A novel gene, AAPK, is disclosed. Loss of function of the protein encoded by AAPK is associated with reduced sensitivity to abscisic acid-induced stomatal closure in plants. Also disclosed are transgenic plants and mutants having altered sensitivity to abscisic acid-mediated transpiration and other desirable agronomic features. The regulation of transpiration provided by the present invention is different from that of previously described mechanisms to control transpiration in plants.

Various scientific and scholarly articles are referred to throughout the specification. These articles are incorporated by reference herein to describe the state of the art to which this invention pertains.
In terrestrial plants, water is transported, from the roots to the leaves, down a water potential gradient from the soil to the air. Transpiration, or loss of water from the leaves, helps create lowered osmotic potential in the leaves, effectively drawing water from the xylem to the mesophyll cells into the air spaces in the leaves. Estimates are that 90% or more of the water taken up by plants is lost to the air via transpiration.
Transpirational loss of water by evaporation occurs mainly through the pores, called stomata, primarily located in the lower epidermis of the leaves. Each stoma is surrounded by two guard cells, which control the opening and closure of the stomata by their relative turgor pressure. The cell wall properties of guard cells allow them to deform such that when the guard cells develop turgor pressure, the stoma is opened, but when the guard cells lose turgor, the stoma closes.
The rate of evaporation of water from the air spaces of the leaf to the outside air depends on the water potential gradient between the leaf and the outside air. Environmental factors which directly influence the aperture of the plant's stomata affect its transpiration rate. Such factors include light conditions, relative humidity of the air, temperature, water status of the plant, CO2 concentration, relative concentration of certain ions, and concentration of abscisic acid (ABA).
Abscisic acid is a multifunctional phytohormone involved in a variety of important protective functions including bud dormancy, seed dormancy and/or maturation, abscission of leaves and fruits, and response to a wide variety of biological stressors (e.g. cold, heat, salinity, and drought). It is also responsible for regulating stomatal closure by a mechanism independent of CO2 concentration.
ABA is synthesized rapidly in response to water stress in plants, and is stored in the guard cells. During drought, ABA alteration of guard cell ion transport promotes stomatal closure and also prevents stomatal opening, thus reducing transpirational water loss. At the biochemical level, it is believed that the hormone sets off a variety of biological messages that require or include a protein phopsphorylation cascade. One member of this cascade was identified in guard cells of Vicia faba as an ABA-activated, calcium-independent protein kinase. (Li & Assmann, Plant Cell 8: 2359–2368, 1996; Mori & Muto, Plant Physiol. 113: 833–839, 1997). The kinase was identified by SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis as a 48 kDa protein, but was not further isolated or characterized. It exhibited ABA-activated autophosphorylation and kinase activity.
Stomata simultaneously regulate both the transpiration of water and the exchange of gases for photosynthesis. Open stomata allow for maximum gas exchange rate so that photosynthetic reactions may proceed more quickly, however under these conditions, water loss will be maximal. On the other hand, closed stomata minimize transpirational water loss but also substantially reduce photosynthetic reaction rates. Paradoxically, the plant undergoes a continual trade-off between maximizing CO2 uptake for carbon fixation, and minimizing desiccating water loss. Thus, the ability to control stomatal opening and closure could be of tremendous agronomic significance.
Several studies in the literature provide examples of the benefits of selecting for increased stomatal conductance under certain conditions. One system that has been studied extensively comprises eight lines of Pima cotton (Gossypium barbadense) obtained over 40 years of selection and showing a 3-fold range in yield. These and additional studies have confirmed the association of higher conductance with higher yield, and its genetic basis, in both Pima and Upland (Gossypium hirsutum) cotton. A similar correlation of increased yield, increased stomatal conductance, and decreased canopy temperatures has also been observed in a historical series of bread wheat cultivars. Taken collectively, this body or research suggests that selection or genetic engineering of plants to achieve increased stomatal conductance may be of widespread utility for crop plants grown under irrigation under supra-optimal temperatures.
The plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA) causes stomatal closure during periods of reduced water availability by reducing the ion and water content of the pair of guard cells that flanks each stoma. However, even when plants are well-watered, ABA still limits stomatal aperture, as shown by the fact that mutants of tomato and Arabidopsis that are deficient in either ABA-production or ABA-sensing have larger stomatal apertures than wild-type plants, even when water is plentiful. In other words, the ABA response is protective; always somewhat limiting to water loss, but thus unavoidably, also limiting to CO2 uptake. This ABA-mediated limitation of water loss is of no benefit however, to the grower who irrigates crops so that they are always well-watered. For those crops, such as many of the agricultural crops that are grown in arid or semi-arid regions, if this endogenous ABA-response of the stomata were "turned off", crop yield could be increased, or the time for the plant to reach maturity decreased by removing the limits on increased CO2 uptake and fixation.
Many crops, for example feed corn and wheat, are dried in the field before harvest. Other crops, such as tobacco and dried fruits such as raisins and prunes, are dried immediately post-harvest. It would be advantageous to growers to be able to accelerate or control the rate of crop drying.
For example, at the end of the growing season, it might be advantageous to dry the plants as quickly as possible, to minimize exposure to adverse weather conditions. However, water stress inevitably triggers ABA production/redistribution in the plant, leading to stomatal closure, which slows the rate of water loss, thus slowing the rate of crop drying. Therefore, it would be advantageous to growers if this ABA-triggered stomatal closure response could be prevented or controlled.
In other cases, post-harvest, for many fruits, vegetables, and for cut-flowers, it is advantageous for the produce to dry out as slowly as possible, to retain freshness during transport, distribution, and purchase of the product. In these situations, it would be advantageous if the ABA-induced stomatal closure response could be enhanced. This could significantly extend the shelf life of the product.
The theoretical solution to the problems posed above is for growers to be able to precisely control the plant's transpiration via ABA-responsiveness of the guard cells/stomata. Ideally this control should be:
1. specific to the guard cells. It should not disrupt the many other effects of ABA on plant growth and development.
2. specific to ABA. There are many other stimuli that guard cells respond to in the control of stomatal aperture, for example, light and decreased intracellular concentrations of CO2 drive stomatal opening, and conversely, darkness and high CO2 concentrations drive stomatal closure. For crops under irrigation for example, the grower would still want the stomata to close in response to darkness, because in darkness there is no photosynthesis anyway, and open stomata during the night would simply waste irrigation water and thus money.
3. inducible, titratable, and reversible. To be of greatest utility, the grower would want to be able to control "when" and "how much" the guard cells respond to ABA. Ideally, the grower would be able to open and close the stomata depending on the prevailing environmental conditions and desired results for his crop.
In present practice, growers have only limited control of rates of water loss from plants, mainly by controlling irrigation regimens in the field, and controlling environmental conditions during shipping, handling and storage of the product. By capitalizing on the present invention, growers could choose when plants would retain their maximum hydrated status (e.g. during times of water restriction, or for shipping of fresh produce), and when plants could be induced to dry out more quickly (e.g. as required for crops that are dried in the field before harvest).
Mutants have been identified in Arabidopsis, which display reduced rates of ABA production (aba mutants; Koornneefet al. 1982, Theor. Appl. Genet. 61:385–393) or ABA sensing (abi mutants; Koomneefet al. 1984 Physiol. Plant. 61:377–383). While these plants exhibit increased rates of water loss, the mutations are pleiotropic and this is a disadvantage. For example, the aba and abi mutants have reduced seed dormancy, and so the viability of the seed is likely to be reduced, a severe problem limiting any commercial application.
The isolation of novel mutants and genes that encode altered ABA-mediation of transpirational water loss will broaden the range of options for growers. It would be particularly advantageous to isolate mutants or genes involved in altered ABA-mediation of transpiration without spontaneously occurring abnormal responses to other roles of ABA or abnormal responses to factors such as light levels and concentrations of CO2. Novel regulatory mutants are likely to have distinct induction of unique subsets of genes. The isolation of mutants will yield the critical gene(s) involved with altered ABA-mediation of transpiration, which can be used to transgenically transfer the novel trait to other species.

