An organic fiber cord for rubber reinforcement satisfies relationships of S1.gtoreq.2.5, S2.ltoreq.1.8 and S2.ltoreq.S1-2.0 wherein S1 and S2 are dry heat shrinkage factors under particular conditions in order to improve the durability and dimensional stability of rubber articles without the degradation of other properties in the rubber article. When such an organic fiber cord is applied to a carcass ply of a pneumatic radial tire, the tire durability and uniformity are considerably improved.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an organic fiber cord for rubber reinforcement capable of largely enhancing durability and dimensional stability of rubber articles without exerting upon various properties of the rubber article as well as a pneumatic radial tire using the same as a carcass ply.
2. Description of Related Art
At the present time, the organic fiber cords for rubber reinforcement, particularly fiber cords treated with an adhesive are widely used as a reinforcement for rubber articles such as tires, conveyor belt, V-belt, hoses and the like. As a material of the fiber cord, there are preferably used organic fibers such as rayon fiber, polyamide fiber, polyester fiber, aramide fiber and so on. In order to enhance the performance of a final rubber article, there are used a method of improving properties of rubber material, a method of changing a structure or form of a rubber article and the like, and also it is very important to improve the properties of the fiber cord used for the reinforcement.
Recently, polyester fibers become mainly used as a material for a fiber cord of a carcass ply in a pneumatic radial tire for passenger cars because they are high in the strength and dimensional stability as compared with the conventional rayon fiber and nylon fiber. Furthermore, polyester fibers having a dimensional stability higher than that of the conventional polyester fiber or so-called high modulus and low heat-shrinkable polyester fibers are produced with the advance of high-speed and high-stress spinning technique, which are used as a fiber cord for the carcass ply to attempt the improvement of steering stability and uniformity of radial tires.
Especially, the heat shrinkability of the carcass ply cord is closely related to the deformation of the tire at a high temperature (170-180.degree. C.) applied in the tire building (vulcanization). It is known that as the heat shrinkage factor becomes small, it tends to increase the roundness of the tire and improve the tire uniformity (e.g. JP-A-5-71033, JP-A-6-179304, JP-A-3-167002, JP-A-5-16606, JP-A-6-24208 and the like).
Since the polyester fiber cords mainly used in the carcass ply of the radial tire for the passenger car are high in the strength and dimensional stability as mentioned above, they are effective to improve the steering stability and uniformity of the radial tire. As shown in FIG. 1, however, the radial tire has a general structure that a carcass ply 14 is wound around around each of bead cores 12A, 12B from inside toward outside to form a turnup portion and an end 20A, 20B of the turnup portion is at a freely moving state, so that there are caused the following problems. That is, when the heat shrinkage factor of the cord used in the carcass ply is simply decreased, the self-shrinkage factor of the cord in the turnup portion becomes small, so that the disorder is caused in the arrangement of the cords at the end of the turnup portion in the carcass ply and hence the fatigue resistance of the turnup portion is degraded to largely lower the durability of the tire. On the other hand, when the dry heat shrinkage factor of the cord is simply large, the dimensional stability is degraded to reduce or deform the resulting product. Consequently the roundness is lost and the uniformity is considerably degraded in case of the products attaching importance to the dimensional stability such as tires or the like. In any case, it is difficult to simultaneously establish dimensional stability and durability of the rubber article reinforced with the organic fiber cords only by using the conventional fiber cords for rubber reinforcement treated with the adhesive.
In tires, particularly passenger car tire among the rubber articles, steering stability and ride comfortability are very important among various running performances. The steering stability considerably exerts upon the running performance of the vehicle and becomes occasionally an important property concerning the safeness of the vehicle, while it is needless to say that the ride comfortability is an important property exerting upon the pleasantness of the passengers. In general, when the rigidity of the sidewall portion of the tire is enhanced for the improvement of the steering stability, the ride comfortability is rather lowered. For this end, various research and development for the improvement of these properties are actively carried out watching the carcass ply or cap layer of the tire, but it is said that there is a limit in the simultaneous improvement of these properties because the steering stability and the ride comfortability are so-called conflicting requirements in the construction of the tire. In this connection, it has first been made possible to simultaneously establish the steering stability and the ride comfortability in the same tire by developing a tire having two or more inflection points on its carcass profile line in which centers of curvature of arc are existent outside and inside the carcass profile line as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,238,039 and 5,370,169.
In the tire having centers of curvature located outside and inside the carcass line and two or more inflection points as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,238,039 and 5,370,169, when simple low-shrinkage cords are applied to the carcass ply, the carcass line aimed by the tire designer is obtained in the carcass ply extending between the bead cores, but the properties are disordered in the turnup portion of the carcass ply wound around the bead core toward outside due to the small self-shrinkage of the cord and hence the tire durability may largely be degraded. On the other hand, when simple high-shrinkage cords are applied to the carcass ply, the properties of the cord are sufficiently maintained in the turnup portion, but it is difficult to render the carcass ply extending between the bead cores into the carcass line aimed by the tire designer.

Pneumatic radial tire with specified organic fiber carcass cords


To increase efficiency of a bit-depth scalable data-stream an inter-layer prediction is obtained by mapping samples of the representation of the picture or video source data with a first picture sample bit-depth from a first dynamic range corresponding to the first picture sample bit-depth to a second dynamic range greater than the first dynamic range and corresponding to a second picture sample bit-depth being higher than the first picture sample bit-depth by use of one or more global mapping functions being constant within the picture or video source data or varying at a first granularity, and a local mapping function locally modifying the one or more global mapping functions and varying at a second granularity smaller than the first granularity, with forming the quality-scalable data-stream based on the local mapping function such that the local mapping function is derivable from the quality-scalable data-stream.

The present invention is concerned with picture and/or video coding, and in particular, quality-scalable coding enabling bit-depth scalability using quality-scalable data streams.
The Joint Video Team (JVT) of the ISO/IEC Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) and the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) have recently finalized a scalable extension of the state-of-the-art video coding standard H.264/AVC called Scalable Video Coding (SVC). SVC supports temporal, spatial and SNR scalable coding of video sequences or any combination thereof.
H.264/AVC as described in ITU-T Rec. & ISO/IEC 14496-10 AVC, "Advanced Video Coding for Generic Audiovisual Services," version 3, 2005, specifies a hybrid video codec in which macroblock prediction signals are either generated in the temporal domain by motion-compensated prediction, or in the spatial domain by intra prediction, and both predictions are followed by residual coding. H.264/AVC coding without the scalability extension is referred to as single-layer H.264/AVC coding. Rate-distortion performance comparable to single-layer H.264/AVC means that the same visual reproduction quality is typically achieved at 10% bit-rate. Given the above, scalability is considered as a functionality for removal of parts of the bit-stream while achieving an R-D performance at any supported spatial, temporal or SNR resolution that is comparable to single-layer H.264/AVC coding at that particular resolution.
The basic design of the scalable video coding (SVC) can be classified as a layered video codec. In each layer, the basic concepts of motion-compensated prediction and intra prediction are employed as in H.264/AVC. However, additional inter-layer prediction mechanisms have been integrated in order to exploit the redundancy between several spatial or SNR layers. SNR scalability is basically achieved by residual quantization, while for spatial scalability, a combination of motion-compensated prediction and oversampled pyramid decomposition is employed. The temporal scalability approach of H.264/AVC is maintained.
In general, the coder structure depends on the scalability space that is necessitated by an application. For illustration, FIG. 8 shows a typical coder structure 900 with two spatial layers 902a, 902b. In each layer, an independent hierarchical motion-compensated prediction structure 904a,b with layer-specific motion parameters 906a,b is employed. The redundancy between consecutive layers 902a,b is exploited by inter-layer prediction concepts 908 that include prediction mechanisms for motion parameters 906a,b as well as texture data 910a,b. A base representation 912a,b of the input pictures 914a,b of each layer 902a,b is obtained by transform coding 916a,b similar to that of H.264/AVC, the corresponding NAL units (NAL—Network Abstraction Layer) contain motion information and texture data; the NAL units of the base representation of the lowest layer, i.e. 912a, are compatible with single-layer H.264/AVC.
The resulting bit-streams output by the base layer coding 916a,b and the progressive SNR refinement texture coding 918a,b of the respective layers 902a,b, respectively, are multiplexed by a multiplexer 920 in order to result in the scalable bit-stream 922. This bit-stream 922 is scalable in time, space and SNR quality.
Summarizing, in accordance with the above scalable ex-tension of the Video Coding Standard H.264/AVC, the temporal scalability is provided by using a hierarchical prediction structure. For this hierarchical prediction structure, the one of single-layer H.264/AVC standards may be used without any changes. For spatial and SNR scalability, additional tools have to be added to the single-layer H.264/MPEG4.AVC as described in the SVC extension of H.254/AVC. All three scalability types can be combined in order to generate a bit-stream that supports a large degree on combined scalability.
Problems arise when a video source signal has a different dynamic range than necessitated by the decoder or player, respectively. In the above current SVC standard, the scalability tools are only specified for the case that both the base layer and enhancement layer represent a given video source with the same bit depth of the corresponding arrays of luma and/or chroma samples. Hence, considering different decoders and players, respectively, requiring different bit depths, several coding streams dedicated for each of the bit depths would have to be provided separately. However, in rate/distortion sense, this means an increased overhead and reduced efficiency, respectively.
There have already been proposals to add a scalability in terms of bit-depth to the SVC Standard. For example, Shan Liu et al. describe in the input document to the JVT—namely JVT-X075—the possibility to derive a an inter-layer prediction from a lower bit-depth representation of a base layer by use of an inverse tone mapping according to which an inter-layer predicted or inversely tone-mapped pixel value p′ is calculated from a base layer pixel value pb by p′=pb·scale+offset with stating that the inter-layer prediction would be performed on macro blocks or smaller block sizes. In JVT-Y067 Shan Liu, presents results for this inter-layer prediction scheme. Similarly, Andrew Segall et al. propose in JVT-X071 an inter-layer prediction for bit-depth scalability according to which a gain plus offset operation is used for the inverse tone mapping. The gain parameters are indexed and transmitted in the enhancement layer bit-stream on a block-by-block basis. The signaling of the scale factors and offset factors is accomplished by a combination of prediction and refinement. Further, it is described that high level syntax supports coarser granularities than the transmission on a block-by-block basis. Reference is also made to Andrew Segall "Scalable Coding of High Dynamic Range Video" in ICIP 2007, 1-1 to 1-4 and the JVT document, JVT-X067 and JVT-W113, also stemming from Andrew Segall.
Although the above-mentioned proposals for using an in-verse tone-mapping in order to obtain a prediction from a lower bit-depth base layer, remove some of the redundancy between the lower bit-depth information and the higher bit-depth information, it would be favorable to achieve an even better efficiency in providing such a bit-depth scalable bit-stream, especially in the sense of rate/distortion performance.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


