The inspection device of a head-up display (HUD) for a vehicle automatically inspects and corrects images projected on a windshield glass of the vehicle by an HUD unit in the vehicle and may include i) a frame where the vehicle is conveyed in-and-out, ii) a moving unit coupled to the frame and reciprocating in the front-and-rear and left-and-right directions of the vehicle, iii) a multi-axis robot mounted on the moving unit and configured to move the vehicle in an up-and-down and back-and-forth direction, iv) a vision camera mounted on an arm of the multi-axis robot and digitally capturing images projected on the windshield glass as vision data, and v) a controller inspects whether the HUD unit operates normally and controls operation of the HUD unit by analyzing the vision data acquired from the vision camera.

(a) Technical Field
An exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure relates to an inspection device of a head-up display for a vehicle. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to an inspection device and method of a head-up display which inspect and correct the operation of a head-up display for a vehicle in a vehicle inspection line.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Recently, vehicles are equipped with a DAS (Driver Assistance System) to provide drivers with convenience and safety while the vehicles are in motion. The DAS keeps track of the driving lane, gives an alarm for straying from the driving lane, secures a safe distance from adjacent vehicles, prevents a collision with adjacent obstacles, and controls speed in accordance with the traffic situations or road environments, using various cameras and radar sensors etc. without an instruction from a driver.
DASs have previously been mounted only in expensive cars, but recently, they are increasingly in use for middle and small cars with a growing focus on eco-friendly, economical driving for protecting the environment and saving energy resources. For example, a DAS may include an SCC (Smart Cruise Control), a LDWS (Lane Departure Warning System), a BSD (Blind Spot Detection), an AVM (Around View Monitoring System) and a HUD (Head Up Display). In those systems, the HUD unit is a system that displays various items of information for driving a vehicle, such as the driving information of the vehicle or navigation information, on the windshield glass within the main view of the driver while the vehicle is in motion. The HUD unit can display images of various items of information on the windshield glass of a vehicle by reflecting and enlarging the images with a projector and an optical unit.
The HUD unit is typically inspected in a vehicle inspection line, and in this inspection process, it can be determined whether distorted images are displayed due to, for example, variation of an anti-double reflection film in the windshield glass, the quality of the HUD system, and/or assembly variation of the vehicle, when the images are projected to the windshield glass. Inspection can be accomplished through a series of preparation processes for inspection, including moving the glass down or back, connecting a communication connector, installing a shield, operating a tester, inputting the tester, and the like, and also through a post-inspection process performed in the reverse order of the preparation process. However, since the HUD inspection process is usually performed manually by workers, the inspection cycle time increases, the work efficiency is deteriorated, and there is difficulty in using the inspectors and managing the quality.
The Description of the Related Art is made to help understanding the background of the present disclosure and may include matters out of the related art known to those skilled in the art. The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the disclosure and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Inspection device and method of head up display for vehicle


A process for the dehydrogenation of alkane hydrocarbons is disclosed. The process comprises contacting an alkane with a chromium-based dehydrogenation catalyst in the presence of molecular oxygen at a temperature of from about 400° C. to about 700° C., a pressure of from about 0.1 to about 10 atmospheres, wherein the alkane to oxygen molar ratio is between about 1:0.0001 to 1:0.04.

The dehydrogenation of hydrocarbons is an important commercial process. This is because of the great demand for dehydrogenated hydrocarbons as feedstocks for industrial processes. For example, dehydrogenated hydrocarbons are utilized in the manufacture of detergents, high octane gasolines, pharmaceutical products, plastics and synthetic rubbers, among others. One example of a specific dehydrogenation process is dehydrogenating isobutane to produce isobutylene, which may then be polymerized to provide tackifying agents for adhesives, viscosity-index additives for motor oils and impact-resistant and anti-oxidant additives for plastics. Isobutylene may also used in the manufacture of Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE) or may be dimerized to isooctane. MTBE and isooctane are used as anti-knocking agents in gasoline fuels.
The major traditional sources of alkenes have been steam cracking, and fluid catalytic cracking. Both processes simultaneously provide a wide range of other products with limited flexibility. However, the demand is growing for specific alkenes, such as isobutylene or propylene, and it is not cost effective to satisfy that demand utilizing expensive cracking units. The best technical choice for providing alkenes has been normal dehydrogenation of alkanes.
Major factors affecting the technical implementation of the alkane dehydrogenation are the thermodynamic equilibrium limiting single pass conversion and the endothermic character of the dehydrogenation reaction. Additionally, the temperature required for conventional dehydrogenation causes thermal cracking which lowers alkene selectivity, especially in case of propane dehydrogenation.
Two types of catalysts based on chromium oxides for the dehydrogenation of lower alkanes have been described in the scientific and patent literature: chromium oxides supported on γ,δ/,θ-alumina doped with alkali metal and chromium oxides supported on ZrO2. Chromium oxides supported on γ,δ/,θ-alumina doped with alkali metal is employed in the Lumnus Catofin and Snamprogetti-Yarsintez fluidized bed dehydrogenation processes. Chromium oxides supported on ZrO2, on the other hand, has been investigated for its higher thermal stability relative to alumina.
The nature of the active sites in chromium oxide-supported catalysts has been debated for many years. Cr2O3 is the most stable form of all the possible chromium oxides.
Two types of Cr6+ species have been detected in chromium oxide supported on alumina, after the calcination treatment and before reaction. After reduction with hydrogen, it is generally believed that all Cr6+ is reduced to Cr3+. However, according to Grunert et al. (J. Catal. 110 (1986), 138), the reduction occurs in two steps: a very rapid steps from Cr6+ to Cr3+, followed by a slower step from Cr3+ to lower oxidation states (Cr2+). The active sites of the dehydrogenation reactions have been assumed to be Cr3+ by Grunert, W. et al. (J. Catal. 99 (1986), 149; Delmon, B. et al. (J. Catal. 24 (1972), 336) and Konig, P. et al. (Acta Chim. Acad. Sci. Hung. 76 (1976), 123), and to be both Cr2+ and Cr3+ by Ashmawy, F. M. (J. Chem. Soc., Faraday Trans. 76 (1980), 2096), or coordinatively unsaturated Cr2+ by Lunsford, H. et al. (J. Catal. 91 (1985), 155).
The activity in the dehydrogenation of isobutane and also of ethane has been found to be proportional to the chromium content, whatever the species present. Also, in the case of propane dehydrogenation over ZrO2 supported chromium oxide (Indovina et al., Appl. Catal. 81 (1992), 113), the activity per atom of chromium was found to be the same for all chromium loadings. The activity was attributed to the presence of mononuclear Cr3+ species.
However, since hydrogen is present as part of the dehydrogenation reaction product, further reduction of Cr3+ will continue. It is shown in this invention that the lower oxidation state chromium species are responsible for undesired cracking reactions taking place during dehydrogenation and thus to be responsible for coke formation. To minimize the formation of cracking products and coke, the oxidation state of chromium catalytic sites must be controlled by means of a functional redox system during the reaction cycle. The redox system according to present invention is believed to be Cr2+/Cr3+/O2, as demonstrated by oxygen addition to the hydrocarbon in the feed.
It is known from the literature that oxygen can shift the thermodynamic equilibrium of dehydrogenation reactions towards increased olefin production by reacting with hydrogen product. Oxygen is also believed to combust coke and thereby keep the catalyst surface clean of coke deposits. Regeneration of the catalyst is thereby avoided, since coke does not build up and consequently the catalyst is not deactivated. Such reactions are called oxidative dehydrogenation reactions. Up to date there is no commercial process available for producing light alkanes, especially C3 and C4-olefins, by oxidative dehydrogenation reactions due to the absence of a proper catalyst. Known oxidative dehydrogenation reaction processes are described in several published patents.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,996,387 disclosed a dehydrogenation process with a continuous regeneration of dehydrogenation catalyst achieved by cyclically contacting a portion of the catalyst with an admixture of oxygen containing regeneration gas and diluent, while contacting the remaining portion of the catalyst with an admixture of hydrocarbon feed material and diluent. In this disclosure oxygen is added for the purpose of catalyst regeneration in a separate regime from the dehydrogenation medium.
Canadian Patent 912,051 describes a vapor phase process for dehydrogenation of paraffin and olefins with oxygen and halogen in the presence of a solid catalyst containing an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal compound and a promoter. U.S. Pat. No. 3,697,614 is directed to olefin production by oxidative dehydrogenation using a molten alkali metal hydroxide containing alumina with solution transition metal oxygenation, preferably consisting of dichromate molybdate, tungstate, manganate, permanganate, ferrate and metavanadate.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,046,833 disclosed a vapor phase process for dehydrogenation of paraffinic hydrocarbon containing 3 to 6 carbon atoms to the corresponding monoolefin, wherein the process is carried out in the presence of oxygen and in the presence of an oxidative dehydrogenation catalyst containing vanadium and aluminum. The effective paraffin to oxygen ratio is claimed to be in the range of 1:0.04 to 1:10. Examples given in the mentioned invention demonstrate only the effect of several catalyst compositions tested under different conditions with different oxygen concentrations.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,788,371 discloses another oxidative dehydrogenation process using a dehydrogenation catalyst comprising at least one noble metal component. According to the low olefin selectivity, and to date are not utilized on any commercial scale due to absence of a suitably active and selective catalyst, and because the concentration oxygen heretofore utilized in such processes has not been in accord with this invention.
In the production of olefins by the catalytic dehydrogenation of paraffin, it is, of course, desirable to obtain as high a yield of olefin as is possible in a single conversion pass. To minimize hot spot effects, and consequently increase the life of the catalyst, it is also desirable to conduct the reaction under such conditions wherein a minimum amount of coke is formed on the catalyst. It is also desired to increase the dehydrogenation reaction period by decreasing coke formation.
The advantage of the present invention is the maintaining of high paraffin conversion while increasing olefin yield and selectivity, the reduction of thermal cracking, decreasing the feedstock consumption and extending catalyst life.


