An endotracheal tube includes a main tube having a proximal end portion and a distal end portion, an inflatable annular cuff disposed on the main tube in sealed relation thereto adjacent on the distal end portion. An inflation tube extends from the distal end portion into the cuff. A viewing lens is located on the distal end portion and optically coupled to a first optical fiber extending from the proximal end portion to the distal end portion. A viewing device is attached to a proximal end of the first optical fiber. An illumination port is located on the distal end portion coupled to a second optical fiber extending from the proximal end portion to the distal end portion. An illumination source is optically coupled to a proximal end of the second optical fiber. The extended insertion of the endotracheal tube and conditions of adjacent tissue can be viewed by means of the viewing device. A flushing tube extends from a flushing source adjacent to the proximal end portion to a flushing outlet port located at the distal end portion adjacent to the viewing lens to flush mucous away from the viewing lens. In one embodiment, an auxiliary tube extends through a sealable port in a wall of the proximal end portion and slides through the sealable port, through the main tube and out of the distal end portion thereof. The auxiliary tube includes fiber optic illumination and viewing elements on a distal end portion thereof and an inflatable annular cuff on the distal end portion thereof.

The invention relates to endotracheal tubes, and more particularly to fiber optic illumination and viewing of the distal end of the endotracheal tube. The invention also relates to an auxiliary tube slidably disposed in the endotracheal tube for occluding one main stem bronchus while permitting ventilation of a lung through the other.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional endotracheal tube 10. It includes a connector 12 by means of which endotracheal tube 10 is connected to a conventional ventilator to assist a patient's breathing function. Endotracheal tube 10 also includes an inflatable balloon 14 on its distal end. Inflatable balloon 14 is inflated by means of a tube 16 which is connected by means of a end connector 18 to a small syringe-like air pump after the endotracheal tube 10 has been inserted into the patient's trachea 20, as shown in FIG. 2. In FIG. 2, balloon 14 is shown inflated, so that it occludes passage of air between the outer surface of endotracheal tube 10 and the inner surface of trachea 20. The ventilator can then efficiently pump air into and out of the patient's lungs.
Prior endotracheal tubes do not permit any visualization of what is going on in the patient's tracheal and bronchial passages. If such visualization is needed, the connector 12 (FIG. 1) is disconnected from the ventilator, and a conventional bronchoscope is inserted down the hollow passage 22 of endotracheal tube 2, allowing the physician to determine if a lot of mucous is present in either lung or in either of the left or right main stem bronchi 20A and 20B. If it is necessary to suction mucous out of either of the patient's lungs, a suctioning tube is inserted down the hollow passage 22 of endotracheal tube 10. The endotracheal tube may have to be disconnected from the ventilator to allow visualization in the trachea 20 of the lungs or to allow suctioning of mucous, blood, etc., if the endotracheal tube does not have a sealable side port through which the suctioning tube can be inserted.
A skilled physician, often a pulmonologist, inserts an endotracheal tube into a patient. It would be desirable for a nurse to be able to easily monitor the position of an endotracheal tube in a patient's trachea to determine if its location has been shifted so the nurse knows whether to call a physician for repositioning of it. It is also desirable to be able to determine accurately the position of an endotracheal tube without requiring an x-ray.
It should also be noted that prior bronchoscopes are complex, expensive instruments, typically costing $3,000 to $6,000.

Endotracheal tube wih fibers optic illumination and viewing and auxiliary tube


A tilt sensor includes a photodetector having a photosensitive plane and detecting a light beam in multiple areas and outputting detection signals representing its intensities and a tilt detector for generating a tilt error signal, including information about the tilt of a disk, based on the detection signals. The light beam forms a beam spot on the photosensitive plane. The beam spot includes a +first-order light area in which zero-order and +first-order light rays, diffracted by a track on the disk, are superposed, −first-order light area in which zero-order and −first-order light rays are superposed, and a zero-order light area which is sandwiched between the +first-order and −first-order light areas, includes neither the +first-order nor −first-order light ray, but includes a zero-order light ray. The photodetector generates the detection signals except for light entering an opaque area provided for at least part of the zero-order light area.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical disk drive for optically reading and/or writing data from/on a data storage medium such as an optical disk and more particularly relates to a technique of sensing the tilt of an optical disk.
2. Description of the Related Art
The storage densities of optical disks are further increasing these days. To catch up with this trend, the beam spot of a light beam for reading and/or writing data from/on such a high-density disk needs to have a further decreased size. For that purpose, an objective lens with a large numerical aperture (NA) is used more and more often. However, if the optical disk has a significant tilt due to warp, an influence of a coma aberration will become too large to ignore and the optical disk drive cannot properly perform read and write operations. To avoid such aberrations, the optical disk drive needs to be provided with a mechanism for sensing the tilt angle of the data storage layer of the optical disk with respect to the optical axis of the objective lens and correcting that tilt angle such that the optical axis of the objective lens crosses the data storage layer of the optical disk at right angles.
FIG. 15 schematically shows a configuration for a conventional optical disk drive as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-45058.
As shown in FIG. 15, the conventional optical disk drive includes a light source 101, a beam splitter 103, an objective lens 104, a detection optical system 106, a photodetector 107, and a tilt detector 108. The tilt detector 108 includes a signal calculator 109, an amplifier 110 and a differential amplifier 111.
The light emitted from the light source 101 and having an optical axis 102 is transmitted through the beam splitter 103 and then focused by the objective lens 104 onto the data storage layer of a given optical disk 105. Next, the light is reflected from the optical disk 105, transmitted through the objective lens 104 and then reflected by the beam splitter 103 toward the detection optical system 106. Thereafter, the light is transmitted through the detection optical system 106 and then incident onto the photodetector 107.
FIG. 16 schematically illustrates the photosensitive areas of the photodetector 107 and the cross section (i.e., beam spot 112) of the incident light beam. The photodetector 107 includes photosensitive areas 107a through 107f, which are irradiated with the light beam that has been reflected from the optical disk 105. The beam spot 112 of the light beam has an area 112a including only the zero-order component of the light that has been diffracted by a track groove of the optical disk 105, an area 112b in which the zero-order and +first-order components thereof are superposed one upon the other, and an area 112c in which the zero-order and −first-order components thereof are superposed one upon the other.
As shown in FIG. 16, the light beam with the beam spot 112 is detected by the six photosensitive areas 107a through 107f separately. The signals obtained from the photosensitive areas 107a through 107f are input to the signal calculator 109, which calculates differential signals PP1 and PP2 by the following equations:PP1=107a+107b−(107c+107d)PP2=107e−107f where the reference numerals 107a through 107f represent the signals obtained from the respective photosensitive areas 107a through 107f.
In the tilt detector 108, the amplifier 110 multiplies the signal PP1 by k. The differential amplifier 111 calculates the difference between the signal PP1 that has been multiplied by k and the signal PP2 and outputs the difference as a tilt error signal TILT. That is to say, the tilt error signal TILT is given by:TILT=PP2−k*PP1where * is an operator of multiplication. The constant k is determined so as to correct the offset of the signal PP2, which is caused by the shift of the optical axis of the objective lens 104 from the optical axis 102 of the optical system, by the signal PP1. Thus, the tilt error signal TILT is a signal obtained by correcting the offset that has been caused by the shift of the optical axis of the objective lens 104.
If the optical disk 105 has tilted in its radial direction with respect to the optical axis 102 of the optical system, the coma aberration, produced while the light is passing through the transparent substrate of the optical disk, mainly deforms the wavefronts of parts of the light beam corresponding to the areas 112b and 112c in which the zero-order and ±first-order components of the light diffracted by the tracks are superposed one upon the other. The wavefronts are deformed differently in the respective photosensitive areas 107a through 107f. Accordingly, the signals PP1 and PP2 are subject to different types of modulation. The difference in modulation is affected by the tilt of the disk and expresses itself in the tilt error signal TILT. Thus, by detecting the tilt error signal TILT while the beam spot is following the track, the tilt of the optical disk can be detected without being affected by the shift of the objective lens so easily.
However, the present inventors discovered that when the tilt of an optical disk, on which a recorded track and an unrecorded track had different reflectances, was detected by the technique disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-45058, the optical disk tilt detection signal was easily affected by how much the light beam was out of focus with the optical disk (which will also be referred to herein as "the degree of defocusing") in a boundary between the recorded and unrecorded tracks. This problem will be described in further detail below.
FIG. 17A is a schematic cross-sectional view of tracks provided on the data storage layer of an optical disk. Among the three tracks illustrated in FIG. 17A, information has already been written on only the hatched track on the left-hand side. The recorded track has a lower reflectance than the other unrecorded tracks. FIG. 17B shows the waveforms of a tilt error signal TILT, which were obtained by simulating a situation where a beam spot was crossing the tracks arranged as shown in FIG. 17A, i.e., such that every third track was recorded. The following is the conditions for the simulations:
(Condition 1)
    Waveform of light source: 405 nm;    NA of objective lens: 0.85;Thickness of transparent substrate of optical disk:    100 μm    Track pitch: 0.32 μm;    Track groove width: 0.18 μm;    Track depth: 1/12 wavelength;    Reflectance of recorded track: 0.5;    Reflectance of unrecorded track: 1; and    Tilt of optical disk: NO.
Also, the ratio of the width of the photosensitive areas 107e and 10f for detecting the signal PP2 as measured in the track direction to the beam spot diameter was supposed to be 0.35, and the constant k was supposed to be 0.75, which is defined to correct the offset caused by the shift of the optical axis of the objective lens as described above.
In FIG. 17B, the abscissa represents the location of the beam spot as measured in the radial direction of the optical disk with respect to the center of the central track shown in FIG. 17A as the origin. More specifically, the respective centers of the three tracks shown in FIG. 17A were located at 0 μm and ±0.32 μm as shown in FIG. 17B. Also, in FIG. 17B, the three curves represent the waveform of the tilt error signal TILT in a situation where the light beam was exactly focused on these tracks (i.e., with no defocusing, DF=0 μm), and the waveforms of the tilt error signals TILT in situations where the focal point deviated by ±0.2 μm (i.e., DF=±0.2 μm). As shown in FIG. 17B, the respective levels of the tilt error signals TILT were the same at the beam spot location of −0.32 μm no matter whether the light beam was in focus or not, while those signal levels changed according to the focusing state at the origin and at the beam spot location of +0.32 μm. The results shown in FIG. 17B were obtained by simulating the situation where the disk had no tilt. However, the level of the tilt error signal TILT still changed according to the focusing state. For that reason, the conventional tilt error signal TILT to be detected while the beam spot is following the center or right-hand-side one of the three tracks shown in FIG. 17A changes its level according to the degree of defocusing, thus creating an error as if the tilt of the optical disk were measured.