Cleaning system for coffee machines and similar devices, in the cleaning circuit of which a cleaning key having a storage chamber is installed for receiving appropriately configured cleaning tablets. The cleaning key can be turned in a sleeve-like housing into two operating positions at defined angles of rotation, wherein in one operating position the storage chamber is fixed in the housing while in the other operating position, the storage chamber is released and can be removed from the housing to be filled or refilled with suitably packaged cleaning tablets.

Devices of this type must guarantee a high degree of cleanliness of the products produced. For this purpose thorough cleaning of the respective units is carried out periodically in such a way that the latter are flushed with a cleaning liquid enriched with cleaning agents from time to time. Here the cleaning agent is delivered by means of a metering screw with a complex structure and control system which interacts with an equally complex metering cabinet.

Cleaning system for a coffee machine or a similar device


Sense amplifiers and methods for precharging are disclosed, including a sense amplifier having a pair of cross-coupled complementary transistor inverters, and a pair of transistors, each one of the pair of transistors coupled to a respective one of the complementary transistor inverters and a voltage. The sense amplifier further includes a capacitance coupled between the pair of transistors. One method for precharging includes coupling input nodes of the sense amplifier to a precharge voltage, coupling the input nodes of the sense amplifier together, and coupling a resistance to each transistor of a cross-coupled pair to set a voltage threshold (VT) mismatch compensation voltage for each transistor. The voltage difference between the VT mismatch compensation voltage of each transistor is stored.

Memory devices are structured to have one or more arrays of memory cells that are arranged, at least logically, in rows and columns. Each memory cell stores data as an electrical charge that is accessed by a digit line associated with the memory cell. A charged memory cell, when the memory cell is accessed, causes a positive change in voltage on the associated digit line, and an accessed memory cell that is not charged causes a negative change in voltage on the associated digit line. The change in voltage on the digit line may be sensed and amplified by a sense amplifier to indicate the value of the data state stored in the memory cell.
Conventional sense amplifiers are typically coupled to a pair of complementary digit lines to which a large number of memory cells (not shown) are connected. As known in the art, when memory cells are accessed, a row of memory cells are activated and sense amplifiers are used to amplify a data state for the respective column of activated memory cells by coupling each of the digit lines of the selected column to voltage supplies such that the digit lines have complementary logic levels.
When a memory cell is accessed, the voltage of one of the digit lines increases or decreases slightly, depending on whether the memory cell coupled to the digit line is charged or not, resulting in a voltage difference between the digit lines. While the voltage of one digit line increases or decreases slightly, the other digit line does not and serves as a reference for the sensing operation. Respective transistors are enabled due to the voltage difference, thereby coupling the slightly higher voltage digit line to a supply voltage and the other digit line to a reference voltage, such as ground to further drive each of the digit lines in opposite directions and amplify the selected digit line signal.
The digit lines are precharged during a precharge period to a precharge voltage, such as one-half of a supply voltage, so that a voltage difference can be accurately sensed and amplified during a subsequent sensing operation. However, due to random threshold voltage mismatch of transistor components, the digit lines may be abruptly imbalanced before a voltage change is sensed and amplified on one of the digit lines. Such threshold voltage deviations can cause the sense amplifier to erroneously amplify input signals in the wrong direction. There is, therefore, a need for a sense amplifier design that reduces threshold voltage mismatches.

Transistor voltage threshold mismatch compensated sense amplifiers and methods for precharging sense amplifiers


An encryption apparatus performs high-speed and secure signature creation and verification. In the encryption apparatus, at least a shift register group composed of shift registers for retaining values for arithmetic operations for generating a hash value for use in public-key-cryptosystem encryption processing, and shift registers for capturing a resultant hash value, and a shift register group composed of shift registers for retaining values for arithmetic operations for performing public-key-cryptosystem encryption processing and shift registers for capturing an arithmetic result are used for each other. Hardware components to be operated are changed in a time-sharing manner in accordance with a processing mode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an encryption apparatus that performs encryption processing using a so-called "public key cryptosystem".
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, various services using various communication technologies, such as electronic commerce and online shopping using the Internet or the like, have come into widespread use. Also, in recent years, with the progress in communication technologies, a communication technology using terminals and card-type devices, such as noncontact semiconductor memory cards having integrated-circuit communication functions, has been developed for use in collection of fares in public transportation and electronic money.
From the viewpoint of convenience in handling, etc., the card-type devices (hereinafter referred to as the "noncontact integrated circuit (IC) cards") having communication functions must have small dimensions and must operate by consuming a very small amount of power.
In a service using a noncontact IC card of the above type, mutual authentication processing for authenticating the validity of another communicating party, and encryption processing for ensuring the security of data communication are ordinarily performed. For this purpose, the processing speed of the noncontact IC card must be increased. When the above functions are implemented by software, a high-frequency-clock central processing unit (CPU) is required, which is not practical. Accordingly, it is preferable not to use software, but instead to use hardware to implement the above functions.
Among noncontact IC cards provided with the above functions in hardware, many employ a so-called "common key cryptosystem", for example, a Data Encryption Standard (DES) cryptosystem that can be implemented by circuits of relatively small dimensions and power consumption in order to suppress power consumption as much as possible.
The common key cryptosystem, which uses a common key for encryption and decryption, is vulnerable to an unauthorized third party since key data must be sent and received. Therefore, there is concern about this problem in cases such as the application of noncontact IC cards to financial services in the future.
Accordingly, in services using noncontact IC cards, a high security system employing a so-called "public key cryptosystem" has become required noncontact IC cards. In the public key cryptosystem, different keys are used for encryption and decryption, and one particular person only needs to retain a common key that must be kept secret, as in a Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) cryptosystem and the elliptic curve cryptosystem (ECC). Also, many attempts have been made to develop noncontact IC cards using a public key to perform signature creation and signature verification.
Although the public key cryptosystem has much higher security than that of the common key cryptosystem, the required number of operations is huge. The use of hardware to implement the public key cryptosystem multiplies the required circuit size by an order of magnitude, and power supplied to the enlarged circuit inevitably increases.
Therefore, noncontact IC cards employing the public key cryptosystem cannot exhibit sufficient characteristics in terms of circuit size, power consumption, and cost. In particular, since each noncontact IC card must supply most of the limited power to the circuit for encryption processing, only a type of noncontact IC card having a short communication distance (several millimeters) has actually been put to practical use.
As described above, noncontact IC cards should employ the public key cryptosystem, which provides strong security. However, it is very difficult to implement the public key cryptosystem due to restrictions concerning power to be supplied, chip size, etc.


