An axle beam suspension arrangement comprises a lateral link assembly which is mounted to a single support point on a vehicle body and two support points on an axle beam of the vehicle. The lateral link assembly consists of a lateral link member connected between a support point on the axle beam and the support point on the vehicle body, an assist link is provided which connects between the second support point on the axle beam and a point on the length of the lateral link, closer to the end at which the lateral link connects to the axle than the end connecting to the vehicle body. The lateral link is connected to the axle beam support point via a bush which is flexible in the axial direction of the lateral link. Thus scuff, or vertical disalignment of the vehicle wheels during bounding and rebounding is prevented while occurrence of rolling may be detected while jack-up forces applied to vehicle wheels are absorbed. The arrangement is further applicable to watt link type suspension arrangements incorporating to lateral links and an intermediate link. According to this arrangement, road unevenness input to the lateral links is absorbed by rotation of the intermediate link.

1. Field of The Invention
The present invention relates generally to an axle beam type suspension arrangement for automotive vehicles. Particularly, the present invention relates to a three link suspension which eliminates lateral forces between road wheel and a road surface and which can minimize jack-up forces applied to vehicle wheels.
2. Description of The Prior Art
Suspension systems are commonly known which utilize a trailing arm portion to absorb vehicle motion forces in the forward direction of the vehicle, coil springs in combination with shock absorbers to absorb vertical forces and a lateral link (or panel load) to absorb lateral forces applied to the vehicle.
However, in such prior art suspension systems, since the lateral link is a single member connected laterally between a portion of the vehicle body and the axle beam, during bounding and rebounding of the vehicle wheels, a certain amount of displacement, called scuff variation, or tread variation, occurs between the vehicle body and the vehicle axle due to pulling resulting from the arc like travel of the lateral link.
To eliminate occurrence of scuff variation between the suspension and the vehicle body, Japanese Patent Application First Publication (unexamined) 2-254006 discloses a suspension system including an assist link associated with the lateral link for absorbing a lateral displacement variation amount .epsilon.. Further, Japanese Utility Model Application First Publication 53-30618 discloses a watt link type lateral link assembly for compensating for scuff between the suspension and the vehicle body.
In the above cited prior art systems, a three point support arrangement is utilized. That is the lateral link assembly is connected to a single point on the axle beam and to two points on the vehicle body. According to the above arrangement scuff variation between the vehicle body and the suspension are suitably compensated. However, during occurrence of vehicle rolling, such as during turning, with occurrence of wheel bounding and rebounding, the above arrangements, although eliminating scuff between the vehicle body and suspension, permit scuff to occur between the road wheels and the road surface causing jack-up force to be applied to the suspension. This undermines overall vehicle stability, particularly during cornering.

Axle beam type suspension arrangement for vehicle


Disclosed herein is a method of bonding solder pads of a flip-chip package. This invention relates to a method of bonding solder pads having different sizes to each other, when a bonding operation is executed between a chip and a PCB, between chips, or between PCBs. On a side having a larger solder pad, a general solder ball is used. Conversely, on a side having a smaller solder pad, a solder ball having a core is used. The core serves to maintain a predetermined interval between the chip and the PCB or between the chips, after the bonding operation has been completed. The solder bonded parts are aligned with each other so as to perform a final bonding operation. In a conventional flip-chip package, solder pads provided on a bonded part must have the same or similar size. According to this invention, even if the size difference between the solder pads is large, bonding is possible, thus ensuring electrical and mechanical reliability.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method of bonding solder pads of a flip-chip package, and more particularly to a method of bonding solder pads of a flip-chip package, when solder pads provided at solder bonded parts have different sizes in the flip-chip package, which is one kind of electronic package. This invention is adapted to all packages in which solder pads provided at bonded parts have different sizes, in a packaging field which requires direct bonding between a chip and a printed circuit board (PCB) or between chips, such as a system-in-package as well as the flip-chip package.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional flip-chip package, solder pads of a chip and a PCB must have the same or similar size so as to increase a bonding effect at a part bonded using solder, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2A.
Referring to FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a chip, reference numeral 2 denotes a PCB, reference numeral 4 denotes a metal wetting layer, reference numeral 5 denotes general solder having no core, reference numeral 6 denotes a passivation layer of a chip side, and reference numeral 7 denotes a solder mask.
As shown in FIG. 2B, a solder pad of the chip and a solder pad of the PCB may have different sizes. Even though the solder pads have different sizes, the sizes must be similar to each other, that is, the difference between the sizes must be 30% or less. In FIGS. 2A and 2B, reference numerals 1 and 2 denote the same components as FIG. 1. Reference numeral 8 denotes a solder pad size.
When the solder pads have different sizes, solder bonds are mechanically weak, and electric signal transmission is not possible.
Further, when the difference between the sizes of the solder pads is very large, that is, 150% or more, all of the solder melts and bonds to a larger solder pad. Thus, bonding may not be successfully performed at a position where a smaller solder pad is provided.
Even if the difference between the sizes of the solder pads is small and bonding may be realized at both solder pads, a larger amount of molten solder is bonded to the larger solder pad. Thus, the conventional bonding method has a drawback in that it is impossible to maintain the distance between the chip and the PCB, which is preset at an initial design stage, so that the solder pads must be designed to have the same size for the purpose of a solder bonding operation which is executed between the chip and the PCB or the chips in the flip-chip package.
As such, when the solder pads are designed to have one size, the following problem occurs. That is, when a product having a solder pad of a different size may be produced, the product must be discarded, thus undesirably increasing manufacturing costs thereof.
Since a multi-layer design and a multi-layer process are usually conducted on the chip side, it is possible to make solder pads at various positions, in addition to increasing the size of the solder pads. In order to cause the size and positions of the solder pads of the PCB side to correspond to those of the solder pads of the chip side, the operation of manufacturing the PCB must be executed using the multi-layer design or the multi-layer process.
If the solder pads provided at the PCB side may be small, it is unnecessary to form wiring lines in multiple layers, and it is possible to form wiring lines without contacting the solder pads even in a single layer, thus reducing manufacturing costs of the PCB.

Method of bonding solder pads of flip-chip package

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology


A golf club head with an internal power shaft that extends along the target line. In a high volume club head embodiment above 250 cm..sup.3, constructed of a low modulus alloy compared to stainless steel, the power shaft has a preload, or static compression, to increase the modulus of elasticity of the head and ball striking face. This preload technique is expanded in another embodiment into a semi-customized line of golf club woods, where the club head modulus of elasticity increases with the golfer's club head speed by progressively increasing preload in the club head line. The power shaft is press-fitted into the rear of the ball striking face to reduce bonding and welding difficulties in joining the power shaft to the ball striking face. The modulus of the face wall and the power shaft is enhanced by casting or welding the sole plate of the club head along an axial extent directly to the outer surface of the power shaft thereby increasing its columnar strength. This unique club is assembled by casting the club head in two pieces parting along a vertical plane parallel to the club face, one forward and one rear, and assembling the head by clamshelling the power shaft between the forward wall and rear pieces and then welding or otherwise bonding the forward and rear pieces together. By applying opposite axial clamping forces to the two club head pieces during and after welding or other heat bonding, the power shaft is preloaded into a static compression state.

