Provided herein are methods of treating multiple sclerosis with a fumarate, wherein the fumarate is a dialkyl fumarate, a monoalkyl fumarate, a combination of a dialkyl fumarate and a monoalkyl fumarate, a prodrug of monoalkyl fumarate, a deuterated form of any of the foregoing, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt, clathrate, solvate, tautomer, or stereoisomer of any of the foregoing, or a combination of any of the foregoing. The methods provided herein improve the safety of treatment by informing and monitoring patients undergoing treatment regarding progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, and/or by monitoring lymphocyte count.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease with the autoimmune activity directed against central nervous system (CNS) antigens. The disease is characterized by inflammation in parts of the CNS, leading to the loss of the myelin sheathing around neuronal axons (demyelination), axonal loss, and the eventual death of neurons, oligodendrocytes and glial cells. For a comprehensive review of MS and current therapies, see, e.g., McAlpine's Multiple Sclerosis, by Alastair Compston et al., 4th edition, Churchill Livingstone Elsevier, 2006.
An estimated 2,500,000 people in the world suffer from MS. It is one of the most common diseases of the CNS in young adults. MS is a chronic, progressing, disabling disease, which generally strikes its victims some time after adolescence, with diagnosis generally made between 20 and 40 years of age, although onset may occur earlier. The disease is not directly hereditary, although genetic susceptibility plays a part in its development. MS is a complex disease with heterogeneous clinical, pathological and immunological phenotype.
There are four major clinical types of MS: 1) relapsing-remitting MS (RR-MS), characterized by clearly defined relapses with full recovery or with sequelae and residual deficit upon recovery; periods between disease relapses characterized by a lack of disease progression; 2) secondary progressive MS (SP-MS), characterized by initial relapsing remitting course followed by progression with or without occasional relapses, minor remissions, and plateaus; 3) primary progressive MS (PP-MS), characterized by disease progression from onset with occasional plateaus and temporary minor improvements allowed; and 4) progressive relapsing MS (PR-MS), characterized by progressive disease onset, with clear acute relapses, with or without full recovery; periods between relapses characterized by continuing progression.
Clinically, the illness most often presents as a relapsing-remitting disease and, to a lesser extent, as steady progression of neurological disability. Relapsing-remitting MS (RR-MS) presents in the form of recurrent attacks of focal or multifocal neurologic dysfunction. Attacks may occur, remit, and recur, seemingly randomly over many years. Remission is often incomplete and as one attack follows another, a stepwise downward progression ensues with increasing permanent neurological deficit. The usual course of RR-MS is characterized by repeated relapses associated, for the majority of patients, with the eventual onset of disease progression. The subsequent course of the disease is unpredictable, although most patients with a relapsing-remitting disease will eventually develop secondary progressive disease. In the relapsing-remitting phase, relapses alternate with periods of clinical inactivity and may or may not be marked by sequelae depending on the presence of neurological deficits between episodes. Periods between relapses during the relapsing-remitting phase are clinically stable. On the other hand, patients with progressive MS exhibit a steady increase in deficits, as defined above and either from onset or after a period of episodes, but this designation does not preclude the further occurrence of new relapses.
MS pathology is, in part, reflected by the formation of focal inflammatory demyelinating lesions in the white matter, which are the hallmarks in patients with acute and relapsing disease. In patients with progressive disease, the brain is affected in a more global sense, with diffuse but widespread (mainly axonal) damage in the normal appearing white matter and massive demyelination also in the grey matter, particularly, in the cortex.
Salts of fumaric acid esters, in combination with dimethyl fumarate (DMF), such as present in FUMADERM®, have been proposed for the treatment of MS (see, e.g., Schimrigk et al., Eur. J. Neurol., 2006, 13(6):604-610; Drugs R&D, 2005, 6(4):229-30; U.S. Pat. No. 6,436,992). FUMADERM® contains dimethyl fumarate, calcium salt of ethyl hydrogen fumarate, magnesium salt of ethyl hydrogen fumarate, and zinc salt of ethyl hydrogen fumarate (see, e.g., Schimrigk et al., Eur. J. Neurol., 2006, 13(6):604-610).
TECFIDERA®, dimethyl fumarate delayed-release capsules for oral use, was approved in 2013 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of subjects with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis. TECFIDERA® contains dimethyl fumarate (DMF), which has the following structure:

The first Phase 3 study, DEFINE (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT00420212), demonstrated that DMF significantly reduced clinical relapses, accumulation of disability progression, and lesion number and volume compared with placebo after two years of treatment. See, e.g., Gold et al., N. Engl. J. Med., 2012, 367(12):1098-1107. These findings were supported by the results of the second phase 3 study, CONFIRM (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT00451451), which additionally evaluated subcutaneous glatiramer acetate as an active reference treatment (rater-blind). See, e.g., Fox et al., N. Engl. J. Med., 2012, 367(12):1087-1097. DMF has demonstrated an acceptable safety profile in the DEFINE and CONFIRM studies.
There have been case reports of patients with psoriasis, treated with FUMADERM® or compounded fumaric acid esters, who developed PML (Ermis et al., N. Engl. J. Med., 2013, 368(17):1657-1658; van Oosten et al., N. Engl. J. Med., 2013, 368(17):1658-1659; Sweetser et al., N. Engl. J. Med., 2013, 368(17):1659-1658; Emrich, Lisa, "Tecfidera and PML—What's the story." Multiplesclerosis.net, Apr. 25, 2013; accessed Nov. 10, 2014).
PML is an opportunistic viral infection caused by a type of polymavirus called the JC virus (JCV) that typically only occurs in patients who are immunocompromised, and that usually leads to death or severe disability. The virus is very common in the general population, occurs in childhood, and persists for life. JCV seroprevalence of −33-84% has been demonstrated, depending on the studies (see WO 2011/085369 A1, WO2007/100770 A2, and WO 2012/166971 A2). PML is a severe and rapidly progressive viral disease of the central nervous system that destroys the myelin coating, which protects the nerve cells. PML occurs almost exclusively in patients who are severely immunocompromised, and is often associated with lymphoproliferative and other chronic diseases, such as AIDS, Hodgkin's disease, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, sarcoidosis, tuberculosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and organ transplantation. Cases of PML have also been reported in patients with autoimmune disorders who received immunosuppressive therapy; among these, three patients with rheumatoid arthritis (Sponzilli et al., Neurology, 1975, 25(7):664-668; Rankin et al., J. Rheumatol., 1995, 22(4):777-779; Durez et al., Arthritis Rheum., 2002, 46(98):536), one of whom was treated with tumor necrosis factor (TNF) antagonist (Durez et al., Arthritis Rheum., 2002, 46(98):536). PML also was reported in a Crohn's Disease patient, but the concomitant treatments were not specified (Garrels et al., Am. J. Neuroradiol., 1996, 17(3):597-600), and in patients treated with natalizumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody used in the treatment of multiple sclerosis, and Crohn's disease. In 2005, the first cases of PML associated with biological immunomodulatory therapy were reported, initially with natalizumab and subsequently in association with other agents including efalizumab, rituximab, and alemtuzumab (reviewed in: Major et al., Annu. Rev. Med., 2010, 61:35-47).
There is need in the art for safer methods of treating patients with fumarates that take into account the possibility of contracting PML.


Embodiments provide geometric consistency in overlapping areas when a tiling projection is performed where adjacent projection images have overlapping areas using a plurality of projectors. Embodiments provide a method in which a geometric correction function is formed on the basis of geometric association between positions, in display areas of projectors PJa to PJd, of features included in pattern images projected from the projectors and positions, in projection areas of the projectors, of features included in pattern-photographed images obtained by photographing the pattern images projected onto a projection plane from the projectors and in which the projection images projected from the plurality of projectors are corrected to have geometric consistency on the projection plane using the geometric correction function. The densities of feature points in specific areas of the display or projection areas of the projectors are set higher than those of areas other than the overlapping areas.

