A mounting assembly 10 for a relay 12 is described. The assembly includes a support base 14 upon which is mounted a printed circuit board 17 with terminals 23 extending through the support base 14 and the board 17. An electrical connector 20 is mounted onto the board 17 with the pins 20A of the electrical connector 20 extending through openings 21 in the board 17 into an aperture 16C in the support base 14. A space 25 is provided between the first side 20F of the electrical connector 20 and the top surface 17A of the board 17 to allow the passage of air around the pins 20A to provide cooling. A relay 12 is mounted onto sockets 34 in the connector 20 and secured into place by a retainer bar 36.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mounting assembly for a relay. In particular, the invention relates to an assembly wherein the relay mounts on a connector which is mounted through a printed circuit board with a space provided between the circuit board and the connector such as to allow for air passage for cooling of the connector pins.
(2) Prior Art
The prior art has shown various methods for connecting electronic circuitry particularly for use with printed circuit boards. Illustrative are U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,904,934 to Martin; 4,685,753 to Isshiki et al; 4,929,185 to Wong; 4,950,170 to Miller, Jr. and 5,018,982 to Speraw et al.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,459,998 to Focarile describes a modular circuit assembly which uses connector blocks to provide spacing between printed circuit boards so that air circulates between the spaced boards.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,907,926 to Slack describes a means for packaging electrical circuit assemblies where spacers are used to separate the metalized circuit boards and also to serve as connectors between the boards.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,738,024 to Eberhardt describes a heat dissipating assembly for solid state components and control circuitry where the printed circuit boards are enclosed in a housing and separated through the use of the conduits on the electronic components. The boards are spaced primarily to provide thermal insulation for the control circuitry from the power circuitry.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,218,724 to Kaufman described a circuit package where two substrates which contain electronic circuitry are spaced within the housing with one substrate serving to close the opening of the housing to allow for mounting of the housing adjacent to a heat sink. The substrate adjacent to the heat sink will advantageously contain the power circuitry.
Also of interest is U.S. Pat. No. 4,791,290 to Noone which describes a photoelectric control unit with a cooling chamber for cooling of the connector pins. The connector pins are designed such that a large amount of the surface area of the connector pins is in contact with the side and base walls of the chamber. The cooling chamber is also substantially filled with a heat transfer medium to conduct heat away from the pins and into the side and base walls.
The above prior art relates to the spacing of printed circuit boards usually to separate heat generating components from the other components. However, the thought is to cool the entire system through the use of heat sinks or the passage of air. The problem is that there is no effective way to provide cooling of an electrical connector mounted on a printed circuit board which provides an easy method of attachment for an electronic component such as a relay.


Modules of a network switch receive data transmissions from network stations via its I/O ports, each data transmission including an address of a source network station sending the transmission and an address of a destination station to receive the transmission. Each module receiving a data transmission either passes it on to a next module of the network switch via a ring bus or forwards it to the destination station when it is accessible via one of the module""s own I/O ports. Each module includes an address translation unit mapping the network address of each station to the particular I/O port though which that network station communicates. The address translation unit updates its address-to-port mapping when a data transmission arrives at an I/O port from a source station having an unmapped or incorrectly mapped address, and then sends a mapping instruction to address translation units of all other switch modules via the ring bus telling them to similarly update their network address mappings.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to an expandable modular network switch for routing data between network stations.
2. Description of Related Art
Computer networks transfer data between computers or other types of network stations that are connected through buses to input/output (I/O) ports of a network hub or switch. A network hub is simply a repeater for receiving a data transmission at any of its I/O ports and for rebroadcasting the data transmission outward on all of its other I/O ports. Thus all network stations connected to a network hub receive all data transmissions sent to the hub. A header in each data transmission indicates the intended destination station for the data transmission, and on receiving a data transmission, each network station looks at the data transmission header to determine whether it should accept or ignore an incoming data transmission. Network hubs do not make efficient use of the bandwidth of network buses because most of the data transmission traffic a network station receives may be intended for another station.
A network switch also has I/O ports that may be connected to several network stations, but a network switch routes an incoming data transmission arriving at one I/O port only to the particular I/O port serving the network station that is to receive the data transmission. A network switch makes more efficient use of network bus bandwidth because each network station normally receives only the data transmission traffic directed to it, unless more than one station share the same switch I/O port. Since the data transmission header only indicates the destination station""s network address, and does not indicate which I/O port serves the network station, the network switch must be able to translate between each network station""s network address and address of the particular I/O port that serves the destination station. Network switches therefore typically include address translation units including lookup tables which convert network station addresses to I/O port addresses. Each data transmission header also includes the network address of the station sending the data transmission. Sophisticated network switches automatically learn each station""s network address and build their address translation tables by reading the source address included in the header of each incoming data transmission and making note of the I/O port on which the data transmission arrived.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,754,791 entitled xe2x80x9cNetwork Switch with Broadcast Supportxe2x80x9d, issued Jul. 21, 1998 to Dahlgren et al describes a network switch that allows a network station to broadcast a data transmission to all network stations. The broadcasting station sets the destination address included in the data transmission header to a particular xe2x80x9cbroadcastxe2x80x9d address. The network switch receiving the data transmission responds to the broadcast address by broadcasting the data transmission outward on all I/O ports. Also, when an incoming data transmission is addressed to a network station having a network address that a network switch has not yet learned, the network switch may broadcast the data transmission outward from all of its I/O ports in the same manner as a network hub so that each network station can examine the data transmission header and accept it if it has the correct data transmission address.
Since a network switch has a limited number of I/O ports, it can serve only a limited number of network stations. However when some of the I/O ports of a network switch are linked to I/O ports of other network switches, they form a larger network switch that can serve a larger number of network stations. One problem with interconnecting smaller network switches to form a larger network switch arises when the smaller switches don""t share their address translation information. While one network switch may have logged a particular network station""s address logged into its address translation table, other network switches which have not yet received a data transmission from that particular network station may not have logged the network address into their address translation tables. When a network switch receives a data transmission directed to an unmapped network address, it doesn""t know which I/O port is to forward the data transmission and therefore must broadcast that data transmission outward on all of its I/O ports. Since broadcasting a data transmission ties up system resources, it would be beneficial if the various network switches could share the address translation information that they acquire.
Some prior art systems a single, central address translation server linked by a parallel bus to all network switches for mapping network addresses to the ports. Whenever a switch receives a data transmission it consults the address translation server to determine how to route the data transmission and also provides the server with information it needs to map network addresses of new stations. A central address translation server system cuts down on the need for broadcasting data transmissions because address translation information gathered by all switches is shared by all other switches. But under high traffic conditions the bandwidth of the parallel bus interconnecting the address translation server to the various network switches or the operating speed of the server itself can limit network throughput as the various switches compete for access to the address translation server.
Another inefficiency associated with interconnecting multiple network switches is that each switch along the route of a data transmission through a set of interconnected switches has to retranslate the address. The time required to translation addresses several times can increase the total time required to route a data transmission through the switches.
What is needed is network switch architecture that allows multiple interconnected network switches to be easily interconnected, which allows the network switch to share address translation information without overloading a central address translation server, and which minimizes the number of times an address must be translated when routed through several interconnect network switches. In this way, multiple switches can be interconnected or xe2x80x9cstackedxe2x80x9d such that they act as a single large switch.
A modular network switch in accordance with the present invention routes data transmissions between a set of network stations, each network station having a unique network address. The switch includes a set of switch modules, with each module including a set of I/O ports, each I/O having a unique port ID. Each I/O port may be linked to a network bus for conveying data transmissions to and from one more of the network stations.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, all network switch modules are interconnected in series by a ring bus to form a loop network of switch modules. The ring bus connection to each switch module includes a set of incoming data lines through which each switch module may receive data transmissions from a preceding module of the loop network and a set of outgoing data lines through which each switch module may forward data transmissions to a next module of the loop network.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the ring bus also includes a set of ID lines. When a switch module is added to the network switch, each port of that module assigns itself a unique port ID by communicating with ports of other modules via those ID lines bus to learn their port IDs and then assigning itself an unassigned port ID.
In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, each switch module includes its own address translation unit for mapping the network address of each said network station to a port ID of the I/O port to which the network station is linked. The switch module consults its own address translation unit to determine how to route data transmissions though the module. The address translation unit updates its address mapping when a data transmission arrives at one of its I/O ports from a network station having an unmapped or incorrectly mapped network address. The address translation units are linked by a set of address mapping lines of the ring bus, and whenever the address translation unit of any one module updates its network address mapping, it sends a mapping instruction to address translation units of all other switch modules in turn via those mapping lines. The mapping instruction tells the other modules to similarly update their network address maps. Since the switch modules use the ring bus to share the address mapping information they acquire, each module is able to correctly route an incoming data transmission toward ports of other switch modules after any module of the switch learns the port ID associated with the destination network address.
In accordance with a still further aspect of the invention, when a switch module consults its local address translation unit and determines that an incoming data transmission is to be forwarded by a port of another module, the receiving module forwards the data transmission to the other module via the data lines of the ring bus. Along with the data transmission, the receiving module also sends the port ID of the I/O port that is to forward the transmission to its destination network station. Since the destination port ID is included with the transmission, the other switch modules that receive the transmission via the ring bus do not have to re-translate the destination address to determine where to forward the transmission.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, in an alternative embodiment thereof, the ring bus is replaced with a parallel backplane bus.
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a modular network switch implementing peer-to-peer sharing of address-to-port mapping information between address translation units of the switch modules to reduce the likelihood that a module receiving an incoming transmission will not know which switch port is to forward the transmission. This is beneficial because it reduces the likelihood that the receiving switch module will have to broadcast the transmission to all I/O ports.
It is another object of the invention to provide a modular network switch which minimizes the amount of address translation information that must be sent to and from each switch module. The peer-to-peer address translation network architecture is an improvement over prior art modular systems employing centralized address translation servers because in the peer-to-peer system address translation information is sent between switch modules only when there is a change in mapping, and not whenever a data transmission arrives at any switch port.
The concluding portion of this specification particularly points out and distinctly claims the subject matter of the present invention. However those skilled in the art will best understand both the organization and method of operation of the invention, together with further advantages and objects thereof, by reading the remaining portions of the specification in view of the accompanying drawing(s) wherein like reference characters refer to like elements.

