A liquid crystal display (LCD) device is divided into an active region and a liquid crystal margin region. The LCD includes a thin film transistor substrate that includes gate and data lines crossing each other to define pixel regions, and thin film transistors in the active region. A color filter substrate has column spacers in the active region that contact a portion corresponding to a region of the thin film transistor and the gate or data lines. The column spacers contacting the thin film transistor region provide an elastic gap between the substrates. The column spacers in the gate/data line region are separated from the color filter substrate. Other column spacers are formed in the liquid crystal margin region in a honeycomb arrangement. A liquid crystal layer is disposed between the thin film transistor and color filter substrates.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display (LCD) device, and more particularly, to a liquid crystal display (LCD) device, in which incomplete dispensation of liquid crystal, gravity defects and foreign material generated internally are mitigated by forming column spacers that maintain a cell gap in an active region and a honeycomb-shaped arrangement of column spacers in a margin region.
2. Related Art
As the demand for various display devices increases, development of various types of flat display devices, such as LCD devices, plasma display panel (PDP) devices, electroluminescent display (ELD) devices, and vacuum fluorescent display (VFD) devices, has increased. Among these various flat display devices, LCD devices have been used commonly because of their thin profile, light weight, and low power consumption. LCD devices are used commonly as a substitute for cathode ray tube (CRT) devices. In addition, LCD devices are used commonly in notebook computers, computer monitors, and televisions. However, to use LCD devices as general display devices in a large sized screen, it is desirable to display images having high resolution and luminance in addition to maintaining the light weight and thin profile and low power consumption of the overall device.
In LCD devices, different types of spacers are used to maintain the cell gap between the substrates forming the LCD device. Depending on the method of fabrication, these spacers are spherical or columnar. The spherical spacers are added after the substrates are fabricated and the column spacers are provided during fabrication of one of the substrates. The column spacers are formed in specific portions of the LCD device and the spherical spacers are free moving and are randomly scattered throughout the LCD device.
Spherical spacers are used when forming the LCD panel using an injection method in which the substrates are fabricated and then liquid crystal injected into the cavity therebetween. However, this method requires significant amounts of time to inject the liquid crystal material, thereby lowering production yield. It is also difficult to completely inject the liquid crystal material when forming large LCD devices. In addition, as several liquid crystal injection devices are filled at the same time due to the complicated process and the considerable process time involved, a large space is required.
In a liquid crystal dispensing method, two substrates are bonded to each other after dispensing liquid crystal material on one of the substrates. Spherical spacers cannot be used to maintain the cell gap in this method as the spherical spacers move along a dispensing direction of the liquid crystal material. Instead, column spacers fixed to the substrate maintain the cell gap. However, the use column spacers engender problems not encountered by spherical spacers.
FIG. 1A is a schematic cross sectional view of a color filter substrate on which a column spacer is fabricated. FIG. 1B is a schematic cross sectional view of the bonding state of the TFT substrate and the color filter substrate. FIG. 1A shows the column spacers 20 formed on the color filter substrate 2. Each column spacer 20 has a height h. As shown in FIG. 1B, when the color filter substrate 2 is bonded to the TFT substrate 1 on which liquid crystal is dispersed, the height (h) of the column spacer 20 is decreased to (h′), which corresponds to the cell gap. This difference in thickness (h-h′) is defined as the gravity margin.
As can be seen, the contact area between the column spacers and the relatively flat TFT substrate is relatively large, making it hard to obtain the gravity margin (h-h′). Also, if the LCD device is maintained at a high temperature, a protruding portion may develop due to expansion of the liquid crystal, making it harder to obtain the gravity margin. Moreover, if the LCD panel is placed in a vertical direction for an extended period of time, such as when the LCD panel is used for a television monitor, gravity causes the liquid crystal molecules to move to a lower portion of the panel, creating a protruding portion and also making it harder to obtain the gravity margin. As a result, if an excessive amount of the liquid crystal is provided or the liquid crystal is maintained at a high temperature or the LCD device is tilted, a gravity defect may exist.
Further, the large contact areas generate large frictional forces when the substrates move relative to each other. The frictional forces prevent restoration of the liquid crystal molecules to the original state and generate long-lasting spots on the screen of the LCD device. This is shown more graphically in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, which are cross sectional and plane views of a portion having touch spots in a conventional LCD device.
As described above and shown in these figures, when the LCD panel 10 is continuously touched with a finger along a particular direction, the upper substrate of the LCD panel is shifted by an amount along the touch direction. The liquid crystal molecules between the column spacers 20 are not restored to their original states, thereby generating spots on the screen. In addition, when the LCD panel is touched, as shown in FIG. 2B, the liquid crystal molecules gather around the touched portion causing the region around the touched portion to protrude. In this case, the cell gap "h1" corresponding to the protruding portion is higher than the cell gap "h2" of the remaining portion, thereby causing light leakage due to irregular alignment of the liquid crystal molecules. Additionally, since the touched portion has a decreased amount of liquid crystal molecules, blurred portions appear on the screen in a black state, thereby deteriorating luminance of the LCD panel 10. Furthermore, if the LCD panel is pressed at a portion in which column spacers are not present, the substrates bend and form a hollow state due to low restoring speed of the substrates, thereby generating spots on the screen of the LCD panel.
When an external force is applied to the screen of the LCD device, the liquid crystal molecules are displaced from an active region, in which images are displayed, to a liquid crystal margin region, in which images are not displayed. This causes incomplete dispensation of the liquid crystal in the active region and thus, black spots to appear on the screen. Even if a dam is present between the active region and the liquid crystal margin region to contain the liquid crystal molecules after they have migrated and the external force is removed or the temperature restored to the ambient temperature, the liquid crystal molecules are not entirely restored to the active region. Moreover, shifting of the column spacer due to application of the external force causes peeling at the contact portion of the alignment layer of the TFT substrate and the column spacer. This peeling generates foreign material, which is then dispersed throughout the active region.

Liquid crystal display device and method for fabricating the same


A battery pack includes a frame member, first and second lithium ion cells, and an isolation plate. The frame member includes a floor, walls formed perpendicular to the floor, and an aperture defined by the walls. The frame member is formed from an electrically non-conductive plastic. The first lithium ion cell includes a first positive terminal, a first negative terminal, and a first electrically conductive housing. The first positive terminal is electrically connected to the first electrically conductive housing. The second lithium ion cell includes a second positive terminal, a second negative terminal, and a second electrically conductive housing. The second positive terminal is electrically connected to the second electrically conductive housing. The isolation plate directly contacts both the first and second electrically conductive housings and electrically isolates the first electrically conductive housing from the second electrically conductive housing. The isolation plate is formed from the electrically non-conductive plastic.

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and plug-in HEVs use multiple propulsion systems to provide motive power. The propulsion systems may include electric or battery powered systems that receive power from one or more battery packs. A battery pack may include, for example, one or more banks of high-voltage cells (or batteries), such as lithium ion cells. The cells are volumetric building blocks of the battery pack.
The operating temperature of a cell can affect the lifespan and performance (charging and discharging efficiencies) of the cell. Regulating the operating temperature of a cell within a predetermined operating temperature range may maximize lifespan and performance of the cell.
Within a battery pack, however, the operating temperatures of the cells may vary from cell to cell. Temperature variations can arise between the cells of a battery pack for various reasons. For example only, temperature variations can arise due to manufacturing differences between the cells, differences in locations of the cells within the battery pack, thermal path differences of each cell, and other reasons. It can be difficult to maintain each of the cells of a battery pack within the predetermined operating temperature range.

Multi-cell battery module with integral cooling and assembly aids


In a processor-controlled multimedia terminal connected to a processor-controlled multimedia docking device, a group of application programs is stored and made available for execution. The application programs can run on the multimedia terminal in the foreground or background. Only one application program of the group is executed in the foreground at one time. An application program can output data via a graphical user interface while running in the foreground. While running in the background, however, an application program cannot output data via the graphical user interface. In the multimedia terminal, a memory area is also provided, to which the application programs have read and write access during execution thereof. An application-specific data set is stored in the memory area for each application program, the data set remaining in the memory area even after the respective application program has ended. A first application program, during execution thereof in the multimedia terminal, reads the application-specific data sets of the other application programs of the group and stores them in a list. The list is also transmitted to the multimedia docking device. Data for the application programs contained in the list is displayed on the multimedia docking device. An application program is selected from the list as the second application program. A switchover is then made in the multimedia terminal from the execution of the first application program to an execution of the second application program by the multimedia docking device, wherein the execution of the first application program in the foreground on the multimedia terminal is ended and the second application program is brought to run in the foreground.

