A method, system, or computer program product to enhance the performance of multi-hop cellular networks or other wireless networks is provided. A wireless device (e.g., cellular telephone) is able to communicate with a base-station in a cell of the cellular network over a non-cellular interface via another wireless device in the cell through the use of multi-hopping. By enabling wireless devices to communicate with a base station in such a manner, the effective coverage area of the cellular network is expanded and the effective capacity of the cellular network is improved. Distributed routing, device management, adaptive scheduling, and distributed algorithms can be used to enhance the overall performance of multi-hop cellular networks.

Technical Field
The present invention relates to wireless communication networks, and more particularly to routing signals through wireless networks.
Background
In some wireless communication systems, such as cellular communication systems, a geographic area of the network is broken up into sub-areas referred to as "cells." Each cell may, for example, be about ten square miles in area in a larger area of 50 square miles. Each cell may include a device referred to as "base station," which, in some systems, has a tower for receiving/transmitting and a base connected into a public switched telephone network (PSTN).
Areas are often divided into cells in order to use spectrum more efficiently. Typically, a wireless carrier is allocated a limited number of frequency channels. The use of the cells, in some applications, facilitates frequency reuse, such that, for instance, different users (e.g., individuals operating cellular handsets or devices that send or receive data over a wireless network) may communicate with different base stations over the same frequency in different cells, thereby re-using spectrum while avoiding or reducing interference. Cell phone systems are often digital with each cell having several channels for assignment to users. In a large city, there may be hundreds of cells.
Cellular networks often include a mobile telephone switching office (MSC) that, in some systems, controls certain aspects of the operation of some or all of the base stations in a region, control that may include control of the connections to a land-based PSTN. For instance, when a user's wireless device gets an incoming call, the MSC may attempt to locate in which cell the user's wireless device is located. The MSC then may instruct a base station and other system components to assigns resources for the call to the wireless device. The MSC then communicates with the user's wireless device over a control channel to inform the user's wireless device what resources to use. Typically, once the user's wireless device and its respective cell tower are connected, the call is on between the wireless device and tower. Similar mechanisms are used to facilitate data communication (e.g., packet switched data communication) between the wireless device and the network.
In some cellular communication systems, a wireless device directly communicates with the cellular base-station. That is, in some cellular wireless systems, the wireless device communicates with the cellular base-station via a single-hop, meaning that the signals sent between the wireless device and the base station are not mediated through an intermediary device that receives signals from one and passes them on to the other.
In some systems, at certain times, there may be a relatively large number of users attempting to directly communicate with the base-station in a cell. Some of these users may be located in areas referred to herein as "marginal-to-inoperative regions," which are areas where the wireless service is spotty because the signal between the wireless device and the cellular base-station is weak or blocked, usually because of hilly terrain, excessive foliage, physical distances, concrete walls, or tall buildings. In another example of a marginal-to-inoperative region, some of these users may be located in areas referred to herein as "cell-edges," which are areas where the interference from neighboring cells is relatively high.
Furthermore, the signal-quality (e.g., signal-strength, signal-to-noise ratio, signal-to-interference and noise ratio, or channel quality indicator) in some areas of the cell may not be strong enough to meet the throughput demand of the user. This is because when everything else is kept constant, the data rate that can be supported between a wireless device and a cellular base-station depends, in part, on the signal-strength or signal-quality between the device and the base-station. In some cellular systems, wireless devices are configured to transmit at a relatively high power when the device is in an area of the cell where the signal strength is low. This may help in supporting higher data rates between that particular device and that particular base-station. However, higher-power transmission may consume precious battery power of the device and also potentially causes more interference in the neighboring cells. Causing more interference in the neighboring cells may further hurt the effective capacity of the cellular system.
Some cellular systems may use adaptive modulation and coding. To facilitate communication, these systems often use modulation schemes and a certain amount of error correction coding (which, may tend to reduce the data rate or throughput of the wireless link) when the signal strength between a wireless device and the cellular base-station is relatively low. Thus, such systems may achieve a data rate between the device and the base-station that depends, in part, on the location of the device with respect to the base-station. Moreover, in these systems, if the same amount of spectrum was allocated to two similar wireless devices in a cell, where the signal-strength or signal-quality between the base-station and the first device is high and the signal-strength or signal-quality between the base-station and the second device is low, then the first device would (on average) be able to send/receive more useful data to/from the base-station. Thus, devices experiencing low signal-strength or signal-quality from the base-station may reduce the effective capacity of the wireless spectrum.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for expanding the effective coverage area and improving the effective capacity of cellular base-stations and cellular networks.

Network routing system, method and computer program product

Board Of Regents, The University Of Texas System


A lighting device comprising a plurality of LEDs; a plurality of optic devices corresponding to the plurality of LEDs; at least one optical separator for substantially preventing the light emitted from one LED from effecting the other LEDs; a thermoelectric device configured to harvest heat generated by the LEDs and convert the harvested heat into electrical energy; and a low temperature material for creating a temperature difference across the thermoelectric device.

LED lighting has come to the forefront as a more efficient means of providing household and commercial lighting. In contrast to most conventional lighting techniques, LEDs generally require electrical flow in one direction or direct current ("DC") in order to produce light. Since standard building wiring throughout the world is alternating current ("AC"), LED lighting designs typically take one of two prevailing approaches to insure sustainable light.
The first approach utilizes a driver circuit that converts AC to DC, steps down, and conditions the power. A typical converter design currently in the market utilizes up to eighty components to achieve the conversion and may use additional components if dimming is required. The second approach is to use AC LED technology.
These systems can be complex and inefficient because much of the energy is emitted as heat and the system does not manage the heat loss effectively. Additionally, there are inefficiencies caused by interference from within the system.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a system that managed the emitted heat in a more effective manner and reduced the inefficiencies caused by interference from within the system.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Systems, methods and/or devices for providing LED lighting


A naturally occurring protein isolated from the saliva of the medicinal leech Hirudo medicinalis is described which strongly binds to collagen thus acting as an inhibitor of natural platelet adhesion to collagen. The protein has a molecular weight of about 12,000, an acidic isoelectric point and contains six cysteins. The protein was sequenced and the gene was cloned from a H. medicinalis cDNA-library. Procedures for producing such polypeptide by recombinant techniques are disclosed. The recombinant and the natural occurring proteins are potent inhibitors of collagen-dependent platelet adhesion and therefore useful for the therapeutic treatment of various conditions related to heart disease and diseases of the circulation system. Furthermore, the protein is useful for coating natural or artificial collagen surfaces in order to render them nonadhesive for cells and prevent the activation of cells.

A potential for future improvements in the treatement of caridvacular disorders may be contributed by approaches as disclosed in this invention which directely interfere with the collagen and/or vWF factor induced platelet adhesion.
Several novel inhibitors which prevent platelet adhesion are monoclonal antibodies directed to vWF. It has as well been suggested that glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors may be beneficial in inhibiting platelet adhesion
Some of these inhibitors like the monoclonal Ab c7E3 have already been tested clinically while others like the KGD- and RGDF-inhibitors are still under study. However, the specificity of most of these new inhibitors is not very well studied thus the spectrum of side effects that will be induced by using this inhibitors is still open and deserves carefull examination.
A rich source for the screening of new compounds that interfere with collagen induced platelet adhesion is given in nature through blood-sucking animals. Several inhibitors have been isolated from nature as described in the literature: A 65 kD protein called Calin isolated from Hirudo medicinalis (U.S. Pat. No. 5,587,360, WO 92/07005) (Munro, R., et al., Blood Coagulation and Fibrinolysis, 1991, 2, 179–184) and a 16 kD (LAPP) protein isolated from the salivary glands of the leech Haementeria officinalis (U.S. Pat. No. 5,324,715). Both proteins have been described as aggregation inhibitors as tested in static assays of collagen dependent platelet aggregation.
Despite a proven in vitro activity LAPP failed to act in several well-established in vivo models (Schaffer L. W. et al.; Arterioscler. Thromb., 1993, 13, 1593–1601) and Connolly T. M. et al.; Thromb. Haemostas., 1993, 69, 589). The soft tick, Ornithodoros moubata, also contains an antiplatelet protein (Moubatin) which is active in preventing collagen-stimulated platelet aggregation (Waxman, L. et al.; J. Biol. Chem., 1993, 268, 5445–49). Another inhibitor of platelet aggregation from a blood-sucking bug was disclosed in WO 9309137 by Noeske-Jungblut C. et al. Smith et al. have isolated a 50 kDa protein from snake venom and a 19 kDa protein was isolated from a the saliva of Triatoma pallidipennis, a blood-sucking bug. The protein was found to contain a factor that specifically inhibits collagen-induced platelet aggregation. The 19 kDa protein named pallidipin inhibits collagen-mediated aggregation of platelets in plasma. No inhibition of aggregation stimulated by other effectors (ADP, thrombin, thromboxane A2 mimetic U46619, phorbol ester) was detected. Pallidipin had no effect on platelet adhesion to collagen but inhibited ATP release from platelets. It interacted reversibly with platelets and may share with collagen a common target on them. The precise mechanism of action and therapeutic benefit of this protein is under investigation. Gan et al. described Echistatin as an inhibitor binding to the fibrinogen receptor GP IIa/IIIb (J. Biol. Chem. 1988, 263, 19827–32).
Despite these exciting developments, the need continues to exist for supplying further anticoagulants and antithrombin which have increased efficacy in the inhibition of clot formation, vWF-induced platelet activation or endothelial cell activation and which may be used pharmaceutically and produced in commercially feasible quantities.
Since none of the known proteins described so far has developed into a compound with ideal therapeutic profile the inventors of the present invention decided to go ahead with a new screening strategy in order to detect more relevant proteins.


