In a device for programming EPROM-Flash type memory cells of memory words of a memory, a bit line of a memory cell of a given rank of the first word and at least one bit line of a memory cell of the same rank in a word that is horizontally adjacent to this first word are connected together to two common programming connections by means of a bias circuit, and the bias circuit comprises two bias voltage inputs and one bias voltage output. The programming method consists in the successive programming, during different programming cycles, of the different cells of this first word and, during the same programming cycle, a different cell, of the same rank, in at least one word that is different from this first word is programmed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to semiconductor electronics and more specifically to a device and method for the programming of a Flash-EPROM (erasable programmable read-only memories) type memory.
2. Description of Related Art
In Flash-EPROM memories, each information storage element or memory cell consists of a floating-gate MOS (metal oxide semiconductor) transistor that may be in one of two states. Thus, in the case of an N channel MOS transistor, in a first state called an erased state, no negative charge, or even a positive charge, is trapped at the floating gate. A conduction channel can then exist between the source and drain of this transistor. In a second state, called a programmed state, electrons are trapped in the floating gate. The electronics therefore prevent the creation of a conduction channel in the substrate between the source and drain. In this case, the transistor is off and behaves like an open circuit.
In a Flash-EPROM type memory, the passage of an electron from the conduction channel to the floating gate is done by a so-called hot electron method. To this end, high voltages are applied between the control gate and the drain of this same floating-gate transistor while the source is connected to the ground. These voltages enable the passage of very high-energy electrons (hot electrons), coming from the channel thus created, to the floating gate. The electrons are then trapped in the floating gate and constitute an information element. The removal of the charges, or erasure, is prompted by a tunnel effect.
A memory array consists of words comprising, in one example, at least eight cells each capable of containing an information element (namely one of the two previous states). FIG. 1 gives a partial view of an architecture of this kind. These cells may be selected individually. They are arranged in rows and columns.
In a standard architecture, all the floating-gate transistors of the memory cells of one word, or one byte in the example, have their control gates connected to the same voltage source by a word line and their sources connected to the same terminal of a selection transistor. This selection transistor permits or does not permit the biasing of the source of the floating-gate transistors of the word. An architecture of this kind with a selection transistor of this kind is described in the patent application EP-A-0 704 851. The selection transistor prevents the depletion of the floating-gate transistor of a cell and thus provides for perfect uniformity of the threshold voltage of the cells that are the object of an erasure.
This same selection transistor has its other electrode, namely its drain or source electrode, connected to a source vertical connection of words that are vertically adjacent. The vertically adjacent words are therefore on different rows. This selection transistor enables the biasing or non-biasing of the common sources of the floating-gate transistors of one word. These words have Q bytes. If Q=1, the word has one byte. The floating gates of the floating-gate transistors of the cells of the words in one row are connected to the same word line. Furthermore, the control gates of the selection transistors of the words of one row are connected to the same word selection line receiving an associated selection signal that is often identical to the signal applied to the word line.
With an architecture of this kind, there are constraints that limit the programming of several memory cells of one word during a programming cycle. Indeed, during the programming operation, the control gate of each cell of a row is subjected to a high voltage. The drain of the floating-gate transistor of a cell that is selected to be programmed is taken to a high voltage that is high enough to accelerate the charges in a channel. The source of this floating-gate transistor is taken to the ground. This high voltage enables the charges to acquire high energy, and produces a high current through this channel (500 .mu.A/cell). Thus, for one byte, the current produced during this programming may be in the range of 10 mA. This current is far too high for the vertical connection of the source which is limited in size and thus cannot withstand a current of such strength. For example, if many cells were to be programmed in the same word, the current produced would prompt a liberation of the metal film from the source vertical connection by a phenomenon of electromigration. Furthermore, this current which thereby prompts an elevation of the source current reduces the efficiency of the programming.
Accordingly, a need exists for a device and method for programming of a memory that overcomes this.

Device and method for the programming of a memory


A method of forming a capacitor that has improved charge storage capacity in a high density memory device that has shallow trench isolation regions and a capacitor produced by the method are provided. The method includes the step of forming an oxide spacer that consists of a plurality of oxide layers deposited by two alternating methods of thermal CVD and plasma CVD. After a contact hole is first etched by a plasma etching technique, the hole is again decoratively etched by an etchant such as hydrogen fluoride which has a high selectivity toward oxide layers formed by the plasma CVD method and a low selectivity toward oxide layers formed by the thermal CVD method. As a result, a corrugated side-wall of the contact hole is formed which affords the capacitor cell with an increased surface area leading to an improved charge storage capacity.

In modern memory devices, small dimension and high capacitance value per unit area of a capacitor are desirable characteristics for achieving high charge storage capacity. The capacitors are usually formed by at least two layers of a semiconducting material and one layer of a dielectric material. For instance, in a polysilicon capacitor which is widely used in DRAM (dynamic random access memory) applications, a thin oxide layer is used to form an oxide sandwich between two polysilicon layers to produce a high capacitance capacitor cell.
In memory devices such as DRAM, while the dimensions of the device are continuously been miniaturized, methods for reducing the chip real estate occupied by a capacitor become more important. One such method proposed by others encompassing a design of stacking a capacitor over the bit line on the surface of a silicon substrate. The stacked capacitor is formed by a layer of dielectric material such as silicon oxide or oxide-nitride-oxide sandwiched between two layers of polysilicon. The effective capacitance of a stacked cell is increased over that of a convention planar cell due to its increased surface area. A conventional method of fabricating a stacked capacitor for DRAM is shown in FIGS. 1-5.
As shown in FIG. 1, a transistor 10 is first formed on a surface of the silicon substrate 12. A shallow trench field oxide layer 14 is also formed in the surface of the silicon substrate 12. A silicon nitride etch-stop layer 16 is then blanket deposited on the surface. This is shown in FIG. 2. Shallow trench isolation can be suitably used in high density (e.g. 64 M or larger) memory devices since it provides simplified back-end operation such as packaging. This is in comparison to a bird's beak type LOCOS isolation which provides an uneven top surface (or uneven topography) on a memory device and leads to poor photolithographic results due to focusing difficulties. Shallow trench isolation can be etched in the silicon between neighboring devices. It allows the devices to be built much closer together without the problem of effective channel width control since a field implant is no longer needed. The width of a device can be well defined by surrounding trenches without additional processing steps for the field implant. A more planar surface on the device can also be obtained by the absence of formation of bird's beak. Based on the advantages of a tighter line definition and a greater planarity provided by the shallow trench isolation, the isolation is very suitable for applications in sub-half-micron semiconductor processes.
In the next step of fabrication, as shown in FIG. 3, an oxide layer 18, or a cell contact non-doped silicate glass (CCNSG), is blanket deposited on the IC device. The CCNSG layer 18 is then patterned, photomasked and etched to form a cell contact hole 22, as shown in FIG. 4. After the formation of the cell contact hole 22, a layer of polysilicon 24, a layer of dielectric material (such as silicon oxide or oxide-nitride-oxide) 26 are deposited. This is shown in FIG. 5. After the two layers are patterned and etched by conventional processes to define the capacitor cell, a polysilicon layer 28 is deposited and then patterned and etched to define the capacitor cell 30.
In this conventional method, even though the side-wall thickness of the capacitor cell 30 is increased by the addition of the CCNSG layer 18, the limiting factor for the increased capacitance of the cell is the height of the cell that can be allowed.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a capacitor cell in a DRAM device that has improved capacitance without significantly increase the cell height.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a capacitor cell in a DRAM device having improved charge capacity that does not require the deposit of a thicker CCNSG layer to increase the side-wall thickness of the cell.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a capacitor cell in a DRAM device that incorporates the deposition of a plurality of oxide layers in place of a single CCNSG layer while maintaining the total height of the cell.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a capacitor cell in a DRAM device that has enhanced side-wall area by the incorporation of a plurality of oxide layers wherein each layer is deposited by a deposition technique different than that used for depositing its immediate adjacent layers.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a capacitor cell for a DRAM device that has enhanced side-wall area by the incorporation of a plurality of oxide layers wherein each alternating layer is deposited by a different technique selected from a thermal CVD technique and a plasma CVD technique.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a capacitor cell in a DRAM device that has enhanced side-wall area by incorporating a plurality of oxide layers wherein each layer has a density that is different than its immediately adjacent layers.
It is still another further object of the present invention to provide a capacitor cell in a DRAM device that has enhanced side-wall area by incorporating a plurality of oxide layers which can be etched by an etchant having different etch selectivity for the different oxide layers.
It is yet another further object of the present invention to provide a capacitor cell in a DRAM device that has enhanced side-wall area by incorporating a plurality of oxide layers that produce a corrugated configuration in the side-wall after an etching process.
It is yet another further object of the present invention to provide a capacitor cell in a DRAM device that has enhanced side-wall area by incorporating a plurality of oxide layers wherein the layers are etched by an acid having an etch selectivity ratio of at least 1:2 for the different oxide layers.

