The present invention provides a circuit analysis device including: storage unit having stored therein: connection information about multiple components; delay information including information about the delay time of a discrete component and a chain delay time which is a delay time in the case in which a chain delay effect is generated by a connection with another component about each kind of the multiple components; and chain effect propagating component information including information about kinds of chain effect propagating components which are components for transmitting the chain delay effect, and data processing unit for: referring to the information stored in the storage unit; performing a total delay time calculation process of sequentially adding the delay times of the components along a signal path in the circuit; and if the chain effect propagating component is halfway through the signal path in the total delay time calculation process, examining a connection relation between components that precede and follow the chain effect propagating component and determining a delay time of the component that follows the chain effect propagating component that corresponds to the connection relations.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a circuit analysis device for analyzing delay time for a digital circuit including a wiring that bundles multiple bits, a circuit analysis method thereof and a program for causing a computer to execute the method.
2. Description of the Related Art
As semiconductor process technology progresses, the design scale of digital circuits is becoming larger and complexity of digital circuits is increasing year after year. There is also increasingly stronger demand for a technology that will ensure at the initial design stage that, taking into consideration the design scale and complexity of the circuit, the digital circuit will operate correctly after manufacturing. As for a synchronous digital circuit which is currently in the mainstream, processing is performed while synchronizing the circuit by means of a periodic pulse signal called a clock. Therefore, it is necessary to always finish a unit operation of the circuit in a time period equivalent to one clock period. To assure that a designed circuit correctly operates after manufacturing, there is a generally used technique called Static Timing Analysis (STA) for analyzing the maximum operating frequency of the circuit in a design stage.
The STA is a technique for analyzing delay time of a path in a circuit where the operation must be completed within a given time period, such as a clock period or a time period which is an integral multiple thereof. The STA can execute a delay analysis by taking less time than a delay simulation that is conventionally used. The path which requires the operation to be completed within a given time period is generally a path leading from an external input terminal to a memory unit or a path leading from the memory unit to an external output terminal in the circuit. If the reference time is the time for transmitting a signal from the origin to an end direction of the path as a subject of the delay analysis, the delay time is analyzed by estimating the signal arrival time to the components existing on the path.
An example of a conventional circuit design system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,263,651 (hereinafter, referred to as Document 1) and Robert B. Hitchcock Sr., "Timing Verification and the Timing Analysis Program," Proceedings of 19th Design Automation Conference, pp. 594 to 604 (hereinafter, referred to as Document 2). FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of the conventional circuit design system.
As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional circuit design system includes input device 500 as input means, data processing device 510, storage device 520 and output device 530 as output means. Data processing device 510 is configured to include circuit input means 511, delay analysis means 512 and result output means 513. Hereunder, operations of the conventional circuit design system will be briefly described.
If connection information 521 indicating the relationship of the connected components of a logic circuit is inputted via input device 500, data processing device 510 transfers connection information 521 to storage device 520 to store it therein. In general, connection information 521 about the logic circuit is described by using a hardware description language or the like, where the components constituting the circuit and connection relations among components are defined. Next, if delay information 522 indicating the delay time of each of the components existing in the circuit is inputted, data processing device 510 transfers delay information 522 to storage device 520 to store it therein. Data processing device 510 calculates the longest path out of the path leading from the external input terminal to the memory unit or the path leading from the memory unit to the external output terminal in the circuit with reference to delay information 522 about each of the components. There are many proposed methods of efficiently calculating the longest path, which are disclosed in Document 1 for instance. It is thereby possible to acquire the longest signal path.
Subsequently, data processing device 510 calculates the delay of the circuit according to the STA technique. Here, the one of general operations of the STA technique will be described. The delay time of each of the components constituting the circuit is measured in advance, and is stored in storage device 520 as described above. Based on the information about the connection relations among the components of the circuits, the signal arrival time is acquired about each of the components on the path from the origin, such as the external input terminal, to the end, such as an external output terminal and a register. As for the components that receive signals from each of the multiple paths, the latest signal arrival time from the origin is employed so as to pass the employed signal arrival time to a next component. Thus, the latest arrival times of the signal at the terminals of the circuit are passed on to the following component in turn to estimate the signal arrival time at the end. In this case, it is possible to determine the signal with the latest arrival time in the entire circuit at high speed by referring to the longest signal path acquired.
The STA technique has been implemented for circuit representations of an abstract level called a gate level, where logic gates of a small number of inputs are circuit components. As for the circuits of the gate level, the wire connections among the circuit components corresponds to one physical wiring, and there is no assumption about a signal line called a bus which is a bundle of multiple signal lines of semantic coherence. The bus transmits signals of a bit count having a fixed width in parallel. In the case of the circuits of the gate level, the delay time of a circuit component is generally only determined by the circuit component, which is not dependent on what path the signal has followed to arrive at the circuit component. As for the related STA technique, it is presumed that the delay time of the path depends on the delay time of the components on the path but does not depend on the wiring configuration.
In recent years, as the circuit scale becomes larger and more complicated, circuit design is implemented at a level called an RT (Register Transfer) level which is a more abstract level than the gate level. Thus, a high-speed delay-analysis at the RT level is required. Especially, in the case of behavioral synthesis CAD (Computer Aided Design) for automatically synthesizing a circuit of the RT level with behavioral description in C named software language as the input, high-speed execution of the STA at the RT level is required because an optimal circuit must be searched for while generating and evaluating a large number of the circuits of the RT level.
As for the circuit components in the case of the RT level, circuit configuration is represented by larger-scale components called a functional unit and a selector and connections thereof in addition to basic logic devices. Even when multiple bit lines are inputted in parallel, the multiple bit lines are bundled and described as one signal line. Therefore, there are cases where multiple signal lines are physically used even though the connection of components is one connection in terms of the circuit representation. A delay estimation error may thereby be generated.
There is a chain delay effect as one of the causes of the delay estimation error in the case of the RT level. "Chain" means to mutually connect the components which input and output the signals in series for bundling the bit lines without putting the memory unit between them. The chain delay effect refers to a phenomenon in which the entire component group chained as above has a different delay time value from the value acquired by adding the delay time of separate components as to all the chained components. The chain delay effect is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-96203 (hereinafter, referred to as Document 3) and Mukund Sivaraman, Shail Aditya, "Cycle-time Aware Architecture Synthesis of Custom Hardware Accelerators," Proceedings of the 2002 international conference on Compilers, architecture and synthesis for embedded systems, pp. 35 to 42 (hereinafter, referred to as Document 4). Hereunder, chain delay time refers to the delay time estimated for one of the components when the chain delay effect is generated by connecting two components.
The chain delay effect will be described by using an example of a chain connection of carry-propagate adders. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a circuit example of the chain connection according to carry-propagate adders. FIG. 2(a) shows a representation at the RT level, and FIG. 2(b) shows a circuit representation at the gate level. Hereunder, the carry-propagate adders are simply called adders.
The circuit shown in FIG. 2(a) has 4-bit adders 551 and 552 serially connected in two stages. The discrete delay time of adders 551 and 552 was 4d by measurement. The delay times of 1-bit addition gates 553, represented as one blocks in FIG. 2(b), are uniformly d. As shown in FIG. 2(b), the longest signal path of the entire circuit is the path indicated by a dotted line, and the longest delay time is 5d. In the case of implementing the STA in the circuit at the RT level, the delay time of the circuit is acquired as 4d+4d=8d because adders 551 and 552 whose delay time is 4d are connected in two stages. As is evident from this result, if the delay time is sought, based on the STA technique, as to the circuit at the RT level, it includes a significant error against 5d which is an STA result at the gate level.
As for delay information about the components in view of the chain delay effect, the delay time should be measured in advance with the components, that have the chain delay effect, connected in series with other components so as to store the delay information in storage device 520 apart from delays of the discrete components. This is reasoned by analogy with Stefaan Note, Francky Catthoor, Gert Goossens, Hugo De Man, "Combined Hardware selection and Pipelining in High Performance Data-Path Design," IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design, vol. 9, pp. 413 to 423, April 1992 (hereinafter, referred to as Document 5).
However, there are the cases where the delay cannot be correctly measured even by combining the technique reasoned by analogy in Document 5 with the above-mentioned general STA technique. It is because the chain delay effect which is generated by the connection relation of two components also occurs in the case where a different kind of component is put between the components. An example thereof will be described below.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of connecting another component between the serially connected adders in two stages. As shown in FIG. 3, multiplexer 555 is connected as another kind of component between adders 551 and 552. At the gate level, multiplexer 555 has a structure in which the components of the same logic are arranged in parallel at each bit. In the circuit at the RT level shown in FIG. 3(a), the chain delay effect exists due to the mutual connection of the adders although adders 551 and 552 are not connected in series.
The general STA technique is based on the premise that a delay of the component in a given circuit is generally independent of the path. It is possible, by referring to the component and a component connected immediately before it, to consider the chain delay effect according to the related STA technique described above. In the case where the chain delay effect exists between components not directly connected, however, the arrival time of the signal component existing on the path between the components depends on the path. Therefore, the latest path of the arrival time of the signal component cannot be determined only from the component existing on the origin side. Thus, the delay time of such a circuit cannot be correctly measured except by an inefficient method such as counting all the paths existing in the circuit.

