Before completing a call initiated at a calling telephony device for a called telephony device; caller identification information for the calling telephony device is obtained for the call. If standard caller identification information is not available, the caller is prompted to provide spoken caller identification information. The caller identification information is communicated to the called telephony device via a connectionless protocol such as VoIP where a continuing connection does not exist between communicating end points. The called party is given call disposition options. The process which controls this operation may be located anywhere in the network, including at switching equipment and at the called telephony device.

The present invention relates generally to telecommunication services and more particularly to caller identification using Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) methods and systems.
Telecommunications service providers typically offer services that attempt to provide customers with information that enables them to determine whether or not to accept a call before answering the call. One service that provides such information is caller identification ("Caller ID"). Standard Caller ID services generally provide a customer with an indication of who is calling without requiring the customer to answer the call. These systems typically retrieve information about the calling party from a database and provide that information to the called party. Customer premise equipment (CPE) in the form of a display device is generally used to provide the called party with a visual readout of the name and/or telephone number associated with the calling party.
However, the effectiveness of Caller ID systems can be reduced due to a number of different occurrences. One such occurrence is the inability of a service provider to provide the standard Caller ID information for a particular incoming call. A service provider may not be able to provide the standard Caller ID information if the Caller ID information is blocked by the calling party, or if the Caller ID information is unavailable or incomplete. Also, the service provider may not be able to provide the standard Caller ID information if the call is marked "Private," indicating that the calling party has taken steps to suppress transmission of Caller ID information. This may be done, in some areas of the United States by, for example, pressing *67 when initiating a call.
When the standard Caller ID information cannot be provided, the called party is not adequately informed about who is calling and cannot determine whether or not to accept the incoming call before answering the call. Because the effectiveness of Caller ID systems is greatly reduced when information cannot be provided, there is a need for an improved system and method for providing caller identification information that overcomes these deficiencies.
Patent application Ser. No. 09/122,484, filed Jul. 24, 1998 is incorporated herein by reference. This patent application discloses a method and system for providing a called party with audible caller identification information when standard caller identification cannot be provided. When standard caller identification cannot be provided, the call is blocked and a request for audible caller identification is transmitted to the calling party. The audible information is subsequently transmitted to the called party.
Patent application Ser. No. 09/253,339, filed Feb. 19, 1999 illustrates in further detail implementation of this technique in a telecommunications system including Advanced Information Network (AIN) elements. This application is incorporated herein by reference. The public switched telephone network (PSTN) includes a substantial number of AIN devices such as Service Switching Points (SSPs), Service Control Points (SCPs), Signalling Transfer Points (STPs) and Service Nodes (SNs) which may be configured to provide call handling methods, including caller identification.
However, to increase PSTN capacity and flexibility, many service providers and customers are developing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technologies. VoIP is a system in which voice or speech is converted to electrical signals and digitized. The digital signals are segmented into packets, with each packet including a header with addressing information and a payload of digital data. The speech data may also be compressed or converted to other formats to improve efficiency or network operation. Using the standardized transmission control protocol and Internet protocol (commonly referred to together as TCP/IP), packets are communicated from an origin through one or more network routers to a destination. The routers using the packet header for routing each packet.
While VoIP systems are effective for communication of speech information, many desirable features of AIN are missing from VoIP systems. For example, VoIP systems lack a method for processing calls when Caller ID information cannot be provided for a VoIP call. As a result, the call recipient lacks the necessary information for deciding to accept the call.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved method and apparatus for providing enhanced caller identification information in a telecommunication system using VoIP systems and methods.

Voice over IP method of determining caller identification


A mobile device according to one of a plurality of aspects comprises an atmospheric pressure sensor configured to measure a value of atmospheric pressure, a touch screen, and at least one controller configured to conjecture that the mobile device is immersed in water when the value of the atmospheric pressure satisfies a condition. The at least one controller is configured to conjecture whether the mobile device that has been immersed in water is out of the water on the basis of a detection result obtained by the touch screen. The mobile device is able to determine whether the mobile device is immersed in water and whether the mobile device is out of the water, while keeping the electric power consumption low, due to using the touch screen only when determining whether the mobile device is out of the water.

Field
The present application is related to a mobile device.
Description of the Related Art
Devices having an atmospheric pressure sensor installed therein are conventionally known. In such devices, the atmospheric pressure sensor is used for detecting the atmospheric pressure. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-230340 discloses a mobile device configured to determine the type of traveling mode of a subject by using an atmospheric pressure sensor.
There is room for improvement on the conventional devices with regard to processes using an atmospheric pressure sensor for detecting the atmospheric pressure.


The present invention relates to a system and method of cooling by latent energy transfer and, in particular, to cool a fluid by discharging unwanted low temperature thermal energy to a surrounding ambient environment utilizing a fluid evaporation process involving permitted or forced ventilation of air across a surface area of a heat transfer fluid. The invention further relates to an air treatment system utilizing the cooled heat transfer fluid for cooling air and for supplying ventilation air to the evaporation process. A body of liquid is cooled close to the prevailing wet bulb temperature, discharging unwanted thermal energy to the surroundings, rendering the liquid suitable as a cooling medium for removing unwanted thermal energy from a location or in a process.

A reliable method of rejecting unwanted thermal energy to ambient is frequently required, for example, as part of many industrial and manufacturing processes, and in occupied building heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC) technologies. This requirement is present in both temperate and tropical climates. Discharge of thermal energy to the ambient environment can be achieved by passing thermal transfer fluid through a conducting and/or radiating heat exchanger surface, where the temperature of the fluid is greater than ambient dry bulb temperature.
Where the transfer fluid temperature is close to ambient dry bulb temperature, a relatively large heat exchanger surface is required to discharge the required amount of thermal energy. Where ambient temperature exceeds the temperature of the transfer fluid, no advantageous transfer of thermal energy can take place. In these circumstances, use of a heat pump (reverse Rankine cycle) is commonly used to raise the temperature of the transfer fluid well above ambient, so that transfer of unwanted thermal energy to the environment can readily take place by radiation, convection and or conduction, before cooling the fluid by expansion to a temperature suitable to provide the necessary cooling effect.
As an alternative to radiation or convection transfer through a heat exchanger, direct evaporation of a transfer fluid, commonly water, may be used to transfer energy to the ambient environment. Direct evaporation involves transferring the latent heat of evaporation of water or other fluid vapour from a body of liquid, into the ambient air, with a corresponding fall in the sensible heat energy in the remainder of the body of liquid resulting in a temperature reduction. This method is used, for example, in cooling towers, typically combined with a heat exchanger to transfer thermal energy from a transfer fluid, in the heat exchanger, to the evaporating water droplets, resulting in a fall in the temperature of the transfer fluid.
One advantage of evaporative cooling is that thermal energy transfer can continue even below the ambient dry bulb temperature, even to as low as the wet bulb temperature, which may be ten or more degrees Celsius lower than dry bulb temperature in some instances, thus increasing the temperature differential across the heat exchanger in the cooling tower. Where temperature transfer can be achieved at a higher temperature differential than available from the ambient dry bulb temperature, a smaller heat exchanger may be used, for a given thermal load. Alternatively, less energy may by consumed by a reverse Rankine cycle heat pump that is using the transfer fluid from a cooling tower as a heat sink, to achieve the required transfer ofunwanted thetmal energy to ambient. However, with indirect contact cooling tower technology, heat transfer across a heat exchanger always results in a temperature of the transfer fluid at least several degrees above the prevailing wet bulb temperature.
The use of a cooling tower alone is ineffective in many climates as the wet bulb temperatures do not fall low enough, for sufficiently long periods of time in summer, to produce a usefully cooled transfer fluid. Where temperature differences are small, very large surface areas and very large flow rates are required, necessitating greater energy to operate the cooling tower in the form of high exergy electrical/mechanical energy, typically supplied by fossil fuel powered electrical generators or other electrical generators.
The other commonly used technology, the reverse Rankine cycle requires even greater input of high quality electrical/mechanical energy (high exergy), to remove low quality thermal energy (low exergy), resulting in a high degree of irreversible conversion of energy (loss of exergy) typically requiring the burning of fossil fuels or a nuclear power cycle to reliably provide electricity for the heat pump. There is a widespread desire to reduce the use of these fuels in energy cycles.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome at least some of the aforementioned problems or to provide the public with a useful alternative.
Any discussion of documents, acts, materials, devices, articles or the like, which has been included in the present specification is solely for the purpose of providing a context for the present invention. It should not be taken as an admission that any or all of the previous discussion forms part of the prior art base or was common general knowledge in the field of the invention as it existed before the priority date of any of the claims herein.