A method for generating context vectors for use in a document storage and retrieval system. A context vector is a fixed length list of component values generated to approximate conceptual relationships. A context vector is generated for each word stem. The component values may be manually determined on the basis of conceptual relationships to word-based features for a core group of word stems The core group of context vectors are used to generate the remaining context vectors based on the proximity of a word stem to words and the context vectors assigned to those words. The core group may also be generated by initially assigning each core word stem a row vector from an identity matrix and then performing the proximity based algorithm. Context vectors may be revised as new records are added to the system, based on the proximity relationships between word stems in the new records.

The present invention is directed to a method for storing records that permits meaning sensitive and high speed subject area searching and retrieval. The same method may be used for word sense disambiguation, (e.g., "star" in the sky vs. movie "star"). The invention is further directed to methods for generating context vectors to be associated with word stems for use in the record storage and retrieval method.
The most common method of record storage and retrieval involves storing all records word for word and then searching for key words in the records using inverted indexes (Salton, G., Automatic Text Processing: The transformation analysis and retrieval of information by computer, Addison-Wesley, 1989.) The key word searches are performed by doing a complete search through all of the contents of the data base that contain a list of query words. Such systems have no knowledge that "car" and "automobile" should be counted as the same term, so the user must include this information by a complex and difficult-to-formulate query. Some systems try to solve this problem by a built-in thesaurus, but such systems lack "meaning sensitivity" and miss many obvious facts, for example, that "car" is closer to "road" than to "hippopotamus." It is an object of the present invention to provide a more meaning sensitive method of storage and retrieval that allows simplified queries and reduces the computing capacity required for any particular data base.
There is currently much research and development in the fields of neural networks (Rumelhart, D. E. & McClelland, J. L., (eds.) Parallel Distributed Processing: Explorations in the Microstructures of Cognition, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 MIT Press, 1986; Anderson, J. A. and Rosenfeld, E. (eds.), Neurocomputing, A Reader, MIT Press, 1988; Hecht-Nielson, Neurocomputing, Addison-Wesley, 1990). A neural network consists of a collection of cells and connections between cells, where every connection has an associated positive or negative number called a weight or component value. Cells employ a common rule to compute a unique output, which is then passed along connections to other cells. The particular connections and component values determine the behavior of the network when some specified "input" cells are initialized to a set of values. The component values play roughly the same role in determining neural network behavior as a program does in determining the behavior of a computer.
Waltz and Pollack, in their article entitled "Massively Parallel Parsing: A Strongly Interactive Model of Natural Language Interpretation" in Cognitive Science, Vol. 9, pages 51-74 (1985), presented a neural network based model for word sense disambiguation using high level features which are associated with "micro-features". The system was implemented by running several iterations of spreading activation which would be computationally inefficient for medium-or large-scale systems.
Cottrell, in the article entitled "Connectionist Parsing" from the Seventh Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society", Irvine, Calif. constructed a similar system as Waltz and Pollack, with the same practical limitations. Belew, in the article entitled "Adaptive Information Retrieval" from the Twelfth International Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval, Boston, June, 1989, has also constructed a document retrieval system based upon a "spreading activation" model, but again this system was impractical for medium or large-scale corpora. McClelland and Kawamoto, in the Rumelhart et al. books cited above, disclosed a sentence parsing method, including word sense disambiguation, using a model with a small number of orthogonal microfeatures.
An important related problem is the following. Given a collection of high-dimensional vectors (e.g. all vectors might have 200 components), find the closest vector to a newly presented vector. Of course all vectors can simply be searched one-by-one, but this takes much time for a large collection. An object of the current invention is to provide a process which makes such searches using much less work.
Although this problem is easily solved for very low dimensional (e.g., 2-4 dimensions) vector by K-D trees as described in Samet, H. The Design and Analysis of Spatial Data Structures, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1990, K-D trees are useless for high dimensional nearest neighbor problems because they take more time than searching vectors one-by-one.
Prior art for document retrieval is well-summarized by the Salton reference cited above. Salton's SMART system us variable length lists of terms as a representation, but there is no meaning sensitivity between terms. Any pair of terms are either synonyms or are not synonyms; the closeness of "car" and "driver" is the same as that of "car" and "hippopotamus".
So called "vector space methods" can capture meaning sensitivity, but they require that the closeness of every pair of terms be known. For a typical full-scale system with over 100,000 terms, this would require about 5,000,000,000 relationships, an impractical amount of information to obtain and store. By contrast the present invention requires only one vector per word, or 100,000 vectors for such a typical full-scale system. This is easily stored, and computation of these vectors can be partly automated.
More recently Deerwester et al., in the article entitled "Indexing by Latent Semantic Analysis" in the Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Vol. 41(b), pages 391-407, 1990, have also proposed a method for searching which uses fixed length vectors. However, their method also requires work on the order of at least the square of the sum of the number of documents and the number of terms.
Bein and Smolensky, in the article "Application of the Interactive Activation Model to Document Retrieval" in the Proceedings for Neuro-Nimes, 1988: Neuro networks and their applications, November, 1988, have previously proposed a document retrieval model based upon neural networks that captures some meaning sensitivity. However, a search in their model requires multiplications for twice the product of the number of documents and the number of keywords for each of a plurality of cycles (they report 60). For large corpora, the present invention is expected to make searches up to 10,000 times faster.
Koll in "WEIRD: An Approach to Concept-Based Information Retrieval," SIGIR Forum, vol. 13, no. 4, Spring 1979, p. 32-50, discloses a retrieval method using vector representations in Euclidean space. The kernel or core used by Koll are non-overlapping documents. This results in rather small dimensional vectors on the order of seven values. Vectors are generated from the core documents based on whether or not a term appears in a document. As an alternative, Koll suggests starting with a kernel of terms which never co-occur.

Methods for generating or revising context vectors for a plurality of word stems


Vehicle control data is stored in a database of a vehicle control information storage apparatus of the present invention by a unit of road segment. When the same vehicle travels the same road segment for plural times, vehicle speed is averaged for storage as the vehicle control information in the database. Further, learning data has a value that is smaller than a threshold for the segment next to a current segment with a fulfillment of other conditions, the data is combined before storage in the database, thereby achieving a smaller storage volume in the database for the same amount of control information.

Conventionally, a vehicle control is provided by utilizing map data in a navigation apparatus for suitably controlling a vehicle according to a road condition of a currently traveling road. For an accurate control of the vehicle, the map data in the navigation apparatus needs to be precisely prepared. However, the accuracy of the map data in the navigation apparatus is not sufficiently accurate for the requirement of the accurate control.
Therefore, techniques that store a trace of a travel of the vehicle as control information for controlling the vehicle are proposed. That is, for example, Japanese patent document JP-A-2005-121707 discloses an apparatus that is capable of matching a stored road shape in stored road information with a real road shape including a travel lane. The apparatus corrects the road information in a storage according to travel trace information derived from a travel of the vehicle on a road. That is, the apparatus corrects the road information in each of a travel direction of a road based on the travel trace information when the road information represents the road that is travelable bi-directionally as one road shape.
However, the road shape being handled in the above apparatus is a static object, thereby not changing for each travel of the vehicle on the road.
On the other hand, Japanese patent document JP-A-2006-3147 discloses a technique that records travel data of the vehicle such as vehicle speed that dynamically changes for each occasion of the travel. In the disclosure, a travel data output apparatus that can encourage a driver to drive the vehicle safely and in a fuel saving manner is described. The apparatus acquires route data and travel data of a certain route for storing it in a travel history database. Then, the route data of a currently traveled route is searched for in the database as the vehicle travels, for a display of travel data of the currently traveled road on a display unit in terms of fuel consumption, travel time, and average speed.
However, the travel data output apparatus does not mention a case where the same road is traveled for plural times. Therefore, a data storage area size for storing the travel data becomes very large if the travel data is stored separately for each day of travel.
Further, because the travel data is stored by a unit of travel route, the travel data is not handled appropriately even when travel data of plural travel routes has a redundant travel section. That is, the travel data is not examined in terms of same travel routes in the travel data.


