A tine mounting bracket for connecting tines to tine bars on an agricultural pick-up reel. The tines include a coiled spring section at the base of the tine and adjacent to the tine bar connection. The improved mounting bracket includes a flange that extends in adjacent contact with a portion of the coiled spring section and inhibits lateral deflection of the tine spring.

This invention relates generally to an agricultural pickup assembly having tines passing within tine guards and, more particularly, to a pickup tine mounting bracket with a flange.
Pick-up assemblies used in agricultural harvesting machines typically include a reel that is rotatable about a horizontal central axis. The reel comprises a plurality of parallel tine bars arranged for movement in a generally circular path around the central axis. Individual tines are connected to the bars and extend generally radially outwardly to lift crop material from the ground and convey it into a crop processing mechanism. The tine bars are connected to a central shaft by end plates, and as the reel rotates, the tines project through spaces or gaps formed between tine guards arranged side-by-side transversely of the reel. These tine guards are individually secured at their top and bottom ends to support members on the pickup.
Tines typically include a coiled spring portion adjacent to their mounting on the tine bar to allow the tine to flex upon contact with an immoveable object rather than breaking the tine. These springs ideally allow fore-aft tine movement. The tines may experience significant lateral loads during operation which causes spring deflection and may allow detrimental tine contact with the tine guards. Stiffening the springs sufficiently to withstand lateral loads without excessive deflection results in spring stiffness that is greater than necessary for the anticipated fore-aft loadings. Increased wire size, a common way to stiffen the springs, decreases tine fore-aft deflection cycle life (the primary tine movement orientation). Larger wire also requires greater lateral space for the tines which could require significant alteration of the pick-up assembly and is thus often impractical.
It would be advantageous to provide a modified mounting bracket for mounting tines to a tine bar that reinforces the tine spring coils to reduce lateral tine deflection without increasing the spring stiffness in the longitudinal (fore-aft) direction. Additional advantages would be realized by a modified tine mounting bracket that allows connection of exiting tine configurations to existing tine bar configurations with little or no modification of either. Still further advantages would be realized if the modified tine mounting bracket can be produced more economically than modifying the tine spring coil to accomplish the same objective.


An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing body and a developing section. An electrostatic latent image is formed on the image bearing body. The developing section includes a developing member and a toner supplying member. The developing member is in contact with the image bearing body and applies toner to the electrostatic latent image. The toner supplying member is in contact with the developing member and has a peripheral surface that moves relative to the developing member. The toner has substantially spherical particles and is supplied from above the developing section and has a saturated apparent density not more than 0.4217 g/ml. The amount of the toner deposited on the developing member is in the range of 0.5 to 1.0 mg/cm2. The layer of the toner deposited on the developing member has a surface potential in the range of −50 to −250 V.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an image drum cartridge and a developing unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional image forming apparatus such as a printer, a copying machine, and a facsimile machine utilizes an electrophotographic process. A surface of a photoconductive drum covered with a photoconductive insulating layer is charged uniformly. Then, the charged surface is exposed to a light image that represents print data. The light image selectively dissipates the charges on the surface of the photoconductive drum to form an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photoconductive drum. Then, the electrostatic latent image is developed with a developer material (e.g., toner) containing a coloring agent into a toner image. The toner image is transferred onto print paper and subsequently fused under pressure and heat into a permanent image.
With a conventional image forming apparatus, when printing is performed in a low-duty mode intermittently in a low-temperature and low-humidity environment, the printed images are soiled. For example, if only a few lines of characters are printed on A4 size paper in an environment of 10° C. and 20% RH at a rate of one page per five minutes, the printed images becomes significantly soiled one to two hours after printing is initiated.
FIG. 2 illustrates a pertinent portion of a conventional developing unit.
Referring to FIG. 2, a developing roller 14 rotates in contact with a photoconductive drum 21 in a direction shown by arrow A, thereby applying toner to the photoconductive drum 21. A sponge roller 13 rotates in contact with the developing roller 14 in a direction shown by arrow B, thereby supplying toner to the developing roller 14. A developing blade 15 forms a thin layer of toner on the developing roller 14.
A good rule of thumb is that a printed image is soiled if the following relation is met,(Vdv+Et)−EOPC<C  Eq.(1)where EOPC is the surface potential of the photoconductive drum 21, Vdv is the voltage applied to the developing roller 14, Et is the surface potential of toner that forms a toner layer, and C is a constant unique to that electrophotographic printer.
This relation is due to the following fact. Actually, the toner layer on the developing roller 14 is not uniformly charged to a surface potential Et but with a certain distribution of charges. In other words, Et is an only average of the distributed charges. Thus, excessively charged toner particles may adhere to non-exposed areas on the photoconductive drum 21, causing soiling of printed images.
For example, in a low-temperature and low-humidity environment, if EOPC≈−800 V, Vdv=−220 V, and C=250, then Eq. (1) gives the following relation.(Vdv+Et)−EOPC=(−220+Et)−(−800)<250Therefore, Et<−330 V. This shows that values of Et<−330 V causes toner to be negatively charged excessively to give rise to soiling of printed images.
In a low-temperature and low-humidity environment, a charging roller 19 becomes dry to have a high electrical resistance, but receives the same constant voltage for charging the photoconductive drum 21. This causes a decrease in current injected into the photoconductive drum 21, so that the surface potential EOPC will increase correspondingly toward zero volts. The toner will also become dry to have a high electrical resistance, so that the toner is easily charged and the surface potential Et will be more negative.
When intermittent low-duty printing is performed, the toner that falls from a toner cartridge, not shown, becomes dense, especially on a portion P1 slightly upstream of the developing blade 15 with respect to the direction of rotation of the developing roller 14.
This phenomenon takes the form of a change in apparent density of toner with time. The apparent density is calculated by measuring the volume of the pile of toner a certain length of time after an amount of toner is introduced into a container. When toner is put in a container and left as it is, the toner is packed slowly to decrease in volume. As a result, the apparent density of the toner changes (usually increases). Table 1 lists apparent densities of pulverized toner and polymer toner.
TABLE 1time (min)00.512345610pulverized0.30610.30820.30950.31030.31030.31030.31030.31030.3103tonerpolymer0.41250.44090.46140.48960.50540.51100.51100.51380.5138toner
The apparent densities were calculated based on the volume of toner. A mixture of 30 grams pulverized toner and 30 grams polymer toner was agitated for 30 seconds and then put into a graduated cylinder of a 100-ml capacity. The toner in the graduated cylinder is left as it is for a certain time length without adding mechanical vibration. The apparent density is expressed in g/ml. As is clear from Table 1, the apparent density of pulverized toner does not change significantly but the apparent density of polymer toner increases with time until it substantially saturates after six minutes. The apparent density at this situation is referred to as saturation apparent density. The pulverized toner is manufactured by mechanically pulverizing and therefore the toner particles are in a variety of irregular shapes. Thus, nonuniform shapes of toner particles prevent the toner particles from being packed when the toner particles are left as they are. On the other hand, the particles of the polymer toner are uniform in size and generally spherical in shape, and therefore are apt to be packed when the particles are left as they are. In other words, the more spherical the toner particles are, the more easily the toner particles are packed.
Larger apparent densities cause a thicker toner layer on the developing roller 14 and a more negative surface potential Et.
As described above, performing low-duty printing in a low-temperature and low-humidity environment causes soiling of printed images and hence poor print quality.


An electrical device controller includes a processor, and a memory for storing a program executed by the processor. The processor controls the electrical device in multiple operation modes including an automatic mode which automatically changes the operation state of the electrical device and a stop mode which stops the electrical device, controls the electrical device in an operation mode specified with an operating member operated by an occupant when the vehicle is manually driven, controls the operation state of the electrical device in the automatic mode regardless of the operation mode specified with the operating member when the vehicle is autonomously driven, and sets the operation mode of the electrical device at least temporarily to the stop mode when the operation mode specified with the operation member is switched to the stop mode from an operation mode other than the stop mode, when the vehicle is autonomously driven.

Vehicles which are capable of switching the driving state between autonomous driving and manual driving have been examined. During autonomous driving, the vehicle autonomously controls at least part of steering and acceleration/deceleration. On the other hand, during manual driving, the driver fully controls steering and acceleration/deceleration.
The vehicle is also provided with various electrical devices operated by a driver. Such electrical devices include, for example, headlights and wipers to ensure visibility of the driver. Since the driver does not drive the vehicle during autonomous driving of the vehicle, from the viewpoint of driver visibility, it is not always necessary to operate these electrical devices during autonomous driving of the vehicle. However, in order to properly operate various sensors (for example, a camera) for autonomously driving the vehicle, it is necessary to operate these electrical devices even during autonomous driving. Therefore, in a vehicle capable of autonomous driving, there has been proposed a technique of automatically operating these electrical devices independently of the operation of the driver when the vehicle is in an autonomously driven state (For example, U.S. Pat. No. 10,086,839).