Stacked capacitor having improved charge storage capacity


A cup shaped base 12 and a cap 13 are coupled, therein coil spring 14 is accommodated to form a holder 11, and the holder is interposed between the bearing 3 of a rotor shaft 4 and a sleeve 5. Different from being directly mounted on the rotor shaft, since the base 12 is provisionally held on the rotor shaft, the operation efficiency at the time of assembling the motor is outstandingly increased.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pressurization device for the rotor of a motor, which is applied to a micro motor of the type, in which a magnet is mounted on the rotor shaft and having two layers of stator coils on its outer circumference.
2. Prior Art
One example of a conventional micro motor for use of various applications is explained in accordance with FIG. 8, in which the upper half portion thereof is shown in section to show the inner structure. Reference numeral 1 designates a stator yoke, outside which a bearing 2 is mounted and inside which a bearing 3 is mounted, which support rotatably a rotor shaft 4. On the rotor shaft 4, a sleeve 5 is mounted, around the outer circumference of which a cylindrical magnet 6 is attached. Thereby, the sleeve 5 and the magnet 6 are unified.
The length of the sleeve 5 is shorter than the spacing between the bearings 2 and 3, one end thereof is adjacent to a washer 7 through which the rotor shaft 4 is penetrated and the other end is adjacent to a plate spring 8. The washer 7 is in contact with the bearing 2 and the plate spring 8 is in contact with the bearing 3. Outside the outer circumference of the magnet 6 the inner side of the stator yoke 1 located with a little gap therebetween, and inside the yoke 1 stator coils 9 and 10 are juxtaposed.
In such a conventional micro motor thus formed, when the stator yoke 1 is energized by flowing the alternating current into the coils 9 and 10, the rotor shaft 4 rotates due to the electromagnetic force functioned on the magnet 6 in accordance with a polarizing action thereof. Letting the motor be a stepping motor, if the coils 9 and 10 are flown alternately with a pulse current, the magnet 6 is functioned alternately with the electromagnetic force. When the coils 9 and 10 are flown alternately with the pulse current, the energization of the stator yoke 1 changes on the rotor shaft 4 in the axial direction, since the rotor shaft 4 receives a to and fro force alternately in the axial direction, which causes the rotor shaft 4 to be in a unstable location and to vibrate, as a result a noise is generated.
Then, in order to avoid this, by pressing the sleeve 5 to the bearing 2 through the washer 7 due to the function of the plate spring 8 put on the end portion of the rotor shaft 4, the location of the rotor shaft 4 is fixed in the axial direction. According to the structure shown in FIG. 8, the sleeve 5 is not adapted to be in contact with the bearing 2 directly because the washer 7 on the rotor shaft 4 is interposed between the sleeve 5 and the bearing 2. Accordingly, there is no trouble on the function of the motor.
However, at the time of assembling the motor, if the plate spring 8 put on the rotor shaft 4 is not fixed, it is apt to drop when assembling the rotor shaft in the stator yoke 1. To avoid this trouble, the plate spring 8 to have been adhered by grease to the rotor shaft 4 while assembling, which is not suitable for an automatic assembling process and has to have relied on a hand working. Further, a mere replacement of the plate spring 8 with a coil spring has not improved the assembling work.
Since the spacing between the sleeve 5 of a rotor of a stepping motor and the bearing 3, that is, the dimension precision of the spacing where the plate spring 8 is accommodated depends on the precision of the length of the sleeve 5 and the precision of the spacing between the bearings 2 and 3, the tiny dimension change of the spacing influences greatly the rotor pressurization due to the plate spring 8 and a contact pressure between the sleeve 5 and the rotor shaft 4, as a result to the characteristic of the motor torque.
The relation of a variation (mm) on a load (N), as a representative example of stress variation characteristic of the plate spring, and as a representative example of the coil spring, is shown in FIG. 9 and in FIG. 10 respectively. Comparing these examples, a stress variation curve at the initial use of the plate spring is shown in 1 which becomes 2 after aging. For instance, at the variation of 0.1 mm-0.5 mm, the load is within 0.35N-1N, and in the case of a coil spring, both in 1 and 2, the load shows a little variation of 0.8N -1.2N. Accordingly, when a coil spring is employed for a motor, against the clearance of the space, in which the coil spring is accommodated, the variation of the pressurization decreases.
Therefore, a coil spring, in which the variation of the pressurization due to aging is small and the influence receiving from the space variation is small, is superior and easy to be used.
However, if such a coil spring is mounted without a coil cover or holder as well as a plate spring, the pressurized coil spring biases the rotation force of the rotor in one rotary or one reverse direction by adding a torsion force, which causes a stepping motor to be influenced badly in its angle precision indicating the position precision at every one step and in the torque characteristic.
Then, in the present invention, a coil spring is accommodated in a holder to enable the holder easily to be assembled automatically and the structure is adapted to effect for it to keep the position provisionally after being coupled with the rotor shaft, so that the motor assembly becomes easy and the structure, which does not cause the pressurization added to the rotor to influence badly against the angle precision and the torque characteristic, is provided.
The present invention described in the claim 1 is, to solve the above problem, characterized in that a cup-shaped base and cap are adapted to be coupled to accommodate therein a coil spring, which form a holder, and said holder is interposed between a bearing of the rotor shaft and a sleeve.
The invention described in the claim 2, in the invention described in the claim 1, is characterized in that said base and cap are made of plastic material, at the bottom center of one of them, a non-circular opening having the diameter a little smaller than the diameter of the rotor shaft is provided and at the opposite bottom center a circular opening having a diameter a little larger than the diameter of the rotor shaft is provided.
The invention described in the claim 3, in the inventions described in the claims 1 or 2, is characterized in that one portion of said base is provided with an elongated aperture along the rotor shaft and the cap is provided with a click to allow to slide in that aperture within a given range thereof and to engage with the end of the aperture.
The invention described in the claim 4, in either one of the inventions described in the claims 1 to 3, is characterized in that the material of said holder is made of thermoplastic resin.
The invention described in the claim 5, in the invention described in either one of the claims 1 to 4, is characterized in that said cap is adapted to be coupled with the holder with having a clearance.
Since the base and the cap of the holder is coupled with a sufficient clearance and covers a coil spring, the base and cap of the holder are freely expanded and contracted in the state where the coil spring is accommodated therein to function resiliently. Further, since the diameter of the opening for inserting the rotor shaft and holding the holder thereon is a little smaller than the one of the rotor shaft, when the holder is put on the rotor shaft, it is in the state of half-fixed and held provisionally thereon, so that it is not easily removed therefrom.

Pressurization device for the rotor of a motor


Disclosed are an autonomous driving method of implementing adaptive autonomous driving for a user based on device information that is obtained from a device of the user, and an autonomous vehicle. In particular, disclosed are an autonomous driving method of implementing autonomous driving appropriate for a situation of the user by controlling a function of an autonomous vehicle that corresponds to device information obtained from a wearable device, and the autonomous vehicle.

Recently, interest into autonomous vehicles has increased. In particular, a variety of additional functions regarding autonomous driving have been continuously developed in order to solve traffic congestion caused by the increasing demand for vehicles and to safely avoid obstacles such as people or other vehicles. For example, there are numerous algorithms regarding a lane keeping system.
Also, as Internet connectivity has expanded, the amount of data generated from devices or vehicles rapidly increases, and thus various services using the data have been introduced.
Therefore, a method of providing a user with an autonomous driving experience that is familiar to the user by using various pieces of data, and an autonomous vehicle are required.

Autonomous vehicle and method of controlling the autonomous vehicle


A method of detecting faults in a solar power system includes monitoring at least one operating parameter including outputs from a solar module, inputs and outputs to a microinverter, and inputs and outputs of a power optimizer, comparing the operating parameter to at least one of an expected value or another operating parameter, using results of the comparing to determine if there is a fault event, analyzing a location of an entity in the system that generated the operating parameter to localize the fault event, and performing remedial action on a location of the fault event.

