A plug (20) has a guide bar (24) to be inserter in a socket (30). The guide bar (24) has a to-be-held section (241) at a tip end thereof, a dent (244) at a middle portion thereof, and a sub to-be-held section (242) at a base end thereof. When making an engagement, the plug (20) is slanted relative to the socket (30), so that the guide bar (24) contacts contact points (P1), P2). When the plug has been inserted into a depth end of the socket, the to-be-held section (241) and the sub to-be-held section (242) are held by a holding section (342) and a sub holding section (343) of the socket (30), thereby stabilizing engagement posture.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a buckle for securely fastening, for example, a belt, a tape or a string; an injection molding die; and an injection molding method, specifically to a manufacturing die for a plastic molding article having an undercut.
2. Description of Related Art
Fastening by a strip-shaped material such as a belt and a tape is often used in garments, bags, helmets, baby carriages, sporting goods and the like. In the fastening, a buckle that is attached to, for example, a belt and can be manually locked/unlocked is used.
Typically, the buckle has a plug (male member) and a socket (female member) and is locked by inserting the plug in the socket to a certain state.
Such typical buckle consists of the socket having a cylindrical shape; the plug to be inserted in the socket; and a lock mechanism for holding the socket and the plug in engagement.
The socket has a belt-holding part, or an attachment part to be fixed to a sheet and the like; and an insertion opening defined on a plug side.
The plug has a belt-holding part on one end; and a pair of lock arms on the other end, the lock arms extending in a direction to be engaged with the socket.
The lock arm is made of a flexible material and provided with an step-like engaging part in an outer surface thereof so as to be engageable with an inner surface of the socket.
The socket is provided with operation openings in both lateral surfaces thereof, which are for operating the lock arms from outside to release the engagement. A peripheral portion of the operation opening is used as an engaging part inside the socket, as stated above.
With this structure, when the plug is inserted in the socket, the lock arms are engaged with the inner surface of the socket to establish the engagement of the buckle. From this engagement state, the engagement between the pair of lock arms and the inner surfaces of the socket can be released by pinching the lock arms of the plug with fingers to press the lock arms inward, thereby easily dissolving the engagement of the buckle. Such type of buckle is called a side-release buckle, a side-push buckle or the like.
A buckle disclosed in the document 1 (Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 4-84581) has the operation opening defined in part of a surface, so that the engagement thereof can be released by pressing the lock arm of the plug through the opening.
Since this type of buckle can be released only by the pressing, the dissolving operation is simple. However, a user should be careful, as the buckle can be unintentionally released by error.
In a buckle disclosed in the document 2 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-299519), the socket has the operation openings defined in both lateral surfaces thereof, and the plug has the pair of lock arms. Accordingly, the engagement of the buckle can be released by pinching the lock arms of the plug from the lateral sides.
This type of buckle requires the pinching operation on the pair of lock arms, thereby preventing an erroneous operation thereon.
In these buckles, a step face of the engaging part of the lock arm is a slant surface slanted toward the side opposite to an inserting direction as becoming closer to a tip end thereof, while a step face of the engaging portion of the socket is a slant surface slanted toward the inserting direction as becoming closer to a tip end thereof. Due to the slant, the engaging parts are displaced so as to more firmly engage with each other when the plug and the socket in engagement are pulled apart in a release direction, thereby preventing the plug from being pulled out of a socket (see, for example, the document 3: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. H10-57114).
The above described buckle is used not only for coupling belt ends, but also as a sheet attachment buckle for fixing a belt on an upper surface of an article or for closing a flap to cover an opening of a bag.
In such sheet attachment buckle, the socket or the plug is disposed on the upper side of the sheet, and an attachment member is disposed on a rear side of the sheet. The sheet is sandwiched by fixing the attachment member to the socket or the plug (see, for example, the document 4: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-329723).
In the above described sheet attachment buckle, the lock arms may be pressed on the sheet (in a second direction) when pinching the lock arms to release the engagement, the sheet being the article to which the buckle is attached.
Also in the buckle for coupling the belt ends, when handling with one hand, the buckle may be pressed on an upper side of another article during the pinching operation on both lateral surfaces.
To help the release operation including the pressing i.e. the operation in a first direction including the movement in the second direction, a buckle is manufactured such that the middle portion of the lock arm has a cross section with a slant intersecting both of the first direction and the second direction (see, for example, the document 5: Japanese Patent Publication No. 3494588).
When the above described sheet attachment buckle is used for a bag and the like, the socket may be disposed along the upper surface of the bag, so that the plug may often be inserted aslant in the socket. In order to stabilize the insert with a slant, the buckle having a guide bar is produced.
A buckle disclosed in the document 6 (U.S. Pat. No. 495,971) has the lock arm and the guide bar to facilitate the insertion of the plug in the socket. With the guide bar, the socket can be smoothly inserted by placing the guide bar at the opening of the socket while slanting the plug relative to the socket and moving the guide bar along the axial direction.
A plastic molding article such as the buckle is manufactured by injection molding.
In a typical injection molding, a movable die is moved to and closes with a fixed die, molten synthetic resin material is molded in a cavity, and the movable die is opened to remove the molding article.
In such typical injection molding, a concave or a convex in the molding article can be easily formed in an opening/closing direction of the die, but a concave or a convex (undercut) in a direction intersecting the opening/closing direction is difficult to form. This is because the undercut can be interfered when opening the die, interfering with a smooth removal of the molding article.
To solve this problem, a die is provided with a slide core that is advanceable and retractable to the fixed die or the movable die in order to form the undercut with the slide core (see, for example, the document 7: Japanese Patent Publication No. 2003-311791 and the document 8: No. H9-300362).
In the buckle of the document 5, to handle the operation in the first direction including the operation in the second direction and to obtain the pull-out prevention effect due to the slant, the engaging part of the lock mechanism of the lock arm or the socket employs two hook surfaces corresponding to the first and second directions.
Specifically, a first hook surface is provided to a portion near the front and rear surfaces of the socket out of the peripheral of the operation opening of the socket, while a second hook surface is provided to a portion near the lateral surfaces of the socket.
The two hook surfaces are formed in directions orthogonal to each other. A slant similar to the slant of the document 3 is formed to obtain the pull-out prevention effect in the first and second directions.
In the arrangement in which the two hook surfaces have a slant in the first direction and second direction, it has been desired to improve engaging force of the engaging portion and to achieve a smooth and easy operation even in the release operation including the pressing.
The guide bar of the document 6 has the front and rear surface recessed in the middle portion in an arc shape (a direction of the thickness of the buckle), so that the middle portion is prevented from interfering with the opening of the socket even when the plug is inserted aslant relative to the socket.
However, the guide bar with the middle portion being recessed slidably contact the inner surface of the socket only at a tip end of the guide bar, there has been desired an arrangement that can more reliably provide the stability in the postures of the socket and the plug in engagement.
In the documents 7 and 8, the slide core projecting in the cavity is used. The slide core forms the undercut of the molding article. Hence, the slide core is arranged to be advanced and retracted along the longitudinal direction, and the advanceable and retractable directions are limited to the depth direction of the undercut.
Since the direction of the slide core is limited as stated above, a drive mechanism of the slide core cannot be simplified, and it is difficult to dispose the slide core when the molding article has a part facing the undercut.

Buckle, injection molding die and injection molding method


A mechanism implemented by a controller enables efficient access to an interleaved memory system that includes M modules, M being (2n+1) or (2n−1), n being a positive integer number. Upon receiving an address N, the controller performs shift and add/subtract operations to obtain a quotient of N divided by M based on a binomial series expansion of N over M. The controller computes a remainder of N divided by M based on the quotient. The controller then accesses one of the modules in the memory based on the remainder.

Today's high performance processors generally include multithreaded parallel processing cores that perform well on a wide range of computation-intensive applications. For example, a graphics processing unit (GPU) includes parallel computing hardware for graphics applications. Theoretically, the GPU performance is a product of two factors: number of floating-point units (FPUs) and the inherent parallelism present in the application. Major advancement in the semiconductor process technology, such as the continued miniaturization of CMOS devices, has produced faster and smaller transistors, enabling massive number of FPUs in a single GPU. Further, this large number of FPUs has provided the software programmer with substrate to rapidly solve complex problems that have considerable parallelism. These trends have significantly increase the processor performance, enabling leaps in software functionality and making the processor a ubiquitous commodity.
Unfortunately, there are various factors that can contribute to less-than-optimal performance of parallel computing devices, such as GPUs or general purpose processors. One such factor is the design of the memory system that may fall short in providing the matching bandwidth (data throughput) required by the high computation needs of the processor. The conventional solution is to organize memory system as multiple memory modules (banks) that can be accessed in parallel; i.e., interleaved memory. If the memory access pattern is uniformly distributed among all the modules, then full bandwidth of the memory system can be achieved and the design problem can be translated by just increasing the number of memory modules to match the GPU requirements. On the other hand, if the access pattern is not uniformly distributed, there can be significant decrease in the performance due to contention.
Graphics and general purpose scientific applications typically include computations such as matrix operations on dense or sparse matrices, interpolation, convolution, Fast Fourier Transforms, table lookups, etc. These applications tend to generate interleaved streams of access patterns that either contains constant strides or a structured pattern of strides. Moreover, these applications can also generate unordered access patterns that seem random. Thus, there is a need for an interleaving memory system that avoids conflicts and is capable of providing high bandwidth across access patterns.