The invention relates to a method, a computer program product, and a system for switching application programs. The invention relates, in particular, to a system in which a processor-controlled mobile terminal device is connected to a processor-controlled device integrated in a vehicle. In this case, an application program can be executed on the terminal device in particular and switched to another application program by way of the vehicle-integrated device. The application program can be a so-called app in particular, which is typically loaded and executed in a mobile smartphone device having a graphic user interface and can have an informative name. Apps establish a connection to Internet services or to social networks, for example, or offer other functions such as email functions, calculator functions, etc.
Smartphones can be designed so that only a limited number of apps, in particular only one app or only one app of a specific category, can be executed at a specific point in time. Multiple apps accordingly cannot be executed in parallel. On the one hand, this has the advantage that the smartphone processor only has to process the one app in addition to the operating system programs. Therefore, the app can be processed more rapidly and reliably than if a variety of apps run simultaneously on the smartphone. On the other hand, the operation is substantially more comprehensible and easier for the user of the smartphone if only one app at a time is executed. This is true in particular if the display screen area of the smartphone is quite limited and a sufficient overview of the current running states of all apps cannot be provided to the user simultaneously.
If a mobile terminal device such as a smartphone is connected to a device integrated in a vehicle, for example, to an infotainment device, the risk then exists that the driver of the vehicle will be distracted by switching between apps during travel. This risk exists, in particular, if the switching can be performed only directly on the terminal device and, for example, its display screen and/or operating buttons are relatively small.
A method for exchanging data between apps is described in US 2011/0138370 A1.
Switching between various websites or applications for a display screen representation by use of a switching application, which displays multiple selection options simultaneously, in conjunction with an Internet browser is known from US 2010/0146449 A1.
The contents of the above-mentioned publications are hereby incorporated by reference in the present description.
It is the object of the invention, in a mobile multimedia terminal device, which is connected to a second device, a so-called multimedia docking device, to enable switching between two application programs in a simple manner if the switching is performed by way of the multimedia docking device.
This and other objects are achieved according to the invention by a processor-controlled multimedia terminal device, which is connected to a processor-controlled multimedia docking device. A group of multiple application programs, which are provided for execution, is stored on the multimedia terminal device. Application programs can run on the multimedia device in the foreground and in the background. When running in the foreground, an application program can output data via a graphic user interface. Only one of the application programs of the group is executed at one point in time in the foreground. When running in the background, in contrast, an application program cannot output data via the graphic user interface. A storage region is provided in the multimedia terminal device, to which the application programs have read and write access during their execution. An application-specific data set is stored in the storage region for each of the application programs, which is also maintained in the storage region after the ending of the respective application program. For switching application programs in the multimedia terminal device, it is provided that a first application program, during its execution, reads the application-specific data sets of the other application programs of the group and stores them in a list in the multimedia terminal device. The list is transferred to the multimedia docking device. Data on the application programs contained in the list are displayed on the multimedia docking device. Switching from the execution of the first application program to an execution of the second application program in the multimedia terminal device is performed by way of the multimedia docking device, wherein the execution of the first application program in the foreground on the multimedia terminal device is ended and the second application program is moved to run on the multimedia terminal device in the foreground.
The invention is based on the discovery that it is advantageous for switching, which is remote-controlled by way of the multimedia docking device, from a first application program to a second application program, which are executed in the multimedia terminal device, to store data of the application programs in the storage region. Furthermore, it has been recognized that it is advantageous to make the storage region accessible to all application programs. In addition, it has been recognized that the switching is simplified if the respective executed application program stores the data of the other application programs in a list. The list can thus be transferred with little effort from the multimedia terminal device to the multimedia docking device and it can also be stored therein. The storage of the list can be performed in the volatile working memory of the respective device. The list, which is generated for one application program, having the data of the other application programs can be kept in the memory in each case as long as the one application program runs in the foreground. It can then be erased.
The list can advantageously be used in the multimedia docking device to enable the user, with a comprehensible quantity of information, to select and switch to another application program in the multimedia terminal device. This is advantageous in particular if the switching in a vehicle is performed by the vehicle driver, because he is hardly distracted from driving the vehicle due to the simple selection capability and the simple, user-friendly switching. This is all the more true the smaller the display screen area and the operating elements, for example, mechanical or touch screen buttons of the multimedia terminal device and the larger or more convenient, in relation thereto, are the operating and display elements are on the multimedia docking device.
The switching, including the closing of the first application program and the starting of the second application program, can be at least partially automated and thus substantially simplified by the invention. In addition, for example, in conjunction with a multimedia docking station which is permanently installed in a motor vehicle, individual different display and/or operating elements can be provided than are on the multimedia terminal device, which display and/or elements are adapted to driving the vehicle. For example, display elements such as a large display screen and/or adapted operating elements, for example, operating wheels (scroll wheels) or buttons attached in the vicinity of the steering wheel or directly on the steering wheel can be provided. The display can occur in a position which is easy to observe by the driver, for example, in the display console region of the vehicle in the case of a multimedia and navigation display area. The multimedia terminal device can then be stowed out of sight in an armrest console in the vehicle, for example, because the vehicle driver does not have to operate it. The selection of the application programs can be substantially simplified, for example, in that only selected or shortened data or items of information on the application program, in particular data of the application-specific data set in a selection list, are displayed in the vehicle. Convenience and safety during driving of a vehicle are increased further by such vehicle-specific adaptations.
The invention is applicable particularly advantageously in smartphones, on which computer programs can run in the foreground or in the background as described. Such an operating mode can occur, for example, if a multimedia terminal device is controlled using the operating system iOS (iPhone OS) from Apple Inc. In this case, it can also be provided that an application program running in the foreground is assigned computing time as a matter of priority on a microprocessor during its activation, while programs which are activated in the background are only assigned computing time in a relatively limited or subordinate manner.
In one advantageous exemplary embodiment of the invention, the application-specific data set of the application programs comprises, in each case, at least one identification of the application, a target address, under which the respective application program is retrievable in the multimedia terminal device, and a signature. The identification can be a name of the application, for example. The target address can be a uniform resource locator (URL) address, for example, in particular an address within the multimedia terminal device. The signature of the application can be provided in particular for checking the data set or the useful data contained therein, for example, the name and the URL. For this purpose, a controller having a computer program module can be provided in the multimedia terminal device, which checks the signature before the application program can be displayed on the multimedia docking device. The application-specific data set can comprise further data, for example, a graphic symbol of the application program.
In a further preferred exemplary embodiment of the invention, in each case a check of the signature thereof is initiated by the first application for the application-specific data sets of the further application programs of the group and the respective application programs are only included in the list upon passing the signature check. With these measures, an integrated signature check can be performed such that only those application programs are included in the list whose signature of the useful data of the data set is unchanged and valid and which are authorized for the selection on the multimedia docking device. This also contributes to the scope of the list being restricted, specifically to those application programs which have a valid signature. Accordingly, only these application programs are offered for selection in the multimedia docking device.
In addition, application programs can be prevented from being offered to the vehicle driver, which were automatically stored without his intention on the multimedia terminal device, so-called spam application programs. Application programs in the meaning of the present invention are computer programs oriented to an application in particular.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of one or more preferred embodiments when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Method, computer program product and system for switching application programs

Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft


A new and distinct Rhododendron cultivar named ‘HOMLEE’ is disclosed, characterized by distinctive fuchsia pink, semi-double flowers. Plant form is distinctively upright, with branches occurring at acute angles. Plants bloom Spring, Summer and Fall. The new cultivar is a Rhododendron, suitable for ornamental garden purposes.

The new cultivar is a product of a planned breeding program by the inventor. This new variety, hereinafter referred to as 'HOMLEE', was discovered as a seedling resulting from a pollination of Rhododendron 'Princess Ruth', unpatented with an unnamed, unpatented Rhododendron oldhamii by the inventor, Robert Edward Lee, in Independence, La., at a research nursery.
After identifying the new variety as a potentially interesting selection, the inventor first organized propagation of 'HOMLEE' by vegetative cuttings during 2004 at the same commercial nursery in Independence, La. The inventor continued confidential, controlled testing and propagation, assessing stability of the unique characteristics of this variety. Multiple generations have been reproduced and have shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type.


A sampler device for applying sample material having a supporting base with a hole through its width. A stretchy layer, such a latex, is affixed to the base to cover the hole. A cover protects sample material deposited on the stretchy layer. After removing the cover, a user inserts a finger through the hole, stretches the stretchy layer into an applicator shape, and applies or consumes the sample material.