Circuit analysis device allowing more accurate analysis of signal propagation delay in circuit representation of a highly abstract level


A method for calculating a number of proof-of-work to measure how much work has been done in one block mining, includes the following steps: using a low hash, wherein the low hash value corresponding to a low nonce is not greater than a predetermined target value; using a high hash, wherein the high hash value corresponding to a high nonce is higher than the same target value; and calculating the number of proof-of-work according to the low hash value and the high hash value. The low hash value is the lowest hash value in one block mining. The high hash value is the highest hash value in the same block mining.

Blockchain was named after the technology was first proposed in the Bitcoin white paper. It was implemented later in Bitcoin, the world's first decentralized digital currency, and the source code is open. Blockchain consists of a distributed database that maintains continuously growing records of data called blocks. Each block contains a timestamp of its birth, a link to a previous block and a hash value of the header representing the whole previous block. A hash function in cryptography is a one-way function to map data of arbitrary size to data of fixed size such that it is very difficult to reconstruct the input data from the output hash value. Therefore, these blocks are hash-chained, forming the so-called blockchain, which is inherently resistant to modification of the data. In other words, any modification in a block results in inconsistency of its hash value in the next block, as well as in the following blocks.
In Bitcoin, users can run the Bitcoin program at any computer nodes on the Internet, forming the Bitcoin network. The program has many options to choose for applying Bitcoin rules. Since the source code is open, users can also customize their own code as long as it conforms to the Bitcoin rules. A full node in Bitcoin network downloads every block and transaction and checks them against core consensus rules. A full-node user, called a miner, follows all Bitcoin rules, while other users depend on miners to only send and receive transactions, taking less responsibility and workload. At first, miners get a copy of all blocks of the blockchain from full nodes. Users send transactions to each other by broadcasting the transactions as Internet packets to miners for confirmation. Miners simultaneously collect broadcast transactions and each one works on his/her own new block. By completing a hash-based proof of work (PoW), any miner can get the right to append a new block to the blockchain. By a consensus protocol, the miners will decide which new blocks will be accepted in the blockchain. The process is called mining because the miners get rewards once the block is confirmed. If a block is confirmed, fixed amount of bitcoins, decreasing by half every 4 years, and total transaction fees of the transactions recorded in the block will be given to the miner as a block reward. By trying a number, nonce, in its own mining block header, the PoW asks the miners to find a hash value of the mining block header to be not greater than a number, target. Once the nonce is found, the new block is mined and waits for confirmation. The smaller the target value, the more difficult to mine a block. The target value is adjusted every 2016 blocks mined so that the time to mine a block, called the block time, has an average of 10 minutes. A number inversely proportional to the target value, called difficulty, represents the total mining computing power. Another number, hash rate, the estimated total hash rate of the blockchain, also indicates the total mining computing power. However, no indicator represents the mining computer power of individual miners unless we do long-term statistical analysis of the blocks mined. As miners race to reach consensus earlier, the difficulty value grows exponentially, and so does the power consumption. Since the beginning of Bitcoin, the year of 2009, until June 2017, the difficulty of Bitcoin grew from 1 to over 5:08×1012. Suppose only one computer was used in the beginning of Bitcoin network. Nowadays roughly every person in the world simultaneously uses more than 666 of the same computers for mining. More charts of Bitcoin statistics are also available online.
The mined block records the transactions the miner chose before mining, e.g. the earlier ones or the ones with higher transaction fee, and the block might be broadcast to the other miners for confirmation. Note that the mined block might be broadcast later or never. If the block and its transactions have been verified by a miner, the miner might accept and confirm the block to the blockchain, then continue to mine for the next block. The transactions in the confirmed block will be removed from the transaction pool of the verifying miner to mine for the next block. Note that each miner might reject the arriving new blocks and continue mining his/her own block. Confirming a block means appending it to the local copy of blockchain, allowing for retrieval by other users. A transaction has one confirmation when the block it resides in is confirmed. For each subsequent block confirmed, the transaction has one more confirmation. Because of the concurrency, block mining protocol and inevitable network delay, the miners might accept more than one blocks before mining the next one. Actually, blocks with a timestamp greater than 2 hours from the current network time and earlier than the median time of the past 11 blocks are rejected. This can reduce the number of confirmation to avoid attacks.
The very first block is called the genesis block. The main chain of a blockchain is the chain of blocks with the largest accumulative difficulty value from the genesis block. The honest miners always choose to append a new block at the end of the main chain. Therefore, the miners might have different views of a blockchain and a blockchain might fork a branch sometimes. However, after some block confirmations, the main chain will be consistent. The forked blocks not in the main chain will be still kept in the blockchain. Since only one main chain is maintained and all transactions are verified by peer users, double-spending of a transaction can be very likely prevented after some confirmations. Therefore, Bitcoin blockchain is an open decentralized ledger that can securely record transactions between any two parties. Of course, the less confirmation time, the higher the satisfaction of users. However, there is no 100% guarantee of no double-spending.
While only few countries accept bitcoin as a legal currency, most others have banned or restricted it, e.g. as a kind of expensive goods. Because, in addition to some unsolved attacks, there are still problems in economics, politics, performance, etc., more briefed later. To win the mining race, some miners adopt hardware assistance, such as GPU or ASIC, aggravating the growth of difficulty. The ASIC, application-specific IC, runs even faster than GPU, graphics processing unit. Without constraining the growth of difficulty, the computing power consumed for mining keeps growing exponentially. Recently, the Bitcoin network consumes over twenty million US dollars daily in electricity. However, most of the time, there are only fewer than 10 transactions per second (TPS). The computing is very not green at all.
In Ethereum, a new PoW, Ethrash, which is ASIC resistant but GPU favorable, was proposed to reduce mining racing. A new consensus protocol, GHOST, was also proposed to shorten block time into 12 seconds. The confirmation time is reduced but the TPS is still low, even fewer than 1 at the beginning. Other altcoins also propose different consensus protocols, such as proof of stake, where altcoins are Bitcoin alternatives with uninteresting small changes. However, departing from the original definition of proof of work, they might not reflect that there is enough work done autonomously to fulfill the original request, more briefed later. Instead of just serving for digital currencies, blockchain was recently applied to many other areas, such as smart contract in Ethereum. A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract. Ethereum blockchain enforces the correct execution of smart contracts in blockchain transactions on Ethereum Virtual Machine. Blockchain already creates a new hype, called "the most significant innovation since the Internet". However, similar problems and attacks are left to be solved because some influential factors such as how much work has been done by individuals are not known or are inestimable in real-time.
To reach consensus, Bitcoin adopts proof of work and how much work is done individually can only be estimated in average in a long run.
A. Proof of Work
PoW is represented by a piece of data sent from a requester to the PoW service provider. The key feature of PoW is the work must be moderately hard (but feasible) on the requester side but easy to check for the service provider. It was first proposed to prevent junk mails by doing some significant work before sending the email. For the hash-based PoW as in Bitcoin, the PoW is to prove that enough computing work has been done so that the winner can append a new block. The same principle requiring certain amount of "work" applies to proof of space, proof of bandwidth, and proof of ownership as well. However, proof of stake is different in that it just needs to provide a more deterministic proof of "wealth", e.g. amount or "age" of coin or how long a coin has been created.
B. Consensus Protocol
With the proof of work, proof of stake, or other means, a consensus protocol is to decide who or what wins the right to append a block, write a ledger, or do something else. For example, in Bitcoin, the first miner with a low hash value wins and appends the block on the main chain. Byzantine fault tolerance (BFT) is another consensus protocol by voting in a faulty distributed system. It might not be very scalable because there are a lot of voting messages, which might be faked, and it needs to wait for most of the messages to arrive to make a decision. Moreover, BFT miners need to be identified, i.e. they are permissioned.
C. Types of Blockchains
1) public blockchain: Anyone can participate.
2) consortium blockchain: The miner is permissioned with enough authority.
3) private blockchain: Not anyone can participate.
To be really trustful and decentralized without colluding, any user should be able to participate freely. However, to be trackable or responsible, user identification might be necessary but this is against privacy. Therefore, semi-permissioned where the identification can be checked in a decentralized and encrypted manner is desirable.
D. Weaknesses
For those systems using randomization to reach fairness in the long run, attacks might happen if we do not wait enough time for confirmation. For example, hashing of PoW in Bitcoin is similar to random number generating. The PoW has at least the following weaknesses.
1) 51% attack: One party has more than 50% total mining power. Eventually, it can redefine the main chain, where data are still immutable but some could be excluded.
2) double-spending: The same transaction is issued again after the first transaction has finished, e.g. cashout before enough confirmations. It is done by redefining the main chain to exclude the first transaction.
3) Sybil attack: Divide oneself into more participants. It might forge identification.
4) Selfish mining: Delay broadcasting of mined block to get more percentage of average reward than honest ones.
5) Eclipse attack: Some nodes might be isolated by neighbors delaying new arriving blocks.
6) Balance attack: In a consortium blockchain using BFT, double-spending might happen with much lower than 50% of mining computing power in two groups of nodes with about the same computing power.
E. Problems
1) politics: The government would not like to be exposed to attacks, let anyone to participate in operating, or lose control of a legal currency.
2) economics: Terms such as rewards, fees, or taxes lack quantifiers of user work, government policies, etc. to form a complete economic formula or model.
3) performance: Hundreds or thousands of times of TPS might be needed. Blockchain size is too big and, for general use, it cannot keep growing unlimitedly.
4) privacy: Any user can see any data in blockchain but most users would not like to reveal private information.
F. Challenges
The challenges mostly come from dishonest adversaries. For blockchains to be a real trust machine, the permissioned approach is questionable because anyone might be somewhat dishonest sometimes, especially when the identification is known to act in collusion. However, if we allow anyone without identification to participate, we need to know them more quickly before they do any damage. Data mining on a blockchain can help a lot to retrieve information to improve the security, but it might be too late. How to know participants better in real-time with little information is challenging. One metric might be how much they had worked in the PoW system. This is also the motivation to provide a new PoW system. Zero-knowledge proof was applied in blockchain to enforce honest behavior while maintaining privacy. It is also challenging because it needs a lot of computing power.