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to an image correction method for a multi-projection system, an image correcting device for a multi-projection system, and a multi-projection system.
The related art includes multi-projection systems which can display one large-screen image by arranging a plurality of optical projection units (hereinafter, referred to as projectors) in the horizontal or vertical direction, or in the horizontal and vertical directions, respectively, and performing tiling projection of projection images onto a screen from the plurality of projectors. The tiling projection means a projection method allowing one large-size image to be displayed by arranging the projection areas of the plurality of projectors on the screen in a tile shape.
Since such multi-projection systems can display images with high definition and high brightness, it is expected that the multi-projection systems should be widely spread in the business field of movie theaters, art galleries, museums, seminar meeting places, meeting places, mini theaters, public institutions, business enterprises, etc. or in the household field of amusements, home theaters, etc.
In such multi-projection systems, it is necessary to project images (hereinafter, referred to as unit images) such that the unit images projected from a plurality of projectors should not be geometrically inconsistent. As a result, the related art includes a variety of techniques for providing consistency between the unit images projected from the plurality of projectors.
In the multi-projection systems of the related art, a technique of displaying projection images from adjacent projectors so as to have an area where parts thereof are overlapped on a screen (hereinafter, referred to as an overlapping area) has been put into practice.
In the related art, when the projection images are displayed on the screen so as to have the overlapping area, a geometric correction function between a display area in the respective projectors of image data projected from the respective projectors and a projection area of the respective projectors on the screen is calculated. Further, geometrically-corrected image data to be properly projected onto the screen are generated from the geometric correction function and the image data, and the geometrically-corrected image data are projected from the respective projectors.
At this time, insufficient accuracy of the geometric correction function in the overlapping areas among the projectors can generate defocused images in the overlapping areas, thereby largely damaging quality of the projection images in the multi-projection systems.
As described above, the related art includes a variety of techniques for improvement image quality in the overlapping areas when the projection images from adjacent projectors are displayed to have the areas where parts of the projection images are overlapped on the screen (hereinafter, referred to as overlapping areas). Examples thereof are disclosed in Related Art Documents Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 9-326981, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-72359 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-219324.
In Related Art Document Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 9-326981, pattern images are projected onto a screen from a plurality of projectors, the pattern images projected onto the screen are photographed with a camera, and projection positions of the projectors are calculated on the basis of the pattern images obtained by photographing the original pattern images.
In Related Art Document Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-72359, pattern images are projected onto a screen from a plurality of projectors, the pattern images projected onto the screen are photographed with a camera, and a geometric deformation function between the projection images projected from the projectors and the projection areas on the screen is calculated on the basis of the pattern image obtained by photographing the original pattern images. In Related Art Japanese Document Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-72359, a method of dividing a projection area from a single projector into small areas and calculating a geometric variable function for each small area is disclosed.
In Related Art Document Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-219324, calibration pattern images are projected onto a screen from a plurality of projectors, the calibration pattern images projected onto the screen are photographed with a camera, and image correction data of the images to be projected from the respective projectors are calculated on the basis of the calibration pattern images obtained by photographing the calibration pattern images. The calibration pattern images disclosed in Related Art Document Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-219324 have markers or gradations and the image correction data are calculated using the center of gravity obtained from the brightness values of the markers or gradations.

Image correction method for multi-projection system


A shared ledger operated by a group of network participants according to a set of consensus rules manages and resolves subrogation claims between a clamant and a defendant with arbitration. Evidence regarding the value of the subrogation claim is sent to the shared ledger by the parties to the subrogation claim such as sending data to a smart contract deployed on the shared ledger. The parties to the subrogation claim or entities that are not parties to the subrogation claim may broadcast data relating to fault to the blockchain. The data relating to fault may be evaluated by the parties or entities acting on the parties' behalf to determine fault. A fault determination may be broadcast to the blockchain based upon the analysis of the data relating to fault. Once the claim is resolved, arbitrator may release funds on the chain to the prevailing party or may accept confirmation that any payments have been made between the parties off-chain.

When an insured person suffers a covered loss, an insurer may pay costs to the insured person and pursue subrogation from another party involved in the loss. For example, if an insured vehicle is involved in a collision and suffers a loss, the insurer may compensate the vehicle owner according to an insurance agreement. If, for example, the vehicle owner was not at fault in the collision, the insurer may pursue damages from another party, such as the insurer of the party who was at fault in the collision. An insurance agreement may include an obligation of an insured to assign the insured's claim against a party at fault to the insurer, who may then collect on the claim on the insured's behalf.
Settling a subrogation payment may be a lengthy, complicated process. The various parties (e.g., parties at fault in a vehicle collision, owners of the vehicles, insurers, etc.) may need to exchange information relating to the collision to determine which party was at fault. Sources of information relevant to a fault information and/or subrogation payment include information regarding parties involved in a loss, forensic data regarding the loss, vehicle data regarding a loss, etc. The various parties must verify and share information from a variety of sources including information held by parties involved in a loss and their insurers and information obtained from third parties (e.g., governmental entities, independent contractors, etc.).
The parties to a subrogation payment (e.g., insurers) may make proposals to one another to settle the subrogation claim. A proposal may include an accounting of damages, such as the costs to a vehicle owner whose vehicle was damaged. If an insured person suffered an injury in a collision, the injured person's health care costs may be included in the accounting of damages. One or both of the parties to a subrogation claim may rely on independent third parties to assess costs, such as a repair cost estimate by an authorized automotive repair services provider for damage incurred in a collision. To settle the subrogation claim, the parties must indicate acceptance or approval of damages calculations and a payment amount that is agreed between the parties to settle the claim. Parties may rely on a third-party intermediary to handle subrogation negotiations and resolution (e.g., validate information relating to a loss and facilitating communications between the insurers) at added expense. A large volume of data may need to be analyzed and negotiated on between the parties. It is often difficult to collect all relevant data in a secure environment that is trusted by both parties.
If the parties to the subrogation claim cannot settle the claim themselves, then the dispute may be decided in other ways. For example, the parties may submit the claim to arbitration before an arbitrator. The parties may agree to arbitrate the dispute based upon qualifications of the arbitrator (e.g., membership in a professional arbitration association). An arbitrator may request information from the parties, decide disputes between the parties on issues of damages calculations and damages liability. In some cases, the parties to the subrogation claim may withdraw from arbitration and seek resolution of the subrogation claim in another forum such as in a court of law.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Fault determination of blockchain subrogation claims

STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY


There is disclosed a current balancing circuit for use in a switching power supply unit that operates in parallel with one or more other switching power supply units with current balancing terminals connected to each other. The current balancing circuit comprises a first resistor that receives a detection signal of the output current input via a diode and outputs an output current detection voltage; a second resistor connected between the current balancing terminal and a connection point between the first resistor and the diode; an operational amplifier that outputs a signal corresponding to the different between the output current detection voltages; and a switching circuit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a current balance circuit for use in a switching power supply unit, adapted to control a balance between a current of the switching power supply unit and a current of one or more switching power supply units connected in parallel to the switching power supply unit so as to apply a stable voltage to a load.
2. Description of the Related Art
It was common to use a single power supply unit in order to supply a stable operating voltage to various types of electronic apparatuses, such as computers. Recently, however, the use of plural small power supply units operating in parallel has been increasing in view of size reduction and improved reliability of the power supply units. In general, switching power supply units are used as the small power supply units so as to stabilize output voltage. The use of the small switching power supply units operating in parallel allows stable voltage supply to a load even when one of the switching power supply units fails. This is because the other switching power supply units can make up for the failed switching power supply unit. The size reduction and reliability improvement of the power supply units are thus achieved.
FIG. 4 shows a configuration of a system in which n units of switching power supply units CONV1, CONV2, . . . CONVn are connected in parallel so as to apply a stable voltage to a load. In the case where one of the switching power supply units becomes unable to supply power to the load due to a failure, n-1 units of the switching power supply units continue to supply power. If the switching power supply units CONV1–CONVn have capacity to supply more power, the switching power supply units operating normally can maintain the power supply to the load even when two or more switching power supply units fail. In FIG. 4, Vin+ and Vin− indicate input voltages, Vout+ and Vout− indicate output voltages, and CB represents a current balancing terminal. The current balancing terminals CB are connected to each other so as to compare output current values of the switching power supply units CONV1–CONVn, thereby balancing output currents of the switching power supply units CONV1–CONVn.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a related-art switching power supply unit. The power supply unit comprises a transformer 51, a rectifier circuit 52, a smoothing circuit 53, an output voltage detection circuit 54, an output current detection circuit 55, a current balancing circuit 56, a control circuit 57, a switching transistor Q1, and a current balancing terminal CB. Vin and Vout indicate an input voltage and an output voltage, respectively. When two or more of such a switching power supply unit operate in parallel, the current balancing terminals CB of the power supply units are connected to each other as described above.
The control circuit 57 controls switching operations of the switching transistor Q1 connected to a primary winding of the transformer 51. An induced voltage generated in a secondary winding of the transformer 51 is rectified by the rectifier circuit 52, smoothed by the smoothing circuit 53, and then output as the output voltage Vout. The output voltage Vout is applied to a load. The output voltage detection circuit 54 detects the output voltage Vout so as to input the output voltage Vout to the control circuit 57. The control circuit 57 controls the period during which the switching transistor Q1 is turned on so as to adjust the output voltage Vout to a predetermined level, thereby stabilizing the output voltage Vout. Also, a detection value detected by a current transformer or a resistor is input to the output current detection circuit 55 such that the output current detection circuit 55 detects an output current and inputs an output current detection signal to the current balancing circuit 56. Information about output currents of other switching power supply units operating in parallel are input to the current balancing circuit 56. The current balancing circuit 56 inputs a control signal for the output current to the control circuit 57 so as to balance the output currents of the switching power supply units.
FIG. 6 is a circuit diagram illustrating the current balancing circuit 56. The current balancing circuit 56 comprises resistors R1–R4, Ra, and Rb, a diode D1, and an operational amplifier OPA. The output current detection circuit 55 of FIG. 5 inputs the output current detection signal to the diode D1. The operational amplifier OPA inputs the control signal to the control circuit 57. The output current detection signal is input to the resistor Rb via the diode D1, so that an output current detection voltage V1 corresponding to the output current detection signal is generated across the resistor Rb. The output current detection voltage V1 is applied to a negative terminal of the operational amplifier OPA via the resistor R2, and is also applied to a positive terminal of the operational amplifier OPA as a voltage drop across the resistor R3 formed by the resistors Ra, R1, and R3. The current balancing terminal CB is connected to a connection point between the resistors Ra and R1. It is to be noted that the relationship between resistances of the resistors R1, R3, Ra, and Rb connected to the positive terminal of the operational amplifier OPA is R1+R3>Ra+Rb. Accordingly, the operational amplifier OPA inputs the difference between the output current detection voltage V1 and an output current detection voltage from the other current balancing circuits to the control circuit 57.
When two or more of the above described switching supply units operate in parallel with each other, the current balancing terminals CB of the switching power supply units are connected in parallel. If one of the switching power supply units has a higher output current detection voltage than the other, a signal for making the lower output current detection output voltage follow the higher output current detection voltage is input to a control circuit 57 from an operational amplifier OPA in the switching power supply unit having the lower output current detection voltage so as to balance the currents. In the switching power supply unit having the higher output current detection voltage, a signal for reducing the difference between the voltages to fall below a predetermined value is input to a control circuit 57 from an operational amplifier OPA, thereby balancing the currents. That is, each of the switching power supply units adjusts the output currents to the same level, i.e., controls the current balance.
There is known a current balancing circuit as disclosed in, for example, Patent Document 1. According to Patent Document 1, the current balance is controlled by detecting currents of primary sides of transformers of plural switching power supply units, whose current balancing terminals are connected to each other, and then integrating the difference between values of the detected currents of the primary sides of the switching power supply units. There is also known a configuration as disclosed in, for example, Patent Document 2. According to Patent Document 2, currents of secondary sides of transformers of plural switching power supply units are detected. Current balancing terminals of the switching power supply units are connected to each other so as to limit the difference between the values of the detected currents of the secondary sides of the transformers of the switching power supply units, thereby preventing a sudden change in output current.
<Patent Document 1> Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 6-26473
<Patent Document 2> Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-161063
Referring back to FIG. 6, as the current balancing terminal CB of the switching power supply unit is connected in parallel to a current balancing terminals CB of other switching power supply units as shown in FIG. 4, the resistors Ra and Rb of the switching power supply units are connected in parallel to each other via the current balancing terminals CB. If one of the switching power supply units fails, the output current thereof becomes zero, so that the voltage V1 applied to the resistor Rb via the diode D1 of the current balancing circuit of the failed switching power supply unit becomes zero. As a result, electric potentials of the current balancing terminals CB of the current balancing circuits of the other switching power supply units are reduced by the resistors Ra and Rb connected in parallel, so that impedance of a current balance control system during normal operations is lowered, thereby significantly lowering the current balance properties.
For example, with reference to FIG. 7A, if one of the switching power supply units is a master power source (switching power supply unit whose output current detection voltage is slightly higher than output current detection voltages of the other switching power supply units), the other switching power supply units are slave power sources. The master power source and the slave power sources maintain balance between the currents in accordance with the increase of a load current, while operating with a predetermined current difference. However, if one of the switching power supply units fails, resistors Ra and Rb of the failed switching power supply unit are connected in parallel to resistors Ra and Rb of the other switching power supply units via the current balancing terminals CB connected in parallel as mentioned earlier, so that impedance of a current balance control system is lowered. Therefore, output currents of the slave power sources follow the increase of the output current of the master power source with delay, resulting in increasing the difference between the output currents. That is, current balance properties are lowered.


