An electronic system that may include an electronic card sub-module that is electrically connected to, and in fluid communication with, an electronic card module. The electronic card module can be mated with a motherboard and coupled to a manifold of a cooling system that provides a cooling fluid to the modules. The cooling fluid can flow directly onto integrated circuits or integrated circuit packages located within the modules. Each module may have an electrical connector and a fluid connector that allows the sub-module to be plugged into the module, and the module to be plugged into the motherboard and manifold without using any tools or hardware.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic assembly which has an electronic card module and an electronic card sub-module that are coupled to a cooling system that provides a cooling fluid to the modules.
2. Background Information
Integrated circuits are typically assembled into packages that are soldered to a printed circuit board. The printed circuit board may be the substrate of an electronic card that is plugged into a mating connector of a motherboard.
During operation the integrated circuit generates heat. The heat must be removed to insure that the junction temperatures of the circuit do not exceed an undesirable value. Some electronic cards incorporate heat slugs and heat sinks to facilitate the removal of heat from the circuit. The heat may flow into the ambient air from the heat slug/sink by forced or natural convection.
Integrated circuits such as microprocessors may generate heat that cannot be effectively removed with conventional heat sink/convection cooling systems. There have been developed electronic systems which incorporate heat pipes that transfer heat away from the integrated circuit. Heat pipes also have thermal limitations and are more expensive than conventional heat sinks.
There has also been developed electronic systems which incorporate a nozzle that sprays a coolant directly onto the integrated circuit or integrated circuit packages. These systems typically require plumbing hardware to couple the nozzle to a cooling system which contains a compressor/pump and a heat exchanger.
It is sometimes desirable to replace the electronic cards of a system. Direct cooled electronic systems are typically constructed so that the plumbing hardware must be disassembled before the card can be detached from the system. Disassembly may require tools to detach fittings, seals, etc. It would be desirable to provide a direct cooled system that would allow an electronic card to be connected and detached from the system without having to use tools or assemble hardware. Additionally, it would also be desirable to detach an individual package or integrated circuit from the electronic card in a direct cooled system without the use of tools or hardware.

Spray cooled module with removable spray cooled sub-module


A display device for a bicycle includes a memory for storing a plurality of tire circumference values and a plurality of tire designation values; display means for displaying information, wherein the display means includes tire designation display means for displaying tire designation information corresponding to the plurality of tire designation values; control means for controlling the information displayed on the display means; and input means for inputting commands to the control means. The display means may include tire circumference display means for displaying tire circumference information corresponding to the plurality of tire circumference values simultaneously with the tire designation information displayed by the tire designation display means. The display may further include correction storing means for storing a plurality of correction values and correction display means for displaying a plurality of correction information corresponding to the plurality of correction values. In this case the control means includes means for selecting one of the plurality of the correction information displayed by the display means so that the correction information may be used to adjust the value of a selected tire circumference.

The present invention is directed to a bicycle display device that displays various types of data such as the bicycle velocity and distance traveled, wherein the tire circumference can be simply, accurately, and reliably input.
Display devices for displaying various types of bicycle-related data, such as the bicycle velocity, distance traveled, and shift position of the shifter, are commonly mounted on bicycles. Of such data, the bicycle velocity and the distance traveled are important. Because a sensor monitors the wheel rotation, knowledge of the tire circumference is essential for displaying the bicycle velocity and the distance traveled. Thus, when a display device is attached to a bicycle, the circumference of the bicycle tires must be set up in the display device as an initial setting. Methods for establishing the tire circumference include inputting the tire outside diameter to calculate the nominal value for the tire circumference based on the outside diameter, or measuring the tire outer periphery and directly inputting the actual measured value.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to cover all types of operating conditions of the tire when calculating the nominal value for the circumference of the tire by inputting the outside diameter of the tire. For example, when the rider is mounted on the bicycle, the tire circumference deviates from the nominal value depending on the tire air pressure, the body weight of the rider, and the type of tire. That is because the tire is deformed by the body weight of the rider, and the extent of deformation is related to a variety of parameters, such as the tire outside diameter, width, structure, and type of rubber, thus making it impossible to ensure accurate measurement of the extent of deformation using just the outside diameter of the tire. The tire circumference thus cannot be accurately set merely by inputting the outside diameter of the tire.
When the tire circumference is measured while the rider is mounted on the bicycle, the accurate measurement of the tire circumference is complicated and cannot be readily managed by the rider. Differences in the set values also occur, despite deliberate attempts to make accurate measurements, because of deviation in the tire air pressure from that at the time of measurement, differences in the body weight of riders, and so forth.

Bicycle display device which displays tire information


A memory chip includes a chip input-output pad unit, a plurality of semiconductor dies. The chip input-output pad unit includes a plurality of input-output pins connected to an external device and the plurality of semiconductor dies are connected commonly to the chip input-output pad unit and having a full memory capacity respectively. Each semiconductor die includes a die input-output pad unit, a memory region and a conversion block. The die input-output pad unit includes a plurality of input-output terminals respectively connected to the input-output pins of the chip input-output pad unit. The memory region includes an activated region corresponding to a portion of the full memory capacity and a deactivated region corresponding to a remainder portion of the full memory capacity. The conversion block connects the activated region except the deactivated region to the die input-output pad unit.

The present disclosure relates generally to semiconductor integrated circuits, and more particularly to an address-remapped memory chip, a memory module and a memory system including the memory chip.
A memory device may not perform its function and may need to be discarded as a failed device if even one memory cell is defective. In general, the memory device may include redundant memory cells to replace the defective or failed cells. A repair operation may be performed to replace the failed memory cells with redundant memory cells and thus to enhance yield of memory devices.
The number of the redundant memory cells is typically limited because the redundant memory cells lower integration degree of the memory device. In general, if the number of the failed memory cells exceeds the number of redundant memory cells, the entire memory device has to be discarded even though the number of the normally-operating memory cells is considerable and thus productivity is limited.

Address-remapped memory chip, memory module and memory system including the same


An electrical housing has a first member and a second member that can be locked and unlocked with a cover lock. The cover lock itself can include a male member disposed on one of the members, and a female member disposed on the other of the members for mating with the male member. A rib can also be provided on either the first or second member to help mate the male member with the female member.

Electrical housings, such as protectors or wire channels, can be used to internally route and protect electrical wires and like components. These housings are commonly used in vehicles like automobiles. The electrical housings are ordinarily fitted with separate covers and cover locks that secure the covers on housing bodies. Some cover lock designs can be easily damaged when unlocked.


An IC package for mounting to a surface of a device board includes a first IC having a first surface supporting a first plurality of conductive leads extending orthogonally from the first surface, a second IC having a second surface supporting a second plurality of conductive leads extending orthogonally from the second surface, the first and second ICs spaced apart in parallel with the first and second surfaces facing, and an interposer trace board parallel to the first and second ICs and positioned between the first and second ICs, the trace board having conducting metal traces on a non-conductive sheet material, the traces accessible from both sides of the trace board, being exposed at selected regions through the non-conductive sheet. The package is characterized in that the conductive traces contact individual ones of the first and second pluralities of conductive leads, providing conductive signal paths from the first and second ICs between the ICs and leading to edges of the IC package.