Fast mechanism for accessing 2n±1 interleaved memory system


Methods and apparatus for enhancing the performance of reflective LCD systems. The high-contrast color-splitting prism system utilizes a "double-pass" prism assembly. Polarized light enters the prism assembly, is color-split and is emitted as separate colors to reflective imagers which reflect each color in accord with a desired image. The reflected light is passed, once again, through the prism assembly where the separate colors converge and the convergent light is emitted to a projection lens for display of the image on a screen. At least one zero-incidence waveplate compensator is positioned between one reflective imager and the prism assembly. The waveplate compensator effectively decreases the unwanted polarized light entering the prism assembly for the second pass-through, thereby increases the polarization purity of the light that is emitted from the prism assembly to the projection lens to yield a high-contrast projection image.

1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to systems, methods and apparatus for achieving enhanced contrast in reflective imaging systems, such as those utilizing reflective liquid crystal display imagers and color splitting devices, such as Philips prisms. More particularly, the present invention is directed to systems, methods and apparatus for correcting undesired depolarization by color splitting devices. The invention maximizes the transmission of light polarized in a certain direction while minimizing the transmission of light polarized in another direction, thereby achieving a high contrast ratio which significantly improves the final image quality.
2. The Relevant Technology
Liquid crystal displays are commonly used in rear projection imaging systems. A reflecting type of liquid crystal panel comprises an array of pixels, which when activated works by reflecting incident light while simultaneously rotating the polarization vector of the light by 90.degree., typically when a voltage or signal is applied to an individual pixel. Thus the signal or image information is contained in the light which is of a particular polarization. If the liquid crystal imager is not activated, then those particular pixels of the liquid crystal imager are in the "off" state, and the light which is reflected from them will have no rotation of the polarization state. The signals from these "off" pixels should correspond to dark spots in the final image. One aspect of the quality of an image in such a system is measured through a parameter known as the contrast ratio, which is defined as the ratio of the light transmitted through the system in the on state divided by the amount of light transmitted in the "off" state. The higher the contrast ratio, the better the overall quality of the image. A display should project a bright image relative to the ambient lighting conditions. High brightness of the "on" pixels enhances the contrast ratio and allows the projector to be used in a broader range of ambient lighting conditions, i.e. a darkened room is not required.
Loss of contrast through a non-polarizing color splitting device such as a Philips prism results from a combination of the geometrical effect from skew rays as well as diattenuation and phase differences in the coatings of reflective and total internal reflection surfaces. The geometrical effects of a polarizing beam splitter have been described in detail in the Ootaki (U.S. Pat. No. 5,459,593) and Miyatake (U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,270), the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference, as follows below. These geometrical effects are a pure rotation of the input linearly polarized light by a polarizing beam splitter. Rear projection imaging systems typically have a contrast ratios of not less than 50:1 as suggested in Ootaki, in the plots showing a 2% dark level (100%/2%=50:1. In the Ootaki patent, white light from a halide or xenon lamp is incident at an angle of approximately 45.degree. onto a polarizing cubic beam splitter. The polarizing cubic beam splitter reflects light which is of s-polarization and transmits light which is of p-polarization (where s-polarization refers to light which has its polarization vector perpendicular to the direction of propagation, while p-polarization refers to light which has its polarization vector lying in the plane of propagation). The light which is of s-polarization is reflected by the polarizing beam splitter towards a dichroic mirror. The dichroic mirror in the Ootaki patent is designed in such a way as to reflect the s-polarized light which is of one color while transmitting the other color components of the beam. The use of more than one dichroic mirrors results in a separation of the incident white light into various color channels. In a typical imaging system, two dichroic mirrors are sufficient to separate incident white light into red, green, and blue color channels. The color selectivity of the dichroic mirror is achieved by the placement of specific optical coatings upon the mirror, which is a well known technique in the art for color separation.
In Ootaki, the first dichroic mirror is aligned in such a way as to reflect the light of one specific color towards a liquid crystal light valve, also commonly referred to as a "reflective imager". The other colors are then transmitted through the first dichroic mirror to other dichroic mirrors, which are coated to allow reflection of individual colors towards their respective liquid crystal light valve imagers. Each liquid crystal light valve has the property of reflecting incident light, which in this case consists of the s-polarized "read-out" light, along with the "writing" light from the "on" pixels which is inputted through the opposite side of the liquid crystal panel from a cathode ray tube. The light from the "on" pixels is of p-polarization. The synthesized image, which contains both the s-polarized light from the "off" pixels and the p-polarized "writing" light from each of the liquid crystal light valves passes back through the system and towards a polarizing prism of the cubic beam splitter type, which will only pass the p-polarized light directly through; and a final p-polarized image may be directed towards a screen through a projection lens.
A limitation in the quality of the performance of this system originates from the rotation of the plane of polarization in the polarizing prism for incident light rays which are not in an eigenstate. Since this rotation is independent of the state of the image generating pixels and causes leakage of light in the "off" state pixels the contrast is necessarily degraded.
Ootaki corrects for the geometrical effects of a polarizing beam splitter utilizing dielectric thin films on a tilted surface. In the color image display apparatus disclosed in Ootaki, each one of the 3 dichroic mirrors used for color separation at 45 degree incidence incorporate additional thin film layers to function as a compensating plate.
Miyatake discloses a similar approach to compensate for the polarizing beam splitter. The approach disclosed in the Miyatake patent is to compensate for the polarizing beam splitter with a quarter wave plate in the optical path between the reflecting type liquid crystal device and the polarizing prism. However this patent does not teach or consider phase differences that may occur in a color splitting device, such as a tilted dichroic mirror or a Philips prism. In the case of a Philips prism, phase differences occur from the reflection at the dichroic and total internal reflectance (TIR) surface. If the incident beam is convergent, so that the incident angle varies over the aperture of the beam, the modification of the polarization by each of these tilted surface is not uniform.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,594,591 which issued to Yamamoto et al.; the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, the inventor has attempted to solve the same problem in a projection display wherein the color separation element is a Philips prism. This system is more compact than Ootaki's imaging system. A Philips prism is known in the art as a color separation device, to separate the polarized light into the three primary colors. The Philips prism disclosed in the Yamamoto et al. patent employs optical coatings upon the faces of the Philips prism for color separation and an anti-reflection coating on the incident prism faces, which also form TIR surfaces. Yamamoto et al. also assert that the optical coatings on the TIR surfaces, which comprise alternating layers of SiO.sub.2 and TiO.sub.2, have a phase control function. The dichroic optical coatings used for color separation cooperate with the anti-reflection coating layers at the TIR surface in achieving this phase control function. While the dichroic coating designs and their spectral and phase characteristics are not shown, it is suggested that they have some phase control function; which combined with a 90 degree phase difference at the TIR surface corrects for the image degradation contributed by the polarizing beam splitter. The variation of polarization with incident angle is not necessarily corrected for in this manner, as this variation is strongly influenced by the angle dependent reflection and phase retardance properties of the dichroic coating.
Optical thin film coatings represent a significant cost component of color separation optics. The inventions taught in Ootaki and Yamamoto require extra thin film layers in these coatings to achieve the optimum compensating function to offset polarization effects that result from non-collimated light incident upon a polarizing beam splitter. Furthermore the phase control function of these layers adds complexity and cost to the coating manufacturing and control process. The thin film thickness must be controlled such that the proper phase function is obtained without degrading anti-reflection or color separation characteristics.
The polarization of light can also be modified with birefringent materials, i.e. a material whose refractive index varies as a function of direction. Birefringent materials are commonly used to form 1/4 wave compensator or retardation plates. Quarter waveplates effectively introduce a relative phase shift of 90.degree. in one of the polarization components of the incident beam as the light goes through the material one time, if the plate is oriented per perpendicular to the optical axis (the axis of the direction of propagation of the beam). A quarter waveplate has a thickness equal to an integer multiple of .lambda./4 (hence the origin of the term "quarter wave plate"), where .lambda. is the wavelength of the light for a particular color channel. Accordingly, in a three color imaging system, there are three different waveplates each with different physical thicknesses calculated to be of a thickness appropriate for the wavelength of the particular channel.
Quarter waveplates can be formed from any of the typical birefringence optical materials. Typical birefringent optical materials include anisotropic crystals such as quartz, calcite, or mica, but may also be composed of organic materials having optical anisotropy. Optical anisotropy can be obtained by stretching sheets of polymeric materials to form films. Alternatively liquid crystal materials can be used as a variable compensating medium in the form of a liquid crystal cell wherein the orientation is modified by the application of electric field. Low molecular weight liquid crystals materials can be formed into solid materials having preferred orientation by the application electric field, or other orientation means, followed by the application of ultraviolet light to initiate a polymerization reaction. Additionally, high molecular weight polymers having liquid crystal properties are known and can be formed into compensating films or applied as discrete layers to substrates.
As previously indicated, conventional reflective imaging systems typically transmit light through a polarizing element, such as a polarizing beam splitter, which transmits or reflects a polarized component of the light, such as s-polarized light, to a color splitting device or color splitter, such as a Philips color splitting prism. Passing light through the TIR and dichroic interfaces of a Philips color splitting prism causes depolarization of the polarized light due to a combination of diattenuation, geometrical effects, and phase difference. While special coating designs can be used to make these phase differences offsetting, this is undesirable for practical manufacturing reasons. The use of conventional anti-reflection and dichroic coating designs in a color splitter changes the polarization state, thereby reducing image contrast and brightness. The phase change, or retardation, and intensity differences between polarization states transforms plane polarized light to elliptically polarized light. A polarizing beam splitter alone rotates the polarization vector of plane polarized light, which can be corrected with a quarter wave plate described by Ootaki. However, elliptical polarization is not corrected by the quarter wave plate. The combination of rotation and ellipticity of the polarization vector is the major source of light leakage when the reflective liquid crystal light valve is in the "off" state, decreasing the contrast ratio and brightness, thereby detracting from the image quality.
The key role of the quarter wave plate when used with a polarizing beam splitter, as taught by Miyatake, is to minimize the transmission of any off-axis polarization components due to geometrical effects in order to make the "off" state as dark as possible. The quarter wave plate can be oriented in such a way as to leave one of the linearly polarized light components, such as s-polarized light, unshifted, while effectively cancelling out unwanted p-polarized components for the "off" state of the reflective imager. When light is reflected from individual pixels of the liquid crystal light valve (LCLV) imager which are in the "off" state, the s-polarized component is again transmitted through the quarter wave plate unshifted. However, the unwanted p-polarized components will be shifted by another 90.degree., making a total shift of 180.degree. with respect to its original direction, thereby cancelling out the unwanted components. Light reflected from the pixels of the LCLV which are in the "on" state will consist of p-polarized light. The p-polarized light reflected from the "on" state pixels will pass through the quarter wave plate only once and will accordingly be rotated only by 90.degree..
The image information from the LCLV travels back through the prism system to the polarizing beam splitter, which, as before, has the characteristic of reflecting s-polarized light while transmitting the final p-polarized image light towards the viewing screen. When utilizing a quarter wave plate in the optical path between each of the three liquid crystal light valves and the Philips prism in such a reflective imaging systems, the contrast ratio is improved by ensuring that the black level is closer to being completely black. While use of quarter wave plates in such a system proposes a means for the correction of rotations in the polarization vector due to the polarizing beam splitter, it does not address the undesired ellipticity and additional rotation added by the color splitter.
A quarter wave compensation plate is also used in U.S. Pat. No. 5,576,854 issued to Schmidt et al., the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. The Schmidt et al. patent was developed for monochromatic systems and does not address the issue of color imaging,. The system disclosed in Schmidt et al. works in a manner similar to the system disclosed in Miyatake, as previously described, namely by the reduction of off-axis depolarization induced by geometric effects when the light encounters the polarizing beam splitter. Schmidt et al. specifically mentions using a wave plate with a value of retardance equal to 0.25 to compensate for the off-axis polarization components generated by the polarizing beam splitter. However, Schmidt et al. additionally suggests that an additional retardance of 0.02 be included to compensate for the unwanted polarization shifts generated by the thermally induced birefringence of the LCLV, an effect which results in the dark state being lighter than desired. Accordingly, Schmidt et al. suggests that in monochromatic imaging systems the waveplate compensator have a total retardance value equal to 0.27 to compensate for the additional retardance, or phase delays between components due to the thermally induced birefringence in the LCLV.
It would be substantially beneficial to identify systems, methods and apparatus for improving the contrast in any imaging system using reflective liquid crystal light valves. More specifically, it would be a significant improvement in the art to minimize and correct for the rotations and ellipticity which occur in such systems that impair the contrast ratio by generating unwanted depolarization and contributing to light leakage in the "off" states of the image.