Compositions and methods for regulating abscisic acid-induced closure of plant stomata


An intake control device for an internal combustion engine having a body member 1 and a throttle valve 5 disposed within an air passage 4 . The external circular edge of the throttle valve 5 is divided, with a throttle shaft 6 into a first edge portion 5a which moves toward the upstream side of the air passage 4 and a second edge portion 5b which moves toward the downstream side of the air passage 4. On an inner wall 7 of the air passage 4 of the body member 1 are formed an upstream-side spherical wall surface 8 in a position facing the first edge portion 5a and a downstream-side spherical wall surface 9 in a position facing the second edge portion 5b. A first clearance 13 formed between the first edge portion 5a and the upstream-side spherical wall surface 8 is smaller than a second clearance 14 formed between the second edge portion 5b and the downstream-side spherical wall surface; the second edge portion 5b of the throttle valve 5 may not come into contact with the downstream-side spherical wall surface 9 even when a high intake manifold vacuum is built on the downstream side of the throttle valve 5 when the throttle valve 5 is in a position for closing the air passage 4.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an intake control device mounted in an intake air passage of an internal combustion engine, for controlling the quantity of air to be supplied into combustion chambers of the internal combustion engine by a throttle valve.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known in the art that in an intake control device for use in an internal combustion engine provided with a fuel injection system, a throttle body is connected to the upstream side of an intake manifold of the internal combustion engine in which a spherical wall surface is formed in an inner wall of the air passage of the throttle body at a position facing to the external circular edge portion of the throttle valve for controlling the effective surface area of the air passage, for the purpose of stabilizing the operation of the internal combustion engine within a range of low rotational speeds of the engine.
The throttle body shown in FIG. 3 has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Gazette No. 15631/1991, in which a body member 1 of the throttle body is formed in a cylindrical shape provided with an air inlet 2 on the upstream side and an air outlet 3 on the downstream side connected to an intake manifold (not illustrated); an air passage 4 is formed inside of the body member 1 to connect the air inlet 2 to the air outlet 3; and disk-like throttle valve 5 is positioned in the air passage 4 and rotatably supported to the body member 1 by a throttle shaft 6.
The throttle valve 5 is rotated, in accordance with the operation of an accelerator pedal (not illustrated), between a first position indicated by a solid line in FIG. 3, that is, a closed position of the air passage 4, and a second position indicated by a dashed line, that is, a wide-opened position of the air passage 4. The outer peripheral edge of the throttle valve 5 is divided by the throttle shaft 6 as a boundary into a first external circular edge portion 5a which moves toward the upstream side of the air passage 4 and a second external circular edge portion 5b which moves toward the downstream side when the throttle valve 5 rotates from the first position toward the second position.
When the throttle valve 5 is in the first position, the first external circular edge portion 5a and the second external circular edge portion 5b of the throttle valve 5 are located at positions almost in contact with an inner wall 7 which defines the air passage 4 of the body member 1, respectively. The inner wall 7 of the body member 1 is provided with an upstream-side spherical wall surface 8 which is formed protrusively into the air passage 4 on the upstream side from a portion of the inner wall 7 facing to the first external circular edge portion 5a, and also a downstream-side spherical wall surface 9 which is formed protrusively into the air passage 4 on the downstream side from a portion of the inner wall 7 facing to the second external circular edge portion 5b. The upstream-side spherical wall surface 8 and the downstream-side spherical wall surface 9 terminate in positions where the throttle valve 5 has rotated by a predetermined angle from the first position, respectively. The upstream-side spherical wall surface 8 and the downstream-side spherical wall surface 9 are formed in such spherical surfaces that, clearances between the spherical wall portions 8 and 9 and the first and the second external circular edge portions 5a and 5b of the throttle valve 5 increase with an increase in the angle of counterclockwise rotation of the throttle valve 5 from the first position, as indicated by a dot-dash-line in FIG. 3. Accordingly, a rate of increment in the quantity of air to be supplied into the intake manifold of the internal combustion engine remains small during the movement of the external circular edge portions 5a and 5b of the throttle valve 5 along the spherical wall surfaces 8 and 9; when the external circular edge portions 5a and 5b of the throttle valve 5 have moved as far as a position off from the spherical wall surfaces 8 and 9, the rate of increment in the quantity of air supplied into the intake manifold of the internal combustion engine becomes large. In the low-speed and medium-speed ranges of the internal combustion engine, therefore, a slight variation in the angle of rotation of the throttle valve 5 stabilizes engine operation without causing a variation over a target value in the rate of increment in the quantity of air supplied into the intake manifold. In the high speed range, the rate of increment in the quantity of air supplied into the intake manifold can be made high as compared with the rate of increment in the angle of rotation of the throttle valve 5.
When the throttle valve 5 is moved back to, or near to, the first position, with the accelerator pedal released or loosened, during the operation of the internal combustion engine in a high-speed range, the vacuum in the intake manifold, that is, the intake manifold vacuum, increases and accordingly the throttle valve 5 is pulled toward the air outlet 3 located on the downstream side, resulting, at this time, in deflection of the throttle shaft 6 and looseness of the pedestal supporting the throttle shaft 6 to the body member 1. Thus the throttle valve 5 moves toward the air outlet 3 on the downstream side, sometimes causing the second external circular edge portion 5b of the throttle valve 5 to contact the downstream-side spherical wall surface 9. If this contact occurred, there would occur resistance with the rotation of the throttle valve 5 in the direction in which the quantity of air flowing in the air passage 4 increases, disturbing smooth operation of the internal combustion engine.

Intake control device for internal combustion engine


The present invention enables a computer user to select a function represented via a graphical user interface by speaking command related to the function into audio processing circuitry. A voice recognition program interprets the spoken words to determine the function that is desired for execution. The user may use the cursor to identify an element on the graphical user interface display or speak the name of that element. The computer responds to the identification of the element by displaying a menu of the voice commands associated with that element.

The present invention relates to voice recognition techniques for personal computers, and more particularly to utilizing such techniques to input commands to be executed by the computer.
Personal computers often are equipped with a xe2x80x9csound cardxe2x80x9d which is audio processing circuitry mounted on a printed circuit board that plugs into the computer. This enables programs to generate sounds and synthesized speech which are send to speakers connected to the sound card. For example, when the computer presents a warning message to the user that message not only can be displayed on the video monitor, it also can be presented in audio form. Many sound cards also have an input for a microphone which picks-up the user""s voice for digitizing by the audio processing circuitry. Sound cards of this type are used for bidirectional audio communication over the Internet.
The conventional way that a user interfaces with a personal computer utilizes the keyboard and a mouse for entering commands in conjunction with a graphical user interface (GUI) which displays icons, words and other graphical elements on the screen of a video monitor. This type of interface is an alternative to typing commands directly into the keyboard. With a GUI, the mouse is employed to manipulate a cursor over an screen display element which corresponds to a function that the user wishes to select. By pressing a button on the mouse, the computer is informed that the present cursor position indicates the item being selected. The software then can correlate the cursor position with the particular display element to determine the user""s selection.
Voice recognition software has been developed for use in conjunction with personal computer sound cards. This software enables the user to enter information into the computer by speaking that information. For example, the voice recognition software can be used to enter text into a word processor program instead of typing the text on a keyboard. The software is able to learn speech patterns of a particular user and thereafter recognize words being spoken by that user. Thereafter the digitized audio signals produced by the sound card are interpreted to determine the words being spoken and the text equivalent of the words is entered into the word processor program.
The present invention enables a computer user to select display elements of a graphical user interface by speaking commands into a microphone connected to the computer.
This is accomplished by a method which involves selecting a display element that is being presented by the graphical user interface on a monitor screen of the computer. The computer then responds to the selection process by displaying a menu of voice commands which may be used to select functions associated with the chosen display element. The next step of the process involves receiving a phrase spoken by the user and employing voice recognition techniques to determine which one of the voice commands was spoken. Thereafter, the computer executes the function designated by the spoken command.
In one specific embodiment of the voice command system, the step of selecting a display element comprises determining a position of a cursor on the monitor screen and determining which display element is located at that position. In another embodiment, the selecting step comprises receiving a second phrase spoken by the user and applying voice recognition techniques to the second phrase in order to determine the display element being designated.

Voice interaction method for a computer graphical user interface

International Business Machines Corporation


Various implementations described herein are related to a device having multiplier circuitry with an array of summation result cells that holds summation bit values for shifted arrays added together. The device may include latch circuitry having one or more gated elements disposed between the summation result cells, and the gated elements may be adapted to provide a portion of the summation bit values based on a gating signal.

This section is intended to provide information relevant to understanding the various technologies described herein. As the section's title implies, this is a discussion of related art that should in no way imply that it is prior art. Generally, related art may or may not be considered prior art. It should therefore be understood that any statement in this section should be read in this light, and not as any admission of prior art.
In conventional systems, multipliers are typically designed to handle the largest number that needs to be handled by the application, which may cause a large part of the multiplier processing to glitch when handling smaller numbers. These types of multipliers are used in machine learning applications, and these types of multiplier designs typically implement 8-bit logic that is built to handle numbers within a range of 0 to 255 and also numbers within a range of −255 to 0. Also, other multiplier designs may use 9-bit signed logic that is built to handle numbers within a range of −255 to 255. However, these types of multipliers typically exhibit glitching problems due to complicated and inefficient layout designs. As such, there exists a need to improve physical design implementation of some multiplier circuitry so as to provide for more efficient binary multiplication operations.

