One or more sensors sense patient heart rate and patient activity and provide related signals to a processor. The processor is responsive to sensor signals and obtains an activity threshold based on historical patient heart-rate signals and historical patient activity signals. The processor periodically derives a correlation value from current patient heart-rate signals and current patient activity signals and compares the correlation values to the activity threshold. A start of activity is noted when a correlation value exceeds the activity threshold; while an end of activity is noted when a correlation value fails to exceed the activity threshold. Activity is identified as exercise when correlation values continue to exceed the activity threshold for a predetermine amount of time, while an end of exercise is noted when correlation values fall below the activity threshold for a predetermined amount of time.

An implantable cardiac device is a medical device that is implanted in a patient to monitor electrical activity of the heart and to deliver appropriate electrical and/or drug therapy, as required. Implantable cardiac devices include, for example, pacemakers, cardioverters and defibrillators. The term "implantable cardioverter defibrillator" or simply "ICD" is used herein to refer to any implantable cardiac device. An ICD employs a battery to power its internal circuitry and to generate electrical therapy. The electrical therapy can include, for example, pacing pulses, cardioverting pulses and/or defibrillator pulses.
Heart failure is a growing medical challenge. In clinical practice today, most patients are managed effectively through pharmacological therapy such as beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, and diuretics. If a patient's condition worsens, treatment may become more aggressive to include biventricular pacing and other implantable cardiac device therapy. Along with providing the primary objectives in the treatment of heart failure of improving symptoms, increasing the quality of life, and slowing disease progression, devices need to provide heart failure physicians with diagnostic parameters to monitor the patient's progress.
Currently, medical history and physical examination are the most important tools that a physician uses to determine and mark the progress of a heart failure patient. This involves much of the physician's time with the patient, as this may lead to the primary management program for the patient.
Included in most management programs is an exercise routine. It has been written extensively that adherence to exercise is a priority in improving or in maintaining good heath. Exercise diagnostics may help clinicians assess the compliance of the management programs prescribed to their patients, and possibly assist the patient in meeting those goals.
During exercise, the heart rate is a parameter or indicator of the amount of work that was required to provide blood and oxygen to the body. The maximum heart rate for a level of exercise corresponds to the conditioning of the heart. Other parameters, such as heart rate intensity, percent oxygen consumption (% VO2) reserve, metabolic equivalents (METS), and workload also provide data that is indicative of heart conditioning.
Heart rate recovery after exercise is evaluated as a clinical marker of good vagal activity and cardiac health. As the heart rate increases due to a reduction in vagal tone, the heart rate also decreases with a reactivation of vagal activity. A delayed response to the decreasing heart rate may be a good prognostic marker of overall mortality (Cole, C. et al., NEJM 341:18, 1351-1357 (1999)) and cardiac health. Cole suggests that a reduction of only 12 beats per minute after one minute from peak exercise has been shown to be an abnormal value.
As previously mentioned, adherence to an exercise routine is a priority in managing heart failure progression; therefore, it is critical that a physician monitor patient activity, i.e., the time the patient is moving around, and patient exercise, i.e., the time the patient is continuously moving around. One method of monitoring patient activity and exercise relies on subjective and often inaccurate reporting of exercise duration and workload/intensity level by the patient.
Other more objective methods rely on algorithms that monitor patient activity using physiological sensors. Such algorithms use a single, fixed activity-sensor exercise threshold to detect exercise duration. However, current sensors in use are one dimensional, in that they only detect patient movement in one direction, depending on there orientation with respect to the patient. For example, a sensor may be oriented such that it senses movement only in the horizontal, forward-backward direction. As a result, exercise formats involving vertically directed activity, such as climbing stairs or exercise such as biking cannot be easily detected. Additionally, each patient has different movement style—some may breathe hard enough to cause some sensor counts, and a single exercise threshold for all the patients may produce inaccurate results.
In order to help the physician objectively evaluate exercise compliance and heart failure progression using current sensor technology, a more reliable algorithm is desired. The algorithm should detect activity duration and exercise duration with enough accuracy so as not to include any daily activity such as office work, reading and talking, nor to overlook some types of exercise.

Methods and devices for determining exercise compliance diagnostics


A helical grooved pin for insertion into a hole in a hard host material includes a formed portion of helical lands and grooves. Pin material from the grooves is displaced to define lands at an expanded diameter relative to the pin stock material. The forming process employs a rolling die configured to produce substantially uniform cylindrical land surfaces. The helical lands have a width that is at least five times the height of the land. The expanded diameter of the formed portion of the pin is no more than 5% larger than the diameter of the pin stock material. These proportions provide a uniform, durable and reliable retaining surface to the pin which is particularly useful in applications where the host material is harder than the pin.

Pins are common machine elements typically employed to ensure accurate positioning of parts or to transmit relatively small shear forces. Many types of pins have been developed for a variety of applications, including cotter pins, spring pins, straight pins, grooved pins, taper pins and knurl pins. Of these, the invention relates most closely to knurl pins and grooved pins employed as positioning pins. In a typical positioning pin application, first and second parts to be positioned define holes at complementary positions. Pins are installed in the holes of the first part. The pins protrude from the first part to align second part relative to the first part by engaging the holes of the second part. Ideally, the pins are centered in both sets of holes and exert some frictional force on the holes.
Knurl pins are pins having an outside surface that is deformed into a plurality of straight or helical knurls. The knurled surface portion of the pin includes a series of crests and troughs, with pin material from the troughs displaced to the crests to define an expanded outside diameter for the pin. A common knurled surface is one in which the crests have a width (measured perpendicular to the crest length) that is approximately 10% of the pitch of the knurl pattern. This shape of knurl is relatively sharp. Typically, the knurl pin material is harder than the host material, allowing the crests of the knurled outside surface to cut into the softer host material to provide enhanced retention of the pin in the host. An exemplary prior art knurled pin is shown in FIG. 1.
A grooved pin enhances retention force by disrupting the outside surface of a straight solid pin with one or more V-grooves. Pin material adjacent the V-groove is displaced upwardly and outwardly to each side of the groove, forming a raised portion or flute extending alongside the groove. The crests of the flutes provide an expanded diameter a few thousandths larger than the nominal diameter of the pin. When a grooved pin is driven into a drilled hole of a predetermined diameter, the raised portion of the pin is supposed to be forced back into the groove where it resiliently exerts a radially outward retaining force against the inside surface of the hole in the host. The above-described theoretical operation of a grooved pin is rarely achieved in practice. In soft host materials, the grooved pin crests dig into the host, while in hard host materials, the crests are scraped off as further discussed below. A sectional view of an exemplary prior art grooved pin is shown in FIG. 2.
Knurl pins and grooved pins are most successful when the host material is no harder than the pin material. In assemblies where the host material is significantly harder than the pin, high profile raised features with small sectional areas tend to be sheared away as the pin is driven into the host as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8. As a result, retention force and other measures of pin performance are severely compromised. This is particularly the case in assemblies that are repeatedly taken apart and reassembled.
There is a need in the art for a solid pin that provides reliable and repeatable press-fit retention and positioning in a host having hardness greater than the pin.


