Image forming apparatus having an image forming unit for forming an image based on image information on a paper, a magnifying/reducing unit for magnifying/reducing the image to be formed by the image forming unit, multiple paper supplying cassettes for storing papers in different size and supplying the paper to the image forming units, a setting unit for setting times of image forming operation, a selector for selecting one of the multiple paper supplying cassettes and a controller which, in a case when papers of a first size, stored in a first paper supplying cassette, are exhausted before a completion of the times of the image forming operation set by the setting unit, for controlling the selecting unit to select a second paper supplying cassette which stores papers of a second size, and for controlling the magnifying/reducing unit to magnify/reduce the image in accordance with a proportion of the first size and the second size, and for controlling the image forming unit to form an image, magnified/reduced by the magnifying/reducing unit, on the paper of the second size.

Conventionally, when performing an image forming operation on an electronic copying machine, etc., an operator must initially select a paper supply cassette storing papers in desired size among multiple paper supply units through operations of the switches provided on a control panel. The operator then inputs the desired number of copies of an image into an image forming apparatus through ten keys on the control panel. Following the operations, the operator turns ON a copying button or a print key. This causes the image forming apparatus to be supplied papers from the selected paper supply cassette and an original document image to be formed on the papers. This operation is successively repeated for the desired number of papers that is input through the ten keys.
On such an electronic copying machine, etc. there may be a case where papers in the selected paper supply cassette are completely exhausted before completing the copying operation for the desired number of papers that is input through the ten keys. In such a case, if another paper supply cassette storing the same size papers is available, it is possible to succeed the image forming operation and complete the copying of the image for the desired number of papers by switching to the paper supply from that paper supply cassette. However, if no paper supply cassette storing the same size papers is available, there was such a problem that a message "PLEASE FEED PAPER" is displayed, the successive image forming operation was stopped and the desired number of papers with the image formed could not be obtained as the subsequent image forming operation was not carried out.
Therefore, on a complex image forming apparatus with a facsimile unit added to an electronic copying machine for receiving image data composed of digital signals transmitted through data communication, there was such a problem that if fixed size papers were exhausted during the night time data communication, etc., it became impossible to receive data due to the exhaustion of papers provided for the image forming operation.
As described above, there was such a problem that if papers in the paper supply cassette were exhausted and no other paper supply cassette storing the same size papers were available during the successive image forming operation, the operation couldn't be successively carried out but was stopped once and it became necessary, after feeding papers in desired size, to set successive image forming conditions and resume the image forming operation and also, on an apparatus with data communication function provided, the function was stopped.


A method and system for providing communication over arbitrary distances with a desired probability of security is disclosed. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention shares of a random key are encoded, the random key for effecting communication of a message through a network employing a cryptographically strong forward security system having a limited effective communications distance. A distributed re-randomization of the encoded shares is then effected at a plurality of intermediate network nodes.

Cryptographic systems, or cryptosystems, are composed of several cryptographic primitives, such as algorithms for encryption and decryption (ciphers), one-way hash functions, random number generators, authentication algorithms, digital signatures, and key distribution systems. In general, a cryptosystem is only as secure as its weakest component.
Many conventional encryption schemes that provide secure transmission of data (messages) employ an asymmetric encryption such as public-key encryption (PKE).
PKE schemes, such as the Rivest, Shamir, and Adelman (RSA) algorithm, use two keys, a public key known to everyone and a private or secret key known only to the recipient of the message. When the originator of a message (source) wants to send a secure message to a recipient (destination), the source uses the public key of the destination to encrypt the message. The message is then decrypted using the private key of the destination. For public key digital signatures, the sender signs using his or her private key, and the recipient verifies using the sender's public key.
All PKE schemes are based on the fact that key deduction would require a prohibitive amount of time and processing resources. RSA, for example, is based on the lack of efficient schemes for factoring large numbers. Such schemes were once thought to be highly secure, but are now known to be susceptible under certain conditions. For example, RSA and other PKE schemes are vulnerable to particular cryptanalysis techniques employing quantum computers, such as Shor's Algorithm. The only way to increase the security of an algorithm like RSA would be to increase the key size to ensure that keylength exceeds the storage capacity of any foreseeable quantum computer. Such a scheme is impractical and unreliable, given the efficient scaling of Shor's Algorithm and other quantum computer-based cryptanalysis techniques.
The potential vulnerability of current encryption schemes has increased the interest in the development of systems that provide security against conventional cryptanalysis as well contemplated future cryptanalysis techniques. Systems that provide such "cryptographically strong forward security (CSFS)" will include some common attributes. CSFS systems will not use algorithms that are vulnerable to conventional or quantum cryptanalysis. For example, CSFS systems will not employ PKE due to its vulnerability (e.g., Shor's Algorithm). For CSFS systems implementing symmetric encryption, very high key rates—approaching those of one-time pad (OTP)—will be used. CSFS systems will provide a secure manner for key distribution and employ authentication when necessary to prevent man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks.
For many applications, providing sufficiently high key rates in a secure manner will require some secure means of ongoing key distribution, since it would be impractical to distribute and store the large numbers of keys upfront. Additionally, preventing conventional cryptanalysis and MITM attacks requires a secure replacement for public key cryptography's role in authentication.
If two parties share a small secret key for authentication, they can use quantum key distribution (QKD) as a means of performing ongoing key distribution in a secure manner (other techniques may also be possible). QKD uses fundamental physical properties of quantum systems to provide secure communications. In contrast to PKE schemes that employ mathematical techniques and rely on the computational difficulty of certain mathematical problems (e.g. integer factorization), QKD is based on principles of quantum mechanics (i.e., measurement of a generic quantum state inherently disturbs the state).
Conventional QKD technology is not widely implemented due to two significant disadvantages, which we term the relay problem and the stranger identification/authentication problem.
The Relay Problem
Presently, QKD suffers limitations on the length of a single QKD link. Multiple links can be concatenated to extend the distance, but, if this is done in a naive way, it exposes the system to compromise if any of the intermediate nodes are corrupt. This is referred to as the "relay problem". As mentioned above, QKD is a secure key distribution scheme that in one implementation involves transmitting quantum bits while using quantum mechanics to detect eavesdropping (compromised security). QKD provides security between parties who share a small secret key, which is used for authentication. Practically, however, the quantum bits are transmitted using conventional optical transmission means (e.g., fiber optic cable). Such optic transmission means are subject to losses, which limit the transmission distance. That is, due to the attenuation of light through the transmission media, signals have a practical limitation of approximately 100 km. The use of conventional amplifiers or repeaters would distort or destroy the quantum information. The development of efficient quantum repeaters may extend this distance, but such developments are years away and will require quantum memory and other technically complex features. Moreover, quantum repeaters may not extend the transmission distances enough to develop a practical QKD system.
The relay problem has been addressed, theoretically, with multi-party protocols. Such schemes have their own disadvantages in that any disconnection in the transmission path will result in lost or corrupted information. Moreover, such schemes require 100% trust of the parties, which is typically not a practical assumption.
The Stranger Authentication Problem
A second significant disadvantage of conventional encryption systems such as those employing QKD technology is the stranger authentication problem.
In large networks in which public key cryptosystems cannot be relied upon, a special means for authenticating mutual strangers that do not share secret keys is necessary. While this problem could be addressed with a small number of central authentication servers, this requires all users to completely trust the authentication servers, and imposes enormous communications bandwidth and storage requirements on the servers. This is referred to this as the "stranger authentication problem".
As larger networks implementing CSFS systems are created, it will become increasingly common for parties that do not share a secret key to wish to communicate. Without a shared secret key, such parties cannot authenticate the channel used and are thus vulnerable to "man-in-the-middle" attacks in which an attacker is able to read, insert and modify at will, messages between two communicating parties without either party knowing that the link between them has been compromised.
With these disadvantages, conventional encryption systems including those employing QKD provide only a partial solution to the difficulties posed by the advent of cryptanalysis techniques employing quantum computers.

Distributed encryption methods and systems


A matchmaking service can match a satellite owner/operator with antennas that are available and capable of servicing a communication request from the satellite owner/operator (e.g., to exchange data with the satellite owner/operator's satellite). The communication request may be received at a ground station service, and information included therein may be compared to capabilities of antennas registered with the ground station service to determine antennas that are compatible with the request. The ground station service may reserve a time slot for a selected compatible antenna to service the request and control the selected compatible antenna (e.g., to track and communicate with the satellite) during the time slot. In some embodiments, the matchmaking of satellite owners/operators to antennas uses models to determine communication parameters for a communication request and to determine capabilities of antennas registered with the ground station.

Satellites are increasingly employed by various independently operating entities (e.g., businesses, universities, or governments) for applications such as weather, surface imaging, communications, data transmission, space measurements, geosynchronous positioning, etc. In many examples, the owner or operator of the satellite is primarily concerned with the payload operation (e.g., the function performed by the satellite), which generally requires establishing a communication link between a satellite ground station and the orbiting satellite for transmission of data therebetween.
The owner or operator of a given satellite may exchange data with the satellite via an antenna that is local to the ground station. Servicing communication requests from owners and operators of multiple satellites with a single ground station antenna may quickly fill available communication time, leading to delays in servicing the requests, however, building additional antennas and/or ground stations may be costly and/or resource intensive.