Modular gated multiplier circuitry and multiplication technique


A process is presented for fabricating a fuel rod including an elongated fuel tube, a lower end plug for sealing one of the openings, and an upper end plug for sealing an opposite opening. The steps include sealing an opening of the aperture by melting the lead portion of the upper end plug in such way that welding is carried out along the lead portion and a welded portion formed by the welding is disposed below the lower portion of the chamfer. The elongated fuel tube has openings at opposite end thereof, and a plurality of fuel pellets inserted therein. The upper end plug has an end face and an outer peripheral surface, a chamfer formed at an intersection between the end face and the outer peripheral surface, an aperture formed in the center of the upper end plug, a groove formed around the aperture, and a lead portion formed between the aperture and the groove.

The present invention relates to a process for fabricating a fuel rod in which opposite ends of a fuel tube containing a plurality of fuel pellets are sealed with end plugs, and especially to an upper end plug used for said process.
In a conventional method for fabricating a fuel rod, a plurality of fuel pellets are inserted into an elongated fuel tube; a lower end plug is pressed into the lower opening of the fuel tube; a coiled-spring is inserted into the upper opening of the fuel tube; then an upper end plug having an aperture is pressed into the upper opening of the fuel tube. Then, the peripheral surfaces of the end plugs are welded to the fuel tube respectively; helium gas is injected into the fuel tube through the aperture; and the aperture is sealed by welding.
For sealing the aperture of the upper end plug in a conventional manner, an arc welding using a tungsten electrode is applied. However, after an arc is generated between the tungsten electrode and the periphery of the aperture, it is difficult to control the directionality of the arc in a limited area on the end face of the upper end plug, causing the arc to move freely on the end face of the upper end plug. As a result, in some cases, the arc causes melting of a shoulder portion of the upper end plug, because the arc often moves radially outwardly away from the center of the aperture, causing an improper melting of the shoulder portion. Therefore, in order to solve the problem such as above, the applicant suggested a method for welding the center of the aperture stably. In the method, an upper end plug is used having a protrusion formed around the periphery of the aperture of the upper end plug. The protrusion is employed as a lead portion for leading an arc generated in a welding (refer to Laid-open number 62-75377). On the other hand, in a conventional manner, the condition of the welding portion is inspected by transmitting X-ray through the welded portion, but it has been desired to change the X-ray inspection to an ultrasonic inspection. However, a chamfer is formed at the intersection between the end face and the outer peripheral surface of the upper end plug. The edge between the chamfer and the outer peripheral surface of the upper end plug is positioned in the inspection area of the ultrasonic beam. This disturbs the ultrasonic beam irradiated to the inspection area, and the stable inspection cannot be achieved. Therefore, it is difficult to irradiate stably the inspected area with ultrasonic beam. Although it is possible not to form the chamfer, the fabricating of the fuel rod and an assembling process for a fuel assembly may be difficult.

Process for fabricating fuel rod and end plug therefor


A modem receiver includes an echo canceller (122), the echo canceller including a near-end echo canceller (128) and a far-end echo canceller (130). The echo canceller also includes a phase jitter tracker (154) arranged to track and generate a phase jitter component associated with the far-end echo.

Presently, modems are used to transport digital data between data terminal equipment such as personal computers, workstations and the like, over channels, such as telephone lines. Typically, the communication signal includes digital data in the form of a carrier signal that is modulated by a predetermined transmit constellation of signal points. Each signal point of the transmit constellation represents a digital code or value to be transported. At the sending modem, a carrier signal is thus modulated at the constellation signal point corresponding to the digital code or value to be transported over the channel. At the receiving modem, the modulated carrier signal may include distortion and other impairments induced as a result of the transmission process. The carrier signal is removed, and a received signal point is then identified from a receive constellation. The digital code or value represented by the signal point may then be obtained from a memory device, such as a look-up table.
The present application is directed to modems employing echo cancellation and may be used, for example, with a full duplex modem. Briefly, a modem with echo cancellation, in accordance with the present invention, is especially applicable for modems having echo cancellers in which the echoes to be cancelled have a substantial phase jitter component.
Echo cancellers enable modems to operate in a full-duplex mode over two-wire lines at higher data rates than would otherwise be practical without echo cancellation. As used herein, the term "echoes" refers to undesirable reflections of a locally-transmitted signal. These reflections are primarily due to impedance discontinuities in the communication channel. For example, such discontinuities often result at an interface between the line and other equipment. Multiple echoes may result when multiple discontinuities are present such as at a local telephone central office, a remote telephone central office, or at the remote line termination. Also, it is well-known that the use of a satellite link in a communication system provides a substantial time delay, and hence echoes, with substantial time delays.
A "near-end" echo refers to an echo having a relatively small time delay, which typically results due to the nearest line discontinuity, such as at the local telephone central office. A "far-end" echo is an echo with a substantially longer time delay, which results from remote line discontinuities. Because the near-end echo has travelled a relatively short distance, it is not common for the near-end echo to have substantial phase jitter.
Near-end and far-end echo cancellers are discussed, for example, in Dennis B. McMahan, "Modem with Improved Remote Echo Location and Cancellation," U.S. Pat. No. 4,970,715, which patent issued on Nov. 13, 1990, which patent is assigned to Universal Data Systems, Inc., the same assignee as in the present application, and which patent is hereby incorporated by reference verbatim, with the same effect as though the same patent were fully and completely set forth herein.
As used herein, "phase jitter" of an echo refers to an echo having a varying phase relative to the phase of the corresponding transmitted signal. One common cause of phase jitter is the coupling of 60 Hertz ("Hz") alternating current ("AC") signal and its harmonics to telephone lines carrying the modem signal. Thus, the 60 Hz AC signal (or its harmonics) modulate the communications signals. Far-end echoes, which must travel substantial distances, thus have a greater chance of including undesired phase jitter.
As is known, the receiver of a modem determines what digital data was transmitted based on the received signal. A receiver may also include an equalizer which attempts to compensate for non-linear amplitude versus frequency characteristics of the communications channel. It is also common for the receiver to include a phase-locked loop ("PLL") to track the carrier frequency of the received signal. A receiver including a frequency-adaptive phase jitter canceller is discussed, for example, in Michael D. Turner et al., "Frequency Adaptive Phase Jitter Canceler," U.S. Pat. No. 4,777,640, which patent issued on Oct. 11, 1988, which patent is assigned to Universal Data Systems, Inc., the same assignee as in the present application, and which patent is hereby incorporated by reference verbatim, with the same effect as though the same patent were fully and completely set forth herein.
A modem echo canceller operates on received or incoming signals and provides an output signal to the receiver in which echoes have been minimized. The echo cancellation function is very important as failure to substantially cancel incoming echoes will result in the receiver having to function with undesired echo signals present in the received signal.
Conventional echo cancellers develop an echo replica signal which corresponds to the average phase and amplitude of the received echoes. The replica signal is then subtracted from the incoming signal which contains desired signals and echoes, thereby cancelling the echoes. Because phase jitter creates varying phases about the average phase of the echo, conventional echo cancellers have not been able to generate a true echo replica which includes the phase jitter variations.
The problem of phase jitter in echo cancellation was recognized, for example, in Gitlin et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,072,830, dated Feb. 7, 1978 ("Gitlin"), at column 1, lines 11-34. Gitlin is typical of a number of prior approaches to echo cancellation which include, as an integral part of the echo cancelling mechanism, a second order phase locked loop. These systems are capable of removing both constant and time-varying phase shifts introduced by the echo path, up to the limits of the algorithm for ensuring loop stability. See, Gitlin, column 6, lines 8-16. In practice, these systems can typically cancel frequency offset of as much as 10 Hz and remove phase jitter in the frequency range of 1 to about 10 Hz. However, phase jitter is typically caused as a result of cross talk from power lines or from telephone company ring generators, which tend to produce phase jitter in the 50-60 Hz region and in the 15-25 Hz region, respectively. Second and third harmonics often accompany these primary frequencies, as well.
In summary, prior modem echo cancellers have been limited in their capacity to address phase jitter, especially when channels having substantial phase jitter are encountered.
Thus there exists a need for a modem with improved echo cancellation which particularly addresses phase jitter.


The object of the present invention is to easily provide an appropriate amount of starting fuel for all-purpose engines, without requiring any special skill. The upstream side and downstream side of a throttle valve in an air intake passage are connected by a bypass. This bypass and a constant-fuel chamber are connected by an increased-fuel passage which is equipped with a check valve. The system is arranged so that the bypass and increased-fuel passage are opened and closed more or less simultaneously by an opening-and-closing valve. The necessary amount of starting fuel can be supplied to the engine in a short time by means of the increased-fuel passage, so that starting can be accomplished by cranking the engine a few times. The flow of air into the constant-fuel chamber from the bypass is prevented by the check valve so that rough idling and the need to expel inflowing air are eliminated; and starting operations may be performed in any desired order.