An apparatus and method for producing laser output light pulses in bursts of pulses, at a selected pulse repetition rate, forming a laser output light beam, separated by an off time is disclosed, which may comprise a laser output light pulse beam parameter adjustment system, which may comprise a laser output light pulse beam parameter error detector providing a beam parameter error signal representative of the difference between the beam parameter and a selected target value for the beam parameter; a beam parameter adjustment mechanism; a beam parameter adjustment mechanism controller providing a beam parameter adjustment signal to the beam parameter adjustment mechanism based upon the value of the beam parameter error signal; a slow transient compensator providing a slow transient inversion signal modifying the beam parameter adjustment signal based upon the value of the beam parameter error signal. The apparatus and method may further comprise a beam parameter error scaling mechanism providing a normalized beam parameter error signal determined from the value of the beam parameter error signal; and the beam parameter adjustment mechanism controller and the slow transient controller providing, respectively, the beam parameter adjustment signal and the slow transient inversion signal based upon the normalized beam parameter error signal. The beam parameter adjustment mechanism controller may provide the beam parameter adjustment signal based upon a controller function that minimizes the average actual wavelength error or a windowed standard deviation of the actual wavelength error.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,005,879, issued to Sandstrom et al. on Dec. 21, 1999, entitled PULSE ENERGY CONTROL FOR EXCIMER LASER, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, relates to:                A process for controlling pulse energy and integrated energy dose in bursts of pulses produced by an excimer laser. The energy of each pulse in each burst is measured. The rate of change of pulse energy with charging voltage is determined. A pulse energy error is determined for a previous pulse of the present burst. An integrated dose error is also determined for all previous pulses in the current burst. A charging voltage for the next pulse is determined using the pulse energy error, the integrated dose error, the rate of change of energy with charging voltage and a reference voltage. In a preferred embodiment, the rate of change of energy with voltage is determined by dithering the voltage during two pulses of each burst, once lower and once higher. The reference voltage is a voltage calculated using prior energy and voltage data. In this embodiment, the method of determining the reference voltage during a first portion of the pulse is different from the method used during a latter portion of the burst. During the first set of pulses (40 in this embodiment), for each pulse, a specified voltage calculated using voltage and energy data from a corresponding pulse in a previous burst is utilized as a prediction of the voltage needed to produce a pulse energy converging on a target pulse energy. For pulses 41 and thereafter the reference voltage for each pulse is the specified voltage for the previous pulse.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,034,978, issued to Ujazdowski et al. in Mar. 7, 2000, entitled GAS DISCHARGE LASER WITH GAS TEMPERATURE CONTROL, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, relates to:                A gas discharge laser with fast response gas temperature control to maintain laser gas temperature within desired limits during burst mode operation. Preferred embodiments include a passive temperature stabilizer . . . . Preferred embodiments utilize heating elements and coolant flow control to regulate laser gas temperatures using processors programmed to anticipate idle periods.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,317,447, issued to Partlo et al. on Nov. 13, 2001, entitled ELECTRIC DISCHARGE LASER WITH ACOUSTIC CHIRP CORRECTION, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, relates to:                Methods and structural changes in gas discharge lasers for minimizing wavelength chirp at high pulse rates. Applicants have identified the major cause of wavelength chirp in high pulse rate gas discharge lithography lasers as pressure waves from a discharge reflecting back to the discharge region coincident with a subsequent discharge . . . . During burst mode operation, the laser gas temperature . . . changes . . . over periods of a few milliseconds . . . changing . . . the location of the coincident pressure waves from pulse to pulse within the discharge region causing a variation in the pressure of the laser gas which in turn affects the index of refraction of the discharge region causing the laser beam exiting the rear of the laser to slightly change direction. This change in beam direction causes the grating in the LNP to reflect back . . . a slightly different wavelength causing the wavelength chirp. Solution to the problem is to include in the laser chamber structural elements to moderate or disperse the pressure waves and to maintain the laser gas temperature as close as feasible to constant values.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,529,531, issued to Everage et al. on Mar. 4, 2003, entitled, FAST WAVELENGTH CORRECTION TECHNIQUE FOR A LASER, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, relates to:                [An e]lectric discharge laser with fast chirp correction . . . includ[ing] at least one piezoelectric drive and a fast wavelength detection means and . . . a feedback response time of less than 1.0 millisecond. In a preferred embodiment a simple learning algorithm . . . allows advance tuning mirror adjustment in anticipation of the learned chirp pattern. Techniques include a combination of a relatively slow stepper motor and a very fast piezoelectric driver. In another preferred embodiment chirp correction is made on a pulse-to-pulse basis where the wavelength of one pulse is measured and the wavelength of the next pulse is corrected based on the measurement.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,532,247, issued to Spangler et al. Mar. 11, 2003 LASER WAVELENGTH CONTROL UNIT WITH PIEZOELECTRIC DRIVER, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, relates to:                An electric discharge laser with fast wavelength correction. . . . Techniques include a combination of a relatively slow stepper motor and a very fast piezoelectric driver for tuning the laser wavelength using a tuning mirror. A preferred control technique is described (utilizing a very fast wavelength monitor) to provide the slow and intermediate wavelength control and a piezoelectric load cell in combination with the piezoelectric driver to provide the very fast (few microseconds) wavelength control.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,567,450, issued to Myers et al. on May 20, 2003, entitled VERY NARROW BAND, TWO CHAMBER, HIGH REP RATE GAS DISCHARGE LASER SYSTEM, relates to                An injection seeded modular gas discharge laser system capable of producing high quality pulsed laser beams at pulse rates of about 4,000 Hz or greater and at pulse energies of about 5 ml or greater. Two separate discharge chambers are provided, one of which is a part of a master oscillator producing a very narrow band seed beam which is amplified in the second discharge chamber. The chambers can be controlled separately permitting separate optimization of wavelength parameters in the master oscillator and optimization of pulse energy parameters in the amplifying chamber. A preferred embodiment in an ArF excimer laser system configured as a MOPA and specifically designed for use as a light source for integrated circuit lithography. In the preferred MOPA embodiment, each chamber comprises a single tangential fan providing sufficient gas flow to permit operation at pulse rates of 4000 Hz or greater by clearing debris from the discharge region in less time than the approximately 0.25 milliseconds between pulses. The master oscillator is equipped with a line narrowing package having a very fast tuning mirror capable of controlling centerline wavelength on a pulse-to-pulse basis at repetition rates of 4000 Hz or greater to a precision of less than 0.2 pm.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,690,704, issued to Fallon et al. on Feb. 10, 2004, entitled CONTROL SYSTEM FOR A TWO CHAMBER GAS DISCHARGE LASER, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, relates to:                [A] control system for a modular high repetition rate two discharge chamber ultraviolet gas discharge laser . . . with a master oscillator producing a very narrow band seed beam which is amplified in the second discharge chamber. Feedback timing control techniques are provided for controlling the relative timing of the discharges in the two chambers with an accuracy in the range of about 2 to 5 billionths of a second even in burst mode operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,625,191, issued to Knowles et al. on Sep. 23, 2003, entitled VERY NARROW BAND, TWO CHAMBER, HIGH REP RATE GAS DISCHARGE LASER SYSTEM, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, relates to:                An injection seeded modular gas discharge laser system capable of producing high quality pulsed laser beams at pulse rates of about 4,000 Hz or greater and at pulse energies of about 5 mJ or greater. Two separate discharge chambers are provided, one of which is a part of a master oscillator producing a very narrow band seed beam which is amplified in the second discharge chamber. The chambers can be controlled separately permitting separate optimization of wavelength parameters in the master oscillator and optimization of pulse energy parameters in the amplifying chamber.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,650,666, issued to Spangler et al. on Nov. 18, 2003, entitled LASER WAVELENGTH CONTROL UNIT WITH PIEZOELECTRIC DRIVER, the disclosure of which is hereby incoroprated by reference, relates to:                An electric discharge laser with fast wavelength correction. Fast wavelength correction equipment includes at least one piezoelectric drive and a fast wavelength measurement system and fast feedback response times. . . . Preferred embodiments provide (1) fast feedback control based on wavelength measurements, (2) fast vibration control, (3) active damping using the load cell and an active damping module, (4) transient inversion using feed forward algorithms based on historical burst data. A preferred embodiment adapts the feed forward algorithms to current conditions. Another preferred embodiment measures tuning mirror position to permit wavelength pretuning and active wavelength tuning.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,192,064, issued to Algots et al. on Feb. 20, 2001, entitled NARROW BAND LASER WITH FINE WAVELENGTH CONTROL, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, relates to:                A smart laser having automatic computer control of pulse energy, wavelength and bandwidth using feedback signals from a wavemeter. Pulse energy is controlled by controlling discharge voltage. Wavelength is controlled by very fine and rapid positioning of an RMAX mirror in a line narrowing module. Bandwidth is controller by adjusting the curvature of a grating in the line narrowing module. Preferred embodiments include automatic feedback control of horizontal and vertical beam profile by automatic adjustment of a prism plate on which beam expander prisms are located and automatic adjustment of the RMAX tilt. Other preferred embodiments include automatic adjustment of the horizontal position of the laser chamber within the resonance cavity. In preferred embodiments, feedback signals from a wavelength monitor are used to position the RMAX mirror. In other preferred embodiments a separate laser beam reflected off the RMAX mirror on to a photodiode array is used to position the mirror.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,621,846, issued to Sandstrom et al. on Sep. 16, 2003, entitled ELECTRIC DISCHARGE LASER WITH ACTIVE WAVELENGTH CHIRP CORRECTION, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, relates to:                [An e]lectric discharge laser with active chirp correction. This application discloses techniques for moderating and dispensing . . . pressure waves. In some lasers small predictable patterns remain which can be substantially corrected with active wavelength control using relatively slow wavelength control instruments of the prior art. In a preferred embodiment a simple learning algorithm is described to allow advance tuning mirror adjustment in anticipation of the learned chirp pattern. Embodiments include stepper motors having very fine adjustments so that size of tuning steps are substantially reduced for more precise tuning. However, complete elimination of wavelength chirp is normally not feasible with structural changes in the laser chamber and advance tuning; therefore, Applicants have developed equipment and techniques for very fast active chirp correction . . . includ[ing] a combination of a relatively slow stepper motor and a very fast piezoelectric driver. In another preferred embodiment chirp correction is made on a pulse-to-pulse basis where the wavelength of one pulse is measured and the wavelength of the next pulse is corrected based on the measurement.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,721,340, issued to Fomenkov et al. on Apr. 13, 2004, entitled BANDWIDTH CONTROL TECHNIQUE FOR A LASER, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, relates to:                A technique for bandwidth control of an electric discharge laser. Line narrowing equipment is provided having at least one piezoelectric drive and a fast bandwidth detection means and a bandwidth control having a time response of less than about 1.0 millisecond. In a preferred embodiment wavelength tuning mirror is dithered at dither rates of more than 500 dithers per second within a very narrow range of pivot angles to cause a dither in nominal wavelength values to produce a desired effective bandwidth of series of laser pulses.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,078,599, issued to Everage et al. on Jun. 20, 2000, entitled WAVELENGTH SHIFT CORRECTION TECHNIQUE FOR A LASER, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, relates to:                A wavelength shift correction system for a laser system is provided for correcting wavelength chirps . . . includ[ing] a learning algorithm that learns characteristics of a wavelength chirp from a laser and a computer system that executes the learning algorithm and provides wavelength correction control signals based on the learned characteristics to reduce the magnitude of the wavelength shift of the present wavelength chirp and subsequent wavelength chirps.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,735,225, issued to Albrecht et al. on May 11, 2004, entitled CHIRP COMPENSATION METHOD AND APPARATUS, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, relates to:                A wavelength chirp compensation method for an excimer or molecular fluorine laser system operating in burst mode, includes pre-programming into a computer of the laser system resonator tuning optic adjustments for making the adjustments during pauses between bursts to compensate wavelength chirp at beginnings of succeeding bursts.
Applicants have observed in the operation of certain gas discharge lasers, e.g., ArF, KrF and molecular fluorine gas discharge lasers, including a lasing medium-creating gas comprising, e.g., fluorine and another gas, e.g., krypton or argon, and a buffer gas or gases, e.g., neon and helium and also in configurations including two chambers, e.g., master oscillator-power amplifier ("MOPA"), master oscillator-power oscillator ("MOPO"), power oscillator-power amplifier ("POPA") and power oscillator-power oscillator) and including even other forms of multi-chambered lasers systems where the chambers may be mounted on a single frame and/or optically interconnected by optics that are physically attached in some way to each chamber, that slow wavelength transients can occur under a variety of circumstances. Applicants have found that such transients are generally burst correlated in laser systems that provide laser output light pulse beams in bursts of pulses per laser output light beam, e.g., one hundred of so pulses at pulse repetition rates varying from, e.g., 2 kHz and above up to, e.g., about 6 kHz or even higher (i.e., with a 500 μs to 167 μs time period or less between pulses) with some down time, e.g., on the order of milliseconds or more between bursts. In addition, other optical elements, e.g., with a line narrowing module ("LNM") which may contain moving parts, e.g., a fast tuning optical element, e.g., a fast tuning mirror, may add vibrational disturbances to the system and may include, e.g., certain resonant frequencies, which, with less than perfect vibrational isolation between laser system modules can impact the occurrence of such transients.
Such transients can be significant, e.g., as much as 0.2 pm in amplitude, which can, under the strict requirements for wavelength pulse to pulse stability and wavelength sigma during a burst, result in the output laser light pulse beam produced by the laser system being out of specification, when operating, e.g., at certain pulse repetition rates where the transients are most significant.
Applicants have found that such transients can take about 100 shots within a single burst, usually starting at pulse one or close to pulse one to build to full amplitude. Typically, also, applicants have found, such transients occur within relatively narrow repetition rate bands.
It is applicants' belief that such transients occur for a variety of reasons, including one which applicants have observed at or around 1700 Hz which most likely is due to mechanical vibrations in the system, e.g., in the LNM and at or around 1850 Hz, which most likely is due to acoustic resonances in a chamber, e.g., in one or both of the chambers in a two chambered system, or only in one, e.g., the MO chamber in, e.g., a MOPA system configuration.
Applicants have further examined the root causes of the inability to deal properly with these transients, and propose in the present application aspects of an embodiment of the present invention relating to such solution.