The field of integrated circuit interconnection and packaging is one of the most rapidly evolving technologies associated with semiconductor manufacturing. As demand for devices that are smaller and more powerful continues to increase, pressure is put on manufacturers to develop better and more efficient ways to assemble and package IC products. Much work in this field has been focused on peripheral memory-chip packages with wire bond chip-to-package interconnects, and mounting and connecting such devices onto PCB modules in such a way that storage capacity and function speed of the memory module is increased while vertical height and footprint of mounted devices is kept to a minimum. Such memory devices often utilize devices with Thin Small Outline Package (TSOP) pin configurations, utilizing various well known chip-flipping and stacking technologies. Recent solutions utilizing chip-size package (CSP) devices have incorporated surface mount area solder ball technology such as Ball Grid Array (BGA) and other wafer-level packaging schemes known to the inventor. Such solder ball interconnection methods eliminate the need for outer-edge pad arrangements such as those used for typical TSOP memory chips, for example, and strengthen and protect the connection leads from damage during handling which can hinder or eliminate signal propagation. Also, connection leads can be fanned out in an area array in much greater numbers, increasing available I/O leads, utilizing an otherwise unused area under the chip. Many other clear and important advantages over other mainstream interconnect technologies such as Fine-Pitch-Technology (FTP), and Pin-Grid-Array (PGA), driving much of the focus in development in such CSP area-array interconnect schemes.
In enhanced CSP technology such as described above, wafers or substrates are typically protected with a non-conductive material such as a polyamide layer, for example. The die pads are exposed through the protective layer by means of chemical etching, or by other known methods. The protective layer is intended to protect the circuits from contaminants and damage. One problem with prior-art protective wafer-level coatings such as described is that such coatings are ultra-thin and do not offer much mechanical protection to the die pads themselves, nor to the connection points between solder balls in the die pads.
There are several enhancements known to the inventor for techniques utilized in wafer-level packaging for CSP devices of BGA technology. In one of these enhancements, a process involving application of an additional protective polymer coating is applied at wafer level to the connection side of the wafer. The process is taught in the patent application Ser. No. 09/609,626, entitled "Method and Apparatus for Applying a Protective Over-coating to a Ball-Grid-Array (BGA) Structure", which is referenced above as a priority document.
A method and apparatus in the above-referenced patent application comprises an upper plate having at least one injection port forming the upper chamber wall, and a lower plate having at least one vacuum port forming the lower chamber wall of the vacuum-application and coating apparatus when assembled. A compliant layer of material is provided on the chamber-side surface of the upper plate and a sealing mechanism for enabling a vacuum seal is also provided. At least one assembly to be coated is placed on the chamber surface of the lower plate during assembly of the vacuum-application and coating apparatus, which forms a vacuum chamber. The ball-grid-array assemblies held in the chamber are protected from receiving any coating on the upper portions of connected solder balls during processing by virtue of intimate contact between the solder balls and the compliant layer of material.
The above-described process provides protection for die-pads and solder connections of BGA-type ICs. The inventor also has knowledge of methods for building or extending contact surfaces of a BGA assembly to the surface of the package through protective coatings and then back grinding the assembly in order to reduce weight and thermal mass of the chip package. One such method is photoresist polymerization where solder columns are formed prior to application of the photosensitive polymer coating.
The process of chip stacking, as described earlier for TSOP memory chips, is an emerging technology involving integration of two, or possibly more, chip devices together on a single board. Chip stacking can greatly increase the memory capacity of a memory module, for example, without unduly increasing the footprint of the device. Types of stacked chip packages include Chip Scale Packages (CSP), True Chip Size Packages (TCSP) and True Die Size Packages (TDSP). TCSP and TDSP packages include devices such as Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), flash memory as well as many others, typically employed in products such as hand-held computers and other small electronic devices for communications, and elsewhere where density and low profile is of importance. Assembling CSP devices using BGA technology already allows for a smaller form factor for ICs than is available in competing technologies such as wire bond methods, and by utilizing chip stacking techniques in this technology substantial increases in price-performance and capacity and reliability may be realized. The contributions described above with respect to mentioned processes known to the inventor provide considerable strengthening and improved signal propagation than do known prior-art methods.
In general manufacturing of memory-type devices, it is desirable to increase memory capacity of the device while minimizing the bulk and footprint of the memory module of the host device. Modules built with wire bond techniques are very difficult to economically increase capacity in such a manner. It is known that CSP/BGA devices provide smaller form factor than other mainstream technologies. It has occurred to the inventors that it would be desirable to stack chips on a single board so as to multiply the memory power available to the resulting module of equivalent prior-art modules. However, a method and apparatus must be conceived in order to provide economical assembly and packaging while keeping the overall size profile of the memory packages small. It is to this goal that the methods and apparatus of the present invention more particularly pertain.
What is therefore clearly needed is a method and apparatus for enabling a chip integration technique to be applied to device boards wherein memory, and in some cases, other functional ICs may be integrated and added to a device board without requiring larger X, Y (footprint) or, in many cases Z dimension increases in existing form-factors. Such a method and apparatus would allow devices to be manufactured or retrofitted with a multiple of added memory devices without utilizing more physical space.

Method and apparatus for memory module circuit interconnection


The invention relates to an adjustment device (30) for a rotating body (10; 21; 22), in particular a fan (10) of a cooling fan for a combustion engine, or a shaft (21) or a rotor (22) of an electric motor (20), comprising a rotation axis (R), wherein a mass (311; 10; 11; 14) that rotates around the rotation axis (R) can be dislocated relative to the rotation axis (R) by means of the adjustment device (30). The invention further relates to a rotating body (10; 22), in particular a fan (10) of a cooler blower for a combustion engine, or a shaft (21) or a rotor (22) of an electric motor (20), comprising an adjustment device (30) according to the invention.

The invention relates to an adjusting device for a rotary body, in particular for a fan of a cooling blower of an internal combustion engine, or a shaft or a rotor of an electric motor. The invention also relates to a rotary body, in particular a fan, a shaft or a rotor.
Dynamic imbalances arise when an axis of rotation of a component or rotary body no longer coincides with one of the stable main axes of inertia of the component. It is prior art for fans for cooling an internal combustion engine and other rotating components, such as for example motor armatures, drivers and rotors, to be geometrically designed so as to generate the least possible dynamic imbalance while adhering to specified dimensions. Real component geometries however exhibit dimensional and position errors with respect to an ideal, tolerance-free model, with the result that there is always a dynamic imbalance. To limit the maximum dynamic imbalance, components of cooling blowers must be produced with low dimensional and position tolerances. Furthermore, effects of the dynamic imbalance are often limited by means of cumbersome damping and/or decoupling measures.
A present complaint is high dynamic imbalances of cooling fans in motor vehicles, because these incite mechanical vibrations and can thereby cause noises, steering wheel vibration or possibly even rapid bearing wear in the blower motors. Said problem is intensified with increasing blower dimensions, in particular fan diameter, and noise sensitivity. Furthermore, there is an emerging trend in the automobile industry, motivated by the problem of minimizing CO2, for the weight reduction of vehicles to be expedited and for increasing use to be made of highly rigid, lightweight front ends and body fixtures without decoupling elements, damping elements or absorber masses. As a result, the transmission behavior of the mechanical vibrations (forces) caused by the dynamic imbalance into a passenger compartment is adversely affected; the described problem is intensified. Previous specifications provide dynamic imbalance limits which are still practicable, and which presently lie at a maximum of 25,000 g·mm2. Dynamic imbalance limits of a maximum of 1,500 to 2,000 g·mm2 will however be demanded in future. With the design concepts and production methods known today, such demands can no longer be expediently met in an economical manner, because either very high scrap rates are to be expected or the fans become too expensive.

Adjustment device for a rotating body and rotating body


A reconfigurable integrated circuit device which converts an arbitrary calculation state dynamically, based on configuration data, includes a plurality of processor elements, each of which has an input terminal, an output terminal, a plurality of arithmetic units which are provided in parallel and each of which performs calculation processing in synchronous with a clock signal, and an intra-processor network which connects them in an arbitrary state; and an inter-processor network which connects between processor elements in an arbitrary state. Based on configuration data, the intra-processor network is reconfigurable to a desired connection state, and further, based on the configuration data, the inter-processor network is reconfigurable to a desired connection state.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a reconfigurable integrated circuit device, and more particularly, relates to a novel structure for a processor element provided within a reconfigurable integrated circuit device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A reconfigurable integrated circuit device comprises a plurality of processor elements and a network which connects between these processor elements. And, as a response to an external or an internal event, a sequencer supplies configuration data to the processor elements and the network, and the processor and the network are set up into any desired calculation state, according to the configuration data.
A traditional prior art type programmable microprocessor reads out commands stored in a memory in order and processes them sequentially. With this type of microprocessor, there is a fixed limit to the processing capability, since the commands which can be executed simultaneously by a single microprocessor are limited in number.
On the other hand, in a dynamically reconfigurable integrated circuit device such as those proposed in recent years, there are provided in advance a plurality of processor elements which comprise combinations of logical arithmetic units (ALUs) which are endowed with the functions of adders, multipliers, comparators and the like, delay circuits, counters and so on; and, furthermore, a network is provided which connects between these processor elements. This plurality of processor elements and network are reconfigured to any desired structure by configuration data from a state transition control unit which includes a sequencer, and performs predetermined calculations in this calculation state. When the data processing in one calculation state has been completed, another calculation state is configured with a different set of configuration data, and different data processing is performed in this state.
By being reconfigured dynamically into different calculation states in this manner, the data processing capability with respect to large volumes of data is enhanced, and thus it is possible to enhance the overall processing efficiency. Such a reconfigurable integrated circuit device is, for example, described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication 2001-312481.

Enhanced processor element structure in a reconfigurable integrated circuit device


A replacement metal gate transistor is formed with high quality gate dielectric under the high-k dielectric. The high quality gate dielectric is formed on the substrate at a temperature of at least 850° C. A sacrificial gate dielectric is formed on the high quality gate dielectric and a polysilicon replacement gate is formed on the sacrificial gate dielectric. The polysilicon replacement gate is removed leaving a gate trench. The sacrificial gate dielectric is removed from a bottom of the gate. A high-k dielectric is deposited into the gate trench. Metal gate material is deposited on the high-k dielectric.

As the geometries for integrated circuits have scaled to smaller and smaller dimensions, it has become necessary to replace polysilicon transistor gates with metal gates to enable scaling to continue to smaller dimensions. When voltage is applied to a polysilicon gate, the polysilicon grains next to the gate dielectric become depleted of carriers increasing the electrical thickness of the gate dielectric and exacerbating short channel effects. Metal gates do not deplete when voltage is applied to the metal gate.
Because the work function of most metal gates changes when the metal gate is subjected to high temperatures such as is required to activate dopants, replacement metal gate processes have been developed to circumvent the work function problem. In a replacement gate process, transistors are first built in the usual manner using polysilicon gates and silicon dioxide gate dielectric. The polysilion gates and gate dielectric are then removed and replaced with high-k gate dielectric and metal gates. Typically a thin silicon dioxide dielectric is grown on the single crystal silicon transistor channel prior to deposition of the high-k gate dielectric. Because silicide is typically on the wafer when the thin silicon dioxide is grown, the temperature at which this thin silicon dioxide may be grown is limited. The quality the thin silicon dioxide gate dielectric formed at low temperatures during the replacement gate process may be marginal.

