The system of the invention involves an anti-slip alignment plate used with a mounting bracket for mounting a device, such as a flat video screen having video mounting holes. The anti-slip plate is aligned with protrusions, or other means, with a plurality engagement members on the bracket which receives the protrusions. Once the plate and bracket have mated in a particular position, a fastener can secure the plate, bracket and device together. The result is that the fastener need not be torqued so tightly because slippage is prevented by the engagement points on the anti-slip plate. Furthermore, the number of position available for the anti-slip plate to secure the device is often substantially greater than would be achieve if the bracket merely had series of adjacent mounting holes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for mounting an apparatus with a bracket. This invention is particularly advantageous for a flat panel video screen.
2. Background
Mounting brackets are necessary for many purposes. For example, a flat video screen, is thin in comparison to the depth of conventional cathode ray video screens and lends itself to wall or ceiling mounting. Flat panel video displays offers high video resolution, a larger surface area for display, and less weight than older video screen technologies but they are still awkward to manipulate when mounting. Additionally, because thinness of the screen type is a strong virtue, it is important to mount such devices as close to the wall as possible. This makes access to mounting holes more difficult for the installer to see as the screen and bracket are often tight to the wall during and after installation.
Flat panel video screens are expensive, and any mounting systems for the plasma video screen must be able to securely connect to the plasma video screen. The problem is that there are many manufacturers of such devices and no comprehensive standardization of the mounting holes. Consequently, to make a mounting apparatus capable of connecting different models requires that slots not holes be provided to mate with as many brands as possible.
However, there are dedicated mounting apparatus made for particular brands. A dedicated mounting apparatus for a particular brand can use a screw hole in the bracket or a slot in the bracket through which a screw connects to attach to the video screen holes on the back of the video screen. A drawback of a dedicated system with a screw hole in the bracket is that users can over torque the screw when connecting the bracket to the back of the video screen. A drawback of a dedicated system with a slot in the bracket is that the shear factor increases for connecting the screw to the back of the video screen.
As discussed above problems exist for a screw hole and a slot in a mounting bracket. The problems are exacerbated when the material into which the screws are tightened is a soft material. For example, as in the case of the hole in the back of a video display screen, the material is soft. The installer can have a tendency to over tighten the screws in a screw hole of a soft material. In the case of a slot, the installer can be concerned about slippage within the slot, and over-tighten.
These dedicated mounting systems also lack the flexibility to allow a broad range of alignment for the flat video screen, and at the same time provide a secure connection for the video screen. The mounting systems should permit the user to easily adjust or align the position of the video screen up or down on the mounting apparatus according to the user's preferred height of the screen.
As popularity of the flat panel video screens has flourished, the numbers of different models of screens have likewise continued to grow. The increase in numbers of screens means that a seller of mounting kits needs more space to stock a variety of different dedicated kits to service customers.
Thus, a need exists for an apparatus and mounting system for various devices such as a flat video screen that can securely connect a variety of different models of display to a bracket without the drawbacks of the dedicated mounting apparatus. A need further exists for an apparatus and mounting system that permits a greater range of alignment than a dedicated mounting system without affecting the secure attachment of the apparatus to the device.


A calibration mechanism for an optical module of a sheet-fed scanner is disclosed. The calibration mechanism includes a calibration strip and a driving unit. The calibration strip is moved by the driving unit, and the calibration strip may be moved relative to the optical module for calibrating color depth. The driving unit includes a roller and a flexible strip. One end of the flexible strip is mounted to the roller, and the calibration strip is mounted or formed on the flexible strip. The flexible strip is moved by the roller action so that the calibration strip is moved relative to the optical module, and the optical module may accordingly calibrate the color depth.

A conventional flat-bed scanner has a movable optical module therein which scans a calibration strip at a fixed position before proceeding scanning so as to obtain multiple scanning lines and according to the scanning lines to calibrate the optical module.
A sheet-fed scanner has a feature of automatically feeding the sheets which are scanned by the optical module in the scanner. Due to the movement of the sheet, the fixed optical module cannot calibrate the color depth for multiple lines before the image scanning. The optical module can only scan single one line to calibrate the color depth. If there is dust or defect at the position of the line to be scanned, the result is incorrect such that the calibration of color for single line scanning has low reliability.
A combination of a flat-bed scanner and sheet-fed scanner may proceed double-side scanning. If the flat-bed scanner has a calibration strip on the optical module thereof, the calibration strip on the optical module of the flat-bed scanner and the optical module of the sheet-fed scanner have relative movement when the optical module of the flat-bed scanner moves to proceed calibration of color. By this way, the optical module of the sheet-fed scanner may have multiple scanning lines on the calibration strip so as to proceed the calibration of color for the multiple scanning lines.
Nevertheless, once the flat-bed scanner and the sheet-fed scanner are separated, and the sheet-fed scanner is used individually, the calibration of color cannot be proceeded. Even they are used in combination, the gap between the two respective optical modules of the sheet-fed scanner and the flat-bed scanner is large, so that the quality of the scanning lines obtained by the optical module on the sheet-fed scanner is not satisfied, and the reliability of the calibration of color is affected.
It is to be noted that the sheet-fed scanner includes a single scanning unit which can be operated independently, and a sheet-fed scanning unit which can be combined with the flat-bed scanner to proceed double-side scanning.

Calibration mechanism for an optical module of a sheet-fed scanner


An LED lamp assembly includes a fixing holder adapted for positioning the LED lamp assembly at a desired position and a plurality of LED lamp modules superposed one by one on the fixing holder and spaced from each other. The LED lamp modules gradually increase in dimension along a superposing direction of the LED lamp modules. Each of the LED lamp modules includes a heat sink and an LED module attached to the heat sink. The heat sinks of the LED lamp modules gradually increase in dimension along the superposing direction of the LED lamp modules. The LED lamp modules are connected by a rod between the heat sinks of adjacent ones of the LED lamp modules.

1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates to LED (light emitting diode) lamp assemblies for illumination purpose and, more particularly, relates to an improved LED lamp assembly having a good heat dissipation capability and large illumination area.
2. Description of Related Art
An LED lamp is a type of solid-state lighting that utilizes LEDs as a source of illumination. An LED is a device for transferring electricity to light by using a theory that, if a current is made to flow in a forward direction through a junction region comprising two different semiconductors, electrons and holes are coupled at the junction region to generate a light beam. The LED has an advantage that it is resistant to shock, and has an almost eternal lifetime under a specific condition; thus, the LED lamp is intended to be a cost-effective yet high quality replacement for incandescent and fluorescent lamps.
Since LED lamps have many advantages; the LED lamps often act as street, lawn or home lamps for illumination purpose. Known implementations of LED modules in an LED lamp make use of a plurality of individual LEDs to generate light that is ample and of satisfactory spatial distribution. The large number of LEDs, however, increases price and power consumption of the module. Considerable heat is also generated, which, if not adequately addressed at additional expense, impacts LED lamp reliability.
Further, since the LEDs are generally arranged on a printed circuit board having a flattened surface, illumination is distributed at a wide variety of spatial angles with sharp differences in intensity and brightness, making it unsuitable for environments requiring even and broad illumination. Finally, the LEDs mounted on the flattened surface of the printed circuit board cannot have a large area of illumination.
What is needed, therefore, is an improved LED lamp assembly which can overcome the above problems.

Fu Zhun Precision Industry (Shen Zhen) Co., Ltd.


In some examples, a system includes a transceiver configured to transmit a first surveillance message at a first power level at or below a first maximum power level. The system also includes processing circuitry coupled to the transceiver, the processing circuitry configured to determine that a threshold condition exists. The processing circuitry is also configured to determine a second maximum power level in response to determining that the threshold condition exists, where the second maximum power level is lower than the first maximum power level. The transceiver is configured to transmit, in response to the processing circuitry determining that the threshold condition exists, a second surveillance message at a second power level, wherein the second power level is at or below the second maximum power level.

A vehicle may report the position of the vehicle to other vehicles and traffic systems. For example, an aircraft may include equipment for sending Traffic Collision Awareness System (TCAS) messages. The TCAS equipment can send interrogation messages to other aircraft at a frequency of 1030 MHz. A transponder on another aircraft can also receive interrogation messages from other TCAS equipment and reply with a TCAS message at a frequency of 1090 MHz indicating the position of the aircraft.
TCAS II equipment is required to perform interference limiting. When the aircraft is in a high-traffic area, the aircraft can perform interference limiting by reducing the rate and power of the TCAS transmissions below defined interference limits. The estimate of the number of TCAS equipped aircraft within a certain range of ownship is used to determine the "defined interference limits". The ownship aircraft can perform interference limiting based on an estimate of the number of other TCAS equipped aircraft in the vicinity of the ownship aircraft.

