A heat treatment furnace for fiber for heat-treating a fiber bundle (yarn) formed of many continuous filaments in hot gas while running the yarn. The heat treatment furnace has a plurality of heat treatment chambers provided in a furnace body. The temperature in each individual heat treatment chamber is independently adjusted to a temperature which is different from the temperatures in the other heat treatment chambers. Thereby, the heat treatment furnace can be made small and is able to heat-treat fiber efficiently.. This heat treatment furnace is useful, particularly, as a heat treatment furnace (an oxidizing heat treatment furnace, or a oxidizing furnace) for producing an oxidized fiber needed to produce a carbon fiber. A polyacrylonitrile-based fiber bundle (yarn), that is a precursor fiber bundle for producing an oxidized fiber, passes through a zigzag yarn path, and passes through the heat treatment furnaces, in each of which temperature is independently adjusted to a temperature that is different from the temperatures in the other furnaces. An oxidized fiber bundle (yarn) is thereby produced.. The zigzag yarn path in the heat treatment chambers for the oxidizing heat treatment is established by a combination of a plurality of yarn guide rollers provided outside the furnace body. Each yarn guide roller has, on its peripheral surface, a yarn guide groove for guiding a yarn. The yarn guide grooves have a specific cross-sectional shape whereby the cross-sectional shape of the yarn to be supplied into the heat treatment chambers for the oxidizing heat treatment is adjusted into a flat generally rectangular shape. Heat accumulation in the yarn being heat-treated is thereby reduced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heat treatment furnace for fiber and, more particularly, to a heat treatment furnace (an oxidizing heat treatment furnace, an oxidizing furnace, or the like) for producing an oxidized fiber needed to produce a carbon fiber. The invention also relates to a yarn guide roller for use in the heat treatment furnace.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A horizontal-type heat treatment furnace described in Japanese examined patent application publication No. Hei 3-4832 is known as a heat treatment furnace used for an oxidizing heat treatment of a precursor fiber bundle in order to obtain an oxidized fiber bundle. The horizontal-type heat treatment furnace has a furnace body, a plurality of heat treatment chambers provided in the furnace body, a hot gas blow opening and a hot gas suction opening that are formed in each heat treatment chamber, a hot gas circulation duct to which the plurality of hot gas blow openings and the hot gas suction openings are commonly connected, a heater provided in the hot gas circulation duct, and a hot gas-circulating fan disposed downstream from the heater. That is, this conventional heat treatment furnace is a multi heat treatment chambers/common hot gas circulation duct type heat treatment furnace that circulates a hot gas and maintains a predetermined temperature of the hot gas by using the hot gas-circulating fan and the hot gas-heating heater provided in the hot gas circulation duct connected to the hot gas blow openings and the hot gas suction openings of the heat treatment chambers.
A precursor fiber bundle (yarn) used to produce an oxidized fiber bundle for production of a carbon fiber bundle, for example, a fiber bundle (yarn) formed of a great number of polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-based continuous filaments, moves along a zigzag path, guided by a plurality of yarn guide rollers provided outside the heat treatment furnace, so that the fiber bundle sequentially passes through the heat treatment chambers. The fiber bundle receives oxidizing treatment during the passage through the heat treatment chambers. However, the heat treatment furnace has the following problems.
The oxidation of precursor fiber bundles gradually progresses. If a yarn is treated at a high temperature in an early stage of heat treatment, the yarn is likely to fire because the oxidation has not fully progressed in that stage. Therefore, it is necessary to maintain a low heat-treating temperature until the oxidation of yarn progresses to a certain extent. However, if a low temperature setting continues in a later stage of the heat treatment, a long heat treatment time is required. To secure a long heat treatment time, there arises a need to increase the furnace length or the number of passages through the furnace (that is, the number of paths in the furnace along which yarn is moved). As a result, the scale of the furnace becomes great, or the equipment cost increases, or economical production of carbon fiber bundles, which are produced by carbonizing oxidized fiber bundles, becomes difficult.
In view of these problems, the aforementioned conventional heat treatment furnace will be examined. In order to avoid firing of a precursor yarn in a heat treatment chamber into which a yarn is first introduced, a low temperature setting is needed in the first heat treatment chamber of a heat treatment furnace. However, since the conventional heat treatment furnace is a multi heat treatment chambers/common hot gas circulation duct type heat treatment furnace, the temperatures in the heat treatment chambers succeeding to the first heat treatment chamber inevitably become equal to the temperature in the first heat treatment chamber. Therefore, the heat treatment time for precursor yarns (the length of time during which a yarn is treated in the heat treatment chambers) inevitably becomes long in the conventional heat treatment furnace, thereby causing problems of increased length and scale of the heat treatment furnace and, therefore, increased equipment and production costs.
Furthermore, in order to vary the heat treatment temperature in accordance with the progress of oxidation of a precursor yarn in the conventional heat treatment furnace, it is necessary to use a plurality of heat treatment furnaces that differ in heat treatment temperature. However, this requirement increases the equipment installation space, the equipment cost and, therefore, the production cost of carbon fibers.
A known yarn guide roller as described above is described in Japanese examined patent application publication Sho 59-28662. This yarn guide roller has a guide groove that is formed on a peripheral surface of the roller for guiding a yarn. The groove forms a circular sectional shape of the yarn that is introduced into the heat treatment chambers. However, as the denier or the number of filaments of a yarn guided by the groove, the maximum yarn thickness increases and, therefore, yarn heat accumulation increases, so that breakage of a filament constituting the yarn becomes more likely due to the heat accumulation.
In order to avoid such an increase in the likelihood of filament breakage, it is necessary to perform oxidizing treatment at a lower temperature. Therefore, if the aforementioned yarn guide roller is used, it takes an inconveniently long time to produce a sufficiently oxidized fiber.
Furthermore, since the groove of the yarn guide roller shapes the sectional shape of a yarn into a circular shape, diffusion of oxygen, which is required for the yarn oxidation, into an interior of the yarn (filaments present inside the yarn) becomes less easy to occur. As a result, the degree of oxidation progress considerably differs between an interior portion (filaments present inside) of the yarn and a surface portion (filaments adjacent to the yarn surface) of the yarn. Such a oxidation progress difference in interior and surface portions of the yarn can become a cause for fuzzing or a damage of a filament in a later-performed carbonizing process. The conventional yarn guide roller has problems as described above.


A voice control method can be applied to a first terminal, and include: receiving a user's voice operation instruction after the first terminal is activated, the voice operation instruction being used for controlling the first terminal to perform a target operation; sending an instruction execution request to a server after the voice operation instruction is received, the instruction execution request being used for requesting the server to determine whether the first terminal is to respond to the voice operation instruction according to device information of the terminal in a device network, wherein the first terminal is located in the device network; and performing the target operation in a case where a response message is received from the server, the response message indicating that the first terminal is to respond to the voice operation instruction.

Smart terminal devices are becoming more popular with the development of computer technologies. For example, in a smart-home scenario where there may be a plurality of smart terminal devices, such as an alarm clock, a TV, a speaker, etc., a smart terminal device may be activated by the user via voice and be controlled to execute corresponding operations.

Voice control method and apparatus, and computer storage medium

Beijing Xiaomi Pinecone Electronics Co., Ltd.


An aircraft window plug device is described. Embodiments of the aircraft window plug device can include, but are not limited to, a plate, a compression assembly, and a bolt assembly. Components of the compression assembly can be coupled to the plate via the bolt assembly. Typically, the aircraft window plug device can be inserted into a hole created by a window of an aircraft suffering a catastrophic failure. The aircraft window plug device can create an airtight seal to help the aircraft pressurize.

On occasion, a window of a passenger aircraft can become damaged or break during flight. If the window is blown out, cabin pressure is typically lost and people and things next to the window can be partially or fully sucked out of the cabin due to the initial pressure differential and the rush of exiting air. After the pressure has more or less equalized, the thin air in the cabin may not contain enough oxygen for passengers to breath necessitating the use of oxygen masks. Further, the temperature in the cabin can drop precipitously to dangerous levels.
Because of the dangerous conditions posed by the loss of window integrity in a passenger aircraft, pilots of the aircraft must make a rapid descent to an altitude where the air is breathable and the temperature is not life threatening. The damaged aircraft is typically routed to the nearest airfield for an emergency landing.
Therefore, there is a need for a device that can plug a compromised window in an aircraft to allow cabin pressure and temperatures to remain habitable for passengers on the aircraft such that the aircraft can continue a normal flight plan. As can be appreciated, there may be no available or suitable airfield nearby and/or the aircraft may be flying over hostile/enemy territory.


It is desirable to provide an improved system for describing the impact of a change in routing on the performance of wavelengths traversing the links in a optical communication network. It is also desirable that such a system be computationally simple. The present invention accomplishes these aims by providing a mechanism for the development of a set of metrics that describe the impact of different fiber types and lengths bearing a number of wavelengths, on one of the wavelengths propagated by a given input power. These metrics permit the prediction of a wavelength's behaviour by simple calculations. Accordingly, the need for full non-linear simulation is obviated, thereby improving the speed, efficiency and flexibility of optical layer routing algorithms.