Electrical control device for headlight of wiper of autonomous vehicle based on driving state


A controller relates to a controller for decorative light sets, which has been provided with a connecter having flutes which can engage with several electric wires of light sets easily and lets every metal terminal of wires contact directly with a related metal piece on an IC board in the controller for an electrical connection.

As known, a controller is used in a decorative light sets to control each light set to twinkle independently. A known electric circuit of the controller is shown in FIG. 1. It is understood that each electric wire 5 of the light sets must be connected with an IC board 4. In prior art, the wires 4 are welded to the IC board 4. As a result, a producer must produce the IC board 4 first and then sends them to the light-set department. After welding electric wires on the IC board, the assembly is placed in a box to form a controller. In such procedure, we find that it raises the rate of damage during transportation and limits the produced amount because of the serial manufacturing. Another drawback occurs since the strength of the welding is not enough. The electric wires are possibly separated from the IC board during assembling and the light sets will be out of work.


A steerable rotatable member such as a pulley, sprocket or timing gear which can be mounted on a shaft so that the plane of the rotatable member may be positioned at selected angles other than a 90.degree. angle to the axis of rotation of the shaft. A torque transmitting member, commonly in the shape of a planar disc, is used to operatively connect the shaft and the rim of the rotatable member. The disc radially elongates and laterally flexes as the rotatable member rotates. A sleeve member may be used to connect the disc to the shaft. When used as a driver, a key may be used to transmit power from the shaft to the sleeve. The use of an elongated groove in the shaft permits the rotatable member to be adjustably moved to different locations along the axial length of the shaft.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a steerable rotary device.
In a steerable rotary device the plane of the rotary device to the axis of rotation of its drive shaft may vary from the standard angle of 90.degree. to varying angles other than 90.degree..
The rotary device may be a steerable pulley, a steerable chain sprocket, or a steerable timing gear.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In prior art conveyor belt systems where it was desirable to have adjacent belts, chains or timing belts at different angles, a common solution for machines using conveyor belts was to use elastic belts of circular cross section. In such installations, the plane of the driving pulley was offset from the plane of the idler or driven pulley but the planes of both pulleys remained at a 90.degree. angle to the axis of rotation of their respective shafts.
In belt systems where a flat belt was required, a special pulley was needed. In U.S. Pat. No. 1,454,657 granted May 8, 1923 to Smith a steerable driving pulley is described. The considerable apparatus of Smith includes self aligning trunnion bearings and a plurality of metal parts.


A software architecture is provided for allowing users to impart various types of button behavior to ordinary human interpretable elements of electronic documents by associating hidden persistent character string button attributes to such elements. This architecture permits such buttons to be edited and searched through the use of the edit and search routines that are ordinarily provided by standard document editors.

Software production is a growth industry because of the worldwide commercial demand for computerized solutions to customer requirements in many different market segments. Some computer users have substantial programming skills, but the computer has become a tool that often is employed by users who lack the skills and/or motivation to engage in extensive computer programming. For that reason, software suppliers have invested substantial effort and expense in developing user interfaces that permit users to focus on applying computers to their intended tasks. Graphical user interfaces and window packages are notable examples of the software systems that now are being offered to facilitate the use of computers by persons ranging from non-technical users to highly skilled computer professionals. However, that system level software does not, in itself, permit of substantial differentiation between the diverse interface needs and preferences of different users.
Features of software user interfaces that are essential to one user may needlessly occupy space on another user's display screen. Likewise, some users need features that were not included by the application programmer. Consequently, some software packages have customizable user interfaces. For instance, there are packages that offer a variety of predefined interface options, so that users may customize their interfaces by selectively activating certain of the options to the exclusion of the others. Even more directly relevant to this invention, there are software packages that include tools which enable users to create active buttons and menus for causing the computer to perform functions in direct support of the users' individual needs and preferences.
More particularly, the HyperCard program enables users to create personalized buttons, forms and layouts. It supports the so-called HyperTalk language to allow users to program such buttons. See D. Goodman, The Complete HyperCard Handbook, Bantam Books, 1987. Similarly, the Xerox ViewPoint product supports a language called CUSP for programing buttons that can be inserted into documents. See VP CUSP Buttons Reference, VP Series Reference Library, Version 2.0, Xerox ViewPoint, Xerox Corporation, 1988. These CUSP buttons can be programmed to move icons and windows, as well as to print files, fill in forms, organize information into electronic file folders, and assist in performing other tasks. Spreadsheet programs also are of some interest because they conventionally permit the user to program in the equations for performing the calculations that the user wishes to have performed.
The so-called Andrew document editor is still another interesting example of the current state of the art because it permits buttons to be included in documents, to be transmitted via electronic mail, and to be employed by recipients of such mail messages. See J. H. Morris et al., "Andrew: A Distributed Personal Computing Environment," Communications of the ACM, Vol. 29, No. 3, March 1986, pp. 184-201. Furthermore, the Xerox Interlisp environment has a window manager, called "Rooms," which allows the user to create buttons for switching from "room-to-room" (i.e., from one user assembled collection of files and processing tools to another or, in other words, from one "desktop" to another), for starting up application programs, for recording a program state and later restoring it, and for performing other functions the user may wish to automate. See A. MacLean et al., "User Tailorable Systems: Pressing the Issues with Buttons," Human Factors in Computing Systems, Proceedings of CHI '90, April 1990, pp. 175-182. The Rooms supported buttons can be transferred via electronic mail to other users who are employing the Xerox Interlisp environment, and can be incorporated into a user's desktop to become a permanent part of the user's workstation environment. Moreover, these buttons can be customized by editing the LISP programming language functions they embody or by using menu commands to change their position and/or appearance.
As a general rule, the buttons the prior art has provided for the customization of user interfaces have been application specific, rather than being tools that can be shared by a variety of different applications. This is a significant disadvantage because most users find that they only have a limited amount of display screen space that they are willing to allocate to customized buttons at any given time, even though the users may be performing functions which cause them to switch back and forth frequently between different applications. Furthermore, when a user is employing an application that does not permit such buttons to be embedded in it, the custom buttons the user may want to employ must be spatially separated from the application on the user's display screen, thereby adding to the burden on the display screen space and also forcing the user to shift attention back and forth between the application space and the button space.
Still another disadvantage of the prior proposals for using buttons to customize user interfaces is that when such buttons are embedded in applications, the embedded buttons are treated as "special'" objects.
Therefore, even though a button residing in a text document might itself be a string of text, the editing of the button requires the use of different operations than are employed for editing the text in which the button resides. Moreover, an ordinary textual search operation will not find such a button, even if its text string matches the search pattern, because the button is not recognized as being a textual component of the document.

Customizable user interfaces for programmed computer systems


A method for producing a borohydride is described and which includes the steps of providing a source of borate; providing a material which chemically reduces the source of the borate to produce a borohydride; and reacting the source of borate and the material by supplying heat at a temperature which substantially effects the production of the borohydride.

The prior art is replete with numerous teachings which relate to the development of environmentally friendly fuels, that is, fuels which can be used in place of traditional hydrocarbon based energy sources, and which are currently utilized in most overland vehicles. Much research has been directed, as of late, to the use of fuel cells in combination with conventional technology, in so-called "hybrid vehicles." Notwithstanding the advances that have been made in hybrid vehicle design, no single, fuel storage system has been developed which can store the fuel which is typically consumed by a fuel cell, that is hydrogen. For transportation applications, a compact light-weight, responsive and affordable hydrogen storage medium is required for overland vehicle applications. In automotive applications, it is estimated that to provide a 300 mile driving range for a typical overland vehicle, would require 5-10 kilograms of usable hydrogen, depending upon the size of the vehicle. Beyond the issues of providing a suitable hydrogen storage medium, other engineering issues would also need to be addressed such as the operating pressure and temperature that the hydrogen may be provided at, the life cycle of the hydrogen storage medium, and any requirements for hydrogen purity which may be imposed by the fuel cell which is utilized with the overland vehicle.
Other issues, that are currently trying to be addressed for overland vehicle applications, include the methodology for replenishing the hydrogen storage medium; the types of refueling conditions to replenish the storage medium, that is rate, and time that is necessary to perform this process; and the hydrogen release rate that might be achieved from such a process. Other important issues directed to safety, toxicity and system efficiency would also need careful consideration. Those familiar with the current state of the art agree that no material currently available today appears to meet all the needs for the storage of large amounts of hydrogen, which might be utilized by a hybrid vehicle. While hydrogen can be stored on an overland vehicle in a substantially pure form, such as compressed gas, or in a cryogenic liquid, these present obvious difficulties with respect to replenishing the hydrogen source once it has been depleted. While some developments have occurred with respect to storage systems for gaseous and liquid forms of hydrogen, it is fair to say that such systems are unduly complex and still may not meet the requirements as outlined by recent information released by the U.S. Department of Energy.
In view of these difficulties, many skilled in the art have initiated research directed to chemical compounds which can store hydrogen and then later release it for use in an overland vehicle. In this regard, the storage of hydrogen and chemical compounds offers a much wider range of possibilities to meet transportation requirements. However, no single material which has been investigated to date exhibits all the necessary properties.
Finding an effective hydrogen storage medium material therefore, is one of the most difficult challenges facing designers of hybrid or electric overland vehicles. As of late, a number of investigators have considered the feasibility of synthesizing light-metal hydrides, such as borohydrides, for use in overland vehicle applications. However, as of late, the current process for synthesizing borohydrides, for example, is a lengthy solvent process as more fully understood by a study of U.S. Pat. No. 6,670,444 the teachings of which are incorporated by reference herein. The attractiveness of utilizing a borohydride is understood by a study of the formula set forth below.NaBH4+2H2O→4H2+NaBO2+heat (300KJ).
As seen from the formula, noted above, the spent material is sodium metaborate. The regeneration of the borohydride from the spent borates, as noted above is a lengthy solvent process which is complex and economically unattractive.
Therefore, a method of producing a borohydride which avoids the detriments associated with the prior art practices is the subject matter of the current patent.