In most all-purpose two-cycle engines used as a power source in small vehicles and working machinery for agriculture and forestry, etc., fuel is supplied by means of a diaphragm type carburetor equipped with a constant-fuel chamber. The constant-fuel chamber is separated from the atmosphere by a diaphragm which adjusts fuel introduced from a fuel pump to a constant pressure, and feeds the fuel into the air intake passage.
In such diaphragm type carburetors, a means (generally a manual starting pump) for feeding out an extra amount of fuel into the air intake passage prior to the starting of the engine or for introducing a prescribed amount of fuel into the constant-fuel chamber, is provided in addition to the ordinary main fuel system and low-speed fuel system. The extra fuel thus provided improves the starting characteristics of the engine at low temperatures.
Carburetors equipped with such starting pumps typically include suction-type carburetors in which the action of the starting pump causes the fuel to flow from the fuel tank, through the fuel pump, into the constant-fuel chamber (or air intake passage), and finally to the starting pump. An example of a suction-type carburator is described in Japanese Patent Application Kokai No. Sho 55-69748), herein incorporated by reference. Push type carburetors operate by pushing the fuel from the fuel tank to the starting pump, into the fuel pump, and then to the constant-fuel chamber (or outside overflow). An example of such a system as seen in Japanese Patent Application Kokai No. Sho 47-38218, is incorporated herein by reference.
When the engine is cranked with starting fuel collected in the air intake passage or constant-fuel chamber as described above, the starting fuel flows toward the engine as a result of the negative pressure of the intake air. However, at low temperatures, the evaporization of the fuel is difficult and this flow becomes liquid flow. The liquid flow is propagated along the walls of the air intake passage or the walls of the intake manifold requiring a large quantity of starting fuel, especially at extremely low temperatures.
One conceivable method of dealing with this problem in a carburetor in which starting fuel is caused to flow out and collect in the air intake passage is to vary the number of times that the starting pump is operated depending on the engine temperature. However, a high degree of precision is required to cause an appropriate amount of starting fuel to flow out and collect in the air intake passage; accordingly, such a method is not generally practical. Also, another problem for systems in which starting fuel is accumulated and held in the constant-fuel chamber is the extremely small diameters of the idle port and main nozzle which cause the fuel to be sucked out into the air intake passage by the negative pressure of the intake air. As a result, the necessary amount of starting fuel cannot be supplied to the engine unless cranking is repeated numerous times.
The present invention solves the abovementioned problems encountered in conventional starting fuel supplying means in which cranking is performed after a starting pump is operated to improve cold starting performance by accumulation starting fuel in the air intake passage or constant-fuel chamber. In particular, the present invention solves the difficulty of maintaining an appropriate amount of starting fuel in the air intake passage, and prevents the need to perform cranking numerous times in order to suck the necessary amount of starting fuel out of the constant-fuel chamber. The present invention provides an easy-to-operate starting fuel supply device which makes it possible to supply the necessary amount of starting fuel held in the constant-fuel chamber to the engine in a short time so that low-temperature starting can be easily and reliably accomplished without the need for any particular skill.

Starting system for diaphragm carburetor


Methods and apparatus for preventing an IP address from being assigned to a client implementing a protocol such as DHCP are disclosed. This is particularly useful in an environment such as a Mobile IP environment in which a network device (e.g., Access Point) performs proxy registration on behalf of the client. When the client transmits a detection packet to detect whether its IP address is still valid (e.g., whether it is on the same sub-network on which the IP address was allocated), a response is transmitted to the client that indicates that the client is still on its home network. This response is transmitted regardless of whether the client is still on its home network. Since the client believes it is still on its home network, a new IP address will not be assigned to the client. As a result, an existing Mobile IP session will not be interrupted.

The present invention relates to Mobile IP network technology. More particularly, the present invention relates to maintaining a Mobile IP session on clients running a protocol such as DHCP on a system such as the Microsoft Windows™ operating system
Mobile IP is a protocol which allows laptop computers or other mobile computer units (referred to as "Mobile Nodes" herein) to roam between various sub-networks at various locations—while maintaining internet and/or WAN connectivity. Without Mobile IP or a related protocol, a Mobile Node would be unable to stay connected while roaming through various sub-networks. This is because the IP address required for any node to communicate over the internet is location specific. Each IP address has a field that specifies the particular sub-network on which the node resides. If a user desires to take a computer which is normally attached to one sub-network and roam with it so that it passes through different sub-networks, it cannot use its home base IP address. As a result, a business person traveling across the country cannot merely roam with his or her computer across geographically disparate network segments or wireless nodes while remaining connected over the internet. This is not an acceptable state-of-affairs in the age of portable computational devices.
To address this problem, the Mobile IP protocol has been developed and implemented. An implementation of Mobile IP is described in RFC 3344 of the Network Working Group, C. Perkins, Ed., "IP Mobility Support for IPv4," August 2002. Mobile IP is also described in the text "Mobile IP Unplugged" by J. Solomon, Prentice Hall. Both of these references are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties and for all purposes.
The Mobile IP process in a Mobile IPv4 environment are illustrated in FIG. 1. As shown there, a Mobile IP environment 2 includes the internet (or a WAN) 4 over which a Mobile Node 6 can communicate remotely via mediation by a Home Agent 8 and may also include a Foreign Agent 10. In the absence of a Foreign Agent in a Mobile IPv4 environment, or in a Mobile IPv6 environment in which a Foreign Agent is not implemented, the Mobile Node 6 can obtain a topologically correct IP address (i.e., collocated IP address) and register this IP address with the Home Agent. (In a Mobile IPv6 environment, this is accomplished via an Access Router rather than a Foreign Agent.) Typically, the Home Agent and Foreign Agent are routers or other network connection devices performing appropriate Mobile IP functions as implemented by software, hardware, and/or firmware. A particular Mobile Node (e.g., a laptop computer) plugged into its home network segment connects with the internet through its designated Home Agent. When the Mobile Node roams, it communicates via the internet through an available Foreign Agent. Presumably, there are many Foreign Agents available at geographically disparate locations to allow wide spread internet connection via the Mobile IP protocol. Note that it is also possible for the Mobile Node to register directly with its Home Agent.
As shown in FIG. 1, Mobile Node 6 normally resides on (or is "based at") a network segment 12 which allows its network entities to communicate over the internet 4 through Home Agent 8 (an appropriately configured router denoted R2). Note that Home Agent 8 need not directly connect to the internet. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, it may be connected through another router (a router R1 in this case). Router R1 may, in turn, connect one or more other routers (e.g., a router R3) with the internet.
Now, suppose that Mobile Node 6 is removed from its home base network segment 12 and roams to a remote network segment 14. Network segment 14 may include various other nodes such as a PC 16. The nodes on network segment 14 communicate with the internet through a router which doubles as Foreign Agent 10. Mobile Node 6 may identify Foreign Agent 10 through various solicitations and advertisements which form part of the Mobile IP protocol. When Mobile Node 6 engages with network segment 14, Foreign Agent 10 relays a registration request to Home Agent 8 (as indicated by the dotted line "Registration"). The Home and Foreign Agents may then negotiate the conditions of the Mobile Node's attachment to Foreign Agent 10. For example, the attachment may be limited to a period of time, such as two hours. When the negotiation is successfully completed, Home Agent 8 updates an internal "mobility binding table" which specifies the care-of address (e.g., a collocated care-of address or the Foreign Agent's IP address) in association with the identity of Mobile Node 6. Further, the Foreign Agent 10 updates an internal "visitor table" which specifies the Mobile Node address, Home Agent address, etc. In effect, the Mobile Node's home base IP address (associated with segment 12) has been shifted to the Foreign Agent's IP address (associated with segment 14).
Now, suppose that Mobile Node 6 wishes to send a message to a Correspondent Node 18 from its new location. In Mobile IPv4, a message from the Mobile Node is then packetized and forwarded through Foreign Agent 10 over the internet 4 and to Correspondent Node 18 (as indicated by the dotted line "packet from MN") according to a standard internet protocol. If Correspondent Node 18 wishes to send a message to Mobile Node—whether in reply to a message from the Mobile Node or for any other reason—it addresses that message to the IP address of Mobile Node 6 on sub-network 12. The packets of that message are then forwarded over the internet 4 and to router R1 and ultimately to Home Agent 8 as indicated by the dotted line ("packet to MN(1)"). From its mobility binding table, Home Agent 8 recognizes that Mobile Node 6 is no longer attached to network segment 12. It then encapsulates the packets from Correspondent Node 18 (which are addressed to Mobile Node 6 on network segment 12) according to a Mobile IP protocol and forwards these encapsulated packets to a "care of" address for Mobile Node 6 as shown by the dotted line ("packet to MN(2)"). The care-of address may be, for example, the IP address of Foreign Agent 10. Foreign Agent 10 then strips the encapsulation and forwards the message to Mobile Node 6 on sub-network 14. The packet forwarding mechanism implemented by the Home and Foreign Agents is often referred to as "tunneling." In the absence of a Foreign Agent, packets are tunneled directly to the Mobile Node 6 collocated care-of address.
Since a node may not support Mobile IP, a node that changes its location within a network cannot initiate registration with its Home Agent. Proxy mobile IP support (i.e., proxy registration) may therefore be performed by an Access Point on behalf of the node. An Access Point (AP) is the center point in an all-wireless network or serves as a connection point between a wired and a wireless network. Multiple APs can be placed throughout a facility to give users with WLAN adapters the ability to roam freely throughout an extended area while maintaining uninterrupted access to all network resources. Once a node is registered with a Home Agent, packets may be forwarded by the Home Agent to the Foreign Agent. Moreover, the AP may also redirect packets sent by the node to the Foreign Agent, enabling the redirected packets to be sent to the appropriate destination by the Foreign Agent. Application Ser. No. 10/080,995, entitled "METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR SUPPORTING PROXY MOBILE IP REGISTRATION IN A WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORK," by inventors Wang et al, filed on Feb. 20, 2002, which discloses a method of supporting proxy registration by an Access Point, is incorporated by reference for all purposes.
In order to send a registration request on behalf of the node, the Access Point needs the node's IP address and Home Agent address (i.e., default gateway) in order to compose a registration request packet. In addition, the Access Point also ascertain's the node's sub-network network mask (i.e., netmask) in order to ascertain whether Mobile IP proxy services are required. Specifically, when the Access Point determines from the source address of a data packet and the netmask that the node is located on the subnet identical to the subnet of the Access Point, no Mobile IP service is required on behalf of the node as shown at block. However, when the Access Point determines from the source address that the node is not located on the subnet of the Access Point, proxy Mobile IP service is performed by the Access Point is performed on behalf of the node.
Thus, the Access Point acts as a proxy Mobile Node to register a client (i.e., node) with its Home Agent. Specifically, the Access Point identifies or allocates a Home Agent and sends a registration request to the Home Agent to establish a Mobile IP session on behalf of the client. The client receives packets addressed to its home address throughout the Mobile IP session. In this manner, a Mobile Node may roam while maintaining connectivity to the network.
Clients running the Microsoft Windows™ operating system currently include a feature termed the "media sense" feature. The media sense feature detects the "link state" of the network media. When this feature senses that the network media on which it is running has undergone a state change, then it will activate the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) in order to obtain a new IP address. In a Wireless LAN mobile network, as a Microsoft™ client roams from a wireless Access Point to another wireless Access Point, the media sense feature is triggered, thus causing the dynamic host configuration protocol to get activated. When the dynamic host configuration protocol is activated, a new IP address on the new subnet is allocated to the client. As a result, the client cannot maintain its Mobile IP session, which is associated with its prior IP address.
In view of the above, it would be desirable if a Mobile IP session could be maintained on clients running a protocol such as DHCP on a system such as the Microsoft Windows™ operating system. More particularly, it would be beneficial if proxy Mobile IP could be supported on clients running a protocol such as DHCP on a system such as the Microsoft Windows™ operating system.