It is an object of the invention to provide an aberration correcting mirror which has a small size, power saving, a low voltage, a low price and high precision. In particular, it is an object to provide a practical mirror for correcting a spherical aberration.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical pick-up of an optical device or an optical disk device, and more particularly to a wave front aberration correcting mirror.
2. Description of the Invention
An information recording medium using an optical disk includes a compact disk (CD) and a digital video disk (DVD). In recent years, there has generally been employed a structure in which a plurality of recording media is read and written by the same optical disk device, and a technique for manufacturing the optical disk device to have a smaller size than that of a conventional device has been required. In particular, an optical disk device for a notebook PC has been increasingly required to reduce a size and a thickness. According to the development of a multimedia technology, moreover, a storage in an optical disk or a demand for a recording capacity tends to be increased year after year, and a recording density is enhanced by such means that (1) a blue laser having a shorter wavelength than that in a conventional art is used or (2) a numerical aperture (NA) of an objective lens is increased. In addition, (3) a recording area is increased by providing a plurality of recording layers in media so that a capacity can be increased.
The optical disk device is provided with a laser beam source, an optical pick-up and a photo-detector. A laser beam emitted from the laser beam source is collected onto the data plane of an optical disk through the optical pickup and is reflected, and is then received by the photo-detector, and information recorded in the optical disk is read or information is written to the optical disk. In this case, the wave front of the beam receives an aberration by various optical components or optical disks. For this reason, an aberration correction is indispensable for correctly reading and writing information. Referring to a dynamic aberration generated during the rotation of the optical disk or the different read of various layers, particularly, fixed correcting means formed by a lens or a diffracting optical unit constituting the optical pick-up is improper and a dynamic correction to be carried out by an actuator is indispensable.
The conventionally proposed aberration correcting means will be schematically described below with reference to the prior document.
In a method described in (JP-A-10-241201 Publication), a spherical aberration is corrected by moving a correcting lens by means of an actuator. However, this method is unstable for an optical pick-up in which an actuator portion is large, an excessive lens is required and a demand for a reduction in a size such as PC uses is great.
In a method described in (JP-A-10-134400 Publication), there has been disclosed a method of correcting a spherical aberration by moving one of collimator lenses through an actuator. Similarly, there is a problem in that the method is unstable for an optical pick-up in which an actuator portion is large and an excessive lens is required, and a demand for a reduction in a size such as PC uses is great.
An aberration correcting mirror described in (JP-A-10-039122 Publication) has such a structure as to bond a flange using a soft material to a mirror having a spherical initial shape and to stick a piezoelectric device to the back face of the flange, and serves to change the curvature of the mirror by the deformation of the piezoelectric device. In this method, however, there is a problem in that it is hard to inexpensively fabricate a small mirror with high precision and the mirror is deformed when bonding the flange or the piezoelectric device. Even if the bonding is carried out with high precision, moreover, there is also a problem in that the amount of the deformation of the piezoelectric device is remarkably small and the amount of the deformation which is required for an aberration correction cannot be obtained with an electrode to be a solid electrode which has been proposed and the structure of the piezoelectric device having surroundings fixed completely, and within the range of the practical magnitude of a voltage. Even if the deformation is carried out, furthermore, there is a problem in that it is hard to have an optional spherical shape through the deformation. The practical magnitude of the voltage indicates a smaller voltage than the upper limit of a voltage based on an insulating property or a polarization efficiency. In addition, the piezoelectric device of a bulk is used. For this reason, there is a problem in that a comparatively high voltage, for example, approximately 50 V is required for a driving voltage.
In a method described in (JP-A-2001-34993 Publication), there has been disclosed a method of applying a voltage with a structure in which a pair of opposed sides is fixed and the other pair of sides is free, thereby deforming the piezoelectric device to decrease a coma in a rectangle piezoelectric device. In this method, however, the piezoelectric device basically takes the shape of a wedge. For this reason, there is a problem in that a spherical aberration cannot be corrected even if a plurality of electrodes is combined with each other.
In a method described in (JP-A-2002-279677 Publication), there has been described an example in which an electrode taking such a shape as to correspond to a coma is formed on a piezoelectric device and the piezoelectric device is deformed by applying a voltage, thereby relieving the coma. Also in this method, however, a displacement is very small actually and such a displacement as to meet the aberration correction cannot be obtained within a range of the practical magnitude of a voltage if the surroundings of the piezoelectric device are fixed. Particularly, there is a problem in that this method is not suitable for an optical pick-up drive using an objective lens having a high NA.
As described above, there has been proposed that the wave front aberration of a beam is corrected by a method of mechanically moving the position of a lens in a conventional example (JP-A-10-241201 Publication and JP-A-10-134400 Publication) or mechanically deforming a mirror (JP-A-10-039122 Publication, JP-A-2001-34993 Publication, and JP-A-2002-279677 Publication) In the former example, there is a problem in that a driving device for changing the position of the lens is large and a demand for reducing a size is not satisfied. On the other hand, in the latter example, there is a problem in that the demand for reducing a size is satisfied and the amount of a deformation is small because the piezoelectric device is used. In order to explain this problem, the basic action of the piezoelectric device will be described with reference to FIG. 18. A piezoelectric unit is an electromechanical energy converting unit, and generates a mechanical stress to cause an elastic deformation when an electric field is applied. When an elastic unit is bonded to the piezoelectric unit, a whole material is deformed corresponding to the physical properties (elasticity) of each material by the action of the piezoelectric unit. FIG. 18 is a perspective view showing the state of the deformation of a piezoelectric unit before and after applying a voltage. It is assumed that a piezoelectric unit 1 obtained before the application of an electric field is a rectangular parallelepiped and is arranged with respect to an orthogonal coordinate system as shown in FIG. 18. Moreover, it is assumed that the piezoelectric unit 1 is previously subjected to a polarizing process in a +z direction. At this time, it is assumed that the piezoelectric distortion constant of the piezoelectric unit 1 is represented by a matrix expressed in a so-called d format (Equation 1), for example.
                    d        =                              [                                                            0                                                  0                                                                      -                    0.1360                                                                                0                                                  0                                                  0.1360                                                                              0                                                  0                                                  0.3370                                                                              0                                                  0.5                                                  0                                                                              0.5                                                  0                                                  0                                                                              0                                                  0                                                  0                                                      ]                    ×                      10                                          -                9                                                                                (                          C              /              N                        )                                              [                  Equation                                                              1                ]
At this time, a distortion S based on an electric field E is expressed in a tensor form:Si=dijEj Herein, an index takes i=1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and j=1, 2, 3. As shown in FIG. 18, only E3 is non-zero when an electric field is set into the +z direction. Therefore, only S1, S2 and S3 are non-zero based on the (Equation 1). In addition, only S1 is negative and S2 and S3 are positive. In accordance with the custom of a marking method related to a piezoelectric device, it is apparent that S1=Sxx, S2=Syy, and S3=Szz are set and only Sxx has a negative sign, and a contraction is thus carried out in an x direction and an expansion is performed in y and z directions. Referring to a piezoelectric unit 2 in FIG. 18, there is schematically shown the form of a deformation obtained by the expansion and contraction after the application of an electric field.
FIG. 19 is a sectional view showing a unimolf type piezoelectric device in which a piezoelectric unit 3 and an elastic unit 4 are bonded to each other. In the same manner as described above, it is assumed that the piezoelectric unit 3 should be polarized in the +z direction. The elastic unit 4 is bonded to the lower part of the piezoelectric unit 3. A displacement on an end face at a left side in the drawings is completely constrained and the other end is caused to be free. FIGS. 19(a) and (b) show states obtained before and after the application of an electric field, respectively. When the electric field is applied in the +z direction, the piezoelectric unit 3 tries to be contracted in the x direction in the same manner as the above description. Since a left end is fixed, however, the elastic unit 4 is downward convexed upon receipt of a bending moment. As a result, the elastic unit 4 is warped up in the +z direction. A whole displacement is determined by the elastic constants of the piezoelectric unit and the elastic unit and the thickness of a film in addition to the piezoelectric distortion constant To the contrary, when the electric field is applied in a −z direction, the piezoelectric unit 3 tends to be extended in the x direction so that the elastic unit 4 receives a bending moment having a reverse polarity, and is thus convexed upward and is warped in the −z direction (not shown).
Next, description will be given to the case in which a displacement is constrained on both ends of a piezoelectric device. FIG. 20 is a sectional view showing a unimolf type piezoelectric device in which the piezoelectric unit 3 and the elastic unit 4 are bonded to each other. In the case in which both ends are completely fixed differently from the case in which only one end is fixed, a bending moment is generated with difficulty so that a displacement is remarkably reduced as shown in FIG. 20. An electric field strength to be applied to the piezoelectric unit has a practical upper limit due to a limit such as a dielectric breakdown. For this reason, a deformation rarely appears within a range of the electric field strength. Even if a very small displacement is obtained, the amount of an aberration to be corrected is larger than that in the conventional art and the amount of the displacement of the shape of a mirror required for the correction is several to several tens times as large as the wavelength of a light to be used in case of an optical system using an objective lens having a high NA and an optical system having a short wavelength. In the structure shown in FIG. 20, therefore, it is impossible to obtain such a great displacement. In order to correct a spherical aberration, it is necessary to first cause the shape of the mirror to be circular and to secondly deform the mirror to be spherical. In order to carry out the deformation into a spherical surface, a symmetry about the optical axis of the shape of the mirror is very important. Accordingly, it is necessary to completely fix the circumference of the mirror in order to dynamically hold a circular mirror axially symmetrically. From the above description, it is apparent that the displacement of a piezoelectric device mirror having a circumference fixed completely is remarkably small. In the method according to the conventional art, accordingly, it is hard to achieve the aberration correction by the piezoelectric device.