Engaging grooves 8e extending in the cylinder axial direction and circumferential grooves 8f formed in a cylinder axial direction middle portion of the engaging grooves 8 are formed on a bottom side of a cylinder hole 8. Engaging rib 12b engaging with the engaging groove 8e and engaging rib 16d which engages with the engaging groove 8e and fits to the circumferential groove 8f are formed on a fixed side cam plate 12 and a housing, respectively. A bleeder hole 8g which penetrates communicates with the engaging grooves 8e and circumferential grooves 8f of the cylinder hole 8 is drilled in a caliper body 2. Communication holes 16h which allow communication between the inside and outside of the housing 16 is formed at a bottom side of the cylinder hole 8 rather than the engaging rib 16f of the housing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disk brake apparatus and, specifically, to a disk brake apparatus which includes a piston for pushing a friction pad in accordance with a hydraulic pressure, an adjuster for automatically adjusting a clearance between the friction pad and a disk rotor, and a parking brake for pushing the piston through the adjuster by a ball ramp type thrust conversion mechanism.
2. Description of Related Art
As disk brake apparatuses for use in a four-wheel drive car, there are known a disk brake apparatus with a parking brake which includes a hydraulic pressure type operation mechanism using a brake pedal and a mechanical type operation mechanism pulled and operated by a hand lever or a foot pedal.
In this disk brake apparatus with a parking brake, generally, a piston constituting a hydraulic pressure type operation mechanism is disposed on a leading end opening side of a cylinder hole formed in a caliper body, an adjuster which includes an adjust nut and an adjust bolt is disposed on the rear surface side of this piston and a thrust conversion mechanism which constitutes a mechanical type operation mechanism is disposed on the bottom side of the cylinder hole.
As the thrust conversion mechanism, conventionally, there is widely used a ball ramp type thrust conversion mechanism. This conventional ball ramp type thrust conversion mechanism is structured in the following manner.
That is, a fixed side cam plate and a drive side cam plate, which respectively include a ramp groove for accommodating a cam bearing therein, are disposed opposed to each other; the drive side cam plate is rotated by the operation of the parking brake. Due to this rotation, by a cam action generated between the ramp groove and cam bearing, thrust force which can move a piston toward a disk rotor is generated and by this thrust force, the piston is moved in the direction of the disk rotor through the adjuster to press the friction pad against the disk rotor, thereby obtaining a braking force.
There is also known a disk brake apparatus in which a substantially cylindrical housing which accommodates the fixed side cam plate, drive side cam plate, a thrust transmission plate and a cam spring for energizing the thrust transmission plate in the direction of the drive side cam plate, and which is disposed on a bottom side of the cylinder hole, thereby enhancing the efficiency of the operation to assembly the disk brake apparatus (for example, see Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication JP-A-2000-320588).
However, in the above-mentioned disk brake apparatus, it takes much time and troublesome to discharge air mixed in hydraulic fluid charged into the cylinder hole and, especially, in the housing, it is difficult to discharge the air of the hydraulic fluid therefrom, resulting in the poor efficiency of the operation of the disk brake apparatus.


A process for producing a fire resistant polycarbonate composition comprises preparing an aqueous solution of a flame retardant salt; and compounding the aqueous solution of the flame retardant salt with a polycarbonate composition to form the fire resistant polycarbonate composition. The process reduces the level of haze, color and inclusions compared to fire resistant polycarbonate compositions compounded with the same flame retardant salt in solid form.

This disclosure relates to methods for producing transparent, fire resistant polycarbonate compositions and more particularly, to methods for producing transparent, fire resistant polycarbonate compositions comprising flame retardant salts.
Plastics, and in particular aromatic polycarbonates, are increasingly being used to replace metals in a wide variety of applications, from car exteriors to aircraft interiors. The use of plastics instead of metal decreases weight, improves sound dampening, and makes assembly of the device easier. Unfortunately, polycarbonates are inherently flammable, and thus require the addition of flame retardants. A variety of different flame retardant materials have been used, some of which are set forth in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,028,297; 4,110,299; 4,130,530; 4,303,575; 4,335,038; 4,552,911; 4,916,194; 5,218,027; and 5,508,323. The challenge is to identify economical, environmentally friendly flame retardant materials that provide the requisite flame resistance, but without compromising desirable polycarbonate properties such as strength, color, and clarity.
There are three general processes known for the commercial manufacture of aromatic polycarbonates, which are illustrated in FIG. 1. The conventional interfacial process, as shown in FIG. 1A, and the phosgene-based melt process, as shown in FIG. 1B, start with the reaction of chlorine with carbon monoxide to produce phosgene. The third general process, a "no phosgene" melt process as shown in FIG. 1C, was developed to eliminate the use of phosgene in the process flow. Of these general methods, the "no phosgene" melt process shown in FIG. 1C is preferred since it prepares polycarbonates less expensively than the interfacial process and avoids the use of highly toxic phosgene.
Both types of melt processes (FIGS. 1B, and 1C) make use of a diarylcarbonate, such as diphenylcarbonate (DPC) as an intermediate, which is polymerized with a dihydric phenol such as bisphenol A (BPA) in the presence of an alkaline catalyst to form a polycarbonate in accordance with the general reaction scheme shown in FIG. 2. This polycarbonate may be extruded or otherwise processed, and may be combined with additives such as flame retardants, dyes, blowing agents, light stabilizers, fillers, reinforcing agents, heat stabilizers, antioxidants, plasticizers, antistatic agents, mold releasing agents, an additional resin, or combinations comprising at least one of the foregoing additives.
In the production of polycarbonates, several reactors are typically used in sequence to prepare the final product. The final reactors in this sequence subject the reaction mixture to both high temperature and high vacuum. This treatment assists in the removal of byproduct phenol, unreacted monomer and short oligomers, improving the overall quality of the final product. For products requiring flame resistance, flame retardant is typically added after the final target specifications of the polycarbonate composition have been met (e.g., molecular weight, % branching, etc.). The polycarbonate composition can then be palletized or may be fed as a polymer melt to a compounder where the additives are combined with the polycarbonate composition and extruded or injection molded into the desired product, e.g., sheet. There are many different types of flame retardants including the use of flame retardant inorganic salts. The flame retardant salts are typically added in solid form as milled or unmilled powders.
It is well known that compounding flame resistant salts in solid form with the polycarbonate composition can produce surface imperfections (i.e., inclusions) in the extruded product as well as impart haze. Some flame retardant salts have a melting temperature greater than the compounding and processing temperatures employed that can directly contribute to the severity and amount of inclusions. For example, potassium diphenylsulfon-3-sulfonate is a flame retardant salt as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,735,978, having a melting temperature greater than about 350° C. During the compounding and processing of the polycarbonate composition, the temperatures are typically maintained less than about 300° C., temperatures considerably less than the melting temperature of KSS. As a result, KSS functions similar to a filler material when added to the polycarbonate extrudate in the reactors. That is, particles of KSS are distributed throughout the polycarbonate composition in order to impart the desired flame resistance to the extruded product. As one would expect, the size of the flame retardant salt particles can affect the amount of haze produced in the extruded product. Milling the flame retardant salt into smaller particles can help reduce the level of haze. However, for applications requiring optical quality, the reduction in haze may not be sufficient for the desired application (to justify the expense of milling). Moreover, milling does not reduce the level of imperfections produced in the fire resistant polycarbonate by any significant amount.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for methods of producing polycarbonates that are not only highly flame resistant, but also transparent and do not produce surface imperfections.

Process for preparing a fire resistant polycarbonate composition


A foldable candle tool is presented that includes a pair of handles with each handle having an open channel. A wick cutter having a pair of jaws pivotally connected about a pivot pin and includes a pair of legs with each leg being pivotally connected to one end of one handle such that the handles are effectively coupled together by the wick cutter. Further, the handles are moveable between a closed position and an open position. In the closed position, the open channels of each handle face each other and the wick cutter is at least partially housed within the channels. A plurality of additional candle tools are moveably mounted to the handles with each additional candle tool being moveable from a stored position within one channel to a position where the candle tool projects outwardly from the channel.