A tuning layer is disposed spaced by some distance apart from an active layer in a thickness direction, the tuning layer having a transition wavelength shorter than a wavelength of light radiated from the active layer. A diffraction grating layer is disposed between the active layer and tuning layer, a refractive index of the diffraction grating layer being periodically changed along an optical resonator direction. A first electrode supplies the active layer with current. A second electrode supplies the tuning layer with current independently from the current to be supplied to the active layer. A TTG-DFB laser is provided which can maintain a proper coupling coefficient and has characteristics suitable for application to communication light sources.

A) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor laser, and more particularly to a tunable twin-guide distributed feedback (TTG-DFB) type laser.
B) Description of the Related Art
Present backbone transmission systems for large capacity optical communication networks utilize wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) which can increase the capacity of transmission by multiplexing optical signals on a wavelength axis. As the degree of multiplexing is made high, the number of semiconductor lasers to be used as light sources increases. Backup light sources are also required as many as or larger than that of semiconductor lasers, resulting in annoying stock management. Simplifying the management of tunable optical light sources has been desired. Wavelength routing techniques have been paid attention, which dynamically change a routing destination depending upon the wavelength.
A distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) laser is known as one example of tunable lasers. FIG. 4A is a cross sectional view of a conventional tunable DBR laser. On a lower clad layer 100, an active layer 101 and an upper clad layer 103 are formed. Along the longitudinal direction of an optical resonator, a gain region G, a phase adjusting region P and a DBR region R are defined in this order. In the DBR region R, a diffraction grating 102 is disposed near the active layer 101.
Current is supplied to the gain region G by an electrode 104, to the phase adjusting region P by an electrode 105, and to the DBR region R by an electrode 106. As the current is supplied to the gain region G, laser oscillation occurs. As the current is injected into the DBR region R, the oscillation wavelength can be changed. The oscillation wavelength is determined by the longitudinal mode nearest to the wavelength at which the loss of an optical resonator is minimum, so that the wavelength change is discrete. By adjusting the injection amount of current into the phase adjusting region P, it is possible to realize a quasi-continuous wavelength change.
With this method, however, it is necessary to control both the injection currents into the DBR region R and phase adjusting region P, resulting in a complicated control system. When the relation between wavelength and current shifts after a long time operation, it is difficult to follow a change in wavelength, leaving a reliability problem.
A TTG- DFB laser is known as a semiconductor laser which can eliminate the difficulty in controlling a tunable DBR laser. Refer to "Tunable twin-guide laser: A novel laser diode with improved tuning performance" by M. C. Amann, S. Illek, C. Schanen, and W. Thulk, Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 54, (1989), pp. 2532–2533.
FIG. 4B is a cross sectional view of a TTG-DFB laser. A tuning layer 111, an intermediate layer 112, an active layer 113, a diffraction grating 114 and an upper clad layer 115 are stacked in this order on a substrate 110 also serving as a lower clad layer. From the viewpoint of optical transmission mode, the layers of the tuning layer 111 to the diffraction grating 114 are disposed near each other so that they exist in the same mode. An electrode 117 is formed on the bottom surface of the substrate 110, and an electrode 116 is formed on the upper clad layer 115.
The intermediate layer 112 has a conductivity type opposite to that of the substrate 110 and upper clad layer 115. The tuning layer 111 and active layer 113 are electrically independent from each other. Namely, current injected from the electrode 117 into the tuning layer 111 is controlled independently from that injected from the electrode 116 into the active layer 113.
As current is flowed in the active region 113, laser oscillation can be excited. As current is flowed in the tuning layer 111, a refractive index of the tuning layer 111 changes due to the plasma effect. Because the effective refractive index in the laser transmission mode also changes, the Bragg wavelength determined by the diffraction grating 114 changes so that the oscillation frequency changes. In this manner, the oscillation wavelength can be changed in a continuous manner by controlling only the current to be injected into the tuning layer 111.
FIG. 4C is a cross sectional view showing another structure of a TTG-DFB laser. In the laser shown in FIG. 4B, the diffraction grating 114 is disposed on the active layer 113 on the side opposite to the intermediate layer 112. In the laser shown in FIG. 4C, a diffraction grating 114 is disposed on a tuning layer 111 on the side opposite to an intermediate layer 112.

Distributed feedback semiconductor laser


Speaker Cabinets are provided. In one embodiment, a speaker cabinet comprises: a core fabricated from a core material, the core material having an inner chamber defining an air cavity internal to the core; a baffle board having an internal side and an external side, wherein the internal side is mounted to the core at an opening to the air cavity; and a plurality of baffle board sonic coupling battens extending from the baffle board into the core material of the core.

Speaker cabinets, such as the type used in conjunction with amplifiers by musicians in recording studios or for live performances, are typically very heavy. While the speaker assembly, including the speaker driver, contributes to the heaviness of traditional speaker cabinets, the material forming the cabinet itself is also a significant contributor. With respect to the speaker drivers, lighter weight speakers are available that replace the classical ferrite driver material with relatively lightweight drivers made from rare-earth materials such as neodymium. Lighter weight cabinet designs have also been proposed that utilize foam materials in place of heavier materials such as wood or medium density fiber (MDF) boards. However, these proposed cabinet designs have suffered acoustically as compared to traditional cabinets, failing to establish resonances which were achievable from traditional cabinets.
For the reasons stated above and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the specification, there is a need in the art for improved systems and methods for speaker cabinets.
In accordance with common practice, the various described features are not drawn to scale but are drawn to emphasize features relevant to the present invention. Reference characters denote like elements throughout figures and text.


A communication system which can communicate with a party user even when an originator user of a communication terminal does not know the terminal address of a communication terminal of the party user with whom the originator user wants to communicate. When its own user A does not know the terminal address of a communication terminal of a user B, a communication terminal of the user A sends an outgoing file having its own terminal address stored therein as an electronic mail directed to the user B. When receiving the outgoing file as the electronic mail, the communication terminal of the user B displays an icon on its display unit to prompt the user B to enter an instruction of performing reply communication. In response to it, when the user B clicks a mouse on the icon, the communication terminal of the user B can perform the reply communication to the communication terminal corresponding to terminal address stored in the outgoing file.

