A set of circuit carriers includes a number of N≧1 circuit carriers, each of which has an upper side, an underside opposite from the upper side, a distinctive structure, and a conductor structure on the upper side. Each of the circuit carriers is populated by: determining a first relative position between the distinctive structure and the conductor structure; picking up the circuit carrier by a pickup of a lifting and positioning unit; determining a second relative position between the lifting and positioning unit and the distinctive structure of the circuit carrier picked up by the pickup; and populating the circuit carrier with one or more components while taking the first relative position and the second relative position into account.

In the processing of circuit carriers, such as are used for example in semiconductor modules, positioning inaccuracies occur during each of various process steps and mount up over the course of the processing. As a result, necessary safety margins, as are required for example to avoid voltage flashovers, must be of a correspondingly generous size. As a result, this has the effect that the circuit carriers have to be designed with a correspondingly large surface area because of these positioning inaccuracies, in order to avoid positional misplacements, short-circuits or voltage flashovers. Furthermore, these positioning inaccuracies limit the achievable integration density of the components that are fitted on the circuit carrier.


A halftone dot addition device for adding halftone dots to halftone dot images includes an empty circle information acquiring unit and a halftone dot addition unit. The empty circle information acquiring unit obtains, in a Voronoi diagram having a generatrix corresponding to a halftone dot in a halftone dot image. The radius of an empty circle is a circle centering on a Voronoi vertex. The empty circle passes through the generatrix but not internally includes the generatrix. The halftone dot addition unit, if the radius of a target circle being the empty circle obtained, as a target, by the empty circle information acquiring unit is larger than a specific value, adds to the halftone dot image a halftone dot corresponding to a new generatrix, by adding the new generatrix to the inside of the target circle.

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the description in this section is not prior art to the claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
There is known screening that transforms an image into a halftone dot image using a screen such as a halftone screen and a line screen. The halftone dot image is constituted of periodic arrays of halftone dots expressed in tones. For execution of appropriate screening, in the screening, according to an attribution of the image before transformation, various parameters such as a mesh pattern (screen pattern), a screen line width, and a screen angle in the screening are set.
If the screening is performed on a character of light print density and a thin line, an interval between the halftone dots become large. Accordingly, a portion where the halftone dot is not arranged is generated at a part of an edge of the thin line in the halftone dot image or the character. As a result, a white void and a break may be seen at the character and the thin line.
Therefore, there is known the following method. A character and an edge part of a line are detected. According to attributions of the character and the line, one matrix is selected among a plurality of threshold matrixes of different growth methods and outputs the image.

Halftone dot addition apparatus that reduces white void and break at edge portion of image


The turbine casing includes a circumferential wall coaxially surrounding a ring that surrounds the moving blades of the turbine. The casing includes a plurality of perforations delivering air for ventilating the outside face of the circumferential wall in uniform manner.

The present invention relates to the general field of controlling clearance between the tips of rotary blades and a stationary ring assembly in a gas turbine.
A gas turbine, e.g. a high-pressure turbine of a turbomachine, typically comprises a plurality of stationary vanes disposed in alternation with a plurality of moving blades lying on the path of hot gas coming from the combustion chamber of the turbomachine. The moving blades of the turbine are surrounded around the entire circumference thereof by a stationary ring assembly. The stationary ring assembly defines the passage along which the hot gas flows through the blades of the turbine.
In order to increase the efficiency of such a turbine, it is known to reduce the clearance that exists between the tips of the moving blades of the turbine and the facing portions of the stationary ring assembly to a value that is as small as possible.
To achieve this, means have been devised that enable the diameter of the stationary ring assembly to be varied.
Nevertheless, that solution is found to be insufficient when the support to which the ring is secured also suffers thermal deformation around its circumference and in a manner that is not uniform, where such deformation has the effect of deforming the turbine ring.

Device for controlling clearance in a gas turbine


An electronic apparatus, capable of efficiently supplying power in accordance with execution process analysis of the electronic apparatus and classification of externally connected external equipment, includes an equipment connection section for connecting with multiple external equipments, a process judgment section for making a judgment as to a process to be performed by the electronic apparatus, an equipment selection section for selecting external equipment based on the judgment result of the process judgment section, and a power supply section for supplying power to the external equipment selected by the equipment selection section.

The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus having an interface section capable of supplying power to and transmitting information with external equipment connected externally.
Conventionally, in electronic apparatuses capable of connecting externally to a plurality of external equipments, there are multiple interface sections capable of supplying power to and transmitting information with external equipment connected externally via cables such as USB cables. It is possible for each of these external equipments connected externally to supply an established amount of power such as 2.5 W. In a case where it is necessary during the execution of the performance of the electronic apparatus, the external equipments are made to perform and the performance demanded via such a local network as a LAN from a computer such as the host PC is executed in accordance with the operation of the user. In a recording apparatus capable of recording image information stored in external equipment and having, for example, a USB interface and a memory card interface as the interface connectable to the external equipment, the connected conditions of the external equipments connected to these USB and memory card interfaces are detected. When it is detected that the external equipments are connected to both of these two types of interfaces, a judgment is made as to whether the total electrical energy demanded by these external equipments exceeds the maximum value of electrical energy to be supplied to the external equipments by the recording apparatus. If the total energy exceeds the maximum value, the external equipments are selected in accordance with the performance condition of the previously connected external equipments, and power is then supplied (see generally, Japanese Application Publication JA2004-284173 (pgs. 1-12, FIG. 4)).
In the aforementioned conventional electronic apparatus, however, in a case where a plurality of external equipments is connected by an interface section, it is necessary to ensure a large amount of power in order to supply the required power for each of the multiple external equipments. For example, in order to supply 2.5 W of power for each of four external equipments, it is necessary to ensure 10 W of power. For this reason, the total amount of energy supplied is greatly increased when many external equipments are connected and, in a case where power necessary for the performance of the electronic apparatus itself is a small amount rather than a large amount, the electronic apparatus is made larger and the cost is greatly increased with the goal of ensuring a greater power supply.
Also, in the recording apparatus according to the aforementioned Japanese Patent Application to prevent this type of increase in the supply of power, external equipments are selected in accordance with the performance condition of the previously connected external equipments, and power is then supplied, but, in this recording apparatus, regardless of desire to use the externally connected external equipments there are instances where power is not supplied to the appropriate external equipment to render the equipment useless.
The present invention is made in consideration of these problems, it is an objective to provide an electronic apparatus capable of efficiently selecting and supplying power to external equipments in accordance with the analyzed process performance of the electronic apparatus and the type of externally connected external equipments.

Electronic apparatus supplying power to external equipment based on information received from a host or the external equipment


Methods, systems and apparatus are described herein that includes identifying a partial query entered into a search field. A query completion template is then provided for display for a category of information associated with one or more terms within the partial query, the query completion template including an interactive field that is user editable. User interaction with the interactive field is the identified. Display of the query completion template is then updated to include the results of the user interaction within the interactive of the query completion template. User selection of the updated query completion template is then identified, and in response the updated display of the query completion template is transmitted as a search query.

The present disclosure relates to information retrieval.
Information retrieval systems, such as Internet search engines, help users by retrieving information, such as web pages, images, text documents and multimedia content, in response to search queries. A search engine locates and stores the location of documents in a searchable index used to facilitate fast information retrieval. The search engine may use a variety of statistical measures to determine the relevance of the resources in the index to the user's query to identify and provide search results.
Formulating a search query that accurately represents the user's information need can be challenging. For example, a user may be unfamiliar with search query constructs, keywords and/or syntax that may be useful in obtaining search results relevant to the user's information need. In such a case, the user may submit a search query that includes query terms that are general or ambiguous to yield relevant search results. That is, the search engine may identify a number of resources which match terms in the user's query, but which are unrelated to the actual information need of the user. In such a case, the user may have to enter a number of different queries concerning the same information request before reaching resources that are of interest to the user.


In a method of starting an internal combustion engine, a combustion energy is generated by combusting a fuel that has been injected into a cylinder in an expansion stroke when the internal combustion engine is stopped. In the aforementioned method, the combustion energy generated by combusting the fuel is obtained based on a state of an air/fuel mixture within the cylinder to which the fuel has been injected. Based on the obtained combustion energy, a kinetic energy to be supplied to the internal combustion engine from a primary energy supply source is estimated. A difference between a predetermined target kinetic energy required for starting the internal combustion engine subsequent to the start of combustion and the estimated kinetic energy to be supplied from the primary energy supply source is obtained. The kinetic energy corresponding to the obtained difference is supplied from a secondary energy supply source in the form of a starter motor.