In a method for arranging cells, a plurality of cells each configured in an substantially elliptic cylindrical shape having a major axis and a minor axis in its sectional shape, and the sectional surface including the major axis of each of the lid wall and the bottom wall of each of the cells, is arranged to be inclined with respect to a vertical line perpendicular to an arrangement reference surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The-present invention relates to a method for arranging a plurality of cells when they are combined in use, and also relates to an assembled battery arranged by using the arranging method.
2. Description of the Related Art
When arranging a plurality of cells in use, the cells have been arranged so as to be perpendicular to the surface on which they are disposed. The space where the cells are disposed has been limited, for example, to a quite small space due to the demand for improving the spatial efficiency. For example, in an electric car, cells are in most cases disposed under the floor in order to secure an accommodation space and a luggage space sufficiently. In this case, in order to secure the required minimum height of the floor of a vehicle, sufficient height of a space for disposing the cells can not be obtained in the actual state. In view of such a fact, the height of the cells is required to be as low as possible. Further, the shape and the size of the space in which the cells are disposed differs at every manufacturing company of the electric car and at every type of a car. Thus, the cell is designed so as to have a size suitable for the space to be disposed at every manufacturing company and at every type of a car, and then the cells thus designed are manufactured and mounted in the car.
However, at the time of disposing cells, since the size of each cell is newly designed in accordance with the space in which the cells are disposed, it is difficult to mass-produce the cells, and much time and effort is required. Thus, there arises a problem that the cost of the cell increases and the cells can not be supplied quickly in response to the demand.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method for disposing cells in a limited space without using a process of changing the design of the cell and to provide an assembled battery which can be disposed in such a space.
In a method for arranging a plurality of cells of an elliptic cylindrical shape for solving the aforesaid problem, each of the cells of an elliptic cylindrical shape includes
(1) a lid wall; and
(2) a main body of a cell casing having a side wall and a bottom wall opposing to the lid wall, wherein
(3) each of the lid wall and the bottom wall is configured in a substantially elliptic shape having a major axis A, a minor axis B and arc or elliptic arc portions at both ends of the major axis, and
(4) the main body of the cell casing has the side wall of an arc shape or an elliptic arc shape at both end of said major axis, that is the arc-shaped side wall, wherein each of the cells is arranged in a manner that
supposing that a section including the major axis of the lid wall and the major axis of the bottom wall is an imaginary sectional surface C, when disposing the arc-shaped side wall of each of the cells toward an arrangement reference surface D, firstly the imaginary sectional surface C is disposed so as to be inclined with respect to a vertical line which is perpendicular to the arrangement reference surface D. In this case, although the arrangement reference surface D represents a surface serving as a reference surface for arrangement when the cells are arranged in accordance with concrete conditions, the arrangement reference surface may be an actual surface on which a plurality of the cells are disposed thereon or on the side wall thereof. Further, when the arrangement reference surface D is an actual plane, the plane may be provided with a projection portion or a through hole.
Further, in the aforesaid cell arrangement method, it is preferable to dispose the arc-shaped side wall of each of the cells so as to be substantially made in contact with the arrangement reference surface D in order to house the cell within a limited space. In this respect, the expression xe2x80x9cdisposed to be substantially made in contact withxe2x80x9d means that the arrangement also includes a case where the arc-shaped side wall is slightly away from the xe2x80x9ccontactxe2x80x9d state within the range of the object of the present invention depending on the concrete conditions of the arrangement.
Further, in the aforesaid cell arrangement method, it is preferable to dispose the cells in a manner that the imaginary sectional surfaces C of the cells are substantially in parallel from one another in order to improve the spatial efficiency of the arrangement. Of course, such an arrangement includes a state where the imaginary sectional surfaces are not in parallel strictly, that is, a state where the imaginary sectional surfaces are substantially in parallel.
According to such an arrangement, the height of the cells at the time of the arrangement can be made small without changing the design of the cell.
Further, as a practically suitable arrangement method, it is preferable to dispose the cells in a manner that the lid walls or the bottom walls thereof are aligned on the same plane. According to such an arrangement, the terminals of the cells can be coupled easily from one another and the volume efficiency of the cells can be improved.
In the aforesaid arrangement, further, the cells are disposed with a space therebetween and the spaces among the plurality of cells form fluid paths, whereby coolant can pass through the spaces.
In this case, the cells of an elliptic cylindrical shape are disposed at a position into which coolant flows along the arrangement reference surface D, and an angle between the imaginary sectional surface C of the direction where the cells are disposed and the arrangement reference surface D of the direction from the coolant flows in forms an obtuse angle, whereby the resistance to the coolant when flowing among the cells can be made small and the cooling efficiency of the cells can be improved.
Furthermore, in the assembled battery formed by a plurality of cells of an elliptic cylindrical shape for solving the aforesaid problem, the cells are housed within an external casing using one of the aforesaid arrangement methods.
According to the present invention, the height of the cells at the time of the arrangement can be made small easily without changing the design of the cells, and further the arrangement suitable for passing the coolant can be realized.

Method for arranging elliptic cylindrical cell and assembled battery


A new ultra light weight, spring action, stand system for supporting a golf bag is provided. According to one aspect of the present invention, the stand system includes a top bracket, a pair of legs, a guide, a wire form, and a footplate. The top bracket is configured for coupling to a top portion of a golf bag. The pair of legs may be pivotably coupled to the top bracket. The guide is for coupling to a bottom portion of the golf bag to restrain lateral movement of the wire form, for example. The wire form is slidably coupled through the guide and engages the legs. The actuation of the wire form moves the legs from a retracted position to an extended position. Finally, the footplate is pivotably mounted to the wire form and is positioned to have a contact point with the ground for actuating the wire form that is behind the plane of the legs. According to other aspects of the present invention, the stand system includes one or more of the following: a bi-planar cut away base to facilitate engagement of the spring mechanism, a double clip and crimped wire form to hold the clip in place at a very high tension, oversized feet to provide increased stability and usability in soft soil conditions, a compact retracted leg arrangement that will not poke or prod the golfer as he/she carries the bag, and a novel femur design that prevents the unsightly occurrence of crossed legs.

Golf bag stands have been in existence for many years. However, no one stand mechanism has yet been designed to overcome the many limitations seen in the prior art. Many of the stands used in the past employ heavy weight mechanisms. Carrying heavy equipment, fatigues the golfer during play and tends to reduce the overall enjoyment of the golfing experience. The bulky stand hardware of other mechanisms poke the golfer or caddy while the bag is being carried. Other less bulky, prior art stand mechanisms while eliminating the poking and prodding during carrying of the bag are fragile, thus making these stands vulnerable to damage when attached to the back of a golf cart or when stowed in the trunk of a car, for example. For mounting the movable parts of some prior mechanisms the body fabric of the golf bags have to be pierced to attach the legs. Still other stand mechanisms require manual activation to engage and/or disengage the legs of the stand. Another common problem with prior art stands is the feet and stand actuation mechanism tend to sink in soft soil or mud.
In light of the foregoing it is desirable to provide an improved, automatic, light weight, spring action golf stand. Particularly, it is desirable that the stand mechanism have a compact design that keeps the stand integrated with the golf bag body and out of the way while the mechanism is retracted. Further, it is advantageous to provide a narrow profile width so the legs and other stand hardware do not hit the golfer or caddy while the bag is being carried. These and other advantages and features are provided by the improved stand system described herein.


For protecting a circuit (1) against a mechanical or electromagnetic attack, an active protection device attached to the circuit comprises: —at least one generator (13, 14) for generating a magnetic field, —at least one magnetic sensor S1, S2, S3, S4 for measuring a value of the magnetic field, —an integrity circuit connected to the at least one magnetic sensor S1, S2, S3, S4 and to the circuit (1). The integrity circuit activates a reaction procedure in the circuit if the measured value of the magnetic field made by the magnetic sensor is out of a values domain, the values domain being correlated to the generated magnetic field.