A method and apparatus for verifying authenticity of a digital signature for an attribute value. In one embodiment, the method includes receiving a message including an attribute value of an attribute from a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) repository entry and a digital signature, and verifying that the digital signature authenticates the attribute value.

Light Weight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) has become very popular due to its efficient and fast data access. A large number of applications/services are currently being developed which use an LDAP directory as their centralized data repository.
In the LDAP directory, data is stored as entries including key/value pairs. A key/value pair may consist of an attribute name and an attribute value. For example, an entry representing a person may include the textual string "telephoneNumber" as the attribute name and the numeric string "+1 800 123 4567" as the attribute value.
An LDAP directory can be queried to provide an attribute value of an LDAP entry. The attribute value is sometimes used to prove certain status of the entry. For example, the attributes of an LDAP entry for a person may include the person's social security number, driver license number, employee status, contact information, etc. Upon providing the values of these attributes, the person may be granted certain privileges, such as driving a rental car, access to an employer-sponsored facility, etc.
Conventional LDAP directories do not prove to a recipient that the attribute values sent to the recipient are authentic. The recipient is not provided with a means of verifying the authenticity of the received attribute values. Rather, the authenticity of the attribute values is implied from the fact that the values are received from a particular LDAP directory server. Relying on the data source, rather than the authenticity of the data itself, may sometimes be undesirable. For example, conventional LDAP techniques may be more susceptible to man-in-the-middle attacks and less adaptable to a network environment where proxy servers are used. Thus, there is a need to develop a secure and efficient technique for allowing a recipient to verify the authenticity of the attribute values returned from an LDAP directory.

Verifying authenticity of an attribute value signature


A friction assembly has a brake pad and a noise damping shim. The noise damping shim is engaged with a backing plate of the brake pad using a coupler. The coupler has a first coupler member formed on the backing plate and a second coupler member formed on the shim. In certain embodiments, the coupler may be a rivet coupler or a snap-in coupler.

A typical brake system uses one or more friction assemblies. A friction assembly is a replaceable element. A friction assembly comprises a brake pad having a friction material mounted on a backing plate. For example, in a typical disc brake, a rotating disc or rotor rotates with a wheel of a vehicle. A pair of opposing friction assemblies are positioned on opposite sides of the rotor such that both friction materials face to the rotor. Outside the friction assemblies are a piston and a corresponding caliper, respectively. When the brake is actuated and the piston and caliper are advanced closer to each other, the friction assemblies are pressed against the rotor between the piston and caliper. Thus, the friction materials contact the rotor to provide a stopping frictional force.
Significant forces are involved in applying the friction materials to the rotor. Due to the relative movement during the engagement of the friction materials and the rotor, squeal noise can be produced. In order to reduce the squeal noise, it is known to attach a noise damping shim to the brake pad.
The noise damping shim is typically attached to the backing plate of the brake pad using pins or staples through holes formed on the backing plate and shim. In this construction, the shim is subject to significant torques between the friction assembly and the piston or caliper pushing the shim against the brake pad during the braking operation. In order to minimize movements of the shim relative to the brake pad, the pins and holes need to be precisely dimensioned. Also, the use of pins increases the number of components to be assembled, which increases manufacturing costs.
In some friction assemblies, a noise damping shim has tabs or hooks projecting outwardly from the periphery of the shim. When the shim is attached to a backing plate, the hooks are bent and engaged to the backing plate. This type of friction assembly is advantageous for requiring fewer components to be assembled compared to the friction assemblies that use pins. However, the provision of the tabs require additional shim materials and the hook bending process during the assembling requires a complicated assembling machine.
It is therefore desirable to provide a backing plate having improved engagement between a brake pad and a noise damping shim without involving undue extra manufacturing costs.

Friction assembly and method for manufacturing same


A method for processing an atomic transaction in a multi-bus system that includes a local bus and a remote bus. According to the method, a first transaction in an atomic sequence is received from the local bus. The first transaction is terminated on the local bus. The first transaction is performed on the remote bus. A response to the first transaction is received and the response is placed on the local bus.

The present invention relates to a bus system that supports atomic transactions in a multi-bus computer system.
Modern computer systems are multi-agent systems. One known system, shown in FIG. 1, includes a plurality of agents 10-50 that communicate with one another over a first communication bus 60. As agents evolved, different bus protocols developed to support them. Thus, additional sets of agents 72-78 and 82-88 communicate over other buses 70 and 80. The bus protocols often are not compatible with each other. Accordingly, although it has become common practice to provide several buses in a single computer system, the system may include at least one bridging agent, such as agent 50, that interfaces to the buses 60, 70 and 80.
In known computer systems, typically there only two different bus types in such systems. One or more central processors 10-40 communicate on a "local" bus 60. Input/output devices may communicate on a "remote" bus 70 or 80.
When an agent 10 must perform an operation to be implemented by an agent 72 of remote bus 70, it issues a bus transaction on the local bus 60. The bridging agent 50 fields the bus transaction, decodes it and issues a bus transaction on the remote bus 70. The agent 72 responds to the transaction on the remote bus 70 and issues a response to be carried back to agent 10. For example, when agent 10 requests data to be read from agent 72, agent 72 issues a response with the requested data. Bridging agent 50 carries the requested data back to agent 10 via the local bus 60. Typically, the bridging agent 50 queues requests and responses carried in either direction across the buses.
As a representative example, consider a computer system where bus 60 is based on the bus protocol of the Pentium.RTM. Pro processor, commercially available from Intel Corporation of Santa Clara, Calif. One or more agents 10-40 may be Pentium.RTM. Pro processors. In this case, the local bus 60 is a pipelined bus. I/O devices 72-78, 82-88 are provided on the remote buses 70, 80. The I/O devices 72-88, 82-88 may communicate using a different bus protocol, such as the known Peripheral Component Interface ("PCI") protocol. An I/O controller 50 supports both the Pentium.RTM. Pro bus protocol and the PCI bus protocol so that transactions issued on the local bus 60 may be implemented on the remote buses 70, 80. For example, a bridging interface 50 may be a model 82450SX OPB integrated circuit, also commercially available from Intel Corp., that supports both the Pentium.RTM. Pro and PCI bus protocols.
The number of different buses in a computer system is expected to rise to increase the number of transactions that may be completed simultaneously by the system. One multiple bus design is shown in FIG. 2. There, a plurality of agents 10-40 are provided on the local bus 60. A local bridging agent 100 interfaces the local bus 60 to one or more intermediate buses 200 and 210. Intermediate bus agents 300 and 310 may perform bridging functions as well; they may interface the intermediate buses 200 and 210 to remote buses 400, 410, 420 and 430. A remote bus such as bus 400 may connect to one or more remote agents 402, 404, 406 and 408. Only one intermediate bus 200 is shown in FIG. 2 between the local bus 60 and a remote bus 400; however, there may be two or more intermediate buses (not shown). By organizing the agents into a plurality of isolated buses, the number of transactions that may be implemented concurrently is increased.
The intermediate bus architecture of FIG. 2 also facilitates scalability. It permits more remote agents to be provided in a single computer system. Accordingly, the computer system is made more powerful.
The multi-bus design of FIG. 2, however, increases the delay of "remote" transaction, a transaction that is issued on a local bus that is directed to an agent of a remote bus. Instead of one bridging agent, a transaction traverses a plurality of bridging agents. Each time a request or a response traverses a bridging agent 100 or 300, the bridging agent fields the request or response from a local bus, decodes it, queues it internally and posts an associated request or response on another bus. Thus, the multi-bus design increases latency of remote transactions.
The performance advantages that are achieved by a multi-bus design may be impaired by a certain set of transactions known as "atomic transactions." Atomic transactions are known in the context of the system of FIG. 1. They occur when one agent issues a number of bus transactions that must be completed in sequence without interruption. Typically, the atomic transaction causes the agent's bus to be locked out against transactions that may be initiated by other agents of the bus. For example, if agent 10 issues an atomic transaction, the bus 60 is locked against other transactions that may be initiated by agents 20, 30 or 40. The bus remains locked until the final transaction in the atomic sequence is completed.
For atomic transactions that are "remote," the local bus 60 is locked during the entire time that it takes the atomic transaction to complete. The bus 60 is locked for the time that it takes the bridging agent 50 to field each request in the atomic sequence, translate it and issue it on bus 70. The bus also is locked for the time that it takes for each response to return from bus 70 to bus 60. As noted, the bridging agent 50 typically queues the requests and responses with other transactions received from the local and remote buses 60, 70. The time that the local bus 60 remains locked increases if the atomic transactions must sit idle in long queues at the bridging agent 50.
Atomic transactions can impair bus utilization and, if not implemented properly, cause system deadlock. In the two bus system of FIG. 1, however, because remote atomic transactions cross only a single bridging agent 50, the queuing delays imposed by the agent are not significant. In multi-bus systems such as the system of FIG. 2, a remote atomic transaction may cross two or more bridging agents. While the intermediate and remote buses 100, 400 process the transaction, the local bus 60 sits idle. However, because it is locked, no other agent can post a transaction. Accordingly, utilization of the local bus 60 suffers. Also, if system components do not permit the local bus to be locked, the system may deadlock. The risk of deadlock increases as the number of buses increases. There is a need in the art for a bus protocol that improves bus utilization during atomic transactions that span multiple buses in a computer system.
In the context of the two-bus system of FIG. 1, it is also known for remote agents to initiate lockout transactions. For example, many remote agents designed for use on remote bus 70 may issue request exclusive access to system memory 90. As a representative example, the PIIX3 and PIIX4 integrated circuits, commercially available from Intel Corp., post such lockout requests using the known PHOLD signaling on a PCI bus. Other types of lockout requests are known. The lockout transaction grants to the remote agent uninterrupted access to the memory 90.
In the multi-bus system, the number of remote buses may increase manifold. The system may be provided with so many remote agents that it becomes impractical to grant the remote agent a lockout. However, to provide backward compatibility to such remote agent the remote buses 400-430 should simulate the lockout. The simulated lockout should: 1) permit a remote agent to lock the remote bus 400, and 2) prevent other agents from posting transactions to the remote agent. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a lockout protocol for remote initiated lockouts that simulate a remote agent's uninterrupted access to an agent on the local bus.