Candles are widely used by millions of people all over the world. While candles come in many sizes, shapes, and types, many of the larger and more expensive candles require ongoing maintenance. Further, the same candles must be lit and extinguished from time to time. Therefore, there has been and continues to be a need for a multipurpose candle tool that will provide a wide variety of candle maintenance functions and which can be used to light and extinguish the wick of the candle.


An optical scanning system includes a light source to generate a light beam. An oscillatory microelectromechanical system including a mirror deflects the light beam in a predetermined manner. The light source and microelectromechanical system are formed in a silicon substrate. Rotational shafts in the microelectromechanical system facilitate oscillatory movement of the mirror.

This invention was made with Government support under Grant (Contract) No. DABT-63-95-C-0055 awarded by the Advanced Research Project Agency and Grant (Contract) No. ECS-9419112 awarded by the National Science Foundation. The Government has certain rights to this invention.
Optical scanners are used for scientific and industrial applications ranging from laser imaging and displays to laser surgery tools and home-office appliances, such as facsimile machines and printers. Barcode optical scanners are used for automatic object-identification. Most optical scanners use a polygon mirror. Unfortunately, a polygon mirror requires precision machining for the polygon surfaces to insure flatness and repeatability when the laser beam sweeps across the reflecting facets. In addition, a polygon mirror is relatively bulky. A polygon mirror can be considered a macroscopic device. As used herein, a macroscopic device is a device with a third dimension greater than approximately several milli-meters, where the third dimension refers to the height above a horizontal substrate. A microscopic device is a device with a third dimension less than approximately several milli-meters.
Silicon-surface-micromachining technology has been used to fabricate microscopic devices. In particular, optical microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) have been implemented with movable-micromirrors. FIG. 1 illustrates an optical MEMS 20 in accordance with the prior art. The optical MEMS 20 includes a MEMS mirror assembly 22, which optically links a laser 24 to an optical fiber 26. A lens assembly 28 is positioned between the laser 24 and the MEMS mirror assembly 22.
FIG. 2 is a more detailed illustration of a MEMS mirror assembly 22 that may be used with the apparatus of FIG. 1. The MEMS mirror assembly 22 includes a mirror 30 positioned on a mirror slider 32 through the use of hinges 34. Hinges 34 are also used to couple the top of the mirror 30 to the top of a support 36. The bottom of the support 36 is connected to a support slider 38 through the use of hinges 34.
The support slider 38 includes support slider comb fingers 40, which are in an inter-digit arrangement with stator comb fingers 42. The combination of the support slider comb fingers 40 and the stator comb fingers 42 form a comb drive 43. As known in the art, a comb drive uses capacitive charge between support slider comb fingers 40 and stator comb fingers 42 to alternately push the support slider 38 away from the stator comb fingers 42 or pull the support slider 38 toward the stator comb fingers 42. In this way, the mirror 30 can be fabricated within the horizontal plane of a semiconductor and then be lifted into a vertical configuration (third dimension) with respect to the semiconductor, as shown in FIG. 2. A comb drive may also be used in relation to the mirror slider 32 to facilitate this process.
FIG. 3 illustrates a pin-and-staple hinge 34, which includes a staple portion 35 and a pin portion 37. The pin portion 37 forms a segment of mirror 30. The figure illustrates how the mirror 30 is allowed to pivot about the hinge 34, thereby allowing the mirror 30 to be lifted from a horizontal plane of a semiconductor surface and into a vertical plane with respect to the semiconductor surface.
MEMS mirror assemblies of the prior art have been limited to relatively slow mirror movement. That is, the comb drives have been used to slightly modify an initial mirror position. Thus, MEMS mirror assemblies of the prior art have not been used for scanning. In other words, prior art MEMS mirror assemblies have not been used to rapidly traverse a range of positions in a coordinate axis. In the absence of this capability, the utility of MEMS in optical systems is limited. Accordingly, it would be highly desirable to provide a MEMS suitable for optical scanning operations. Such a device could thereby operate as a building block in a variety of opto-electrical equipment.

Apparatus and method for optical scanning with an oscillatory microelectromechanical system

The Regents Of The University Of California


Provided is a cast-coated pressure-sensitive adhesive sheet which hardly causes a curling trouble after ink jet recording which comprises a cast-coated recording paper, a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer and a release coated paper laminated via the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer on the side opposite to the recording layer, with the adhesive sheet having a difference between the two characteristic values (A) and (B) within the range of 0.00 to 0.10%, expressed in absolute value, wherein the characteristic value (A) is an irreversible shrinkage factor of the cast-coated recording paper in the CD direction determined under an environment that the relative humidity thereof is raised to 90% from 35% and then lowered to 35% and the characteristic value (B) is a shrinking rate of the release coated paper in the CD direction determined under a condition that the relaltive humidity of the environment is changed from 75% to 60% in the course of lowering the relative humidity from 90% to 35%.

In an ink jet recording method, recording is carried out by jetting fine drops of ink using a variety of mechanisms so as to adhere to a recording paper, and thereby forming ink dots on the recording paper. Therefore, the recording method of ink jet type has advantages in that it is noiseless, can provide full-color prints with ease and enables high-speed printing, compared with the recording method of dot impact type. However, it also has a weak point that printed ink is hard to dry since the ink used for ink jet recording is usually water base ink.
Thus, the paper used in the ink jet recording method is required to have properties of (1) ensuring high-speed drying of ink, (2) providing prints of high optical density, (3) being free from overflowing and feathering of ink, (4) not causing undulation by the absorption of ink, and so on.
It has already been proposed to produce an ink jet recording paper by adopting a cast coating method, thereby answering the above-mentioned requirements to provide printed images of high quality. By using a cast-coated paper as ink jet recording paper, the rippling trouble which has been caused in paper due to expansion just after printing, or the so-called cockling, can be lessened (Japanese Tokkai Sho 62-95285, wherein the term "Tokkai" as used herein means an "unexamined published patent application").
As for the cast coating method, the following three types of processes have so far been known:
(1) a direct process in which the applied coating color in a wet condition is pressed against the hot drum having a mirror-ground surface and undergoes a drying operation, thereby copying the specular plane from the drum surface; PA1 (2) a re-wetting process in which, after the coating color applied in a layer is once dried, a wetting solution is applied to the dried layer to make the layer surface plastic and return it to the wet state, and then the resultant layer is pressed against the hot drum having a mirror-ground surface and undergoes a drying operation, thereby copying the specular plane from the drum surface; and PA1 (3) a coagulation process in which, immediately after a coating color is applied in a layer, the layer is coagulated with a coagulating solution and then pressed against the hot drum having a mirror-ground surface and undergoes a drying operation, thereby copying the specular plane from the drum surface.
That is, in every process of producing a highly glossy cast-coated paper, the copying of a specular plane is effected by pressing the coating color layer against the hot drum having a mirror-ground surface while it is in a wet state and drying it in the pressed condition. Therein, the paper in a wet state is dried as it is stretched on the drum, namely it undergoes tension drying under a bound condition. Therefore, the paper obtained can have excellent dimensional stability.
However, such a cast-coated paper for ink jet recording is attended with a defect of causing curling and rippling troubles during the standing after printing because the paper suffers shrinkage due to difference in the amount of ink applied and recorded area.
In a case where such a cast-coated paper for ink jet recording is used as a substrate to constitute the front part of a pressure-sensitive adhesive sheet, the cast-coated paper part of the pressure-sensitive adhesive sheet shrinks accordingly as the ink printed thereon is dried by leaving the sheet in air, while the release coated paper part of the pressure-sensitive adhesive sheet scarcely causes any dimensional change because the ink used in ink jet recording, in general, cannot permeate into the release coated paper. Therefore, when the irreversible shrinkage takes place to liberate the distortion from the inside of the cast-coated paper, the printed face of the paper generally curls inward with the curling axis coincident with the MD direction (The term "MD direction" as used herein stands for the paper traveling direction in a paper machine, usually called machine direction). As a result, the cast-coated pressure-sensitive adhesive sheet printed thereon by ink jet recording curls so as to direct the cast-coated paper part inward.
Such a curling trouble as described above is serious in the case of using a high-speed ink jet printer which is equipped with a heating roller or infrared heater for rapid drying of the printed ink. In particular, when the system of heating the recorded face from the back side is adopted in the ink jet printer used, the expansibility of a release coated paper forms an important factor, too; as a result, the cast-coated pressure-sensitive adhesive sheet tends to curl with the curling axis coincident with the MD direction, thereby causing traveling troubles. Such a curling trouble, however, cannot be obviated even by a mechanical method using, e.g., a decurler which is known to be effective for the removal of the curling in the CD direction (The term "CD direction" used herein stands for the direction crossing with the machine direction at right angles, usually called cross machine direction). In other words, no effective means to prevent the curling in the MD direction has been found yet (The term "MD direction" stands for the machine direction).

Cast-coated pressure-sensitive adhesive sheet for ink jet recording


An electrical system as described herein is suitable for use in an electric or hybrid vehicle. The electrical system includes electrical devices, such as power transistors, coupled to an electrically and thermally conductive bus bar. The respective nodes of the electrical devices are coupled to the bus bar such that the bus bar carries a combined signal generated by the electrical devices. The bus bar is also thermally coupled to a conduction heat transfer system, such as a liquid cooled cold plate. Thus, the bus bar functions as both an electrical conduit and a conduction-based heat sink for the electrical system.