A computing system for generating image data representing a speaker's face includes a detection device configured to route data representing a voice signal to one or more processors and a data processing device comprising the one or more processors configured to generate a representation of a speaker that generated the voice signal in response to receiving the voice signal. The data processing device executes a voice embedding function to generate a feature vector from the voice signal representing one or more signal features of the voice signal, maps a signal feature of the feature vector to a visual feature of the speaker by a modality transfer function specifying a relationship between the visual feature of the speaker and the signal feature of the feature vector; and generates a visual representation of at least a portion of the speaker based on the mapping, the visual representation comprising the visual feature.

Current biometric systems based on voice perform speaker identification and verification/authentication using speaker matching techniques that compare templates of pre-recorded voices to voice recordings whose speakers must be identified or authenticated. In some applications, limited predictions of a speaker's mental and physical health status, and emotional states can be made from voice. These systems are not configured to derive information from voice that is necessary and sufficient to recreate visual imagery of an accurate physical embodiment and visage of the speaker, or an accurate physical likeness of the speaker, either as a two-dimensional image or as a three-dimensional spatial image. For example, these systems are not configured to recreate an accurate image of the speaker's facial features from voice signals.

Processing speech signals of a user to generate a visual representation of the user


A method of facilitating the automated bookmarking of a web page associated with an online advertisement is disclosed. According to one embodiment of the present invention, a method of Internet advertising includes causing an advertisement to be presented to a user. The advertisement operates in accordance with traditional click-through advertising functionality in response to a first type of user selection, e.g., left mouse click or selection in a first area of the advertisement, and causes a web page associated with the advertisement to be bookmarked in the user""s browser in response to a second type of user selection, e.g., right mouse click or selection in a second area of the advertisement.

Contained herein is material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction of the patent disclosure by any person as it appears in :the Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all rights to the copyright whatsoever.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the field of advertising. More particularly, the invention relates to a method for facilitating the automated bookmarking of the source of an online advertisement, such as a banner, tile, or link, for later viewing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Internet advertisers are currently challenged by click-through rates averaging approximately 1%. Internet advertisers are presently unable to grab the user""s attention and commitment. The Internet user is often in the midst of reading or researching something and doesn""t want to invest the time, disrupt the current task at hand and click-through to another site, thus risking losing their train of thought or their place within their current search/work.
In light of the foregoing, what is needed is a more effective means of Internet advertising. In particular, it is desirable to provide a more intelligent mechanism to preserve a web page associated with an Internet advertisement so that an Internet user may view the web page at a more convenient time.

Automated bookmarking of online advertisements


Apparatuses, systems, and methods are presented for a wrapper for foodstuffs. An elastomeric layer is flexible and substantially planar. A metallic layer is malleable and substantially planar. An adhesive couples the metallic layer to at least a perimeter of the elastomeric layer so that the elastomeric layer, the metallic layer, and the adhesive comprise a food covering for a container and the metallic layer is configured to conform around an edge of the container.

Securely wrapping food on a plate or other container can pose several problems. For example, plastic wrap can be difficult to handle and often does not secure around the edge of the container. Plastic wrap can also be difficult to reuse. Aluminum foil can be better at wrapping around the edge of the container securely, but can have limited reuses and can easily rip or tear.


A piezoelectric resonator is assembled so that a gap is formed between a resonator element and a plug using a connecting layer formed with a conductive resin, with flattened leads having leading end portions opening in a U-shape. This piezoelectric resonator permits absorption of an impact by elasticity of the leading end portions. Further, operability can be increased by forming a temporary fixing layer using a UV-setting type resin between the leading end portions and the resonator element, or coating a silver past on one of the leading end portions and the resonator element prior to forming a connecting layer. It is thus possible to mass-produce a piezoelectric resonator unit high in impact resistance and reliability with only slight variations of frequency when exposed to high temperatures.