Several types of samplers are known which allow consumers to test a product before purchasing a full size container. Often, businesses such as those in the cosmetic industry obtain new customers by distributing samples of their products to potential customers. Samplers are commonly available in retail stores or are distributed in magazines or through the mail.
The prior art includes flat samplers suited for stacking, storing in a small volume, or mailing. U.S. Pat. No. 5,072,831 to Parrotta et al., for example, provides a layer of sample material on a flat, paper-stock sheet that is coated with a barrier layer. A removable, transparent cover protects the sample material and allows consumers to see the sample before opening the sampler. To apply the sample material, a user must first rub it off the sampler with her finger.
This manner of application is both messy and inconvenient. Moreover, the sample material may become contaminated by the finger. Users' fingers become dirtied, and samples can stain clothes if the applying finger is not thoroughly cleaned. Also, if a user desires to apply more than one sample, she must either employ different fingers to avoid mixing samples, or wipe her applying finger repeatedly.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,739,778 to Christie, on the other hand, requires no finger contact with the sample material. The patent shows a product-sampling dispenser molded to provide a pod area that holds a sample, such as lipstick. To apply the sample, the user pulls back a cover sheet and pops the pod either by squeezing the back of the pod with her finger, or by bending the pod in half. The user may then squeeze the pod to extract the sample and apply the lipstick directly to her lips.
The applicator disclosed in this patent, however, has an awkward shape for applying certain kinds of sample materials, and usually will not have the shape of a regular size applicator. The lipstick embodiment described shows a user spreading a sample on her lips from the relatively flat applicator, whereas lipstick is normally and more readily applied from an elongated and rounded applicator.
Other disclosures teach single-use applicators with more convenient shapes. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,838,851 to Shabo features packaged handles and applicator swabs for applying a small amount of liquid to eyelids. The swabs are pre-wet with a liquid. In this teaching, the appearance of the sample itself cannot be readily displayed. The soaked swab, for instance, creates a different visual impression than the sample material would in a transparent container by itself. Also, the swab, having been selected for applying liquids, is not the type of applicator normally used for certain types of sample material; nor is it the most convenient. For example, lipstick would more naturally be sampled with differently shaped applicators.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,538,022 to Bennett discloses an applicator shaped like a tube of lipstick. A preselected amount of sample lipstick is deposited on the applicator. This sample may be contained in a disposable container, permanent dispenser, or within the applicator.
Having the shape of a normal lipstick tube, the disclosed device presents no space savings for a retailer over a full size lipstick. This same shape precludes space-efficient sampler stacking as well as mailing samplers in a flat envelope or magazine.
Other patents teach finger-sheath applicators.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,002,114 to Heaton and 2,551,557 to Arnold show soft, flexible finger-cots for applying lipstick. The Arnold patent's cot is made from soft rubber. Both finger cots have inflexible rings at their bases that help maintain the cots' shape and facilitates the insertion of a finger.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,524,764 to Kaufman et al. shows a transparent, essentially flat package having a number of compartments. One compartment holds a single-use supply of toothpaste. Another holds a latex sheath with an abrasive absorbent-material to be worn on a finger for applying the toothpaste. U.S. Pat. No. 2,419,896 to Hobelmann discloses a single-use dentifrice-applicator folded from paper with dentifrice on its surface.
The above finger sheaths maintain their basic shape when not in use. The cots with rings at their bases are meant as reusable applicators and do not lend themselves to stacking or shipping. The sheath of the Kaufman patent is merely a piece of shaped latex and has no supporting base to assist its placement on or removal from a finger. The paper applicator of the Hobelmann patent fails to conform to the wearer's finger and provides a relatively flat applicator-surface shaped inconveniently for applying certain sample-substances, such as lipstick.
Other known samplers are designed for sampling food. These generally suffer from the disadvantage that they require a utensil such as a spoon to consume the sample, and the sampler size and shape is limited by the need to provide such a utensil. A user may scoop the sample with a finger, but may then contaminate the sample material.
The prior art does not provide a normally flat sampler in which sample material may be directly displayed in an appealing, flat form and that may be deformed by the user into a convenient applicator shape for use without contaminating the sample material with a finger or other object.

Sampler applicator having a stretchy layer


An integrated circuit having high performance CMOS devices with good short channel effects may be made by forming a gate structure over a substrate; forming pocket implant regions and source/drain extensions in the substrate; forming spacers along sides of the gate structure; and thermal annealing the substrate when forming the spacers, the thermal annealing performed at an ultra-low temperature. An integrated circuit having high performance CMOS devices with low parasitic junction capacitance may be made by forming a gate structure over a substrate; forming pocket implant regions and source/drain extensions in the substrate; forming spacers along sides of the gate structure; performing a low dosage source/drain implant; and performing a high dosage source/drain implant.

High performance CMOS devices should have, among other characteristics, good short channel behavior, low parasitic junction capacitances and low junction leakage currents. However, as the size of integrated circuits (ICs) continues to shrink and the number of high performance CMOS devices on IC chips continue to increase, the dimensions of the CMOS devices must be scaled down. The scaling down of CMOS devices makes it difficult to achieve good short channel effects, low parasitic junction capacitances and low junction leakage currents.
Accordingly, methods are needed for manufacturing smaller ICs with scaled down high performance CMOS devices.

High performance CMOS devices and methods for making same

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.


According to this invention, a plurality of indoor units each having an indoor heat exchanger are connected to a heat source unit having a compressor and a water heat exchangers, thereby constituting a multi-type air-conditioning apparatus. The heat source unit has an operation switch operated when a refrigerant amount is to be checked. When the operation switch is turned on, the refrigerant discharged from the compressor is circulated in only the heat source unit. At this time, the temperature of predetermined positions in the heat source unit is detected by a temperature sensor, and it is determined, in accordance with the detection temperature, whether the refrigerant amount in a refrigerating cycle is normal or abnormal. The determination result is displayed on a display unit of the heat source unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multi-type air-conditioning apparatus having a plurality of indoor units connected to a heat source unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a refrigerant is filled in a refrigerating cycle of an air-conditioning apparatus, and a refrigerant amount is small, the air-conditioning apparatus cannot be properly operated.
In general, when a simple refrigerating cycle is used, checking whether a refrigerant amount in the refrigerating cycle is enough to operate the air-conditioning apparatus can be performed by detecting temperatures of parts of the refrigerating cycle, although the checking is difficult. As an example, an air-conditioning apparatus is described in Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. 4-148170.
However, in a multi-type air-conditioning apparatus having a plurality of indoor units connected to a heat source unit, the arrangement of the refrigerating cycle is complicated, and there are a large number of combinations of the shapes and capacities of the indoor units. For this reason, a refrigerant amount cannot easily be determined in consideration of an indoor environment.
It is assumed that a protector is operated due to any abnormal operation in a test operation of the apparatus after the apparatus is installed and that the operation is stopped. In this case, assuming that a lack of refrigerant may cause the abnormal operation, although it is not known that the lack practically causes the abnormal operation, a normal amount of refrigerant must be recharged into the refrigerating cycle.
In this case, installation of the apparatus is delayed, time and cost are wasted, and the reliability of an operator may be impaired. In addition, when the refrigerant is recharged, the refrigerant filled in the cycle may be discharged to the outer atmosphere. Even if flon gas (R-22) used as a refrigerant is excluded from objects of anti-pollution regulations, discharge of a large amount of flon gas, i.e., several tens Kg, adversely affects the environment.
An example of the air-conditioning apparatus having a plurality of indoor units connected to a heat source unit is described in Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. 4-222358.

Air-conditioning appratus having plurality of indoor units connected to heat source unit


The present application discloses a display module, a preparation method thereof, and a display apparatus. In a non-display region of the display panel, the display panel and the optical adhesive have a first open pore and a second open pore penetrating through their thickness, respectively; and an orthographic projection of the first open pore falls in an orthographic projection of the second open pore on the cover plate. A light shading part in the light shading region has a third open pore surrounding the light transmitting region; and the light shading part includes a photochromic material in a light shading state, and an orthographic projection of the light shading part on the cover plate at least covers a region, which does not overlap with the orthographic projection of the first open pore on the cover plate, of the orthographic projection of the second open pore on the cover plate.

In recent years, a screen-to-body ratio of electronic products is provided with become a technical problem focused by research personnel. A placing position of a front camera plays a key role in screen-to-body ratio. From a notch screen to a lifting camera, and then to a perforated screen, all kinds of technologies emerge in endlessly. The perforated screen serves as a reliable technical solution which is gradually adopted by many developers.

Display module, preparation method thereof, and display apparatus

Chengdu BOE Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd.


Disclosed is a method, a device, such as a mobile station, and an information bearing medium that tangibly embodies a program of machine-readable instructions that are executable by a digital processing apparatus to perform operations to receive data packets. In this case the operations include verifying the correctness of a received data packet; storing a data packet found to have an incorrect TCP layer header checksum and signaling the source of the received data packets and, in response to receiving another instance of a previously received incorrect data packet, verifying the correctness of the received another instance of the data packet and, if correct, using information obtained from verifying the correctness of a header of the received another instance of the data packet to re-verify the correctness of the at least one stored data packet that was previously found to be incorrect. The correctness of the received data packet is preferably verified by use of a PPP layer FCS checksum, an IP layer header checksum and a TCP layer checksum. The data packet headers are preferably compressed by using a V-J header compression technique.