Slide guitar for providing various improvements and advantages including instant accurate string height adjustments simultaneously at the nut and bridge. The slide guitar has a marked adjustment knob adjacent a graduated scale under the headstock to visually determine with repeated mathematical accuracy the exact distance between the bottom of the strings and the top of the first fret as a point of reference. The improved string musical instrument includes a leveling head embedded into portions of the headstock and neck wherein the leveling head contains a slide selector having a sloped surface for contacting the nut combined with a dual bridge for instantly changing the instrument's string height and bridge type. The slide guitar instantly changes from a conventional type guitar to a steel type guitar creating an improved variable string action slide guitar.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to improvements in stringed musical instruments of the guitar type and, more particularly, is concerned with a slide guitar with slide guitar selector and dual bridge, including method and apparatus for instantly adjusting the bridge type and string height at the nut and bridge simultaneously to create a variable string action slide guitar.
2. Description of the Related Art
Stringed musical instruments of the past use adjustable nuts and bridges that have been described in the related art; however, none of the related art devices disclose the unique features of the present invention.
In U.S. Pat. No. 8,294,012 dated Oct. 23, 2012, Garrick disclosed a method and apparatus for adjusting the nut of stringed instruments. In U.S. Pat. No. 7,179,975 dated Feb. 20, 2007, Feiten, et al., disclosed a method and apparatus for fully adjusting and providing tempered intonation for stringed instruments. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,971,286 dated Jul. 27, 1976, Borell disclosed a guitar string supporting device. In U.S. Pat. No. 1,571,118 dated Jan. 26, 1926, Hattie disclosed a nut having means for raising the strings from the fingerboard over the frets of a stringed instrument. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,304,163 dated Dec. 8, 1981, Siminoff disclosed an adjustable nut for stringed musical instruments. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,064,780 dated Dec. 27, 1977, Bond disclosed a stringed instrument and a fret board having a saw-tooth surface profile and height adjustable strings. In U.S. Pat. No. 2,309,082 dated Jan. 26, 1943, Smith, et al., disclosed a guitar and guitar nut. In U.S. Pat. No. 1,338,583 dated Apr. 27, 1920, Neft disclosed a nut for guitars or the like.
While these devices may be suitable for the purposes for which they were designed, they would not be suitable for the purposes of the present invention as hereinafter described. As will be shown by way of explanation and drawings, the present invention works in a novel manner and differently from the related art.


A method for fabricating a plurality of conductive lines in an integrated circuit includes providing a layer of conductive metal in a multi-layer structure fabricated upon a wafer, forming a spacer in a layer of the multi-layer structure residing above the layer of conductive metal, wherein the spacer is formed from a metal-containing atomic layer deposition material, and transferring a pattern from the spacer to the layer of conductive metal using a sidewall image transfer technique, wherein the transferring results in a formation of the plurality of conductive lines in the layer of conductive material.

The present invention relates generally to integrated circuits and relates more specifically to metal patterning processes for use in manufacturing integrated circuits.
Integrated circuits (ICs) commonly use copper interconnects (or "lines") to connect transistors and other semiconductor devices on the ICs. These interconnects are typically fabricated using an additive damascene process in which an underlying insulating layer (e.g., silicon oxide) is patterned with open trenches. FIG. 1, for example, is a schematic diagram illustrating a trench 100 that may be formed in the insulating layer during IC fabrication. A subsequent deposition of copper on the insulating layer fills the trenches with copper. The copper is removed to the top of the insulating layer, but remains within the trenches to form a patterned conductor. Successive layers of insulator and copper are formed according to this damascene process, resulting in a multilayer copper interconnect structure.
Conventional damascene processing such as that described above is not always compatible with the trend toward smaller feature sizes in modern complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. For instance, modern CMOS technology may require lines having widths of less than forty nanometers and aspect ratios (i.e., line width:line height) of approximately 1:2. Attempting conventional damascene processing within these parameters often results in poor liner/seed coverage on the walls of the trenches (e.g., as illustrated at 102 in FIG. 1), pinch off at the mouths of the trenches (e.g., as illustrated at 104), and reentrant reactive ion etching profiles (e.g., as illustrated at 106). Consequently, the copper filling the trenches is subject to voids, defects, and poor adhesion to the trench liners. Moreover, as the lines narrow in size, the resistivity of the copper is increased (due to, for example, the thickness of the liner relative to the thickness of the copper, the small copper grain size, and copper grain boundary and surface scattering phenomena), resulting in decreased IC performance. In addition, it is difficult to obtain fine-pitch line-space structures (e.g., sixty nanometers or less) using conventional direct lithography processes on copper.

Sidewall image transfer for heavy metal patterning in integrated circuits

International Business Machines Corporation


A control device for an internal combustion engine detects the air fuel ratio of the internal combustion engine at a condition with high accuracy and responsibility. Accordingly, improvement of the fuel consumption of the engine, improvement of the power of the engine, and improvement of the exhaust gas are achieved. The control device for an internal combustion engine calculates, in turn, a first air fuel ratio based on the fuel injection suction, a second air fuel ratio at the time when the gas is reached to the large area air fuel ratio sensor, and a third air fuel ratio at the time when the large area air fuel ratio sensor detects the air fuel ratio, according to the fuel amount calculated with respect to the difference between the sensed air fuel ratio and the objective air fuel ratio, to judge a jam of the large area air fuel ratio sensor by comparing the third air fuel ratio with the sensed air fuel ratio. Thus, the jam judgment is carried out in consideration with the fuel transportation lag, the transportation lag of the gas, and the response delay inherent to the large area air fuel ratio sensor. Accordingly, a highly accurate control for the air fuel ratio can be achieved.

In a fuel injecting device of the internal combustion engine, it is necessary to supply the fuel depending on the driving conditions of the engine. Particularly, the air fuel ratio should be restricted within a narrow window area around a stoichio by this device in order to highly and effectively employ a three way catalyst converter for purifying the exhaust gas. It is also necessary to maintain the air fuel ratio at a certain objective value around the stoichio.
On the other hand, an air fuel ratio required for the internal combustion engine differs depending on its load and engine speed, and, for example, as shown in FIG. 10, it is preferable to set the objective air fuel ratio in accordance with the load in the areas, such as a fuel cut area, a lean area, the stoichio area, and a power area. Particularly, in order to accommodate low fuel consumption, a lean burn engine has been developed which can be generally driven within the lean area.
An internal combustion engine carries out feedback control that detects sensed air fuel ratio signals over a wide range by an air fuel ratio sensor, calculates a set air fuel ratio by which the difference can be eliminated between the sensed air fuel ratio and an objective air fuel ratio determined depending on the driving conditions, and actuates a fuel injection valve in order to secure a fuel injection amount corresponding to the set air fuel ratio, thereby adjusting the air fuel ratio at the objective air fuel ratio over a wide range.
For driving the internal combustion engine in a manner described above, it is very important to precisely control the air fuel ratio into the objective value with respect to improvement of the fuel consumption, improvement of the engine power, stabilization of the idling rotation, improvement of the exhaust gas, and improvement of drivability. Thus, it is desired to improve reliability and stability of detected values of a large area air fuel ratio sensor.
Now, problems to be solved by the present invention are as follows:
That is, to judge a jam or a trouble is important for improving the reliability and the stability of the large area air fuel ratio sensor (LAFS). Generally, an output of the sensor may be varied from around 0 (v) to a sensor supply voltage Vs, and may be kept at an intermediate voltage on jamming. Thus, it is difficult to diagnose a sensor jamming merely on the basis of an output range on judging the jam of the large area air fuel ratio sensor.
Accordingly, it has been proposed to calculate the set air fuel ratio in order to eliminate a deviation between the objective air fuel ratio and the sensed air fuel ratio, thereby carrying out jam judgment for the large area air fuel ratio sensor under the set driving condition of the engine in accordance with the sensed air fuel ratio, the set air fuel ratio, and the deviation therebetween.
However, such a conventional method yields a lag between an air fuel ratio setting time and an air fuel ratio measuring time due to, for example, a transporting process of the fuel injected in an intake path of the engine, a process lag and a detection lag of the sensor. Thus, when the sensor output is simply compared with the sensed air fuel ratio in such manner, there is a defect that the sensor jam judgment will be roughly made in spite of the engine being driven in a constant condition, and it is impossible to correctly judge the sensor jam.
Accordingly, a primary object of the present invention is to provide an air fuel ratio control device for an internal combustion engine which accurately judges a jam of the large area air fuel ratio sensor to improve the reliability of the sensor detected value as well as to provide an air fuel ratio control device for an internal combustion engine which enables the air fuel ratio control to be carried out precisely.

