a defective cell is selected, redundant comparator circuit 4 controls main decode circuit 2 and redundant decode circuit 3 so that a replaced redundant memory cell is selected.
After the manufacture, in the process of analyzing or evaluating defects in semiconductor memory device 2000, it is critical to know if fuses are blown normally or abnormally. In the conventional semiconductor memory device 2000, the package should be opened for checking the normality/abnormality of the fuse blow using an electron microscope.
Furthermore, since it is not possible to determine if fuses are blown normally in the molded state, products with abnormally blown fuses may pass the final selection test to be marketed.

Semiconductor memory device having circuit for changing electrical characteristics


A phase change ink composition for printing on ophthalmic lenses including a straight chain hydrocarbon wax and a branched hydrocarbon wax; an amide, wherein the amide is present in an amount of greater than about 25 percent by weight based on the total weight of the ink composition; a rosin ester; and a colorant. A phase change ink composition for printing on ophthalmic lenses including a straight chain hydrocarbon wax and a branched hydrocarbon wax; an amide, wherein the amide comprises a combination of at least two members of the group consisting of monoamide, triamide, and tetra-amide; a rosin ester; and a colorant. An ink jet printer stick or pellet comprising the phase change ink composition.

Disclosed herein is a phase change ink suitable for printing on ophthalmic lenses. Ophthalmic lenses have been produced as semi-finished lens by bulk lens manufacturers and then distributed to individual laboratories to prepare the finished lens. Traditionally, label information for each semi-finished lens was provided by printing the relevant information on a paper envelop for each lens.
Recently, lenses have been labeled by using a phase change ink to print the relevant information directly onto the lens using a digital printer. However, current known phase change ink can exhibit performance issues for lens labeling applications including clogging of printer heads. Further performance issues include the need for jetting reliability, durability of the printed image on the lens, the need for printed images that are removable from the lens when no longer needed thereon, and the need for printed images on the lens that are of good print quality.
A need remains for an improved phase change ink suitable for printing on ophthalmic lenses. Further, a need remains for an improved phase change ink suitable for printing on ophthalmic lenses which have improved jetting reliability, improved durability after printing on lenses, provide printed images which are easy to clean and provide good adhesion on both hydrophilic and hydrophobic lenses, and which provide good optical contrast on both clear and dark lenses.
Throughout this application, various publications, patents, and published patent applications are referred to by an identifying citation. The disclosures of the publications, patents, and published patent applications referenced in this application are hereby incorporated by reference into the present disclosure to more fully describe the state of the art to which this invention pertains.

Phase change ink for ophthalmic lens marking


A system for fluid partitioning for chemical amplification or other chemical processing or separations of a sample, comprising a first dispenser of a first polymeric sheet, wherein the first polymeric sheet contains chambers; a second dispenser of a second polymeric sheet wherein the first dispenser and the second dispenser are positioned so that the first polymeric sheet and the second polymeric sheet become parallel; a dispenser of the fluid positioned to dispense the fluid between the first polymeric sheet and the second polymeric sheet; and a seal unit that seals the first polymeric sheet and the second polymeric sheet together thereby sealing the sample between the first polymeric sheet and the second polymeric sheet and partitioning the fluid for chemical amplification or other chemical processing or separations.