Investment casting techniques innovated in the late 1960s have revolutionized the design, construction and performance of golf club heads up to the present time. Initially only novelty putters and irons were investment cast, and it was only until the early years of the 1980s that investment cast metal woods achieved any degree of commercial success. The initial iron club heads that were investment cast in the very late 1960s and early 1970s innovated the cavity backed club heads made possible by investment casting which enabled the molder and tool designer to form rather severe surface changes in the tooling that were not possible in prior manufacturing techniques for irons which were predominantly at that time forgings. The forging technology was expensive because of the repetition of forging impacts and the necessity for progressive tooling that rendered the forging process considerably more expensive than the investment casting process and that distinction is true today although there have been recent techniques in forging technology to increase the severity of surface contours albeit them at considerable expense.
The investment casting process, sometimes known as the lost wax process, permits the casting of complex shapes found beneficial in golf club technology, because the ceramic material of the mold is formed by dipping a wax master impression repeatedly into a ceramic slurry with drying periods in-between and with a silica coating that permits undercutting and abrupt surface changes almost without limitation since the wax is melted from the interior of the ceramic mold after complete hardening.
This process was adopted in the 1980s to manufacture "wooden" club heads and was found particularly successful because the construction of these heads requires interior undercuts and thin walls because of their stainless steel construction. The metal wood club head, in order to conform to commonly acceptable club head weights on the order of 195 to 210 gms. when constructed of stainless steel, must have extremely thin wall thicknesses on the order of 0.020 to 0.070 inches on the perimeter walls to a maximum of 0.125 inches on the forward wall which is the ball striking surface. This ball striking surface, even utilizing a high strength stainless steel such as 17-4, without reinforcement, must have a thickness of at least 0.125 inches to maintain its structural integrity for the high club head speed player of today who not uncommonly has speeds in the range of 100 to 150 feet per second at ball impact.
Faced with this dilemma of manufacturing a club head of adequate strength while limiting the weight of the club head in a driving metal wood in the range of 195 to 210 gms., designers have found it difficult to increase the perimeter weighting effect of the club head.
In an iron club, perimeter weighting is an easier task because for a given swing weight, iron club heads can be considerably heavier than metal woods because the iron shafts are shorter. So attempts to increase perimeter weighting over the past decade have been more successful in irons than "wooden" club heads. Since the innovation of investment casting in iron technology in the late 1960s, this technique has been utilized to increase the perimeter weighting of the club head or more particularly a redistribution of the weight of the head itself away from the hitting area to the perimeter around the hitting area, usually by providing a perimeter wall extending rearwardly from the face that results in a rear cavity behind the ball striking area. Such a club head configuration has been found over the last two plus decades to enable the average golfer, as well as the professional, to realize a more forgiving hitting area and by that we mean that somewhat offcenter hits from the geometric center of the face of the club results in shots substantially the same as those hits on the center of the club. Today it is not uncommon to find a majority of professional golfers playing in any tournament with investment cast perimeter weighted irons confirming the validity of this perimeter weighting technology.
Metal woods by definition are perimeter weighted because in order to achieve the weight limitation of the club head described above with stainless steel materials, it is necessary to construct the walls of the club head very thin which necessarily produces a shell-type construction where the rearwardly extending wall extends from the perimeter of the forward ball striking wall, and this results in an inherently perimeter weighted club, not by design but by a logical requirement.
In the Raymont, U.S. Pat. No. 3,847,399 issued Nov. 12, 1974, assigned to the assignee of the present invention, a system is disclosed for increasing the perimeter weighting effect of a golf club by a pattern of reinforcing elements in the ball striking area that permits the ball striking area to be lighter than normal, enabling the designer to utilize that weight saved on the forward face by adding it to the perimeter wall and thereby enhancing perimeter weighting.
This technique devised by Mr. Raymont was adopted in the late 1980s by many tool designers of investment cast metal woods to increase the strength of the forward face of the metal woods to maintain the requirement for total overall head weight and to redistribute the weight to the relatively thin investment cast perimeter walls permitting these walls to not only have greater structural integrity and provide easier molding and less rejects, but also to enhance the perimeter weighting of these metal woods.
Another problem addressed by the present invention is the achievement of increasing the benefits of perimeter weighting by simply adding weight to the perimeter of the club head itself. This technique, of course, has found considerable success in low impact club heads such as putters, where overall club head weight is in no way critical, and in fact in many low impact clubs that have found considerable commercial success, the club heads weigh many times that of metal wood heads, sometimes three or four times as heavy.
Increased perimeter weighting has been found difficult because of the weight and impact strength requirements in metal woods. An understanding of perimeter weighting must necessarily include a discussion of the parameter radius of gyration. The radius of gyration in a golf club head is defined as the radius from the geometric or ball striking axis of the club along the club face to points of club head mass under consideration. Thus, in effect the radius of gyration is the moment arm or torquing arm for a given mass under consideration about the ball striking point. The total moments acting on the ball during impact is defined as the sum of the individual masses multiplied by their moment arms or "radii of gyration". And this sum of the moments can be increased then by either increasing the length of the individual moment arms or by increasing the mass or face acting at that moment arm or combinations of the two.
Since it is not practical, except for the techniques discussed in the above Raymont and Allen patents, to add weight to the perimeter wall because of the weight limitations of metal woods and particularly the driving woods, one alternative is to increase the moment arm or radius of gyration. This explains the popularity of today's "jumbo" woods although many of such woods do not have enlarged faces because of the requirement for structural integrity in the front face.
In the Allen, U.S. Pat. No. 5,397,126, an improved metal wood golf club is provided having an enlarged or "jumbo" metal club head with a crowned top wall extending rearwardly from a ball striking face wall, a toe wall, and a heel wall also projecting rearwardly from the face wall--but the club head has no conventional sole plate.
The toe wall and the heel wall are enclosed by the top wall and a pair of spaced generally vertical weighting walls integral with and extending rearwardly from the face wall. The two areas enclosed by the top wall, heel and toe walls, and weight walls are hollow to achieve the desired head weight and the area between the walls is opened, and the weight of the sole plate that normally encloses that area is redistributed to the weight wall to achieve true heel and toe weighting.
Prior attempts to manufacture very large stainless steel metal club heads with larger than normal faces has proved exceedingly difficult because of the 195 to 210 gm. weight requirements for driving club heads to achieve the most desirable club swing weights. Thus, to the present date stainless steel "jumbo" club heads have been manufactured with standard sized face walls, deeply descending top walls from the front to the rear of the club head, and angular faceted sole plates all designed to decrease the gross enclosed volume of the head but which do not detract from the apparent, not actual, volumetric size of the head. This has led to several manufacturers switching from stainless steel to aluminum and titanium alloys, which are of course lighter, to enlarge the head as well as the face.
It has also been suggested in the past that various rods and shafts be cast or attached into the club head for the purpose of rigidifying the forward face wall. However, to the present date, such designs have not achieved any significant commercial success.
The first problem is that, while some of the prior art suggests casting the rods with the forward face, as a practical matter this has never been achieved because of the extreme difficulty in removing the core pieces around the shaft due to interference with the walls of the club head.
A second problem that is not addressed in this prior art is that in order to be effective in reinforcing the front face, the rods need to be integrated into the club head. The rod must also have a weight in the range of 20 to 30 gms. If one simply adds 20 to 30 gram element to a 200 gm. head, the resulting weight of 220 to 230 gms. is excessive and will result in a swing weight far higher than acceptable to the present day average golfer.
An additional problem in many of these prior rigidifying elements is that they are constructed of a low modulus material such as plastic or graphite compositions. These materials do not significantly increase the resonant frequency or the rebound of the face wall. Ideally, the rebound of the face wall; that is, the return of the face wall to its relaxed configuration, should occur at approximately the time the ball exits the face wall. In this way the rebound of the face wall assists in propelling the ball from the club face. If rebound occurs after the ball exits the face wall, the benefits of this effect are completely lost. None of the prior art dealing with these reinforcing elements suggests utilizing this technique for matching face wall rebound with ball exit from the face wall.
A further problem in the prior art references which suggest utilizing these rigidifying elements, is that they are completely silent on how these reinforcing elements, when not cast into the face wall, are attached into the club head. And the method of attachment, as will be seen from the present invention, is critical to the benefits of increasing resonant frequency and rebound of the face wall in accordance with the present invention. Presently known bonding techniques are not sufficient to yield these benefits.
Still another of these prior references suggests making the head of synthetic material and the support rod of a similar material, but these low modulus and soft materials cannot significantly raise the resonant frequency or rebound time of the ball striking face wall.
The following patents or specifications disclose club heads containing face reinforcing elements:

Golf club head with power shaft and method of making


An igniter includes: an igniter assembly including an igniter main body having an ignition portion adapted to be ignited by an ignition electric current; an igniter collar which accommodates the igniter main body; a cup body having an opening portion, the igniter assembly and the cup body being connected to each other, such that at least the ignition portion of the igniter main body is surrounded by the cup body; and a tubular crimp case that connects and fastens at least a part of an exterior surface of the igniter collar and at least a part of an exterior surface of the cup body from an outside.

A seat belt is installed in a car in order to protect a vehicle occupant from the impact produced in a crash. And there are seat belts in which a gas generator for a pretensioner is installed as a means to protect a vehicle occupant in a crash of a car by tightening a seat belt. In addition, as an igniter of a gas generator for an air bag, an electric type igniter is known. As such prior arts, the followings are known.
In JP-A 2002-239371, a gas generator comprising a cup body 3 loaded with a gas generating agent, a igniter 5, and a holder 6 into which the cup body 3 and the igniter 5 are embedded and which contains the gas generating agent in the cup body 3 is disclosed. The cup body 3 and the holder 6 are connected by a reinforcing member 7 interposed in an exterior circumferential portion of the holder 6, and a flange portion 3a of the cup body 3 is fixed by crimping. Although in a portion of the reinforcing member 7 which contacts the flange portion 3a, a groove in a shape corresponding to the flange portion 3a is formed, production cost becomes high since forging and cutting is necessary in production of such a groove.
In JP-A 2002-172996, an igniter comprising a cup-shaped tube body 10, a transfer charge 15 contained in the tube body 10, a plug 7, a bridge wire 5 generating heat by electrification, and a fuse head 1 formed on the surface of the bridge wire 5 is disclosed. In the cup body 8, a stepped portion 9 is formed, a reinforcing member 26 and a flange 13 are engaged at this portion and crimped by a bent portion 30, and at the same time the stepped portion 9 is crimped ([0032]). Because of the existence of the bent portion and the stepped portion 9, the cup body 8 has an enlarged outside diameter at those portions. In combustion of a gas generating agent P, big pressure is generated in the cup body 8, and at this time, it is possible that the stepped portion 9 deforms radially outwardly by the pressure, connecting strength of the crimping portion decreases and parts scatters.
In JP-A 2001-106017, a gas generator comprising a charging tube body 1 charging a gas generating agent, a storing tube body 2 storing an ignition agent, and a holder 3 sealing the gas generating agent P and the ignition agent 6 is disclosed. The charging tube body 1 and the holder 3 are sealed by crimping of a crimping ring body 4. However, since the ring body 4 is pressed into the holder 3 axially, it is possible that, in the combustion of the gas generating agent P, the ring body 4 falls by the pressure generated inside the loading tube body 1. In addition, a connection by arranging a screw on an interior circumferential surface of the ring body 4 and an exterior circumferential surface of the holder 3, a method of coupling the ring body 4 to the holder 3 by a bolt et al., and so on are disclosed. But, these methods bring increase in the number of parts and processing cost.