A pivoting column with stop cells formed inside the column is disclosed. The stop cells have to functioning positions, a locking position and a moving position. In the locked position the stop cells allow the column to rotate freely in one chosen direction, and prevent rotation in the opposite direction. In the moving position the stop cells allow free rotation of the column in either direction.

Chairs for dental professionals are increasingly designed to prevent back strain and injury. The bent forward position is required to work on the patient's mouth could cause significant back problems over the long term.
One known device for helping to reduce back strain is a chair arm that can pivot around its support post and lock into a desired position. The arm is shaped to allow the user to rest the front of their torso on the rest as they lean forward. This type of armrest is made by Mathison, Adec and Link Erogmomics. These arms rotate freely toward the body of the user, but can be locked in place to prevent rotation in the opposite direction, allowing the user to rest their body weight against the armrest when the user leans forward.
One known type of arm rest uses a single direction ratchet in the arm rest support to allow for rotation in one direction and locking the in the other direction. One limitation of such arms is that since the ratchet can only lock into positions determined by the "teeth" of the ratchet, the arm is not infinitely adjustable. Finer adjustments can be created by having a ratchet with smaller, closely spaced, teeth. However, the smaller the teeth, the more breakage of teeth over time become a problem.
The present invention solves this problem by allowing providing a pivoting support that freely rotates in one direction, and can be locked into position in any position in the other direction of rotation.
In other applications it is known the art to have rollers for feeding sheets of material (fabric, paper, plastic etc) through feeding rollers. The column of the present invention can also be used as a feed roller in applications where the material should feed in only one direction unless the user unlocks the roller, to clear a jam for example.

Pivot column for a chair armrest or similar mechanism


A system for augmenting the apparent velocity and effectiveness of an airfoil, such as a wing, on a vehicle includes at least one ionizer or emitter positioned relative to the airfoil to ionize a fluid media in which the airfoil travels and at least one attractor/receiver for accelerating the flow of ionized fluid media over the airfoil. The system further includes a voltage source to which each ionizer and each attractor is electrically connected.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and a method for enhancing the effectiveness of an airfoil, such as a wing, as it moves through the atmosphere.
(2) Prior Art
The use of intense electric fields to create ions has been commonly used in many applications. Repulsion of like charges after ionization has been used to accelerate ions away from the ionization source. The recognition of this effect has given rise to thoughts about using this approach as a possible propulsion source.
While thoughts have been given to the possibility of a propulsion source, there remains a need for a system for enhancing the performance or effectiveness of an airfoil as it travels through the atmosphere.

Wing enhancement through ion entrainment of media


An interferometric fiber optic encoder readhead for sensing the displacement of a scale grating is disclosed. The detector channels of the readhead are fiber optic detector channels having respective phase grating masks. The fiber optic encoder readhead is configured to detect the displacement of interference fringes arising from the scale grating. In various exemplary embodiments, the fiber optic readhead is constructed and operably positioned according to various design relationships that insure a compact mounting and a relatively ideal sinusoidal signal as a function of displacement. Accordingly, high levels of displacement signal interpolation may be achieved, allowing sub-micrometer displacement measurements. The fiber optic encoder readhead may be assembled in a particularly accurate and economical manner and may be provided in a package with dimensions on the order of 1–2 millimeters.

Various movement or position encoders for sensing linear, rotary or angular movement are currently available. These encoders are generally based on either optical systems, magnetic scales, inductive transducers, or capacitive transducers.
For optical encoders, a number of systems have been developed. One recent system that is compact and utilizes fewer parts than most previous systems is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,909,283, to Eselun. The system described in the '283 patent has a grating scale and readhead including a point source (laser diode in readhead), a Ronchi grating or holographic element, and a photodetector array. As described, the point source results in interference fringes having a spacing equal to that of the scale. The interference fringe light is transmitted through the Ronchi grating or holographic element to the photodetector array. The photodetector array is arranged to derive four channels of quadrature signals from the transmitted fringe light. However, the resulting encoder is still of a size that is relatively large or prohibitive for a number of applications.
One very compact system utilizing optical fibers as receivers is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,733,071, to Tokunaga. The system described in the '071 patent has a code member scale, and an optical sensor head comprising an optical fiber tip light emitter and two optical fiber tip receptors closely arranged along the code member measuring axis. The optical sensor head is rotated (yawed) to adjust phase difference between the two optical fiber tip receptors. However, the accuracy of the resulting encoder is relatively crude. Another optical encoder utilizing optical fibers as receivers is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,291,976 to McMahon. The system described in the '976 patent includes optical fibers with striped ends positioned opposite relatively movable coded channel patterns, permitting the detection of motions that are comparable to the stripe width rather than the fiber diameter. However, the accuracy and resolution of the resulting encoder is still relatively crude compared to that provided by an interferometric-type encoder, and compared to that needed for a number of applications.
In various applications, it is desirable to use a so-called interferometric-type optical encoder, in order to achieve high resolution and accuracy. However, known interferometric-type optical encoders are not sufficiently compact for a number of applications, or they employ electronic detectors that limit the possible output frequency and motion speeds, or both.

Interferometric miniature grating encoder readhead using fiber optic receiver channels


An interleaved three-phase Y-Delta connected power converter is provided. The interleaved three-phase Y-Delta connected power converter includes an input voltage source, an input capacitor, a first converter module, a second converter module, an output circuit, and a control circuit. The control circuit calculates a phase shift amount and an operating frequency through voltage and current feedbacks to generate a plurality of switch signal groups for controlling the first converter module and the second converter module, respectively.

Due to the existing manufacturing errors among components, errors of magnetic components in particular are likely to be as high as 20%. Such errors lead to uneven distribution of operating currents of power converter modules connected in parallel, resulting in some of the power converter modules having to withstand higher power, and suffering from reduced overall lifespan and system reliability. Further, design conditions that exceed original specifications need to be considered in a circuit design.
Therefore, it is necessary to provide a current sharing mechanism to ensure that each of the power converter modules can evenly distribute currents. However, in the parallel control mode, output loops between the various power converter modules will affect each other, and even cause the circuits to oscillate, which fails to achieve the purpose of output regulation. Therefore, consideration of such factors must be taken into account when designing the circuit.
Therefore, achieving current sharing for multiple power converter modules connected in parallel through a design of the architecture and a control mechanism of a control circuit has become one of the important issues in the art.