Field of Endeavor
The present invention relates to chemical amplification and more particularly to for fluid partitioning between polymeric sheets for purposes of chemical amplification, such as Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)-based DNA (or RNA) detection, or for other chemical processing/separations.
State of Technology
Since the development by Kary Mullis of the PCR technique for amplification of DNA strands in 1983 for which he received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1993, the chemistry and equipment for PCR have advanced dramatically. Amplification of DNA can be achieved starting from a single strand. In 1987, a joint venture between Perkin-Elmer and Cetus introduced Taq polymerase, a DNA polymerase that is stable through many rounds of thermal cycling. Starting around 1996, with the advent of fluorescent probes, real-time PCR methods have been employed where the amplification of DNA can be monitored as it occurs with optical detection techniques.
PCR is commonly carried out in a reaction volume of 10-200 μl in small reaction tubes (0.2-0.5 ml volumes) in a thermal cycler. Using this typical approach, PCR consists of a series of 20-40 repeated temperature cycles. Efficiencies have been gained by using arrays of reaction sites, for example arrays of 96 wells on a plate, and techniques for faster heating and cooling of the samples. Although initial efforts at DNA detection required hours to days, these fluorophore-based techniques using arrays of relatively small reaction sites have reduced the time-to-detection to less than one-hour.
More recently, additional time-to-detection advances have been achieved for detection of DNA, which have been demonstrated to be particularly useful for very dilute DNA solutions. When the initial DNA sample is very dilute, partitioning the sample into many separate aliquots can effectively increase the DNA to volume ratio for the fluid partitions that contain DNA, can decrease the number of thermal cycles necessary to reach the minimum fluorescent probe detection limit, and thereby decrease the detection time. Several methods have been employed for this fluid partitioning, including micro-well plates, and arrays of reaction sites and flow channels formed into various substrates. Most of these fluid partitioning approaches have reaction volumes on the order of a micro-liter (μl) and were discrete plates or other batch reaction array approaches. However, some effort has been made to reduce the volume of reaction sites toward the nano-liter range using arrays of very small capillaries, reaction sites on chips, or other droplet techniques.
The most promising recent advance, which not only significantly reduces the sample volume, but can also be implemented as a continuous process providing absolute quantification, is the suspension of micro-liter (i.e., 10−6 liter) to pico-liter (i.e., 10−12 liter) sized droplets in an immiscible carrier fluid. This approach may also be extended to include emulsions or gels. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Quantalife™, and RainDance Technologies™ have developed approaches that involve very small droplets in an immiscible fluid. Quantalife™ has demonstrated the ability to generate mono-disperse nanoliter (i.e. 10−9 liter) sized droplets, perform the thermo-cycling in a conventional 96 well cycler with 20,000 droplet per well, and then use a flow system for detection of individual droplets in series at a rate of 32 wells/hr or 640,000 droplets/hr.
The present invention provides the same advantages as the approach of suspending droplets in an immiscible fluid, including (1) absolute quantification, (2) very small sample size resulting in reduced detection times, and (3) potential for continuous operation for increased throughput, but also includes the additional advantages of (1) providing a robust flexible framework for the partitioned samples that allow more directing handling and facilitates processing in automated equipment, (2) eliminating the need for an immiscible fluid thereby decreasing the time for heating and cooling and the resultant reduction in time to detection, and (3) allowing simultaneous detection of many samples in a row or array, again reducing detection time.
In addition to being applicable for DNA amplification and detection process using thermal cyclers and optical detection, the invention described herein is applicable to isothermal amplification processes and other DNA detection methods.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,041,481 issued May 9, 2006 to Brian L. Anderson, Billy W. Colston, Jr., and Chris Elkin and U.S. Pat. No. RE 41,780 for Chemical amplification based on fluid partitioning contains the state of technology information reproduced below. U.S. Pat. No. 7,041,481 and U.S. Pat. No. RE 41,780 are incorporated herein by this reference for all purposes.
The polymerase chain reaction (PCR), is a cyclic process whereby a large quantity of identical DNA strands can be produced from one original template. The procedure was developed in 1985 by Kary Mullis, who was awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work. In PCR, DNA is immersed in a solution containing the enzyme DNA polymerase, unattached nucleotide bases, and primers, which are short sequences of nucleotides designed to bind with an end of the desired DNA segment. Two primers are used in the process: one primer binds at one end of the desired segment on one of the two paired DNA strands, and the other primer binds at the opposite end on the other strand. The solution is heated to break the bonds between the strands of the DNA, then when the solution cools, the primers bind to the separated strands, and DNA polymerase quickly builds a new strand by joining the free nucleotide bases to the primers in the 5′-3′ direction. When this process is repeated, a strand that was formed with one primer binds to the other primer, resulting in a new strand that is restricted solely to the desired segment. Thus the region of DNA between the primers is selectively replicated. Further repetitions of the process can produce a geometric increase in the number of copies, (theoretically 2 n if 100% efficient whereby n equals the number of cycles), in effect billions of copies of a small piece of DNA can be replicated in several hours.
A PCR reaction is comprised of (a) a double-stranded DNA molecule, which is the "template" that contains the sequence to be amplified, (b) primer(s), which is a single-stranded DNA molecule that can anneal (bind) to a complimentary DNA sequence in the template DNA; (c) dNTPs, which is a mixture of dATP, dTTP, dGTP, and dCTP which are the nucleotide subunits that will be put together to form new DNA molecules in the PCR amplification procedure; and (d) Taq DNA polymerase, the enzyme which synthesizes the new DNA molecules using dNTPs.

Micro-fluidic partitioning between polymeric sheets for chemical amplification and processing

Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC


A microwave plasma processing apparatus is disclosed that enables fast and easy plasma ignition at the pressure for plasma processing In the microwave plasma processing apparatus, a plasma ignition facilitating unit is provided to facilitate plasma ignition induced by a microwave. The plasma ignition facilitating unit includes a deuterium lamp that emits vacuum ultraviolet rays, and a transmission window that allows the vacuum ultraviolet rays to penetrate and irradiate a plasma excitation space. The transmission window is a convex lens, and focuses the vacuum ultraviolet rays to enhance ionization of the plasma excitation gas. With such a configuration, it is possible to induce plasma ignition easily and quickly.

