An application testing developer system provides a platform for generating real-time suggestions for allocating test cases to testers in a distributed environment based on monitored characteristics from previous testing of a test application. The application testing developer system includes a smart advisory tool that optimizes test case allocation in real-time, adaptively assigns incentives in real-time to test cases for prioritizing testing of certain test cases over others, and monitors and validates testing activities.

The development of a new computer-run application may include a testing phase where testers are tasked with utilizing draft versions of the application to test certain features of the application. With the complexity of the applications that are being developed, a greater number of testers is required to devote many man hours of time to go through and test the many features of the applications. Testing teams may be created to be distributed geographically so that remote teams of testers are assigned testing tasks for a common application. The testing teams may also be grouped according to composite teams such as a project team, an internal crowd team, an external crowd team, and a beta users team.
Within the field of enterprise solution applications, the high velocity of business innovations and application development has created a need for adaptive software engineering. Specifically during the testing stage of an application, there are several important questions that arise in order to achieve a truly adaptive application testing software engineering result. For one, are the testers performing their task effectively? Second, are the testers testing the right components of the app? And finally, how can the testers be rewarded or incentivized for successfully completing an assigned task effectively? The answers to these questions are especially relevant when the testing team is geographically distributed to be working from different locations and composited across different sub-groups such that there may not be daily face to face interaction between the testers and the test managers who are responsible for assigning the testing tasks to the individual testers and overseeing the overall application testing process.
It follows that within the context of high velocity application development, test managers may run into the technical problem of not having available a 'data driven' approach to adapting testing for such high velocity application development.

Smart advisory for distributed and composite testing teams based on production data and analytics


A Fully Interconnected System Architecture (FISA) for an improved data processing system. The data processing system topology has a processor chip and external components to the processor chip, such as memory and input/output (I/O) and other processor chips. The processor chip is interconnected to the external components via a point-to-point bus topology controlled by an intra-chip integrated, distributed switch (IDS) controller. The IDS controller provides the chip with the functionality to provide a single bus to each external component and provides an overall total bandwidth greater than traditional topologies while reducing latencies between the processor and the external components. The design of the processor chip with the intra-chip IDS controller provides a pseudo xe2x80x9cdistributed switchxe2x80x9d which may separately access distributed external components, such as memory and I/Os, etc.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to data processing systems and, more particularly, to an improved data processing system topology. Still more particularly, the present invention refers to an improved data processing system topology utilizing a Fully Interconnected System Architecture (FISA).
2. Description of the Related Art
Increasing performance and reliability and decreasing component size or required space are important aspects of data processing system development. System developers continually search for ways to increase the system processing performance while maintaining reliability in the transmission processes, without incurring additional hardware costs. Often such development is focussed on faster overall processors. However, this development may also center around increasing the capacity of data buses and other buses or increasing the propagation speed between system components. Those skilled in the art are familiar with the trend of increasing the capacities of the buses within a data processing system to improve efficiency of the system.
An integrated circuit (I/C) is a device consisting of a number of connected circuit elements, such as transistors and resistors and functional combinations thereof, fabricated on a single chip of silicon crystal or other semiconductor material. In integrated circuit fabrication technology, an ever-increasing number of integrated circuit devices are being built into chips. This growing number of devices requires a correspondingly larger amount of space and greater numbers of input/output (I/O) connections to and from the chip.
Typically, the I/O connections are conductive metal pathways, connected to the metal leads protruding from the edges of the I/C chips. These I/O connections are referred to as data buses and each set of parallel data buses is characterized by the number of bits it can transfer at a single time, equivalent to the number of parallel conducting paths (which can be thought of as wires) wired to the metal leads of an integrated circuit chip. The number of these parallel conducting paths is typically referred to as the width of the bus.
The miniaturization of integrated circuits has made it possible to pack more and more data processing power into a small volume. The increased data processing power has made it necessary to provide more metal leads (I/O connections) for each I/C chip. However, the small volume of the I/C chip (i.e., small edge surface area) has also resulted in such metal leads being tightly spaced. Consequently, on a printed circuit board utilizing modern integrated circuits, the I/O connections of the I/C chips are physically very close. Accordingly, the conductive paths, at least where they connect with individual I/O connections, are also in very close proximity to each other.
I/C chips are manufactured with different numbers of metal layers. One of the more popular chip topologies has eight metal layers with the layers configured in a criss-crossed manner. The intra-chip components, which may comprise of a processor, higher level cache (or caches), and cache controller are typically located within the lower layers of metal and require large amounts of transistors. Thus the lower metal layers of a chip are primarily used to connect transistors and other logic components.
While the limit to the number of conductors practicably connected in parallel is rapidly being approached, the processing power of integrated circuits continues to increase while the volume of the I/C chip continues to shrink.
One common I/C chip is the processor chip utilized within a data processing system. Typically, processors and higher level caches are located on a processor chip, which is designed with a plurality of buses extending off of the edges of the chip. Current chip manufacture allows for the placement of multiple processors on a single chip. These chips in turn have a set of dedicated buses through which the processors communicate to external components such as memory, input/output (I/O) devices and other processors. These buses provide the connection (via the system bus) required by the processor to external (i.e., off-chip) components such as system memory and other processors in a multi-chip configuration. Current designs of data processing systems involve coupling together several of these processor chips to create multi-processor data processing systems (or symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) data processing systems).
The improvements in silicon technology result in the reduction in size of the chip components (eg., transistors) and a corresponding increase in processor frequencies. The increased processor frequencies in turn lead to higher levels of cache misses. One way of reducing the number of cache misses, while utilizing the extra intra-chip space due to smaller processor transistors, is by increasing the size of the intra-chip L2 caches. This necessitates larger numbers of transistors which make up the primary component of caches. The (lower) metal layers with the resulting larger L2 caches are therefore extremely inundated with transistor interconnects. In contrast, the upper metal layers of the chip are traditionally free of transistors and/or sparingly utilized.
Traditionally data processing systems were designed with single processor chips having one or more central processing units (CPU) and a tri-state multi-drop bus. In these traditional single chip data processing systems, all bus interfaces were utilized by memory, other caches, and input/output (I/O) devices. With the fast growth of multi-processor data processing systems, building larger scalable SMPs requires the ability to hook up multiple numbers of these chips utilizing the bus interface.
One recent development in improving efficiency of communication between chip components with external components, such as other chips and memory, without necessarily requiring larger numbers of on-chip connectors is the utilization of an off-chip switch connector. Off-chip switches typically are comprised of large masses of wire interconnects which provide multiple point-to-point connections between chip components and external components. This topology is referred to as the tri-state point-to-point bus topology.
In more recent SMP topologies, the conventional tri-state system buses have been replaced by switches. Switches typically comprise of a large number of connectors which provide direct connection between the processor chip and each of the external components coupled to it. Switch topologies provide faster/direct connection between components leading to more efficient and faster processing. In these switch based systems, the switches are located on the processing system""s motherboard and are designed as separate and individual components on the data processing system. Switches are very wire intensive, and requires large amounts of silicon and space on the data processing system""s motherboard.
Another topology implemented within the industry is the uni-directional point-to-point bus topology which also utilizes a switch but provides individual buses to connect each system component to another. Although this approach provides higher frequency buses, the limitations of a switch topology, as previously described, still exist.
The present invention recognizes that it would therefore be desirable and advantageous to have a data processing system topology which allows for more efficient routing of signals and/or data between processor chip components and external components to the processor chip. It would also be desirable to have a data processing system which implements a more efficient tri-state or point-to-point bus interconnect without the limitations of requiring separate space on the processor motherboard or additional chip space (i.e., without incurring additional hardware costs). It would further be desirable to have a fully interconnected system architecture which provided processors with larger overall interconnect bandwidth and reduced latencies to improve overall system performance.
It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide an improved data processing system.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved data processing system topology.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide to an improved data processing system topology with lower latencies and increased data bandwidths utilizing a Fully Interconnected System Architecture (FISA).
The foregoing objects are achieved as follows. A Fully Interconnected System Architecture (FISA) is described for an improved data processing system. The data processing system topology has a processor chip and external components to the processor chip, such as memory and input/output (I/O) and other processor chips. The processor chip is interconnected to the external components via a point-to-point bus topology controlled by an intra-chip integrated, distributed switch (IDS) controller. The IDS controller provides the chip with the functionality to provide a single bus to each external component and provides an overall total bandwidth greater than traditional topologies while reducing latencies between the processor and the external components. The design of the processor chip with the intra-chip IDS controller provides a pseudo xe2x80x9cdistributed switchxe2x80x9d which may separately access distributed external components, such as memory and I/Os, etc.
The above as well as additional objectives, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following detailed written description.