Modular network switch with peer-to-peer address mapping communication


An antenna system for a mobile terminal and a mobile terminal are provided. The antenna system includes a first antenna group, a second antenna group and a third antenna group distributed on a housing, where the first antenna group includes a plurality of first antennas, the second antenna group includes a plurality of second antennas, the third antenna group includes a plurality of third antennas, the first antennas operates at a 4G band, the second antennas operates at a Sub 6G band, and the third antennas operates at a 5G millimeter-wave band. According to the antenna system of the present disclosure, the mobile terminal applying the antenna system can realize 4G and 5G mobile communications at the same time, and have multiple signal transmission modes and improve the signal transmission efficiency.

Mobile terminals (such as mobile phones, tablets and computers) include a housing and an antenna mounted on the housing. With the development of 5G mobile communication, the antenna in the mobile terminals will carry more and more frequency bands.
How to reasonably configure the number and layout of the antenna in a compact mobile terminal environment will be the key to antenna design in the mobile terminals.
The present disclosure is intended to provide an antenna system to solve the above-mentioned problems.

Antenna system for mobile terminal and mobile terminal


A circuit comprising a plurality of groups of memory cells and a control circuit. The plurality of groups of memory cells may each (i) have a first and a second bitline and (ii) configured to read and write data to one or more of the plurality of groups of memory cells. The control circuit may be configured to select an active group of the plurality of groups in response to one or more control signals. The control circuit may be implemented within the groups of memory cells.

The present invention relates to memory circuits generally and, more particularly, to an architecture, method and/or circuit for implementing a low power memory.
Conventional memory architectures includes features that waste DC and AC current consumption by one or more of the following (i) passive (no gain) static loads, (ii) large sub-wordlines, (iii) sub-wordline circuits not included in the memory array, (iv) row, column and block array partitions not included in the memory array, (v) double ended buses (address path, local and global data output path, data input path), (vi) equalization circuitry placed at one end of the memory array, (vii) address predecoders, and/or (viii) replaced defective blocks still connected to the source current.
The present invention concerns a circuit comprising a plurality of groups of memory cells and a control circuit. The plurality of groups of memory cells may each (i) have a first and a second bitline and (ii) configured to read and write data to one or more of the plurality of groups of memory cells. The control circuit may be configured to select an active group of the plurality of groups in response to one or more control signals. The control circuit may be implemented within the groups of memory cells.
The objects, features and advantages of the present invention include providing a memory that may (i) reduce and/or eliminate DC current consumption, (ii) minimize rail-to-rail switching capacitance, (iii) reduce the amount of rail-to-rail switching, and/or (iv) reduce AC current consumption,

Architecture, method (s) and circuitry for low power memories


A system and method of displaying position information including an image in a navigation system are disclosed. The navigation system has an information center and a mobile terminal. The information center includes a database for storing a node message with node image information about the geographical features of a node and a database for storing map data. The node image information is divided into image segments corresponding to directions. The information center sets a route according to a current position and a destination of the mobile terminal, generates map data including the route and nodes in the route, and transmits it to the mobile terminal. The mobile terminal selects nodes for which to receive node messages in the map data. The information center transmits a node message for the next node each time the mobile terminal reaches each of the selected nodes. The mobile terminal reproduces the node message.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a position displaying system and method in a navigation system. In particular, the present invention relates to a system and method of displaying information about a predetermined node including an image of the node during moving.
2. Description of the Related Art
A Global Positioning System (GPS) enabled mobile terminal can determine its position using signals received from its GPS receiver. The development of a GPS-based navigation system has brought about the proliferation of GPS-enabled navigation devices. Navigation devices equipped with a GPS receiver can store map information on a recording medium such as a compact disk (CD). As the navigation device moves, the GPS receiver detects the position of the navigation device and outputs the position information to the navigation device. The navigation device then displays its position on the map according to the GPS information. Or the navigation device downloads the map information and the position information from the GPS receiver and displays its position on the map. The navigation device can be a navigator in a vehicle or a mobile terminal.
In a conventional navigation system, when the mobile terminal selects an intended destination, an information center determines a route to the destination. During the movement of the mobile terminal, the information center provides information about nodes along the route as the mobile terminal reaches each of the nodes, thus displaying the current position of the mobile terminal on the map two-dimensionally or three-dimensionally.
However, the conventional navigation system cannot selectively provide information about user-desired nodes. Moreover, the mobile terminal's displaying position information received from the GPS device on the map has limitations in helping a user to be aware of the surroundings of the area. Thus, there is a need for a navigation system that allows the user to select intended nodes and transmit image information about the surroundings of the nodes to the user.

System and method of displaying position information including an image in a navigation system


A neutron detector for use in high energy flux environments. Multiple stacked arrays of biased Si PIN diodes are provided with adjustable lower and upper energy detection thresholds. Shielding along the sides and back of the detector limits the sensing to along the forward line of sight of the detector, and a short time gate limits sensing of an individual cell to a single event.