Optical networks are traditionally point-to-point systems in which all electrical to optical conversions occur at a single transmitter site and optical to electrical conversions occur at the same receiver site after a known fixed path. This means that all wavelengths start together, experience the same fiber lengths and types and then enter co-located receivers.
Whenever wavelengths travel through any given path, they will interact with other wavelengths travelling along the same path. There are interference effects generated that must be taken into account at the network design stage in order to ensure satisfactory performance.
In static network configurations, such as are found in traditional point-to-point systems, the interference effects may be calculated a priori using traditional mechanisms.
Optical wavelengths interact due to non-linear effects and noise degradation within optical fibers and optical amplifiers. Currently, in order to determine how degraded a wavelength or signal is when it enters a receiver, simulation tools are used to model the propagation of a wavelength through a path in the presence of other wavelengths.
Such simulations account for the major sources of non-linear degradation by simplifying and solving the non-linear Schrodinger equation:
                                                        ∂              A                                      ∂              z                                +                                    β              1                                                                  ∂                A                                            ∂                t                                              +                                    i              2                                                  β              2                                                                                ∂                  2                                                A                                            ∂                                  t                  2                                                              +                                    α              2                                    A                          =                  i                                                              γ                                                            A                                      2                              A                                    (        1        )            where A is the pulse amplitude, β1 is related to the group velocity of the dominant optical mode carrying the pulse, β2 is responsible for pulse broadening, γ is the non-linearity coefficient and z is the distance propagated within the fiber. This equation is used to determine the effects of group velocity dispersion and the intensity dependent refractive index only (dispersion and Self Phase Modulation (SPM)). Further levels of abstraction and additional simultaneous propagation equations are required to fully describe the processes which lead to Cross Phase Modulation (XPM) and Four Wave Mixing (FWM). Generally, simulation models are designed incorporating some simplifying assumptions about the parameters of equation (1) and employ other simplified relationships to approximate the effects of XPM and FWM.
The equations developed are then solved numerically for all wavelengths present and over the entire propagation length of fiber. This process is computationally intensive and requires significant processing time. In addition, a high level of user expertise is required to interpret the results.
Further, Cross-Phase Modulation (XPM) and Four Wave Mixing (FWM) effects must also be calculated rigorously from the results.
The current generation of optical communication networks includes Optical Add/Drop Multiplexing (OADM) and Photonic Cross-Connect (PXC) nodes in which wavelengths can branch onto alternate spans of fiber without undergoing optical to electrical conversion. That is a combination of wavelengths that start together do not necessarily have to end up in the same set of co-located receivers. Moreover, individual wavelengths of a set of wavelengths that arrives at a set of co-located receivers may each have traversed a separate path to get to the set of co-located receivers.
OADMs are typically statically configured at system setup to add or drop pre-selected wavelengths. By contrast, PXCs allow incoming wavelengths to be switched dynamically to a choice of output directions.
The introduction of PXCs herald the promise of agile optical networks, in which routing of wavelengths may be dynamically altered to accommodate fluctuations in the demand for services. Accordingly, carrier companies employing agile optical networking techniques may reduce the amount of stranded bandwidth in their existing optical network infrastructures.
Because carrier companies need to use their networks optimally in order to get the most value out of their capacity, such a dynamic ability to optimize network capacity may increase the revenue generated from a fixed amount of fiber capacity. For example, certain wavelengths can be devoted to commercial banking transactions during the weekday and assigned to carry internet traffic in the evening and on weekends. As the flexibility or agility in the optical layer increases, ultimately, carrier companies may be able to offer "capacity on demand", in which wavelengths can be dynamically re-routed to provide capacity where it is needed most at a given time.
However, the introduction of agile optical networks requires a relatively quick assessment method to be made available to the network operator and/or the routing algorithm in order to determine if a possible optical signal path is viable for a desired type of traffic. In other words, prior to switching from a known communications path to an alternate configuration that may improve traffic flow in the network, an algorithm must be in place that will check to ensure that wavelengths moving to a new path will have adequate signal quality to be received when they reach their receiver. If the proposed path introduces unacceptable distortion, an alternative route should be considered.
Alternatively, if technology permits rapid dynamic switching of network paths, a sufficiently responsive viability proving mechanism is required. With such a mechanism, one could conceivably implement a proposed alternate configuration without determining its viability at the time of installation, and dynamically determine the viability of the new signal paths as required.
The traditional mechanisms for ensuring adequate signal performance are unsatisfactory because the non-linear simulations are too complex and too time-consuming to be applied in a dynamic switching environment.
In agile optical network applications, different wavelengths follow different paths through the network from their respective transmitter Tx to their respective receiver Rx. Different groupings of wavelengths will encounter different nodes and segments in their travels. We define a node as a network element such as a transmitter, receiver, static OADM, PXC, and dispersion compensator possibly co-located with one or more optional amplifiers. We define a segment as fiber spans and amplifier sites interconnecting two nodes. Different segments can have different arrangements of fibers, amplifiers, dispersion compensators etc.
Accordingly, if the simulation calculations were to be conducted, they would require a segment by segment analysis, taking into account each wavelength travelling along it. In an agile optical network, a routing change of a single wavelength may invalidate a large proportion of the simulation, which will have to be recalculated.
A number of attempts have been made to overcome the computational intensity required in demonstrating the viability of a proposed alternate routing.
For example, efforts have been made to reduce the complexity of the problem. For instance, special and expensive adjustable dispersion compensators may be introduced to account for different types of fiber.
Alternatively, a worst-case performance threshold may be established for each segment that cannot be exceeded. Typically, the reach of each wavelength path is significantly limited as a result of the imposition of these thresholds, with a consequent requirement of additional regenerative receive/transmit nodes to extend the overall network reach. The addition of such regenerative nodes drives network cost significantly higher.
Similarly, limits may be imposed on the signal power level introduced into each fiber span within a segment. Again, the reach of segment paths is limited as a result.
Another approach is to limit the type of customer traffic that will be accepted on the network. For example, one can reduce the traffic capacity by lowering the bit-rate, which will reduce the complexity of path viability analysis because non-linearities becomes less dominant. At lower bit-rates, systems are predominantly limited by noise effects. Noise analysis can be done very efficiently in comparison with a full distortion and noise simulation. However, this approach greatly reduces the system capacity due to the lower bit-rate, and is generally not a practical alternative. A concrete example is the difference between a 2.5 Gb/s DWDM system and 10 Gb/s DWDM system. The difference in capacity makes 10 Gb/s a much more attractive option, despite the increased complexity.
All of the foregoing are extremely limiting and often expensive approaches that belie the advantages of agile optical networks.
Others have attempted to perform an up-front viability analysis by taking every possible path and conducting extensive simulations to determine the limits of viability of the network during network design. Clearly, such approaches are only suitable for very simple and small networks, and are very easily subject to becoming obsolete. For example, referring to FIG. 1 it can be noted that there are 6 possible paths that need to be simulated. However, the wavelengths sent to each segment might vary as well. Therefore all six paths would need to be simulated with several possible wavelength variations in order to guarantee that the worst-case performance had been assessed and each path was viable. This figure shows only a small example which would only cover a small fraction of a carrier's nationwide network.

Method and apparatus for determining signal viability in optical networks


A respiratory device for providing respiratory support to a patient. The device includes an expandable bag portion and a connection member in fluid communication with the expandable bag portion. The expandable bag portion includes an air intake valve and has an adjustable predetermined tidal volume. The connection member includes a positive end expiratory pressure (PEEP) valve, a PEEP controller configured to control the pressure of the PEEP valve, a two-way valve configured to allow air to move from the expandable bag portion in a first direction and through the PEEP valve in an opposing direction, a pressure relief valve configured to vent excess pressure from the connection member to an external environment, and a patient breathing interface.

A manual resuscitator, or a bag-valve-mask (BVM), is a device used to temporarily push air into the lungs of a patient who is unconscious or otherwise unable to breathe on their own. These devices are found in hospitals and in ambulances throughout the country and in most developed parts of the world.
BVMs have existed for many years. Numerous modifications and enhancements have been made to BVMs over the years, these include enhanced 2-way valves, the addition of a high-pressure relieving "pop-off" valve, and the attachment of an oxygen reservoir to the bag to increase the percent of oxygen content of air flowing into the self-inflating bag portion of the device.
Self-inflating or self-expanding bags are bulky. They typically hold over a liter of air (in an adult model) even when not in use. Two-way valves are also bulky, and make use of a rigid plastic construct that is most commonly shaped in a 90-degree angle. The mask is similarly bulky and typically employs a rigid plastic triangular-shaped device with a soft rubber balloon about a perimeter that interfaces with and forms a seal around the mouth and nose of a victim. Each of these components is bulky in its own right and together, these form a device that is too large and obtuse to be carried in public by individuals who are trained to use them. Thus, when an emergency arises in most non-clinical settings, a BVM is not typically available until after an ambulance has arrived.
Efforts have been made in the past to reduce the overall space occupied by these devices. This includes an entirely collapsible bag with a flexible hollow body that can be stowed into a container. In attempts to make the device smaller, thinner materials have been used. This results in bag-valve-masks that are suitable for one-time use, due to the device losing functionality after its use. Therefore, BVMs are typically only available in a hospital setting or similar clinical location.
In addition to their bulk, traditional BVMs are prone to cause hyperventilation. A condition in which a patient is given too much air. This can result in death. Traditional BVMs cause hyperventilation because they inflate too rapidly, leading lifesavers to give breaths more frequently than is recommended.
Finally, traditional BVMs are only capable of delivering a fixed tidal volume depending on the size of the BVM (adult, pediatric, or neonatal).