Data processing system with fully interconnected system architecture (FISA)

International Business Machines Corporation


A print head for reproducing a multi-level image is an provided. In the print head, a light-emitting array comprises a linear line of light-emitting elements. A D/A converter converts a multi-level image data to an analog signal, and an analog shift register shifts and latches the analog signals of a line received from the D/A converter. An analog latch register latches the analog signals held by the analog shift register. A driver controls the quantity of light of the light-emitting elements according to the analog signals latched by the analog latch register. In one embodiment, the print head includes a second analog shift register, an A/D converter a line memory and a divider which divides the image data by a signal from the line memory to produce corrected data which is provided to the driver to control driving of the light-emitting elements. In another embodiment, the print head includes an amplifier and a gain correction circuit having a sample and hold circuit from which the driver receives signals to control driving of the light-emitting elements.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print head of solid state scan type or a print head comprising a linear line of light-emitting elements such as an LED print head.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A print head which is used most at present uses a laser diode and a rotating polygon mirror. A laser beam generated by the laser diode is reflected by the polygon mirror to scan a photoconductor in the main scan direction. However, such a print head has problems such as vibrations and noises due to the rotation of the polygon mirror. As a whole, a print head of solid state scan type or with light-emitting elements aligned linearly, such as an LED head, is more appropriate because of no mechanical scan and a small size thereof.
Previously, a print head of solid state scan type such as an LED head is used to control the turn on/off of laser beams of the LED elements in the unit of a bit according to a bi-level image data so as to print a bi-level image. In other words, because the print head of solid state scan type controls the turn on/off of beams in the unit of a bit, it cannot express a half-tone image.
Then, it is suggested to modulate a beam intensity (driving current) or to modulate a driving time (pulse width) in order to express a multi-level image with an LED print head (refer Japanese Patent laid open Publications 1-180577/1989 and 1-258965/1989). The modulation can express a multi-level image of image data up to about four bits while correcting the scattering of the characteristics of each light-emitting element. However, it is difficult to express a multi-level image of image data of eight bits or more due to the circuit area size and the cost.

Print head with light-emitting element driving correction


In a timing delay characterization method, a signal path between an input terminal and an output terminal of a semiconductor circuit is divided into an input stage, a processing stage, and an output stage. An operation of the input stage is simulated at various input parameter values of an input parameter at the input terminal to obtain corresponding extrinsic input timing delays associated with the input stage. An operation of the processing stage is simulated to obtain an intrinsic timing delay associated with the processing stage. An operation of the output stage is simulated at various output parameter values of an output parameter at the output terminal to obtain corresponding extrinsic output timing delays associated with the output stage. A timing delay data store is generated or populated based on the extrinsic input timing delays, the extrinsic output timing delays and the intrinsic timing delay.

The recent trend in miniaturizing integrated circuits (ICs) has resulted in smaller devices which consume less power, yet provide more functionality at higher speeds than before. The miniaturization process has also resulted in stricter design and manufacturing specifications. Pre-manufacture checking and testing are performed to make sure that a semiconductor circuit can be made and will function as designed. Timing delay characterization is a common checking procedure which gives various timing delays for evaluating or optimizing the semiconductor circuit. At advanced technology nodes where semiconductor circuit density is high, the amount of data to be processed in a timing delay characterization increases. As a result, it becomes more difficult to achieve the desired accuracy at an acceptable processing speed.

Timing delay characterization method, memory compiler and computer program product

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


A catalytic combustion device of the type including a catalyst for oxidation of a fuel vapor and air, and an ignition heater for initiating oxidation on the catalyst is disclosed. The device comprises a tubular first member carrying thereon the catalyst for supplying the fuel vapor to the catalyst, and a tubular second member disposed in the first member defining therein a passageway for the fuel vapor, the second member being secured at its one end thereof to the first member so as to constitute a thermostatic element for controlling the rate of gas flow by means of the difference in thermal expansion between the first and second members.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a domestic catalytic combustion device using catalytic combustion heat as the heat source.
2. Description of Related Art
Heretofore catalytic combustion devices wherein a fuel, which is a gas at room temperature (hereinafter referred to as "liquefied fuel"), such as hydrogen, methane, propane or butane is burnt on surfaces of a catalyst consisting of a noble metal such as platinum or palladium carried on a support or carrier made of glass fibers, porous metal or ceramics. Such catalytic combustion devices are used in domestic appliances such as radiant heaters or stoves fired with a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or town gas, soft soldering irons or hair curlers fired with an LPG, or body warmers fired with benzine.
According to the known devices, it has been customary practice to adjust the rate of supply of fuel by means of a pressure regulator and a nozzle associated therewith, thereby adjusting the amount of combustion and the heating temperature. With this arrangement, the adjustment of the amount of combustion in response to the temperature of a combustion chamber or an object to be heated is difficult to achieve.
The catalytic combustion burner is required to have a small thermal capacity for ignitability. Further, the temperature of the catalyst well depends on the change in the rate of supply of gas. Therefore, it is required that the gas supply to the catalytic combustion burner is controlled in response to the temperature of catalyst. Because of its greater thermal capacity, the heating object cools substantially slower than the catalyst during which time the temperature of the catalyst is lowered below the combustible temperature. The catalyst cannot be ignited again and hence a continuous combustion cannot be achieved. On the other hand, at the ignition and temperature glow stages, the catalyst becomes hot well before the heating element is heated and sometimes it is heated at an undue elevated temperature which would have a negative influence on the service time of the catalyst. In order to overcome the foregoing drawbacks, it is necessary to detect a temperature at a point adjacent to the catalyst.
There have been known hair curlers which comprise a bimetal or an expandable liquid thermostatic element disposed in a heating chamber containing a catalytic combustion burner for detecting temperature and for controlling the rate of gas flow in response to the detected temperature. The known hair curler has a drawback in that both the burner and the thermostatic element are disposed in a curling pipe and hence reduction in diameter of the curling pipe is difficult to achieve.
Gas-fired ovens, gas-fired grills or gas-fired water heaters with a flame combustion burner without using a catalyst are known in which a bimetal or an expandable liquid thermostatic element is disposed in a combustion chamber or heating object for detecting the temperature to thereby adjusting the amount of combustion gas. With this arrangement, the thermostatic element is disposed in the combustion chamber through which the waste gas flows, so that the thermostatic element is susceptible to corrosion. A further disadvantage is that a cooking material or other substance is likely to adhere to the surface of the thermostatic element to thereby alter the set temperature.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


News documents from one or more sources are aggregated. The news documents are grouped into a plurality of news collections. Each of the news collections includes a sub-set of the news documents having related content. Objects described by the news collections are determined. The objects collectively form a set of objects. A relevance of each of the news collections is measured with respect to the objects respectively described by the news collections and one or more news collections are determined from the plurality of news collections to be associated with a first object included in the set of objects based on the relevance of the one or more news collections to the first object.

The present disclosure relates to generating summaries of objects referenced in the news based on relevance.
People often search the Internet for information about a particular person, place, topic, etc. However, existing search engines often return results that are irrelevant or off-topic. Relevancy can be difficult for computers to determine because it may require the computers to understand the context of the information. For example, existing search engines may provide a news story mentioning a particular sickness in response to a search about the sickness, even though the premise of the news story is directed to an unrelated event.

Relevance determination and summary generation for news objects


A mold structure for press molding, including an upper mold member and a lower mold member in a sleeve member in longitudinally slidable manner. The mold includes a member for limiting the movement of the lower mold member with respect to the sleeve member in a direction in which the lower mold member is separated from the upper mold member, and a ring member mounted on the upper end face of the sleeve member. The ring member is provided, in the longitudinal direction of the sleeve member, with at least three penetrating holes in which pins with same length are detachably inserted, and the upper mold member has an impinging face to be brought into contact with the pins in the pressing operation, thus determining the thickness of the molded article.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the structure of a mold for press molding, and more particularly to such structure capable of maintaining a satisfactory precision in thickness of the molded article and also maintaining a long service life of the mold. The present invention is advantageously applicable, for example, to a mold for rapidly producing an optical element with optically functional surface from a molding material by pressing.
2. Related Background Art
There has recently been developed a method of producing an optical element provided with an optically functional face, by placing a molding material, such as a glass blank pre-molded to the shape and surface precision of a certain extent, in a mold of a desired surface precision and press molding said material under heating, thereby dispensing with post-finishing such as grinding and polishing.
Said press molding method consists of the steps of: positioning at least a pair of mold members so as to be capable of reciprocating in an opposite direction, relatively introducing a molding material into a cavity formed by members including said paired mold members; establishing a non-oxidative atmosphere, for example, nitrogen atmosphere for preventing the oxidation of the mold member; heating the mold members to a temperature enabling the molding, for example, a temperature where the viscosity of the molding material becomes to 10.sup.8 to 10.sup.12 poise; closing the mold members and effecting the pressing for a suitable period thereby transferring the surface form of the mold members to the molding material; then cooling the mold members to a temperature sufficiently lower than the glass transition temperature of the molding material; and removing the pressing pressure, to take out the molded optical element by opening the mold members.
The press molding method explained above enables to produce, for example, aspherical lens which has been extremely expensive, with a relatively low cost.
In the mold members for the press molding explained above, the thickness of the molded article, namely the thickness in a direction along which said paired mold-members are mutually opposed, is determined by stop position where said paired mold members are stopped to move in the mutual opposed directions upon pressing operation. Conventionally, a sleeve-shaped cylindrical mold member is employed for setting said stop position, and the thickness of the molded article is determined by impingement of the paired mold members directly or indirectly to said cylindrical mold member, or by fixing one of the paired mold members with said cylindrical mold member and impinging the other on said cylindrical mold member.
Such structure is disclosed for example in the Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. 61-174127 and the Japanese Utility Model Laid-open Application No. 62-203235.
In such conventional structure, however, the impingement between the cylindrical mold member and at least one of the paired mold members takes place over an entire end face of the cylindrical mold member, and eventual presence of foreign matters such as dusts or fragments of molding material on said wide impinging face will hinder obtaining the proper stop position in the pressing operation. Particularly, after repeated pressing operations, there often results significant deterioration in the precision of stop position because of increase of such foreign matters on the impinging face, or damage on the impinging face by said foreign matters, leading to a shortened service life of the mold members.