A method for performing power routing on a voltage island within an integrated circuit chip is disclosed. A first power grid is generated for a voltage island on metal levels 1 to N−1. Then, a second power grid is generated on metal levels N and above. A bounding region of the second robust power grid is determined. Finally, the shortest distance connections from a set of power sources is routed to the second power grid.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to integrated circuit designs in general, and, in particular, to a method and apparatus for distributing power in an integrated circuit having voltage islands. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for performing power routing on a voltage island within an integrated circuit chip.
2. Description of the Related Art
The concept of voltage islands is introduced into integrated circuit designs in order to integrate multiple design technologies on a same integrated circuit chip with increased performance and lower power consumption. The voltage island concept allows for one or more portions (islands) of an integrated circuit chip to be powered by both a chip-wide power source (VDDg) and other voltage island power sources (VDDi–VDDn). VDDg and VDDi–VDDn can be switched on and off in accordance with the operational demands of the integrated circuit. Typically, VDDg and VDDi–VDDn (as well as GND) are supplied to a voltage island from separate chip-wide power sources.
Generally speaking, a voltage island requires an isolated power supply grid structure from the remaining portion of a chip power grid. In order to generate an electrically robust power grid structure for voltage islands that do not contain electromagnetic or IR drop violations, off-chip and on-chip power supply sources need to be routed accordingly. Typically, off-chip power supply sources for voltage islands originate at either C4 ball grid array locations or wirebond locations, and on-chip power supply sources for voltage islands originate at voltage regulator macro pins.
There are many problems that need to be overcome in order to have efficient power connections from VDDg, VDDi–VDDn and GND to a voltage island. The problems that need to be overcome include how not to require an overabundance of power wires to anticipate the power needs of unplaced voltage islands, how not to restrict placement of power service terminals contained within the voltage island circuits because of a locally sparse power grid, how to avoid electromigration and IR drop violations and how to avoid blocked pins and other wireability issues.
The present disclosure provides an improved method for performing power routing on a voltage island within an integrated circuit chip.

Method and apparatus for performing power routing on a voltage island within an integrated circuit chip

International Business Machines Corporation


Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) deficiency is the cause of many autoimmune, muscle and bone wasting disorders in humans and animals. Ratite muscle and bone extracts provide a rich source of ATP and regulatory proteins which can be used in treating conditions associated with ATP deficiency.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the recognition that adenosine triphosphate (ATP) deficiency is the cause of many autoimmune, muscle and bone wasting disorders. It also relates to the discovery of ratite extracts and the use of them as a source of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and regulatory proteins in the treatment of conditions associated with ATP deficiency in humans and animals.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
In allopathic medicine, diseases are treated with drugs and therapies directed specifically to the symptoms. In Darwinian or evolutionary medicine, the symptoms are addressed in a holistic manner to pinpoint a root cause and, by reverse engineering, the disease is diagnosed and treated based on the body's symptom-response mechanisms. As this applies to ATP deficiencies, there is competition for ATP in a human's or animal's body and in some instances there is not enough. For example, ATP is used in chelating toxins, essential for detoxification, but when used for this purpose, has a limiting effect on the amount of proteoglycans and glycosaminoglycans that are formed. Previously, problems associated with the production of chondroitin sulfate, heparin, hyaluronic acid, keratin sulfate, etc. were treated by treating the symptoms. The present invention provides an opportunity to treat the cause of these and a number of other conditions with an extract rich in ATP and regulatory proteins.


An image processing apparatus includes a surrounding-pixels selecting unit that selects surrounding pixels that surround a correction pixel in an input image based on a low-pass filter, a reference-pixels selecting unit that selects pixels from the surrounding pixels based on pixel values of the correction pixel and the surrounding pixels, a smoothed-image creating unit that applies the low-pass filter to the reference pixels to create a smoothed image of the reference pixels, and an output image creating unit that creates an output image based on the smoothed image, and a difference image between the smoothed image and the input image.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for compressing the dynamic range of an input image.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image enhancement method called Center/Surround Retinex (hereinafter, "Retinex method"), modeled after human vision, is generally used to compress the dynamic range of an input image.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 200-511315 discloses a technique concerning the Retinex method, in which the dynamic range of the entire image is compressed by suppressing low-frequency components extracted from the input image with a low-pass filter.
According to the Retinex method, a pixel value O(x, y) of an output image is represented as follows:O(x,y)=log(I(x,y))−log(LPF(I(x,y)))where I(x, y) is a pixel value of an input image, and LPF(I(x, y)) is a pixel value of the low-frequency component extracted by a low-pass filter.
The Retinex method produces excellent results on dynamic range compression in low-frequency areas where brightness changes gradually. However, overshoot or undershoot occurs in high-frequency areas (such as edge areas) where there is a sharp change in the brightness, resulting in degradation in the quality of an output image.
Specifically, in the Retinex method, a smoothed pixel value (low-frequency components) is calculated by low-pass filtering pixels around a pixel that is to be corrected (hereinafter, "correction pixel"), and the smoothed pixel value is approximated to the center value of the dynamic range (suppression of low-frequency components). In addition, a relative value (high-frequency components) of the smoothed pixel value and the pixel value of the correction pixel is enhanced (enhancement of high-frequency components). The suppressed low-frequency components and the enhanced high-frequency components are then combined to produce an output image. In the edge portion where there is a sharp change in the brightness, the relative value of a smoothed image (composed of smoothed pixels) and an input image increases sharply, which compromises the quality of the output image.
Thus, there is a need of a technology capable of preventing overshoot and undershoot at edge portions while achieving dynamic range compression of low-frequency components.

Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and computer product


A distance measuring method simultaneously measures a distance between a distance measurement system (10A) and a measurement object (M), and a relative speed therebetween. In the method, the distance measurement system sends an electromagnetic wave toward the measurement object as a traveling wave while changing a frequency thereof. The measurement object reflects the traveling wave to produce a reflected wave. The traveling wave and the reflected wave interfere with each other to produce a standing wave. The distance measurement system detects the amplitude of the standing wave and produces an amplitude signal representing the amplitude of the standing wave. Based on the produced amplitude signal, the distance measuring system derives the distance and the relative speed between the distance measurement system and the measurement object.