The Neutral Particle Beam system is a key component in the Strategic Defense Initiative defense scenario. It can discriminate between reentry vehicles containing warheads and high-replica decoys and other penetration aids in the midcourse flight regime. This ability to discriminate and kill these assets derives from the interactions between the neutral particle beam and the target materials, and from the detailed nature and quantity of the induced emissions generated by the interactions.
One such emission attractive for potential use is the neutron. A major problem in realizing the necessary discrimination capability involves neutron detection in a high background radiation environment, particularly in the case of a nuclear burst. No such detector has heretofore been available.
The advanced neutron detector of the present invention is capable of operating in the hostile exoatmospheric environment which includes albedo neutrons, gamma rays, and cosmic rays. The operating environment is made even more hostile by the presence of inadvertent and/or advertent nuclear bursts. Of particular concern are the late-time neutron and gamma rays due to nuclear bursts.
Consequently, a detector is needed which will enable execution of midcourse discrimination by the leading candidate observable, the neutral particle beam induced neutron yield as a measure of the mass of the body being probed. For such a detector to be useful, it must be high in efficiency, low in weight, and modest in cost. These objectives require a breakthrough in the neutron detector technology.
In a hostile space environment, especially during nuclear engagement, the background can be filled with high energy particles. The nuclear burst produced background neutron environment the detector sees could be a very large factor, typically 10 larger than the neutron signal produced by neutral particle beam interaction with the body being probed at ranges of interest. Therefore, a good detector must be able to discriminate targets within this hostile scenario. Furthermore, the required neutron detector must be highly efficient so that the detector weight and costs are affordable.


The present invention provides compositions and methods for modulating smoothened-dependent pathway activation. The present invention provides analogs of cyclopamine that can be used to counteract the phenotypic effects of unwanted activation of a hedgehog pathway, such as resulting from hedgehog gain-of-function, Ptc loss-of-function or smoothened gain-of-function mutations. The compounds of the present invention are particularly useful in treating cancers.

The hedgehog signaling pathway is essential for numerous processes during embryonic development. Members of the hedgehog family of secreted proteins control cell proliferation, differentiation and tissue patterning. The pathway was first deciphered in the fruit fly Drosophila, but since has been shown to be highly conserved in invertebrates and vertebrates, including humans. The overall activity of the hedgehog signaling pathway declines after embryogenesis in most cells, but the pathway remains active in certain adult cell types. Recently, it has been shown that uncontrolled activation of the hedgehog pathway results in certain types of cancer as detailed below.
The Hedgehog polypeptide is a secreted protein that functions as a signaling ligand in the hedgehog pathway. Exemplary hedgehog genes and proteins are described in PCT publications WO 95/18856 and WO 96/17924. Three different forms of the hedgehog protein are found in humans; Sonic hedgehog (Shh), Desert hedgehog (Dhh) and Indian hedgehog (Ihh). Sonic hedgehog is the most prevalent hedgehog member in mammals and also is the best characterized ligand of the hedgehog family. Prior to secretion, Shh undergoes an intramolecular cleavage and lipid modification reaction. The lipid modified peptide is responsible for all signaling activities
Two transmembrane proteins are involved in signal transduction of in the hedgehog pathway; the twelve-transmembrane Patched receptor (Ptc) and the seven-transmembrane Smoothened protein (Smo).
The findings in the art suggest that Hedgehog acts by binding to Ptc, thereby releasing an inhibitory effect of Ptc on Smo. Since Ptc and Smo are both transmembrane proteins, a proposed scenario is that they physically associate to form a receptor complex, though indirect mechanisms of action are also plausible. The derepression of Smo from Ptc inhibition most likely involves a conformational change in Smo. Ptc, however, is not essential for Smo's activity, since Smo becomes constitutively activated in the complete absence of Patched protein (Alcedo et al, supra; Quirk et al. (1997) Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quant. Biol. 62: 217-226). Once Smo is derepressed it is rapidly and highly phosphorylated and transduces a signal that activates transcription via the Gli transcription factors (homologue of Dropophila Ci protein) (Alexandre et al. (1996) Genes Dev. 10: 2003-13)). The Gli1 transcription factor up-regulates many genes involved in growth and development (Alexandre et al., supra). Hedgehog signaling is essential in many stages of development, especially in formation of left-right symmetry. Loss or reduction of hedgehog signaling leads to multiple developmental deficits and malformations, one of the most striking of which is cyclopia (Belloni et al. (1996) Nature Genetics 14: 353-6).
Recently, it has been reported that activating hedgehog pathway mutations occur in sporadic basal cell carcinoma (Xie et al. (1998) Nature 391: 90-2) and primitive neuroectodermal tumors of the central nervous system (Reifenberger et al. (1998) Cancer Res 58: 1798-803). Uncontrolled activation of the hedgehog pathway has also been shown in numerous cancer types such as GI tract cancers including pancreatic, esophageal, gastric cancer (Berman et al. (2003) Nature 425: 846-51, Thayer et al. (2003) Nature 425: 851-56) lung cancer (Watkins et al. (2003) Nature 422: 313-317, prostate cancer (Karhadkar et al (2004) Nature 431: 707-12, Sheng et al. (2004) Molecular Cancer 3: 29-42, Fan et al. (2004) Endocrinology 145: 3961-70), breast cancer (Kubo et al. (2004) Cancer Research 64: 6071-74, Lewis et al. (2004) Journal of Mammary Gland Biology and Neoplasia 2: 165-181) and hepatocellular cancer (Sicklick et al. (2005) ASCO conference, Mohini et al. (2005) AACR conference).
Small molecule inhibition of hedgehog pathway activity has been shown to result in cell death in a number of different cancer types having uncontrolled hedgehog pathway activation (See, for example, Berman et al., 2003 Nature 425: 846-51).
Hedgehog pathway antagonists are currently being explored in a large number of clinical conditions where a therapeutic effect can be obtained for a condition or disorder by inhibiting one or more aspects of Hedgehog pathway activity. Although the primary focus has been on cancer, investigators have found that small molecule inhibition of the hedgehog pathway has been shown to ameliorate the symptoms of psoriasis (Tas, et al., 2004 Dermatology 209: 126-131, published US patent application 20040072913 (herein incorporated by reference)). Psoriasis is a very common, chronic skin disorder typically characterized by skin lesions usually containing erythematous papules and plaques with a silver scale, although there are variations both on the skin and in other parts of the body. Psoriasis is currently thought to be an autoimmune disease but its etiology is still poorly understood.
A hedgehog pathway inhibitor that has attracted considerable interest is the natural product cyclopamine. Cyclopamine was first isolated from the lily Veratrum californicum in 1966 after it was found that the offspring of grazing sheep were born with severe birth deformities. In an effort to identify the agent(s) responsible for causing these birth deformities, the FDA investigated possible sources of tetragens and identified the jervine family of steroidal alkaloids, including the compound cyclopamine, as the tetragens responsible for the birth deformities.
Much later, it was found that cyclopamine's mechanism of action was through the inhibition of hedgehog pathway activity (Cooper et al. (1998) Science 280: 1603-7, Chen et al., (2002) Genes and Development 16: 2743-8). Cyclopamine and related compounds have been shown to have anticancer activities through action on the hedgehog pathway. Despite initial promise, no members of this family of compounds, or analogues thereof, have been successfully developed as an anticancer agent. The present invention fulfills this need and has other related advantages.

Cyclopamine analogues and methods of use thereof


Handover in a wireless communications system from a first communications platform to a post-handover platform is implemented utilizing low-level synchronization mechanisms to enable at least some of a plurality of terminals to adjust timing and synchronize communications with the post-handover platform. Synchronization with the post-handover platform can be facilitated based on a comparison between an expected time to receive response data and the actual time that such data is received from the post-handover platform.