Mold for press molding of optical element


A new multiple component stent arrangement which allows for initial self-expansion and subsequent deformation to a final enlarged size. These tissue supporting devices are generally cylindrical or tubular. They have at least one component which is deformable, by an external force, to maintain further expansion.

This invention relates to tissue supporting devices in general and most particularly to vascular stents for placement in blood vessels. A primary feature of the devices of this invention is that they are expandable within the body.
In the past, such devices have been provided for implantation within body passageways. These devices have been characterized by the ability to be enlarged radially, often having been introduced into the desired position in the body as by percutaneous techniques or surgical techniques.
These devices are either expanded mechanically, such as by expansion of a balloon positioned inside the device, or are capable of releasing stored energy to self-expand themselves within the body.
References designated as defining the general state of the art but not considered to be of particular relevance to the invention disclosed and claimed herein are as follows. French Patent 2,617,721 appears to disclose a catheter used for permanently dilating a stenosis in a tubular organ or blood vessel. WO94/03127 appears to disclose a prosthetic device for sustaining a blood vessel or hollow organ lumen comprising a tubular wire frame. European Patent Application 364,787 and European Patent Application 335,341 appear to disclose expandable intraluminal vascular grafts. WO92/19310 appears to disclose a tissue supporting device of a shape memory alloy. U.S. Pat. No. 5,147,370 appears to disclose a nitinol stent for hollow body conduits. UK Patent 2,175,824A appears to disclose a method of producing a composite metal material and a billet for jet engine turbine blades, armor, helicopter rotor blades, car suspension stress parts or sword blades made of said composite material.
The materials which have been used to make up these devices have included ordinary metals, shape memory alloys, various plastics, both biodegradable and not, and the like.
This invention is concerned with the use of these materials in a new multiple component arrangement which allows for initial self-expansion and subsequent deformation to a final enlarged diameter in the body.
Balloon expandable stents do not always expand uniformly around their circumference. As a result, healing may not take place in a consistent manner. If the stent is coated or covered, non-uniform expansion may tear the covering or coating. Additionally, long stents of this type may require long balloons which can be difficult to handle, difficult to size, and may not offer ideal performance in tortuous passages in blood vessels and the like.
Thus, when addressing such issues, self-expandable stents have been thought to be generally more desirable. Unfortunately, one cannot control the degree of expansion and hence the degree of embedment in the vessel wall. It has been determined that a stent must be embedded to some degree to be clinically satisfactory.
The stents of the present invention provide the best features of both of these types of stents without their drawbacks.
The tissue supporting devices of this invention are generally cylindrical or tubular in overall shape and of such a configuration as to allow radial expansion for enlargement. They are often referred to herein in the general sense as xe2x80x9cstentsxe2x80x9d. Furthermore, the devices are comprised of at least one component, element, constituent or portion which exhibits a tendency to self-expand the device to an expanded size and at least one other component, element, constituent or portion which is deformable so as to allow an external force, such as a balloon positioned within the body of the device, to further expand it to a final, larger desired expanded size. The terms xe2x80x9ccomponentxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9celementxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cconstituentxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cportionxe2x80x9d are often referred to herein collectively as xe2x80x9cportionxe2x80x9d.
Preferably, the devices of the invention are made of metal and most preferably of shape memory alloys.
In one embodiment, a first portion is a resilient spring-like metal for self-expansion and a second portion is a deformable metal for final sizing. In a more preferred shape memory embodiment, a first portion is a self-expanding austenitic one and a second is a martensitic one capable of deformation. In the case of shape memory embodiments the xe2x80x9cportionsxe2x80x9d may be discrete or merely different phases of an alloy.
The most preferred embodiment of the invention is a stent, preferably of shape memory alloy. The most preferred shape memory alloy is Nixe2x80x94Ti, although any of the other known shape memory alloys may be used as well. Such other alloys include: Auxe2x80x94Cd, Cuxe2x80x94Zn, Inxe2x80x94Ti, Cuxe2x80x94Znxe2x80x94Al, Tixe2x80x94Nb, Auxe2x80x94Cuxe2x80x94Zn, Cuxe2x80x94Znxe2x80x94Sn, CuZnxe2x80x94Si, Cuxe2x80x94Alxe2x80x94Ni, Agxe2x80x94Cd, Cuxe2x80x94Sn, Cuxe2x80x94Znxe2x80x94Ga, Nixe2x80x94Al, Fexe2x80x94Pt, Uxe2x80x94Nb, Tixe2x80x94Pdxe2x80x94Ni, Fexe2x80x94Mnxe2x80x94Si, and the like. These alloys may also be doped with small amounts of other elements for various property modifications as may be desired and as is known in the art.
The invention will be specifically described hereinbelow with reference to stents, a preferred embodiment of the invention although it is broadly applicable to tissue support devices in general.


A control system (18) and method for controlling an automotive vehicle (10) includes a number of sensors that are used to generate a potential rollover signal. In response to the potential rollover, active differentials (112, 114, 116) may be used alone or in addition to braking to prevent the vehicle from rolling over.

Traditionally, vehicles have a 4×2 system where only two wheels at one axle (either the front or the rear) can provide driving torques. Recently, many SUVs have a 4×4 system which can distribute power to all four wheels instead of two wheels. The benefit of the 4×4 system is easy to understand. Such a system has the potential to double the amount of longitudinal force over a conventional 4×2 system if the traction potentials of the tires exceed the driving torques applied. There are three types of 4×4 systems, namely, the part-time 4×4 system, the all wheel drive system (AWD) and the torque-on-demand (TOD) System.
In the part-time 4×4 system, the driver is allowed to select a four-wheel drive (4WD) mode, in which the front and rear driveshafts are locked together, or a two wheel drive (2WD) mode, in which the driveshafts are unlocked. In many situations, even the part-time 4×4 system provides an advantage over the 4×2 system in that the vehicle has traction if either axle has traction. For example, 4×2 (also called two-wheel-drive) vehicles may not move if there is a thick layer of snow on the road. A 4×4 vehicle can utilize the traction of all four tires to move the vehicle. During off-road driving, the vehicle may constantly meet conditions where at least one set of tires (for example the front tires) is in a low-traction situation. With 4×4 systems, the other set of driven tires can pull the vehicle out. During mountain driving, a large amount of traction may be required. A 4×4 vehicle may utilize the traction of all the four tires to overcome the gravity to move the vehicle up the hill. However, when in 4WD mode, the driveshafts are forced to rotate at the same speed. This could cause turning difficulty if the vehicle is turned at low speed on a high mu surface. In order to overcome this, all wheel drive (AWD) systems have been introduced.
An AWD vehicle has two types of differentials. The first is the axle differential. There are two axle differentials: one located between the two front wheels and one between the two rear wheels. The second is the so-called center differential, which is located inside a transfer case. The front and rear differentials enable the speed difference between the inside and outside wheels during a turn and they transfer torques from the driveshafts to the drive wheels. The center differential in the transfer case handles the speed difference between the front and rear wheels during a turn. It usually provides a constant torque split between the front and the rear axles. During normal driving and when no wheels are slipping, the center differential might direct a high amount of torque to both axles with a fixed proportion, such as 35% to the front and 65% to the rear. On low mu road surfaces, the transfer case on a part-time 4×4 system locks the front-axle driveshaft to the rear-axle driveshaft so the wheels are forced to spin at the same speed regardless if one or more wheels do not have enough traction potential. On high mu surfaces, this lock would introduce large tire slips during a turn, which could cause a jerky turn and extra tire wear. Hence, it is desired to unlock the center differential on a high mu surface and transfer torques to front and rear drive shafts in a continuously controllable fashion. This is an objective of the AWD system.
A TOD system always provides the driving torque to one axle (primary axle), and then sends torque to the other (secondary axle) as needed to provide 4WD mode while yet avoiding unnecessary differential lock in turns. In normal driving, most torque goes to the primary axle, with little torque going to the secondary axle. When in slippery conditions, if the primary axle slips, the transfer case will direct torque to the secondary axle.
In the above three types of 4×4 systems, to achieve a significant fuel economy benefit in a 2WD mode, a 4×4 system must not only disconnect the front driveline at the transfer case, but also disconnect it at the axle. This permits the front driveline to remain stationary, reducing parasitic and inertial losses. At this time no vehicles disconnect their rear-driveline, but this is an entirely practical means of improving the fuel economy of a 4×4 vehicle based on a front-wheel drive architecture. Several types of front driveline disconnect systems exist. Hublock is a system that disengages the front axle at both wheel hubs. Disconnect systems may be manual, automatic, or activated by means such as vacuum. Vacuum systems are generally considered most efficient because they disconnect the full front driveline. Center axle disconnect is a system that employs a single disconnect on one side of the axle. A free-running differential system is a system that employs a single disconnect between the differential and the ring gear of the axle. A live axle is an axle without a disconnect. If the transfer case has a disconnect or is not sending torque, the axle will effectively be backdriven from the road.
There are many choices for both axle and center differentials. Popular axle differentials used in a 4×4 vehicle might be an open differential, a passive limited-slip differential such as a Torsen differential, a viscous coupling or an electronically controlled differential. The transfer case used for an AWD vehicle might be a passive limited-slip differential or an electronically controlled viscous coupling such as a Haldex. It is desirable to consider the interaction between a brake-based roll stability control and the controlled differentials so that the interaction improves the roll stability control performance. In such a case, the system synergy by integrating those two systems enhances the individual performance compared to when the systems are separately operated.
A rule of thumb for conducting roll stability control is to reduce the excessive lateral forces at the outside wheels of the vehicle when it is driven and turned aggressively. When a vehicle is turning in response to the driver's sharp steering input, large tire forces may be induced in the lateral directions of the tires. Since the weight shifts towards the outside wheels, the outside wheels experience more lateral forces than the inside wheels. Typically, braking forces are applied to the outside front wheel to reduce the lateral force at the front outside wheel, which is the main contributor of the total lateral force applied to the vehicle body. Typically, the corrective forces in the longitudinal direction through driving torque for the purpose of reducing tire lateral forces from a 4×4 system are not directly used for achieving roll stability control performance.
It would be desirable to provide a system that uses the controlled driving torques through controlling the axle and center differentials in a 4×4 system to help reduce the potential for an on-road rollover of a vehicle, or further to provide a system that integrates the controlled driving torque from a 4×4 system control with the controlled braking torque from brake controls to achieve roll stability control performance during a potential on-road rollover event.