The present invention relates to a distance measuring method that uses a standing electromagnetic wave produced by interference between a traveling electromagnetic wave and a reflected electromagnetic wave irrespective of their frequencies to thereby measure a distance between a distance measurement system and a measurement object, and further relates to a distance measuring device and a distance measuring structure each using such a method.
As distance measuring devices using radio waves, there have been known radio wave radars using microwaves or milliwaves. These radio wave radars are classified into pulse radars, FMCW radars, and so forth depending on their modes, and recently, spread spectrum radars and CDMA radars have also been available.
Specifically, the pulse radar transmits a pulse signal toward a measurement object and measures a time from a time instant of the transmission of the pulse signal to a time instant when the pulse signal has returned after reflection from the measurement object, to thereby derive a distance from the radar to the measurement object. The FMCW radar transmits a frequency-swept continuous wave toward a measurement object and derives a distance from the radar to the measurement object based on a frequency difference between a transmission signal and a reflected signal. In this case, the moving speed of the measurement object can also be measured simultaneously. The spread spectrum radar and the CDMA radar are basically the same as the pulse radar and each measure the distance based on a propagation time going to and from the measurement object.
In case of those radio wave radars, however, since the minimum detectable distance is several tens of meters or more, there is a problem that the measurement becomes difficult if the measurement object is located at a short distance. On the other hand, in case of a Doppler radar known as a radar other than the foregoing radars, there is a problem that although it is simple in structure and enables the measurement even if the measurement object is located at a short distance, the distance to the measurement object can not be measured if the measurement object is stopped. Further, in case of those conventional radars, there is a problem that when a plurality of radars are simultaneously used nearby, since each of their receivers has no means to avoid reception of signals transmitted from the other radars, the measurement error increases or the measurement is disabled.
In view of this, JP-A-2002-357656 (Literature 1) has proposed a technique that enables measurement of a distance to a measurement object with high accuracy even if the measurement object is located at a short distance. The technique of Literature 1 is based on an idea that when an electromagnetic wave is transmitted from an electromagnetic wave generating source toward a measurement object as a traveling wave, if there occurs a reflected wave from the measurement object, a standing wave is produced irrespective of their frequencies. Specifically, this technique calculates a period of amplitude of the standing wave at a detection point that is offset by a predetermined distance from the electromagnetic wave generating source toward the measurement object and derives a distance between the detection point and the measurement object based on the calculated period.
The technique of Literature 1 is effective when the measurement object and a distance measurement system are both stopped or moving at the same speed (when the relative speed therebetween is zero). However, there is a difficulty that when the relative speed is not zero, the measurement error increases to disable accurate measurement of the distance to the measurement object.
As other techniques relating to the distance measurement, JP-A-H05-203412 (Literature 2) discloses a device that measures a position where the refractive index of light changes, JP-A-S38-1257 (Literature 3) or JP-A-S58-198781 (Literature 4) discloses a distance measuring device using a light beam, and JP-A-H06-10082 (Literature 5) discloses an optical distance measuring device. The techniques of Literatures 2 to 5, however, do not even use the standing wave and therefore can not accurately measure the distance to the measurement object.
Further, JP-A-S59-142485 (Literature 6) discloses a distance measuring method, and JP-A-H05-281341 (Literature 7) discloses a method and device for distance measurement. The technique of Literature 6 changes a frequency to measure a resonant frequency and derives a distance from the resonant frequency. The technique of Literature 7 relates to measurement of a distance based on a period of a standing wave. However, either Literature 6 or Literature 7 does not positively utilize the standing wave and therefore can not achieve a measurement accuracy that is satisfactory.
Further, JP-A-2002-296344 (Literature 8) or JP-A-H01-219583 (Literature 9) discloses a distance measuring device, and JP-A-H02-304387 (Literature 10) discloses a distance measuring method using interference of electromagnetic waves.
The technique of Literature 8 carries out distance measurement with respect to a stationary object by the use of a Doppler sensor. Specifically, the distance is measured using a waveform of a standing wave between the sensor and the measurement object. However, when the relative speed therebetween is not zero, the measurement error increases so that a satisfactory measurement accuracy can not be achieved.
The technique of Literature 9 aims to perform frequency modulation relative to a laser diode with high accuracy in the optical heterodyne interference method that obtains information from optical beats, and employs a counter for counting signals corresponding to a beat component. In this technique, use is made of a bandpass filter for extracting only those frequency components around the beat component and, by changing the frequency with a modulating signal such as a sawtooth wave to measure a level corresponding to an optical beat signal caused by a transmission signal and a reception signal, the distance is measured. To this end, the measurement is difficult when the measurement object is located at a short distance.
The technique of Literature 10 enables measurement of a short distance using interference between a transmitted electromagnetic wave and a reflected wave from an obstacle (measurement object). Specifically, a reflected wave obtained by transmission of an electromagnetic wave, hitting thereof on the obstacle, and reflection thereof from the obstacle is made an object to be measured. Since the transmitted electromagnetic wave and the reflected wave are individually utilized, it basically requires a considerable time to carry out distance measurement once although depending on a length of time for transmission of the electromagnetic wave and the number of cycles thereof.

Distance measuring method, distance measuring device using same, and distance measuring structure using same


A method for forming N- and P-channel transistors having shallow junctions in an integrated circuit device is described. A semiconductor substrate is provided having active regions separated from one another by isolation regions wherein there is a N-channel active region and a P-channel active region and wherein gate electrodes and associated lightly doped source and drain regions have been formed in each of the active regions. A layer of borosilicate glass is deposited overlying the semiconductor substrate. A photoresist mask is formed over the P-channel active region. The borosilicate glass layer is etched away where it is not covered by the photoresist mask thereby leaving the borosilicate glass layer only overlying the P-channel region. The photoresist mask is removed. A layer of phosphosilicate glass is deposited overlying the semiconductor substrate. The semiconductor substrate is heated whereby boron ions within the borosilicate glass layer are driven into the semiconductor substrate in the P-channel region to form heavily doped P-channel source and drain regions and whereby phosphorus ions within the phosphosilicate glass layer are driven into the semiconductor substrate in the N-channel region to form heavily doped N-channel source and drain regions. The phosphosilicate layer is planarized to complete the formation of N- and P-channel transistors in the fabrication of an integrated circuit device.

(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the fabrication of integrated circuit devices, and more particularly, to a method of forming both N- and P-channel transistors with shallow junctions in the fabrication of integrated circuits.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
In the fabrication of integrated circuits, as N- and P-channel transistors continue to be scaled down, extremely shallow junctions are required to reduce short channel effects.
Phosphosilicate glass (PSG) and borosilicate glass (BSG) materials are discussed in the book, Silicon Processing for the VLSI Era, Volume 2: Process Integration, by Stanley Wolf, Lattice Press, Sunset Beach, Calif., c. 1990, pp. 198, 334-335, 337.

Method of forming N- and P-channel transistors with shallow junctions

Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, Ltd.


There is provided a method and apparatus of encoding/decoding an intra prediction mode. The method comprises deriving an intra prediction mode with respect to a current block, constructing a reference sample for the current block on the basis of the derived intra prediction mode, and performing the intra prediction with respect to the current block using the derived intra prediction mode and the constructed reference sample, wherein the intra prediction mode is derived on the basis of a most probable mode (MPM).

In various application fields, there is an increasing demand for high-definition high-quality pictures, such as a high-definition (HD) picture and an ultra-high-definition (UHD) picture. As picture data is of higher definition and higher quality, the amount of data is relatively increased compared with existing picture data. Because of this, in a case where the picture data is transferred using a medium such as an existing wired and wireless broadband line or is stored using an existing storage medium, transfer cost and a storage cost increase. In order to solve these problems that occur due to the picture data being of high definition and of high quality, technologies for encoding/decoding a higher-definition and higher-quality picture with high efficiency are required.
Picture compression technologies include various technologies, such as an inter prediction technology that predicts a pixel value included in a current picture from a pixel value included in a picture that precedes or follows the current picture, an intra prediction technology that predicts a pixel value included in a current picture using pixel information within the current picture, a transform and quantization technology for compressing energy of a residual signal, and an entropy encoding technology that allocates a short code to a value having a high frequency of occurrence and allocates a long code to a value having a low frequency of occurrence. The picture data can be effectively compressed for transfer or storage, using these picture compression technologies.
In the related art, the form of a current block is not considered when encoding/decoding is performed using an intra prediction mode. This imposes a limitation on an improvement in the efficiency of encoding.

Intra prediction mode encoding/decoding method and device, and recording medium in which bitstream is stored

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


A user inputs a document to be registered in a document management server to a document transfer assisting apparatus. The document transfer assisting apparatus automatically acquires attribute information of a document designated by the user, based on an instruction input by the user. The document transfer assisting apparatus further makes an addition or a change to the acquired attribute information according to the user's instruction. The document transfer assisting apparatus then outputs a copy of the designated document and attribute information thereof to a predetermined folder and a predetermined file, which can be referred to by the monitor apparatus. The monitor apparatus monitors the folder and file, and registers the copied file in the folder based on information output to the file.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a document transfer assisting system, monitor apparatus, document transfer assisting apparatus, method and computer readable recording medium, which efficiently gives metadata to an electronic file stored in a PC (personal computer) or a file server to assist transfer of the electronic file to a document management server.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, the International Standard for adequately carrying out management of records (ISO15489) has been established. "Records" are documents that are provided with metadata describing a context by which a document is created (e.g., background, state, environment), contents of the document, and a structure or the like of the document. According to this definition, while all records are documents, not all documents are necessarily records. There are growing needs among companies to efficiently and systematically manage the creation, reception, maintenance, use and processing of records having metadata given thereto in conformity to the International Standard.
Meanwhile, there has been a document management server which creates and maintains documents. For example, Unexamined Japanese Patent Application KOKAI Publication No. 2001-357051 discloses a technique of giving a digital signature to a document to manage the document. Unexamined Japanese Patent Application KOKAI Publication No. 2006-309442 discloses a technique of giving a time stamp to a document to manage the document.
However, such document management servers do not have a function of collectively and efficiently registering (or transferring) existing document resources stored in a file server, a PC or the like. In addition, there has not been much consideration given to transfer of documents from such a document management server to another document management server having metadata of another format.
In consideration of the foregoing situation, it is an object of the present invention to provide a document transfer assisting system, monitor apparatus, document transfer assisting apparatus, method and computer recording medium, which efficiently provide metadata to a document to be stored in a PC or a file server to assist transfer of the document to a document management server.

Document transfer assisting system, monitor apparatus, document transfer assisting apparatus, method and computer readable recording medium


An exchangeable adapter is provided for reducing the size of a trash removal opening of an opening roller housing in open-end spinning arrangements. The said adapter comprises two semi-spherical supporting surfaces at a distance to one another for positioning the adapter on corresponding rounded countersurfaces. The adapter comprises further a curved fiber guiding surface corresponding to the curve of an opening roller as well as a boundary wall for reducing the size of the trash removal opening arranged directly upstream of the fiber guiding surface. The adapter is made from profiled bars and cut to the required effective width. The fiber guiding surface can be provided with a recess which is connected with the external atmosphere and which permits the entry of air into the opening roller housing.