Optical pick-up aberration correcting mirror, aberration correcting method and optical pick-up

Abstract: The invention provides an aberration correcting mirror constituted by a substrate, a piezoelectric unit, a pair of electrode films interposing the piezoelectric unit therebetween, an elastic unit and an optical reflective film, wherein the substrate has a cavity portion which is schematically symmetrical about an optical axis, each of the pair of electrode films is divided into at least two parts including a first electrode and a second electrode, the first electrode being schematically symmetrical about the optical axis and the second electrode being provided to surround the first electrode, and such an electric potential as to set the directions of electric fields in the piezoelectric unit to be reverse to each other is applied to the first electrode and the second electrode.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A hydraulic vehicle seat system providing powered adjustment of the position of a seat or seat portion. The system comprises a pump, flow controller, and hydraulic actuator arranged in a hydraulic circuit. The actuator includes a first and second system protection valves for the respective inlet and outlet of the actuator. The system protection valves are adapted to be activated in response to pressure within the actuator exceeding a predetermined threshold level. When activated the system protection valves close off the respective inlet and outlets to hydraulically isolate the actuator and hydraulic fluid within the actuator from the remainder of the hydraulic circuit and adjustment system. This protects the remainder of the circuit and system from excessive pressures which may be generated within an by the actuators under crash loading.

The present invention relates to a vehicle seats, in particular to hydraulically or fluid powered adjustable automotive vehicle seats.
In order to comfortably accommodate various sizes and shapes of occupants vehicle seats are generally provided with various adjustment mechanisms to adjust the position of the seat within the vehicle and/or move various movable portions of the seat. Typically vehicle seats are provided with fore and aft adjustment, and the seat back is pivotally mounted to a seat bottom cushion such that the angle of the seat back to the bottom cushion of the seat can be adjusted. Other adjustment and adjustment mechanisms may also be provided to for example adjust the height of the vehicle seat, angle and tilt of the seat bottom cushion, position of the headrest, and/or the lumber support. The seat adjustment mechanisms may be manually operable, or increasingly some or all may be power operated. Conventionally such power operated adjustment mechanisms comprise separate electric motors mounted within the seat driving each adjustment mechanism though suitable gearing. The individual motors are controlled via switches operable by the seat occupant with a central seat adjustment control unit often being incorporated.
Whilst such electrically powered adjustable seats are commonplace, the electric motors and associated gearing can often be relatively and undesirably noisy as well as providing often jerky movement and adjustment. As increasing seat adjustment, and powered seat adjustments, are demanded and provided the number of electric motors required also increases. This increases costs and weight of the vehicle seat and furthermore the additional motors and gearing take up increasing space within the seat assembly.
Hydraulic or fluid powered seat adjustment mechanisms have been proposed instead of the electric powered systems. Indeed the earliest of such proposals date back a number of years. A distinction should however be drawn between hydraulic or fluid powered adjustment systems, and the more basic and simple and hydraulic locking systems and/or damper arrangements.
In such hydraulic or fluid powered arrangements pressurised fluid, provided from a pump, is supplied via a control valve to piston/cylinder actuators. These actuators move and directly adjust the position of the seat or portions of the seat to be adjusted. Such hydraulic powered arrangements offer the prospect of extremely quiet, near silent, operation, without the noisy mechanical gearing. Smooth and almost infinitely variable adjustment is also possible with such hydraulic powered arrangements.
In spite of these, and other, advantages of hydraulically powered seat adjustments they have not been adopted for widespread automotive vehicle seat use over the considerable number of years since they have initially been proposed. Overall, and although hydraulics are used in other areas in automotive vehicles (for example braking systems), those skilled in the art of vehicle seat design would not generally from a practical stance consider using hydraulic powered seat adjustment systems. Indeed the conventional trend is away from hydraulics in general in automotive applications and to electric powered systems.
One of the main reasons for this is the cost of such previously proposed hydraulic systems. It is also perceived that such hydraulic systems are complex. In addition to comply with automotive crash loading requirements the seat must provide sufficient structural strength and withstand high crash loading without failing or allowing excessive movement of the seat or portion thereof. In particular under crash loading the forces applied to the seat may generate extremely high pressures, for example in the region of 1700 bar, within the hydraulic system and pump, pipework and actuators. The hydraulic system must be capable of withstanding these high crash loading pressures. This increases the sizing of the pipework, pump and actuators and the quality to which they must be made and assembled and the resultant costs.
It is therefore desirable to provide an improved hydraulically powered automotive vehicle seat adjustment system which addresses the above described problems and/or which offers improvements generally.

Hydraulic vehicle seat adjustment with system protection valve


Apparatus (100, 101, 102) and die cartridge assembly (18, 44, 45, 47) adapted for use with same for producing fibrous material (212). The apparatus (100) comprises a removably attachable die cartridge assembly (18) that adapts to conventional spunmelt equipment. The die cartridge assembly (18) is removably positionable beneath an extrusion body (10) for effecting formation of fibrous material by fibrillation of polymer films. The cartridge assembly (18) includes at least one polymer passage (19) communicating with a molten polymer source (10) for directing molten polymer onto at least one film forming surface (20, 28) defined by the cartridge assembly (18), and also defines at least one gas passage (222, 22, 30) communicating with a gas source (16) for directing pressurized gas (220) against the molten polymer (210) in the form of a film for effecting formation of the fibrous material (212).

Continuous and discontinuous filament spinning technologies are known in art, and are commonly referred to as spunmelt technologies. Spunmelt technologies include both the meltblown or spunbond processes. A spunbond process involves supplying a molten polymer, which is then extruded under pressure through a large number of orifices in a plate known as a spinneret or die. The resulting continuous filaments are quenched and drawn by any of a number of methods, such as slot draw systems, attenuator guns, or Godet rolls. The continuous filaments are collected as a loose web upon a moving foraminous surface, such as a wire mesh conveyor belt. When more than one spinneret is used in line for the purpose of forming a multi-layered fabric, the subsequent webs are collected upon the uppermost surface of the previously formed web.
The melt-blown process is related to means of the spunbond process for forming a layer of a nonwoven fabric, wherein, a molten polymer is extruded under pressure through orifices in a spinneret or die. High velocity air impinges upon and attenuates the filaments as they exit the die. The energy of this step is such that the formed filaments are greatly reduced in diameter and are fractured so that microfibers of indeterminate length are produced. This differs from the spunbond process whereby the continuity of the filaments is preserved.
Spunmelt equipment manufacturing companies, such as Reifenhäuser, Ason Neumag, Nordson, and Accurate Products have engineered numerous meltblown and/or spunbond manufacturing models that offer a variety of desirable attributes, such as increased polymer throughputs, better management of process air flow or polymer distribution, and improved control of filament deviations, to name a few. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,708,619; 4,813,864; 4,820,142; 4,838,774; 5,087,186; 6,427,745; and 6,565,344, all of which are incorporated herein by reference, disclose examples of manufacturing equipment for the processing of spunbond or meltblown materials.
In addition to the number of known equipment models that are commercially available, spunmelt manufacturing assets are also known to be of a sizeable scale, requiring extensive space, and can be a substantial investment. Such factors may be considered hindrances when evaluating the need for additional manufacturing capacity, upgraded assets, or new innovative technologies. A need remains for an apparatus, such as a cartridge assembly, that adapts to conventional spunmelt manufacturing equipment in order to upgrade a technology or introduce an entirely new technology to an otherwise standard manufacturing line.

Apparatus and die cartridge assembly adapted for use therewith, and process for producing fibrous materials