Method for supporting mobility for dynamic windows clients in a wireless LAN network


A process is provided for simultaneous selective hydrogenation of diolefins and nitriles from a hydrocarbon feedstock, wherein hydrogenation is carried out using a catalyst in one reactor zone while partially deactivated catalyst in another reactor zone is regenerated.

The invention relates to a process for simultaneous selective hydrogenation of diolefins and nitriles using a plurality of reactors or reactor zones.
There are known in the art processes and catalysts for hydrogenating unsaturated compounds in liquid hydrocarbon feedstocks. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,152,351, 4,271,323 and 4,734,540 each disclose processes whereby particular elements of a hydrocarbon feedstock are hydrogenated.
It is particularly desirable to hydrogenate diolefin and nitrile contaminants which may be present in hydrocarbon feedstocks. During the course of treatment of feedstocks for hydrogenation of diolefins and nitriles, however, the catalysts employed in the process gradually become spent or deactivated. Conventionally, the catalyst must be withdrawn from the reaction bed or other apparatus used during treatment so as to replace and/or regenerate the catalyst. This results in significant delays of the hydrogenation process.
The need remains for a method or process of regenerating a spent or partially spent catalyst which reduces the delays of the hydrogenation process.
It is therefore the primary object of the present invention to provide a process for regenerating a hydrogenation catalyst.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a process for regenerating a hydrogenation catalyst wherein the catalyst is regenerated in the hydrogenation reactor bed.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a process for regenerating a hydrogenation catalyst wherein the catalyst is regenerated to a substantial level with respect to original activity.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a process for treating a feedstock including diolefin and nitrile fractions, wherein the catalyst is regenerated in the reaction bed when deactivated to a certain level.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a process for treating a feedstock such as an FCC feedstock in multiple reactor zones wherein the catalyst in one zone is regenerated while another zone is used to treat feedstock.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will appear hereinbelow.

Process for the simultaneous selective hydrogenation of diolefins and nitriles in multiple reactor units


In a masking system a robot performs first conveyance work of making an object gripping unit grip an object and set the object at a predetermined position based on positional information of the object which was detected by a first detection unit, coating work of making a coating unit coat an adhesive on a masking location of the object which is set at the predetermined position, and second conveyance work of making a masking piece gripping unit adhere a masking piece to the masking location of the object based on positional information of the masking piece which was detected by a second detection unit.

If there is a place where paint is not desired in painting work, that place is covered with masking tape. Alternatively, that place is covered by a masking sheet and the ends of the masking sheet are attached by masking tape.
Further, in Japanese Patent Publication (A) No. 6-99118, a masking member is placed on one surface of the object to be painted and magnets are placed at the other surface so as to fasten the masking member in place. With this technique, the masking member will not shift at the time of painting. Further, the masking member can be easily attached and detached.
However, when using only masking tape and when attaching a masking sheet by masking tape, masking a desired shape is troublesome. Skill on the part of the worker becomes necessary. The same is true even if using a masking material comprised of a polyethylene or polyurethane resin etc.
Further, when coating a masking member together with the workpiece, it is difficult to accurately trace the shape of the workpiece. This can become a cause of a drop in painting quality. Further, the technique of using magnets to fasten a masking member such as in Japanese Patent Publication (A) No. 6-99118 sometimes cannot be applied depending on the material or shape of the workpiece, so lacks general applicability.
The present invention was made in consideration of this situation and has as its object the provision of a system facilitating masking work for all types of workpieces without requiring skill on the part of the worker.


A reduction gear includes a shaft that has a gear portion and a ring gear that is mounted on the shaft at a position away from the gear portion. The shaft has at the position in the outer periphery thereof a plurality of stepped first teeth arranged along the circumferential direction of the shaft. Each first tooth has a lower portion and a higher portion that is higher than and contiguous to the lower portion in the axial direction of the shaft, and the higher portion having a step surface that is contiguous to the lower portion. The ring gear has in the inner periphery thereof a plurality of second teeth arranged along the inner circumference of the ring gear, and the second teeth are fitted to grooves between the first teeth through splines. The second teeth are set in contact with the step surfaces of the first teeth.

The present invention relates to a reduction gear.
Japanese Patent Application Publication 2005-29117 discloses a conventional reduction gear that includes a pinion spur gear connected to a motor shaft and a large spur gear meshing with the pinion gear. The large spur gear includes a shaft portion, a flange portion and a gear portion. A sun gear is integrally formed with the shaft portion. The sun gear meshes with a plurality of planetary gears, and each planetary gear meshes with a ring gear.
In the above-described reduction gear, the shaft portion and flange portion of the large spur gear are formed integrally. This configuration makes the shape of the large spur gear complex and the manufacturing of the large spur gear difficult, with the result that the production cost may increase. Therefore, it is desirable to form the shaft portion of the large spur gear with which the sun gear is formed integrally and the flange portion having a gear portion separately.
In assembling a shaft having a gear portion and a ring gear that is provided separately from the shaft, the shaft and the ring gear may be fixed together by press-fit, shrink fit, expansion fit or spline fit. With such press-fit, shrink fit and expansion fit, when large torque is transmitted from the ring gear to the shaft, relative rotation may occur between the shaft and the ring gear due to slipping of the ring gear on the shaft. Although the spline fit may prevent the ring gear from slipping relative to the shaft, the shaft and the ring gear are likely to be dislocated relative to each other in the axial direction, so that precise positioning of the shaft and the ring gear in the axial direction becomes difficult.
The present invention, which has been made in light of the above problems, is directed to providing a reduction gear that prevents the relative rotation of the shaft and a ring gear and permits precise positioning of the shaft and the ring gear in the axial direction thereof.