The present invention relates to a technique for enabling communication with a desired party user even when one of users at a plurality of communication terminals connected in a communication system does not know the terminal address of the communication terminal of the desired party user uniquely allocated thereto.
A communication system having communication terminals connected therein is generally designed so that one of users at the communication terminals can signal to or communicate with the communication terminal of a desired party user on the basis of a terminal address of the party user's communication terminal uniquely allocated thereto. Therefore, it is impossible for a caller to communicate with such a communication terminal that the caller does not know the party's terminal address.
In many of such communication systems, for the purpose of saving the number of terminal addresses as a limited resource, a terminal address is dynamically allocated to its communication terminal participating in the system when the communication terminal was connected to the system. For example, in the Internet, communication terminals being always connected via private line to the Internet are previously allocated their static terminal addresses (which are called "IP addresses" in the Internet), whereas communication terminals to be connected as necessary to the Internet via a public telephone line network (which connection is called "dial-up IP connection") are dynamically allocated their IP addresses when they are actually connected thereto.
In this way, in such a communication system that the communication terminal of a target party user is to be dynamically allocated its terminal address only when the terminal was connected; the communication terminal of the party user is not allocated when not connected to the system, while the party terminal address is being allocated thereto during the connection of the party terminal. However, the prior art communication system has had a problem that since the terminal address to be allocated varies each time its connection is carried out, it is difficult to communicate with such a party user communication terminal.
In order to facilitate communication between the users of the communication terminals, there has conventionally been suggested such a communication system that a monitor server for monitoring communication terminals being connected is provided, as disclosed in a journal entitled "COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM", an article entitled "Net. Speech: Desktop Audio Comes to the Net", Vol. 38, No. 10, October 1995.
In such a communication system as disclosed in the above literature, more specifically, a user sitting at one of the communication terminals, when he wants to connect its own terminal to the system, first declares its connection by informing the monitor server of his user name, in such a manner that the monitor server manages the user names informed by all the communication terminals of such users' who declared their connection as well as the terminal addresses allocated to the communication terminals. And the user of the communication terminal acquires a list of all user names under management of the monitor server. When the user informs the monitor server of the desired party user by selecting the desired user from the acquired user name list to specify the party user, this causes monitor server to call the communication terminal of the party user on the basis of the terminal address corresponding to the informed user name.
With such an arrangement as mentioned above, even when a user sitting at one of the communication terminals does not know the terminal address assigned to the communication terminal of the party user, he can communicate with the party user.
In such a communication system as disclosed in the above literature, however, the user of the communication terminal can call any one of the communication terminals being connected to the system through intervention of the monitor server, but to the contrary, may be called by all the communication terminals being connected thereto, which means that the caller communication terminal must also respond to the calls troublesomely by the communication terminals with which he does not want to communicate.
The above communication system is also disadvantageous in that the user of the caller communication terminal may be called by all the communication terminals even during communication with other communication terminal user, thus hindering its smooth communication.
Another disadvantage of the communication system is that the caller user of the communication terminal, when wanting to specify the user name of a desired party user from the user name list acquired from the monitor server, must troublesomely find the party user name from a lot of user names managed by the monitor server.
Yet another disadvantage of the system is that the caller communication terminal, which failed to inform the monitor server of its own party user name, cannot still be signaled by any other communication terminals so long as they does not know its terminal address, thus restricting the number of communicatable party users.

Communication system using electronic mail


A medical device, such as a vascular filter, composed of: a reinforced membrane unit composed of: a thin filter membrane; and fibers of reinforcement material embedded in the membrane to strengthen the filter and securely attach the fibers to the membrane.

This invention relates to medical devices, such as vascular filters to be used in a body lumen, such as a blood vessel, with improved strength and flexibility. A filter according to the invention includes a proximal frame section, a distal section and a flexible thin membrane with perfusion holes of a diameter that allows blood to pass, but prevents the movement of emboli downstream.
Both sections can be collapsed into a small diameter delivery catheter and expanded upon release from this catheter. The membrane has a proximal entrance mouth, which can be expanded, or deployed, substantially to the same size as the body lumen. It is attached to the proximal frame section, which has the function to keep the mouth of the membrane open and prevent the passing of emboli between the body lumen wall and the edge of the filter mouth.
In order to have a good flexibility, the membrane is made extremely thin. Normally this would create the risk that the membrane could tear easily, which could cause problems because emboli and pieces of the membrane would then be carried downstream from the filter site.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,885,258 discloses a retrieval basket for catching small particles, made from a slotted tube preferably made of Nitinol, a titanium nickel shape memory alloy. The pattern of the slots allows expansion of the Nitinol basket and by shape setting (heat treatment in the desired unconstrained geometry) this basket is made expandable and collapsible by means of moving it out or into a surrounding delivery tube.
In principle, a distal filter is made of such an expandable frame that defines the shape and enables placement and removal, plus a filter membrane or mesh that does the actual filtering work.
Sometimes the expandable frame and the mesh are integrated and made from a single material, for example Nitinol, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,383,205 or U.S. Published Application No. 2002/0095173. These filters do not have a well-defined and constant size of the holes where the blood flows through, because of the relative movement of the filaments in the mesh. This is a disadvantage, because the size of emboli can be very critical, e.g. in procedures in the carotid arteries. Further the removal of such a filter, accompanied by a reduction of the diameter, may be critical because emboli can be squeezed through the mesh openings with their changing geometry.
A much better control of the particle size is achieved with a separate membrane or filter sheath, which has a well-defined hole pattern with for example holes of 100 microns, attached to a frame that takes care of the correct placement and removal of the filter.
WO 00/67668 discloses a Nitinol basket that forms the framework of the filter, and a separate polymer sheath is attached around this frame. At the proximal side, the sheath has large entrance ports for the blood and at the distal side a series of small holes filters out the emboli. This system, however, has some major disadvantages. First of all, the closed basket construction makes this filter frame rather rigid and therefore it is difficult to be used in tortuous arteries. At a curved part of an artery, it may even not fit well against the artery wall and will thus cause leakage along the outside of the filter.
Another disadvantage of such filters is there is a high risk of squeezing-out the caught debris upon removal, because the struts of the framework force the debris back in the proximal direction, while the volume of the basket frame decreases when the filter is collapsed. Further the construction makes it very difficult to reduce the profile upon placement of the filter. This is very critical, because these filters have to be advanced through critical areas in the artery, where angioplasty and/or stenting are necessary. Of course the catheter that holds this filter should be as small as possible then. In the just described filter miniaturization would be difficult because at a given cross section there is too much material. The metal frame is surrounded by polymer and in the center there is also a guide wire. During angioplasty and stenting, the movements of the guide wire will create further forces that influence the position and shape of the filter, which may cause problems with the proper sealing against the artery wall. This is also the case in strongly curved arteries.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,348,062, a frame is placed proximal and a distal polymer filter membrane has the shape of a bag, attached to one or more frame loops, forming an entrance mouth for the distal filter bag. Here the bag is made of a very flexible polymer and the hole size is well defined. Upon removal, the frame is closed, thus closing the mouth of the bag and partly preventing the squeezing-out of debris. This is already better than for the full basket design, which was described above, where the storage capacity for debris of the collapsed basket is relatively small. The filter bag is attached to the frame at its proximal end and sometimes to a guide wire at its distal end. Attachment to the guide wire can be advantageous, because some pulling force may prevent bunching of the bag in the delivery catheter.
It may be clear that it is easier to pull a flexible folded bag through a small diameter hole, than to push it through. However, the deformation of the bag material should stay within certain limits.
If the filter is brought into a delivery sheath of small diameter, collapsing the frame and pulling the bag into the delivery sheath causes rather high forces on the connection sites of filter to frame and/or guide wire. While the metal parts of the frame slide easily through such a delivery sheath, the membrane material may have the tendency to stick and in the worst case it may even detach from the frame and tear upon placement or during use, because of too much friction, unlimited expansion, crack propagation etc.
The connection of the filter bag to the frame is rather rigid, because of the method of direct attachment. Additional flexibility, combined with a high strength attachment spot would also be advantageous.
Methods for making kink resistant reinforced catheters by embedding wire ribbons are described in PCT/US93/01310. There, a mandrel is coated with a thin layer of encapsulating material. Then, a means (e.g. a wire) for reinforcement is deposited around the encapsulating material and eventually a next layer of encapsulating material is coated over the previous layers, including the reinforcement means. Finally the mandrel is removed from the core of the catheter.
Materials for encapsulating are selected from the group consisting of polyesterurethane, polyetherurethane, aliphatic polyurethane, polyimide, polyetherimide, polycarbonate, polysiloxane, hydrophilic polyurethane, polyvinyls, latex and hydroxyethylmethacrylate.
Materials for the reinforcement wire are stainless steel, MP35, Nitinol, tungsten, platinum, Kevlar, nylon, polyester and acrylic. Kevlar is a Dupont product, made of long molecular higly oriented chains, produced from polyparaphenylene terephalamide. It is well known for its high tensile strength and modulus of elasticity.
In U.S. application Ser. No. 09/537,461 the use of polyethylene with improved tensile properties is described. It is stated that high tenacity, high modulus yarns are used in medical implants and prosthetic devices. Properties and production methods for polyethylene yarns are disclosed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,578,374 describes very low creep, ultra high modulus, low shrink, high tenacity polyolefin fibers having good strength retention at high temperatures, and methods to produce such fibers. In an example, the production of a poststretched braid, applied in particularly woven fabrics is described.
In U.S. Published Application No. 2001/0034197, oriented fibers are used for reinforcing an endless belt, comprising a woven or non-woven fabric coated with a suitable polymer of a low hardness polyurethane membrane, in this case to make an endless belt for polishing silicon wafers. Examples are mentioned of suitable yarns like meta- or para-aramids such as KEVLAR, NOMEX OR TWARON; PBO or its derivatives; polyetherimide; polyimide; polyetherketone; PEEK; gel-spun UHMW polyethylene (such as DYNEEMA or SPECTRA); or polybenzimidazole; or other yarns commonly used in high-performance fabrics such as those for making aerospace parts. Mixtures or blends of any two or more yarns may be used, as may glass fibers (preferably sized), carbon or ceramic yarns including basalt or other rock fibers, or mixtures of such mineral fibers with synthetic polymer yarns. Any of the above yarns may be blended with organic yarns such as cotton.
The present invention further relates to medical procedures performed in blood vessels, particularly in arteries.
This invention relates more specifically to systems and methods involving angioplasty and/or stenting, where protection against loose embolic material is a major concern.
Such procedures are performed to remove obstructions or blockages in arteries and thereby alleviate life-threatening conditions. The procedures currently employed result in a fracturing or disintegration of the obstructing material and if the resulting particles, or debris, were permitted to flow downstream within the circulatory system, they would be likely to cause blockages in smaller arteries, or their microscopic branches termed the microcirculation, downstream of the treatment site. The result can be new life-threatening conditions, including stroke.
Various systems and techniques have already been proposed for removing this debris from the circulatory system in order to prevent the debris from causing any harm. These techniques involve temporarily obstruction the artery, at a location downstream of the obstruction, by means of an element such as a balloon, and then suctioning debris and blood from the treatment site. While such techniques can effectively solve the problem stated above, they require that blood flow through the artery be obstructed, causing complete cessation or at least a substantial reduction in blood flow volume, during a time period which can be significant for organ survival for example, the time limit for the brain is measured in seconds and for the heart, in minutes.
Although filters have been used, they suffer from the limitation of either obstructing flow or allowing micro embolism due to fixed pore size. Furthermore, the collected debris can reflux out of the filter when it is closed and lead to embolism. Upon pulling back of a basket/filter with entrapped particles into a delivery catheter, debris particles may be squeezed out of the device, because the volume is strongly reduced. During this pulling back, the filter no longer covers the full cross-section of the artery, so particles that are squeezed out then can freely flow around the outer edge of the filter and move distally through the artery.
The invention also relates to a combined delivery/post-dilatation device for self-expanding stents.
Normally the delivery of self-expanding stents is done with a separate delivery sheath, which is pulled back to release the compressed stent from this sheath and allow it to deploy. If this stent does not deploy to the full size, because the reaction forces of the artery wall and lesion site are too high, it must be further expanded by an additional post-dilatation procedure. Therefore, a separate post-dilatation catheter is needed, that has to be brought into the stented lesion site and then inflated to the full size. This is an extra, time-consuming step in the procedure.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Vascular filter with improved strength and flexibility