Electrical power devices, such as high power transistors, are utilized in many systems for many practical applications. For example, such devices may be found in a DC-to-DC converter for electric or hybrid vehicles. In this context, a DC-to-DC converter can be used to convert a relatively high DC battery voltage (e.g., 42 or 300 volts) into a relatively low DC voltage (e.g., 12 volts). In this example application and other practical applications, a number of power devices may be connected in parallel to generate a combined output signal. In operation, the power devices can generate a large amount of heat.
A practical high power device typically includes a thermal plate or case that is designed to manage the heat generated by the device. Finned heat sinks and/or fans are often utilized to cool high power devices via thermal convection techniques. The use of heat sinks and fans can be undesirable in some applications, particularly those that have physical size and/or cost restraints.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have an electrical system for high power devices that is compact in size, has less parts than conventional systems, provides direct cooling of the high power devices, and is of lower cost than conventional systems. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.

Integrated thermal and electrical connection system for power devices


A power conversion method comprising detecting a three-phase source voltage of the three-phase AC power supply every control sampling cycle. The three-phase source voltage is allocated to a maximum voltage, an intermediate voltage and a minimum voltage as seen from a virtual neutral point voltage. A one-phase fixing switching mode is detected for fixing one of output phases into a predetermined state without switching and switching the other phases during a PWM cycle or a full phase switching mode for switching all of the phases during the PWM cycle based on an output voltage command and the three-phase source voltage. ON/OFF pattern of a bidirectional switch is determined from the switching mode thus selected, the output voltage command and the three-phase source voltage. The bidirectional switch is turned ON/OFF based on the ON/OFF pattern.

A matrix converter can connect each phase of an AC power supply to output phase through a circuit structure of a bidirectional switch having a self-extinction capability and can directly convert an AC power into any voltage and frequency. In order to forcibly switch a current flowing to the switch, however, it is necessary to provide a unique switching sequence. The switching sequence will be hereinafter referred to as a commutating sequence. A switching sequence of a PWM cycloconverter has been disclosed in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2.
Examples of a method of creating a commutating sequence include a method of creating a commutating sequence based on an interswitch voltage polarity signal obtained by using a circuit for deciding a polarity of voltage of a switching device and a method of creating a commutating sequence based on an output current direction signal obtained by an output current direction detection circuit for deciding a direction of an output current flowing from a switching device (for example, Patent Document 3 and Patent Document 4). The communicating sequence which based on a PWM signal which is output is often created in a logic circuit and it is necessary to take a certain time in consideration of a switching time of the switching device. For this reason, an error is made between a voltage command value and an output voltage which is actually output. The error is generated depending on a state of a voltage of a power supply, and a voltage polarity and a voltage in the switching device which act as an information source of the communicating sequence. When a current flows to the bidirectional switch, furthermore, a voltage drop is caused in respect of a characteristic of a semiconductor device so that an error of the output voltage is made. Patent Document 5 compensating the problem by previously correcting the error into a command and Patent Document 6 eliminates the problem by using such a communicating sequence as not to make an error. In the matrix converter, generally, a PWM pulse having one-phase switching stopped is set to reduce a switching loss (Non-Patent Document 1, FIG. 2 and Non-Patent Document 2, FIG. 8). Moreover, Non-Patent Document 3 has proposed a matrix converter using a direct torque control.    Patent Document 1: JP-A-11-341807    Patent Document 2: JP-A-2000-139076    Patent Document 3: JP-A-2000-2724    Patent Document 4: JP-A-2001-165966    Patent Document 5: JP-A-2003-309975 (FIGS. 6 and 7)    Patent Document 6: EP1306964 (FIG. 5)    Non-Patent Document 1: "Trend of Direct AC/AC Converters and Related Technologies—Matrix Converter (PWM Controlled Cycloconverters)", Japan Industry Application Society Conference 1-S3-2 (2004)    Non-Patent Document 2: "Trend of Direct AC/AC Converters and Related Technologies—Direct AC-AC Converters with DC Link", Japan Industry Application Society Conference 1-S3-3 (2004)    Non-Patent Document 3: Domenico Casadei et al.: "The Use of Matrix Converters in Direct Torque Control of Induction Machines", IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 48, NO. 6, DECEMBER 2001

Apparatus for three phase PWM cycloconverter


Hard Disk Drive (HDD) including a humidity sensor. Humidity sensor communicating with embedded circuit to provide humidity reading to alter flying height control asserted to control vertical positioning of slider above disk surface. Method operating HDD using humidity sensor and apparatus implementing method. Methods of manufacturing embedded circuit and HDD, and their products.

Contemporary hard disk drives include a head stack assembly pivoting through an actuator pivot to position one or more read-write heads, embedded in sliders, each over a disk surface. The data stored on the disk surface is typically arranged in concentric tracks. To access the data of a track, a servo controller first positions the read-write head by electrically stimulating the voice coil motor, which couples through the voice coil and an actuator arm to move a head gimbal assembly in lateral positioning the slider close to the track. Once the read-write head is close to the track, the servo controller typically enters an operational mode known as track following. It is during track following mode that the read-write head is used to access the data stored of the track. Micro-actuators provide a second actuation stage for lateral positioning the read-write head during track following mode. They often use an electrostatic effect and/or a piezoelectric effect to rapidly make fine position changes. They have doubled the bandwidth of servo controllers and are believed essential for high capacity hard disk drives from hereon. Recently, vertical micro-actuators have begun to be used to create what is sometimes referred to as flying height on demand.
What is perpetually needed are mechanisms and methods supporting increased reliability in accessing the tracks on the rotating disk surface of a hard disk drive. Toward that end, it has been understood for some time that the ambient air temperature affects the operations of a hard disk drive. To the inventors' knowledge, no one has previously recognized the significance of humidity on these operations. This invention begins by recognizing a problem where no one previously knew one existed, and then solving that problem.