Interleaved three phase Y-delta connected power converter

National Taiwan University of Science and Technology


A computing device may obtain n values of a first performance indicator of a network and n values of a second performance indicator of the network. The ith value of the first performance indicator may be based on a measurement of the first performance indicator within an ith time period, and the ith value of the second performance indicator may be based on a measurement of the second performance indicator within the ith time period. A set of aggregate weighted rank values of the first and second performance indicators may be determined. A jth entry in the set of aggregate weighted rank values may be selected, and the jth value of the first performance indicator and the jth value of the second performance indicator may be used to provision the network.

Wireless networks may provide telephony, packet data, and other services to wireless communication devices (WCDs). For example, a wireless network may include one or more wireless coverage areas through which the WCDs may obtain wireless communication services. Management of these wireless networks may involve taking measurements to determine a typical busy hour of the day, and arranging the wireless network so that it is likely to have sufficient capacity to handle the load of the typical busy hour.

Busy period determination based on weighted performance indicators


A removable guide for use in an applicator configured to be irremovably attached to an underside of a cartridge. The guide has a fin shaped bottom located rearward for guiding the applicator along creases in a garment. The guide preferably has an opening or notch at its forward most central portion to engage the tip to ensure alignment with the tip when dispensing resin from the cartridge. The top side wall portions of the guide dips down or has a lower side width than the sidewall portions nearer the tip for easier disengagement of the guide from the cartridge.

1. Field
The present invention relates to an improved removable guide for use in an applicator for dispensing resin into creases in a garment. The applicator is comprised of a tip, a resin filled cartridge, pneumatic receiver head and the removable guide. In particular the present invention relates to a removable guide as part of an applicator configured to be removably attached to an underside of a cartridge. The removable guide has a fin shaped bottom portion extending over the entire rearward portion of the removable guide for guiding the applicator along creases in a garment.
2. The Related Prior Art
Applicators provide for supplying resin in the creases of garments so that permanent creases can be provided for these garments. It is essential to provide a dispensing mechanism that can ensure for a better and a more accurate dispensing of resin in the creases and for guiding the dispensing mechanism along the creases.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,929,161 to Houlbrook discloses a cartridge for dispensing fluent materials into creases of a garment. The device of Houlbrook requires the cartridge not to be refilled. It does not provide for a removable guide for reuse with other cartridges. Further the device of Houlbrook does not have a removable mechanism to ensure that the guide can be aligned with the applicator to better ensure resin dispensing accurately into the apex of the creases of a garment.
The inventor of the present application has a pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/385,824 filed on Mar. 8, 2012 in which an applicator includes a piston driven cartridge filled with resin/adhesive preferably silicone and has a guide located behind a receiver head that is attached, preferably clipped onto the rear end of the cartridge.

Removable guide for an applicator for applying resin to creases in a garment


A method for in-situ treatment of sediment simultaneous with microbial electricity generation is provided, comprising steps of constructing a microbial fuel cell, placing the microbial fuel cell in the sediment, forming a cell circuit, and cultivating microorganisms to generate electrical power. The method overcomes shortcomings found in the prior art and uses organics in the sediment as fuels to in-situ treat the sediment with simultaneous electricity generation. A device for implementing the method is also provided, which can be expanded in different directions as needed and is easy to maintain during long-term operation. The device has many advantages including compact structure, easy operation, low cost, high output power density, significant reduction in sediment COD, no influence on water flow, and environment-friendly.

Black and odorous water and water eutrophication are common characteristics of water pollution. Long-time waste receiving has caused sediment deposition in water bodies such as rivers, pool ponds and canals. When the water quality is significantly improved or the water is disturbed, contamination constitutes in the sediment would release to the water, causing the sediment to be an inherent contamination source of the water body. Therefore, sediment management is fundamental to water quality improvement and key to solve water pollution problems. Exploration and development of sediment management techniques is imperative.
Currently, the main methods for sediment management include sediment dredging, chemical shielding and microbial remediation.
Sediment dredging mechanically removes contaminated sediment, clearing the inherent contamination source of a water body, which is the most commonly used method. However, this method is costly and includes steps of excavating, transporting, treating, disposing, and so on. Moreover, the disposal of the sediment may cause secondary pollutions such as unpleasant odor and leachate pollution.
Chemical shielding (or referred to as sediment capping) provides tremendous shielding materials upon the contaminated sediment to separate the sediment from the water body, so as to prevent nutrient contents, heavy metal elements and organic wastes in the sediment from entering into the water body. For example, CN 200710191195.2 disclosed a method for capping eutrophicated sediment in which a large amount of clay shielding materials and additives were used. These materials were subject to pretreatment including grinding, sieving, and high-temperature baking. When fed to the water body, these materials can only prevent the release of nutrient salts such as nitrogen and phosphate and algal blooms, failing to fundamentally resolve pollution problems. Contaminated sediment would still be formed over time due to the deposition and accumulation of the contaminants in the water body.
Microbial remediation in-situ degrades the contaminants in the sediment into CO2 and water or converts the sediment to non-harmful substance by utilizing naturally occurring or cultivated microorganisms. This method is not a simple separation or transfer, but in-situ elimination, of contaminants, and has advantages including low cost, easy implementation, good effect, less environmental disturbance, high safety and reliability.
Sediment of water body has a high content (2 to 45%) of organics which is the main reason of sediment anaerobic digestion and poor water quality. These three methods currently used are directed to the transfer or in-situ elimination of the contaminants in the sediment with the aim to reduce the COD therein, without considering transformation, collection and utilization of the biomass energy enriched in the sediment, resulting in waste of the energy.
In recent years, microbial fuel cell (MFC), as a new technology resulted from combination of microbiology and cell technology, is fast developing. MFC is a device that directly converts chemical energy in organics into electric energy using microorganism as catalyst, and has a dual function of power generation and waste treatment. The basic principle of MFC is summarized as follows. Organics, serving as fuels, are oxidized by microorganisms to release electrons and protons in anaerobic anode chamber. The electrons are transferred to the anode and further to the cathode through external circuits, thus a closed loop is formed and current is generated. The protons are transferred to the cathode through an ion exchange membrane, and react with oxygen to generate water.
In addition to high concentration of organic waste water, MFC can also use domestic sewage, animal manures and etc. as fuels to generate electricity. Therefore, MFC is an advanced biomass energy utilizing technique with huge development potential and is expected to become a key technique in organic waste treatment in the future. CN 200510011855.5 and CN 00810805.6 disclosed a single-chamber microbial fuel cell for treating organic waste and a dual-chamber microbial fuel cell for treating waste water and active sludge, respectively. These cells, however, are laboratory scale cells with open circuit voltage not more than 0.8 V. These documents didn't mention the expansion and enlargement of multiple cells. CN 200810029221.6, filed in the name of the assignee of the present invention, disclosed a microbial fuel cell stack which is a multi-stage series/parallel MFC cell stack sharing a common anode fuel. The provided cell stack unified the out/in of fuels, provided an increase in voltage/current, and achieved the expansion and enlargement of microbial fuel cells. However, the cell stack is still only suitable for using aqueous or slurry type organic wastes with low solid content and good flowability as fuels. The fuels are pumped to the anode chamber of the cell stack and subject to biological oxidation for power generation and elimination of COD, and then flowed out, for the purpose of both treatment and power generation.
The microbial fuel cells mentioned above, however, are not suitable for sediment treatment, because of the following reasons. First, the sediment should be pumped to the anode chamber of the MFC, which constitutes extremely large work load. Moreover, this is difficult to realize in the presence of superjacent waters, and the sediment cannot be treated in-situ. Second the sediment has a high solid content, the particulates in which are easy to cause blockage. Third, in order to achieve in-situ treatment, MFC must be immersed into the sediment such that the sediment is in contact with the anode. The cathode of conventional MFC would not expose to air if the cell is immersed in water body, the oxidation-reduction reaction thus would not happen at the cathode. These existing technical problems make the conventional MFCs not able to be directly used for sediment treatment and clean electricity generation.
No report regarding sediment treatment using microbial fuel cell technology with simultaneous electricity generation is found in the prior art.

Microbial fuel cell for in-situ treatment of sediment simultaneous with electricity generation and method of using the same

Guangdong Institute of Ecoenvironmental and Soil Sciences


A winch including a motor, a first reel holder, a second reel holder, a connecting structure used for connecting the first reel holder and the second reel holder, a rotatable reel, and a deceleration unit. The motor is connected to the first reel holder. The deceleration unit is connected to second reel holder. The winch further includes a housing, which is connected to the first reel holder. The motor is located in the housing. The housing is provided with an in-and-out structure used for an electrical connection to a power supply structure of the motor.