A piezoelectric resonator unit such as a quartz crystal resonator unit comprising a piezoelectric body such as a quartz crystal element having an electrode formed on the surface thereof is popularly used in an oscillating circuit for generating a prescribed frequency. Recently, there is an increasing demand for a piezoelectric resonator unit giving stable characteristics at a high accuracy as an oscillation source of a reference signal for communication equipment. FIG. 11 illustrates a front view (FIG. 11(a)) and a side view (FIG. 11(b)) of a schematic configuration of a typical conventional piezoelectric resonator unit. A piezoelectric resonator 10 of the piezoelectric resonator unit 8 is provided with a resonator element 5 comprising a thin and flat quartz crystal piece 1 as a piezoelectric body, having an electrode 3 formed on each of the two surfaces thereof by vapor deposition or the like, and a cylindrical plug 11 supporting the resonator element 5. The plug 11 has a metal frame 13 surrounding an insulating member 12 made of a material such as covar glass having an electrolytically plated outer periphery, and two round bar-shaped leads 15 running through this insulating member 12. Leading ends 16 of these two leads 15 are respectively solder-connected to connecting electrodes 4 of the resonator element 5 so as to be conductive with the exterior of the plug 11 serving as a supporting member via the leads 15. The leads 15 serve also to mount the resonator element 5 onto the plug 11. Further, the piezoelectric resonator 10 shown in FIG. 11 mounts the resonator element 5 by holding it between the leads 15 to form a supporting structure with a very high rigidity.
Main steps for assembling a piezoelectric resonator unit by the use of such a piezoelectric resonator 10 are illustrated in FIG. 12. After the completion of Step 21 of mounting the resonator 5 onto the plug 11 serving as the supporting member as described above, a final resonance frequency adjustment is carried out in Step 22 by adjusting the film thickness of the electrode 3 of the resonator element 5 through vapor deposition or sputtering. Then, in Step 23, the piezoelectric resonator 10 is inserted and sealed into a case 9 in vacuum or in an inert gas atmosphere to assemble the piezoelectric resonator unit 8. Then, after conducting tests of frequency, CI-value and temperature characteristics in Step 24, the product is shipped.
As described above, in addition to the demand for a piezoelectric resonator or a piezoelectric oscillator comprising a combination of a piezoelectric resonator unit and a semiconductor as a clock source of a CPU and the like, a demand is also recently increasing for a reference signal source of communication equipment, and it is becoming increasingly necessary to have a high accuracy and stable characteristics more than the conventional reference signal source of communication equipment. Particularly, room-temperature aging property is required to be improved from about ±3 to 5 ppm/year to about ±1 ppm/year, and further, there is a demand for a piezoelectric resonator unit or a piezoelectric oscillator, in consideration of the application in a portable equipment, excellent in impact resistance and high in durability.
In the conventional piezoelectric resonator unit shown in FIG. 11, in which the leads are connected to the electrode by the use of solder 17, the connecting step exhibits a satisfactory operability, and a high connecting strength is available. When left at a high temperature of 80 to 125° C., however, solder may diffuse into the electrode, this resulting in easier deterioration of aging property and in easier occurrence of fluctuation of frequency. In addition, mounting by the use of soldering requires a preheating step at about 150 to 250° C., although for a short period of time, and a heating step at about 350° C. As a result, in a certain state of heating, there may be a distortion of temperature characteristics. When the resonator element is AT-cut, deviation occurs from an ideal cubic curve, and this makes it difficult to obtain a highly accurate frequency even by performing temperature correction. Such a phenomenon is believed to be attributable to the fact that local heating of the piezoelectric body upon connection causes a difference in temperature, crystals having different properties such as β-quartz crystal having no piezoelectric phenomenon are produced in the piezoelectric body, though to a minimum extent.
Furthermore, the conventional piezoelectric resonator unit shown in FIG. 11, in which the resonator element is connected to the plug in a state with a very high rigidity, is highly resistant to micro-vibration. The unit however has a poor resistant to a strong impact such as dropping, thus resulting in breakage or peeling of the resonator element, and hence making the unit unserviceable at a high probability.
To overcome these defects, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 6-303,077 discloses a technique of connecting the leads and the resonator element by means of a conductive adhesive in place of solder, and connecting the leads only to a side surface of the resonator element. Although there is not an explicit description in the Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 6-303,077, with the use of such a conductive adhesive, solder diffusion can be avoided even when left exposed to a high temperature as described above, thus permitting improvement of aging property, and absence of heating to a high temperature upon mounting leads to a slight distortion of temperature characteristics, thus making it possible to provide a product of a very high accuracy. In this technique, flattened leads are attached to one side surface of the resonator element, in place of mounting the resonator element by holding it between high-rigidity bar-shaped leads. It is therefore known that a high impact resistance is available, and the probability of becoming unserviceable as a result of dropping (dropping property) becomes lower. Even in a resonator element adopting such a supporting method, a piezoelectric resonator unit 8 using a piezoelectric body 2 of a convex shape as shown in FIG. 13 results in a relatively large weight of the resonator element 5, and stress tends to be concentrated at the constriction at the leading end of the mounting section, thus causing an occurrence of peeling. It is therefore impossible to achieve a remarkable improvement in the dropping property.
Further, in a piezoelectric resonator 10 shown in FIG. 13, the leading end 16 of the bar-shaped lead 15 is flattened into substantially a U shape, and the leading end 16 and a connecting electrode 4 are connected with a conductive adhesive 19. A plug-side edge 5a of the resonator element 5 is mounted onto the plug 11 with a non-conductive adhesive 18. There is therefore available an improved operability as compared with the conventional piezoelectric resonator 10 shown in FIG. 11, in which mounting is accomplished so that both sides of the resonator element are in contact with the bar-shaped leads. However, in view of the time and labor required for injecting the conductive adhesive into an appropriate gap formed between the leading end 16 and the connecting electrode 4, and for holding the resonator element 5 and the plug 11 at prescribed positions with the use of devices and jigs until setting of the injected conductive adhesive, operability of the step of causing the coated adhesive to set is not high as compared with the step for carrying out soldering, and the devices and jigs for positioning the resonator element and the plug have a low operating efficiency.
An object of the present invention is therefore to provide a piezoelectric resonator and a piezoelectric resonator unit, in which a resonator element is mounted on a supporting member by means of a resin adhesive, excellent in aging property and high in accuracy, wherein impact resistance is further improved. Another object of the invention is to provide a piezoelectric resonator and a method for manufacturing the same, which permits the efficient manufacture of a piezoelectric resonator and a piezoelectric resonator unit in which mounting is accomplished by the use of such a resin. A further object of the invention is to provide at a low cost a piezoelectric resonator and a piezoelectric resonator unit for a communication equipment of a high demand by providing a piezoelectric resonator and a piezoelectric resonator unit high in productivity and accuracy.

Method for manufacturing a piezoelectric resonator


A seat assembly for a personal watercraft, comprises a seat portion. A support portion is connected to the seat portion, and is adapted to connect the seat portion to the personal watercraft in a seating position of the seat assembly, in which a rider of the personal watercraft is in a seated position on the personal watercraft. A storable configuration is provided between the seat portion and the support portion, for the seat assembly to be displaceable while being connected to the personal watercraft between the seating position and a collapsed position in which the seat assembly is adapted to be stored in the personal watercraft, such that the rider of the personal watercraft can be in a standing or kneeling position on the personal watercraft.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to personal watercraft and, more particularly, to a personal watercraft that is convertible for stand-up type riding and seated type riding.
2. Background Art
Personal watercraft (hereinafter PWC) have become commonplace in the nautical industry. The PWC consists of a versatile vehicle, that is used for touring and as a nautical sport vehicle. In the touring use, the PWC comprises seating such that the rider is seated in riding the PWC. The rider of such a PWC may be in a straddle position, or in a karting position.
When used as a nautical sport vehicle, the PWC comprises a standing surface on its deck, whereupon the rider stands or kneels to ride the PWC. This type of PWC appeals to a different type of rider than a typical seated-type PWC in which the rider may travel over longer distances more comfortably, as this type of PWC involves a more sporty style of riding. The stand-up type of PWC is less stable than the seated-type PWC as the rider can freely move around on the stand-up PWC or adopt various standing stances, and thus causes a change the center of gravity of the stand-up PWC.
Unfortunately, if a person enjoys operating more than one type of PWC, he/she must physically use more than one PWC to get the full experience that PWCs can offer. Moreover, if more than one person operates the same PWC, the riding style is limited to the type of PWC available.
Therefore, there is a need for a single PWC that gives the rider an option on the style of riding he or she wants to use at any given outing. Such type of PWC should also be configured to allow a rapid change in riding configuration, such that the rider may change riding styles off shore if desired. Therefore, there is a need for PWCs having components for a change in riding configuration (e.g., seat) stored within the PWCs.


An information processing device has a long-term registration system and a long-term signature system. The long-term registration system receives original data, sets attribute information with respect to the acquired original data, and associates the acquired original data with the set attribute information. The long-term signature system acquires long-term signature data obtained by performing a long-term signature on the associated original data and attribute information.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an information processing device and an information processing program, and for example, to a technique for processing long-term signature data.
2. Background Art
In order to certify unfalsification (authenticity) of electronic data, an electronic signature is widely used in which electronic data is encrypted with a secret key to perform the electronic signature, and then electronic data is decrypted with a public key corresponding to the secret key to verify the electronic signature.
Electronic data is decrypted with the public key, and thus it can be confirmed that electronic data is encrypted with the secret key corresponding to the public key. However, since a signatory has the secret key, it can be certified that electronic data is generated by the signatory. For example, the secret key functions as a seal, and the public key functions as a certificate of the seal.
The public key is distributed by a public key certificate which is issued by a certificate authority, and when the public key is distributed, the authenticity of the public key can be confirmed by the certificate.
Meanwhile, the electronic signature has an expiration date which is set so as to cope with a compromise or the like of an encryption algorithm used in the signature or the like.
Even before the expiration date, the electronic signature may be expired according to signatory's convenience or all certificates following a root certificate may be expired if the secret key is omitted.
Accordingly, in order to cope with the above-described problem, as in PTL 1, an electronic signature format (hereinafter, referred to as long-term signature format) for perpetuating the validity of an electronic signature is specified.
In the long-term signature format, an archive time stamp which is a time stamp having an expiration date longer than an electronic signature is applied to electronic data to be stored and the electronic signature, thereby securing the legitimacy of the electronic data even after the expiration date of the electronic signature has elapsed.
Before the expiration date of the archive time stamp elapses, a second-generation archive time stamp having an expiration date longer than the archive time stamp is applied to extend the expiration date. Hereinafter, the expiration date is extended to the third-generation, the fourth-generation, . . . , making it possible to verify unfalsification of electronic data over a long period of time.
Meanwhile, when a document management system and a long-term signature system collaborate with each other, the document management system inputs original data, which will be subjected to a long-term signature, to the long-term signature system, and long-term signature data with the long-term signature is returned to the document management system.
Usually, in the document management system, while original data is managed with various attribute values, such as date or importance (top-secret, secret, and official), there is a problem in that these attribute values have no long-term signature.
For example, since a case where it is certified whether or not data with the long-term signature is confidential from the past is considered, there is a demand for allowing these attribute values to be subjected to a long-term signature along with long-term signature data.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Information processing device and information processing program


A computer system is provided which supports an increase in the number of pluggable cards on the secondary I/O bus by using driver/receiver modules and direction control logic in place of more complex and more expensive bus to bus bridges. The number of pluggable cards on the I/O bus in a computer system is limited by the electrical loading of each card and the frequency of operations on the bus. Reducing the bus frequency provides more signal propagation time. The added signal propagation time supports the extension of the bus by driver/receiver modules and logic which controls the direction the driver/receiver modules drive the bus signals. Further, the driver/receiver modules support changing the hardware configuration of the system by adding or removing an I/O card without the need to cease data processing activity for the entire computer.