Incorporation of Ground-Fault Protection Devices (GFPD) for traditional implementation of centralized inverter based photovoltaic (PV) solar energy systems have become mandatory after early incidences of fire which were later shown could be avoided have there been such protective devices installed. Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters (GFCI), Arc Fault Circuit Interrupters (AFCI), Leakage Current Detector Interrupters (LCDI), Equipment Ground Fault Protective Devices (EGFPD), Appliance Leakage Current Interrupters (ALCI) and Immersion Detection Circuit Interrupters (MCI) are used for such protection in a variety of systems. These devices typically sense or determine the leakage current and trigger a safe shut-off and de-energize the system.
Similar studies are being performed for detection and extinguishing of arcs in PV Systems. Arc Fault Circuit Interrupters monitor the current through various paths and voltages at various nodes in the systems, respectively. These signals are first passed through a signal conditioning chain and are digitized through an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). Next, these signals are processed by a digital signal processor (DSP) or custom hardware where it compares with various pre-determined criterion including pre-established signatures to detect an arcing event in the system. If an arcing event is detected systematic automatic triggering of the power switches is accomplished to first extinguish the arc, and then to de-energize the entire system or portions of it.
In traditional solar power plants, where each of the solar modules in a string are connected in series, mismatches among the solar modules lead to degraded performance of total energy harvest. In a typical environment it has been demonstrated that varying shadowing and mismatch related issues among the solar modules lead to up to 25% of lost energy.
Recently, various technologies have been developed to solve these problems. In particular, Microinverter and Power Optimizer technologies improve the system performance by embedding electronics close to each of the solar panels. In the case of microinverters, the energy harvested from the individual solar module is converted to AC, which is suitable for directly feeding into the power system grid. In case of the optimizer, each of the solar modules consists of a DC-DC converter. The outputs of the DC-DC converters are then connected in series to form a string of solar modules, which are then fed into a centralized inverter for converting to AC suitable for feeding into the grid.
In either case of the microinverters and power optimizers, the individual solar modules are decoupled from each other, and are operated at their maximum power point thus allowing maximum possible energy harvest. Each of the solar modules have their individual maximum power point due to their own individual operating conditions specific to the extent to which the solar module is soiled or shadowed.
The microinverter and power optimizer technologies provide further advantage by allowing module level diagnostics and monitoring. Each of the modules can have bi-directional communication capability using either power-line, wireless or traditional wire-line communication technologies. This allows diagnostics and monitoring of various parameters associated with each of the modules and the corresponding electronics. In some cases, the module integrated electronics may have one or many of the following features: communication, diagnostics, monitoring and safety. In such cases, the module electronics are not capable of performing power conditioning for decoupling the solar array string from the module, however, they can continue to perform key GFCI and AFCI Capabilities.
Irrespective of such distributed implementation of various electronic capabilities inside the solar module, GFCI and AFCI techniques have continued to rely on traditional techniques. In such techniques, a combination of DC or AC Disconnect and a Centralized Inverter Integrated or external GFCI device is used to comply with the regulatory code. Such techniques typically have limited resolution thus limit the safety trigger points only to higher values of critical signals. High resolution implementations are available, however, could be inordinately expensive and difficult to install.

Hierarchical fault prediction, detection and localization in PV systems with distributed electronics


Two neural networks are used to control adaptively a vibration and noise-producing plant. The first neural network, the emulator, models the complex, nonlinear output of the plant with respect to certain controls and stimuli applied to the plant. The second neural network, the controller, calculates a control signal which affects the vibration and noise producing characteristics of the plant. By using the emulator model to calculate the nonlinear plant gradient, the controller matrix coefficients can be adapted by backpropagation of the plant gradient to produce a control signal which results in the minimum vibration and noise possible, given the current operating characteristics of the plant.