The Chinese patent with the publication number CN103508344A discloses a windlass, namely, a winch. The left and right sides of the winch structure are symmetrical or substantially symmetrical. In order to make it symmetrical or substantially symmetrical, the solution is to eliminate the impact of the traditional winch with respect to the outer shell of independent motor in terms of the whole shape of the winch. For this purpose, the invention has redesigned the motor and the first reel holder, dividing the motor into two parts, i.e., the motor outer shell including a motor case and the first reel holder attached to the motor housing for closing the end of the motor housing. Obviously, the first reel holder becomes part of the construction of the motor housing. In this way, it has some advantages and disadvantages. For example, significant changes should be made to the motor and the first reel holder, which obviously adds manufacturing difficulty. Moreover, many original parts cannot be used in this winch design, causing the issue of versatility of parts and components, as well as the waste of the original productivity, and thus in creasing the cost.
For making the structure symmetric, the above-mentioned invention redesigns the electrical connection between the control unit (control box) and the motor, i.e., the motor includes an armature terminal and an electric field terminal attached to the first reel holder. The control unit is electrically connected to the armature terminal and the electric field terminal of the motor through a bus bar (copper sheet). The control unit comprises a cover plate covering the bus bar to form the preferred embodiment shown in FIG. 1 of this invention disclosure. FIG. 1 is an example of an integration of each independent claim of the invention disclosure. The direct benefit of such improvement is that the design of winch shape is facilitated. In addition, the simple connection between the control unit and the motor is realized. Due to the cover plate (i.e., cover), the bus bar is not exposed. Meanwhile, this also has some disadvantages. That is, it is inconvenient to use the control unit separately. Moreover, the solution can only be achieved based on the improvements of the motor and the first reel holder of the above-mentioned invention disclosure. That is, the motor and the first reel holder should be modified at the same time. Compared to the traditional winch, significant modifications are required.


The invention is directed to a method wherein measured values are mathematically combined with stored corrective values. The measured values are determined during the form measurement on circularly-shaped, cylindrical or spherically-shaped geometric elements by a coordinate measuring apparatus. To determine these corrective values, circularly-shaped or circular-segment shaped measurement lines each having several different diameters are scanned at different speeds in several positions or planes of the coordinate measuring apparatus. The form deviations corresponding to the diameters and the speeds which are measures on the known form are stored. In addition to the variables of diameter and scanning speed, the corrective values can be parameterized in accordance with the wavelength constant of the filter used, the position in the measuring region and peripheral direction of the measurement.

To increase the precision of coordinate measuring apparatus, it has been known for some time to provide the measuring results with computed corrections. The measuring results are the coordinate measuring values which are supplied by the scales in the measurement axes of the apparatus. An overview of different corrective methods, which are utilized for this purpose, are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,594,668, incorporated herein by reference. In this patent, errors are corrected which are caused by the dynamic deformation of the structure of the apparatus because of the acceleration of the measurement sleds and the mass inertia of the moved parts. Even though the measurement errors of the apparatus are substantially reduced with the above-described corrective methods and the measurement accuracy is significantly increased, there still remain, with respect to specific tasks, residual errors which cannot simply be neglected.
For example, and because of the improved capability of individual system components, coordinate measuring apparatus are presently used increasingly also to make form measurements and to determine position features on circularly-shaped and cylindrically-shaped geometric elements. However, the unreliability of the measurement for the determination of form deviations with a coordinate measuring apparatus is still considerably greater than for conventional form measuring apparatus for circular forms, cylindrical forms and spherical forms. The reasons are essentially associated with the measuring system dynamic and the apparatus dynamic. Residual errors which can hardly be corrected or can be corrected only with considerable effort are also reasons causing the unreliability in measurements. The residual errors result from the dynamic of the displacement movements of the measurement sleds of the coordinate measuring apparatus. Errors having a maximum second order and which are caused by centrifugal force are described in the above-mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 5,594,668. In addition to these errors, errors of higher orders occur such as drag errors, vibrations of the controller which is intended to hold the measuring force constant et cetera. These errors are systematic and reproducible but cannot be described by a simple mathematical relationship. In addition, the error performance of the apparatus during its service life can change, inter alia, because of changing thermal influences, mechanical stress and wear as well as because of changes of the characteristic lines of the electronic components in the control and the drives of the apparatus such as after an exchange of such components.

Method for making coordinate measurements on a workpiece


The quality of a broadcast stream is varied responsive to changes in the utilization of forward link air interface resources. The network monitors utilization of forward link air interface resources and dynamically changes the forward link air interface resources dedicated to the broadcast stream responsive to changes in the utilization of forward link air interface resources. The quality of the broadcast stream is scaled to the allocated forward link resources. The broadcast stream may include a layered content and scaling can be achieved by varying the number of layers transmitted over the air interface. The network may notify mobile stations in advance when changes in the quality of the broadcast will take place. When the broadcast stream originates with a mobile station, the forward link air interface resources may be limited by the quality of the broadcast stream transmitted over a reverse link channel from the originating mobile station.

With the introduction of third generation (3G) wireless communication networks, delivery of video services to mobile subscribers is now possible. Video has proven to be an effective medium for entertainment and education, and communications. Video services delivered over wireless communications networks will greatly enrich the communications capabilities of mobile subscribers, and will open up new market opportunities for content providers. Multimedia and video streaming services will allow content providers to deliver video to mobile subscribers wherever they happen to be. For example, a mobile subscriber waiting in an airport lobby for a flight will be able to receive live broadcasts of programming such as sporting events, news, or other programs, rather than simply get updates via text-based services. Additionally, mobile subscribers will have access to video on demand (VOD) programming. Videoconferencing is another service that will enhance the communications capabilities of mobile subscribers.
Because transmission of video consumes significant air interface capacity, contention for the available air interface resources between voice users and multimedia users is likely to occur during peak periods. Service providers need some flexibility in balancing the needs of voice users and multimedia users. One solution is to simply allocate a fixed amount of air interface resources for voice and multimedia users respectively. However, fixed allocations of resources are inefficient from a spectrum utilization standpoint. If the number of voice users is small, resources allocated to the voice users will be underutilized. Increases in system capacity can be achieved by dynamically allocating unused resources to multimedia users when the number of voice users is small. Problems may still arise when the aggregate demands of the voice and multimedia users exceed the available resources for providing such services. During periods of network congestion, admission control algorithms will block some users from receiving service. Service providers may charge some users an extra fee to have preferential access during peak periods. However, there will always be some users who are dissatisfied.

Scalable quality broadcast service in a mobile wireless communication network


A seat belt retractor has a rotating spool for retraction or pay-out of seat belt webbing. A locking ring is attached to one end of the spool. The locking ring is locked against rotation when a crash is sensed. A force limiting means allows further pay-out of the seat belt webbing after the locking ring has locked. Coupled in the force path between the spool and the locking ring, the force limiting means has a primary force limiting means; and a secondary force limiting means. The force limiting means include an elongate deformable member, arranged such that relative rotation between the spool and the locking ring causes a predetermined length of the deformable member to be deformed during a first stage of load limiting. The cross-sectional area of the deformable member is uniform over a major portion of the predetermined length and is reduced over at least one minor portion located a distance from the end of the member.

A conventional seat belt retractor has a generally cylindrical spool on which seat belt webbing is wound. The spool is mounted to be rotatable about its longitudinal axis to wind in or pay out seat belt webbing, depending upon the direction of rotation. The spool is biased in the wind-in direction by a clock spring so that the seat belt maintains a relatively low level force on the vehicle occupant tending to pull him back into the vehicle seat in a comfortable manner but allowing him to move forward, for example to adjust a vehicle radio or access a storage compartment in the vehicle. A vehicle crash activates a crash sensor that locks the spool against rotation to prevent forward motion of the vehicle occupant.
Modern seat belts employ a load limiting function because it was found that sudden locking of the seat belt retractor, especially in a high speed vehicle crash, could exert excessive force to the vehicle occupant. To reduce this phenomenon modern seat belt retractors allow some controlled payout of the belt webbing before locking fully.
One known load limiting device, especially effective during the initial moments of a crash, functions by interposing a plastically or elastically deformable member in the force path. For example, a torsion bar may be incorporated into the retractor spool. A torsion bar is made of steel that twists about its own axis when high torque is applied and can rotate up to 7 or 8 times while still remaining intact to reduce the crash forces felt by the vehicle occupant.
To provide load limiting that more closely matches the varying forces exerted on the vehicle occupant during a crash, especially the higher forces during the initial moments of the crash, a two-stage load limiting seat belt retractor can be used. These so-called digressive load limiting seat belt retractors create a higher level of load limiting for a predetermined time or distance. During the initial stages of a crash a first stage of load limiting involves both the torsion bar twisting and an additional load limiting device, for example a wire being either bent or twisted or pulled out of a housing in the spool, to absorb the crash forces. When the wire is fully bent, twisted or extended (depending on the mechanism employed) then a second stage of load limiting, at a lower level, involves only the torsion bar.
However, distortion of a wire element in known seat belt retractors has been found to provide a non-uniform load limiting effect. An increase in load occurs for a short time during the initial bending of the wire element and also during the transition from the first stage to the second stage of load limiting. The present invention provides a seat belt retractor that can deliver a more constant level of load limiting.