This fuel injection device changes stepwise the effective opening area of the exhaust opening that releases the fuel pressure in the balance chamber, in order to control the lift velocity of the needle valve to give flexibility to the pattern of the initial fuel injection rate. The fuel injection device of this invention switches the current value applied to the solenoid between the large and the small value to change the distance traveled by the solenoid valve and thereby change the opening degree of the exhaust port that releases the fuel pressure in the balance chamber. Because the return spring mechanism having plural springs, the magnitudes of current necessary to be applied to the solenoid to move the solenoid valve are clearly differentiated. This reduces variations in the process of releasing the fuel pressure in the balance chamber, assuring a stable fuel injection rate control. Further, if the amount of current is changed while the needle valve is being lifted, the initial fuel injection rate can be controlled in many ways.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel injection device applied to engines such as diesel engines or direct injection type gasoline engines.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional fuel injection devices that control the amount of fuel injected into combustion chambers of engines, such as diesel engines, and injection timing include those disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 964/1991, 108948/1994, 161165/1990 and 12165/1992.
The fuel injection devices disclosed in the Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 964/1991 and 108948/1994 have a needle valve that opens or closes nozzle holes formed at the front end of an injection nozzle and control the fuel injection by the balance between a force produced by a fuel pressure acting on the needle valve on the nozzle front side in a direction that opens the nozzle holes and a force produced by a fuel pressure in a balance chamber acting in a direction of closing the needle valve.
FIG. 6 shows an essential part of the above fuel injection devices including the balance chamber to control fuel injection. A balance chamber 62 is formed in a fuel injection device body 61 above a control piston 60 connected to the needle valve. The balance chamber 62 communicates with a supply passage 63 through which fuel is supplied from a fuel source and in which a throttle 64 is formed. An exhaust passage 65 for discharging fuel from the balance chamber 62 comprises a fuel passage 66 and an orifice 67. The orifice 67 is opened and closed by a solenoid valve 68 driven by a control signal from the control unit.
When the orifice 67 is opened by the solenoid valve 68, the fuel is released through the exhaust passage 65. Because the supply of fuel from the supply passage 63 is limited by the throttle 64, the fuel pressure in the balance chamber 62 decreases, causing the control piston 60 and therefore the needle valve to lift to inject fuel. When the orifice 67 is closed by the solenoid valve 68, the discharge of fuel from the exhaust passage 65 is stopped. As the fuel is supplied through the supply passage 63 and throttle 64, the fuel pressure in the balance chamber 62 recovers pushing down the control piston 60, causing the needle valve to close the nozzle holes to stop fuel injection.
As for the control of the needle valve lift speed, the fuel injection device disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 108948/1994 reduces an initial fuel injection rate by appropriately setting the cross-sectional area of a small hole or orifice that is a part of the exhaust passage formed in a pressure control member which is opened and closed by a solenoid valve in order to lift the needle valve slowly.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 161165/1990 and 12165/1992 disclose fuel injection devices of an electromagnetic control type using a three-way valve. As shown in FIG. 7, a three-way valve 74 in these fuel injection devices switches, in response to a control signal from a control unit 89, between a passage 71 communicating with the balance chamber 70, a supply passage 72 connected to a fuel supply pump 80 through a common rail 81, and an exhaust passage 73 leading to a reservoir 82 to control the start and stop of the fuel injection. Fuel is supplied from the common rail 81 through a passage 84 to a space surrounding the needle valve 83. When the three-way valve 74 allows the balance chamber 70 to communicate with the exhaust passage 73 and at the same time closes the supply passage 72, the high pressure fuel in the balance chamber 70 leaks through the three-way valve 74 into the exhaust passage 73, lowering the fuel pressure in the balance chamber, which in turn causes the needle valve 83 to lift to inject fuel. The closure of the supply passage 72 prevents inflow of high pressure fuel into the balance chamber 70. When the three-way valve 74 allows the supply passage 72 to communicate with the passage 71 and closes the exhaust passage 73, the high fuel pressure recovers in the balance chamber 70, causing the needle valve 83 to move down to stop the fuel injection. This type of fuel injection device employs small-diameter and large-diameter command pistons 85, 86 and two return springs 87, 88 with different loads to control the initial fuel injection rate stepwise in the lift control of the needle valve 83.
In the fuel injection device of FIG. 6, in which a solenoid valve 68 as a two-way valve is installed in the exhaust passage 65 from the balance chamber 62 to control the opening and closing of the exhaust passage 65, however, the fuel pressure in the balance chamber 62 is uniquely determined by the ratio in cross-sectional area between the throttle 64 in the supply passage 63 leading to the balance chamber 62 and the orifice 67 in the exhaust passage 65. Further, once the throttle 64 and the orifice 67 are fabricated, their cross-sectional areas are practically impossible to be changed. Hence, it is not possible to control arbitrarily the fuel pressure in the balance chamber 62, i.e., the fuel injection pattern.
To describe in more concrete terms, because the fuel injection rate characteristic is determined by the diameter of the exhaust passage 65 of the balance chamber 62 and the spring load of the return spring, it is difficult to produce various fuel injection rate characteristics according to the operating condition of the engine. Further, since the fuel injection rate characteristic is determined by the diameter of the small orifice 67, there are limitations on the reduction in the needle valve lift speed and the initial injection rate. Further, because the throttle and the orifice diameter must be machined in manufacture of the fuel injection device, the constitutional parts will unavoidably have machining errors, which in turn cause variations among the products in the needle valve lift speed or the initial fuel injection rate.
In the fuel injection device of FIG. 7, too, since the fuel injection characteristic is uniquely determined by the cross-sectional area of the exhaust passage of the balance chamber and the spring load of the return spring, it is difficult to obtain finely regulated fuel injection characteristic according to the engine operating condition.
The conventional fuel injection devices therefore cannot flexibly control the fuel injection characteristic, such as the amount of fuel to be injected and the fuel injection timing, according to the engine operating conditions. Under these circumstances, there is a growing demand for a fuel injection control that can change the control pattern of the initial fuel injection rate.


A ladder filter device includes elastic wave resonators with IDT electrodes. An apodization angle θ in an IDT electrode of a series arm resonator in the ladder filter device falls within a range from about 2° to about 14° with respect to an elastic wave propagation direction. This arrangement provides a ladder filter device that has a smaller insertion loss in a low frequency side portion of a passing band.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to ladder filter devices and elastic wave resonators.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the prior art, ladder filter devices are used as, for example, band pass filters of RF circuits for cellular phones or the like. An example of such ladder filter devices is described, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 09-246911. In this exemplary ladder filter device, a parallel arm resonator is composed of an apodization-weighted surface acoustic wave resonator, and a series arm resonator is composed of a regular surface acoustic wave resonator. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 09-246911 describes that the ladder filter device with the foregoing configuration is capable of suppressing ripples in a pass band.
However, there is a problem that the ladder filter device described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 09-246911 cannot adequately suppress an insertion loss at a low frequency side portion of pass band.

Ladder filter device and elastic wave resonator


According to one embodiment, there is provided a method for manufacturing a photovoltaic cell. The method includes forming a structure including a pair of electrodes which are arranged apart from each other, and a hetero-junction type photoelectric conversion layer interposed between the electrodes and containing a p-type semiconductor and a n-type semiconductor, and annealing the photoelectric conversion layer thermally while applying an AC voltage having a frequency of 0.01 kHz or more and less than 1 kHz to control a mixed state of the p-type semiconductor and n-type semiconductor in the photoelectric conversion layer.

An organic thin-film photovoltaic cell is a solar cell utilizing an organic thin-film semiconductor based on a combination of a conductive polymer, fullerene, etc. The organic thin-film photovoltaic cell is advantageous in that as compared with a solar cell based on an inorganic material, it can be manufactured through an easy process, thereby realizing low cost. However, the organic thin-film photovoltaic cell has a drawback that a photoelectric conversion efficiency and lifetime of the organic thin-film photovoltaic cell are inferior to those of conventional inorganic photovoltaic cells. A cause of the drawback is that there are a multiplicity of parameters whose control is difficult, such as semiconductor material purity, molecular weight distribution and orientation, with respect to the organic semiconductor for use in the organic photovoltaic cell.
Various elaborations for enhancing the photoelectric conversion efficiency of the organic photovoltaic cell have been made.

Photovoltaic cell and method for manufacturing the same


The present invention discloses a random access method for user equipment (UE) in time division synchronization code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA) communication system, including the following steps: (a) the system broadcasts the configured ASC and the configuration information thereof to the UE, the UE records these information; (b) the MAC of the UE sends RACH transmission request to the physical layer, the physical layer selects one RACH; (c) the physical layer of the UE randomly selects an uplink synchronization code and an uplink synchronization sub-channel; (d) after the physical layer of the UE transmits the selected uplink synchronization code in the uplink pilot time slot corresponding to the selected uplink synchronization sub-channel, if the UE receives the access confirmation message from the network, the UE completes the uplink synchronization and selects PRACH to send out the message, otherwise, the access to the network is re-performed. By using this invention, during the random access process of the UE in the TD-SCDMA system, the physical layer of the UE can select the resources configured by the system for the ASC, thereby meeting the QoS requirements and avoiding the generation of conflicts by all means.

The random access process is an important process in radio communication system as well as an important phase in radio access process. In the TD-SCDMA radio communication system which is one of the third generation mobile communication systems, the random access process also includes an important uplink synchronization process.
The TD-SCDMA system adopts the technology of time division synchronization code division multiple access and it has a high demand for the uplink and downlink synchronization, especially for the uplink synchronization. In the TD-SCDMA system, uplink pilot time slot (UpPTS) and uplink synchronization code (SYNC_UL) are specifically defined to be used in uplink synchronization.
In the TD-SCDMA system, the random access process is a physical layer process, in which, an important step is to select the uplink synchronization code and its transmitting moment in UpPTS. This selection process is not only required by the uplink synchronization process, but more importantly, it is also the essence of random access process; this selection process is a concentrated reflect of the distribution method of competition sharing for the uplink common channel resource, i.e. physically random access channel (PRACH), in the random access process.
In the TD-SCDMA system, one cell is configured with eight uplink synchronization codes numbered of 0-7. During the random access process, the uplink synchronization code is also described as signature. During the random access process, if the user equipments (UE) select the same signature and transmit the signature at the same moment, namely in the UpPTS time slot of the same sub-frame, conflict will be generated and no response from the base station will be received, thereby causing the failure of the random access process.
For the TD-SCDMA system, in the broadcast message of the latest protocol "3GPP TS 25.331 V6.4.0", the configuration of the signature and UpPTS time slot resource (i.e. the transmission moment in the UpPTS time slot) is realized by Access Service Class (ASC) configuration information unit whose schematic structure is shown in FIG. 1, in which, available uplink synchronization codes (namely the signature), the number of sub-channels and available sub-channels are configured corresponding to each ASC value, the sub-channel is exactly the UpPTS time slot resource. In this method of configuration, the signature and the UpPTS time slot resource are configured as two independent resources.
In TD-SCDMA system, by way of defining different ASCs with each ASC configured with corresponding resources, different access service qualities are realized. In the TD-SCDMA system, there are totally eight classes of ASCs configured, from class 0 to class 7, and the resources configured for each ASC by the system include the UpPTS time slot resource and the signature used in the random access process. Meanwhile, on the UE side, the system defines totally sixteen classes of ACs (Access Class), from class 0 to class 15, and for each UE, one or more ACs can be configured. In the system broadcast message, the system broadcasts to the UE the number of configured ASCs, the signature that is configured for each ASC, and the UpPTS time slot resource, as well as the corresponding relationship between AC and ASC. The radio resource control (RRC) layer of the UE determines the corresponding ASC value based on the corresponding relationship and the configured AC value thereof, and configures the ASC value and other corresponding related resources to the media access layer. At the same time, the RRC layer of the UE configures the corresponding signature of each ASC and the UpPTS time slot resource to the physical layer. However, there is still no solution in the existing technology in respect to how the UE physical layer selects the resource configured by the system for the ASC in order to meet the QoS requirements and avoid the generation of conflicts by all means.