Bag and valve for advanced respiratory support


An IP phone terminal registration method capable of reducing the workload as to telephone terminal setup and excluding working mistakes by achieving automated phone terminal registration is provided. Upon connection of a telephone terminal to IP network, a DHCP device issues a terminal registration request to a main apparatus. The main apparatus performs automated phone number allocation to thereby perform terminal registration processing. The DHCP device sends back to the telephone terminal an item of network information that contains therein IP address of the main apparatus and the phone number thus allocated. The phone terminal sets up the IP address of main apparatus and the phone number as self-terminal information, thereby automating the phone terminal registration.

The present invention relates to Internet Protocol (IP) phone systems, IP phone terminal registration methodology, and devices adaptable for use therein, including but not limited to telephone terminals and main apparatus of an IP phone system.
Recent advances in IP networks such as the Internet and intranets result in development of a variety of new communication schemes via networks. In particular, the advent of IP telephones using voice over IP (VoIP) technologies leads to drastic changes in currently established telephone systems. A typical example of such IP phone systems is an extension telephone system for use in working environments of business entities.
Generally, the extension IP phone system is arranged to include an IP phone system main apparatus which manages telephone terminals involved or "subscribed" therein and performs call-up control for voice communications between these phone terminals. Various types of phone terminals are available, major examples of which are a wired IP phone that is directly linkable to IP network, a telephony software application on a personal computer (PC) with a speaker(s) and a microphone connected thereto, and a radiophone handset connectable via a wireless local area network (LAN) access point.
Upon establishment of such extension IP phone system, it is a must to allocate a unique IP address and extension telephone number to every telephony of the phone terminals involved. Simultaneously, it is also needed to register the setup information of these terminals to the main system controller. With all of these setup contents consolidated together while providing consistent compliance therebetween, the extension IP phone system is expected to offer proper operabilities and functionabilities required.
For the allocation of extension phone numbers, it is required to design, prior to system installation, a detailed numbering plan by taking into consideration multiple base points and the exact number of working staffs. Making this numbering plan is inherently a troublesome and time-consuming work. An exemplary approach to solving this problem is to use a method for automatically allocating extension numbers in deference to setup locations of phone terminals as disclosed, for example, in JP-A-2002-315029.
Regarding the telephone terminal IP address setup also, this must be carried out on a per-terminal basis in the event of system installation. A human work required therefor is also troublesome and consumes time. One thinkable method for reducing complexities in IP address allocation is to employ a specific scheme, known as the dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP). DHCP is the protocol for assigning network information, such as IP addresses, to IP equipment linked to the IP network. Installing a DHCP device on IP network avoids the need for manual IP address setup operations as far as the telephones concerned are DHCP-supporting phone terminals. This makes it possible reduce a total amount of manual operations needed for setup of such IP telephone terminals.
The DHCP device has an ability to allocate a unique IP address to the individual DHCP-supporting IP equipment that is once linked to the IP network within a predetermined area or zone. Additionally for the DHCP, expanded functions are defined by request-for-comment (RFC) 2131 and RFC 2132 standards. Use of the expanded functions makes it possible to set up in option part various kinds of data indicated by tag numbers and to notify more detailed option data. An example is that an authorized period of service (lease time) is settable to an IP address as allocated by the DHCP device. Another example is that an ability is obtained to send IP addresses of a domain name server (DNS) and default gateway accessible from the terminal side while permitting achievement of automated setup thereof.
Unfortunately, the above-stated prior art approach suffers from the lack of any ability to acquire the IP address of the main apparatus in the event that an IP telephone terminal is newly registered to the IP phone system, although it is possible by DHCP to perform IP address setup and extension number allocation in an automated way. Consequently, it is still required for system maintenance service persons to perform manual telephone terminal setup operations for the individual IP phones. Upon installation of the IP phone system, a need is felt to register a great number of IP phone terminals around the same time. Usually a service person or persons perform manual operations for setup of IP phone terminals on a one-at-a-time basis; however, this approach is less in working efficiency. It has also been required to provide a setup method that is free from operation mistakes.

IP phone system and IP phone terminal registration method


Disclosed herein is a cylindrical secondary battery including a cap assembly constructed in a structure in which a vent, which intercepts electric current and discharges pressurized gas when the interior pressure of the battery is increased due to abnormal operation of the battery, is in contact with a top cap having a protruding central part, wherein the end of the vent is bent to surround the outer circumferential surface of the top cap, and a groove for preventing the leakage of an electrolyte and preventing the occurrence of defectiveness of the battery during the assembly of the battery is formed at interfaces between the vent and the top cap such that the groove is arranged in parallel with the outer circumferential surface of the top cap. The secondary battery according to the present invention has the effect of accomplishing high charging and discharging rate, providing uniform output even when external physical impacts, such as vibration or dropping, are applied to the secondary battery, and preventing the occurrence of defectiveness during the assembly of the secondary battery. Furthermore, the leakage of the electrolyte out of the battery is restrained under these conditions. Consequently, the secondary battery according to the present invention can be preferably used as a high-output power source.

As mobile devices have been increasingly developed, and the demand of such mobile devices has increased, the demand of secondary batteries has also sharply increased as an energy source for the mobile devices. Among them is a lithium secondary battery having high energy density and high discharge voltage, on which much research has been carried out and which is now commercially and widely used.
When a secondary battery is used as a power source for mobile phones or laptop computers, it is necessary for the secondary battery to stably provide uniform output. When a secondary battery is used as a power source for power tools, such as electric-powered drills, on the other hand, it is necessary for the secondary battery to provide instantaneously high output while the secondary battery is stable against external physical impacts, such as vibration or dropping.
In this connection, the structure of a conventional cylindrical secondary battery is shown in FIG. 1. Generally, a secondary battery 10 includes a cylindrical container 20, a jelly-roll type electrode assembly 30 mounted in the container 20, and a cap assembly 40 coupled to the upper part of the container 20.
The electrode assembly 30 is constructed in a structure in which a cathode 31 and an anode 32 are wound in a jelly-roll shape while a separator 33 is interposed between the cathode 31 and the anode 32. To the cathode 31 is attached a cathode tap 34, which is connected to the cap assembly 40. To the anode 32 is attached an anode tap (not shown), which is connected to the lower end of the container 20.
The cap assembly 40 includes a top cap 41 constituting a cathode terminal, a positive temperature coefficient (PTC) element 42 for intercepting electric current through the increase of battery resistance when the interior temperature of the battery is increased, a vent 43 for intercepting electric current and/or discharge gas when the interior pressure of the battery is increased, a gasket 44 for electrically isolating the vent 43 from a cap plate 45 excluding a specific portion and sealing the interior of the battery, and the cap plate 45 connected to the cathode tap 34, which is attached to the cathode 31. The cap assembly 40 is constructed in a structure in which the top cap 41, the PTC element 42, the vent 43, the gasket 44, and the cap plate 45 are sequentially stacked one on another.
However, it has been proven that it is difficult for the secondary battery with the above-stated construction to provide instantaneously high output, and the resistance of the contact surfaces of the secondary battery is increased when external impacts, such as vibration, is applied to the secondary battery, whereby it is difficult for the secondary battery to provide uniform output. Specifically, the PTC element 42 has an electrical resistance of approximately 7 to 32 mΩ at room temperature, and the resistance of the PTC element 42 is sharply increased when the temperature is increased. Consequently, the PTC element 42 may serve as a factor to stop the provision of instantaneously high output. For this reason, a structure excluding the PTC element 42 is needed.
Nevertheless, the secondary battery with the above-stated construction has a problem in that, when external impacts, such as vibration, are applied to the secondary battery, the resistance at the contact surfaces between the top cap 41, the PTC element 42, the vent 43, and the cap plate 45 is greatly changed, and therefore, the secondary battery cannot provide uniform output. For example, the resistance at the contact surfaces between the top cap 41 and the PTC element 42 or the vent 43 is increased by approximately 20 to 30 mΩ.
The increase of the interior resistance induces generation of heat from a high-current secondary battery used as a power source for power tools. As a result, the safety of the battery may be lowered, and therefore, the performance of the battery may be decreased.
In this connection, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-187773 discloses a technology for bending the end of a vent such that the outer circumferential surface of a top cap can be surrounded by the bent end of the vent and fixing the bent end of the vent to the top cap by welding so as to prevent the contact resistance between the vent and the top cap from being increased due to extreme vibrations or impacts applied to a battery and the degradation of a gasket resulting from the long-term use of the battery.
Even though there is a difference in terms of purpose and effect, a technology for surrounding the top cap using a member, such as a vent, is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-152707, and a technology for attaching the end of a battery container and a seam part to each other by laser welding is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-051294.
The technology for surrounding the outer circumferential surface of the top cap with the end of the vent has an advantage in that the increase of the contact resistance due to the vibrations or impacts is restrained, as compared to the structure in which the vent and the top cap are in surface contact with each other, and therefore, a battery adopting this technology can be used as a high-current power source. However, it has been proven that, when the battery adopting this technology is used in devices that induce great vibrations, such as power tools, the contact surfaces between the vent and the top cap are instantaneously spaced apart from each other in spite of the above-described structure, and an electrolyte leaks out of the battery through the resulting gap. Furthermore, it has been proven that the fixed state of the top cap fixed to the vent is not stable, in spite of the bent structure of the end of the vent, with the result that the relative movement between the top cap and the vent is caused, and therefore, during the assembly process, specifically, when a current intercepting member is attached to the lower end of the vent by welding or the vent and the top cap are attached to each other by welding, the welding operations are not performed at predetermined positions (correct positions), whereby the defectiveness of the battery is caused.
On the other hand, it has been proven that, although the technology for attaching the bent end of the vent to the top cap by welding provides an excellent coupling force, the welded portions are exposed to the outside of the battery, and the exposed portions are degraded due to the long-term use of the battery, whereby the coupling force is considerably lowered.