A motor variator and a driving method thereof are provided for controlling the operating speed of a fan, which employ an alternate current chopper to change the working cycle and the rotary speed of a stepless motor. The motor variator includes a high-frequency alternate current chopper connected to an induction coil of an induction motor, an alternate current power supply connected to the high-frequency alternate current chopper and a controller connected to the high-frequency alternate current chopper for outputting a switch signal to the high-frequency alternate current chopper, such that the high-frequency alternate current chopper is controlled by the switch signal to perform a chopper action for the alternate current power supply and output a drive voltage, so as to change the rotary speed of the induction motor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a motor speed variator and a driving method thereof, and more particularly to a motor speed variator and a driving method thereof for controlling the operating speed of a fan.
2. Description of Related Art
In the present wireless remote control fan speed variation systems, different capacitances are used for achieving a step-down function and a voltage for controlling a motor, so as to achieve the function of changing the operating speed of the fan. However, this method is restricted by the parameters of the motor. If a same capacitance goes with different motors, then these motors will have different rotary speeds, and thus it will be difficult for users to choose an appropriate capacitance for a future upgrade of a fan system originally having no speed variation function. The fans of this sort have significant impact on the DIY market. As to manufacturers, different motors with different capacitances are required and create some difficulty for the production of motors as well as a burden of carrying the inventory of components. As to functions, it is not feasible to lower the voltage by using different capacitors to achieve the stepless speed variation function because of the cost and size of the integrated circuits.
A remote control fan speed variation system as described below uses an industrial hanging fan for example and illustration. Industrial hanging fans have been used extensively since the 1950's, and the sale of hanging fans in Europe and America peaked in the 1970's. Active exports also brought a breakthrough to the hanging fan development, and revolutionary hanging fan products come with air conditioning, indoor illumination, and accelerated air cooling functions; and thus such hanging fans are protected by patents and have become an indispensable product for domestic life.
Since the hanging fan has become an integral part of our life and our living quality is thereby increased, the stability, safety, comfort of use, and control of the hanging fan have become main factors for consideration. Development of a stable and high-quality hanging fan system is a subject for manufacturers to provide tremendous convenience and comfort to users. The development technology is advanced, but the way of achieving the stepless speed variation, remote control and low noise for the rotation of the hanging fans has become a major issue of the product. Although there are brushless DC (BLDC) motor related products in the Japan market that can achieve the foregoing functions, they are very expensive. The traditional hanging fan speed variation system can be implemented by the following ways:
1. The concept of using a coupled transformer on a wall for the control is adopted to achieve a stepless speed variation function, but its volume is too large, and such method is generally used in developing countries such as India.
2. Different coils are used for a motor to achieve a step speed variation function, and such method usually comes with three speeds. However, the winding of the motor is complicated, and the motor produces noise due to the imbalanced coil of the motor. This method is commonly used in Taiwan.
3. The voltage of different capacitors is reduced to achieve the speed variation function, and thus the voltage of the motor will be changed, and the speed variation speed can be achieved. However, such method cannot achieve the stepless speed variation function.
4. The thyristor of an alternating silicon controlled switch (TRIAC) is used to modulate the phase of the voltage, so that the rotary speed of the motor can be controlled. This method also produces noise and cannot be used for a low-speed operation.
The aforementioned four methods used in the industry not only increase the volume of the product, but also fail to achieve the stepless speed variation or eliminate noise.

Motor speed variator and a driving method thereof


A refuse vehicle is disclosed that includes a control system which comprises a plurality of microprocessor based interface modules, a communication network, and at least one output device. The control system is configured to disable the output device based on certain conditions of the refuse vehicle.

The present disclosure relates generally to the field of refuse vehicles. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to control systems for refuse vehicles.
Various vehicles are known for handling refuse (e.g., collecting refuse, transporting refuse, etc.). Such vehicles may include front loaders, side loaders, rear loaders, bucket loaders, etc. These refuse vehicles are generally configured to collect refuse from a refuse bin and put it in a container on the vehicle for transport to another location such as a landfill or transfer station. Refuse vehicles are generally made in a variety of configurations to meet the requirements imposed by the particular refuse bins (e.g., bin on wheels, residential refuse can, etc.) and physical limits of the areas in which the refuse is collected (e.g., the width and height of an alley where refuse is stored).
A need exists for a way to monitor the various aspects and operations of a refuse vehicle and, based on the information obtained, prevent or disable certain operations of the refuse vehicle. Also, a need exists for a refuse vehicle that is able to effectively enable and disable various operations of the refuse vehicle in a manner that is timely and does not interfere or slow down the process of collecting the refuse.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a refuse vehicle that provides one or more of these features. Other features and advantages will be made apparent from the present description. The teachings disclosed extend to those embodiments that fall within the scope of the appended claims, regardless of whether they provide one or more of the aforementioned advantages or overcome one of the aforementioned disadvantages.

Refuse vehicle control system and method with footboard


A stereo camera adjustment system disposes an adjustment plate that displays an adjustment chart for adjusting deviation of image information caused by position misalignment of the stereo camera at a predetermined position relative to a vehicle mounted with a stereo camera, capture an image of the adjustment chart, and process the captured image of the adjustment chart to correct the deviation of the image information. The stereo camera adjustment system includes a plate movement device that adjusts a disposed state of the adjustment plate relative to the vehicle, a detector that detects an attitude of the vehicle stopped at a defined position, and a controller that controls, based on the detected attitude of the vehicle, the plate movement device to adjust the disposed state of the adjustment plate such that the adjustment plate is at the predetermined position relative to the vehicle.

The disclosure relates to stereo camera adjustment systems and, in particular, to a stereo camera adjustment system to correct position misalignment of a stereo camera mounted on a vehicle by image processing.
In a known technique of stereo image processing, a stereo camera is used to capture an image of an identical object from different visual points, and the object is three-dimensionally recognized based on distance data (parallax) obtained from the image. A related technique regarding a vehicle has been developed and put into practice in which a stereo camera mounted on the vehicle captures an image of a view ahead of the host vehicle and uses the captured image to three-dimensionally recognize a travel environment ahead of the host vehicle so as to control a vehicle behavior with respect to a front obstacle in the travel environment ahead of the host vehicle and to control following travel behind a preceding vehicle.
Such a stereo camera generally includes a pair of cameras mechanically secured to make optical axes extend substantially parallel to each other with a predetermined base line length (optical axis interval) therebetween. At this time, when secured positions of the two cameras are misaligned, image capturing directions of the cameras are misaligned. This may hinder appropriate three-dimensional recognition of the travel environment ahead of the host vehicle, for example. In this respect, there is still room for improvement. In order to three-dimensionally recognize the travel environment ahead of the host vehicle, the optical axes of the two cameras are intended to extend straight in a travel direction of the vehicle. In known stereo matching in the stereo camera, object search lines (epipolar lines) of images captured by the two cameras are intended to coincide with each other in a pixel level. An assembly step of the stereo camera and an installation step to the vehicle are intended to satisfy these structural conditions. However, assembly errors and cumulative errors are likely to be unavoidable to some degree.
In view of this, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2004-132870 discloses a stereo camera adjustment system including an adjustment chart that is disposed in front of a stereo camera and corrects a deviation of image information caused by position misalignment of the stereo camera. An image of the adjustment chart is captured by the stereo camera and processed so that a camera control unit mounted on a vehicle, for example, corrects the deviation of image information caused by the position misalignment of the stereo camera. JP-A No. 2015-143657 discloses specific details of an adjustment chart for use in the above-described stereo camera adjustment system.


A method of measuring (100) metrics of a computer network, comprising the steps of: —from a data source collecting (110) sets of data points during a sampling time period, wherein the set of data points constitute a sample, and uploading (120) each sample to a server for further processing (130), wherein from each sample, a tractile information instance is produced (131), wherein the tractile information has a type and each data source is associated (110a) with a fractile information type.

In computer network management, as well as in many other application areas, it is common to measure different metrics such as latency, jitter, packet loss and throughput, to name a few.
In US20170093677 "Method and apparatus to securely measure quality of service end to end in a network", a method and apparatus for securely measuring quality-of-service (QoS) end-to-end in a network is described. It features a pair of endpoints configured to detect packets marked for QoS measurements, association of a timestamp (using a secure clock) with such packets, and reporting the timestamp along with packet identifying metadata to an external monitor.
In US 20170257287 A1 "Real-time quality of service monitoring apparatus and method", a real-time QoS monitoring apparatus is described. It features: an application registration unit configured to register at least one monitoring target application program for QoS measurement, a function explorer unit, also referred to as a function finder, configured to detect user-defined functions in application code, a loop-statement explorer unit configured to detect loop-statements, a user-defined location explorer unit configured to detect user-defined locations, and a heartbeat generator configured to generate a plurality of heartbeat calls to correspond to the functions detected by the function finder.
In U.S. Pat. No. 8,958,327 B2 "Passive network latency monitoring", a method for measuring resident delay for each port in a node in a network and a peer delay between each pair of neighbor nodes in the network is described such that the latency between each pair of neighbor nodes in the network can be determined from these resident delays and peer delays. The method includes route weighting for a data packet through the nodes in the network using the determined latencies. Each node includes a switch having switchable connections. It is configured by a controller to send probe packets from an output port to a port in a neighbor node. The probe packet may include a time stamp and an identifier.
In U.S. Pat. No. 7,260,627 B2 "Real-time mesh measurement system stream latency and jitter measurements" is described. A method is described for accurately measuring system latency and latency jitter regarding packets of information moving through the network. The method features time-stamping packets of information, on their way through the network between the source and destination, using real-time clocks set to a universal standard. Latency and latency jitter are then determined by analyzing the time-stamped packets.