Random access method for user equipment in time division synchronization code division multiple access communication system


A method for accurately measuring feature sizes and quantifying the beam spot size in a CDSEM at real time is provided. The inventive method is based on a scanning microscope and it works on both conductive and non-conductive features. The measurement of conductive feature includes first providing a conductive feature on a surface of a substrate (the substrate maybe an insulator, a semiconductor or a material stack thereof). The conductive feature is then connected to ground and thereafter an electron beam probe raster scans the sample. When the electron beam probe hits the conductive feature the spot will have a negative potential. The potential difference between the spot and the ground will induce an electrical current flow. When the electrical beam is off the conductive feature, there will be no current flow. Therefore, by measuring the current response to the location of the beam spot, the dimension of the conductive feature can be derived.

In the semiconductor industry, accurate measurement of the dimensions of a given feature is critical for process control and yield learning. Primarily, the dimension of a feature is measured using a critical dimension scanning electron micrograph (CDSEM) technique. In some limited applications, the dimension of a feature is determined using a scatterometer. In CDSEM, the probe is an electron beam, while light is used as the probe for a scatterometer.
Despite the different probes used, both techniques rely on reflections of the probes off the features under investigation, or electrons generated during the reflection interaction. The reflection can be modulated by the feature itself as well as many other undesired factors. The most common factors that may complicate the measurement are (i) process induced line edge roughness, (ii) process induced residue, and (iii) electrostatic charging induced by process and electron beam in CDSEM.
In addition, and with the current trend of shrinking lines and spaces, it is becoming a growing challenge to differentiate lines from spaces in CDSEM images. Without being able to reliably identify the lines or spacers, there is a risk of measuring from an undesired location, causing false process feedback and yield issues.
There are many activities in processing trying to address the above-mentioned problems. However, because CDSEM and scatterometer work off reflection interaction, it is not possible to eliminate the above challenges. Additional creativities are urgently needed to ensure that the measurement taken accurately represents the desired feature.
CDSEM beam spot size has traditionally be quantified offline during a calibration process by using gold-carbon samples at various limited CDSEM setup conditions. The data obtained from the calibration is then used as a reference (or look up) table. However, there are many, many variables in a CDSEM which may affect the beam spot size and it is nearly impossible to have a reference table for each and every condition.
In view of the above, there is a continued need for providing a new and improved means for accurately determining the feature size during semiconductor processing. A new and improved means for quantification of the beam spot size of a CDSEM at real time is also desirable.

Measurement of critical dimension and quantification of electron beam size at real time using electron beam induced current

International Business Machines Corporation


Example methods, apparatus, articles of manufacture and systems for providing secondary coverage in a mobile communication system are disclosed. Example methods for a first device to provide secondary coverage in a mobile communication system include transmitting a secondary coverage signal and receiving a presence indication from a second device. Such example methods can also include reporting the presence indication to an access node of the mobile communication system. Such example methods can further include receiving information from the access node to enable relay node functionality in the first device in response to reporting the presence indication to the access node.

Mobile communication systems provide wide spread network coverage in many parts of the world today, and the geographical regions in which user equipment (UE), such as mobile devices, can receive network coverage from access nodes, such as base stations, continues to increase. Such network coverage is referred to herein as primary coverage. However, there are and will continue to be scenarios in which a UE cannot obtain network coverage from any network access node, such as in remote geographic regions, or when network equipment fails due to a natural disaster. Secondary coverage techniques can extend the coverage area of existing (and functional) access nodes by allowing UEs that are not in the coverage area of any network access node to gain access to a network via UEs that are in the coverage area of one or more network access nodes. For example, the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) long term evolution (LTE) standard specifies a secondary coverage technique in which in-coverage UEs can implement relay node functionality to provide network coverage for UEs that are not in the coverage area of any network access node.
Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawing(s) and accompanying written description to refer to the same or like parts, elements, etc.

Providing secondary coverage in a mobile communication system


The present invention easily provides a liquid crystal display in which conductivity between a first substrate over which a pixel electrode is formed and a second substrate over which a counter electrode is formed, can be certainly obtained even when it has a narrow frame, without adding new steps. As for a liquid crystal display device in which a liquid crystal is interposed between the first substrate over which the pixel electrode is formed and the second substrate over which the counter electrode is formed, when the first and second substrates are positioned so that the pixel electrode and the counter electrode are on the inside, and are attached to each other with a sealant, by providing a partition wall between the sealant and a conductive portion formed with a conductor to electrically connect the pixel electrode to the counter electrode, conductivity in a conductive portion can be certainly obtained.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device. Further, the present invention relates to a technology to increase quality of a liquid crystal display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, demand for a liquid crystal display device as a flat panel display has grown since the liquid crystal display device has advantages of thinness, lightweight and being capable of low-power-consumption driving. The liquid crystal display has various modes, and a liquid crystal display using a nematic liquid crystal includes a twisted nematic (TN) mode, a vertical alignment (VA) mode, an in plane switching (IPS) mode, an optically compensated bend (OCB) mode and the like. Further, a ferroelectric liquid crystal mode and an antiferroelectric liquid crystal mode in which a response speed is faster than in a nematic liquid crystal, are also proposed. In addition, polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) mode in which a liquid crystal is dispersed in a polymer molecule is also proposed.
Many other modes are proposed. However, a phenomenon that a liquid crystal transmits and does not transmit light in a liquid crystal display is basically performed by controlling birefringence, optical rotation, or scattering of the liquid crystal by applying voltage to the liquid crystal.
As a driving method for a liquid crystal display device, two kinds which are a passive driving method and an active matrix driving method are given. When a liquid crystal mode such as the TN mode, the VA mode or the OCB mode which is driven by applying voltage between upper and lower substrates, is operated in active matrix driving, voltage is applied through a flexible print circuit (FPC) which is attached to an active matrix substrate; therefore, in order to generate potential difference between the upper and lower substrates, a conductive portion (common contact portion) which makes a counter electrode of a counter substrate conductive to a connection wiring of the active matrix substrate, is required.
Generally, a method for forming the conductive portion is as follows: A sealant in which a conductor is mixed is applied to the conductive portion of either the upper substrate or the lower substrate, the upper and lower substrates are attached to each other, and the conductor which is formed at the conductive portion is in contact with the upper and lower substrates; therefore conductivity can be obtained.
However, in a case where the conductive portion is close to an insulating sealant for sealing the liquid crystal, in other words, in a case of a narrow frame, the conductive portion is covered by the sealant when the upper and lower substrates are attached to each other, and a conductive material cannot be in contact with both the upper and lower substrates or one side of the substrate; therefore a defect that conductivity cannot be obtained is occurred.
For this, a groove is formed at one of a pair of the substrates so that the above-described sealant which can cover the conductive portion goes into the groove (for example, refer to Patent Document 1)
However, in a case of using the above method, it is necessary to form a groove at one of the substrates by using laser and the like in advance, and the method has a problem that new steps are added, and the like.
Patent Document
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H6-273777

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


The present invention discloses a backlight control circuit, comprising: a voltage supply circuit for receiving an input voltage and generating an output voltage under control by a control signal; at least one voltage comparison path respectively coupled to at least one light emission device path; a voltage operative amplifier circuit for generating the control signal according to a lowest voltage on the at least one voltage comparison path; and at least one under current detection circuit for detecting whether a corresponding one of the at least one light emission device path is in an under current status, whereby when anyone of the under current detection circuits detects the under current status, it sends an exclusion signal excluding a corresponding one of the at least one voltage comparison path from being an effective input of the voltage operative amplifier.