Control device for internal combustion engine

Mitsubishi Jidosha Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha


The present invention relates to a wipe-on polish composition which contains no wax or abrasive components. The polish requires minimal effort to wipe out to a thin, glossy, streak-free, hydrophobic film. The polish is comprised of an emulsion that contains an organopolysiloxane and a volatile diluent.

Typically polish compositions used to polish automotive surfaces, especially automotive paint surfaces, contain a wax and an abrasive component Application of these polish compositions require allowing the polish to dry and removing the film by buffing. US 4,398,953 discloses an improved silicone containing polish containing a montan wax, an emulsifier, silicone oil, amino silicones, finely divided abrasive, water and a volatile aliphatic hydrocarbon liquid where the hydrocarbon has an evaporation rate three to five times faster than water. The polish composition is applied to the surface of an automobile, allowed to dry to a haze and buffed off. The amount of time and effort to apply these conventional polishes has discouraged many consumers from using these products.
In addition to the effort involved in removing the dried abrasive containing compositions, there are other disadvantages. Paint technology has changed significantly and at present, abrasives are in many cases too aggressive and tend to scratch the paint surface. However, simply removing the abrasives from formulations is not a viable alternative. Abrasives aid in the even distribution of silicone film forming components thereby reducing the tendency to streak. Removing them tends to increase streaking which is not desirable from a consumer's point of view. A great deal of research has gone into developing polish compositions that are free from abrasives yet do not streak or smear.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,013,475 discloses a water-in-oil double emulsion for treating hard surfaces that consists of an organic solvent, an organopolysiloxane, a water-in-oil emulsifier mixed with an oil-in-water emulsion containing wax particles dispersed throughout a continuous aqueous phase.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,354,871, developed as a polish for furniture, discloses an emulsion that contains a film-former such as a silicone, wax, resin, non-drying oil and mixtures thereof, a hydrocarbon solvent having a boiling point range of from 80.degree. to 200.degree. C., water and an alpha-olefin having from 10 to 18 carbon atoms.
Two related patents U.S. Pat. No. 4,936,914 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,112,394 disclose polish compositions requiring a combination of specific siloxane copolymers, hydrocarbon solvents having boiling point ranges between 60.degree. and 210.degree. C., a surfactant and water.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,470,504 discloses a non-aqueous, wax free polish composition that cleans without abrasives. The composition consists of a low viscosity siloxane polymer, a surface bonding enhancer, a lower alkyl alcohol and d-limonene.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a polish composition that is easy to apply and wipes off with little or no buffing, and provides a streak free, glossy finish.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a composition that is relatively simple to prepare.
The foregoing objects and any others that become apparent were accomplished by the discovery of a silicone containing wipe-on polish composition that can be easily applied and requires minimal effort to wipe out to a thin, glossy, streak free, hydrophobic film. There is no need to wait for the polish to dry and no dusty residues are formed.


The device is a tube for placement around a living, human nerve fiber to protect the nerve from external damage. The device includes two concentric tubes, each of which are semi-circular in cross section. The lining tube rotates within the outer tube. Each of the lining tubes has a channel that extends the length of the tube. When the channels of the two tubes are aligned, the spine-protecting device can be slipped over a nerve without injuring the nerve. Once the nerve is safely inside the lining tube, the two tubes can be rotated relative to each other and locked into place, thus forming a protective tube that extends 360 degrees around a section of nerve. This device can be inserted into the opening between the vertebrae through which the nerve extends. Other runs of nerve in the human body can also be protected.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a device and system for use in neurological surgery, and more particularly relates to a tube for protecting a nerve which may be placed on the nerve without disrupting the nerve.
2. Background Information
Back pain is a very common ailment facing people of all ages. It is a major factor contributing to lost workdays, and results in pain, discomfort and immobility to sufferers. Continued suffering often results in surgery.
When an individual suffers from back pain, it is typically caused by compression of a nerve root as it leaves the spinal column. The spinal column consists of vertebrae which are located adjacent to each other, inter-vertebral discs between each of the vertebrae, a spinal column which is inside the vertebrae, and nerve roots which branch off the spinal cord and exit the spinal column through inter-vertebral foramen. The lower back is called the lumbar spine and is made up of five vertebrae and a sacrum. The middle of the back is the thoracic spine and has twelve vertebrae. The neck is the cervical spine and has seven vertebrae. The vertebrae provide both support and protection for the spinal cord. The inter-vertebral discs, which are located between each individual vertebra, connect the vertebrae together and provide cushion and support.
The inter-vertebral disc is a large round ligament which connects the vertebrae together. It is made up of two parts. The outer ring is the annulus, which is the stronger part and is responsible for connecting the vertebrae. The inner area is the nucleus pulpous which is soft and has the consistency of crabmeat. The nucleus pulpous acts as the shock absorber for the spine.
The nerve roots which exit the spinal cord via the inter-vertebral foramen, carry the messages of the central nervous system from the brain to the extremities and back again. The nerve roots can send signals of pain to the brain when they are pinched or irritated by contact with any of the parts of the vertebral column.
When the inter-vertebral discs become herniated or inflamed, they may touch and compress nerve roots passing through the inter-vertebral foramen. When this occurs, the pressure may be felt as pain in the extremities.
In some patients, the components of the spinal column deteriorate so that they no longer perform their supportive and protective function. In these cases, the spinal roots may be compressed and pinched, and some sort of surgery or immobility may be the only treatment. There are a number of prior art devices which are used in such a situation. These include devices which replace a disc, or which hold two discs apart to prevent pinching of the nerve which passes between the vertebrae. Sometimes spacers are inserted into the body of the vertebra to build up a vertebra.
In certain medical conditions, a treatment to various ailments such as epilepsy or chronic pain are treated by applying electricity or an electric field to the region around a nerve. The prior art has insulation of an electrical wire around a nerve. Such an insulation would be an option when treating ailments that are benefited by direct stimulation of nerves by electricity. The nerve protecting tube of the present invention can be used in the same application. It surrounds nerve and is connected by electrical wires to a source of electricity. When indicated by the treatment, electricity is applied to the nerve protecting tube, which has embedded in it a tracing of conductive material that may spiral around the inside, the outside, or both inside and outside of the nerve protecting tube. This strip of conductive material would be of a material that is conductive to electricity but non-corrosive and non-reactive in the human body.
However, none of these options provide a protection for the nerve as it passes leaves the spinal cord and passes through the inter-vertebral foramen or through the carpal tunnel. A protective device for the nerve is difficult to achieve because such a protective device would have to be slipped over the nerve without cutting the nerve, and then closed to protect the nerve from compression. What is needed is a tube which can be placed in an open position for positioning on the nerve, and which can then be moved to a closed position for protecting the nerve. Such a tube would be inserted into the inter-vertebral opening or in other areas in which nerve tissue was to be protected from physical damage and compression. What is also needed is a nerve protecting tube that would allow direct electrical stimulation to a nerve.
Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.


A retainer for holding bearings within a shaft bearing has C-shaped pockets for holding the bearings. Between the pockets are connecting portions, which are close to the openings of the pockets. The rear sides of adjacent pockets and the rear side of the connecting portion for the adjacent pockets form a concave site that is deeply gouged into the retainer. The bottom of the concave site is closer to the openings than the bottom of the pockets, thereby allowing base oil from grease in the concave site to better migrate onto the bearings and so lubricate the shaft bearing.