Roll stability control using four-wheel drive


A system for monitoring steering of an aircraft landing gear wheel includes: a controller; a warning device for emitting warning signals for a tractor operator maneuvering the aircraft on the ground; and at least one angular sensor. The controller compares effective steering angle information, supplied by the angular sensor(s), with angles αSD, αMD, αSG and αMG, where αMD and αMG are limits of a predefined steering angle range within which the landing gear wheel steering is to remain confined, and where αSD and αSG are intermediate angles within the range. The controller commands emission of a warning signal when the comparison indicates that the steering of the landing gear wheel is between angles αSD and αMD or between angles αSG and αMG; and modulates the warning signal depending on the effective position of the steering between the angles αSD and αMD or between the angles αSG and αMG.

To maneuver an aircraft on the ground, and more particularly to reverse it, a tractor is used. The tractor is driven by an operator and is attached to guiding landing gear of the aircraft. The guiding landing gear of the aircraft includes a first part, joined to the structure of the aircraft, and a second part to which the landing gear wheel is fixed and that has a degree of rotational freedom with respect to the first part, so as to allow the wheel to be steered. To provide the steering function, the first part primarily includes a drum, and the second part primarily includes a rotating tube. The landing gear wheel is able to move in rotation about an axis perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the second part with respect to the first part. The second part is typically telescopic with respect to the first part, so as to allow a shock-absorbing function to be performed.
The aircraft has to be steered within a predefined steering angle range. The operator of the tractor is not supposed to steer the aircraft outside of this predefined steering angle range; if he does, protective components of the landing gear are deformed and have to be replaced, which entails maintenance operations and therefore temporary grounding of the aircraft.
To allow the operator of the tractor to ensure that the steering of the aircraft is within the predefined steering angle range, visual markers are placed on the first part and on the second part of the landing gear. These visual markers are called steering angle indicators. The visual marker on the second part is situated in the axis of movement of the wheel on the ground. Two visual markers are situated on the first part so as to mark the limits of the predefined steering angle range. The operator has to continuously check, when maneuvering the aircraft using the tractor, that the visual marker situated on the second part of the landing gear does not leave the steering angle range marked by the two visual markers situated on the first part of the landing gear. It should be noted that these two visual markers may be situated at different locations on the structure of the aircraft, as long as they allow the operator to ensure that the steering of the aircraft is within the predefined steering angle range during the maneuvering performed using the tractor.
However, it is desirable to provide a solution that facilitates aircraft landing gear wheel steering monitoring for the operator of the tractor.
It is also desirable to provide a solution of this kind that is simple to implement and inexpensive, and, more particularly, that is easily incorporated into pre-existing systems in the aeronautical sector.

System for monitoring steering of a landing gear wheel of an aircraft


A voice prosthesis device includes a barrel defining a passageway, a tracheal flange adjacent a tracheal end of the barrel and an esophageal flange adjacent an esophageal end of the barrel. The passageway includes a first stop extending inwardly from a sidewall of the passageway between the tracheal and esophageal ends and a plurality of second stops extending inwardly from the sidewall of the passageway between the first stop and the esophageal end of the passageway. A valve mechanism is located between the first and second stops and permits flow through the passageway from the tracheal end and impedes flow through the passageway from the esophageal end.

Various types of voice prosthesis devices are known. There are, for example, the devices illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,137,299; 4,304,228; 4,325,366; 4,435,853; 4,582,058; 4,586,931; 4,610,691; 4,614,516; 4,773,412; 4,808,183; 4,820,304; 4,911,716; 5,027,812; 5,059,208; 5,064,433; 5,300,119; 5,314,470; 5,480,432; 5,507,809; 5,571,180; 5,578,083; 5,632,775; 5,693,097; 5,738,095; 5,919,231; 5,957,978; 5,976,151; 6,422,235; 6,484,345; 6,722,367; 6,772,758; and, 6,776,797; and published PCT application WO 03/057082. The disclosures of these references are hereby incorporated herein by reference. This listing is not intended to be a representation that a complete search of all relevant art has been made, or that no more pertinent art than that listed exists, or that the listed art is material to patentability. Nor should any such representation be inferred.


A tool holder is disclosed especially adapted to be received within a standard five-gallon dry wall pail or like container. The tool holder is characterized in having an outer side wall, preferably tapered to be compatible with the taper of the dry wall pail or like container. The outer side wall surrounds a cavity within which tools may be stored. The cavity is subdivided by generally vertical walls into a number of tool compartments of various sizes, with the highest and deepest compartments located near the periphery of the cavity and the lowest and shallowest compartments located near the center of the cavity. In a preferred embodiment the tool compartments reflect an inclined plane spiral arrangement, the spiral being lowest in the center of the cavity and moving upward as the spiral approaches the tool holder periphery.

Tool boxes, totes, caddies and tool organizers are well known. More specifically, a number of tool holder designs have been proposed that attempt to take advantage of the ubiquitous five gallon plastic bucket as a tool organizer and caddy. Such designs comprise inserts that are received into a standard five gallon bucket (such as an empty dry wall compound bucket or paint container) and that include compartments for separating a variety of hand tools.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,362,243 to Deyesso et. al. discloses a tool holder insert adapted to engage the inner surface of the wall of a plastic bucket. The insert is annular in configuration and includes apertures and notches for holding tools in an upright position within the bucket. U.S. Pat. No. 4,867,332 to Mains discloses another annular ring insert for a standard five gallon bucket that allows for the upright storage of hand tools within the bucket. The Mains ring insert includes an outwardly and downwardly extending lip for engaging the upper rim of the bucket, whereas the Deyesso insert is held in place within the bucket by either a force fit between the ring and the inwardly tapered sides of the bucket, or with fasteners that extend through the bucket side wall.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,551 to Lindsay discloses a different approach to adapting a five gallon bucket into a tool holder. The Lindsay device comprises a tubular cloth panel which drapes and conforms over the inside and outside surfaces of a bucket, and includes inner pockets sewn on to the panel for receiving hand tools. Other alternative approaches are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,911,295 to Venegoni, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,925,026 to McKay. The Venegoni patent discloses a plurality of organizer trays stackable within a standard bucket. The McKay patent discloses an insert for a bucket that includes spring clips and a spiral spring tightly held against the inner side wall of the insert for holding tools in an upright position.
While the devices disclosed in the above noted patents provide different ways for converting standard five gallon buckets into tool holders, certain problems remain unaddressed by the prior designs. It will be appreciated that hand tools are of different lengths and sizes, and while some sizes of tools can be retained by the annular rings of the Deyesso and Mains devices, or the pockets of the Lindsay device, for instance, other sizes of tools, which would otherwise fit within a standard bucket, could not be readily retained within the prior art rings or pockets. Moreover, the prior art designs do not provide for maximum utilization of the given volume of a standard sized bucket, while maintaining ease of access to the tools carried within the bucket.


A video fishing device that enables a user to receive a transmitted visual image of activity occurring around the bait or lure during fishing comprising a fishing tool for retrieving and deploying a length of fishing line, the tool including a length of fishing line having a distal end and a proximal end, a length of illumination and visualization fibers for conducting light distally and an image proximally, the length of fibers associated with the length of fishing line and optical components operatively associated with the length of fibers to enable remote viewing at the fishing line proximal end of the region adjacent the fishing line distal end when the line is deployed during fishing.