Systems, methods and apparatus for improving the contrast ratio in reflective imaging systems utilizing color splitters


Novel compounds belonging to the class of oxazolidinones possessing potent antimycobacterial properties especially useful in the treatment of acid fast organisms such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Mycobacterium avium-intracellular complex, M. fortuitum and M. kansai. The compound and its pharmaceutically acceptable salts act as antibacterial agents. Also mentioned is a method for inhibiting growth of mycobacterial cells as well as a method of treating mycobacterial conditions such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Mycobacterium avium-intracellular complex, M. fortuitum and M. kansai., including administering an antimycobacterially effective amount of the compound and/or pharmaceutically acceptable salts. There is also mentioned a process for the manufacture of the compound or its pharmaceutically acceptable salts.

Tuberculosis (TB), an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis is transmitted mainly through air, affecting most often the lungs. When persons with pulmonary TB cough they produce tiny droplet nuclei containing M. tuberculosis, which remain suspended in air for a prolonged period of time. A person who breathes the air containing the aforesaid droplet nuclei containing M. tuberculosis can become infected with TB.
TB, one of the three major infectious diseases in the priority list of the World Health Organization's (WHO) agenda kills about two million people around the world every year. About six million new cases are reported every year and nearly 20% of adult deaths and 6% of infant deaths are attributable to the disease (C. Dye et. al., J. Am. Med. Ass., 1999, 282, 677-686). About a billion people are expected to be affected by TB by the year 2020, with 35 million likely to succumb to the disease (WHO Fact Sheet No. 104, Global Alliance for TB Drug Development—Executive Summary of the Scientific Blueprint for TB Development www.who.int/inf-fs/en/fact104).
With the emergence of the AIDS epidemic and the increase in cases of HIV coupled with TB as well as the continued resistance of M. tuberculosis to isoniazid and rifampicin, the two most powerful anti-tubercular drugs available today there is an urgent need for new anti-tubercular drugs to combat the killer disease (S. H. E. Kaufmann et. al., Trends Microbiol., 1993, 1, 2-5 B. R. Bloom et. al., N. Engl. J. Med., 1998, 338, 677-678).
Although, many new compounds are becoming available for fighting a number of infectious diseases, the number of such compounds having antimycobacterial activity are few. This could partly be due to the complexity of research involved and partly due to business considerations (B. N. Roy et. al., J. Ind. Chem. Soc., April 2002, 79, 320-335 and references cited therein).
However, renewed thrust in research in the last decade has resulted in development of new antimycobacterial compounds,    a) differing widely in structures,    b) having different mode/mechanism of action,    c) possessing favourable pharmacokinetic properties,    d) which are safe and have low incidence of side-effects, and    e) which provide a cost-effective dosage regimen.
Among the aforesaid new compounds, the oxazolidinones first developed during the mid-1980s (W. A. Gregory et. al., J. Med. Chem., 1989, 32, 1673-1681 and 1990, 33, 2569-2578; C-H Park et. al., J. Med. Chem., 1992, 35, 1156-1165) are a unique class in themselves. The in vivo results for some of the oxazolidinones show that they are active against various Gram-positive bacteria such as staphylococci, pneumococci and enterococci, including resistant strains such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus [MRSA], methicillin-resistant Streptococcus epidermidis [MRSE], penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae [PRSP], vancomycin-resistant enterococci [VRE], etc. (B. Riedl et. al., Exp. Opin. Ther. Patents., Ashley Publications Ltd., 1999, 9 (5), 625-633 and the references contained therein).
The oxazolidinones inhibit bacterial protein synthesis at a very early step in the initiation of complex formation involved in the process of translating mRNA into protein. The oxazolidinones, in general, are not cross-resistant with any known antibiotic because of this unique mechanism (D. C. Eustice et. al., Antimicrob. Agents Chemother., 1988, 32, 1218 and Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 1988, 150, 965).
A feature of the oxazolidinone molecule is that only those compounds, which are enantiomers with a (5S)-acetamidomethyl configuration in the left side of the molecule are known to exhibit antibacterial activity (W. A. Gregory et. al., J. Med. Chem., 1989, 32, 1673-1681). Another feature is that most of such antibacterial compounds invariably carry a (substituted) phenyl ring attached to the nitrogen atom of the oxazolidinone ring in the right side of the molecule (B. Riedl et. al., Exp. Opin. Ther. Patents., Ashley Publications Ltd., 1999, 9 (5), 625-633 and the references contained therein).
The most promising compound among the N-phenyl oxazolidinones, which has been approved for human use is (S)-N-[[3-[3-fluoro-4-(4-morpholinyl)phenyl]-2-oxo-5-oxazolidin-yl]methyl]-acetamide), commonly known as linezolid (M. Barbachyn et. al., WO 995/07271). Linezolid possesses good in vitro and in vivo potency against most of the Gram-positive bacteria, including resistant strains (Drugs of the Future, 1996, 21(11), 1116-1123).
The left hand side i.e. position 5- and the right hand side i.e. position 3-respectively of the oxazolidinone ring nucleus allows for many variations and has resulted in the discovery of a large number of compounds having antimicrobial and antibacterial properties. Such representative compounds, albeit not meant to be limiting are disclosed in the following prior art references. These are    i) U.S. Pat. No. 4,942,183 (Gregory et. al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,948,801 (Carlson et. al.) collectively disclose certain 3-substituted phenyl-5-aminomethyl oxazolidinones, possessing useful antibacterial activity.    ii) U.S. Pat. No. 5,529,998 (Habich et. al.) discloses certain 3-benzoxazoyl- and benzothiazolyl-5-acetyl amino methyl oxazolidinones, useful as antibacterial medicaments.    iii) U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,565,571, 5,654,428, 5,756,732, 5,801,246 and 5,929,248 (Barbachyn et. al.) collectively disclose several substituted aryl and heteroaryl phenyloxazolidinones carrying an acetyl aminomethyl function at the 5-position, specifically oxazolidinones having an aryl or heteroaryl group at the para position of the 3-phenyl ring and additional substituents at the meta positions of the 3-phenyl ring, which are useful as antibacterials.    iv) U.S. Pat. No. 5,652,238 (Brickner et. al.) discloses certain 5-acetyl aminomethyl-3-phenyloxazolidinones, substituted at the para position of the 3-phenyl ring with a hydroxyl acetyl piperazine moiety, active against various Gram-positive bacteria such as staphylococci, pneumococci and enterococci, as well as anerobic organisms such as bacteroides and clostridia species as well as acid-fast organisms such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis.     v) U.S. Pat. No. 5,684,023 (Riedl et. al.) discloses certain 3-benzofuranyl- and benzothienyl oxazolidinones, carrying an azido, hydroxy or acetyl aminomethyl group at the 5-position, useful as antibacterial medicaments.    vi) U.S. Pat. No. 5,688,792 (Barbachyn et. al.) discloses certain 5-acetyl aminomethyl-3-phenyloxazolidinones, substituted at the para position of the 3-phenyl ring with a (substituted)-morpholine. Such compounds are useful for treatment of microbial infections caused by staphylococci, streptococci, enterococci, Bacteroides spp., Clostridia spp., Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Mycobacterium avium or Mycobacterium spp.    vii) U.S. Pat. No. 5,719,154 (Tucker et. al.) discloses certain 5-acetyl aminomethyl-3-phenyloxazolidinones, substituted at the para position of the 3-phenyl ring with a substituted piperazine moiety, the said substitution being a pyrimidinyl or pyradazinyl group. Such compounds are useful as antimicrobial agents.    viii) U.S. Pat. No. 5,736,545 (Gadwood et. al.) discloses certain 5-acetyl aminomethyl-3-phenyloxazolidinones, substituted at the para position of the 3-phenyl ring with a substituted piperazine moiety, the substitution being a five membered heterocycle ring, in particular an azolyl ring. Such compounds are useful in the treatment of microbial infections.    