Provided is directed to an internal supply voltage driver control circuit which can vary a driver size by way of selecting a driver control signal by using a fuse cutout, and also decide an internal voltage by using fuses, by means of including: a plurality of drivers for outputting an internal voltage in response to a plurality of enable signals; and a control unit for selectively outputting one of the plurality of enable signals according to a combination of a test mode entry signal and a plurality of address signals, and then deciding a selected enable signal according to the fuse cutout.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an internal supply voltage driver control circuit, and more particularly to, an internal supply voltage driver control circuit capable of varying a driver size by selecting a driver control signal by using a test mode and also capable of deciding a final driver size by generating an enable signal by means of using a fuse block including a fuse and cutting a fuse when an optimum size is selected.
2. Discussion of Related Art
As FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an internal supply voltage driver control circuit of the conventional art, a plurality of drivers 101 to 104 output an internal voltage according to a low level enable signal /en. However, the enable signal /en is inputted only to a driver 101 to 104 selected by operations of switches SW1 to SW4. For instance, the first to third drivers 101 to 103 are driven in response to inputting the low level enable signal /en by the first to third switches SW1 to SW3, but a fourth driver 104 is not driven by means of applying a high level external supply Vext by the fourth switch SW4.
However, in the conventional internal supply voltage driver control circuit as aforementioned, a driver size is controlled by means of controlling an input of the enable signal by using a switch, so that there is not other way to control a driver size except by using an external command. Therefore, an optimum driver size is only decided through a method of varying a driver size by means of directly modifying a circuit by using a focused ion beam FIB and then testing it again.
However, this method needs longer time to develop. Furthermore, the method is not efficient to obtain a stable internal voltage by supplying an optimum current to the device.

Circuit for controlling internal supply voltage driver


A piston includes a cylindrical body having a neck formed on an outer periphery of the cylindrical body so as to form a first annular disk and a second annular connecting to the first annular disk via the neck, multiple through holes defined through the second annular disk to communicate with a first space among the second annular disk, the neck and the first annular disk, an annular recess defined in an outer periphery of the second annular disk and multiple slits defined through a bottom face defining the annular recess to communicate with a second space below the first annular disk after passing through the neck.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a piston structure, and more particularly to piston structure which is free of seal ring.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When moving an object upward or downward, a jack or a hydraulic cylinder will be used to save strength. When the hydraulic force of the jack is used, due to the movement of a piston inside the cylinder, resistance from the fluid inside the cylinder provides the necessary force to raise the object such as a tool head to serve as a counter balance cylinder. With reference to FIG. 7, a conventional piston (41) inside a cylinder (40) is shown. The piston (41) is movably received inside the cylinder (40) and due to the existence of the piston (41), an interior of the cylinder (40) is divided into two compartments (400,410). Furthermore, in order to prevent leakage of fluid inside the cylinder (40), a seal ring (43) is provided at both a top portion and a bottom portion of an outer periphery of the piston (41). A friction element (44) is normally mounted between the two seal rings (43) and on the outer periphery of the piston (41) to maintain stable axial movement of the piston (41) inside the cylinder (40). Thus when the piston (41) is moved, movement of the fluid inside the cylinder (40) from one compartment (400 or 410) to the other compartment (410 or 400) provides the necessary force to accomplish the designated tasks.
However, due to the friction between the friction element (44) and the inner side wall of the cylinder (40) and the friction between the seal rings (43) and the inner side wall of the cylinder (40), part of the force driving the piston (41) is used to overcome the above mentioned friction. Furthermore, if the friction element (44) or the seal rings (44) are worn, leakage of the fluid may cause replacement of the entire cylinder.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention tends to provide an improved piston structure to mitigate the aforementioned problems.

Victor Taichung Machinery Works Co., Ltd.