A laminated gas sensor element extending in a longitudinal direction and having a detection part including a plate-shaped element body which has a heater layer having an embedded resistance heating body and a detection layer laminated to the heater layer and having a vertical surface along a lamination direction and a horizontal surface perpendicular to the lamination direction; and a porous protective layer coating the vertical surface and the horizontal surface of the element body constituting the detection part, wherein a thickness of the protective layer formed on the vertical surface is thicker than a thickness of the protective layer formed on the horizontal surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laminated gas sensor element and a gas sensor incorporating the laminated gas sensor element.
2. Description of the Related Art
A laminated gas sensor element is known as an element of a gas sensor for measuring a concentration or detecting a specific gas component contained in the exhaust gas of an internal combustion engine, etc. Since a solid electrolyte such as zirconia used in this laminated gas sensor element becomes active at a high temperature of 300° C. or more, the solid electrolyte is normally used in a state in which it is heated by a heater laminated to the solid electrolyte. As a result, when oil drops or water drops in a measuring object gas adhere to the gas sensor element, cracking sometimes occurs due to thermal shock. A technique for protecting a detection part of the gas sensor element exposed to the measuring object gas by means of a porous protective layer is known in order to solve this problem. For example, a technique for preventing the occurrence of cracking by thickening a protective layer in the corner of a gas sensor element is known (Patent Reference 1). Also, a technique for suppressing an increase in volume and suppressing thermal shock by making a horizontal width dimension of the top of a gas sensor element having a detection part smaller than that of the other portion and coating a surface along a lamination direction with a protective layer is known (Patent Reference 2).
[Patent Reference 1] JP-A-2003-322632
[Patent Reference 2] JP-A-2006-343297
3. Problems Solved by the Invention
However, the above described techniques have a few disadvantages. That is, the inventor of the present application found that cracking tends to occur at a boundary part between layers constituting a gas sensor element. Concretely, when a protective layer is not formed at the boundary part and the boundary part is exposed or a protective layer with a sufficient thickness is not disposed at the boundary part, oil drops or water drops in a measuring object gas adhere to the boundary part. As a result, thermal shock is imparted due to a difference in thermal shrinkage between mutual layers and a crack sometimes occurs in the layer. On the other hand, the cracking described above can be suppressed by thickening of a protective layer. However, this results in an increase in volume with an increase in the thickness of the protective layer. Consequently, a long activation time is required to heat the sensor element to a predetermined (activation) temperature at which the solid electrolyte is activated. Namely, the longer activation temperature becomes a factor in inhibiting speedy startup of a gas sensor.

Laminated gas sensor element and gas sensor


Mass data is managed as data files in a mass data storage device. Each data file is formed or plural data blocks. Upon editing of a data file, the data content of each data block forming the file is examined. If the data content of a data block is less than a predetermined value, data from one or more adjacent data blocks is extracted and placed in the one data block so that the data content thereof will be at least the predetermined constant value. In this manner, the data content of blocks forming a file is maintained at or above a predetermined level.

The present invention generally relates to a file management apparatus and method for managing as a data file a large amount of information, such as picture data or audio data, to effect an editing operation.
In recent years, the information processing system has been used in the processing of digital audio data and digital moving picture data. As such, the need has arisen to manage such a large quantity of data as a computer file to facilitate high speed editing of the data.
It is particularly desired that the data management apparatus and method be capable of managing the data in a processable form at a high speed.
The conventional embodiment of the above described data management apparatus and method will be described hereinafter with reference to the FIGS. 8 and 9.
FIG. 8 is a conceptual diagram of the conventional data management apparatus.
Referring to FIG. reference numeral 21 denotes a storage means for storing the data, reference numeral 22 denotes an input-output means for inputting and outputting the data into and from the storage means 21, and reference numeral 23 denotes a management means for managing the data stored in the storage means 21 via the input-output means 22. Reference numeral 24, located within the management means 23, denotes a data management means for dividing the memory areas in the storage means 21 into a plurality of blocks of constant size and for managing each block, and reference numeral 25 denotes a block management means for managing a plurality of blocks as one file.
The operation of the conventional data management apparatus as configured above and the conventional data management method will now be described.
The data management means 24 within the management means 23 manages adjacent memory areas in the storage means 21 as a block. The block management means 25 obtains for the respective blocks storage location information in the storage means 21 from the data management means 24, and manages logical concatenation information so that one file may be configured of a plurality of blocks.
When an access operation is effected to output one file, the management means 23 first refers to the block concatenation information for each of the files managed by the block management means 25. Then, information denoting the location within the storage means 21 of the respective blocks is obtained from the data management means 24 to drive the input-output means 22 to sequentially access the respective blocks stored in the storage means 21, so that the data of each block configuring the file from the storage means 21 may be sequentially outputted.
FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the relationship between the data management information of the management means 23 and the data of the storage means 21. The operation of the management means 23 will now be described.
In FIG. 9, reference numeral 21 denotes a storage means for storing the data, reference numeral 26 denotes a system memory for storing information for effecting the data management, reference numeral 27 denotes one file in the storage means 21 composed of data blocks 27a, 27b and 27c. Reference numeral 28 denotes a data block address storage part, which is located in the system memory 26, storing the storage means addresses of the data blocks 27a, 27b, 27c configuring the file 27. The block management means 25 obtains the address denoting the storage location of the data blocks 27a through 27c from the data management means 24 and respectively stores them at the elements 28a, 28b, 28c of the data block address storage part 28.
The management means 23 reads respectively from the composing elements 28a, 28b, 28c of the data block address storage part 28 the storage means 21 addresses of the data blocks 27a, 27b, 27c configuring the file 27. The management means 23 may manage the file 27 through accessing of the storage means 21 in accordance with read address information, number information and sequential information thereof.
The editing of the file will now be described by way of an example of the depletion of a data block from the file. When the data block 27b is deleted from the file 27, the management means 23 deletes the element 28b storing the address of the data block 27b from the data block address storage part 28 so as to write the address of the data block 27c stored in the element 28c into the element 28b of the data block address storage part 28. The data block 27b is deleted from the file 27 in this manner.
However, in such a method as described above, in a worst case all the elements 28a, 28b, 28c constituting the data block address storage part 28 must be rewritten in the editing operation of the file. When the number of the data blocks constituting the file 27 increases, such editing operations can severely hamper the processing speed of the system, thus creating a problem in that the demand for high speed editing of a mass file cannot be satisfied.

Two level indexing method for accessing data blocks having first pointer to single location containing second pointers to the data blocks

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A method for determining intellectual property value, includes creating a source of patent data; and analyzing the data to determine a patent value. Also disclosed is an instruction set executable on a machine that includes a processor and a memory. The instruction set executable on the machine to cause to the machine to: create a source of patent data; and to analyze the data to determine a patent value. A media carrying an instruction set executable on a machine. The machine includes a processor, and a memory associated with the processor. The instruction set is executable on the processor to cause to the machine to: create a source of patent data; and analyze the data to determine a patent value.

Fixed assets are physical items that an organization owns, which includes machinery, infrastructure, and land. Intangible assets are non-physical items, including patents, trademarks, goodwill and copyrights. Intangible assets are larger than tangible assets for a growing range of organizations. Patents are a highly visible and well documented part of intangible assets, and valuing an organization's patents is an important direct and indirect measure of an organization's current value, and their ability to grow.
Unfortunately, patents are difficult to value. One approach to evaluating a group of patents is performing an expert assessment of the patents, their related art, and their prosecution history. Expert assessment of patent value is expensive and time-consuming, and is only used for a limited number of patents. Most patent valuations are very subjective and are based on several approaches which can vary widely in accuracy.
In some instances, simple metrics are used to aid in valuation of a patent or patent portfolio. Simple metrics have limited utility, since many of these metrics are lagging or indirect measures, or both. Another challenge with using simple metrics for patent value is that some of the key metrics can be easily manipulated. Inventors and companies can manipulate the data by improperly citing their own patents in cases. Law firms may do the same and then tout that they write stronger patents based on the number of citations to patents they have written when in fact they may use a software package to cite every patent within a family to new members of the family or to newly drafted cases. For example, it is possible for an inventor or group of inventors to focus on generating many patents, and to increase forward citations through self-citations. It is less likely that these patents would have as high of an average value than a well-culled set of inventions.
What is needed is a timely, quick, and accurate method of assessing the value of patents. Furthermore, a method is needed for assessing the contributions and likely future contributions of both individual and groups of inventors.