Method and apparatus for adaptation to humidity in a hard disk drive


A nail gun with a rapidly attachable and detachable magazine assembly includes a nail gun, a magazine assembly and a quick joining mechanism. A handle portion of the nail gun has a quick joining pillar adapted to engage with the quick joining mechanism to attach the magazine assembly to the nail gun. By simply snap-fitting the quick joining pillar into a fixing element of the quick joining mechanism, the quick joining mechanism can naturally fix the quick joining pillar into the fixing element, and thus, the magazine assembly can be attached to the nail gun by simply a single action. Moreover, by pulling a pull rod of the quick joining mechanism and withdrawing the quick joining pillar from within the fixing element, the magazine assembly can be attached from the nail gun by also simply a single action.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to nail guns, and more particularly, to a nail gun with a rapidly attachable and detachable magazine assembly, which is provided with a quick joining mechanism so that a user can rapidly assemble the magazine assembly to or detach the magazine assembly from the nail gun simply by a single action.
2. Description of Related Art
As a kind of tool indispensable to decoration workers, a nail gun has a magazine for accommodating a strip of nails. Conventionally, the magazine is mostly bolted to a handle portion of the nail gun, and a top portion of the magazine engages with a nosepiece of the nail gun to guide nails from the strip of nails into the nosepiece one by one so as to be further driven through the nosepiece. A conventional nail gun device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,431,429 is just representative of conventional nail gun devices. Referring to FIGS. 1A and 1B together, side views of a conventional nail gun device are illustrated therein. The conventional nail gun device 1b includes a nail gun 11b, a nosepiece 13b and a magazine 14b. A handle portion 12b of the nail gun 1b is provided thereon with a first joining mechanism 121b, which has a first joining rod 122b and a first joining hole 123b. The nosepiece 13b is provided with a second joining rod 131b thereon. The magazine 14b has a second joining mechanism 141b and a joining piece 142b. The second joining mechanism 141b is formed by a larger pressing plate 143b and a smaller pressing plate 144b in combination, and is pivoted to the magazine 14b so that the larger pressing plate 143b and the smaller pressing plate 144b can pivot upwards and downwards. Additionally, the magazine 14b further has, at a top portion thereof, a second joining hole 145b that can mate with the second joining rod 131b.
During use of the conventional nail gun device 1b, assembling the magazine 14b to and detaching the magazine 14b from the nail gun 11b are very troublesome. Specifically, when it is desired to assemble the nail gun 11b and the magazine 14b together, one must insert the second joining rod 131b into the second joining hole 145b at first, snap-fit the joining piece 142b into the first joining hole 123b, and then pull the larger pressing plate 143b downwards so that the larger pressing plate 143b and the first joining rod 122b are snap-fitted with each other to complete the assembling process. On the other hand, when it is desired to detach the magazine 14b from the nail gun 11b, one must press the smaller pressing plate 144b at first, then pull the larger pressing plate 143b to release it from being snap-fitted with the first joining rod 122b, and finally pull the magazine 14b downwards with a force so that the joining piece 142b is pulled out of the first joining hole 123b and the second joining rod 131b is pulled out of the second joining hole 145b.
Additionally, a device for rapid magazine detachment on a nail gun is disclosed in Taiwan Patent Application No. 096115283, an exploded view of which is illustrated in FIG. 2. The device for rapid magazine detachment on a nail gun is a combination of a nail gun 11′ and a magazine 4′. The nail gun 11′ has a handle portion 12′, a nose piece 15′ and a trigger 14′. The handle portion 12′ is provided thereon with a pivot block 13′, to which a rod 2′ is pivoted. The rod 2′ is formed with a tapered portion 21′ at an end thereof, and an elastic element (not shown) is inserted over the rod 2′ to drive the tapered portion 21′ to abut against the pivot block 13′.
Furthermore, in the device for rapid magazine detachment on a nail gun, the magazine 4′ is provided thereon with an engaging block 5′, which has an end groove 51′ and an embedding groove 52′ in communication with each other. The tapered portion 21′ of the rod 2′ is adapted to be inserted into the end groove 51′ and embedded into the bottom of the embedding groove 52′. A fastener 6′, which has an outer stopper piece 61′ and an inner stopper piece 62′, is pivoted between the engaging block 5′ and the magazine 4′. By swinging the fastener 6′ into the bottom of the embedding groove 52′, the tapered portion 21′ of the rod 2′ can be clamped by the outer stopper piece 61′ and the inner stopper piece 62′ cooperatively, with the outer stopper piece 61′ being used to block between the embedding groove 52′ and the end groove 51′. Thus, the tapered portion 21′ is restricted within the embedding groove 52′, thereby engaging the magazine 4′ with the nail gun 1′. Additionally, when it is desired to detach the magazine 4′ from the nail gun 11′, one must swing the fastener 6′ out of the bottom of the embedding groove 52′ to detach the magazine 4′. Once the magazine 4′ is detached, abnormal conditions of the nail gun 11′ such as sticking of nails can be cleared.
Additionally, other relevant nail gun products have also been provided in the market, for example, a combined nail gun as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,609,646. Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4 together, a combined nail gun as well as a top view of a snap-fit element and a snap-fit mount thereof are illustrated therein respectively. The combined nail gun, which is a conventional product currently available in the market, is a combination of a nail gun 1a and a magazine 4a. The nail gun 1a has a handle portion 12a, a nose piece 15a and a trigger 14a. The handle portion 12a is provided thereon with a snap-fit mount 13a, which has a snap-fit rod 131a and a pull lever 132a. The magazine 4a is provided thereon with a snap-fit element 5a, which has an inserting hole 51a and a slot hole 52a. A user simply needs to insert the snap-fit rod 131a into the inserting hole 51a, push it into the slot hole 52a and then press the pull lever 132a downwards in order to engage the magazine 4a with the nail gun 1a. On the other hand, when it is desired to detach the magazine 4a from the nail gun 1a, the user simply needs to pull the pull lever 132a upwards and then move the snap-fit rod 131a out of the slot hole 52a and the inserting hole 51a sequentially, thereby detaching the magazine 4a.
The abovementioned nail guns all have the advantage of allowing the magazines to be attached to and detached from the nail guns without need of a tool. However, for the conventional nail gun device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,431,429, assembling the magazine 14b to and detaching the magazine 14b from the nail gun 11b represents a too complex procedure. For the device for rapid magazine detachment on a nail gun disclosed in Taiwan Patent Application No. 096115283, when the user swings the fastener 6′ to detach the magazine 4′, it is possible that the fastener 6′ may be excessively stuck to the bottom of the embedding groove 52′ so that the user must apply an extremely large force in order to swing the fastener 6′ out, which is a prominent defect in design; moreover, swinging the fastener 6′ back and forth frequently would cause abrasion of the fastener 6′ and the engaging block 5′ and, consequently, loose engagement of the fastener 6′, thereby causing insecure engagement of the magazine 4′ with the nail gun 11′. Finally, for the combined nail gun disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,609,646, it accomplishes the purpose by snap-fitting the snap-fit rod 131a into the snap-fit element 5a and then pressing the pull lever 132a downwards to fix the snap-fit rod 131a, which design does not need a large force in attachment and detachment of the magazine 4a; however, as a plastic piece, the pull lever 132a tends to lose the ability of fixing the snap-fit rod 131a due to abrasion after repeated attachment and detachment of the magazine 4a, in which case the pull lever 132a must be replaced in order to secure the engagement of the magazine 4a with the nail gun 1a.
Accordingly, in view of the drawbacks and shortcomings of the aforesaid conventional nail guns, the inventor of the present application has made great efforts to make inventive research thereon and eventually provided a nail gun with a rapidly attachable and detachable magazine assembly according to the present invention.

Nail gun with rapidly attachable and detachable magazine assembly


Various arrangements for generating thumbnail images for video content as the video content is being received are presented. A television receiver may first receive video content. A thumbnail generation process may be woken from a sleep state based on a predefined time period elapsing. The received video content may be monitored for a next-received I-frame. A thumbnail image may be created from the I-frame and may be mapped to a timestamp. The thumbnail generation process may then be caused to enter the sleep state for the predefined time period.

Thumbnail images can be a useful visual reference to a user navigating through video content. By viewing thumbnail images, a user may be able to determine if the user needs to navigate forward, back, or is at a desired location within the video content. Generation of thumbnail images can be a processing-intensive task, which could negatively affect other tasks that require processing. If a user may view video content soon after it is received, it may be desirable to have thumbnail images created and ready as soon as possible for use in navigation to allow the user to navigate efficiently and effectively through the video content.


A completely planar, translucent, hand held protective shield to be held in front of one's face to eliminate saliva and antigen transmission from person to person when in close contact. when social distancing. The handle is copper clad to kill antigens including viruses. The material of construction is plexiglass so it is dishwasher safe. Anti-glare, anti-fogging and anti reflective surface treatments may be applied to one or both of the planar faces of the body. Optional visual alignment marks may also be incorporated on the face/s of the shield.

The spread of germs, viruses and other infectious antigens has been shown to occur through several routes, the most prevalent and easiest to protect against, is person-to-person, close proximity airborne transmission. This can be minimized through the use of proper masks, or with a barrier between the people in close proximity.
Barriers allow people to speak more clearly, eat, drink and not worry about transmission through expelled and exhaled saliva droplets. It is a much friendlier and comfortable way to protect oneself. These barriers can be seen in curved face shields mountable to hats or with their own spaced head mounts. Unfortunately, these type of shields reflect speech back to the wearer's own ears, fog up momentarily impairing vision and their weight over extended periods of time, can lead to neck discomfort.
Another type of barrier is the translucent Plexiglas sheets erected in front of work stations for those experiencing a constant parade of people by them, such as cashiers at a grocery store. The problem these pose, is that they are fixed and offer no protection to the cashier when they touch money or goods or have to move from behind the barrier.
Lastly, it has been proven that contact transmission of antigens for infectious diseases, viruses and infections occurs most commonly by people touching their faces especially noses, eyes and lips. Neither masks or shields can help protect against this type of transmission.
Henceforth, a personal barrier that did not impair vision, hurt the neck, direct sound back to the user, allow the user to eat and drink and talk clearly, as well as kill any antigen that the user picked up on their hands, would fulfill a long felt need in the respiratory disease prevention industry. This new invention utilizes and combines known and new technologies in a unique and novel configuration to overcome the aforementioned problems and accomplish this.


A method for updating web pages on a web server without republishing the web pages involves providing on a production database server a live version of one or more business data tables containing information used to populate web pages on a production web server and storing in a quality assurance database server a quality assurance version of the business data tables that can be used to populate pages on a quality assurance web server. A maker at a business workstation can access the quality assurance database server from time to time and enter a change to data on the quality assurance version of the business data tables. Thereafter a checker at a business workstation accesses the quality assurance database server to review and approve or reject the changes to the data on the quality assurance version of the business data tables, and if the checker approves the changes, the changes to the data on the quality assurance version of the business data tables are replicated from the quality assurance database server to the live version of the business data tables on the production database server.

Typically, web publications are accomplished by taking HTML files and their graphics, etc. and moving them from a development Web server to quality assurance Web server to a production Web server. That is also the usual way in which most websites are updated. Multiple production web servers are generally employed in a web server environment for continuity of business and high availability. For example, a particular entity may employ ten production web servers in two different sites, i.e., five web servers in each of two sites. In such an environment, the concept of moving files around and publishing projects can become problematic, for example, if network communications are interrupted, if a particular machine fails, or if problems arise in replicating data from one machine to another machine.
Those types of problems are reasonably solvable as long as the volume of changes being performed is relatively low, such as updating the website ten times a day. However, such problems are quite difficult to solve if the website must be updated, for example, many times a day, and certain types of information published on a website, such as currency exchange rates and interest rates, change at least daily and may change several times in the same day. Thus, there is a present need for a method and system for updating web pages on a website frequently without moving files into the web server.

Methods and systems for updating web pages via a web data instant update utility


A method and/or system determines a benchmark premium for evaluating an insurance policy for a company. In alternative embodiments, a method and/or system evaluates an insurance policy using a benchmark premium. In one exemplary embodiment, a class action lawsuit frequency distribution, a class action lawsuit severity distribution and/or a non-class action lawsuit loss distribution are determined. A benchmark premium for the company is determined responsive to the class action lawsuit frequency distribution, the class action lawsuit severity distribution and/or the non-class action lawsuit loss distribution.