High quality dielectric for hi-k last replacement gate transistors


An apparatus and method for facilitating or enhancing a person's breathing. The method provides for supporting the person's shoulders and elevating the person's spine, so as to enable the person's body weight to be distributed in the person's shoulders, expanding the person's chest cavity to enhance oxygen intake. The apparatus is especially adapted to perform the functions of the method.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to medical devices and more particularly to breathing assistance devices. Most particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus suitable for facilitating or enhancing a person's breathing.
2. Description of Relevant Art
A common problem encountered with sensory and consciousness deficient patients confined to hospital beds, operating tables, wheelchairs, and even beds at home is poor posture, or slumping and sliding of the patient into uncomfortable and even dangerous positions, in particular positions that inhibit the flow of oxygen to the patient's respiratory system.
This phenomenon may be observed in hospitals, nursing homes, hospices, emergency rooms, ambulances, and pediatric wards, among others. In particular, the inventor observed her mother, Marie J. Parish, experiencing these very issues during her final days in a critical care stroke unit and, based on her observations of her mother's suffering at that time, was driven to find a solution.
Breathing problems can occur in any situation where the patient has a respiratory disease or chronic pulmonary obstructive disease, has sleep apnea, is disabled, is sedated or comatose, has ketosis associated with diabetes, has had a stroke, is in shock, has emphysema, or any other type of medical condition where the patient is not able to keep him or herself in a proper position to enhance the flow of oxygen. It should also be noted that the quality of life of the patients in these conditions may also be severely impacted by the same problem.
Respiratory disease is a significant contributor to morbidity and mortality in the United States. Lung diseases, excluding lung cancer, constitute 8% of all hospice admissions and are the fifth most common primary illness of hospice patients. Chronic lower respiratory disease was responsible for nearly 125,000 deaths in the United States in 2006 and that death rate continues to rise, especially among elderly men.
Most of the literature on care of patients with chronic respiratory disease has been focused on chronic pulmonary obstructive disease (COPD). Relatively little study has been done on palliative and hospital/hospice care of patients with restrictive lung diseases such as pulmonary fibrosis and genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis.
It is readily observable, however, that many, if not all, hospice patients with any type of respiratory disease, are in a slumped position with poor body posture for breathing. This exacerbates the lack of airflow from the already compromised breathing of the patient.
Another common problem encountered by rescuers of unconscious, non-breathing victims, is that the victim's airway is closed. A skilled rescuer is trained to manually hyperextend the victim's neck, and/or perform an alternative maneuver called a chin lift. Such procedures are inherently difficult to perform correctly and reliably. A rolled up towel or foam may be used to facilitate the procedures, but these aids are not automatically deployable and tend to provide poor or inconsistent results with an inexperienced user. The chief alternative in the prior art has been to perform endotracheal intubation or surgical tracheotomy. Even those alternative procedures, however, can be difficult to perform on an obese patient.
A need exists for easily and dependably facilitating or enhancing the breathing of patients with respiratory disease, accident victims and others.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Apparatus and method for facilitating or enhancing a person's breathing


The present invention relates to a synthetic cement that comprises a low viscosity monofunctional monomer, a dicyclopentadienyl moiety having a pendant free radical reactive species, 1,3-butyleneglycol dimethacrylate, unsaturated styrenic block copolymer, and a peroxide curing agent. Additionally it may include weighting agents depending on the circumstances of the well, as is well known to those skilled in the art. Other additional components such as oil based mud, suspending agents, Portland cement, acrylates and methacrylates, retardant curing additives, and clays may optionally be incorporated into the synthetic cement. The synthetic cement is activated by heat, for example, and can be crafted to set within a certain time frame, for example in 4 hours, so that it pumpable for as long as need be, and then be set to seal the well in the manner desired.

The general procedure of drilling an oil or gas well includes drilling a borehole using a drilling fluid. Subsequent to drilling the borehole, casing is run into the well, preparatory to placing cement slurry in the annulus between the outside of the casing and the borehole wall. In order to obtain a good cementing job, it is necessary to displace substantially all of the drilling fluid or mud in the annulus with cement. This necessity arises from the fact that undisplaced mud and filter cake become the source of unsuccessful cement jobs since drilling fluids and cements are usually incompatible. Thus, most water base muds will either cause instant setting of the cement or act as a retarder of the cement setting that can adversely affect the strength of the cement. On the other hand, most cement slurries will flocculate and thicken most water base muds. As the cement is pumped out of the bottom of the casing and up the annulus, it may form flow channels through blocking sections of flocculated drilling mud. In addition, undisplaced filter cake can prevent cement from bonding to the formation and becomes the source of the flow channels.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,382,290 to Shell Oil Co. teaches that one of the major objectives of a primary cementing is to obtain good zonal isolation in the annulus of the well. Effective zonal isolation is achieved by sealing the cement and borehole wall. The interface of the cement and borehole wall is usually an interface between the cement and drilling fluid filter cake which is the source of many cementing problems. Good zonal isolation can be achieved if the filter cake hardens, permanently bonds to the formation face and the cement, and provides hydraulic sealing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,464,060 assigned to Shell Oil Co. discloses a composition for use in drilling and cementing a well, thus avoiding removal of the drilling fluid, since the composition can be employed for both functions. The "universal drilling fluid" comprises the product of a drilling mud admixed with a hydraulic material which is suitable for drilling a borehole and laying down a settable filter cake on the walls of said borehole; and an activator admixable with or contacting the filter cake, the activator being functional to cause the filter cake to harden and set up. A preferred way of applying the activator is to conduct a normal cement job with a cement or mud-concrete slurry which carries the activator. The activator may also be admixed with a mud, a spotting fluid, or a pill and the resulting fluid may be spotted or circulated through the annulus prior to cementing. The activator is subsequently filtered (diffused) through the filter cake and causes it to set hard.
The advantages realized by the Shell invention include the following: (1) a universal fluid is functionally and rheologically suitable as a drilling fluid; (2) the settable filter cake laid down by the universal fluid hardens to a relatively high compressive strength, for example, about 3,500 psi; (3) improved zonal isolation is achieved by the settable filter cake which bonds to the formation and the cementing medium; (4) the bond between the hardened filter cake and the cementing medium is very strong; and (5) it is not necessary either to displace mud or to remove the mud filter cake when a universal fluid is used as a drilling fluid in a well.
Achieving good solution viscosity is important because the drilling fluid must be stable under high temperature conditions—the deeper the well the hotter is the surrounding earth. Additionally important time constraints are desired, where it may take 4 to 6 hours to pump a drilling fluid into a very deep well bore, but then the drilling fluid must gel and thicken quickly. Contrarily, waiting 24 or more hours for Portland cement to gel is expensive and runs the risk that within the set time conditions may change in the well that presents additional obstacles to sealing a well.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,267,174 to Halliburton Energy Services achieves the time restraints by reducing the amount of cement employed. The amount of cement in the sealant compositions is reduced by an effective amount to lengthen the gel time of the sealant compositions to greater than or equal to about 4 hours when the composition is exposed to ambient temperatures in the wellbore. In an embodiment, the gel time is in a range of from about 4 hours to about 12 hours, alternatively, from about 4 to about 8 hours, alternatively, from about 4 to about 6 hours. In particular, the amount of cement present in the sealant compositions may be in a range of from about 0% to about 50% by weight of the sealant composition. Thus, cementless sealant compositions are contemplated in one embodiment. As used herein, gel time is defined as the period of time from initial mixing of the components in the sealant composition to the point when a gel is formed. Further, as used herein, a gel is defined as a crosslinked polymer network swollen in a liquid medium.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,082,456 to Wecem AS discloses sealing oil and gas wells with a composition containing monomers, an initiator for heat induced production of free radicals, and a pot life extending inhibitor for stabilizing free radicals. Acrylate monomers are employed with organic peroxides as an initiator. This composition is not a drilling fluid. It is a cement substitute.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,343,974 and 7,696,133 to Shell Oil co. disclose a composition comprising vinyl ester of a C9 to C11 Versatic™ acid, at least one di- or tri-functional acrylate or methacrylate monomer, peroxide initiator, and unsaturated styrenic block copolymer, namely Kraton™ D triblock copolymers. Weighting agents like barite (barium sulfate) are incorporated in the composition. This composition had exceeded the desired solution viscosity and the compression strength was too low, and therefore it was not a good candidate as a universal fluid.
Generally there is a trade-off between solution viscosity and compression strength. To obtain a solution viscosity that allows the fluid to be pumped for 4 to 6 hours, the solution viscosity should not exceed about 1000 cP at room temperature. Low solution viscosity not only requires less energy consumption, but it also prevents any damage to weak formations around the wellbore. However the higher the desired compression strength, the higher the solution viscosity. To obtain compression strengths similar to Portland cement, the solution viscosity was too high, until the present invention.
Accessing low margin, highly fractured, and other challenged reservoirs has become increasingly difficult using traditional cement materials. Synthetic cement that has a low solution viscosity, high compressive strength and mechanical properties, improved performance in the presence of hydrocarbon contamination, and which can be controllably set in a desired zone would allow greater access to such challenging wells.
There exists a need in the oilfield for materials with low rheological profiles (similar to a typical oil-based drilling fluid) that can be controllably set into a composite material with compressive strength comparable to traditional Portland-based cement. Additionally, it is well known that hydraulic cements do not perform well in the presence of oil based mud. A material that possesses improved retention of mechanical properties in the presence of at least 20 wt. % oil based mud contamination (i.e., at least about 400 psi compressive strength) would therefore be highly desirable, as it may eliminate the need for both hole clean-out prior to cementing the well as well as the use of spacer fluids. Another concern with traditional cement is its high modulus, which lends itself to fracturing when placed under a strain greater than ˜5%; a semi-ductile synthetic cement material would therefore be able to withstand the effects of greater temperatures swings in the wellbore throughout the lifetime of the cement.