Method and apparatus for determining inventor impact


A battery management system to estimate a state of charge of a battery and a driving method thereof includes a sensing unit and a micro control unit. The sensing unit measures a battery voltage. The MCU measures a first time and a second time, detects first and second battery voltages that respectively correspond to the first and second times from the battery voltage, estimates an open circuit voltage by the first and second voltages, and establishes the SOC that corresponds to the OCV.

1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to a battery management system. More particularly, aspects of the present invention relate to a battery management system used in a vehicle using electrical energy.
2. Description of the Related Art
Vehicles having an internal combustion engine run with gasoline or heavy oil have caused serious air pollution. Accordingly, various efforts to develop electric or hybrid vehicles have recently been made to reduce air pollution.
An electric vehicle uses an electric motor powered by electrical energy output by a battery. Since the electric vehicle mainly uses a battery formed by one battery pack including a plurality of rechargeable/dischargeable secondary cells, advantages thereof includes no emission gases and less noise.
A hybrid vehicle commonly refers to a gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle which uses gasoline to power an internal-combustion engine and a battery to power an electric motor. Recently, hybrid vehicles that use an internal-combustion engine and fuel cells, and hybrid vehicles that use a battery and fuel cells have been developed. The fuel cells directly obtain electrical energy by generating a chemical reaction while hydrogen and oxygen are continuously provided.
Since battery performance directly affects a vehicle that uses electrical energy of the battery, each battery cell of the battery should perform well. Also, a battery management system (BMS) should measure a voltage and a current of the overall battery to efficiently manage charging/discharging operations of each battery cell.
In general, the battery management system uses a data table containing a relationship data of an open circuit voltage (OCV) to a state of charge (SOC) to estimate the SOC. When using the data table, the OCV should be precisely measured so as to precisely calculate the SOC.
When a vehicle is driven at a fixed speed or is stopped, and a charging and discharging operation of the battery is not performed, the OCV may not be precisely measured due to polarization of internal resistance of the battery. A time to dissipate the polarization should be sufficient to precisely measure the OCV. However, it is difficult to be guaranteed of such a time when a hybrid vehicle is driven. Accordingly, an error in the OCV measured during an insufficiently short time may cause an error in the calculating of the SOC.
In addition, since an error in controlling the battery to be charged and discharged is generated when an error in calculating the SOC occurs, the battery may be overcharged or over-discharged, which seriously affects battery performance.

Battery management system and driving method thereof


An apparatus for retrieving the desired information from files provided with a shift register (294) having a predetermined number of stages for receiving and transferring the data read out of files, a key register (292) having a predetermined number of stages for registering the retrieval key, a comparator (296) for comparing each data in the key register with each dater in the corresponding shift register, and a logical operation circuit (297) which generates and outputs a match signal relating to the coincidence or mismatch of the retrieval key in the key register with a data array in the corresponding shift register.

So far information retrieval using computers has been in general carried out. In the information retrieval using computers, each processing is executed according to software (programs). Consequently, in the execution of individual processing it is required to take many steps such as the read and interpretation of programs from memory, the read of data from files and the write of calculation results into memory. Thus, even in the simplest procedure, processing time which is five to six times as long as the memory access time is required and the procedures requiring over several-thousand times the access time are not scarce. As a result, despite numerous improvements that have sofar been made to softwares and hardwares, in the retrieval apparatus using computers, those having a satisfactory high speed, that is, those capable of extracting desired information out of voluminous information groups almost instantly have not yet been realized.
In the past, to compensate for the slow-speed software processing, preconstituting the files in the form that conform to the retrieval mode has been generally executed. The files constituted into such a special form is called a data base. However, the data base has such a demerit that its form limits the retrievable range, thus susceptible to overlooking the information. For example, assume that a data base divided into blocks according to each person's name has been configured pursuant to the retrieval mode of extracting the information concerning a person with the person's name as a key. When a retrieval has been conducted with a specific person's name as a key, the block of the person's name will be detected, and the information recorded in the block will be taken out However, because the block of other person's name cannot be discovered, even if the information related to the person keyed in that block has been recorded, it is not possible to find out the information.
Thus, because the conventional information retrieval apparatus conducts the processing using software, a satisfactory high-speed retrieval was not available sofar. Further, to compensate for the low speed, a database of specific form needs to be configured. However, the retrievable range will be restricted thereby, and there was a fear of overlooking the information.
Therefore, the major purpose of this invention is to achieve a satisfactory retrieval of extremely high speed by means of hardware alone without relying on software.
A secondary purpose of this invention is to make the whole range of files retrievable in a short time through an extremely high retrieval speed, thus obviating the need for the data-base fabrication and also eliminating the passibility of overlooking the information. Another secondary purpose of this invention is to make possible the extraction of desired information from volumirous information groups in a short time with an extremely high retrieval speed, thereby enabling simply the realization of a high-grade information processing system, for example, an expert system, a voice recognition apparatus and an automatic translation machine which hitherto needed complex software, without using high-grade softwares.

Information retrieval apparatus and information editing system using the same


The present disclosure provides a tuning system for tuning the operation of a gas turbine. The system comprises operational turbine controls for controlling operational control elements of the turbine, including at least one of turbine fuel distribution or the fuel temperature. The system also has a tuning controller communicating with the turbine controls. The tuning controller is configured to tune the operation of the turbine in accordance with the following steps: receiving operational data about the turbine, providing a hierarchy of tuning issues, determining whether sensed operational data is within predetermined operational limits and producing one or more indicators. If the operational data is not within predetermined operational limits, the tuning controller will rank the one or more indicators to determine dominant tuning concern, and tune the operation of the turbine based on dominant tuning concern. Also provided herein are a method and computer readable medium for tuning.

Lean premixed combustion systems have been deployed on land based gas turbine engines to reduce emissions, such as NOx and CO. These systems have been successful and, in some cases, produce emission levels that are at the lower limits of measurement capabilities, approximately 1 to 3 parts per million (ppm) of NOx and CO. Although these systems are a great benefit from a standpoint of emission production, the operational envelope of the systems is substantially reduced when compared to more conventional combustion systems. As a consequence, the control of fuel conditions, distribution and injection into the combustion zones has become a critical operating parameter and requires frequent adjustment, when ambient atmospheric conditions, such as temperature, humidity and pressure, change. The re-adjustment of the combustion fuel conditions, distribution and injection is termed tuning.
Controlled operation of a combustion system generally employs a manual setting of the operational control settings of a combustor to yield an average operational condition. These settings may be input through a controller, which as used herein shall mean any device used to control the operation of a system. Examples include a Distributed Control System (DCS), a gas turbine controller, a programmable logical controller (PLC), a stand-alone computer with communication to another controller and/or directly to a system.
These settings are satisfactory at the time of the setup, but conditions may change when tuning issues arise and cause an unacceptable operation in a matter of hours or days. Tuning issues are any situation whereby any operational parameters of a system are in excess of acceptable limits. Examples include emissions excursion outside of allowable limits, combustor dynamics excursion outside of allowable limits, or any other tuning event requiring adjustment of a turbine's operational control elements. Other approaches use a formula to predict emissions based on a gas turbine's operating settings and select a set point for fuel distribution and/or overall machine fuel/air ratio, without modifying other control elements, such as fuel gas temperature. These approaches do not allow for timely variation, do not take advantage of actual dynamics and emission data or do not modify fuel distribution, fuel temperature and/or other turbine operating parameters.
Another variable that impacts the lean premixed combustion system is fuel composition. Sufficient variation in fuel composition will cause a change in the heat release of the lean premixed combustion system. Such change may lead to emissions excursions, unstable combustion processes, or even blow out of the combustion system.
Mis-operation of the combustion system manifests itself in augmented pressure pulsations or an increase in combustion dynamics (hereinafter, combustion dynamics may be indicated by the symbol "δP"). Pulsations can have sufficient force to destroy the combustion system and dramatically reduce the life of combustion hardware. Additionally, improper tuning of the combustion system can lead to emission excursions and violate emission permits. Therefore, a means to maintain the stability of the lean premixed combustion systems, on a regular or periodic basis, within the proper operating envelope, is of great value and interest to the industry. Additionally, a system that operates by utilizing near real-time data, taken from the turbine sensors, would have significant value to coordinate modulation of operational control elements such as fuel distribution, fuel gas inlet temperature and/or overall machine fuel/air ratio.
While real-time tuning of a combustion system can provide tremendous operational flexibility and protection for turbine hardware, a combustion system may concurrently experience a number of different operational issues. For example, most turbine operators of lean premixed combustion systems are concerned with exhaust emissions (NOx and CO) as well as combustor dynamics. It is not uncommon for both high NOx emissions and high combustor dynamics to coexist on a turbine. Additionally, tuning in response to one concern can make other constraints worse, for example tuning for low NOx can make combustor dynamics worse, tuning for high CO can make NOx worse, etc. It would be beneficial to provide a system whereby an algorithm is used to compare the current status of all tuning concerns, rank each concern in order of importance, determine the operational concern of most interest, and subsequently commence automated tuning to remediate this dominant operational concern.