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a method and a device of starting an internal combustion engine.
2. Description of Related Art
There is proposed a method of starting an internal combustion engine of direct injection type where fuel is directly injected into cylinders using energy generated by combustion within the cylinder in expansion stroke upon start of the engine in JP-A-2002-4985 (Related Art No. 1). In the disclosed method, success or failure in starting the engine is estimated on the basis of the engine speed after starting the combustion. If failure in starting the engine is estimated, the starter motor is activated so as to compensate for the energy required for starting the engine. Likewise JP-A-2000-4929 (Related art No. 2) discloses the technology in which the fuel is injected into the cylinder in the expansion stroke when an engine operation is stopped, and ignition is performed after sufficient vaporization of the fuel followed by the passage of a preset delay time. The list of the related art of the invention is described as below:
Related art No. 1:JP-A-2002-4985;Related art No. 2:JP-A-2000-4929;Related art No. 3:JP-A-11-159374; andRelated art No. 4:JP-A-7-119594.
In the aforementioned cases, sufficiency of the energy for starting the engine cannot be preliminarily estimated but determined on the basis of success/failure in starting the engine after performing combustion in the cylinder. The required energy to be compensated by the starter motor activated upon failure of starting the engine cannot be preliminarily controlled as well. Therefore, it is difficult for the aforementioned cases to estimate the kinetic energy required for starting the engine preliminarily before performing the combustion. It is likely to cause insufficiency/excess of the kinetic energy supplied by the combustion or the starter motor with respect to the required kinetic energy for starting the engine. This may result in the start-up failure or over-speed of the internal combustion engine.

Starting method and starting device of internal combustion engine, method and device of estimating starting energy employed for starting method and starting device


Rhodium utilization in LNT/SCR-based exhaust after treatment systems for medium and heavy duty trucks is reduced by operating inline fuel reformers in a certain manner. The fuel processors are operated at steam reforming temperatures to produce a reformate-containing exhaust having a hydrogen to CO ratio of at least about 3:2 or at least about 3% hydrogen, This generally involves operating the fuel reformers at temperatures from about 500 to about 625° C. and with an overall fuel to air ratio from about 1.10 to about 1.40. In this manner, regeneration can be efficiently carried out while limiting the catalyst loading of the fuel processors to no more than about 1.0 grams rhodium per liter maximum displacement of the diesel engine and the catalyst loading of the LNTs to no more than about 0.50 grams rhodium per liter maximum displacement of the diesel engine.

NOx emissions from diesel engines are an environmental problem. Several countries, including the United States, have long had regulations pending that will limit NOx emissions from trucks and other diesel-powered vehicles. Manufacturers and researchers have put considerable effort toward meeting those regulations.
In gasoline powered vehicles that use stoichiometric fuel-air mixtures, three-way catalysts have been shown to control NOx emissions. In diesel-powered vehicles, which use compression ignition, the exhaust is generally too oxygen-rich for three-way catalysts to be effective.
Several solutions have been proposed for controlling NOx emissions from diesel-powered vehicles. One set of approaches focuses on the engine. Techniques such as exhaust gas recirculation and partially homogenizing fuel-air mixtures are helpful, but these techniques alone will not eliminate NOx emissions. Another set of approaches remove NOx from the vehicle exhaust. These include the use of lean-burn NOx catalysts, selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalysts, and lean NOx traps (LNTs).
Lean-burn NOx catalysts promote the reduction of NOx under oxygen-rich conditions. Reduction of NOx in an oxidizing atmosphere is difficult. It has proven challenging to find a lean-burn NOx catalyst that has the required activity, durability, and operating temperature range. A reductant such as diesel fuel must be steadily supplied to the exhaust for lean NOx reduction, introducing a fuel economy penalty of 3% or more. Currently, peak NOx conversion efficiencies for lean-burn NOx catalysts are unacceptably low.
SCR generally refers to selective catalytic reduction of NOx by ammonia. The reaction takes place even in an oxidizing environment. The NOx can be temporarily stored in an adsorbent or ammonia can be fed continuously into the exhaust. SCR can achieve high levels of NOx reduction, but there is a disadvantage in the lack of infrastructure for distributing ammonia or a suitable precursor. Another concern relates to the possible release of ammonia into the environment.
To clarify the state of a sometime ambiguous nomenclature, it should be noted that in the exhaust aftertreatment art, the terms "SCR catalyst" and "lean NOx catalyst" are occasionally used interchangeably. Where the term "SCR" is used to refer just to ammonia-SCR, as it often is, SCR is a special case of lean NOx catalysis. Commonly when both types of catalysts are discussed in one reference, SCR is used with reference to ammonia-SCR and lean NOx catalysis is used with reference to SCR with reductants other than ammonia, such as SCR with hydrocarbons.
LNTs are devices that adsorb NOx under lean exhaust conditions and reduce and release the adsorbed NOx under rich conditions. A LNT generally includes a NOx adsorbent and a catalyst. The adsorbent is typically an alkaline earth compound, such as BaCO3 and the catalyst is typically a combination of precious metals including Pt and Rh. In lean exhaust, the platinum catalyst speeds oxidizing reactions that lead to NOx adsorption. In a reducing environment, the catalysts activate reactions by which hydrocarbon reductants are converted to more active species, activate the water-gas shift reaction, which produces more active hydrogen from less active CO, and activate reactions by which adsorbed NOx is reduced and desorbed. In a typical operating protocol, a reducing environment will be created within the exhaust from time-to-time to regenerate (denitrate) the LNT.
A LNT can produce ammonia during denitration. Accordingly, it has been proposed to combine LNT and ammonia-SCR catalysts into one system. Ammonia produced by the LNT during regeneration is captured by the SCR catalyst for subsequent use in reducing NOx, thereby improving conversion efficiency over a stand-alone LNT with no increase in fuel penalty or precious metal usage. U.S. Pat. No. 6,732,507 describes such a system. U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2004/0076565 describes such a system wherein LNT and SCR components are interleaved or co-disbursed over one substrate.
The present invention concerns the use of catalysts in LNT-based medium and heavy duty diesel truck exhaust aftertreatment systems. The catalyst requirements for LNT based-systems treating lean burn engine exhaust or diesel automotive exhaust are generally less stringent than those for treating medium and heavy duty diesel truck exhaust. Diesel exhaust is cooler than gasoline engine exhaust. Exhaust from larger diesel engines is cooler than exhaust from smaller diesel engine. At lower temperatures, reactions are generally slower and require more catalyst.
The LNT catalyst requirement depends on whether exhaust valves are used. Exhaust valves can be used to cut exhaust flow to an LNT during regeneration, rerouting the bulk or all of the exhaust flow until regeneration is complete. The precious metal catalyst requirements of LNT systems with valves may be less than those of otherwise comparable systems without valves. The valves permit the residence time of the reducing agent in the LNT during regeneration to be greatly increased. Also, the valves allow the environment within the LNT during regeneration to be easily controlled, Exhaust valves, however, are prone to failure and the present invention focuses on systems that do not require valves.
When valves are not used, regeneration involves eliminating most of the oxygen from the exhaust. Eliminating most of the oxygen from diesel engine exhaust generally involves injecting a reducing agent into the exhaust. The reducing agent reacts with oxygen and substantially consumes it. The reactions between reductant and oxygen can take place in the LNT, but it is generally preferred for the reactions to occur in a catalyst upstream of the LNT, whereby the heat of reaction does not cause large temperature increases within the LNT at every regeneration.
WO 2004/090296 describes a diesel automotive exhaust treatment system with a fuel reformer configured within an exhaust line upstream from LNT and SCR catalysts. The reformer has a high thermal mass. The reformer uses Pt and Rh to produce syn gas from diesel fuel at exhaust gas temperatures. For the reformer to be operative at exhaust gas temperatures, a relatively large amount of catalyst must be used.
U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2004/0050037 (hereinafter "the '037 publication") describes a different type of fuel reformer placed in the exhaust line upstream from an LNT. The reformer includes both oxidation and steam reforming catalysts. The reformer both removes excess oxygen and converts the diesel fuel reductant into more reactive reformate. Pt and/or Pd serves as the oxidation catalyst. Rh serves as the reforming catalyst.
The inline reformer of the '037 publication is designed to be rapidly heated and to then catalyze steam reforming. Temperatures from about 500 to about 700° C. are said to be required for effective reformate production by this reformer. These temperatures are substantially higher than typical diesel exhaust temperatures. The reformer is heated by injecting fuel at a rate that leaves the exhaust lean, whereby the injected fuel combusts to generate heat. After warm up, the fuel injection rate is increased to provide a rich exhaust.
The industry has found an apparent requirement for rhodium for valveless LNT-based diesel exhaust aftertreatment systems for trucks configured for regeneration using diesel fuel injected into the exhaust line. Without rhodium, NOx conversion efficiencies during LNT regenerations within the lower extent of the exhaust temperature range have been found to be unacceptably low. The rhodium is needed to produce more reactive substances from CO and large hydrocarbon molecules. As a result, rhodium prices have become very high.
In spite of advances, there continues to be a long felt need for an affordable and reliable exhaust treatment system that is durable, has a manageable operating cost (including fuel penalty), and is practical for reducing NOx emissions from diesel engines to a satisfactory extent in the sense of meeting U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations effective in 2010 and other such regulations