Sport and recreational fishing generally involves the use of fishing tackle, typically a fishing pole or rod in combination with a reel adapted to selectively receive and deploy a length of fishing line. A hook is secured to the end of the line to hold a bait or artificial lure which is then cast into the open water to deceive a fish into striking it, thereby allowing it to be caught.
Unless the fish strikes within view of the bait or lure, most fisherman look for telltale movement in the rod tip or the line for indications of an impending strike. This involves guesswork and is of course highly unreliable, especially to the novice.
Prior art visual aids for fisherman include sonar units that emit a high frequency sound and provide a graphic recording of the region being fished or sensors that alert the fisherman to subtle movements in the line or the fishing rod. Although underwater cameras are known to exist, for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,485,398 (Chapin, Jr. et al.), these devices have no practical application for the recreational fisherman.
The advent of fiber optic technology has enabled the transmission of images through extremely thin diameter lines. Bulky transmission cables and lenses have been replaced by super-thin, sheathed light guides that transmit light to illuminate a target area and convey the image back to a camera. Operational tube diameters as small as 0.25 mm have now been achieved.
Although fiber optic light guides have been employed in fishing line as a means to attract fish, for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,617,751 (Johansson), no prior art fishing tackle exists that enables a user to receive a visual image at the fishing pole of the region adjacent the bait or lure when fishing. It is against this background that the present invention was developed.

Fishing tackle having fiber optic image transmission


A composition for forming metal objects includes (a) first particles containing a jewelry-metal, and (b) second particles containing a refractory metal oxide. The composition allows the preparation of jewelry-metal in a large variety of colors.

The present invention relates to metal clays with refractory stains.
Upon sintering, jewelry-metal clays form pure or almost pure jewelry-metal objects that retain the basic shape of the jewelry-metal clay. The clays contain a jewelry-metal powder and a binder; the binder is mostly removed during the sintering process. Jewelry-metal clays are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,376,328 and 5,328,775. Jewelry-metal clay is referred to in the trade as precious metal clay, or PMC, and is available from RIO GRANDE, 7500 Bluewater Road N.W., Albuquerque, N.Mex., 87121, among others.
The ability to color jewelry-metal objects is limited. Jewelry-metal gold is an excellent example. Although white, rose, green, and varying shades of yellow gold are known, each is made by alloying pure gold with a second metal. The achievable color variation in any jewelry-metal, whether 24 karat gold, 18 karat gold, 14 karat gold, 10 karat gold, Nu-gold (88% wt. Cu 12% wt. Zn), fine silver, sterling silver (92.5% wt. Ag/7.5% wt. Cu), nickel silver (65% wt. Cu/18% wt. Ni/17% wt. Zn), platinum, palladium, ruthenium, rhodium, aluminum, brass, lead, nickel, iridium, indium, copper, zinc, or combinations thereof, is typically limited to the alloys these metals form. Accordingly, there is a need to expand the varieties of colors of jewelry-metal articles.
Refractory stains have many uses and are widely used to color ceramics. Prior to firing, the stain is incorporated into the slip and/or applied as a glaze. The stains are prepared by mixing together metal oxides and various inorganic and metal binders, which are fired for color stability, and then ground.
In a first aspect, the present invention includes a composition for forming metal objects, including first particles containing a jewelry-metal, and second particles including a refractory metal oxide; The composition may be made by mixing these ingredients together.
In a second aspect, the present invention includes a metal object, containing a jewelry-metal; and second particles containing a refractory metal oxide, in the jewelry-metal.

Board of Trustees of University of Illinois


Holographic films are disclosed that contain a binder having the following formula: EQU (M).sub.w (VAc).sub.x (VOH).sub.y (VOS).sub.z. wherein M is a fluoromonomer; VAc is vinyl acetate; VOH is vinyl alcohol; and VOS is vinyl trimethylsilyl ether; and wherein w, x, y, and z are percentages by weight; w is 5 to 30, x is 40 to 80, y is 0 to 20, and z is 2 to 30; said copolymers containing 3 to 23% by weight fluorine. These imaged films are particularly suited for lamination to glass in head-up display applications.

Holographic recording films containing fluorinated binders are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,963,471 to Trout. A variety of fluorinated binders are taught by Trout, with copolymers of vinyl acetate and perfluorinated monomers, such as tetrafluoroethylene and/or hexafluoropropylene, yielding particularly favorable results in terms of high refractive index modulation values, which represent reflection performance of the hologram.
The compositions disclosed by Trout have numerous properties suitable for the preparation of head-up displays. However, the disclosed compositions do not provide the desired adhesion to adjacent glass layers, and high clarity (i.e., lack of haze), required for a commercial head-up display optical combiner. Thus, a need exists for specific compositions that not only provide advantages taught by Trout, but also provide the desired properties of good adhesion to glass and high clarity for use in holography, and particularly for use in constructing single, full color holographic films used in applications such as optical combiners in head-up displays.

Recording medium with inproved adhesion to glass


A material is disclosed which comprises a substrate and an organic electroconductive layer provided on said substrate, characterised in that the substrate is a laminate comprising a glass layer and a support. The glass layer is preferably a flexible glass layer having a thickness from 10 to 500 .mu.m. The material can be used as an electrode in electric or semiconductor devices thereby providing an improved lifetime, e.g. displays, photovoltaic cells or light-emitting diodes.

The specific properties of glass make it a suitable substrate for carrying electroconductive layers in electric or semiconductor devices such as flat panel displays, electroluminescent panels, cathode ray tubes (CRTs), photovoltaic cells, etc. In addition to a high thermal and dimensional stability, glass has many other beneficial properties compared to plastic materials, e.g. the ease of recycling, excellent hardness and scratch resistance, high transparency, good resistance to chemicals such as organic solvents or reactive agents, low permeability of moisture and gases, and a very high glass transition temperature, enabling the use of high-temperature processes for applying an electroconductive layer. However, the main problems associated with the use of glass as a substrate in electric or semiconductor devices are its high specific weight, brittleness and low flexibility. The latter problems require that the coating of a functional layer on glass is typically carried out in a batch process (sheet by sheet), whereas the application of layers on a plastic support is generally performed as a continuous process, e.g. by using a web coater or continuous printing techniques such as screen or offset printing. It is well-known that the productivity and cost efficiency of a continuous (web) coating process is significantly higher than of a batch (sheet) coating process.
Some applications require electroconductive substrates which are characterised by a low weight and sufficient flexibility, e.g. liquid crystal displays in portable devices, electroconductive substrates having a curved geometry such as in car dashboards or batteries, and photovoltaic cells (often called solar cells) for use on roofs or as a power supply of satellites, etc. For these applications, plastic foils may be used as substrate for carrying electroconductive layers in spite of the many disadvantages compared to glass. The high permeability of oxygen and water through plastic substrates degrades the electroconductive layers rapidly. Some progress has been made on producing plastic foils with barrier layers to limit said permeability; however the lifetime of electric devices in which such conducting plastic foils are used is still limited and needs to be improved.
In addition, an inorganic conducting layer such as indium-tin oxide (ITO) is brittle and as a result, the electroconductivity of an ITO layer is susceptible to deterioration by simply bending the flexible plastic substrate. All these effects limit the lifetime of such plastic-based devices considerably. Other problems associated with inorganic electroconductive layers such as ITO are
the high cost associated with vacuum-deposition techniques such as sputtering which are required to apply the inorganic layer; PA1 the high surface roughness of the inorganic layer which makes it difficult to apply thereon thin layers such as electroluminescent polymer layers used in organic light-emitting displays or diodes (OLEDs) or photoconductive polymer layers in solar cells; PA1 ITO requires an annealing step at an elevated temperature which is not compatible with most plastic substrates; PA1 ITO may generate oxygen which attacks adjacent layers such as poly(p-phenylenevinylene) used in OLEDs. PA1 sputtered inorganic layers are often characterised by the presence of a large number of pinholes. PA1 S1/glass/S2/electroconductive-layer PA1 glass/S1/S2/electroconductive-layer PA1 S1/glass/electroconductive-layer/S2 PA1 glass/S1/electroconductive-layer/S2 PA1 a reflecting cathode, e.g. a low-work function metal layer such as evaporated Ca. PA1 an electroluminescent layer, e.g. PPV; other suitable electroluminescent compounds are described in e.g. "Organische Leuchtdioden", Chemie in unserer Zeit, 31. Jahrg. 1997, No.2, p.76-86. PA1 an hole-injection layer (in this embodiment: the organic electroconductive layer) PA1 an transparent anode (in this embodiment the ITO layer) PA1 a transparent substrate (in this embodiment: the laminate)
Organic conducting layers have been developed which are not characterised by the above disadvantages. The production and the use of electroconductive polymers are well known in the art. In DE-A-41 32 614 the production of film-forming, electroconductive polymers by anodic oxidation of pyrroles, thiophenes, furans or aromatic amines (or their derivatives) is effected with a sulphone compound present in the electrolyte solution. The preparation of electroconductive polythiophenes and polypyrroles is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,254,648 and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,236,627 respectively. In EP-A-440 957 a method for preparing polythiophene in an aqueous environment and applying polythiophene from an aqueous solution has been described. Such a solution is up until now mostly used in photographic materials as disclosed in e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 5,312,681, U.S. Pat. No. 5,354,613 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,391,472. In EP-A-686 662 it has been disclosed that layers of polythiophene coated from an aqueous composition could be made with high conductivity.
Such organic electroconductive layers can be coated on glass for various applications. WO 98/01909 describes a light-emitting diode wherein an ITO layer has been overcoated with an organic polymer selected from polyfurans, polypyrroles, polyanilines, polythiophenes and polypyridines. A similar combination has been described in Philips Journal of Research, Vol.51, No.4, p518-524 (1998). DE-A-41 29 282 discloses heat protection windows obtained by coating a polythiophene on glass or plastic sheets and DE-A-42 26 757 describes a similar antistatic and heat protection layer on a laminated glass such as a car windshield. The glass layers in a car windshield have a typical thickness of 2.1 mm. The electric resistivity of such antistatic and heat protection coatings has a typical value of >10.sup.5 .OMEGA./square, which is far too high to be suitable as an electroconductive layer. EP-A-669 205 describes a glass/plastic laminate wherein an electroconductive layer is applied between the glass and plastic sheets of the laminate for de-icing or thermally insulating safety glass in vehicles. Such material can neither be used as an electrode because the electroconductive layer is insulated between the glass and plastic layer.