Interference limiting for surveillance messages


A main element which can be used as a rotor or stator for an electrical machine has a short-circuit ring and radially protruding teeth formed integrally onto the short-circuit ring, which teeth are offset from one another about circumferential angles. To make it possible to press a main element of relatively great axial length of SMC material with the required high material density, the SMC body is subdivided into a plurality of separately manufactured modules, placed against one another in axially aligned fashion, two each of which modules are embodied identically and on being placed against one another are rotated 180° in the plane defined by the module axes. Each separately pressed module, to achieve the required density, has a high aspect ratio, and for pressing the plurality of modules, only two press molds are required.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to a main element usable as a rotor or stator for an electrical machine, especially for a small DC motor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The magnetically conductive bodies of stators or rotors in an electrical machine are increasingly being made from SMC (soft magnetic powder iron composite) material and particularly for small DC motors are replacing the laminated iron bodies or lamination packets, since from a production standpoint they are very much easier to manufacture. SMC material moreover offers additional advantages in comparison to stator or rotor bodies of sheet-metal lamination packets, such as reducing iron losses at high frequencies in motors with a high rpm or a large number of poles, improved thermal characteristics because of the use of thin tooth insulators, since the teeth can be pressed without sharp corners and edges, and high flexibility in terms of design of the motor. SMC material is typically pressed into the desired shape of the stator or rotor using a pressing tool and is then heat-treated at a relatively low temperature, for example of up to 500° C. In the pressing, a relatively high density of the material, which comes as close as possible to that of iron (7.8 g/cm3), must be attained. Such a density can be attained only whenever the aspect ratio of the compact is as high as possible. An aspect ratio of 1:15 has been established as a limit value. The term "aspect ratio" is understood to mean the ratio between the smallest dimension of the cross section, extending transversely to the pressing direction, of the compact to the length of the compact in the pressing direction.
To maintain this kind of aspect ratio, in a known multipole stator of SMC material for an internal rotor machine (International Patent Disclosure WO 99/50949), it is known for the outer short-circuit ring, also called a short-circuit yoke, to be composed of a number of annular segments in the circumferential direction that correspond to the number of teeth of the stator. Each annular segment of the short-circuit ring integrally has one stator tooth with a tooth neck and a tooth shoe that is the boundary of the tooth neck on its end remote from the short-circuit ring. Each annular segment with a tooth neck and tooth shoe is produced from SMC material by pressing and heat treatment. The tooth necks are rounded on their axial ends or have an oval profile, so that with the elimination of sharp edges at the tooth necks, only a thin insulating layer has to be applied, onto which the annular coil can then be wound. The individual annular coils of the stator winding are wound directly onto the tooth necks using conventional machine winding technology. Once the annular coils have been wound on, the individual annular segments are placed against one another in the circumferential direction and solidly joined together.
In another known stator of SMC material for an internal rotor machine (WO 00/69047), the short-circuit ring on the one hand and the stator teeth with the tooth neck and tooth shoe on the other are produced separately in the desired form from SMC material. Once the prefabricated annular coils are slipped onto the tooth necks, the stator teeth are inserted by positive engagement, with the ends of the tooth necks remote from the tooth shoe, into prepared recesses in the short-circuit ring and secured to it.


A master dynamic aging value associated with the client is calculated responsive to an operator command to perform the global refresh. When receiving a request from a user associated with the client, a sub-dynamic aging value associated with a cached user security profile for the user is compared to the master dynamic aging value. If the sub-dynamic aging value is not equal to the master dynamic aging value, then the cached user security profile is refreshed.

Databases, such as IBM's IMS (Information Management System), are well known in the art. (IMS is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.) IMS is a hierarchical database management system (HDBMS) with wide spread usage in many large enterprises where high transaction volume, reliability, availability and scalability are of the utmost importance. IMS provides software and interfaces for running the businesses of many of the world's largest corporations.
A large DBMS, such as IMS, is highly scalable and in some enterprise environments may accommodate thousands, or even tens of thousands, of users connected to the system at any given point in time. Furthermore, the information and data managed by the DBMS may be highly sensitive data, critical to the operation of the enterprise as well as critical to the individual users of the DBMS system. Travel reservation systems, inventory control, and online banking systems are some typical examples. Therefore, it is essential that such a DBMS incorporate safeguards whereby each user of the DBMS system is authorized to make various DBMS requests.
Other aspects of a large DBMS include highly reliable operation, such as 24/7 availability, and very fast response time. Even relatively small delays in response time, magnified by thousands of users, are highly detrimental to enterprise productivity. Therefore, the authorization process discussed supra must not significantly delay a user's request to update or retrieve information. To this end, a large DBMS may retain security information for each active user in cache memory for ready access when the need arises. This enhances performance by eliminating I/O processing that would otherwise be required to obtain the necessary security information required to perform the authorization checking.
Therefore, caching user security information (hereinafter referred to as a cached user security profile) is known in the art and is a valuable technique for enhancing DBMS performance by eliminating I/O processing to obtain user security information when performing authorization checking for the user. However, this presents a significant problem in those unusual situations where the integrity of the cached user security profiles is questionable and a global refresh of all cached user security profiles must occur. The obligation to support 24/7 precludes the ability to shut the DBMS down, even for a few minutes, to refresh each of the possibly tens of thousands of cached user security profiles from permanent storage. Yet, to allow access to the DBMS during the global refresh would greatly compromise the integrity of the system since cached user security information of questionable validity may be used during the authorization processing.
Accordingly, there is a great need to provide a global refresh of cached user security profile information without significantly impacting the availability or response time of the DBMS system while at the same time ensuring complete integrity of the DBMS authorization checking during a global refresh operation.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method, computer program product, and system for global refresh of cached user security profiles


A solution for monitoring a problem condition in a communications system is provided. A communications protocol implementation monitors the communications system for the problem condition. The communications protocol implementation can initiate a response based on the problem condition being present. In this manner, the communications protocol implementation provides an effective monitor for detecting and/or recovering from a problem condition in the communications system.

1. Technical Field
The invention relates generally to monitoring a problem condition in a communications system, and more particularly, to a communications protocol implementation that monitors the communications system for the presence of the problem condition.
2. Background Art
A systems network architecture (SNA) network provides high availability for mainframe systems, such as a zSeries eServer offered by International Business Machines Corp. of Armonk, N.Y. (IBM). Operating systems, such as IBM's z/OS exploit features of the SNA network to provide high performance for applications executing in a mainframe system. However, workloads processed by these mainframe systems are increasingly being driven by client requests flowing over an internet protocol (IP) network infrastructure. As a result, a lot of emphasis has been placed on ensuring that the z/OS IP network infrastructure delivers the same high availability attributes as those provided by the SNA network.
The use of a dynamic virtual IP address (DVIPA) is an important virtualization technology that assists in providing high availability z/OS solutions using IP networks in a cluster system (sysplex) environment. DVIPA provides an ability to separate the association of an IP address with a physical network adapter interface. To this extent, DVIPA can be viewed as a virtual destination that is not bound to a particular system/network interface, and therefore is not bound to any failure of any particular system/network interface. This results in a highly flexible configuration that provides the high availability on which many z/OS solutions depend.
DVIPA can be deployed using one of various configurations. Each configuration provides protection against a failure of a system, network interface and/or application. For example, in multiple application-instance DVIPA, a set of applications executing in the same z/OS image are represented by a DVIPA. This DVIPA allows clients to reach these applications over any network interface attached to the z/OS image and allows for automatic rerouting of traffic around a failure in a particular network interface. Additionally, should the primary system fail or enter a planned outage, the DVIPA can be automatically moved to another system in the sysplex. Further, a unique application-instance DVIPA can be associated with a particular application instance in the sysplex. In this case, the DVIPA can be dynamically moved to any system in the sysplex on which the application is executing. This DVIPA provides automatic recovery in scenarios where a particular application or system fails. In particular, a new instance of the application running on another system can trigger the DVIPA to be moved to the other system, allowing client requests to continue to be able to reach the application. Still further, a distributed DVIPA represents a cluster of one or more applications executing on various systems within a sysplex. In this case, new client transmission control protocol (TCP) connection requests can be load balanced across application instances active anywhere in the sysplex, thereby providing protection against the failure of any system, network interface and/or application in the sysplex, while also providing an ability to deploy a highly scalable solution within the sysplex.
IP requires a single owner of each IP address. Consequently, when DVIPA is implemented, a single system in the sysplex is responsible for ownership of each DVIPA. The owner system of each DVIPA advertises its ownership to other routing daemons in the network. This advertisement is performed using a dynamic routing protocol, such as OSPF, via a routing daemon (for example, OMPROUTE), that is associated with each system. In particular, the routing daemon broadcasts (advertises) the DVIPA to other routing daemons in the network. DVIPA technology provides high availability by automatically detecting the failure of a major component, such as a hardware system, an operating system, a TCP/IP protocol stack, a network adapter or an application, and automatically initiating recovery actions. To this extent, ownership of the DVIPA can move to a backup system and the routing daemon on the backup system will broadcast ownership of the DVIPA. In this manner, client requests can continue to be processed successfully by the sysplex. As a result, DVIPA provides high availability TCP/IP communications to an application running in a sysplex environment when a major component fails.
However, no mechanism monitors the health of each routing daemon. Consequently, if a routing daemon has problems, DVIPA information may no longer be advertised, incorrect DVIPA information may be advertised to other routing daemons, or the like. To this extent, a need exists for an improved communications protocol implementation that monitors the health of a communications system, such as a routing daemon.