A kit for making boxes from paper card stock. The kit has a flat plate with a guide rail with a vertical edge projecting above the surface of the plate parallel to one edge of the plate. A scoring groove traverses the plate parallel to the vertical edge of the guide rail. One or more spacing strips, each having a vertical edge, may be placed between the vertical edge of the guide rail and the scoring groove to vary the depth of the box. The overall size or "footprint" of a box made in accordance with the invention is determined by the distance of the scoring groove from the nearest vertical edge and the size of the blank card stock employed. Two identical sized card stocks are used for each box. A slightly wider spacing strip is used to form the top than the spacing strip used to form the bottom of the box. This also makes the depth of the box bottom slightly greater than the box top. The kit includes a scoring plate, two sets of spacing strips and a scoring tool, and is used to fashion boxes in a variety of shapes and sizes. In another embodiment of the kit the scoring plate has guide rails and score lines on both sides, wherein the guide rail on one side is spaced slightly further away from the score line than on the other side to make the box bottom slightly smaller in size than the box top.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a kit for making boxes and, more particularly to a kit for making boxes in a variety of shapes and sizes.
2. Prior Art
Boxes or cartons are traditionally made from a semi-rigid cardboard stock by first cutting a cardboard blank to the desired dimensions of the outer walls and flaps. The cardboard blanks are then scored on fold lines and the scored fold lines are notched between the various flaps so that the top or bottom of the box or container may be folded. Such box making equipment usually employs a scoring and slotting machine which is adaptable for producing boxes in a variety of sizes. Such a machine is expensive and not normally available for individual use. It is, therefore, desirable to produce a versatile system for making boxes whereby one or more custom boxes may be inexpensively made by any individual at his/her home or place of work. The inventor's prior box making kit and method of U.S. Pat. No. 5,484,373 is unique in that it allows a user to make boxes out of card stock into a great number of sizes and depths. However, this kit preferentially required use of two different sizes of card stock to make the top and bottom of the box, with the card stock for the box top preferentially being slightly longer and wider than the card stock for the box bottom. There accordingly remains a need for a kit for making boxes which is ideally adapted for use with single sizes of card stock for use in making the box top and box bottom.


A system and process is disclosed for retorting oil shale and extracting shale oil and other hydrocarbons therefrom, in which a cased heat delivery well is drilled generally vertically through an overburden and then through a body of oil shale to be retorted to the bottom thereof, generally horizontally under the body of oil shale to be retorted, and then back to the earth surface. Heat energy is transmitted conductively to the body of oil shale to be retorted from a closed loop heat delivery module in the well, the module comprising a fluid transmission pipe containing a heating fluid heated to at least a retorting temperature. Heat energy is also transmitted to the body of oil shale to be retorted above the fluid transmission pipe by vapor conduits that conduct retort vapors upward through the body of oil shale to be retorted; the ascending retort vapors condense and reflux, delivering their latent heat of vaporization to the body of oil shale to be retorted, and the condensed retort liquids descend. If not recycled, the retort liquids are collected in a sump at the bottom of a production well and are transmitted to the surface for processing. The vapor conduits communicate at upper ends thereof with the production well, so that vapors that do not reflux are collected in the production well and are transmitted to the surface for processing.

The present invention relates generally to processes and apparatus for in situ extraction or production of hydrocarbons—including oil and gas—from underground oil shale formations. In particular, the present invention concerns a method and system in which an energy source, preferably oil shale or hydrocarbons derived therefrom, is used to heat a closed system, thereby lessening adverse environmental impacts, the closed system providing the heat to retort the oil shale.

In situ method and system for extraction of oil from shale


A controlled oscillation module includes a current source, an inductive load, a switching transistor section, and an adjustable parameter module. The switching transistor section is operably coupled to the current source and to the inductive load to convert a control signal into an output oscillation in accordance with an adjustable operating parameter of the controlled oscillation module. The adjustable parameter module is operably coupled to produce the adjustable operating parameter.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to mixed signal circuitry and more particularly to phase locked loops.
2. Description of Related Art
Communication systems are known to support wireless and wire lined communications between wireless and/or wire lined communication devices. Such communication systems range from national and/or international cellular telephone systems to the Internet to point-to-point in-home wireless networks. Each type of communication system is constructed, and hence operates, in accordance with one or more communication standards. For instance, wireless communication systems may operate in accordance with one or more standards including, but not limited to, IEEE 802.11, Bluetooth, advanced mobile phone services (AMPS), digital AMPS, global system for mobile communications (GSM), code division multiple access (CDMA), local multi-point distribution systems (LMDS), multi-channel-multi-point distribution systems (MMDS), and/or variations thereof.
Depending on the type of wireless communication system, a wireless communication device, such as a cellular telephone, two-way radio, personal digital assistant (PDA), personal computer (PC), laptop computer, home entertainment equipment, et cetera communicates directly or indirectly with other wireless communication devices. For direct communications (also known as point-to-point communications), the participating wireless communication devices tune their receivers and transmitters to the same channel or channels (e.g., one of the plurality of radio frequency (RF) carriers of the wireless communication system) and communicate over that channel(s). For indirect wireless communications, each wireless communication device communicates directly with an associated base station (e.g., for cellular services) and/or an associated access point (e.g., for an in-home or in-building wireless network) via an assigned channel. To complete a communication connection between the wireless communication devices, the associated base stations and/or associated access points communicate with each other directly, via a system controller, via the public switch telephone network, via the Internet, and/or via some other wide area network.
For each wireless communication device to participate in wireless communications, it includes a built-in radio transceiver (i.e., receiver and transmitter) or is coupled to an associated radio transceiver (e.g., a station for in-home and/or in-building wireless communication networks, RF modem, etc.). As is known, the transmitter includes a data modulation stage, one or more intermediate frequency stages, and a power amplifier. The data modulation stage converts raw data into baseband signals in accordance with a particular wireless communication standard. The one or more intermediate frequency stages mix the baseband signals with one or more local oscillations to produce RF signals. The power amplifier amplifies the RF signals prior to transmission via an antenna.
As is also known, the receiver is coupled to the antenna and includes a low noise amplifier, one or more intermediate frequency stages, a filtering stage, and a data recovery stage. The low noise amplifier receives inbound RF signals via the antenna and amplifies then. The one or more intermediate frequency stages mix the amplified RF signals with one or more local oscillations to convert the amplified RF signal into baseband signals or intermediate frequency (IF) signals. The filtering stage filters the baseband signals or the IF signals to attenuate unwanted out of band signals to produce filtered signals. The data recovery stage recovers raw data from the filtered signals in accordance with the particular wireless communication standard.
FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a prior art phase locked loop. The phase locked loop includes a phase and frequency detector, a charge pump, a loop filter, a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) and a feedback divider, which may be a fractional-N feedback divider. The phase and frequency detector determines a difference between the phase and/or frequency of a reference oscillation and a feedback oscillation. The charge pump converts the difference signal into a current, which is subsequently converted into a control voltage via the loop filter. The voltage controlled oscillator, based on the control voltage, generates the output oscillation. The feedback divider divides the output oscillation by a divider value (N) to produce the feedback oscillation. As such, in steady state conditions, the output oscillation equals the reference oscillation times the divider value (N).
FIG. 1 further illustrates the output oscillation in the frequency domain to be centered at the output frequency (fOUT). As shown, based on the reference oscillation changing, and/or the divider value changing, the frequency spectrum of the output oscillation has a general shape as shown. The feedback divider divides the output oscillation by the divider value to produce the feedback oscillation. In addition to dividing the frequency by the divider value N, the feedback divider also divides the frequency spectrum of the output oscillation by N thereby producing the narrower frequency spectrum centered at the feedback frequency (fFB).
As shown, the frequency spectrum of the feedback oscillation is compressed with respect to the frequency spectrum of the output oscillation. As such, the phase and frequency detector may lose zero crossings due to the narrower spectrum of the feedback oscillation. When the phase and/or frequency detector loses zero crossings, compensation of the entire loop is adversely effected causing the phase locked loop to have poor frequency tracking, which is a significant problem for radios and other high performance electronic equipment.
FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of an alternate prior art phase locked loop that includes the phase and frequency detector, the charge pump, the loop filter and the voltage controlled oscillator. In place of the feedback divider, the phase locked loop of FIG. 2 includes a frequency translator. The frequency translator includes a mixer and a local oscillation wherein the output of the mixer provides the feedback oscillation and corresponds to the difference between the output oscillation (fOUT) and the local oscillation frequency (fLO). In this embodiment, the feedback oscillation has the same spectrum width as the output oscillation. However, the phase locked loop is subject to false locking on an image frequency of the output frequency and local oscillation.
FIG. 3 is a graphical representation of the false locking issue of the phase locked loop of FIG. 2. In this illustration, the desired output oscillation has a frequency at (fOUT). The local oscillation has a frequency of (fLO). Accordingly, the difference between the output oscillation and the local oscillation corresponds to the reference oscillation, which corresponds to the frequency of the feedback oscillation. However, due to the frequency translation nature of a mixer, an image frequency is also generated which corresponds to the local oscillation frequency less the difference between the output oscillation frequency and the local oscillation frequency. As such, as the phase locked loop of FIG. 2 is approaching steady state condition, the output oscillation is increasing from a lower frequency to a higher frequency. Once the output oscillation reaches the frequency that corresponds to the image frequency (fIMAGE), the phase locked loop locks at this frequency if the VCO is not saturated at this frequency. As such, the desired output oscillation is never achieved.
FIG. 4 illustrates one solution for avoiding the phase locked loop of FIG. 2 falsely locking at the image frequency. In this solution, the difference between the frequency of the local oscillator and the frequency of the desired output oscillation is increased to a range such that the local oscillation frequency is outside of the bandwidth of the VCO. As such, as the output oscillation is increasing, when it hits the image frequency, the voltage controlled oscillator is still outside of its linear range of operation, (i.e., is saturated in the full on mode) such that the phase locked loop does not lock at the image frequency. While this avoids false locking, it presents many issues for high frequency operations. In particular, using crystal reference oscillators above approximately 20-25 megahertz substantially increases the cost of such phase locked loops. In addition, if the phase locked loop is implemented in CMOS technology, it is difficult to produce a reliable high frequency phase and frequency detector that operates above a 100 megahertz.
Therefore, a need exists for a phase locked loop that avoids false locking while allowing conventional and economical components to be used.