ix) U.S. Pat. No. 5,792,765 (Riedl. et. al.) discloses certain substituted 5-acetyl aminomethyl-3-substituted phenyloxazolidinones, the substitution being a heterocyclic moiety, useful as antibacterial medicaments.    x) U.S. Pat. No. 5,861,413 (Habich et. al.) discloses certain 2-oxo and 2-thio-1,2-dihydroxyqoinolinyl-1-oxazolidinones, useful as antibacterial medicaments.    xi) U.S. Pat. No. 5,880,118 (Barbachyn et. al.) discloses certain substituted 5-acetyl aminomethyl-3-phenyloxazolidinones, substituted at the para position of the 3-phenyl ring with a substituted thiomorholine moiety i.e. oxazine and thiazine derivatives, useful for treatment of microbial infections caused by staphylococci, streptococci, enterococci, Bacteroides spp., Clostridia spp., Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Mycobacterium avium or Mycobacterium spp.    xii) U.S. Pat. No. 5,910,504 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,124,334 (Hutchinson et. al.) collectively disclose certain substituted 5-acetyl aminomethyl-3-phenyloxazolidinones substituted at the para position of the 3-phenyl ring with a heteroaromatic moiety, which is five membered having one to four nitrogen atoms or alternatively, a benzoannulated five-membered heteroaromatic ring having one to four nitrogen atoms, useful as antibacterials.    xiii) U.S. Pat. No. 6,069,160 (Stolle et. al.) discloses certain substituted 5-acetyl aminomethyl-3-benzocyclopentaneoxazolidinones, containing an heteroatom, useful as antibacterial medicaments.    xiv) U.S. Pat. No. 6,227,868 B1 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,410,728 (Sciotti et. al.) collectively disclose certain 5-acetyl aminomethyl-3-phenyloxazolidinones carrying an acetylenic moiety on the 3-phenyl ring, useful for treating bacterial infections, psoriasis, arthritis and toxicity due to chemotherapy.    xv) WO 93/23384 (Hutchinson et. al.) discloses certain substituted 5-acetyl aminomethyl-3-phenyloxazolidinones, substituted at the para position of the 3-phenyl ring with a substituted piperazine moiety, useful for treatment of microbial infections caused by staphylococci, streptococci, as well as anaerobic organisms such as bacteroides and clostridia species and acid-fast organisms such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium avium.     xvi) WO 97/10223 (Gadwood et. al.) discloses certain substituted 5-acetyl aminomethyl-3-aminoaryl oxazolidinone N-oxide compounds, which are exceedingly water soluble and useful in preparation of pharmaceutical compositions for combating a number of human and veterinary pathogens, staphylococci, streptococci, as well as anaerobic organisms such as bacteroides and clostridia species and acid-fast organisms such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium avium, Mycobacterium spp. and Mycoplasma spp.    xvii) WO 98/01446 and WO 98/01447 (Betts et. al.) collectively disclose certain substituted 5-acetyl aminomethyl3-phenyloxazolidinones, substituted at the para position of the 3-phenyl ring with a substituted piperazine moiety, the substitution being a six-membered heteroaryl ring containing two or three ring nitrogen atoms as the only ring heteroatoms, useful as antibacterial agents.    xviii) WO 99/02525 (Thomasco et. al.) discloses certain substituted 5-acetyl aminomethyl-3-phenyloxazolidinones, substituted by a thiadiazolyl or oxadiazolyl moiety, useful as antimicrobial agents, effective against a number of human and veterinary pathogens, including Gram-positive and Gram-negative aerobic bacteria.    xix) WO 99/37630 (Gordeev et. al.) discloses oxazolidinone combinatorial libraries, compositions containing the same and methods of preparation thereof involving solid phase synthesis, which provides the said compounds for high-throughput screening.    xx) WO99/37641 (Bartel. et. al.) discloses certain substituted 5-acetyl aminomethyl-3-bicyclene-substituted oxazolidinones, useful as antibacterial medicaments.    xxi) WO 01/09107 (Gordeev et. al.) discloses certain 3-heteroaryl-5-acetyl aminomethyl oxazolidinones, substituted by a thioacyl, aminocarbonyl, alkoxycarbonyl, aminothiocarbonyl, alkoxythiocarbonyl and alkylthiocarbonyl group, useful in treating or preventing an infectious disorder in humans or animals.    xxii) WO 01/42242 (Paget et. al.) discloses certain substituted 5-acetyl aminomethyl 3-substituted phenyloxazolidinones, the substitution being a bicyclic heterocyclic system, useful as antibacterial agents.    xxiii) WO 02/06278 (Mehta et. al) discloses certain substituted 3-phenyl oxazolidinones and to process for synthesis of the same, the said compounds useful as antibacterial agents, effective against a large number of human and veterinary pathogens, including Gram-positive bacteria and acid fast organisms such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis.     xxiv) WO 02/20515 (Madar et. al.) discloses heterocyclic phenyloxazolidinones, useful for treating bacterial infections.
However, only a few of the disclosures described hereinbefore provide compounds that can be used as antimycobacterials, while most of the others are silent about the antimycobacterial activity of the disclosed compounds.
A need, therefore, exists for new compounds possessing potent antimycobacterial properties for treatment of TB, which as mentioned hereinearlier is assuming alarming proportions.

Kalina, Santacruz (East), Mumbai, Maharashtra


A honeycomb structure includes a first end face and a second end face substantially parallel to each other, a peripheral face interconnecting the first end face and the second end face, a ceramic block including plural through cells with partition walls inbetween, the cells extending from the first end face to the second end face, and a coating layer forming the peripheral face of the honeycomb structure. The thickness of the coating layer at the second end face is greater than at the first end face.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a honeycomb structure and an exhaust gas treatment device having a honeycomb structure.
2. Discussion of the Background
A variety of exhaust gas treatment devices for combustion engines of vehicles, construction machines, and the like have been proposed and put into practical use. In a common exhaust gas treatment device, a casing made of metal or the like is provided halfway along an exhaust pipe, which is connected to an exhaust gas manifold of an engine. In the casing is disposed a honeycomb structure. The honeycomb structure serves as a filter (DPF: Diesel Particulate Filter) for trapping and purifying particulates in exhaust gas, or serves as a catalyst carrier for carrying a catalyst for converting harmful gas components and the like in exhaust gas through catalytic reaction.
For instance, in the case where the honeycomb structure is used as a DPF, the honeycomb structure is provided with plural longitudinally extending pillar-shaped cells with porous cell walls inbetween. One of the ends of each cell is sealed by a sealing member such that the exhaust gas that has entered the honeycomb structure from one cell with one end sealed always passes through the cell wall to another cell with the opposing end sealed to be discharged from the honeycomb structure. It is therefore possible to trap particulates in the exhaust gas at the time the exhaust gas passes through the cell wall. On the other hand, in the case where the honeycomb structure is used as a catalyst carrier, a catalyst carrier layer and a catalyst are disposed on the longitudinal surface of the cell walls of the honeycomb structure such that the catalyst converts harmful gas components in the exhaust gas, such as CO, HC and NOx. When in use, the honeycomb structure is generally mounted, with a holding/sealing member such as a mat wound on the outer surface thereof, in a casing made of metal or the like.
A main component of the honeycomb structure is a ceramic block, which is manufactured through high-temperature firing. However, the outside dimensions of the ceramic block immediately after firing are not so controllable, and therefore a coating layer for dimension adjustment is usually provided in the peripheral part of the ceramic block. Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 7-14485 discloses, for example, a technique for improving circularity and cylindricity of a resulting honeycomb structure by adjusting the thickness of a coating layer along the length of a ceramic block.
The contents of Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 7-14485 are incorporated by reference in their entirety.