A display device including an array of pixels, each pixel including at least three sub-pixels having a LED device emitting light with a blue color point. The first sub-pixel is designed to emit red light having a first color point, the second sub-pixel is designed to emit green light having a second color point, where the LED device of the third sub-pixel is covered with a third wavelength converting layer designed to emit light having a fourth color point. The fourth color point being such that the combination of light emitted by the LED device not converted by the wavelength converting layer and the light converted by the wavelength converting layer results in light having a third color point, where the first, the second and the third color points define a second color space in which a set color space is included.

U.S. Pat. No. 9,728,687 "Quantum Platelet Converter" describes an exemplary LED device that includes a QPC downconverter that converts an LED-emitted light at an emission wavelength to light of a longer wavelength. As illustrated in FIG. 1, which corresponds to FIG. 8 of U.S. Pat. No. 9,728,687, such a LED device 100 includes an LED die or chip 102. An encapsulant 106, such as silicone, can be disposed over the LED die or chip 102 that emits UV or blue light. The encapsulant 106 can function as a matrix for holding one or more QPC downconverters 108 and 110. The encapsulant and the QPC downconverters form a wavelength converting layer 104. The QPC downconverters 108 can include different QPC structures for down converting the blue light emitted by the LED chip 102 to different longer optical wavelengths, e.g., light in red, green, or yellow colors. For example, the QPC downconverters 108 can include red QPC structures (108) for converting blue light into red light, green QPC structures (110) for converting blue light into green light, yellow QPC structures for converting blue light into yellow light, or combinations of two or all three types of the above QPC structures. The various QPC structures can be embedded into the encapsulant 106 which can include a binder material such as silicone.
In addition, as illustrated on FIG. 2, which corresponds to FIG. 11 of U.S. Pat. No. 9,728,687, a transparent layer 112 can be positioned between the QPC embedded wavelength converting layer 104 and the LED chip 102. The transparent layer can operate as a heat spreading layer to reduce negative effects of heat on the color conversion materials 102 and functions also as an optical peak flux reduction layer by spreading the LED light over a larger surface, typically called a "remote phosphor" application as in high power lighting.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,865,577 "LED display with wavelength converting layer" describes a pixel for which the R, G and B sub-pixels that use the same Blue, Deep Blue or UV LED for all of the red, green and blue sub-pixels. The Blue, Deep Blue or UV LEDS 400 are bonded on a substrate 102 and covered with a wavelength converting layer 310. A light/heat distribution layer 320 can be formed between the LED 400 and the conversion layer 310.
FIG. 3A of the present invention is a schematic side view illustration of a pixel 106 in accordance with the known art. FIG. 3A corresponds to FIG. 11B of U.S. Pat. No. 9,865,577. As illustrated in FIG. 3A, each micro LED device 400 is designed to emit a deep blue (DB) color spectrum. The different wavelength converting layers 310 can be designed to emit red (R), green (G), and blue (B) in an RGB subpixel arrangement.
When using color conversion materials, typically the lower the excitation spectrum compared to the emission spectrum, the better the absorbance of the color conversion material. The absorption cross-section of an NPL (Nanoplatelet) or QDOT depends on the excitation wavelength. For a particular conversion material there may be a peak in the absorbance. FIG. 7 shows the spectrum of a Lumidot™ CdSe/ZnS 610 nm red emitting quantum dot particles from Sigma-Aldrich®. The line 710 represents the absorption spectrum. As can be seen in the Figure, there is a local absorption peak 730 (due to the first exciton level) close to the emission peak, but the absorbance is much stronger for wavelengths below 500 nm. Different conversion materials and same materials with different emission peak wavelengths will show an exciton peak at different wavelengths, but all will show the increase of absorption towards deeper blue.
The smaller the absorption cross-section, the more QDots/NPLs are needed to obtain a full color conversion. Using a deep blue/UV excitation source has two advantages; (1) the absorption cross-section is significantly larger at lower wavelengths reducing the required concentration significantly (factor 4 to 10 or even more) and (2) as the required concentration is lower, the average path length for reabsorption will decrease. This second advantage is explained as follows; when a blue photon is absorbed and converted to red, the red photon can meet another color QDOT/NPL and be re-absorbed. It has then two possibilities; the QDOT/NPL can re-emit a red photon or it can be converted to heat. The possibility that the absorbed red photon is converted to heat increases of course the higher the concentration of QDOTs/NPLs. So, decreasing the concentration of color conversion materials increases the red photon escape probability.