Circuits and in particular integrated circuits which comprise processing unit and storage units are widely used, in particular in portable devices like bank or credit cards, identity cards, SIM card used in mobile telephone. Such portable devices generally enables a user to access to particular services or confidential data through electronic transaction (payment, identification, building access, use of telecommunication network . . . ) after a successful authentication proceeding. The authentication process is generally based on security related software means, cryptographic algorithms and also secret keys and confidential data stored and processed in the integrated circuit, or hardware means present in the integrated circuit. In the case of portable devices like smart-cards, hackers are interested in obtaining information regarding the functioning of the integrated circuits in order to manufacture cloned smart-cards and/or to fraudulently benefit of services for which they do not have the right. Such information can be obtained by studying the integrated circuits either passively or destructively or both.
Current circulating in the wires of an integrated circuit are creating magnetic fields in a frequency range between low frequencies (Hz range) to high frequencies (GHz range) depending on the current frequency. Local detection of these magnetic fields by a magnetic sensor is a direct measurement of circulating currents and hence of the local activity of an electrical device.
The use of a commercial hard disk reading head allows measuring directly the activity of particular subsystem constituting a part of an integrated circuit.
The use of such a measurement apparatus can be combined with mechanical or chemical abrasion and/or electromagnetic attack (EMA) in order to collect particular information. An EMA is based on the irradiation of the integrated circuit by electromagnetic waves, such as visible light, UV and near IR. The EMA is creating pairs (electron, hole) jumping the electronic gap up to the conducting level which can modify or substantially disturb the normal functioning of an integrated circuit.
The integrated circuit back side is particularly threatened because of the development of new integrated circuit debugging tools allowing working with high accuracy by modifying the integrated circuit, picking information using the IR transmission band in bulk silicon.
Smart-card standards impose to set-up protection against hardware attack through mask sensitive surfaces to optical inspection, probing and perturbations. The attack can be a mechanical attack during which the generator and/or the magnetic sensor are damaged. The attack can also be an electromagnetic attack for perturbing or spying the functioning of the circuit.
In order to prevent such intrusion or reading, it is known to use protective layers. In particular, magnetic shielding can be used to block radio and hyper-frequencies emissions of the integrated circuit. Further, metallic layers can be used to avoid light transmission to the integrated circuit. However, even with an extensive use of such type of hard layers, the variety of etching processes available today enables hackers to remove these protective layers and to access to the information stored in the integrated circuit by the above described means.
It is known to passively protect the integrated circuit.
In particular, WO 9912204 describes a device with security integrated circuit. The device comprises a mechanical layer attached on the active face of an integrated circuit. The back side of the integrated circuit is thinned in order to limit the physical attacks intended to access the integrated circuit surface. The mechanical layer constitutes a cover, i.e. a physical protection against attacks allowing pushing forward the electromagnetic radiation sensor from the integrated circuit surface and/or enabling to absorb the incoming light. The hacker sensor means can only be positioned far from the integrated circuit surface to accurately pick up signal that occurs on interesting working areas during integrated circuit functioning. However, the integrated circuit global emission may be read.
WO 0024058 relates to an integrated circuit chip secured against the action of electromagnetic radiation. A physical protection consisting in a complementary layer attached to the active face of the integrated circuit, the complementary layer being doped with Silicon doping element. Additionally, a metallic layer and irregularities on its surface can be added to enhance the physical protection.
WO 0063836 describes a cap for protecting an integrated circuit against physical attacks intending to access the layer of active semiconductor material of the integrated circuit by a controlled destruction of the cap protecting the active layer. However, it is still possible to grind this cap and removed it. Further, this protection is passive and does not guarantee an intrusive action from the back side.
It is also known to settle an active survey of hardware hacking by adding complex layers electrically connected to the integrated circuit.
In particular, WO 9616378 describes a security device comprising two chips stacked and interconnected face to face. The security device consists in erasing the secret information stored in one of the chips in the case of breaking or perturbation of the connection between the two chips. Such a device only guarantees a limited access to the layer of active semiconductor material while not giving any protection against electromagnetism reading.

Active protection device for protecting circuit against mechanical and electromagnetic attack


The invention relates to a solid-state range sensing system. As with previous solid-state range sensing systems, an energy source is activated and deactivated in a cyclic pattern with a selected source frequency. A receiver is adapted to sense the reflection of emitted energy from the target. The receiver includes a shielding system to block the sensing of the reflected energy from the target in a cyclic pattern with a selected receiver frequency. Unlike the prior art, the frequency of the source and receiver are offset by a small frequency. The resulting output signal of the receiver is a further cyclic pattern beat signal of frequency equal to the difference between the source activation and receiver shielding modulation frequencies. The best signal is effectively a down-converted version of the source modulation frequency and, unlike the prior art, is compared with a reference beat signal whereby the phase difference between the two beat signals is used to determine a range value. The use of beat signals provides higher precision than the prior art.

Simple range sensing systems which can quickly determine the range to one target or point are well known. These systems can be used in many applications, from determining a golfer's distance to the hole they are playing, to surveying applications to calculate the distance between specific landmarks or points.
These systems normally employ a laser range finding system where a laser beam is trained onto a selected target, and a receiver associated with the system calculates a distance or range to the target through the propagation delay of the laser beam.
However, these systems cannot necessarily be used easily where the range to multiple targets needs to be calculated simultaneously or in a very short period of time. For example, these types of "single target" range finders cannot necessarily be used effectively in machine vision applications which employ range information for all targets with a scene as inputs to object identification algorithms.
One attempt to provide a range finding system for such applications can employ a laser range finder substantially as described above, which has the laser beam scanned over the region of interest and all targets within such a region. However, this approach is not ideal as mechanical systems are required to physically move the laser source to provide the scanning motion required. Furthermore, significant computation or processing power is also required to calculate the range of a number of discreet targets using the propagation delay associated with multiple scans of the laser beam. Range information must be calculated separately for each scanning movement of the laser, which will require high performance computer processing power to ensure that the range information can be provided at an effective or useful speed.
A discussion on scanned laser systems above can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,638,164 and in D. Tu, "Range Image Acquisition for Machine Vision", Optical Engineering, 37(9), pp 2531-5, 1998.
Another alternative range sensing system has also been developed to address these problems associated with scanned laser range finding systems, and is discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,100,517. This system employs a light or energy source and associated light or energy sensor both of which are pulsed on and off at the same frequency. Energy from the pulsed source is reflected from the targets within a particular area or region back towards the energy sensor, which again is enabled or activated in a pulse manner so that this reflected light will only be sensed when the sensor is activated.
The selective activation of the sensor is implemented through a shutter or gate placed between the sensor and any targets within a scene, and this shutter is open and closed at the correct pulsing frequency required. The frequency at which the source and sensor are pulsed is selected so that the amount of light reflected from distant targets is cut off after a set propagation delay, as opposed to light reflected from near targets which has a lower propagation delay. Light will be received from near objects for a longer period of time than light reflected or scattered from more distant objects. Therefore, more light will be received from near targets than distant targets, which gives a light intensity value or reading for a target which is proportional to its range from the sensor.
This type of system can be implemented with relatively low cost components and does not require the level of computational processing power which the scanned laser range finder discussed above requires. However, there are additional variables present in the operating environment of the system which can cause inaccuracies or errors in the resultant data obtained.
Changes in ambient light level (and therefore the amount of light received by the sensor) will provide an offset error in the results obtained. Furthermore, targets within a particular scene which have relatively high or low reflectance properties will also create errors in the output obtained, as the amount of light received by the sensor will vary not just with the range of the target from the sensor. Such systems that derive range values from intensity information are also ultimately limited in range resolution by the dynamic range of the sensor employed. If a low cost or low quality sensor, then the performance or accuracy of the range value derived in turn suffers.
An improved range sensing system which addressed any or all of the above problems would be of advantage. Specifically a range sensing system which could be implemented using relatively low cost componentry, which did not require a high degree of computational processing power and which also did not suffer from inaccuracies due to changing ambient light levels nor variable reflectance properties of targets would be of advantage.
All references, including any patents or patent applications cited in this specification are hereby incorporated by reference. No admission is made that any reference constitutes prior art. The discussion of the references states what their authors assert, and the applicants reserve the right to challenge the accuracy and pertinency of the cited documents. It will be clearly understood that, although a number of prior art publications are referred to herein, this reference does not constitute an admission that any of these documents form part of the common general knowledge in the art, in New Zealand or in any other country.
It is an object of the present invention to address the foregoing problems or at least to provide the public with a useful choice.
Further aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the ensuing description which is given by way of example only.


A well bore tool with a torsional resistant slip mechanism for resisting axial and torsional forces comprising a mandrel, a plurality of slips disposed about the circumference of the mandrel. The slips include a plurality of inserts oriented to resist axial forces and torsional forces. The tool also comprises a setting means adjacent each to slip for radially expanding and setting said slips.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a slip mechanism in anchors or packers used in the oil and gas industry, and more particularly to a mechanically set retrievable packer with a torsional resistant slip mechanism. The disclosure of U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 09/302,738, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,164,377 issued Dec. 26, 2000, and 09/302,982, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,305,474, are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Background of the Invention
It is often desirable to sidetrack or deviate from an existing well borehole for various reasons. For instance, when a well bore becomes unusable, a new bore hole may be drilled in the vicinity of the existing cased bore hole or alternatively, a new bore hole may be sidetracked from the serviceable portion of the cased well bore. Such sidetracking from a cased borehole may also be useful for developing multiple production zones. This drilling procedure can be accomplished by milling through the side of the casing with a mill that is guided by a wedge or whipstock component. It is well known in the industry that whipstocks are used to sidetrack drill bits or mills at an angle from a borehole. The borehole may be lined with pipe casing or uncased. More often than not, the previous borehole is cased.
To complete a sidetracking operation, a typical down hole assembly consists of a whipstock attached to some form of packer or anchor mechanism that holds the whipstock in place once the whipstock has been set at the desired location and angle orientation. The upper end of a whipstock comprises an inclined face. Once the whipstock is properly set and aligned, as a mill is lowered, the inclined face guides the mill laterally with respect to the casing axis. The mill travels along the face of the whipstock to mill a window and/or to create the deviated borehole.
Mechanically set anchors typically utilized to support whipstocks have one or more slips which engage the casing or borehole. Often, the holding capabilities of these conventional devices are not enough to prevent slippage or movement during sidetracking operations. It has been found that conventional whipstock supports may be susceptible to small, but not insignificant amounts of rotational movement. If a misalignment were to occur during a window milling operation, the mill could become stuck in the hole resulting in a difficult and expensive fishing operation. Another unintended result could be that a lateral well bore is drilled in the wrong direction.
Typical slip mechanisms provide minimal upward loading capability and very little torque resistant capacity. These traditional slip mechanisms use wickers or grooves machined into the outer surface of the slip to grip the well bore and resist torsional and longitudinal (axial) forces. These gripping mechanisms allowed for very limited penetration into the casing or borehole, and therefor were prone to unwanted movement. These known problems with tools in the prior art demand that drillers limit the amounts of force applied during such milling and drilling operations. This results in lower rates of penetration, and ultimately, a more costly well.
Hence, it is desired to provide an anchor and whipstock setting apparatus that effectively resists torsional forces and prevents a whipstock from rotating. It is a further desire to provide an effective whipstock support that can be run into a borehole and set using conventional wireline methods.
Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.