Monitoring a problem condition in a communications system


Provided is a dielectric material having a non-halogenated diaminodiphenylsulfone curing agent.

A continuing trend in the electronics industry is the miniaturization of electronic circuits and a corresponding increase of the circuit element density of electronic circuits. On conventional printed circuit boards, a large fraction of the board surface area is occupied by surface-mounted passive electrical devices, such as resistors, capacitors and inductors. One way to increase the density of circuit elements in an electronic circuit is to remove passive devices from the surface of the circuit board, and embed or integrate the passive devices into the circuit board itself. This has the added advantage of placing the passive devices much closer to the active circuit components, thus reducing electrical lead length and lead inductance, improving circuit speed, and reducing signal noise. Signal noise and power bus noise can lead to signal integrity and electro-magnetic interference (EMI) issues. Embedding the passive components into the board can reduce the size, thickness and number of layers required in the board, which can significantly reduce the cost of the circuit board. The reduction in board size and thickness, as well as the elimination of the surface-mounted components and their associated vias and solder joints, can provide a significant reduction in weight and improved reliability.
Complex high speed digital and mixed signal systems are being used to accommodate the desire for increasing functionality in electronic products. These high speed digital systems require large quantities of power supply decoupling capacitors to effectively decouple the AC noise from the power supply. Additionally, signal rise times, frequencies and current and board densities continue to increase, as operating voltages and their associated noise margins decrease. Simultaneous switching noise (SSN) is increasing due to lower operating voltages and higher currents. These factors make power supply decoupling more challenging.
Even with the use of embedded passives, average printed circuit board layer counts are increasing, which is increasing overall board thickness. Increased board thicknesses and higher assembly temperatures, which are needed to accommodate regulatory-required lead-free assemblies, significantly increase thermal stresses and moisture vapor pressures on the board materials and components. Complex board designs must endure more assembly passes due to the increase in double sided surface mount components and increased rework due to higher component densities. To survive the increased number of assembly passes and harsh conditions, board materials must have good adhesion, high decomposition temperatures and high resistance to moisture sensitivity.
Additionally, recent regulatory requirements have specified the use of materials with less than 900 ppm of bromine and less than 900 ppm of chlorine in printed circuit boards, modules and chip packaging. Thus, embedded passive materials must not only have excellent electrical, mechanical, thermal properties and high reliability but are also limited by composition to not include more than trace amounts of halogens.

Dielectric material with non-halogenated curing agent


The present invention comprises a method for the determination of periodontal disease active sites within the human oral cavity by a measurement of the level of interleukin 1 beta (IL-1b) in oral tissues and gingival crevicular fluid at a particular site.

Interleukin 1 beta (IL-1b) is a highly potent bone resorptive cytokine which is responsible for most of the activity formerly referred to as osteoclast activating factor, or `OAF` (Dewhirst et al. 1985). IL-1b is produced in large amounts by macrophage-monocytes in response to a variety of stimuli, including bacterial components such as LPS (Burchett et al. 1988). IL-1b exerts other biological activities consistent with its potential role as a local mediator of tissue destruction in human periodontitis. These include inhibition of bone formation (Stashenko et al. 1987, Nguyen et al. 1990), stimulation of prostaglandin and thromboxane synthesis (Tatakis 1988), stimulation of collagenase and protease production (Mizel et al. 1981, Saklatvala et al. 1985), potentiation of neutrophil degranulation and superoxide production (Dinarello 1989), enhancement of endothelial cell-leukocyte adhesion (Bevilacqua et al. 1987), and stimulation of fibroblast and keratinocyte proliferation (Schmidt et al. 1982). IL-1-like activity is present in elevated amounts in crevicular fluid adjacent to sites of gingival inflammation (Charon et al. 1982). Recently IL-1 b-containing cells were shown to be present in greater numbers in diseased as compared to clinically-healthy periodontal tissues (Jandinski et al. 1990).
Substantial evidence indicates that periodontal destruction is not continuous, but rather occurs episodically in bursts of disease activity (Goodson et al. 1982). At any given point in time the majority of sites with periodontal disease involvement are in fact quiescent. An important consequence of this finding is that putative host or bacterial indicators of periodontal disease must be evaluated in the temporal context of these relatively infrequent events (Caton 1990). It is therefore desirable to provide an effective method of determining periodontal disease active sites in the oral cavity of a patient.

Method of determining sites of active periodontal disease


The present invention generally relates to the technical field of motive power systems for automotive vehicles that convert stored thermal energy into electricity for energizing electric motors to drive a vehicle. The invention discloses several devices that integrate the vehicle powering system, including a programmable regulator, a thermal energy storage section, a heat energy converter section and an electric energy storage section. All said elements are incorporated in the same vehicle, with the wheels being ultimately propelled by electric motors. The combination of the devices disclosed results in improved efficiency in the conversion of input energy to drive a vehicle.

The high energy density of thermal energy storage systems favors their use in vehicle propulsive systems. Unfortunately, the state of the art thermal vehicles have the inconvenience of low energy conversion efficiency. The state of the art electric vehicles that depend entirely on battery-stored energy for range have their design specifications limited by the requirements imposed by battery arrays that are heavy, bulky and expensive. These inconveniences have been cited in several documents, of which an example is a technical paper entitled "The Thermal Vehicle—A Pollution Free Concept" by Jack R. Kettler presented at the "Tenth Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference" held on Aug. 18-22, 1975.

Thermo-electric, rechargeable vehicle powering system


A method for discriminating between explosive events having their origins in High Explosive or Chemical/Biological detonation employing multiresolution analysis provided by a discrete wavelet transform. Original signatures of explosive events are broken down into subband components thereby removing higher frequency noise features and creating two sets of coefficients at varying levels of decomposition. These coefficients are obtained each time the signal is passed through a lowpass and highpass filter bank whose impulse response is derived from Daubechies db5 wavelet. Distinct features are obtained through the process of isolating the details of the high oscillatory components of the signature. The ratio of energy contained within the details at varying levels of decomposition is sufficient to discriminate between explosive events such as High Explosive and Chemical/Biological.

Currently employed chemical and biological detection systems rely upon direct contact with lethal chemical/biological agents in order to warn of the existence of such agents. Examples of these systems include detection mechanisms that incorporate chemically reactive materials that change color upon contact with a chemical agent.
Unfortunately, such chemically reactive systems are typically ineffective at detecting biological materials. And since they are only effective when in an already contaminated area, the do not provide any early warning to first responders or troops.

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army


An integrated control system comprises one or more controllers each equipped to perform a control function and to gather data (ordinarily from sensors) relevant to the control function. Each controller contains computer storage means, such as computer memory, for storing the relevant data and instructions, associated with the data, for causing a remote computer to generate a visual display incorporating the data in a predetermined format; and a communication module for establishing contact and facilitating data interchange with the remote computer. The remote computer, in turn, also includes a communication module compatible with the controller-borne module, and which enables the remote computer to download the data and associated instructions from one or more controllers. The remote computer also includes a facility for processing the instructions to create a user interface encoded by the instructions, and which incorporates the data. In this way, controller data is coupled to instructions for displaying that data, and this totality of information is continuously accessible, on a freely selective basis, to the remote computer.