System and method of cooling by latent energy transfer


The present disclosure provides an information entry method and a corresponding device. The method comprises: step a): acquiring in real-time motion data from a user companion device; step b): determining whether the device changes from a first motion status to a second motion status based on the motion data; if so, activating a recording module of the device; step c): recording in real-time the user's voice input through the recording module; step d): stopping recording according to a preset voice instruction of stopping recording. The method and device can address a need of information entry in the following scenario: when a user incidentally wants to record some audios during running or trotting, the device may quickly activate its own recording module based on the acquired motion data so as to enter information in an audio manner, without performing a touch operation on the companion device.

In an era of information explosion, people's pace of life and work has become faster and faster. With emergence of smart terminals, information processing occupies one's much time, including fragmented time. On the other hand, people attach more importance to their personal health management than ever. Many people stick to a good bodybuilding habit, e.g., regularly going to gym or running or trotting outdoors. So, during a personal bodybuilding process, how to exploit and manage fragmented time to efficiently process information becomes an issue to address.


A two-stage valve for controlling the flow of gas from a pressurized gas supply with an upper main body including a cavity; a lower main body with at least one flow exhaust passage forming a primary flow path through the two-stage valve; a pre-stressed diaphragm sandwiched between the upper and lower main bodies, and pressure control capability for controlling the pressure in the cavity. A secondary flow path exists from the pressurized gas supply through the lower main body, through the upper main body, and terminating in the cavity in the upper main body. A first valve is installed in the secondary flow path to open and close the flow of gas from the pressurized gas supply to the cavity. A second valve installed in an exhaust passage in the upper main body allows the pressure in the cavity to exhaust to the environment. When the second valve is closed, the pressure in the cavity in the upper main body can be increased to lower the pre-stressed diaphragm. Raising and lowering of the pressure in the cavity causes the pre-stressed diaphragm to open and close the flow of gas from the pressurized gas supply through the primary flow path of the two-stage valve. The design of the two-stage valve and its components lends itself to constructing the two-stage valve as a microvalve using Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) concepts.

The present invention relates to valves for fluids and more specifically to valves suitable for construction as high flow, high pressure microvalves.
Small fluid valves are known in the art that have been developed using Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (MEMS) concepts. These small scale valves have the advantage of being able to be produced very precisely and inexpensively using fabrication techniques more commonly used in the microelectronics industry. Typically, such valves also consume very low power and have high switching frequencies. While these valves have many ingenious configurations, most are limited to low pressures, e.g., under 200 psig (approximately 1,500 kPa), and all are limited to extremely low flows, e.g., under 10xe2x88x924 kg/second. In fact, none of the actuation mechanisms known, such as electromagnetic, electrostatic, piezoelectric, and shape-memory alloys, are capable by themselves of producing both the forces necessary to overcome high pressures, and the deflections needed to provide large flow areas.
It is an object of this invention to provide a means for switching high flow rates at high pressures, at the expense of response time, by a device that is particularly suitable for fabrication using micro-fabrication techniques.
The present invention is a two-stage valve for controlling the flow of gas from a pressurized gas supply comprising an upper main body including a cavity therein; a lower main body having at least one pressurized gas supply exhaust outlet passage forming a primary flow path with the pressurized gas supply; a pre-stressed diaphragm sandwiched between the upper and lower main bodies, the pre-stressed diaphragm having one side of a portion thereof in fluidic communication with the cavity, and the opposite side of the portion thereof in fluidic communication with the pressurized gas supply; and pressure control means fluidically coupled to the cavity for controlling the pressure in the cavity to cause the portion of the pre-stressed diaphragm to open the flow of gas from the pressurized gas supply through the primary flow path of the two-stage valve and to cause the portion of the pre-stressed diaphragm to close the flow of gas from the pressurized gas supply through the primary flow path of the two-stage valve.
The pressure control means comprises the lower main body having a secondary flow path communicating with the pressurized gas supply, the upper main body having a secondary flow path communicating with the secondary flow path in the lower main body, and communicating with the cavity in the upper main body; a first valve providing (a) an isolating means for isolating the flow of gas from the pressurized gas supply to the cavity in the upper main body, and (b) an opening means for allowing the gas from the pressurized gas supply to flow to the cavity in the upper main body, the upper main body having an exhaust passage for fluidically communicating the cavity with an environment at a pressure lower than the pressure of the pressurized gas supply, a second valve installed in the exhaust passage, the second valve providing an isolating means for fluidically isolating the cavity in the upper main body from the environment, and an opening means for opening the cavity in the upper main body to exhaust to the environment.
The first valve is installed in one of (a) the secondary flow path in the lower main body, and (b) the secondary flow path in the upper main body. The lower main body can include a cavity. The lower main body further can include a boss formed in the cavity of the lower main body, the boss surrounding a hole acting as the inlet primary flow path for the flow of gas from the pressurized gas supply, the hole fluidically coupled to the opposite side of the portion of the pre-stressed diaphragm. Preferably, the boss formed in the cavity of the lower main body is positioned coincident with the center of the cavity of the lower main body.

Two-stage valve suitable as high-flow high-pressure microvalve


The embodiments of the present application discloses a circuit switched fallback method, a UE, an MSC, and an MME. The method includes: sending, by a UE to an MME, a request message for requesting to perform CSFB; receiving, by the UE, a switch command sent by an eNodeB; releasing or holding a default CS call of the UE after the UE switches to the CS domain according to the switch command, where the default CS call is generated by the UE according to the switch command; and by using an MSC, initiating, by the UE, a CS call or receiving a CS call. According to the circuit switched fallback method, the UE, the MSC, and the MME in the embodiments of the present application, circuit switched fallback can be implement in a manner of switching by a UE from a PS domain to a CS domain, and reduce a delay.

With the deployment over the years, it may be considered that 2G/3G networks provide full coverage to some extent. As System Architecture Evolution (SAE)/Long Term Evolution (LTE), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), HSPA+, and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) network technologies develop, these networks have already cover some urban areas and traffic hotspots. Consequently, in a current communications network, these networks coexist with the 2G/3G networks. For ease of description, SAE/LTE, HSPA, HSPA+, WiMAX, and the like that provide only a packet switched (PS) domain are collectively referred to as PS domain-only networks. For different network bearer mechanisms, voice calls of mobile communication may be classified into the following several types:
A first type is a conversational service borne by a circuit switched (CS) domain, such as a voice call.
A second type is a conversational service home by a PS domain, which is also referred to as a Voice over Internet Protocol (Internet Protocol, IP) (Voice over Internet Protocol, VoIP) service, and quality of service (Quality of Service, QoS) is ensured by an Internet Protocol (Internet Protocol, IP) multimedia subsystem (IP Multimedia Subsystem, IMS), such as a voice call over IP.
With regard to a PS domain-only network, a voice call can be transmitted on only a PS domain bearer of the PS domain-only network, and an IMS controls the voice call by using an IP-based network. On a 2G/3G network, a voice call is generally borne in a CS domain.
In an early stage of LTE deployment, an operator can provide a voice service for a user by using a 2G/3G network and provide a data service for a user by using an LTE network. A terminal is a multi-mode terminal; however, because of complex implementation and consideration of costs, most terminals cannot simultaneously send and receive an LTE signal and a 2G/3G signal, which is solved in the prior art by using a circuit switched fallback (CS fallback, CSFB) technology. In a scenario, a UE performs a data service or is in an idle state on an LTE network, and in this case, to initiate a CS voice call, the UE needs to switch a wireless module of the UE from LTE to 2G/3G, and then the UE initiates a voice call on the 2G/3G. This call is referred to as a call initiated by the UE (MOC, mobile originating call). In another scenario, a UE performs a data service or is in an idle state on an LTE network, and in this case, a user needs to call the UE, and the LTE network needs to be capable of notifying the UE that a CS call arrives, so that the UE can switch a wireless module to 2G/3G to receive the CS call. This call is referred to as a call in which the UE is a callee (MTC, mobile terminating call).
When combined registration is performed by using an interface SGs between an MME and an MSC server, it can be implemented that the UE is registered, by using the MME, with an MSC while being attached to the LTE. Subsequently, the UE can initiate a CS service after falling back to a CS domain. The prior art for the UE to fall back to the CS domain includes: packet switched (PS) domain switch, network assisted cell change (NACC), and radio resource control release (RRC release).
The prior art does not provide a technical solution in which a UE initiates a CS call or receives a CS call after falling back to a circuit switched domain by switching from a PS domain to the CS domain.