The present invention relates to control systems for an active, adaptive vibration and noise attenuation system (AAVNAS). The present invention serves as the intelligence of an overall system that has several parts. Generally, the other parts of the noise control system are called the plant and would include the noise producing system itself, sensors for measuring the objectionable vibration and noise, a mechanism for altering the production of noise and vibration, and some parameter which can be measured independently of the noise and vibration which is related to the noise and vibration production and can serve as an element in the accurate estimation of noise and vibration. In particular, the present invention relates to a control system using neural networks to emulate and control the noise and vibration characteristics of a nonlinear plant.
Virtually all dynamic mechanical devices produce vibration which, when transmitted through air within audible frequency ranges, is recognized as audible noise. Both the original vibration and the resultant audible noise have undesirable effects. Vibration in machinery can damage or degrade the machinery""s performance. Noise and vibration perceived by people in the vicinity of the machinery may distract those people and cause fatigue or other physical maladies. Consequently, a need exists for systems and techniques which can be used to reduce noise and vibration.
Efforts to control noise and vibration can be classified into two categories: passive and active. Passive noise control techniques are distinguishable from active in that passive techniques are arranged to absorb energy from the plant or, by reason of tuned mounts, isolate the vibrating machinery and thus do not add any energy to the plant, i.e. the system being controlled. Many prior attempts to control noise and vibration utilized passive techniques such as mufflers or sound-absorbing insulation. However, passive noise and vibration control techniques approach practical limits in terms of cost and many other characteristics versus effectiveness. Further significant reductions in noise and vibration levels usually require advances in the state-of-the-art active control technology.
Active techniques seek to analyze the noise and vibration that the plant produces and then reduce the effects by either actively altering the characteristics of the system or by inducing acoustic wave interference accomplished by emitting noises/vibrations at specific time-delayed and phased-reversed frequencies in order to cancel out the noise and vibration from the plant. A more detailed explanation of the physics behind noise cancellation is given in an article entitled xe2x80x9cA Primer on Active Sound and Vibration Controlxe2x80x9d written by Larry J. Eriksson which appeared on page 18 of the February, 1997, issue of xe2x80x9cSensorsxe2x80x9d.
One method known in the art is to measure the noise and vibration disturbances at locations where cancellation is desired and to feed this information back into an active controller which then makes alteration/cancellation adjustments to reduce the noise and vibration disturbances. Feedback systems tend to be effective when the time delay through the controller actuator and sensors is kept to a minimum.
Another method is to place a reference sensor as close as possible to the vibration/noise disturbance producing source in addition to the measurements of the noise and vibration disturbances at locations where cancellation is desired. Such a sensor is referred to as a reference sensor and allows the use of feed-forward algorithms. Feed-forward algorithms such as the Filtered-X Least Mean Squares (LMS) algorithm minimize the measured disturbance signals using a gradient descent algorithm to adapt the coefficient of a FIR (Finite Impulse Response) filter. With feed-forward systems, the FIR filter coefficients are updated so that the transfer function from the disturbance source to the disturbance signals where cancellation is desired, is equal to the net transfer function from the source through the reference sensor, FIR filter, and actuator to the same disturbance signals. The adaptive algorithm computes a FIR filter that best equalizes these two paths. U.S. Pat. No. 5,332,061 issued to Kamal Majeed, on Jul. 26, 1994, discloses one such system used to attenuate vibrations in a vehicle generated by an internal combustion engine. These algorithms are effective when the reference sensors are coherent with the error signals and have a small time delay with respect to the source and when the system controlled is linear. The Filtered-X LMS algorithm is described in the textbook xe2x80x9cAdaptive Signal Processing by Bernard Widrow and Samuel Stearns (copyright)1985, Prentice-Hall Inc., ISBN: 0-13-004029-0xe2x80x9d.
Few practical implementations of nonlinear active controllers have been realized. Nonlinear active control systems are required when the actuators and/or the plant exhibit nonlinear dynamics. Neural networks are one method known in the art to model and control the behavior of nonlinear systems. A neural net plant emulator is first trained to identify the nonlinear plant behavior. Then, the neural net controller is trained in real time using the results of the emulator to control the actual noise and vibration disturbance signals. There are many publications on the training of neural nets such as backpropagation (with or without momentum), conjugate gradient, quasi-Newton algorithms and nonlinear Kalman Filtering. One such publication is Neural Networksxe2x80x94A Comprehensive Foundation by Simon Haykin, (copyright)1994, Macmillan Publishing Company, ISBN: 0-02-352761-7.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,434,783, issued to Chinmoy Pal, on Jul. 18, 1995, discloses a system incorporating neural networks for use in canceling noise and vibration in an automobile. The Pal patent discloses a system using two neural networks. The xe2x80x9cidentificationxe2x80x9d neural net models the behavior of the plant being controlled. The xe2x80x9ccontrollerxe2x80x9d net calculates the actuator command signals to reduce the automobile interior noise and vibrations of the vehicle body panel. The neural net architecture proposed in this patent includes feedback of the outputs from the neural net (controller or emulator) through ARMA (Auto-Regressive-Moving-Average) models to capture the temporal dynamic behavior of the plant. The output filtered signals from the ARMA models are then used as the inputs to the neural nets. In addition, feedback coupling exists from the emulator output, also filtered by alternate ARMA models to the controller inputs.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,386,689, issued to Daniel J. Bozich, on Feb. 7, 1995, discloses a system similar to Pal, utilizing dual neural networks to control actively vibration in gas turbine engines. This patent discloses the use of two neural nets, an emulator and a controller, to reduce the vibration and noise generated by a gas turbine engine, using actuators and sensors. The emulator in the Bozich patent is used to provide compensation to the neural net controller by using an idea similar to the Fx-LMS algorithm. A reference signal is passed in a feed-forward manner through the emulator to provide a filtered reference signal, which is then used to update the neural net controller weights. The Fx-LMS approach, and hence the approach of the Bozich patent, both assume that the plant (as represented by the emulator) and the controller are interchangeable and this in general is true for linear systems and may be possibly applicable for moderately linear systems.
The flow of a fluid over a surface is one situation in which noise and vibration can occur. Specific examples of this are the blades of a rotorcraft spinning through the air or the blades of a propeller or impeller spinning in water.
A substantial body of research into the noise and vibration generated by helicopter rotors exists. A helicopter emits a substantial amount of noise as it flies over an area. Noise and vibration levels within the helicopter cabin and throughout the airframe can also be significant. The external noise radiated from a helicopter can be generally classified into three areas: loading, thickness and blade-vortex interaction (BVI).
Loading noise results from the rotation of the blades that are creating lift to keep the helicopter airborne. This rotational movement of lift generates noise that propagates perpendicular to the rotor plane, namely down toward the ground directly beneath the helicopter.
Thickness noise also results from the blades rotating around the main rotor shaft, but in contrast is independent of the lift on the blades. Thickness noise results from the pressure disturbances created as a blade passage causes the air to displace and then return to its initial state. The thicker the blades, the more displacement, thus the term thickness noise. These air displacements result in pressure fluctuations that result in radiated noise. Thickness noise radiates in the plane of the rotor, and thus projects ahead of and behind the helicopter. The blade velocity (as noted by the Mach number) also impacts the amount of thickness noise, the faster the blades motion, the greater the noise generated. As the relative speed of the air displacing around the blade approaches the speed of sound (sonic or Mach number=1.0), the magnitude of noise rises sharply (i.e. high-speed thickness noise). When regions of the displaced airflow exceed sonic velocities, the flow is referred to as delocalized, and a great increase in sound levels and radiation is observed. In this situation, the noise is referred to as High Speed Impulsive (HSI) noise. The highest velocity flow is observed on the advancing side of the rotor, and thus the highest thickness noise levels propagate ahead of the helicopter.
As used in this application, HSI noise should be understood to also cover the more general thickness type of noise which may or may not occur at the time that HSI noise occurs. Since the highest Mach numbers are on the advancing side of the rotors, these noise sources propagate ahead of the aircraft and can result in the helicopter""s detection over a battlefield by threat acoustic sensors and mines. Reductions in blade thickness and rotor RPM, thus Mach number, can lead to significant reductions of the noise levels that propagate forward of the helicopter in the plane of its rotor blades, thus reducing the detectability range of the helicopter. However, reductions in blade thickness and tip speed also degrade rotor performance. The addition of active control technology to a rotor with reduced blade thickness and lower rotor RPM may restore or improve the helicopter""s performance while yielding significant reductions in noise propagation and thus detection distances.
BVI noise is related to the close interaction of the main rotor blades with the wake vortex elements generated at the ends of the spinning main rotor blades. These interactions increase the far-field ground noise emanating from the helicopter. BVI noise dominates the noise levels when the helicopter is descending or when the helicopter is flying in a terrain-following flight pathxe2x80x94sometimes referred to as nap of the earth (NOE) flight profiles. BVI noise is predominantly directed down toward the ground, i.e., perpendicular to the plane of the rotor blades. Such ground noises are undesirable in civilian contexts because they are objectionable to populace in the surrounding area. Such ground noises are also undesirable in military contexts because the noise makes the helicopter more detectable, which makes the helicopter more vulnerable to enemy action. In a military context, a reduction in BVI noise levels during descent or terrain-following flight would greatly enhance the success of missions requiring flight at low altitude in order to evade radar detection, while avoiding detection by acoustic sensors which might trigger anti-helicopter, explosive mines.
These wake vortex elements that lead to BVI noise are also part of a more complex rotor wake structure that varies in time and space over the entire rotor disk. This entire wake structure is also responsible for generating vibratory loads on the rotor system which are transferred through the blades and hub into the airframe and result in undesirable vibrations in the helicopter cockpit and cabin areas.
Open loop aerodynamic simulations have shown that actuating a trailing edge flap on each rotor blade to introduce flap motions at xe2x80x98N per revxe2x80x99 can reduce BVI noise and vibration. For example, a 2 per rev harmonic signal is twice the speed of rotation of the main rotor of the aircraft and for a rotor rotating at five revolutions per second (300 RPM), the 2 per rev is a 10 Hz harmonic input signal. The flap is typically driven with a superposition of 2 per rev through 5 per rev harmonic input signals. One published paper (xe2x80x9c23rd European Rotorcraft Forum in Dresden, Germany, Sep. 16-18, 1997: Individual blade control by servo-flap and blade root control-a collaborative research and development programmexe2x80x9d, written by D. Schimke, P. Janker, A. Blaas, R. Kube, G. Schewe, Ch. Kebler), describes the use of superimposed harmonics of a base frequency, P, of vibration and sound used to effect cancellation of that vibration and sound. The superimposed harmonics include the 2P through 5P harmonics.
Researchers have also determined that a pressure transducer located on the leading-edge of the blade, at an appropriate blade span location, would correlate well with the far-field noise. One such publication (xe2x80x9c19""th European Rotorcraft Forum, Cenobbio, Italy, Sep. 14-16, 1993: Experimental Results of the European Helinoise Aeroacoustic Rotor Testxe2x80x9d, by W. R. Splettstoesser, G. Niesl, F. Cenedese, F. Nitti, D. G. Papanikas) presents experimental results correlating blade pressure and accoustic characteristics. Experimental noise data in this reference is further evaluated in terms of bandpass levels from 2P-10P comprising the thickness and high speed noise and 6P-40P comprising BVI. Therefore, the output of such a transducer can be used as a noise error sensor for a closed-loop controller for controlling flap position. The aforementioned Schminke paper also discusses the use of pressure transducers at the rotor blades, and the use of wavelet transformation filters to extract the BVI noise signature for closed loop control.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,800, issued to Bruce D. Charles, on Dec. 31, 1996, discloses a system for manipulating a flap on a rotor blade to reduce the noise and vibration generated by the rotor. This system alters the flaps in predetermined manners based on the relative angular position of the rotor blade at any given time. The Charles control system is active to the extent that it varies its output depending on the rotor blade position, but does not include a controller to provide real time learning. Without such a controller, the Charles system is unable to optimally adapt its flap control manipulations and provide maximum reduction of noise and vibration emissions based on actual measurements of noise and vibration.
The prior art lacks a comprehensive scheme for actively, adaptively controlling nonlinear noise and vibration by estimating and measuring what noise and vibration outputs will occur based on stimuli that relate to the generating noise and vibration source and then adapting the controlling mechanism to reduce the plant measured noise and vibration disturbances at the desired locations.
The present invention supplies the control system necessary to model the plant, estimate and measure noise and vibration states, direct the alteration of noise-vibration-generating mechanisms, evaluate its noise-vibration-eliminating performance and adjust its directions based upon detected errors in its plant model.
The present invention is a noise and vibration control system associated with a plant which includes one or more portions of mechanical equipment involved in producing or measuring noise and vibration. The present invention filters and quantifies the noise and vibration generated by the plant. The control system incorporates an emulator neural network used to model the relationship between the quantified noise and vibration measurements and one or more stimuli related to the plant generating the noise and vibration. A second neural network, the controller, uses a reference signal to generate a noise and vibration correction signal which is passed to some means for altering the noise and vibration generated by the plant. The emulator then measures the effectiveness of the correction signal in reducing noise and vibration. The emulator calculates the gradient of the error in its plant model. This gradient is passed to the controller to adapt the calculations used to generate the correction signal. Over time, the parameters within the controller are adapted to produce an optimal adjustment signal reducing the noise and vibrations generated by the plant. The input signals to the emulator and controller are stored in a plurality of time-based filters.
One specific application of the present invention is to control the noise and vibration produced by the blades of a rotorcraft. The noise and vibration is measured by sensors mounted on the rotor blades and throughout the rotorcraft. These sensed signals are then filtered and quantified. An emulator neural network models the relationship between the quantified signals and various stimuli related to the motion of the rotorcraft including the angular position of the rotor relative to the body and the forward velocity of the rotorcraft. A controller neural network uses a reference signal and the current flight regime of the rotorcraft to generate an adjustment signal. This adjustment signal controls flaps located on the blades of the rotorcraft. By adjusting these blade flaps as the blade rotates around the rotor, the controller is able to alter the flow of air across the blades and, thus, alter the noise and vibration generated by that airflow across the blades. The emulator neural network estimates the noise and vibrations resulting from the adjustment signals. These estimates are compared against actual noise and vibration measurements to develop a error gradient in the plant model. This error gradient is then used to adapt the parameters that the controller neural network used to generate the original adjustment signal. As this adjustment occurs during each execution cycle of the controller and emulator, the controller neural network is adapted toward parameters which result in adjustment signals minimizing the noise and vibrations generated by airflow across the rotor blades.

Neural net controller for noise and vibration reduction

General Dynamics Advanced Technology Systems, Inc.