Sophisticated industrial processes, such as oil refining, automobile assembly or power generation, require the cooperative execution of numerous interdependent tasks by many different pieces of equipment. The enormous complexity of ensuring proper task sequencing and management, which requires not only procedural logic but constant monitoring of equipment states to organize and distribute operations and detect malfunction, has resulted in the widespread adoption of programmable controllers. These controllers operate elaborate industrial equipment in accordance with a stored control program. When executed, the program causes the controller to examine the state of the controlled machinery by evaluating signals from one or more sensing devices (e.g., temperature or pressure sensors), and to operate the machinery (e.g., by energizing or de-energizing operative components) based on a procedural framework, the sensor signals and, if necessary, more complex processing. The "inputs" to a particular controller can extend beyond the sensed state of the equipment the controller directly operates to include, for example, its environment, the state of related machinery or the state of its controllers.
Control requirements become even more complex when different aspects of the same overall process are assigned to remotely situated equipment. Such configurations often require reliable, high-bandwidth serial communication links to provide the necessary interconnection and handle data transfer among controllers and the sensors relevant to their operation.
Ordinarily, process operation is monitored, at least intermittently, by supervisory personnel by means of one or more central management stations. Each station samples the status of controllers (and their associated sensors) selected by the operator and presents the data in some meaningful format. The management station may or may not be located on the same site as the monitored equipment; frequently, one central station has access to multiple sites (whether or not these perform related processes). Accordingly, communication linkage can be vital even in traditional industrial environments where process equipment is physically proximate, since at least some supervisory personnel may not be.
To facilitate the necessary communication, the controller processors and related computers (such as monitoring stations) are arranged as a computer network. A network, basically, is a collection of interconnected computers that use some consistent protocol to communicate with one another. Typically, the network is organized such that any computer may communicate with any other network computer. The communication protocol provides a mechanism by which messages can be decomposed and routed to a destination computer identified by some form of address. The protocol may place a "header" of routing information on each component of a message that specifies source and destination addresses, and identifies the component to facilitate later reconstruction of the entire message by the destination computer. This approach to data transfer permits the network to rapidly and efficiently handle large communication volumes without reducing transfer speed in order to accommodate long individual messages, or requiring every network computer to process every network message. The degree of routing depends on the size of the network. Each computer of a local network typically examines the header of every message to detect matches to that computer's identifier; multiple-network systems use routing information to first direct message components to the proper network.
Controllers have been interconnected by means of computer networks for some time; see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,307,463. In typical systems, a monitoring computer, which may be remotely located from any or all of the controllers to which it has access, periodically queries the controllers to obtain data descriptive of the controlled process or machine, or the controller itself. This data is then available for analysis by the monitoring computer. Heretofore, however, the type of information obtainable, on demand, from a controller has been limited, while the interface used to present the information on the monitoring computer is typically crude. The latter condition results from the multiplicity of data types offered by the controller. Were each type of data to be rendered in a format suited to that data, it would be necessary to equip the monitoring computer with multiple interfaces, and configure the operating application to ascertain the type of data before selecting and launching the proper interface. Not only does this scheme impose a substantial real-time support burden on the monitoring computer, but would also require a constantly expanding repertoire of graphical capabilities keyed to new forms of data reported by the controllers. This can be especially cumbersome in highly--even internationally--distributed environments, since the controllers and their functionalities may be programmed by personnel having no contact with those responsible for central monitoring.

Distributed interface architecture for programmable industrial control systems


The subject invention pertains to methods and compositions for the treatment of erectile dysfunction (ED) (e.g., impotence) in a subject in need thereof utilizing one or more cannabinoid and one or more anti-ED drug.

Erectile dysfunction (ED) or impotence is a sexual dysfunction characterized by the inability to develop or maintain an erection of the penis during sexual activity. A penile erection is the hydraulic effect of blood entering and being retained in sponge-like bodies within the penis. The process is most often initiated as a result of sexual arousal, when signals are transmitted from the brain to nerves in the penis. The most important organic causes are cardiovascular disease and diabetes, neurological problems (for example, trauma from prostatectomy surgery), hormonal insufficiencies (hypogonadism) and drug side effects.
The study of ED within medicine is covered by andrology, a sub-field within urology. Research indicates that ED is common, and it is suggested that approximately 40% of males suffer from ED or impotence, at least occasionally. Current treatments for ED include drugs such as, for example, vardenafil, avanafil, sildenafil, tadalafil, and alprostadil. Furthermore, there are studies suggesting that natural herbals, such as damiana, horny goat weed, and yohimbine, are also effective in treating ED.

Compositions and methods for treatment of erectile disfunction


A laser processing method for a nonlinear crystal substrate having a plurality of crossing division lines which includes the step of applying a pulsed laser beam to a work surface of the nonlinear crystal substrate along the division lines to thereby form a plurality of laser processed grooves on the work surface along the division lines. The pulse width of the pulsed laser beam is set to 200 ps or less and the repetition frequency of the pulsed laser beam is set to 50 kHz or less.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laser processing method for forming a laser processed groove on a nonlinear crystal substrate of lithium tantalate (LiTaO3) or lithium niobate (LiNbO3), for example.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a semiconductor device fabrication process, a plurality of crossing division lines are formed on the front side of a substantially disk-shaped silicon substrate to thereby partition a plurality of regions where devices such as ICs and LSIs are respectively formed, thus forming a semiconductor wafer having the devices partitioned by the division lines on the front side. The semiconductor wafer is cut along the division lines to thereby divide the regions where the devices are formed from each other, thus obtaining the individual devices. Further, an optical device wafer is provided by forming gallium nitride compound semiconductors or the like on the front side of a sapphire substrate or a silicon carbide substrate. The optical device wafer is also cut along the division lines to obtain individual optical devices divided from each other, such as light emitting diodes and laser diodes, which are widely used in electric equipment.
As a method of dividing such a wafer along the division lines, there has been proposed a method including the steps of applying a pulsed laser beam having an absorption wavelength to the wafer along the division lines to thereby form laser processed grooves as a break start point on the wafer along the division lines and next applying an external force to the wafer along the division lines where the laser processed grooves as the break start point are formed, thereby breaking the wafer along the laser processed grooves (see Japanese Patent No. 3408805, for example).

Laser processing method for nonlinear crystal substrate


A centrifugal fan includes a fan frame, a stator assembly and an impeller. The fan frame has a base plate portion, a cover plate portion and a lateral wall portion. The cover plate portion has an air inlet, and the lateral wall portion has an air outlet. The impeller includes a rotating member, a plurality of blades and a connection ring. The rotating member is coupled with the stator assembly. Each blade has a windward edge and a lateral edge. The windward edge faces the air inlet, the lateral edge faces the lateral wall portion, and the connection ring is arranged on the windward edges of the blades. The windward edge has a first coupling edge, and the connection ring has a second coupling edge. A part of the windward edge between the first coupling edge and the lateral edge extends downwards in a curved manner, forming a truncating portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a centrifugal fan and, more particularly, to a centrifugal fan capable of providing an improved cooling effect with reduced noise.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 shows a conventional centrifugal fan 9 disclosed by Taiwan Patent No. M250230 entitled "A WIND-REDUCING RING STRUCTURE OF A CENTRIFUGAL FAN". Centrifugal fan 9 includes a housing 91, an impeller 92 and a wind-reducing ring 93. Housing 91 includes an air inlet 911 and an air outlet. Impeller 92 is mounted in housing 91. A plurality of blades 921 is arranged on an outer peripheral wall of impeller 92. Wind-reducing ring 93 is coupled with an edge of each blade 921 that is adjacent to air inlet 911, so that the cooling effect of fan 9 can be improved.
Wind-reducing ring 93 of fan 9 may be arranged in a location which is just outside of a radial extent of air inlet 911 under an upper wall 91a of housing 91, as shown in FIG. 1. Alternatively, wind-reducing ring 93 may also be arranged in a location which is within the radial extent of air inlet 911 and is adjacent to upper wall 91a of housing 91, as shown in FIG. 2. However, in the arrangement shown in FIG. 2, upper edge 921a of each blade 921 is too close to upper wall 91a of housing 91. As such, upper edge 921a of blade 921 is liable to make contact with upper wall 91a of housing 91 during the rotation of impeller 92. In addition, due to the small distance between upper edge 921a of blade 921 and upper wall 91a of housing 91, wind noise easily results when impeller 92 draws air into fan 9 via air inlet 911.

Sunonwealth Electric Machine Industry Co., Ltd.


A package structure including a device, an interconnecting element, a pad and a protecting element is provided. The device connects with a first end of the interconnecting element through the pad. The protecting element covers the pad and the first end of the interconnecting element.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a package structure, and more particularly to a package structure with a protecting element.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The explosive growth of high-density packaging has created a tremendous impact on the electronic assembly and manufacturing industry. Ball grid array (BGA) and chip scale package (CSP) technologies take the lead in this advanced manufacturing process. Many major equipment makers and leading electronic companies now gear up for these emerging and advanced packaging technologies.
As shown in FIG. 1A, a product of the packaging technologies, i.e. a BGA package 11 with 1.27 mm pitch (distance between adjacent ball centers of balls 113), is illustrated. The BGA package 11 is the choice for packages with higher than 300 I/Os (input/output) count, replacing leaded packages such as the quad flat pack (QFP) even for lower I/Os at present.
In the last few years, the chip size package, CSP, market has been growing very rapidly. A major benefit of the CSP package is its compact size. As shown in FIG. 1B, a CSP package 13 (a.k.a fine pitch BGA packages, FPBGAs) is illustrated. The CSP package 13 is further miniaturized version of the BGA package 11, leaded, and leadless package with pitches less than 1.27 mm. The CSP package 13 has low mass and small package size, and is generally used for low I/Os (<100) for memory and has the potential for use higher (<300) I/Os. They also provide improved electrical and thermal performance, more effective manufacturing, and ease-of-handling compared to the conventional surface mount leaded parts such as thin small outline packages (TSOPs). However, there are some issues (mainly inspection and reliability) with the implementation of the new area array packages for high reliability applications.
As shown in FIG. 1C, a CSP package consists mainly of a device 131, sealing resin 135 and solder balls 139. The solder balls 139 connect with the device 131 through a plurality of interconnecting elements 137 and a plurality of pads 141. An isolating layer 143 and the sealing resin 135 isolate the device 131 and the interconnecting elements 137. Another isolating layer 145 covers the interconnecting elements 137 to protect the interconnecting elements 137 from breaking.
The CSP package is effective for reducing the mounting area but has some reliability problems with solder joints, especially with solder joints between the interconnecting elements 137 and the pads 141. The CSP package is difficult to absorb most of the strains generated by temperature changes or impacts by deformations of its leads. Thus, as for CSP packages, strains concentrated on solder joints between the interconnecting elements 137 and the pads 141 crack the joints and consequently lower the reliability.
Thus it is necessary to develop a package structure to prevent the reliability from lowering.