Shaft bearings are used to constrain a rotating shaft to maintain its axis of rotation. Such shaft bearings are used in motors, such as spindle motors, commonly found in computer equipment and audio systems. A typical structure for a shaft bearing includes two rings, bearings, and a retainer. The two rings are an inner ring, having a rotation groove on its outer surface, and an outer ring, having a corresponding rotation groove on its inner surface. The grooves and the axis of rotation are common to the rings. Between the two rotation grooves are a plurality of bearings, sometimes called ball bearings, which are evenly spaced apart circumferentially. The retainer is between the inner and outer rings and maintains even spacing of the bearings around the circumference of the rings. In this manner, the inner ring rotates with respect to the outer ring along a common axis by means of the evenly spaced apart bearings between the rotation grooves.
One type of retainer is a crown retainer. A crown retainer is typically molded from resin into a ring shape and includes a plurality of pockets equidistantly spaced around the circumference of the retainer. Each pocket retains a corresponding bearing to maintain the even spacing of the bearings around the rotation grooves. The pockets are open on one side of the retainer along the axial direction of the retainer. The inner surface of each pocket has a curvature corresponding to the curvature of the bearing.
The shaft bearing is assembled by inserting the bearings between the respective rotation grooves of the outer and inner rings, and inserting the retainer between the rings to snap each bearing into its corresponding pocket on the retainer. Upon mounting the retainer, grease is inserted into the shaft bearing, and a shield is mounted on the shaft bearing to close the gap between the inner and outer rings.
The grease is inserted onto the retainer between the inner and outer rings. The grease is inserted from the side of the retainer that has the pocket openings, and it is inserted onto the edge faces of the retainer between the pockets, where it adheres. A component of the grease is a low viscosity lubricating oil, called base oil, which soaks through from the grease and flows into the pockets as the retainer revolves around the axis of rotation. Since the bearings rotate in the retainer, the base oil in the interior of the pockets migrates between the rotation grooves of the inner and outer rings. In this manner, the base oil lubricates the rotation faces of the bearings in contact with the rotation grooves.
Some shaft bearings, however, do not allow insertion of the grease from the side of the retainer having the pocket opening. Examples of such shaft bearings have multiple coaxial rows of bearings. One such example is a shaft bearing having two coaxial rows of bearings between the inner and outer rings. Each row of bearings has a respective retainer that is inserted between the rings to snap the two rows of bearings into place. But the pocket openings of the two retainers face each other in this assembly. Access to the retainers is only to the respective sides of the retainers that are opposite to the pocket openings. As such, the grease is not near the pockets as they move around the circumference of the grooves, and it takes a relatively long time for sufficient base oil to reach the surface of the bearings.
In this case, the lack of sufficient lubrication reduces the life span of the shaft bearing or renders the shaft bearing immediately unusable. Moreover, the grease immediately scatters when the shaft begins to rotate and adheres to the outer ring and shield. Achieving a stable rotation with low torque is therefore difficult.
One proposed solution is to include channels between the pockets on the outer circumference of the retainer. Each channel runs between the edge faces of the retainer. Either the channel holds the grease or the grease is inserted through the channel to the pocket opening side of the retainer. Even so, it is difficult to align the nozzle of a grease gun with each channel, and the grease would adhere to the inner surface of the outer ring and not sufficiently utilize the channel.
A further proposed solution to the problems associated with the channels in the retainer is to form a relatively elongated nozzle access area that leads to each channel on the edge face opposite the pocket opening. Such a nozzle access area is described in Japanese Patent Publication No. JP 8-277843. The ejection opening of the nozzle may be easily positioned with respect to this relatively long nozzle access area, in contrast to the difficulty of positioning the nozzle with respect to the channels as described above. The easy positioning allows for the adequate insertion of grease.
Since grease is inserted from the nozzle access area up to the channel, however, this solution is inefficient because not all of the grease is used. Also, flow resistance of the grease is generated as the route traveled by the inserted grease lengthens, and the channel may still not receive sufficient grease.


A document-services dialog window, accessible from all applications of a mobile computing device (MID), interacts with other applications on the MID, and with remote document services on a document access server. The applications on the MID are linked to the document access server and to the document references stored in a document reference repository on the MID. The document references can be beamed to another MID. The document services interface is invoked to access a desired document reference and enables a user of a MID to execute actions on a selected document via the selected document reference.

1. Field of Invention
This invention generally relates to systems and methods for interacting with computer program applications.
2. Description of Related Art
Portable document solutions for Personal Digital Assistant-class (PDA-class) devices from competing vendors rely on remote servers to perform the services. A user interacts with the remote server through a general-purpose browser, which has fill-in fields, action buttons, and so forth. The document creator applications, e-mail software, communication software, and mobile information device-resident browsers installed on many PDA-class devices often come from various suppliers.
A mobile information device (MID) is a handheld device that combines computer applications, telephony and/or remote networking features. A typical mobile information device can function as a cellular phone and/or a personal organizer. A mobile information device may be equipped with a hypertext-markup-language (HTML) or wireless access protocol (WAP) browser and/or e-mail reader.
High value information is frequently inaccessible to users of mobile information devices (MID) because this information is often in a file having a file format that is inaccessible to software installed on the mobile information device or because it is otherwise inaccessible for some other reason. Such files may be in any number of file formats, for example, spreadsheet, word processing, or high-resolution graphical file formats. Software applications, which can interact with the data format of the files to be accessed, are not typically installed on the mobile information device. Therefore, the user of the mobile information device cannot access the information embedded in such files. Instead, these applications may be installed at a remotely-located document access server. A document access server allows a remote user to fax, print, and/or view information stored on, or otherwise accessible to the document access server. In response to a command issued at the mobile information device, the document access server prepares the attachment for viewing, printing and/or faxing, and dispatches the prepared document to a target fax machine, printer, or other appropriate device.

Systems and methods for streamlined interactions with document services from mobile computing applications


Reliability is evaluated in constructing a component based-on application and an application for realizing reliability required can be constructed efficiently. A run-time history such as an occurrence frequency of errors, a recovery time required at error occurrence, and a processing capacity at preventive maintenance is added per software component to a run-time history list having been recoded per execution environment such as an application ID, combined component IDs, and executed hardware ID. From these pieces of information, an interval of performing preventive maintenance recommended per software component during system construction is calculated. By comparing reliability per software component and reliability required for the system, advisability is determined and conformance is evaluated. An execution schedule for preventive maintenance and a processing capability are calculated about the entire component-based application created by combining the software components. By calculating the reliability and the processing capability in the entire system to be compared to those required for the entire system, advisability is determined and conformance is evaluated.

The present invention relates to a method of constructing applications by combining software components that is componentized and, more particularly, to a method of obtaining and accumulating an execution history regarding reliability for each software component and a method of constructing a high-reliable system using the above method.
The use of on-line applications typified by Web services, such as electronic commerce or an intra-company information processing system on the Internet or an intranet, has been rapidly widespread. In response to demands for expansion of customers, efficient operations, and cost reduction, etc., quick and flexible system developments have been required. To achieve this, a technology for constructing applications by combining the software components typified by Enterprise Java Beans (EJB) ("JAVA" is a trademark.) has attracted attention. The application constructed by using such a technology is referred to as a component-based application.
The component-based application can be constructed by preparing in advance the software components that perform frequently-used processes and then combining these components, whereby an application development time can be reduced. Also, in order to improve applications In accordance with dynamically changing demands from the customers, what is required is to replace some relevant software components to be changed, so that quick and flexible improvement complying with the demands can be achieved.
The developments of the component-based applications have features as described above. Furthermore, with the emergence of a standard framework, such as Java2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE), the component-based applications have become widely used. As a result, various software components will be developed and accumulated.
In system construction, these software components are required to be searched for a software component having a necessary function. However, with an increase in variety of software components, a plurality of software components that are functionally equivalent to one another may possibly be found. Therefore, a technology of quickly and suitably selecting an optimum one of software component candidates will become important.
One index of selection of a software component includes system performance. However, at the time of constructing a system, it is difficult to predict the system performance of the combined software components.
Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-220453) discloses a method in which a CPU time required for performing a process at each individual software component is measured as basic operational performance and, based on the measurement values, process performance (CPU time) required for an assumable process is predicted. According to this method, the process performance of the system in a normal process can be predicted before assembling the entire system.
Another index of selection of a software component includes system reliability. The system reliability is an important index particularly in a job system. The system performance can be improved by taking measures such as addition of hardware in many cases, whereas the system reliability is often difficult to improve by taking the same measures as those for the system performance. Particularly, in the component-based applications, reliability may be decreased depending on the combination of the software components. As such, it is difficult to predict the system reliability.
In a component-based application in Patent Document 2 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-82926), a process start time and a process end time are measured for each software component, thereby measuring a process time. When the process time exceeds a predetermined process time, it is determined that a process state is abnormal, for example, and then the measures for the abnormal process state are taken. Such measures include halts of the components and/or a restart of a server process. Further, a method of monitoring system reliability at the time of system operation and of obtaining measures to be taken in the abnormal state is disclosed. In addition thereto, the Patent Document 2 also discloses a method of monitoring the system performance at the time of the system operation.

Component-based application constructing method


Techniques for managing resources within a data center include using a portable device for interaction with technicians. The portable device has a web browser that the technician uses to navigate to an administrative web site from which a browser-based application is downloaded. The application is executed by the browser and maintains a browser-based data store that is asynchronously synchronized with a back-end data store when network communications are available.

It has become common for various types of online service providers to implement data centers having large numbers of computers and associated resources. In some situations, a data center may be built to provide particular services that are associated with a website or entity. In other situations, a data center may support a number of services that are associated with various websites and different entities. In some situations, network-accessible data centers may provide relatively low level computing resources that can be utilized by developers for various purposes on a pay-per-use basis.
In large data centers, it can be challenging to keep track of resources and various operations performed with respect to those resources. As new resources are received by a data center, it may be necessary to log their receipt and physical installation. In addition, data center technicians from time to time may need to record diagnostic data, maintenance procedures, and other information relating to individual resources or groups of resources.