High rate charging and discharging cylindrical secondary battery


A messaging system performs virtual clothing try-on. A method of virtual clothing try-on may include accessing a target garment image and a person image of a person wearing a source garment and processing the person image to generate a source garment mask and a person mask. The method may further include processing the source garment mask, the person mask, the target garment image, and a target garment mask to generate a warping, the warping indicating a warping to apply to the target garment image. The method may further include processing the target garment to warp the target garment in accordance with the warping to generate a warped target garment image, processing the warped target garment image to blend with the person image to generate a person with a blended target garment image, and processing the person with blended target garment image to fill in holes to generate an output image.

Enabling a person to virtual try-on clothing is complex because the images of the person and the target clothing may not match in size, shape, or lighting. Traditional computer graphic methods are very complex to implement and computationally demanding, which may make the applications too expensive to develop and which may make the applications too computationally demanding for mobile devices. Additionally, the traditional computer graphic methods have had difficulty in achieving images that are sufficiently realistic to enable a person to evaluate whether or not they would be interested in purchasing the clothing that they have virtually tried on.


The present invention discloses a Zero-IF receiver in a Time division Duplex TDD system, a correction method therefor and a base station associated therewith. The Zero-IF receiver comprises a Radio Frequency RF circuit, a baseband circuit, and a correction circuit for correcting baseband signals from the baseband circuit based on correction parameters. Said Zero-IF receiver further comprises a training signal providing part for providing a training signal to train the correction circuit to adapt said correction parameters, and a training signal coupling part for coupling said training signal to the baseband circuit during an idle period of the Zero-IF receiver to enable the correction circuit to adapt said correction parameters based on said training signal. The present invention provides stable and reliable training signals that can be used to adapt correction parameters of a correction circuit to improve receiver performance.

Compared with super-heterodyne receiver, a zero intermediate-frequency (Zero-IF) receiver down converts radio frequency (RF) signals to baseband directly. It makes the design of a receiver simpler and easier in term of frequency planning. Also it is a cost-efficient solution.
However, due to inherent circuit characteristics of a Zero-IF receiver, it suffers from problems such as DC offset and I/Q mismatch, which would result in degradation of the overall radio performance of the Zero-IF receiver. Currently, a common solution for correction is to add a digital engine in a receiver after analog to digital (AD) conversion of received signals so as to correct signal errors induced by the DC offset and I/Q mismatch, which, however, requires training a correction engine with a training signal in accordance with a correction algorithm.
In an existing receiver of a wireless communication system, a common method is to adopt a blind estimation in a correction process (i.e. a training signal to be used is unknown in advance). Taking a receiver in a base station as an example, such receiver generally employs a received user equipment (UE) signal as training signal. The power of a received UE signal is unpredictable. It may be very low or very high, or may change very fast; and in an extreme situation, there may be even no UE in the network. Thus, a correction made based on such training signals may not converge. Moreover, the correction quality is heavily dependent on the statistic characteristics of received UE signals. However, the number of UEs always dynamically varies, and the received UE signals are actually mixed signals from different UEs, thus the statistic characteristic of the received UE signals may change greatly, which would result in degradation of the correction quality in a Zero-IF receiver.
Since incoming signals to be received are difficult to predict, a correction made based on such training signals would lead to unstable performance of a correction engine or increased complexity of a correction algorithm in a wireless communication system. Meanwhile, correction should be a real-time process in consideration of the ageing problem. Accordingly, in many cases compromises have to be made between algorithm performance and complexity.
The above problems prevent Zero-IF receivers from being widely used in a wireless communication system.

Method for correcting receiver in TDD system and devices associated therewith


According to the present invention, there is provided a computer system, method and apparatus for making intelligent recommendations for dynamic content caching. In one embodiment of the present invention there is provided a computer implemented method for generating intelligent caching recommendations related to dynamic web content for use on a caching system. The method comprising extracting data associated with the dynamic content of interest in accordance with a predetermined data model. Next analyzing the extracted data in accordance with a plurality of certainty factors and a rule based expert system. Completing the analysis and generating a set of caching recommendations from the analyzed data suitable for use by the caching system. Implementing the recommendations in the caching system are repeated iteratively, as in a loop, automatically generating intelligent caching recommendations related to the dynamic web content for use on the caching system.

The Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) provide intra-enterprise connectivity, inter-enterprise connectivity and application hosting on a larger scale than ever before. By exploiting the broadly available and deployed standards of the Internet and the WWW, system users and designers can leverage a single architecture to build client/server applications for internal use that can reach outside to customers, business partners and suppliers.
Each web site normally further provides a plurality of web pages to be served to the local computer systems upon request. Each local computer system may access the remote web sites with web browser software.
The WWW is a collection of servers on an IP (Internet Protocol) network, such as the Internet, an Intranet or an Extranet, that utilize the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Hereinafter, "Internet" will be used to refer to any IP network. HTTP is a known application protocol that provides users with access to files, which can be in different formats, such as text, graphics, images, sound, and video, using a standard page description language known as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). Among a number of basic document formatting functions, HTML allows software developers to specify graphical pointers on displayed web pages, commonly referred to as "hyperlinks," that point to other web pages resident on remote servers. Hyperlinks commonly are displayed as highlighted text or other graphical image on the web page. Selection of a hyperlink with a pointing device, such as a computer mouse, causes the local computer to download the HTML associated with the web page from a remote server. The browser then renders the HTML into the displayed web page.
Web pages accessed over the Internet, whether by a hyperlink, opening directly via an "open" button in the browser, or some other means, are commonly downloaded into the volatile cache of a local computer system. In a computer system, for example, the volatile cache is a high-speed buffer that temporarily stores web pages from accessed remote web sites. The volatile cache thus enables a user to quickly review web pages that were already downloaded, thereby eliminating the need to repeat the relatively slow process of traversing the Internet to access previously viewed web pages. This is called local caching.
On the server side, the first web servers were merely HTTP servers that resolved universal resource locators (URLs) by extracting literally from the URL the path to a file that contained the needed page, and transmitting the page back to the browser. Such a server was very simple; it could only be used to access static pages.
A "static" page is a page which, each time it is requested and served to a requester, has the same byte content. That is, it does not depend upon which requester is requesting the page, when the requester is requesting the page, etc.; the byte content of that page remains the same. By contrast, a "dynamic page" is a page which has byte content that may very well change depending upon the particular requestor, when the page is being requested, etc. This will be discussed further below. It is important that web pages be served as quickly as possible, both to reduce the response time to a single user, and to increase the number of users that can be served concurrently. To improve the response time, the Web server uses caches. Web server caches are used to store web page responses in a readily accessible memory location so that when the web page is requested by a user, a previously cached web page response can be retrieved from cache and served quickly to the user.
Caching web page responses by the web server works quite well for web page responses having static content, i.e., content that doesn't change frequently. An example of a static web page is one, at a company's web site, comprising a compilation of text and graphics objects describing that company's history.
In fact, classic web servers cache static pages quite effectively. Specifically, classic web servers serve web page responses, some of which are static, namely, responses comprising HTML from the file system. Each of the static responses has a last modified date associated with it that is maintained by the file system. The contents of the response and its associated last modified date are simply stored in the cache for possible future use by the web server. When a subsequent request is received by the server for that page, the server requests the latest modification date for that page from the file system and compares the latest modification date with the last modified date associated with the candidate cached response. If the latest modification date is the same as the last modified date associated with the candidate cached response, the candidate cached response is considered to be "fresh" and is served to the request (i.e., to the requesting user). If the latest modification date is later than the last modified date associated with the candidate cached response, the candidate cached response is considered "stale" and a "fresh" response is retrieved and built by the web server for serving to the requesting user. The fresh response, along with its associated last modified date, is cached to replace the stale response. This caching scheme saves the time and server processor cycles that otherwise would have been spent to build requested pages which otherwise could have been cached using this classic caching scheme.
However, newer web servers provide not only static web pages but also dynamic web pages, i.e., a page having byte content that may very well change depending upon the particular requester, when the page is being requested, etc. Examples of dynamic web pages are pages containing content from a number of different sources or pages having computed content. For example, a page may contain macros that compute content for the page, i.e., the page has "computable content". These macros may change the page content each time the page is accessed. This makes it difficult to cache that page using the classic caching method described above. Macros or formulas are expressions that perform a function, such as determining field values, defining which documents appear in a view, or calculating values for a column.
Alternatively, the page may contain information from a number of different sources, and that information may or may not have associated last modified dates making it difficult, if not impossible, to cache using the classic caching method. For example, the page may comprise a composite of a number of "parts" including: other documents, designs from databases, content from databases, the present user's identity, the current time, the current environment, etc. Some of these parts are actual entities in the system, e.g., documents, databases, etc. Some parts though are "virtual" and are used to model the effects of the execution of macros or scripts, for example, the user's identity may be accessed via one of a number of macros for performing specialized. They can be used to format text strings, generate dates and times, format dates and times, evaluate conditional statements, calculate numeric values, calculate values in a list, convert text to numbers or numbers to text, or activate agents and actions. These various part types are computable parts and have correspondingly various types of attributes that can not be handled by the classic caching systems and methods.
Clearly, it is more difficult to use caching as a mechanism for improving user response time for pages with dynamic content. This problem for the server is twofold. First, after building a web page response, the server must determine whether the response that it is preparing to serve the requesting user is cacheable (i.e., determining its cacheability). Second, the server, upon receiving a request for a web page whose previous response has been cached, must determine whether the cached response is valid (i.e., determining its validity) and applicable (i.e., determining its applicability). For instance, web page responses containing macros that are time-dependent may not be cacheable at all. If a page includes a macro for providing the current time, then every access of the page is unique and the page cannot be cached in memory at all. Another example is where is a cached page is valid for serving to some users but not others. For instance, if the page includes a macro for the user's name, then the page can be cached for serving to that particular user, but not for serving to others. (HTML representing a document is specific to a user if macros are dependent on user name or user roles. Using this user data, some data may be made visible based on which user is requesting it.)
The term "Dynamic HTML" (DHTML) needs to be explained in the context of the embodiments of the present invention. "Dynamic" as used in DHTML is referring primarily to the effect that the code has on the web page appearance at the browser. For instance, the dynamic HTML may comprise scripts that run on the browser to change the appearance of the web page such as by displaying a button that, if pushed, displays additional text or graphics. The key distinction is that "dynamic" in the DHTML sense refers to the browser, not the server. From the server's point of view, a DHTML page may still be "static" in that the byte content may be the same each time the page is requested, so for the purposes of this invention, a DHTML page may be "static" or "dynamic" in the sense of the invention. The content is not dependent on any thing, e.g., the properties of the request, such as the identity of the particular user, the time of day that the request is made, etc. "Dynamic" content, as used in the embodiments of the present invention, refers to content that has such dependencies. Thus, "dynamic" in the DHTML sense is not related to "dynamic" in the sense of the embodiments of the present invention.
The problems may be further expressed as that of not knowing which dynamic content such as that found in JSP (Java server page) and ASP (active server page) technology need to be cached and then how to cache effectively. Further when implementing a manual cache configuration incorrect assumptions may cause system performance degradation. This problem arises when developers construct dynamic pages but do not cache them appropriately; which may then lead to poor system performance. Additional decisions based on the various dynamic properties of the page are required regarding whether to not cache a particular dynamic page at all or to cache it as a page fragment or a composite page (including sub-fragments). The drawback of these solutions is the need for significant knowledge of the dynamic content design and the system's dynamic content caching infrastructure.
As can be readily seen, using caching as a means for increasing server performance for responses which have dynamic content has a number of complications and difficulties which have not been overcome by prior systems. As such, HTML representing responses having dynamic content has not been cached in the past. Accordingly, an embodiment to cache content that can include dynamic content without suffering from the drawbacks discussed above is needed. An additional solution is required to make the caching process simpler such that developers can easily determine which dynamic content needs to be cached and how the content should be cached.

Recommendations for intelligent data caching

International Business Machines Corporation


A method to erase data from a flash EEPROM while electrical charges trapped in the tunneling oxide of a flash EEPROM are eliminated to maintain proper separation of the programmed threshold voltage and the erased threshold voltage after extended programming and erasing cycles. The method to erase a flash EEPROM cell begins by first applying a moderately high positive voltage pulse to the source of the EEPROM cell. Simultaneously, a first relatively large negative voltage is applied to the control gate. While a ground reference potential is applied to the semiconductor substrate. At this same time the drain is floating. The flash EEPROM cell is then detrapped by floating the source and drain and applying the ground reference potential to the semiconductor substrate. At the same time a second relatively large negative voltage pulse is applied to the control gate.

Related Patent Applications
Attorney's Docket Number TSMC97-125, "A Novel Method To Improve Flash EEPROM Write/Erase Threshold Closure," Ser. No.: 08/928,217, Filing Date: Sep. 12, 1997, assigned to the Same Assignee as the present invention.
Attorney's Docket Number TSMC97-109, "A Mixed Mode Erase Method To Improve Flash EEPROM Write/Erase Threshold Closure," Ser. No.: 08/907,984, Filing Date: Aug. 11, 1997, assigned to the Same Assignee as the present invention.
Attorney's Docket Number TSMC97-085, "A Bi-Modal Erase Method For Eliminating Cycling-induced Flash EEPROM Cell Write/Erase Threshold Closure," Ser. No.: 08/927,472, Filing Date Sep. 11, 1997, assigned to the Same Assignee as the present invention.
Attorney's Docket Number TSMC97-099, "A Novel Erase Method Of Flash EEPROM By Using Snapback Characteristic," Ser. No.: 08/957,678, Filing Date: Oct. 24, 1997, assigned to the Same Assignee as the present invention.

Method to erase a flash EEPROM using negative gate source erase followed by a high negative gate erase

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


In order to cool the hot surface of the heat shield that surrounds the burner of a gas turbine annular combustion chamber as efficiently as possible, especially in the vicinity of the burner throughflow opening, a cooling air stream that escapes through a ridge that runs around the edge of the throughflow opening is guided by a guide rib in the direction of the throughflow opening. This guide rib is aligned essentially parallel to the ridge and on the combustion chamber side has an end that is bent in such fashion that the cooling air stream that flows into the gap between the ridge and the guide rib is deflected thereby in the direction of the hot surface of the heat shield.

The invention relates to a heat shield arrangement for a gas turbine combustion chamber with a heat shield having a central throughflow opening for a burner as well as a ridge extending circumferentially at the edge of the throughflow opening. The ridge has a plurality of air blow-by openings for the cool air that is guided to the cold back side of the heat shield facing away from the combustion chamber. Reference is made regarding prior art for example to European Patent document EP 0 471 437 A1 wherein, similarly to this known prior art, the present heat shield is also provided preferably for an annular combustion chamber.
The hot surface of the heat shield must be cooled intensively, for which purpose conventional heat shields have a plurality of cooling air throughput openings through which the cooling air stream directed at the cold back side of the heat shield can pass through the heat shield and thus strike the hot surface of the heat shield, producing a film of cooling air. However, it is not possible under these conditions to sufficiently cool the annular area around the burner throughflow opening, which is subjected to particularly high temperature stress. In addition, the cooling air stream that escapes in the vicinity of the throughflow opening through the gap between a sealing part that receives the burner as well as the heat shield is insufficient for this purpose.
The goal of the invention therefore is to provide measures with whose aid the cooling of the heat shield can be further improved, especially in the vicinity of the burner throughflow opening.
The solution to this problem is characterized by a guide rib provided inside the throughflow opening and aligned essentially parallel to the ridge. The end of the guide rib on the combustion chamber side is bent at an angle in order to deflect the cooling air stream flowing in through the air blow-by openings into the gap between the ridge and the guide rib in the direction of the hot surface of the heat shield. Advantageous embodiments and improvements are described herein.
The invention is described in greater detail with reference to preferred embodiments.

Heat shield arrangement for a gas turbine combustion chamber


Provided is a wheel speed sensor interface. The wheel speed sensor interface includes: a speed pulse detection circuit configured to receive a plurality of sensor signals including wheel speed information of a vehicle, detect a plurality of speed pulses on the basis of the plurality of the received sensor signals, and transmit the plurality of the detected speed pulses to an external device; and a comparison speed detection circuit configured to generate a plurality of counting values by counting each of the detected speed pulses, generate comparison speed information by multiplexing the plurality of the generated counting values through a time division method, and transmit the generated comparison speed information to the external device.

The present invention disclosed herein relates to an electronic control system, and more particularly, to a wheel speed sensor interface, an operation method thereof, and an electronic control system including the same.
Various electronic control systems (ECU) based on an electronic control method are used in order to control a vehicle. A vehicle control system is one of electronic control systems, includes an anti-lock brake system (ABS), a traction control system (TCS), and an electronic stability system (ESC).
An electronic control system uses various detection sensors or drive signals of a vehicle to detect a state of the vehicle. For example, the electronic control system receives wheel speed information from wheel speed sensors to detect the speed of a vehicle. The electronic control system detects the speed of a vehicle based on the received wheel speed information and controls operations and components of the vehicle based on the detected result.
As electronics technology develops recently, in order for the electronic control system to include components performing various functions within the same area, the miniaturization of the components is required. Furthermore, since the electronic control system controls a vehicle, its errors are closely related to the safety of a driver. That is, the reliability of sensor signals inputted to the electronic control system or drive signals for driving components of a vehicle is very important. Accordingly, electronic control systems satisfying the reliability sensor and drive signals and having a less size are required recently.