Methods, systems, and apparatuses that operate with different communications devices, different users, and/or different communications networks to generate, enable, disable, transmit, and/or otherwise control an Emergency Third Party Communications Signal. According to embodiments of this invention, a communications network establishes an emergency communications link between a calling party and an emergency response call center. Thereafter, the communications network automatically associates a third party to add to the emergency communications link and uses the Emergency Third Party Communications Signal to establish an emergency conferencing communications link between the third party, the calling party, and/or the emergency response call center.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of telecommunications. More particularly, this invention relates to systems and methods for a telecommunications network to automatically add in a third party to a communications link between a calling party and emergency response personnel.
2. Description of the Related Art
In emergency situations, timely assistance provided by emergency service personnel is often critical to minimize injuries, save lives, and/or minimize property damage. Often times, a mere delay of a few minutes, or even a matter of seconds, may have severe consequences in saving the life of an individual, such as an individual having a heart attack or an individual suffering from severe blood loss. Likewise, delays in reaching the scene of a fire or other catastrophic event may have catastrophic consequences to property damage. Thus, the time it takes for emergency personnel, such as, police, fire, and medical personnel, to reach the location to respond to the emergency makes a difference.
In an effort to increase the response speed of emergency response personnel, centralized emergency response telephone services, such as, for example, 911 and enhanced 911, have been implemented so that dispatch personnel at the answer center are provided with detailed information (e.g., an address of a home associated with the calling phone number, special needs of individuals at the calling phone number, a database of other 911 calls from that phone number and how they were responded to in the past, and so on) and provided with access to a wide variety of emergency response personnel to implement appropriate assistance necessary to respond to the emergency. For example, if a 911 caller reported a fire in a home from the calling phone number, then the dispatch personnel notify the fire department closest to the home to control the fire, and if appropriate, also notify nearby medical personnel to treat any victims of the fire and/or notify nearby law enforcement to control potentially hazardous situations, such as hysteria of the residents and/or crowds.
Unfortunately, a delay in reaching the location of the emergency may occur when the location of the calling phone number is different than the location of the emergency. For example, if a user of a cellular phone places the call to 911, then the address of the home with the emergency may not be provided to the dispatch personnel, especially if the caller is emotionally or physically distraught and unable to communicate the address. Still another example is when a call to the dispatch center is called from a calling phone associated with a different street address, such as a call from a neighbor's house to report a fire. In such a case, the detailed information that accompanies the incoming call to the dispatch center does not provide an accurate street address, rather the street address of the fire (i.e., the actual location of the emergency) must be provided by the calling party and/or approximated by the dispatch center. Because this address is often imprecise, the responding emergency personnel may be delayed trying to locate an approximated street address of the emergency, such as trying to look for a signs of an emergency in an area proximate to the approximated street address, going to the address of the third party caller to seek assistance in locating the emergency, and trial and error of knocking on doors until the precise street address and location are determined.
Even when a street address of the location of the emergency is known, the emergency personnel may still experience delays in locating the emergency premises. For example, when the responding emergency response personnel near the street address at which the request for emergency response assistance originated (e.g., the home), the personnel is often unfamiliar with the exact street address and is forced to proceed at a slower pace in order to precisely locate the street address. Further, the task of locating the exact street address can be more difficult when visibility conditions are poor, such as at night, when there is precipitation, and/or when there is smoke or other environmental and/or wildlife conditions that inhibit visibility. This task may be even more difficult when the home of the originating call is located in an area where the homes are far apart, road signs are difficult to find and/or read, and/or addresses are not easily visible on the exterior of the home or other outbuilding of the home (e.g., a mailbox).
Even after the emergency response personnel have reached the emergency location, additional problems and/or complications arise when the emergency response personnel have little information to respond to the emergency. For example, if the caller to the emergency response call center (or another individual at the emergency site) has limited communication capabilities, then the emergency response personnel have little information about the emergency and/or little information about the individuals or the property involved in the emergency. In such cases, the emergency response personnel frequently make assumptions and/or initiate standard procedures that have unfortunate or complicating consequences. For example, if the emergency response personnel respond to a call for medical help and arrive at the location with an unconscious individual, then the emergency response personnel are not aware of the individual's medical conditions, such as allergies and current medications. In such cases, the emergency response personnel may administer medications that the individual is allergic to and/or that have threatening synergistic effects with other medications that the individual is taking.
Accordingly, what is needed are systems, methods, and apparatus that provide an emergency locating and communications system to overcome and/or improve the above and other problems to minimize the amount of time it takes for emergency response personnel to reach the street address and/or precise location of an emergency and to maximize communication of helpful information to better respond to the emergency. In addition, what is needed are emergency locating and communications systems, methods, and apparatus that are easy to install, manage, and/or use.

Automated third party call activated when 911 dialed

BellSouth Intellectual Property Corporation


A method and system for obtaining accurate measurements of distance of a golf ball from features of interest on a hole of a golf course including tee boxes, cups, water hazards, sand traps, rough areas adjacent fairway, and cart path, uses a golf cart equipped with a computerized navigation system including a display monitor. Survey data for the course are stored in the navigation system database as part of a map of so that fixed positions of at least some of the features of the course, including the cart path and outline of the hole of the computerized navigation system, can be selectively displayed in the map or portion thereof on the cart monitor screen during play of the course. The navigation system has a capability to detect and indicate the real time position of the golf cart as an icon on the course map displayed on the monitor screen, and has, in its database, a ball icon line approximating the longitudinal center-line of the hole. A ball icon is established distinct from the cart icon for display in the map on the monitor screen, and is arranged to move along the ball icon line in unison with movement of the cart icon along the cart path. Distance measurements are enabled and displayed from the ball icon to features on the map when the features are respectively selected by a pointer on the monitor display. A positioning device is provided to move the ball icon from the ball icon line to approximate the position of a ball in play on the hole to measure distance to a selected feature.