Wireless communication systems have become increasingly popular for many applications and types of information, including voice and data communications. Such communication systems are designed to communicate information in a transparent manner, with each end user (e.g., communication equipment, such as terminals or base stations) generally being responsible for ensuring that the data ultimately delivered is in a desired form. An advantage of wireless communication is the mobility of communications equipment.
Many wireless communications systems employ a layered architecture for digital communication systems, such as based on the International Organization for Standardization reference model for Open Systems Interconnection (referred to as the "OSI Reference Model"). The OSI Reference Model provides a standard to facilitate connecting open systems; namely, systems that are open for communication with other systems. The OSI model has seven layers, each of which performs a well-defined function. The layers include a physical layer, a data link layer, a network layer, a transport layer, a session layer, a presentation layer and an application layer.
Due to the mobility of communications equipment and satellite stations, in operation, it is often necessary to pass signaling from one base station or platform to a next base station, which event is referred to as a handover. Typically, handover occurs as part of bi-directional communication between the network and the terminal equipment that is being handed over to a new platform or frequency. Such bi-directional communication is usually implemented via high-level communications in the OSI communications model, such as at the network layer or other higher layer. The network layer handover usually requires several messages to be exchanged in sequence between the network and the terminal being handed over. This message exchange can cause considerable delay in achieving the handover. Additionally, because the data in the message exchange is higher level data (e.g., network layer data), the messages are processed by the network and terminals in order to implement the handover event. Accordingly, undesirable processing delays also can accompany such handover, which can further tie up system resources. The delays become even more significant when there are increased propagation delays due to such signaling between the terminals being handed over and the network.
While a network layer handover is generally manageable for handover events for small numbers of terminal, the messaging and processing delays associated with network level handover tend to become even more pronounced for mass handover events. A mass handover event corresponds to a situation when a relatively large number of terminals are being handed over concurrently. A mass handover event can occur, for example, when a communications platform being used by a plurality of terminals is being replaced by another platform.

Communications protocol to facilitate handover in a wireless communications network


An optical fiber coupling system may include a first coupler half fixed to a first fiber optic element. The first coupler half may include a first magnetically energetic material. The first magnetically energetic material may include a first aperture extending through the first magnetically energetic material. The first fiber optic element may extend within the first aperture. The optical fiber coupling system may include a second coupler half fixed to a second fiber optic element. The second coupler half may include a second magnetically energetic material. The second magnetically energetic material may include a second aperture extending through the second magnetically energetic material. The second fiber optic element may extend within the second aperture. When the first magnetically energetic material is proximate the second magnetically energetic material, the first fiber optic element may be longitudinally aligned with the second fiber optic element. An optical fiber coupler may include a coupler half fixed to a fiber optic element. The coupler half may include a magnetically energetic material. The magnetically energetic material includes an aperture extending through the magnetically energetic material. The fiber optic element may extend within the aperture. The optical fiber coupler may include a circumferentially extending material, at least partially around a perimeter of the magnetically energetic material. The circumferentially extending material may define a receptacle.

Dental procedures often require a dentist and/or dental hygienist to work under numerous limitations, primarily among them being restricted physical access available for performing dental procedures within a patient's mouth and limited ambient light. For example, during dental procedures that employ high speed drills, the patient's mouth must receive the dental drill unit and a saliva ejection tube to evacuate particulates and/or saliva from the patient's mouth during the dental procedure, which typically requires the assistance of a another person, such as a dental assistant. In addition, again especially during dental procedures that employ high speed drills, the patient's tongue is at risk of injury if left unrestrained, which may also require the assistance of a dental assistant. Thus, the use of dental accessories, such as light sources, saliva ejection tube holders, and tongue suppressors, is occasionally required.
Further, dental procedures can also be lengthy. A patient's masseter, temporalis, medial pterygoid and lateral pterygoid muscles can become tired or sore when the patient's mouth has been open for long periods of time. Prior attempts to alleviate the fatigue that patients experience during dental procedures, however, tend to aggregate the limitations noted above and to further obstruct physical access to the interior of the mouth, interfering with the ability of the dentist or dental hygienist to perform certain dental procedures and limiting light. Further, some prior attempts to relieve fatigue were designed solely for the left or right side of the mouth, limiting their usefulness. In those devices that held a dental accessory, such as a saliva ejection tube, the dental accessory was also difficult to install and required the use of both hands or the complete removal of the device from the patient's mouth to attach and remove the dental accessory. In the case of saliva ejection tubes, such devices were further designed to hold but one type or size of saliva ejection tube and lacked the ability or hold different sized saliva ejection tubes. In addition, sterilization and reuse was problematic because of cracks and crevices in many prior designs.
Prior attempts to alleviate fatigue usually added further obstruction, limiting access for the performance of dental procedures and typically required the use of two hands or a dental assistant to attach or remove a dental accessary, such as a light source, saliva ejection tube holder, and/or tongue suppressor. Hence, a dental bite block assembly which overcomes these drawbacks would be advantageous.

Optical fiber couplers and components for use in optical fiber couplers


An RF amplifier includes a FET output stage and a driver. The FET is subject to long-term degradation in multiple-carrier use if its average gate current often exceeds a predetermined value. The random superposition of signal peaks of the multicarrier signal may cause such peaks to occur. The driver stage is selected to provide a range of four dB or less between the single-signal 1 dB compression point and the hard compression point, as measured by driver input signal level. This prevents application of excessive input signal to the output stage in a multicarrier situation, and prevents degradation of the FETs of the output stage. In one embodiment, a predistortion equalizer or linearizer is placed before the driver stage, to tend to linearize the characteristic of the driver and output stage combination at signal levels below those at which the driver is limited.