Apparatus for increasing the diameter of an expansible reel. The apparatus includes an expansible sleeve member to be disposed over the reel and one or more elastic expansible members to maintain the sleeve member in contact with the reel, but which allow the reel to fully expand.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for increasing the effective diameter of an expansible reel. The present invention more particularly relates to an apparatus for increasing the effective diameter of an expansible payoff reel so that metal coils of varying internal diameters may be retained securely on the reel during payoff of the coiled metal.
2. Description of the Invention Background
During manufacture and treatment, steel strip may be coiled on reels of varying diameters to provide steel coils with varying inside diameters. The coiled steel strip subsequently may be subjected to various finishing treatments and processes and the coils must be unwound into processing equipment from a payoff reel. To securely hold the steel coil during payoff into the processing equipment, the payoff reel typically is capable of expanding to increase its outer diameter. The coil initially is disposed on the payoff reel while the reel is in an unexpended state and has a relatively small outer diameter. The reel's unexpended state is referred to herein as its "collapsed" configuration. The reel is then mechanically expanded to assume what is referred to herein as an "engaged" configuration in which the diameter of the reel is enlarged to securely grip the coil's inside diameter.
Because coils may have different inside diameters, payoff reels often must be equipped with some means to increase the effective diameter of the payoff reel so that it will securely grip the coil's inside diameter as the payoff reel expands. One method for increasing payoff reel diameter is to insert lengths of 2".times.4" or 4".times.4" wood between the coil's inside diameter and the payoff reel before expanding the reel. This method is unsatisfactory because the coils may slip on the payoff reel and any wood splinters may damage the internal mechanism of the reel.
An alternative method to increase the outside diameter of an expansible payoff reel is to removably attach a series of buildup plates, typically composed of steel or nylon, to outer surfaces of those segments of the payoff reel that contact the coil's inner diameter. Each steel buildup plate may weigh in excess of 100 pounds and is difficult to handle and install. Installation of steel buildup plates normally may require 30-45 minutes and removal another 30-45 minutes, during which time the processing equipment will be unavailable for use. To facilitate installation of buildup plates, the plates may first be attached to the inner diameter of two steel rings in the orientation in which the plates would be when connected to the payoff reel. The assembly of plates connected to the rings is then disposed over the payoff reel, the buildup plates are bolted in position onto the reel and then the steel rings are removed from the buildup plates. Positioning the assembly of plates and rings over the reel is difficult and a coil buggy must be used because the assembly is quite heavy. Also, no net time savings is achieved using the steel rings because additional operations are required to remove the rings from the buildup plates during their installation on the reel and to replace the steel rings over the buildup plates before removing the plates from the reel.
Accordingly, a need exists for an improved apparatus to increase the diameter of an expansible payoff reel. The improved design must allow the reel to completely expand and securely grip the inside diameter of a coil. The improved design should also be quickly installed and removed, and should remain in place on the payoff reel when the coil has completely payed off of the reel.


An image recording apparatus includes a recording head that records an image on a recording medium. A conveyor supports the recording medium on an outer surface thereof so as to convey the recording medium in a conveying direction, and has an attachment region and a non-attachment region on its outer surface. The recording medium is attachable to the attachment region with a first attachment force greater than a second attachment force of the non-attachment region. A medium feeder is configured to feed the recording medium to the conveyor so that at least a part of a leading edge of the recording medium in the conveying direction is positioned on the non-attachment region.

1. Technical Field
The present application relates to an image recording apparatus that records an image onto a recording medium supported on an outer surface of a conveyor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional inkjet printers are known to be equipped with inkjet heads having ink discharge surfaces provided with ink discharging nozzles, and a conveyor belt suspended between two rollers. In such printers, a sheet fed from a feeder portion is conveyed by the conveyor belt while being attached to a conveying surface of the conveyor belt that faces the ink discharge surfaces. In the course of the conveying process, the sheet undergoes image recording and is subsequently ejected onto an ejection portion.


The invention relates to a disposable element for a medical treatment device, especially a hemodialysis device. The inventive disposable element comprises a film bag filled with the dialysis liquid that consists of two superimposed flat films or a tubular film with connections for supplying and discharging the liquid. The film bag or the tubular film, in the condition ready for usage, is closed with a first weld on the top end and with a second weld on the lower end and is folded several times parallel to the longitudinal axis that is vertical in the condition ready for usage. The film bag is inserted in a receiving unit that is configured as a shaping dish that has a middle cylindrical section followed by an upper or lower convex section. The inventive disposable element, when combined with the receiving unit, unfolds more easily when being filled and has a lesser tendency to form creases.

Hemodialysis devices are known in various designs. The material exchange between the blood and the dialyzing fluid takes place in a dialyzer which has a first flow path for the blood and a second flow path for the dialyzing fluid, both flow paths being separated from each other by a semi-permeable membrane. The first flow path is a component of an extracorporeal blood circulation having a feed line and a return line for the blood, as well as, if desired, a pump supporting the blood flow. The second flow path is connected to devices for feeding and removing the dialyzing fluid. In addition to the so-called single-pass systems, in which the continually supplied dialyzing fluid passes the dialyzer only once and is then discarded, so-called batch systems are also known. The German Patent 31 15 665 C2 describes such a hemodialysis device which works with a volumetrically-fixed container, sealed off against the atmosphere, which is completely filled with fresh dialyzing fluid prior to beginning the treatment. During operation, fluid is pumped out of the container through the dialyzer, and the used fluid is fed back into the container again. Because of the constant volume of the entire system filled with the dialyzing fluid, ultra-filtration can only be carried out when fluid is removed from the system. A mixture of fresh and used dialyzing fluid is avoided in the known hemodialysis device, in that the removal of the dialyzing fluid is carried out in the upper region of the container, while the feedback takes place in the lower container region. The stratification of the fresh dialyzing fluid with the used dialyzing fluid remains stable due to the maintenance of a vertical temperature gradient in the container from top to bottom.
The container is made of glass which is substantially resistant to chemicals to be considered, cleans well and is physiologically unobjectionable. However, it is disadvantageous that the glass container is comparatively costly to produce and relatively difficult to clean.
The German Patent 198 25 158 C1 describes a disposable, constructed as a film bag, which, together with a shaping vessel, is able to replace the glass container, relatively expensive to produce, of the hemodialysis device which is described in DE 31 15 665 C2 mentioned at the outset. The disposable is made of two twisted-conical sections which are welded together at their peripheral edge to form a double cone. The special advantage of this form design is that the disposable can be produced from conventional (flat) films. A three-dimensional fashioning as, for example, in the case of disposable gloves, is not necessary for this.
The glass container can only be replaced by the film bag if the volumetric constancy, sterility and fluid stratification are guaranteed.
To ensure the volumetric constancy, the bag must be able to unfold reproducibly and completely in the pressure-stable vessel with defined volume while being filled. Air pockets between bag and vessel, which develop due to unfoldings or spaces to be bridged, must be largely avoided. Creases caused by the geometry can only be accepted if they are reproducible, and the volume enclosed by them is negligible compared to the total volume. To ensure sterility, the interior of the bag must not be opened during the dialysis preparation, and during the filling, should only come in contact with the fluid flowing in. For the fluid stratification, the shape of the bag must support a clear separation between fresh and used dialyzing fluid. In addition, the bag should be easy to handle and inexpensive to produce.
French Patent publication no. FR 2 749 763 describes a method for producing a salt concentrate for the hemodialysis. The salt concentrate is made available in a bag which is folded from a tubular film. It is a side-fold bag which is able to unfold to form a rectangular packet.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,607,082 describes a tank for a compression sprayer having an outer container which accommodates an inner container. The inner container has a rigid back wall and is folded like a concertina.
From DE 9417416 U1, a secretion-collecting bag is known which is able to fold together like a concertina.

Disposable element for a device for carrying out a medical treatment using a liquid


Described herein are methods, formulations and kits for treating a patient with triple-negative breast cancer with nanoparticle complexes comprising a carrier protein (e.g., albumin), paclitaxel and a binding agent specific for a target antigen expressed by the cells (e.g., an anti-VEGF antibody).

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy and second leading cause of cancer death among women in the United States, with an estimated 192,370 new cases diagnosed and 40,170 deaths reported in 2009. Among women aged 20 to 59 years, breast cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death despite a steady decrease in breast cancer mortality since 1990. Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive clinical phenotype characterized by lack of expression (or minimal expression) of estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR), as well as an absence of human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (Her2/neu) overexpression. For example, a 2007 study of more than 50,000 women with breast cancer found that 23% of women with triple-negative breast cancer did not survive past 5 years, versus 7% of women with other types of breast cancer. Unlike patients with ER/PR-positive or HER2-overexpressing cancer, systemic treatment options for patients with TNBC are limited to cytotoxic chemotherapy due to the lack of a molecular target. Despite its chemosensitivity, TNBC is still associated with a poor prognosis. Pal, S. et al. (2011) Breast Cancer Res Treat. 125: 627-636.
Thus, there remains a need in the art to improve the efficacy of cancer therapeutics, especially for the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Methods of treating triple-negative breast cancer using compositions of antibodies and carrier proteins

MAYO FOUNDATION FOR MEDICAL EDUCATION AND RESEARCH


A lithium composite metal oxide that contains Li, Ni, and Mn, has a layered structure, has a diffraction peak in a range of 2θ=20.8±1° in a powder X-ray diffraction pattern obtained with powder X-ray diffraction measurement using a Cu—Kα radiation, has a BET specific surface area in a range of 6 m2/g to 30 m2/g, and has an average particle diameter measured with a laser diffraction scattering method in a range of 0.1 μm to 10 μm.