In a liquid crystal display (LCD), a backlight control circuit is used which controls LEDs to illuminate from the back side of an LCD screen, so that a user can observe an image from the front side of the LCD screen.
In early days, LED backlight is used only in a small size screen, which does not require high backlight brightness. Therefore, the LEDs can be connected all in series or all in parallel. FIG. 1 shows a prior art circuit wherein all LEDs are connected in series. As shown in the figure, a backlight control circuit 10 comprises a voltage supply circuit 11 providing output voltage Vout to a plurality of LEDs L1-LN connected in series. A resistor R is provided on a path of the LEDs connected in series, and a voltage at a node Vsensel is compared with a reference voltage Vref to check whether a current through the path satisfies a predetermined condition. If the current is lower than a predetermined value and the voltage at the node Vsensel decreases, an error amplifier circuit 13 sends a signal 15 to the voltage supply circuit 11 to pull up the output voltage Vout, so that the current flowing through the LEDs increases. Moreover, to prevent the voltage supply circuit 11 from unlimitedly increasing the output voltage Vout (for example, when the error amplifier circuit 13 malfunctions, or when the path of the LEDs is open), an over voltage protection circuit 12 is provided in the backlight control circuit 10, which detects the output voltage Vout and sends a signal to stop the voltage supply circuit 11 from increasing the output voltage Vout if the output voltage Vout is excessively high. (Depending on circuit design, the voltage supply can be totally stopped, or kept at an upper limit value. The latter is more popular in a backlight control circuit.)
FIG. 2 shows a typical structure of an over voltage protection circuit 12, wherein the output voltage Vout is monitored by comparing the voltage at the node Vsense2 with a reference voltage Vovp. The result of comparison determines a signal for controlling the voltage supply circuit 11.
The above arrangement wherein all LEDs are connected in series has several drawbacks. The output voltage Vout can not be too high for cost and safety reasons; therefore, the number of LEDs that can be connected in series is limited. When the backlight brightness requirement increases for a larger size LCD screen, it becomes impossible to connect all LEDs in one path. In addition, due to series connection, if one LED shuts down, all the other LEDs are shut down; the LCD will be in complete darkness.
Referring to FIG. 3, it shows a conventional backlight control circuit with LEDs all connected in parallel. As shown in the figure, in a backlight control circuit 20, the currents passing through LEDs L1-LN are respectively controlled by the current sources CS1-CSN. The backlight control circuit 20 comprises a lowest voltage selection circuit 21 which chooses a lowest voltage value among all voltages at cathode ends of the LEDs L1-LN, and the error amplifier circuit 13 compares the lowest voltage value with a reference voltage to generate a signal controlling the voltage supply circuit 11. Thus, the output voltage Vout is under control so that all current source circuits are provided with sufficient operating voltage for normal operation, and all LEDs can illuminate normally thereby.
Similarly, the backlight control circuit 20 can further comprise an over voltage protection circuit 12 as the one described above.
The above arrangement wherein all LEDs are connected in parallel has the following drawbacks. Because the backlight control circuit 20 is an integrated circuit, the number of its pins (shown by hollow squares in the figure) is limited for cost and other reasons, which limits the number of LEDs to be connected. When the backlight brightness requirement increases for a larger size LCD screen, the number of pins becomes insufficient. In addition, if one of the LEDs shuts down, or if a pin is short to ground, the lowest voltage selection circuit 21 will select the input corresponding to the shut-down LED or the grounded pin, and the error amplifier circuit 13 will keep asking the voltage supply circuit 11 to increase the output voltage Vout. Under the circumstance, the voltage supply circuit 11 can not adjust its output voltage Vout according to normal LEDs. In the case where an over voltage protection circuit is provided, the output voltage Vout will be kept at the upper limit, causing unnecessary power consumption and reducing power efficiency. In the case where no over voltage protection circuit is provided, the integrated circuit, sometimes the LEDs as well, may be burned out. Furthermore, if the number of pins of the integrated circuit is larger than required, excess pins have to be connected to the output voltage Vout to avoid malfunction by the lowest voltage selection circuit 21, but such solution is not desired because it wastes the energy provided at the output terminal, and it causes heat and other issues.
Because the number of LEDs that are allowed to be connected all in series or all in parallel in the above conventional arrangements is limited, it naturally leads to connecting the LEDs partially in series and partially in parallel (series-parallel connection). FIG. 4 shows a prior art arrangement of such series-parallel connection in which the backlight control circuit 10 shown in FIG. 1 is employed to provide voltage to a series-parallel connection circuit of LEDs. However, it only checks the current on the path of LEDs L1-LN but does not check those on the other paths. Apparently, this is not a perfect arrangement because the LEDs in the other paths are not under control; the currents flowing through the LEDs are not accurate.
In another prior art arrangement, multiple backlight control circuits 10 are employed each of which controls one LED path so that every path is under control. Although such multiple backlight control circuits 10 can be integrated in one integrated circuit, it is obviously not cost effective.
Another prior art arrangement is shown in FIG. 5 which employs the backlight control circuit 20 shown in FIG. 3 to compose a series-parallel connection circuit for LEDs. In this arrangement, although the number of LEDs to be connected is increased, it still has the drawback that if one of the LED paths is open, the lowest voltage selection circuit 21 will force the voltage supply circuit 11 to increase the output voltage Vout unlimitedly. Moreover, if the number of pins of the integrated circuit is more than required, the excess pins becomes a hot potato; the output voltage Vout in FIG. 5 is a much higher voltage (for supplying operative voltage to multiple LEDs connected in series) than the output voltage Vout in FIG. 3, and thus if the excess pins are connected to the output voltage Vout, the device inside the current source circuit has to be a costly high voltage device. However, if the excess pins are not connected to the output voltage Vout, there is no low-cost solution to arrange those pins. As such, the circuit shown in FIG. 5 can only be applied to limited applications, and it has low immunity, that is, it is vulnerable to malfunctions and other circuit errors.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Backlight control circuit with under current detection and start-up control


The present invention provides a radiation-shielding container for a radiopharmaceutical that may be magnetically picked and placed, assembled and dis-assembled.

Radio-pharmaceuticals are typically packaged in a manner that reduces radiation exposure to the end-user of the product. Because most of these pharmaceuticals have short half-lives, radioactive content can be extremely high during manufacturing and handling of these products. Packaging containers consists of several components, with the main component being lead. Lead has a very high density and provides excellent shielding characteristics for both gamma and beta emitting radio-pharmaceuticals. Lead is also very heavy and thus contributes to ergonomically related strains during container assembly and handling.
A radio-pharmaceutical container typically consists of an outer shell, an inner shell, and a product container. The outer shell is typically formed from plastic that is bother durable and cleanable. The outer shell is durable to meet the requirements of the Department of Transportation (DOT). The outer shell must contain and protect the inner contents of the package during shipping and use of the product. The outer shell is cleanable so that any radioactive contamination can be washed off of the surface. Radioactive contamination is a possibility due to the nature of the contents and the environment where the containers are used. The outer shell typically has a label containing all of the product information such as; product name, manufacturing date, volume, specific activity, etc. The outer shell is usually and injection molded component that contains sub-parts that are assembled into a lower and upper assembly.
The inner shell, also known as the shield, fits within the outer shell. The inner shell is typically manufactured from lead with a small percentage of antimony. The inner shell is designed to provide shielding of the radioactive contents of the container. The inner shell is usually poured from molten lead into a negative void, or form. The inner shell typically includes subparts which correspond to the subparts of the outer shell.
The product container is the primary holder of the product. It can be made of plastic or glass and can be sterile or non-sterile. The product container may be kept in the shipping container during use to reduce exposure to the end-user.
The container may also include an absorbent material placed inside the inner shell to absorb fluid if the product container is breached during shipment or use. There may also be a cushioning material, such as a sponge, to protect the product container from shock during shipment or use. Additionally, there may also be an inner sleeve that can be positioned between the inner shell and the product container to segregate the product container from the lead.
Because the actual dose to be carried by the container may greatly vary from use to use, the lead shield is typically formed to be very thick so as to handle all doses it may encounter. The resulting weight of the container presents greater risks to the assemblers or handlers of the container of ergonomic or repetitive stress injuries. As lead is a non-ferrous metal, the shielding containers of the prior art do not lend themselves to handling machinery which employ magnets for transporting, and handling components.
There is therefore a need in the art for a shielded container for a radiopharmaceutical which reduces operator exposure to the radiopharmaceutical and to ergonomic and repetitive stresses relating to the manufacture, assembly, and handling of the container.