The present invention ralates generally to position, distance measuring, and navigation systems, and more particularly to improvements in such systems for golf course applications to provide greater accuracy in use by golfers to compute distances from present position to the green, the cup and other features of the hole being played.
In golf players are more comfortable and more likely to excel on courses with which they are familiar. It is customary for a golfer on a new or little-played course to seek to gain at least some familiarity with the layout of each hole before starting play. Armed with this information, the golfer can approach each tee box during play of the course, knowing, for example, whether the particular hole is a `dog leg left`, a `dog leg right`, or straight; the general locations of hazards, such as sand traps, bunkers, and water traps on the hole; and locations of range postings, if any, for calculating yardage from the golfer's location to the front and rear of the green, the pin (cup), a hazard, and a desired lay up position for the green approach shot.
Golf courses have traditionally made available course layout and feature information booklets in the pro shop, for just such purposes. Yardage markers typically are placed at sprinkler heads along each hole, to provide range information from that point to the center of the green. These serve as aids to the player, but they also contribute to slowing the pace of play of the course. Slow play has an adverse effect on the course's daily revenue, as well as on other golfers' enjoyment of the game.
Previously proposed improvements to golf course information and navigation systems have included use of buried electrical wires in various layouts on the course for interaction with mobile overland components (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,634); and use of radio direction finding or triangulation techniques (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,703,444 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,106). With more recent improvements in navigation and positioning systems, such as the government-sponsored Global Positioning System (GPS)--a technology now more than twenty years old--proposals have been advanced for use of other navigation systems, including GPS, on golf courses.
In co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 08/423,295 and 08/525,905 of R. W. Rudow et al., filed Apr. 18, 1995 and Sep. 8, 1995, respectively, assigned to the same assignee as the present application ("the '295 and '905 applications"), improvements are disclosed in golf course positioning, yardage measuring and navigation systems utilizing differential GPS (DGPS) (see, for example, Blackwell, "Overview of Differential GPS Methods", Global Positioning System, vol. 3, pp. 89-100, The Institute of Navigation, Washington, D.C. (1986)). DGPS offers considerable error reduction in distance measurement over standard GPS, but still not quite adequate for the yardage accuracies demanded in the golf course setting.
The '295 and '905 applications provide enhancements, including unique filtering algorithms among other things, which offer considerably improved accuracy in measurements from a cart-based GPS receiver to the cup or other features, such as hazards and so forth, on a hole being played. A full color map of the golf course or individual holes or portions of a hole and all of their respective features to the extent surveyed and incorporated in the map database, are displayed on a video monitor in the cart. An icon such as a triangle representing the golf cart is also displayed on the monitor screen, in its real time position on the map of the course. By using a position selecting device proximate the monitor, the golfer can move a cursor arrow or pointer on the screen to a feature on the hole in play, such as the cup (variously also referred to as the pin or the flag), and request the system to calculate from the map database and display on the screen the real time yardage between the cart and the feature pointed to is, superimposed on the map. Such features as the tee box and pin placement may be changed each day by the course administrator but those changes are incorporated into the navigation system database by the administrator's base station so that the golfer is able to obtain an accurate measurement of the distance from the current position of the cart to the selected feature, armed with the most current data.
These and other features of the PROLINK.TM. yardage, course management and navigation system disclosed in the '295 and '905 applications (PROLINK is a registered trademark of Leading Edge Technologies, Inc. of Chandler, Ariz., the assignee of the latter applications as well as the present application) make it a superior golf cart-based (together with base station for course management) system with state-of-the-art graphics. An automatic zoom feature increases the selected target area resolution, such as to view the contour of the green or the details of a particular hazard. The user is able to make consistently better and faster club selection from the information concerning target distance and hole layout provided by the PROLINK.TM. system.
The system also allows a similarly equipped cart itself to be conveniently used for collecting survey data to map the layout of the course and its hole outlines, tee boxes, greens, cups, fairways, rough, cart paths, water hazards and sand traps, at the time the system is to be installed on the course. The collected survey data is processed, stored in memory as part of the data base, and available for later retrieval and display to aid in computing distances and indicate real time position of the cart and relative fixed positions of such features of the course. The course layout data is also useful for detecting the location of a golf cart within predetermined zones created using a zone detection algorithm, which additionally enables various system features such as automatic hole display on the cart monitor as the cart enters the tee box zone of a new hole, and automatic pop-up advertisements, promotional messages or golf tips when the cart is in transition from one hole to the next.
When the GPS signal is lost because the cart moves behind or beneath an obstruction, such as where the course is heavily treed, or hilly, or has on-course or adjacent buildings or other structures, with consequent interruption of line of sight to the GPS satellites, the GPS/DGPS system will go out-of-service and so notify the cart user with an on-screen message until signal is restored. Partly to overcome this problem, a dead reckoning system has been developed as the ACUTRAK.TM. golf course yardage, information and navigation system (ACUTRAK is a trademark of Leading Edge Technologies, Inc.), described in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/690,962 of J. R. Coffee et al., titled "Robust Golf Navigation System" filed Aug. 1, 1996 ("the '962 application"), which is commonly assigned with this application. A DGPS capability is provided in the ACUTRAK.TM. system, but only for purposes of periodically or intermittently calibrating the system. Apart from those distinctions, the ACUTRAK.TM. system shares many of the desirable attributes of the PROLINK.TM. system. The unique ACUTRAK.TM. dead reckoning (DR) guidance or navigation system tracks the distance moved by and the orientation of the wheels of the cart, extrapolated to the heading of the cart. The system is unaffected by inability to "view" a satellite navigation system, such as the GPS satellites, and operates with considerable accuracy with limited calibration during play. Calibration operates to remove the buildup of error in the wheel sensors, compass alignment, and other component-introduced error, which will again undergo gradual increase after a calibration as the cart is driven about the course during a round of play.
A co-pending patent application of J. R. Coffee, titled "Map-Matching Golf Navigation System" (Attomey's Docket 1304.014, hereinafter the "0.014 application"), filed on Mar. 31, 1997, and commonly assigned herewith, discloses a calibration technique for a modified ACUTRAK.TM. system which takes advantage of a cart path map database to substantially eliminate built-up DR error in circumstances where the cart is either restricted to the typically paved or otherwise well-maintained cart path found on most U.S. courses, or is likely to be on the path at least part of the time during play of each hole.
A significant percentage of golf courses in the United States invoke a "cart path only" rule which requires that the golf cart (the use of which is mandatory for play of those and most other courses) be restricted to cart paths, and that it not be driven on the fairway. In Japan, virtually all golf courses mandate a "cart path only" rule at all times. Even for many courses where the "cart path only" rule is not in effect at all times, it is a requirement on occasions when the course "manicure" may be affected by allowing carts to be driven on the fairway, such as where the course is wet from recent rain or snow or immediately after heavy sprinkler usage, or where the threat of inclement weather is imminent. Driving on the fairway can cause ruts which will adversely affect the path of the ball during roll after shots by players who follow the wayward cart driver, and generally tends to disrupt the care and etiquette of the course. Virtually all courses absolutely forbid driving a golf cart off the cart path in the vicinity of the tee boxes and the greens.
Since the golf cart, and not the ball, is provided with the guidance system, the position and distance measurements calculated by these systems are all with respect to the cart. Except in the case where an appropriate yardage measurement system is implemented in a hand held unit (e.g., with an incorporated DGPS receiver), which does not at present appear to have any surging demand for use on a golf course, unless the roving unit of the guidance system can be placed in close proximity to the ball the indicated yardage to the pin or other range points on the hole is not an entirely accurate representation of the yardage from the ball to the selected point. This is particularly true where the course imposes a "cart path only" rule, so that the cart is restricted from being driven off the cart path to a position proximate that of the ball.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a golf course navigation system for golf carts in which the yardage (distance) measurement is automatically made with respect to the position of the ball, or very nearly so, or can readily be corrected to so indicate by manual control, despite relatively frequent inability to position the cart itself in close proximity to the ball, such as when playing on "cart path only" courses.


Disclosed is a flashing for weatherproofing an aperture made in an inclined roof to allow passage of a vertical member such as chimney through the inclined roof. This flashing has a base member adapted to be mounted over the aperture and a surrounding member that is tubular in shape and extends upwardly from the base member to fit around the vertical member. The base member comprises a covering panel of quadrilateral shape having a top edge adapted to be positioned on an upper part of the inclined roof, a bottom edge adapted to be positioned on a lower part of the inclined roof, two opposite side edges and an opening large enough to allow passage of the vertical member therethrough. A bottom side wall projects downwardly from the bottom edge of the covering panel and two lateral side walls respectively extend downwardly from the opposite side edges of the covering panel and sidewardly from the bottom side wall in a tapering fashion. The covering panel, bottom side wall and lateral side walls together defines a hollow housing. This flashing can be installed by (1) cutting a slot in the upper part of the inclined roof above the aperture made therein, so as to receive the top edge of the covering panel of the base member, (2) inserting the top edge of the covering panel into the slot cut in the inclined roof (3) positioning the bottom side wall of the base member onto the lower part of the inclined roof in such a manner that the bottom opening of the surrounding member is located on top of the roof aperture; and (4) fastening the base member to the inclined roof. Thanks to its particular structure and the way it is installed, the flashing according to the invention may be installed in a very easy and efficient manner on any kind of roofs, including inclined roofs with a corrugated structure defining downwardly oriented ridges.

It is of common practice in the construction industry to use a flashing to seal the interstitial gap between the roof and a vertical member such as a pipe, a venting duct or a chimney passing through an aperture made in this roof.
In addition to ensuring weatherproofing of the roof aperture, the flashing is usually also devised to ensure proper drainage of the water that can accumulate on the roof.
Currently, a variety of roof flashings of different shape are available for weatherproofing an aperture made in a roof to allow passage of a vertical structure. FIGS. 1A to C show three examples of such flashings respectively called "flat flashing", "gable flashing" and "pitched flashing".
The flat flashing shown in FIG. 1A is commonly used for waterproofing an opening in a flat roof or building surface.
The gable flashing shown in FIG. 1B is used for weatherproofing an opening in the peak of an inclined roof.
Last of all, the pitched flashing shown in FIG. 1C is used for weatherproofing an opening on a an inclined roof, such as a pitched, lean-to, pavilion or gable roof. In the latter case, the surrounding member of the gable flashing which is usually of the conical shape must extend from the flat base of the flashing in such an inclined direction as to accommodate the roof slope.
In use, the flat base of the pitched flashing is positioned over the aperture made in the inclined roof and fastened on the same.
As is known, the roofs can be made of variety of materials, like for example tiles, stainless steel or other metal alloys, PVC or other polymeric materials, bitumen or fiberglass. Some of these roof materials can also be in the form of corrugated sheets. In the latter case, condensation and moisture can accumulate in their grooves. When used to insulate a roof covered with a corrugated material, pitched flashings of conventional structure, viz. with a flat base, may obstruct these grooves and thus not allow efficient drainage of water that may accumulate. Furthermore, the installation of such flashings can be problematic depending on the shape of the ridges on the roof material.