An aromatic substituted glycoside is disclosed of the formula ##STR1## wherein the configuration of the substituted --OR on the anomeric carbon is alpha, n is an integer of 0 or 1, and R is a substituted aromatic radical selected from the group ##STR2## where R.sub.1 through R.sub.6 are independently halogen, NO.sub.2, SO.sub.3 H, COR.sub.7, ##STR3## where R.sub.7 is lower alkyl; and includes its stereoisomers, optical isomers and geometric isomers and mixtures of the foregoing isomers. These substrates are useful as direct substrates for alpha-amylases. A process for the preparation of the substrates and related substances is also described.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an aromatic substituted glycoside, and more particularly to such a glydoside which serves as a substrate for the direct determination of alpha-amylase. The present invention also relates to an improved method for the synthesis of the substrates as well as related glycosides.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
One of the most widely studied and accepted procedures in clinical chemistry is the determination of serum and urine alpha-amylase which is used for the diagnosis of pancreatic disease.
During the past twenty-five years various amylase methods have been developed for use in the clinical laboratory. Some of the methods, i.e. saccharogenic method, involve complicated methodology which makes their routine use prohibitive. Other methods, i.e., turbidometric and viscosimetric methods for the determination of alpha-amylase activity, are dependent on changes in the physical properties of the substrate which may be influenced to a considerable degree by other factors present in the serum. Today, one of the most widely used methods for alpha-amylase determination is the starch-iodine method. With this method only a specific portion of the substrate is measured and the enzyme does not work under substrate saturation conditions. Further, the presence of serum proteins could interfere with the starch-iodine reaction.
In addition to the above difficulties associated with the mentioned methods, a further difficulty is encountered because the aforementioned methods can be used to determine a rather limited range of alpha-amylase activity. Also, some of the methods cannot be used for accurate determination of either sub-normal or highly elevated alpha-amylase levels.
Synthetic substrates comprising nitro aromatic glycosides have been employed in alpha-amylase determinations, such as reported in U.S. Pat. No. 4,145,527. The alpha-amylase acts preferentially on the endo bonds to form smaller fragments and therefore in order to get complete action to generate the chromophore, e.g. nitrophenol, an additional supporting enzyme must be employed.
The use of aromatic glycosides directly without the use of an additional supporting enzyme has been reported but the results achieved therewith have proved to be impractical because of poor kinetics and/or poor rate of color release.
The assay involving a synthetic substrate is reported (Nature, 182 (1958) 525-526) in which a p-nitrophenol derivative of maltose is used. The p-nitrophenol replaces the anomeric hydroxyl group of maltose. Amylase causes cleavage of the substrate to produce p-nitrophenol which can be monitored at 410 nm. However, the assay is 16 hours long and maltase also cleaves the substrate. In this regard, Wallenfels, et al. , Carbohydrate Research, 61, 359 (1978), also reported the use of 4-(p)-nitrophenyl-alpha-maltotriose as a direct assay substrate for pancreatic alpha-amylase. In addition, Wallenfels, et al, Fresenius Z. Anal. Chem., 301, 169 (1980) , also reported the use of 2-(o)-nitrophenyl-alpha-maltotrioside. However these substrates also have proven impractical for use in a clinical assay for the reasons stated above. Wallenfels, et al. , supra 61, 359 (1978) also described the synthesis of a homologous mixture of p-nitrophenyl-alpha-maltooligosaccharides by enzymatic conversion employing alpha-cyclodextrtn as the glucosyl donor, p-nitrophenyl-alpha-glucoside as the glucosyl acceptor and Klebsiella pneumoniae cycloglucanotransferase as the enzymatic agent. Similarly, L. M. Hall, U.S. Pat. No. 4,225,672, reports the preparation of aromatic substituted-alpha-maltooligo-saccharides using cycloglucanotransferases from Bacillus strains. These methods yield mixtures of maltosides having typically 2 to 14 , and at times more, glucose units in the polymeric chain, and thus require laborious separation techniques to obtain the desired maltosides and maltotriosides, generally in poor yield. To reduce the complexity of the mixture of maltooligosaccharides to one containing primarily lower maltooligosaccharide, such as, alpha-maltosides, maltotriside, and maltotetraosides, trimming enzymes of the phosphorylase class affecting the non-reducing termini of the polymers having multiple glucose units, i.e., those having, for example, five or more such units, have been employed (see, for example, Wallenfels, et al., Offenlegungsschrift 2 752 501). It has now been found that it is more efficient and cost effective, to trim the higher maltosides with enzymes of the amylase class to reduce the number of compounds of the cycloglucanotransferase mixture to a manageable level and thereby facilitate separation of the desired lower maltooligosaccharides, particularly to the nitrophenyl- and chloronitrophenylmaltoside and maltotrioside.
The substrates and methods according to the present invention are distinguished from the known prior art by the combination that (1) additional supporting enzymes are not required to do the alpha-amylase analysis since the inventive substrates are acted upon by the alpha-amylase to directly cleave the substrate to generate the desired chromophore group; and (2) the kinetics are favorable, providing a useful rate of color release.
For example it has been found that 2-chloro-4-nitrophenyl-alpha-maltotrioside of the instant invention is hydrolyzed ten times faster than the prior art substrate, 4-nitrophenyl-alpha-maltotrioside under the optimum conditions for amylase assay. In addition, it has been found that the chromogens of the instant invention have improved spectral properties over monosubstituted nitrophenols in terms of higher molar extinction coefficients at the optimum pH for amylase assay. It has also been found that hydrazoic acid and alkali metal and alkaline earth salts thereof increase the rate of hydrolysis of the present maltooligosaccharides by alpha-amylase without effecting the molar extinction of the principal chromophore of the chromogenic moiety. Thus, sodium azide and lithium azide activate alpha-amylase and promote the enzyme induced hydrolysis of pancreatic and salivary alpha-amylase. Furthermore, the method of the present invention is simpler and more accurate than the methods of the prior art.


A block management and replacement method for a flash memory is provided. The method includes grouping physical blocks of the flash memory into physical units and dividing the physical units as a usage area and a replacement area, wherein the physical blocks grouped into the same physical unit are accessed by using a multi-planes accessing command. The method also includes when one of the physical block of the physical unit in the usage area is damaged, replacing the physical unit having the damaged physical block with one physical unit selected from the replacement area and recording the undamaged physical block within the replaced physical unit if there is an applicable physical unit in the replacement area; and replacing the damaged physical block with one physical block selected from the replacement area if there is no applicable physical unit but an undamaged physical block in the replacement area.