Abstract: A method of fabricating the filter by the steps of: providing a mold that can be melted, dissolved, or deformed without damaging membrane material; covering the mold with an intermediate material that is easily separated from the membrane material; covering the intermediate material with the membrane material; placing the fibers in contact with the membrane material that covers the intermediate material; covering the fibers with additional membrane material to form the membrane with embedded fibers; removing the mold by melting, dissolving, or deforming the mold; and removing the intermediate material from the membrane.


A tricycle includes a frame and a front wheel. The tricycle includes a first rear wheel coupled to the frame. The tricycle includes a second rear wheel coupled to the frame. The tricycle includes a front suspension system and a rear suspension system functionally coupled to the frame. The tricycle includes a drive system coupled to the frame and a wheel hub fixedly coupled to the first drive shaft. The drive system includes a transmission system coupling a first drive train to a second drive train. The tricycle includes a locking device configured to lock the relative position of the wheel hub and the rear axle, wherein the locking device is selectably adjustably between a first mode and a second mode. The first mode includes the wheel hub and the rear axle locked together, and the second mode includes the wheel hub and the rear axle shaft independently rotatable.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to vehicles, specifically to an all terrain tricycle.
2. Description of the Related Art
A tricycle, sometimes abbreviated to a trike, is a three-wheeled vehicle. While tricycles are often associated with the small three-wheeled vehicles used by pre-school age children, they are also used by adults for a variety of purposes. Adult-sized tricycles are used primarily by older persons for recreation, shopping, and exercise. In addition, tricycles are used primarily for commercial transportation, either of passengers in pedicabs, or of freight and deliveries. Some improvements have been made in the field. Examples of references related to the present invention are described below in their own words, and the supporting teachings of each reference are incorporated by reference herein:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,601,862, issued to Kettler, discloses a tricycle and intermediate frame for tricycle. The tricycle includes a rear axle, rear wheels coupled to free ends of the rear axle, a rear seat, and a rear frame coupled to the rear axle and to the rear seat. A front frame includes a fork tube, and the front frame and the rear frame are detachably connectable to each other. The tricycle also includes a handlebar, and a fork coupled to the handle bar. The fork is rotatably coupled to the fork tube. A front wheel includes pedal cranks and is rotatably coupled to the fork. A second seat and a holding element are also included. The intermediate frame is arranged to support the second seat and the holding element, and is detachably coupled between the front frame and the rear frame.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,863,058, issued to Jinks, discloses an adult tricycle is provided comprised of a standard conventional adult tricycle and a double occupancy child seat connected with the operator's portion of the vehicle. In this configuration a child or children would be able to sit in a safe environment behind the operator's seat. The child's seat includes a padded seat with seat belts, and an enclosed front, sides, and back, in order to prevent accidental entanglement between the passengers and any of the moving parts. With the seating area being part of the operator portion of the tricycle, as opposed to a trailer-style, the tricycle achieves much greater stability and security for both operator and passengers.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,966,381, issued to Feikema, discloses a tricycle including a generally horizontal perimeter frame supported above the ground by a pair of rear wheels and a steerable front wheel. The perimeter frame is continuous along one side and front and back while having an opening in the opposite side just ahead of the rear wheel serving as a pass-thru for ease of entry and egress with regard to a seat positioned generally between the rear wheels. An openable gate may be provided which fits into the opening and renders this side of the frame continuous. The device is propelled by foot rotation of a forwardly positioned foot crank which is held for rotation along a generally horizontal axis between the sides of the frame. A chain gear is connected at one end of the foot crank which driveably engages an endless chain positioned in elongated fashion along one side of the frame. The chain then driveably engages a second chain gear connected to one rear wheel. The coasting feature is accomplished in the preferred embodiment by a one-way free wheel hub disposed between the foot crank chain gear and the foot crank end whereby the chain is always in motion whenever the rear wheels are rotating, although the free-wheel hub may also be connected to one rear wheel instead.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,834,721, issued to Gobby, discloses a twin chain drive mechanism for the propulsion of a pair of separated, aligned axle shafts and their attached rear road wheels of a tricycle at various speeds by the manipulation of its pedals, each independent axle shaft having a free-wheeling drive sprocket removably attached thereto which allows for coasting and the variable speeds of the wheels required during operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,446,985, issued to Tompsett, discloses an improved two-wheel-drive bicycle having, in certain preferred forms, a chain-driven front-drive mechanism having a gearing arrangement attached to the fork assembly, whereby the gear arrangement, using fixed-axis and variable-axis turning members, transfers rotational power from the drive mechanism along and around the steering axis to the front sprocket. Certain preferred embodiments include particular gearing arrangements and particular ways of getting bicycle power to the fixed-axis turning members.
The inventions heretofore known suffer from a number of disadvantages which include being limited in application, being limited in adaptability, being limited in mobility, being expensive, being difficult to use, being difficult to maintain, failing to adapt to differing riding conditions, and/or being limited in use.
What is needed is a tricycle that solves one or more of the problems described herein and/or one or more problems that may come to the attention of one skilled in the art upon becoming familiar with this specification.