Optimized rhodium usage in LNT SCR system


Process for the preparation of an isobutane/isohexane containing product comprising passing an isopentane feed to a disproportion stage and disproportionating the isopentane feed in the presence of olefinic and/or higher branched paraffinic hydrocarbons by contact with an acid catalyst having an acidity of H.sub.o >8 at a temperature of between 0.degree. C. and 150.degree. C. and withdrawing an isobutane/isohexane containing product.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns the preparation of isobutane and isohexane containing products. More particularly, the invention relates to a process for the preparation of the those products by disproportionation of an isopentane feedstock in the presence of olefinic or branched-chain paraffinic hydrocarbons and an acid catalyst.
2. Description of the Related Art
Disproportionation of saturated hydrocarbons is a well-known reaction step in the isomerization of normal hydrocarbons to isoparaffins during petroleum refining.
Isoparaffins have a higher octane number than normal paraffins, and are, therefore, preferred components in high octane gasoline products.
During disproportionation reactions, a hydrocarbon feedstock is converted to a hydrocarbon product of higher and lower molecular weight.
Disproportionation of lower paraffinic hydrocarbons to isoparaffinic hydrocarbons is mentioned in U.S. Pat. No. 3,668,269. At the disclosed process, paraffinic hydrocarbon feed is contacted with a solid acidic catalyst comprising a platinum-group metal on a crystalline alumino-silicate. The product obtained thereby contains isoparaffin-hydrocarbons with one more and one less carbon atoms per molecule than the hydrocarbon feed.
Production of isopentane by disproportionation of C.sub.6 alkanes with a catalyst comprising a Group VIII metal and a Group VIB metal is, furthermore, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,766,292.
It is also known to use AlCl.sub.3 on an aluminum support or alkyl fluoride and BF.sub.3 as promoters in the disproportionation of saturated hydrocarbons.
The general object of this invention is to provide a product being rich in isobutane and isohexane by catalytic disproportionation of isopentane feed.
As mentioned by way of introduction, isoparaffins including isopentane are presently preferred components in high octane gasoline products. However, recent requirements to lower vapour pressure of gasoline, makes it necessary to substitute isoparaffins having a high vapour pressure with components of lower vapour pressure in gasoline.
Isopentane may be disproportionated to isohexanes with a lower vapour pressure and to isobutane, a preferred feedstock in alkylation processes for the production of high octane alkylate gasoline and MTBE; hence, it is desirable to obtain the above substitution of isopentane in gasoline.
It has now been found that disproportionation of isopentane is catalyzed by a strong acid, and the reaction is further promoted by the presence of olefins or higher paraffins, which crack to olefins by influence of a strong acid.


Irradiance control systems (“ICSs”) that control the irradiance of a beam of light are disclosed. ICSs include in a beam translator and a beam launch. The beam translator translates the beam substantially perpendicular to the propagating direction of the beam with a desired displacement so that the beam launch can remove a portion of the translated beam and the beam can be output with a desired irradiance. The beam launch attenuates the irradiance of the beam based on the amount by which the beam is translated. ISCs can be incorporated into fluorescent microscopy instruments to provide high-speed, fine-tune control over the irradiance of excitation beams.

Laser beam irradiance adjustment and control can be difficult to achieve over an irradiance range of one order of magnitude or more. Even within this range, the accuracy and stability in the irradiance of the light output from a typical laser is often suboptimal for certain applications. Typical solutions for controlling the irradiance of a laser include controlling the current applied to the source or placing neutral density filters in the laser beam path to reduce the beam irradiance. In recent years, laser shutters have been optimized for speed by reducing the size of the shutters and by increasing the electrical power used to the control the shutters. As a result, laser shutters can be placed in the laser beam path to turn the laser beam "on" and "off."
However, current control, density filtering, and use of shutters to adjust and control the irradiance of a laser beam is not optimal, especially when adjusting the laser on the sub-millisecond time scale is desired. For instance, the response time of a laser to a linearly controlled power source is typically non-linear, which limits the range of adjustability to about one order of magnitude. In addition, the temperature of a typical laser may fluctuate during operation, resulting in further irradiance instability. Neutral density filters may improve the irradiance range by several orders of magnitude, but filters provide only coarse irradiance adjustment, and typical high speed shutters are not capable of achieving sub-millisecond open and close times despite the reduced size of the aperture and higher driving voltages. For the above described reasons, engineers and scientists who develop and work with instruments that relay on high-speed control of laser light irradiance continue to seek mechanisms for laser beam irradiance adjustment and control on the sub-millisecond time scale.


An anti-vibration cage (10) for data storage device, includes at least a first securing piece (161) with a first pivot hole (1611) defined therein; at least a second securing piece (163) with a second pivot hole (1631) defined therein, and at least a rotatable damping member (20). A gap (1633) is formed in the second securing piece and communicated with the second pivot hole. The damping member includes a damping portion (25) configured to dampen vibration for the data storage device and a shaft (22) inserted through the damping portion. The shaft has a first end (21) and a second end (23) protruding out from the damping portion respectively. The first end of the shaft is rotatably engaged in the first pivot hole. The second end of the shaft is rotatably engaged in the second pivot hole and releasable from the gap.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to anti-vibration cages for data storage devices, and more particularly to an anti-vibration cage with detachable damping members.
2. General Background
In a conventional server or computer system, a plurality of data storage devices is usually provided. When the data storage devices are at work, vibration is generated and may damage the data storage devices. In order to reduce the damage to the data storage devices, damping members are often provided.
For example, a mounting apparatus for data storage devices includes an exterior cage and an interior case for receiving data storage devices therein. The exterior cage includes several damping members rotatably attached to sidewalls thereof. Each of the damping members includes a damping portion made of vibration absorbing material, and a shaft inserted through the damping portion along a radial direction. When the interior cage, together with data storage devices, is pushed into the exterior cage, sidewalls of the interior cage touch the damping portions of the damping members, and drive the damping portions to rotate about the shafts to minimize friction between the damping portions and the interior cage and allow convenient installation of the interior cage. However, once the shafts of the damping members are attached to the exterior cage, they are difficult to remove.
What is needed, therefore, is an anti-vibration cage with conveniently detachable damping members for dampening vibration of data storage devices.

Anti-vibration cage for data storage device

Hong Fu Jin Precision Industry (ShenZhen) Co., Ltd.


In order to prevent malfunction resulting from the variation of the output of a boosting converter in a boosting two-converter type dc power unit, a dc power unit includes a boosting converter composed of a control circuit and a rectifying diode connected to an ac input through a switch and an insulating dc-to-dc converter connected at a later stage of the boosting converter. Between the boosting converter and the insulating dc-to-dc converter, there is provided a first control circuit composed of a shunt regulator, a voltage dividing resistor for producing a control voltage for the shunt regulator, a photocoupler to be turned on and off by the shunt regulator, and a resistor. When the dc output voltage Vo of the boosting converter reaches a predetermined value, the photocoupler is enabled to handle a REMOTE.sub.-- ON/OFF signal through a remote control terminal for starting the insulating dc-to-dc converter.