1. Technology Field
The present invention relates to a block management and replacement method for a flash memory, and a flash memory storage system and a controller using the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a block management and replacement method for a flash memory chip having multi block planes, and a flash memory storage system and a controller using the same.
2. Description of Related Art
With a quick developing of digital camera, cell phone camera and MP3, demand of storage media by customers is increased greatly. Since a flash memory has the advantages of non-volatile, energy saving, small size and none mechanical structure etc., it is suitable for portable applications, and especially for portable battery-powered products. A solid state drive is a storage device applying an NAND flash memory as a storage medium thereof.
Generally, a flash memory die within a flash memory chip of the flash memory storage system is divided into a plurality of physical units, and the physical units are generally consisted of a physical block or a plurality of physical blocks. The physical units are generally grouped into a data area and a spare area. The physical units grouped in the data area can store valid data written according to a writing command, and the physical units grouped in the spare area are used for replacing the physical units of the data area during execution of the writing command. To be specific, when the flash memory storage system receives the writing command from a host to perform writing to the physical units of the data area, the flash memory storage system selects the physical units from the spare area, and writes old valid data stored in the physical units to be updated within the data area and new data to be written into the physical units selected from the spare area, and then associates the physical units written with the new data to the data area, and erases the original physical units of the data area and associates it to the spare area. For the host to smoothly access the physical units storing data in an alternate approach, logical units are configured to the flash memory storage system for being provided to the host to access, wherein the logical units are configured in a size of one or a plurality of physical blocks according to the physical units. Namely, the flash memory storage system can establish a logical-physical address mapping table, in which a mapping relation of the logical units and the physical units of the data area are recorded and updated for reflecting alternation of the physical units, so that the host can only perform the accessing based on the provided logical units, and accordingly the flash memory storage system can read data from or write data into the mapped physical units according to the logical-physical address mapping table.
Moreover, a part of the physical units is maintained in a general flash memory chip to serve as a replacement area, which is used for replacing damaged physical units when the physical units of the data area or the spare area are damaged. Particularly, to improve an accessing speed of the flash memory chip having multi block planes, the physical unit formed by a plurality of physical blocks that is belonged to different block planes and suitable for executing multi-planes accessing commands is generally used for performing the accessing. In this case, if one of the physical block in the physical unit is damaged, the flash memory storage system can replace the physical unit having the damaged physical block in a unit of a whole physical unit, so that data accessing thereof can still be performed according to the multi-planes accessing mode. Such a replacement operation can be executed until there is no available physical unit can be used for replacing the damaged physical unit, and now the flash memory storage system is regarded as useless and cannot be used any more.
However, the replaced damaged physical unit actually still has undamaged physical blocks, so that the aforementioned block management and replacement method can cause a waste of storage space of the flash memory storage system, and accordingly lifespan of the flash memory storage system is shortened.

Block management and replacement method, flash memory storage system and controller using the same


A conveyor system having a plurality of conveyor modules which are secured together in an end-to-end relationship. Each conveyor module includes a frame and a plurality of drive rollers rotatably mounted along one side of the frame, and a motor mounted to the frame is drivingly connected to the drive rollers. A first upper guide is also mounted to the frame at a position spaced upwardly from the drive rollers. At least one work support includes a lower rail supported by the drive rollers and an upper follower slidably positioned within the upper guide.

I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to conveyors and, more particularly, to a modular accumulating conveyor system.
II. Description of Related Art
There are many previously known accumulating conveyor systems of the type used in industrial manufacturing facilities. Such conveyor systems used in industrial manufacturing facilities are employed to move workpieces sequentially between workstations. Additionally, a manufacturing or assembly operation of some sort is typically performed at each workstation.
The previously known industrial accumulating conveyor systems have typically been custom designed and manufactured in accordance with the customer specifications for a particular conveyor system. The custom design, manufacture and installation of these previously known industrial conveyors, however, resulted in several disadvantages.
A primary disadvantage of these previously known custom accumulating conveyor systems is that such conveyor systems were necessarily expensive to design and construct. This additional cost of the conveyor system is attributable to the engineering and labor costs associated with the customized design of each individual conveyor system.
A still further disadvantage of these previously known custom accumulating conveyor systems is that, since each accumulating conveyor system was unique and different from the other, the repair and maintenance of the conveyor systems was relatively high, even if having some standard common parts.
A still further disadvantage of these previously known custom industrial conveyor systems is that it was difficult, if not altogether impossible, to modify the conveyor system for a different industrial application, requiring by example a different work altitude or simply more operator workstations. As a result, it was often necessary to simply scrap the entire conveyor system and install a brand new conveyor system when a change in the application for the conveyor system occurred.
A still further disadvantage of these previously known industrial conveyor systems is that many such systems utilize an overhanging conveyor to move the part along the conveyor system. As such, it was difficult ergonomically for assemblers along the conveyor system to access all sides of the part being conveyed.
A still further disadvantage of these previously known industrial conveyors is that all of the wiring, piping and fluid lines necessary for the operation of the conveyor were typically mounted to the exterior of the frame. As such, these various components of the overall conveyor system presented an aesthetically unappealing appearance for the overall conveyor system.


A microelectromechanical system (MEMS) microphone has a substrate including a backside trench, and a flexible membrane deposited on the substrate extending over the backside trench. The flexible membrane includes a first electrode. A silicon spacer layer is deposited on a perimeter portion of the flexible membrane. The spacer layer defines an acoustic chamber above the membrane and the backside trench. A silicon rich silicon nitride (SiN) backplate layer is deposited on top of the silicon spacer layer extending over the acoustic chamber. The backplate defines a plurality of opening into the acoustic chamber and includes a metallization that serves as a second electrode.

Consumer electronics devices are continually getting smaller and, with advances in technology, are gaining ever increasing performance and functionality. This is clearly evident in the technology used in consumer electronic products such as mobile phones, laptop computers, MP3 players and personal digital assistants (PDAs). Requirements of the mobile phone industry for example, are driving the components to become smaller with higher functionality and reduced cost. It is therefore desirable to integrate functions of electronic circuits together and combine them with transducer devices such as microphones and speakers.
The result of this is the emergence of micro-electrical-mechanical-systems (MEMS) based transducer devices. These may be for example, capacitive transducers for detecting and/or generating pressure/sound waves or transducers for detecting acceleration. There is a continual drive to reduce the size and cost of these devices through integration with the electronic circuitry necessary to operate and process the information from the MEMS through the removal of the transducer-electronic interfaces. One of the challenges in reaching these goals is the difficulty of achieving compatibility with standard processes used to fabricate complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) electronic devices during manufacture of MEMS devices. This is required to allow integration of MEMS devices directly with conventional electronics using the same materials and processing machinery. This invention seeks to address this area.

MEMS acoustic transducer with silicon nitride backplate and silicon sacrificial layer


The sound attenuating device of the present invention is a bulk layer connected to a support member which forms a plurality of Helmholtz resonators. This invention is particularly useful in a vehicle where the bulk layer attenuates high frequency noise, i.e. above about 1000 Hz, while the resonators can be tuned across the device to absorb at different lower frequencies in different areas of the device.

Headliners have been used in numerous passenger enclosures, such as passenger vehicles, in order to attenuate sound within the vehicle and to prevent transmission of sound through the roof thereof. Conventionally, headliners were either single or multi-layered structures of a fibrous or foam material having an outside layer visible in the cabin, typically of cloth or soft material, and a backing layer of a relatively strong, reinforced paper or plastic material, which could be adhered to the roof of the cabin.
Due to economics and environmental restrictions on vehicle manufacturers, headliner manufacturers are constantly under pressures to reduce headliner weight while improving the recyclability and strength of the headliners. Wholly recyclable headliners improve the environmental compatibility of the vehicle, reduced weight headliners reduce the operating expense of the vehicle by improving the gas mileage thereof, while improved strength headliners reduce the cost of the vehicle by allowing the accessories such as dome lights, visors, mirrors and the like, to be installed directly into the headliners.
In addition to economics and environmental restrictions effecting the manufacture of headliners, vehicle customer demands with relation to noise control also significantly affect the design thereof. Vehicle manufacturers need the ability to control different frequency noises within different portions of the cabin in order to meet customer demands. Therefore, what is needed in the art is a tunable, recyclable, acoustical panel or headliner for use in automobiles and other vehicles.


A cane seat assembly adapted to be mounted on a cane used to provide support to a user. The cane seat assembly includes a seat adapted to provide a surface to support the user in a sitting position. The cane seat assembly includes a bracket assembly adapted to mounted to the cane. The bracket assembly is configured to receive and support said seat.

The present invention generally relates to portable seats. More specifically, the present invention relates to portable seats that attach to canes used while walking by a user.
Disabled people forced to use canes to aid in walking are faced with obstacles on a daily basis that most of us take for granted. Simple travel from place to place becomes a major undertaking that requires considerable effort. Fortunately, the public is becoming increasingly aware of the difficulties that these people face and are responding in a positive manner. Unfortunately, however, there are many aspects in which our society has failed to respond thus far in addressing this issue. Access for the disabled doesn't just mean being able to get inside the door, it means being able to do so with a relative amount of comfort. A prime example of this situation is that many times waiting in lines is involved. These lines can be found in grocery stores, banks, license bureaus, and the like where there are no seating areas provided in lines. Additionally, the wait may be from a few minutes to thirty minutes or more, which is extremely uncomfortable, if not impossible, for many disabled people. Accordingly, there is a need for a means by which disabled people can have access to seating areas while waiting in lines with greater ease and efficiency. Prior art combined canes and seats have failed to provide an adequate solution as they are big and bulky and do not position the seat in relation to the cane shaft to provide proper support, especially for heavier users
It is an object of the present invention to provide a compact portable seat that attaches to a cane which provides proper support for the user.