Honeycomb structure and exhaust gas treatment device


A method for controlling a system of label-switched tunnels through a communication network, the method including pushing a signaling label onto a signaling frame at a first node in the network, and sending the signaling frame through the label-switched tunnels to one or more recipient nodes in the network. The signaling label is popped off the signaling frame at the one or more recipient nodes, which responsive to the signaling label, process the signaling frame so as to eliminate loops formed by the label-switched tunnels.

Local Area Networks (LANs) connect computing systems together. LANs of all types can be connected together using Media Access Control (MAC) bridges, as set forth in the "IEEE Standard for Information Technology, Telecommunications and Information Exchange between Systems, Local and Metropolitan Area Networks, Common Specifications, Part 3: Media Access Control (MAC) Bridges," published as ANSI/IEEE Standard 802.1D (1998), which is incorporated herein by reference. The 802.1D standard is available at standards.ieee.org/catalog/IEEE802.1.html.
Each computing system connects to a LAN through a MAC device. MAC bridges that implement the 802.1D standard allow MAC devices attached to separate LANs to appear to each other as if they were attached to a single LAN. A MAC bridge functions within the Logical Link Control (LLC) sublayer of the Network Layer defined in ISO/IEC standard 7498-1: 1994, entitled "Information Processing Systems—Open Systems Interconnection—Basic Reference Model—Part 1: The Basic Model" (available from the American National Standards Institute, New York, N.Y.), which is incorporated herein by reference. The bridge includes two or more MAC devices that interconnect the bridge ports to respective LANs.
MAC bridges utilize a database to map destination MAC addresses located in the packets to bridge ports. The bridge builds the database by means of a learning process, in which it associates the source MAC address of each incoming packet with the port on which the packet was received. When the bridge receives an incoming packet whose destination address is not located in the database, it broadcasts the packet on all its available ports, except the one the packet arrived on. MAC bridges that do not recognize the destination address will further broadcast the packet. Through the broadcast mechanism, the packet will eventually traverse all interconnected bridges at least once.
Loops in the network topology can cause these broadcast packets to flood the network. If the packet's destination address is not recognized at any point in the loop, the packet will continue to traverse the loop forever. The topology of bridge interconnections must be managed to avoid such loops. The easiest topology to manage is a fully-meshed network, in which every MAC bridge is connected to every other one, and a packet broadcast by an initial bridge will not be further broadcast by the receiving bridges. However, a fully-meshed network is difficult to justify economically and to maintain, especially as some of the network nodes may be located at large distances from each other.
The IEEE 802.1D standard proposes an alternative to fully-meshed networks by specifying an implementation of a spanning tree algorithm to trim network paths that cause loops, along with a communication protocol, known as spanning tree protocol (STP), for managing the creation and updating of the network topology. STP ensures that all data paths in a network of bridges are free of loops by disabling forwarding of packets through certain interfaces. The spanning tree algorithm and protocol thus configure a simply-connected active topology from the arbitrarily-connected components of the network. The spanning tree algorithm takes advantage of a standard feature of MAC ports: the ports may be either in a blocking state or a forwarding state. Frames are forwarded through ports in a MAC bridge in the forwarding state, and not through ports in the blocking state. At any time, bridges effectively connect just the LANs to which ports in a forwarding state are attached. Ports that are in a blocking state do not forward frames.
The spanning tree algorithm defines one bridge in the network as the root bridge. Each LAN connected to the network has a bridge port that connects it to the root bridge. The port is known as the designated port for the LAN, and the bridge of which the designated port is part is known as the designated bridge for the LAN. The root bridge is the designated bridge for each LAN to which it is connected. Each bridge has a port defined as the root port, which uniquely connects the bridge to the root bridge. All ports on the bridge that are neither the root port nor the designated port are put into the blocking state. In determining which port should be used as the root port, STP defines a path cost associated with each path out of the ports in a bridge. The sum of the active path costs from a designated bridge port to the root bridge is defined as the root path cost. STP also defines a priority for each port on each bridge. In its simplest form, the port priority is the numerical value of the port identifier. If there is more than one possible path from a designated bridge port to the root bridge, STP specifies that the path with the lowest cost will be chosen. Frames destined to cross the network will travel from the originating LAN's designated bridge along a root path toward the root bridge. If the destination bridge does not lie along the root path, the frame will be routed through the root bridge and travel along a root path from the root bridge to the designated port for the destination LAN.
STP defines a method of communicating the information necessary for computing root paths in a network. MAC bridges that conform to the IEEE 802.1D standard transmit control information using bridge protocol data units (BPDUs). A MAC frame conveying a BPDU is received by all the bridges connected to the LAN on which the frame is transmitted. BPDUs are not directly forwarded by bridges, but the information in them may be used by a bridge in calculating its own BPDU to transmit, and may stimulate that transmission. The STP uses configuration BPDUs to determine the network topology, as is laid out in the IEEE 802.1D standard (section 8.3.2):                "Each configuration BPDU contains, among other parameters, the unique identifier of the bridge that the transmitting bridge believes to be the root, the cost of the path to the root from the transmitting port, the identifier of the transmitting bridge, and the identifier of the transmitting port This information is sufficient to allow a receiving bridge to determine whether the transmitting port has a better claim to be the designated port on the LAN on which the configuration BPDU was received than the port currently believed to be the designated port, and to determine whether the receiving port should become the root port for the bridge if it is not already.        "Timely propagation throughout the bridged LAN of the necessary information to allow all bridge ports to determine their state (blocking or forwarding) is achieved through three basic mechanisms:                    "a) A bridge that believes itself to be the root (all bridges start by believing themselves to be the root until they discover otherwise) originates configuration messages (by transmitting configuration BPDUs) on all the LANs to which it is attached, at regular intervals.            "b) A bridge that receives a configuration BPDU on what it decides is its root port conveying better information (i.e., highest priority root identifier, lowest root path cost, highest priority transmitting bridge and port), passes that information on to all the LANs for which it believes itself to be the designated bridge.            "c) A bridge that receives inferior information, on a port it considers to be the designated port on the LAN to which it is attached, transmits its own information in reply, for all other bridges attached to that LAN to hear.                        "Hence, spanning tree paths to the bridge with highest priority root identifier are quickly learned throughout the bridged LAN, with inferior information about other potential roots and paths being contradicted."
STP is guaranteed to converge within a finite period of time on a network topology with no loops, given an arbitrary initial topology. The IEEE 802.1D standard further defines an aging mechanism, whereby the configuration information is rendered invalid after a fixed period of time. The root bridge periodically transmits configuration BPDUs, which refresh the configuration information of all bridges in the network. A bridge that does not receive configuration information after the validity of its information has expired, will independently retransmit configuration BPDUs, thus reconfiguring the network in the case of topology changes.
Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) is gaining popularity as a method for efficient transportation of data packets over connectionless networks, such as Internet Protocol (IP) networks. MPLS is described in detail by Rosen et al., in Request for Comments (RFC) 3031 of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), entitled "Multiprotocol Label Switching Architecture" (January, 2001), which is incorporated herein by reference. This RFC, as well as other IETF RFCs cited hereinbelow, is available at www.ietf.org/rfc.html. In conventional connectionless packet routing, each router along the path of a packet sent through the network analyzes the packet header and independently chooses the next hop for the packet by running a routing algorithm. In MPLS, however, each packet is assigned to a Forwarding Equivalence Class (FEC) when it enters the network, depending on its destination address. A short, fixed-length label, allocated to the FEC to which the packet belongs, is pushed onto the top of a label stack, which is attached to the packet at the FEC ingress point. All packets in a given FEC are passed through the network over the same path by label-switching routers (LSRs). Unlike IP routers, LSRs simply use the packet label as an index to a look-up table, which specifies the output interface for the packet and the label that the LSR should attach to the packet for the next hop. The LSR pops the top label off the label stack, pushes another label (indicated by the popped label) onto the stack, and sends the modified packet through the specified interface (also indicated by the popped label) to the next hop.
The packet label is defined by Rosen et al. in Request for Comments (RFC) 3032 of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), entitled "MPLS Label Stack Encoding" (January, 2001), which is incorporated herein by reference. The label includes a stack flag to indicate to the LSR whether the current label is the last on the stack. If the stack is empty, the LSR should be able to route the packet locally using the normal packet header.
The flow of packets along a label-switched path (LSP) under MPLS is completely specified by the label applied at the ingress of the path. A LSP is essentially a tunnel through the network, useful in network traffic management and communication security. MPLS tunnels are established by "binding" a particular label, assigned at the ingress node to the network, to a particular FEC.
Lasserre et al. describe a method to create a virtual LAN using a MPLS network in "Transparent VLAN services over MPLS" (July 2001), which is incorporated herein by reference. This document is available at search.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-lasserre-tls-mpls-0 0.txt. A transparent LAN service (TLS) provides bridge-like functionality between multiple sites over a large network. Users connect to the TLS via regular node interfaces, and LSP(s) between the nodes to which the users are connected form the TLS entity itself. Every node in a TLS acts as a virtual bridge. A virtual bridge node has "virtual ports," which are the endpoints of LSPs that are part of the TLS. The interfaces to which the users are actually connected are "real" ports. Both virtual and real interfaces are treated identically from the point of view of bridge processing (frame forwarding policies and loops prevention). A single LSP can participate in multiple TLS instances, each belonging to a different user.
The TLS network topology is completely specified by the LSP connections, which in turn depend on the MPLS protocol to actually transfer the packets through the virtual tunnels. Since MPLS networks supply an alternative, virtual implementation of layer 2 network communications, TLS can be thought of as parallel to conventional virtual bridged local area networks, as specified in the IEEE 802.1Q standard. From the perspective of the end user, a TLS network is transparent. The user is provided with the illusion that the LSPs are single-hop connections between adjacent routers.
TLS networks are still in the development stage. No clear standards for loop prevention in user-created TLSs exist. Loops can be caused by many events. Transient network outages or network topology changes can trigger establishment of new LSPs. These new LSPs could cause loops in a partial-mesh TLS network topology, due to either accidental misconfiguration or an intentional (though misguided) attempt at establishing backup LSPs. Users may have backup connections on top of a service provider network, for retaining network connectivity between sites even when the service provider network has partially or completely failed, and these connections may also cause loops. (Users can avoid creating such loops by running STP in their own network domain.)
One possible solution to removing loops in TLS topologies is to configure the TLS network as a full mesh of tunnels, as suggested by Lasserre et al. in the above-mentioned draft, but the full-mesh topology is costly and difficult to maintain. Another solution is to run STP on the user and service provider networks together. This approach has security and reliability drawbacks, however, from both the user's and the service provider's perspectives, and is excessively complex to configure.
Senevirathne describes alternative solutions for optimizing use of network tunnels in "Use of Partial Meshed Tunnels to Achieve Forwarding Behavior of Full Meshed Tunnels" (June 2001), which is incorporated herein by reference. This document is available at search.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-tsenevir-l2vpn -pmesh-00.txt. In the context of tunnel-based virtual private networks, Senevirathne describes a number of possible methods for building loop-free network graphs, including an implementation of the spanning tree algorithm. His approach is largely theoretical, however, and does not relate to issues of separation of provider and user domains, such as the particular problem of avoiding loops in the combined provider/user network.
When packets are passed through a MPLS tunnel, the routing label is removed at the egress node, which then simply routes the packet over its next hop using the packet's IP header. There is no need for the label to tell the egress node what to do with the packet, since the existing packet header, which was applied to the packet before it entered the tunnel, provides all of the necessary information. When layer 2 packets, such as Ethernet frames or ATM cells, are sent through a MPLS tunnel, however, the standard layer 2 media access control (MAC) header that brought the packet to the ingress node does not contain all the information that the egress node requires for delivering the packet to its destination. Thus, normal MPLS traffic does not contain any information about which TLS it belongs to.
Martini, in section 5 of "Encapsulation Methods for Transport of Layer 2 Frames Over IP and MPLS Networks" (July 2001), which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a method to encode TLS information into a packet. This document is available at search.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-martini-l2circuit-e ncap-mpls-03.txt. An extra label is pushed onto the label stack with an agreed-upon value encoding a descriptor of the TLS. The extra label is referred to as a virtual channel label, since it uniquely identifies the channel connecting two MPLS routers. Additional routing labels are pushed on top of the stack and popped off again as the packet traverses the MPLS system. The egress router receives the packet with the virtual channel label at the top of the label stack. The router examines the label, and uses the agreed-upon value to determine to which TLS the packet belongs. Martini describes a framework for distributing the agreed-upon values using the MPLS Label Distribution Protocol (LDP).
Martini describes a further use of packet encapsulation in "Transport of Layer 2 Frames Over MPLS" (July 2001), which is also incorporated herein by reference. This document is available at search.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-martini-l2circuit-t rans-mpls-07.txt. In most MPLS networks, the full address space of a MPLS label is not required to uniquely specify a single TLS. The unused bits in the address space can be used to encode Protocol Data Units (PDUs) of layer 2 protocols into the same MPLS label that carries the agreed-upon TLS identifier. The routers agree upon the PDU encoding using the above-mentioned LDP.