Circuit switched fallback method and device


An LED indicator casing (1R) has: a casing (1a) including a bottom face (S1), a front face (S2) having an aperture (2a) for light emission, and paired side faces (S3 and S4) adjoining the front face (S2); and paired lead terminals (11 and 12), one of which has a light-emitting element (LED)(21) fitted thereto. The paired lead terminals (11 and 12) are led out to the bottom face (S1) via the paired side faces (S3 and S4) of the casing (1a) respectively.

As portable telephones become increasingly multifunctional, they come to contain more and more electronic components and control circuits.
Simultaneously, portable telephones are sought to be increasingly compact and lightweight. Accordingly, in portable telephones, the electronic components and control circuits contained therein are sought to be compact and lightweight. Among others, liquid crystal displays, at the same time that they are given larger and larger display areas and become fitted with a plurality of indicators, are sought to be thin. Accordingly, LED indicators used as backlights in liquid crystal displays are sought to be increasingly thin.
FIGS. 7(a) to 7(d) schematically show an example of such a conventional LED indicator (more specifically, a "side emission LED indicator; hereinafter referred to simply as an "LED indicator). FIG. 7(a) is a top view schematically showing the exterior appearance of the conventional LED indicator; FIG. 7(b) is a front view schematically showing the conventional LED indicator; FIG. 7(c) is a bottom view schematically showing the conventional LED indicator; and FIG. 7(d) is a side view schematically showing the conventional LED indicator.
FIG. 8(a) is a schematic cross-sectional view along line Z-Z shown in FIG. 7(d).
FIG. 8(b) is a perspective view of a lead terminal portion extracted from the conventional LED indicator.
The conventional LED indicator 101 has a casing 101a and lead terminals 111 and 112.
The casing 101a has a bottom face S101, a front face S102 having an aperture 102a formed therein to permit light emission, paired side faces S103 and S104 adjoining the front face S102, a rear face S105, and a top face S106.
The lead terminals 111 and 112 are partly buried in the casing 101a.
As will be clear from FIGS. 7(c) and 8(b), in the conventional LED indicator 101, the lead terminals 111 and 112 are led out to the bottom face S101 of the casing 101a.
In this LED indicator 101, of the lead terminals 111 and 112 led out to the bottom face S101 of the casing 101a, the portions located outside it are each bent, along the bottom face S101, toward the front face S102. These portions are called electrode portions 111A and 112A. The end portions of the lead terminals 111 and 112 thus have a shape bent upward, from the bottom face S101 toward the top face S106, along the side faces S103 and S104 respectively.
Moreover, the lead terminals 111 and 112 are partly exposed inside a recess 114 that forms the aperture 102a.
To the portion of the lead terminal 111 exposed inside the recess 114, one end of a light-emitting element (LED) 121 is fixed and connected. The other end of the light-emitting element (LED) 121 is connected, via a lead wire 103, to the portion of the lead terminal 112 exposed inside the recess 114.
When this LED indicator 101 is connected to a circuit formed on a circuit board (unillustrated), the electrode portions 111A and 112A of the lead terminals 111 and 112 led out to the bottom face S101 are soldered to the circuit board (unillustrated).
The recess 114 is usually filled and sealed with transparent epoxy resin or transparent silicone 116, or with transparent epoxy resin or transparent silicone 116 mixed with a fluorescent material.
Patent Document 1: JP-A-2003-168824
Patent Document 2: JP-A-2003-249689
Patent Document 3: Japanese Registered Design No. 175164
Patent Document 4: Japanese Registered Design No. 175166

LED indicator casing, LED indicator, and LED indicator joint member comprising hanger members


A method for controlling the braking force of motorcycles, which includes storing the vehicle deceleration value which was measured when a lift-off signal occurred as an optimal deceleration limit value and reducing the braking force applied to the front brakes if the motorcycle deceleration approaches or exceeds this limit. A lift-off signal is generated if after a predetermined time from the initiation of a braking cycle, it is determined that the rear wheel has lost adherence to the grounds.

The present invention relates to a method of regulating the braking force of motorcycles.
Applicant's parent application describes one such method by which the tipping of motor vehicles which are threatened by lift-off (particularly motorcycles) in the event of fast deceleration is recognized and counteracted.
In this connection, the front-wheel brake pressure is always reduced in accordance with a predetermined time function when a lift-off process has been recognized on basis of a given, continuously checked wheel-speed pattern. When the corresponding speed pattern no longer indicates lift-off, the front wheel brake pressure is built up again in accordance with a substantially preestablished reloading function, this function being so selected that, on the one hand, the average brake pressure over the period of reloading is as great as possible and, on the other hand, lift-off or a collapse in front wheel speed due to overbraking does not take place immediately.
Under unfavorable conditions, this control mechanism can have the result that a case of lift-off is brought about cyclically again and again by system-caused buildup of pressure. The strong pressure modulations which take place in this connection lead to poor control comfort, particularly in the lower speed range. Furthermore, the large pressure gradients in negative and positive direction cause a see-sawing behavior of the vehicle, as a result of which the center of gravity of the vehicle is shifted phase-wise far forward and upward, which leads to renewed lift-off situations even if the deceleration of the vehicle is still far from the maximum.
In order to avoid these self-excited cases of lift-off it is desirable to keep the vehicle quiet, in particular in the lower speed range, and to bring it very cautiously to the optimal deceleration point. However, this is possible only if cyclic lift-off is in general avoided.

Method of regulating the braking force of motorcycles


A positively chargeable electrophotographic toner excellent in powder fluidity, circumstance dependency and durability is disclosed. The toner comprises a toner particle and a silica fine particle the surface of which is treated with a substantially water-insoluble or sparingly water-soluble quaternary ammonium salt compound.

Dry developers for use in the electrophotographic method and so forth are divided into two groups: one component developers in which there are used toners comprising a binder resin and a coloring agent dispersed therein; and two component developers in which the above toners are combined with carriers. In a copying operation using the developers, an electrostatic latent image formed on an electrophotographic photoreceptor, for example, is developed with the developer to from a toner image, which is then transferred, and toners remaining on the photoreceptor are removed by cleaning. Thus the dry developer is required to meet various requirements at the copying process, particularly a developing step and a cleaning step. Since the toners are applied to development not in the form of aggregated mass but in the form of divided particles, it is necessary that the toners have sufficient fluidity and are not changed in fluidity or electrical properties with a lapse of time or depending on conditions (temperature and humidity). In the case of the two component developer, it is necessary that the developer does not cause a so-called toner filming phenomenon that toners are firmly attached onto the surface of carriers. Moreover, in cleaning, it is required that the remaining toners can be easily removed from the surface of the photoreceptor, and that when a cleaning member such as a blade or a web is used, it does not damage the photoreceptor. In order to comply with these requirements, there have been various dry developers, one component developers or two component developers, in which inorganic fine powder such as silica, organic fine powder such as fatty acid and its derivative or metal salt, or fluorine-based resin fine powder is added to toners, so that fluidity, durability or cleaning properties are improved.
In connection with silica, it is known to use silica which has been made hydrophobic, and silica treated with an electric charge controlling substance as described in JP-A-55-135855 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application").
Although hydrophobic silica is greatly effective in increasing powder fluidity, its great negative chargeability produces a hindrance for use in positively chargeable toners. Thus it is described in the aforementioned JP-A-55-135855 that the silica is treated with an electric charge controlling substance which makes the toners positively chargeable. However, since dye is used as the electric charge controlling substance, the silica is colored and thus cannot be applied to color toners.
Thus it has been desired to develop silica particles which can be applied to color toners and further which meet requirements such as powder fluidity, cleaning properties, and positive charge stability.