Laser output light pulse beam parameter transient correction system


An anisotropic conductive sheet material includes a resin and conductive fillers, such as metallic particles, added in the resin. A conductive layer is formed on one of the surfaces of the anisotropic conductive sheet material. A circuit board includes a substrate having first and second surfaces and a circuit pattern being formed on the first surface of the substrate, an anisotropic conductive sheet having first and second surfaces, a circuit pattern being formed on the first surface thereof. The second surface of the anisotropic conductive sheet is adhered to the first surface of the substrate in such a manner that the circuit patterns are electrically connected to each other by means of the anisotropic conductive sheet. An electrically insulative layer formed on the first surface of the anisotropic conductive sheet to cover the circuit pattern thereof, except that external connecting portions thereof are exposed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an anisotropic conductive sheet with a conductive layer and a printed circuit board using the same. The present invention also relates to a semiconductor device using such an anisotropic conductive sheet.
2. Description of the Related Art
A multilayer type printed circuit board consisting of a plurality of resin substrates, each carrying circuit patterns on its surface, has been known in the art.
According to such a multilayer type printed circuit board, it is possible to form highly integrated circuit patterns because the degree of freedom increases for wiring circuit patterns.
However, there are problems in that a production process becomes longer to increase a production cost because the electric connections between the respective layers are made through via-holes having a film formed by an electroless plating on the inner wall thereof, and a thickness of the resultant product becomes larger because a plurality of resin substrates are laminated.

Anisotropic conductive sheet and printed circuit board


A system is disclosed for detecting local surface discontinuities in magnetic data storage disks. The system includes a spindle that rotatably supports a magnetic disk being tested. An interferometer generates a laser beam which is guided through an optics assembly supported above the magnetic disk, for linear movement radially of the disk. The combined radial and linear movement causes the laser beam to trace a spiral scanning path on the disk surface. The disk surface scatters the laser energy, a portion of which is returned to the interferometer and caused to interfere with a reference beam. The resulting interference intensity fluctuates in response to changes in the optical path length, thus measuring topographies of the discontinuities. A discontinuity recognition triggering pulse can be positioned in time with respect to indexing pulses, to identify the location of the associated discontinuity radially and angularly of the disk. The triggering pulses limit the storage of scanned surface data to the part of the data that locates and characterizes discontinuities exceeding a predetermined size threshold.

The present invention relates to the fabrication of data storage media, and more particularly to processes and devices for accurately characterizing the surfaces of rigid disk media.
Disk drives typically employ one or more rotatable disks in combination with transducers supported for generally radial movement relative to the disks. Each transducer is maintained spaced apart from its associated disk, at a "flying height" governed by an air bearing caused by disk rotation. Present day transducer flying heights typically range from about 25 nm to about 50 nm, and experience velocities (relative to the disk, due to disk rotation) in the range of 5-15 m/sec. Effective recording and reading of data depend in part upon maintaining the desired transducer/disk spacing. Flaws or discontinuities in an otherwise planar disk surface can interfere with reading and recording, and present a risk of damage to the transducer, the disk recording surface, or both. The continuing increase in data recording density in disk drives leads to more stringent requirements as to disk surface planarity, requiring improved manufacturing techniques to ensure that the number and size distribution of flaws or discontinuities remain below increasingly strict thresholds.
A critical aspect of rigid disk media manufacturing is the quality of substrates, upon which various magnetic thin films are to be deposited. Flaws in the substrate surface tend to be replicated by subsequent thin film layers, to become flaws in the finished product. Performance testing, i.e. in a disk drive or other typical usage environment, is not possible until after thin film layers have been applied to the substrate to provide the desired transducer flying height and glide characteristics. Destructive testing is unsatisfactory, and any visual inspection is difficult, because of the need to recognize potentially damaging flaws in the two micrometer range.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a device for scanning the surface of a data recording medium, to more rapidly locate surface discontinuities and more accurately characterize a profile of each discontinuity.
Another object is to provide a method for scanning data storage media for surface flaws and other discontinuities in a non-contact, non-destructive manner usable at various stages of media fabrication.
A further object is to provide a surface scanning process and device employing a more selective approach to data acquisition, to more accurately characterize the profiles of surface discontinuities while avoiding unduly burdensome data storage requirements.
Yet another object is to provide a device using coherent energy in a non-contact scanning of the surface of a data recording medium, to more effectively optimize focusing of the coherent energy during scanning.

Method and apparatus for detecting surface discontinuities based on changes in an optical path length during beam scanning


Methods and systems may provide for a sink module that receives packets from a source module, wherein each of the packets has a source timestamp corresponding to a source module packet arrival time. A reference timestamp may be associated with the source timestamp of the most recent packet having a program clock reference. A sink counter may be synchronized to a broadcaster transmit counter based on a current source timestamp and the reference timestamp. The sink counter and the source counter may be driven by asynchronous clocks, wherein the current source timestamp may be inferred based on a current value of the source counter. The packets may include video data and/or audio data. The sink counter may be synchronized by adjusting the frequency of a source clock and/or adjusting the sink counter.

Clock recovery pertains to mechanisms used to adjust the frequency of a device's local clock based on a remote device's clock. This is typically used in Multi-channel Video Programming Distributors (MVPDs) to service content over cable, the Internet, satellite, combinations thereof, and/or the like. A head-end station may send video content to home gateways, clients, and/or the like, wherein the video content may be streamed at a rate dictated by the head-end equipment. Local clients may be expected to present the content in sync with the head-end reference clock. An inability to recover the clock may result in buffering under- and over-runs that may be perceived by the viewer as audio and video artifacts (i.e., frame drops or repeats).
Generally, MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) clock recovery is performed by comparing the rate of the advancement of a local counter driven by the local clock to the rate of advancement of incoming PCR values (Program Clock Reference—field used to encode source clock information in an MPEG stream). While such an approach may be suitable under certain circumstances, there remains considerable room for improvement. For example, conventional systems may lack a hardware mechanism to determine the value of the local counter as close as possible to the arrival time of a given packet carrying the PCR, which may lead to unacceptable jitter.

Clock recovery using remote arrival timestamps


A cross-section controlled multi-jet injection valve for an air-distributor injection in air-compressing combustion engines is provided. In order to fulfill the more stringent requirements and standards for exhaust fume quality it is necessary to provide a homogenous fuel/air mixture. This is achieved with a valve needle which is provided with an axially and radially oriented key. Due to this key a favorable ratio of injection cross-section to circumference of the respective cross-section is achieved. Accordingly, a division of the injection jet and a mixing with air is provided. Due to correspondingly adjusted pressure springs the injection pressure at varying amounts of fuel to be injected is kept constant which furthermore provides a constant homogeneity of the fuel/air mixture. Thus an excellent exhaust fume quality is obtained for the entire performance range.