The use of a deep blue excitation source is required to obtain a good efficiency as (1) it provides a higher absorption efficiency and (2) it decreases the reabsorption probability.
However, in an RGB display, the requirements as to the color points are stringent. For example, a certain color rectangle as or Rec709, DCI-P3, Rec2020 or any other is required to be achieved. In that case the native deep blue LED cannot be used as the blue color point for the display as it is well beyond these color triangles. The display would miss a large amount of blue/cyan color points. One solution to this problem is to use another blue LED for the blue color point, without color conversion materials. However, this means that two kinds of LEDs should be used: deep blue for red and green conversion and normal blue (around 465 nm) for blue color.
From a manufacturing point of view this means that two different blue LEDs need to be stuffed. High resolution LED walls are typically stuffed with so called mass-transfer techniques as the pick-and-place single component methods become too expensive. Thus, using two different blue LEDs is less compatible with mass-transfer techniques as two steps are required. Using the same blue LED would ease/enable the mass-transfer technique and ease also the logistics, reducing the high cost of a high-resolution LED display. A solution needs to be found to avoid the use of two types of LEDs or the use of a 465 nm like LED to generate the blue emission.
FIG. 3B of the present invention is a schematic side view illustration of a pixel in accordance with the known art, which corresponds to FIG. 11C of U.S. Pat. No. 9,865,577. As illustrated in FIG. 3B, each micro LED device is designed to emit a blue (B) color spectrum. In such an embodiment, the different wavelength converting layers 310 can be designed to emit red (R) and green (G). A wavelength converting layer 310 is not formed over the third light distribution layer 320. In this manner an RGB subpixel arrangement is achieved without having to convert the blue light from the blue emitting subpixel. The blue light in U.S. Pat. No. 9,865,577 is defined as having a spectrum in the range of 450 nm to 495 nm.
Unfortunately, other problems occur in this case. When using a blue diode (with a peak wavelength larger than 455 nm) for both the excitation of the R and G converter layers and for the blue sub-pixel, more converter material is required to achieve the correct brightness that would be needed when using with a shorter peak wavelength for the excitation light.
FIG. 3C of the present invention is a schematic side view illustration of a pixel 106 in accordance with the known art (FIG. 11D from U.S. Pat. No. 9,865,577). As illustrated in FIG. 3C, each micro LED device 400 is designed to emit an ultraviolet (UV) color spectrum. In such an embodiment, the different wavelength converting layers 310 can be designed to emit red (R), green (G), and blue (B).
There are problems when using UV light in pixels. For instance, one must prevent UV light from seeping out of the conversion layers and prevent the UV lights from reaching the eyes of viewers looking at the display using these LEDs.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,865,577 "LED display with wavelength converting layer" also discloses the use of a dye or pigment dispersed in the wavelength converting layer to absorb colors other than green (for the green sub-pixel) or red (for the red sub-pixel). In particular, the dye or pigment dispersed in the conversion layer can absorb the blue or deep blue emission of the LED device thereby reducing bleeding of the unconverted blue or deep blue. This dye or pigment decreases the efficiency (input power to output luminance) of the structure. Indeed, at least some of the blue or deep blue light can be absorbed in the conversion layer before it can be down-converted to red or green light. This is likely to impact the overall power efficiency of a LED display making use of pixels as described in U.S. Pat. No. 9,865,577.
Pixels made of LEDs as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 9,865,577 and 9,728,687 can be made smaller than what has been possible so far. Smaller pixels are a requisite to increase the resolution of LED displays. In the art, the space between pixels is usually a black matrix that increases the contrast ratio of the LED display. As the resolution increases, the ratio of the area occupied by the LED over the area of the black matrix increases as well. This means that the optical properties of the LED or the package of the LED have/has more effect on the contrast ratio of the LED display. Indeed, more ambient light interacts with the LED or their package than with the black matrix between LED. Solutions are required to prevent a decrease of the contrast ratio.
There is need for improvement in the art.