A computing system includes a low-profile chassis a motherboard disposed therein and at least one full-size circuit board coupled to the motherboard within the chassis. A method and another computing system are disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention disclosed herein relates to connection of mezzanine boards within computer systems, and in particular to methods and apparatus for connecting a diversity of board styles.
2. Description of the Related Art
A mezzanine board is a circuit board meant to be an extension or "daughter" of a motherboard (also referred to as a "mainboard"). Occasionally, the mezzanine board may be an extension of another board. The mezzanine board may be known by other names such as "piggyback board," "daughterboard," and by other similar terms. Generally, the mezzanine board will have plugs, sockets, pins, connectors, or other attachments for connection to other boards. A mezzanine board will usually plug into another board directly rather than through a computer bus.
A PCI Mezzanine Card (or PMC) is a printed circuit board manufactured to the IEEE P1386.1 standard (this standard is incorporated by reference herein in it's entirety). This standard combines the electrical characteristics of the PCI bus with the mechanical dimensions of the Common Mezzanine Card or CMC format (IEEE 1386 standard). The mechanics of a common mezzanine card (CMC) family are defined in this standard. Mezzanine cards, designed to this standard, can be used with a variety of motherboards, desktop computers, portable computers, servers, and other similar types of applications. Mezzanine cards can provide modular front panel I/O, backplane I/O or general function expansion or a combination for host computers. Single wide mezzanine cards according to this standard are about 75 mm wide by 150 mm deep by 8.2 mm high. The standard also defines a double-sized card.
Unfortunately, with a diversity of suppliers, users very often are not be able to make use of existing equipment or mix components in a cost-effective manner. Worse yet, some motherboards do not permit use of mezzanine boards at all. Accordingly, the functionality that may be obtained with a mezzanine board is not achievable.
Thus, what are needed are methods and apparatus that provide for mezzanine style connection in order to save cost of connector on systems with no mezzanine option. Preferably, the methods and apparatus enable functions such as a local area network (LAN) and provide a route out the front for open compute boxes. Further, the methods and apparatus should allow for larger heat sinks, higher power devices, drop in access of mezzanine cards then previously achievable.


A system and methods associated therewith for providing a load controller for a refrigerant recovery unit are disclosed. The load controller can be controlled to operate when the current drawn by the motor increases due to pressure changes caused by abnormal refrigerant flow or during activation of the motor in order to lower the pressure. In some aspects of the present disclosure, the load controller can lower the pressure by recirculating some of the pressure load through the opening of a compressor bypass loop line. In some embodiments, the current/pressure load may be monitored during the operation of the refrigerant recovery unit and set to act as an emergency shut off and alert system to the user when the system malfunctions.

Refrigerant recovery units are used for the maintenance and servicing of refrigerant systems including, for example, air conditioning systems. Refrigerant recovery units include a compressor with a motor that is used to recover and recharge the refrigerant from the air conditioning system. The design specifications of the compressor's motor must be so that the torque capabilities, among other sizing factors, of the motor are sufficient for the unit to operate accordingly. However, motor design specifications are also frequently limited by size, weight, physical footprint, and cost of the units.
In addition to these limitations, energy preservation is also of utmost importance. Conventional energy efficient system designs that include lower torque motor specifications often result in smaller motors that use less power, and remain relatively portable and low cost. However, operation complications during the startup of the unit or during normal operation when refrigerant flow restrictions occur often bring about undesired field solutions to get the refrigerant recovery units to start up or continue to work. Thus, a need exists for additional systems and methods that can provide energy efficiency and operation solutions for said portable refrigerant recovery units.

Method and system for a portable refrigerant recovery unit load controller


In order to provide a lumbar support which conforms to the curve of the spinal column so as not to give a feeling of incompatibility or other unpleasant feeling, and is easily adjusted to meet a user's preference, a lumbar support 10 of the present invention is structured such that a bulging member 30 provided with two housing parts 31 and 32 to house a cushioning material for adjustment 34 is fixed on the back surface of a flexible plate 20, which is incorporated so that the front surface of the flexible plate 20 is positioned to the front surface side of a back cushion 120. Accordingly, the curvature of the two housing parts 31 and 32 does not affect a feeling of contact with the waist as it is, but works as a feeling of contact with larger curvature owing to the flexible plate 20, which results in suppression of pressure on the nervous system between the third and fourth lumbar vertebrae. Furthermore, by setting the width of a border region 33 between the two housing parts 31 and 32 in an appropriate range, it is possible to suppress a feeling of pressure on such a nervous system, and at the same time, to suppress any feeling of incompatibility or other unpleasant feeling caused by too large a curvature.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lumbar support suitably used for a cushion for a seat, which is used by being mounted in a seat structure for transportation machines such as an automobile, a plane, a train, a ship, a fork lift and the like, those seat cushion and a seat back, a cushion for a seat, into which the lumbar support is incorporated, and a seat structure into which the lumbar support is incorporated.
2. Description of the Related Art
In Patent Document 1, a back mat which is made by attaching a bag as an air cushion on a flat rubber mat base is disclosed. The back mat is used by fixing on a seat back of an office chair, a car seat, and the like with a belt member. It is also disclosed that the air cushion is provided at a position corresponding to the vicinity of a seated person's waist, and formation of an air cushion in a plurality of rooms to ensure air permeability. In Patent Document 2, disclosed is a lumbago protection seat cover formed in an integral structure provided with a bottom cushion and a back cushion, attached with an air cushion at a position corresponding to the vicinity of the waist in the back cushion, without description of a base material. In Patent Document 3, disclosed is a seat cover provided with a lumbar support which can adjust a position of a pad loaded in a belt body folded into two by adjusting the position to fix the belt body.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 3057132
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Utility Model Application No. Hei 6-82969
[Patent Document 3] Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-325651
The air cushions disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2 use a soft flexible material as a bag to be filled with air, a pump is connected to this bag via a connection tube and air is loaded therein. However, no matter how airtight the bag and the connection tube, air still leaks gradually during use. Therefore, the desired elasticity of the air cushion is difficult to obtain depending on the air leaked amount, and the cushion's function as a sufficient lumbar support to support the waist disappears at an early stage, resulting in an increase in the number of times the cushion needs to be refilled by pump. Especially, on a driver's seat in a car, if the air cushion comes short of elasticity due to air leakage, it is extremely difficult to adjust the pump during driving. It is possible to adjust a feeling of support to the waist to suit individual preferences with the technology described in Patent Document 3, but this only goes as far as changing the height of the pad by adjusting a position to fix the belt body using a Hook-and-Loop fastener. In other words, since it is only a structure to be able to adjust the height of a lumbar support, it is impossible to adjust a feeling of cushioning unlike an air cushion type lumbar support disclosed in the Patent Document 1, and the like.
All of the Patent Documents 1 to 3 disclose a lumbar support having a plurality of bulging portions. This is mainly for ensuring air permeability by gaps between the bulging portions. However, if curvature of the bulging portion is too small or too large, a feeling of a strong pressure contact or a sense of a lack of conformity is felt when coming into contact with the back (the waist). That is, a lumbar support is provided to support in the vicinity of the third to fourth human lumbar vertebrae, and the average distance between the third and fourth lumbar vertebrae of Japanese adults is about 40 mm. When the curvature of a touched surface is too small, a nervous system between the third lumbar vertebra and the fourth lumbar vertebra is pressed, and when it is too large, a sense of lack of conformity or an unpleasant feeling is felt because it is not parallel to a curve of the spinal column.

Lumbar support, cushion for seat, and seat structure


A method of modifying a high-resistivity substrate so that the substrate may be electrostatically clamped to a chuck is disclosed. The bottom surface is implanted with a resistivity-reducing species. In this way, resistivity of the bottom surface of the substrate may be greatly reduced. In some embodiments, to implant the bottom surface, a coating is applied to the top surface. After application of the coating, the substrate is flipped so that the front surface contacts the top surface of the chuck. The ions are then implanted into the exposed bottom surface to create the low resistivity layer. The resistivity of the low resistivity layer proximate the bottom surface after implant may be less than 1000 ohm-cm. Once the bottom surface has been implanted, the substrate may be processed conventionally. The low resistivity layer may later be removed by wafer backside thinning processes.

Substrates are fabricated using a plurality of processes to create a semiconductor device. In many of these processes, the substrate is clamped to a surface so that the substrate remains stationary throughout the process.
This clamping may be accomplished using mechanical clamping, where the substrate is physically attached to the chuck. While effective, mechanical clamping may lead to contamination, poor process uniformity, reduced useful wafer area, or damage to the substrate by backside gas pressure.
Alternatively, electrostatic forces may be used to clamp the substrate to the chuck. Electric fields are created within the chuck. These electric fields cause electrons in the substrate to be drawn to the bottom surface of the substrate, where they are attracted to positive charges in the chuck. This attraction serves to clamp the substrate to the chuck.
Electrostatic clamping is very effective and reduces the possibility of contamination or damage to the substrate. However, this technique relies on the fact that the substrate has a fairly low resistivity. This allows the free movement of electrons within the substrate so as to create the electrostatic clamping force.
Substrates with high resistivity, such as high-res silicon, silicon carbide and gallium arsenide, do not generate the same clamping forces as silicon substrates. In fact, in one test, the current generated in the electrostatic chuck is tripled when a silicon substrate is disposed on the chuck, as compared to the situation when the chuck is unpopulated. In contrast, when a high resistivity substrate is disposed on the chuck, the current generated in the chuck is nearly the same as when the chuck is unpopulated.
Because of this, these high resistivity substrates are difficult to process. For example, application of back side gas at low pressures may cause the substrate to become unclamped. Meanwhile, the low chuck force will be a restraint to the use of high pressure backside gas, which is used for wafer cooling in some cases. Additionally, these substrates may be susceptible to damage that is caused by the inability to dissipate accumulated charge to the chuck.
Therefore, a method of processing a high resistivity substrate so that it may be electrostatically clamped to a chuck would be beneficial. Further, it would be advantageous if this method did not negatively impact throughput or introduce many additional fabrication processes.