TCP/IP header compression (V-J header compression) is capable of compressing the TCP/IP header from 40 bytes to as few as three to four bytes through a serial connected Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) link. The use of such header compression technology is typically not an issue with regard to throughput in a media-reliable environment where the data transferred is rarely lost or distorted due to physical interference and other impairments.
However in an unreliable transmission link environment, such as in a wireless data transmission environment, the noise is typically bursty. Consequently, data packet loss is a common occurrence. For example, in first generation wireless code division multiple access (CDMA) a radio link protocol (RLP) is used as the link layer below the PPP layer for data transfer. RLP is a best-effort protocol, and only conducts a few rounds of recovery for lost frames. Furthermore, RLP will deliver corrupted frames to a higher layer if it cannot recover the lost frames.
V-J header compression relies on previously received in-sequence correct packets to restore the information from the compressed TCP/IP header. As a result, if TCP/IP V-J header compression is enabled during CDMA wireless data transfer, a single data packet loss can result in the failure of decoding of all later received data packets. The total size (in bytes) of the later received packets can be up to the entire announced TCP receiver window size. The decoding failure is indicated as an incorrect TCP checksum due to an incorrect restored TCP sequence number in the TCP header part.
Section 4.2 of RFC 1144 is entitled "Error Recovery", and suggests techniques for causing the decompressor to again begin generating valid packets after an occurrence of a CRC error.
At present, those data packets with an incorrect TCP checksum (although the data payload is still correct) are discarded quietly. Also, since the data packets are discarded quietly by the receiver, no TCP acknowledgment (ACK) packets are sent back to trigger the peer TCP (i.e. the data sender) fast retransmission/recovery algorithm. This problem results in wasting the air channel resource and also in a lower data transfer throughput.
FIG. 1 shows a typical TCP/IP/PPP protocol stack implementation. Assume that there exists a block of user data 1 that is required to be delivered to a peer application. The user data 1 is first delivered to the TCP layer 2. The TCP layer 2 may segment the block of user data 1 into several segments. For each segment, the TCP layer 2 puts the data in the payload of a frame, and wraps it with a TCP header 2A into a TCP frame. FIG. 2 shows a conventional TCP frame format, which has a 16-bit checksum part in the header part. Next, the TCP layer 2 delivers the entire TCP frame to the IP layer 3. The IP layer 3 considers the entire TCP frame as data, and places it into the payload part of a frame, adds an IP header 3A, and thus generates an IP frame. FIG. 3 shows a conventional IP frame format, which has a 16-bit header checksum. The IP frame is then delivered to the PPP layer 4 and placed into a PPP payload part and wrapped into a PPP frame having a PPP header 4A. FIG. 4 shows a conventional PPP frame format, which has a 16-bit frame-check-sequence (FCS, which is a 16-bit CRC check). The PPP frame is delivered to a lower layer to be passed to the peer. For example, in a first generation wireless CDMA system the lower layer is the RLP layer and an IS2000/IS-95 physical layer.
From FIGS. 2 and 3 it can be seen that the IP header and the TCP header both consist of 20 bytes. If the V-J header compression is enabled, the 40 total bytes of TCP/IP headers can be compressed into about three (one byte of flag bits and two bytes of TCP checksum) to four bytes to transfer only the difference between the frames.
In a wireless environment, the data transfer may often proceed in the following exemplary manner:
Frame #1234567XXYZZZZwhere:X indicates a received good and in-sequence frame;Y indicates a corrupted PPP frame due to RLP layer data loss or corruption; andZ indicates a received out-of-sequence frame.
For the corrupted Y frame #3, some bytes (or bits) in the frame may be either lost or altered, resulting in the frame usually not passing the PPP FCS check. As a result, this frame will be discarded in the PPP layer.
With V-J header compression turned off, the Z frames (frames 4, 5, 6 and 7) will have a good PPP layer FCS, a good IP header check sum and TCP check sum. Each time it receives a Z frame, the TCP receiver will store the frame in a buffer. It will also send a TCP ACK package back to the data sender for informing the sender that it has received all the data packets up to packet number 3. For example, when the data receiver receives four Z frames, such as frames 4, 5, 6 and 7, it will send four TCP ACK frames back to the data sender, all with the same acknowledgment number of packet #2. When the data sender receives three or more consecutive TCP ACK frames acknowledging the same packet number 2, it will immediately know that packet number 3 is lost. The data sender will then immediately re-transmit data packet number 3 and only re-transmit packet number 3. When the data receiver receives the corrupted frame #3, it sends a TCP ACK to acknowledge all of the data up to frame #7. Consequently, all of the Z frames are useful. This is referred to as the TCP fast-retransmission and fast-recovery algorithm, as defined in RFC 2581. Nearly all TCP protocol stacks have this algorithm implemented.
Considering now the case where V-J header compression is turned on (enabled), the frames #4, 5, 6 and 7 will still all have good PPP layer frame check sums (FCS), and are passed to the IP layer. In the IP layer, since all packets for one TCP connection have the same IP header information, the IP header can be successfully restored, and the IP header check is also correct. As a result, the data can be passed to TCP layer. However, since frame #3 was lost, and since the TCP layer relies on the in-sequence frames to decode the TCP sequence number, all of the Z frames will exhibit a bad TCP layer header, which results to an erroneous TCP checksum. These Z frames are thus discarded immediately. Consequently, although the Z frames all contain good data, they are assumed to be bad because of the failure to correctly restore the TCP headers and are thus not used. Furthermore, there is no TCP ACK frame sent back to the data sender, and the TCP fast-retransmission and fast-recovery algorithm is not triggered. In this case the data sender is required to re-transmit all of the frames 4, 5, 6 and 7 by relying on its re-transmission timer timing out, which can result in a considerable delay before the re-transmission occurs. During this delay period no data is transmitted, resulting in a reduced data transfer throughput.
It can thus be appreciated that when a TCP/IP packet is lost due to V-J header compression being turned on, the resulting indication is that the TCP checksum is incorrect for the remainder of the TCP window segments. As a result, the TCP layer 2 quietly discards the packets that have incorrect checksum, thereby wasting the network channel capacity. As the conservation of channel bandwidth is an important consideration in wireless communications systems, such as modern cellular-type communications systems, this problem results in a number of disadvantages for both the users and the network operators.

Method and apparatus to provide network data recovery optimization with header compression enabled in unreliable environment


A process of preparing a photothermographic composition of enhanced photosensitivity is disclosed comprised of (a) precipitating light-sensitive silver halide grains in the presence of a non-aqueous polymeric peptizer and (b) then combining the silver halide grains with an oxidation-reduction image-forming combination comprised of an organic silver compound and a reducing agent for the silver organic compound. Light-sensitivity of the silver halide grains is enhanced by, prior to step (b), sensitizing the silver halide grains with a gold sensitizer dissolved in an aqueous medium.