Electrophotographic toner having a surface treated silica particle


There are provided microorganisms having a property of producing a lipid containing unsaturated fatty acids as constituent fatty acids and extracellularly secreting the produced lipid encapsulated in lipid particles, methods of screening said microorganisms, as well as methods of efficiently producing a fatty acid-containing lipid using said microorganisms. Furthermore, there are provided lipid particles encapsulating a lipid containing unsaturated fatty acids, and foods, cosmetics, and animal feeds comprising said lipid particles added thereto. Artificially treated microorganisms or microorganisms collected from nature are grown on a solid medium, and microbial strains that form lipid particles at the periphery of the colonies and/or microbial strains that, when cultured in a transparent liquid medium, make the culture liquid cloudy are selected. The microorganisms obtained are cultured, lipid-containing lipid particles secreted in the culture liquid, are separated from the culture liquid, and the lipid is separated and purified.

In recent years, various biological activities of highly unsaturated fatty acids have attracted attention. For example, arachidonic acid is considered to be a precursor of prostaglandins, thromboxanes, prostacyclins, leucotrienes and the like that have biological activities such as uterine contraction and relaxation, vasodilation, and hypotensive activity. These substances have been under intensive research, together with docosahexaenoic acid, in recent years, as elements essential for the development of babies and infants. Various foods, cosmetics, and animal feeds to which a lipid containing highly unsaturated fatty acids such as γ-linolenic acid, dihomo-γ-linolenic acid, and eicosapentaenoic acid in addition to arachidonic acid and docosahexaenoic acid have been added are also attracting attention, and some of the products to which highly unsaturated fatty acids has been added are commercially available.
Accordingly, methods of efficiently producing these highly unsaturated fatty acids also are being studied intensively.
For example, methods of efficiently producing arachidonic acid, dihomo-γ-linolenic acid, γ-linolenic acid, or eicosapentaenoic acid by fermentation have been developed using microorganisms belonging to, for example, the genus Mortierella, specifically the subgenus Mortierella, that are known to produce highly unsaturated fatty acids such as arachidonic acid, dihomo-γ-linolenic acid, γ-linolenic acid, and eicosapentaenoic acid (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 63-44891, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 63-12290, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 63-14696, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 5-91887, and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 63-14697). There is also known a method of producing mead acid using a mutant strain in which Δ12 desaturation activity is decreased or missing, said strain being obtained by effecting mutation to microorganisms belonging to genus Mortierella subgenus Mortierella (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 5-91888).
Thus, the production of a lipid containing highly unsaturated fatty acids using microorganisms that produce said fatty acids is increasingly becoming a major source of highly unsaturated fatty acids. These microorganisms have a property of not only using highly unsaturated fatty acids they produce as constituents of the cell membrane but also accumulating highly unsaturated fatty acids as fat and oil (triglycerides) containing them as constituent fatty acids in the cell. By utilizing the fats and lipids accumulated in the cell, high productivity of highly unsaturated fatty acids have come to be secured.
In this conventional production method, the amount of fat and oil obtained per culture was a product of the cell mass of the microorganism obtained by culturing and the amount of fat and oil produced per cell, and thereby how to increase the cell mass and the amount of fat and oil per cell was a challenge to be solved in order to attain enhanced production of fat and oil. Research has so far revealed that the selection of culture conditions permits increases in both of the above to a certain extent, but there are certain limits to each of them with increases in the cell mass being limited by physical factors such as the volume of the culture tank and increases in the amount of fat and oil per cell being limited by physiological factors of the microorganism used.
On the other hand, when it is desired to utilize a lipid produced by and accumulated in the cell of the microorganism, it is necessary to collect the cells after culturing, process the cells with a mill etc., to disrupt the cell membrane, and then to extract the lipid accumulated in the cell.
If substances produced by a microorganism could be secreted outside of the cell instead of being accumulated in the cell, the physiological burdens placed on the microorganism by the substances produced can be alleviated and thus the microorganism can continue to produce the products; in the isolation and extraction of microbial products as well, extraction from the culture only is needed, which provides an advantage that treatment becomes simplified and microorganisms can be continuously processed as they remain alive.
Based on the above, efforts to extracellularly secret a lipid accumulated in the cell have recently been made by Sakuzo Fukui et al. (BIO INDUSTRY 12: 36-46 (1995)). Sakuzo Fukui et al. conducted research on the production and secretion of lipids by microorganisms to develop novel biological fuel that can replace fossil fuel, and have successfully bred genus Trichosporon yeast to convert sugar and n-alkanes to lipids and to secret them outside of the cell. They further demonstrated that the constituent fatty acid species of extracellularly secreted triglyceride (TG) are oleic acid, palmitic acid, linoleic acid, and stearic acid. However, it has a drawback that the TG that is directly secreted outside of the cell is incorporated into the cell again and metabolized.
However, microorganisms that have an ability to produce lipids containing unsaturated fatty acids that have 18 carbons and three or more double bonds or 20 or more carbons and two or more double bonds, and that have a property of extracellularly secreting the produced lipid, or microorganisms that have an ability of producing an unsaturated fatty acid-containing lipid, and that secrete the produced lipid encapsulated in small particles instead of directly secreting them at the time of extracellular secretion thereof, are not known.
In a study on γ-linolenic acid production by molds described in "Microbially produced fatty acids and their uses", Osamu Suzuki, Fragrance Journal 1.989 (6), pp. 67-75, it is reported that a surfactant was added to a culture medium of a microorganism of the genus Mucor to allow the leakage of some of lipids outside of the cell. However, it relates to methods of artificially destroying the cell membrane to allow lipids accumulated in the cell to leak out of the cell, and does not utilize the ability of the cell per se to extracellularly secrete lipids produced in the cell.
Thus, there is a need to find microorganisms that have an ability of producing a lipid containing unsaturated fatty acids that have 18 carbons and three or more double bonds or 20 or more carbons and two or more double bonds, and have a property of extracellularly secreting the produced lipids, or microorganism that have an ability of producing an unsaturated fatty acid-containing lipid, and that have a property of extracellularly secreting the produced lipids encapsulated in small particles, and to develop methods of efficiently producing lipids that contain unsaturated fatty acids using said microorganisms.
Incidentally, in order to find microorganisms that have novel abilities, the development of an efficient screening method for microorganisms having such abilities is a prerequisite. In the above breeding of genus Trichosporon yeast that converts sugar and n-alkanes into lipids and extracellularly secrete them, the following screening method was adopted. Thus, yeast colonies that appeared on an agar plate medium (YPD medium etc.) are UV-treated (15 watts at a distance of 30 cm for 15 minutes) (this treatment is intended to suppress the dispersion of colony cells during layering treatment and not to induce mutation), the UV-treated colony plates are layered with a YPD soft agar medium containing 105 cells of a test strains, and are then cultured at 28° C. for 2 days. As the test strains, the A-1 strain and the ole-1 strain having auxotrophy for saturated fatty acids and unsaturated fatty acids, respectively, are used and those colonies giving a larger halo (the micro colony ring of the test strain) around them are selected as lipid-secreting strains. The selection of lipid-secreting strains employs two media: a soft agar medium containing or not containing lipase.
This method has a major drawback that although it can be applied to screening of yeast for which layering is possible, it cannot be applied to screening of microorganisms for which layering is impossible. There is additional disadvantage that the assay method are complicated.
Thus, in order to find microorganisms that have an ability of producing a lipid containing unsaturated fatty acids that have 18 carbons and three or more double bonds or 20 or more carbons and two or more double bonds, said microorganisms having a property of extracellularly secreting the produced lipids, there is a need for the development of a screening method that permits simple and efficient screening of said microorganisms and that can be applied to various microorganisms, and the development of a new screening method for finding microorganisms that can secrete the produced lipids encapsulated in small particles at the time of extracellular secretion of the produced lipids.