Advanced Chip Engineering Technology Inc.


This invention realizes separate control for each memory area. A memory unit is structured by including a semiconductor memory device capable of memorizing information, the aforementioned memory device is divided into plural memory areas logically and also management table, which is capable of controlling separately each aforementioned memory area for accessing from the outside, is tabled, control information, which prohibits accessing the prescribed memory area of the aforementioned plural memory areas, is provided in the aforementioned management information, and it is prohibited to access the specified memory area from the outside in accordance with control information.

The present invention relates to a memory unit. More particularly, the present invention relates to control technology of the memory unit that employs a semiconductor memory unit. For example, the present invention relates to technology that is applied to a card type memory unit which is formed in a card shape and capable of attaching to a data processing system such as a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant).
In most cases, a hard disc device has been employed as an outer memory unit for a data processing device such as a computer system. In recent years, the outer memory unit, which utilizes a semiconductor memory unit, having large capacity has been employed instead of this hard disc device. A memory device of this type memory unit is structured by plural flash EEPROMs, for example. The memory unit utilizing flash EEPROM in this way can access data at high speed, compared with a hard disc device, and has superior characteristics in the points of reliability and anti-shocking. Such a memory device, is therefore developed as a memory board, a memory card, or a silicon disc device having the same interface as the hard disc, etc.
According to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 7(1995)-36759, an IC card is disclosed, which includes a card controller for controlling the inside of a card and a microcomputer for controlling a card controller and file data, uses mask ROM and a flash memory for file data storing memory as a local memory and shares its mask ROM as an attribute storing memory. Further, it is aimed to improve the speed of writing a memory, grow longer the span of life, reduce the price, and improve the reliability by using PSRAM as a control table as a part of data management information (information for uniforming rewriting number of times by recording rewriting number of times), a write buffer for improving writing speed and a garbage buffer at the time of erasing unnecessary data.
Further, in accordance with Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 5(1993)-334506, the body system of the outside, in which an IC memory card 10 is equipped, accesses an attribute memory by controlling a mode control circuit 13. Then, there has been proposed an IC card, which controls an area that is required for performing a program and data by selecting one of memories to which data should be written by way of a higher level application program by identifying information of writing data, a reading out processing method, a memory type by each different memory capacity, and allocating addresses.
In accordance with Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 6(1994)-52674, flash EEPROM of the first mass storage unit is mounted on a printing circuit board, and flash EEPROM of the second mass storage unit is also mounted on the same printing circuit board. In this case, flash EEPROM of the second mass storage unit is mounted detachably by way of an IC socket. Thus, since it is possible to exchange flash EEPROM, in which management information is stored, by each chip unit, it is possible to maintain the mass storage subsystem.

Non-volatile data storage system and data storaging method


An assembly comprising a rim having a substantially cylindrical bearing surface having at least one depression therein, and an annular run-flat support mounted on the bearing surface. The radially inner surface of the support further comprising a protuberance to engage the depression in the rim, and wherein a radially innermost base portion of the support includes a plurality of substantially circumferentially oriented reinforcement elements. The reinforcement elements are axially spaced apart, and the reinforcement elements are absent in an axial portion of the base portion radially outward of the protuberance.

The present invention relates to an assembly of a rim for mounting a tire and an annular run-flat support intended for mounting on the rim. This assembly is particularly useful for extending the distance a tire may travel at reduced or even zero air pressure. In particular, the present invention relates to a run-flat support having a particular arrangement of the reinforcement elements in the radially inner portion of the run-flat support. Many solutions have been proposed for providing an annular run-flat support fixed to a wheel rim to allow extending running after a partial or total loss of air pressure—capability for extended mobility. Many of these systems include multi-piece rims or multi-piece supports and their use necessitates a complicated and time-consuming assembly process.
To overcome some of this difficulty, U.S. Pat. No. 5,891,279 describes an assembly comprising a tire, a rim having a unique profile designed to accept the tire, and a deformable, but preferably circumferentially inextensible, run-flat support ring that is slipped over an essentially cylindrical bearing surface of the rim. The base of the support ring includes essentially inextensible, circumferentially oriented reinforcement elements to resist the centrifugal forces generated by highway-speed travel. The support ring may be designed with an interference fit between the support and the bearing surface of the rim. When mounted, this interference causes a pretension in the reinforcement elements in the base of the support to resist better the centrifugal forces. The support is fixed in position laterally on one end by an axial protuberance and on the other end by one of the tire beads. The support also functions to prevent unseating of one of the bead seats in the event of a loss of inflation pressure in the tire. This type of run-flat assembly has an enormous advantage in ease of assembly and in extended mobility distance of travel when compared to many of the rigid, multi-piece supports. However, this invention can incur a penalty in excess mass for the support.
As an improvement having the possibility to reduce the mass of the run-flat support, International Application WO 01/08905 describes an assembly of a rim and an annular support element where each bead seat of the rim is capable of preventing unseating of the beads in the event of a loss of pressure without the aid of the run-flat support. Since the support no longer functions to retain one of the bead seats, this feature of the rim allows the width of the support to be "clipped" or reduced in width to reduce the mass of the support. Lateral location of the support is accomplished by a stop projecting axially from the rim that acts against one end of the support, and by an axial protuberance projecting from the radially inner face of the support that interlocks with a similarly shaped recess in the bearing surface of the rim.
As an alternative to the improvement just described, U.S. Pat. application Publication US2003/0005991 describes a similar rim and run-flat support assembly with a plurality of zones having protuberances on the bearing surface of the support but without the complementary depression in the rim. Each of these zones has a secondary circumferential reinforcement that is uncoupled from the primary circumferential reinforcement by a circumferential void that allows circumferential extension of the two reinforcements.
However, these inventions must accept a compromise in the level of lateral locating force developed when the run-flat support is mounted on the rim. This force must be sufficiently low to allow proper seating of the support during the assembly process and to allow ease of disassembly should a repair be necessary. During extended mobility operation of the assembly, the force must also be sufficiently high so that the support maintains its lateral position when the assembly is subject to lateral forces between the inside of the tire and the support, such as those that arise when the vehicle negotiates a curve. If the locating force is insufficient, the support may move laterally and result in a reduction of handling performance under extended mobility operating conditions. Even when these designs develop an acceptable lateral locating force, experience has shown that the tensile stresses in the reinforcement elements may be unevenly distributed, especially in the zone immediately outward of the locating protuberance.