1. Technical Field
The present invention provides a method of extending an I/O bus to support additional adapter cards. The method of extension is by the use of a driver/receiver (DRV/RECV) module and direction control logic that determines the location of the master driving the bus signals and this information is then used to determine which way the DR/RECV (driver/receiver) module should drive the bus signals.
2. Description of Related Art
I/O buses such as the PCI bus use a bridge chip to extend the bus to support additional card connectors. The bridge chip receives the address from the bus containing the master and determines (by a set of address range registers) if it needs to provide the appropriate response signal sequences. Typically, this includes buffering the address, command, and data (in most cases) in the bridge chip prior to redriving the bus signaling sequence onto the other PCI bus.
Using additional bridge chips is one method of extending the PCI bus to include added slot capacity but it is also an expensive method of extending the bus.
Typical computer systems include a system board which includes a microprocessor and other application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), such as memory controllers, input/output (I/O) controllers, and the like, electrically connected to one another by wiring layers. Also, most computers include slots for additional adapter cards which can connect the chips on the adapter cards to the microprocessor and/or other chips on the system board, in order to provide additional function to the computer system. Typical functions that a user might add to a computer include additional memory, fax/modem capability, sound cards, graphics accelerator cards, math coprocessors, or the like. The slots included on the system board generally include in line electrical connectors having electrically conductive lands which receive exposed tabs on the adapter cards. The I/Os of the chips on the cards are connected to the tabs. The connector is then electrically connected to the microprocessor, or the like through the previously mentioned wiring layers.
In conventional computer systems, a user must power off the system and first remove the cover from the entire computer system before the additional card(s) can be accessed. This is true whether an existing card is being removed and/or a new card is being added to the computer. Often, it is a time consuming operation to remove and replace the cover of the computer system. Several metal screws must be removed and then reinstalled, and the cover frequently requires very precise alignment before it seats on the computer frame. Also, the actual installation of the card into the adapter slot can be a painstaking and time consuming operation, since the user is required to precisely align the card and slot, without the aid of any type of alignment device, and exert sufficient (but not too much) pressure for electrical contact to be made, without damaging the card or connector.
Therefore, it can be seen that a need exists for a computer system which would allow a user to change the hardware configuration of a computer by removing a feature card from and/or installing a feature card into a computer system without the need of removing the actual cover from the computer system, and powering down the entire system, or taking the computer off line. Additionally, a system would be advantageous that would assist the user in aligning the card and connector to ensure proper electrical connection and avoid damage to either component.
Also, cross referenced application, Ser. No. 08/552,186, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,694,470, provides an approach for extending a secondary I/O bus through modifications to the I/O architecture and the use of additional modified bus to bus bridges. This referenced applications does not address the problems inherent with modifying the bridge chips and the bus architecture, i.e. complexity associated with buffering the control signals. Thus, it can be seen that a need exists for a technique of providing an efficient method of providing additional I/O bus slots without the use of bus to bus bridges. Further, using off the shelf components to expand the I/O bus would be advantageous in developing computer systems that meet the price/performance requirements of the market place.

Secondary I/O bus with expanded slot capacity and hot plugging capability

International Business Machines Corporation


Methods and systems for using coverage or capacity classifications regarding a macro RF network to manage registration of femtocells with a service provider network (SPN) so as to avoid signaling overload are described herein. After a wide-scale power outage within an area where multiple femtocells are located, the femtocells can power on and attempt to register with the SPN at about the same time. The femtocells can scan RF signals received from the macro network and classify the received RF signals with respect to capacity or coverage of the macro network at the time of transmitting the RF signals. A device within the SPN can determine whether classification of the received RF signals is associated with dropping or accepting a registration request associated with the classified RF signals. The SPN device can accept the registration request or drop the registration request and request the femtocell to transmit another registration request.

A wireless communication device, such as a cellular phone or a tablet device, can be used to perform various types of communications, such as making voice calls, transmitting or receiving textual messages, and transmitting or receiving computer-readable files. The various types of communications can be carried out by one or more communication networks. One of the communication networks can be a wireless network operated by a service provider that provides communication services to a user of the wireless communication device.
A service provider network can be configured in an arrangement that requires the wireless devices to register with the service provider network prior to the device using the service provider network. The service provider network can be overloaded if a large number of devices, such as wireless communication devices, request registration with the network simultaneously or close to simultaneously and the service provider network attempts to process all of the registrations requests. A quality of service provided by the service provider network can be degraded when the service provider network is overloaded by processing a high quantity of registration requests.
Unless otherwise indicated herein, the elements described in this section are not prior art to the claims and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.

Methods and systems for using macro coverage to manage femtocell registrations, so as to avoid signaling overload


An apparatus monitors an access load state of a plurality of logical volumes of a first storage device, and determines that an access load state of a subset of the plurality of logical volumes has changed from a high load state to a low load state. The apparatus migrates, when the subset of the plurality of logical volumes remains in a low load state after an elapsed setting time since the load state of the subset of the plurality of logical volumes changed from a high load state to a low load state, data stored in the subset of the plurality of logical volumes to a second storage device having an access rate lower than the first storage device.

Generally, for storage devices, the higher the access performance, the higher the cost per capacity. Thus, the type and the model of the storage device are selected by considering the balance among demanded access performance and capacity, and the upper limit of the cost. From such a viewpoint, efficient utilization of a plurality of storage devices having different access performances has been considered. For example, a storage hierarchization technique is known that hierarchizes storage devices in a storage system based on the access performance to migrate data between hierarchies.
As an example of the system using the storage hierarchization technique, the following hierarchical storage control apparatus has been proposed. The hierarchical storage control apparatus detects an area of high access load from a volume of areas and migrates data of the high load area from a low-speed storage device to a high-speed storage device. The hierarchical storage control apparatus determines that high load has disappeared from the area determined as the high load when a state not being the high load continues for a specific period of time and migrates data of the area from a high-speed storage device to a low-speed storage device.
For example, the following hierarchical storage has been also proposed. The hierarchical storage registers a user ID for implementing a specific process in advance. Then, when there is no access to the file from the user ID for a specific period of time after recall operation is performed to a file from the user ID, the hierarchical storage migrates the file.
Related techniques are disclosed for example in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication Nos. 2014-191503 and 2016-71601.

Information processing apparatus and storage control method therefor


The present invention provides a multi-task system which can suppress the increase of required volume of RAM and which enables a multiplex interruption, and a car controlling unit utilizing that system. A memory area (RAM) utilized in executing a processing is divided into a task area 50 for carrying out a task processing and an interrupt area 60 for carrying out an interrupt processing. An interrupt level is given to the interrupt processing in accordance with its priority. The interrupt area is prepared so that the number thereof is same as that of the interrupt level. This system can suppress the increase of memory areas to be consumed as the interrupt area and can guarantee that all interrupt processings are operated.

The present invention relates to a technology for managing a memory of a computer unit and more specifically to a technology for managing a memory of a computer unit such as a car controlling unit whose memory capacity is limited.
A stack area 300 used by each task is reserved on RAM (Random Access Memory) per each task in a multi-task system, which processes a plurality of tasks concurrently on a computer. As shown in FIG. 5(a), a task program and an interrupt program use there served stack area 300 in general. Then, when interrupt processing occurs while executing processing of a task 1, for example, the interrupt processing utilizes an area not used by the task program in the stack area 300 for the task 1. Considered from the nature of the interrupt processing, it is required to operate reliably at any time whenever it occurs. Therefore, the task area 300 has to reserve a capacity, which enables to operate a task processing, and a capacity that enables to operate all the interrupt processing per task.
Accordingly, when a number of tasks increases, the RAM utilization efficiency drops, while the capacity of the RAM to be reserved increases. This is not a big problem for a computer with a plenty of memory. However, the above-mentioned problem is serious for a car controlling unit, which is mounted on a car, because the capacity of the RAM is limited.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei. 123698/1996 has disclosed, as shown in FIG. 5(b), a technology of reserving in a stack area only a task area 301 per task and only one interrupt area 303 in common to all tasks. This technology enables to suppress the increase of required amount of the RAM because it is only the task area that is to be reserved anew and the interrupt area is utilized in common, even when the number of tasks increases.
However, when multiplex interruption is considered, this technology requires reserving areas corresponding to the maximum number of interruptions, which may occur concurrently. Therefore, the required amount of the RAM cannot be reduced.
In view of the circumstances described above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a car controlling unit that allows a multiple interrupt processing, where the increase of required amount of RAM can be suppressed.
In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a car controlling unit comprises, interrupt request issuing means for issuing an interrupt request which is associated with one of a plurality of interrupt levels which indicates a priority of interrupt processing; an interrupt controller which receives the interrupt request and decides whether or not to allow the interrupt request based on the interrupt level associated with the interrupt request thus received; a central processing unit which executes a task processing and an interrupt processing, and when an interrupt request is allowed, the central processing unit temporarily suspends the task processing or the interrupt processing to execute the interrupt processing whose interrupt request has been allowed; and a memory having a plurality of task areas utilized as a stack by the task processing and a plurality of interrupt areas utilized as a stack by the interrupt processing, wherein, the number of the interrupt areas is equal to the number of the interrupt levels, and the central processing unit utilizes any one of the task areas as a stack in executing each of the task processings, and utilizes any one of the interrupt areas as a stack in executing the interrupt processing whose interrupt request has been allowed.