Microorganisms that extracellularly secrete lipids and methods of producing lipid and lipid particles encapsulating lipids using said microorganisms


A process for low NOX combustion which involves combusting an oxygen-containing combustible gas stream having fuel material in excess of the oxygen in the combustible gas stream, whereby the combustible gas stream is combusted in a reducing atmosphere to produce a heated oxygen-depleted gaseous stream, converting at least a portion of the heat in the oxygen-depleted depleted stream into steam, adding air to the oxygen-depleted stream to produce a stoichiometric excess of oxygen in the resultant stream relative to fuel material present in the resultant stream, passing the resultant stream over the oxidizing catalyst to produce an oxidized gaseous stream, optionally removing heat from the oxidized stream, and venting the resultant cooled stream. A system for carrying out the foregoing process is also provided.

Many combustion processes generate effluent gases having an unacceptable NOX content. Thus, oxides of nitrogen are one of the principal contaminants emitted by combustion processes. These compounds are found in stack gases mainly as nitric oxide (NO) with lesser amounts of nitrogen dioxide (NO.sub.2) and only traces of other oxides. Since nitric oxide (NO) continues to oxidize to nitrogen dioxide (NO.sub.2) in the air at ordinary temperatures, there is no way to predict with accuracy the amounts of each separately in vented gases at a given time. Thus, the total amount of nitric oxide (NO) plus nitrogen dioxide (NO.sub.2) in a sample is determined and referred to as "oxides of nitrogen (NOX)".
Oxides of nitrogen emissions from stack gases, through atmospheric reactions, produce "smog" that stings eyes and causes acid rains. For these reasons, the content of oxides of nitrogen present in gases vented to the atmosphere is severely limited by various state and federal agencies. To meet the regulations for NOX emissions, several methods of NOX control have been employed. These can be classified as either equipment modification or injection methods. Injection methods include injection of either water or steam to lower the temperature since the amount of NOX formed generally increases with increasing temperatures, or injection of ammonia to selectively reduce NOX. Water or steam injection, however, adversely affects the overall fuel efficiency of the process.
A process involving the injection of ammonia into the products of combustion is shown, for example, in Welty, U.S. Pat. No. 4,164,546. Examples of processes utilizing ammonia injection and a reducing catalyst are disclosed in Sakari et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,106,286; and Haeflich, U.S. Pat. No. 4,572,110. Selective reduction methods using ammonia injection are expensive and somewhat difficult to control. Thus, these methods have the inherent problem of requiring that the ammonia injection be carefully controlled so as not to inject too much and create a possible emission problem by emitting excess levels of ammonia. In addition the temperature necessary for the reduction of the oxides of nitrogen must be carefully controlled to get the required reaction rates.
Equipment modifications include modifications to the burner or firebox to reduce the formation of NOX. Although these methods do reduce the level of NOX, each has its own drawbacks. A selective catalytic reduction system is presently considered by some authorities to be the best available control technology for the reduction of NOX. Currently available selective catalytic reduction systems used for the reduction of NOX employ ammonia injection into the exhaust gas stream for reaction with the NOX in the presence of a catalyst to produce nitrogen and water vapor. Such systems typically have an efficiency of 80-90 percent when the gas stream is at temperature within a temperature range of approximately 600.degree.-700.degree. F. The NOX reduction efficiency of the system will be significantly less if the temperature is outside the stated temperature range and the catalyst may be damaged at higher temperatures. As the present inventor R. D. Bell has disclosed in McGill et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,405,587, of which he is a co-patentee, oxides of nitrogen can be reduced by reaction in a reducing atmosphere such as disclosed in that patent at temperatures in excess of 2000.degree. F.
An important source of NOX emissions is found in the field of steam generation in direct-fired boilers. Excessive NOX emissions from such combustion are a serious environmental problem and various efforts to suppress them, such as the techniques referred to above, have been attempted, with varying results.
It is, accordingly, an object of this invention to provide an improved method involving combustion which brings about effective lowering of NOX in the combustion emissions and subsequent treatment to produce an acceptable final emission.
It is another object of the invention to provide a system for combustion in fired steam-generating boilers wherein final emissions will have significantly lowered NOX levels and be environmentally acceptable.


There is disclosed a system and method for determining whether a battery or battery system has encountered a thermal failure and/or end of service life condition. The battery monitoring system is configured to generate a plurality of alarms based on the occurrence of a number of conditions in the battery system.

Thermal runaway is a catastrophic failure mode for Valve Regulated Lead-Acid (VRLA) batteries. A VRLA battery's internal temperature can rise significantly due to excessive charge current or sometimes just due to aging and normal charging current. Under these conditions, a regenerative heating condition can occur. As the battery temperature rises, an exothermic chemical reaction inside the battery causes heat to be generated. This heating causes the exothermic reaction to become more vigorous, and consequently, the battery becomes even hotter. This cycle, called thermal runaway, will continue until all current flow ceases. However, thermal runaway may lead to disastrous consequences. For example, the battery may bulge, split, and/or leak acid into the environment around it. Even under normal conditions, as the battery ages, it begins to draw more current from the charger, causing internal heating that can eventually lead to thermal runaway.
Systems that measure and/or monitor battery parameters such as voltage, current, impedance, and temperature are known. Some of these systems attempt to predict future battery performance by applying correlation rules to trends in the measured parameters. However, known systems are cumbersome, expensive, inaccurate, unreliable, and/or not easily installed. Most notably, known systems are believed to require a battery intrusion, such as an electrical connection to the monitored battery and/or battery system. It is therefore desirable to provide a system and method that overcomes these shortcomings.

Non-intrusive correlating battery monitoring system and method


The present invention relates to completing a lease for property in an on-line computing environment. A distributed computer network can enable a user to access multiple databases and to obtain comparables data related to a property of interest for use in calculations. This can enable users to access the latest, broadest set of relevant property data and to select relevant comparable values quickly and with minimal manual intervention. An on-line property management environment can comprise a distributed computer network coupled to numerous client computers, a property services server platform connected to a local database, and numerous property information databases. Building owners or their agents can list their available space for rent on a web site hosted b (a property services server platform in a distributed computing environment. Commercial tenants or their agents requiring space can either directly enter the property services server platform or enter through allied sites.

Commercial leasing transactions are completed today with the support of "off-line" personal relationships among commercial real estate brokerage firms, property owners, and tenants. A commercial real estate broker attempts to identify and match the property space requirements of a potential tenant with the property of the represented property owner. To "broker" a lease, the broker typically completes computer-aided and manual searches of property listings to locate potential matching properties and facilitates lease term negotiations between the owner and the tenant. The scope of a broker's network and her proposal relationships in the commercial real estate field plays a significant role in closing a lease transaction.
To expand the typical broker's network of relationships and to increase the number of potential property representations, at least one company is listing commercial real estate lease opportunities at a Web site accessible by brokers. Although this Web site facilitates the matching of a tenant's property requirements with available properties, the Web site does not support the negotiation closing of a lease transaction in an on-line electronic environment. In other words, brokers, property owners, and potential tenants move to the traditional "off-line" environment to negotiate and close a typical lease transaction initiated by a listing published at this Web site. This results in an inefficient allocation of resources to complete a lease transaction because the present on-line solution fails to take full advantage of the communication efficiency and scope of resources available on the Internet.
Consequently, there is a need in the art for an on-line solution that addresses the primary tasks completed in a typical lease transaction, including the identification of a property matching a potential tenant's requirements, site visit and space calculations, lease term negotiations, and lease execution.