The milling machine disclosed herein offers significant advantages over prior milling machines, particularly in the field of milling composite panels. The structure of the milling machine, having a C-shaped frame with a clamping mechanism that cooperates with roller transfer balls, provides an accurate and stable reference during the milling operation. A vacuum system substantially eliminates the dust produced during the milling operation, so that the machine is cleaner and grinds more accurately. An electrical system, having a retractable bit control and emergency stopping modes, facilitates even more accurate grinding without undesirable results.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a milling machine and, more particularly, to a milling machine for milling a panel having complex contours.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many industries are and have been using sheet-like materials having complex contours. Industries use these materials for a wide variety of different purposes. For instance, the automobile industry primarily uses sheet-like, steel body panels. However, an increasing number of automobile body panels are being made from plastic, fiberglass, and composites, such as graphite and kevlar.
The steel sheets, from which steel body panels are formed, are typically produced using a roller press. The thickness of steel sheets formed in such a manner, may be controlled to within strict tolerances. However, plastic, fiberglass, and composite body panels are typically formed using molds. The molding process and any subsequent curing process often introduce irregularities in the thickness of these type body panels. Of course, in industries such as the automobile industry, body panels may vary in thickness without adversely affecting the quality or driveability of the automobile. In other industries, however, the thickness of body panels must be held to within strict tolerances. For instance, airplane manufacturers use composite panels to cover the fuselage and wings of an airplane. Composite panels are lighter and stiffer than steel panels and, thus, appear to be well-suited for use as skin panels on airplanes. However, variations in panel thickness may introduce undesirable stresses along the skin panel.
Due to material and processing variations during lay-up and curing, these large, integrally-stiffened skin panels rarely meet the stringent panel thickness requirements. These requirements are particularly important in fracture-critical zones, such as areas which attach the skin panels to an underlying substructure. The tolerance in these areas is approximately +/-0.010 inches for thickness, with an additional requirement that the waviness of the panel be held to 0.005 inches over any six-inch span.
As alluded to above, these composite panels are manufactured by stacking layers of fabric and tape, and then curing the layered materials in a high temperature/pressure autoclave. Due to variations in the thickness in the composite tape, pressures in the autoclave, and resin buildups or losses during curing, the panels often exhibit unacceptable levels of thickness variation. The thickness of the cured panels is measured to determine areas of undesirable thickness variation. Thereafter, thickness variations are eliminated by stacking more material in low spots and by manually grinding high spots. This process continues until the thickness of the panel is within the prescribed tolerance. This rework typically consists of manually inspecting the edge band with micrometers and pulse echo ultrasonic thickness gauges, and then chalking these readings onto the panel's inner mold line (IML) surface.
Typically, expensive hard tooling jigs and five-axis numerically-controlled machines perform the face milling operation. However, the inaccuracy of these machine tools and part-to-part variation make it nearly impossible to meet the required tolerance levels using these tools.
The present invention is directed to overcoming, or at least reducing the affects of, one or more of the problems set forth above.


A vehicular charger is provided with a main casing body and a secondary casing body; a chargeable source part inside the main casing body; a circuit board electrically connected to the chargeable source part; an interface on the circuit board; an illumination assembly inside the secondary casing body and charged by the chargeable source part; a switch for controlling the ON/OFF of the illumination assembly on the circuit board; a magnet is mounted on the secondary casing body. The vehicular charger is useful, for example, in the home, office, and during travel, in which a buckle can be used to carry the charger, an LED light can be used to illuminate, and the interface can be used for charging or interfacing the charger with other electronic devices.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a charging device, and especially to a multifunctional vehicular charger.
2. Description of the Related Art
A charging device usually includes a standard charger exclusive to an electronic device as well as an additionally arranged charging device, where those charging devices have a charging cradle, a movable charger etc. The charging cradle is usually used in home or in the company, and is inconvenient to carry. Usually, a movable charging device is suitable for being carried when the user is traveling or is in office. The existing movable charger is huge, and is always be kept in the bag when it is not used; while it only has one function, which is charging an electronic device. With the development of the society, diversified and multifunctional products are getting more and more popular. Especially when people goes out, people always want to carry as little things as possible, while having as more functions as possible, and no matter it is a normal usage state or an emergent usage state, people's need for usage can be fulfilled.

NINGBO TALLER ELECTRICAL APPLIANCE CO., LTD


A self-calibrating optical feedback system for an optical navigation device. The self-calibrating optical feedback system includes a light source, an illumination lens, a beam splitter, and an optical feedback device. The illumination lens is coupled relative to the light source. The light source emits light based on a programming current. The illumination lens directs the light towards a beam splitter. The beam splitter partially reflects the light directed from the illumination lens. The optical feedback device detects the partially reflected light from the beam splitter and generates a feedback signal to modify an intensity of the light emitted by the light source. Embodiments of the self-calibrating optical feedback system maintain the output intensity of a laser driven optical navigation device below an eye-safety level.

Conventional optical navigation devices, such as an optical mouse device for a computer, use a light emitting diode (LED) as an illumination source. More recently, a coherent light source, such as a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL), is used as the illumination source to increase tracking sensitivity. A laser-based optical navigation device is able to reflect more detail from minor surface defects and textures on tracking surfaces than LED-based optical navigation devices. Using a laser optical navigation device can result in significantly increased tracking sensitivity compared to typical LED optical navigation devices.
FIG. 1 depicts a conventional optical tracking system 10. The conventional optical tracking system 10 includes a laser mouse 12 and a tracking surface 14. The laser mouse 12 includes a laser driver 16, a light source 18, an illumination lens 20, an imaging lens 22, and a sensor array 24. The laser driver 16 generates a fixed output current or a variable output current to drive the light source 18. The variable output current can be adjusted via mechanical adjustments. The illumination lens 20 directs the emitted light towards the tracking surface 14. The imaging lens 22 directs the light reflected off the tracking surface towards the sensor array 24. The sensor array 24 detects the light directed through the imaging lens 22. By capturing a plurality of images of the illuminated tracking surface 14, the captured images are processed and examined to determine movement of the laser mouse 12 relative to the tracking surface 14.
Typically, a coherent light source is biased at some predetermined drive current level to achieve a desired light output level, or output beam power, offering optimum tracking sensitivity. Conventional laser drivers are designed with a fixed resistor or mechanical POT (potentiometer) to control the level of bias current supplied to the coherent light source. To a certain point, as the output beam power increases, so does the tracking sensitivity. However, using a laser in an optical navigation device poses hazards with respect to damage to vision.
The possibility for vision damage is made more uncertain, and potentially more dangerous, by the effects of external influences which may alter the laser output characteristics, in addition to the inherent minor differences in the characteristics of individual coherent light sources. Thus, coherent light sources emit light beams of different output beam power, even when the same current value is driving each coherent light source, making it difficult to ensure operation of lasers below a common eye-safety threshold.

Self-calibrating optical feedback system in a laser mouse

Avago Technologies ECBU IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.


In various embodiments, the gaming system and method disclosed herein enables a player to allocate portions of a selected predetermined wager amount amongst a plurality of linked games. In one such embodiment, the player selects allocation percentages such that the total of the allocated portions according to the allocation percentages equals the selected predetermined wager amount. For each of the plurality of linked games, the gaming system determines and displays a game outcome, and determines and displays an award associated with the determined game outcome. The gaming system further provides the determined award for each of the plurality of linked games to the player.

Gaming systems which provide players awards in primary or base games are well known. Gaming systems generally require the player to place or make a wager to activate a primary or base game. Certain known gaming systems enable a player to wager on and play a plurality of primary or base games simultaneously. In many of these gaming systems, the award for each played primary game is based on the player obtaining a winning symbol or symbol combination and on the amount of the wager placed on that primary game (e.g., the higher the wager, the higher the award). Generally, symbols or symbol combinations which are less likely to occur usually provide higher awards.
Various known gaming systems enable players to place multiple wagers on multiple games and simultaneously display multiple plays of these multiple games. Particularly, the player places a wager amount on each of the multiple games and, for each individual game played, the gaming system determines any awards based on the generated symbol combinations and the wager amount placed for that game.
There is a continuing need to provide new and different gaming systems and methods which incorporate new and different ways to play multiple games.