Offline management of data center resource information


A method and system for financing the purchase of real property or refinancing real property utilizing a conditional fee simple deed. Under this method a conditional fee purchaser and a conditional remainder purchaser enter into a conditional fee agreement, delineating the rights and responsibilities of each party with regards to the purchase or refinance of a residential property. The agreement includes a determination date, at which time, the conditional remainder purchaser will either receive the entire fee simple interest in the property or will receive a lump sum payment from the conditional fee purchaser for the conditional remainder purchaser's interest in the real property. The conditional fee agreement includes a list of conditions under which the property will pass directly to the conditional remainder purchaser prior to the determination date.

Home ownership has traditionally been limited to those people who are able to save enough money to provide both a down payment and cover the closing costs of the real estate transaction. A typical residential purchase requires the potential homeowner to provide at least 10% of the cost of the home as a down payment, along with these closing costs. This can make home ownership prohibitive for a large portion of the population.
Due to the prohibitive cost of purchasing a first home, a large segment of the population is deprived of the advantages of home ownership. These advantages include tax advantages, such as credits for property tax payments and interest deductions, along with intangible advantages, such as the pride of owning a home, and the ability to have a home customized to the property owner's liking.
The segment of the population that cannot afford home ownership usually ends up in a leasehold arrangement in which the landlord owns the property, and the tenant must pay rent on a regular basis. Thus, the landlord retains the advantages of owning real property, while the tenant has a place to live but none of the advantages of home ownership. Further, the landlord can raise the rent at the end of a tenancy, requiring the tenant to either pay the increased rent or find a new leasehold to rent.
It should also be noted that a conventional purchase of a fee simple interest in real property is normally financed over a long time frame, 20-30 years. However, the average homeowner moves approximately every five to seven years. Thus, the owner of a fee simple interest in real property, who wishes to move before the financing in the real property is paid in full must deal with the difficulties of finding someone to purchase their fee simple interest in order to pay off the financing company.
Further, there is another segment of the population who, having purchased a home using the traditional method of making a down payment and receiving a mortgage, find themselves unable to continue the mortgage payments in a timely manner. Currently, these homeowners have limited options. They can stop paying the mortgage and allow the mortgage holder to foreclose the property. They could also try to sell the property in order to pay back the mortgage holder. Both of these options result in the homeowner relinquishing their home. In the case of a foreclosure, the homeowner also destroys their credit rating and loses their equity in the real property.
It is desirable to have a method for creating home ownership which allows the segment of the population, which is currently prohibited from owning a home, to be able to afford the purchase of residential real property. It is also desirable to have a mechanism by which a person can enjoy the benefits and advantages of home ownership without having to provide a large down payment. It would further be desirable to have a means of financing the purchase of a home, which would allow the homeowner to subsequently move on without the difficulties of finding a purchaser for their fee simple interest. Finally, it is desirable to have a means of refinancing the mortgage of a home which would allow the homeowner to retain ownership interest in the property, lower their monthly payment, possibly stop paying mortgage insurance, and protect their credit rating.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Conditional fee ownership home financing system and business method


One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for computing a parallel prefix sum using one or more cooperative thread arrays (CTA) within a graphics processing unit. The prefix sum input list is partitioned and distributed to each CTA. Within each CTA, the input list is further partitioned for processing by individual threads in a way that avoids access conflicts to memory. Each list partition within the CTA is assigned to one of a plurality of concurrent threads, which executes a prefix sum operation the partition. The final values of the prefix sum operations form a list that is then subjected to a second prefix sum operation. Each element of the second prefix sum operation is added to each element of the subsequent partition, completing the prefix sum operation within the CTA. This technique may be extended to prefix sum operations that span two or more CTAs.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to parallel processing and more specifically to a work-efficient parallel prefix sum algorithm for graphics processing units.
2. Description of the Related Art
A typical computer system includes, without limitation, a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a display device, and one or more input devices. The user interacts with a software application executing within the computer system by operating at least one input device and observing the results on the display device. The CPU typically executes the overall structure of the software application and configures the GPU to perform specific tasks. In current technology, the CPU tends to offer more general functionality using a relatively small number of large execution threads, while the GPU is capable of very high performance using a relatively large number of small, parallel execution threads on dedicated hardware processing units.
A typical software application may include certain functionality designed to execute on the CPU, while other functions execute on the GPU. For example, the CPU may be configured to run the graphical user interface (GUI) for the application and perform certain application-specific logic, whereas the GPU may be configured to perform computationally intensive tasks, such as rendering graphics images. Software applications typically execute as much computation on the GPU as possible to improve overall system performance. However, certain types of common operations are not easily or efficiently mapped to the parallel architecture of the GPU. When the application performs a computation that does not have an efficient mapping to the parallel architecture of the GPU, a "work-inefficient" processing step is commonly needed, wherein the GPU processes related data with relatively low overall processor utilization for the duration of the processing step. Alternately, the CPU may perform the processing step instead of the GPU. Whenever the GPU processor utilization is low or the CPU needs to perform certain processing steps for the GPU, overall performance and efficiency are reduced.
As is well known, one common processing step used in a wide range of applications is a "prefix sum" operation. A prefix sum operation generates a list that is a running accumulated sum over a list of elements. For example, the prefix sum of list: {1, 2, 3, 4} is the list: {1, 1+2, 1+2+3, 1+2+3+4}, or simply: {1, 3, 6, 10}. In conventional systems, running prefix sum operations on GPUs is inherently work-inefficient. Therefore, each time a prefix sum operation is performed, the work-efficiency of the system is diminished, reducing overall performance. For larger lists, the reduction in performance may be larger, limiting the usefulness of this common operation in GPU-based applications.
As the foregoing illustrates, what is needed in the art is a technique for performing efficient prefix sum operations on a GPU.

Work-efficient parallel prefix sum algorithm for graphics processing units


An energy absorbing steering apparatus in which shock applied to a steering column is absorbed by plastic deformation of a bracket for suspending the steering column from a vehicle body. The bracket includes: a first plate portion; a second plate portion bent from a rear edge of the first plate portion toward a lower portion; a third plate portion bent from a lower edge of the second plate portion toward a rear upper portion; and a fourth plate portion bent from an upper edge of the third plate portion toward the lower portion. An angle of a first bent portion between the first and second plate portions is an obtuse angle. An angle of a second bent portion between the second and third plate portions is an acute angle. An angle of a third bent portion between the third and fourth plate portions is an acute angle.

In the event of a collision of a vehicle, a secondary collision in which the driver bumps against the steering wheel occurs to cause a steering column to be moved axially forwardly with respect to the vehicle body. As means for causing axially forward movement, a dedicated energy absorbing apparatus may be disposed, or, as disclosed in Patent Literature 1, a configuration may be employed where a bracket itself suspending the steering column from the vehicle body is provided with an energy absorbing function.
The bracket is a lower bracket which is to be fixed to a front lower portion of the steering column. The lower bracket includes: a first plate portion which is to be fixed to the vehicle body; a second plate portion which is bent from the front edge of the first plate portion toward a lower portion of the vehicle body; a third plate portion which is bent from the lower edge of the second plate portion toward a rear upper portion of the vehicle body; and a fourth plate portion which is bent from the upper edge of the third plate portion toward the lower portion of the vehicle body. A lower portion of the steering column is fixed to the fourth plate portion.
The lower bracket is formed by bending a plate member by using a press die. In the lower bracket, a first bent portion is between the first plate portion and the second plate portion, a second bent portion is between the second plate portion and the third plate portion, and a third bent portion is between the third plate portion and the fourth plate portion. The first bent portion has an acute angle, and the second bent portion and the third bent portion have a right angle.
The steering column is placed in parallel to the traveling direction of the vehicle as viewed from the upper side, and, as viewed from the lateral side, inclinedly placed so that the steering wheel side is in the upper side. In order to allow the steering column to be moved in an axially forward direction by a secondary collision, the fourth plate portion must be moved in the axially forward direction of the steering column while maintaining its posture.
In order to realize such a movement, the angles of the first bent portion, the second bent portion, and the third bent portion must be increased from the respective angles which are formed by the press die.


A first drug delivery system includes first and second drug-container holders and first and second pump assemblies. The first (second) holder is adapted to receive a first (second) drug container having a first (a different second) dimensioned shape but not a second (first) drug container having a different second (a first) dimensioned shape. A second drug delivery system includes first and second bar code scanners, first and second drug-container holders, and first and second pump assemblies. The first (second) holder is adapted to receive a first (second) drug container having a dimensioned shape and to orient a positioned first (second) bar code of the first (second) drug container to face the first (second) bar code scanner because of the dimensioned shape. In one application, the first drug is a sedative drug, the second drug is an analgesic drug, and the drugs are used during a conscious sedation medical procedure.