Method and system for completing a lease for real property in an on-line computing environment


A train system has a locomotive traveling at a controlled speed on a main track, with passenger cars capable of locomotion and of automatic coupling and decoupling, forming a train on the main track. Appropriate passenger cars are decoupled and switched onto a side track at stations to unload passengers while the rest of the train passes the stations without stopping. Passenger cars loaded with passengers at these stations are then deployed to couple-up with the train after it has passed the station. This combines local service with express service. Operation in most cases is guided by a central computer system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of train systems. More specifically, in the area of rapid transit.
2. Description of Related Art
In the field of rapid transit systems, there have been many innovations on the technology side. The very first locomotives were powered by steam. Then came the gas and diesel locomotives. Then came electric motor locomotives. Today, there are systems that run using various types of magnetic propulsion. Regardless of all the innovation, and increases in speed capabilities, many problems remain.
Scheduling systems used today may have set times for each stop, so that commuters know when they should be at a certain location. This may be an important factor, especially when there are infrequent stops made by the trains. A set schedule may also result in time that may be considered wasted if there are infrequent passengers getting off or on at that particular stop. With the help of history and records of ridership gathered from various forms of public transportation, the number of stops at less active locations are decreased. Fewer stops may result in a shorter time between an origin and destination. However, this creates another problem—fewer stops may lead to faster travel time overall, but it may be an inconvenience to people who depend on public transportation and are required to commute from less popular areas. This may lead to people deciding not to use public transportation at all, and, instead, decide to use personal transportation out of convenience.
Therefore, what is clearly needed is a system that doesn't adhere entirely to the old scheduling system, while allowing for more stops, with little or no time penalties for additional stops.


An electronic device includes: a package including a lid and a package base, the package being formed by bonding the lid to a joint surface of the package base using a bonding material; and a resin portion covering the package. The resin portion covers at least the package base and the bonding material, and at least a part of the resin portion has a section outline. The section outline has an outermost portion thereof in a direction parallel with a mount surface of the electronic device. The outermost portion is located below a lower surface of the lid in a direction perpendicular to the mount surface of the electronic device.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an electronic device and a manufacturing method thereof. In particular, the invention relates to an electronic device where a resin is molded around a package and that is favorably used when using a glass lid as a lid of the package, and a manufacturing method thereof.
2. Related Art
As an example of an electronic device that meets both downsizing of the mount area and ensuring of good airtightness, a piezoelectric device as shown in FIG. 19 is known. Specifically, a piezoelectric device 1 shown in FIG. 19 is a so-called "two-story-structure" piezoelectric device where a circuit element, such as an IC 3, is mounted on a wiring substrate 2 and a conductive coupling member 5 is interposed between a piezoelectric resonator 4 disposed above the wiring substrate 2 and the wiring substrate 2. In the piezoelectric device 1, the surfaces of the elements, including the upper surface of the wiring substrate 2 and the upper surface of the piezoelectric resonator 4 except for a lid 4a of the piezoelectric resonator 4, are covered with a resin member 6. By covering the circuit element and electrical coupling parts with the resin member 6 as described above, for example, a drift in resonant frequency due to the humidity is restrained. Thus, the reliability of the piezoelectric device (piezoelectric oscillator) 1 is increased. The piezoelectric device 1 configured as described above is disclosed, for example, in JP-A-2008-078778.
Certainly, the piezoelectric device 1 configured as described above can contribute to downsizing of the mount area and ensuring of high airtightness. However, in recent years, the piezoelectric resonator 4 has been required to increase accuracy thereof. For this reason, the piezoelectric resonator 4 has been often required to use a glass lid as the lid 4a so that the frequency can be adjusted after the package is sealed.
However, if a glass lid is used, the glass lid is fixed to a ceramic package base using a brittle material such as a low-melting-point-glass as a bonding material. Unlike metal, glass has no ductility and has high brittleness. Also, when the piezoelectric device is chucked by using a chucking jig 7 in order to mount the piezoelectric device on a mount substrate, the jig may make contact with a corner of the resin portion covering the piezoelectric resonator, depending on the chucking angle. When the chucking jig makes contact with a corner of the resin portion and thus stress is applied to the corner, the stress may be intensively applied to the joint made of the low-melting-point-glass having high brittleness. This may cause a problem such as cracking or peeling off of the joint.

Electronic device and manufacturing method thereof


An apparatus used for holding a first semiconductor device in proper alignment to a second semiconductor device, whose size is different from the first device, while performing a C4 bond between the two devices. The apparatus for holding the two devices in proper alignment consists of a holding fixture, which includes upper and lower pocket receptacles for receiving the semiconductor devices. The semiconductor devices are placed into the respective upper and lower slots aligned to two or more edges of the holding fixture.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to workpieces and manufacturing methods used during soldering procedures. More particularly the invention addresses a method and apparatus to hold in proper alignment two or more semiconductor devices insuring the bonding operation.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Processes for direct chip attachment (DCA) of semiconductor IC's to substrates are known, and are being used extensively in the industry. A key feature of the technique is the fabrication of minute solder balls or "Bumps" on the semiconductor die with a process similar to that described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,401,126 and 3,429,0401 known as C4 for Controlled Collapse Chip Connection. Attaching the "bumped" die to a suitable substrate is achieved by applying a flux to either the die or substrate surface, aligning the two components usually with optical image recognition systems, placement to achieve contact, and reflow, which is the joining of the interconnect is a high temperature furnace.
Currently, in the push to achieve ever-higher integration levels, there is impetus to use C4 interconnection directly between two or more semiconductor die to create a stacked component which is then mounted onto a suitable carrier such as a substrate using wirebonds. Such an assembly would fulfill a long standing need of merging many different semiconductor technologies (i.e. LOGIC, DRAM, BICMOS, SiGe, GaAs) together easily while allowing extremely high bandwidth between the individual die owing to the high density and low capacitance loading of die-to-die C4 interconnects. However, the conventional C4 joining process described above poses problems when applied to the direct joining of individual dies. In the conventional die-to-substrate attach procedure, the substrate is always larger, and typically very much larger, than the die. This size difference facilitates the application of flux since it can be easily applied only to the region where the die will attach, and does not cover other surfaces which would cause it to stick to the process fixturing. In contrast, for die-to-die attachment, both components are generally small and close to the same physical size which makes it difficult to contain the flux to only the joining surface during apply and reflow. Furthermore, if flux is used in the die-to-die attach procedure, it usually will cover the metal pads used for wirebond connections later in the assembly process. Since flux is difficult to clean without leaving some trace residuals, problems with the wirebond connection may result. Finally, stacked die configurations are envisioned where a smaller die straddles two or more larger die. The relatively loose placement tolerances of the substrate in the die-to-substrate attach procedure would preclude its successful application to die-to-die attachment. The present widely used methods for the direct chip attachment (DCA) of semiconductor IC's to substrates are inconvenient, costly and time consuming and do not not adequately address present requirements. It would therefore be extremely advantageous to provide a simple cost effective solution which achieves the aforestated objectives.


A method and a system for calculating a JCMA constellation for use in a JCMA communication system where the method includes a step of using maximum sum-rate mutual information criterion to select an optimal JCMA constellation for the number of transmitters N, SNR and modulation schemes used by the transmitters.