Torsional resistant slip mechanism and method


An endoscopic instrument includes a rigid outer sheath having an inner sheath received therein. The outer sheath has a lateral window defined therein near a closed distal end of the outer sheath. The inner sheath carries a telescope and a laterally transmitting laser fiber tip. The laser fiber tip may be extended to a position laterally adjacent the open window while the telescope remains located proximal relative to the tip and the window, so that the tip and the tissue to be treated may be observed with the telescope while both the telescope and the tip remain within the outer sheath.

1. Field of The Invention
The present invention relates generally to endoscopic apparatus and methods of using the same, and particularly to such apparatus and methods for treatment of the prostate.
2. Description of The Prior Art
It is generally known to use endoscopic apparatus for treatment of urinary tract problems. Typically such devices have been particularly constructed for treatment of the interior of the bladder. Such devices are generally referred to as cystoscopes.
More recently, techniques have been developed using a laterally firing laser for treatment of the prostate, and particularly for treatment of a condition generally known as benign prostatic hypertrophy. This condition involves the swelling of the prostate which tends to close off the prostatic urethra which passes therethrough. In laser treatment of this condition, a laterally firing laser tip is placed within the prostatic urethra and directs a laser beam against the inner wall of the prostate.
To date, such techniques have involved the use of standard cystoscopes which have a number of shortcomings since they were not designed for this usage. A standard cystoscope typically includes a hollow outer tube the distal end of which is open and a lateral portion of which is open and communicated with the open distal end. The laterally firing laser tip is run through the cystoscope and extends out the open end of the cystoscope.
These prior art techniques of laser treatment of benign prostatic hypertrophy are described in Costello et al., "Nd:YAG Laser Ablation of the Prostate as a Treatment for Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy", Lasers in Surgery and Medicine 12:121-124 (1992).
Due to the contracted swollen nature of the prostate when the patient is suffering from benign prostatic hypertrophy, the prostatic urethra therethrough may be essentially completely closed and thus it becomes difficult to place the fiber tip in position to treat the inner wall without having the tip actually engage surrounding tissue. If the tip engages surrounding tissue, this can create difficulties in several ways. If the reflecting surface of the tip touches surrounding tissue, it may become covered with foreign matter so that the tip does not function properly. Also, for maximum operational efficiency, the tip should be spaced from the tissue surface being treated. Also, contact of the tip with tissue while the laser is firing may cause the tip to adhere to the tissue.


The invention provides an optical system which is well corrected in terms of both curvature of field and coma at a field angle of about 120.degree. and a pupil diameter of about 15 mm and may be applied to both image pickup and ocular systems. Dioptric elements 11 are located the pupil plane side E and/or image plane side I of a concentric element 12 including two semitransparent surfaces 121 and 122, said two semitransparent surfaces 121 and 122 being concave on the pupil plane side E and located such that they transmit light at least once and reflect light at least once.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an optical system which can be used as an ocular or image-forming system, and more particularly to an optical system which is reduced in terms of both curvature of field and coma and has an improved resolution even at a wide field angle and a large pupil diameter.
2. Discussion of Related Art
The applicant has already filed Japanese Patent Application No. 5(1993)-264828 for an optical system which enables curvature of field and coma to be almost completely corrected by filling vitreous material or the like between at least two semitransparent curved surfaces to facilitate its production, and increasing the distance between two semi-transparent concave surfaces. Even with the optical system disclosed in the above patent application, however, curvature of field and coma become noticeable when the angle of view is as wide as about 100.degree. and the pupil diameter is as large as about 100 mm.
An account will now be given of why off-axis aberrations are produced in the optical system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 5-264828 with reference to an optical path diagram shown in FIG. 4.
In FIG. 4, reference numeral 1 represents a semi-transparent concave surface located in the vicinity of a pupil plane E and 2 a semitransparent concave surface located in the vicinity of an image plane I. A beam of rays is transmitted through or reflected at each surface in the order of 1-1, 2-1, and 2-2. The beam of rays is subjected to refraction at 1-1 and 2-2, and to reflection at 1-2 and 2-1.
How to compensate for coma will first be explained. To reduce or substantially eliminate the occurrence of coma at the image plane I, it is important to reduce the quantity of coma occurring at 1-1 and 2-1 where a beam of off-axis rays is first incident on the respective semitransparent surfaces 1 and 2. The optical axis length from the pupil E to the surface 1 is shorter than that from the pupil 1 to the surface 2. To reduce the angle of incidence of the beam of off-axis rays at 1-1 and 2-1 and reduce the difference in the angle of incidence between an off-axis marginal ray above the optical axis and an off-axis marginal ray below the optical axis, thereby reducing the quantity of coma produced, it is required that the surface 1 be stronger in power than the surface 2 and a curvature difference be between the surfaces 1 and 2.
To reduce the quantity of coma occurring at 1-2 and 2-2 where the beam of off-axis rays are again incident on the respective semitransparent surfaces, too, the power of the surface 1 should be stronger than that of the surface 2. This is because when the power of the surface 1 is too weak, the angle of inclination of the normal of the surface 1 becomes small with respect to the optical axis; so the angle of incidence of an off-axis chief ray at 1-2 becomes large. As a result, there is a large difference in the angle of incidence between the marginal rays above and below the optical axis, which otherwise gives rise to some considerable coma. It is here noted that the image-forming system disclosed is an almost telecentric one on the image side. When the power of the surface 2 is too strong, it is located nearly parallel to the optical axis; so the angle of an off-axis chief ray incident on 2-2 becomes large, resulting in a large difference in the angle of incidence between the marginal rays above and below the optical axis and hence giving rise to some considerable coma. To reduce the quantity of coma occurring at 1-2 and 2-2, it is then required that the power of the surface 1 be strong and the power of the surface 2 be weak.
Reference will now be made to where curvature of field takes place primarily and how to compensate for it. The largest curvature of field is negative curvature of field produced upon reflection at 1-2, and positive curvature of field produced upon reflection at 2-1. To inhibit the occurrence of curvature of field at the image plane 1, it is required that uniform power be imparted to the surfaces 1 and 2, so that the negative curvature of field produced upon reflection at the surface 1 and the positive curvature of field upon reflection at the surface 2 can be offset each other.
In the optical system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 5-264828, how to correct coma is in contradiction to how to correct curvature of field, as already mentioned. In other words, it is difficult to correct both aberrations at the same time. If the field angle and pupil diameter are not particularly large, it is then possible to correct curvature of field and coma by placing the powers of both semitransparent concave surfaces 1 and 2 in a well balanced state. When the field angle and pupil diameter are large, however, difficulty is involved in preventing curvature of field and coma from becoming worse.

Optical system comprising a prism having a combined transmission and reflection action, and device therefor


In an aircraft maneuvering tractor (1) for the maneuvering of aircraft (2) without the aid of a tractor drawbar, wherein the chassis of the tractor has a bifurcated receiving space which is provided between the wheels (3) of a wheel axle (4) and in which a retractable and extractable pulling-in device is arranged, by which the nose wheel (9) of an aircraft (2) can be gripped and pulled onto a shovel (10) which is movable relative to the chassis and which has a substantially horizontal bearing surface (11) onto which the nose wheel (9) is to be laid and a substantially vertical stop surface (12) against which the nose wheel (9) will abut, together with at least one hold down member (13) which is disposed over the shovel (10) and which is adapted to be laid from above against the nose wheel (9) and to be impinged by a holding down force. The hold down member (13) is formed substantially in the shape of an angle or an arc so that the inner side (15) of such angle or arc is turned towards the nose wheel (9). The hold down member (13) has a free end (16) and end (17). End (17) is mounted for pivotal movement about a swivel axle (19) which is substantially parallel to the axle (18) of the nose wheel (9) and which is mounted on said tractor (1), and in the neutral position the vertical distance (a) of angle (14) from the bearing surface (11) of the shovel is less than the respective diameter (D) of the nose wheel.