Automated tuning of gas turbine combustion systems


A method for controlling and monitoring instrumentation for a multilayer tablet press mechanism is disclosed. The compression for each layer, other than the first, takes the measured variable or error from the previous layer control loop and applies a transformation to that variable or error. The resulting transformation is then used as a compensation to the subsequent layer control loop in the form of a modified set point, modified measure variable, modified error, or modified control output. Additionally, the variable or error resulting from the previous control loop is fed back into the controller for the previous control loop so that any adjustments necessary in the previous layer loop may be completed. The variable or error is also used to determine whether to accept or reject the tablet.

This invention relates to a method of manufacturing tablets consisting of two or more separate layers of material, and more particularly relates to a method of independently monitoring the amount (weight) of powder comprising each layer and making controlled adjustments to the filling mechanisms which determine those weights in order to maintain each layer within proper weight limits.
Monitoring and controlling the weights of single layer tablets produced on rotary presses is a well established art. Typically, tablet weights are determined by measuring the amount of force necessary to compress or compact a powder or granulation into a solid tablet. For a given product, the compaction force necessary to obtain the desired tablet thickness and hardness when the press is making tablets having the correct weight is known. Overweight tablets resulting from excessive material in the die cavities will cause higher than normal compression forces. Low weight tablets resulting from insufficient powder being present will cause below normal forces. Currently, a whole array of electronic and mechanical hardware and computer software is available from various vendors for monitoring tablet compression and making adjustments to press powder fill mechanisms as required to keep tablet weights within specified limits. For example, over and underweight tablets are typically detected in tablet presses through use of a strain gauge transducer (or related mechanism) for measuring the forces in the opposing punches. Such a strain gauge transducer is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,791,205 issued on Feb. 12, 1974. U.S. Pat. No. 3,734,663, issued May 22, 1973, discloses a control circuitry that monitors, and if necessary, changes the amount of powder placed in the die in response to measured tablet compressive forces, as detected by changes in resistance in a strain gauge.
Rotary tablet presses having two complete sets of the cams, feeders, pressure rolls, etc. necessary to form and discharge tablets are referred to as double sided machines. Since two tablets per station of tooling in the turret are produced for each revolution of the turret, these machines have twice the output of a single sided machine operating at the same turret speed. As such, double sided presses are normally used for products manufactured in large volumes. These machines, however, are also used to make tablets having two separate layers of material.
In two layer tablet production, the die cavities in the turret are filled to the desired level with the first layer material as they pass underneath the feeder on one side of the machine. This first layer material is then compressed, usually at a greatly reduced force level than what is normally used in single layer tablet making. After compression, the dies pass under the feeder on the other side of the machine and are filled to the appropriate level with second layer material. The dies, with both first and second material in them, then move to the final compression rolls where solid tablets are formed. Tablet ejection from the die cavities and scrape off follow.
Monitoring and controlling the weight of first layer material in a two layer operation is almost identical to single layer production. In general, the only difference is that a much lower compression force is used to tamp the material prior to introducing the second layer material. This first layer tamp is intended to make room in the die cavity for second layer material and provide a sharp demarcation line between layers.
Second layer weight monitoring and control is much more problematic since the compression signal generated during final tablet compression is affected by both first and second layer weight variations. Lower than target force signals may be the result of low first and/or low second layer weights. They could even result from very low first layer weights and high second layer weights or vice versa. Compounding this situation is the fact that the compression properties of each layer may be very different.
Currently two approaches are used to control tablet weights for a two layer process. The first is to monitor and control only the first layer side. Second layer (final) compression forces may or may not be monitored for the purpose of rejecting bad tablets but no automatic adjustments are made to the second layer fill mechanism. The second approach involves actual control of both first and second layer material. First layer weights are monitored and controlled the same way as for single layer production. Second layer control is achieved in much the same way except that the second layer control loop must be desensitized to the measured compression force errors (deviations from set point) arising from first layer weight variations. This is accomplished by decreasing the second layer control loop gain.
Although the second control scheme described above can result in improved second layer weight control, its success is highly dependent upon the degree to which the first layer is being controlled. Even for well behaved first layer materials, weight control of the second layer is less than optimum because the control loop gain must be reduced so as not to overact to the variation, or noise, from the first layer.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a tablet press control mechanism suitable for the manufacture of a multilayer tablet whereby tablet compression information for each layer is precisely monitored and a method therefore.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a method for the manufacture of a multilayer tablet that permits the monitoring and controlling of the compression information for each individual layer independently.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a method for the manufacture of a multilayer tablet that permits a quality determination (i.e., a rejection decision) of the tablet based on the compression information for each layer of the tablet independently. That is, a rejection decision may be made based on the compression information for any layer independent from the compression information for the remaining layers.
It is an additional object of this invention to provide a method for the manufacture of a two-layer tablet utilizing a double-sided rotary multilayer tablet press that precisely monitors tablet compression information for each layer independently.

Method for monitoring and controlling the weights of each layer of a multilayer tablet


A wiring layer 36A is formed by sputtering, reflowing and patterning of an Al alloy layer on insulating layers 32 and 34 covering the surface of a semiconductor substrate 30. A silicon oxide layer 38 is formed by coating a hydrogen silsesquioxane resin film flatly over the layer 36A and by successive heat treatment. Then a silicon oxide layer 40 is formed on the layer 38 by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. After formation of the desired connecting hole in an interlayer insulating layer made of a lamination of the layers 38 and 40, a wiring layer 46 connected with the layer 36A via the connecting hole is formed by sputtering, reflowing and patterning of an Al alloy layer. Results of the measurements of the resistance of the via chains having 20000 vias indicated that resistace rise has not been observed. A multi-layered wiring which is highly resistant to stress migration is provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of fabricating a multi-layered wiring suitable for manufacturing LSI or other devices, and more particularly to a method of fabricating multi-layered wiring which is highly resistant to stress migration.
2. Description of the Related Art
Such a conventional method of fabricating multi-layered wiring is known in that an interlayer insulating layer is made by a lamination of the first silicon oxide layer formed by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), the second silicon oxide layer is formed on the first silicon oxide layer using hydrogen silsesquioxane resin and the third silicon oxide layer is formed on the second silicon oxide layer by PECVD (for example, refer to JP-A 7-240460).
According to an investigation by the present inventors, it was found that there is a problem that the resistance to stress migration is low if a multi-layered wiring structure is fabricated by the use of an interlayer insulating layer made by a lamination of the first to third silicon oxide films as mentioned above.
FIG. 10 shows a multi-layered wiring structure having such an interlayer insulating layer, the structure of which can be obtained as follows: a borophosphosilicate glass (BPSG) film 14 is formed by CVD on a silicon oxide layer 12 covering a surface of the semiconductor substrate 10 made of silicon. Thereafter, wiring layers 16A and 16B are formed on the BPSG film 14 by sputtering, reflowing and patterning an aluminium (Al) alloy layer.
On the BPSG film 14, a conformal silicon oxide layer 18 is formed by PECVD, covering the wiring layers 16A and 16B. On the silicon oxide layer 18, a planarized silicon oxide layer 20 is formed by spin coating of a solution of hydrogen silsesquioxane resin and by subsequent heat treatment. On the silicon oxide layer 20, a silicon oxide layer 22 is formed by PECVD. The silicon oxide layer 22 has a flat surface because it is formed on a flattened surface.
A connecting hole 24 is formed through the interlayer insulating layer made by a lamination of the silicon oxide layers 18, 20 and 22 by partly an isotropic wet etching using, resist layer as a mask to have a reduced step height and partly an anisotropic dry etching. On the silicon oxide layer 22, a wiring layer 26 is formed to be electrically connected to the wiring layer 16 via the connecting hole 24, by sputtering, reflowing and patterning an Al alloy layer.
After an annealing in hydrogen atmosphere for reducing process damages, a passivation film 28 made of silicon nitride is formed covering the wiring layer 26 on the silicon oxide layer 22 by PECVD.
As the result of a stress migration test in which the above-mentioned multi-layered wiring structure is heated at 200.degree. C. for 2000 hours, it was found that a void V is generated, resulting in an increase of the wiring resistance or a break-down.

Method of fabricating multi-layered wiring