Spacecraft communications systems are now widely used for communications among terrestrial sites, and for broadcast purposes.
Spacecraft are associated with large capital costs for construction, for launch, and for maintenance in orbit. As a result, it has been very important to maximize the useful or operational life of each communication spacecraft, and to maximize its utility during its period of operation. Since thrust is required to maintain a spacecraft in proper position and attitude, the spacecraft must carry propellant for providing the thrust. An important aspect of spacecraft design is that of maximizing the amount of propellant which the spacecraft carries into orbit, in order to maximize the interval during which thrust may be provided. This, in turn, requires minimization of the weight of every other portion of the spacecraft, including the communication payload.
The communication payload of a communication spacecraft commonly includes antennas, frequency converters, amplifiers, and a power system for generating electrical power from sunlight for powering the electrical equipment. As mentioned, the spacecraft is very costly. It is very important that each functional portion of the spacecraft be very reliable, so that the equipment failures do not render the communication spacecraft inoperative. In order to provide reliable operation, the various components are carefully selected, qualified for operation in space, and tested both individually and when assembled.
Communications between the communication spacecraft and the ground are by way of radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation. The operating frequency of the radiation is determined, in part, by the wavelength of the signal carriers, which in turn determines the size, and therefor the gain, of the antennas on the spacecraft. There is a tradeoff between antenna size and gain, which favors using higher frequencies. The frequencies currently used for commercial communication spacecraft are generally above 2 GHZ. While higher frequencies are better from the point of view of the antenna size and gain, there are countervailing considerations. For example, atmospheric losses or attenuation tend to be higher at frequencies much higher than 12 GHZ, and the efficacy of other electronic equipment, such as amplifiers, frequency converters, and interconnecting transmission lines, tend to be less than at lower frequencies. Thus, the operating frequency of such equipment is always a compromise of various competing factors. These factors result in operating frequencies which desirably lie between 3 and 15 GHz.
When spacecraft began to be used for communications, solid-state amplifiers were not capable of reliable operation at the required frequencies and power levels, and the travelling-wave tube (TWT), a type of vacuum tube adapted for operation at frequencies in the range of 3 to 15 GHz, were used, even though the reliability advantage of solid-state amplifiers was recognized. Solid-state amplifiers have been used to some extent, but as the technology of solid-state amplifiers has improved, the requirements placed on the amplifiers have become more severe. For example, the advent of direct-broadcast satellites has increased the power required to be delivered to the spacecraft antennas, and multichannel operation has become common. These factors, together with improvements in travelling-wave tubes, have resulted in significant use of travelling-wave tubes in present-day communication satellites, notwithstanding the recognition of their limited lifetime.
Solid-state amplifiers for operation at radio frequencies at power comparable to that of travelling-wave tubes now almost invariably use field-effect transistor (FET) amplifiers. Because of the relatively low output power of a single solid-state amplifier at the desired frequencies, a solid-state amplifier for communication use often includes paralleled FET transistor output stages, which are optimized to maximize the output power while tending to minimize distortion, and which are sufficient in number to produce, together, the desired signal output power. Because of the relatively high operating frequencies, the FETs of such amplifiers are often based on GaAs technology, which provide good high-frequency operation. In order to maximize the power gain, the FETs are operated in the common-source configuration, with the operating conditions, such as the bias conditions and the input and output impedances, adjusted to provide the desired instantaneous bandwidth necessary to accommodate the multiple carriers without too sharp a gain cutoff.
Because of the relatively low gain of a stage of solid-state amplification at the desired frequencies, a solid-state amplifier for communication use includes a cascade of stages, in which ordinarily only the last stage is a paralleled stage as described above. The distortion in a single-carrier amplifier is usually defined by gain compression. Gain compression is measured by applying an increasing amplitude of the single signal carrier to be amplified to the gate of the FET of the amplifier stage, and comparing the output power with the input power. So long as the input and output signal levels are low, the gain of such a stage tend to be at a maximum value, which is the "small-signal" gain. As the input signal level increases, the output signal level also tends to increase. The gain of the stage tends to decrease as the output signal level increases, so that the output power of the stage is less than might be expected based upon the small-signal gain. The usual measure of gain compression is made at the one-dB point, which defines an operating condition in which the output signal power is one dB, or about 25%, less than would be the case if the small-signal gain were maintained over the entire output signal range.
When a solid-state amplifier must amplify or carry multiple signal carriers, the one-dB gain compression point is no longer useful as an indicator of the operating point, because the presence of multiple carriers results in intermodulation, or mutual modulation among or between the carriers. The amount of signal power which a given amplifier can produce for each carrier in a multiple-carrier context is significantly less than that which it can produce in a single-channel context.
A solid-state amplifier for a communication spacecraft, then, includes a plurality of cascaded stages of amplification, in which at least the output stage consists of a plurality of GaAs FET stages, which are paralleled to produce the desired output power. It is well known that, because of the relatively low gain of the paralleled output a stage of a solid-state amplifier, there may be a significant contribution by the driver stage(s) to the overall distortion of the cascaded stages. A well-known arrangement for overcoming the combined distortion of the various stages of a cascaded solid-state amplifier is to interpose a distortion equalizer in the cascade. Such distortion equalizers are described, for example, by U.S. Pat. No. 5,221,908, issued Jun. 22, 1993 in the name of Katz, U.S. Pat. No. 5,146,177, issued Sep. 8, 1992 in the name of Katz et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,038,113, issued Aug. 6, 1991 in the name of Katz et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,588,958, issued May 13, 1986, in the name of Katz et al.
One of the problems associated with the use of solid-state devices generally, and GaAs FETs particularly, is that of sensitivity to excessive signal level. The reliability of solid-state devices is very high, except when its ratings are exceeded. Common situations in which ratings may be exceeded are those in which the temperature of the chip rises above its rated temperature, or in which its direct operating voltages are exceeded. Because of the need to obtain the maximum signal output power from each FET of the paralleled output stage of a FET amplifier, each of the FETs is operated near its maximum allowable limits. Among the limitations is that of not exceeding the gate signal drive power. In a multicarrier context, the instantaneous peak signal power is many times the average signal power. The peak signal power P.sub.i is defined by EQU P.sub.i =2N P.sub.avg 1
where P.sub.avg is the effective or average power of the multicarrier signal. Although the peak signal power level occurs infrequently or only occasionally, it has the capability of significantly degrading the performance of the output or power stage of the FET amplifier if continued over an extended period of time. Because of the difficulty encountered in determining the exact occurrences of P.sub.i, the manufacturer specifies the maximum gate signal drive in a multicarrier context in terms of the gate current drawn. For a given type of FET transistor, the maximum average gate current which may be drawn is specified. Thus, if the multicarrier signal input to the gate of any transistor of the given type exceeds the rated value, the performance may be degraded. One way to guarantee that the limiting value of gate current is not drawn in a multicarrier context is to operate the output or power stage much below its ratings, so that the input signal level can never cause the rated gate current. This, however, is very inefficient, because the full capability of the FETs of the output stage is not utilized.
Improved FET amplifiers are desired.

Amplifier and driver system with multichannel operation


A nickel powder having a composite oxide layer comprising lanthanum and nickel and, optionally an oxide of chromium, on at least a part of the surface thereof. The nickel powder is produced by a process comprising the steps of: bringing a solution comprising at least one heat-decomposable nickel compound and at least one heat-decomposable lanthanum compound and, optionally, at least one heat-decomposable chromium compound, to fine droplets; and heating the droplets at a temperature above the decomposition temperatures of these compounds to prepare a nickel powder and, at the same time, to deposit a composite oxide layer comprising lanthanum and nickel and, when present, chromium oxide, in the vicinity of the surface of the nickel powder. The nickel powder is suitable for use in a conductor paste to be co-fired with unfired ceramic green sheets for a multilayer component or the like because the sintering initiation of the powder is effectively delayed to around the sintering initiation temperature of the ceramic green sheets, thereby preventing the problems caused due to excessive sintering.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel nickel powder suitable for a thick film conductor paste and a process for preparing the same, and also to a conductor paste using the nickel powder and a multilayer electronic component or a multilayer substrate comprising a conductor formed using the paste.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the field of electronics, thick film pastes, such as conductor pastes and resistor pastes, have been used for the production of electronic circuits and components, such as resistors, capacitors, and IC packages. The thick film paste is prepared by homogeneously mixing and dispersing a conductive powder, such as a metal, an alloy, or metal oxide, optionally together with a vitreous binder or other additive(s), in an organic vehicle to prepare a paste. The paste, after application onto a substrate, is fired at a high temperature to form a conductor film or a resistor film.
Multilayer ceramic electronic components, such as multilayer capacitors and multilayer inductors, and multilayer ceramic substrates are generally prepared by alternately laminating an unfired ceramic green sheet, made of, for example, a dielectric material or a magnetic material, and an internal conductor paste layer to form a plurality of layers and co-firing the plurality of layers. Noble metals, such as palladium, silver-palladium, and platinum, have hitherto been mainly used as the internal conductor. In recent years, however, base metals, such as nickel, have attracted attention due to a demand for saving resources and the solution of problems, such as delamination, cracking and other unfavorable phenomena attributable to oxidation expansion during firing of palladium or silver-palladium.
In these multilayer components and multilayer substrates, there is a tendency that the number of layers constituting the multilayer structure is increased. For example, a multilayer capacitor having a multilayer structure of several hundred layers has been prepared. This has led to a demand for a reduction in thickness of each ceramic layer and a further reduction in thickness of each internal conductor layer. For example, when the thickness of the ceramic layer is about 3 .mu.m, an internal conductor thickness of not more than 1 .mu.m, preferably about 0.5 .mu.m, is required because when the thickness is larger than the above value, the center portion of the laminate is thick,leading to the creation of structural defects and deteriorated reliability.
The conventional conductor paste using a nickel powder, however, has a problem that excessive sintering in the step of firing results in the formation of an internal conductor of a discontinuous film, leading to an increased resistance value and breaking and, in addition, aggregation of the nickel powder results in an increased thickness of the conductor, limiting the reduction of the thickness of the film. Specifically, the nickel powder, particularly when fired in an inert atmosphere or a reducing atmosphere for preventing oxidization of the nickel powder, initiates sintering in an early stage, that is, initiates sintering and shrinking at a low temperature of 400.degree. C. or below, even in the case of a single crystal powder having a relatively low activity. On the other hand, the temperature at which the ceramic layer initiates sintering is generally much above this temperature, for example, about 1,200.degree. C. in the case of barium titanate. Therefore, the nickel and the ceramic layer, even when co-fired, do not shrink simultaneously, and the nickel film is pulled toward the face. Therefore, it is considered that small voids created in the nickel film in the course of sintering at a relatively low temperature are likely to become large with the progress of the sintering in a high temperature region and that the aggregation of the nickel powder causes the film to be grown in the thicknesswise direction.
For this reason, what is needed for achieving the reduction in the thickness of the internal conductor layer of nickel is considered to further reduce the size of the nickel powder and to improve the dispersibility of the nickel powder to minimize the creation of voids during sintering and, in addition, to allow the sintering-shrinking behavior of the nickel layer to coincide with that of the ceramic layer.
Further, the uncoincidental sintering-shrinking behavior between the conductor layer and the ceramic layer, particularly when the film thickness is large, is causative of the creation of structural defects such as delamination and cracking, resulting in a lowering in yield and reliability.
An increase in the resistance value and creation of structural defects attributable to similar excessive sintering raise a problem also in the co-firing of an external conductor and the above layers.
Various studies have hitherto been made with a view of retarding the sintering of the conductors until the temperature reaches the sintering initiation temperature of the ceramic layer.
Examples of the proposed methods include the addition of metal oxide particles, such as particles of titanium oxide, zirconium oxide, barium oxide, or iron oxide or a precursor compound capable of producing the above oxide during firing to the conductor paste, or coating of the metal powder with the above metal oxide particles or precursor thereof. The above oxide is an insulator, and the addition thereof in a large amount results in a lowering in conductivity.
Further, the addition of a large amount of a ceramic powder having the same composition as that used in the ceramic layer can apparently delay the initiation of the shrinking of the conductor film to about 800.degree. C. In this case, however, since sintering of the metal powder per se is not inhibited, sintering at a high temperature of about 1,300.degree. C. results in loss of continuity and conductivity of the conductor film.