Handling for high resistivity substrates


In various embodiments of the present invention, a customizable, tag-based message is a unit of information transmitted electronically from one device to another that may contain one or more references to one or more pieces of information without the need for these pieces of information to be embedded in the customizable, tag-based message. The customizable, tag-based message can comply with any suitable protocol. One suitable protocol includes a customizable, tag-based protocol, such as SOAP, but other protocols can be used.

SOAP originally stood for "Simple Object Access Protocol," but over time, SOAP has developed away from merely accessing objects and toward a generalized extensible messaging framework. Although a popular network representation for SOAP is an XML-based protocol that is designed to exchange structured and typed information on the Web, SOAP can be used in combination with a variety of existing Internet protocols and formats and can support a wide range of applications from messaging systems to remote procedure calls (RPCs).
Simply put, SOAP defines a way to move messages from point A, such as a message sender 102, to point B, such as a message receiver 104. See FIG. 1. SOAP defines a model for processing individual, one-way messages. One can combine multiple messages into an overall message exchange. FIG. 1 illustrates a system 100 where a simple one-way message is sent by the message sender 102, and the message sender 102 does not require a response from the message receiver 104. The receiver 104 could, however, send a response back to the message sender 102. SOAP allows for any number of message exchange patterns, of which request/response is just one. Other examples include notifications, and long-running peer-to-peer conversations.
The SOAP messaging framework facilitates exchanging XML messages in heterogeneous environments where interoperability has long been a difficult problem to solve. The SOAP messaging framework defines a suite of XML elements for packaging arbitrary XML messages, such as the XML message 106, for transport between systems, such as the message sender 102 and the message receiver 104. The framework consists of a few core XML elements: envelope, header, and body.
The envelope element (described by a beginning tag 106A <SOAP:ENVELOPE> and its companion ending tag 106J </SOAP:ENVELOPE>) is always the root element of a SOAP message, such as a SOAP message 106. This makes it easy for the message sender 102 and the message receiver 104 to identify SOAP messages by simply looking at the name of the root element.
The envelope element contains an optional header element, which is described by a beginning tag 106C <SOAP:HEADER> and its companion ending tag 106E </SOAP:HEADER>. The header element, unlike the body element, is a generic container for control information. It may contain any number of elements from any name space (other than the SOAP name space). Elements placed in the header element are referred to as header blocks. As with other protocols, header blocks contain information that influences payload processing. Header blocks can also be annotated with a global SOAP attribute named mustUnderstand to indicate whether or not the receiver is required to understand the header before processing the message as well as other attributes.
The header element is followed by a mandatory body element, which is described by a beginning tag 106F <SOAP:BODY> and its companion ending tag 106H </SOAP:BODY>. The body element represents the message payload, and as a payload, the body element is a generic container that is capable of containing any number of elements from any name space. This is ultimately where data will be contained when the message sender 102 attempts to send such data embedded in the SOAP message 106 to the message receiver 104. This minimal design of header and body elements to respectively contain control and data information in a SOAP message helps to foster a simple architecture allowing heterogeneous environments to communicate. However, such a design also hinders the application of the SOAP protocol in data intensive communications. FIG. 1 illustrates this problem and other problems in greater detail.
Suppose that the message sender 102 is a personal digital assistant, which is a light-weight computer designed to provide specific functions like personal organization (calendar, note-taking, database, calculator, and so on) as well as communications. More advanced personal digital assistants also offer multimedia features, such as music playing. Many personal digital assistants rely on a pen or other pointing device for input instead of a keyboard or a mouse, although some offer a keyboard too small for touch typing to use in conjunction with a pen or pointing device. For data storage, a personal digital assistant relies on flash memory instead of power-hungry disk drives. Suppose also that the message receiver 104 is a pair of intelligent loudspeakers, which are devices that accept messages containing a digital encoding of sound and generate sounds loud enough to be heard by the user of the message receiver 104.
Consider a situation where the message sender 102 (a personal digital assistant that can play music) sends a song in digital audio form to the message receiver 104. Using the SOAP protocol, the message sender 102 inserts into the body element (described by tags 106F, 106H) ASCII data that represents the digital audio, which in turn represents the original song. Whereas digital audio is typically compressed using a coding scheme, such as MP3, to shrink the size of the digital audio file without seriously degrading the quality of the sound, ASCII is not a compressed scheme. While not a requirement, the vast majority of SOAP messages are exchanged as an XML/1.0 document which uses some text-oriented encoding, typically UTF-8 or UTF-16. Most digital audio files are compressed to average about three megabytes of data. The conversion of those digital audio files to a representation supported by XML/1.0 so that they can be embedded in SOAP messages would cause the size of SOAP messages to be prohibitively large.
However, even more important is the problem that if the data is included in the body element, then the data must be exchanged, in its entirety, before message processing at the receiver can begin. There are many situations in which this is undesirable. The receiver may not be able to process the data in the form supplied by the sender, and will request that the sender supply the data in a different form; if the data is included in the body of the message then the data will end up being sent twice. The receiver may not need all of data in the message; if the data is included in the body of the message then the receiver has no choice but to accept all of the data and discard the portions it does not need. Or a fault in the network may cause the message to be garbled after the bulk of it has been exchanged; if the data is included in the body of the message then there is no alternative to exchanging the message again, in its entirety. In all of these situations including the data in the body of the message results in needless consumption of network resources.
Large SOAP messages due to bulky pieces of data in the body element cause lackluster performance in the sending process, the transferring process, and the receiving process. While the SOAP protocol has helped to enable rich and automated Web services based on a shared and open Web infrastructure, SOAP messages were not designed originally for transferring bulky pieces of data, such as multimedia data. Without a solution to separate the control information in the header of a SOAP message from the data information in the body of the SOAP message, the SOAP protocol will be limited in its application, and users may eventually no longer trust the system 100 to provide a desired computing experience because of lackluster performance, causing demand for the system 100 to diminish from the marketplace. Thus, there is a need for a method and a system for sending information by reference while avoiding or reducing the foregoing and other problems associated with existing systems.

Send by reference in a customizable, tag-based protocol


A smart card system may include a smart card; and a smart card reader configured to communicate via a smart card protocol with the smart card, wherein the smart card includes a modulus counter that generates an operation clock of the smart card by receiving an external clock complying with the smart card protocol from the smart card reader, dividing the external clock a first and a second time to generate a first and a second dividing clock, counting the first dividing clock for A number of times, and counting the second dividing clock for N-A number of times.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a smart card, more particularly, to a smart card system configured to control the speed of an internal clock of the smart card to decrease power consumption and a corresponding method thereof.
2. Discussion of Related Art
A contactless smart card communicates with a smart card reader in accordance with the ISO 14443 protocol. The contactless smart card is designed to recover a command that the smart card reader transmits and to respond at the correct time.
In order to enable communications between the smart card and the smart card reader, which are separated by a great distance, the units must operate with a low power. As data output from the smart card reader is transferred in a wireless format, it is required that the circuits operate accurately. In other words, in order to respond within a predetermined period of time after a command from the smart card reader is received, the smart card may respond after counting with a clock having a high frequency, for example, 13.56 MHz. The high clock frequency (13.56 MHz), however, may be one of the causes of the high power consumption of the smart card.
As an example, a smart card that complies with the contactless Type A protocol transmits a request signal after a predetermined period of time upon receiving data from the smart card reader. In other words, in the case of data ending in '1', the smart card transmits a response signal after a period of time (9*128+84)/fc (fc=13.56 MHz), and in the case of data ending in '0', the smart card transmits a response signal after a period of time (9*128+20)/fc. In other words, the smart card counts using a counter operating at 13.56 MHz in order to transfer data after predetermined periods of time, either 1236/fc or 1172/fc. In this case, peak currents occur in the smart card at intervals of 13.56 MHz.

Smart card system and driving method thereof


A customizable scuba-diving mouthpiece having a passageway-forming front member extending from a proximal in-mouth end to a distal outside end, and a U-shaped thermoformable back member preferably formed in situ on the front member. The back member has a forward middle portion, flanges and bite portions configured to provide moldability at substantially all points of contact between mouthpiece and teeth such that the mouthpiece has a secure grip on the diver's teeth. The method for making such customizable mouthpiece.