In recent years and continuing, among plasma processing apparatuses, the microwave plasma processing apparatus is attracting attention. Compared with other plasma processing apparatuses, such as a parallel plate plasma processing apparatus and an ECR plasma processing apparatus, the plasma potential is relatively low in the microwave plasma processing apparatus, enabling generation of plasma having a low electron temperature and low ion energy.
Therefore, with the microwave plasma processing apparatus, it is possible to prevent metal contamination and ion irradiation damage to a substrate subjected to plasma processing. In addition, because a plasma excitation space can be separated from the plasma processing space, it is possible to carry out plasma processing independent of materials of the substrate and patterns formed on the substrate.
In the microwave plasma processing apparatus, a gas for exciting plasma (referred to "plasma excitation gas") is fed into a chamber first, and then the microwave is introduced to the plasma excitation gas to start the generation of plasma (plasma ignition). Because of the high frequency of the microwave, the electrical field of the microwave changes before electrons of the plasma excitation gas are sufficiently accelerated, making plasma ignition difficult. Additionally, in recent plasma processing, a pressure of the plasma excitation gas as low as, for example, 67 Pa (about 0.5 Torr) is sometimes required. Because of the low pressure, the density of the plasma excitation gas is low, further making plasma ignition difficult.
In the microwave plasma processing apparatus, differing from the parallel plate plasma processing apparatus, the microwave is emitted from a microwave antenna, and there is no electrical field applied to the substrate to be processed, therefore, free electron emission or other phenomena causing plasma ignition do not occur, making plasma ignition more difficult.
In the microwave plasma processing apparatus of the related art, usually, the pressure inside the processing chamber is set high at the time of plasma ignition, for example, the pressure is set to 133 Pa (about 1 Torr) so as to induce plasma ignition easily; after the ignition, the pressure is lowered to, for example, 7 Pa (about 50 mTorr). However, in this plasma ignition, an additional control procedure not relevant to the object plasma processing has to be gone through to increase the pressure inside the processing chamber for plasma ignition and to lower the pressure after the plasma ignition, and this lengthens the preparation time before plasma processing starts, and lowers throughput.

Microwave plasma processing apparatus, plasma ignition method, plasma forming method, and plasma processing method


In an active brake pads retraction system, the improvement is a metering check valve which limits the retraction. The metering check valve is interfaced with an anti-lock brake system (ABS), disposed in the hydraulic brake line between the brakes apply system of the ABS and a caliper member of the ABS located at each brake corner. Brake pads are retracted with respect to the brake rotor responsive to predetermined conditions of the motor vehicle in which braking is not required, wherein a retraction volume within the metering check valve limits the amount of brake pads retraction.