In a known tractor of this constructional type (DE-OS 35 21 429 [=German Offenlegungsschrift=Patent Application Files laid open to public inspection]) the holding down members are horizontal bow-shaped members which are arranged so that prior to the nose wheel receiving procedure they are adjusted to a height corresponding to the diameter of the nose wheel so that in this position they constitute positive firm stops for the nose wheel, which overlap the nose wheel from above. Yet in this case it was ascertained that a reliable clamping of the nose wheel by such rigid holding down members is not possible. This is so because during starting and pulling by the tractor it will result that due to the elasticity of the arrangement for one thing and above all because of the air-filled pneumatic tire of the nose wheel for another thing there is some self-movements may occur which may be so considerable that the nose wheel will possibly work out itself from its clamped condition.
Furthermore, from DE-OS 35 34 045 is known a tractor having arc-shaped holding down members which are mounted to be movable by journal means on levers above the shovel so that they will be laid from above onto the nose wheel so that they can follow the nose wheel during its movement on the shovel. Yet this known arrangement is mounted above the nose wheel which is being held so that this arrangement will be so high that collisions with aircraft members and in particular with the nose wheel suspension are to be feared. Apart from this, the blocking of the holding down members takes place hydraulically so that they will merely constitute a rigid stop.
The problem underlying this invention is seen in providing a tractor of the constructional type mentioned in the first paragraph hereinabove, which has a holding down member by means of which a perfect fixing of the nose wheel onto the shovel can be achieved without endangering the aircraft members arranged above the nose wheel.


A backlight device includes a light source; supporting means having four edges arranged in a frame-like manner; at least one optical sheet supported by the supporting means and allowing light emitted from the light source to pass therethrough and be incident on a back surface of a liquid crystal panel, the optical sheet having an opening in a position substantially dividing a length of a bottom edge thereof into halves; and a vibration-proof member extending through the opening and fixed to the supporting means.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a backlight device having one or more optical sheets and a display apparatus such as a liquid crystal display apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Liquid crystal display apparatuses can be configured to have a larger display screen, lighter weight, a shape with a lower profile, lower electricity consumption, etc., than cathode-ray-tube (CRT) display apparatuses. Therefore, they are now used as television receivers or various displays along with, for example, self-luminous plasma display panels (PDPs) and the like.
Typically, a liquid crystal display apparatus has two transparent substrates, which can be of any size, with liquid crystal enclosed therebetween. By applying a voltage, the orientation of liquid crystal molecules is changed to cause light transmittance to change, whereby predetermined images and the like are optically displayed. Because liquid crystal itself does not emit light, a liquid crystal display apparatus has, for example, a backlight device functioning as a light source on the back of a liquid crystal panel. Such backlight device has, for example, a primary light source, a light-guiding plate, a reflective film, a lens sheet, and a diffusing film, and supplies display light over the entire surface of the liquid crystal panel. In such backlight devices, a cold-cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) has been used as the primary light source, in which mercury or xenon is enclosed in a fluorescent tube. CCFLs have, however, problems in that they have a low light-emitting luminance, a short life, and a poor uniformity of illuminance due to existence of a low luminance region on the cathode side.
Recently, a light-emitting diode (hereinafter referred to as an LED) backlight device has been attracting attention as an alternative to CCFLs. In such an LED backlight device, a number of red, green, and blue LEDs, which represent the three primary colors of light, are aligned two-dimensionally behind the back surface of the diffusing film to produce white light. The LED backlight device has a low power consumption and enables high-luminance display with a large liquid crystal panel.
Backlight devices have a variety of optical components disposed between the light source unit and the transmissive liquid crystal panel in order to uniformize luminance, chromaticity, and the like over the entire surface of the display. These optical components convert the characteristics of display light emitted from a light source and make the display light uniform. Examples of such optical components include an optical functional sheet block, a light-diffusing/guiding plate, a light-diffusing plate, and a reflective sheet.
As disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 2006-58484 and 2005-242270, thinner examples of these optical components are typically held in a hanging state, in which a supporting member penetrates through an opening provided in the component to fix the position of the component or so that the component does not become detached from a predetermined attachment position by vibration.


A compact fiber placement apparatus includes a fiber placement head, an articulated wrist apparatus, and a wrist mounting adapter for connecting the compact fiber placement apparatus to a fiber placement machine. The components of the compact fiber placement apparatus are operatively connected to one another by a wrist rotation torque motor, a head rotation torque motor, and a wrist pivot torque motor, to provide pivoting and rotating motion. A redirect arrangement includes a pivot redirect element driven by the wrist rotation torque motor at one half of the rotational speed at which a first and second wrist element of the articulated wrist apparatus pivot with respect to one another.

Automated fiber placement machines are widely used to manufacture parts, components and structures from composite material. The materials used in automated fiber placement are typically composed of longitudinal fibers and resin consolidated into tapes, or thin strips, commonly known as "tows." Individual tapes or tows are manipulated by the fiber placement machine to form a band of material that is deposited onto a tool. Parts are built up layer-by-layer, with tapes or tows of composite material, with the angle at which each layer "ply" is laid onto the tool being precisely determined by the fiber placement machine.
Automated fiber placement enables the construction of complex composite structures having steered or curvilinear fiber paths. This method of producing composite structures is more cost effective than manual methods. It provides an improved structural efficiency due to its ability to orient the fibers along local internal loads paths, which potentially results in lighter structures and lower cost than in structures made by other production methods.
In order to provide maximum flexibility of use, it is desirable that a fiber placement head and a support structure for the fiber placement head be as compact as possible. This is particularly true, where it is desirable to fabricate structures having concave sections into which the fiber placement head must descend during fabrication of the part.
For maximum speed of fiber placement, it is desirable to be able to perform bi-directional fiber placement. To perform bi-directional fiber placement, it is necessary that the fiber placement head be capable of almost instantaneously cutting the tows at an edge of the part, and flipping around to an opposite orientation for laying tows in an opposite direction across the part.
It is also desirable that both the fiber placement head and support structure for the fiber placement head be a compact, rugged simple construction, and allow maximum access for threading the multiple tows of fiber through the support structure and placement head.

Compact fiber placement apparatus and method of making and using same


A method and apparatus for monitoring the condition of a fetus to assess a degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition is provided. A signal indicative of a fetal heart is processed to derive a degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition. The data indicative of the degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition indicates a likelihood that the condition of the fetus belongs to a class in a group of classes, where each class in the group of classes is associated with a pre-defined fetal condition. Data indicative of the degree of risk of developing a permanent neurological condition is then released. In one example, a neural network is used to obtain data indicating the likelihood that the condition of the fetus belongs to a class in the group of classes.

During labour, a fetus may experience oxygen deprivation that can produce permanent neurological damage. Cerebral palsy (CP) is a permanent neurological condition characterised by neuromotor spasticity and often associated with seizures and or mental retardation. In severe forms the child may be unable to crawl, have frequent seizures and severe mental handicap. Brain injury from insufficient oxygenation of the baby during labor leading to cerebral palsy is a condition obstetricians wish to avoid. Typically, since the fetus is not easily accessible and therefore evaluation is based on indirect observations, the medical team evaluates indirect signs of insufficient oxygenation of the baby during labour and may intervene with various diagnostic or therapeutic options to avoid serious fetal compromise.
One of the most commonly used methods to evaluate fetal tolerance to labour is analysis of the fetal heart rate by using electronic fetal monitors. These monitors measure both the fetal heart rate and the mother's uterine contraction pattern. They produce a paper print out of the tracing over time. Historically, the clinical staff used visual methods to study the tracings and from this deduce the degree of fetal well being in regards to tolerance to labour or pre-labour conditions. Abnormal patterns can lead to interventions such as more diagnostic tests, induced delivery of the baby or delivery by cesarean section. The features of the fetal heart rate that are used by clinicians include baseline, accelerations, deceleration and variability of the fetal heart rate.
A deficiency with the above described method is that it does not allow to objectively quantify multiple features of tracings over time since the analysis of the strip by the doctor or nurse is visual and therefore subject to imprecision and normal human biases. Physicians show great variation in how they measure, label and interpret fetal heart rate patterns, particularly when the patterns are measured only by visual inspection of the paper recording. While doctors and nurses are trained and presumably competent in their ability to assess the strip, there can be differences of opinion that may result in different interventions being done to the patient. There is often no suitable confirmation of the preoperative diagnosis that can be used to objectively validate the doctor's decision.
The issue of whether severe neurological damage could have been prevented with a suitable diagnosis is the issue of several lawsuits in the United Kingdom and in the United States. Due to the lack of objective and reliable data, the actions of the health care team are frequently considered not defensible and several cases are settled out of court. Irrespective of the exact proportions of preventable cases, the total malpractice cost born by obstetricians is staggering. Total annual estimated cost by the Florida Neurologic compensation Board for the labor & delivery related injuries or death was (no fault cost 27.5$ million per year). Births in Florida represent 4% of the total US births. Extrapolating these rates to the entire United States, the cost of birth related brain injury is approximately 650 million USD annually without accounting for the human cost. For additional information pertaining to the above, the reader is invited to refer to Frank A. Sloan, PhDa, Kathryn Whetten-Goldstein, PhDb, Gerald B. Hickson, MDc, The influence of obstetric no-fault compensation on obstetricians' practice patterns, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology September 1998, part 1 • Volume 179 • Number 3 • p671 to p676 whose contents are hereby incorporated by reference.
A further difficulty in the study of this problem is the relative rarity of serious fetal compromise, both due to its natural low incidence and the fact that the medical team will intervene to prevent its full development whenever there is an indication of it beginning. The difficulty inherent in studying a rare event has been addressed by substituting more commonly observed early new-born outcome characteristics that are related to permanent birth related neurological damage. Examples of these more commonly observed outcomes are low Apgar scores, (a 10 point measure of vigor at birth), or rates of caesarean section for fetal distress. A further extension of this concept is to use even simpler measures such as a scoring of the fetal heart rate record and placing it in various categories based on the cumulative score (Krebs, Fischer scores).
A deficiency of methods of the type described above is that the prognosis of babies with these outcomes e.g. low Apgar scores, caesarean section for fetal distress, low Fisher or low Krebs scores, is generally very good. These tests do not allow an adequate level of discrimination between babies who have poor prognosis and those with a good prognosis.
In the context of the above, there is a need in the industry to provide a method and device for classifying a condition of a fetus that alleviates at least in part problems associated with the existing methods.