Nickel powder containing a composite oxide of La and Ni and process for preparing the same


A developer supplying apparatus of a wet electrographic printer is provided. The apparatus includes a reservoir for storing a developer obtained by mixing a liquid carrier with an ink, a carrier cartridge for supplying the liquid carrier to the reservoir through the carrier supplying path, an ink cartridge for supplying the ink to the reservoir through an ink supplying path, a developing unit for receiving the developer of the reservoir through the developer supplying path to developing an electrostatic latent image, and a process tank for storing the developer draining from the reservoir through a developer draining path.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wet electrographic printer and, more particularly, to a developer supplying apparatus of a wet electrographic printer capable of controlling the concentration and level of the developer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, the wet electrographic printer is an apparatus for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on a photosensitive medium such as a photosensitive belt with a developer of a predetermined color and transferring the developed image to print a desired image on a paper sheet. The wet electrographic printer includes a developing unit for developing an image by supplying the developer to the photosensitive medium, and a developer supplying apparatus for constantly supplying the developer of a predetermined concentration to the developing unit. The developer is a mixture of concentrated ink containing a powder type toner and a liquid carrier, in which the toner is diluted to approximately 2.about.4 wt %. Hereinafter, the concentration of the developer is defined by the wt % of toner.
Meanwhile, the developer supplying apparatus includes an ink cartridge for storing condensed ink, a carrier cartridge for storing a liquid carrier, and a reservoir for storing the developer containing the condensed ink and the liquid carrier in a predetermined ratio. Also, agitators for preventing settling a toner of the solution may be installed in the ink cartridge and the reservoir, respectively.
In the developer supplying apparatus, the amount of developer stored in the reservoir is reduced by an amount used to develop the electrostatic latent image of the photosensitive medium, so that the condensed ink and the liquid carrier must be supplied to the reservoir to maintain the concentration of the developer at a constant concentration. Also, the level of developer stored in the reservoir must remain constant.
Also, the consumption of the toner and the liquid carrier may be different according to a printed image. That is, more liquid carrier than toner is required to print a simple image or a small image, and more toner than liquid carrier is required to print a complicated image. Thus, in order to maintain the concentration of the developer at a predetermined concentration, it is necessary to appropriately supply the toner and the developer to the reservoir in accordance with the consumption of the toner and the liquid carrier.
The developer supplying apparatus cannot control both the concentration of the developer stored in the reservoir and the level thereof. That is, if a lot of the liquid carrier is supplied to maintain the concentration of the developer in the reservoir at a predetermined level, the level of the developer may be changed and thus undesired operating conditions may be generated, or if the level of the developer is controlled, the concentration of the developer cannot be appropriately controlled.

Developer supplying apparatus of wet electrographic printer


Modular spray gun apparatus and methods are disclosed. In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a handle module and a head module that is removeably coupled to the handle module. The head module includes a first housing having an inlet adapted to be coupled to a source of pressurized gas, a flow passage extending between the inlet and an outlet, and a first coupling member proximate the outlet. Similarly, the head module includes a second housing having a second coupling member removeably coupled to the first coupling member of the first housing, a nozzle fluidly communicating with a spray outlet, and a needle assembly operatively associated with the nozzle to control a flow of liquid material and pressurized gas emanating from a mixing passage through the nozzle.

A wide variety of spray equipment for applying liquids such as paint, varnish, cleaning solvents, or other liquid materials to a surface are known. Typically, such spray equipment includes a spray gun having a needle assembly, a flow nozzle, and an air cap that are selected as an operating set based on the viscosity of the liquid that is being sprayed. For example, when painting an automobile, a first operating set of needle assembly, flow nozzle, and air cap may be used for applying a base coat, a second operating set of these components may be used for applying a top coat, and a third operating set of these components may be used for applying a clear coat.
Prior art spray apparatus are generally characterized as having many individual parts that are assembled together in a complex, highly interdependent manner into a single housing. Using a prior art spray apparatus, when an operator decides to change one of the or more of the parts, such as the needle assembly, the operator must laboriously disassemble numerous other parts of the spray apparatus to get to the needle assembly. Thus, in the above-referenced example of painting an automobile, when the operator desires to switching from a first operating set (i.e. needle assembly, nozzle, and air cap) to a second operating set, the spray apparatus must be meticulously disassembled, and each individual component (needle assembly, flow nozzle, and air cap) individually replaced. Then, prior to using the spray equipment, all of the replacement components of the second operating set must be reinstalled into the housing. This process takes considerable time and effort each time the operator desires to switch from one operating set to another, thereby decreasing operational efficiency of the spray equipment and increasing the cost of performing the job.
Another consideration is that the needle assembly typically includes a very fine-pointed needle that serves as a fluid valve and which operates to provide a finely-metered flow of liquid material through the nozzle. During disassembly and handling of the plurality of components of the prior art spray apparatus, there is an increased risk of dropping or otherwise mishandling the fine-pointed needle that may result in damage, thereby adversely impacting the performance and operability of the spray assembly.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