Assembly comprising a rim and a run-flat support


A method for polymerizing ethylene is provided. The method can include preparing a supported catalyst composition comprising the steps of: (a) dehydrating a chromium impregnated support; (b) at least partially dissolving a titanium-containing compound in one or more inert solvents to provide a solution comprising the titanium-containing compound; (c) contacting the dehydrated chromium impregnated support with the titanium-containing solution to provide a mixture comprising the solvent, titanium-containing compound and chromium impregnated support; (d) removing the solvent from the mixture; and (e) activating the product of step (d) at a temperature of at least 800° F. (427° C.) to provide a supported titanated chrome catalyst composition. The supported titanated chrome catalyst composition can be feed to a slurry reactor, and contacted with an optional co-catalyst, under polymerization conditions, with ethylene.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a process for making polyethylene blow molding resin. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention relate to a slurry polymerization process for making polyethylene blow molding resin using a titanated chrome catalyst.
2. Description of the Related Art
Chrome catalysts, sometimes termed Phillips catalysts, are known catalysts for olefin polymerization. In these catalysts, a chromium compound, such as chromium oxide, is supported on a support of one or more inorganic oxides such as silica, alumina, zirconia or thoria. In olefin polymerization, chrome catalysts have been titanated to provide increased catalyst activity and reduced induction time for polymerization. Titanated chrome catalysts are known to produce polyethylene resins having broader molecular weight and increased melt index and ESCR.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,976,632 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,996,163 disclose synthesizing chrome catalysts in slurry, and adding a titanium ester to titanate the chrome catalyst. The mixture is dried to a free-flowing power, which is then activated in hot air.
EP 0 314 385 discloses another method for synthesizing titanated chromium on silica catalysts useful for gas phase polymerization of ethylene. The catalyst is introduced with an organomagnesium compound, RMgR′, either prior to feeding or within the polymerization vessel. The catalyst is titanated using a number of titanium halides, alkyl titanium halides, alkyl titanium alkoxides, alkoxy titanium halides or titanium alkoxides.
EP 0 882 740 discloses the titanation of chromium based catalysts using alkyl titanium alkoxides or titanium alkoxides, which are added to the chromium containing catalysts while at a temperature of at least 300° C. in a fluidized bed under nitrogen.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,780,011 discloses the modification of chromium on SiO2 catalyst by the addition of a titanium ester to a bed of fluidized catalyst held at a temperature of at least 300° C. The esters have the general formula RnTi(OR1)m, wherein n+m=4.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,016,343 discloses titanation of silica prior to the addition of the chromium compound to the titanated support. The chromium compound is a tetravalent alkoxide and the titanated support is prepared using titanium esters of the general formula RnTi(OR1)m, wherein n+m=4, TiX4, TiO2, alkanolaminetitanates, and titanium acetylacetonate compounds. Titanation is accomplished by mixing the support and the titanium compound and heating at a temperature of about 150-1200° C.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,184,979 discloses the preparation of catalyst by dry blending chromium(acac)3 with a silica support. The mixture is then heated to a temperature of 230-540° C. The catalyst is titanated by adding the liquid titanium compound to a fluidized bed of the chromium catalyst or by passing vapors of the titanium compound through the fluidized bed of the chromium catalyst.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,368,303 discloses a catalyst produced by forming a silica hydrogel; drying said hydrogel to form a xerogel; anhydrously incorporating a titanium compound into said xerogel; wherein chromium is introduced by either coprecipitating same with said silica hydrogel, by combining a water-soluble chromium compound with said hydrogel, or adding anhydrous solution with said hydrogel, or adding anhydrous solution of a chromium compound soluble in non-aqueous solvents to said xerogel; and after said drying and after said chromium is introduced, activating the resulting dried, chromium-containing composition by means of an activation procedure which comprises treatment at an elevated temperature in an atmosphere containing oxygen. In this manner, the process incorporates Ti into the silica rather than deposits Ti on the surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,384,987 discloses a method for preparing a polymerization catalyst comprising the steps of contacting a material comprising silica-supported chromium oxide or a compound oxidizable to chromium oxide with a solution of a permanganate compound; heating the thus-contacted material in a reducing atmosphere at a temperature in the range of about 600° C. to about 1100° C.; and then heating the material in an oxygen-containing atmosphere at a temperature in the range of about 450° C. to about 1000° C. for at least about one-half hour.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,402,864 discloses the use of titanium polymers for titanation. The polymers are prepared from Ti(OR)4 and water. The soluble titanium polymer, e.g., TiO2()—iC3H7)6 is most conveniently added to a hydrocarbon slurry of the support.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,728,703 discloses the preparation of a chromium on silica catalyst by combining a slurry of silica in an alkane with finely divided CrO3, then adding alcohol, then adding Ti(OR)4. The mixture is dried, and then heated as a fluidized bed first in nitrogen and then in air.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,573,993 discloses a process for preparing activated catalyst for the polymerization of olefins in the absence of solvent. A mixture of a powdered chromium salt with a support is heated to a temperature below the melting temperature of the chromium salt for a period of between 0.5 hours and 18 hours, and then the mixture is heated to an activation temperature.
Other references include EP 0279890; EP 1 172 381; WO 01 32307; DE 2622755; U.S. Pat. No. 3,887,494; U.S. Pat. No. 4,877,763; U.S. Pat. No. 5,096,868; U.S. Pat. No. 6,174,981; U.S. Pat. No. 6,921,798; US 2003/0232715; US 2004/0192863; and US 2006/0089468.

Method for catalyst preparation and improved polyethylene blow molding resin


Systems and methods for distributed overlay multi-channel MAC for wireless ad hoc networks are described. In one aspect, the systems and methods divide channel frequencies defined by a wireless network protocol into a single home channel and multiple guest channels that are orthogonal to the home channel. Each of the network nodes in the ad hoc network operates on the home channel for respective variable and overlapping amounts of time to maintain network connectivity with other respective network nodes. Additionally, each of the network nodes determines whether and when to switch from the home channel to a particular guest channel of the guest channels for a variable amount of time to increase data throughput over one or more corresponding communication links in the ad hoc network with other network node(s).

IEEE 802.11 is a technology standard for WLAN (Wireless LAN), which has been widely used for both infrastructure and ad hoc networks. Nodes in an ad hoc network are typically configured to communicate with other node(s) in the ad hoc network over a single (same) channel frequency. With an increase in transmitting network nodes, channel capacity eventually becomes a data throughput bottleneck.
FIG. 1 shows an ad hoc network 100 including some number of computing device network nodes ("nodes"), for example, nodes 1 through 6. In this example, each of the nodes 1-6 is configured to communicate with specific ones of the other nodes over a same single channel frequency (e.g., channel 1) using 802.11 standard communications. However, and since only one node can transmit at any particular time, each node pair utilizes at most ⅓ of the channel's data-throughput capacity. If too many nodes attempt to communicate at a same time over the same channel, data throughput performance rapidly degrades.
To mitigate mutual data transmission interference on a same spectrum band, the IEEE 802.11 standard provides for multiple orthogonal frequency channels, essentially increasing network data throughput capacity. For example, 802.11b defines eleven (11) channels; three (3) of which are orthogonal (non-overlapped), and 801.11a defines thirteen (13) orthogonal channels. FIG. 2 shows ad hoc network 200 with node-pairs communicating on different orthogonal channels to reduce mutual transmission interference. In this example, node pairs (1, 2) operate over channel 6, node pairs (3, 4) operate over channel 1, and node pairs (5, 6) operate over channel 11. Each of the arrows showing traffic patterns 202 through 206 include different fill (e.g., hatching) to represent different traffic volume across respective ones of the links between the illustrated nodes. In this scenario, although each node pair can simultaneously transmit data, a node communicating over a particular channel will not be able to communicate with any node configured to communicate over a different channel.
Software-controlled channel assignment and switching techniques have been developed to address some of the described limitations. These conventional techniques allows nodes to communicate on a respective channel frequency, and at the same time, maintain connectivity to nodes configured to transmit over different channels to accommodate different traffic patterns, by allowing. An exemplary such scenario is shown in FIG. 3, where node 3 on channel 1 maintains link connectivity to both node 2 on channel 6 (see traffic pattern 302) and node 6 on channel 11 (see traffic pattern 304). However, existing channel switching techniques typically use a fixed pattern to emulate all possible arbitrary traffic and connectivity patterns in an ad hoc network. Such emulation is substantially problematic because it assumes that all nodes will follow similar same behavior, which is not always the case.
One conventional channel switching technique, for example, provides for a transmitting node to switch channels after each packet transmission. Such packet-by-packet switching operations often result in prohibitive amounts of processing overhead due to the corresponding time-consuming channel switching latencies. For instance, packet transmission time in 802.11 is approximately 300 microseconds (us). Even if a NIC can switch as fast as 100 us and two nodes can synchronize with ms accuracy, packet switching overhead in such a packet-b-packet level channel switching scheme is still an excessive 33%. In another example, a component-based conventional channel switching technique configures all nodes in a particular communication session to transmit on a same channel. In this technique, the channel does not change for the duration of the communication session. Although this essentially reduces channel switching latencies as compared to the packet-by-packet switching schemes, this technique is least flexible in using channel diversity.
For example, existing component-based channel assignment techniques would not be able to achieve throughput gain for ad hoc network configurations such as shown in FIG. 4, which represents a combination pattern of FIGS. 2 and 3. Referring to FIG. 4, traffic patterns 402 through 410 across respective ones of channels 1, 6 and 11 are illustrated. As shown, some nodes always communicate on the same channel. For instance, nodes 1 and 2 in this example communicate on only channel 6 (see traffic pattern 402) and nodes 5 and 6 communicate only on channel 11 (see traffic pattern 406). Other nodes work across multiple channels. For instance node 3 in this example sometimes works on channel 1, for instance, to communicate with node 4 (see traffic pattern 404). Node 3 of this example is also configured to operate over channel 6 to communicate with node 2 (see traffic pattern 408), and over channel 11 to communicate with node 6 (see traffic pattern 410). Although existing MAC level channel switching schemes can achieve throughput gain and maintain node connectivity for the illustrative ad hoc network of FIG. 4, existing MAC level channel switching schemes are somewhat limited in such scenarios.
For instance, conventional MAC level channel switching schemes switch channels only at edges of predetermined and fixed time slots, wherein all packets in a particular time slot are transmitted on the same channel. Such conventional super-frame level schemes are limited. For instance, existing MAC level channel switching schemes generally require a node to change channels consistently on a per super-frame or time slot basis, making such schemes too inflexible to accommodate large channel switching latencies. Additionally, existing MAC level channel switching schemes divide a super-frame into control and data time, which may be substantially problematic. For instance, such dividing a super-frame in this manner may cause: (a) underutilization of data time; (b) substantial data throughput delays decreasing response time per hop due to a one-service opportunity per super-frame; and (c) a control channel time-bottleneck because each node is typically required to send a signaling message to contend access on a per super-frame basis. Furthermore, such MAC level schemes are incompatible with legacy 802.11-based systems, either requiring modifications to the 802.11 MAC (e.g., extending the power saving mode) or use of a proprietary MAC.