The present invention relates to an exchangeable adapter for open-end spinning arrangements for reducing a trash removal opening of an opening roller housing, said adapter comprising two semi-circular supporting surfaces for clamping the adapter onto corresponding curved countersurfaces, also comprising a curved fiber guiding surface corresponding to the curve of an opening roller, and comprising a boundary wall for reducing the size of the trash removal opening, said boundary wall being arranged directly upstream of the fiber guiding surface.
Trash removal openings in opening roller housings for open-end spinning arrangements are standard in the industry today. They serve on the one hand to separate the trash particles from the opened fiber material. On the other hand, the trash removal openings are simultaneously used as openings to feed in the necessary air required for the spinning process. Both processes are known in the spinning industry. It has been shown, however, that such trash removal openings can present unnecessary problems in the transport of some fiber materials, in particular when relatively clean fiber material is to be spun or when the opened single fibers are so short that there is a risk that fiber material will also be expelled. In particular in the processing of linen or regenerative material, trash removal openings can present a problem.
It was known early on in German published patent 19 22 078 to provide trash removal openings with a regulatory closing piece which is adapted to the shape of the wall of the opening roller housing and with which the trash removal opening can be partly or entirely closed.
It is known in German published patent application 42 25 668 to border the trash removal opening on its exit side with a trash guiding wall which can be swivelled. By means of positioning the trash guiding wall at different angles, various air currents are known to be produced.
Both these variations are very complicated and have not found any place in practical use.
An exchangeable adapter for open-end spinning arrangements for reducing the size of a trash removal opening of an opening roller housing is known from prior notorious use in a machine built for use in the spinning industry, said prior use being undocumented. The preamble of the main claim of the present invention is based on such an adapter. The known adapter comprises two semi-circular supporting surfaces arranged at a distance to one another, with which the adapter can be clamped onto corresponding curved countersurfaces which border a trash removal opening on its exit side. The known adapter comprises a curved fiber guiding surface with corresponds to the curve of the opening roller, which fiber guiding surface extends the periphery wall of the opening roller housing surrounding the opening roller, thus reducing the size of the trash removal opening. The known adapter comprises further a boundary wall, arranged directly upstream of the fiber guiding surface, at the end of the trash removal opening.
Exchangeable adapters of this type can be applied to the opening roller housings as required or removed therefrom. This can be done by hand, and as a rule, tools are not needed. The known adapter has the disadvantage, however, that because of its method of fabrication, it is not suitable for being produced in large numbers, as it is made by means of milling its contours. It is also not suitable for permitting the feeding of air outside of the reduced trash removal opening.
It is an object of the present invention to create an adapter of the above mentioned type, which can be manufactured cost-effectively in large numbers, and which also permits the feed of air for the spinning process if required.
This object is achieved in that the adapter is fabricated from profiled bars and cut to match the required effective width of the fiber guiding surface and the boundary wall.
In the case of the profiled bars, an extruded, open profile made of light metal is preferably involved here, which comprises the necessary outer contours. These comprise on the one hand the necessary supporting surfaces for clamping the adapter onto countersurfaces as well as the necessary fiber guiding surface and the boundary wall. The profiled bars, produced in long lengths, are cut according to the required effective width of the opening roller housing, whereby minor re-working, for example, deburing, is subsequently necessary on the front sides. The effective width of the fiber guiding surface and the boundary wall have such dimensions that the adapter can be inserted flush between the lateral walls of the opening roller housing. Due to the special method of production, the supporting surfaces are as wide as the fiber guiding surface and the boundary wall. The profile is so designed that the fiber guiding surface graduates into boundary wall with a distinctive radius.
As exchangeable adapters according to the present invention can be manufactured cost-effectively in large numbers, it is possible to have adapters with various profiles to hand in a spinning mill. For example, a complete set of different adapters can be provided with which the trash removal opening on the opening roller housing can be reduced in size in a variety of ways.
Independently of the manufacturing process, that is, also applicable with the known adapter, it can be provided that the fiber guiding surface is provided with a recess which permits the entry of air, said recess being connected to the external atmosphere. Thus a type of by-pass opening is created which generates, in addition to the air fed through the trash removal opening, a further opening for the feeding of additional air for the spinning process, but without any fibers being expelled therefrom.
As expelled trash particles travel at a high speed and are very aggressive, it is advantageous when the fiber guiding surfaces and the boundary wall of the adapter, including the transition area between them, are provided with a wear-resistant coating.
If the bars do not consist of light metal, but rather are made from a plastic injection moulded part, a coating for the prevention of wear on the surface is indispensable. The coating can be a metal alloy or ceramic.
As the opening roller, provided with a needle or saw-toothed combing means, and located in the opening roller housing, can hinder the removal of the adapter, it can be advantageous in a further embodiment of the present invention when the adapter is provided with a web on its side facing away from the fiber guiding surface, said web comprising an engaging surface for a removal tool. In the case of such an engaging surface, a simple bore hole can be involved here. In the case of an appropriate embodiment of the adapter and its supporting surfaces, dismantling the adapter can, as a rule, take place without the use of a tool. The bore hole can serve at the same time to connect the above mentioned recess to the external atmosphere.

Adapter for a trash removal opening of an open end spinning machine


A flood gate structure incorporating a safety device thereon to prevent harm through crushing or trapping of animals, such as manatees by the flood gate when passing into its closed position. An object sensor, along with an override sensor assembly, are provided and coupled to the flood gate and are positioned to open or close a circuit associated with the object and override sensor assemblies thereby regulating current flow to a drive motor which is drivingly attached to the flood gate and, upon activation thereof, serves to move the flood gate between its open and closed position. Contact of the object sensor with an animal or any other object located in interruptive relation to the flood gate, while closing, will serve to open the aforementioned circuit and prevent continued closure or affect re-opening of the flood gate until the animal or object is removed, while contact of the override sensor with an underlying support surface serves to permit complete closure of the gate despite engagement of the object sensor with the underlying support surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed towards a flood gate to control the flow of water through a passage and along a waterway wherein a safety device is incorporated for use with the flood gate in order to prevent the inadvertent trapping or crushing of animals or any other object within the passage and beneath the flood gate while the flood gate is passing from its normally open position to its closed position.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of flood gate structures in controlling flow of water along existing waterways, is quite common and well-known in the prior art. Typically, the use of such flood gate structures is crucial for proper water management in areas where numerous, interconnecting waterways exist. In addition, the use of these flood gate structures may efficiently regulate the level of water in certain areas where, for example, heavy rainfall is prevalent and/or rainstorms frequently occur. By draining such heavily rained upon areas, the flooding of surrounding land areas adjacent to the aforementioned waterways may be prevented or reduced.
For example, in the state of Florida heavy rainfall and storms are prevalent during certain summer months of the year. In order to prevent flooding of the rained upon areas, flood gates of the type generally described above are utilized so that such areas and more specifically the canals or like waterways in such areas may be drained to reduce the level of water contained therein. Flooding is thereby prevented and the collected water in such canals can be safely and efficiently directed to other land areas which may need such additional water. The water may also be drained directly into the ocean for disposal.
One problem associated with the operation of such flood gate structures, especially in South Florida, is the inadvertent crushing, trapping and subsequent drowning of or harm to certain animals which naturally inhabit the canals and like waterways throughout that area of the state. One such animal is the endangered manatee or "sea cow" which is generally considered to be a slow moving, docile animal traveling submerged, beneath the surface of canals and like waterways. Such animals are in fact air-breathing mammals but they have the capacity to stay submerged for long periods of time. It is not uncommon for the manatee to rest or otherwise maintain a position generally adjacent or within a passage in which a flood gate operates. As is common, the flood gate typically will be raised to an open position to allow free flow of water through the passage. Flow water is selectively restricted by lowering or closing the flood gate. This serves to block or significantly restrict water flow through that passage. It should be readily apparent that if an air-breathing mammal, such as the manatee, is located within the passage and below the flood gate as it is being lowered into its closed position, harm can result from the continued travel of the gate. If the manatee is not killed by crushing, it is sometimes trapped below the surface of the water thereby resulting in a drowning of the animal.
Based on the above, it is apparent that there is a recognized need in this area for some type of safety device which can readily detect an object or an animal within a passage and in interruptive relation to the path of travel of a flood gate as it is passing from its open position into its closed position. Preferred safety devices associated with this type of flood gate should be efficient in sensing an animal or object located in the path of travel of the flood gate without actually harming or damaging the animal so positioned. Further, such a preferred safety device or assembly should not interfere with the normal operation with the flood gate and its selective or automatic positioning between an open position and a closed position. The operation of such a preferred safety device should be such as to automatically stop travel of the flood gate into its fully closed position and allow the release or removal of the animal after it has been detected and subsequent to the stopping of the flood gate. Additionally, such a device should not be readily susceptible to malfunction as a result of the submerged nature of the flood gate, or should the surrounding water be murky or otherwise have minimal visibility.