Spanning tree protocol traffic in a transparent LAN


A swing drive mechanism, including: a vibrating mechanism, a motor driving the vibrating mechanism, and a transmission mechanism. The transmission mechanism is connected between the vibrating mechanism and the motor. The vibrating mechanism is provided with a grating and a photocoupler that detects the position of the vibrating mechanism. The photocoupler is electrically or electronically connected to a micro-control processor. The micro-control processor controls the photocoupler to detect the grating and adjusts the rotation speed of the motor. The micro-control processor is electrically or electronically connected to an accelerometer.

1. Filed of the Invention
The invention relates to a swing drive mechanism, and more particularly to a swing drive mechanism for electric cradles.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a cradle having a pendulum is in use, the pendulum of the cradle is required to swing stably without wobbling.
Currently, most of swing drive mechanisms for electrical baby cradles are driven by an electromagnet attracting a heavy block, that is, the swing drive mechanisms are driven by a counterforce. During the driving process, the energy output is finished at the moment the electromagnet attracts the heavy block. The force cannot be increased gradually, thereby resulting in an instantaneously irregular wobbling, irregular swing amplitude, and unstable feeling for infants. Furthermore, by the driving mode, the natural frequency of the baby cradles cannot be detected, and thus a resonance between the external force frequency and the natural frequency cannot be formed. Thus, the driving by the electromagnet attracting heavy block has high energy consumption, small and irregular swing amplitude, high production and material costs.


A navigation system includes: a storage unit having stored therein roadmap data, first statistical traffic information data pertaining to a first area which are created based upon a first standard related to a time applicable to the first area, and second statistical traffic information data pertaining to a second area which are created based upon a second standard related to a time applicable to the second area; a search unit that searches for a recommended route; and an estimated time of arrival calculation unit that calculates an estimated time of arrival based upon the roadmap data, the first statistical traffic information data and the second statistical traffic information data. The estimated time of arrival calculation unit executes calculation processing of the estimated time of arrival in compliance with the first standard and the second standard.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a navigation system that executes a route search by using statistical traffic information.
2. Description of Related Art
A navigation system may be capable of executing a route search operation and a required traveling time calculation by taking into consideration traffic congestion conditions based upon traffic information. However, while the route search operation and the required traveling time calculation are executed based upon the traffic information available at the time of the route search operation, the congestion conditions may change significantly while the vehicle is en route. Japanese Laid Open Patent Publication No. 2008-96445 discloses a technology whereby traffic information collected in the past is accumulated as statistical data, statistical data for individual links are extracted in correspondence to specific traffic information collection conditions having been selected, changes in the congestion conditions corresponding to various time points are superimposed over a map on display and a search for a shortest route is executed with accuracy.
In addition, while the congestion conditions are bound to change as time passes following the time point at which the traffic information is obtained, an accurate search for a recommended route may be executed based upon statistical traffic data collected in the past, which correspond to a specific category of day, e.g., a weekday or a holiday, as disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Publication No. 2004-239741.


A transmitting and receiving arrangement as well as a method for transmission of monitoring and/or payload data in a transmitting and receiving arrangement for a wirefree communications system has a device which processes baseband for processing digital signals to form a baseband signal and a device which processes radio frequency for conversion of the baseband signal to a radio frequency signal. Monitoring and/or payload data are/is transmitted in the form of data packets via at least one channel of a channel-oriented link between the device which processes baseband and the device which processes radio frequency.

In wirefree communications systems, a distinction is normally drawn between fixed stations and mobile stations, in which case two or more mobile stations can communicate with one fixed station. In recent years, a range of standardized modulation methods, such as DECT, WDCT, Bluetooth, GSM or 3GPP have become established in the field of mobile radio technology. Transmission data, such as speech, text or image data, is modulated by means of modulators onto a carrier frequency in the transmitting devices in the fixed stations and in the mobile stations. These modulators are generally formed from different functional units. Normally, they are split into a baseband part and a radio frequency part.
Within the baseband part, a baseband signal is produced from the data to be transmitted, by means of digital signal processing. This relatively low-frequency baseband signal is shifted to radio frequency within the radio frequency part. This shifting process is carried out, by way of example, using a homodyne or heterodyne transmission architecture. The data to be transmitted is then sent, after power amplification, by means of an antenna via a radio channel. The data is received in a corresponding manner, first of all via the radio frequency part, in which the original baseband signal is reproduced from the radio frequency signal, and then via the baseband part, in order to obtain the data to be transmitted.
Owing to the different physical requirement, the baseband and radio frequency parts are generally produced using integrated circuits (semiconductor chips) which are separate from one another. This subdivision is also necessary, in particular, as a result of the different power and frequency requirement. One already known example of such semiconductor chips is the DECT PMB 6720 baseband chip, and the DECT PMB 6610 radio frequency chip, from Infineon Technologies AG. The baseband chip and the radio frequency chip are connected to one another via a large number of lines in order to transmit the baseband signal and a range of control signals. A large number of connecting pins are therefore required on both semiconductor chips. In contrast, a small number of connecting pins allows a simplified circuit layout. The production of both the semiconductor chips and of a circuit board in which the two semiconductor chips are connected to one another can thus be simplified, with its cost being reduced. A small number of connecting pins furthermore leads to a reduced contact area, once again allowing a simple housing choice for the baseband and radio frequency part, and thus a lower-cost system solution for the transmitting and receiving arrangement.