In order for insurance companies to be profitable, they need to be able to accurately calculate appropriate premiums for their insurance policies. Insurers offering directors and officers insurance coverage typically face additional challenges in that the marketplace tends to dictate the premium at which the coverage will be bought and sold. Because the market drives the premium, the insurer is forced to determine whether or not the market premium fits into their rate plan, loss experience, expense and profit requirements rather than the more typical scenario of the insurer driving the premium based on these components.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Benchmark premium determination system and method


The present invention provides an angular rate gyro in which a bell-shaped vibrator having nonuniform thickness, axially symmetric and multi curved surface combined structural features is used as a sensitive element. The angular rate gyro is composed of the bell-shaped vibrator, a vibrator fixing shaft, a vibrator base, an airtight hood, a housing and a circuit system. The bell-shaped vibrator includes a bell shoulder having a hemispheric shell structure, a bell waist having a cylindrical shell structure and a bell lip having a hyperboloidal shell structure. The bell-shaped vibrator, the base and a central shaft are mechanically and fixedly connected together to be formed into an integral core having sensitive gyratory effect. A circuit system is used to control vibration forms of the bell-shaped vibrator, perform signal processing and solve the applied angular rate.

As an inertial device with which a sensitive carrier makes angular movement, a gyro is a key device used for inertial navigation or guidance. A vibratory gyro based on the Coriolis force theory has all of the necessary merits, becomes more and more important in the field of inertial technology, and has been widely used as a new-generation inertial instrument. Promoted by technology development and market demand, various vibratory gyros have arisen successively. Currently, the most widely used vibratory gyros may be divided in terms of structure into a shell vibratory gyro, a ring vibratory gyro, a disk vibratory gyro and a beam vibratory gyro.
These gyros detect an applied angular rate by precession of vibration forms of a sensitive standing wave using the Coriolis effect. Differences in structure cause their advantages and disadvantages to be obvious. Specifically, as for the ring vibratory gyro, since the design for its supporting structure is complicated and an axial direction of a vibratory standing wave is hard to control so that an error in a direction perpendicular to the axial direction is readily introduced, such structured gyro is low in accuracy and thus is widely used as a MEMS gyro; balance between the supporting structure and a vibrating ring is ensured by virtue of micro mechanical machining, but the ring vibratory gyro has a poor capability to resist against impact. As for the disk vibratory gyro, since its capability to resist against impact is poor and planarity of a disk is hard to guarantee, development thereof encounters a bottleneck and has been turned to a micro mechanical stage in which it approaches the ring vibratory gyro by disk etching. As for the beam vibratory gyro, it mainly has a tuning fork type and a vibrating beam type, is poor in its capability to resist against impact and is low in accuracy, and thus is also widely used as a MEMS gyro. As for the shell vibratory gyro, it is presently the most accurate vibratory gyro, is typically in the forms of a hemispheric resonant gyro and a cylindrical vibratory gyro, and is widely used in respective fields. However, the existing gyros of this kind are poor in their capability to resist against impact, expensive in cost, and complicated to manufacture, thus they cannot meet the requirements for application in the field of high-impact and mid or low-precision angular rate measurement. Though the cylindrical vibratory gyro employs a method of piezoelectric excitation and piezoelectric detection, it has a low quality factor and a poor impact resistant capability due to restrictions caused by its own structure.
Chinese patent granted as No. ZL201010215745.1 and entitled "BELL-SHAPED VIBRATOR TYPE ANGULAR RATE GYRO" provides a bell-shaped vibrator type angular rate gyro which is a vibratory gyro based on the Coriolis force theory. In this patent, a bell-shaped harmonic oscillator made of a molten quartz material is used as a sensitive element, electrostatic excitation and capacitive detection are employed, and excitation electrodes are mounted on an outer cover of a vibrator shell so that difficulty of machining and mounting is increased. This bell-shaped vibrator type angular rate gyro can not bear high overload due to restriction of the material per se, and is higher in cost as compared with the bell-shaped vibrator type angular rate gyro of the present invention. Chinese patent granted as No. ZL201110117526.4 and entitled "METHOD FOR DESIGNING STRUCTURE OF BELL-SHAPED VIBRATOR TYPE ANGULAR RATE GYRO" provides a method for designing the structure of a bell-shaped vibrator type angular rate gyro. In the detailed description of this patent, the vibrator to be used is a bell-shaped vibrator like a round cup which is not subjected to multi curved surface combination and has a low quality factor. All the shell vibratory gyros available at present have a single curved surface structure in which a vibrator wall is a hemispheric or cylindrical structure without a change of curvature. The above bell-shaped vibrator type angular rate gyros adopt the idea of a curved edge to improve the stability of the vibration. However, the concrete curved structure uses natural curves which did not undergo accurate analysis, thereby limiting improvement of the quality factor to a certain extent. With regard to signal processing, the conventional bell-shaped gyros and hemispheric resonant gyros both employ electrostatic excitation and capacitive detection, and vibration forms thereof are subjected to feedback control by using the vibration forms detected by a capacitor, which causes reduction of band width of the entire system.

Bell-shaped vibrator type angular rate gyro

Beijing Information Science & Technology University


A constraint assembly for an aircraft, having a first member; a second member mounted to translate along and rotate about its own axis; and connecting means for connecting the first and second member, to prevent rotation of the second member about the axis with respect to the first member; the connecting means having a retaining arm, which projects outwards from one of the first and second member, and extends at a distance of other than zero from the axis; and an antirotation bracket, which projects from the other of the first and second member, extends at a distance of other than zero from the axis, and defines a through opening engaged in sliding manner by the retaining arm.

In known helicopter rotor assemblies, and particularly rotor assembly 100, cyclic and collective pitch are normally controlled by an oscillating-plate control device 101 substantially comprising two concentric rings 102, 103. The outer ring 102, i.e. the one radially outermost with respect to the central axis A, is supported for rotation, on bearings 104, by the inner ring 103, and is connected angularly to a drive shaft 105 to rotate a number of pitch-change rods 107, each hinged eccentrically to a respective blade (not shown in FIG. 8).
The inner ring 103 is fitted coaxially to a substantially sleeve-like movable member 110, in turn mounted to slide axially on a fixed pylon 108, through which the drive shaft 105 extends in axially-fixed, rotary manner.
Movable member 110 is bounded by a spherical annular outer surface 111, which engages a spherical seat 112 on inner ring 103; and inner ring 103 is normally locked angularly to spherical annular outer surface 111 of movable member 110 to oscillate in any direction with respect to movable member 110 about the centre of outer surface 111.
Control device 101 also comprises a number of hydraulic actuators 113 equally spaced about and extending substantially parallel to drive shaft 105, and which exert thrust on inner ring 103 to jointly move inner ring 103, outer ring 102 and movable member 110 axially with respect to pylon 108, and to oscillate rings 102 and 103 with respect to movable member 110 about axes substantially perpendicular to axis A of drive shaft 105.
Movable member 110 is connected to pylon 108 by a compass-type connecting device 114 for preventing rotation of movable member 110 about axis A with respect to pylon 108.
More specifically, connecting device 114 substantially comprises a bracket 116 projecting outwards from pylon 108; a first connecting rod 117 hinged at one end to bracket 116; and a second connecting rod 119 hinged at one end to movable member 110, and at the other end to the end of connecting rod 117 opposite the end connected to bracket 116.
Connecting device 114, pylon 108, and movable member 110 together define a constraint assembly 140 of helicopter rotor assembly 100.
Other examples of known helicopter compass connecting devices are illustrated in EP-A-1031509 and FR 2,771,708.
Though functionally valid, compass connecting devices such as 114 are fairly complex (comprising three hinged parts), are relatively heavy and expensive, and call for constant lubrication and inspection, by being subjected in use to alternating loads which tend to increase slack between connecting rods 117 and 119.
Moreover, to conform with aircraft design redundancy requirements, the number of such connecting devices must be doubled, thus further compounding the above drawbacks.

Rotor assembly for an aircraft capable of hovering and equipped with an improved constraint assembly


A permanent-magnet synchronous motor includes: an annular stator core; a cylindrical rotor disposed inside the stator core, and having a first end face in an axial direction of the stator core and a second end face in the axial direction; a disk-shaped sensor magnet having a plurality of magnetic poles disposed circumferentially, and having a third end face and a fourth end face; and a magnetic sensor disposed so as to be opposed to the fourth end face in the axial direction, and detecting a rotating position of the sensor magnet. When a first thickness means the axial thickness at the center of each of the magnetic poles and a second thickness means the axial thickness of an inter-magnetic-pole portion between adjacent magnetic poles of the magnetic poles, the second thickness is greater than the first thickness.

A conventional permanent-magnet synchronous motor described in Patent Literature 1 uses a stator formed by integrally combining an annular iron core provided with a coil thereon, a magnetic sensor for detecting a magnetic flux in an axial direction of the iron core, and a substrate on which the magnetic sensor is attached, using a thermosetting resin material. A rotor is inserted inside the stator, while the rotor is composed of an annular main magnetic pole portion that is a main magnet generating rotation, and a position detection magnetic pole portion that is a sensor magnet disposed on an end portion on the substrate side of the main magnetic pole portion in an axial direction of the main magnetic pole portion to inform the magnetic sensor of the position of a magnetic pole of the main magnet.
The main magnet has multiple magnetic poles having alternating polarity in a circumferential direction. The sensor magnet has the same number of magnetic poles as the main magnet, the magnetic poles being subjected to magnetic field orientation. Positions of the multiple magnetic poles of the sensor magnet in a circumferential direction correspond to positions of the multiple magnetic poles of the main magnet in a circumferential direction, respectively. This configuration has allowed the magnetic sensor to determine, through the sensor magnet, the magnetic pole position at the time of rotation of the main magnet.