A broadband high power amplifier for multifrequency signal applications comprises an N-way power combiner that is arranged to combine a plurality of multi-frequency input signals and provide a combined (complex) signal at its output. The output of the N-way combiner is amplified in a preamplifier stage and supplied therefrom to an M-way power divider. The M-way power divider has a plurality of M output ports from which M subdivided versions of the combined (complex) output signal from the preamplifier are derived. Each of these effectively identical subdivided signals is coupled to a respective one of a plurality of M signal amplifier stages that drive the radial power combiner. Each amplifier stage is a relatively low to moderate gain amplifier stage, so that its amplitude and phase characteristics may be matched with those of the others of the M amplifier stages. Since the phase and amplitude characteristics of the amplifier stages that drive the radial power combiner are matched with one another, the M stage driver is effectively self-isolating, making it unnecessary to use band-limiting isolator components to protect the outputs of the respective driver amplifier stages feeding the radial power combiner.

Current technology designs of high power multifrequency amplifiers for radio frequency communication applications typically use high gain amplifiers to amplify respectively different frequency signals that are to be combined and fed to an associated antenna unit. Because of the substantial amplitude and phase mismatch of the high gain amplifiers which feed the power combiner (typically, a radial power combiner), it is necessary to insert a respective isolator between the output of each high gain amplifier and a respective input port of the combiner, which undesirably limits the bandwidth of the amplifier. Moreover, each input port of the system is dedicated to a particular frequency signal, so that the amplifier is not readily adaptable to feed or signal input changes.


The present invention includes a sheet material, a first optical fiber, a second optical fiber optically coupled to the first optical fiber in portions thereof, and an optical fiber coupler constituted in the portions where the two optical fibers are coupled, and those of the first and second optical fibers, and the optical fiber coupler are integrally held in the sheet material.

Generally, in an optical fiber amplifier or an optical fiber gyroscope, a lengthy optical fiber is used as an amplifying device and a detecting device thereof.
For the lengthy optical fiber, a case occurs in that an optical fiber coupler needs to be provided to perform synthesizing processing and dividing processing. The lengthy optical fiber coupler is formed such that a sidewall of an optical fiber is spliced to a sidewall of another optical fiber according to, for example, a method of abrasion extention or mechanical splice.
A device formed by combining a lengthy optical fiber and an optical fiber coupler, as described above, will be described in detail with reference to various example optical fiber amplifiers shown in FIGS. 25 to 27. The optical fiber amplifier shown in FIG. 25 is of a known forward pumping type. In this amplifier, pumping light is entered from the input side of signal light that is fed to an amplification optical fiber.
Referring to FIG. 25, reference numeral 1 denotes an amplification optical fiber. The amplification optical fiber 1 directly amplifies signal light by using stimulated output effects. Reference numeral 2 denotes an pumping light source generating pumping light that excites the amplification optical fiber 1. The pumping light source 2 is formed of, for example, a laser diode. Reference numeral 4 denotes an optical fiber coupler sending the pumping light to the amplification optical fiber 1. Reference numerals 6a and 6b individually denote isolators 6a and 6b passing the signal light only in the unidirection. The isolator 6a and 6b each perform pass through restricting processing for the signal light to prevent parasitic oscillation attributable to end face reflection and to thereby reduce noise. Reference numeral 8 denotes a bandpass filter, which is shown of removing noise component light and thereby passing only signal light. Reference numerals 10a and 10b denote an input connector and an output connector, respectively.
In the above described configuration, for example, a 1.55-μm wavelength signal light to be input on the connector 10a is passed through the isolator 6a and the optical fiber coupler 4 and is then input on the amplification optical fiber 1. Concurrently, pumping light (for example, 1.48-μm wavelength light) output from the pumping light source 2 is input on the amplification optical fiber 1 via the amplification optical fiber 1.
The amplification optical fiber 1 is excited by the pumping light and is thereby brought into a inversion state. When the signal light is input on the amplification optical fiber 1 in the aforementioned state, the amplification optical fiber 1 amplifies the signal light according to the stimulated output. The amplified signal light is passed through the isolator 6b and the bandpass filter 8, and is then emitted from the output connector 10b.
An optical fiber amplifier shown in FIG. 26 is of a known bidirectional pumping type. In this amplifier, pumping light is entered from both the input and output sides of the signal light that is fed to the amplification optical fiber 1. Optical fiber couplers 4a and 4b are provided respectively before and behind the amplification optical fiber 1; and pumping light sources 2a and 2b are provided respectively before and behind the amplification optical fiber 1.
An optical fiber amplifier shown in FIG. 27 is of a known double stage exciting type. In this amplifier, two amplification optical fibers 1c and 1d are serially connected, and pumping light sources 2c and 2d are provided respectively for the amplification optical fibers 1c and 1d via optical fiber couplers 4c and 4d.
In the optical fiber amplifiers shown in FIG. 25 to 27, lengthy optical fibers are used for the amplification optical fibers 1, 1c, and 1d to individually obtain predetermined amplifier gains without causing deterioration in material properties of the amplification optical fibers 1, 1c, and 1d. When assembling the optical fiber amplifier by the aforementioned lengthy optical fibers, individual optical components need to be integrated at a highest possible structural density for storing into the device.
Ordinarily, the optical fiber coupler 4, 4a, 4b, 4c, or 4d is formed in the following manner to form the amplification optical fiber 1, 1c, or 1d to be an integrated form. The amplification optical fiber is wound about a small bobbin (not shown). Other optical fibers are abrasion spliced to the end portions of the amplification optical fibers 1, 1c, or 1d wounded on the small bobbin. The optical fiber coupler 4, 4a, 4b, 4c, or 4d is formed by abrasion splicing other optical fibers to the end portions of the amplification optical fibers 1, 1c, or 1d.
The optical fiber coupler 4, 4a, 4b, 4c, or 4d needs to be disposed along a straight line. As such, the optical fiber coupler 4, 4a, 4b, 4c, or 4d cannot be wound about the winding bobbin of the amplification optical fibers 1, 1c, or 1d. For this reason, the optical fiber coupler 4, 4a, 4b, 4c, or 4d is independently mounted in a portion near the bobbin and is then immobilized therein.
However, when the bobbin is used, and in addition, the optical fiber coupler 4, 4a, 4b, 4c, or 4d are fixed, the configuration area becomes voluminous; and as such, miniaturization cannot be cannot be implemented, and problems occur in that much time is required for, for example, wiring and disposal of the components.


A polisher comprises a turn table having first and second end surfaces which are substantially normal to an axis of the turn table. The first end surface defines a polishing surface for polishing an article. A drive shaft is connected to the turn table in such a manner that the shaft extends along the axis of the turn table from the second end surface of the turn table. The polisher further includes a cooling system which comprises a cooling fluid path provided in the turn table for passing a cooling fluid therethrough to deprive the polishing surface of heat generated in a polishing operation and a fluid coupler provided at the center of the first end surface of the turn table for fluidly connecting the cooling fluid path with a cooling fluid supply outside of the turn table.

In the production of semiconductor devices, it is necessary to polish semiconductor wafers by means of a polisher to thereby flatten a surface thereof onto which semiconductor circuits are provided.
A typical polisher of this type includes a turn table provided with a polishing pad on an upper surface thereof, a drive shaft fixedly connected to the center of a lower surface of the turn table for drivingly rotating the turn table about its axis, a wafer carrier for holding a semiconductor wafer in contact with an upper polishing surface of the polishing pad to polish the wafer, and a slurry nozzle for supplying slurry onto the polishing surface to effect a polishing operation mechanically and chemically by a combination of the polishing pad and the supplied slurry. It is therefore desirable for a turn table of such a type of polisher to be positively cooled in order to deprive the polishing pad of heat generated in a polishing operation, although the polishing pad is cooled by the slurry to some extent. Consequently, it is conventional for such a polisher to be provided with a cooling system including a cooling fluid path extending inside of the turn table for flowing therethrough a cooling fluid received from an outside cooling fluid supply. However, since a fluid coupler provided in the cooling system to receive a cooling fluid from an outside cooling supply is conventionally located in a drive shaft which is connected to a drive mechanism for driving the shaft, the construction of a combination of the drive shaft and those devices associated with the shaft is complicated thereby causing problems of cost, maintenance and so on.
An object of the present invention is therefore to solve such problems as are involved in such a conventional polisher.