The present invention relates to a dc power unit which is suitable to an information processing apparatus such as a connecting unit between LANs, and more particularly to a technique which may be effectively applied to the dc power unit for coping with regulations for harmonics through the effect of a boosting two-converter system.
In order to take measures for regulations for harmonics required by a dc power unit used for an information processing apparatus such as a connecting unit between LANs, as a technique for suppressing harmonics of a power unit, there have been proposed a choke input rectifying type, a current injecting type, a one-converter type based on a Mag-Switch type, and a boosting two-converter type. These prior arts have been published in the writing: "Electronic Technology", March 1995 (Vol. 37, No. 3, 1995), pages 36 to 41 and 96 to 97. These techniques have their own merits and demerits. Of them, today, the most remarkable and the most frequently realized technique is the boosting two-converter type.
With reference to FIG. 8, the circuit of the boosting two-converter type dc power unit will be described below. FIG. 8 illustrates a switching transistor 5, a control circuit 17 located around the switching transistor 5, and an insulating dc-to-dc converter 8 located at a later stage. The control circuit 17 receives an input voltage waveform applied thereto as a reference current Iref. At first, the reference current Iref is compared with a drain current Id sensed by a resistor 6. If the drain current Id exceeds the reference current Iref, a comparator 12 produces an inverted output and serves to turn off the switching transistor 5. As shown in FIG. 10, therefore, the drain current flows on a reference input voltage.
This current Id gives rise to energy in a coil 3. When the switching transistor 5 is turned off, at a time, counter electromotive force is generated in the coil 3, so that the coil 3 is served to invert its polarity and discharge the energy stored therein to a capacitor 7 through a diode 4. The capacitor 7 operates to smoothen the energy current into dc current. The rise of pulsating current results in boosting the reference current Iref and thereby enlarging the drain current Id (see FIG. 10). This inverts the comparator 12 so that the amount of energy stored in the coil 3 and conveyed from the coil 3 to the output is made larger accordingly.
The repetition of the foregoing operation yields a dc electric power at the output. If the pulsating current is applied onto the input side, since a maximum value of current at each period is on a sine curve, the smoothed pulsating current is made to be a sine waveform that is equal to an input voltage waveform. It means that, in principle, a power factor of 1 can be obtained. Hence, no power harmonics are generated. Practically, a power factor of 0.9 or higher can be easily obtained. If well-designed and adjusted, it is possible to realize a power factor of 0.99.
Apart from the capacitor input rectifying type, no smoothing capacitor is connected immediately after the rectifier. No pulsating current is flown through the input line. This results in being able to produce a high power factor and suppressing harmonics of a power unit.
The aforementioned arrangement makes it possible to produce a stabilized output. By changing the reference current value Iref, the conducting period of the switching transistor 5 may be changed. It indicates the output voltage may be controlled.
That is, if some factor lowers the output voltage, an error amplifier 10 operates to increase the reference current Iref. This operation makes it possible to extend the ON time of the switching transistor 5 at each period, raise the Id value and thereby the output voltage.
The voltage precision of the dc output voltage Vo is determined by the reference voltage Vref and the gain of the error amplifier 10. Hence, the combination of the control circuit 17 with an insulating dc-to-dc converter 8 results in suppressing the harmonics and constructing a wide-range continuous variable output power unit ranging from 90 to 264 ac volts of a power input.
However, if the conventional boosting two-converter type power unit is powered up when the low power is applied to the input (the 100-volt system power from 90 to 120 ac volts is input), the power output Vo1 is overshot, so that an excessive voltage sensed by the protecting circuit may turn off the dc power unit.
This phenomenon will be described with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9. When the input switch 16 is turned on, the ac input is applied to the rectifying diode 2. Then, the rectifying diode 2 operates to output a full-wave rectified voltage (127 to 180 dc volts) to a point Vo.
When the boosting converter is softly started (an on/off pulse width of the switching transistor 5 is gradually changed), as shown by a waveform of Vo shown in FIG. 9, Vo is boosted to the set voltage in one stroke.
The set voltage Vo is set to be a higher voltage than the rectified voltage (360 dc volts) of 240 V+6%=25.44 ac volts that is high at the ac input 1. In general, it is about 380 dc volts.
Hence, the abruptly changing voltage shown by Vo of FIG. 9 is applied to the insulating dc-to-dc converter 8. The dc-to-dc converter operating at 380 dc volts normally departs from the control range if the input voltage ranges from 127 to 180 dc volts and disables to output a rated voltage (for example, +5 volts). The converter in this state is operating in the state that the control pulse (for example, +2 to +3 volts) is opened to a maximum limit. At this time, the abrupt rise of Vo delays a transient response of a feed-back system, thereby causing the overshoot phenomenon in the power unit Vo1. In the worst case, the power output Vo1 may be sensed as an excessive voltage by the protecting circuit. This may result in turning off the operation of the converter.

DC power unit and information processing apparatus with the DC power unit


A method (and system) of providing optimization repeatability in an on-demand computing environment removes variability in an optimization model instance and can be exemplarily implemented in a service architecture. The method and system receives a plurality of physical data instances, which are different representations of the same logical data model, and transforms the plurality of physical data instances into a normalized physical data instance, which can be combined with an optimization model to form a unique optimization model instance, thereby providing repeatability in solving optimization problems.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method and system for providing optimization process repeatability in on-demand computing environments, and more particularly to a method and system for removing variability in an optimization model instance.
The present invention provides an innovative data transformation technique that enables repeatability of optimization processes, and a service based architecture analytical framework that allows the data transformer to be easily reused, updated, and extended to the user or a plurality of users. An exemplary problem solved by the invention, e.g., optimization process repeatability, has not been addressed by application vendors or off-the-shelf solver vendors.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 illustrates a typical optimization system 100. Such processes are concerned with those business optimization problems that can be formulated as mathematical programming models solvable by off-the-shelf solvers such as CPLEX.
As illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, in conventional optimization systems 100 and 200, when a business user initiates an optimization run using a specific logical data model 1, the data representation component 2 creates a physical representation (i.e., a physical data instance 3) of the logical data model 1 and feeds the physical data instance 3 into the optimization application 5. In the optimization application 5, the physical data instance 3 is combined (e.g., using combiner 12) with an optimization model 11 to yield an optimization model instance that can be solved by the underlying off-the-shelf solver 7 to determine an optimization result 4. The off-the-shelf solver 7 runs on top of an operating system 8, which runs on top of hardware 9.
A first vendor (e.g., Vendor A), or another vendor, generally controls the data representation component 2 and access to the logical data models 1. On the other hand, a second vendor (e.g., a different vendor, such as Vendor B, which may be a data integration vendor) generally is responsible for the optimization application 5.
With respect to the data representation component 2, logical data models 1 (e.g., raw data) are subjected to filtering and transformation by this component in order to be converted into a format that can be used by the optimization application (for example, a list of fires and parameters about each fire, a list of fire-fighting resources that can be applied to each fire, cost of resources etc.), each stored in a programming language specific data structure.
In the conventional methods, given the same logical data model 1, this data representation component 2 will often generate a different physical data instance 3a-3n each time it is invoked. For example, when Vendor B (e.g., data integration vendor) implements the data representation component, they use HashMap, a common data structure in modern programming languages, to store the list of fires. However, because of the fundamental way a HashMap is implemented, the same list of fires often end up with different HashMap representations, during different runs of the data transformation component 2, in terms of the natural order in which the fires appear in the HashMap.
For business consistency purposes and from a business user's point of view, given the same logical data model 1 and similar hardware/software computing environments 6, the same optimization result is desirable, and indeed, ideally would be expected because "optimization repeatability" is an important factor that impacts customer acceptance.
However, the conventional methods have not been capable of providing such desirable optimization repeatability, which may lead to business decisions that cannot be sustained over a period of time, which may in turn lead to loss of business value for the enterprise.

System and method for optimization process repeatability in an on-demand computing environment

International Business Machines Corporation


An dental imaging apparatus and a corresponding method is disclosed. The imaging apparatus includes an image sensor, a lamp for providing illumination, and an image processor for processing the image in accordance with either a first stored white balance related to a characteristic of the lamp illumination or a second stored white balance. Preferably, the first stored white balance is used when the lamp is on, and the second stored white balance is used when the lamp is off.

This invention relates to the field of video imaging and, more specifically, to a video imaging apparatus for use in dental imaging.
Video imaging cameras have been used for obtaining images in dentistry for some time. One example of an existing system can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,523,782 (Williams), which describes a video dental camera that includes a light source, a CCD, and an adjustable focus lens system. Other examples of existing system can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,575,805 (Moermann et al.), and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,527,261 (Monroe et al.).
Until now, however, prior dental cameras did not rapidly and automatically compensate for the different white balances encountered (a) when the camera provides its own illumination and (b) when the camera is used with ambient illumination.

Dental imaging system with white balance compensation


An apparatus having optical components comprising a mounting substrate, an optical fiber held on the mounting substrate, an optical element fixed on the mounting substrate and optically coupled with the optical fiber, and a fixing member for positioning and fixing the optical fiber to the mounting substrate, wherein at least any one of the mounting substrate and the fixing member has a positioning groove for positioning the optical fiber to the optical element, a fixing groove connected to the positioning groove, and a flat bottom shallower than the positioning groove, and the optical fiber is fixed by means of a bonding material applied in the fixing groove and held on the positioning groove.

The present invention relates to an apparatus having optical components which is designed for use in optical communication terminal equipment or the like, more particularly, the invention relates to improvement in an apparatus comprising an optical component such as an optical fiber mounted on a single crystal substrate such as a silicon substrate.
An apparatus having optical components is used in an optical communication terminal equipment for performing information communication between public telephones and between computers. The apparatus has a silicon substrate and optical components mounted on the substrate. The optical components include a semiconductor laser, an optical fiber and the like. The semiconductor laser which is a light source and an optical fiber are optically coupled with each other with high precision.
In general, the semiconductor laser and the optical fiber must be aligned with accuracy less than 1 .mu.m. For this reason, a silicon substrate has a V-shaped positioning groove (V groove) formed by high-precision anisotropic etching. Once set in the V groove, the optical fiber is positioned in a predetermined position.
In order to maintain the reliability of the apparatus, the semiconductor laser and optical fiber need to be sealed airtight and firmly fixed on the silicon substrate. To this end, a V-shaped fixing groove larger than the V-shaped positioning groove is provided at the middle part of the V-shaped positioning groove for receiving the bonding material. The optical fiber is fixed on the silicon substrate by means of solder material applied in the V-shaped fixing groove. And then, the fixed portion of the optical fiber and the semiconductor laser are covered with a cap or the like and sealed airtightly and watertightly.
However, an apparatus of this kind is disadvantageous in the following respects.
First, the bottom portion of the V-shaped fixing groove is so narrow that a gap is likely to exist between the bottom and the solder material exist in the V-shaped fixing groove. Thus, moisture may accumulate in the gap, possibly affecting the semiconductor laser.
Second the solder material in the V-shaped fixing groove may flow through a gap between the optical fiber and the V-shaped fixing groove into the V-shaped positioning groove. In the positioning groove, the solder material possibly contaminates an end face of the optical fiber.
Third, while forming the aforesaid V-shaped positioning groove by anisotropic etching, the etching mask may be displaced with respect to a crystal orientation of the single crystal substrate. Consequently, the V-shaped positioning groove may have a considerable size error. In other words, if the etching mask is so displaced, excessive etching happens because of the crystal orientation dependency of the etching rate due to atomic arrangement anisotropy, as will be described below.
Assume a sift angle .theta. is generated between the crystal orientation and the mask direction. An excessive etching width .DELTA.W and an excessive etching length .DELTA.L, these excessive etching widths .DELTA.W and length .DELTA.L are obtained from the following equations: EQU .DELTA.W=W(cos.theta.-1)+L sin.theta. EQU .DELTA.L=L(cos.theta.-1)+W sin.theta.
Where L is a desired length of the V-shaped positioning groove, and w is the desired width thereof.
If W=100 .mu.m and L=10 mm and .theta.=0.1.degree., the excessive etching width .DELTA.W will be 18 .mu.m. Hence, the size error will approximate to .+-.10%. Further, if the shift angle .theta. is 0.5.degree., the excessive etching width .DELTA.W will be 87 .mu.m. The size error will therefore be about .+-.45%, not allowable any longer.