A method in a first radio network node for testing a transmission parameter value in a wireless communication system is provided. The first radio network node is configured to, during operational mode thereof, perform transmissions using available resources divided in to resource blocks. The first radio network node allocates a test resource block, for test purposes, among the available resources. The first radio network node defines for the test resource block, a test value for the transmission parameter. The test value differs from the nominal value. The first radio network node performs, during operational mode, a test transmission using the resource block. During the test transmission, the transmission parameter is set to the test value. The test transmission is configured to form the basis for an evaluation of the test value.

In a typical wireless communication system, User Equipments (UEs), communicate via a Radio Access Network (RAN) to one or more core networks (CNs).
A user equipment is a mobile terminal by which a subscriber can access services offered by an operator's core network. The user equipments may be for example communication devices such as mobile telephones, cellular telephones, or laptops with wireless capability. The user equipments may be portable, pocket-storable, hand-held, computer-comprised, or vehicle-mounted mobile devices, enabled to communicate voice and/or data, via the radio access network, with another entity, such as another mobile station or a server.
User equipments are enabled to communicate wirelessly in the wireless communication system. The communication may be performed e.g. between two user equipments, between a user equipment and a regular telephone and/or between the user equipment and a server via the radio access network and possibly one or more core networks, comprised within the wireless communication system.
The wireless communication system covers a geographical area which is divided into cell areas. Each cell area is served by a base station, e.g. a Radio Base Station (RBS), which sometimes may be referred to as e.g. "eNB", "eNodeB", "NodeB", "B node", or BTS (Base Transceiver Station), depending on the technology and terminology used. The base stations may be of different classes such as e.g. macro eNodeB, home eNodeB or pico base station, based on transmission power and thereby also on cell size.
A cell is the geographical area where radio coverage is provided by the base station at a base station site. One base station, situated on the base station site, may serve one or several cells. Further, each base station may support one or several communication technologies. The base stations communicate over the air interface operating on radio frequencies with the user equipments within range of the base stations.
In some radio access networks, several base stations may be connected, e.g. by landlines or microwave, to a radio network controller, e.g. a Radio Network Controller (RNC) in Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), and/or to each other. The radio network controller, also sometimes termed a Base Station Controller (BSC) e.g. in GSM, may supervise and coordinate various activities of the plural base stations connected thereto. GSM is an abbreviation for Global System for Mobile Communications (originally: Groupe Spécial Mobile).
In 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE), base stations, which may be referred to as eNodeBs or eNBs, may be directly connected to one or more core networks.
UMTS is a third generation, 3G, mobile communication system, which evolved from the second generation, 2G, mobile communication system GSM, and is intended to provide improved mobile communication services based on Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) access technology. UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) is essentially a radio access network using wideband code division multiple access for user equipments. The 3GPP has undertaken to further evolve the UTRAN and GSM based radio access network technologies.
In the context of this disclosure, a base station as described above will be referred to as a base station or a Radio Base Station (RBS). A user equipment as described above, will in this disclosure be referred to as a user equipment or a UE.
The expression DownLink (DL) will be used for the transmission path from the base station to the user equipment. The expression UpLink (UL) will be used for the transmission path in the opposite direction i.e. from the user equipment to the base station.
A wireless communication system typically consists of a large number of cells. The radio communication in a cell may suffer from poor transmission quality due to interference in the radio environment. The interference source may be for example other cells or user equipments, or other, external, sources.
Several important factors for obtaining a required balance between area coverage, system capacity and user satisfaction in a wireless communication system may be related to transmission parameters, such as for example antenna tilt, antenna direction, antenna gain and transmitter output power. Some such parameters, for example receiver sensitivity, coding and modulation may be fixed or limited to certain values in the standards.
Determining a suitable transmission parameter value such as an antenna tilt et cetera is far from a trivial task, since the settings in one cell may not only impact the situation in the cell, but also heavily impact the situation and transmission quality in other cells.
Computer simulations may be used to evaluate transmission parameters such as antenna tilts et cetera, and their impact on the radio situation and transmission quality for several cells. A drawback with this is, however, that the results cannot be more accurate than the input into the simulations. Hence, the simulation may not be valid if reality differs from the simulation, or changes over time.
For example, if user equipments in reality are located differently and moves in different ways compared to a simulated scenario, the result of the simulation may not be valid for the real situation. Moreover, changes in the real environment, such as new houses, new highways et cetera, may not be updated in the simulated scenario, which may also render a simulation result invalid. Such changes in the environment does not only change the actual geography, but also the distributions and behaviors of subscribers, and thus of user the equipments. This in turn affects the traffic patterns and the interference in the radio environment.

Methods and arrangements for testing a transmission parameter value in a wireless communication system


A system and method for providing features in a database system. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving, from a user, a request for a feature, where the feature is a functionality of the database system. The method further includes upgrading the database system, where the upgrading includes one or more provisioning steps that are based on the request from the user.

The subject matter discussed in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in the background section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the background section or associated with the subject matter of the background section should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter in the background section merely represents different approaches, which, in and of themselves, may also be inventions.
In conventional database systems, users access their data resources in one logical database. A user of such a conventional system typically retrieves data from and stores data on the system using the user's own systems. A user system might remotely access one of a plurality of server systems that might in turn access the database system. Data retrieval from the system might include the issuance of a query from the user system to the database system. The database system might process the request for information received in the query and send to the user system information relevant to the request. Every release of a database system may include new features. Each new feature requires particular database upgrades that may be inefficient and inconvenient for users.

Performing an upgrade in a multi-tenant database system environment


A method for camouflaging a non-native application as a native application of a device is provided. The method includes generating a native code wrapper in a device dependent native code to handle a communication between a native operating system and the non-native application. The method further includes applying the native code wrapper to the non-native application generating a wrapped non-native application. The non-native application remains intact while in contact with the native code wrapper.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to mobile devices, and more particularly, to systems and methods for generating first class citizen software applications from non-native applications installed on mobile devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today, embedded mobile devices are being used by consumers all around the world leading to an ever-increasing demand for providing additional services. For example, initially, embedded mobile device users only had access to closed system mobile devices. That is, the users could only implement native applications pre-installed on the embedded mobile devices.
As consumer demands have increased and new technologies have developed, consumers are now able to install, access, and use new applications in addition to the pre-installed native applications. While having access to new applications is advantages, certain drawbacks cannot be ignored. For instance, an exemplary limitation is that the new applications are executed on the servers. Accordingly, the mobile devices must be in continuous communication with the server while the new application is being installed or used by the user. Furthermore, new native applications as well previously installed native applications can be accessed by the users very easily. By way of example, a user can directly access any of the native applications to perform a variety of actions (e.g., query information, update, create short cut, remove, etc.).
In stark contrast, a user must perform several intermediate operations to be able to access any of the newly installed non-native applications. For instance, the user can only access a newly-installed non-native Java™ application by first executing a Java Application Manager ("JAM") resident on the mobile device operating system. This occurs because Java applications are defined in the JAM and cannot be accessed or viewed without first executing the JAM. At this point, a first screen is presented to the user showing each of the Java applications in the JAM. Only after the JAM has been executed and a first screen is displaying the Java applications that the user can proceed with selecting a Java application. Upon selecting a Java application, the user is allowed access to the Java application so as to choose any of the available actions displayed on a second screen.
The drawback associated with accessing non-native applications is a two-fold problem. First, to locate and execute the JAM, the mobile device user has to be savvy in operating mobile devices, know that the newly installed application is a Java application, and that the Java application can only be located and accessed after JAM has been executed. The user also has to know how to launch the JAM application. Second, accessing non-native applications takes an extended period of time, inconveniencing and wasting users time.
One way to avoid executing the JAM so as to access the available actions is to convert the Java byte code of the Java application into the device dependent native language. In this manner, the converted Java byte code can be accessed directly, allowing the Java application to be accessed as if the Java application is a native application. Unfortunately, however, as a result of the conversion, the cross-platform nature of the Java application is lost. As a consequence, the converted Java application can no longer be run on a different mobile device having a different environment.
In view of the foregoing, a need therefore exists in the art for a method and system capable of generating first class software applications from non-native software applications downloaded and installed on mobile devices.

Method and system for generating first class citizen application implementing native software application wrapper


A sink towel for being disposed about a bathroom, restroom or washroom sink bowl for absorbing water that may be inadvertently or accidently splashed with water upon a surrounding counter top. The towel is comprised of natural or synthetic, water absorbent material which may include paper, cloth or fabric, and is preferably formed of cotton or terry cloth. One or more pockets are included for storing personal items such as tooth brushes, toothpaste, razors, and/or small containers of medicine, shampoo, perfume, or similar items. The towel includes weights or weighted material for holding the towel in place over the sink bowl and also permit the towel to be folded for travel and for hanging on a hook for storage and/or drying between uses.