Flashing for inclined roof and method for installing the same

Compagnie de Cheminees Industrielles, Inc.


The disclosure includes a game of chance in which profile data for social contacts in a social networking system is used to determine whether a player wins or loses the game of chance. An indication that a first player desires to be included in a game provided on a social network system is stored. The game randomly selects a subset of a plurality of social contacts of a second player. In response to determining that the first player is included in the randomly selected subset of the plurality of social contacts, an award is provided to the first player.

The use of social networking systems such as Facebook and MySpace has dramatically grown over time. A feature that has been added to social network systems is the ability to play games within the social networking system. The games provide a mechanism for the game provider to obtain social contact data for the player and the player's contacts. The popularity of such games depends on the likelihood (or perceived likelihood) of winning the game and the intrinsic entertainment value of the game relative to other options. Shrewd game developers therefore strive to employ the most entertaining and exciting machines, features, and enhancements available because such games attract players and therefore increase the amount of profile data available to the game operator.

Game of chance utilizing social network contact attributes


The invention discloses a keyboard comprising a substrate and a plurality of keyswitches. The keyswitches are disposed on the substrate. The substrate includes a first connection portion and a reinforcement structure. The first connection portion is formed from bending the substrate. Each keyswitch includes a keycap and a lift support device. The keycap has a second connection portion. The lift support device is disposed between the keycap and substrate. The lift support device has a third connection portion and a fourth connection portion. The first connection portion is connected to the third connection portion, and the second connection portion is connected to the fourth connection portion. The lift support device is used for carrying the keycap to move vertically relative to the substrate. The reinforcement structure can enhance the connection strength between the first connection portion and the substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a keyswitch and a keyboard and, more particularly, to a keyswitch and a keyboard with reinforcement structure.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, various consumer electronics become popular to our daily life, e.g. computer, PDA or smart phone, etc. In the meantime, various types of input devices are developed according to different applications. The most common input device for the electronics products right now is the keyboard, and the keyswitch is one of the basic components of the keyboard. In order to achieve better portability and mobility of the electronics products, the keyswitch and keyboard are in a trend to slimmer and more compact designs.
Please FIG. 1 and FIG. 2. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a keyboard 1 in prior art. FIG. 2 is a sectional view diagram illustrating a keyswitch 12 of the keyboard 1 in FIG. 1 along A-A direction. As shown in FIG. 1, the keyboard 1 includes a substrate 10 and keyswitches 12 disposed on the substrate 10.
As shown in FIG. 2, each keyswitch 12 includes a keycap 14 and a lift support device 16 respectively. The lift support device 16, disposed between the keycap 14 and the substrate 10, can be used for carrying the keycap 14 to move vertically relative to the substrate 10. There are first connection portions 100 disposed on the substrate 10. The first connection portions 100 are used for connecting with the lift support device 16 and providing connection strength for the vertical movement of the keycap 14.
Please refer to FIG. 3. FIG. 3 is an outside perspective view illustrating the substrate 10 in FIG. 2. The first connection portions 100 are formed from bending the substrate 10. In order to realize a slim and compact keyboard in practical application, the substrate 10 of the keyboard 1 usually adopt a thin aluminum plate, because that the aluminum material has advantages in high ductility, light weight and anti-rust. However, the aluminum material lacks sufficient rigidity compared to other materials. For example, the rigidity of the steel material reaches 29000 kilo-pound-force per square inch (Ksi); the rigidity of the titanium material reaches 15250 Ksi; the rigidity of the aluminum material is only 10500 Ksi. Therefore, the first connection 100 and the substrate 10 made of aluminum material suffer the problem of insufficient connection strength. When the first connection 100 is pulled by the lift support device 16 while the keycap 14 is moving, the first connection 100 may be deformed or deviated from normal position. It harms the durability and stability of the keyswitch 10 and the keyboard 1.
The invention discloses a keyswitch and a keyboard with reinforcement structure, which can elevate the durability and stability of the keyswitch and the keyboard, to solve aforesaid problems.


Providing a compact zoom lens system having high optical performance suitable for an electronic imaging device with a large number of pixels. The zoom lens system includes, in order from an object, a first lens group having negative refractive power, a second lens group having positive refractive power, and a third lens group having positive refractive power. When zooming from a wide-angle end state to a telephoto end state, the first lens group and the second lens group are moved such that a distance between the first lens group and the second lens group decreases, and a distance between the second lens group and the third lens group increases. The second lens group is composed of at least two positive lens elements and one negative lens element. At least one positive lens element and the negative lens element in the second lens group satisfy given conditional expressions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a zoom lens system and in particular to a zoom lens system suitable for a digital still camera, and the like using an electronic imaging device.
2. Related Background Art
Recently, a digital still camera has been widespread in which an image of an object formed on an electronic imaging device is output in the form of an electric signal and recorded in the form of a digital image. In the electronic imaging device, with increasing degree of miniaturization and integration, electronic imaging devices with a larger number of pixels have been provided. Accordingly, in a shooting optical system, higher optical performance suitable for an imaging device with a large number of pixels has been desired. At the same time, in view of portability and convenience for a camera, a compact zoom lens has been desired as a shooting optical system. Moreover, in order to correct a camera shake which is a possible cause of terribly deteriorating resolution upon shooting, a zoom lens with a vibration reduction function has been desired as a shooting optical system.
Under these circumstances, a zoom lens system is proposed that is suitable for a digital still camera and the like using an electronic imaging device in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-277740. The zoom lens system is composed of, in order from an object, a first lens group having negative refractive power, a second lens group having positive refractive power, and a third lens group having positive refractive power. When zooming from a wide-angle end state to a telephoto end state, the first lens group and the second lens group are moved such that a distance between the first lens group and the second lens group decreases, and a distance between the second lens group and the third lens group increases.
Moreover, as a zoom lens system with a vibration reduction function to correct a camera shake upon shooting, a zoom lens system has been proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-161024, in which a portion of a lens group composing the zoom lens system is moved in a direction perpendicular to the optical axis to correct variation in an imaging position caused by a camera shake.
As described above, with increasing degree of miniaturization of an electronic imaging device in recent years, optical performance desired to a shooting optical system becomes higher. For example, chromatic aberration generated in a shooting optical system becomes a blurred color spread over few pixels to ten-odd pixels in a digital image generated after imaging an object on the imaging device resulting in deterioration of resolution.
However, in a so-called negative-leading type zoom lens system in which a lens group having negative refractive power is disposed as the most object side lens group, when the zoom lens system is made to be a high zoom ratio with securing compactness, generation of chromatic aberration upon zooming becomes conspicuous. In particular, when the zoom lens system is made to be compact with retracting the system to be accommodated in a camera body, since the thickness of each lens group is made thinner as much as possible, the number of lens elements has to be reduced, so that it becomes impossible to sufficiently correct aberrations.
In the zoom lens system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-277740, longitudinal chromatic aberration in the telephoto end state and lateral chromatic aberration in the wide-angle end state are large, so that the zoom lens system cannot sufficiently correspond to miniaturization of the imaging device.
On the other hand, when the imaging device is forcibly made to be miniaturized, a received light amount of each pixel becomes low resulting in lowering the sensitivity. Accordingly, in order to compensate for the lowered sensitivity, exposure time upon shooting has to be long, so that it tends to generate a camera shake and the like.
As described above, in the zoom lens system with a vibration reduction function, a portion of a lens group composing the zoom lens system is moved in a direction perpendicular to the optical axis as a vibration reduction lens group to correct a camera shake upon shooting. Accordingly, when the vibration reduction lens group is moved in a direction perpendicular to the optical axis, in other words, when the vibration reduction lens group is decentered, in order not to generate decentering aberration, chromatic aberration and spherical aberration of the vibration reduction lens group have to be corrected. Accordingly, in a zoom lens system with a vibration reduction function, the number of lens elements becomes large, so that the zoom lens system becomes large.
In the zoom lens system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-161024, a front lens group in a second lens group is made to be a vibration reduction lens group. However, in spite of a small zoom ratio, deterioration in optical performance is large upon decentering the vibration reduction lens group for correcting a camera shake.


A method for manufacturing a photocatalyst, based on titanium dioxide containing carbon or metal, in a pulsation reactor, where a raw material mixture, consisting of nanoparticulate titanium oxyhydrate and an aqueous solution or suspension, containing at least one organic, carbon-containing compound or metal ions, is fed into the pulsating hot-gas stream of the pulsation reactor and the titanium dioxide particles containing carbon or metal are formed. The hot-gas stream has a temperature of ≧450° C. following addition of the material and contains an excess of oxygen. In contrast to the known manufacturing methods, the method according to the invention allows reproducibly good product qualities to be achieved.

Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for manufacturing a photocatalyst based on titanium dioxide containing carbon or metal in a pulsation reactor.
Technological Background of the Invention
Photocatalytic materials are semiconductors in which, when exposed to light, electron-hole pairs are formed that generate highly reactive free radicals on the material surface. Titanium dioxide is a semiconductor of this kind. It is known that, by being irradiated with UV light, titanium dioxide can remove natural or artificial impurities in air and water in that the impurities are decomposed and/or oxidized (mineralized) to form environmentally friendly end products. One disadvantage of titanium dioxide is that the visible component of sunlight does not trigger any photocatalytic activity.
However, various procedures are known for modifying titanium dioxide in such a way that it can also utilize the visible component of sunlight in order to develop photocatalytic activity—e.g. doping or surface-coating of the titanium dioxide crystals with carbon, or with metal ions, such as Fe, V, Cr, etc.
WO 2005/108505 A1, for example, discloses a process for producing a carbon-containing, titanium dioxide-based photocatalyst that is photoactive in visible light. The process is based on a parent titanium compound, present in the form of an amorphous or semi-crystalline titanium oxide, hydrous titanium oxide, titanium hydrate or titanium oxyhydrate. The parent titanium compound is present in the form of either a fine-grained solid or a suspension and has a BET surface of at least 50 m2/g. The parent titanium compound is mixed with a carbon-containing substance and subsequently heat-treated at up to 400° C. The heat treatment leads, on the one hand, to the formation of crystalline titanium dioxide and is intended, on the other hand, to induce a surface reaction of the carbon-containing compound in the form of partial decomposition and modification of the titanium dioxide particle surface.
The product manufactured contains carbon in quantities of 0.5 to 4% by weight, in a surface layer and on the surface of the titanium dioxide particles, and preferably display a specific surface area of 100 to 250 m2/g.
According to WO 2005/108505 A1, the heat treatment is performed in heat treatment units, such as rotary kilns, fluidized-bed reactors, fluidized-bed driers or heated ploughshare mixers, in continuous mode, or sometimes also in batch mode. Although good product qualities can be obtained with these processing methods, it is not possible to achieve consistent product quality, i.e. reproducibility, over extended periods of time. The quality fluctuations are due to the temperature profiles and wide residence-time distributions occurring in the heat treatment unit. If temperature peaks occur at certain points in the heat treatment unit ("temperature hotspots"), uncontrolled degradation reactions of the organic compounds take place, up to the point of complete combustion of the organic compounds, as a result of which the photoactivity of the product, on the one hand, and its color, on the other, are impaired by intercalated carbon black. Moreover, agglomerates are easily formed, as a result of which complete combustion of the organic compounds can take place across particles in the event of temperature hotspots occurring.
For manufacturing metal-containing, specifically iron-containing, TiO2 photocatalysts, EP 0 666 107 B1 discloses a method where an aqueous solution, containing a titanium compound and an iron compound, is hydrolyzed. The product is subsequently dried, or calcined at temperatures of up to 500° C.
WO 2012/139726 discloses a method for manufacturing iron-containing TiO2 photocatalyst, where an aqueous suspension of titanium oxyhydrate nanoparticles and iron(III) ions is taken as the starting point, iron(III) hydrate is subsequently precipitated, and the particles are finally subjected to heat treatment (preferably at 100° C. to 400° C.).
Both methods are based on a precipitation process that cannot be controlled uniformly and reproducibly, and thus cannot lead to a homogeneous product.
There is therefore a need for a method for manufacturing photocatalysts based on titanium dioxide containing carbon or metal, with the help of which consistently good product qualities can be produced, even over an extended period of time.

Method for manufacturing a photocatalyst based on titanium dioxide containing carbon or metal


Sound signal is received which contains sound characteristics to be represented in musical notation. The characteristics, such as a volume level of the sound signal, are extracted out of the received sound signal, and various parameters for use in subsequent analysis of the sound signal are set in accordance with the extracted characteristics. Also, a desired scale determining condition is set by a user. Pitch of the sound signal is determined using the thus-set parameters. The determined pitch is rounded to any one of scale notes, corresponding to the user-set scale determining condition. Also, a given unit note length is set as a predetermined criterion or reference for determining a note length, and a length of the scale note determined from the received sound signal is determined using the thus-set unit note length as a minimum determination unit, i.e., with an accuracy of the unit note length.

The present invention relates generally to sound signal analyzing devices and methods for creating a MIDI file or the like on the basis of input sounds from a microphone or the like, and more particularly to an improved sound signal analyzing device and method which can effectively optimize various parameters for use in sound signal analysis.
Examples of the conventional sound signal analyzing devices include one in which detected volume levels and highest and lowest pitch limits, etc. of input vocal sounds have been set as parameters for use in subsequent analysis of sound signals. These parameters are normally set in advance on the basis of vocal sounds produced by ordinary users and can be varied as necessary by the users themselves when the parameters are to be put to actual use.
However, because the input sound levels tend to be influenced considerably by the operating performance of hardware components used and various ambient conditions, such as noise level, during sound input operations, there arises a need to review the level settings from time to time. Further, the upper and lower pitch limits would influence pitch-detecting filter characteristics during the sound signal analysis, and thus it is undesirable to immoderately increase a difference or width between the upper and lower pitch limits. Unduly increasing the width between the upper and lower pitch limits is undesirable in that it would result in a wrong pitch being detected due to harmonics and the like of the input sound. In addition, because the conventional sound signal analyzing devices require very complicated and sophisticated algorithm processing to deal with the pitch detection over a wide pitch range, the processing could not be readily carried out in real time. Moreover, even for some of the parameters appropriately modifiable by the users, it is necessary for the users to have a certain degree of musical knowledge, and therefore it is not desirable for the users to have freedom in changing the parameters. However, because some of the users may produce vocal sounds of a unique pitch range far wider than those produced by ordinary users or of extraordinary high or low pitches, it is very important that the parameters should be capable of being modified as necessary in accordance with the unique tendency and characteristics of the individual users.

Device and method for analyzing and representing sound signals in the musical notation


An optical fiber array connector includes a ribbon fiber and a ribbon fiber holder. The ribbon fiber includes optical fibers having fixed pitch. The ribbon fiber holder includes a connection plate and a support member connected to the connection plate. The connection plate defines a ribbon shaped through hole. The support member includes a top surface and two rails. The two rails are supported by the top surface and parallel to each other. The two rails and the top surface cooperatively define a ribbon shaped receiving channel. The ribbon shaped receiving channel communicates with the ribbon shaped through hole. The ribbon fiber is received in the ribbon shaped receiving channel. The optical fibers are received in the ribbon shaped through hole.

In the field of fiber optic communication, MT ferrules are common components. They often have 2, 4, 8, and 12 channels for holding optical fibers. In the manufacturing of the MT ferrules, grinding and polishing are necessary processes. However, the grinding and polishing processes are time-consuming and have low manufacturing efficiency. Thus, the MT ferrules are expensive. Optical fiber jumpers can be substituted for MT ferules and have low prices.

Optical fiber array connector with ribbon fiber holder


Disclosed is a dual display LCD device including: a front light unit supplying light; a first polarizer on the front light unit; an LCD panel on the first polarizer; a selective reflection/transmission part on the LCD panel; and a second polarizer on the selective reflection/transmission part; wherein the selective reflection/transmission part selectively reflects the light in a reflection mode to display an image on a front side thereof in a first display mode; and wherein the selective reflection/transmission part passes the light in a transmission mode to display an image on a rear side thereof in a second display mode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a dual display liquid crystal display (LCD) device, and more particularly, to a dual display LCD device in which an image can be displayed on both the front side and the rear side of a single liquid crystal display panel.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, cathode ray tubes (CRT) have been the most popular display device, but it is inconvenient to use in many situations because of its large size and heavy weight in relation to the display area.
Accordingly, a thin flat panel display has been developed that can be installed and used anywhere because it is slim in relation to its display area. Thin flat panel displays are replacing the CRT. For example, a thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) device has an improved resolution over other flat panel display devices and a response speed as fast as the CRT in displaying moving pictures.
As known to those skilled to the art, LCD devices operation is based on the optical anisotropy and polarization property of liquid crystal molecules. Because liquid crystal molecules have a thin and long structure, it is possible to control the alignment direction of the liquid crystal molecules by artificially applying an electric field. Hence, if the alignment direction of the liquid crystal molecules is arbitrarily controllable, light may be transmitted or screened according to the alignment direction of the liquid crystal molecules due to the optical anisotropy of the liquid crystal so that a color image can be displayed.
Active matrix LCD devices have active switching elements with a nonlinear characteristic in pixels arranged in a matrix. The active matrix LCD device can display images by controlling the operation of each pixel by using the switching elements.
Recently a dual display LCD device capable of displaying an image in both the front and the rear of the LCD panel is being developed.

Dual display liquid crystal display device


An inbred corn line designated IT7EE42 is disclosed. The invention relates to the plants and seeds of inbred corn line IT7EE42 and methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing the inbred corn line IT7EE42 with itself or with another corn plant. The invention also relates to methods for producing a corn plant containing in its genetic material one or more transgenes and to the transgenic corn plants and plant parts produced by those methods. The invention also relates to corn cultivars and plant parts derived from inbred corn line IT7EE42 and to methods for producing other corn cultivars, lines, or plant parts derived from inbred corn line IT7EE42, and to the corn plants and parts derived from use of those methods. The invention further relates to hybrid corn seeds, plants, and plant parts produced by crossing inbred corn line IT7EE42 with another corn cultivar.