Wheel speed sensor interface, operation method thereof, and electronic control system including the same

ELECTRONICS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH INSTITUTE


The present disclosure relates to systems, non-transitory computer-readable media, and methods for utilizing visual constraint guides to automatically transform digital design objects within a digital document based on transformation of intersecting visual constraint guides. In particular, in one or more embodiments, the disclosed systems generate visual constraint guides and identifies digital design objects intersecting the visual constraint guides. Further, the disclosed systems can receive user input transforming the visual constraint guide. In response, the disclosed systems can transform both the visual constraint guide and associated digital design objects based on the received transformation. More specifically, the design guide system can transform the digital design objects relative to the visual constraint guide while maintaining distribution and alignment constraints of the digital design objects relative to the visual constraint guide.

Recent years have seen significant development in hardware and software platforms that utilize digital tools to generate and manipulate design objects within digital design spaces. For example, conventional content management systems can create complex design shapes and then transform these shapes within a design space to generate enhanced digital images. More specifically, conventional content management systems can monitor user interaction with each digital object and transform digital objects individually based on the received user input. Although conventional systems provide tools for creating and modifying design objects, such systems have a number of technical shortcomings, particularly with regard to accuracy, efficiency, and flexibility of operation.

Transforming digital design objects utilizing dynamic magnetic guides


A method for airtight joining of two membranes. An airtight and complete bonding of the two membranes is achieved by first producing a curvature in one of the membranes, then placing the convexly curved side of a membrane onto the membrane to be joined to it in an airtight manner, next joining the two membranes until the edge areas of the membranes are in contact, and finally applying a pressing force that seals the edge areas of the membranes in an airtight manner.

The present invention relates to a method of airtight bonding of two membranes.
The problem of bonding two membranes together in such a way as to minimize the space remaining between the membranes and seal it with respect to the medium surrounding the membranes is known from the field of pressure sensors, for example. German Patent No. 4 419 593 A1 discloses a pressure sensor arranged in a pressure measurement chamber suitably positioned in the tube or channel through which a liquid or gas is flowing. The pressure measurement chamber has an opening in which a membrane is stretched evenly by means of a tension device and is deflected according to the pressure prevailing in the flowing fluid. In the area of the membrane affected by pressure fluctuations in the fluid, a pressure transmitting part also composed of a membrane is arranged to respond to the movements on the membrane on which the pressure is. acting. Airtight bonding of the two membranes is accomplished by pressing them at their edge areas so as to minimize the space remaining between the membranes.
European Patent No. 130 441 describes a device whereby a membrane on which pressure is applied is completely bonded to a membrane of a pressure measurement device by exhausting the air between the two membranes by using a vacuum pump. Such a device makes it possible to measure overpressures and negative pressures due to the tight contact between the two membranes, but it has the disadvantage that means must constantly be provided for creating a vacuum in order to guarantee reliable operation of the device.
The object of the present invention is to make available a simple method of airtight and complete bonding of two membranes.
This object is achieved according to the present invention by the fact that the method includes the steps of producing a convex curvature in one of the membranes, placing the membrane having the convex curvature on the membrane to be bonded to it in an airtight manner, joining the membranes until the edge areas of the membranes are in contact and applying a pressing force that seals the membranes with an airtight seal in the edge area. Such a method makes it possible to completely displace the air between the two membranes and prevent the admission of air. This is achieved by pressing the convex curvature of the bulging membrane into the other membrane when they are joined, thereby gradually displacing the air between the two membranes. The joining of the membranes is performed until the membranes are ultimately in contact even in their edge areas. To prevent admission of air from the area surrounding the membranes, a pressing force is applied according to the present invention after the membranes are joined, causing the membranes to be sealed airtight in their edge areas. This yields the advantage that an airtight connection as well as a complete bonding of the membranes is achieved, resulting in a reliable bonding when there is an overpressure or a negative pressure, and thus providing synchronized movement of the membranes.
In contrast with planar contact between two membranes, the convex curvature of one of the membranes achieves the result that the possibility of an air cushion remaining in the area between the membranes after the edge area has been joined and pressed together is ruled out. According to the present invention, the air is displaced between the membranes due to the fact that at first the joining of the two membranes does not take place over the entire cross-sectional area but instead at the beginning of joining only in a protruding area of the membrane created by the curvature.
In another embodiment of the present invention, a first membrane borders a first chamber of a membrane unit of a metering pump to accommodate a working fluid, and a second membrane borders a second chamber to accommodate a fluid that is to be delivered, with the convex curvature in the first membrane being produced by increasing the pressure on the working fluid in the first chamber. It is thus possible to join the membrane of a pump head of a diaphragm pump in an airtight and complete manner to the membrane of the pump bordering the working fluid. To that effect, the pressure of the working fluid is increased slightly due to the movement of a piston, for example, thus resulting in a convex curvature of the membrane bordering the working fluid. The membrane of the pump head is joined to the convexly curved first membrane by the method according to the present invention, after which the bulging membrane is placed on the membrane of the pump head to which it is to be joined, both membranes being joined together until their edge areas are joined, whereupon a pressure force is applied, sealing the membranes and making them airtight in the edge area.
It is especially advantageous if the second chamber is filled with a fluid before joining the two membranes, and if it is emptied completely or partially by the joining of the membranes. The second chamber may be filled with a liquid or, for example, a gas under pressure which is forced out of the second chamber during the joining in accordance with the convex curvature of the first membrane.
In a further embodiment of the present invention, the two chambers are positioned and joined by a guide. In particular, this facilitates precise placement of the bulging membrane onto the membrane to which it is to be joined with an airtight seal in the desired position. Furthermore, joining the two chambers with the help of a guide further ensures that the edge areas of the membranes will be in precise contact so that this will ensure that an airtight connection is established in the entire edge area of the membranes.
In another embodiment of the present invention, it is possible for each chamber to be arranged in a housing part and to be held together by a tension device arranged on the housing parts with the desired pressure after joining. This can ensure that a pressure adequate to achieve an airtight connection will be applied to the edge areas of the membranes.
The curvature of one of the membranes can be increased while joining the two membranes. Thus, a displacement of the air between the two membranes and an increase in the contact area between them are achieved not only by joining them but also by increasing the curvature of one of the membranes. For example, if one membrane of one diaphragm pump head is to be joined to the membrane of the diaphragm pump bordering the working fluid, then the pressure may be increased in the working fluid after the membrane that already has a curvature has been positioned and during the joining of the two membranes so that the convex curvature in the first membrane is increased.
In a further embodiment of the present invention, the curvature in the membrane is designed in such a way that the membrane to be joined to it is mostly or completely deflected after the two membranes have been joined. What is achieved in an especially reliable manner is that air between the two membranes is displaced before the edge areas of the membranes are joined together. The convex curvature of the membrane may be formed completely during the positioning of the membrane or it may be increased during the joining.

Method of airtight bonding of two membranes


A laser projection light has a light blocking wall and safety sensor to prevent people from directly looking into the laser beams to harm their eyes. The laser projection light may be an AC powered laser projection light or a DC powered battery operated unit, and may also incorporate a UL listed LED light device to that provides an LED light device function in addition to the projection function in case people do not want to see the laser projection light performance and wish to switch off the laser beam.

This application has subject matter in common with the inventor's prior patent application Ser. Nos. 12/624,621, 12/622,100, 12/318,471, 12/318,470, 12/318,473, 12/292,153, 12/232,505, 12/232,035, 12/149,963, 12/149,964, 12/073,095, 12/073,889, 12/007,076, 12/003,691, 12/003,809, 11/806,711, 11/806,285, 11/806,284, 11/566,322, 11/527,628, 11,527,629, 11/498,874, 12/545,992, 12/806,711, 12/806,285, 12/806,284, 12/566,322, 12/527,628, 12/527,629, 12/527,631, 12/502,661, 11/498,881, 11/255,981, 11/184,771, 11/152,063, 11/094,215, 11/092,742, 11/092,741, 11/094,156. 11/094,155. 10/954,189, 10/902,123, 10/883,719, 10/883,747, 10/341,519, 12/545,992, 12/292,580, 12/710,918, 12/622/000, 12/710,561, 12/710, 12/711,456, and 12/771,003.
The above-listed prior patent applications of the inventor apply optics theory to LED lights for outdoor or indoor application and that are powered by alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC) supplied by an electric cord and plug for an outlet, or by a battery, transformer, solar cell, or other power source to create a plurality of LED light beams and illuminate close areas, or remote areas by projection of the light beams to the remote areas. The present invention may utilize a number of principles taught in the prior applications, including the provision of more than one light source, more than one function, more than one optics means, more than one projection means, super power saving circuits, and cost saving concepts.