Permanent-magnet synchronous motor, method for manufacturing permanent-magnet synchronous motor, and air conditioner


To provide a fluorinated compound, which can readily form a thin film having a hydrophobic/hydrophilic pattern, by employing an ultraviolet light having a relatively low energy.

At present, as a process for producing fine devices such as semiconductor devices, integrated circuits, devices for organic EL display, it is common to employ a method wherein a thin film of a functional material is formed on a substrate by e.g. vacuum deposition or sputtering, and the thin film is subjected to patterning by photolithography. The photolithography comprises the following steps (1) to (3):
(1) A thin film of a material for patterning is formed on a substrate. (2) A photoresist film is formed on the thin film, and exposure is carried out through a photomask having a predetermined pattern, followed by development with an alkaline developer to form a photoresist pattern. (3) Etching is carried out by using the photoresist pattern as a mask, and an unnecessary part is removed to obtain a thin film having a predetermined pattern configuration. Since the process steps are complex and they have to be carried out in a clean room, the photolithography has had a problem such that the utilization efficiency of energy, material, etc. is low, or the facility tends to be expensive.
A patterning method requiring low cost and energy, has been proposed. For example, ink-jet printing of a solution of a functional material (Non-Patent Document 1) or micro-contact printing (Non-Patent Document 2) is being utilized.
Recently, a method has been proposed wherein patterns having different surface characteristics are formed on a substrate, and by utilizing such a difference in the surface characteristics, a fine device is produced. For instance, there is a method wherein a hydrophobic region and a hydrophilic region are formed on a substrate, and an aqueous solution of a functional material is applied on the hydrophilic region. In such a method, the aqueous solution will spread over the hydrophilic region, and it will not exude on the hydrophobic region, whereby a thin film pattern of the functional material can be formed.
As a method for forming regions having different surface characteristics, a method wherein on a substrate having a certain characteristic 1, a thin film having another characteristic 2 is formed, and a part of the thin film is removed to expose the surface having the characteristic 1 thereby to form a surface having the characteristic 1 and characteristic 2, or a method wherein on a region where the thin film having the characteristic 2 is removed, a thin film having a characteristic 3 is formed so as to form a surface having the characteristic 2 and characteristic 3 (Patent Document 1), has been proposed.
The thin film having the characteristic 2 can be removed more efficiently when it is thinner. Accordingly, Self-Assembled Monolayer=SAM (hereinafter referred to as SAM) is preferred. As a patterning method for a thin film such as SAM, a method employing a scanning probe microscope, or a method employing a high energy beam such as ultraviolet light or X-ray, an electron beam, a high-power laser or the like, is known. Among them, a patterning method employing ultraviolet light is preferred in manufacturing, since a substrate having a large area can be treated at once by employing a photomask. However, heretofore, a high energy beam having a wavelength of at most 200 nm has been mainly employed as ultraviolet light, and, for example, in a case where a silicon wafer substrate having a silicon oxide film formed thereon is used, there has been such a problem that even Si—O bond of the substrate is decomposed (Patent Document 2).
As a material which is capable of forming a thin film on a substrate and can be degraded efficiently at a wavelength of at least 300 nm, a 4,5-dimethoxy-2-nitrobenzyl ether compound is known, but the water repellency was not sufficient (Non-Patent Document 3).
Patent Document 1: JP-A-2002-19008
Patent Document 2: JP-A-2000-282240
Non-Patent Document 1: A. V. Lemmo, J. T. Fisher, H. M. Geysen, D, J. Rose, Anal. Chem, 1997, 69, 543-551.
Non-Patent Document 2: Y. Xia, G. M. Whitesides, Angrew. Chem. Int. Ed, 1998, 37, 550-575.
Non-Patent Document 3: Ozaki J, Yamaguchi K, Polymer Material Forum (2002), 305-306.

Fluorinated compound, water repellent composition and thin film

Abstract: A thin film having a hydrophobic/hydrophilic pattern is formed by irradiating a thin film formed by employing a fluorinated compound represented by the following formula 1 (in the formula 1, each of R1, R2, R3 and R4 which are independent of one another, is a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom or a monovalent organic group, provided that at least one of them is a monovalent organic group having fluorine atoms, and R5 is a hydrogen atom or a monovalent organic group, R6 is a monovalent organic group, and A is a hetero atom) with ultraviolet light


A vane assembly for use in a gas flow duct. The vane assembly includes multiple vanes arranged circumferentially about the duct. A throat angle of each of the vanes at mid-span is greater than the throat angle at the tips of the vane.

Mechanical systems incorporating airflow ducts, such as jet engines, often include stationary vanes within the airflow ducts. The stationary vanes control airflow through the duct and impart desirable flow characteristics, such as turning, onto the airflow. Known stationary (stator) vanes with a low aspect ratio are typically included in ducts having a relatively long exit duct portion after the trailing edge of the vane. As a result of the low aspect ratio and the relatively long exit duct portion, flow quality problems can arise at the inner diameter and the outer diameter of the duct.

Airfoil for improved flow distribution with high radial offset


A shoe sole having at least one midsole or outer surface portion that is concavely rounded relative to a space inside the shoe adapted to receive an intended wearer's foot. The sole includes a midsole and an outer sole. The midsole extends up the side of the sole to a vertical height above the vertical height of a lowest point of the inner midsole surface. The midsole includes a portion of greatest thickness in a side portion that is greater than a thickness of a second midsole portion located in a middle sole portion of the shoe sole. The combination of the midsole height and thickness with the concavely rounded surface portion together provide improved stability of the shoe sole.

This invention relates generally to the structure of shoes. More specifically, this invention relates to the structure of running shoes. Still more particularly, this invention relates to variations in the structure of such shoes using a theoretically-ideal stability plane as a basic concept.
Existing running shoes are unnecessarily unsafe. They profoundly disrupt natural human biomechanics. The resulting unnatural foot and ankle motion leads to what are abnormally high levels of running injuries.
Proof of the unnatural effect of shoes has come quite unexpectedly from the discovery that, at the extreme end of its normal range of motion, the unshod bare foot is naturally stable, almost unsprainable, while the foot equipped with any shoe, athletic or otherwise, is artificially unstable and abnormally prone to ankle sprains. Consequently, ordinary ankle sprains must be viewed as largely an unnatural phenomena, even though fairly common. Compelling evidence demonstrates that the stability of bare feet is entirely different from the stability of shoe-equipped feet.
The underlying cause of the universal instability of shoes is a critical but correctable design flaw. That hidden flaw, so deeply ingrained in existing shoe designs, is so extraordinarily fundamental that it has remained unnoticed until now. The flaw is revealed by a novel new biomechanical test, one that is unprecedented in its simplicity. It is easy enough to be duplicated and verified by anyone; it only takes a few minutes and requires no scientific equipment or expertise. The simplicity of the test belies its surprisingly convincing results. It demonstrates an obvious difference in stability between a bare foot and a running shoe, a difference so unexpectedly huge that it makes an apparently subjective test clearly objective instead. The test proves beyond doubt that all existing shoes are unsafely unstable.
The broader implications of this uniquely unambiguous discovery are potentially far-reaching. The same fundamental flaw in existing shoes that is glaringly exposed by the new test also appears to be the major cause of chronic overuse injuries, which are unusually common in running, as well as other sport injuries. It causes the chronic injuries in the same way it causes ankle sprains; that is, by seriously disrupting natural foot and ankle biomechanics.
The applicant has introduced into the art the concept of a theoretically ideal stability plane as a structural basis for shoe designs. That concept as implemented into shoes such as street shoes and athletic shoes is presented in pending U.S. application Ser. Nos. 07/219,387, filed on Jul. 15, 1988 and Ser. No. 07/239,667, filed on Sep. 2, 1988, as well as in PCT Application No. PCT/US89/03076 filed on Jul. 14, 1989. This application develops the application of the concept of the theoretically ideal stability plane to other shoe structures and presents certain structural ideas presented in the PCT application.
Accordingly, it is a general object of this invention to elaborate upon the application of the principle of the theoretically ideal stability plane to other shoe structures.
It is another general object of this invention to provide a shoe sole which, when under load and tilting to the side, deforms in a manner which closely parallels that of the foot of its wearer, while retaining nearly the same amount of contact of the shoe sole with the ground as in its upright state.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a deformable shoe sole having the upper portion or the sides bent inwardly somewhat so that when worn the sides bend out easily to approximate a custom fit.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a shoe having a naturally contoured sole which is abbreviated along its sides to only essential structural stability and propulsion elements, which are combined and integrated into the same discontinuous shoe sole structural elements underneath the foot, which approximate the principal structural elements of a human foot and their natural articulation between elements.
These and other objects of the invention will become apparent from a detailed description of the invention which follows taken with the accompanying drawings.

Shoe sole structures using a theoretically ideal stability plane