Car controlling unit using a multitasking system


A battery charger includes a transformer having a primary coil and a secondary coil, a switch for duty control of a current flowing through the primary coil of the transformer, a detector for detecting a value of a current flowing through the secondary coil of the transformer, and a secondary controller for receiving the detected value from the detector and for outputting a charge control signal. The pulse of the charge control signal is modulated in accordance with the detected value by the detector. The battery charger further includes a light emitter controlled by the charge control signal for flickering, a phototransistor turning on and off according to the flickering of the light emitter, and a primary controller for converting the ratio of the time during on of the phototransistor to the time during off of the phototransistor into an analog value, and for outputting to the switch a pulse signal which is modulated to have a duty cycle corresponding to the analog value so as to control a duty cycle of the switch.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a battery charger for charging a battery pack of an electric appliance such as an electric cleaner and a power driven tool, and more particularly to an improvement in a circuit configuration of the battery charger.
2. Description of the Prior Art
General circuit configuration of a conventional battery charger of constant current type is shown in FIG. 6. The circuit comprises of a primary DC power circuit 1 for rectifying and smoothing an AC power derived from a commercial AC power source (not shown) through AC terminals 1a, 1b, a field-effect transistor FET having an insulated gate and operating as a chopper for intermitting, at a predetermined frequency, a DC power supplied from the primary DC power circuit 1. The circuit also includes a transformer T for drop of voltage having a primary coil for receiving the intermitting DC power from the field-effect transistor FET and a secondary coil for outputting a voltage-dropped power of the intermitting waveform, a secondary DC power circuit 2 for rectifying and smoothing the voltage-dropped power, a current detector circuit 3 for detecting a charging current I, a secondary control circuit 4 for outputting a pulse signal (hereinafter called a charge control signal S2) the pulse width of which is modulated in such a manner that it becomes smaller when the charging current I is large and that it becomes larger when the charging current I is small, and a primary control circuit 5 for varying the duty cycle of an on-off gate signal G1 to be supplied to the field effect transistor FET.
A battery pack 6 comprises battery 6 to be charged and a thermostat THM connected in series with the battery B for detecting charging-up of the battery B. The battery pack 6 is mounted on a mounting portion formed with a body (not shown) of the battery charger for fixedly receiving the battery pack 6, so that terminals 6a, 6b and 6c of the battery pack 6 are electrically connected with a positive terminal 7a, a negative terminal 7b and a thermostat terminal 7c of the battery charger, respectively. Assuming that the battery B is normal, the battery B is initially charged at a very little current through a diode D1, a resistor R1 for limiting the current and a heat-sensitive protection element such as an OCR on a side of the battery charger. The current detector circuit 3 subsequently detects the charging current I based on the voltage across a shunt resistor R2 and outputs a current detector signal S1 to the secondary control circuit 4 which detects a charging voltage V. The secondary control circuit 4 excites its internal relay coil (not shown) so as to close a relay switch SW, so that the battery B may be charged on full-scale. At the same time with such full-scale charging, the exciting current of the relay coil of the secondary control circuit 4 flows through the terminal 7c (6c), the thermostat THM and the terminal 7b (6b). (In FIG. 6, the configuration of the secondary control circuit is partly omitted.)
The battery charger of this type is constructed to charge the battery B by supplying the charging current of constant value. When the analog value of the voltage of the current detector signal S1 from the current detector circuit 3 does not reach a predetermined value, a larger amount of the charging current is supplied to the secondary side. Thus, the secondary control circuit 4 produces the charge control signal S2, the pulse of which has been modulated to have a large width, and the charge control signal S2 is subsequently supplied to the primary control circuit 5 as an analog signal through CR integration circuit 8 of a PWM demodulation circuit and a photocoupler (optical isolator) PC1. (PWM means pulse width modulation.) The primary control circuit 5 produces the gate control signal G1 of relatively large duty cycle corresponding to the pulse with large width and supplies the same to the field-effect transistor FET. Then, the current flowing through the primary coil of the transformer T increases, so that the current flowing through the secondary coil also increases to the effect that more charging current is supplied to the battery B. This means the charging current of constant value is supplied to the battery B.
When the battery pack 6 having the battery B which is short circuited is mounted on the battery charger, an excessive current flows through the shunt resistor R2. This may be also caused when the battery B is defective. Such excessive current is detected by the current detector circuit 3 which supplies an excessive current detecting signal S3 to the primary control circuit 5 through a photocoupler PC2. The primary control circuit 5 modulates the gate control signal G1 to have a smaller duty cycle based on the excessive current detecting signal S3. The charging current of the secondary side therefore decreases, so that the supply of the excessive current to the battery B can be relieved.
In FIG. 6, R3 to R6 are resistors and C1 is a capacitor.
The prior art battery charger as described above has the following drawbacks:
The charge control signal S2 having a modulated pulse width and outputted from the secondary control circuit 4 is firstly converted to an analog signal S2' by the CR integration circuit 8 of the PWM demodulation circuit. The analog signal S2' is applied to a light emitting diode LED and therefore, it is drawn by an emitter of a phototransistor Tr1 of the photocoupler PC1. The photocoupler PC1 is used to provide different values between the primary earth voltage and the secondary earth voltage so as to attain electrical insulation. The photocoupler PC1 has, however, a transfer characteristic (such as hFE) which varies with photocouplers, and it has inferior temperature characteristic. Further, it considerably deteriorates with age. Therefore in manufacturing a circuit of a battery charger, it requires to select photocouplers which have the similar characteristics to each other and to make a fine control while remaining low reliability to the variation with age. Particularly, the emitter voltage of the phototransistor Tr1 as a light receiver is not linearly identical with the voltage of the analog signal S2'. Therefore, it is difficult to reliably transfer the analog signal S2', and the duty cycle of the gate control signal G1 from the primary control circuit 5 inevitably includes an error. Thus, the prior art has a problem in its control system.
Further, in the prior art charging circuit, for limiting the excessive charging current which may be caused on the secondary side, the duty cycle of the gate control signal to be supplied from the primary control circuit is compulsorily limited in the path from the current detector circuit 3 to the photocoupler PC2 which acts as an information transmitter from the secondary side to the primary side, so that the amount of supply of power to the secondary side can be decreased. However, in such prior art charging circuit, a transient limitation is very difficult when the current is abruptly increased to reach an excessive value. Further, since the path of transmission of the information is rather long, the response is notably delayed and it cannot meet with immediate current limitation. The battery charger is applied to charge various types of batteries, and there is some possibility to cause excessive heating when the excessive current has been produced during the charging operation.

Battery charger with charging current controller


A method for manufacturing a motor includes the following steps of: providing a substrate with an opening and a bushing; disposing the bushing within the opening of the substrate; providing a cushioning material disposed between the substrate and the bushing by injection molding.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a motor, a method for manufacturing the motor and a fan.
2. Related Art
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a part of a conventional motor 1. The conventional motor 1 is an example of motor applied to a fan. The motor 1 includes a substrate 11, a bearing 12, a shaft 13 and a stator 14. The bearing 12 is disposed within an opening 111 of the substrate 11. The bearing 12 and the substrate 11 can be integrally formed. If the bearing 12 and the substrate 11 are separate components, they can be connected by injection molding or riveting (as shown in FIG. 1).
When the fan rotates, the motor 1 also functions and rotates. However, the motor 1 vibrates after rotating and the vibration transmits to the connecting bearing 12 and substrate 11. Besides, the noise is produced accompanying with the vibration. To solve the problems mentioned above, manufacturers emphasize more on reducing and isolating the vibration. The conventional technique is to enhance the design of the structure strength of the motor, to add cushioning material around some portions, or to reduce the motor performance to decrease the vibration.
However, as lighter and thinner electronic products are demanded, it is more important to reduce the number of the elements and size of the electronic product. The above-mentioned solutions definitely would increase the number of the elements and required space. Thus, it is an important subject to provide a motor and its manufacturing method, which are able to reduce transmission of vibration, to assure the connection strength between the substrate and the bearing, to raise the production yield and to reduce labor time and cost.


A structure of the steering column device for clamping the outer column to the inner column is simple and its manufacturing cost is reduced. The outer column 1 and the bushing are stopped against rotation to the clamp members and at the same time when the outer column is adjusted in its telescopic position in respect to the inner column, the outer column, clamp members and bushing can be integrally and axially slid. Since the bushing having a low frictional coefficient is present between the inner circumference of the outer column and the outer circumference of the inner column, the outer column can be moved with a light force in respect to the inner column.