As known in the art, most present day household bathrooms, restrooms, or washrooms, include a sink bowl that is recessed into a counter top and is used primarily for washing a person's hands and face, or brushing the person's teeth, or laundering small items such as scarves, socks or stockings, etc. The recessed sink bowl may be integrally formed with the counter top as a single unit or mounted as a separate piece within a counter top opening. The sink bowl may also comprise a standalone unit knows as a pedestal sink and having a framed region or counter top surface around the howl.
The uses described above may result in the counter top becoming splashed with water, either plain or soapy. It is also quite common for the user to get their clothes slightly splashed, or wet from coming into contact with the counter top.
In addition to the descriptions above using water, the counter top may also be permanently stained or discolored from splashes resulting From the use of hair dye, nail polish, and other commonly applied beauty products used in the immediate sink bowl area of present invention.
A towel comprised of one or more layers of fabricated material, such as terry cloth towel fabric having a generally rectangular shape, with a U-shape opening in the top middle is provided with a form of or type of weight, such as a string of small weights sewn or otherwise secured to and placed around the margin of the opening thereby weighting the towel to the counter top over the sink bowl to keep the towel from sliding and thereby holding it in place. A string of substantial weight or a string weight may also be used.
The towel absorbs water off of the counter, and absorbs splashes so that in most cases one does not get their clothes wet as they lean over the sink bowl. The towel also aids in helping to keep the area around the sink clean, as well as cushioning the lower arm and elbows as one sometimes leans onto the counter top. Anyone with a bathroom sink and counter top can use this item. The towel is placed flat on the bathroom counter top with the U-shaped opening around the perimeter of the sink bowl and is large enough so that a few inches of the towel hangs over the front edge of the counter top.
The towel absorbs water off of the counter; aids in helping to keep the area around the sink clean, free of standing water, cushions the lower arms and elbows of the user and, preferably, is decorative and adds color and beauty to the usually staid sink and counter top.
A further object of the invention is the provision of one or more pockets for storing personal items such as a razor, or toothbrush, a tube of toothpaste, a small bottle of pills, such as aspirin or antacid, nail clipper or file, and the like. Thus, the towel may then be rolled or folded and placed in a suitcase or travel bag thereby making for a convenient. private and personal item for use in, for example, hotels, motels and other travel accommodations.


A lighting device configured to be held relative to a space extending from an opening in a first surface. A distance between first and second emitters and/or a dimension of a lens is/are larger than a largest dimension of the opening and/or a largest dimension of a power supply. Also, a bracket comprising a body member and at least two mounting clips, the body member configured to be attached to a lighting device, each mounting clip pivotable about respective pivot axes at least from a first position, where a first end region of the clip does not extend farther from an axis of the body member than all portions of the body member, to a second position, where the first end region of the clip extends farther from the axis of the body member than all portions of the body member. Also, a lighting device comprising a removable bracket.

There is an ongoing effort to develop systems that are more energy-efficient. A large proportion (some estimates are as high as twenty-five percent) of the electricity generated in the United States each year goes to lighting, a large portion of which is general illumination (e.g., downlights, flood lights, spotlights and other general residential or commercial illumination products). Accordingly, there is an ongoing need to provide lighting that is more energy-efficient.
Solid state light emitters (e.g., light emitting diodes) are receiving much attention due to their energy efficiency. It is well known that incandescent light bulbs are very energy-inefficient light sources; about ninety percent of the electricity they consume is released as heat rather than light. Fluorescent light bulbs are more efficient than incandescent light bulbs (by a factor of about 10) but are still less efficient than solid state light emitters, such as light emitting diodes.
LEDs and other solid state light emitters may be energy efficient, so as to satisfy ENERGY STAR® program requirements. ENERGY STAR program requirements for LEDs are defined in "ENERGY STAR® Program Requirements for Solid State Lighting Luminaires, Eligibility Criteria—Version 1.1", Final: Dec. 19, 2008, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety as if set forth fully herein.
In addition, as compared to the normal lifetimes of solid state light emitters, e.g., light emitting diodes, incandescent light bulbs have relatively short lifetimes, i.e., typically about 750-1000 hours. In comparison, light emitting diodes, for example, have typical lifetimes between 50,000 and 70,000 hours. Fluorescent bulbs have longer lifetimes than incandescent lights (e.g., fluorescent bulbs typically have lifetimes of 10,000-20,000 hours), but provide less favorable color reproduction. The typical lifetime of conventional fixtures is about 20 years, corresponding to a light-producing device usage of at least about 44,000 hours (based on usage of 6 hours per day for 20 years). Where the light-producing device lifetime of the light emitter is less than the lifetime of the fixture, the need for periodic change-outs is presented. The impact of the need to replace light emitters is particularly pronounced where access is difficult (e.g., vaulted ceilings, bridges, high buildings, highway tunnels) and/or where change-out costs are extremely high.
LED lighting systems can offer a long operational lifetime relative to conventional incandescent and fluorescent bulbs. LED lighting system lifetime is typically measured by an "L70 lifetime", i.e., a number of operational hours in which the light output of the LED lighting system does not degrade by more than 30%. Typically, an L70 lifetime of at least 25,000 hours is desirable, and has become a standard design goal. As used herein, L70 lifetime is defined by Illuminating Engineering Society Standard LM-80-08, entitled "IES Approved Method for Measuring Lumen Maintenance of LED Light Sources", Sep. 22, 2008, ISBN No. 978-0-87995-227-3, also referred to herein as "LM-80", the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety as if set forth fully herein, and/or using the lifetime projections found in the ENERGY STAR Program Requirements cited above or described by the ASSIST method of lifetime prediction, as described in "ASSIST Recommends . . . LED Life For General Lighting: Definition of Life", Volume 1, Issue 1, February 2005, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference as if set forth fully herein.
Heat is a major concern in obtaining a desirable operational lifetime for solid state light emitters. As is well known, an LED also generates considerable heat during the generation of light. The heat is generally measured by a "junction temperature", i.e., the temperature of the semiconductor junction of the LED. In order to provide an acceptable lifetime, for example, an L70 of at least 25,000 hours, it is desirable to ensure that the junction temperature should not be above 85° C. In order to ensure a junction temperature that is not above 85° C., various heat sinking schemes have been developed to dissipate at least some of the heat that is generated by the LED. See, for example, Application Note: CLD-APO6.006, entitled Cree® XLamp® XR Family & 4550 LED Reliability, published at cree.com/xlamp, September 2008.
Although the development of solid state light emitters (e.g., light emitting diodes) has in many ways revolutionized the lighting industry, some of the characteristics of solid state light emitters have presented challenges, some of which have not yet been fully met. For example, solid state light emitters are commonly seen in indicator lamps and the like, but are not yet in widespread use for general illumination.
Accordingly, for these and other reasons, efforts have been ongoing to develop ways by which solid state light emitters, which may or may not include luminescent material(s), can be used in place of incandescent lights, fluorescent lights and other light-generating devices in a wide variety of applications. In addition, where light emitting diodes (or other solid state light emitters) are already being used, efforts are ongoing to provide solid state light emitters that are improved, e.g., with respect to energy efficiency, color rendering index (CRI Ra), contrast, efficacy (lm/W), cost, duration of service, convenience and/or availability for use in different aesthetic orientations and arrangements.
In order to encourage development and deployment of highly energy efficient solid state lighting (SSL) products to replace several of the most common lighting products currently used in the United States, including 60-Watt A19 incandescent and PAR 38 halogen incandescent lamps, the Bright Tomorrow Lighting Competition (L Prize™) has been authorized in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA). The L Prize is described in "Bright Tomorrow Lighting Competition (L Prize", May 28, 2008, Document No. 08NT006643, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety as if set forth fully herein. The L Prize winner must conform to many product requirements including light output, wattage, color rendering index, correlated color temperature, expected lifetime, dimensions and base type.
Presently, the predominant lighting fixture in specification homes is the dome light. Because the dome light is comparatively inexpensive, provides adequate light in a relatively even distribution, and in some cases does not require anything other than a simple junction box in a ceiling to install, it is in widespread use.
Currently, dome lights typically use two 60 Watt A-lamps shining light through a low optical efficiency dome to deliver between 600-900 lumens into the space. One approach to providing an energy-efficient replacement for such a fixture would be to simply replace the A-lamps with an LED source. Such an approach could provide a drop from 120 Watts to 24 Watts (2×12 W) or less, depending on the optical efficiency of the dome itself. This solution, however, would typically require complete removal of the previous dome light fixture to install the new one. (Utilizing LED lamps in a traditional dome light would generally result in the premature failure of those lamps, because incandescent dome lights are not constructed in a manner that would allow the LED lamps to run cool.)

Lighting device and method of installing light emitter


Systems and methods for compounding pharmaceuticals, for example for intravenous delivery. The devices include an infrared camera and an infrared light source, and can backlight and photograph items such as syringes in infrared light for enhanced clarity. A visible light camera may also be provided, for example a color digital camera, for documenting other parts of the compounding process. The device may have other sensors, for example a bar code scanner and a weight sensor, for collecting other data about the compounding process. In one example implementation, the device is a compounding assistance device that leads a user of the device through a compounding task using instructions shown on a display. In other implementations, the device may be robotic.