Gaming system and method for providing plays of multiple games


A paddle for watercraft has a shaft to which blades are attached at opposite ends. The blades may be mounted directly to the shaft or via drop cranks. The shaft is suspended on handles oriented transversely to the shaft's longitudinal axis. The handles are capable of pivoting motion relative to the shaft as well as rotational motion about their respective longitudinal axes.

It is estimated that the "hunter's boat" or kayak, as it is more commonly known, has been in use for over 4,000 years. Today it is popular as a sport watercraft, used for exercise, fishing and recreation. Modern kayaks have evolved significantly in hull design as well as through the use of synthetic materials, but their propulsion still relies on the two bladed paddle. Traditional paddles, while effective, tend not to place much emphasis on ergonomic design or efficiency, i.e., converting the most muscle power of the user into propulsive force in a way which accommodates the natural limitations on human muscles, tendons and joints. There is clearly an opportunity to improve the propulsive efficiency of two bladed paddles while also favorably increasing their ergonomic features.


A surgical fastener assembly for coupling first and second bone portions across a fracture therebetween including an elongated anchor or bone screw insertable within the first bone such that one end portion of the anchor is disposed on one side of the fracture while a second end portion of the anchor is disposed on an opposite side of the fracture. A guide having a sleeve-like projection is fixedly secured to the second bone. The sleeve-like projection on the guide moves slidably along and is guided by the second end portion of the anchor. A compression screw assembly serves to operably secure the guide to the anchor such that the bone portions secured to each are maintained in compressive relationship relative to each other. A screw assembly for maintaining the guide in fixed relation relative to the bone portion to which it is secured is also disclosed.

A hip joint is a heavily stressed, load-carrying bone joint in the human body. It is essentially a ball and socket joint formed by the top of the femur which pivots within a cup-shaped acetabulum at the base of the pelvis. When a break or fracture occurs adjacent to the top of the femur, the separated portions of the femur must be held together while healing occurs.
There have been a number of techniques used historically for treatment of fractures of the proximal and distal ends of the femur. In early parts of this century, patients were merely placed in bed or in traction for prolonged periods, frequently resulting in deformity or death. In the 1930s, the Smith-Peterson nail was introduced, resulting in immediate fixation of hip fractures, early mobilization of the patient, and a lowered morbidity and mortality. A number of nails have been introduced for a fracture fixation about the femur in its proximal end, including the Jewett nail and, in more recent years, dynamic compression devices that allow capture of the most proximal fragments of the femur, compression of intertrochanteric and subtrochanteric fracture fragments, rigid fixation of the most proximal and distal fragments, and a sliding lag screw or anchor which fits within a barrelled side plate for allowing further compression of fragments as the patient ambulates and begins to bear weight on the fractured limb. The side plate is typically secured to the bone fragment with a series of screws or fasteners.
The use of a rigid, blade plate, has been used both at the proximal end of the femur for fixation of subtrochanteric femur fractures, and at the distal end for fixation of supracondylar and intercondylar fractures about the knee. Because these fractures can be technically challenging to fix, a dynamic compression screw, similar in many respects to a dynamic hip compression screw, but with a side plate design and angle similar to a blade plate, have been utilized for several years.
All of the known prior art, whether in the patient literature as disclosed above, or in commercial devices, fails to take into account the shifting of the lag screw or anchor and its compression screw in the barrel as the break heals and the fragments move closer together. When this movement occurs, the compression screw can back out of the lag screw and move away from the break and into the soft tissue causing discomfort, pain and a painful bursa. With osteopenic patients, the dynamic hip compression screws can loosen or erode through the superior bone of the head of the femur, resulting in joint penetration and destruction of the joint, producing arthritis. This can necessitate additional surgery for the removal of the hip compression screw, and replacement of the hip of the femur with a prosthesis. Similarly, the use of a dynamic compression screw in osteopenic patients may result in inadequate purchase of the lag screw threads within the bone, with resultant loss of fixation as the compression screw is used to compress the lag screw and resultant proximally fixed bone to the side plate and distally fixed bone. With loss of purchase of the lag screw or anchor within the head of the femur, compression forces are dissipated, and the implant device can fail, resulting in a nonunion or malunion of the fracture fragments. Similar loss of fixation can occur about the supracondylar and intercondylar fractures of the distal femur with osteopenic patients.
To prevent loss of fixation with compression and to decrease required removal of the anchoring lag screw within the femoral head in osteopenic patients, some devices have been modified to increase purchase of the anchoring lag screw within the femoral head, by enlarging the lag screw, or by alternative means of fixation of the proximal fragment with a molley bolt concept. This later device has not gained as wide acceptance with surgeons in the United States as it differs from traditional lag screw techniques of screwing in the device, giving the surgeon a sense of "feel" of the degree of purchase of the lag screw with the bone, and, thus, an idea of the degree to which the surgeon may compress the lag screw and side plate assembly without loss of fixation by "over-compression."
As the lag screw slides within the barrel of the side plate, it can become prominent on the side of patients who are cachectic. Frequently, the compression screw will back out once implanted, leading to further prominence of the device and possible erosion through the skin. This can lead to premature or unwanted additional surgery for removal of the compression screw or device increasing the morbidity, rate of infection and mortality caused by additional surgery, frequently in frail elderly patients who least are able to withstand additional surgical insult to their body. Many surgeons remove the compression screw for this very reason, to prevent it from backing out. With removal of the compression screw, however, the possibility of disassembly of the device can occur with resultant failure of fracture fixation and the necessity for further surgical operations. Some hip pinning systems have been modified to prevent the inadvertent disassembly of the lag screw and side plate by constraining the degree to which the lag screw and side plate can dissociate and by increased modularity of the side plate and lag screw component, enabling perhaps a smaller incision on the patient. This modularity, however, introduces another theoretical variable of potential loss of fixation of the side plate in the lag screw portions of the devices. Furthermore, the side plates can loosen their purchase from the distal fragments by biological resorption with resultant loss of purchase of fixation of the screws holding the side plate to the lateral side of the femur. This can happen in either the dynamic hip compression screws or the dynamic compression screws used about distal condylar fractures of the femur or for subtrochanteric fractures of the femur. Closer placement of the screw holes in side plate, enabling more threads per unit of length of the femur, or alternating the number and location of holes in the side plate with a broader side plate have been advocated to reduce the incidence of loss of purchase of the side plate. The use of a distal compression screw allows more proximal compression in the longitudinal axis of the femur, to increase compression at the fracture site.
Furthermore, the screws or fasteners used to hold the side plate to the lateral femur often become loose as bone is resorbed about the external threading on the screws. Thus, the side plate often becomes loose from the bone, resulting in failure of the implant and loss of fixation of the fracture.
Thus, there is a need and a desire for an improved hip pinning or surgical fastener assembly that allows greater purchase of the lag screw within the femoral head of the hip bone while yielding a "feel" of fixation to the surgeon during insertion of the lag screw. Such a pinning system for fixation assembly should furthermore be designed to allow a compression screw to remain permanently in place after surgery thus maintaining the degree of compression between the lag screw and side plate. It is also desirable to prevent the screws used to maintain the side plate in fixed relation relative to the bone fragment from loosening thereby maintaining the side plate in secure relation relative to the bone to which it was initially secured.