Distributed overlay multi-channel media access control for wireless ad hoc networks


A high pressure fuel injection tube includes a connection head with a seat face in a spherical shape. A ring-like flange is spaced from the seat face in an axial direction. A conical portion is formed in the interval between the ring-like flange and the seat face. An undercut bent recess groove with a ring-like shape and a deep depth is formed on the conical portion. Thus, a shallow smooth ring-like recess groove is formed on an inner side of the connection head, and a compressive residual stress is present at an inner peripheral face of the ring-like groove.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a high pressure fuel injection tube used widely in, for example, a supply path or the like of fuel in a diesel internal combustion engine and having a connection head portion by a thick-walled steel tube of a comparatively slender diameter having a tube diameter of 4 mm through 20 mm and a wall thickness of about 1 mm through 8 mm and a method of forming the same.
2. Description of Related Art
There is known a high pressure fuel injection tube of this kind of a background art arranged to be used in a supply path of fuel of a diesel internal combustion engine or the like having a connection head portion 22 formed by a seat face 23 in a spherical shape, a ring-like flange portion 25 formed to be arranged to be spaced apart from the seat face 23 in an axis core direction at an interval therebetween and a conical portion 24 formed conversingly in a direction of the seat face 23 at an interval region reaching the ring-like flange portion 25 continuously from the seat face 23 at a connection end portion of a thick-walled steel tube 21 having a comparatively slender diameter as shown by, for example, FIG. 7 (refer to JP-A-8-75075).
It is general that the connection head portion 22 of this kind is constituted to produce a deep, sharp, and large ring-like pocket 26 at an inner peripheral face of the head portion by spreading a peripheral wall to an outer side in accordance with buckling in relation to forming by the buckling by being pressed in the axis core direction by a punching member from outside and is subjected to use under such a state.
However, the high pressure fuel injection tube having such a connection head portion poses a problem that cavitation erosion is brought about at the pocket portion owing to a high pressure fluid in being arranged to be used by the deep, sharp and large thin-like pocket 26 formed at an inner peripheral face of the connection head portion 22 and a problem that there is the threat of possibility of constituting an onset of fatigue rupture by the deepest portion of the pocket portion.
In order to resolve such a problem, the applicant has previously proposed a high pressure fuel injection tube having a connection head portion capable of eliminating a concern by cavitation erosion and the threat of fatigue rupture on an inner side of the head portion by forming a ring-like pocket produced at inside of the head portion with by working the connection head portion into a contour shape of a section as shallow and smooth as possible (refer to JP-A-2003-336560).
According to the high pressure fuel injection tube, as shown by FIG. 8, in the high pressure fuel injection tube having a connection head portion 32 constituted by a seat face 33 in a spherical shape, a ring-like flange portion 35 formed to be arranged to be spaced apart from the seat face in an axis core direction at an interval therebetween and a conical portion 34 formed conversingly in a direction of the seat face at an interval region reaching the ring-like flange portion 35 continuously from the seat face 33 at a connection end portion of a thick-walled steel tube 31 having a comparatively slender diameter, a ring-like recess groove (pocket) 36 formed at an inner peripheral face of the connection head portion in accordance with forming the connection head portion 32 is formed into a contour shape having a shallow smooth section by providing a bent recess groove 34-1 in a ring-like shape having a shallow depth at a portion of the conical portion 34.
That is, according to the high pressure fuel injection tube, a portion of conical face of the connection head portion is pinched by exerting more pressure, by operation of pressing a projected bent face corresponding to the contour shape of the bent recess groove 34-1 previously provided on the side of a forming punch, the bent recess groove 34-1 in the ring-like shape having the shallow depth at a portion of the conical portion 34 of the connection head is formed, thereby the depth of the ring-like recess groove at the inner peripheral face of the connection head produced by buckling can be made to be shallow and smooth, cavitation erosion by a hydraulic pressure at the ring-like recess groove at the inner peripheral face of the connection head portion is prevented from being brought about and the threat of a possibility of constituting an onset of fatigue rupture by stress concentration is reduced.
Although according to the high pressure fuel injection tube previously proposed by the applicant, by providing the ring-like recess groove having the shallow depth at a portion of the conical portion of the connection head portion, the depth of the ring-like recess groove (pocket) on the inner side of the connection head portion produced by buckling is made to be shallow and smooth, thereby, there is achieved an excellent effect of eliminating the concern of cavitation erosion by the hydraulic pressure at inside of the connection head portion and capable of reducing the threat of the possibility of constituting the onset of the fatigue rupture, since there is hardly present a compressive residual stress extremely effective in increasing a strength against the fatigue rupture at the ring-like recess groove portion on the inner side of the connection head portion, there poses a problem that the strength against the fatigue rupture at the ring-like recess groove portion is not sufficiently achieved.
That is, by only making the ring-like recess groove (pocket) on the inner side of the connection head portion produced by buckling shallow and smooth by providing the ring-like recess groove having the shallow depth at a portion of the conical portion of the connection head portion, since the depth of the ring-like recess groove provided at an outer peripheral face of the conical portion of the connection head portion is shallow, the connection head portion after buckling is brought into a tensile residual stress state, and there is brought about a state in which the compressive residual stress extremely effective in increasing the strength against the fatigue rupture is hardly present at the ring-like recess groove (pocket) on the inner side of the connection head portion.

High pressure fuel injection tube and method of forming the same


An optical lens made of plastic comprises an optically functioning part, a flange part disposed around the optically functioning part, and a gate-removed part located at an outer circumferential face of the flange part. The gate-removed part is defined by removing a residual gate part projecting from the outer circumferential face. The surface of the gate-removed part is covered with a hygroscopicity adjusting part. The hygroscopicity adjusting part is made of a material less hygroscopic than the plastic of which the optical lens is made.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical lens made of plastic, which is used in various kinds of optical instruments.
2. Related Background Art
Optical lenses made of plastic, such as the one shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, have conventionally been known and widely used for eyepieces of 8-mm video cameras, objective lenses of CD-ROM drives, and the like. The optical lens 101 of FIGS. 4 and 5 is made by injection molding, transfer molding, or the like using dies. For making the optical lens 101, a molten resin such as PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate) is caused to flow into a cavity from a gate. Then, the resin is solidified by cooling. After the resin is solidified, the part of resin solidified within the gate orifice, or both the gate and the part of resin solidified within the gate orifice (hereinafter referred to as "residual gate part" collectively) are removed, and surface treatment is carried out as required. Thus, the optical lens 101 is completed.
For processing the above-mentioned residual gate part, it will essentially be ideal if the residual gate part 110 is removed alone from the optical lens 101 by moving a cutting tool such as end mill along the outer circumferential face 104 of the optical lens 101. In general, however, in view of the processing accuracy of the processing machine, reduction in manufacturing cost, and the like, a part of the outer circumferential part (flange part 106) of the optical lens 101 is cut flat as shown in FIG. 4, thereby removing the residual gate part 110. Consequently, the outer circumferential face 104 of the optical lens 101 completed as a product includes a flat, gate-removed part 105 which is defined when the residual gate part 110 is removed.
On the other hand, in general, an optical lens made of plastic absorbs therein moisture (water) existing in the air, due to the hygroscopicity inherent in the plastic material. Also, it is known that the moisture is absorbed into the optical lens 101 radially from the outer circumferential face 104 of the optical lens 101 toward the optical axis (a) thereof.