In its most common form silver halide photography employs silver halide grains that are precipitated in the presence of an aqueous gelatino-peptizer. After precipitation the grains are chemically sensitized and, if desired, spectrally sensitized. The emulsion is coated on a support to form a photographic element. Following imagewise exposure the photographic element is brought into contact with one or more aqueous processing solutions. During aqueous processing a developing agent is relied on to reduce silver halide to silver imagewise as a function of light exposure and, in color photography, to create a dye image.
Silver halide photographic elements and their chemical sensitization are summarized in Research Disclosure, Vol. 389, September 1996, Item 38957. Common chemical sensitizations are summarized in Section IV. Chemical sensitizers are generally assigned to three broad categories: (1) noble metal sensitizers, including gold and Group VIII metals, (2) middle chalcogen sensitizers, including sulfur, selenium and tellurium sensitizers, and (3) reduction sensitizers.
The following are specific examples of gold sensitizers: Tetrachloroaurate salts, disclosed by Damschroder U.S. Pat. No. 2,597,856 and Hasebe U.S. Pat. No. 5,001,042; dithiocyanatoaurate salts, disclosed by Saikawa et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,621,041; gold sulfide, disclosed by Yutzy et al U.S. Pat. No. 2,597,915, Yutzy et al U.S. Pat. No. 2,642,361, and Masutomi et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,362,470; gold thiolates, disclosed by Travernier et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,503,749; gold compounds that satisfy the formula: EQU AuL.sub.2.sup.+ X.sup.- or AuL(L').sup.+ L.sup.-
wherein
L is a mesoionic ligand; PA1 L' is a Lewis basic donor ligand; and PA1 X is an anion, PA1 M represents a charge balancing cation, PA1 (a) photosensitive silver halide grains, PA1 (b) an oxidation-reduction image-forming combination comprised of PA1 (c) a vehicle. PA1 I. System A photothermographic systems, aqueous silver halide precipitations and vehicle: PA1 II. System B photothermographic systems, aqueous silver halide precipitations: PA1 III. System B photothermographic systems, in situ silver halide precipitation: PA1 IV. System B photothermographic systems, ex situ silver halide precipitation in non-aqueous polymeric peptizer: PA1 X is PR.sub.2, P(OR).sub.2, COR, CNR.sub.2 or CR; PA1 R is alkyl or aryl; and PA1 n is an integer of from 1 to 6. PA1 I. Tetrachloroaurate salts, such as those satisfying the formula M{AuCl.sub.4 } (M=H, Na, K). Gold sensitizers of this type are disclosed by Damschroder U.S. Pat. No. 2,597,856 and Hasebe U.S. Pat. No. 5,001,042, the disclosures of which are here incorporated by reference. PA1 II. Dithiocyanatoaurate salts, such as those satisfying the formula M{Au(SCN).sub.2 } (M=K, NH.sub.4). Gold sensitizers of this type are disclosed by Saikawa et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,621,041 and Hasebe, U.S. Pat. No. 5,001,042, the disclosures of which are here incorporated by reference. PA1 III. Gold dithiosulfate salts, such as those satisfying the formula Na.sub.3 {Au(S.sub.2 O.sub.3).sub.2 }.2H.sub.2 O. Gold sensitizers of this type are disclosed by P. Faelens, R. Berendser, and B. H. Tavernier, Phot Korr., 53, 75 (1966). PA1 IV. Gold sulfide (Au.sub.2 S), disclosed by Yutzy et al U.S. Pat. No. 2,597,915, Damschroder et al U.S. Pat. No. 2,642,361, and Masutomi et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,362,470, the disclosures of which are here incorporated by reference. PA1 V. Gold thiolates, such as those satisfying the formula AuS--X--SO.sub.3 M, wherein X is an aliphatic aromatic or heterocyclic bivalent radical, and M is H, an alkali or alkaline earth metal, or NH.sub.4. Gold sensitizers of this type are disclosed by Travernier et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,503,749. PA1 VI. Gold compounds of the formula {AuL.sub.2 }.sup.+ X.sup.- or {AuLL'}.sup.+ X.sup.- wherein L is a mesoionic ligand, L' is a Lewis base donor ligand, and X is an anion (e.g.,BF.sub.4.sup.-). The mesionic ligand is typically a cyclic or acyclic thiourea. Gold sensitizers of this type are disclosed by Deaton U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,049,485 and 5,220,030, the disclosure of which is here incorporated by reference. Gold compounds of this type are particularly preferred, since higher levels of photosensitivity have been realized by employing these compounds in the practice of the invention than when employing other types of gold compounds as sensitizers. PA1 R.sub.1 and R.sub.4 are independently chosen lower alkyl (e.g., methyl); PA1 R.sub.2, R.sub.3 and R.sub.5 are independently chosen from among lower alkyl (e.g., methyl), alkoxyalkyl (e.g., .beta.-methoxyethyl), allyl, aryl (e.g., phenyl), or cycloalkyl (e.g., cyclohexyl); and PA1 X.sup.- is an anion chosen from among BF.sub.4.sup.-, I.sup.-, Br.sup.- and Cl.sup.-. PA1 VII. Development Modifiers PA1 X. Coating Aids PA1 XI. Overcoat Layers PA1 XII. Interlayer/Barrier Layers PA1 XIV. Filter Dyes/Antihalation Layers PA1 XV. Color Materials PA1 XVII. Supports
disclosed by Deaton U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,049,485 and 5,252,455; and gold compounds satisfying the formula: ##STR1## wherein Z represents the atoms to complete a 5 or 6 membered heterocyclic ring and
disclosed by Deaton U.S. Pat. No. 5,049,484.
The advantage of photographic imaging as described above is that the highest attainable levels of photosensitivity are realized. A significant disadvantage is the requirement of bringing the photographic elements into contact with an aqueous processing solution during development--i.e., "wet" processing.
A way of avoiding wet processing is to employ a photosensitive element that can create a viewable "dry" image simply by being heated following imagewise exposure. Research Disclosure, Vol 170, June 1978, Item 17029, provides a summary of the many varied common photothermographic imaging systems. These photothermographic imaging systems have been broadly divided into Systems A and B.
In System A the photothermographic composition is comprised of photosensitive silver halide grains that are relied upon as the sole source of silver. System A has the advantage of being able to employ aqueous silver halide emulsions of the type employed in silver halide photographic systems, with their superior photosensitivity.
Photothermographic imaging systems predominantly fall into the System B category. The minimum essential components of System B are the following:
(i) an organic silver compound and PA2 (ii) an organic reducing agent and PA2 Sakaguchi U.S. Pat. No. 4,639,414. PA2 Lindholm et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,700,458; PA2 Ikenoue et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,909,271; PA2 Reeves et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,435,499; and PA2 Zou et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,434,043. PA2 Ohkubo et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,887,597 and PA2 Naito et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,478,927. PA2 Lindholm et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,713,833; PA2 Jones U.S. Pat. No. 3,871,887; PA2 Hiller U.S. Pat. No. 4,207,108; PA2 Kagami et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,725,534; and PA2 Pham U.S. Pat. No. 4,751,176. PA2 System B. PA2 A. Paper Supports PA2 B. Film Supports
The organic silver compounds that are most efficiently catalyzed by light-exposed silver halide grains to enter into an oxidation-reduction reaction in response to heating are those that are most conveniently dispersed in non-aqueous polymeric vehicles. Thus, although techniques are known for combining aqueous silver halide emulsions with the oxidation-reduction combination, the disadvantages of combining silver halide grains precipitated in an aqueous peptizer with a non-aqueous polymeric vehicle containing the oxidation-reduction combination more than offset any advantage of this approach. Therefore, it is generally preferred and most convenient to form the silver halide grains of component (a) in the presence of a non-aqueous polymeric peptizer.
Silver halide grains are formed in the presence of non-aqueous polymeric peptizer using either in situ or ex situ techniques. The in situ technique converts a portion of the organic silver compound (i) of the oxidation-reduction combination (b) to silver halide. The disadvantage of this technique is that chemical sensitization of the silver halide to increase photosensitivity is difficult. Typically chemical sensitization involves (1) adding a chemical sensitizing compound and (2) holding the silver halide at an elevated temperature for a period sufficient to allow interaction of the silver halide and the sensitizer. Since the in situ formation of the silver halide requires the presence of the organic silver compound, which is necessarily heat sensitive, it is apparent that heating runs the risk of unwanted silver ion release, thereby degrading image quality.
This disadvantage is avoided by undertaking ex situ silver halide grain formation, wherein, by definition, the organic silver compound is not present while the silver halide grains are being prepared. In addition, silver halide grain formation in the absence of the organic silver compound is generally simpler and more convenient than in situ grain formation.
In most instances photothermographic compositions are prepared and used without employing any chemical sensitization step comparable to that employed in preparing silver halide photographic emulsions. This is because silver halide photothermographic compositions are generally much slower than silver halide photographic compositions and have been commonly relegated to imaging applications that are compatible with low imaging speeds.
Research Disclosurei Item 17029, cited above, Section VI. Chemical Sensitization/Speed Addenda discloses a variety of sensitizations that have been developed for chemically sensitizing silver halide emulsions containing non-aqueous polymeric peptizers and silver halide formed in the non-aqueous polymeric vehicles of System B.
The following patents particularly directed to photothermography have been considered:
Lushington and Gysling U.S. Pat. No. 5,759,761, filed Jun. 4, 1997, titled GOLD CHEMICAL SENSITIZERS FOR SILVER HALIDES, commonly assigned, is directed to silver halide grains sensitized with at least one gold compound of the formula: EQU {AuS.sub.2 X}.sub.n
wherein

Process of preparing a photothermographic composition of enhanced photosensitivity


In a process for operating a gas blower burner, a control circuit detects an ionization signal Ui derived from an ionization electrode, and it adjusts the gas-to-air ratio to a lambda set point >1, to which a set point Uis of the ionization signal corresponds. To guarantee low-emission combustion in different operating states, a range of control of the ionization signal Ui is set, whose upper limit value Uio is smaller than the maximum of the ionization signal Ui, and whose lower limit value Uiu is above the value that guarantees low-emission operation. A switch-off signal is generated for the burner if the ionization signal Ui leaves the permissible range of control RB for longer than a preset period of time. If the value is lower than the lower limit value Uiu of the ionization signal Ui and when the value is lower than the set point Uis at a lambda value <1, the control circuit increases the gas volume flow to an end value, and another switch-off signal is generated for the burner when this end value is reached.

Such a process is described in DE 39 37 290 A1. The ionization electrode is in a d.c. circuit in this reference and the evaluation of the ionization current is problematic.
In Patent Application No. DE 44 33 425 A1, an alternating voltage, to which a d.c. voltage component that depends on the current of the ionization electrode is superimposed, is applied to the ionization electrode to improve the evaluability of the current flowing over the ionization electrode. An ionization voltage, which is a sufficiently accurate reflection of the current flame temperature and of the air ratio lambda (gas-to-air ratio), is derived from this.
It is also known that the heat output of a gas blower burner of a gas heater can be regulated by means of an automatic control unit corresponding to the heat demand, wherein the automatic control unit controls the speed of the blower as a function of an output set point, which depends on a room temperature set point and a heater flow temperature and/or the heater return temperature and an outside temperature.
Another control device for a gas burner has been known from DE 195 02 901 C1. It is based on the fact that the intensity of the flames is subject to continuous variations, i.e., there is a flickering flame pattern. It is recognized that the amplitudes of these variations depend on the gas-to-air ratio (lambda value) of the combustion gas. A safety flame monitoring to switch off the gas in the case of flame failure is not mentioned.
Gas-burning devices have been known to have to meet stringent safety requirements. According to safety regulations (EN 298), the flame failure controller in gas-burning devices intended for continuous operation performs a self-testing at regular intervals during operation, at least once an hour. In gas-burning devices intended for intermittent operation, the gas burner must switch off at least once within 24 hours in order to check the function of the flame failure controller. It is not ruled out that a defect may develop in the flame failure controller during the operation of the burner, and, in addition, the flame goes out. The automatic firing unit cannot recognize this at first and it cannot send a gas switch-off signal, as a consequence of which unburned gas is discharged until the next self-testing of the flame failure controller or until the burner is switched off.
An ionization flame failure controller, in which a capacitor charged to an operating voltage is discharged by the ionization current, has been known from DE 43 09 454 A1. The function of the ionization flame failure controller can be tested during the operation by means of a test signal. The ionization electrode itself and its connection cable and, in the case of certain disturbances, the capacitor cannot be tested. The flames are monitored only indirectly. In addition, the flame failure controller is tested by the test signal during periodically recurring time periods only.