There is provided a steering column device in which the outer column and the inner column are axially and slidably fitted to each other to cause a telescopic position of the steering wheel to be adjusted or a collision load at the time of secondary collision. In such a steering column device described above, a distance bracket for use in clamping the inner column while the diameter of the outer column is reduced is integrally formed with the outer column.
For example, when the outer column is formed by a steel pipe, the distance bracket formed by a press work is welded to the outer column and integrally fixed (Patent Document 3 and Patent Document 5). In addition, there is also provided a system that both the outer column and the distance bracket are integrally formed by an aluminum die casting process (Patent Document 1, Patent Document 2, Patent Document 4, Patent Document 6, Patent Document 7).
However, the prior art constitution in which the distance bracket is welded to the outer column or integrally formed by a die-casting process had a problem that a manufacturing cost is increased due to a complex structure of the outer column.
[Patent Document 1] Gazette of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-053048
[Patent Document 2] Gazette of Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 128564/1991
[Patent Document 3] Specification of U.S. Pat. No. 5,979,265
[Patent Document 4] Specification of U.S. Pat. No. 6,467,807
[Patent Document 5] Specification of U.S. Patent Laid-Open No. 2003/0000330
[Patent Document 6] Brochure of WIPO WO03/059718
[Patent Document 7] Brochure of WIPO WO03/095286


A superconductor filter comprises a plurality of resonance elements arranged between input-output lines formed on a substrate. Metal conductor sections serving to inhibit the spatial coupling between the adjacent resonance elements are arranged between prescribed resonance elements, and a prescribed resonance element is coupled with another resonance element by a coupling transmission line. It follows that each resonance element is coupled with another resonance element by the direct coupling via the coupling transmission line or by the spatial coupling via the space.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a superconductor filter, particularly, to an improvement in the coupling of a resonance element included in a superconductor high frequency filter.
2. Description of the Related Art
A high frequency filter is incorporated as a main part in communication equipment for wireless communication or communication through wire of information. The high frequency filter, which performs the function of filtering a desired frequency band alone, is a functionally important constituent of the communication equipment. In order to operate the communication equipment in a more energy-efficient fashion by effectively utilizing the frequency, the high frequency filter is required to be good in the attenuation characteristics and to be small in the insertion loss. In order to prepare a filter meeting these requirements, it is necessary to obtain a resonance element having a high Q value. As a method for realizing a resonance element having a high Q value, it is proposed in recent years to use a high temperature superconductor material, which is a material having a very small surface resistance, as a conductor constituting the resonance element.
In the structure of a high frequency filter formed of a superconductor thin film, a half-wave resonance element or the like is formed by a distributed constant circuit such as a micro strip line on a substrate. In general, these resonance elements are arranged to form a multi-stage structure and are spatially connected to each other.
In a high frequency filter, the resonance elements are spatially coupled to each other by electromagnetism so as to determine the filter characteristics. Therefore, generally, varying the relative positions, at which the resonance elements are arranged, is used as the standard method of design. In other words, the filter is designed such that the adjacent resonance elements are arranged closely in the case where a strong coupling is required or further apart in the case where a weak coupling is required.
The Chebyshev function type filter, which is known as a typical filter structure, is constructed by utilizing the electromagnetic coupling alone between the adjacent resonance elements. In the Chebyshev function type filter, the resonance elements are linearly arranged such that a relatively large distance is provided between a certain resonance element and another resonance element other than the resonance element positioned adjacent to said certain resonance element, so as to make it relatively difficult for an undesired coupling to take place.
On the other hand, a pseudo elliptical function type filter is disclosed on page 1656 of "IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, Vol. 47 (1999)". The pseudo elliptical function type filter is constructed such that a certain resonance element, i.e., a first resonance element, is intentionally coupled with a resonance element other than the resonance element positioned adjacent to the first resonance element, which is called a jumping coupling, for planarizing the group delay characteristics. Also disclosed on page 1656 of "IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, Vol. 47 (1999)" is a method for achieving the adjacent coupling and the jumping coupling by utilizing the spatial coupling.
On the other hand, disclosed on page 661 of "IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Symposium Digest (2000)" is a method in which the spatial coupling is employed for the coupling of the adjacent resonance elements and a coupling transmission line, i.e., a transmission line for the coupling, is employed for the jumping coupling. In the prior art disclosed in this literature, the resonance elements are linearly arranged, and the resonance elements are arranged relatively far away from each other, except for the adjacent resonance elements.
As described above, the Chebyshev function type filter is constructed such that a relatively large distance is provided between the resonance elements other than the adjacent resonance elements so as to make it relatively difficult for an undesired coupling to take place. However, there is a lower limit in the distance between the resonance elements. It is impossible for the distance between the resonance elements to be zero, except for the distance between the adjacent resonance elements. It should be noted that the coupling between the resonance elements other than the coupling between the adjacent resonance elements gives rise to the problem that the actual filter characteristics deviate from the desired filter characteristics. To be more specific, it is necessary to redesign or adjust the arrangement of the resonance elements in an attempt to obtain the desired characteristics.
In the method of forming the adjacent coupling and the jumping coupling by using the spatial coupling, which is disclosed on page 1656 of "IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, Vol. 47 (1999)" referred to above, the resonance elements that are originally irrelevant to each other in respect of the coupling are positioned close to each other in the process of forming a jumping coupling. As a result, a serious problem is generated that an undesired coupling is generated between the resonance elements positioned close to each other.
In the method disclosed on page 661 of "IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Symposium Digest (2000)" referred to above, a spatial coupling is employed for the coupling of the adjacent resonance elements, and the coupling transmission line is employed for the jumping coupling. In this method, a relatively large distance is provided between a certain resonance element and another resonance element other than the resonance element positioned adjacent to the said certain resonance element so as to make it relatively difficult for an undesired coupling to take place. However, there is a lower limit in the distance between the resonance elements. It is impossible for the distance between the resonance elements to be zero except the distance between the adjacent resonance elements. It should be noted in this connection that the filter of this construction gives rise to the problem that the actual filter characteristics deviate from the desired filter characteristics. To be more specific, it is necessary to redesign or adjust the arrangement of the resonance elements in an attempt to obtain the desired proper characteristics.


A device for a hydraulic wheel drive of a motor vehicle includes a wheel flange; a stub axle; and a rotary piston wheel drive configured and designed to introduce and receive a torque at the wheel flange. An active intervention of the rotary piston wheel drive is designed to be able to be switched on and decoupled. The present invention ensures that the vehicle can drive over rough tracks in the off-road sector. In addition the device can be engaged to recover braking force.

The invention concerns a hydraulic wheel drive for a motor vehicle, in particular for trucks, and particularly preferably for heavy goods vehicles or buses. An operating method for such motor vehicles is also given.
For many applications, it is necessary or at least useful to operate a motor vehicle both in the off-road sector and in the on-road sector. The off-road sector is characterized in particular by dirt roads such as usually occur on construction sites or in forests. The on-road sector is characterized in particular by asphalted roads, in particular for long-distance traffic. In the off-road sector, situations often occur in which the motor vehicle, because of the loose ground, cannot create sufficient traction, in particular with a single-axle drive as is normal for on-road vehicles, and becomes stuck. To this end, known off-road vehicles are fitted with a mechanical all-wheel drive system which normally comprises a primary mechanical drive unit. Such a drive unit (e.g., drive train) is normally arranged behind the engine, i.e., downstream in the direction of the power flow or force transmission. This drive unit comprises at least the gearbox, cardan shafts and mechanically driven axles, and transmits the mechanical power generated by the engine to the axles or wheels of a vehicle.

Hydraulic drive for a motor vehicle and method for its operation


A method for planning a high altitude platform-based communication network includes aggregating data from at least one data source, wherein the data includes environmental data. Based on the aggregated data, a plurality of network expansion potential scores are computed according to geographic location. A visual output is generated based on the computed plurality of network expansion potential scores.

Automated network planning for terrestrial wireless communication networks typically involves the use of algorithms that simulate radio frequency (RF) signal propagation and rely upon models of terrestrial communication towers, population data, and/or existing connectivity data to determine where to place new terrestrial communication towers. However, communication networks projected from high altitude platforms (HAPs), such as networks in which communication nodes are embodied as aerial vehicles floating in the atmosphere, are subject to technical challenges not faced by terrestrial networks and unaddressed by traditional network planning approaches. For instance, in HAP-based networks the communication nodes are subject to environmental influence, such as stratospheric winds, move vertically and laterally relative to the earth, and thus have a highly dynamic state. Additionally, the cost of providing service via an HAP-based communication network in a region depends on the navigability of nodes through the atmosphere in and around that region, and the navigability varies over time based upon season, weather, and/or other factors. Such a cost is also unaddressed by traditional network planning approaches. In view of the foregoing, it would be beneficial to have improved systems and methods for planning communication networks projected from HAPs.