This present invention relates to a new and distinctive inbred dent corn line designated IT7EE42. All publications cited in this application are herein incorporated by reference.
The goal of plant breeding is to combine in a single variety or hybrid various desirable traits. For vegetable crops, such as sweet corn, these traits may include resistance to diseases and insects, tolerance to heat and drought, reducing the time to crop maturity, greater yield, better agronomic quality, processing traits, such as high processing plant recovery, tender kernels, pleasing taste, uniform kernel size and color, attractive husk package and husked ears, ability to ship long distances, ease of mechanical or manual harvest, tipfill, row straight. With mechanical harvesting of many crops, uniformity of plant characteristics such as germination and stand establishment, growth rate, maturity, and plant and ear height, is important.
Corn (Zea mays L., also called maize) is the most valuable crop grown in the United States. Along with wheat, rice, and potatoes, corn ranks as one of the four most important crops in the world. Three major types of corn are grown in the United States: 1) grain or field corn; 2) sweet corn; and 3) popcorn. Grain or field corn is grown annually for grain on from 55 to 60 million acres, with seed production in excess of 4 billion bushels, and in addition, around 8 million acres of this type are harvested for silage. Grain corn is further classified commercially into four main types: 1) dent corn; 2) flint corn; 3) flour or soft corn; and 4) waxy corn.
Dent corn is a particular type of grain corn. Dent corn is the most common type of corn, comprising about 90 percent of the corn grown in the United States. Dent corn, when fully ripe, has a pronounced depression or dent at the crown of the kernels. The kernels contain a hard form of starch at the sides and a soft type of starch in the center. This latter starch shrinks as the kernel ripens resulting in the terminal depression. Dent varieties vary in kernel shape from long and narrow to wide and shallow. Farmers harvest dent corn when the seeds become hard and ripe. Dent corn is primarily used as a livestock feed, but can also be used to make many food and industrial products. Dent corn is grown in all parts of the United States Corn Belt.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification.


A cleaning device includes a cleaning head, such as a mop, for cleaning surfaces. The device includes an elastically expandable reservoir for storing cleaning fluid. The reservoir is enclosed within a replaceable cartridge fitting within the handle of the cleaning device. The cleaning fluid flows from the reservoir to a discharge nozzle and onto the surface to be cleaned. A fluid controller is also provided to control the flow of fluid from the cartridge.

In many situations, it is desirable to have a cleaning device that incorporates a cleaning head and a reservoir for storing cleaning fluid. With such a device, cleaning fluid can be dispensed onto the surface to be cleaned, and then the cleaning head can be used with the cleaning fluid to clean the surface. Although cleaning devices that combine a cleaning head with a cleaning fluid reservoir are well known, the known devices suffer from at least one of several drawbacks.
Devices such as the devices disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,802,782 to Scalf, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,566,429 to Schulman, utilize gravity feed to discharge the cleaning fluid from a reservoir to a surface to be cleaned. However, gravity feed does not operate properly unless the reservoir is maintained above the cleaning surface. Therefore, when vertical or overhead surfaces are to be cleaned, gravity-fed devices do not operate to properly discharge the cleaning fluid onto the cleaning surface. Additionally, gravity-fed devices lack sufficient fluid pressure to provide a proper spray pattern to disperse the cleaning fluid onto the cleaning surface.
Other known devices pressurize the fluid in the reservoir to overcome the problems associated with gravity-fed devices. However, such devices are either overly bulky and heavy, or are cumbersome to operate. For instance, the device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,053,282 to W. C. Gewalt utilizes a pressure vessel as a cleaning fluid reservoir. The reservoir is pressurized by way of a hand pump. Operation of the device in Gewalt '282 is burdened by the need to operate the hand pump to pressurize the reservoir. Additionally, the pressure vessel adds bulk and weight to the device, making the device more difficult to use, particularly on vertical or overhead surfaces.

Cleaning device with replaceable cleaning fluid reservoir


A multi-valent vaccine composition is described comprising a conjugate of the capsular polysaccharide of H. influenzae b not adsorbed onto an aluminum adjuvant salt, and two or more further bacterial polysaccharides. A multi-valent vaccine composition is also described comprising a whole-cell pertussis component, tetanus toxoid, diphtheria toxoid, Hepatitis B surface antigen, a conjugate of the capsular polysaccharide of H. influenzae b, and a conjugate of a capsular polysaccharide of N. meningitidis type A or C (or both). Furthermore, a multi-valent vaccine composition is described comprising a whole-cell pertussis component, tetanus toxoid, diphtheria toxoid, and a low dose of a conjugate of the capsular polysaccharide of H. influenzae b.

The present invention relates to new combination vaccine formulations. Combination vaccines (which provide protection against multiple pathogens) are very desirable in order to minimise the number of immunisations required to confer protection against multiple pathogens, to lower administration costs, and to increase acceptance and coverage rates. The well-documented phenomenon of antigenic competition (or interference) complicates the development of multi-component vaccines. Antigenic interference refers to the observation that administering multiple antigens often results in a diminished response to certain antigens relative to the immune response observed when such antigens are administered individually.
Combination vaccines are known which can prevent Bordetella pertussis, Clostridium tetani, Corynebacterium diphtheriae, and optionally Hepatitis B virus and/or Haemophilus influenzae type b (see, for instance, WO 93/24148 and WO 97/00697).


A semiconductor device has a semiconductor substrate, an insulating layer on top of the substrate, a lateral field effect transistor with a drain region and a source region arranged in the substrate and a gate arranged above the substrate within the insulating layer, a drain runner arranged on top of the insulator layer above the drain region, a source runner arranged on top of the insulator layer above the source region, a gate runner arranged on top of the insulator layer outside an area defined by the drain runner and the source runner, a first coupling structure with a via for coupling the drain runner with the drain region, and a second coupling structure with a via for coupling the source runner with the source region.

LDMOS transistor structures are widely used as semiconductor devices for many types of transistor applications such as high voltage MOS field effect transistors. An LDMOS transistor comprises a lightly doped drain region to enhance the breakdown voltage. LDMOS transistors are, however, limited in their high frequency performance due to the feedback capacitance Cdg between the gate and the drain. FIG. 1 shows one type of an LDMOS transistor as known in the art. A wafer comprises for example a p+ substrate 1 with an epitaxial layer 12 which includes n-type areas 2 and 3 implanted on the surface to provide a drain and source region, respectively. The backside of the substrate 1 comprises a wafer backside metal layer 9 which can be made of gold or aluminum and is used for grounding and source contact purposes. The epitaxial layer 12 is usually covered with an insulator layer 8 such as silicon oxide in which a polysilicon or silicide gate 4 is arranged to cover the channel between the drain 2 and source 3. On top of this layer is usually a passivation layer 11. Depending on the technology, the source 3 in this exemplary LDMOS transistor may be surrounded by a p-well 5. Electrodes 6 and 7 made of gold or aluminum or any other suitable metal reach through the insulating layer 8 to provide ground and drain potential for the LDMOS device.
To generally reduce a feedback capacitance, it is known to extend the source runner 6 to cover the gate 4 as shown in FIG. 1. Such a so called field plate over the gate 4 effectively decouples the gate drain capacitance Cgd between the gate and the drain but not the gate source capacitance Cgs between the gate and the source runners. In addition, a higher source drain capacitance is created. Furthermore, grounding of the source is needed. To this end, a p+ source implant 10 is provided in a conventional LDMOS transistor. Such a so-called p+ sinker 10 can be created by ion implantation. Effectively, this p+ sinker merges with the p well area 5 and, thus, reaches from the source contact 6 to the backside metal layer 9. As the backside metal layer is grounded, the p+ sinker 10 provides for a connection between the source electrode 6 and ground. This type of connection generates a considerable amount of source resistance which further limits the device's high frequency performance.


In a golf ball comprising a core and a cover of at least one layer enclosing the core, at least one layer of the cover is formed of a resin composition comprising as essential components, (a) a component selected from the group consisting of an olefin-unsaturated carboxylic acid copolymer, an olefin-unsaturated carboxylic acid-unsaturated carboxylic acid ester copolymer, and metal ion-neutralized products of these copolymers, and (b) a binary copolymer consisting of a polyolefin component and a polyamide component.

This invention relates to a golf ball, and more particularly, to a solid golf ball.
A variety of golf balls have hitherto been proposed and marketed, and the recent trend calls for softening the core. However, simply softening the core gives rise to a drawback with respect to durability to cracking by repeated impact.
It was then proposed to form the cover from resin compositions comprising an olefinic resin and a ternary composite material of rubber/polyolefin/polyamide (nylon) components (see JP-A 2002-102390, JP-A 2003-175128, JP-A 2003-180870, JP-A 2003-180877, JP-A 2003-190329, JP-A 2003-210615, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,688,992). They are still insufficient in durability to repeated impact.