A register transfer level (RTL) model is created using an object-oriented programming language. In that RTL model, a logic circuit can be represented by a hierarchy of objects ("modules") each having representation of state elements, input signals, output signals and internal signals. Each object is also provided member functions for initializing, for loading a new state and for generating a next state. These modules are collected in a linked list. In the beginning of simulation, each object is initialized as the linked list is traversed. Then, a consistent next state for the RTL model is obtained by generating a state next based on the initial state. Simulation proceeds by alternately traversing the linked list to load a new state into each module, and traversing the linked list to generate the next state for each module. The step of traversing the linked list to generate the next state of each module may require multiple executions to ensure convergence.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to logic circuit representation; in particular, the present invention relates to a logic circuit representation which includes executable code that can be linked into a computer-aided design tool for simulation or verification.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Conventional logic simulation tools and their associated hardware description languages (HDLs), which are often designed to accommodate a large number of diversed design styles, are not efficient in handling such complex logic circuits microprocessors. The overhead cost, i.e. the complexity of the simulator code and the associated memory requirements, renders these simulators too slow and requiring too much memory for handling the complexity of a microprocessor or a similar complex logic circuit.
In a conventional logic design methodology, a designer partitions a logic circuit under design into a hierarchy of functional blocks. Using a procedural programming language, such as the "C" language, well-known to those skilled in the art, the designer then writes simulation procedures for each functional block. Typically, in such a hierarchy, the lowest level procedures each compute a register transfer level (RTL) behavior of a small logic circuit. Simulation is achieved by executing this hierarchy of procedures for all clock periods during a prescribed simulation period. A design achieved with the help of such a simulation is then used to create a HDL description of the logic circuit. From this HDL description, an actual implementation of the logic circuit can be obtained using well-known methods, such as a logic synthesis tool. Because a conventional programming language does not provide data structures similar to those provided by a hardware description language, e.g. multiple instantiations of a circuit element, or a data structure customized for representing both an individual binary logic signal and a bus, creating an HDL description from these simulation procedures is often an undesirably complex and error-prone task.
Alternatively, simulation can be performed using an interpreter of the HDL used in the logic design. Many such interpreters are available, including those interpreting the Verilog HDL, well-known to those skilled in the art. However, in these simulators, since the HDL description is interpreted, the resulting simulation is too slow for use at the beginning stages of a design, when different design options are often simulated to provide a basis for a design decision. Thus, there is a need for a method for constructing logic simulation models which are expressed in data structures similar to those provided in HDLs and, at the same time, capable of being compiled with a simulator for simulation in a digital computer.

Design for a simulation module using an object-oriented programming language


An output driver for high speed integrated circuits includes a static driver portion and a transient driver portion. The static driver size can be adjusted to satisfy the minimal requirements for maintaining output DC voltage levels. The transient drivers include a feed-back control from the output voltage node. During a transition, the transient buffer control will sense the output level and feedback to turn off the transient driver whenever the output level rises/falls across the trip point. Accordingly the di/dt noise will drop quickly once the output has reached the trip point. The transient drivers can be larger to speed up switching speed. The buffer can use single power and ground pins or multiple power/ground pins.

This invention relates generally to an output buffer circuit for driving an output line in response to "high" and "low" control signals and, more particularly, the invention relates to a high speed driver circuit with improved noise characteristics.
In digital electronic circuits, buffers are utilized to maintain voltages on output lines at a low level (e.g. ground), or a high level (e.g. V.sub.cc) and to change the voltage levels in response to control signals. During the transition of voltage levels, the rapidly changing current, di/dt, creates noise in the output line. Further, the ground bounce can create a ringing effect during voltage transition.

Output buffer with static and transient pull-up and pull-down drivers


Disclosed is a method of controlling an operation mode of a fuel cell in a fuel cell vehicle wherein, (a) when a driver-demanded torque is lower than a first torque, and a current state of charge (SOC) in a battery is higher than a first SOC, the operation mode of the fuel cell is converted to a stop mode, and (b) when the driver-demanded torque is higher than a second torque, or the current SOC in the battery is lower than a second SOC, the operation mode is converted to a start mode, wherein the second torque is higher than the first torque and the second SOC is lower than the first SOC.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to a method of controlling an operation mode of a fuel cell during operation of a fuel cell vehicle, particularly when a stop mode of the fuel cell is extended, by taking account of durability (e.g., stack dry-out prevention, open-circuit voltage holding time reduction, etc.) of the fuel cell.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a fuel cell vehicle uses a fuel cell to produce electricity using hydrogen and oxygen, thereby powering its electric motor or charging its battery. Further, the fuel cell vehicle can also implement a regenerative braking system using a power-generation function of the electric motor.
To improve fuel efficiency of a fuel cell vehicle, an idle stop technology has been proposed in which a fuel cell stops generating electricity when the fuel cell vehicle idles. In regard to fuel cells, various methods of determining or performing stop/start of power generation have also been proposed.
However, none of these methods provides a method wherein when a fuel cell vehicle is driving, a stop mode of the fuel cell is extended.
Further, since it takes a certain amount of time for a fuel cell to form a voltage when a fuel cell vehicle is re-accelerated after being stopped, the fuel cell vehicle needs to further include both a restart method so as to improve acceleration performance during re-acceleration, and a method of avoiding frequent stopping and starting of the fuel cell.
The description regarding the related art is provided only for understanding of the background of the invention, so it should not be construed by ordinarily skilled persons in the art to be admitted to the related art.

Method of controlling operation mode of fuel cell in fuel cell vehicle


In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for using a database to access content stored outside of the database. These mechanisms and methods for using a database to access content stored outside of the database can enable embodiments to provide a database system which can be used to access content when the content is incapable of being stored in the database system, or is otherwise not stored in the database system. The ability of embodiments to provide access to such data via the database system can improve the usability of the database system.

The subject matter discussed in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in the background section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the background section or associated with the subject matter of the background section should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter in the background section merely represents different approaches, which in and of themselves may also be inventions.
In conventional database systems, a type of data capable of being stored in such database systems is limited. For example, each field of a database may be configured to store only a particular type of data. In some cases, the particular type of data may be customized for all fields in a column of the database. Unfortunately, conventional database systems have been limited in their ability to store some types of data, such as rich text, files, and images. For example, rich text, files, and images have generally exceeded the allowable size for data being stored in a single field of a database.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide techniques enabling a database system to be utilized to access content stored outside of the database system to improve the usability of the database system.

System, method and computer program product for using a database to access content stored outside of the database


Tires are converted to rubber particles and inorganic compounds are removed from the tires by treating the tires in a closed reactor with a nitric acid solution having a nitric acid concentration above 60%. In the preferred embodiment, any steel belts contained in the tires are first removed. The tires are then treated with a solution of concentrated nitric acid in which the acid concentration is maintained above 60% which extracts inorganic compounds such as zinc, sulfur and calcium from the tires and converts the tires into rubber particles.

The present invention relates to processes for recycling scrap tires. More particularly, the present invention relates to processes for treating scrap tires to remove inorganic components, steel belts and to convert the tires to rubber particles.
Currently, about 200 million scrap tires are being stockpiled, landfilled or illegally dumped annually with about 50 million scrap tires being recycled in a variety of ways. The current disposal methods are causing numerous short term environmental problems. For example, whole tires occupy large amounts of space and may "float" or rise to the top of landfills. In an attempt to prevent floating, many landfills require that scrap tires be shredded, a process which is energy intensive and wasteful if it does not produce any useful product.
Scrap tire stockpiles produce health risks by providing a place for rodents and mosquitoes to breed which facilitates the spreading of diseases. Large fires have also broken out in scrap tire stockpiles causing many problems. These fires are long lasting and are difficult to extinguish, unnecessarily tying up fire fighting resources. Additionally, these fires produce unwanted smoke which pollutes the environment and toxic oils which poison adjacent soils and water.
Accordingly, numerous attempts have been made to develop processes to use or recycle scrap tires.
Scrap tires often contain several inorganic components such as zinc, sulfur and calcium which are impregnated into the rubbery portion of the tire. These inorganic components can be a hindrance to the recycling of the rubbery portion of the tires using various processes. For example, their removal is necessary when the tires are to be combusted in a conventional boiler since the inorganic components will cause air pollution and/or boiler scale build-up as well as interfering with various catalytic processes.
Many tires also include steel belts and bead wires for added strength and support. These belts and wires also must be removed from the scrap tires in order to permit effective recycling and use of the rubbery portion of the tire.
Accordingly, it would be a significant advancement in the art to provide a process for removing steel belts and other inorganic components from scrap tires to permit more effective recycling of the rubbery portion of the tires. It would be a further advancement to provide a process that converted tires into small particles for subsequent use. Such a process is disclosed and claimed herein.

Process for converting scrap tires to rubber particles while removing inorganic compounds from the tires


A method is provided for scheduling downlink and uplink data bursts in a frame for communication between a node station and a plurality of access terminals including half-duplex terminals, comprising the steps of allocating, in a current frame having a downlink and an uplink portion, a Tx burst in the uplink portion of the frame for each access terminal, the Tx burst of each access terminal starting at a time in the uplink portion which is greater than or equal to the start time in the downlink portion of corresponding Rx data incremented by the duration of said Rx data.