A body stretching and decompression system for use on a horizontal surface is disclosed. The system includes a frame having first and second portions adjustably connected together. A pair of hand grips are secured to the second portion of the frame. The system also includes a cuff assembly to be secured to a user, a rollable positioning member for allowing a user to move on the horizontal surface in a direction away from the first portion of the frame, and a resilient coupling resiliently attaching the first portion of said frame to the cuff assembly. When the cuff assembly is secured to a user and the user is disposed on the positioning member in an initial position with respect to the first portion of the frame, the user may apply a user-selected amount of traction to the user's skeletal system by grasping the hand grips and moving the user's body to an extended position. The amount of traction is generally proportional to the distance between the initial and extended positions.

Medical personnel have used spinal traction therapy to treat various back conditions such as, for example, spinal instability, degenerative disc disease, spinal stenosis, lumbrosacral sprain or strain, chronic sciatica, disc herniation, spondylolisthesis, lumbar osteoarthritis, and facet pathology. Spinal traction therapy can be provided by two general classes of devices as discussed in greater detail hereafter.
Gravity inversion therapy involves suspending a user in a head-down position so that the user's own body weight provides the necessary traction force due to the force of gravity. In one type of gravity inversion device, a pair of hinged, padded cylinders are secured around a user's ankles so that the user's body weight decompresses the ankles, knees, and spinal cord. A second type of gravity inversion device utilizes an adjustable footboard and a horizontal bar which, when the user is disposed in an inverted position, is placed above the lower portion of a user's hips so that the weight of the user's torso decompresses the user's spine.
Gravity inversion therapy devices suffer from a number of disadvantages. For example, not only are users typically afraid to be hung upside down, but also users may have feelings of disorientation and dizziness both during and after the gravity inversion therapy. Further, blood rushing to the head during use of a gravity inversion device causes pressure on the eyes and sinuses and increases the risk of popping a blood vessel or stroke, especially when the user has high blood pressure. Additionally, gravity inversion devices are difficult to use for those who are not particularly athletically talented.
Therapeutic tables have been utilized for providing traction to a user's lumbar region when the user is disposed in a horizontal, prone position. One such device includes a frame and a table top. The table top includes an upper-body section rigid with respect to the frame and a lower-body section slideable with respect to the frame. A pair of hand grips on the upper-body section are accessible by a user with the user's arms above the head to anchor the upper body. A pelvic belt anchor is attached to the lower-body section of the table top. A cylinder and piston assembly moves the lower-body section of the table top to cyclically increase and decrease the distance between the hand grips and the pelvic belt anchor. This action cyclically applies traction to the lumbar region of the user's spine. While these devices are satisfactory for their intended uses, they are quite expensive to manufacture and maintain and do not allow a user to actively control the amount of traction applied. Additionally, they cannot be easily adapted for portability.

Body stretching and decompression system


A maxillary protraction device (12) characterized with a chin-cup (1); one or more front hook-levers (2) on the front section of said chin-cup (1) to exert a force horizontally and forwards to the maxilla; at least two lateral linear hooks (5) located at the sides of the chin-cup (1) to exert an upwards force to the mandible, front recess (6) to be used for engaging the hooks (2 and 5) to the chin-cup (1) to which the front hook is engaged in a length-adjustable manner, in the same number as that of hooks; and fixing members (9) in the same number as that of hooks.

The present invention relates to a Modified Maxillary Protraction Device (MMPD) designed for the treatment of growing skeletal and dental open-bite cases accompanied by maxillary development deficiency.
Since a long time, the treatment of skeletal Class III malocclusions only by using orthodontical methods has been accepted to be difficult and subject to obstinancy. Before the 1970's, Class III problems were defined mainly as mandibular prognatisms, and maxilla has not been very much emphasized in the literature. Later studies have shown that a real isolated mandibular prognatism constitutes only 20–25% of Class III cases.
According to Sinclair and Proffit (Sinclair, P. M.; Proffit, W. R.: Class III Problems: Mandibular Excess/Maxillary Deficiency, in Surgical-Orthodontic Treatment. (ed.) Proffit, W. R.; White, R. P. St. Louis: Mosby, 1991, CH. 14, p: 428–482.) among the Class III anomalies, 20–25% of the Class III population exhibited only maxillary deficiency, whereas 50–60% exhibited maxillary deficiency, together with mandibular prognatism. This rate increases up to 32–43% in the Japanese society wherein the incidence of Class III anomalies is quite high (Takada, K.; Petdachai, S.; Sakuda, M.; Changes in Dentofacial Morphology in Skeletal Class III Children Treated by a Modified Maxillary Protraction Headgear and a Chincup: A Longitudinal Cephalometric Appraisal, Eur. J. Orthod. 15:211–221,1993.).
Excessive vertical development of the mandible, as well as its excessive forwards development, is quite common in Class III abnormality groups and constitutes a combination that can be seen in 6% of the patients.
The treatment plan for a skeletal Class III open-bite patient, during his/her growth period, should be aimed at both saggital and vertical anomalies, and excessive vertical growth of the mandible must be prevented while the forwards-downwards growth of the maxilla is encouraged.
In the devices used in the state of the art, the forwards development of the maxilla is provided and the forwards development of the mandible is inhibited. However, with the usage of maxillary protraction appliances, as the downwards growth of the mandible is not prevented, the length of the face increases. This situation may lead to the 'long-face syndrome' wherein chin-face (craniofacial) surgical operations may be required in skeletodental open-bite cases. For such a surgical intervention, the patient has to wait until he/she is 18 years old or a multi-phase orthodontic treatment that may last for many years with separate applications for the maxilla and mandible, has to be employed. During the multiphase orthodontical treatment, first a reverse head gear is implemented in order to increase the forwards maxillar development, however, the vertical open-bite status cannot be controlled by this implementation. Therefore the open-bite treatment is postponed to a later phase and requires the use of a separate apparatus.
Some orthodontists deem it convenient to wait until the completion of the growth of the Class III open-bite patients, without any interventions and upon the completion of their growth, to employ surgical methods to correct such anomalies. In the state of the art, in EU Patent No. 445492, the mandible is connected to magnets fastened by means of correcting levers to a control box. However here, only a vertical force is exerted on the chin.
In Spanish Patent Application No. 97/43975, a similar device is disclosed, whereby only a force in the vertical direction is applied on the chin by using correcting elements. Furthermore, the correcting elements have no length adjustment and movement possibilities.
In both of these prior art devices, conformity to all types of patient faces cannot be provided.

Maxillary protraction device with chin-cup


An engine idle speed control system for regulating an idle speed of an internal combustion engine includes a first module that determines an indicated torque of the engine based on a current spark timing and a second module that determines a desired indicated torque based on the indicated torque. A third module determines a new spark timing based on the desired indicated torque and a fourth module that regulates operation of the engine based on the new spark timing.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Internal combustion engines combust a fuel and air mixture to produce drive torque. More specifically, air is drawn into the engine through a throttle, which meters the air flow. The air is mixed with fuel and the air and fuel mixture is compressed within a cylinder using a piston. The air and fuel mixture is combusted within the cylinder to reciprocally drive the piston within the cylinder, which in turn drives a crankshaft of the engine. Combustion is initiated by creation of a spark in the cylinder by a spark plug. Spark timing is provided in terms of the angular position of the crankshaft relative to the piston achieving a particular position (e.g., top dead center (TDC)) within the cylinder, at which the spark is initiated.
There exists an optimal spark timing which produces the maximum engine torque for a given engine speed and mass of air and fuel mixture within the cylinder. This is called Maximum for Best Torque, or MBT. Combustion of the air and fuel mixture within the cylinder has variability with respect to the amount of torque created for a given spark advance and for a mass of air and fuel mixture. Combustion variability has many sources and will not be discussed here, but it causes a variable engine torque, which in turn causes variable engine speed.
During idle, it is desired to operate the engine at a predetermined engine speed. Since combustion variability causes varying engine speed, an engine idle speed control system should be able to compensate for this.
One method is to retard the average spark advance away from spark timing for MBT, and compensate engine speed error by changing spark advance on an individual cylinder firing event basis. Because this average spark timing is sub-optimal for a given fuel/air rate, the engine produces less torque than at the optimal spark timing. If additional torque is needed to increase the engine speed, the spark timing is advanced closer to spark timing for MBT to produce additional torque for same air/fuel rate. Similarly, if less torque is needed because the engine speed is higher than desired, the spark timing is retarded. The spark timing is adjusted because it can be executed much more quickly than changing air/fuel rate.
By regulating spark timing to less than optimal, this method of engine idle speed control maintains a torque reserve, which is the difference between the torque produced by the engine with spark timing for MBT, and the torque produced retarded spark timing. The torque reserve is established at a level that will maintain the engine speed above a predetermined minimum speed in the event of a large, unanticipated torque load on the engine (e.g., a full cramp of the power steering). Engine idle speed control generally utilizes only a maximum of approximately 30% of the torque reserve to account for combustion variability.
The amount of torque produced by a given change in spark timing for a fixed air/fuel rate depends on the current spark advance, the current air/fuel rate and the current engine speed. The relationship between engine torque and spark timing at a given air rate is described as non-linear curve that varies as the air rate changes and that flattens out as spark timing is advanced closer to MBT. This can present a problem to the idle speed control system.
If the torque reserve value is large, the change in engine torque for a change in spark timing (i.e., slope of the curve) over the normal spark control operating range is relatively constant. Therefore, a change in spark timing as a function of the difference between desired and actual engine speed maintains the engine sufficiently well with an air flow and spark timing invariant gain. The average spark timing is roughly 13° before TDC (BTDC) for an exemplary engine, and stays between 10° and 16° BTDC for an idle condition where loads are not changing, but combustion has typical variability. If the torque reserve is reduced, as may happen for a system with smaller unanticipated loads, the actual range of operation for spark timing changes and the slope of the curve can change rapidly over the normal spark control range.
Both the shape of the curve and the slopes vary widely between the curves for each air flow rate. As a result, using a spark timing invariant gain does not deliver acceptable engine speed control. This problem becomes compounded with differing engine idle speeds, which happens as the engine warms up. As a result, the required spark timing gain must be scheduled from a table, with multiple tables required to cover the range of engine idle speeds encountered during engine operation. It is very time consuming and cost intensive to accurately populate such a set of tables.