Motor vehicle disk brake systems utilize, at each wheel, a brake rotor connected to an axle hub of a rotatable axle of the motor vehicle, and an opposing set of selectively movable brake pads connected to a non-rotating brake caliper which carries a set of brake pads. The brake rotor includes a disk shaped rotor cheek having opposing brake pad engagement surfaces, wherein when braking is to occur, the braking system causes the caliper to press the brake pads upon respective brake pad engagement surfaces of the rotor cheek. Frictional interaction between the rotating rotor cheek and non-rotating brake pads causes braking of the motor vehicle to transpire, the rate of braking depending upon the pressure of the brake pads against the rotor cheek.
In the automotive art, modern dual-circuit hydraulic braking systems for automotive applications typically include an operator-actuated brake actuation unit, such as a tandem master cylinder actuated by a booster-aided brake pedal, by which to supply a first pressurized brake fluid to each of a first pair of wheel brakes via a first or "primary" braking circuit, and a second pressurized brake fluid to each of a second pair of wheel brakes via a second or "secondary" braking circuit. The use of wholly redundant braking circuits for operating discrete pairs of wheel brakes ensures continued vehicle braking capability, notwithstanding a degradation of performance of one of the braking circuits.
In order to achieve an "anti-lock" braking system (ABS), each braking circuit often features a normally-open electrically-operated inlet valve controlling the flow of pressurized fluid to each wheel brake, while a pressure relief line that includes a normally-closed electrically-operated outlet valve, a return pump, and a check valve controls the return of pressurized fluid from the wheel brake to the hydraulic brake line upstream of the inlet valve. A "separation" or "isolation" valve, located in the hydraulic brake line of each circuit upstream of the location at which the pressure relief line connects to the brake line, serves to isolate the brake line from the master cylinder during anti-lock operation.
Increasingly, such anti-lock braking systems are used in combination with wheel speed sensors in a traction control mode. The further addition of a steering angle sensor, a vehicle yaw rate sensor, and a lateral vehicle acceleration sensor in conjunction with vehicle speed, wheel speed, and wheel longitudinal slip enables such anti-lock braking systems to operate in an "electronic stability control" mode, wherein a braking system electronic control unit (ECU) selectively energizes each circuit's electrically-operated valves when the controller identifies an opportunity to enhance vehicle stability through a selective application of the vehicle's brakes.
In order to control the brake fluid pressure in traction control or vehicle stability control modes, a hydraulic pump is typically placed in the pressure relief line of each circuit downstream of the outlet valve to return pressurized fluid to the circuit's hydraulic brake line. The pump also serves to provide an increasing rate of fluid pressure upon the closing of the isolation valve to provide a sufficient braking system response time when operating in a traction control mode, even at a time when the brake fluid has a relatively-high viscosity due, for example, to low brake fluid temperatures.
The prior art has recognized, however, that a quicker system response is desirable when the braking system is operated in a vehicle stability control mode. By way of example, a rapid pressure build up in one or the other braking circuit is particularly desirable upon commencing vehicle stability control in order to correct oversteer or understeer conditions. Accordingly, the prior art teaches the addition of a braking circuit pre-charging function to the brake actuation unit, i.e., to the vacuum booster of the master cylinder, in order to increase system response at the time such vehicle stability control is commenced. Alternatively, an additional pre-charging pump is provided in one or both braking circuits to ensure a sufficient increasing rate of fluid pressure at the commencement of vehicle stability control enhancement.
There are multiple Electronic Stability Control (ESC) system implementations on the road today. Although all of them attempt to perform the same task of helping the driver retain reasonable directional control under nonlinear vehicle dynamic conditions, these ESC systems have some distinct implementation differences and can be divided into four categories as defined and described in The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Surface Vehicle Information Report, SAE J2564, "Automotive Stability Enhancement Systems", revised June, 2004 and superceding version issued December, 2000.
Elements that ESC systems have in common include ABS and the ability to sense steering wheel position; the ability to calculate vehicle speed; the ability to sense yaw velocity and lateral acceleration; and the ability to build and control braking force in the channels used for yaw stability control independent of the driver's input to the vehicle braking system. An example of the implementation of a vehicle hydraulic braking system utilizing an ESC system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,896,338 B2 to Nakayasu et al., which patent is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Referring now to FIGS. 1A and 1B, the structural and operational aspects of a prior art anti-lock braking system (ABS) will be described, keeping the description limited to those portions thereof having relevance to the present invention.
An ABS 10 includes an electronic control unit (ECU) 12 which is electronically interfaced with a brake pedal assembly 14, at least one hydraulic brake fluid pump 16, and at each wheel with an inlet valve 18, and an outlet valve 20. An hydraulic brake line 22 is interfaced with the brake fluid pump and the inlet and outlet valves at each wheel, and is further interfaced with a master cylinder brake fluid reservoir 24, and still further interfaced at each brake corner (i.e., at each vehicle wheel) with caliper actuators 26 (consisting of one or more cylinders 26a and pistons 26b). A brake caliper 28 is non-rotatively affixed at each wheel in straddling relation to the brake rotor 30 of the respective brake corner (which is, in turn, connected in fixed relation to the rotative wheel axle (not shown). In a braking system utilizing a sliding brake caliper (as is shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B), one side 28a of the brake caliper is hydraulically active and the other side 28b hydraulically inactive. In a braking system utilizing a fixed brake caliper, both sides of the brake caliper are hydraulically active. In either case, a brake pad 32a, 32b is respectively affixed at both sides of the brake caliper, so that when the hydraulic brake fluid in the caliper portion 22a of the brake line 22 is pressurized, the brake caliper causes the brake pads to squeeze upon the cheeks 30a of the brake rotor 30.
In operation, the ECU constantly runs predetermined algorithms while receiving vehicular behavior inputs (via sensors) to determine brake action commands. In FIG. 1A, a brake apply situation is occurring. The ECU has commanded the inlet valve be open, the outlet valve be closed and the brake fluid pump to rapidly energize so as to provide a high pressure HP brake fluid in the caliper portion of the brake line, thereby applying the brakes in the sense that the brake pads press hard against the rotor cheeks. The normally open inlet valve and normally closed outlet valve are such during normal braking, being selectively opened and closed by the ECU during an ABS event, as for example when slip at the wheels is occurring. In FIG. 1B, a no brake apply situation is occurring. The ECU has commanded the inlet valve to remain open, the outlet valve to remain closed and the brake fluid pump to de-energize so as to provide a low pressure LP brake fluid in the caliper portion of the hydraulic brake line, thereby releasing the brakes in the sense that the brake pads no longer press hard against the rotor cheeks.