Method and apparatus for monitoring the condition of a fetus


Discovery of RJ assumes an Adjusted TIE Record for TJ from which DDJ has been removed. What remains is PJ+RJ, from whose Fourier Transform PJ is ‘synthetically de-convolved’ to leave just RJ: Calculate the Power Density Spectrum of PJ+RJ, and determine a threshold that indicates a PJ component. Identify in the PDS the largest frequency component that exceeds the threshold, otherwise there is no significant PJ and PJ+RJ can be taken as RJ. If a frequency component exceeds the threshold, take the largest and calculate what the convolution of it with the FT of the Transition Pattern would be if this circumstance were to occur in isolation, and then remove it from PJ+RJ. Repeat with continued iterations, until there are no further PJ components.

High speed digital systems rely on the ability to correctly ascertain the logical value of a binary data signal at specific times. In a digital system there are abrupt transitions between the logical values, and the nominal period of time that the data signal represents a particular logical value is called the UI (for Unit Interval). Generally there is provided (or derived) another signal, called a clock signal, whose period is also the UI and whose abrupt transitions in a selected direction serve as the 'specific times' (mentioned above) at which the logical value of the data signal is to be ascertained, a process often termed 'sampling.' It is common for the phase of the clock signal to be adjusted relative to the transitions in the data signal such that the sampling according to the clock signal will occur in the middle of the unit interval of the data signal. If satisfactory performance is to be achieved in a modern high speed system the error rate in sampling and ascertaining the logical values may need to be very low, often only one error in 1012 bits, or even less.
In an ideal world, all edges in a clock or data signal would occur at locations along a time axis that were an exact UI apart, or for data signals, perhaps variously at different exact multiples of the unit interval. The 'rattle' in the edges of a signal that is supposed to transition only at particular times (here, at the expiration of one or more consecutive unit intervals) is called jitter. In today's high performance digital systems, the presence of jitter in the data signal and in the clock has a significant effect on the system's ability to correctly ascertain the logical value of the data signal. There are other error causing mechanisms, to be sure, but if a high speed digital system is to offer good performance it needs to have low jitter (say, 1/1000 UI RMS, or less).
To reduce jitter one generally has to locate its source, and it turns out that it is useful and productive to recognize several different types of jitter. It is now common for test equipment intended for use with high performance digital systems to include in their repertoire of operations automated measurements of jitter, and to do so while recognizing several different types of jitter, each of which can be separately characterized. Total Jitter (TJ) is the aggregate amount of observable jitter, and is (or ought to be) the 'sum' of all the various types of component jitter that can be recognized.
There are wide variations among techniques for jitter measurement. In particular, there are some 'brute force' techniques that perform all of N-many trials, and which can seem to take forever (hours, or even days!) to get accurate results having resolution in parts in 1012. Even if the UI is one nanosecond, it still takes over twenty minutes to measure 1012 of them. And some techniques require N-many repetitions of a suitable test pattern that is in the range of one hundred or a thousand UI in length. Clearly, such brute force approaches are not suitable for quickly characterizing expected low rates of jitter.
Various strategies have been developed to cope with this situation. These often revolve around assuming that some of the jitter is random in nature, with the rest arising from various other mechanisms. The idea is that, if the nature of a component source of jitter is known, then it can be represented by a suitable model. The significance of this is that, while the model needs coefficients to produce greater or lesser amounts of jitter, the shape of the probability distribution of that jitter component is specific to the model, so that the particular coefficients for a specific instance can be found by curve fitting techniques operating on a proper collection of samples. The plan (for, say, Random Jitter) is to sample for a reasonable amount of time, do a curve fit to instantiate the model, and then let the model predict with some confidence what we would get if we were to let the measurement run to conclusion using brute force techniques. Clearly, if that is the plan, then we need to have at hand for the curve fitting data that represents only that one kind of jitter; otherwise the model's prediction will be inaccurate.
Now a new set of difficulties arises. The measured data (TJ) will contain the effects of all the different types of jitter. These include Periodic Jitter (PJ), Random Jitter (RJ) and Data Dependent Jitter (DDJ) that is correlated with the content of the data itself. It is not possible to readily directly measure values that pertain to only a particular component type of jitter, since we can't observe those types in isolation: the measured data will generally include the combined effects of all types of jitter. Not only must indirect methods be developed to isolate or separate from the combined result the data for individual types of jitter (so that models or other analysis can be applied to appropriate data), but there is more than one way to decompose into components the combined jitter (TJ) that is actually measured.
We are particularly interested here in a jitter measurement technique for discovering RJ that is useable in a real time Digital Sampling Oscilloscope (DSO) or comparable environment (such as a Timing Analyzer) to produce credible and valid results in seconds instead of hours. While there are various techniques that are known for measuring TJ and separating it into its component types, each has a related set of prerequisites. For example, the technique described in METHOD AND APPARATUS USE RE-SAMPLED TIE RECORDS TO CHARACTERIZE JITTER IN A DIGITAL SIGNAL requires repetitions of an applied Test Pattern to allow self-cancellation of RJ, and thus allow its removal as a component from the aggregate data.
To provide a bit more detail concerning this point, the measurement technique described in METHOD AND APPARATUS USE RE-SAMPLED TIE RECORDS TO CHARACTERIZE JITTER IN A DIGITAL SIGNAL begins with the production of a digital test sequence that comprises many repetitions of a Test Pattern containing a wide variety of bit values in combination. An Acquisition Record is made of the entire test sequence. A complete Time Interval Error (TIE) Record is made of the Acquisition Record. The complete TIE Record is separated into a collection of Component TIE Records, one for each transition in the Test Pattern, and that contains all the different instances in the test sequence of that particular transition in the Test Pattern. (To be sure, not every clock cycle exhibits a transition in the original data, and that causes a phenomenon called 'holes' that violates an equal time between samples requirement common to easily implemented Fourier Transform techniques. Upon reflection, it will be appreciated that a Component TIE Record has no 'holes' because those holes, if we actually bothered to do it, would have each been collected into respectively associated Component TIE Records that would then nevertheless remain empty.) A Fourier Transform (FT) is performed on each (non-empty!) Component TIE Record, and the collected DC contributions of those FTs can be combined to produce an indication of Deterministic Jitter (Data Dependent Jitter 'plus' Periodic Jitter). The various frequency components in the spectral content of the FTs for the Component TIE Records are identified by application of a threshold to a power spectrum and then combined to produce an indication of Periodic Jitter. That Periodic Jitter can then (in this method) be removed from those FTs (without the DDJ-related DC components) to leave a resultant indication of Random Jitter. It is for the production of this spectral content that the applied Test Pattern needs to be repeated, so that holes in the input to those FTs appear to vanish. This approach avoids mischief that would otherwise be caused by attempting to perform a Fourier Transform upon an Original TIE Record containing holes (as it surely must do). Such an FT would produce a spectrum that is badly corrupted by the holes, and for which the separation of components according to some criteria (DC level, threshold comparison) is next to impossible.
There is a need for a Random Jitter measurement technique using a real time DSO or Timing Analyzer that operates quickly, preserves useful ancillary information, whose resolution scales with longer measurement times, and that tolerates a test sequence of arbitrary length and content that might either be random or be actual 'live' data measured while the system was in operational use. The RJ discovery technique described in METHOD AND APPARATUS USE RE-SAMPLED TIE RECORDS TO CHARACTERIZE JITTER IN A DIGITAL SIGNAL meets most of these needs, but requires that there be many (the more, the better, up to a point) repetitions of an applied Test Pattern. We need to accommodate situations where the Test Pattern, instead of being repetitive, is just one suitably long instance of arbitrary data (which might be some special data cooked up ahead of time, be pseudo-random, or, be genuine 'live' data in a system in actual use). Without repetition of the Test Pattern, the luxury of avoiding the effects of the holes upon a Fourier Transform is not immediately at hand. What to do?