Apparatus having optical components and a manufacturing method thereof


An oxide sintered body for sputtering target is provided wherein the main component is indium oxide, and it contains titanium such that the atomic ratio of Ti/In is 0.003 to 0.120, and the specific resistance is 1 k.cm or less.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an oxide sintered body that is used when manufacturing a low-resistant transparent conductive film using a direct-current sputtering method, and a sputtering target based on the oxide sintered body, and a method of manufacturing a transparent conductive film based on the oxide sintered body, and particularly to an oxide sintered body and sputtering target that is used for sputtering and ion plating film formation used for manufacturing a low-resistant transparent conductive film having good permeation characteristics in the infrared range.
2. Description of the Related Art
A transparent conductive film has high conductivity and high transmittance in the visible light range. Besides being used in electrodes for solar batteries, liquid-crystal elements and other kinds of light-receiving elements, transparent conductive film is also used as heat-reflecting film for automobile windows and buildings, as anti-static film and in various kinds of anti-fog transparent heating elements for refrigerated showcases.
Tin oxide (SnO2) containing antimony or fluorine as a dopant, zinc oxide (ZnO) containing aluminum or gallium as a dopant or indium oxide (In2O3—Sn) containing tin as a dopant are widely used for transparent conductive film. Particularly, indium oxide film containing tin as a dopant, or in other words In2O3—Sn film, called ITO (indium tin oxide) film is often used because a low-resistant film can easily be obtained.
Low-resistant transparent conductive film is optimally used in electrode of touch panels, solar batteries, liquid crystals, organic electroluminescence and inorganic electroluminescence.
Sputtering is often used as the method for manufacturing these transparent conductive films. The sputtering method is an effective method when forming a film using materials having low vapor pressure, or when it is necessary to precisely control the film thickness, and since operation is very simple, it is widely used industrially.
In the sputtering method, the raw material that will be the component of the objective film is used as a sputtering target. In this method, a vacuum apparatus is generally used, and after a high vacuum is reached, a noble gas such as argon gas is introduced, and under a gas pressure of approximately 10 Pa or less, the substrate is taken to be the anode and the sputtering target is taken to be the cathode, and a glow discharge is caused to occur between these to generate argon plasma, and to cause the positive argon ions in the plasma to collide with the cathode or sputtering target, and the particles of the target component that are caused to break away by this are deposited on the substrate to form a film.
The sputtering method can be classified according to the method used for generating the argon plasma; where the radio-frequency (RF) sputtering method uses radio-frequency plasma, and the direct-current (DC) sputtering method uses direct-current plasma.
Generally, the direct-current sputtering method is widely used in industry because its speed of formation for the film is faster than that of the radio-frequency sputtering method, the power-supply equipment is inexpensive and the operation for forming the film is simple. However, in the direct-current sputtering method it is necessary to use a conductive target, whereas in the radio-frequency sputtering method it is possible to form the film even with a non-conductive material.
The speed of formation of the film for the sputtering method is closely related to the chemical bonds of the target material. Sputtering is a phenomenon that occurs when positive argon ions having kinetic energy collide with the surface of the target and the matter on the surface of the target receives that energy and breaks and flies off, and the weaker the bonds are between the ions or atoms of the target material the greater the probability of the material breaking apart and flying off due to sputtering.
Looking at a solar battery that uses transparent conductive film, solar batteries comprise laminated layers of p-type and n-type semiconductors, and are classified according to the type of semiconductors. The most widely used solar batteries are those that use silicon that is safe and very abundant. Furthermore, even among solar batteries that use silicon, there are three types: single-crystal silicon, polycrystal silicon and amorphous silicon. Also, development of solar batteries called chemical-compound thin-film solar batteries, which use compound semiconductors such as CuInSe2, GsAs or CdTe, is being performed.
In any type of solar battery, there must be a transparent conductive film for the electrode on the top surface that comes in contact with the light, and ITO film or zinc oxide (ZnO) film that has been doped with aluminum or gallium have been used. The properties desired in this transparent conduction films are low resistance and high transmittance of sunlight.
In Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-324825, the inventors made it clear that an indium oxide thin film containing titanium can be used as a transparent electrode for a solar battery. Not only does this thin film have low resistance and high transmittance in the visible light range, but it also has high transmittance in the infrared light range when compared with ITO film or zinc-oxide type film. By using this kind of transparent conductive film in the electrode on the top surface of a solar battery, it is also possible to effectively use infrared energy. This titanium-added indium-oxide thin film is excellent in that it can be manufactured using the direct-current sputtering method, and can use technology that is widely used in industry.
However, when taking productivity and lowering the cost of manufacturing into consideration, in the case of performing high-speed film formation by applying high direct-current power, arcing occurs in the sputtering target used for manufacturing the titanium-added indium-oxide thin film when the high direct-current power is applied, and it was found that high-speed film formation became impossible. Arcing during film formation causes the generation of particles, which causes a decrease in product yield. Furthermore, if arcing occurs continuously, formation of the film itself is hindered.
Moreover, as the sputtering target is used in sputtering, it gradually becomes pitted, however, the fact that its sputtering characteristics are constant up until just before being all used up, is useful from the aspect of material costs. However, in the case of the sputtering targets that have been used up until now for manufacturing titanium-added indium-oxide thin film, problems occur in that nodules (black protrusions on the target surface) are formed on the sputter surface of the sputtering target as the integrated value of the applied power increases, arcing occurs, and there is a decrease in the film formation speed.
A sintered body target to which high direct-current power could be applied in this way and for which stable direct-current sputtering could be performed to the end did not actually exist.
For a sputtering target for which arcing occurs on a small scale, arcing can be avoided by using a power supply having an arcing control function. As method the for controlling arcing, there is the DC pulsing method (method of neutralizing the charge on the target by periodically stopping the negative voltage applied to the target and applying a low positive voltage during that time), and there is a method of installing an arc-blocking circuit (a circuit that detects an increase in the discharge current when arcing occurs, and stops the power supply before it can grow into full arcing, then restarts the power supply after the current flowing to the target drops sufficiently) (refer to 'Transparent Conductive Film Technology', Ohmsha, pg. 193 to 195). These methods belong to the direct-current sputtering method because the direct-current discharge is basically utilized in them. However, a power supply having these functions is very expensive, so there is a problem in that it causes an increase in equipment costs. Also, even when a power supply with these functions is used, it does not mean that arcing can be completely controlled.
A titanium-added indium-oxide film formed using the sputtering method has been known. For example, the oldest example is disclosed in a document by J. L. Vossen (RCA Review, 1971, Vol. 32, pg. 289 to 296). This document centers on a description of the characteristics of ITO film that is formed by RF sputtering, and gives a manufacturing example of In2O3 film to which 20 Mole % of TiO2 is added as an impurity other than tin.
However, in this structure, there is a large amount of Ti added and the form of its existence is unclear, and the electrical resistivity of the film is given as 7.5×10−1 .cm, which is very high. The specific resistance, surface roughness and density of the sputtering target used are not given.
Moreover, Japanese patent publication No. Tokukai Sho 59-204625 discloses a method of using a sputtering method to manufacture an indium-oxide film containing titanium on a polyethylene terephthalate film from a indium-oxide target containing 2 wt. % to 15 wt. % of titanium oxide. However, the amount of titanium added is large and the form of its existence is unclear, and the specific resistance, surface roughness and density of the oxide sintered body is not given at all, and there is no mention of high-speed film formation, the occurrence of nodules, and stable sputtering over a long period of time.

Oxide sintered body and sputtering target, and manufacturing method for transparent conductive oxide film as electrode


The invention relates to a composite consisting of an impact-modified acrylic capstock or film on a thermoplastic olefin (TPO). A tie-layer containing a functionalized olefin-acrylic is used to improve the adhesion of the acrylic layer to the TPO and to improve the overall melt processing of the three-layer composite.