The focus of current braking system design is on rapid response to reduce vehicle stopping distance and on high pressure sealing to ensure hydraulic brake system integrity. These design targets typically require a sealing implementation in which the brake pads are unable to actively retract from the brake rotor after brake application, since the response of the braking system is optimized for quick response and high sealing ability.
In this regard, the application of the brake pads to the rotor flexes the seals of the hydraulic braking system. Since the braking system is designed for quick response and sealing of high hydraulic pressures, the seals do not fully return the braking system back to zero pressure, and the brake pads remain in adjacency with the brake rotor cheeks even when the brake pedal is not pressed by the vehicle operator. Thus, the brake pad material is kept in close contact to the rotor cheeks in all conditions of the motor vehicle.
This close contact of the brake pads with the brake rotor during brake rotor rotation creates a frictional force due to the residual force of the seal (from the last brake application) which, in turn, creates a torque in the opposite direction of vehicle's forward rotation. This torque, termed drag torque, reduces the efficiency of the vehicle's propulsion system and thereby increases fuel consumption. When the vehicle is parked, this same residual force from the seals keeps the brake pad material in contact with the brake rotor cheeks. When these components, which are typically manufactured with a percentage of metal, are exposed to moisture, they can corrode via galvanic action. This galvanic action creates inconsistencies on the rotor cheeks and brake pad surfaces locally on the section of the brake rotor where these components were in mutual contact. These surface inconsistencies create a local rotor cheek thickness and surface material property mix different than the rest of the rotor cheeks. This physically unique section of the brake rotor creates a different frictional force compared to the rest of the brake rotor during rotation when the brakes are applied. This varying frictional force creates a periodically varying frictional torque, the period coinciding with the rate of rotation. This variable torque excites the brake caliper which, in turn, excites the suspension components of the vehicle, and this resultant vibration is sensed by the vehicle's operator through the steering wheel and the body, and is also sensed as pulsation of the brake pedal. The vehicle operator can perceive this condition as annoying and may seek early brake servicing.
The aforesaid problems associated with current brake pads retraction modalities were solved by an active brake pads retraction system and method disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/739,721, filed Apr. 25, 2007 to inventors Leach, et al. and assigned to the assignee hereof, which application was published as U.S. Patent Application Publication 2008/0265663 A1 on Oct. 30, 2008, the disclosure of this patent application and patent publication being hereby incorporated herein by reference in entirety (hereinafter referred to as the "GM Active Brake Pads Retraction System".
The GM Active Brake Pads Retraction System discloses an active brake pads retraction system which retracts the brake pads with respect to the brake rotor responsive to predetermined conditions of the motor vehicle in which braking is not required. To accomplish this benefit, the GM Active Brake Pads Retraction System teaches selective application of negative hydraulic brake line pressure to cause the caliper pistons to retract with respect to their respective caliper cylinders, thereby causing the brake pads to retract from the brake rotor (i.e., the brake pads are affirmatively relocated by the brake line vacuum differential pressure with respect to atmospheric into a spaced relation with respect to the rotor cheeks.
According to the GM Active Brake Pads Retraction System, the electronic and hydraulic brake control system of current anti-lock brake systems (ABS) are utilized, wherein these control systems are uniquely configured to provide active retraction of the brake pads from the brake rotor during predetermined conditions of the motor vehicle when braking is not required, as for example when the motor vehicle is cruising or parked.
In operation of the GM Active Brake Pads Retraction System, the electronic control unit (ECU) of the ABS constantly runs algorithms, including an active brake pad retraction algorithm, while receiving vehicular behavior inputs to determine brake action commands. Upon command from the ECU to execute active brake pads retraction, the normally open inlet valve of the hydraulic brake line is closed and the normally closed outlet valve of the brake line is opened. These valve settings isolate the caliper portion of the brake line from the pressure side, and simultaneously expose it to the vacuum side, of the hydraulic brake fluid pump. The brake fluid pump is thereupon immediately energized, pushing the hydraulic brake fluid in the brake line upstream of the brake fluid pump towards the master cylinder reservoir, which is vented to atmosphere. The brake line downstream of the brake fluid pump is therefore exposed to a negative (i.e., below atmospheric) brake line pressure. This negative pressure with respect to atmospheric pressure applies a suction-retraction force to the caliper portion of the brake line. This pressure differential is registered at the caliper pistons, which are caused to be pulled in the direction of the negative pressure to compensate for the displacement of the brake fluid pumped into the master cylinder brake fluid reservoir on the pressure side of the brake fluid pump. This displacement of the caliper pistons actively moves the brake pads, which are affixed to the pistons, as for example via brake pad clips known in the art, away from the rotor cheek surfaces.
According to the GM Active Brake Pads Retraction System, in a braking system utilizing a sliding brake caliper, one side of the brake caliper is hydraulically active and the other side is hydraulically inactive, wherein the hydraulically active side brake pad tends to retract first until the brake caliper reacts to allow the hydraulically inactive side brake pad to also retract. Further according to the GM Active Brake Pads Retraction System, in a braking system utilizing a fixed brake caliper, both sides of the brake caliper are hydraulically active and the caliper pistons retract independently of each other as both are directly affected by the negative pressure in the caliper portion of the brake line. Finally according to the GM Active Brake Pads Retraction System, in either type of brake caliper, brake pad retraction creates a gap between the brake pads and the brake rotor, thereby reducing parasitic brake drag and galvanic corrosion.
While the GM Active Brake Pads Retraction System solves the problems associated with current brake pads retraction modalities, what remains needed is some way to positively limit the maximum retraction distance of the brake pads with respect to the rotor cheeks.