The present invention relates to a cross-section controlled multi-jet injection valve comprising a valve body and a valve needle that is axially movable within the valve body, whereby the valve needle opens the valve in a direction towards the combustion chamber. The sealing seat of the valve needle corresponds to the injection cross-section of the fuel.
It has been known from DE-OS No. 29 49 596 to open the valve by moving the valve needle in the direction of the combustion chamber. The sealing seat is conically shaped and represents at the same time the outlet opening that corresponds to the fuel injection cross-section. With such an injection valve it is not possible to maintain the fuel pressure at a constant level over the entire performance range. The formation of the fuel/air mixture, and thus the fuel preparation, is impaired because the injected fuel jet in the shape of a hollow cone is not divided resulting in an unfavorable ratio of the large circumference of the annular groove to the injection cross-section.
From DE-OS No. 27 10 138 it has also been known to provide a hollow needle having a valve needle coaxially guided inside the hollow needle. The hollow needle may be supplied with fuel pressure from a pressure chamber via a pressure shoulder. Upon a predetermined fuel pressure the hollow needle opens against the force of a first pressure spring thus opening the path for the fuel to the valve needle and to a first injection bore. At a higher load of the combustion engine and a resulting higher fuel pressure generated by an injection pump the valve needle opens against the force of a second pressure spring. The injection of fuel into the combustion chamber then occurs via a second injection bore until, due to the decreasing fuel pressure, the valve needle closes and the injection is terminated. With such an injection valve a stepping of the injected amount of fuel with respect to the direction and shape of the fuel jet is achieved. However, it is disadvantageous that the fuel pressure before the injection bores may not be maintained at a constant high value over the entire performance range. A further disadvantage is the use of multiple injection ports. When under partial load only one bore is used for the fuel injection the second unused bore which only operates during full load tends to form soot.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an injection valve of the aforementioned kind with which the injected amount of fuel is divided into multiple jets whereby a favorable ratio of fuel injection cross-section to the circumference of the respective cross section is provided and at the same time a constant injection pressure before the injection channels is maintained over the entire performance range.

Cross section controlled multi-jet injection valve


A coil assembly in a fuel injector includes a magnetic core and; a winding wound around the core, the winding being overmoulded and forming a cylindrical overmoulding. An axial blind hole extends towards the interior of the coil assembly from a first surface to a distal end, the blind hole being suitable for housing at least one spring for loading a magnetic armature. The coil assembly is provided with a degassing hole passing through the core and the overmoulding from the blind axial hole to an axial outer cylindrical surface, the degassing hole being provided in the magnetic core and having a restriction that is arranged in a first section that is proximal to the blind axial hole.

Fuel injection systems for modern internal combustion engines, in particular compression ignition engines, comprise a plurality of fuel injectors adapted to emit an atomized jet of fuel at high pressure into a combustion chamber of the engine.
A fuel injector known to be used in a system of the above kind. It comprises an injection needle. The needle slides inside the bore formed in a nozzle body and being able to cooperate with a seat to control the distribution of fuel through one or more outlet openings.
When at the start of injection an actuator is electrically energized to perform the opening action, which leads to the movement of an armature and a valve element, also known to professionals as a valve stem. The control stem is situated in the low-pressure chamber, the control stem then moves upward against the action of a coil spring of the actuator. At this stage the length of the spring is reduced and an oscillation propagates from turn to turn and then to the control stem and the oscillation therefore produces to and fro movements creating disturbances in the fuel flow. The propagation of the oscillation comes to disturb the movement of the armature fastened to the control stem member. There then arise oscillations in the forces applied to close or to open the control valve. This problem is explained by a disturbed movement of the armature caused by oscillations to which the spring is subjected. Moreover, this problem will be solved by the present invention, which is to be described later.


An amplifier including the transistors of a first set operates by a power source VCC2, and amplifies the input signal, changing in the voltage range of the power source VCC2, in the voltage range of the power source VCC2. The output of this amplifier operates using a power source VCC1 with a converting portion including the transistors of a second set, and the output of the amplifier is converted into an output within the voltage range of the power source VCC1. The two output amplifiers amplify the output of this converting portion based on a (½) VCC1 reference. The converting portion performs the conversion using a plurality of transistors with the power source VCC2 taken as a power source and a plurality of transistors 7 with the power source VCC1 taken as a power source, as current mirrors.

1.Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a level shift circuit for shifting the voltage level of a current signal.
2.Description of the Related Art
In imaging equipment such as a video camera and a digital still camera, there is a requirement for preventing a video image from becoming degraded due to the occurrence of blur in a subject image by vibration and the like, such as by hand shake, and a vibration measurement mechanism is provided. This vibration measurement mechanism detects the vibration of the imaging equipment with respect to the subject, and it is known that, in response to vibration, an optical system (lens) and the like is shift-corrected by a motor and the like (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 07-23277 etc.).
As this motor for correction, a voice coil motor and the like are used, and to make the driving of this voice coil effective, a power source of preferably high voltage is used.
Hence, after performing the amplification of the signal for driving with an internal reference voltage, the power source voltage is level-shifted to a battery power source, and as a result the circuit and the like for outputting the signal to the voice coil is adopted as a drive circuit of the voice coil.
Further, as related literature, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-244306 can be cited.
Here, the battery power source is lowered with use. Depending on the kind of the battery, there are cases where the lowering of the voltage is considerably large. In this case, when the reference voltage internally used is made undependable on the battery power source and unalterable, the reference voltage and the battery power source are sometimes reversed.
In general, the level-shift circuit is configured such that the relation of magnitude between two power sources that are the object of conversion is fixed, and the relation is not assumed to be reversed. Hence, when the relation of two power source voltages is reversed, there is a problem that the circuit is unable to perform an expected operation.


A postcard includes a security tag coupled to the postcard for selectively concealing at least a portion of information displayed on the postcard. The tag includes at least a first portion and a second portion that is coupled to the first portion. The first portion is secured to the postcard with a bond that is stronger than a bond used to secure the second portion to the postcard.

This invention relates generally to postcards, and more particularly to appointment reminder postcards.
Missed appointments may pose a significant problem for service providers, such as doctors and dentists, or any other business entity that has scheduled an appointment with a person. For example, when a particular time has been reserved for a person, and that person does not show up, that allotted time may be unproductive if it cannot be filled with another appointment.
To facilitate reducing missed appointments, at least some known service providers mail appointment reminders to the person scheduled for the appointment. To expedite the reminder process while minimizing mailing and labor costs incurred by the service provider, often postcards are mailed to the person which include the appointment information, including the date and time of the appointment, either printed or written on the back of the postcard. However, appointment information may be sensitive, such that a person may want or require the appointment information to remain hidden during the mail or other delivery process. Accordingly, to facilitate keeping the appointment information hidden during mailing, at least some known service providers insert each postcard in an envelope prior to mailing the appointment reminders to the person scheduled for the appointment. However, mailing envelopes requires increased postage costs and may increase the amount of time and labor that must be expended by the service provider in reminding people of their appointments.

Method and apparatus for notifying a person of an appointment


The present invention provides a method of preparing a nanocomposite thermoelectric material. The method includes heating a reaction mixture of a semiconductor material and a metal complex to a temperature greater than the decomposition temperature of the metal complex. The heating forms metallic inclusions having a size less than about 100 nm that are substantially evenly distributed throughout the semiconductor material forming the nanocomposite thermoelectric material. The present invention also provides a nanocomposite thermoelectric material prepared by this method.

Thermoelectric based generators have been used successfully and reliably for the past 40 years to power deep space probes. These solid-state devices rely only on a temperature gradient to produce electricity, and are thus an attractive way of reducing our demand on fossil fuels. In order for thermoelectric devices to be used in large-scale applications, however, a number of materials problems must be overcome. For instance, the materials used in such devices are typically associated with low abundance, high cost, high toxicity, low thermal stability, and/or poor oxidation resistance.
Silicon-based thermoelectric materials are attractive candidates for large-scale applications since they are composed of abundant and low cost-elements and are relatively non-toxic. Such materials are typically associated with high thermal stability and oxidation resistance, in addition to electronic properties that are easily tunable (e.g., via doping). A problem with silicon-based thermoelectric materials, however, is that they generally have a thermal conductivity an order of magnitude too high to be an effective generator of thermoelectric power.
Earlier work investigated the impact on the lattice thermal conductivity of silicon-based materials by nanostructured inclusions. For instance, Fleurial and co-workers used a spark erosion technique to introduce small (e.g., 5 nm) inert inclusions of BN, B4C, and Y2O3 into fine grained Si0.80Ge0.20 (J.-P. Fleurial et al., Nanostructured Materials, 1995, 5(2), 207-223). Although the resulting composite demonstrated a 40% reduction in the lattice thermal conductivity with an overall increase in figure of merit (ZT) of about 20%, the use of spark erosion to form such composites is impractical for large-scale applications. In particular, spark erosion is too slow, costly, involves a complex set-up, and is low yielding.
Other methods have been investigated including the mixing of pre-fabricated or synthesized metal nanoparticles and Si powders, and then compacting them using hot pressing (S. Bux et al., Advanced Functional Materials, 2009, 19, 2445-2452). However, such methods are limited by several factors in that commercially available nanoparticles are larger than the particle size required by thermoelectric models, unavailable for specific compositions and materials, and too costly. Moreover, such nanoparticles are often functionalized or contaminated with oxide or thiolated capping agents which results in contamination of the resulting composite in addition to undesirable doping effects. Other problems that arise from this approach include the agglomeration of nanoparticles into larger particles to minimize surface energy, and the settling of nanoparticles at grain boundaries as opposed to within the matrix as required by composite thermoelectric models. Such characteristics in the final composite lead to undesirable thermoelectric transport properties.
More recent work investigated the formation of silicide inclusions in silicon-based materials. For instance, Mingo and co-workers theorized that a small volume fraction of silicide inclusions in a Si1-xGex matrix would result in an overall reduction in thermal conductivity of the silicon-germanium (N. Mingo et al., NanoLetters, 2009, 9(2), 711-715). In an approach to form such composites, Bux and co-workers used ball milling of Si0.80Ge0.20 and W (and Si and W) followed by hot pressing to form WSi2 inclusions in the Si matrix; however, due to the inclusions being too large and their size distribution too broad, the resulting composite did not demonstrate a significant reduction in lattice thermal conductivity (S. Bux et al., Materials Research Society, Symposium Proceedings, 2010, 1267, 1267-DD01-06). What is needed is a nanocomposite thermoelectric material having a lattice thermal conductivity suitable for thermoelectric applications, and a method of making such a material. Surprisingly, the present invention meets this and other needs.