Pharmaceutical compounding is the preparation of patient-specific medications by the processing or combination of ingredients. Many medications, especially medications administered orally in pill form, are now manufactured in a variety of forms and dosages so that little preparation is needed at a pharmacy, other than placing the proper number of pills in a bottle to fill a doctor's prescription for a particular patient. However, medications for intravenous delivery are routinely compounded, for example in hospital pharmacies.
Typically, a physician will prescribe a particular medication or a combination of medications for a specific patient, for intravenous (IV) delivery. The pharmacy receives the prescription and prepares the IV solution with the proper amount of each prescribed medication. The compounded medication is then sent to the hospital floor for administration to the patient.
It is of utmost importance that the correct medications be prepared in the correct proportions, without the introduction of contaminants. Detailed protocols may be developed for the compounder to follow. The number of different protocols may be very large, because there may be a large number of different medications to choose from, in a variety of packages, to be prepared in a number of dosages, and to be provided in a number of different delivery vehicles.
Much of the work of compounding may be delegated to workers who are not registered pharmacists, or to robotic machines. Accordingly meticulous records may be kept of the preparation of each medication, so that the pharmacist can review how each medication was made before it leaves the pharmacy. The records also enable review of the preparation of any particular medication at a later time, should there be any question of its correctness.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


The present invention relates to a modified styrene-maleic acid copolymer obtained by reacting a carboxylic acid group in a styrene-maleic acid copolymer with a halogen and/or epoxy compound. The modified styrene-maleic acid copolymer is useful as a low profile additive for a thermosetting resin, a water-absorbing material, etc.

Thermosetting resins such as fiber-reinforced plastics (FRPs) have been widely used as a material for bathroom component products such as a bathtub. Unlike thermoplastic resins, thermosetting resins cannot be recycled by melting and remolding them. In addition, the resins generally contain about 70% of inorganic materials such as an inorganic filler, and therefore, the self-combustion of the resins is difficult. Accordingly, most of waste plastics such as FRPs based on thermosetting resins have been dumped by reclaiming lands with the same, since they are very difficult for recycling. However, this waste disposal by way of reclaiming the lands has difficulties in the ensuring of sites to be reclaimed and in stable hardening of such sites. To solve these problems, the Containers and Packaging Recycling Law was instituted in 1995 in Japan, so as to obligate the recovering and recycling of plastics. This trend of recovering and recycling products containing plastics is prevailing in association with the enforcement of a variety of recycling laws.
Under these situations, recently, trials to recycle waste plastics for use as a resource have been attempted. As one of such trials, there is proposed a method of recovering useful oily substances from waste plastics by decomposing the waste plastics through a reaction using supercritical water as a reaction medium. There is also proposed a method of recycling fiber reinforced plastics used in various structural materials, in which the plastic components in such materials are decomposed by using supercritical water or subcritical water, so as to recover fibers such as glass fibers and carbon fibers for recycling them.
By these methods, plastics are decomposed into oily components having lower molecular weights so as to recycle these components as liquid fuels. There is further proposed a method of decomposing plastics, which makes use of a hydrolysis reaction by high temperature water vapor. According to this method, it is possible to decompose the organic polymer components of thermoplastic and thermosetting plastics to some extents.
However, the above methods have a disadvantage in that, since plastics are decomposed in random, the decomposition products are oily materials comprising various components, and thus in that it is difficult to obtain decomposition products with constant qualities. Consequently, a post-treatment for reforming the oily materials by using a catalyst, typically, zeolite, is needed, which results in higher cost. Further, it is difficult to produce petroleum products such as lamp oil and light oil from such reformed oils, and therefore, such reformed oils have not yet been put into practical use.
In the method described in the following Patent Literature 1, the decomposed resin is recycled as an unsaturated polyester resin again. However, the method has problems that the re-cured product of the decomposed resin has different properties from those of the original thermosetting resin (i.e., the resin has lower properties as a thermosetting resin), and the occupancy rate of the decomposed resin in the re-cured product is limited to a low extent, since the thermal decomposition of the decomposed resins is occurred due to the high decomposition temperature.
Recently, there is proposed a method for decomposing a thermosetting resin with subcritical water having a strong hydrolysis ability. More specifically, the method comprises hydrolyzing a thermosetting resin with subcritical water as a reaction solvents recovering the resultant low to middle molecular weight compound, and reusing the compound as a raw material for a resin (see, for example, the Patent Literature 2 and the like).                Patent Literature 1: JP-A-9-221565 (1997)        Patent Literature 2: JP-A-10-024274 (1998)

Modified styrene-maleic acid copolymer and use thereof

International Center For Environmental Technology Transfer


Life-saving clothing, in particular for protecting against drowning persons in danger during travelling in water or any other liquid element. The life-saving clothing (1) includes a part encompassing the trunk of a user's body and is characterized in that the part has inflatable floating elements (3) which is made of a non-extensible material and is arranged in such a way that it takes a folded shape in the uninflated state thereof and forms a float around the user's trunk in the inflated state and the clothing (1) is provided with inflating elements (9) for the floating means. In a preferred embodiment, the volume of floating elements (3) is distributed substantially in front of and behind the user. The life-saving clothing (1) ensures the stable position of the user in such a way that the respiratory tract thereof is free.

We are already familiar with protective clothing used by fishermen, sportsmen, or the emergency services when travelling on water. These garments are generally made from a waterproof material. In order to protect the user as much as possible, there exists protective clothing known as "waders", which take the form of overalls that include trousers and a front and rear trunk protector held on with braces. The trunk panels are located on the chest area of the user, more or less up to the level of the armpits. This garment can include built-in boots. It protects its user as long as the latter is not submerged accidentally in the water or other liquid element. In fact, in the event of a fall or loss of footing by the user, or in the event of a sudden increase in the height of the water, the water will enter inside the protective garment via the upper part of the trunk protection. In the event of an extended loss of footing, and in particular if the user is unconscious, the action of the hydrodynamic forces can frustrate all attempts at swimming that could restore the person to a vertical position and keep him afloat, thus causing the user to drown.
In order to remedy these drawbacks, protective clothing that includes floating resources have been developed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,465,375 describes a safety garment for fishing, in the form of overalls that include a rubber strip inside of the trunk part forming an airbag with the trunk garment, and which inflates to form a waterproof joint between the body of the fisherman and the end of the trunk garment, preventing the water from entering inside in the garment. The inflated airbag also acts as a float. However, with the airbag inflating inside the garment, the float occupies a very limited space which is not adequate to guarantee the stability of the user in water. Moreover, the airbag, once inflated, presses onto the ribcage of the user in order to create the seal, and this hampers the breathing of the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,454,744 describes a protective garment in the form of overalls that include, at the level of the trunk garment, an airbag that is more or less flat when it is not inflated, and forming a an annular float when it is inflated, similar to a lifebuoy. This system only prevents the person from sinking. The drawbacks of this system are the same as those encountered with a lifebuoy. Firstly, the effective area presented by the float when inflated is limited by the height of the uninflated airbag surrounding the trunk garment. As a consequence, the inflated volume does not support the head of the user and does not guarantee that the head will be held out of the water. Secondly, the weight of the body pressing onto the inflated airbag deforms it at the level of the support area, resulting in movement of the gas volume distribution into the zone opposite to the support area. This displacement of volume can cause dynamic instability and can unbalance the user. The risk is then that the head of the user is not held out of the water. In particular, if the user is unconscious, he is unable to turn, and will drown, since his respiratory tract is not held clear.


Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for populating a table in a business application. A computer-implemented method of displaying information on a computer display device includes displaying a first view on the display device, the first view including dropdown values and data in a table of rows and columns, the data received from a table node data structure stored in a memory, the table node data structure including node elements and attributes, and generating a second view in response to a change in a dropdown value by repopulating the table of rows and columns using attribute identifications (IDs).

The present invention relates to data processing by a digital computer, and more particularly to populating a table in a business application.
Web Dynpro is an integral part of a SAP Web Application from SAP AG that provides a design-time environment that is independent of the underlying runtime environment and enables companies to model and design user interfaces (UIs) cost-effectively and precisely. A Web Dynpro application includes a set of views, navigation between the views, concepts for managing the views and determining their sequence, a context for keeping session data, and the business logic of the application. Web Dynpro incorporates a Model View Controller (MVC) paradigm that enables a strict separation of presentation logic, business logic, navigation, and eventing. In object-oriented programming development, MVC is the name of a methodology or design pattern for successfully and efficiently relating a UI to underlying data models. The MVC pattern is used in program development with programming languages such as Java, Smalltalk, C, and C++.
A UI Web Dynpro table includes a need for populating and re-populating data in the table. A UI Web Dynpro table receives its data from a table node data structure stored in a memory. The table node gets its data from model nodes. Populating the table node when data is extracted from multiple model nodes can be a lengthy, slow and performance-costly operation because data is extracted from model nodes using a looping process.

Populating a table in a business application