Metering check valve for active brake pads retraction system


The present invention relates to a garment with elastic inserts produced on circular machines of the type comprising elasticised sectors (3) and elasticised zones obtained by working in a further elastomeric yarn—in addition to the ground yarn and the reinforcing yarn normally used—and actually knitting the yarns so as to create machined portions, both horizontally and obliquely, which result in well-defined and demarcated zones which provide greater compression than the knitted stitches on the same row, thereby providing—within the elasticised sectors (3)—a greater compression value than outside the sector on the same row of knitted stitches. The elasticised sectors (3) are designed portions which create ornamental figures or banding with specific compression which can provide support, contribute to the stimulation of blood circulation, reduce fatigue, and render movement safer and more supported, when properly positioned and sized.

At present, for products produced using circular machines, such as socks and underwear, the conformation of the knitting is a direct consequence of the spiraloid construction of the article. The construction is comparable with the thread of a screw as due to the formation of the knitting, which is carried out around a circumference and is repeated at each turn of the cylinder, superimposing a succession of rows of knitting, always in the same direction. The spirality of the knitted fabric results in the fact that the yarns used to create an ornamental pattern or other layout also follow the spiral machining setting, starting the knitting action with a row of knitting at a given point and at a specified number of turns of the cylinder and terminating one or more turns later, and—therefore—always with the design developing in a horizontal direction. In particular, when one wishes to create a design which runs downwards, in an oblique fashion, along the semi-finished item be that a sock or a top, it is necessary to insert a further ground yarn and then, immediately after a certain number of points, cut such yarn using an appropriate device in order to achieve the desired design width and endeavouring to prevent slip-off, so as to proceed consistently therewith in the subsequent rows.
The system just illustrated for circular machines is practicable with non-elasticised yarns or with yarns with a low degree of elastication, therefore such types of machining strictly preclude elastomeric yarns or compound yarns, including therein those with only a percentage of elastomer. Unfortunately, such yarns are the only ones which allow a significant compression effect to be achieved, due to the intrinsic elasticity thereof, in addition to that provided by the knitting itself, and—for this reason—such yarns are widely used in both the sports field and the medical field.
The difficulty in the use of elastomeric yarns is due to the fact that, once knitted, the yarn—by its very nature—tends to come out of the knitting, since when cut, the yarn shrinks backwards, in the insertion direction, losing effectiveness and, consequently, fraying occurs, which is aesthetically displeasing and makes the presence of the elastic yarn less effective since the yarn loses grip substantially.
As is known, at present, elastic yarn is used as the ground yarn or as a textured yarn in order to create elasticity and compression and when there is a need to lend the article greater compression, one simply tightens, i.e. tensions, the yarn further. Such method, however, requires the presence of elastic yarn throughout the knitted fabric.
In particular, in socks, but also in garments such as tops or leggings, an elastic "banding" effect is achieved by means of toweling processing, which means that such insert is voluminous and can be uncomfortable, and furthermore still does not offer adequate compression due to the thickness thereof, which prevents proper tension, thereby limiting the compression effect. Moreover, in some types of socks a "banding" effect is produced, but solely within a designed area which features different machining in solely visual terms, since it does not correspond to a different structure in the fabric with a different compression and/or grip capacity. Such area is solely a psychological aid, but not a real, effective one.
In addition to everything illustrated so far, there is a demand expressed by the market for—for example—a sock which features a knitted fabric with a slim, flat knit which, at the same time, is capable of providing compression in well defined zones and protection in particular zones.
As it is known, nowadays, there is a lot of interest among users in clothes and accessories which are comfortable, practical, functional, aesthetically pleasing, and flexible in terms of the use thereof.
Indeed, it is a known fact, for example, that sportsmen and women are particularly demanding and careful about their choices when it comes to the clothing and accessories they use for their sporting activities, which means they refuse to accept compromises such as garments which do not meet up to their expectations and needs, and which even sometimes wrongfully heighten expectations.