Safety devices and methods of use thereof are provided for improving electrical safety of insulative tools. In particular, the present invention provides a safety device for improving safety of an elongated insulative tool of a certain length with a substantially circular cross section having a cross sectional diameter and outer circumference, the device comprising a substantially circular disc with an inner opening for said elongated insulative tool to position therethrough, and said inner opening having a bore diameter that is substantially the same as or greater than the diameter of the elongated insulative tool. The present invention further provides novel methods of using through specific arrangement of the safety devices of the present invention on an elongated insulative tool.

In general, a number of insulative tools have been devised and are commercially available for use in performance of work on equipment and componentry that are energized at high electrical voltages. Their individual designs, for example in respect of their composition, structural designs and dimensions, are tailored to accommodate the safe handling of equipment and componentry energized to different levels. The basic principles governing such design requisites for the different types of insulative tools are generally known in the art, and overall guidelines and specifications are available for insulative tool manufacturers and users to ensure, in part, the minimal approach distance or separation between the energized equipment/componentry and the worker.
For example, one type of insulative tools commonly used for work on high-voltage electricity equipment or componentry is an elongated insulative pole with different adaptors and tools affixed onto a terminus thereof for performing different tasks and functions. A basic insulative pole is made of simple insulative materials such as plastic and is reinforced with fibreglass. Typical simple one-piece insulative poles that are available commercially are substantially cylindrical in configuration with lengths varying from approximately 6 feet to over 14 feet and cross sectional diameters (perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the tool) varying from approximately 1 inch to 2 inches. More recent advances in insulative pole design include telescopic versions of insulative poles as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,079,978 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,593,196.
With reference to above, the assortment of insulative poles is designed specifically for work on equipment or componentry energized to different levels. As a general rule of thumb, higher levels of energization require the use of insulative poles with greater lengths so to provide a safe distance between the worker and the energized equipment or componentry. For reference, a comprehensive listing of said minimum lengths of insulative poles relative to different levels of energization of the equipment or componentry (minimum approach distances) can be found in 29 CFR 1926.950-OSHA (American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) specifications), the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Standard 516-1995, and the Intenational Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Standard 61472.
In additional to the inherent designs of insulative tools, it is also known that imperfections, damage, contamination and/or moisture on the surface of insulative tools can individually and/or collectively impact upon the insulative properties and reduce the safety of insulative tools. In essence, the presence of any, or a combination, of the aforementioned conditions reduces the inception voltage for dangerous electrical discharges, and correspondingly, stringent government regulated specifications and guidelines are in place to govern routine maintenance and inspection of high voltage insulative tools so to safeguard against arcing accidents.
Nevertheless, despite the most current designs and the industry's diligent use of conventional measures to maximize safety of insulative tools and safeguarding workers, occurrence of electrical discharges and arcing accidents from work on high voltage equipment and componentry remains a reality often resulting in severe injury to the workers involved, and at times, mortality.
A number of devices have been developed and taught in the prior art to enhance the safety of insulative tools.
One category of devices consists of mechanical attachments to a terminus of an insulative pole solely to improve functional dexterity in manipulation of energized equipment or componentry and reduce the likelihood of accidents due to mishandling of the energized equipment or componentry. A variety of connectors and tools of varying complexity has been taught in the prior art, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,624,592 teaches an inverted V-shaped hook that is adaptable to a terminus of an insulative pole; U.S. Pat. No. 3,866,965 teaches another attachment with radially projecting arms; U.S. Pat. No. 3,868,136 teaches an interior insulating rod coaxially and slidably within a hollow tubular insulating pole; U.S. Pat. No. 4,326,316 teaches a rotary brush device, again attachable to a terminus of an insulative pole, for cleaning aerial conductors; U.S. Pat. No. 4,965,930 teaches a set of pivoting jaws and a hook mountable onto a terminus of an insulative pole; U.S. Pat. No. 5,299,464 teaches a selective transformer penetration tool adaptable onto an insulative pole for remote sampling of oil from high voltage transformers; U.S. Pat. No. 5,564,852 teaches an adaptor connecting a tool to a terminus of an insulative tool which comprises of two members movable relative to each other to improve the adjustability and flexibility of tool angle with respect to the insulative pole; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,332,368 teaches a sampling tool mountable to a terminus of an insulative pole for sampling of aerial electrical equipment and componentry.
Another category of devices that has been developed to improve the safety of insulative poles consists in general of shields that can be affixed to an insulative pole so to act as a literal physical barrier between the worker and the energized equipment or componentry. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,077,448 teaches a transparent plastic protection shield that can be singly and releasably attached to an insulative pole in a manner that the shield is located close to the terminus of said insulative pole that is in contact with or near the energized equipment or componentry. In accordance to the inventor, positioning of the shield close to the equipment or componentry best protects a worker, who would be situated at the other terminus of the insulative pole, from any spent or disintegrated electrical parts or debris dislodged or ejected away from the energized equipment or componentry. U.S. Pat. No. 5,666,253 also describes a single protective shield attached to an insulative pole to provide physical barrier between the worker and the energized equipment in which the shield is made of a transparent and impact-resistant thermoplastic material with an opening formed in the shield plate for receiving an insulative pole therethrough. U.S. Pat. No. 4,230,357 also teaches a single physical shield circumferentially affixed to an insulative pole, in this instance a downwardly opening frustoconical flexible guard made of an insulative, nonconductive material, is fitted around the insulative pole solely to cover the worker's hand and to restrict movement of a worker's hand near the energized equipment or componentry.
As evident from the aforementioned references, safety devices of the prior art have all been developed to provide simple physical aids and simple physical barriers or shields to protect the worker from accidentally becoming in contact with the energized equipment or componentry or from debris ejected from the energized equipment or componentry towards the worker. None of the above provides any solution or means to protect the worker from the electrical fields that transcend the length of an insulative pole so to prevent dangerous electrical discharges that may be associated or result from said electric fields.
It is therefore the primary objective of the present invention to provide a novel category of safety devices to further improve upon the safety of insulative tools and to protect the worker from ill-effects associated with the electrical fields transcending along insulative tools or poles when in contact with or near energized equipment or componentry.
It should be readily apparent to a person skilled in the art that the safety devices of the present invention may be used singly or used in combination with any of the aforementioned safety devices of the prior art that are oriented towards physical protection of the worker.


A power switch system (200) for selectively providing power from a primary power source and a secondary power source to an electronic device, includes a detecting module (24), and a selecting module (30). The detecting module is connected to the primary power source. The selecting module is connected to an output terminal of the detecting module, the primary power source, and the secondary power source, and outputs the power from the primary power source to the electronic device if the primary power source is available. The detecting module is configured for determining whether the primary power source is available for the electronic device and generating a switch signal if the primary power source is unavailable, and the selecting module outputs power from the secondary power source to the electronic device in response to the switch signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to power switch systems, and particularly to a power switch system for selectively supplying a primary power and a secondary power.
2. Description of Related Art
In the computer field, USB (Universal Serial Bus) devices, such as USB hard disk, USB digital camera, USB projector etc., are widely used because they are hot-swappable, and provide a fast transmission speed. In these USB devices, a battery power source is usually built therein. When power provided by USB port in the computer is unstable or unavailable, the battery must be switched on to provide power.
Referring to FIG. 3, a typical power switch circuit 100 is shown. The power switch circuit 100 includes a diode D1, a resistor R1, and a transistor Q1. The emitter of the transistor Q1 is connected to a battery power terminal 10. The collector of the transistor Q1 as an output terminal 11 of the circuit 100 outputs the battery power. The anode of the diode D1 is connected to the base of the transistor Q1 and a USB power terminal 12 and is grounded via the resistor R1. The cathode of the diode D1 is connected to the output terminal 11.
When the diode D1 is turned on while the transistor Q1 is turned off, the USB power is output via the output terminal 11. However, if the USB power becomes unstable or unavailable, the transistor Q1 cannot be turned on due to stabilizing by the diode D1. Therefore, the battery power cannot be switched on for providing power, thus a USB device depending on the USB power will not function.
What is needed, therefore, is to provide a power switch system for switching between power sources immediately and efficiently.