TPOs are used in many applications, as they are strong, easy to form into final-use parts, and are inexpensive. Unfortunately, TPOs suffer from several deficiencies such as being a soft material, having a narrow thermoforming window, having poor abrasion resistance and having poor weatherability. Impact acrylic polymers are well known for their clarity, toughness, sparkling color, surface gloss, mar resistance and weather resistance.
A composite of an acrylic composition over a TPO would allow the composite to have the best of both materials. Unfortunately, polar acrylic materials do not bond well to non-polar TPOs. Attempts to form composites of these two materials have been plagued by poor adhesion of the layers, especially after temperature cycling.
US 20050069710 describes a multi-layer film of a polyolefin with a functionalized acrylic (polymethylmethacrylate plus a functional acid, acid chloride, alcohol, or anhydride functionality). The multi-layer functionalized film uses a tie layer of an ethylene/alkyl (meth)acrylate/epoxide terpolymer as a tie-layer.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,696,117 describes the use of an ethylene/methyl acrylate/glycidyl methacrylate tie layer to improve the bonding between a fluoropolymer layer and a TPO.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,455,171 describes a composite of an acrylic layer on a polyolefin using a ethylene/methyl acrylate/glycidyl methacrylate tie layer. There is no mention of an impact modified acrylic.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,652,985 claims an acrylic film having an outer layer with a 6-member ring acid anhydride unit, and a tie layer for use over polyolefin based plastic. The outer layer is claimed to contain no acrylic impact modifier.
Surprisingly it has been found that the use of an impact modified acrylic layer, in combination with a functionalized olefin-acrylate-tie layer provides enhanced adhesion of the acrylic layer to the tie-layer and to TPO compared to a (meth)acrylate layer without impact modifier. Additionally, the impact acrylic provides additional impact resistance to the composite and is less detrimental to TPO/acrylic rework blends. Further, the functionalized olefin-acrylate tie layer may be a blend with an impact acrylic, which is easily melt processable on an extruder while the functionalized olefin-acrylate is not as easily processed. The use of the acrylic top layer provides a clear coat/TPO structure that has an improved thermoforming processing window, better abrasion resistance, and improved gloss. The chemical resistance of the top layer is also improved.


A securable drain screen is provided having a rectangular frame, a lockable screen door, and upstanding screen sidewalls forming a rectangular trap with an open upper that is adapted to block large debris from entering a drain and clogging the same when deployed. Along the perimeter of the frame and positioned against each sidewall exterior surface is an extendable footer element that is threadably attached thereto and extendable outwards for bearing against the interior surface of a drain. The footers bear against the drain interior and securably position the assembly within the drain, while the lockable screen door therethrough is hinged for access through the device when snaking the drain. The hinged door includes a padlock latch for securing the door in a closed position, whereby only authorized users can remove the screen from the drain once deployed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to drain covers and drain screens. More specifically, the present invention pertains to a lockable drain cover that is particularly well adapted for floor drains and for securably deploying therein for the purposes of capture large object debris that cannot otherwise be sent into the drain.
Floor drains are useful plumbing fixtures that permit draining of any standing water in the adjacent floor area, allowing for efficient fluid drainage without resorting to pumping or other water removal means. These types of drains are commonly found in commercial areas, restaurants and kitchens, hospitals, and industrial settings for draining fluid from the area. Covering these drains is a drain screen, which traps large debris and prevents the drain from rapidly becoming clogged. The screens are generally placed over the drain opening, or are fastened thereto using a common hardware fastener.
In some environments, these covers may be removed by workers to facilitate cleaning debris from the area, whereby the screen is removed to allow for fluid, sediment, and other debris to enter the drain. This shortcut to cleaning causes the drain to quickly become clogged and cease functioning, which can cause backups and water damage to the area. In some cases, the screen may not be fastened to the cover, or a make-shift cover may be deployed that is readily removable by facility workers.
The present invention pertains to a new and novel floor drain screen that is adapted to prevent removal thereof from the drain, while also permitting access into the drain for authorized personnel to conduct drain snaking and cleaning activities. The device comprises a drain screen that acts as a particulate trap, wherein screen is supported by a frame that includes extension footers that are threadably attached to the frame and are adapted to bear against the interior of the drain while deployed. Once installed, access to the fasteners is limited by a hingeable door within the frame, where the door is securable using a pad lock or similar locking means. In this way, the device acts as a drain screen and security device to prevent workers from sweeping or otherwise stuffing debris into the drain without authorization. The assembly also facilities cleaning of the drain interior without complete removal thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Devices have been disclosed in the prior art that relate to floor drains and drain screens. These include devices that have been patented and published in patent application publications. The following is a list of devices deemed most relevant to the present disclosure, which are herein described for the purposes of highlighting and differentiating the unique aspects of the present invention, and further highlighting the drawbacks existing in the prior art.
One such device in the prior art is U.S. Pat. No. 6,567,996 to Rao, which discloses a lock for securing a drain screen in place, wherein the screen is secured by way of a threaded bolt that enters the drain interior and connects to a lateral bore and cross brace member. The cross brace bears against the interior walls of the pipe and supports the threaded bolt, which bears down onto the upper portion of the drain screen. An specialized installation tool is further disclosed for setting the cross brace in the drain, whereafter the threaded bolt is secured thereto using a non-standard head for security purposes. The Rao device provides a drain screen and security device therefor. The elements of Rao device, while suitable for supporting a screen, significantly depart from the elements of the present invention.
Similar to the Rao device is U.S. Pat. No. 6,330,724 to Belle, which discloses a drain cover locking device that utilizes an interior drain support element that is used to fasten a drain screen into place. Within the interior of the drain is a threaded rod having a pair of L-shaped hanger elements at each end. The hanger elements suspend the threaded rod from the opening of the drain, while the rod can be rotated by a tool to bear the hanger elements against the walls of the drain. A fastener is fed through the screen and into the threaded rod for securing the drain into place. While this assembly secures a drain cover from below, it provides no means of trapping particulates and other solid matter entering the drain for later removal. The present invention relates to a securable drain trap that requires tools to remove, yet traps dirt, debris, and other articles before entering the drain.
Other articles in the prior art related to securing mechanisms and larger assemblies that secure a typical drain cover. These articles, while novel and useful in their own right, fail to disclose the structure and functional aspects of the present invention. It is submitted that the present invention is substantially diverges in design elements from the prior art, and consequently it is clear that there is a need in the art for an improvement to existing drain cover devices. In this regard the instant invention substantially fulfills these needs.

Securable drain screen having lockable access


A cable connector backshell assembly for high frequency applications requiring reduced electromagnetic emissions. Aspects include providing sufficient physical spacing and electrical isolation between the signal conductors and the housing to meet EMI standards for HIPPI-6400 connector assemblies. One embodiment includes spring preloading of the electrical connector. One embodiment includes a longitudinally floating connector.

Electromagnetic interference (EMI) affects the performance of electrical circuits. Reduction of sensitivity to EMI, as well as the reduction of radiated levels of EMI, is an important consideration in the design of electrical circuits and devices. With increasing power levels and frequency, spurious radiation emissions also rises. Conversely, circuits operating with reduced power levels are particularly sensitive to undesirable radiation.
Designers often rely on gaskets and other shielding measures to reduce EMI transmissions. An area of particular interest concerns adequate shielding for high density connectors. Density refers to the number of electrical connections in a given area of a connector. A typical high density connector has 100 pins in the space having dimensions of approximately 38 mm by 10 mm, or an area of 3.8 cm2. An example of an application calling for such a connector is the High Performance Parallel Interface-6400 (HIPPI-6400) protocol. HIPPI-6400 relates to high frequency, digital data transmissions at 6400 Mbit/s of data per direction. Common mode currents on outer shields due to capacitive coupling and poor bonding of shielding components can result in the failure to meet applicable EMI compliance standards.
High density connectors are also prone to undesirable capacitive coupling between the connector housing and individual pins within the connector. As capacitive coupling rises, so to do levels of EMI radiation.
One proposed solution to ameliorate EMI radiation involves gasketing between the connector nose and connector housing while reducing capacitive coupling with increased spacing. Proper assembly technique requires that the connector pins and receivers are filly mated at a time when the gasket material, positioned between the nose of the connector backshell and the housing for the electronic circuitry, is sufficiently compressed. In this state, the proper electrical connection is established at the connector halves and the gasket has sufficiently low impedance with the housing such that an effective EMI seal is established. However, manufacturing tolerances often frustrate achievement of this result. In some cases, the connector pins will have reached the bottom of the connector receiver before the gasket material is sufficiently compressed, resulting in a higher impedance coupling to the housing and undesirable EMI leakage. If the connector jackscrews are tightened beyond a point where the connector assembly is fully mated, then it is likely that the connector, standoffs, or connector jackscrews will be damaged.
For the reasons stated above, and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for a connector assembly to address the problem of undesirable EMI transmissions without adversely effecting the electrical connection.