Known drug delivery systems include drug-delivery sedation systems such as drug-delivery conscious sedation systems. A known drug-delivery conscious sedation system is disclosed in United States Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0017299. In that system, a controller analyzed physiological parameters of the patient (such as blood pressure, etc.) and generated a request for a predetermined response from a patient. The controller analyzed the time delay between the request and the response to determine a level of sedation of the patient. When the time delay between the request and the response increased, the controller determined that the patient was in a deeper level of sedation and decreased the flow of a conscious sedation drug to the patient.
A drug delivery system is known wherein a drug vial containing a conscious sedation drug is placed on a spike of a drug-container holder of a drug-delivery cassette assembly to pierce the drug seal of the drug vial. A peristaltic pump is in fluid communication with a drug lumen of the spike, and a controller controls the pump to deliver the conscious sedation drug to the patient during a medical procedure. A pre-procedure bolus of an analgesic drug is also administered to the patient.
Still, scientists and engineers continue to seek improved drug delivery systems including a drug-container holder and a pump assembly.

Drug delivery system including a drug-container holder and a pump assembly


A mass-production packaging means suitable for mass-production packaging of an organic luminescent display. An organic electroluminescent display panel on which an organic luminescent device has been formed is first provided. Then, an UV laser is used to clean the surface of the organic electroluminescent display panel. A molding compound is applied on the organic electroluminescent display panel by a sizing system. Subsequently, a lid is aligned with the organic electroluminescent display panel and lamination is performed. Finally, the molding compound is irradiated with UV light to be cured. The package is thus completed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mass-production packaging means for an organic electroluminescent display (OLED) and a process therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Since an organic small molecule electroluminescent device was proposed by US Kodak company in Appl, Phys. Lett., Vol. 5, p. 914 (1987) and a polymer material was successfully applied to the electroluminescent device as published in Nature, Vol. 347, p. 539 (1990) by Cambridge University, Britain, the electroluminescent device has been proved to be put into practice. Therefore, many attempts of related research and development have been proposed in many countries.
The organic electroluminescent device has advantages such as self-luminescence, board visual angle (up to 160 degrees), high feedback speed, low driving voltage, full color, etc., that it is considered a new-generation plane display technology. Currently, the organic electroluminescent device is approaching the stage of actual usage and is expected to be the material for a new-generation color plane display. The high level application for the plane luminescent device aims at full color plane display devices, such as small display panels, out-door display panels, and computer and television monitors. However, since the development of this new technology started later than other displays, the new technology still can not be put into practice. Currently, only Japan Pioneer company produces small-size related products. This reveals that the commercialization of the organic electroluminescent display needs to overcome a lot of obstacles, especially in mass production.
At present, most of the attempts of research and development of the organic electroluminescent device focus on the structure of the device and material therefor. Few packaging technologies are known in the art. A summary of the related prior art is as follows:                1. U.S. Pat. No. 5,882,761 to Pioneer discloses a packaging method for an organic electroluminescent device, and a hygroscopic material. However, no description about a mass-production method is provided.        2. U.S. Pat. No. 6,049,167 to TDK discloses a packaging method for an organic electroluminescent device. However, a water-absorptive material is not included. The equipment for the package is batch type equipment, which is suitable only for a laboratory, not for mass production.        3. U.S. Pat. No. 5,958,778 to IBM discloses a packaging method for an organic electroluminescent device, which is characterized by a multilayer protective film and glass or metal used to package the device. However, mass-production of a multilayer film is considerably difficult. Moreover, the adhesion between different materials is also hard to imrpove. Therefore, the IBM method is not useful in a mass-production packaging method.        4. U.S. Pat. No. 5,962,962 to Idemitsu discloses a packaging method for an organic electroluminescent device, which is characterized in that non-active liquid having a hygroscopic material is used to protect the device. However, all of the materials used must be demoisturized to ensure the performance thereof. Therefore, the Idemitsu method is not suitable in a mass-production packaging.        5. U.S. Pat. No. 5,990,615 to NEC discloses a packaging method of an organic electroluminescent device, which is characterized over Pioneer and Idemitsu in that a protective layer is additionally provided on the device. However, similar disadvantages as that in the Pioneer and Idemitsu methods still exist.
As discussed above, in the prior packaging methods, no teaching shows how to carry out mass production is disclosed. Moreover, the technologies disclosed are not useful in mass production. The present invention aims to overcome the obstacles in the prior art and provide a novel mass-production packaging means and a process therefor.

Mass-production packaging means and mass-production packaging method


An active linear amplifier circuit mounted in an optoelectronic package includes input nodes for receiving a differential signal pair, a first bipolar transistor, a second bipolar transistor, an electro-optical transducer and a decoupling circuit. A base terminal of the first bipolar transistor is coupled to the two input nodes and an emitter terminal of the first bipolar transistor is coupled to a base terminal of the second bipolar transistor. A collector terminal of the first bipolar transistor is coupled to a first terminal of the electro-optical transducer, the first terminal of the electro-optical transducer also being configured to be coupled to a voltage source. A collector terminal of the second bipolar transistor is coupled to a second terminal of the electro-optical transducer and an emitter terminal of the second bipolar transistor is coupled to a signal ground which is not the header ground.

1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to optical transmitters. More specifically, the present invention relates to an amplifier circuit for use in a transmitter optical subassembly ("TOSA") for linearly amplifying a differential input signal.
2. The Relevant Technology
Computing and networking technology have transformed our world. As the amount of information communicated over networks has increased, high speed transmission has become ever more critical. Many high speed data transmission networks rely on optical transceivers and similar devices for facilitating transmission and reception of digital data embodied in the form of optical signals over optical fibers. Optical networks are thus found in a wide variety of high speed applications ranging from as modest as a small Local Area Network (LAN) to as grandiose as the backbone of the Internet.
Typically, data transmission in such networks is implemented by way of an optical transmitter (also referred to as an electro-optical transducer), such as a laser or Light Emitting Diode (LED) mounted on a header within a transmitter optical subassembly ("TOSA"). The electro-optic transducer emits light when current is passed there through, the intensity of the emitted light being a function of the current magnitude through the transducer. Data reception is generally implemented by way of an optical receiver (referred to as an optoelectronic transducer), an example of which is a photodiode, which is generally housed within a receiver optical subassembly ("ROSA"). The optoelectronic transducer receives light and generates a current, the magnitude of the generated current being a function of the intensity of the received light. Both the TOSA and ROSA described above are typically included in an optical transceiver module to enable the transmission and reception of optical signals on behalf of a host device in which the transceiver is operably received.
Various other components are also employed by the optical transceiver ("transceiver") to aid in the control of the optical transmit and receive components, as well as the processing of various data and other signals. For example, such optical transceivers typically include an electro-optic transducer driver (e.g., referred to as a "laser driver" when used to drive a laser signal) configured to control the operation of the electro-optic transducer in response to various control inputs. The optical transceiver also generally includes an amplifier (e.g., often referred to as a "post-amplifier") configured to perform various operations with respect to certain parameters of a data signal received by the opto-electronic transducer.
Traditional optical transceivers employ the above-described TOSA that contains a laser in a housing, which housing is configured to couple the optical output of the laser to an optical fiber. The TOSA is attached to a printed circuit board assembly ("PCBA") included in the optical transceiver that contains circuitry, such as the laser driver to bias and modulate the laser. The circuitry on the PCBA is relatively distant from the TOSA and the laser it contains.
Having the laser driver or other drive circuit located a relatively significant distance away from the laser creates a problem in maintaining good signal integrity. This is especially true for higher bit rates. Specifically, the TOSA and laser driver circuitry are ideally impedance matched to avoid signal reflection and distortion along the transmit path. Generally speaking, this will result in excess power dissipation beyond the minimum required by the laser itself.
Another problem associated with relatively large distances between the laser drive circuitry and the laser is manifested in an increased emission of Electromagnetic Interference ("EMI") from the transceiver. The amount of EMI generated is proportional to both the drive current provided to the laser by the laser driver and the current loop formed there between.
Various solutions have been proposed or attempted for maintaining the signal fidelity from the laser driver to the laser and/or reducing the drive current and power consumption of a transceiver by incorporating an amplifier positioned near the laser within the TOSA.
FIG. 1 illustrates an amplifier circuit 100 designed to reduce the power dissipated by a transceiver. The circuit 100 is mounted on and grounded to a header 105 and includes an input node for receiving a single-ended signal over a transmission line 110, the single-ended signal being provided to the base terminal of a bipolar transistor 120. A return ground 130 coupled to the emitter terminal of the transistor 120 draws current through the transistor and consequently draws current through an electro-optical transducer 140 coupled to a voltage source 150. The amount of current drawn through the electro-optical transducer 140 depends on the single-ended signal applied at the base terminal of the bipolar transistor 120 via the transmission line 110.
Notwithstanding its ability to reduce laser driver current and therby reducing EMI and overall power consumption, the amplifier circuit 100 shown in FIG. 1 nevertheless suffers from a number of disadvantages. First, maintaining signal fidelity of a single-ended signal is difficult as it requires a high fidelity radio frequency ("RF") ground to provide a return path for the signal. This requires a very low inductance ground in the signal return path. Moreover, since the RF ground is connected to the header and the header is usually required to be connected to the chassis ground of the transceiver to help dissipate the heat, this can lead to a compliance problem in the system in which the transceiver's chassis is required to be separated from the signal ground. Second, the linear range of the amplifier 120 is limited. When the transistor 120 operates beyond its linear range, waveform shaping of the single-ended received signal is not preserved in the amplified output signal.
FIG. 2 illustrates a differential amplifier and laser circuit 200 designed to maintain signal fidelity. The circuit 200 is mounted on a header 205 and includes two input nodes for receiving differential data signals over differential transmission line 210, a positive signal of the differential signal pair being provided to the base terminal of a first bipolar transistor 220 and a complementary signal being provided to the base terminal of a second bipolar transistor 230. The collector of the second transistor 230 is coupled to an electro-optical transducer 240, and the emitter terminals of both transistors 220 and 240 are coupled to a current source 250. The current source 250 draws current through either the bipolar transistor 220 or the bipolar transistor 230, or through both of the bipolar transistors 220 and 230 in a split manner. The amount of current drawn through the electro-optical transducer 240 depends on the differential data signals applied at the base terminal of the corresponding bipolar transistors 220 and 230.
Despite maintaining signal fidelity via its use of a differentially driven signal, the circuit 200 has numerous disadvantages. First, it dissipates a significant amount of power, half of the power being dissipated through the first transistor 220 without drawing current through the transducer 240. Second, the amplifier circuit 200 is not a linear amplifier, but rather digital. Thus, any waveform shaping performed on the differential signal prior to being provided to the circuit 200 is not preserved when the signal is amplified.
The subject matter claimed herein is not limited to embodiments that solve any disadvantages or that operate only in environments such as those described above. Rather, this background is only provided to illustrate one exemplary technology area where some embodiments described herein may be practiced.