Optical lens having a hygroscopicity adjusting part


An electronic device placed in series with the probe ground-to-chassis connection. The device comprises a current-detecting element such as a resistor or RC network and may employ frequency-discriminating circuitry to limit only ground current signals below a certain frequency. The detector element triggers either a current limiter or a latching switch to prevent currents exceeding about 20 .mu.A rms from flowing between the probe and the patient. This is achieved by limiting such currents dynamically or by latching the transducer-probe-ground/system-chassis connection in an "open" state. In normal operation, the limiting/latching function is inactive, i.e. it is transparent to the system and the device shunts noise signals to the system chassis to prevent image degradation. The resistance of the device in normal operation may be in the range of about 0.1 to 10 ohms for effective noise reduction (shielding) at operating frequencies at and above 100 kHz. Preferably, the insertion resistance is about 2 ohms or less. Upon detection of an overcurrent event, the hardware may additionally be configured to notify the imaging system of the potential hazard. The imaging system may, in turn, display a warning message on its screen, and/or it may lock out further use of the system. The system may also be configured to reset the transducer-probe-ground/system-chassis connection and the current detector via software control after the single-fault condition abates.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a safety device for medical electrical apparatus, and in particular to such apparatus for limiting current coupled to a body from an ultrasound transducer probe.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Medical ultrasound probes tend to pick up electrical noise via capacitance coupled between the internal probe wiring and the body of the patient. This noise is particularly severe in probes designed for insertion into a body cavity (e.g., transesophageal probes, endocavity probes, laparoscopic probes, and catheter probes), because their contact surface area, and consequently their coupling capacitance, is larger than that in probes applied to the outside of the body.
The electrical noise is typically greatly reduced by adding an outer conductive ground shield to the insertable portion of the probe. The shield itself is insulated from the patient by a dielectric cover or housing and thus has its own coupling capacitance to the body. Often, the shield also adds mechanical strength to the probe, especially to a catheter probe. The shield is electrically connected to the ultrasound system chassis and prevents noise signals from degrading the ultrasound image by shunting them to system ground.
This noise reduction technique is well known and is effective in many situations, but has a major drawback. The coupling capacitance, whether it is associated with the internal probe wiring or with an outer ground shield, is also responsible for potentially dangerous leakage currents arising from a single-fault condition in the ultrasound system, or in another device already placed within the body. Underwriters Laboratories (UL) regulations require that the leakage current not exceed 20 .mu.A rms (see UL 544, Section 42.4.1).
The UL requirement is usually met by reducing the capacitive coupling between the chassis-grounded internal probe components and the patient. That is, the thickness of the insulating outer cover or housing is increased and/or the spacing between the internal current carrying components of the probe and the body is increased. This solution is difficult to implement in insertable probes, and particularly so in small diameter devices such as catheter probes where the insulation thickness must be kept to a minimum.
Prior art methods include:
1) Tolerate the coupling noise--do not compromise patient safety; PA1 2) Increase insulation thickness to reduce coupling capacitance--use an outer shield if possible; and PA1 3) Adjust the ultrasound system response to attenuate the frequency range containing the coupled noise. PA1 1) Electrical noise sources common in the hospital environment can be severe enough to render ultrasound imaging ineffective, misleading, or useless; and PA1 2) Probes can become unwieldy because of attempts to reduce the coupling capacitance by increasing the probe wall thickness. PA1 1) An active network that is transparent to ground current signals if they are lower than a certain prescribed threshold, and limits ground current signals which exceed the threshold. PA1 2) An active network (cf the network in U.S. PA1 3) An active network that is transparent to ground current signals having an alternating current (AC) content substantially above a predetermined cutoff frequency, but strongly limits ground current signals with AC content below the cutoff frequency. PA1 4) An active network that is transparent to ground current signals having an AC content exclusively above a predetermined cutoff frequency, but rapidly latches in an "open" state when it senses an appreciable ground current signal below its cutoff frequency.
Disadvantages of the prior art methods include:

Ground safety device for medical ultrasound probes


A method for making an epitaxial structure includes the following steps. A substrate having an epitaxial growth surface is provided. A buffer layer is formed on the epitaxial growth surface. A carbon nanotube layer is placed on the buffer layer. A first epitaxial layer is epitaxially grown on the buffer layer. The substrate and the buffer layer are removed to expose a second epitaxial growth surface. A second epitaxial layer is epitaxially grown on the second epitaxial growth surface.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to epitaxial structures and methods for making the same.
2. Description of Related Art
Light emitting devices such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) based on group III-V nitride semiconductors such as gallium nitride (GaN) have been in use in many applications.
Since wide GaN substrates cannot be produced, the LEDs have been produced on a heteroepitaxial substrate such as sapphire. The use of sapphire substrate is problematic due to lattice mismatch and thermal expansion mismatch between GaN and the sapphire substrate. One consequence of thermal expansion mismatch is straining of the GaN/sapphire substrate structure, which leads to cracking of the GaN/sapphire substrate and difficulty in fabricating devices with small feature sizes. A solution to cure the thermal expansion mismatch is to form a plurality of grooves on the surface of the sapphire substrate by lithography or by etching before growing the GaN layer. However, both the processes of lithography and etching are complex, high in cost, and may contaminate the sapphire substrate.
What is needed, therefore, is to provide a method for solving the problem discussed above.

Method for making an epitaxial structure with carbon nanotube layer


An apparatus for detecting faults in a system monitored by a plurality of sensors is provided. The apparatus includes a hidden process driver unit that generates a hidden process driver based upon sensor values received from a group of correlated sensors selected from among the plurality of sensors. The apparatus also includes a sensor estimating unit that generates sensor estimates for each of the plurality of sensors based upon the hidden process driver and a known process driver provided by an uncorrelated sensor. The apparatus further includes a fault determining unit that indicates a fault when a residual based upon a difference between a sensor value supplied by one of the plurality of sensors and a corresponding one of the sensor estimates lies outside an acceptable range of residual values.

Multi-element systems such as a power plant can involve the complex integration of multiple elements cooperatively performing a variety of tasks in order to attain a desired system performance or system output. Given the complexity of many such systems, it is not surprising that the task of monitoring the performance of a complex system can be difficult. Often times, especially in systems like a power plant, the paramount reason for monitoring is to detect conditions that could lead to a system failure. The objective, of course, is to detect the conditions early enough so that they can be ameliorated before a failure occurs.
One monitoring technique in such an environment is to use multiple sensors to detect and monitor the operation or performance of a complex system. Sensor-based monitoring can be used for efficient control in a variety of industrial settings, including power generating systems, manufacturing processes, and a host of other industrial operations involving the coordinated functioning of large-scale, multi-component systems. Indeed, sensor-based monitoring can be advantageously employed in virtually any environment in which various system-specific parameters need to be monitored over time and for a variety of conditions.
Sensor-based monitoring stems from the view that a power plant or other complex system is a multiple-input, multiple output (MIMO) system. According to this view multiple inputs, or process drivers, are supplied to the MIMO system, and based on the inputs, the MIMO system generates output. In the context of a power generation system, for example, the process drivers include gas and air, with which various output are produced. The outputs include not only power, but also other outputs that can be measured, such as temperature, pressure, and vibration. Both the inputs and the resulting outputs can be monitored with the right kind of sensors appropriately positioned relative to the system.
Related to sensor-based monitoring generally, new techniques have been advanced in recent decades for detecting system faults using model-based fault detection. The underlying idea of many such techniques it that of analytical redundancy as opposed to physical redundancy. The latter approach utilizes redundant sensors, whereas the former approach utilizes signals representing estimated values generated in accordance with a mathematical model of the system. The estimated values are compared to actual measurements obtained by sensors, giving rise to residuals—the difference (typically an absolute value) between the estimated and actual values generated by the sensors. The residual values, in turn, are compared with threshold values. A system fault is indicated if a residual lies outside an acceptable range of values. Thus, system diagnosis and fault detection is based on a comparison of prior information represented by the system model with actual measurements. The model itself can be determined using, for example, statistical methods such as regression.
Owing to system complexity, however, the accuracy of even these more advanced techniques can be reduced when less than all of the inputs are known or accurately modeled. For example, with respect to a turbine engine or generator, humidity can be a very important input into the system, but in many circumstances, is not measured. Using only partial information in a regression or other model-building procedure can produce a less accurate model.
One solution to the problem has been to utilize known or estimated correlations among sensors that measure an output of the MIMO system. For example, in monitoring a combustion turbine engine, all N-blade path temperature sensors are sufficiently correlated so that one such sensor can be used to predict the value of another. Different techniques for inferential sensing have been proposed and tested. These include auto-associative neural networks, non-parametric kernel regression, multivariate state regression, and support vector regression. According to these techniques, one correlated sensor is a MIMO system output which is regressed on the other correlated sensors whose sensor values represent inputs.
One persistent problem, even with these more advanced techniques, however, is the problem of spillover. Spillover can occur if any of the input correlated sensors is faulty or otherwise inaccurate. The result is that the resulting model and system monitoring capability are reduced accordingly. Current monitoring devices and techniques have not adequately addressed this problem.

Apparatus and methods for detecting system faults using hidden process drivers