Finding random jitter in an arbitrary non-repeating data signal


A method of transmitting a downlink control signal is disclosed, by which localized allocation and distributed allocation are efficiently used in transmitting a downlink control signal. The present invention includes multiplexing the downlink control signal in a manner of if there exists downlink data transmission to a prescribed UE, applying localized allocation to a transmission of the downlink control signal including the scheduling information on the uplink data transmission of the UE and applying distributed allocation to another transmission of the downlink control signal and transmitting the multiplexed downlink control signal.

Generally, in a multi-carrier mobile communication system, a base station transmits downlink data packets to user equipments (UEs) belonging to each of at least one or more cells.
A plurality of user equipments can exist within a cell. Each of the user equipments is incapable of knowing when a data packet will be received or what kind of data packet will be received. So, when a base station transmits a downlink data packet to a specific user equipment (hereinafter abbreviated UE), such necessary information as an identification (ID) of the UE to receive the corresponding data packet, a time-frequency domain for transmitting the data packet, a data transport format including coding rate, modulation scheme and the like, HARQ associated information, and the like should be transmitted in downlink for each downlink data packet transmission.
On the contrary, in order to enable a USE to transmit such necessary information as a data packet in uplink, a base station should transmit ID of a UE to be allowed for data packet transmission, uplink time-frequency domain for the UE to transmit the data packet, data transport format including coding rate, modulation scheme and the like, HARQ associated information, and the like in downlink for each uplink data packet transmission.
In case of uplink data packet transmission, a base station should transmit acknowledgement/non-acknowledgement (ACK/NAK) information on each packet transmitted by a UE to the corresponding UE in downlink. Moreover, the base station should transmit power control information to each UE in downlink to sustain uplink transmission/reception power of the corresponding UE at a proper level.
For convenience of explanation, in the following description, every information transferred via physical layers for data transmission and reception between base station and UE is called 'downlink control information'. And, a signal for carrying this information is called 'downlink control signal'.
In detail, downlink control information can be categorized as follows.
1. Scheduling Information on Uplink/Downlink Data                (1) Category-A Information: ID of UE to transmit/receive data packets, allocation information on frequency-time domain for carrying data packets, etc.        (2) Category-B Information: Data transport format such as coding rate, modulation scheme and the like, HARQ associated information, etc.
2. Information Not Associated with Downlink Data                (1) ACK/NAK Information, Power Control Information, etc.
In order to operate a system efficiently, it is necessary to efficiently multiplex a downlink control signal for carrying the above-mentioned control informations with data packets and other downlink signals in downlink time-frequency resources.
For this, a general downlink signal transmitting system is explained as follows.
First of all, a downlink data packet transmitting system can be mainly categorized into localized allocation and distributed allocation.
In the localized allocation, data for a single UE are transmitted within a relatively restricted frequency banc via consecutive subcarriers. A base station scheduler selects a band having a good radio channel frequency response for each UE based on a frequency response reported by UEs within a cell on a downlink radio channel and then transmits data. Hence, cell transmission efficiency can be raised. For reference, in the localized allocation, a base station is able to transmit data to a single UE via subcarriers within at least two bands discontinuous on frequency if necessary.
In the distributed allocation, data for a single UE is transmitted via a relatively wide frequency band within a system band by being intentionally distributed. The distributed allocation is available for a case that a base station scheduler has difficulty in estimating a downlink radio channel frequency response for UE or applying a frequency response to downlink data packet scheduling. Since a single data packet is transmitted via wide frequency band, frequency diversity gain is obtained. Hence, data packet receiving performance can be enhanced.
In the following description, a downlink signal transmitting system supports both localized allocation and distributed allocation for downlink data packet transmission. And, it is assumed that data packets transmitted differently within a single transmission time can be multiplexed together.
For clarity of the following description, a basic time-frequency domain unit for data packet transmission is named a resource block (hereinafter abbreviated RB). And, it is assumed that a single RB includes a plurality of subcarrier areas across a plurality of OFDM symbols.
FIG. 1 is a diagram of a structure for transmitting a downlink signal by localized allocation.
Referring to FIG. 1, if 288 subcarriers used for downlink data transmission exist within a system band and if a single RB includes 12 subcarriers through 6 OFDM symbols, 24 RBs exist for every 6 OFDM symbols in downlink. In this case, assuming that RB for localized allocation is generally named LVRB (localized virtual RB), the LVRB, as shown in FIG. 1, is constructed with 12 consecutive subcarriers. Looking into an example that LVRBs are allocated to a UE1 in FIG. 1, localized allocation can be implemented in a manner of transmitting data via LVRBs consecutive for a single UE.
Moreover, looking into an example that LVRBs are allocated to UE2, data are transmitted to a single UE via LVRBs spaced apart from each other on a frequency domain. Hence, effect of distributed allocation is consequently implemented to obtain frequency diversity gain.
FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B are diagrams of a structure for transmitting downlink signals by distributed allocation.
Unlike FIG. 1, if RB for distributed allocation is named DVRB (distributed virtual RB), the DVRB, as shown in FIG. 2A or FIG. 2B, can be constructed with subcarriers separated from each other on a frequency domain or a time-frequency domain. In this case, referring to FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, even if data amounting to a single RB or a small count of RBs are transmitted to a single UE, it is transmitted by being distributed across a wide band through discontinuous subcarriers using DVRBs. Hence, distributed allocation can be implemented.

Method for transmitting downlink control signal


An exercise device which can be used to exercise the abdominal muscles of a user includes a base to which a lower body exercise portion and an upper body exercise portion are pivotably connected. The portions are hinged to provide versatility and to permit the device to be folded for storage. Wheels are swivably connected to the device and support the device on a support surface for use. The hinges, pivot connections and swivel wheels permit the device to be placed in a wide variety of orientations and positions whereby a wide variety of exercises can be performed.