Scuba-diving mouthpieces of various kinds have been known and used for many years. The great majority of such mouthpieces are not customizable for individual divers, but some customizable scuba-diving mouthpieces have been known or used. Examples of customized or customizable scuba-diving mouthpieces are those shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,107,667 (Moore), 3,844,281 (Shamlian), 3,929,548 (Shamlian), and 4,136,689 (Shamlian).
Despite advances in recent years, there are many problems and shortcomings with scuba-diving mouthpieces of the prior art. One fairly common problem relates to mouth fatigue experience by scuba divers. Mouthpieces are typically held in place by means of the diver's bite on retaining members which project inwardly from a lip-engaging portion to positions between the upper and lower teeth. This not only places significant pressures on small portions of the diver's teeth, that is, the portions engaging the retaining members, but the constant muscle pressure needed for secure retention of such mouthpieces can cause significant muscle strain and aching.
Customizing the surfaces of such retaining members to match the tooth surfaces, as in the above-mentioned Shamlian patents, ameliorates the problem to some extent. However, the improvement is very limited because of the fact that contact with the inwardly-projecting retaining members is limited to only a few teeth.
Greater tooth contact is possible with scuba-diving mouthpieces such as the customized mouthpiece disclosed in the above-mentioned Moore patent. The tooth-engaging portions in such device extend well back along the line of molars on either side of the mouth. Such extension provides a greater lever arm, thereby reducing the pressure necessary to hold the mouthpiece in the mouth. Because of this, mouth fatigue should be reduced. However, the process used to manufacture such mouthpiece is extremely complex, requiring steps such as making wax replicas of the maxillary and mandibular impressions of the mouth, mounting such replicas in the appropriate relative positions of the partly-opened mouth, carving, uniting tube and tooth impression portions, plaster forming, introducing vulcanizable rubber, separating plaster from formed rubber, and other steps.
The complexity of this manufacturing process rules out quick preparation, such as in a diving equipment shop. Furthermore, it can produce mouthpieces which are less than satisfactory in comfort. In some cases, this is because the relative positions of the relative maxillary and mandibular portions may not be natural. In other cases, this may be because the relative positions are not sufficiently closed. The problem of unnatural jaw position placement is accentuated for the 20% or so of the population whose jaws are developed well away from normal patterns. In each case, improper relative placement, even in customized scuba-diving mouthpieces, exacerbates the usual problems of jaw fatigue.
The problems of jaw fatigue and joint strain during long use are accompanied by a related problem--a tendency toward an inability by the diver to easily maintain the mouthpiece in the proper orientation, particularly when pressures are applied to the mouthpiece from outside the diver's mouth. Unwanted pressures on the mouthpiece grip come about from water currents (relative to the diver), contacts made with diving apparatus, and a variety of other causes. It is essential, of course, that the diver's mouthpiece, which is the sole source of air, remain in place. Thus, the concern about pressure interfering with the grip of the diver on his or her mouthpiece is more than a casual concern.
Some problems with current scuba-diver mouthpieces can be understood better by reference to the mouth, the jaw, and the teeth of a typical person. The jawbone is a lengthy angled member which pivots with respect to the skull about the jaw joint well back from the mouth. Such joint is typically positioned considerably above the level of the teeth and well behind the position of the teeth. From such joint, the jaw has a generally downwardly and slightly forwardly extending portion which extends generally to a position rearwardly spaced from the teeth, and a more forwardly, but still downwardly, extending portion which carries the teeth of the lower jaw and extends forwardly beneath the upper jaw. The angle between the two portions of the lower jaw is referred to herein as the "jaw angle."
Opening and closing muscle tissue masses are secured to the jaw at positions forward of the jaw joint, but well rearward of the teeth. The muscles secured to the lower jaw create a lever arm which extends from the jaw joint all the way to the point of contact pressure of the lower jaw with the upper jaw or with whatever is being bitten.
When using a typical diving mouthpiece, or a customized diving mouthpiece such as those shown in the aforementioned Shamlian patents, the lever arm of the lower jaw extends from the jaw joint all the way forward to the position of the eye teeth where the mouthpieces are gripped between the diver's teeth.
Two separate problems are created when the mouthpiece contact occurs in this manner at such forward position in the mouth: First, since the distance from the center of muscle effort is long, a significant increase in muscle force is necessary to stabilize and retain the mouthpiece. This is what causes the muscles to quickly fatigue and often to become painful, which leads to jaw aches and headaches. A second and related problem of such long lever arm is created when standard mouthpieces, or customized mouthpieces of the Shamlian type are used, in that there is a severe increase in pressure within the jaw joint, well back in the head.
If the contact location is extended to the back of the mouth, the lever arm is shortened and advantages are achieved, including a reduction in the muscle force necessary to hold the mouthpiece and a reduction in the corresponding jaw pressure. Lengthening the mouthpiece retention piece to allow contact at a more rearward position in the mouth creates a shorter, and thus more favorable, lever arm. This resists torque from movement of the diver's regulator. That is, a better grip can be maintained with less exertion.
However, extension of the posterior bite pieces has been difficult or unworkable in the prior art due to variability in the jaw alignment of different people. Only a completely customized bite portion would allow for this. The variability in the angle between the teeth of the upper and lower jaws is a major problem. Such variability is caused by variations in the aforementioned lower jaw angle and also by the angle of the upper jaw with respect to the lower jaw. The upper jaw may be tipped up or down in the front or back.
Another major problem with previous customizable mouthpieces is caused by the extreme variability of the front teeth (incisors) in their generally vertical direction relative to the back teeth. When these teeth extend downwardly more than the average distance, they tend to partially the cover the air intake of the mouthpiece. When the diver bites on the bite portions, this creates a partial reduction in air flow and increased turbulence. The diver tends to experience "starving" for air in this circumstance. Mouthpieces of the prior art have maintained the lower front flange of the mouthpiece at a position vertically directly below the upper flange. However, when the typical jaw opens it follows a variable path that is down and back. At a position 4-6 cms open, which is the average mouth opening for a diving mouthpiece, the lower jaw typically must come forward to grip the bite portions and seal against the lower front flange. This tends to cause significant muscle strain, and places the jaw joint in an unnatural position, with a heavy load on it.
Known customizable scuba-diving mouthpieces have been unable to easily and properly accommodate a wide variety of mouth and tooth configurations. It would be desirable to have a customizable scuba-diving mouthpiece which can provide excellent and easy diver engagement for a wide variety of divers.
There are other problems related to creation of a totally customizable scuba-diving mouthpiece. With broad-reaching customizability there come problems in maintaining strength and integrity in the mouthpiece, at points of pressure and torque. For example, materials which are both readily thermoformable and of acceptable flexibility may be weakened by torque applied at certain points. More specifically, a torque applied on the mouthpiece can cause tearing of such material unless mouthpiece construction and design are such as to minimize or rule out such risk of damage. Furthermore, it is necessary that customizing of critical surfaces of such a mouthpiece be carried out without degrading the structural integrity and strength of the mouthpiece.
Still another concern with customized scuba-diving mouthpieces of the prior art is that such mouthpieces do not very well accommodate what is referred to by divers as "buddy-breathing." Buddy-breathing involves use of a single mouthpiece by more than one diver, as may be necessary when the oxygen supply of one diver is low. In such situations, the mouthpiece is handed back and forth for alternating use by two divers. Customized mouthpieces of the prior art are not well suited for this practice. This is particularly true for mouthpieces having extended tooth engagement along either side of the diver's mouth.
Problems in manufacture can arise in the final customizing steps, that is, in fitting a customizable scuba-diving mouthpiece for a particular diver. While it is desirable to have a large area of customized tooth mouthpiece engagement, heating of the mouthpiece could lead to unacceptable deformation in areas not to be engaged by the mouth, for example, areas to engage the air conduit of a second-stage regulator. It would be desirable to have a customizable mouthpiece not susceptible to such problems.
While there have been a number of efforts to make improved customizable scuba-diving mouthpieces, there has remained a clear need for significant improvements in the field of customizable scuba-diving mouthpieces.

Customizable mouthpiece for divers and method of manufacture


A method of hydrating mucous secretions in the lungs of a subject in need of such treatment is disclosed. The method comprises administering to the lungs of the subject a uridine triphosphate such as uridine 5'-triphosphate (UTP) or uridine 5'-O-(3-thiotriphosphate) (UTP.gamma.S) in an amount effective to hydrate lung mucous secretions. The method is useful for treating patients aflicted with cystic fibrosis. Pharmaceutical formulations and methods of making the same are also disclosed.