Nanostructured silicide composites for thermoelectric applications


An anti-pilferage ring display system consists of a tag assembly which is attached to the shank of the ring and a display assembly for receiving the rings with the attached tag assemblies. The tag assembly includes an elongated, rigid card and a flexible, tear resistant strap for securing the card to the ring shank. A first end of the card includes an arcuate seat for receiving the ring shank in abutting relation. The strap is received through the shank of the ring wherein the first and second ends of the strap are secured to opposing surfaces of the card by means of pressure sensitive adhesive applied to the surfaces of the strap. The display assembly includes a pad having a plurality of slots for receiving the ring shanks and further includes a stand for supporting the slotted pad above a supporting surface. In use, the elongated card is passed through the slot so that the shank is received in the slot in a conventional manner. In this regard, the stand has a depth which is greater than the length of the elongated card so that the card can hang freely below the slotted pad when the ring shank is received in the slot.

The instant invention relates to ring display systems and more particularly to a ring display system including an anti-pilferage ring tag.
It is well known in the jewelry art to display finger rings in a display assembly including a flocked or felt top pad having a plurality of spaced slits through which the ring shanks are inserted whereby the ornamental top portions of the rings are visible above the slitted pad. It is also well known to attach to the ring shank a small information tag, better known as a dumbbell tag, which folds around the shank of the ring and then is glued to itself. The tag is usually sized so that it fits within the ring shank opening whereupon it is substantially concealed when the ring shank is received in a slit in the pad. The tag typically includes style numbers and price information, etc. When a prospective purchaser wishes to try a ring on, the ring is removed from the pad in which it is mounted, and placed on a finger with the dumbbell tag still attached. The ring is then either purchased or returned to the display.
One of the major problems in display systems such as this is pilferage. Many people will try on a ring, and then if they like it and want to avoid paying for it, they simply rip the dumbbell tag off and put the ring on their finger and walk out of the store. One solution to the pilferage problem has been to provide ring displays with a plurality of locking bars which pass through the ring shanks when they are received in the display pad so that the rings cannot be removed from the display until a sales person operates the mechanism to unlock the bars. While effective in preventing pilferage, the repeated locking and unlocking of the display by a sales persons is undesirable.
In addition to the pilferage problem, when the rings are inserted into their display, the dumbbell tags will not often pass through the slitted pad and hence will be visible at the top of the pad, which creates a rather unsightly appearance to the overall display.
The instant invention overcomes the above problems by providing a ring display system comprising an anti-pilferage tag assembly and a display assembly for receiving the rings with the tag assemblies attached thereto. The tag assembly includes an elongated, rigid card and a flexible, tear resistant strap for securing the card to the ring shank. A first end of the card includes an enlarged shoulder portion, a neck portion and a seat portion having an arcuate seat for receiving the ring shank in abutting relation. The seat portion comprises two flexible fingers which extend upwardly and outwardly from the neck portion and cooperate to form the seat. In use, the fingers flex to conform to various diameters of ring shanks when received in abutting relation therewith. For attachment of the card to the ring shank, the strap is received through the shank of the ring and the first and second ends of the strap are secured to opposing surfaces of the card by means of pressure sensitive adhesive applied to the surfaces of the dumbbell strap. The adhesive makes a permanent bond that cannot be peeled off. Since the strap is tear resistant, and the adhesive is permanent, the card cannot be easily removed from the ring without the aid of scissors. Furthermore, since the card is highly visible when a ring having the card attached thereto is worn by a potential purchaser, the chances of theft detection or prevention are greatly improved. Yet at the same time, a potential customer may try on a ring for size and appearance even though the card is attached to the ring shank as aforedescribed.
The display assembly for receiving the rings with the tag assemblies attached thereto includes a display pad having a plurality of spaced slots for receiving ring shanks and further includes a stand for supporting the slotted display pad in an elevated position above a supporting surface. In use, the elongated card is passed through one of the slots in the pad so that the ring shank is received in the slot in a conventional manner. It is noted that the stand has a depth which is greater than the length of elongated card so that the card can hang freely below the slotted pad when the ring shank is received in the slot. The display pad further includes a rigid backplate having a plurality of slots therein, wherein the slots have a width which is greater than the thickness of the card but less than the thickness of the shoulder so that the shoulder portion of the card is retained above the backplate. The rings are thus prevented from falling through the display pad into the interior of the stand where they are not visible for display or accessible for removal.
Accordingly, among the objects of the instant invention are: the provision of an anti-pilferage tag assembly for a finger ring which is attached to the ring shank and which cannot be easily removed from the finger ring; the provision of an anti-pilferage tag assembly including an elongated card which is highly visible when the ring is worn on a finger by a purchaser; the provision of a ring display system including an anti-pilferage tag assembly having an elongated card attached to the shank of the finger ring and further including a slotted display pad supported in an elevated tray for receiving the finger rings and for accommodating the elongated cards below the slotted pad; and the provision of a ring display assembly including an anti-pilferage tag assembly and an elevated display pad wherein the tag assembly engages a rigid backplate of the display pad to prevent the rings from slipping through the pad.
Other objects, features and advantages of the invention shall become apparent as the description thereof proceeds when considered in connection with the accompanying illustrative drawings.

Ring display system with anti-pilferage ring tag


An apparatus (10) for compressing and expanding a gas includes a chamber (22), a positive displacement device (24) moveable relative thereto, first and second valves (26, 28) activatable to control flow of gas into and out of the chamber (22), and a controller (80) for controlling activation of the valves (26, 28) that selectively switches operation between a compression and an expansion mode with selective switching between modes being achieved by selectively changing the activation timing of at least one of the valves during the first mode. An energy storage system including the device may be operatively coupled via a rotary device for power transmission to an input/output device, whereby the direction and speed of rotation are preserved during switching, and the input/output device may be synchronized to the grid.

1. Field of the Disclosure
The present invention relates to apparatus for compressing and expanding a gas, a method of operating the same, and particularly but not exclusively to energy storage apparatus including such apparatus for compressing and expanding a gas.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many energy storage processes involve operating gas compressors and/or expanders as part of the technology. For example, conventional energy storage techniques such as CAES (Compressed Air Energy Storage) and its variants use compressors and expanders to process gas, as does the novel energy storage technique disclosed in the applicant's own earlier application WO 2009/044139.
Certain rotary machinery has been designed to operate with gas flows in both directions, although the efficiency in each direction is normally quite low. However, most rotary machinery is normally configured to operate with gas flows passing in one direction only and hence it is necessary to have separate machinery for charge and discharge cycles.