In recent years, the fast growing of datacom networks and the large and ever-increasing amount of services made available to the users over such networks have led to a remarkable growth of traffic which is heavily affecting network performance. Terrestrial broadband wireless access (BWA), point-to-multipoint (PMP) systems with dynamic capacity allocation are thus expected to support and provide an increasing number of applications and services, including the highly demanding multimedia and last generation mobile network infrastructure. The former ones include, for instance, fast Internet video and video on demand (VoD), the latter ones include the 2G/3G mobile network infrastructure, particularly as concerns connection among mobile base stations and switch sites.
In a typical system, a PMP system topology scheme comprises a plurality of base stations connecting several access terminals through a particular media and by using a particular multiple access scheme.
For illustrative purposes and clarity reasons only, the topology scheme is described for a single base station. The base station is preferably a radio node station (RNS), i.e. a site interfacing one or more radio access terminals through a radio connection. A radio node station comprises at least one radio unit with antenna and modem to make it possible for radio access terminals to access services provided by the network to which the radio Base Station is connected.
A radio access terminal (RAT) is a terminal device used to connect end users or mobile base stations to the network via a radio connection towards a radio node station.
An important issue is the cost of RATs, which mainly affects the cost per link. The cost of a radio node station, is spread over a large amount of RATs and, for this reasons, is of less significance.
In full-duplex (FDD) terminals, a first radio frequency band is used for downstream traffic from an RNS to the RAT and a second radio frequency band is used for upstream traffic from the RAT to the RNS. Moreover, a guard frequency band separates the upstream and downstream bands. This allows data transfer in both directions at the same time but, as a drawback, implies the use of expensive equipment, which may decrease the appeal of wireless systems and services. An approach which can be used in order to decrease costs is to employ the half duplex mechanism (H-FDD). In a half duplex system, different frequencies are still used, but the transmitter and the receiver of a RAT cannot operate at the same time. Half-duplex RATs are less complex and cheaper than their full-duplex counterparts, since specialised technical components, like diplexer filters, are no longer needed, and a single multi-chip module (MCM) can be used for both receiving and transmitting activities.
In BWA/PMP systems, as in most communication networks, information is transferred in frames. A frame is a block of data containing both actual data and ancillary information to synchronise transmission and to supply transmission data to the RATs. BWA/PMP frame structures can dynamically support both FDD and H-FDD terminals and use data structures based on two alternative solutions, namely slot based structures and frame based structures. However, H-FDD terminals have a considerable impact on the access system. In fact, as this kind of terminal cannot receive and transmit at the same time, performance may be affected.
A typical frame structure which is used to handle both full-duplex and half-duplex terminals is provided by the ETSI BRAN HIPERACCESS standard, which proposes a downlink frame based structure comprising a preamble, a downlink map, an uplink map, a first downlink portion based on TDM and a second downlink portion based on TDMA (time division multiple access). The size or duration of the sections is variable and the second portion is optional. Broadly speaking, the two maps at the beginning of the frame contain the so called broadcast channel, that is information regarding the downlink and uplink frame structures. It is to be noted that, as a convention, in a point to multipoint wireless broadband access system (PMP/WBA) the term "uplink" identifies the connection directed from the RATs to the RNS, while the term "downlink" identifies the connection directed from the RNS to the RATs.
The TDM frame is typically more efficient for handling full-duplex terminals while the TDMA portion provides a better handling of half-duplex terminals. The downlink TDMA mechanism is more complex to handle as it implies discontinuous reception at the RAT side, which means a more complex receiver implementation and higher costs for the RAT.
A downside of this approach is that it requires quite sophisticated circuitry on the radio access terminals.

Scheduler and method of scheduling data for communication between a node station and plurality of radio terminals


A method of operating a dual acting hydraulic cylinder comprising the steps of returning a hydraulic fluid from a rod-side chamber to a piston-side chamber of the cylinder during a start phase of cylinder extraction with a speed component and increasing pressure of the fluid during end phase of cylinder extraction with a booster component and permitting the fluid to flow from the rod-side chamber to a reservoir. A hydraulic device for operating a dual acting hydraulic cylinder comprising a speed component arranged to return a hydraulic fluid from a rod-side chamber to a piston-side chamber of the cylinder at a start phase of cylinder extraction and a booster component arranged to increase the pressure of the fluid at an end phase of cylinder extraction.

A hydraulic cylinder is a mechanical actuator which may be used to give a linear force. The hydraulic cylinder may have varied applications and may be used in engineering vehicles and machines for example a demolition tool, which comprises of a jaw set that may be opened and closed by actuation of a hydraulic cylinder.
Hydraulic pressure from a pressurized fluid, such as oil, acts on the piston to perform linear work. Pressurized fluid may flow between a reservoir and the base side or rod side chambers of the hydraulic cylinder for cyclic operation thereof. Generally, flow of pressurized oil into the base side chamber may affect an extraction of the piston rod while flow of oil into the rod side chamber may affect retraction of the piston rod. Cycle time to extract or retract the piston rod may be dependent on multiple factors such as size of the cylinder. In certain engineering activities a reduction of the cycle time may be desired.
The cycle time of a hydraulic cylinder may be reduced by use of a speed valve or a regeneration valve.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,465 describes an oil-pressure cylinder in a crushing device connected to a crushing jaw to actuate the crushing jaw. Cylinder extension may cause the crushing jaw to close and crush an object. During a jaw closing stroke as the crushing jaw starts to close, to the point the crushing jaw comes into contact with the object, an acceleration (speed or regeneration valve) valve may make a continuous communication between a base-side port and a rod-side port in the cylinder. Oil from the rod-side port may be made to flow to the base-side port which may increase the movement-speed of the rod in the jaw closing stroke during the unloaded interval. When the crushing jaw comes into contact with the object, communication of the base-side port to the rod-side port is interrupted.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,540,231 describes a control valve device for the control of a dual-action consumer. A regeneration function allows the return side of the consumer to be connected with the admission side of the consumer. For the regeneration function, the connection of an additional pressure fluid line that forms the return side of the consumer with the reservoir can be blocked by a shutoff valve device located between the consumer and the control valve. The regeneration function may be overridden by an actuation of the shutoff valve device toward the open position as a function of the admission pressure at the admission side of the consumer. Under operating conditions wherein a high admission pressure is necessary to achieve high output power or increased performance, the regeneration function may be deactivated by the overriding of the regeneration function to ensure that the regeneration function is active only to achieve an increased speed of movement of the consumer.
Although the time to extract the piston rod may be increased, the aforementioned speed valves have a disadvantage in that the time to retract the piston rod is relatively long.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,542,180 describes a heavy duty shear comprising a fixed lower jaw and a movable upper jaw driven by a hydraulic cylinder. To overcome jams, the hydraulic cylinder is provided with an intensifier which pressurizes a portion of hydraulic fluid above the maximum pressure of the machine hydraulic system. The hydraulic fluid at a higher pressure is provided to the cylinder to facilitate opening of the jaws. The output pressure of the intensifier is selected to overcome the difference in the area at the rod side of the piston and area at the piston side of the piston.
The high pressure to open the jaw may be present only when a jam is to be cleared.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,415,076 describes fluid regeneration circuits which may be useful for filling expanding sides of a hydraulic cylinder with fluid being exhausted from the other side. A flow regeneration valve and a pressure boost valve may be used in combination with a meter-out valve for providing flow regeneration from the head end chamber to a rod end chamber when fluid pressure in the head end chamber is less than the pressure level of fluid in a passage as determined by a spring of the pressure boost valve. The pressure boost valve may be disposed within the passage and may be oriented to block fluid flow from the exhaust conduit to the inlet of the meter-out valve. The boost valve is biased to the closed position by the spring to block fluid flow from the inlet to the exhaust conduit until the fluid pressure in the inlet exceeds a predetermined level.
The pressure boost valve may be involved with control of fluid flowing to the tank and may not be involved in improving cycle time of the hydraulic cylinder.
The present disclosure is directed, at least in part, to improving or overcoming one or more aspects of the prior art system.

Hydraulic device for hydraulic cylinders