Systems and methods for planning high altitude platform-based communication networks


A screen update method and system is provided. The game server performs the steps of: receiving dynamics information from a first gamer's terminal; and transmitting the received dynamics information to at least one second gamer's terminal. The first gamer's terminal performs the steps of: performing dynamics computation by using the dynamics information; and updating a display screen displayed on a display unit of the first gamer's terminal provided by the game server by using result information of the dynamics computation. The second gamer's terminal performs the steps of: performing dynamics computation by using the received dynamics information; and updating a display screen displayed on a display unit of the second gamer's terminal provided by the game server by using result information of the dynamics computation performed in the second gamer's terminal.

The present invention relates to a method of updating a screen by using a plurality of gamers' terminals connected to a game server providing an online game via a network and a system employing the method, and more particularly, to a screen update method and system in which a server of an online game such as 3D MMORPG providing a three-dimensional game screen transmits dynamics information received from a predetermined gamer's terminal to at least one associated gamer's terminal such that dynamics computation and display screen updates are performed by using the dynamics information, respectively, in each gamer's terminal.

Method and system for renewing screen using mechanics information


A plastic-extrusion system comprises a plurality of system components including an extruder and a collection device for collecting the extruded plastic material. The plastic-extrusion system has an operator station designed for taking in and outputting data of the plastic-extrusion system. The operator station further has a mobile terminal including a screen of a graphical user interface as well as a camera. The plastic-extrusion system is associated with at least one information source, and preferably a plurality of information sources. The operator station is configured so as to provide access to the at least one information source, and preferably to the plurality of information sources.

A typical plastic-extrusion system comprises a plurality of system components including an extruder and a device for collecting the extruded plastic material. The plurality of system components furthermore includes a system controller for controlling with or without feedback the plastic-extrusion system. Also, an operator station is provided for operating the system controller, the operator station having for example a monitor and a keyboard.
Such plastic-extrusion systems are sufficiently known from practice. However, the disadvantage is that this known design of plastic-extrusion systems makes the operation and monitoring of ongoing production a complex task. The reason is that it is necessary for the employee in charge to have access to a wide range of information sources directly on-site so as to operate and monitor ongoing production. A processor associated with the plastic-extrusion system, such as in the form of a system server, however, does not offer this kind of comprehensive access. Also, it is frequently necessary to take photos or videos of the ongoing production operation or of system components during operation so as to monitor production, or to search for faults in the event of warning messages. Such data must then for example be transmitted to the line server in a cumbersome process and further analyzed there, or be linked to other information from other data sources. This also involves significant complexity just to be able to ensure ongoing operation.

Plastic extruder with mobile operator station and method of operating same

REIFENHAEUSER GMBH & CO. KG MASCHINENFABRIK


A method of managing resources of an information system relative to clients of the system. A quality of service (QoS) message is received from a client expressing QoS requirements as parameter values. A contract is established with the client for quality of service based on the one or more parameter values. One or more resources of the system are allocated to the client based on the contract. This method enables uniform resource management and polymorphic resource allocation across multiple middleware platforms.

Quality of Service (QoS) management may be implemented in a networked enterprise system to optimize the use of system resources by a plurality of concurrent network applications. Units of work in enterprise systems generally can be considered as either tasks or messages. In an object-oriented system a primitive task may be, for example, a thread of execution of an object. Messages typically are encapsulations of information of various types. Systems tend to be task-oriented or message oriented. Accordingly, known QoS management methods tend to be either task-oriented or message-oriented.
Although QoS management concepts and frameworks for task-oriented systems and message-oriented systems may be similar, actual implementation techniques tend to be quite different. In task-oriented systems, QoS management techniques typically focus on prioritizing task executions to meet application QoS requirements. In message-oriented systems, QoS management techniques typically focus on quality of message reception, processing, and delivery. Meanings of quality characteristics such as performance and reliability can be slightly different from those in task-oriented systems. For example, message reliability typically means a combination of delivery guarantees, ordering of messages, and duplicate removals. Task reliability, on the other hand, typically means a probability that a task can be successfully executed without failure.
QoS management is currently used in task-oriented systems to support computational applications for getting get high priority tasks done in a timely manner in distributed environments. However, QoS management for message-oriented enterprise systems has not been given as much attention. Such systems include enterprise systems in which service-oriented architectures (SOAS) are implemented. SOAs may be, for example, publish/subscribe, object request broker, peer-to-peer architectures or combinations thereof.
In a publish/subscribe architecture, an information broker provides services to client applications of a system. Information brokers play a central role in information publication, processing, and dissemination in distributed enterprise systems and network centric military systems. Examples of brokered systems include email, information sphere, collaboration, virtual community, and group communication. It can be difficult in a brokered system to meet requirements of critical clients when many concurrent clients and their requests compete for system resources. It has come to the attention of the inventors that known resource management methods for information brokers do not distinguish between clients with different QoS characteristics so that system resources might be managed accordingly.

Quality of service resource management apparatus and method for middleware services


It has been discovered that any RNA can be targeted for cleavage by RNase P from prokaryotic or eukaryotic cells using a suitably designed oligonucleotide ("external guide sequence", or EGS) to form a hybrid with the target RNA, thereby creating a substrate for cleavage by RNase P in vitro. The EGS hydrogen bonds to the targeted RNA to form a partial tRNA like structure including the aminoacyl acceptor stem, the T stem and loop, and part of the D stem. An EGS can be modified both by changes in sequence and by chemical modifications to the nucleotides. The EGS can be a separate molecule or can be combined with an RNase P catalytic RNA sequence to form a single oligonucleotide molecule ("RNase P internal guide sequence" or RIGS). Methods are also disclosed to randomly select and to express a suitable EGS or RIGS in vivo to make a selected RNA a target for cleavage by a host cell RNase P or introduced RIGS, thus preventing expression of the function of the target RNA. The methods and compositions should be useful to prevent the expression of disease- or disorder-causing genes in vivo.

This invention is in the general area of genetic engineering of nucleic acid sequences, especially chemically modified external guide sequences and catalytic RNA sequences linked to guide sequences.
There are several classes of ribozymes now known which are involved in the cleavage and/or ligation of RNA chains. A ribozyme is defined as an enzyme which is made of RNA, most of which work on RNA substrates. Ribozymes have been known since 1982, when Cech and colleagues (Cell 31: 147-157) showed that a ribosomal RNA precursor in Tetrahymena, a unicellular eukaryote, undergoes cleavage catalyzed by elements in the RNA sequence to be removed during the conversion of the rRNA precursor into mature rRNA. Another class of ribozyme, discovered in 1983, was the first to be shown to work in trans, that is, to work under conditions where the ribozyme is built into one RNA chain while the substrate to be cleaved is a second, separate RNA chain. This ribozyme, called M1 RNA, was characterized in 1983 by Altman and colleagues as responsible for the cleavage which forms mature 5' ends of all transfer RNAs (tRNAs) in E. coli. Analogous RNA-containing enzymes concerned with tRNA synthesis have since been found in all cells in which they have been sought, including a number of human cell lines, though the relevant eukaryotic RNAs have not yet been shown to be catalytic by themselves in vitro.
The discovery and characterization of this catalytic RNA is reviewed by Sidney Altman, in "Ribonuclease P: An Enzyme with a Catalytic RNA Subunit" in Adv. Enzymol. 62: 1-36 (1989). The activity was first isolated from E. coli extracts, and subsequently determined to be a ribonucleoprotein having two components, an RNA component called M1 and a protein component called C5. The RNA cleaved substrates in a true enzymatic reaction, as measured using Michaelis-Menten kinetics. M1 was determined to be solely responsible for substrate recognition and C5 was determined to alter k.sub.cat but not K.sub.M, as reported by Guerrier-Takada et al., Cell 35: 849 (1983) and McClain et al., Science 238: 527 (1987). Sequencing showed that M1 RNA is 377 nucleotides long, M.sub.r approximately 125,000, and that the protein consists of 119 amino acids, M.sub.r approximately 13,800, as reported by Hansen et al., Gene 38: 535 (1987).
Cleavage of precursor tRNA molecules by the RNA component of eubacterial RNase P is described by Guerrier-Takada et al., Cell 35, 849 (1983) and reviewed by Altman, Adv. Enzymol. 62:1 (1989).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,168,053 entitled "Cleavage Of Targeted RNA By RNase P" to Altman et al., discloses that it is possible to target any RNA molecule for cleavage by bacterial RNase P by forming a nucleotide sequence part of which is complementary to a targeted site and which includes a terminal 3'-NCCA, wherein the sequence is designed to hybridize to the targeted RNA so that the bacterial RNase P cleaves the substrate at the hybrid base-paired region. Specificity is determined by the complementary sequence. The sequence is preferably ten to fifteen nucleotides in length and may contain non-complementary nucleotides to the extent this does not interfere with formation of several base pairs by the complementary sequence which is followed by NCCA at the 3' end.
As described in WO 92/03566 to Yale University, ribonuclease P (RNase P) from E. coli can cleave oligoribonucleotides that are found in hydrogen-bonded complexes that resemble the aminoacyl stem and include the 5' leader sequence of tRNA precursors, --NCAA. Human RNase P cannot cleave in vitro the 5' proximal oligoribonucleotide in the simple complexes cleaved by RNase P from E. coli, but can do so when the 3' proximal oligoribonucleotide is bound to an external guide sequence (EGS) to form a structure resembling portions of a tRNA molecule. The EGS can include a complementary sequence to a target substrate of at least eleven nucleotides, seven bases which hydrogen bond to the targeted sequence to form a structure akin to the aminoacyl acceptor stem of a precursor tRNA, and four nucleotides which base pair with the targeted sequence to form a structure akin to the dihydroxyuracil stem. WO 92/03566 does not disclose EGS for prokaryotic RNase P with fewer than seven complementary nucleotides.
WO 93/22434 to Yale University discloses an EGS for human RNase P. As described in WO 93/22434, an EGS for human RNase P consists of a sequence which, when in a complex with the target substrate molecule, forms a secondary structure resembling that of a tRNA cloverleaf, or a substantial part of it, and that results in cleavage of the 10 target RNA by RNase P. The sequence of the EGS of WO 93/22434 is derived from any tRNA except that the D stem and aminoacyl stem are altered to be complementary to the target substrate sequence. WO 93/22434 also discloses EGS with either the anticodon loop and stem or the extra loop deleted, and EGS where the sequence of the T loop and stem are changed. WO 93/22434 does not disclose eukaryotic EGS comprising only a region complementary to the target RNA and a region forming a structure similar to only the T stem and loop of tRNA. Neither WO 92/03566 nor WO 93/22434 discloses EGS having chemically modified nucleotides.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide methods and compositions for specifically cleaving targeted RNA sequences using linked catalytic RNA and minimal guide sequences.
It is another object of the present invention to provide chemically modified external guide sequences for RNase P with enhanced resistance to nuclease degradation.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for selecting external guide sequences, and linked catalytic RNA and guide sequences, that cleave a target RNA with increased efficiency.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide methods and compositions for specifically cleaving RNA, both in vitro and in vivo within eukaryotic cells, for the treatment of disease conditions which involve RNA transcription or translation, such as diseases caused by RNA and DNA viruses and expression of excessive or pathogenic proteins from mRNA, or of excessive or pathogenic RNA, itself.