An image forming apparatus includes: a near field communication unit that makes a short-range wireless communication with a portable information processing device including a display unit; a recognition unit that recognizes a portable information processing device within a communicable range through communication via the near field communication unit; a job setting unit that transmits data for displaying a job setting screen on the display unit of the recognized portable information processing device, via the near field communication unit; and a job control unit that executes a job in response to a start instruction of the job, wherein the job setting unit receives a job setting, made by using the job setting screen, via the near field communication unit after the recognition to receive the job setting from the portable information processing device, and the job control unit receives a start instruction for the job whose job setting is received.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that performs a short-range wireless communication with a portable information processing device.
2. Description of the Background Art
Recently, a device using a technique of a short-range wireless communication for personal authentication has been in widespread use. Specific examples of this type of device include a company ID card using a non-contact IC card and Osaifu keitai (registered trademark) (mobile payment service). The short-range wireless communication means a wireless communication with a short communicable range in a broad sense, but it means a near field communication (sometimes abbreviated to NFC) in a narrow sense. In the NFC, a communicable range (this range is sometimes referred to as a "field" below) is about 1 meter to a few centimeters. The NFC has standards such as FeliCa (registered trademark) and MIFARE (registered trademark). The short-range wireless communication in a broad meaning includes standards such as Wi-Fi (registered trademark) and Bluetooth (registered trademark) in addition to NFC. In this specification, the term of the short-range wireless communication is used as a broad meaning including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
Recently, a lot of portable information processing devices, such as smartphones, tablet computers, or mobile computers, have a function of a short-range wireless communication. In addition, processing power of the portable information processing devices has been enhanced.
Under such a circumstance, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2011-155495, for example, describes a device that performs a user authentication based on authentication information for each user upon giving permission to use an image forming apparatus such as a digital multifunction peripheral, wherein the authentication information is retained by a device having a short-range wireless communication function.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2012-238178, for example, describes a system in which a short-range wireless communication is executed between an image forming apparatus receiving a print instruction and other image forming apparatus located at a short distance from the image forming apparatus, and both image forming apparatuses perform a printing operation.
Although processing power of portable information processing devices has been enhanced, the processing power cannot sufficiently be utilized for an operation setting of an image processing apparatus.
For example, a digital multifunction peripheral placed in a public space such as a convenience store is used by unspecified number of users. In such a case, if this digital multifunction peripheral is currently making an operation (job) such as a copying operation or printing operation, the other user has to wait until this job is completed in principle. Specifically, while a first user makes a setting of his/her copying job by using an operation panel of the digital multifunction peripheral, a second user cannot make a setting for his/her copying job. When the digital multifunction peripheral already starts the copying job or the printing job for the first user, the second user cannot obtain his/her copy output until the output for the first user is completed, even if the second user can make a setting for his/her copying job on the operation panel.

Image forming apparatus performing short-range wireless communication


Derivatives of .alpha.-hordothionin made by position-specific substitution with methionine residues provide methionine enrichment in plants.

Feed formulations are required to provide animals essential nutrients critical to growth. However, crop plants are generally rendered food sources of poor nutritional quality because they contain low proportions of several amino acids which are essential for, but cannot be synthesized by, animals.
For many years, researchers have attempted to improve the balance of essential amino acids in the proteins of important crops through breeding programs. As more becomes known about storage proteins and the expression of the genes which encode these proteins, and as transformation systems are developed for a greater variety of plants, molecular approaches for improving the nutritional quality of seed proteins can provide alternatives to the more conventional approaches. Thus, specific amino acid levels can be enhanced in a given crop via biotechnology.
One alternative method is to express a heterologous protein of favorable amino acid composition at levels sufficient to obviate food or feed supplementation. For example, a number of seed proteins rich in sulfur amino acids have been identified. A key to good expression of such proteins involves efficient expression cassettes with seed specific promoters. Not only must the gene-controlling regions direct the synthesis of high levels of mRNA, the MRNA must be translated into stable protein.
Among the essential amino acids needed for animal nutrition, often missing from crop plants, are methionine, threonine and lysine. Attempts to increase the levels of these free amino acids by breeding, mutant selection and/or changing the composition of the storage proteins accumulated in crop plants has met with minimal success. Usually, the expression of the transgenic storage protein was too low. The phaseolin-promoted Brazil nut 2S expression cassette is an example of an effective chimeric seed-specific gene. However, even though Brazil nut protein increases the amount of total methionine and bound methionine, thereby improving nutritional value, there appears to be a threshold limitation as to the total amount of methionine that is accumulated in the seeds. The seeds remain insufficient as sources of methionine.
An alternative to the enhancement of specific amino acid levels by altering the levels of proteins containing the desired amino acid is modification of amino acid biosynthesis. Recombinant DNA and gene transfer technologies have been applied to alter enzyme activity catalyzing key steps in the amino acid biosynthetic pathway. Glassman, U.S. Pat. No. 5,258,300; Galili, et al.; European Patent Application No. 485970; (1992); incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. However, modification of the amino acid levels in seeds is not always correlated with changes in the level of proteins that incorporate those amino acids. Burrow, et al, Mol. Gen. Genet.; Vol. 241; pp. 431-439; (1993); incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. Although significant increases in free lysine levels in leaves have been obtained by selection for DHDPS mutants or by expressing the E. coli DHDPS in plants, it remains to be shown that these alterations can increase bound target amino acids, which represent some 90% or more of total amino acids. Thus, there is minimal impact on the nutritional value of seeds.
Based on the foregoing, there exists a need for methods of increasing the levels of the essential amino acids methionine, lysine and threonine in plants.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide methods for genetically modifying plants to increase the levels of the essential amino acid methionine in the plants.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide seeds for food and/or feed with higher levels of the essential amino acid methionine than wild species of the same seeds.

High methionine derivatives of .alpha.-hordothionin


A contact arrangement for a change-over contact relay has a movable contact spring (2), on the free end (3) of which switching contact pieces (5, 6) are arranged on both sides, the current to be switched being supplied via an electrical connecting line (9) to the switching contact pieces (5, 6). [2.2] In order to permit a mass distribution, which is as symmetrical as possible, in the region of the free end (3) of the contact spring (2) and a supply, which is as loss-free as possible, of the current to be switched to the switching contact pieces (5, 6), [it is provided that] the switching contact pieces (5, 6) are connected directly in an electrically conducting manner to the one end (8) of the electrical connecting line (9). For this purpose, the one end (8) of the connecting line (9) or a switching contact piece (5, 6) preferably has an extension piece, the end face of which forms a joining face for the purpose of producing the electrically conducting connection.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a contact arrangement for a change-over contact relay having a movable contact spring which bears at its free end a switching contact piece on each side and has a recess in the region of the switching contact pieces, a stranded conductor-shaped connecting line being connected directly in an electrically conducting manner to at least one of the contact pieces.
2. DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART
In a known contact arrangement as shown in European Application (01 67 688) of this kind for a change-over contact relay of high switching capacity, a contact spring which can be moved between two corresponding contact elements is provided at its free end with two switching contact pieces arranged on both sides. The first switching contact piece arranged on the one side of the movable contact spring is connected directly to an electrical connecting line constructed as a stranded copper conductor so that the contact spring itself does not conduct the current to be switched. In order to provide a contacting face which is sufficient for the connection of the electrical connecting line to the first switching contact piece, the latter is made so long that it projects beyond the width of the free end of the movable contact spring. The second switching contact piece arranged on the other side of the free end of the contact spring corresponds in its width approximately to the width of the free end of the contact spring. In the known contact arrangement, this comparatively short switching contact piece is either soldered to the contact spring or connected by means of an extension piece to the first comparatively long switching contact piece. In both variants, the current to be switched flows in each contact-making position of the contact spring via the long switching contact piece so that the latter experiences a greater degree of heating in comparison with the short switching contact piece. If the current to be switched flows to the short switching contact piece, it has to pass at least two connections. However, each connection constitutes an increased ohmic resistance which causes an electrical loss power. The differently constructed switching contact pieces give rise to a nonsymmetrical mass distribution which is manifested in particular in an unfavorable dynamic behavior during the switching processes, for example in an increased inclination to bouncing. Due to the long switching contact piece, the known contact arrangement requires a substantially higher amount of noble metal in comparison with the amount of noble metal required for the pure contact-making faces of the switching contact pieces. Furthermore, the manufacture and processing of switching contact pieces of different lengths increases the manufacturing costs for the known contact arrangement.
German application 1 6651958 discloses a contact arrangement in which a contact spring bears a contact piece on both sides. A further U-shaped leaf spring serves here as a connection for the current supply so that double the thickness of the leaf spring exists in the region of the contact pieces. However, this leaf spring for the current supply exerts additional forces on the contact spring; for this reason, it is also limited in cross-section and thus cannot conduct currents of any desired strength. Because of its leaf spring shape, it cannot be bent into any desired direction either, and is thus only to be used for quite specific contact spring arrangements. British application 1 158 119 shows a contact spring arrangement with contact pieces mounted on both sides, which pieces are soldered to one another through a hole in the contact spring. However, a separate current supply is not provided in this publication.