Spark advance foe engine idle speed control


The invention relates to a method for dynamically adjusting a switch frequency of a burst mode for a liquid crystal display. The method of the invention comprises the steps of: (a) receiving a scan frequency value from a signal source; (b) deriving a switch frequency value of the burst mode according to the scan frequency value; and (c) transmitting the switch frequency value to a lamp controller. According to the method of the invention, the switch frequency value can be obtained through calculation or by a look-up table. The stitch frequency value preferably equals a scan frequency value multiplied by a multiple (N+0.5), wherein N is a positive number. A tolerable range of the switch frequency value of the burst mode is ±20 Hz. The method of the invention utilizes various scan frequency values to adjust the switch frequency value. Therefore, no matter what a scan frequency value is provided by the signal source, the switch frequency value can be dynamically adjusted according to the scan frequency value so as to eliminate or decrease a water flow on the display. Thus, the eyes of people will not sense the water flow on the display.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a switch frequency adjusting system and method, more particularly, to a dynamic switch frequency adjusting system and method for a burst mode of a liquid crystal display.
2. Description of the Related Art
A Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp (CCFL) is used in conventional liquid crystal displays as a backlight. The brightness of the CCFL is adjusted by switching the duty cycle of the CCFL driven by an AC source of high voltages. Referring to FIG. 1, in a liquid crystal display, a controller 11 and an inverter 12 are used to light a lamp 13 and to control the brightness of the lamp 13. The controller 11 and the inverter 12 can be combined into a module.
Referring to FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, there are two modes to light the lamp and control the brightness of the lamp. The first mode is a continuous mode. The waveform of a control signal of the continuous mode is shown in FIG. 2A and the signal has frequencies of 30-70 KHz. The amplitude of the control signal is utilized to tune the brightness of the lamp according to the continuous mode.
The second mode is a burst mode. The waveform of a control signal of the burst mode is shown in FIG. 2B and the frequency of the control signal is also 30-70 KHz. A switch frequency of the control signal is 100-500 Hz, and the switch frequency is controlled to tune the brightness of the lamp by adjusting the duty cycle of the ON/OFF time of the control signal.
Most liquid crystal displays utilize the burst mode. The switch frequency is a certain value, and different manufacturers design the various switch frequency values. The liquid crystal display must receive a scan frequency value from a signal source so as to scan the display. The signal source could be set by a display card of a computer terminal or a software of a computer terminal. Therefore, the scan frequency value is not a fixed value. At some scan frequency values, people can see some water flow on the display. Sometimes the water flow is shifted upwardly, and sometimes the water flow is shifted downwardly. The shifting speed of the water flow is not fixed. According to experiments, the water flow is related to the scan frequency and the switch frequency.
Therefore, it is necessary to provide a dynamic switch frequency adjusting system and method for burst mode so as to solve the above problem.

Switch frequency adjusting system and method for burst mode of liquid crystal display


A plastic lens comprising the first acrylic hard coated layer formed on the outside surface of a plastic lens base and, in the inside surface, an antifogging coated layer with interposing of the second acrylic hard coated layer is obtained by coating the both sides of a plastic lens base with an acrylic hard coating agent, masking the outside surface with a peelable masking agent (e.g. a coating composition containing poly(vinyl chloride) or vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer), coating at least the inside surface with an antifogging agent, and removing the masking layer. As the hard coating agent or antifogging agent, use can be made of an ultraviolet-curable resin composition, and as the masking agent, a coating composition containing a poly(vinyl chloride) or vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer may be employed.

When one practices land sports such as skiing, skating, mountain climbing or hiking, or marine sports, or drives a bicycle or a motorcycle with wearing spectacles or goggles, the spectacles or goggles may sometimes be fogged or steamed over. In particular, when one moves between the conditions where the temperatures and humidities are remarkably different each other, the spectacles or goggles tend to become steamed over. By way of illustration, when the outside air temperature is low, the outside surfaces of the spectacles or goggles are exposed to the low temperature, and, the temperature of the inside raises due to a body heat and the humidity increases due to sweating to become dew point or higher, and hence the spectacles or goggles are fogged or steamed up. Further, the spectacles or goggles are steamed over due to a breath (sigh). Among other situations, when one wears goggles, the fogging or steaming up can hardly be removed since the goggles form almost sealed spaces.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 165724/1986 (JP-A-61-165724) relates to cleaning and antifogging treatment of surfaces of spectacles, and discloses a process which comprises flowing a treating agent impregnated and held on a holding part to a coating part with the use of capillarity phenomenon, cleaning the surfaces of spectacles on the coating part and treating the surfaces with a treating agent. According to this technology, however, a surfactant such as polyoxyethylene nonyl phenol and the like is used as the antifogging agent so that impartment of an eternal antifogging property for the spectacles would not be expected.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 74169/1983 (JP-A-58-74169) discloses a process which comprises, in a method of coating multi-focus lenses such as double-focus or triple-focus lenses with a hard coating agent or antifogging-coating agent, coating a plastic lens base having a boundary by means of dipping with holding the boundary of the lens at a right angle with respect to the liquid level or at an angle not greater than 20.degree. with respect to the perpendicular (right angle). This process is proposed for the purpose of inhibiting accumulation of the coating composition in the boundary part of the lens.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 294339/1990 (JP-A-2-294339) proposes an antifogging process which comprises immersing a plastic molded article such as a lens or an end plate (mirror board) with a polymerizable coating composition containing a water-soluble monomer, a monomer copolymerizable with this water-soluble monomer, and a polymerization initiator and harding the resultant immersed article for antifogging treatment.
However, even subjected to these antifogging treatments, the scratch resistance of articles can hardly be improved. That is, since the antifogging property due to the antifogging agent and the scratch resistance are in such an antinomy or contradictive relation that the scratch resistance is deteriorated with an increasing antifogging property, and the antifogging property is adversely affected with an enhancing scratch resistance, excellent antifogging property and high abrasion resistance are incompatible with each other. Therefore, when the antifogging property is improved, the spectacles or goggles tend to be scratched or abraded in case that the spectacles or goggles collide with dust or are in contact with or rubbed with other article when handled.
On the other hand, for the purpose of achieving high antifogging property and enhanced scratch resistance, there has been intended a process which comprises treating the inside surface of a lens with an antifogging agent and treating the outside surface of the lens with a hard coating agent. According to the dipping technology, however, the both sides of the lens are coated so that it is difficult to impart the antifogging property to the inside surface of the lens and the scratch resistance to the outside thereof, respectively. Further, there has been thought of coating one side and thereafter the other side of a lens base respectively with the use of spray coating or flow coating technology. According to this process, however, an equipment at high cost is required and the produc-tivity or yield tends to be deteriorated.
Incidentally, a lens having different functions on each side respectively may also be obtained by, for example, a process which comprises masking the inside surface of a plastic lens base with a masking agent, hard coating the outside surface by immersing, removing the masking by means of peeling, masking the hard coated surface and coating the inside surface with an antifogging agent by immersing, and removing the masking by stripping. This technology, however, requires a great number of steps and is complicated, and the productivity of lenses can hardly be improved. Further, when an organic solvent-based masking agent is directly coated to a plastic, removal of the masking agent is difficult because of great adhesion strength of the masking agent with respect to the plastic lens base. On the other hand, when a water-base latex paint is used as the masking agent, although the resultant masking coated layer can be peeled off or stripped from the plastic base, but it peels off or partially peels off, or is solved out in a succeeding step such as immersing step with the use of an organic solvent-based hard coating agent or antifogging agent, or washing or cleaning step. Accordingly, a masking agent having such an adequate adhesive strength as to have a high adhesive property with respect to a plastic base in the immersing step, and to be capable of peeling off after the immersing step would hardly be found out.
Furthermore, it is possible to use a masking film in lieu of a masking agent, but the film cannot be along concave and convex shape of the lens and, even when it is applied to a plane, the workability is deteriorated. Further, the surface which has not been treated with a hard coating agent has a tendency to be injured or scratched in laminating step, and the external appearance is sacrificed since an adhesion mark is remained after peeling off the film.

Plastic lenses and method of producing the same