Garment with elastic inserts produced using circular machines


A system provides lossless split and merge processes of integer discrete cosine transform (DCT) transformed data such that the discrete cosine transform of one data block may be split into two half length DCT odd and even blocks for merging, with split and merge processes being lossless and are generated in the discrete cosine transformed domain. After splitting, the redundancy existing between the two integer discrete cosine transformed half data blocks allows one to approximately reconstruct the original data block in case one of the discrete cosine transformed half data block is lost during transmission. The system may be used with existing JPEG and MPEG compressors and decompressors because both use the discrete cosine transform for image and video compression and decompression, may be used as a resolution conversion device for transcribing from digital high-definition TV to analog low-definition TV, and may be used for lossless splitting and merging type-IV discrete cosine transformed data for audio compression and decompression in the international standard MPEG-4 Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), such as AC-3 or MP3.

A fast recursive algorithm for computing the discrete cosine transform can be used for image data compression that is useful in compressing data for either data storage for saving storage space or for data communications for saving communication channel bandwidth. During the calculation of the discrete cosine transform the DCT algorithm separates and combines data. A Radix-2 DCT separate block process and a Radix-2 DCT combine block process have been used to separate and combine data blocks. This DCT does not enable one to directly merge two equal sized transforms into one double size transform, nor to split double size transform whole. Equal splitting and merging is desirable for communicating transformed packets in smaller divisible packets. However, the DCT is not a true merge and split transformation process. The DCT data have been quantized into integers for converting into binary codes and causing data loss. When the DCT is used to split or merge there is a lossy transformation as there is no teachings known to form a mirror DCT transform that offer lossless transformation. A problem with the DCT transform is that the DCT can only perform a merge process by inversely transforming two equal sized DCT transforms back into the time domain, and then merge in the time domain, and finally forward transform the combined double size block into a double size DCT transform. This disadvantageously required additional inverse transformations and forward transformations prior to transmission that degrades the transformed data when repetively inverse and forward transforming the data. Hence, the DCT is not a true direct split or merge transform. Another problem with this discrete cosine transform is that there is no decimation-in-time DCT combine flow process compatible with the DCT decimation-in-time separate flow process. In prior art the T(N/2), type-II DCT and D(N/2) type-IV DCT blocks are DCT transforms of equal sized blocks processing first and second halves of the input data prior to combining the two halves into a double size type-II DCT output. The separate transform of prior art operates on first and second half inputs but the data is transformed into odd and even type-II DCT halves, incompatible with true merge and split transform processing. During the separate transformation processing of prior art the first and second half data are firstly subject to add and subtract processing prior to transformation, that is, separate combinational processing precedes the forward transformations. Another disadvantage of type-II and type-IV DCTs is that the separate and combine processes are always incurred with loss of data integrity. The type-II DCT are lossy separate and combine processes. Improved type-II and type-IV DCT provide lossy split and merge processes where the splitting and merging are mutually compatible for true splitting and merging of transform data in the transform domain, but disadvantageously provide lossy transformations.
A 2×2 rotator, whether lossy or lossless, has two bit-parallel serial word inputs X1 and X2 that are rotated in radians into two outputs Y1 and Y2. The first output of the 2×2 rotator is the first input weighted by the cosine of the rotating angle adding to the second input weighted by the sine of the same rotating angle. The second output of a 2×2 rotator is the first input weighted by the sine of the same rotating angle subtracted from the second input weighted by the cosine of the same rotating angle. That is, Y1=cos θX1+sin θX2 and Y2=−sin θX1+cos θX2. An integer lossy 2×2 rotator has two integer outputs for two integer inputs. An integer lossy 2×2 rotator has been implemented using traditional lifting stages. The unweighted input in each lifting stage is always used for addition but not for subtraction. Rotators have been used in DCT transforms. Rounding errors cannot be cancelled during continuous use of additions in lifting stages. The total rounding error of the traditional lifting method used in prior arts is very large because the accumulation of rounding errors throughout lifting stages. As such, the use of traditional lifting method produces lossy rotators.
The progressive transmission of compressed data works well when the data packets are sent and received without any error or loss. But when a packet is lost, the long delay in receiving a retransmitted packet often causes stalls in the whole decompression process. To improve the data integrity in unreliable channels, the original data stream has been split and sent on two separate links. Early multiple description speech coding processes separate the data into even and odd parts, and compress and communicate the even and odd parts over two independent paths. However, there are two drawbacks in multiple description methods. A first disadvantage is the use of separate compression and decompression hardware with the use of two independent channels. A second disadvantage is the respective inefficient compression of even and odd parts of data because the correlation between adjacent data samples in each part has been decreased. Recent multiple description methods add redundancies to the two halves of compressed data. The method of adding statistical dependencies to each channel can be used to estimate the loss of description. However, the method of adding statistical dependencies is not a real-time operation. Statistical data are needed to generate the multiple description transform in real time. The derived benefit of multiple descriptions may not be able to justify the additional complexity.
Another problem associated with transmitting DCT compressed data using unreliable communication links is the unreliable reconstruction of the compressed image after reception. Compressed still images or compressed video frames are to be transmitted over unreliable links. When one of the communication links is functional but the remaining communication links are corrupted, the existing DCT reconstruction disadvantageously poorly reconstructs the low-resolution version of the original image. When more links are functional, the reconstructed image quality could be improved at the cost of adding addition communication channels. Another problem with DCT transform communications is the incompatibility of receiver resolution. When a digital high-definition TV picture is transmitted to receivers, a conventional analog TV receiver must first decompress the high-definition picture signal prior to performing resolution down conversion for display. A low-resolution down conversion of compressed data has a less amount of data and save processing power and can be used to display an image on a low-resolution display but suffers from having to first decompress the high-resolution data before displaying the low-resolution data. These and other disadvantages are solved or reduced using the invention.