Process and device for operating a gas burner


A supplemental tongue is fabricated of a rigid material. The supplemental tongue has upper and lower ends. The supplemental tongue is positionable within a slot of a child car seat. The supplemental tongue has a recess. The recess is provided adjacent to the lower end. The recess has a lower linear edge. In this manner the supplemental tongue is retained within the slot. A wrist band is provided in a loop. The loop forms an opening for a wrist. The wrist band is coupled to the tongue.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a car seat reminder system and more particularly pertains to insuring the use of child car seats by care providers in a safe, convenient and economical manner.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of car seat systems of known designs and configurations is known in the prior art. More specifically, car seat systems of known designs and configurations previously devised and utilized for the purpose of using child car seats through known methods and apparatuses are known to consist basically of familiar, expected, and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which has been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
By way of example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,012,533 issued Mar. 14, 2006 to Younse relates to an Occupant Detection and Notification System for Use with a Child Car Seat. U.S. Pat. No. 7,123,157 issued Oct. 17, 2006 to Best relates to a Car-Seat Occupied Baby-On-Board Indicator Alarm. Lastly, U.S. Pat. No. 7,230,530 issued Jun. 12, 2007 to Almquist relates to a Child Seat Safety System for Vehicles.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not describe a car seat reminder system that allows for insuring the use of child car seats by care providers in a safe, convenient and economical manner.
In this respect, the car seat reminder system according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in doing so provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of insuring the use of child car seats by care providers in a safe, convenient and economical manner.
Therefore, it can be appreciated that there exists a continuing need for a new and improved car seat reminder system which can be used for insuring the use of child car seats by care providers in a safe, convenient and economical manner. In this regard, the present invention substantially fulfills this need.


The invention relates to a sorting device which includes a mail item buffer storage having storage pouches, circulating in a conveying loop and moving past charge station. Below straight handover sections of the conveying loops, circulating mail from containers, displaced in a conveying path and open to the top, are provided as the sorting terminal points. The mail items are charged into the mail item containers according to their read-out target addresses by controlled opening of the respective storage pouch at that time at which the respective pouch arrives in the respective position above the associated mail item container.

The present invention relates to a sorting device for flat items of mail, having at least one input station, in each case having a mail separating device and a following transport device for transporting the separated items of mail past process appliances, such as readers, bar code printers, to a loading station of a mail buffer store in each case, the mail buffer store comprising a plurality of storage pockets which circulate in a conveying loop and are moved past the loading stations, and which are loaded with the mail in the loading stations.
In order to sort flat items of mail, such as letters, postcards, small packets and the like in accordance with the, distribution information specified on the surface, it is known to accommodate these items of mail, to transport them and to discharge them in a controlled manner in specific pocket-like containers.
For example, EP 0 608 161 A1 discloses a salting device in which flat objects are transported laterally into storage pockets from outside by means of a channel-like, locally fixed feed device. These storage pockets, circulating in a closed loop, are moved horizontally past the feed device and the items of mail then fall into sorting containers located underneath by means of specific opening of flaps accordance with the sorting stipulation. In order to put the items of mail securely into the moving storage pockets, either the items of mail in the feed device must have a very high transport speed, which can lead to damage when braking the items of mail in the container, or the speed of the storage pockets is very low or the containers are at a standstill during the input, which means a reduction in the throughput of the machine.
For the purpose of ordering in a specific sequence, and solution has been disclosed (EP 820 818 A1) which uses an intermediate store, which comprises storage pockets circulating on a conveyor device in a conveyor loop having at least two semicircular conveyor sections, it being possible for said storage pockets each to pick up an item of mail and to deposit is in the actual tray again when instructed. In this case, initially all the items of mail to be ordered are accommodated in any desired sequence in the storage pockets of the intermediate store. The items of mail are then removed from the storage pockets of the intermediate store and transferred into the trays in such a way that they are located in the latter in the order to be produced. The trays, which are open at the top, are located along the straight sections of the conveyor device, underneath the storage pockets.
In order to improve the input of the items of mail into the storage pockets, according to WO 97/10904 the end section of the transport means of the feed device is designed such that it can be pivoted so that, doing the input of the respective item of mail, this end section is pivoted together with the moved storage pockets in substantially the same direction and at substantially the same speed and, following the input, is pivoted back again.
The throughput of these sorting devices is limited by the throughput of the circulating storage pockets. An increase in the throughput can theoretically be achieved only by increasing the speed and/or reducing the pitch of the transport system of the storage pockets. However, as outlined (input into the storage pockets), this is possible only to a very limited extent.
A sorting device (EP 0 949 015 A2) has also been disclosed which has a plurality of input units, at least one mail buffer store with continuously circulating storage pockets, mail containers as final sorting points, which are filled from the different mail, buffer stores, and with an input and output device for mail containers. In this case, it is possible to manage with fewer final sorting points than there are sorting destinations.


A sectional garage door is formed of rectangular door sections which include hollow extruded plastic rail members interconnected by hollow extruded plastic end and intermediate stile members to form a door section. The rail members and stile members may be fitted with internal tubular or channel shaped metal reinforcing members to minimize deflection of the door sections during use. The door sections may each include an externally fitted strut which is secured to a longitudinal side edge of a section and is connected directly to a reinforcing member disposed within one of the rail members without being forcibly connected to the rail member itself to allow for differential thermal expansion between the rail member and the reinforcing members. Rectangular panel inserts may be removably supported on each door section by removable retainer members and may include insulated panel inserts which may be added to the door sections before or after installation.

Upward acting or vertical opening sectional doors are ubiquitous as residential garage doors and are also widely used in commercial door applications. There has been a continuing need to provide improvements in sectional doors of the general type referenced herein. One pressing need has been to reduce the weight of the door, particularly for doors used to close over openings in residential or commercial multi-car garages. These doors typically range in widths from eight to twenty feet and have a height of about seven feet. It is desirable to minimize the weight of the door while not sacrificing its strength and rigidity to provide a suitable secure insulated or noninsulated closure over the garage vehicle entry. In this regard extrudable or moldable polymer materials have been given consideration for use as the main structural members of doors. However, the use of these materials with other door support components has posed certain problems with respect to providing adequate strength of the door sections and accommodation of thermal expansion and contraction of the polymer materials as compared with metal door structural components or door structural components of other materials used in conjunction with the polymer materials. Moreover, it is desirable to provide a door structure which can be easily modified to include substantial or minimal thermal and/or acoustic insulation.
Another problem associated with the development of sectional vertical opening doors as well as other doors which utilize multiple door sections or panels which are hinged to each other is the development of a suitable hinge structure which can be an integral part of the door structural members and providing a long operating life, particularly with minimal or little maintenance, is adapted to minimize injury, such as by being configured to substantially prevent placement of a person's finger or fingers between the do or sections during pivotal movement thereof, provides a suitable light seal and weather seal, and provides for assembly of the door sections laterally with respect to each other instead of requiring a longitudinal end-to-end sliding fit of the door sections with respect to each other in order to assemble the hinge.


A grip element having a soft, compressible and deformable outer layer supported by an underlying support structure sufficiently rigid to maintain a receiving channel of the grip element in an open configuration. The support structure facilitates manipulation of the grip element and assembly of the grip element onto a hand-held article without having the outer layer collapse on itself as would occur without the support structure as a result of the soft, deformable nature of the outer layer. The grip element may be formed separately from the hand-held article on which it is to be assembled, and then positioned thereon such that the hand-held article is sold with the grip element pre-assembled thereon. If desired, the grip element may be provided separate from the hand-held article, the outer layer providing a readily compressible and deformable soft cushioning surface and the support structure facilitating insertion of the outer layer over at least a portion of a hand-held article. The outer layer and support structure may be co-molded such that the materials thereof are permanently and directly bonded together. If desired, a pattern may be formed on the outer layer, such as grooves, dimples, ribs, bumps, a lattice pattern, or a honeycomb pattern.