A lithium composite metal oxide is used as a positive electrode active material in a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery such as a lithium secondary battery. The lithium secondary battery has already been put into practical use as a small size power supply for mobile phones, notebook computers, etc., and furthermore, there has been an attempt to utilize the lithium secondary battery as a medium or large size power supply for automobiles, power storage, etc.
Recently, with downsizing and multifunctioning portable devices, there has been an increasing demand for a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery having a high energy density, and the development of a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary batteries in excellent characteristics is more desired than ever.
As an existing lithium composite metal oxide, Patent literature 1 concretely discloses a lithium composite metal oxide which has a composition of Li:Mn:Ni:Co=1.06:0.43:0.34:0.16 and a BET specific surface area of 1.16 m2/g, and which exhibits a discharge capacity of 197.4 mAh/g when it is used as a positive electrode active material for a lithium secondary battery.

Lithium composite metal oxide, positive electrode active substance, positive electrode, and non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery


A rear single-sided swingarm suspension for a motorcycle includes a single-sided swingarm that has an axle bearing assembly pivotably connected to the rearward end thereof for swinging motion in a plane parallel to the plane of travel of the swingarm. A cantilevered wheel axle is journalled in the axle bearing assembly and is affixed to the rear wheel. A control arm, which is shorter than the swingarm, extends generally parallel to the swingarm and is pivotably connected to the motorcycle frame at a point rearward of the forward end of the swingarm. The axle bearing assembly also is pivotably attached to the rear end of the control arm. The wheel axle is journalled in the axle bearing assembly at a point rearward of the rear end of the swing arm and on the opposite side of the swingarm from the control arm. The axle bearing assembly may include an axle housing having a splined tube extending generally parallel to the swingarm, and an upright member having a cooperably splined cylinder which receives the splined tube, so as to allow linear movement and securing of the position of the rear wheel axle with respect to the axis of the swingarm and thereby select the drive chain tension. The suspension results in the path of travel of the wheel axle during swingarm motion being more nearly vertical, thereby better isolating propulsion drive forces on the wheel from weight loads and road shocks.

Virtually all motorcycles include front and rear suspension systems that allow vertical travel of the wheels relative to the motorcycle body. Wheel travel is controlled by springs and dampers, sometimes collectively referred to as shock absorbers, that function to absorb road shocks while also bearing the weight load of the motorcycle and rider.
A primary goal of motorcycle rear suspension design has been to isolate engine drive forces, transmitted from the engine to the rear wheel, from suspension forces that bear the weight load and road shocks imposed on the rear wheel. One reason for this goal is to eliminate or reduce the tendency of engine drive forces to cause the rear suspension to either extend or compress during acceleration or deceleration. Another reason is to minimize the effect of suspension travel on drive forces, so as to render the drive forces more exclusively controllable by the rider.
One approach to isolating drive forces from suspension forces has been to make the swingarm itself as long as possible. To explain, drive forces propel the motorcycle forward and are essentially horizontal in direction, while suspension forces are largely vertical in direction. A longer swingarm results in the path that the rear wheel travels in response to weight and shock loads being more nearly vertical in direction and thus being better aligned with the suspension forces, while at the same time being more orthogonal to and thus more isolated from the drive forces.
Resorting to a longer swingarm, with nothing more, necessarily increases the overall wheelbase of the motorcycle. Yet for some performance purposes it is desirable that the wheelbase of the motorcycle be as short as possible. Thus, to increase the swingarm length while not increasing the wheelbase, designers have gone to great lengths to shorten the engine in the fore and aft direction, to thereby allow the drive sprocket to be located further forward on the motorcycle. For example, in some recent designs the transmission shafts have been stacked vertically within the transmission housing in order to shorten the engine length, and thus also the wheelbase, by as little as a centimeter.
Along with this approach it has also typically been sought to position the swingarm pivot axis as close as possible to the engine drive sprocket, so as to minimize variations in drive chain tension during swinging of the swingarm. Variations in drive chain tension necessarily result in corresponding variations in the drive forces transmitted through the chain. Thus any design measure that minimizes variations in drive chain tension during suspension travel also serves to better isolate drive forces from suspension forces and thereby renders the drive forces more controllable to the rider.
To attain the foregoing ends there have been a number of designs incorporating a 4-bar linkage, with the motorcycle frame, two swingarms, and a rear axle holder constituting the 4 bars. Such designs have not been generally accepted due to their relative complexity and expense, and as a result the conventional swingarm has been dominant.
Accordingly, it is an object and purpose of the present invention to achieve some of the advantage of a longer swingarm without increasing the wheelbase of a motorcycle.
It is also an object and purpose to achieve the foregoing objects and purposes with a suspension system that allows the chain tension to be adjusted by linear movement of the wheel in a direction generally parallel to the swingarm.


During a swing start, a pump torque calculating section associated with pump delivery pressure, a pump torque calculating section associated with swing operation pressure, and a maximum value selecting section of a controller perform control to change a maximum absorption torque of a second hydraulic pump between Tb and Tc in accordance with a delivery pressure of the second hydraulic pump. In an operation combining swing with other motion, a subtraction section performs a calculation to subtract a maximum absorption torque Tp2 of the second hydraulic pump from a total pump torque Tr0 to thereby distribute an amount of torque reduced in the second hydraulic pump to a first hydraulic pump associated with an actuator other than a swing motor. Further, a required flow rate can be supplied to the swing motor, thus achieving a smooth shift to a constant speed swing.

A hydraulic excavator is known as a typical construction machine including an upper swing structure. A hydraulic system for such a hydraulic excavator very often uses a pump control unit that incorporates a regulator for controlling a displacement volume of a hydraulic pump to which a torque control function is added. The pump control unit incorporating a regulator to which the torque control function is added guides a delivery pressure of the hydraulic pump to the regulator. When the delivery pressure builds up so that an absorption torque of the hydraulic pump reaches a set maximum absorption torque, the pump control unit controls to reduce the displacement volume of the hydraulic pump for any further increase in the delivery pressure of the hydraulic pump, thereby controls to keep the absorption torque of the hydraulic pump within the set maximum absorption torque. This prevents engine stall due to overload of a prime mover.
If there are two or more hydraulic pumps involved, a pump control unit that performs torque control called total horsepower control is generally employed. The total horsepower control works as follows. For example, as disclosed in patent document 1, a delivery pressure of each of two hydraulic pumps (hereinafter referred to as first and second hydraulic pumps) is guided to a regulator of each of the two hydraulic pumps. When a sum of an absorption torque of the first hydraulic pump and an absorption torque of the second hydraulic pump reaches a set maximum absorption torque, the total horsepower control works to reduce the displacement volume of each of the first and second hydraulic pumps for any further increase in the delivery pressure of the hydraulic pump. This allows total horsepower assigned to the first and second hydraulic pumps to be used, when an actuator involved in each of the first and second hydraulic pumps is independently driven, so that an effective use of a prime mover output can be achieved.
Patent document 2 discloses a pump control unit incorporating two or more hydraulic pumps. When it is determined, based on electrical signals from a plurality of control levers, that work requires two of a plurality of actuators to be operated simultaneously, distribution ratios of an engine output to be distributed to the hydraulic pumps connected to each of the two actuators are set, according to a combination of the two actuators. A tilting angle of each of the hydraulic pumps is controlled to achieve the distribution ratios.

HITACHI CONSTRUCTION MACHINERY CO., LTD.