The present invention provides an image display device that is capable of reducing the power consumption. The total power consumption of a level shifter is reduced by using a pulse of an oscillator circuit as an enable signal of a level shifter for amplifying the enable signal to be supplied to a group of level shifters. The image display device includes an oscillator circuit, a first level shifter, and a plurality of second level shifters, which are mounted on a substrate and formed with thin-film transistors. The plurality of second level shifters each has a shutdown function for reducing the power consumption of the level shifters. The shutdown function of the first level shifter is controlled by an output pulse of the oscillator circuit. The shutdown function of the group of second level shifters is controlled by an output pulse of the first level shifter.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image display device and its drive circuit, and more particularly to a liquid-crystal display device and its drive circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
An active matrix display, which is represented by an active matrix liquid-crystal display, forms a thin-film transistor (hereinafter referred to as the TFT) for each pixel, and stores display information in each pixel to display an image. A polysilicon TFT is formed by using a polysilicon film that is polycrystallized by laser-annealing an amorphous silicon film to raise the mobility to approximately 100 cm2/V-s. A circuit composed of a polysilicon TFT operates from a signal having a frequency of up to several megahertz to several tens of megahertz. Therefore, not only pixels but also drive circuits such as a data driver for generating a video signal and a gate driver for performing a scan can be formed in the same process as for a TFT that composes a pixel on a substrate for a liquid-crystal display device or the like.
A transmissive liquid-crystal display displays an image by controlling the transmissivity of the light transmitted through a backlight. On the other hand, a reflective liquid-crystal display has a reflective electrode within a pixel to reflect extraneous light and displays an image by controlling the reflectivity of sunlight and room illumination light incident on the pixel. Therefore, the reflective liquid-crystal display does not require the backlight.
A liquid-crystal display having both the transmission function and reflection function is called a semi-transmissive liquid-crystal display. The reflective liquid-crystal display and the semi-transmissive liquid-crystal display whose backlight is extinguished generally consume considerably less power than the transmissive liquid-crystal display, which needs to illuminate the backlight.
A liquid-crystal display having a built-in pixel memory is extremely low in power consumption. A normal liquid-crystal display having no built-in pixel memory temporarily retains an electrical charge in a capacitor within a pixel to keep the voltage to be applied to a liquid crystal. Therefore, even when a still picture is to be displayed, the normal liquid-crystal display having no built-in pixel memory needs to periodically refresh the voltage.
Consequently, even when a motion picture or still picture is displayed, a data line for transferring a data signal to a pixel needs to be constantly driven at several tens of kilohertz. Therefore, a considerable amount of power is consumed by the data line and a data driver for driving the data line. The liquid-crystal display having a built-in pixel memory, which is mainly designed for displaying a still picture, has a static memory in each pixel. Therefore, when displaying a still picture, the liquid-crystal display having a built-in pixel memory does not have to perform a refresh operation. Consequently, it is possible to completely save the power to be consumed by the data line and data driver.
FIG. 12 shows the configuration of a conventional display having a built-in memory. Pixel circuits 102, which use a thin-film transistor, are mounted on a glass substrate 101 and arranged in a matrix form. For the sake of brevity, FIG. 12 shows 2 (V)×2 (H) pixel circuits 102. In reality, however, the number of rows and the number of columns are generally larger than 100.
Each pixel circuit 102 includes a static memory 104 and a selector 105. The static memory 104 samples an image signal from the data line in synchronism with a scanning pulse from a gate line. The selector 105 applies to a display section liquid-crystal element LC an AC voltage that corresponds to the information stored in the static memory 104. Further, an oscillator circuit (OSC) 103 and a buffer circuit 108, which are made of a thin-film transistor, are mounted on the glass substrate 101. The oscillator circuit 103 and buffer circuit 108 supply AC voltages VLCa and VLCb to all pixel circuits 102. Voltages VLCa and VLCb are square-wave voltages that normally have a frequency of 30 to 60 Hz, and in opposite phase to each other.
A gate input G of the static memory 104 is connected to gate lines GL1, GL2. A data input D of the static memory 104 is connected to data lines DL1, DL2. A data driver 106 is connected to the data lines DL1, DL2. A gate driver 107 is connected to the gate lines GL1, GL2.
An image signal is serially input (Sig_IN) into the data driver 106 from the outside of the display. The data driver 106 can temporarily store the input image signal and parallelly output it to the data lines DL1, DL2. The gate driver 107 sequentially outputs to the gate lines GL1, GL2 the pulses synchronized with the signal timing of the outputs DL1, DL2 of the data driver 106, thereby specifying a horizontal row of pixel circuits 102 into which the image signal developed in the data lines DL1, DL2 should be written.
The static memory 104 uses the scanning pulse supplied to the gate line to be connected to read the image signal of the data line to be connected. The selector 105 selects supplied square-wave voltage VLCa or VLCb in accordance with a one-bit storage state in the static memory, and supplies the selected square-wave voltage to the liquid-crystal element LC.
For example, it is assumed that a liquid crystal for giving a normally white screen (giving a white screen when the applied AC voltage is low) and an optical structure necessary for giving a normally white screen are used.
When the selector 105 selects voltage VLCa, voltages of the same phase are applied to two electrodes that sandwich the liquid-crystal element LC. Therefore, the applied AC voltage is 0 V so that the liquid-crystal element LC gives a white screen. On the contrary, when the selector 105 selects voltage VLCb, voltages in opposite phase to each other are applied to the two electrodes that sandwich the liquid-crystal element LC. Therefore, a raised AC voltage is applied so as to give a black screen. The liquid-crystal display having a built-in memory is described in more detail in JP-A-1996-194205 and JP-A-1996-286170.
The status (white or black) of each pixel can be determined by the storage state of the static memory 104. Therefore, while a still picture, which does not require an image refresh, is displayed, the operations of the data driver 106 and gate driver 107 can be stopped. This makes it possible to save the entire drive circuit power consumption for driving the data lines DL1, DL2 and gate lines GL1, GL2. Consequently, the liquid-crystal display having a built-in memory can substantially reduce the power consumption for a still picture display period unlike a normal liquid-crystal display.
Meanwhile, the power supply voltage for a circuit formed with a thin-film transistor is generally higher than that for an LSI or other circuit formed with monocrystalline silicon. Therefore, it may be necessary in some cases that a plurality of thin-film-transistor-based level shifters (LS) 109 be mounted on the glass substrate 101. The level shifters 109 voltage-amplify a small-amplitude voltage signal, which is supplied from an LSI that is positioned outside an image display, to a large-amplitude voltage signal, and supply drive signals to the data driver 106 and gate driver 107.
FIG. 13 shows a level shifter having a shutdown function. A grounded-gate amplifier circuit is formed by an n-channel TFT 111 and a load resistor 112. The symbol VDD represents a plus side power supply. An enable signal ENB for controlling the ON/OFF status of the TFT 111 enters a gate for the TFT 111. If the enable signal ENB has a voltage that is high enough to turn ON the TFT 111, a drain current adequate for performing a voltage amplification operation flows to the TFT 111. Therefore, a small-amplitude signal L-Sig is amplified to a large-amplitude signal Sig.
If, on the other hand, the enable signal ENB has a voltage that is low enough to turn OFF the TFT 111, the drain current flow to the TFT 111 is virtually zero. Therefore, the level shifter shown in FIG. 13 does not perform an amplification operation and reduces the power consumption to virtually zero. In other words, the level shifter shuts down.
FIG. 14 shows a conventional circuit configuration of a group of hierarchical level shifters. The output of a constantly operating level shifter (LS′) 121 is connected to enable inputs of the group of the level shifters 122. The level shifter 121 amplifies an input small-amplitude enable signal L-ENB to a large-amplitude enable signal ENB. The large-amplitude enable signal ENB determines the operating status/shutdown status of the group of level shifters 122. If the enable signal ENB is valid, the group of level shifters 122 amplifies small-amplitude signals L-Sig1 to L-Sig5 to large-amplitude signals Sig1 to Sig5. If, on the other hand, the enable signal ENB is not valid, the group of level shifters 122 stops their amplification operations. This configuration ensures that the small-amplitude enable signal L-ENB shuts down the group of level shifters 122 when the group of level shifters 122 need not be operated. Therefore, the power consumption of the group of level shifters 122 can be reduced. The circuit configuration of the group of hierarchical level shifters, which has been described above, is described in more detail in International Publication No. WO03/036606.


My invention particularly relates to an apparatus designed to provide the means of checking and replenishing the air supply in a pneumatic spare tire that is stowed in a specially designed carrier or receptacle located in a rearward underslung and inaccessible location as has been adapted to many motor vehicles in use today, including various foreign and U.S. manufactured pick-up trucks, station wagons, recreational vehicles, sports cars such as the U.S. manufactured Chevrolet Corvette and to a lesser extent certain compact automobiles. This represents a departure from the traditional practice of enclosing the spare tire either in a closed compartment or trunk within the body of the vehicle.