In recent years, the trend to urbanization and mechanization of our society has been a factor in decreasing the amount of exercise in which society members engage. Physician and fitness experts nowadays are concerned with good health and a regular program of physical exercise for all ages. This problem is acute for the urban dweller residing in limited space areas and the elderly also facing these various problems. In an effort to provide home facilities to overcome lack of exercise area and provide an affordable means of obtaining a positive program of exercise activities, various knockdown and collapsible exercising devices have been introduced.
Most prior art devices have not been satisfactory in that collapsible devices must be stored to of sight and devices which store the exercise apparatus are bulky or cumbersome.
Still further, heretofore exercises for body or muscle building have required the use of several different types of benches and related components in order for the exerciser to work on strengthening all of his body muscles. These several units have generally comprised a sit-up board, a flat bench, an inclined bench, leg extension rollers, a declined bench, a deep-knee bench, a bench press, and means for dips. Heretofore, a few of these units have been combined in a single bench, for example, a flat bench can have a part movable from a flat position to an inclined position thus combining in one unit flat and inclined benches; or a flat bench can include leg extension rollers or a bench press, but until the present invention there has never been a body building bench which has incorporated all of the standard exercising units enumerated above
A multiplicity of combination exercise devices are presently known and used.
The simplest of these combination devices are those which allow the performance of only a few exercises. They generally comprise a basic exercise bench which is usually adjustable with a leg exercise machine usually at the foot of the bench. Resistance weights can be attached to the leg machine depending upon the amount of resistance required by the user. Also a barbell support means is generally adapted to the machine. These devices limit the scope of the body exercises which can be performed.
The next class of combination multi-gym devices contain an additional attachment known as a dip bar attached to telescopic supports which can also be used as squat racks allowing for an increased number of exercises using a barbell supported by a saddle adjacent each of the dip bars. Although it is claimed by the manufacturers of these multi-gym devices that a persons whole body can be exercised with these machines they are not technologically advanced by comparison to the present invention as they do not provide the practical benefits of the free weight concept in body building. Modern day body building demands precision machines which can allow the resistance provided by the weights at each station to be correctly imposed commensurate with the abilities of a particular muscle when it is in a particular exercise mode. Improperly applied weight resistance can lead to a decrease in efficiency of muscle building from exercise.
The more advanced combination multi-gym devices also have attached to them a lat machine which in combination with dead weights at the end of a pulley allow exercise of muscles in the upper torso region of the body and in particular the arms.
The manufacturers and distributors of these lat machines boast simulated free weight motion of the resistance weights as the exercise is carried out, however, the desired concept in weight lifting and muscle building is actual rather than simulated free weight motion wherein drag from the dead weights which are usually pin weights is eliminated and counterweight resistance to the muscle is correctly applied.
The leg machines of the more simple combination multi-gym devices also rely on the dead weight principle to provide resistance for the leg muscles when performing the various leg exercises.
As with the lat machines of the prior art dead weight drag is also a problem with the leg machine as the resistance is not efficiently applied to the leg muscles throughout the range of motion.
In weightlifting exercises, the inertia or inertial resistance of the weight load must first be overcome before the exercise progresses.
Ideally, the resistance weight should be no heavier than the maximum force of the weakest muscle acting in the particular exercise movement to be accomplished.
During an exercise, the amount of force generated during contraction of the muscle varies throughout all the phases of the movement. Consequently, the maximum level of strength of the muscle occurs close to full contraction. In the prior art exercise machines it has been found that for certain exercises, the drag is at a maximum at the commencement of a muscle exercise, when the muscle is usually extended and thus at its weakest. This phenomenon is undesirable and its existence prevents physiologically efficient muscle building.
The presently known multi-gym devices do not allow application of the true free weight concept due to the geometry of the various machines incorporated in the overall device and due to the resistance weight functionality.
Among the more versatile combination multi-gym devices available there are those which incorporate facilities in most of the known stations for weight lifting exercises such as shoulder presses, chest presses, leg presses, leg extensions, leg curls, latisimus pull, chinning up, roman bench exercises, abdominal exercises, dip bar exercises, knee raisers and squatting exercises.
Although stations allowing these exercises and more are incorporated in known machines, these machines tend to be costly, space taking, and difficult to transport.
They are also large, cumbersome and complex devices and because of their size and complexity are generally used in commercial gymnasiums or health clubs and so consequently they are not suited for use in the domestic environment because of these features, unlike the present invention.
It is possible to obtain exercise devices which allow for the development and exercise of one area of the body but these devices do not constitute a full body exercise device which is the most desirable apparatus to have.
Folding exercise machines sometimes combine a number of the commonly known exercise machines such as the lat machine, the versatile bench, the leg machine and the barbell set for performing a large range of weight training exercises.
However, in order for such devices to be folded and stored a number of the elements of the device must be removed from the mainframe structure. This device is generally designed to be sold as a complete package or for assembly by the consumer and disassembly when transportation or removal is required.
Furthermore, these devices do not overcome the problem of initial weight drag due to friction and also due to the inertia of the weights, and do not provide for a variation in weight resistance throughout the exercise motion commensurate with muscle strength at a particular point in the exercise.
It is also undesirable to set up a lat machine for operation by the addition of weights on the end of a pulley for the aforesaid reasons, as this results in a linear force application against which the exerciser must work.
Therefore, there is a need for a versatile exercise device which overcomes the aforesaid problems by providing an improved combination exercise gymnasium of relatively simple construction suitable for use in the home or gymnasium and which is foldable into a compact and portable unit adapted with wheels, and which combines the various machines suitable for exercising all zones of the body and which has improved configurational and operational geometry such that muscular improvement can be achieved in the most efficient manner as a result of correct or constant weight resistance application during particular exercises.
The modern trend in serious (e.g., competitive and commercial grade) exercise equipment is to have many different exercise units, each of which is specialized for a particular exercise. These are usually either non-adjustable, or are so inconvenient to adjust that they are adjusted only occasionally (i.e., upon set-up, or once per workout). Many of them just do not provide for quick readjustment during a particular working session or for multiple exercises at the same station. For example, a typical power bench is a simple, non-adjustable, flat bench, having a tipover bar, and designed just for flat bench presses.
Multiple-function benches are also known, of course. However, the additional functions which are available on such units are usually obtained at the expense of sturdiness and/or versatility. That is, in order to combine several functions into a single unit, prior art solutions have often been forced to accept certain user limitations. This means that the utility of such units for serious weight lifting can be greatly compromised. This can be seen from the fact that most commercial equipment, as has been discussed above, continues to be single-function—even though equipping a gym with such equipment can be far more expensive than would be necessary if suitable multi-functional equipment could be found.
A need therefore remains for a heavy duty exercise bench which, in a single, integrated unit, can function as an easily adjustable and versatile bench readily suited for many different exercises, different exercise weights, and different body sizes.


A semiconductor processing apparatus is disclosed, which comprises a chamber body having an interior volume, a substrate support pedestal disposed in the interior volume, a gas outlet member positioned above the substrate support pedestal inside the interior volume, having a plurality of dispense nozzles, and a gas guiding device positioned between the gas outlet member and the substrate support pedestal. The gas guiding device includes a plurality of petal elements pivotally arranged around the dispense nozzles of the gas outlet member and circumferentially overlapping one another, configured to dynamically adjust an output gas distribution over the substrate support pedestal.

Modern integrated circuits (IC) are designed to encompass high feature density that may include millions of components such as transistors, capacitors, resistors, and the like. The demand for greater circuit density requires a reduction in the dimensions (or feature size) of the integrated circuit components. The minimal dimensions are commonly referred to as critical dimensions (CDs). The CDs may represent the minimal widths of the features, such as lines, trenched, pitches, stacks, openings, spaces between the lines, and the like.
As the CDs shrink, conditions of processes for fabricating ICs become more significant to maintain high yields. For example, process uniformity across substrates in a processing chamber of a semiconductor apparatus becomes paramount to maintain high yields.
It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only exemplary embodiments of this disclosure and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the disclosure may admit to other equally effective embodiments.
It should be noted that these figures are intended to illustrate the general characteristics of methods, structure and/or materials utilized in certain example embodiments and to supplement the written description provided below. These drawings are not, however, to scale and may not precisely reflect the precise structural or performance characteristics of any given embodiment, and should not be interpreted as defining or limiting the range of values or properties encompassed by example embodiments. For example, the relative thicknesses and positioning of layers, regions and/or structural elements may be reduced or exaggerated for clarity. The use of similar or identical reference numbers in the various drawings is intended to indicate the presence of a similar or identical element or feature.

Gas flow guiding device for semiconductor processing apparatus and method of using the same

XIA TAI XIN SEMICONDUCTOR (QING DAO) LTD.


The present invention provides a high frequency circuit, a high frequency circuit component, and a communication apparatus that uses the same, the circuit capable of being used for different communication systems, having a high receiving sensitivity and restraining the loss of transmission power. A high frequency circuit of the present invention includes: a first antenna terminal (ANT1) and a second antenna terminal (ANT2); and at least a transmitting terminal (Tx) and a first and a second receiving terminal (Rx1, Rx2) for a first communication system. With each switch, the first and the second receiving terminals (Rx1, Rx2) can be each simultaneously connected to the first and the second antenna terminals (ANT1, ANT2). Also, the transmitting terminal (Tx) is selectively connectable to either of the first and second antenna terminals (ANT1, ANT2).

Currently, data communication based on wireless LAN, typified by IEEE 802.11, is generally used. For example, such data communication is adopted as signal transmitting means that replaces wired communication used in a personal computer (PC), PC peripheral devices such as a printer, a hard disk, and a broadband router, electronic appliances such as a FAX, a refrigerator, a standard-definition television (SDTV), a high-definition television (HDTV), a digital camera, a digital video camera, and a mobile phone, an automobile and an aircraft.
IEEE 802.11a, a standard of the wireless LAN, uses the OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) modulation scheme to support high-speed data communication of bandwidth up to 54 Mbps, and uses the frequency band of 5 GHz. IEEE 802.11b adopts the DSSS (Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum) scheme to support high-speed communication of 5.5 Mbps and 11 Mbps and uses the ISM (Industrial Scientific and Medical) band of 2.4 GHz which can be freely used without radio license. IEEE 802.11g uses the OFDM modulation scheme to support high-speed data communication of bandwidth up to 54 Mbps, and similarly to IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g uses the band of 2.4 GHz. Also, WiMAX (IEEE 802.16-2004, IEEE 802.16e-2005 and the like), which has been proposed as a standard of high-speed wireless communications covering a communication distance of about several kilometers, uses the three frequency bands of 2.5 GHz, 3.5 GHz, and 5 GHz. WiMAX is expected as a technique for covering so-called the last one mile of optical communication.
In recent years, a wireless communications system based on the MIMO (Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output) scheme, which has superior communication characteristics, has received attention. The MIMO scheme needs, for each communication system, a plurality of receiving terminals that can independently carry out simultaneous receiving. Here, it is assumed that the MIMO includes the SIMO (Single-Input, Multiple-Output). In the wireless communications systems based on the MIMO scheme, since circuit configuration including receiving terminals in each communication system is increased, isolation between the communication systems is difficult as well as the circuit configuration is complex. For this reason, it is highly difficult to adopt the MIMO scheme as multiband wireless communications. In particular, in the case of WiMAX, which consumes high transmission power, the isolation between multiple communication systems is critical in order to decrease the loss of the transmission power.
For high frequency components that use a plurality of communication systems such as wireless LAN and WiMAX, it is important how to separately handle transmission/reception signals of these communication systems. For example, transmitting diversity circuits have attracted the attention as wireless communications systems. A transmitting diversity includes a plurality of antennas and can select an optimum antenna therefrom on the basis of radio wave conditions, thereby enabling the transmission power to be reduced and a mobile device to run for a long time.
Patent Literature 1 describes the use of a high frequency switch composed of a FET switch as a diversity circuit. Patent Literature 2 describes a switch circuit composed of a combination of three SPDT switches as a conventional technique. Patent Literature 2 also describes a switch into which FET switches are formed as an integrated circuit on a semiconductor chip. As a transmitting diversity circuit of a TDMA wireless apparatus including a plurality of switch circuits, Patent Literature 3 discloses a wireless apparatus in which a filter circuit is disposed at each path as shown in FIG. 1.

High frequency circuit, high frequency circuit component, and communication apparatus