Targeted cleavage of RNA using ribonuclease P targeting and cleavage sequences


A user interface for a computer system controls the creation and appearance of windows in a computer display. Aspects of the interface include utilizing three-dimensional rendering technology to render two-dimensional windows as texture on three-dimensional objects, automatically positioning windows in a primary viewing area so that the windows appear aligned with each other, and providing a three-dimensional start palette that contains icons for opening windows on the display.

The present invention relates to computer interfaces. In particular, the present invention relates to three-dimensional computer interfaces.
Currently, three-dimensional computer interfaces are being developed that allow a user to navigate through a three-dimensional space that contains icons and windows representing documents and applications. However, current systems do not combine existing three-dimensional rendering technology with two-dimensional window data in a way that allows the windows to be rendered easily in the three dimensional environment while retaining the ability to identify the location of a cursor relative to the displayed window.
In addition, although a three-dimensional space provides more room for displaying two-dimensional windows, it also applies a greater burden on the user to position the windows properly in the space. In particular, current operating systems (both three-dimensional based and two-dimensional based) fail to provide an optimum method for placing two or more windows in an area so that the windows have the same general shape and size and do not overlap each other. Currently, in order to place two or more windows in such an area, the user must change the shape and size of one or both of the windows to be viewed and manually move the windows into the desired area. These manual steps reduce the efficiency of using the computer system. Thus, a system is needed that allows windows to be positioned in a three-dimensional space but that also limits the positioning burden placed on the user.
In addition, because the user can move in such three-dimensional environments, they are often some distance from the application icons they want to access. Thus, the user is often forced to navigate through the environment to reach the documents and applications they want to use. This is a burden to the user, especially when the user has to navigate through the environment for applications and documents that they access frequently.
Current interfaces also fail to provide descriptive icons to represent windows that are currently running on the system but that may not be currently visible to the user. In some two-dimensional desktop interfaces of the prior art, a taskbar is provided that includes icons for each active window on the desktop. However, these icons do not provide much information about the status of the window's contents and in some cases two or more icons can look the same on the taskbar.

Method and apparatus for supporting two-dimensional windows in a three-dimensional environment


A fuse element comprising a pair of female terminal portions into which the other pair of terminals is plugged, and which are disposed in parallel, and a blowout portion for coupling the pair of female terminal portions in a direction perpendicular to the direction in which the other pair of terminals is plugged. A slow blow fuse comprising the fuse element accommodated in a housing made of an insulating resin and is provided with the insertion ports in which the other pair of terminals is plugged into the pair of the female terminal portions in the opposed surfaces of the housing.

Conventionally to protect a circuit from eddy current, a fuse is mounted on the electric junction box for distributing a power supply to electric component parts mounted on a car. As disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-281078 (patent document 1), the slow blow fuse 1 shown in FIG. 11 is proposed.
In the slow blow fuse 1, the fuse element 5 having the female terminal-shaped input terminal part 2 and the output terminal part 3 connected thereto by the coupling part 4 having the fusing portion 4a is accommodated inside the box-shaped housing 6 made of an insulating resin. The insertion ports (not shown in FIG. 11) through which mating terminals are inserted into the housing 6 are formed through the bottom wall of the housing 6 at positions confronting the input terminal part 2 and the output terminal part 3 of the fuse element 5 so that the mating terminals inserted into the housing 6 through the insertion ports are connected to the input terminal part 2 and the output terminal part 3 respectively.
In the slow blow fuse 1 disclosed in the patent document 1, the coupling part 4 of the fuse element 5 is projected from the input terminal part 2 and the output terminal part 3 in a terminal plugging direction. Thus the fuse element 5 is long in the terminal plugging direction.
In addition in the fuse element 5 of the slow blow fuse 1 disclosed in the patent document 1, the mating terminals can be inserted into the input terminal part 2 and the output terminal part 3 from only the side of the housing 6 where the coupling part 4 is not provided. Therefore in inserting the slow blow fuse 1 accommodating the fuse element 5 into the fuse accommodation portion of the electric junction box, the bottom wall of the housing 6 should be set as the front end at the insertion side.
Ordinarily, the slow blow fuse is inserted into the fuse accommodation portion by using mechanical equipment. In inserting the slow blow fuse 1 into the fuse accommodation portion, it is necessary to position the slow blow fuse 1 in which component parts are irregularly arranged in such a way that the bottom wall of the housing 6 is set as the front end at the insertion side. Thus it is necessary to use a dedicated equipment to do so, which makes the production cost high.
Patent document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-281078

Slow blow fuse and electric junction box


A fog machine supplies air to a fog liquid reservoir to force the fog liquid into a heater, wherein the fog liquid vaporizes to produce fog. The fog liquid supply to the heater can be halted, and the air supply can then be used to purge the heater of residual fog liquid. Within the heater, the fog liquid travels from outer passages further from the heating element(s) to inner passages closer to the heating element(s), whereby the fog liquid is preheated prior to vaporization, resulting in a higher degree of vaporization and “drier” fog with finer vapor particles. The fog machine may draw fog liquid from an “offboard” fog liquid reservoir, such as an off-the-shelf jug of liquid, and is preferably remote-controllable via a user's smartphone.

Commonly available fog machines typically have a rectangular box-like structure containing a liquid pump that pumps "fog liquid"—typically a glycol-based or glycerin-based liquid—into a heating coil to generate a visibly dense and lingering vapor (i.e., "fog" or "smoke"). These known fog machines tend to have one or more of the following drawbacks.
First, if a conventional fog machine is left unattended and runs out of liquid, the liquid pump typically keeps running, and can burn out. At that stage it needs to be replaced, or more typically, the machine is discarded.
Second, when operation of conventional fog machines is halted—terminating heating of their heating coils—residual unvaporized fog liquid tends to remain in the coil, and/or fog liquid condenses within the coil. This can then lead to subsequent draining/dripping of fog liquid, particularly if the fog machine is moved. This is at best inconvenient, and at worst dangerous if the fog liquid is still hot.
Third, over time, the heating coil tends to accumulate mineral deposits from fog liquid, particularly where the fog liquid is left resting in the coil. Once blocked, the coils are difficult to cost-effectively clean, and the machine is basically irreparable and is discarded.
Fourth, prior machines typically heat to a single predetermined/preset target temperature, and then cycle on and off via a thermostat. The preset temperature may not be optimal for a particular fog liquid's composition (i.e., the desired amount and/or quality of the fog might be improved if a different target temperature could be set). Moreover, if fog liquid is heated to an improper temperature—for example, where glycol-based fog liquids are overheated—they can generate noxious compounds (e.g., formaldehyde).