As a consequence of relegating stowage of the spare tire to a rearward underslung location certain problems arise relating to accessibility of the air valve stem for inflation and maintenance of proper air pressure. During the course of routinely checking or replenishing the air pressure of said spare tire, one will encounter circumstances requiring strenuous physical activity as it becomes necessary to remove the spare from its carrier or recepticle underneath said motor vehicle to achieve access to the air valve stem; a considerable task involving heavy and cumbersome lifting complicated by a noisome accumulation of road grime contacted during handling procedures. This becomes a cronic inconvenience contributing to the inclination of most to merely neglect maintenance of said underslung spare tire altogether, which in turn creates a potentially adverse situation if said spare becomes deflated due to normal air leakage simultaneously with one of the running tires in service on said motor vehicle becoming defective. This situation is likely to manifest itself in a most untimely manner hypothesizing that the possiblity of such an occurance could present itself in a remote or hazardous location or at the very least result in an inconvenience due to delays in time and expenditures for a road service call. This invention, as hereinafter described, is intended to add a safety factor that will minimize the possibility of occurance of said hazards and inconveniences as its function is to check and, when necessary, replenish the air pressure in a spare tire mounted in said underslung location from a point readily accessible at the rear of said motor vehicle. By virture of the fact that this invention will facilitate the proper maintenance of said underslung spare tire, the motorist will be both encouraged and reminded to check the air pressure in said spare tire routinely and concurrently with the running in-service tires on said motor vehicle.

Remote air pressure monitoring and adjusting device for underslung spare tires


A composite nozzle assembly for conducting a flow of molten steel in an electromagnetic valve is provided which comprises an inner nozzle shell formed from a ceramic material having high erosion-resistance but which undergoes internal tensile stresses of a magnitude sufficient to promote cracking when subjected to the thermal stresses caused by the flow of the molten metal, in combination with an outer nozzle shell that contains and closely engages the inner nozzle shell for applying a compressive load to the inner nozzle shell upon the initial flow of the molten metal through the shell in order to counteract the thermally induced tensile stresses and thereby prevent cracking. The outer nozzle shell is preferably formed from a ceramic material having superior thermal shock properties but yet which has a thermal coefficient of expansion about the same as that associated with the ceramic material forming the inner nozzle shell to minimize stresses at the interface of the inner and outer shells after thermal steady state has been attained. Additionally, the relative thickness of the outer nozzle shell is between about three and ten times that of the inner shell. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the inner shell is formed from zirconia, while the outer shell is formed from boron nitride.

This invention generally concerns ceramic nozzle assemblies, and is specifically concerned with a composite ceramic nozzle for conducting a flow of liquid steel in an electromagnetic valve.
Metering nozzles for controlling the flow of molten metals in metal casting processes are well known in the prior art. Such metering nozzles typically comprise a nozzle formed from a ceramic material that has an open end of a fixed size. The rate of flow through the nozzle is a function of the size of the opening and the height of the molten metal above it. When such nozzles are used in a steel casting process, the flow of metal through the nozzle is controlled by means of a copper chill plug. Specifically, a copper chill plug is engaged against the open end of the nozzle when the operator of the nozzle desires to stop the flow of metal therethrough. The copper chill plug locally "freezes" the molten metal within the nozzle opening, and causes a solid plug of metal to form within the nozzle which effectively supports the column of molten metal above it. To restart the flow, the operator lances the open end of the metering nozzle in order to melt the solid plug that was created by the application of the copper chill plug. Unfortunately, the use of such a lance can erode the ceramic material forming the nozzle thereby damaging it.
One of the most recent advances in molten metal flow control is the use of an electromagnetic coil formed around a ceramic nozzle. Such are known in the art as electromagnetic valves, and are capable of restarting a flow of molten metal by inductive heating without the use of a damaging lance. In addition to damage free restarting characteristics, such electromagnetic valves are well suited to modulate the flow of molten metal in both an open pour, or in higher quality casting practices which employ the use of inert gases over the molten metals during the casting process to protect the metals from atmospheric contaminants.
Unfortunately, the applicants have observed that the thermal properties of the ceramic materials typically used to construct the nozzles in such electromagnetic valves have significantly limited the usefulness of such valves. The preferred material for forming the metering nozzles in such valves is zirconia due to the extremely high erosion-resistant properties of this material. However, the advantageous erosion-resistive properties of zirconia is substantially negated by this material's tendency to crack when exposed to the thermal stresses associated with the stopping and starting of a flow of liquid metal through the nozzle. The applicants have observed that the unfortunate tendency for zirconia to crack under such thermal stress conditions is caused by the fact that zirconia's thermal coefficient of expansion sharply changes (i.e., decreases) at a temperature which is within the thermal gradient that the walls of the metering nozzle experience when molten metal initially flows over the inner walls of the nozzle. This abrupt change in the thermal coefficient of expansion creates tensile hoop stresses in the annular walls of the nozzle which are of a magnitude sufficient to create cracks within the walls of the nozzle which may propagate to the surface of the nozzle and thereby jeopardize the structural integrity of the nozzle walls.
While it may be possible to solve the cracking problem by increasing the thickness of the nozzle walls to an extent to where the tensile strength of the outermost portion of the walls was sufficient to counteract the tensile hoop stresses created by the thermal gradient, such wall-thickening would logarithmically reduce the efficacy of the induction coil in interacting with and melting the metal plug in the nozzle during a restart operation since field strength would decrease as a function of the square of the radial distance between the induction coil and the metal plug. Thus, considerably more electrical power would have to be used in the electromagnetic valve in order to melt the metal plug to restart a molten flow, which in turn would require thicker and more expensive coil windings. But even if the problem of lowered electromagnetic efficiency were not present, the mere thickening of the zirconia walls of the nozzle could well fail to solve the problem, since the temperature gradient imposed across even thickened walls could still cause at least microcracking to occur at the interface in the wall where the thermal coefficient of expansion of the material changed. If there were any faults in the grain structure of the zirconia forming the nozzle, these micro-cracks might form fissures which would propagate entirely through the wall thickness of the nozzle, thereby jeopardizing the integrity of the nozzle. While the nozzle could be formed from a ceramic material having better thermal shock properties (such as boron nitride), none of these ceramic materials has anywhere near the erosion-resistant properties of zirconia when exposed to an environment of molten steel. The much faster erosion of the internal surface of such a nozzle would make it difficult if not impossible to accurately modulate the flow through the valve during its operation, and would also necessitate frequent (and expensive) nozzle replacements.
Clearly, there is a need for a nozzle assembly for use within a metal casting electromagnetic valve which maintains all of the anti-erosion properties of zirconia, but which is not prone to cracking when exposed to the thermal shock which occurs when molten metal is initially conducted through the interior of the nozzle.

Composite nozzle assembly for conducting a flow of molten metal in an electromagnetic valve


A cogenerating system includes a Rankine cycle, a high-temperature heat transfer medium circuit, a low-temperature heat transfer medium circuit, a bypass channel, a heat exchanger, and a flow rate adjustment mechanism. The high-temperature heat transfer medium circuit is configured such that an evaporator is supplied with a high-temperature heat transfer medium by a high-temperature heat transfer medium heat exchanger. The low-temperature heat transfer medium circuit is configured such that a condenser is supplied with a low-temperature heat transfer medium by a low-temperature heat transfer medium heat exchanger. The flow rate adjustment mechanism includes at least a flow rate limiter that limits the flow rate of the high-temperature heat transfer medium to be supplied to the evaporator, and adjusts a ratio of the flow rate of the high-temperature heat transfer medium flowing through the bypass channel to the flow rate of the high-temperature heat transfer medium flowing through the evaporator.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a cogenerating system.
2. Description of the Related Art
A Rankine cycle apparatus is available as a power generating apparatus. Another available system in the related art includes a Rankine cycle, and a heat transfer circuit including a condenser that operates as an evaporator of the Rankine cycle and is connected to the Rankine cycle.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,141,362 discloses a system 300 including a heat transfer circuit 340 and a Ranking cycle 350 as illustrated in FIG. 9. The heat transfer circuit 340 includes a boiler 310 as an evaporator, a condenser 313, a first fluid duct 312, a second fluid duct 315, an expander 316, an additional condenser 323, and a valve 324. The first fluid duct 312 connects the outlet of the boiler 310 to the condenser 313. The second fluid duct 315 is connected to the condenser 313 to return a condensed fluid to the boiler 310. The heat transfer circuit 340 is filled with water. The additional condenser 323 is selectively connected to the second fluid duct 315 by the valve 324. The Ranking cycle 350 includes the condenser 313, an expander 330, an economizer 331, a condenser 332, a pump 333, and a heating circuit 334a. The condenser 313 functions as an evaporator in the Ranking cycle 350.
The boiler 310, if operated, generates vapor, and part of the boiler 310 and the first fluid duct 312 are filled with vapor. When vapor reaches the condenser 313, the condenser 313 performs a heat exchange operation. Heat is thus conducted from the boiler 310 to the condenser 313 via the first fluid duct 312. As an amount of heat continues to increase, vapor spreads, increasing pressure and temperature thereof. An amount of heat transfer increases in the condenser 313. If the pressure in the heat transfer circuit 340 exceeds a predetermined level, the valve 324 automatically opens for safety purposes, causing the additional condenser 323 to remove excessive heat. The pressure of vapor falls to an appropriate level.
As the vapor condenses in the condenser 313, a working fluid of the Ranking cycle 350 evaporates. Resulting vapor drives the expander 330, generating motive power before low-pressure vapor is condensed in the condenser 332. The working fluid is then returned to the condenser 313 by the pump 333. The condenser 332 radiates heat of the low-pressure vapor to the heating circuit 334a.
The system 300 disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,141,362 has room for improvements in terms of adaptability to a large amount of heat demand.

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.