Disclosed inventions include:•integrated pneumatic flow pressure regulator assemblies with and/or without filters and/or swivels, per FIGS. 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F, 1G, 1H, 1I, 1J, 1K, 1L, 1M and 1N for use with all of Applicant's pneumatic torque gun models;•activation, or trigger, lock safety assemblies, per FIGS. 2A1, 2A2, 2B1 and 2B2, for use with all of Applicant's electric and pneumatic torque gun models;•automatic torque gun shifting assemblies including:—rotation speed-sensing centrifugal multi-speed automatic shifting assemblies, per FIGS. 3A, 3B and 3C, for use with all of Applicant's electric and pneumatic torque gun models;—torque-sensing centrifugal multi-speed automatic shifting assemblies, per FIGS. 4A, 4B, 4C, 4D, 4E, 4F, 4G, 4H, and 4I, for use with all of Applicant's electric and pneumatic torque gun models;•helical cam, or wobbling, turning force multiplication assemblies, per FIGS. 5A, 5B, 5C, 5D, 5E, 5F and 5G, for use with all of Applicant's electric and pneumatic torque gun models;•pneumatic pressure release, or burst, valve assemblies, per FIGS. 6A, 6B, 6C, 6D, 6E, 6F, 6G, 6H, 6I and 6J, that allow bleeding of pressure to unstick a locked up tool for use with all of Applicant's pneumatic torque gun models;•pneumatic fluid directional valve assemblies, per FIGS. 7A, 7B and 7C, for use with all of Applicant's pneumatic torque gun models;•pneumatic fluid directional and activation, or trigger, lock safety valve assemblies, per FIGS. 8A and 8B, for use with all of Applicant's pneumatic torque gun models; and•pneumatic tool cycle counter, or odometer, assemblies, per FIGS. 9A and 9B, that recognize tool actuations as drops in pneumatic pressure for use with all of Applicant's pneumatic torque gun models.

Torque power tools are known in the art and include those pneumatically, electrically and hydraulically driven. Torque power tools produce a turning force to tighten and/or loosen threaded fasteners and an equal and opposite reaction force.
Over the years, Applicant has applied its thorough understanding and innovation in torque power tools to hand-held electric and pneumatic torque intensifying tools, specifically by creating the HYTORC® jGUN®, FLIP-Gun®, THRILL®, Z® Gun, FLASH™ and LITHIUM Series™ product lines and drivers and tools for use therewith. Evolution of these product lines is disclosed, by way of example, in Applicant's U.S. Pat. Nos. and U.S. application Ser. Nos.: U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,490,952; 6,609,868; 6,929,439; 6,883,401; 6,986,298; 7,003,862; 7,066,053; 7,125,213; 7,188,552; 7,207,760; 7,735,397; 7,641,579; 7,798,038; 7,832,310; 7,950,309; 8,042,434; D608,614; U.S. application Ser. No. 13/577,995; PCT/U.S.2014/69996; PCT/U.S.2014/71000; and 62/159,950, entire copies of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present inventions address evolving industrial bolting needs with respect to these Applicant product lines.

Apparatus for tightening threaded fasteners


Wireless uplink communication is disclosed which includes dividing information bits into first and second sets of information bits. The first set of information bits is encoded into a first set of coded bits, while the second set of information bits is encoded into a second set of coded bits. The first and second sets of coded bits are rate matched into a defined number of bits generating first and second sets of rate-matched coded bits. The first and second sets of rate-matched coded bits are interleaved using various interleaving methods to generate an interleaved set of coded bits.

I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication, and more specifically to techniques for Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) and Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) encoding in a wireless communication system.
II. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, etc. These wireless systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting multiple users by sharing the available system resources. Examples of such multiple-access systems include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) systems, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) systems, Orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) systems, and Single-Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) systems.
A wireless communication system may include a number of base stations that can support communication for a number of user equipments (UEs). A base station may include multiple transmit and/or receive antennas. Each UE may include multiple transmit and/or receive antennas. The UE transmits various control information over the PUCCH and PUSCH. In LTE-A, a new format, PUCCH format 3 is introduced for carrier aggregation. PUCCH format 3 transmits a discrete Fourier transform single-carrier orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-S-OFDM) waveform in each SC-FDM symbol. The PUCCH format 3 can carry 48 coded bits with QPSK modulation. However, encoding the control information bits corresponding to format 3 has not yet been established.
Further, control information may be transmitted in the PUSCH. Different coding rates for the control information may be achieved by allocating different number of coded symbols for its transmission. For example, when control information are transmitted in the PUSCH, the channel coding for HARQ-ACK, rank indicator (RI) and channel quality information (CQI) may be done independently. However, channel coding for more than 11 bits of HARQ-ACK information has not yet been established.

Method and apparatus for PUCCH and PUSCH encoding


The present invention provides techniques for selectively distributing messages to viewers. Specific embodiments provide systems, methods, apparatus and computer program products for distributing messages to viewers based upon information about potential viewers. In specific embodiments, targeted messages are made available to the client machines in response to client message requests by a server that takes the machine and/or user ID provided as part of the client request and queries the database to see if there are any messages pending for that user or that match that user's profile. Specific embodiments can provide a plurality of messages coupled together to form a campaign. The client can receive the campaign using available bandwidth unused by foreground applications, such as web browsers and the like.

The Internet is a wide area network of interconnected computers which employs a client-server model. The Internet includes server computers which may be accessed by client computers. Typically, a server hosts a site on the Internet which includes a collection of files or pages. The network address of a server is typically specified by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). A user may access the servers from a client via the Internet through an Internet service provider (ISP). By utilizing a browser application on the client, the user can connect to or "link" to a particular server based upon the URL address of that server.
The Internet computer network was originally designed as a communications link to facilitate the exchange of scientific information between governmental laboratories and educational institutions. However, in recent years, the increased use of the World Wide Web (WWW) has fueled explosive growth of the Internet that has extended beyond the scientific community and, indeed, into homes, businesses and classrooms. The WWW refers to a collection of Internet servers that typically utilize Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) as an applications protocol to provide users with access to files for communicating text, graphics, sound, video, etc. HTTP, in turn, may use a page description language called Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) to specify the format of web pages that are displayed to the users. HTML pages can include hypertext links to other servers and files, with the URL's of the target servers stored or embedded within the links.
Links present in a web page may appear to a user in a variety of forms. For example, a link may appear as underlined text, as bolded text, as text having a different color as surrounding text, or as text having some other form designed to draw the attention of the user such that the link is easily identified as such. When a user selects a link (e.g., by "clicking" on the link with an input device such as a computer mouse), the browser makes a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) request to the server identified by the URL specified in the link, and receives a web page from the identified server. A link may also be embedded within a graphical image displayed on the user's computer monitor or display. When the geographical area of the image is selected by the user, the browser again makes an TCP/IP request to the server identified by the specified URL. Thus, a user may navigate (i.e., "surf") between various servers to find and retrieve HTML pages or documents of interest.
As use of the Internet has become more pervasive, merchants have looked to the Internet as providing a new advertising medium for their products and services. Merchants who sponsor their own web sites typically include advertising material within their site's pages. However, creating and maintaining a stand-alone web site can require a substantial amount of resources and may be beyond the means of many merchants. Also, the time and expense required to set up such a stand-alone site makes this technique unsuitable for certain seasonal, limited time, or one-shot usage. Further, the audience for this advertising material may be limited by the extent to which the merchant can attract users to visit its own site.
A technique that has been used to address these problems is the deployment of advertisements on the web sites of other sponsors or content providers who agree to sponsor the advertisements. A simple advertisement suitable for such deployment takes the form of a graphical banner. Such a banner includes an image related to the product or service being advertised, typically stored as a graphics file (e.g., a ".gif" file), and displayed according to the HTML description of the sponsoring page. A merchant is often required to pay a sponsor of the particular web site an advertising fee for the privilege of deploying its banner on the sponsor's site. The banner may also be widely distributed or deployed on many sites. However, typical advertising banners involve only one-way communication, and do not take advantage of the Internet's interactive capabilities which could otherwise be used to solicit data from prospective customers or users for generating purchase orders or leads.
To provide demographically-targeted advertising, the advertiser or distributor of the advertising may seek to obtain demographic data on its end users. A common way to acquire demographic data regarding users via the Internet is to request the information using a form written in HTML provided to the user utilizing the Internet. Demographic information obtained this way is often difficult to obtain because users are often unmotivated to fill in forms with information when they do not know who will view the information or for what purpose the information will be used.
What is needed are improved techniques for selectively distributing messages to viewers.

System and method for using continuous messaging units in a network architecture


An apparatus and method for compensating for mode-profile distortions caused by bending optical fibers having large mode areas. In various embodiments, the invention micro-structures the index of refraction in the core and surrounding areas of the inner cladding from the inner bend radius to the outer bend radius in a manner that compensates for the index changes that are otherwise induced in the index profile by the geometry and/or stresses to the fiber caused by the bending. Some embodiments of an apparatus and method include a fiber having a plurality of substantially parallel cores, the fiber including a straight section and a curved section; guiding signal light primarily in a second core in the straight section; guiding the signal light from the second core into a first core between the straight section and the curved section; and guiding the signal light primarily in the first core in the curved section.