Provided is a channel status information feedback method and apparatus of a terminal in a multi-node system, including a plurality of nodes and a base station which is connected to and can control each of the plurality of nodes. The method comprises the steps of: obtaining one precoding matrix index (PMI) for each cooperative node with respect to the entire target frequency band; obtaining a phase correction value to be applied to the PMI for said each cooperative node in each subband within the target frequency band; and feeding the calculated PMI and phase correction value back to the serving node.

Recently, the amount of data transmitted over a wireless communication network is swiftly increasing because various devices appear and spread which require high data transmission and machine-to-machine communication, such as smart phones or tablet PCs. There are attention attracting technologies such as cognitive radio (CR) technology and carrier aggregation (CA) for effectively using more frequency bands, multi-antenna technology for raising data volume within a limited frequency.
Further, wireless communication networks are evolving such that the density of accessible nodes around users increases. Here, the "nodes" means antennas or antenna groups that are spaced apart from each other at a predetermined interval or more in a distributed antenna system (DAS), however is not limited thereto and rather may have a broader meaning. That is, the node may be a macro base station, a picocell base station (PeNB), a home base station (HeNB), an RRH (remote radio head), an RRU (remote radio unit), a relay station, and a distributed antenna (group). The higher density of nodes a wireless communication system has, the higher system performance the wireless communication system may show due to inter-node cooperation. That is, than when each node operates without cooperation with an independent base station, when each node is managed by a control station in light of transmission and reception and is operated as an antenna or antenna group for one cell, even better system performance may be achieved. Hereinafter, a wireless communication system including a plurality of nodes is referred to as a multi-node system.
Inter-node cooperated transmission (CoMP) may apply to such multi-node system. The cooperated transmission means a transmission scheme in which a plurality of nodes attends signal transmission and reception for the same terminal. The cooperated transmission schemes include joint processing and scheduling coordination. The joint processing refers to a scheme in which a plurality of nodes simultaneously participates in signal transmission and reception and includes JT (joint transmission) and DCS (dynamic cell selection). The scheduling coordination refers is to a scheme in which a plurality of nodes participates in signal transmission and reception for the same terminal at different times by scheduling and includes CS (coordinated scheduling) and CB (coordinated beamforming).
In case such cooperated transmission is applied to multi-node systems, there is a need for a method of feeding back channel status information of the terminal.

Channel status information feedback method and apparatus in multi-node system


An identification of a primary snapshot created for a primary storage system is received. A first request for a first metadata of a first file directory structure object associated with the primary snapshot is issued. A second request for data content of the first file directory structure object associated with the primary snapshot is determined to be sent to a recipient device based on a received response to the first request. A third request for a second metadata of a second file directory structure object associated with the primary snapshot is determined to be sent to the recipient device. Timing and ordering of issuance of a plurality of requests that at least includes the second request and the third request to the recipient device are managed based on a determined performance metric of the recipient device and corresponding relative impact to the performance metric of the recipient device.

A primary storage system includes a storage device (e.g., network-attached storage (NAS)) that is configured to generate a primary snapshot of the data stored in a storage volume of the storage device. The storage device may store a large number of directories and files (e.g., millions, billions, etc.). An incremental backup of the primary storage system may be generated based on the primary snapshot stored in the storage device and data included in the incremental backup is backed up from the primary storage system to a backup system. The backup system performs a full directory traversal of the primary snapshot to determine which objects (directories or files) to include in the incremental backup of the storage device. Subsequently, the backup system may request the data associated with the objects determined to be included in the incremental backup.
As an object is being encountered while the file directory structure is being traversed, the backup system sends to the storage device a request for metadata associated with the object to determine whether the object has changed. Responding to the request for metadata associated with the object is a CPU intensive operation for the primary storage system. The primary storage system is configured to run one or more processes. The amount of available CPU resources for the one or more processes is reduced when the primary storage system responds to requests for metadata. The primary storage system may become overburdened with requests for metadata from the backup system while the file directory structure of the primary snapshot is being traversed. As a result, the performance of the one or more processes is significantly reduced.

Adaptive throttling of metadata requests


A method of efficient computation of gradients of a merit function of a system includes the steps of: specifying at least one parameter for which the gradients with respect to the at least one parameter are desired; specifying the merit function of interest in terms of observable measurements of the system; either solving or simulating the system to determine values of the measurements; expressing the gradients of the merit function as the gradient of a weighted sum of measurements; forming an appropriately configured adjoint system; and either solving or simulating the adjoint system to simultaneously determine the gradients of the merit function with respect to the at least one parameter by employing a single adjoint analysis. Preferably, the system may be modeled by a set of equations comprising at least one of the following: a nonlinear set of equations, a linear set of equations, a set of linear partial differential equations, a set of nonlinear partial differential equations, a set of linear differential algebraic equations or a set of nonlinear differential algebraic equations. Further, the system of interest may be a network and, preferably, may be an electrical circuit. Still further, elements of the adjoint network and excitations of the adjoint network are determined in order to obtain the gradients of the merit function by employing a single adjoint analysis. It is to be appreciated that, in a preferred embodiment, the gradients of merit function are computed for the purpose of optimization and the merit function may be either a Lagrangian merit function or an augmented Lagrangian merit function.

This invention relates to methods of performing gradient computation and, more particularly, to gradient-based methods of performing circuit optimization.
Rapid and automatic optimization (or tuning) of circuits is crucial to high-performance circuit design. Circuit tuning is a nonlinear optimization problem which is best solved by gradient-based methods. The adjoint method, as disclosed in the article by S. W. Director et al., "The Generalized Adjoint Network and Network Sensitivities," IEEE Transactions on Circuit Theory, pp. 318-323, vol. CT-16, no. 3 (August 1969), permits the computation of the gradients of one measurement of the circuit with respect to any number of design parameters by means of a single adjoint analysis. However, the adjoint analysis must be repeated for each measurement of interest. Likewise, the direct method of gradient computation, as disclosed in the article by D. A. Hocevar et al., "Transient Sensitivity Computation for MOSFET Circuits," IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, pp. 609-620, vol. CAD-4 (October 1985), can compute the gradient of all measurements with respect to one design parameter and, therefore, must be repeated for each design parameter. As a result, the gradient computation procedure is often the bottleneck in circuit optimization programs.

Method of efficient gradient computation

International Business Machines Corporation


Various embodiments are directed to a proxy system for implementing an automatic conversion schema which allows data results from a publishing application to be extracted and displayed by a display application other than the publishing application. In one embodiment, a proxy publisher may receive a request from a publishing application to retrieve a data result from a data server. The request may include a path to the data server and appended publishing parameters. In accordance with the automatic conversion schema, the publishing parameters may comprise decode parameters associated with the publishing application for allowing a display application other than the publishing application to decode variables of the data result and to transform the decoded variables for display. The proxy publisher may cache the request including the appended publishing parameters and retrieve the data result from the data server. The proxy publisher may locally store the data result along with the cached publishing parameters and may respond to a query from a display application for data associated with the publishing application by providing the cached data result and the publishing parameters to the display application. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

In recent years, many web-based applications have been developed that take advantage of asynchronous data-loading techniques (e.g., AJAX, FLEX, etc.). These techniques (typically implemented using a combination of technologies such as HTML, XHTML, XML, JavaScript, ECMAScript, CSS, Macromedia® Flash®, etc.) enable an application to dynamically update portions of a web page without requiring a reload of the entire page. For example, a typical sports-related web page may include a dynamic score ticker. When the web page is loaded using a client web browser, a script or other small program (e.g., JavaScript, ECMAScript, etc.) may be run by the browser that retrieves the latest scores on a periodic basis. As the latest scores are retrieved, the score ticker is updated in the browser accordingly (without refreshing/reloading the web page). In this manner, data updates are limited to the content that is actually changed (e.g., score information), rather than encompassing the contents of the entire web page, thereby reducing used bandwidth. Additionally, the perceived interactivity and responsiveness of the application may be improved.
One limitation with the asynchronous data loading techniques described above is requiring the client application (e.g., web browser) to be running for data updates to take place. In the case of the sports web page described above, the client web browser must be running in order for the embedded script to download additional, updated scores. This poses problems where the application/browser must be periodically closed or shut down. For instance, handheld/mobile devices such as cellular phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile PCs, and the like typically have limited memory or battery power, making it difficult to have a large application such as a web browser continuously running. In these situations, data updates cannot be downloaded when the application/browser is closed. Additionally, since the updates are not downloaded, they cannot be stored for later use. Thus, if the application/browser is re-launched at a time when network connectivity is unavailable (e.g., on an airplane), it is not possible to display the most recent information or information that was recent as of the last time network connectivity was available.
Another limitation with the techniques described above is that the data results downloaded by web applications, scripted runtimes, and Java or Virtual Machine (VM) based software generally are formatted for viewing only by the client web browser or application that requested the data. As such, the data results can only be viewed when the calling application/browser is running and cannot be published for display by applications other than the calling application/browser. Additionally, obtaining data results from several different applications requires the concurrent running of entire applications and does not allow published information to be combined in a unified way.

Automatic conversion schema for cached web requests

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.