Extracellular adenosine triphosphate has been shown to regulate a variety of biological processes including non-vascular smooth muscle contraction (M. Maguire and D. Satchell, J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther. 211, 626-631 (1979); C. Brown and G. Burnstock, Eur. J. Pharmacol. 69, 81-86 (1981)) and vascular tone (G. Burnstock and C. Kennedy, Circ. Res. 58, 319-330 (1986); D. Haeussinger et al., Eur. J. Biochem. 167, 65-71 (1987)), platelet aggregation (G. Born and M. Kratzer, J. Physiol. (Lond.) 354, 419-429 (1984)), neurotransmission (G. Burnstock, Nature, 229, 282-283 (1971); G. Burnstock and P. Sneddon, Clin. Sci. 68 (Suppl. 10), 89s-92s (1985)), and cellular ion transport (G. Burgess et al., Nature 279, 544-546 (1979); D. Galacher, Nature 296, 83-86 (1982)) and secretory activities (J. Chapal and M-M. Loubatieres-Mariani, Br. J. Pharmacol. 73, 105-110 (1981); J. Pearson et al., Biochem. J. 214, 273-276 (1983)). These effects are mediated by specific purinergic receptors which respond to ATP or other nucleotides present in the extracellular millieu (J. Gordon, Biochem. J. 233, 309-319 (1986)).
Purinoceptors have been functionally identified in rat pulmonary epithelia in studies of regulation of alveolar Type II surfactant phospholipid secretion (W. Rice and F. Singleton, Br. J. Pharmacol. 89, 485-491 (1986)). To our knowledge these receptors have not been reported in human airway epithelial cells. Because ion transport appears to be regulated by purinergic receptor stimulation in other epithelia (Burgess et al., supra (1979); Gallacher, supra (1982)), we investigated several features of the effect of extracellular nucleotides on the ion transport activities of human airway epithelium.
Purinergic receptor regulation of ion transport might have potential therapeutic benefit in lung diseases characterized by abnormalities in epithelial ion transport, e.g., cystic fibrosis. In cystic fibrosis the airway epithelial dysfunction is expressed in part by defective regulation of Cl.sup.- ion transport by secretagogues that regulate the apical cell membrane Cl.sup.- channel by cAMP-dependent or protein kinase C dependent mechanisms (R. Boucher et al., J. Clin. Invest. 78, 1245-1252 (1986); R. Boucher et al., J. Clin. Invest. 84, 1424-1431 (1989); J. Riordan et al., Science 245, 1066-1073 (1989); J. Rommens et al., Science 245, 1059-1065 (1989)). Induction of Cl.sup.- secretion by CF airway epithelia in vivo might help liquify the relatively dehydrated, thick airway surface liquid that characterizes this disease. We therefore tested whether nucleotides would bypass regulatory defects in CF airway epithelia and induce Cl.sup.- secretion at rates similar to those of normal airway cells. The present invention is based upon this investigation.

Method of treating lung disease with uridine triphosphates

The University of North Carolina At Chapel Hill


Ski, especially an alpine ski, having the shape of an elongated beam including a core, a lower reinforcement and an upper reinforcement and including, in the assembly zone of the bindings, at least one shock absorption element, wherein the shock absorption element is arranged on the first upper reinforcement and beneath a second upper central reinforcement.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a ski, such as an alpine ski, a cross-country ski, a monoski or a snowboard. More particularly, it concerns an improvement to this type of ski, and especially in its assembly zone for the bindings.
2. Discussion of Background and Material Information
Different types of skis are already known, and they have a large number of variations. These skis are constituted of a beam of an elongated shape, whose front end is curved upwardly to constitute a spatula, the rear end also being slightly curved to constitute the heel.
Current skis generally have a composite structure in which different materials are combined such that each of them intervenes in an optimal manner, in view of the distribution of mechanical stresses during use of the ski. Thus, the structure generally comprises peripheral protection elements, internal resistance elements to resist flexion and torque stresses, and a core. These elements are assembled by adhesion or by injection, the assembly generally being hot formed in a mold that has the definitive shape of the ski, with a front portion that is substantially raised in a spatula, a rear portion slightly raised in a heel, and a central arched portion.
Despite manufacturer's concerns for constructing good quality skis, they have not, until now, obtained a high performance ski that is satisfactory under all circumstances.
As such, some efforts have already been made to resolve the shock absorption problem and the behavioral problems of the ski. More particularly, proposals have been made to intersperse shock absorption devices between the binding(s) of the boot on the ski.
These devices are adapted to improve the comfort of the skier, as well as the behavior and performance of the skis. Without shock absorbers, all the irregularities of the slopes, which are becoming increasingly harder because they are increasingly better damped, subject the ski to shocks and vibrations that are directly transmitted to the skier, whose skeleton, joints, muscles and tendons are placed under substantial stress. This results not only in a lack of comfort, but also in fatigue capable of resulting in accidents. Moreover, the excessively rigid connections between the skier and the ski is detrimental to satisfactory behavior of the ski, especially due to a much too substantial grip of the running edges in the snow that brings about sudden braking. But the devices proposed are only adaptations, and are not entirely satisfactory.

Ski for winter sports comprising an assembly platform for the bindings


This composite building stud combines two metal shapes, inner and outer, with an insulating material to form a composite structural member having excellent acoustical properties. The stud also has an insulating valve (R-value) greater than a similar metal member normally used as a stud in a residential structure. The composite also has a strength comparable to that of a similar steel member normally used as a stud in a residential structure. One shape encompasses the other shape. The composite structural member eliminates any direct metal connections and thus eliminates any thermal shorts that reduce the overall insulating value (R-value) of the composite member.

This invention relates to a composite, structural, steel stud with a thermal break between opposite sides and with excellent acoustical properties.
The conventional residential building market has revolved around wood frame structures. Wood frame structures have dominated due to the abundance, economics and construction knowledge associated with wood and wood products. Currently, some of the dominating factors of wood frame structures are yielding to other materials. Some of these factors are pricing, quality of material, strength (hurricanes and earthquakes) and durability (termites). Today, the material cost of steel framing is comparable to that of wood. Many steel manufacturers have geared up to deal with an expanding steel frame market by installing new galvanizing plants. Markets have expanded in California""s earthquake zones since steel frame buildings can be more durable. Steel frame markets in Florida and Texas have grown to overcome termite and hurricane damage. New construction practices and construction tools have developed, as have building code standards to accept the new boom in steel frame buildings. However, a new setback has surfaced with residential steel frame building: thermal efficiency. Where high thermal efficiencies are required in the cooler climates, conventional steel frame buildings are not thermally equivalent to wood structures.
Steel studs inherently have thermal short problems. Steel studs in frames produce a thermal bridge between opposite sides of a wall frame, joist or truss member. This thermal bridging readily transfers heat across metal members, which results in excessive heating/cooling costs, condensation, and accelerated thermal rot in sheeting materials like drywall and siding. Heat transfer utilizes three basic mechanisms; conduction, radiation and convection. With typical wood framing, the wood itself is an insulator, which eliminates conduction. Effective thermal sheeting and batting insulation prevent radiation across the frame and convection within the dead space. With steel framing, the metal conducts heat across the frame. Sheeting and batting insulation reduce radiation and convection, but can not significantly reduce the thermal shorts of the steel members and their endpoint connections.
In simple words, conventional steel studs conduct cold from the outside wall to the inside wall. In severe cold climates under prolonged use, gray stripes develop on the inside wall. The stripe occurs where the conventional steel stud touches the warm inside wall. Industry has proposed several approaches to providing metal beams with a thermal break between opposite walls. No approach, however, has completely eliminated the thermal short problems associated with metal beams. Nor have these approaches provided a stud with the superior structural properties of steel and the thermal equivalence of wood.
The composite of this invention has excellent acoustical or sound dampening properties. Steel or metal studs generally are better than wood studs. The composite stud of this invention has acoustical properties better than steel or metal studs. The thermal break eliminates any direct metal connections thereby interrupting the path noise would follow.
The composite of this invention combines two metal shapes, inner and outer, with an insulating material to form a composite structural member having an insulating valve (R Value) greater than a similar steel member normally used as a stud in a residential structure. The R value of the composite member is R-2.5 to R-5 while the R value of the equivalent steel member is R-0.0098 and that of an equivalent wood member is R-2.9 to R-4.9. Thus, the composite steel member has an R value comparable to wood which is three order of magnitude better than that of a equivalent steel member. Also, the composite steel member is three orders of magnitude better than the R value of wood. The composite also has a strength comparable to that of a similar steel member normally used as a stud in a residential structure. The composite structural member eliminates any direct metal connections and thus eliminates any thermal shorts that reduce the overall insulating value (R-Value) of the composite member. The two steel shapes, inner and outer, with an insulating material form a composite structural member that has an interlocking shape which utilizes the compression strength of the insulating material and mechanically couples the inner and outer members. The interlocking shape holds the insulating material in compression and mechanically couples the inner and outer members regardless of whether the inner and outer members are in relative tension loading or compression loading. Coupling the composite structural members together forms thermally independent connections which eliminate thermal shorts between the inner and outer steel shapes. The coupling also eliminates thermal shorts between the inner and outer steel shapes and the floor and wall connections and also eliminates thermal shorts between the inner and outer steel shapes and the truss connection.
In the preferred embodiment, one shape encompasses the other shape. Preferably, an outer C shape encompasses an inner T shape. Insulation material is between the C and the T.