Compressed data multiple description transmission and resolution conversion system


Technologies are described for routing structured query language (SQL) statements to elastic compute nodes (ECNs) using workload classes within a distributed database environment. The elastic compute nodes do not store persistent database tables. For example, a SQL statement can be received for execution within the distributed database environment. A workload class can be identified that matches properties of the SQL statement. Based on the workload class, a routing location hint can be obtained that identifies a set of elastic compute nodes. The SQL statement can then be routed to one of the identified elastic compute nodes for execution. Execution of the SQL statement at the elastic compute node can involve retrieving database data from other nodes which store persistent database tables.

In a distributed database system, it is important to route structured query language (SQL) statements to the right worker node (e.g., to the worker node that can process the SQL statements most efficiently). Distributed database systems typically route SQL statements to worker nodes based on data affinity. For example, if a SQL statement uses data from a particular database table, then the SQL statement can be routed to a worker node at which the particular database table is stored.
In the SAP® Hana® distributed database system, there is an automatic SQL statement routing system which is referred to as client-side statement routing. At SQL compilation time, the client-side statement routing mechanism determines which worker node has the data set needed for a given SQL statement, and then caches that worker node's location client side. When the same SQL statement is executed in the future, the client side automatically routes the SQL statement directly to the determined worker node. While such automatic client-side statement routing can be efficient in some situations, it does not provide flexibility in controlling the distribution of workloads.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Routing SQL statements to elastic compute nodes using workload class


A battery charger is provided for implementing a charging method having a stepped output current. The battery charger includes: a power supply circuit that receives an AC input signal and outputs a DC output signal. The power supply circuit includes a power supply controller configured to receive a feedback signal indicative of current being output by the power supply circuit via an amplifier and operates to control current output by the power supply circuit in accordance with the feedback signal. A charger controller is interfaced with the power supply controller to implement a charging method having a stepped output current. The charger controller may set the output current level by adjusting gain of an operational amplifier having a negative feedback configuration with the feedback signal input to a non-inverting input terminal of the operational amplifier, where the charger controller sets the output current level by changing the resistance at an inverting input terminal of the operational amplifier.

Over the past few years, lithium-ion batteries have begun replacing nickel-cadmium (NiCd), nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH), and lead-acid batteries in portable electronic devices such as personal computers as well as in portable power tools. As compared to these more conventional battery types, lithium-ion batteries typically employ more sophisticated charging schemes having stepped output current. For example, a battery charger may apply a pre-charge current having a lower amperage value to a battery pack before delivering a larger amperage current to the battery pack. Therefore, it is desirable for battery chargers to employ power supply circuits that can effectively deliver output current at different amperage values to a battery pack.
This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.

Method for stepping current output by a battery charger