The proliferation of wireless communication interfaces in mobile and stationary devices rendered the frequency spectrum scarce. Efficient use of allocated bandwidth for communication is a critical issue for the viability of wireless communication systems.
Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) is a widely used method for allowing multiple transmitters access to a common wireless channel. An example is cellular telephony where multiple mobile users access the same base station. Specifically, FDMA was recently adopted for uplink in the Long Term Evolution (LTE) extension of the Universal Mobile Telecommunication Systems (UMTS) standard.
The use of Joint Constellation Multiple Access (JCMA) is known. US patent application 20090135926 is believed to represent the most relevant prior art. US patent application 20090135926 is incorporated herein by reference
The following documents are believed to represent further relevant prior art:                J. G. Proakis, Digital Communication, McGraw Hill, 3rd edition, 1995.        T. M. Cover and J. Thomas. Elements of Information Theory. John Wiley and Sons Inc., second edition, 2006.        A. Goldsmith, Wireless Communications, Cambridge University Press, 2006.        C. Johnson, Radio Access Networks for UMTS, Wiley, 2008.        G. R. Tsouri and D. Wulich, "Securing OFDM over Wireless Time-Varying Channels using Sub-Carrier Over-Loading with Joint Signal Constellations", Eurasip Journal on Wireless Communications & Networking, 2009.
In the classical FDMA approach the total frequency spectrum is divided into sub-bands. The receiver allocates a sub-band to each transmitter, and each transmitter has exclusive use of its allocated sub-band. This converts the allocated total bandwidth into a set of orthogonal channels connecting the transmitters and receiver.
JCMA suggests coupling N multiple transmitters under a Superposition Modulation (SM) scheme. This allows the joining of their multiple sub-bands to a single sub-band N times larger than an original sub-band. The large bandwidth would allow transmission at a rate N times larger than the original rate. However, the energy per transmitted symbol would decrease by a factor of N as well, resulting in an increase of the Bit Error Rate (BER) upon decoding at the receiver. The increase in BER would be mitigated by applying source coding prior to transmission and by synchronizing the transmitters to form a superimposed constellation which is robust to noise at the receiver. Applying coding would result in throughput decrease. If the decrease in throughput due to coding is less than the increase in transmission rate due to bandwidth expansion, the throughput with synchronized SM would be larger than the throughput of classical FDMA.
As described above, JCMA is based on synchronous Superposition Modulation (SM) and coding for increasing the spectral efficiency of practical FDMA systems. SM is known to achieve maximal aggregated capacity. However, SM is largely avoided under the premise that capacity increase offered by SM is not substantial compared to the complexity involved in obtaining accurate synchronization and power control required for its operation.
There is thus a recognized need for, and it would be highly advantageous to have, a communication system, and particularly a JCMA communication system having increased capacity, preferably by optimizing the immunity of the constellation used to SNR.

Using maximal sum-rate mutual information to optimize JCMA constellations


A resistor combination and method, that is formed by a substrate having a resistive film on it, and pins extruding from one edge of the substrate and connected to the film. A U-shaped cold region is provided on the substrate around at least much of the film, and is so constructed that application of common high overload voltages to the pins causes vertical fracture of the substrate. The resulting substrate pieces are held by the pins to the circuit board. In one embodiment, a synthetic resin housing is provided around the substrate.

It has long been known that it would be extremely desirable to achieve fracturing resistors that are reliable, fast-acting, practical, commercial, compact and strong, yet such that, in at least the vast majority of cases when fracturing occurs, the resulting debris does not drop onto or away from the circuit boards on which the resistors are mounted. Otherwise, the debris may fall randomly, for example, into the electronic systems (electronics) of which the resistors are part.
Any prior-art fracturing resistors that attempted to achieve debris reduction were unreliable, slow, or otherwise unsatisfactory in operation, or were impractical, excessively large, inefficient, or deficient in other ways.
It would also be extremely desirable to have a very reliable and effective circuit-breaking resistor in a housing--where debris reduction is not a factor.

Debris-reducing film-type resistor and method


A master control device in the configuration of a wand may control pre-programmed aspects of the user's environment using RFID/NFC tags and RFID/NFC readers to initiate pre-programmed behavior in a computer database. This pre-programmed behavior be the control of items that rely on electricity and/or gas, such as lights, electric fireplaces, electric valves, activating the listening feature on a home assistant, accruing a balance, paying for items with a topped-up balance, and locking and unlocking doors. This master control device can be used in the connected home or business, such as a pub, restaurant, hotel, or immersive experience.

In recent years there has been a wave of innovation in Internet of Things (IoT) technology for consumer use. The growing popularity of home assistants, such as Alexa and Google Home, as well as home automation systems like Nest mean that this technology is reaching a mainstream audience. Now more than ever, a person can control aspects of the home using a smartphone, voice command, or gesture.
Radio frequency identification (RFID) and near-field communication (NFC) technology has been implemented in various products and systems. RFID and NFC uses range from tracking of good and items to processing payments. RFID and NFC technology, however, can be utilized to improve various elements of IoT technology to control aspects of a user's environment.

Control device for enabling RF control in a user environment


A composition curable to a solid crosslinked polyorganosiloxane comprises:. (a) an acrylic functional silicone prepolymer having a plurality of acrylic groups of the formula: ##STR1## bound to silicon atoms thereof, where R is H or methyl, and R.sup.1 is a divalent olefinically unsaturated hydrocarbon group, PA0 (b) a silicone prepolymer having a plurality of organothiol groups thereon, and PA0 (c) an effective amount of a thiol-ene cure catalyst.. Particularly preferred formulations are photoinitiated formulations employing alkylthiol functional silicones in which the total number of thiol groups is between 0.5 and 1.5 times the total number of ene groups counting both the acrylic and the linking group R.sup.1 as ene groups.

Curable formulations for adhesive, coating, molding and potting applications based on thiol-ene chemistry are well known. A detailed discussion of the general background art in this field may be found in U.S. Pat. 4,808,638 and in the cited references thereto.
This invention relates to a particular subgroup of thiolene formulations in which the thiol and ene are both silicones and the ene resin is an acrylic group.
As used herein, the term "silicone" is used in its conventional sense to refer to polyorganosiloxane polymers. Typically the organo groups are alkyl, aryl, or haloalkyl. Examples of such groups include methyl, ethyl, phenyl and trifluropropyl. Other organo groups may also be present. The term "(meth)acryl" is used generally to refer to both acryl and methacryl functional groups. The term "acrylic" is used generally to refer to both acrylate and methacrylate groups unless the context indicates otherwise.
Thiol-ene formulations employing organo acrylic ene compounds are described in U.S. Pat. 4,008,341; U.S. 4,120,721 and in Gush et al, "Thiol/Acrylate Hybrid Systems in Radiation-Curable Coatings--The Best of Both Worlds", presented at the NPCA Chemical Coatings Conference II, Cincinnati, Ohio, May 10, 1978.
Curable (meth)acryloxy or (meth)acrylamide functional silicone formulations which also employ organothiol functional silicones, as radical chain transfer agents or for thiol-ene co-curing, are described in US 4,290,869; US 4,595,471; and EP 273,565. None of these references describe formulations which utilize alkenylene linking groups between the (meth)acrylic functional group and the silicone backbone.
In U.S. 4,503,208, 4,504,629, 4,575,545, 4,575,546 and 4,760,122 all of which are incorporated here in by reference, the preparation of (meth)acryloxyalkenylene functional silicones is described. Such silicones have a plurality of groups of the formula: ##STR2## attached to silicon atoms thereof where R is H or methyl, and R.sup.1 is a divalent olefinically unsaturated hydrocarbon group. These references do not describe or suggest curing the resins by thiolene addition reactions.
Researchers at Dow Corning ,Company, a company which has extensively investigated thiol-ene curing of vinyl silicones, have also reported that vinyl functional silicones cured by the thiol-ene reaction display much poorer thermal stability properties compared to the properties of vinyl silicones cured without polythiol. This result has been explained as "undoubtedly a result of the monosulfide crosslink." Clark, et al, "Ultraviolet Curable Silicone Elastomer Useful as Optical Fiber Coating", Polym, Mater, Sci. Eng., 1985, 52 442-47. Other Dow Corning Company researchers have also recently reported "mercapto-olefin functional siloxanes crosslink extremely fast by radiation and curing is not inhibited by oxygen. These systems, however, have several inherent drawbacks such as obnoxious odor and thermal instability" (emphasis added). P.J. Varaparth, et al., RadTech Proceedings, RadTech International, Northbrook, Illinois, pp 16-29 - 16-38 (April 1988).

Crosslinking of (meth) acryloxyalkenylene functional siloxane prepolymers


The present invention concerning of a device for mounting or dismantling, replacement and maintenance of a can-combustor of a gas turbine engine including an assembly tool or assembly tool with additional frame having at least one lifting beam, at least one linear driver, wheels, at least one eccentric rolling hook for fixation of the gas turbine housing, optionally spacers for building the interface to the can-combustor, adapters, lifting points for the main crane. The eccentric rolling hook is connected to the gas turbine housing by giving in axial or quasi-axial direction a force for mounting or dismantling the can-combustor from the gas turbine housing.