Various hand-held articles are manufactured from smooth hard materials which are inexpensive and amenable to standard manufacturing processes. In order to increase comfort during gripping of the hand-held article and/or to decrease possible slippage because of the smoothness of the material, various grip elements have been designed for placement on the gripping portion of the hand-held article. Because such grip elements are provided to address different problems or consumer needs, a variety of different grip elements with different properties are available.
For instance, for purposes of increased comfort to consumers who grip a hand-held article very tightly, grip elements of soft foam are provided to permit ready deformation of the grip element and resulting enhanced comfort during gripping thereof. Other types of grip elements with low durometers (hardnesses) are known, such as on the Dr. Grip® writing instrument manufactured by Pilot® Corporation of America, of Trumbull Connecticut, and the PhD™ writing instrument manufactured by Sanford, of Bellwood, Ill. However, to permit ready handling of known soft grip elements during manufacture and to facilitate assembly on the hand-held article, such soft grip elements require more material than is really necessary to achieve the desired enhanced comfort, thus increasing size or bulk as well as material costs. Moreover, insertion of a thick-walled grip element over the gripping section of a hand-held article results in a hand-held article significantly bulkier than would be the case without such grip element.
However, thin-walled tubular elements formed from very soft materials are difficult to handle for various reasons. For instance, the thin wall easily collapses on itself, requiring additional supporting and manipulating devices to permit insertion over a hand-held article. If the tubular element is transported in bulk, such as in a vibrating bowl, then the plurality of tubular elements collapse in transit, requiring manipulation to recreate their tubular configuration. Moreover, if the material is so soft that it has a high coefficient of friction, the collapsed walls may stick to each other to a certain degree, further complicating the handling of the tubular element.
In addition, if a grip element is designed to reduce slippage, such characteristic may backfire by interfering with ready sliding over the exterior of a hand-held article into the desired position on the article. A thin-walled grip element may stick to itself and wrinkle during insertion, further impeding insertion over the hand-held article.
Formation of the grip element directly on the gripping section of the hand-held article is one solution to the above-described problem of mounting a separately formed soft grip element onto a hand-held article. However, such solution has its drawbacks as well. If a molding process, such as a two-shot injection molding process, is used then the grip element is molded over a substrate which is typically the hand-held article itself. Because the hand-held article typically has a unique shape, the requisite mold complexity for such molding is relatively high, with accompanying high costs. The resulting mold process would likewise be expensive in order to control the high tolerances and critical features necessary to create a substrate with the desired features. For example, if the grip element is to be provided on a writing instrument, then the substrate is a writing instrument body which may have particular features requiring a complex, and thus expensive, mold. Moreover, if the substrate is the entire hand-held article, then only a limited number of mold cavities can be used per cycle for a given mold or press size.
Thus, it would be desirable to form a grip element from a material soft enough to provide the desired enhanced comfort while configuring the grip element to be readily assembled over the gripping section of the hand-held article.


A chair seat cushion for use with a chair having a backrest, as well as a chair fitted with such a cushion, that improves seating comfort and reduces load on the user's lumbar region. The cushion has a bevelled front edge and a bevelled concave rear edge. The length of the cushion is such that, when properly placed on the seating surface of a chair for use, the user's knees and calves are in front of and out of contact with the front edge, while the user's hips are in generally vertical alignment with the rear edge such that the user's buttocks extend behind the rear edge. With the user's back supported by the backrest, the user's weight is largely supported on the thighs, thereby reducing lumbar load.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a chair seat cushion for a chair having a backrest and to the use of such a cushion.
The invention also relates to the seat cushion fitted to a chair, i.e. a chair fitted with said cushion.
In one embodiment, the invention relates to a chair seat cushion that can be placed on the seat of a chair having a backrest, to improve user seating comfort and particularly to enable the user to adjust his/her seating position in the chair.
The inventive chair seat cushion is intended to be used by people who are healthy with the exception of possible back pains, wherein the cushion is intended to be used to prevent the occurrence of back pains and to reduce or eliminate back pains of people who have or are prone to back troubles.
2. Description of the Related Art
Earlier techniques concerning contoured and structured chair seats are represented in U.S. Pat. No. 5,352,023, U.S. Pat. No. 4,726,624 and WO-A 94/10878, all of which relate to wheelchairs and more specifically to wheelchair seats that are designed for a different purpose to that intended by the invention, namely primarily to prevent a person seated in a wheelchair from sliding forwards on or from the chair seat, for instance in the event of an abrupt stop.
The wheelchair seat has a sunken rear part which receives the user's back to this end. The transition from the rear sunken part of the seat and the front raised part forms a barrier which functions to prevent the user from slipping forwards. A wheelchair-bound user will often lack the ability to feel or correct an unsuitable hip position in the wheelchair. The seat can be given the "right" length with respect to the horizontal distance between the user's back and his/her bent knees, by enabling the whole of the wheelchair seat to be moved longitudinally in relation to the wheelchair back rest. In order to enable the barrier to be positioned so that the user's back/hips lie more or less stably enclosed between the barrier and the wheelchair backrest, the use of narrow strap-like cushions which are supported across the seat and function to raise the front seat part have been proposed. These cushions can be arranged or removed to displace the effective position of the barrier along the seat.
When applying the known technique, it has been noted that roughly 75% of the user's body weight is transferred to the seat over an area of about 25 square centimeters (corresponding to the leg sitting area). In order to distribute this load over a wider area, it has been proposed to raise the aforesaid narrow barrier cushions to a level in which they project up over the level defined by the front part of the seat, thereby forming a pivot ridge which enables the weight of the user's thighs and legs to establish a pivotal moment around this ridge which tends to reduce the surface pressure on the user's back. The aforesaid technique also proposes the use of a liquid-filled cushion placed on the wheelchair seat to reduce the otherwise local high external load pressure on the user, or patient.

Chair seat cushion and chair seat with such a cushion


Using a natural language analysis, it is determined that a compendium requires a natural language response to a natural language query, the compendium comprising a set of stored natural language responses to natural language queries. A relevance of a portion of narrative text to the natural language query is scored according to a query relevance measure, the portion extracted from a corpus of narrative text. The compendium is enhanced according to the query relevance score with information in the portion.

A natural language is a scripted (written) or a vocalized (spoken) language having a form that is employed by humans for primarily communicating with other humans or with systems having a natural language interface. Natural language processing (NLP) is a technique that facilitates exchange of information between humans and data processing systems. For example, one branch of NLP pertains to transforming human readable or human understandable content into machine usable data. For example, NLP engines are presently usable to accept input content such as a newspaper article or human speech, and produce structured data, such as an outline of the input content, most significant and least significant parts, a subject, a reference, dependencies within the content, and the like, from the given content.
Another branch of NLP pertains to answering questions about a subject matter based on information available about the subject matter domain. This is the branch of cognitive analytics, and is also referred to as a Question and Answer system (Q and A system). Cognitive analytics is the process of analyzing available information or knowledge to create, infer, deduce, or derive new information.
A chatbot or conversational interface is software that conducts a natural language conversation with a human user. Typically, the natural language conversation is conducted in text form. However, input to the chatbot can also be converted from another modality, such as speech, into text for processing, then output from the chatbot converted back into speech a human can hear. Chatbots are typically used to aid in customer service or information acquisition.
A natural language utterance supplied to a chatbot system is referred to as a query. A query need not be a grammatical question, or be grammatically correct, but may also be any natural language word or phrase. A response is a natural language utterance supplied by the chatbot system in response to a query. A response also need not be a complete sentence or grammatically correct, but may be any natural language word or phrase. A query and a response to the query constitute a query-response pair. Both queries and responses may be in the form of text, speech, or another form of natural language communication.

Improving the accuracy of a compendium of natural language responses

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


A digitized speech signal (600) is input to an F0 (fundamental frequency) processor that computes (610) a continuous F0 data from the speech signal. By the criterion voicing state transition (voiced/unvoiced transitions) the speech signal is presegmented (620) into segments. For each segment (630) it is evaluated (640) whether F0 is defined or not defined i.e. whether F0 is ON or OFF. In case of F0=OFF a candidate segment boundary is assumed as described above and, starting from that boundary, prosodic features are computed (650). The feature values are input into a classification tree and each candidate segment is classified thereby revealing, as a result, the existence or non-existence of a semantic or syntactic speech unit.