A suspension is provided that eliminates welded connections between the suspension control arm and the axle. The suspension includes a control arm coupled to a vehicle frame. The control arm has a first sleeve, through which an axle is received. The first sleeve of the control arm has a radially inner surface that tapers. The suspension further includes a second sleeve configured to be received within the first sleeve, about the axle. The second sleeve has a radially outer surface that tapers complementary to the radially surface of the first sleeve. As the second sleeve is urged inward within the first sleeve, the second sleeve clamps down upon the axle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle suspension, and more particularly, to the connection between a suspension control arm and an axle.
2. Discussion of Related Art
A conventional vehicle includes a vehicle frame having a pair of longitudinally extending frame rails that support the vehicle engine and body. The frame is supported on a plurality of ground-engaging wheels that are disposed at opposite ends of a plurality of axles. The vehicle may contain, for example, a steer axle on which the wheels are steerable by the vehicle operator, a drive axle whose wheels are driven by the vehicle engine, and one or more non-driven trailer axles. Each of the axles are coupled to the vehicle frame through a suspension that dampens movements transmitted between the wheels and the vehicle frame.
A conventional suspension includes a forward or trailing arm by which an axle is mounted onto the vehicle frame. One end of the arm has a sleeve through which the axle is inserted. The axle is secured against movement relative to the arm by one or more welds. This conventional suspension, however, suffers from several drawbacks. In particular, the connection between the arm and the axle is a highly loaded joint. As such, the welds used to attach the axle to the arm are subject to fatigue failures. Several attempts have been made to eliminate the welded connection between the axle and arm including the use of U-bolts or clamps to couple the axle and arm. None of these suspensions, however, uniformly clamps the entire outer surface of an axial cross-section of the axle.
The inventors herein have recognized a need for a vehicle suspension that will minimize and/or eliminate one or more of the above-identified deficiencies.


A fitting terminal for electrically connecting to a high-voltage resistor electric wire having a lead which is exposed by stripping an end portion of an insulation cover. The terminal fitting includes a main terminal which consists of an electric contact portion, a wire retaining portion and a conductor receiving plate disposed therebetween. The receiving plate is provided with a recess facing the wire retaining portion for receiving the exposed end of the conductor of the high-voltage resistor wire. The exposed end is adhered to the recessed portion of the receiving plate using a conductive adhesive substance.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a terminal fitting for connecting a high voltage resistor wire in an ignition circuit of a vehicle.
2. Background
A conventional terminal fitting is constructed as shown in FIG. 4. The conventional terminal fitting includes a wire retaining portion d for clamping the wire, including conductor b and insulation cover a, and an electric contact portion c for receiving another terminal. The end portion of the conductor b is exposed by stripping an end portion of the insulation cover a. Thereafter, the end portion of the conductor is folded so that it is positioned along the outer surface of the insulation cover a, as illustrated. In this position, the wire retaining portion d is crimped to retain the conductor b between the retaining portion and the insulation cover.
Such a terminal fitting experiences problems in that electrical contact degradation occurs due to the loosening between the conductor and the terminal fitting. Additionally, when using a metal or non-metal conductor, the conductor may be damaged or broken due to the bending of the conductor around the insulation cover.

Terminal fitting for a high voltage resistor wire


Disclosed is a hybrid approach to rendering transparent or translucent objects, which combines object-space ray tracing with texture-space parametrization and integration. Transparent or translucent objects are first parameterized using two textures: (1) a texture that stores the surface normal at each location on the transparent or translucent object, and (2) a texture that stores the world space coordinates at each location on the transparent or translucent object. Ray tracing can then be used to streamline and unify the computation of light transport inside thick mediums, such as transparent or translucent objects, with the rest of the scene. For each valid (e.g., visible) location on the surface of a transparent or translucent object, the disclosed embodiments trace one or more rays through such objects and compute the resulting lighting in an order-independent fashion. The results are stored in a texture, which is then applied during the final lighting stage.

Computer-generated images are often created by examining a geometric model of a view space and modeled objects in the view space. The geometric model of the objects can have arbitrary resolution, but typically each object is represented by a finite number of polygons, such as triangles, positioned in the view space and having a color, color pattern, or texture over their surface and/or an alpha value or values representing transparency of the polygon. An image is typically output (i.e., stored, displayed, transmitted, or otherwise processed) as a pixel array.
Some scenes may include objects that are transparent or translucent. Rendering transparent or translucent has proved to be difficult. In some conventional approaches, objects with transparency are rendered by blending all surfaces at a pixel location in view space into a single buffer. Each surface occludes existing color and adds some of its own color depending on its alpha value, which represents a ratio of light transmittance. The order in which surfaces are blended affects the total occlusion or visibility of each surface. For a correct result, surfaces must be blended from farthest to nearest or nearest to farthest, depending on the alpha compositing operation. Ordering may be achieved by rendering the geometry in sorted order, for example sorting triangles by depth. However, this process can take a significant amount of time, does not always produce a solution (for example, in the case of intersecting or circularly overlapping geometry), and the implementation is complex.
In some instances, fully ray tracing a scene can solve the problems with rendering transparent or translucent objects discussed above. However, in some applications, such as video games, computational speed is a priority. In video games, frames are rendered very quickly, i.e., in real-time or near real-time, as a user interacts with a video game. As such, ray tracing techniques for (which can take hours or days to render a single frame) rendering transparent or translucent objects are typically not suitable for video games. For this reason, various other techniques have been developed to render transparent or translucent objects in video games in real-time or near-real time. However, these other techniques suffer from poor quality, particularly when compared to the rendering of transparent or translucent objects obtained from full ray tracing.
As such, there remains a need in the art for a system and method for rendering transparent or translucent objects that overcomes the drawbacks and limitations of existing approaches.

Systems and methods for texture-space ray tracing of transparent and translucent objects


A system and method is disclosed for representing each frame in a sequence of video frames in terms of a correlation between successive video frames. The system and method of the present invention segment the current video frame data and a previous frame into blocks for which motion vectors and/or affine mapping coefficients may be determined. The motion vectors may then be used to represent the current frame data without requiring periodic transmission of a base, self-referential frames of video data. Preferably, the compressor which generates the codewords to represent the current frame data subdivides the blocks of the current frame and previous frame buffers to further evaluate motion factors which may be used to represent current frame data. This evaluation is performed in a recursive manner and preferably includes evaluation of a bit rate/distortion factor to optimally select codewords for representing the current frame data. The bit rate parameters are generated by an entropy encoder which encodes the codewords generated by a compressor in a known entropy coding manner, such as Huffman encoding. Preferably, the decompressor for regenerating previous frames of video data includes a weighted mask filtering of the regenerated frames to reduce blocking artifacts in the regenerated frame data.