In a combustor mounting/demounting apparatus with the conventional technique according to state of the art, when replacing the combustor for use in the gas turbine engine, the piping and alike that are disposed around the combustor are demounted, and then a scaffold is assembled. A workman gets on the scaffold and operates an overhead crane to thereby sling and replace the combustor. For this reason it is necessary to remove or restore a number of piping that have been assembled around the combustor over a wide range, and it is also necessary to perform the work of assembling and disassembling the scaffold.
As a result, in the above-mentioned conventional operation, a large number of man-hours are needed, and a long work term is spent, for replacing the combustor and the work incidental thereto. Also, in the above-mentioned conventional operation, the work of the scaffold is performed at an overhead position, and workmen do not always have the appropriate posture, which is dangerous. Further, in the above-mentioned conventional operation, the work such as crane operation and slinging work requires a high level of skill, but is low in working efficiency. The result is that during the performance of the work, the combustor or the main body of the gas turbine is sometimes impaired or damaged.
With reference to U.S. Pat. No. 5,911,680, in a gas turbine that is equipped, on a casing thereof, with a plurality of combustors in the circumferential direction thereof, there is provided a rail which is supported on a rail receiving stand that is movable on the ground and which is disposed in the form of a circular annulus or circular arc in correspondence with the disposition of the combustors. A slide mechanism is mounted on the rail so as to movable along the rail and is mounted so that the slide mechanism can enter into and retreat from the interior of the casing. A grip mechanism is mounted on an end portion of the slide mechanism and grips constituent parts of the combustor, such as a tail pipe, a nozzle and an inner cylinder. Also, in another aspect of the present embodiment, there are provided a rail that is shaped like a circular arc and is revolvably supported on the revolvable carriage, and a grip mechanism that grips constituent parts of the combustor.

Device and method for mounting or dismantling, replacement and maintenance of a can-combustor


The present invention provides a polarization switching liquid crystal element 1 having TN liquid crystal 7 retained between two transparent substrates 2a and 2b for transmitting at least visible polarized light with the polarized light transmission axis selectively rotated by 90 degrees when a voltage is selectively applied to the TN liquid crystal 7, wherein a phase difference u of said TN liquid crystal 7 is defined by the following equation: u=2×Δn×d/λ, where Δn is the refractive index anisotropy of said TN liquid crystal 7, d is the thickness of said TN liquid crystal 7, and λ is the wavelength of said polarized light, and a transmittance T of said polarization switching liquid crystal element measured with polarization plates on the incident and outgoing sides is defined by the following equation: T=(½)×sin2{π(1+u2)1/2/2}/(1+u2), and wherein the phase difference u includes a value 1.7 and the transmittance T is 0.1 or lower when the λ ranges from 400 nm to 700 nm. Then, a polarization switching liquid crystal element having a high response speed and reduced wavelength-dependency can be realized using inexpensive and highly durable TN liquid crystal without increasing parts cost.

Many liquid crystal elements are used in display applications. Many liquid crystal elements in display applications realize a gradation display, not a two-grade, black and white display. In addition, various techniques have been developed in pursuing improved viewing angles required for viewing from different angles.
On the other hand, liquid crystal elements in applications other than display include a liquid crystal switching element that transmits the incident light with the polarization plane selectively rotated. In terms of display, such liquid crystal switching elements are elements switching two states, black display and white display. In many cases, they have two different action; they transmit a linearly polarized light with or without the polarized light transmission axis rotated by 90 degrees. In the present specification, liquid crystal elements switching these two states are referred to as polarization switching liquid crystal elements.
Liquid crystal materials and structures different from those in display applications are being studied for the polarization switching liquid crystal element used for switching. For example, one of the requirements for switching elements is the switching speed. Some known elements use ferroelectric liquid crystal for higher switching response speeds. However, ferroelectric liquid crystal is unstable in terms of durability and expensive and therefore not practical.
TN (twist nematic) liquid crystal is known for its stable durability and inexpensiveness. However, TN liquid crystal generally has a lower response speed compared with ferroelectric liquid crystal. Therefore, the thickness of liquid crystal (cell gap) must be small in order to realize a high response speed using TN liquid crystal. However, when the cell gap is simply reduced, the rotation of the polarization becomes wavelength-dependent.
A known means for eliminating the wavelength-dependency consists of, for example, a combination of phase plates (for example, see Patent Document 1, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H7-64048). In such a case, the addition of phase plates increases parts cost.
Some image display apparatuses having a spatial light modulation element such as a transmissive LCD utilize the wobbling technique in which a pixel shifting element is used to improve the resolution of the spatial light modulation element. In the wobbling technique, a pixel shifting element consisting of a polarization switching liquid crystal element for selectively rotating the polarization by 90 degrees and a birefringent plate for selectively shifting the light beam according to the polarization direction is used to synchronize the pixel shifting due to the light beam shifting with the image on the spatial light modulation element corresponding to the shifted light beam position for higher resolution.
It is advantageous that the polarization switching liquid crystal element used in the above pixel shifting element is capable of high speed response. Therefore, ferroelectric liquid crystal is used in some known cases (for example, see Patent Document 1). However, ferroelectric liquid crystal is unstable in terms of durability and expensive as described above and is therefore not practical.
In some known cases, durable and inexpensive TN crystal is used and the drive timing is optimized in consideration of the response speed (for example, see Patent Document 2, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-296135). However, this technique has limitations in applying to field-sequential image display apparatuses in which R, G, and B colors are sequentially displayed. There is also a demand for TN liquid crystal having a high response speed.
Field-sequential image display apparatuses (for example projectors) have been realized as color field-sequential image display apparatuses as the spatial light modulation element has higher response speeds. In the color field-sequential image display apparatus, one spatial light modulation element is illuminated with R, G, or B color light in sequence to modulate them according to information of each color for color display. In this way, a simplified and inexpensive structure can be realized compared to three-plate image display apparatuses in which three spatial light modulation elements are used for R, G, and B colors.
The color field-sequential image display apparatus has color breaking as a result of sequential color illumination. Therefore, higher display frequencies are required for the respective colors. When the pixel shifting is performed by wobbling in the color field-sequential image display apparatus, the polarization switching liquid crystal element consisting of TN liquid crystal has to be capable of high speed operation corresponding to the spatial light modulation element.
The high speed response capability of the polarization switching liquid crystal element can be improved to some extent by optimizing the drive timing of the TN liquid crystal. In order to improve the wobbling performance, TN liquid crystal having a higher response speed is desired.
For example, when the cell gap is reduced in order to increase the response speed of TN liquid crystal, false colors appear because of the wavelength-dependent light rotation property, deteriorating the displayed image quality. In order to prevent false colors due to the wavelength-dependency, phase plates can be provided as disclosed in the above patent Document 1. However, parts cost may be increased as described above.

Polarization switching liquid crystal element and image display apparatus having the same


A rotor is provided for use in an electric motor. The rotor is rotatable about an axis. The rotor includes a core including a plurality of arcuately arranged pole segments arranged arcuately the axis. The rotor further includes a plurality of arcuately arranged magnets alternating with the pole segments, such that each of the magnets is at least in part interposed between a pair of adjacent pole segments. Still further, the rotor includes a support structure at least in part supporting the pole segments. The core further includes a plurality of bridges. Each of the bridges extends between and interconnects a corresponding one of the pole segments to the support structure. Each of the bridges includes a plurality of axially spaced apart bridge segments.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an electric motor. The motor preferably improves system efficiency in applications including but not limited to heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems; pumps; and home appliances. Yet further, the motor preferably reduces operational vibration and/or noise. More particularly, the motor preferably concentrates magnetic flux and reduces flux leakage, resulting in higher power density, in addition to reducing cogging torque, torque ripple, and noise. Yet further, the motor ideally has low manufacturing complexity, high structural rigidity, and reduced active material and cost.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Electric motors are conventionally used in applications including but not limited to heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems; pumps; and home appliances. Such motors conventionally include a stator and a rotor. The rotor conventionally includes a generally toroidal rotor core and a plurality of surface magnets mounted about a perimeter of the core.

Spoked rotor with inner structural bridges providing low flux leakage