Transmitting and receiving arrangement with a channel-oriented link


Graphical User Interface (GUI) facilitated centralization methods and system, including a method that includes displaying a graphical representation of a tubular string within a borehole, accepting an interactive graphical selection of a starting location for a range along the borehole, and accepting an interactive graphical selection of an ending location for the range along the borehole. The method further includes determining string stand-off device positions that provide centralization within the range, and providing said positions to field personnel assembling and placing the tubular string in the borehole.

As the demand for oil and gas has continued to increase, oil field operators have continued to develop techniques for increasing production efficiency. Directional drilling is one such technique, which has enabled oil field operators to drill boreholes that extend and are maintained further within the production zone of a reservoir. Multiple boreholes may be drilled in a pattern radiating out in non-vertical directions from a single common borehole, or as groups of non-vertical closely clustered boreholes. Such borehole configurations allow a larger volume of the produced product to be collected at a single location through fewer wellheads.
But as a borehole deviates from a fully vertical orientation, gravity tends to decentralize pipe strings, causing them to lean towards and eventually contact the low side of the borehole wall. These pipe strings rely upon being centralized within the borehole in order to operate properly. A pipe string may become stuck or even buckle if not kept away and out of contact with the borehole wall. Such issues can be mitigated through the use of stand-off devices, which are mechanical devices mounted on pipe string segments that extend outward from the pipe string. The stand-off devices contact the borehole wall and maintain the pipe string's position near the center of the borehole. For casing strings, for example, such stand-off devices improve cementing of the casing by ensuring that the cement is of the required thickness and balanced around the casing string pipe. However, in order for stand-off devices to be effective it is important to carefully identify the locations for each stand-off device, given the forces and stresses present within a given region of a pipe string.
It should be understood that the drawings and corresponding detailed description do not limit the disclosure, but on the contrary, they provide the foundation for understanding all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the appended claims.

GUI-facilitated centralizing methods and systems


A meter at each user's house has a bar-coded user number shown thereon, and has a display section for displaying a reading. A data input terminal unit has a bar code reader for reading the user number and a keyboard for manually inputting a present reading. A data recording controller has a meter reading data file having a present reading for each user number. The data input terminal unit radio-transmits a read user number to the data recording controller and radio-receives a previous reading, corresponding to the user number, from said data recording controller. The data input terminal unit computes the amount used from this previous reading and the present reading manually input, and causes a printer to print meter reading data including this used amount on a reading slip while radio-transmitting it to the data recording controller.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a meter reading system for use in periodical reading of meters for power, gas, water, etc. placed at a house of each user.
2. Description of the Related Art
At present, in periodically reading a power meter, gas meter, water meter and the like placed at individual users' houses, such as homes and factories, a person who reads these meters (hereinafter simply referred to as meterman) generally goes round to individual users' houses door to door to obtain a present reading on a meter at each house with his own eyes. The meterman then records the reading on a note or multiple recording slips having a plurality of copyable sheets; a previous reading for each user is prerecorded on the multiple recording slips. The meterman subtracts the previous reading from the present one to obtain the present amount used and enters the value on the slips. The meterman then detaches one of the slips on which both the present reading and the present amount used are recorded, and leaves the slip at the user's house or hands it to the user. The slip is a reference for a rate which should be paid via a bank, a post office, or the like, or will be automatically deducted from a bank account.
The meterman brings the remaining slips also having the present reading recorded back to his office in a power company, gas company or the like. The meterman or another operator in this office enters the present reading in a host computer using a terminal such as a keyboard.
As is obvious from the above, it is necessary for a meterman to acquire a present reading on a meter placed at the house of each user, record it on a slip or note, then enter the recorded present reading in the host computer through a keyboard. That is, the same data is read twice by the same person or different persons at different places. This inevitably reduces the efficiency of the overall meter reading work.
As a solution to this shortcoming, there has been proposed a meter reading system according to which an output terminal for outputting a reading is mounted to each meter, and a meterman carries a data input terminal unit having an input terminal adapted to be coupled to the output terminal and connects the unit to the meter to automatically obtain a reading.
According to such a meter reading system, however, meters set at the houses of individual users should be modified, which requires a vast amount of investment in equipment and a great amount of labors in replacing the existing meters with the modified ones. Further, meter reading data as well as a user number to specify this data need be input to the aforementioned data input terminal unit, and the user number should be manually input through a keyboard by a meterman.


A vehicle front structure includes: a front side member; a fender apron member having a front end portion connected to a front end portion of the front side member; a subframe mounting bracket assembly mounted to the front end portion of the front side member and the front end portion of the fender apron member; and a first subframe disposed under the front side member. In particular, the front end portion of the front side member and the front end portion of the fender apron member are connected side-by-side in a width direction of a vehicle.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
In general, a vehicle includes a front subframe mounted on a vehicle body. The front subframe may support an engine, a transmission, a suspension, etc. The front subframe may serve to facilitate load transfer while providing structural stiffness of the vehicle.
The front subframe may be released from the vehicle body through a releasable joint in order to respond to a frontal impact/collision of the vehicle. In particular, in order to reduce the crash pulse severity of the vehicle, it is desired for the front subframe to be completely released from the vehicle body during the frontal collision of the vehicle. As the front subframe is completely released from the vehicle body through the releasable joint during the frontal collision of the vehicle, the crash pulse severity of the vehicle may be reduced, and as the crash pulse severity of the vehicle is reduced, restraint energy (RTE) may be lowered. RTE refers to the degree of impact load excluding a load absorbed by the vehicle body or the front subframe. As RTE increases, crashworthiness (frontal crash performance) may be reduced. In particular, the most reliable way to lower RTE is that the front side member and the front subframe are deformed into a diamond shape and the front subframe is completely released from the vehicle body during the frontal collision.
A front mounting point of the front subframe may be connected to the front side member through a front joint, a center mounting point of the front subframe may be connected to the front side member through a center releasable joint, and a rear mounting point of the front subframe may be connected to the front side member through a rear releasable joint. As the front subframe moves down below the vehicle during the frontal collision, the center mounting point of the front subframe may be released from the front side member through the center releasable joint, and then the rear mounting point of the front subframe may be released from the front side member through the rear releasable joint.
However, we have discovered that the front subframe according to the related art has often failed to be completely released in the event of the frontal collision of the vehicle since a portion of the vehicle body to which the center releasable joint and/or the rear releasable joint are connected is torn and the center releasable joint and/or the rear releasable joint cannot be completely released from the front side member of the vehicle body. Thus, the front subframe and the front side member cannot be deformed into a diamond shape, resulting in a failure to effectively reduce the crash pulse severity of the vehicle.
The above information described in this background section is provided to assist in understanding the background of the inventive concept, and may include any technical concept which is not considered as the prior art that is already known to those skilled in the art.


A method and a device for estimating a first value of a signal formed of a series of values corresponding either to the first value or to a second value equal to the opposite of the first value, where the signal can take values other than the first and second values due to noise.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of transmissions, especially of binary symbol transmissions.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Symbols or data exhibiting two possible values, for example, +1 and −1, are transmitted. After transmission, due to noise, the values of the received symbols distribute around two values, which will be designated as +a and −a.
FIG. 1 shows an example of distribution of the received values. On abscissa axis Ox is plotted value xi of the received symbol. Probability P(xi) of receiving value xi is plotted on ordinate axis Oy. The received values organize according to a curve 1 centered on positive value +a and a curve 1′ centered around negative value −a.
Since the symbol demodulation generally requires accurately knowing values +a and −a, it will be necessary to estimate value a in as accurate a way as possible.
A first conventional method to determine the value of a comprises measuring the root-mean-square value of the signal over several successive symbols xi. The formula providing the estimated value of a, aest, then is:
                                                                                a                  est                                =                                                                                1                      N                                                                                ∑                        i                                                                                x                        i                        2                                                                                =                                                                                1                      N                                                                                ∑                        i                                                                                (                                                      a                            +                                                          n                              i                                                                                )                                                2                                                                                ≈                                                                                1                        N                                                                                (                          ∑                                                i                                                                                a                        2                                                              +                                                                                ∑                                                      n                            i                            2                                                                          )                                            i                                                                                (        1        )            in which ni represents the noise affecting value xi and N represents the number of symbols.
When the noise is very low, formula (1) provides a value aest equal or very close to +a provided that, as is generally the case, the average value of the noise is zero and the series of values xi is non-correlated with the noise.
Another conventional method to determine the value of +a is to calculate the average of the absolute value of the received values, which results in the following formula:aest=<|xi|>=<|a+ni|>  (2)
This estimate also provides the value of +a in relatively accurate fashion if the noise is not too high.
A problem is however posed for very noisy environments, for example, when noise n is greater than the value of a, as in FIG. 2.
In FIG. 2, curve 2 shows the distribution of the received values xi corresponding to the sending of a positive symbol. Curve 2 exhibits a maximum A for value x=+a and exhibits two portions At and Au on either side of point A. In FIG. 2, the noise is greater than in FIG. 1 and curve 2 cuts ordinate axis Oy at a point C. Portion Cu of curve 2 corresponds to negative received values, while they correspond to positive sent symbols. For portion Cu of curve 2, the received values are affected with a noise greater than a.
Curve 2′ shows the distribution of received values xi corresponding to the sending of a negative symbol. Curve 2′ exhibits a maximum B for value x=−a and two portions Bv and Bw on either side of point B. Curve 2′ cuts ordinate axis Oy at point C.
For an area 3 limited by the abscissa axis and curve portions Cu and Cv, any received value xi may correspond either to a positive sent symbol (point P), or to a negative sent symbol (point Q). These values are a cause of errors in the above-described conventional estimates, the error increasing as the noise increases.
From a given signal-to-noise ratio, the results provided by the preceding method become unexploitable.