Linear amplifier for use with laser driver signal


A beverage dispenser for dispensing beverages and process may include a fluid container containing a fluid ingredient, a conduit fluidly connected to the fluid container, and an electrical conductivity sensor. The electrical conductivity sensor may be (i) fluidly connected to the conduit, and (ii) configured to sense an electrical conductivity of the fluid ingredient flowing through the conduit. The electrical conductivity sensor may further be configured to output (i) a first electrical signal in response to sensing an air bubble, and (ii) a second electrical signal in response to not sensing an air bubble.

Beverage dispensers have become highly evolved over the years. Where beverage dispensers were once limited to a few number of ingredients, such as four to eight different ingredients, these days advanced dispensers may be configured with over 30 ingredients, and are capable of dispensing over 100 different beverages and nearly an infinite number of blends for users to create using the ingredients.
Current advanced dispensers are expensive to build and maintain due to technology needed to sense levels of the ingredients so that beverages poured include an accurate amount of the ingredients. As understood in the art, if a proper amount of ingredient is not included in a beverage, quality of the ingredient is dramatically affected, and branding of the beverage is immediately hurt for that customer. Moreover, the customer may complain to an operator, such as a restaurant, of the dispenser, which reduces productivity of workers of the operator.
Detecting levels of fluid ingredients of advance dispensers has proven to be difficult. There are a few types of beverage ingredients, including micro ingredients, macro ingredients, and a middle level of ingredients. Micro ingredients are generally acids and flavors that are highly concentrated and are able to produce a beverage using a high ratio (e.g., 150:1) of water or other beverage ingredient to the micro ingredient. Macro ingredients also include acids and flavors that are less concentrated and are used at a lower ratio (e.g., 5:1) of water or other beverage ingredient to the macro ingredient. Other mid-level ingredients may be used in concentration ratios (e.g., 50:1) that are between the micro and macro ingredients.
Because the micro ingredients can be used in such high ratio concentrations, the micro ingredients may be stored in containers, such as half-liter pouches, and still provide for a sufficient number beverage dispenses in a typical food outlet, such as a restaurant, of an operator of the dispenser. Macro ingredients are stored in containers that are much larger, such as 2.5, 3, or 5 gallon bags.
One of the main functions of a dispenser is to automatically identify when an ingredient is empty or otherwise sold out. Typical ways of determining when an ingredient is empty is to sense when air is within a fluid path of an ingredient. To perform the sensing, conventional techniques have included the use of a pressure sensor within a pump that is used to pump an ingredient from a fluid ingredient container and along a fluid path to a nozzle to dispense the ingredient into a beverage (e.g., cup).
One problem that occurs in beverage dispensers is that gaskets and other components can break down as a result of high concentrations of acids and salts in beverage ingredients, thereby enabling the fluid ingredients to leak from the fluid path into the pump so as to cause a pressure or other sensor in the pump to fail. A failure of a pressure sensor in a pump, therefore, requires that the entire pump be replaced. Depending upon the number of pumps within a dispenser, cost of replacing pumps can be very expensive, especially if a number of dispensers in the field are in the thousands.
Another technique for sensing air within a fluid path of an ingredient includes the use of an optical sensor that senses air bubbles. In the case of micro ingredients, it is typical that a certain number of milliliters of air gets into a half-liter container used to store the ingredient. In the case of macro ingredients, a corresponding number of milliliters of air may be contained within a 3 gallon bag. If a small air bubble enters the fluid stream of the ingredient, a pressure sensor does not sense a small air bubble, but an optical sensor does detect a small air bubble. The optical sensor may trigger a false positive in response to a small air bubble of the ingredient being empty, while a pressure sensor may not sense an empty condition soon enough. As a result of falsely sensing that an ingredient is empty, the dispenser may prevent further use of the ingredient in making beverages until the ingredient container is replaced, which requires time for an operator to make the replacement.
Other dispenser designs include the use a small tank with an air vent at the top of the tank. The tank is filled with an ingredient between dispenses of an ingredient, and the fluid ingredient is drawn from the bottom of the tank so as to avoid air bubbles from entering the fluid path. Moreover, the tanks consume a fair amount of space within a dispenser, thereby causing a footprint of the dispenser to be increased. Even with the tanks, sensors to sense whether a beverage ingredient is empty as previously described are required as a safety precaution (i.e., to maintain quality beverages), so adding the tanks to the dispensers is an added expense despite the improved operation of the dispenser.
Moreover, because micro-ingredients are used in such high ratios, a small difference in the amount of micro-ingredient that is used to produce a beverage can result in an out-of-spec beverage being poured. As understood in the art, when even a small air bubble enters a line or conduit from a micro-ingredient container through which the micro-ingredient flows, the micro-ingredient and air bubble may exit a nozzle when a beverage is dispensed. It is well known that taste of a beverage is negatively impacted if a proper amount of ingredient, especially micro-ingredient, is not used to form the beverage. As further known, it is difficult to remove air bubbles from fluid lines. As a result, there is a need to prevent air bubbles from exiting nozzles of a beverage dispenser or from entering a fluid path in which air could potentially exit a nozzle.
Another problem that exists is that air bubbles often cause air bubble sensors to detect that an air bubble is in a line, and may cause a beverage dispenser to incorrectly determine that the ingredient container is actually empty when often the container is not yet empty, thereby (i) causing disruption to beverage dispensing and business operations, and (ii) adding unnecessary cost to operators and ingredient producers. For example, it is a common practice for a supplier of the beverage ingredients to apply credits to an operator if containers of ingredients are not fully consumed, which occurs when incorrect empty ingredient cartridge condition determinations are made due to air bubbles being sensed.
One technique for preventing air bubbles exiting nozzles when dispensing beverages from a beverage dispenser is to prime a line of a fluid ingredient, including a micro-ingredient, after a new ingredient container is fluidly connected to a line because replacing ingredient containers, no matter how carefully performed, causes an air bubble to enter the line through which the ingredient travels to a pump and out of the nozzle for dispensing into a beverage. Moreover, as an ingredient container is depleted, air enters a conduit and other fluid path components (e.g., air bubble sensor), which needs to be removed from the fluid path, as well. In priming the line (i.e., fluid path), the pump is operated to output the ingredient from the dispenser until the air bubble in the line exits the nozzle. The problem with priming the line, however, is that a number of beverages are "lost," especially in the case of the ingredient being a micro-ingredient, due to ingredient in the line being output from the nozzle.
As a result of the shortcomings of existing beverage dispensers, there is a need for a low cost technique to sense fluid ingredients in a more accurate manner over a long period of time so that more ingredient can be dispensed from an ingredient container, thereby reducing overall cost for operators and ingredient suppliers. More specifically, as a result of air bubbles entering the fluid lines of liquid ingredients, especially micro-ingredients, there is further a need to remove the air bubbles from the fluid lines in a manner that avoids producing beverages that do not meet flavor specifications and that minimizes loss of ingredient, and, thus, a reduced number of beverages that can be dispensed by the dispenser from ingredient containers.

Sold out detection using a level sensor for a beverage dispenser