The present invention relates to computer-based automatic segmentation of audio streams like speech or music into semantic or syntactic units like sentence, section and topic units, and more specifically to a method and a system for such a segmentation wherein the audio stream is provided in a digitized format.
Prior to or during production of audiovisual media like movies or broadcasted news a huge amount of raw audio material is recorded. This material is almost never used as recorded but subjected to editing, i.e. segments of the raw material relevant to the production are selected and assembled into a new sequence.
Today this editing of the raw material is a laborous and time-consuming process involving many different steps, most of which require human intervention. A crucial manual step during the preprocessing of the raw material is the selection of cut points, i.e. the selection of possible segment boundaries, that may be used to switch between different segments of the raw material during the subsequent editing steps. Currently these cut points are selected interactively in a process that requires a human to listen for potential audio cut points like speaker changes or the end of a sentence, to determine the exact time at which the cut point occurs, and to add this time to an edit-decision list (EDL).
For the above reasons there is a substantial need to automate part or even all of the above preprocessing steps.
Many audio or audio-visual media sources like real media streams or recordings of interviews, conversations or news broadcasts are available only in audio or audio-visual form. They lack in corresponding textual transcripts and thus in typographic cues such as headers, paragraphs, sentence punctuation, and capitalization that would allow for segmentation of those media streams only by linking transcript information to audio (or video) information as proposed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/447,871 filed by the present assignee. But those cues are absent or hidden in speech output.
Therefore a crucial step for the automatic segmentation of such media streams is automatic determination of semantic or syntactic boundaries like topics, sentences and phrase boundaries.
There exist approaches that use prosody whereby prosodic features are those features that have not only influence on single media stream segments (called phonemes) but extend over a number of segments. Exemplary prosodic features are information extracted from the timing and melody of speech like pausing, changes in pitch range or amplitude, global pitch declination, or melody and boundary tone distribution for the segmentation process.
As disclosed in a recent article by E. Shriberg, A. Stolcke et al. entitled "Prosody-Based Automatic Segmentation of Speech into Sentences and Topics", published as pre-print to appear in Speech Communication 32(1-2) in September 2000, evaluation of prosodic features usually is combined with statistical language models mainly based on Hidden Markov Theory and thus presume words already decoded by a speech recognizer. The advantage to use prosodic indicators for segmentation is that prosodic features are relatively unaffected by word identity and thus improve the robustness of the entire segmentation process.
A further article by A. Stolcke, E. Shriberg et al. entitled "Automatic Detection of Sentence Boundaries and Disfluencies Based on Recognized Words", published as Proceedings of the International Conference on Spoken Language Processing, Sydney, 1998, concerns also segmentation of audio streams using a prosodic model and is accordingly based on speech already transcribed by an automatic speech recognizer.
In the above at first cited article, prosodic modeling is mainly based on only very local features, whereby for each inter-word boundary prosodic features of the word immediately preceding and following the boundary, or alternatively within an empirically optimized window of 20 frames before and after the boundary, arc analyzed. In particular, prosodic features are extracted that reflect pause durations, phone durations, pitch information, and voice quality information. Pause features are extracted at the inter-word boundaries. Pause duration, a fundamental frequency (F0), and voice quality features are extracted mainly from the word and window preceding the boundary. In addition, pitch-related features reflecting the difference in pitch across the boundary are included in the analysis.
In the above article by E. Shriberg et al., chapter 126.96.36.199, generally refers to a mechanism for determining the F0 signal. A similar mechanism according to the invention will be discussed in more detail later referring to FIG. 3. The further details of the F0 processing are of no relevance for the understanding of the present invention.
As mentioned above, the segmentation process disclosed in the pre-cited article is based on language modeling to capture information about segment boundaries contained in the word sequences. That described approach is to model the joint distribution of boundary types and words in a Hidden Markov Model (HMM), the hidden variable being the word boundaries. For the segmentation of sentences it is therefore relied on a hidden-event N-gram language model where the states of the HMM consist of the end-of-sentence status of each word, i.e. boundary or no-boundary, plus any preceding words and possible boundary tags to fill up the N-gram context. As commonly known in the related art, transition probabilities are given by N-gram probabilities that in this case are estimated from annotated, boundary-tagged user-specific training data.
Concerning segmentation, the authors of that article further propose use of a decision tree where a number of prosodic features are used that fall into different groups. To designate the relative importance of these features in the decision tree, a measure called "feature usage" is utilized that is computed as the relative frequency with which that feature or feature class is queried in the decision tree. The prosodic features used are pause duration at a given boundary, turn/no turn at the boundary, F0 difference across the boundary, and rhyme duration.
The above cited prior art approaches have the drawback that they either necessarily use a speech recognizer or that they require multiple processing steps. The entire known segmentation process is error-prone, i.e. has to rely on speech recognizer output, and is time-consuming. In addition, most of the known approaches use complex mechanisms and technologies and thus their technical realization is rather cost-extensive.

Method and system for the automatic segmentation of an audio stream into semantic or syntactic units

International Business Machines Corporation


A method of forming a multi-layered printed circuit board (PCB) may include, with a printing device, delivering a flexible medium to at least one fluid jet printhead. Printing an electrically conductive fluid on the flexible medium may be performed with at least one fluid jet printhead, to form a first conductive layer on the flexible medium. With the at least one fluid jet printhead, an electrically insulating fluid may be printed on the first conductive layer to form at least one insulating layer on the first conductive layer. With the at least one fluid jet printhead, the electrically conductive fluid may be printed on the at least one insulating layer to form a second conductive layer.

A printed circuit board (PCB) is any device that mechanically supports and electrically connects electronic components using conductive tracks, pads, vias, and other features. In some examples, the conductive tracks, pads, vias, and other features may be formed by etching copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate. Electrical elements such as capacitors, resistors, inductors, memristors, or active devices may be soldered on the PCB or embedded therein.
Throughout the drawings, identical reference numbers designate similar, but not necessarily identical, elements.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


In order to improve a sliding shaft for a surgical sliding shaft instrument, wherein the sliding shaft defines a longitudinal direction and comprises a first shaft part and a second shaft part which are arranged such that they are displaceable relative to each other, wherein said first shaft part carries a first tool element and said second shaft part carries a second tool element, wherein the second shaft part has a cut material collector with an inlet opening which is bounded by the second tool part and extends therefrom in the proximal direction, such that the cut material collector can be emptied in a simple and rapid manner, it is proposed that the cut material collector should have at least one emptying opening which is formed on the proximal side of the inlet opening and that the at least one emptying opening should be open in a lateral emptying direction which is oriented perpendicularly or substantially perpendicularly with respect to the longitudinal direction and parallel or substantially parallel to a contact plane defined by a lower surface of the second shaft part.

Surgical sliding shaft instruments of the type described hereinabove in the form of bone punches for example are known. They are constructed in such a manner that the two shaft parts forming the sliding shaft are guided directly upon one another. For this purpose, there are provided so-called internal guide elements which form the guidance device and which are arranged or formed on the surfaces of the shaft parts that rest upon one another. The two shaft parts, which are also referred to as an upper slide part and a lower slide part, abut each other directly. This, however, has the disadvantage that when cleaning or even when using the instrument, fluid can be sucked in between the shaft parts that abut each other. It is practically impossible to remove this fluid without dismantling the instrument.

Surgical sliding shaft instrument and sliding shaft


A cutting tool that improves operability by facilitating operation of a lever for operating a clamp mechanism of a guide member is provided. A clamp mechanism is constituted by a clamp pin that protrudes its distal end to the outside of the blade case while penetrating a depth guide and the blade case, a first lever that is connected to the distal end of the clamp pin and directly moves the clamp pin in the axial direction, and a second lever that is connected to the upper portion of the first lever through a connecting pin and has a cam lever. When the second lever is rotated toward the blade case, the cam lever presses the connecting pin to tilt the first lever, whereby the clamp pin is pulled outward. As a result, the depth guide is pressed to the inner surface of the blade case and clamped.

This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application Number 2004-355811 filed on Dec. 8, 2004, the entirety of which is incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cutting tool, such as a circular saw or a cutter, in which a main body having a cutting blade that rotates driven by a motor is provided on a base, and the cutting blade protrudes below the base so as to cut a workpiece.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional circular saw has a base which is rectangular in a plain view and a main body provided on the base and having a circular saw blade (cutting blade) driven to rotate by a motor. When the saw blade protrudes below the base, and the base is slid on the workpiece, the workpiece is cut by the saw blade. In this circular saw the front end of a blade case covering the upper part of the saw blade is mounted on the base rotatably in the upper and lower directions. On the other hand, the rear end of the blade case can be slid along an arcuate guide member standing on the base, and can be fixed at an arbitrary position along the guide member by a clamp mechanism provided on the blade case. As a result, an amount of protrusion of the saw blade (cutting depth) from the base can be adjusted.
As a well-known clamp mechanism, the Japanese Patent No. 2829714 discloses a structure including a blade case and a bolt threadedly mounted thereto for penetrating a guide member. Then a thumb nut is screwed to the bolt, so that the guide member is pressed and fixed to the inner surface of the blade case. On the other hand, the Japanese Patent No. 3427431 discloses a structure including a blade case and a cam lever for pressing a guide member provided along the outer circumference of the blade case. With this cam lever, the guide member is pressed and fixed to the outer surface of the blade case.
However, in a structure with a thumb nut screwing as disclosed in the Japanese Patent No. 2829714, rotative operation of the thumb nut in accordance with cutting depth adjustment is troublesome, which deteriorates operability. On the other hand, a cam lever disclosed in the Japanese Patent No. 3427431 improves operability compared with the above structure, because a guide member can be clamped or unclamped by rotative operation of the cam lever. Nevertheless, since powerful force is required to press and fix the guide member, a load on the cam lever in accordance with rotative operation increases, so that improvement of operability is insufficient.
In order to solve the above problem, an object of the present invention is to provide a cutting tool with excellent operability, adopting a lever structure to a clamp mechanism for lightly clamping and unclamping a guide member.

Cutting tool with guide member clamping means