A polyolefin-based plastic composition suitable for an automotive molded pillar member such as a pillar garnish. The plastic composition comprises (A) block copolymer in an amount ranging from 53 to 68 parts by weight, the block copolymer having a Melt Flow Rate (at 230.degree. C. and under 2.16 kg) ranging from 20 to 50 g/10 min. and containing crystalline polypropylene section in an amount ranging from 90 to 95% by weight, having a density of not lower than 0.908 g/cm.sup.3, and propylene-ethylene random copolymer section in an amount ranging from 5 to 10% by weight, the propylene-ethylene random copolymer section having an ethylene content ranging from 35 to 45% by weight; (B) ethylene-1-butene copolymer rubber in an amount ranging from 12 to 20 parts by weight and having a density ranging from 0.85 to 0.87 g/cm.sup.3 and a Melt Flow Rate (at 230.degree. C. and under 2.16 kg) ranging from 0.2 to 5 g/10 min., the copolymer rubber containing 1-butene in an amount ranging from 30 to 40% by weight; and (C) talc in an amount ranging from 22 to 30 parts by weight and having a length not more than 15 .mu.m and an average particle size ranging from 1.5 to 6 .mu.m, the talc having an average aspect ratio not lower than 5. The polyolefin-based plastic composition has a Melt Flow Rate (at 230.degree. C. and under 2.16 kg) not lower than 8 g/10 min., a Flexural Elastic Modulus not lower than 1960 MPa when molded, and an IZOD not lower than 0.088 KJ/m when molded, and a Rockwell hardness (in R scale) not lower than 65 when molded.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to improvements in polyolefin-based plastic composition reinforced with filler and to an automotive molded article such as a molded pillar member for an automotive vehicle, including an interior finish material for covering a pillar or a side roof rail of the automotive vehicle. More particularly, this invention relates to the polyolefin-based plastic composition and an automotive molded pillar member formed of the plastic composition, the plastic composition improving the molded pillar member in flaw resistance upon application of impact load from a sharp cornered part and article.
2. Description of Related Art
In general, a molded article called a garnish is used at the passenger compartment side of an automotive vehicle (particularly, a passenger car) in order to cover a clearance between a ceiling and a door or a clearance between a front windshield glass and a side door glass. This molded article is mainly intended to decorate the upper part of the passenger compartment and used as a design part for covering the above clearance. An example of the garnish (as an interior finish material) is a pillar garnish which is arranged to cover the passenger compartment side of a front pillar formed between a front windshield glass and a side door glass. The front pillar includes an inner panel and an outer panel which are combined at their flange sections by point welding such as spot welding. The interior finish material or pillar garnish is formed of ABS resin or polypropylene resin and includes a main body section which is integrally provided with an installation section formed at the back side surface thereof
The main body section is formed curved to cover the front pillar. The surface of the main body section may be covered with a skin material (not shown) as occasion demands in order to improve design effects. The skin material is a flocked plastic sheet or fabric. The installation section is a clip member which is thrust into a hole or groove in the inner panel of the front pillar, so that the pillar garnish is installed in position. A welt is disposed to cover the clearance between the pillar garnish and the front pillar and a welded section of the inner and outer panels for the purpose of trimming an end section of the pillar garnish at the side which is exposed to the eyes of a vehicle passenger. Additionally, the pillar garnish is provided at its backside surface with reinforcement ribs for the purpose of preventing its opening deformation and providing a stiffness feeling to the pillar garnish.
The pillar garnish is required to have a decorative characteristics, a stiffness feeling and a high quality feeling. Particularly, material of the pillar garnish is required to have a considerable stiffness when installed and upon being heated and to have an excellent moldabiliy which is needed from requirements of design for the pillar garnish. As the material of the pillar garnish, polyolefin-based plastic composition containing filler such as talc has been extensively used to obtain excellent physical properties and moldability.
However, in case that a non-skin pillar garnish is formed of polyolefin-based plastic composition reinforced with filler, the pillar garnish is insufficient in flaw resistance and therefore can be easily flawed and scratched upon collision with a metal part having a sharp corner, such as a tongue of a seat belt. The non-skin pillar garnish is arranged such that, for example, a wrinkle pattern like that of the skin of leather is formed on the surface of the molded article of the plastic composition.
Hitherto, in order to overcome such a defect of the composite material or the polyolefin-based plastic composition containing the filler, the amount of rubber to be blended in the composite material is reduced thereby to increase the stiffness of the molded article or pillar garnish, thus improving the flaw resistance of the pillar garnish. However, with such an improving manner, although the plastic article or pillar garnish exhibits a sufficient flaw resistance against wiping it with a cloth or light interference with the tip end of nail or other automotive parts, a depressed trace is unavoidably left on the surface of the pillar garnish when an impact load is applied from a part having a sharp corner. In fact, under a recent obligation of using a seat belt during driving of the vehicle, a metal part of a buckle and the like of the seat belt will strongly interfere with the pillar garnish when the seat belt is unfasten, increasing problems in which a depressed flaw is left on the surface of the pillar garnish.
In order to overcome such defects of the pillar garnish, it may be proposed that a material (having a high content of rubber) for an automotive bumper is used for the pillar garnish. This improves the flaw resistance of the pillar garnish upon collision of a sharp cornered part or member but lowers the Rockwell hardness and the flexural elastic modulus of the pillar garnish thereby lowering the flaw resistance upon light interference of other part and member and the stiffness of the molded article or pillar garnish. Additionally, a high stiffness material for an automotive bumper has been proposed as disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 4-56649; however, even the pillar garnish formed of such a material cannot overcome the defect of the Rockwell hardness being insufficient.

Polyolefin-based plastic composition and automotive molded article formed thereof


The phase locked loop according to the invention has an adjustable charge pump (2) which is intended to generate a control voltage (UVCO). A voltage-controlled oscillator (4) and an evaluation unit (14) are connected downstream of said charge pump. In this case, the evaluation unit (14) is designed in such a manner that it can be used to generate a correction signal (Iref) using the control voltage (UVCO) and a nominal gradient ({circumflex over (K)} vco) of the voltage-controlled oscillator (4) and to apply said signal to the evaluation output. The latter is, in turn, connected to an input of the charge pump (2).

A low-complexity implementation of a transmitter design for modern mobile radio systems for frequency modulation is provided by a ΣΔ fractional-N phase locked loop, which is also referred to below as a ΣΔ fractional-N PLL or else just as a PLL.
The PLL 10, as shown in FIG. 1, comprises a phase/frequency detector 1, a charge pump 2, a loop filter 3, a voltage-controlled oscillator 4 (VCO for short) and a frequency divider 5. Applied to one input of the PLL 10 is a reference frequency fref whose phase is compared, by means of the phase/frequency detector 1, with a phase of a frequency fdiv that results from an output frequency fvco which has been divided by a division value N. If necessary, the phase/frequency detector 1 generates an actuating signal and supplies it to the charge pump 2, which takes said actuating signal as a basis for generating a voltage U which, once filtered by means of the filter 3, is applied to the input of the voltage-controlled oscillator 4 as a tuning voltage UVCO. Said voltage-controlled oscillator, in turn, generates the output frequency fvco, which is dependent on the tuning voltage UVCO.
The frequency modulation desired is effected digitally by varying the frequency division value N with the aid of a ΣΔ modulator 6. Digital transmission data D are combined with a channel word KW using an adder 7 and are supplied to the ΣΔ modulator 6, which then uses them to determine the division value N which it supplies to the frequency divider 5. In this case, the channel word KW prescribes the channel.
When a non-integrating loop filter 3 is used, the transmission bandwidth of the phase locked loop 10 is directly proportional to the VCO gradient Kvco. The transfer function H(jω) of the closed control loop 10 is determined as follows:
                    H        (                  jω          (                      =                                          vvc                rre                            =                              N                                  1                  +                                      jωω                                                              /                      0                                                                                (        1        )            where    φvco is the phase at the PLL output,    φref is the phase at the PLL input,    ω is the angular frequency, and    N is the division value.
The cut-off frequency f0 of the −3 dB bandwidth of the PLL 10 is calculated from:
                    f0        =                              Kp            ·            R            ·            Kvco                    N                                    (        2        )            where    Kp is the phase detector gradient,    R is the loop resistance to ground, and    Kvco is the VCO gradient.
The phase detector gradient Kp is proportional to the charge pump current Icp.
The document U.S. 2002/0039050 A1 specifies a synthesizer having a charge pump in which the charge pump current is compensated for relative to the tuning curve of the VCO. In this case, the charge pump current of the charge pump (which is connected between the phase detector and the oscillator) is matched as a function of the magnitude of a frequency control signal at the input of the voltage-controlled oscillator.
The prior art has hitherto not disclosed a PLL which can be used to firmly set the DC voltage no-load gain and cut-off frequency across all channels and all tolerances.


Disclosed is a system and method for monitoring PCIe packets between clock domains. An interrupt is set to a root complex or external hardware based on the detection of malformed, and illegal, packets.

PCI Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), often abbreviated as PCIe, is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard. PCIe has high maximum system bus throughput, low I/O pin count and small physical footprint. PCIe has good performance-scaling for bus devices with a detailed error detection and reporting mechanism (Advanced Error Reporting (AER)). The PCIe electrical interface is used in a variety of other standards, such as ExpressCard, a laptop expansion card interface.
PCIe is generally based on point-to-point topology, with separate serial links connecting every device to the root complex (host). A PCIe bus link supports full-duplex communication between any two endpoints, with no inherent limitation on concurrent access across multiple endpoints.
PCIe communication is encapsulated in packets. The processes of packetizing and de-packetizing data and status-message traffic are handled by a transaction layer of the PCIe port.

Sideband logic for monitoring PCIe headers

Avago Technologies General IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.