Estimating of the amplitude of a noisy binary signal


There is a provided a method for deciding transmission power in order to transmit at least one of secret data and non-secret data. The method may comprise: determining whether data to be transmitted by a transmitting device is sensitive to a delay; determining whether both the secret data and the non-secret data are required to be simultaneously transmitted when the data to be transmitted is sensitive to the delay; and applying different weights to the secret data and the non-secret data and deciding transmission power to maximize a total channel capacity according to the application, when it is determined that both the secret data and the non-secret data are required to be transmitted.

FIG. 1 illustrates a wireless communication system.
As seen with reference to FIG. 1, the wireless communication system includes at least one base station (BS) 20. Each base station 20 provides a communication service to specific geographical areas (generally, referred to as cells) 20a, 20b, and 20c. The cell can be further divided into a plurality of areas (sectors). A terminal (user equipment, UE) 10 may be fixed or movable and may be called other terms such as a mobile station (MS), a mobile terminal (MT), a user terminal (UT), a subscriber station (SS), a wireless device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless modem, a handheld device, and the like. The base station 20 generally represents a fixed station that communicates with the terminal 10, and may be called different terms such as an evolved-NodeB (eNB), a base transceiver system (BTS), an access point, and the like.
The terminal generally belongs to one cell and the cell to which the terminal belong is referred to as a serving cell. A base station that provides the communication service to the serving cell is referred to as a serving BS. Since the wireless communication system is a cellular system, another cell that neighbors to the serving cell is present. Another cell which neighbors to the serving cell is referred to a neighbor cell. A base station that provides the communication service to the neighbor cell is referred to as a neighbor BS. The serving cell and the neighbor cell are relatively decided based on the terminal.
Hereinafter, a downlink means communication from the base station 20 to the terminal 10 and an uplink means communication from the terminal 10 to the base station 20. In the downlink, a transmitter may be a part of the base station 20 and a receiver may be a part of the terminal 10. In the uplink, the transmitter may be a part of the terminal 10 and the receiver may be a part of the base station 20.
Meanwhile, the wireless communication system may be any one of a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system, a multiple-input single-output (MISO) system, a single-input single-output (SISO) system, and a single-input multiple-output (SIMO) system. The MIMO system uses a plurality of transmit antennas and a plurality of receive antennas. The MISO system uses a plurality of transmit antennas and one receive antenna. The SISO system uses one transmit antenna and one receive antenna. The SIMO system uses one transmit antenna and one receive antenna. Hereinafter, the transmit antenna means a physical or logical antenna used to transmit one signal or stream and the receive antenna means a physical or logical antenna used to receive one signal or stream.
Meanwhile, the wireless communication system may be generally divided into a frequency division duplex (FDD) type and a time division duplex (TDD) type. According to the FDD type, uplink transmission and downlink transmission are achieved while occupying different frequency bands. According to the TDD type, the uplink transmission and the downlink transmission are achieved at different time while occupying the same frequency band. A channel response of the TDD type is substantially reciprocal. This means that a downlink channel response and an uplink channel response are approximately the same as each other in a given frequency area. Accordingly, in the TDD based wireless communication system, the downlink channel response may be acquired from the uplink channel response. In the TDD type, since an entire frequency band is time-divided in the uplink transmission and the downlink transmission, the downlink transmission by the base station and the uplink transmission by the terminal may not be performed simultaneously. In the TDD system in which the uplink transmission and the downlink transmission are divided by the unit of a subframe, the uplink transmission and the downlink transmission are performed in different subframes.
Meanwhile, transmission power is a key matter to decide a cell coverage. However, when the transmission power is increased, since the transmission power is overheard by a third person, the transmission power may not be thoughtlessly increased.

Method for determining transmission power


A method and apparatus for storing and using “register use” information to determine when a register is being used for the last time so that power savings may be achieved is disclosed. The register use information may take the form of “last read” information for a particular register. The last read information may be used to force the value of the register, after being read, to zero or to clock only that register while masking off the other registers. Several methods and hardware variations are disclosed for using the register use information to achieve power savings.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to reconfigurable architectures and, more particularly, to reconfigurable architectures used to process information in a pipelined fashion.
2. Description of the Background
Traditional approaches to reconfigurable computing statically configure programmable hardware to perform a user-defined application. The static nature of such a configuration causes two significant problems: a computation may require more hardware than is available, and a single hardware design cannot exploit the additional resources that will inevitably become available in future process generations. A technique called pipelined reconfiguration implements a large logical configuration on a small piece of hardware through rapid reconfiguration of that hardware. With this technique, the compiler is no long responsible for satisfying fixed hardware constraints. In addition, a design's performance improves in proportion to the amount of hardware allocated to that design.
Pipelined configuration involves virtualizing pipelined computations by breaking a single static configuration into pieces that correspond to pipeline stages in the application. Each pipeline stage is loaded, one per cycle, into the fabric. This makes performing the computation possible, even if the entire configuration is never present in the fabric at one time.
FIG. 1 illustrates the virtualization process, showing a five-stage pipeline virtualized on a three-stage fabric. FIG. 1A shows the five-stage application and each logical (or virtual) pipeline stage's state in six consecutive cycles. FIG. 1B shows the state of the physical stages in the fabric as it executes this application. In this example, virtual pipe stage 1 is configured in cycle 1 and ready to execute in the next cycle; it executes for two cycles. There is no physical pipe stage 4; therefore, in cycle 4, the fourth virtual pipe stage is configured in physical pipe stage 1, replacing the first virtual stage. Once the pipeline is full, every five cycles generates two results for two consecutive cycles. For example, cycles 2, 3, 7, 8 . . . consume inputs and cycles 6, 7, 11, 12, . . . generate outputs.
FIG. 2 is an abstract view of the architectural class of a pipelined fabric. Each row of processing elements (PEs) together with its associated interconnections is referred to as a stripe. Each PE typically contains an arithmetic logic unit (ALU) and a pass register file. Each ALU contains lookup tables (LUTs) and extra circuitry for carry chains, zero detection, and so on. Designers implement combinational logic using a set of N B-bit-wide ALUs. The ALU operation is static while a particular virtual stripe resides in a physical stripe. Designers can cascade, chain or otherwise connect the carry lines of the ALUs to construct wider ALUs, and chain PEs together via an interconnection network to build complex combinational functions.
One of the key enabling structures for pipeline reconfiguration is the pass register file. An example pass register file 10 is shown in FIG. 3. Pass register file 10 is comprised of four registers 12, 14, 16, 18 (which may have an arbitrary bitwidth); a write port consisting of, in this figure, four multiplexers 20, 22, 24, 26 and a write address decoder 28; and a read port, consisting of, in this figure, a 4-to-1 multiplexers 30 responsive to a read address. The structure of FIG. 3 allows a functional unit connected to this register file 10 to read one value from the register file 10 and also allows a functional unit to write one value into one of the specific registers 12, 14, 16, 18. If a value is not written into one of the registers 12, 14, 16, 18 by the write port, then the value from the corresponding pass register in the previous pass register file in the previous stripe is written into registers 12, 14, 16, 18 via lines 32, 34, 36, 38, respectively.
FIG. 4 illustrates how four pass register files 42, 44, 46, 48 might be used in an application. In this figure, the pass register files 42, 44, 46, 48 are connected in a ring, but need not be so connected. In FIG. 4, only one register is shown in each of the register files 42, 44, 46, 48 although each of the register files could be arbitrarily large. In FIG. 4, data generated by Functional Unit 1 proceeds to Functional Unit 2 through one pass register file 44.
A chief problem with the structure of FIG. 4 is that the value, which is only meant for use by Functional Unit 2, continues through the other pass register files 46, 48, 42, in subsequent stripes. If the value is not overwritten by other stripes using this register, such values continue to propagate all the way back to Functional Unit 1. This activity is worthless for the computation, and dissipates significant power.
A related power consumption problem that occurs in pass register files in pipeline reconfigurable devices is that old values from previous applications that were in the chip continue to propagate through the chip, consuming power even though they are irrelevant to the current computation. Thus, the need exist for a mechanism in the pipeline fabric for terminating signals that are no longer needed for the computation.

Programmable pipeline fabric having mechanism to terminate signal propagation