A mechanism for filtering snoop requests to a cache memory includes, in one embodiment, a first storage that may store a first set of corresponding snoop filter indications. The mechanism also includes a second storage that may store a second set of corresponding snoop filter indications. Further, the mechanism includes a cache controller configured to receive a transaction request including an address. The cache controller generates a first index value for accessing the first storage by performing a first hash function on the address. In addition, the cache controller generates a second index value for accessing the second storage by performing a second hash function on the address. The cache controller may further selectively generate a snoop operation to the cache memory for the transaction request dependent upon a corresponding snoop filter indication stored in each of the first storage and the second storage that corresponds to the address.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer systems including processors that employ cache memory subsystems and, more particularly, to reducing the number of snoop transactions to a cache memory using a snoop filter.
2. Description of the Related Art
A cache memory is a high-speed memory unit interposed in the memory hierarchy of a computer system between a slower system memory and a processor. A cache typically stores recently used data to improve effective memory transfer rates to thereby improve system performance. The cache is usually implemented by semiconductor memory devices having speeds that are comparable to the speed of the processor, while the system memory utilizes a less costly, lower speed technology.
A cache memory typically includes a plurality of memory locations that each stores a block or a "line" of two or more words. Each line in the cache has associated with it an address tag that is used to uniquely identify the address of the line. The address tags are typically included within a tag array memory device. Additional bits may further be stored for each line along with the address tag to identify the coherency state of the line.
A processor may read from or write directly into one or more lines in the cache if the lines are present in the cache and if the coherency state allows the access. For example, when a read request originates in the processor for a new word, whether data or instruction, an address tag comparison is made to determine whether a valid copy of the requested word resides in a line of the cache memory. If the line is present, a cache "hit" has occurred and the data is used directly from the cache. If the line is not present, a cache "miss" has occurred and a line containing the requested word is retrieved from the system memory and may be stored in the cache memory. The requested line is simultaneously supplied to the processor to satisfy the request.
Similarly, when the processor generates a write request, an address tag comparison is made to determine whether the line into which data is to be written resides in the cache. If the line is present, the data may be written directly into the cache (assuming the coherency state for the line allows for such modification). If the line does not exist in the cache, a line corresponding to the address being written may be allocated within the cache, and the data may be written into the allocated line.
Because two or more copies of a particular piece of data can exist in more than one storage location within a cache-based computer system, coherency among the data is necessary. Various coherency protocols and specialized bus transfer mechanisms may be employed for this purpose depending on the complexity of the system as well as its requirements. For example, coherence between the cache and the system memory during processor writes may be maintained by employing either a "write-through" or a "write-back" technique. The former technique guarantees consistency between the cache and the system memory by writing the same data to both locations. The latter technique handles coherency by writing only to the cache, and by marking the entry in the cache as being modified. When a modified cache entry is later removed during a cache replacement cycle (or is required by a device other than the processor), the modified data is typically written back to the system memory (and/or provided to the requesting device).
In a multiprocessor shared-memory computer system, separate caches associated with each of the processors may simultaneously store data corresponding to the same memory location. Thus, memory coherency within such systems must typically be handled using somewhat more elaborate and complex schemes. For example, coherency in multiprocessor shared-memory systems may be maintained through employment of either a directory-based protocol or a snooping protocol. In a directory-based protocol, a directory is maintained that indicates which processors have copies of each cache line. This directory is used to limit the processors that must monitor, and possibly respond to, a given request for a cache line. The use of directories reduces snoop traffic and thus allows larger systems to be built. However, the use of directories typically increases the system's latency (which is caused by the directory lookup), as well as the system's hardware complexity and cost.
In a snooping protocol, each processor broadcasts all of its requests for cache lines to all other processors. In many systems, this may be done through a common shared bus. The cache associated with each processor stores along with its address tags coherency information indicating the state of each of its stored lines. Each processor snoops the requests from other processors and responds accordingly by updating its cache tags and/or by providing the data. Thus, each request from another processor may require that a given processor access its own cache's tags to determine if the line exists within the cache, and to update the tag and/or provide the data if necessary. In systems that store cache tags off-chip, the rate at which these cache tags can be accessed may put a limit on the rate at which snoops can be processed and may further limit the bandwidth available for the processor's own cache transactions.
One solution to this problem is to store the cache tags on-chip (on the same chip as the processor), even for cache lines that are stored off-chip. However, this solution suffers from several drawbacks, including the large amount of processor area that must be devoted to maintain these cache tags, the lack of flexibility in changing off-chip cache sizes and organizations, and an increased latency when the data is present in the off-chip cache.
Regardless of whether the cache tags are stored on-chip or off-chip, snoop operations may be necessary to determine whether a remotely requested cache line exists in the cache, whether the cache line state, as reflected in the cache tags, needs to be updated or if data needs to be provided. Performance of such snoop operations may add to latency and processing overhead in computer systems.

Mechanism and method employing a plurality of hash functions for cache snoop filtering


A hydrogen fill inlet structure for a fuel cell vehicle includes a hydrogen cylinder for filling hydrogen gas from a hydrogen fill inlet. A fuel cell is provided for generating electrical power utilizing hydrogen gas supplied from the hydrogen cylinder. A motor is provided for generating propulsive power for supply to a drive wheel based on electrical power generated from the fuel cell. The hydrogen fill inlet is separate from a source port of the hydrogen cylinder, and is installed in the vicinity of the source port. The hydrogen fill inlet structure may be installed within the diameter of the hydrogen cylinder as viewed axially along the tank. In addition, a cover member is provided for covering the hydrogen cylinder. A lid is installed on a section in proximity to the source port and hydrogen fill inlet of the cover member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure for a hydrogen fill inlet utilized in fuel cell vehicles for filling hydrogen gas into a hydrogen cylinder.
2. Description of Background Art
In fuel cell vehicles of the conventional art that are propelled by a vehicular drive motor from electrical power supplied from a fuel cell, when mounting what are generally multiple cylindrical hydrogen cylinders in the vehicle, the hydrogen cylinders were in most cases mounted longitudinally towards the front and rear of the vehicle in order to prevent making the vehicle width larger. See, for example, JP-A No. 313056/2002.
The structure of these hydrogen cylinders, that include high-pressure tanks, and preferably include a hydrogen fill inlet for the hydrogen cylinders that is installed after considering the peripheral piping layout and the hydrogen gas filling operation.

Hydrogen fill inlet structure for fuel cell vehicle