The communication of video data over standard communication conduits is challenging. Video data is transmitted in frames at a typical rate of 10 frames per second. Each frame is comprised of three arrays of pixel data which represent the red, green and blue (RGB) color space for a color screen. Typically, the red, green and blue pixel data are represented in luminance/chrominance color space which is expressed in Y, U and V components. The conversion from the RGB color space to the YUV color space is well known and is performed to reduce the number of pixels needed to represent a frame of data. For example, a typical video screen is comprised of 352.times.288 pixels. For the RGB color space, each pixel is represented by three data elements since one data element is used to represent each color component. If a single byte is used to represent each data element then there are three bytes per pixel and a screen requires 304,128 bytes of data to represent the screen. At ten frames per second, 3,041,280 bytes are required for a one second transmission. In the YUV color space, the U and V components may be as small as one-quarter of the Y component. Thus, a sequence of ten video frames may be expressed in YUV color space with as few as 1,520,640 bytes, for example.
While the expression of video data in YUV color space reduces the amount of data needed to represent a video sequence, the amount of data required to transmit a sequence of frames still exceeds the bandwidth of many communication conduits. For example, telephone lines which support digital communications such as ISDN lines only support communications at a 56K bits per second rate. Thus, video data being generated at ten frames a second in the YUV color space generates more data than can be transmitted over an ISDN line. As a result, video data usually requires a communication conduit having a greater bandwidth such as T1 line. However, T1 lines or other lines having sufficient bandwidth for video require special installation and the expense associated with using such lines is significant. Accordingly, the transmission of video data requires expense and facilities not normally available.
In an effort to reduce the amount of data necessary to represent a frame of video data, methods of compressing such data have been developed. Among these methods are Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), affine map transformation methods, sometimes known as fractal methods, and wavelet compression methods. A compressor implementing one of these methods determines coefficients for a corresponding function which may be transmitted over a communication conduit to a decompressor which uses the coefficients to regenerate a frame of video data. At the simplest level, these methods are used to compress the content of each frame in a sequence in terms of itself. That is, the data content of the frame is compressed to represent the frame. Such compressed frames are sometimes called intraframes, self-referential frames, or I-frames.
Compressors using these methods usually compress frames comprised of YUV color space components because the Y screen component includes most of the detail and edges for the image while the U and V components contain some shading information but not a great deal of image detail. As a consequence, the U and V components are relatively smooth and thus, may be compressed more effectively with fewer resources than any of the components for the RGB color space. While the YUV color space yields better compression ratios than those for RGB color space, compressors using the methods discussed above do not consistently compress video frames within a number of bits that can be transmitted over a relatively narrow bandwidth communication conduit and still retain quality image fidelity.
Another way to represent a frame of data is to express a current frame in terms of the data content of a previous frame. One such method used to represent video frames is motion compensation. A compressor using this method generates motion vectors that describe how to rearrange the data elements of a previously generated frame to generate a current frame. This is normally done by dividing the previously generated frame and current frame into blocks and determining the motion vectors that define how the blocks of the previously generated frame should be moved to best represent the current frame. This method works best for video sequence data in which the content of the scene is relatively stable. For example, a teleconference in which the speakers are seated against a background so that the substantial changes in the content of a frame are the relatively minor facial expressions and body movements of the speakers. However, sequences in which the content of the frames change significantly from one frame to the next are more difficult to represent with this method. This method may also be used with other compression methods as well. For example, the pixel differences between a current and previous frame may be compressed using a DCT method. Efficiencies may be gained by expressing data values as a difference because the data values are smaller. Frames which are expressed as a group of motion vectors which relate a frame to a previous frame are called differential frames. Self-referential compressed frames usually require greater computational time and computer resources for compression and decompression than differential frames.
While the previously known differential methods may be preferred over methods which produce self-referential frames only, there are a number of reasons that compressor/decompressor systems which only generate differential blocks are not implemented for low bit rate communication. For one, compressors using these methods may not be able to find a good match between a current frame and a previous frame for a number of reasons. In order to more quickly locate a block in a previous frame which corresponds to a block in the current frame, the compressor searches the previous frame in a limited range about the pixel address corresponding to the address of a block in the current frame. While this reduces the time required for a search, it may result in a poor match. For example, if an object being imaged moves from one portion of a frame to another which is outside the search range of the compressor for a particular block, then the compressor does not find a good match for the block. The poor correspondence of the current frame block to blocks in the previous frame may be handled by representing the current frame block in a self-referential manner. Such self-referential compressed blocks are called residual blocks. The use of residual blocks require the decompressor to be able to distinguish between compressed differential blocks and compressed self-referential blocks since they are decompressed differently. As noted above, the decompression of the self-referential blocks are more computationally complex, require more computer resources and take more time. Accordingly, such compressors/decompressors usually cannot consistently support general video frame transmission over low bandwidth conduit while maintaining quality image fidelity.
Another problem with the previously known methods is that they only approximate the frames of data being generated by a video camera and the like. Thus, the frames being regenerated by a decompressor at a transmission receiver do not exactly reproduce the frames at the compressor. This distortion is especially detrimental to schemes which express a current frame as a difference or movement of data elements in a previous frame. As a consequence, the regeneration of a current frame at the decompressor differs from the current frame at the compressor and since the regenerated frame is used by the decompressor to regenerate the next current frame, the discrepancy grows between compressor and decompressor. To reduce this discrepancy, the compressor usually includes a decompressor as well. The decompressor coupled to the compressor regenerates the approximation of the current frame in the same manner as the decompressor which receives the transmitted coefficients. The decompressed frame is used by the compressor to determine the coefficients or motion vectors which best represent the next current frame. Since both decompressors implement the same decompression method, the compressor is generating coefficients based on an accurate representation of the regenerated data available to the decompressor at the receiver site.
Compressors/decompressors which compress/decompress differential frames require initialization. Initialization is a problem in such compressors because there is no known way to represent the first frame in a differential manner since there is no previous frame in this case. Accordingly, an intraframe is required to begin the transmission process. The self-referential intraframe is used to initialize the decompressor at a receiver and the decompressor at the compressor site, if one is used there. In order to decompress the intraframe, however, the compressor/decompressor must be able to generate and decode compressed self-referential frames and compressed differential frames. Compressors/decompressors supporting both types of frames are more computational complex than if they simply decompress one type of data representation. However, because the transmission of an intraframe is required to initialize the video frame sequence transmission, a decompressor which supports differential frame representations alone is not feasible.
Intraframes are also used to rectify transmission errors caused by noise or the like. Such errors may corrupt a differential frame during transmission. The next frame regenerated by the decompressor using the corrupted frame generates an erroneous frame which differs from the frame being compressed by the compressor at the transmitting site. As motion vectors and coefficients based on the previous frame at the compressor are applied to the erroneous frame regenerated at the decompressor, the error is compounded. Soon, the frames regenerated by the decompressor may bear no resemblance to the frames being represented by the compressor. In order to ensure that the decompressors at the transmitter and receiver sites are regenerating the same frames, an intraframe is periodically transmitted. The decompression of the self-referential intraframe at the transmitter and receiver sites provides the sites with the same frame for representing and decompressing frames unless the intraframe was corrupted during transmission. Intraframes are usually transmitted at a frequency to ensure that an uncorrupted intraframe is received by the receiver often enough to support transmission integrity.
Even in relatively noise-free environments, the previously known methods of compressing video frames require the periodic transmission of intraframes to correct artifacts introduced in the regenerated frames. Many of the methods use rectangular or square blocks to compress frame data and the boundaries of such blocks may generate artifacts, especially in the DCT method. Artifacts produced by the block boundaries are used by the compressor to erroneously represent data and they propagate through subsequently regenerated frames at the receiver decompressor if self-referential intraframes are not periodically transmitted. Thus, there are a number of reasons that current compressor/decompressor systems are dependent on the frequent transmission of intraframes to provide error tolerance in the transmission of video frames. As noted above, the use of intraframes impact the efficiency and processing times for such systems to the extent that they may not be able to consistently support low bit rate video transmissions.
Other known compressor designs include two or more of the above discussed methods. For example, a compressor may use the motion compensation and DCT methods together. This may be done by comparing a current frame to a previous frame to generate a set of motion vectors that represent the current frame in terms of the previous frame. Because the motion vectors do not adjust the pixel values but merely describe movement of blocks in the previous frame which represent the current frame, a second comparison is performed. In this comparison, the pixel values of the previous frame are subtracted from the pixel values of the current frame and the differential pixel values are compressed using a DCT or other compression method. The compressed differential frame is sometimes called a residual frame. While this compressor design improves the motion compensation only method, it requires that the current and previous frames be processed twice to generate the frame representation. Additionally, there are two components of the representation, each of which must be processed differently to regenerate the frame. Thus, such compressors are computationally expensive and the generation of two components may require a number of bits which may impact the ability of the compressor to limit the number of bits required for a low bit rate transmission.
Another limitation of previously used methods is the manner in which frames are segmented to determine coefficients or motion vectors. Usually, the frame data is divided into rectangular or square blocks. This shape may not conform to an object in an image or to its movement from one frame to another. Yet the resources to support different shapes and sizes for compression has been heretofore too great for compression/decompressor schemes intended for low bandwidth communication conduits. In fact, many compressors/decompressors cannot process frame sizes which are not an integral multiple of the fixed block sizes used by the compressor/decompressor or those for which the compressor/decompressor may be configured. Even those compressors/decompressors which attempt to process frames which cannot be divided into a integral number of blocks supported by the compressor/decompressor, use methods which may introduce artifacts into regenerated frames. For example, some methods pad the incomplete block in the current frame with zero values. In the differential methods, the use of these non-existing values require special processing or they may generate erroneous values.
Special case processing includes the grouping of the pixels into a residual block for self-referential compression or a shift in the processing of the frame to include the pixels on a second pass. Thus, special processing requires additional computer resources and processing time while erroneous values corrupt the integrity of the frames being compressed and regenerated. In either event, known compressors/decompressors do not adequately support frame sizes and shapes which do not conform to an integral of the block size used by the compressor/decompressor. For similar reasons, previously known compression/decompression methods do not support segmented video. Segmented video is the separation of data which can be integrated into a single frame. For example, a camera generating frames containing the antics of actors and another stream of frames containing background scenes may be integrated at a receiving site. However, there needs to be a way to keep the two frame streams separate since pixel data about the actors would corrupt the data integrity of the background scene for decompression of the next current frame. Current methods do not support such selective processing within a frame, especially if the separation of the objects in the frame is irregular and does not conform to the block shapes and sizes supported by the compressor/decompressor.
Previously known frame compressor methods result in different amounts of data to represent different frames. These differences mean that some frame representations require fewer bits for transmission than others. The number of bits for transmitting a representation is usually compared to a maximum in an effort to keep the number of bits transmitted over a standard unit of time constant. However, this method fails to take advantage of the greater accuracy which could be obtained for frames which require fewer bits to represent. Instead, the accuracy of any frame representation tends to be approximately the same since the method for determining the coefficients on vectors which represent a frame does not change regardless of the number of bits generated by the compressor. While some methods for generating frame representations do vary the number of bits used for a representation, these methods do not consistently support low bit rate communication with quality image fidelity.
What is needed is a method for representing frame data using a differential scheme without requiring any transmission of a self-referential frame.
What is needed is a method for representing frame data which reduces blocking artifacts in regenerated frames.
What is needed is a method for representing frames having sizes or shapes which are not integral multiples of the block shapes and sizes supported by the compressor/decompressor.
What is needed is a method for supporting segmented video.
What is needed is a method for representing frame data which uses different sized and shaped blocks to determine the coefficients and vectors for representing the frames.
What is needed is a method which does not require the use of residual blocks to process poor correspondence current frame blocks.
What is needed is a compressor/decompressor which need not support the compression/decompression of both self-referential and differential blocks.
What is needed is a method for representing frame data which adjusts the determination of the coefficients and vectors in response to a measurement of the number of bits required to represent the determined coefficients and vectors.

System and method for representing a video sequence