There is a need for improved high-power pulse generation for a number of applications, including LIDAR (light detection and ranging) and in particular LADAR (laser detection and ranging) for detecting objects (particularly flying objects) at great distances, as well as for medical treatments and materials processing. There is also a need for high average power continuous-wave (CW) sources capable of narrow-line operation for applications such as directed energy.
Optical amplifying fibers can have very high gain. When pumping such fibers to very high powers, the high power per area in the core causes substantial non-linear effects such as stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) and four-wave mixing.
In recent years, fiber lasers have deployed in applications requiring increasing average power, peak power and pulse energy, often while also requiring near-diffraction-limited beam quality. Large-mode-area fibers (LMA) have been the key enabling technology. These fibers are usually intrinsically multimode but operate on the lowest-order mode based on a combination of fundamental-mode excitation (as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,818,630 titled "Single-mode amplifiers and compressors based on multi-mode fibers" to Fermann et al., which is incorporated herein by reference) and preferential bend-loss for higher-order modes (HOMs) (as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,496,301 titled "Helical fiber amplifier" to Koplow et al., which is incorporated herein by reference). Alternatively, photonic crystal fibers or otherwise micro-structured fibers enable genuine single-mode operation of LMA designs (Mortensen et al, "Low-loss criterion and effective area considerations for photonic crystal fibres," J. Opt. A: Pure Appl. Opt. Vol. 5 163-167 (2003); Nielsen et al., "Low-loss photonic crystal fibers for transmission systems and their dispersion properties," OPTICS EXPRESS Vol. 12, No. 7 pp. 1372-1376 (2004); DiTeodoro et al., "MW peak-power, mJ pulse energy, multi-kHz repetition rate pulses from Yb-doped fiber amplifiers," Proceedings of SPIE—Vol. 6102, Fiber Lasers III: Technology, Systems, and Applications, Andrew J. W. Brown, Johan Nilsson, Donald J. Harter, Andreas Tünnermann, Editors, 61020K (published online Feb. 23, 2006) (Photonics West 2006)). The price of this single-mode operation is fundamental mode bend-loss, so conventional extreme micro-structured designs have evolved into rods (Di Teodoro et al., "Very large-core, single-mode Yb-doped photonic crystal rod for multi-MW peak power generation," Proceedings of SPIE—Vol. 6102, Fiber Lasers III: Technology, Systems, and Applications, Andrew J. W. Brown, Johan Nilsson, Donald J. Harter, Andreas Tünnermann, Editors, 61020D (published online Feb. 23, 2006)).
An optical glass "preform" is the source material from which an optical fiber is drawn, typically by heating the preform and pulling glass from the bottom to form the optical fiber. One method of preform fabrication is the "rod-in-tube" method such as is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,668,263 and 4,264,347, which are incorporated herein by reference. A rod of glass that will form the core of the fiber is inserted into a thick-walled tube (or a plurality of concentric tubes) that will become the cladding(s), and these are fused together at high temperature to form the preform. When the fiber is drawn from the heated preform, the relative dimensions of the core and cladding in the drawn fiber are identical to those of the original preform, which takes its shape from those of the rod and tube(s). Such methods do not allow one side of the cladding to have a different index than another side of the cladding, nor do they allow one side of the core to have a different refractive index or active-species doping than another side of the core.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,711,918 titled "Method of bundling rods so as to form an optical fiber preform" issued to Kliner and Koplow on Mar. 30, 2004, and is incorporated herein by reference. This patent describes one way for fabricating fiber-optic glass preforms having complex refractive-index configurations and/or dopant distributions in a radial direction with a high degree of accuracy and precision. Their method teaches bundling together a plurality of glass rods of specific physical, chemical, or optical properties and wherein the rod bundle is fused in a manner that maintains the cross-sectional composition and refractive-index profiles established by the positions of the rods. This patent does not describe sloping the refractive index from one side of the cladding to another side of the cladding, nor having a different refractive index or active-species doping profiles on one side of the core than another side of the core.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,209,619 titled "Photonic bandgap fibers" to Dong et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,818,630 titled "Single-mode amplifiers and compressors based on multi-mode fibers" to Fermann et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 6,496,301 titled "Helical fiber amplifier" to Koplow et al., are each incorporated herein by reference. These describe apparatus and methods that may be combined and/or modified using the teachings of the present invention.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/426,302 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,526,167) titled "APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR A HIGH-GAIN DOUBLE-CLAD AMPLIFIER" was filed Jun. 23, 2006 by John D. Minelly, and is incorporated herein by reference. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/567,740 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,570,856) titled "APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR AN ERBIUM-DOPED FIBER FOR HIGH PEAK-POWER APPLICATIONS" was filed Dec. 7, 2006 by John D. Minelly et al., and is incorporated herein by reference. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/556,658 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,400,807) titled "APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR A WAVEGUIDE WITH AN INDEX PROFILE MANIFESTING A CENTRAL DIP FOR BETTER ENERGY EXTRACTION" was filed Nov. 3, 2006 by John D. Minelly et al., and is incorporated herein by reference. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/420,729, now—U.S. Pat. No. 7,391,561 titled "Fiber- or rod-based optical source featuring a large-core, rare-earth-doped photonic-crystal device for generation of high-power pulsed radiation and method" issued to Fabio Di Teodoro et al. Jun. 24, 2008, and is incorporated herein by reference. U.S. Pat. No. 7,199,924 titled "Apparatus and method for spectral-beam combining of high-power fiber lasers" issued to Andrew Brown et al. Apr. 3, 2007, and is incorporated herein by reference. Each of these patents and applications are assigned to the assignee of the present invention. Each describes various features of high-power optical-fiber amplifiers that, in some embodiments, are combined with some embodiments of the present invention. Some of the various embodiments of the above-described inventions describe large-mode-area (LMA) cores in optical fibers or rods that support single-mode signals, but wherein the fibers or rods must be kept very straight to avoid bend losses.
Improved apparatus and methods are needed to generate high-power optical pulses from curved, coiled, and/or bent waveguides, such as optical fibers.

System and method for compensating for distortions in optical fibers


An apparatus for continuous field digging and cleaning of nursery trees for transplanting comprises; a support frame pulled by a tractor with a fixed ground engagement digging blade and a pivoted removal and treatment basket extending therefrom. A powered eccentric drive arm secured to the basket oscillating same within a confined range of movement so as to expose and free the tree root system from the surrounding earth during operation.

1. Technical Field
This device relates to tree digging equipment that is used to dig and remove small nursery grown trees for transplanting and sale. Such devices typically have a digging blade or blades that are engaged into the ground by hydraulic means or pulled along behind a tractor like a plow.
2. Description of Prior Art
These types of devices typically have a variety of different removal techniques in which sometimes the blade is oscillated as it digs and is connected to a following basket that separates the tree roots from the earthen root ball as the tree is dug.
The problem associated with such prior art devices is two-fold, the first being the ability of the blade and attached basket assembly to dig and separate the roots from the earth in efficient and continuous manner.
Secondly, the nature of such devices imparts long term stress to the tractor due in part to the forces required by the oscillating blade as it engages the ground. Also many of such prior art devices use direct power take-offs from the tractor to drive the blade and basket which becomes an additional safety factor as well as additional maintenance required on the power take-off system, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,445,557, 4,676,013, 4,305,213 and conventionally available diggers illustrated in catalog sheets and advertising pages manufactured by Egedal Maskinfabrik A/S, Exhibit A, and such devices manufactured by Pioneer Metal Works of Quincy, Wash., titled "Lil Digger" exhibit B.


An air-purifying device for vehicles capable of diagnosing function deterioration of an ozone purifier with an inexpensive configuration is provided. At Step 120, applying current to an injector 20 is started. As a result, injection of ammonia from the injector 20 is started. Subsequently, it is determined whether or not i a heat generation amount is more than a predetermined amount A (Step 130). In the case of the heat generation amount>predetermined amount A, it can be determined that there are a large number of pores (fine pores) of activated carbon supporting a deterioration detection substance. In the case of the heat generation amount≦predetermined amount A, it can be determined that fine pores have decreased and an ozone purifying function of the activated carbon has deteriorated. Thus, an MIL 30 is lighted (Step 140).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air-purifying device for vehicles and particularly to an air-purifying device for vehicles capable of purifying ozone in atmospheric air.
2. Description of the Related Art
In prior-art air purifying using an ozone purifier having a function of purifying ozone, function deterioration caused by long-term use has been known, and various researches/development have been made regarding diagnosis of this function deterioration. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-347829 discloses an air-purifying device for vehicles in which an ozone concentration sensor is provided on the front and rear of a radiator in which an ozone purifier using manganese carbonate and manganese oxide as main components is provided, and function deterioration of the ozone purifier is diagnosed by using their sensor outputs. In this air-purifying device, if a ratio of outputs between the sensors on the front and the rear of the radiator falls to approximately a half of an initial value (a ratio of outputs of the both sensors at shipment), it is diagnosed that the function of the ozone purifier has deteriorated.
However, ozone concentration in the air is generally as low as 1 ppm or less. Thus, in order to detect ozone concentration by using a sensor, a sensor with high accuracy is required. Thus, with Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-347829 in which an ozone concentration sensor is provided on the front and rear of the radiator, there is a problem that a cost increase caused by mounting sensors cannot be avoided.