Display with quantum dot or quantum platelet converter


A method of optimizing data streaming in a peer-to-peer architecture that comprises a plurality of clients in a chain, a peer-to-peer data streaming system having such architecture, and a client terminal for use in that system. Each client monitors its own bandwidth, informs a succeeding client in the chain of that bandwidth, compares its own bandwidth with the bandwidth of a preceding client in the chain and, in response to a difference between the compared bandwidths, reorders its position among the clients in the chain. The chain thus dynamically self-organizes itself to stream data more efficiently and with higher, more reliable throughput, reducing the processing power necessary to stream the data and enabling higher quality to be achieved within the existing internet infrastructure. This also solves the ‘bottle-neck’ problem within the cascaded streaming path by continuously organizing the participating terminals into the most efficient configuration, without interrupting the streamed data.

This invention relates to streaming of data, and more generally to the distribution of rich media and data on-line and over any network, notably the Internet.
Streaming technology is a major growth area in the Internet field. It helps to satisfy public demand for large multimedia files by allowing parts of such a file to be displayed, played or otherwise accessed and used while other parts of the file are still downloading. In this way, streaming helps users whose terminals have insufficient access speed, memory and processing capabilities for them to be able to download complete multimedia files quickly enough to enjoy their use.
Examples of streaming formats are RealVideo and RealAudio developed by RealNetworks, Inc. (all trade marks acknowledged). With suitable plug-ins on their browser programs, users with even modestly-specified terminals and modems can enjoy streamed data such as a live audio/video feed from a concert.
Streaming relies upon the client terminal collecting data and sending that data as a steady stream to an application that processes the data, for example by converting that data to sound and/or pictures. Despite the use of a buffer to store an excess of incoming data and hence to insulate the application from interruptions in the incoming data stream, it often happens that the data does not arrive quickly enough to replenish the buffer. For example, network congestion can arise due to the essentially client/server architecture of the Internet. The result is a lack of smoothness in the data stream presented to the application and consequential loss in the quality of the user's experience, manifested by interruptions and other degradation.
Even if the data stream is smooth enough to allow continuity, the quality of the data, for example in terms of image resolution and image size, is often poor. Put simply, the quality of the data equates to the rate at which information is transmitted, in terms of the amount of data transmitted in a given time, and this rate is compromised in an effort to ease downloading, to make it easier to keep the buffer replenished, and to minimize interruptions in the data stream.
In today's predominantly client/server Internet architecture, high concurrency rates place bandwidth-intensive demands on servers dedicated to the streaming of continuous data. This drastically compromises the quality and reliability of the end-user's experience. It also results in high hardware overheads for streaming service providers, who need to maintain banks of specialized servers.


An adjustable tarpaulin (11) that can be adjusted to various predetermined lengths, and more securely fastened. The adjustability of the adjustable tarpaulin (11) is provided by having one or more sets of valances of the top layer (23, 41) and the valances of the bottom layer (27, 43). Because the valances are free on one end, the length of each of the valance side edges may be adjusted as desired and the valances provide two different pull angles to share the load of the tarpaulin. By doing so, the adjustable tarpaulin (11) enables the tarpaulin to be adjusted between two or more prefixed sizes. Moreover the adjustable tarpaulin (11) can provide the distribution of the load from more than one angle so stress and the load will be distributed over two different sets of tie points (33).

This invention relates to a new and innovative adjustable tarpaulin that enables the tarpaulin to be adjusted to various predetermined lengths, and more secured fastening of the tarpaulin. The present invention may be made of fabric, plastic-coated woven fabric, fleece or of unreinforced or reinforced edges and sides.
Tarpaulins are used as covers for protecting all types of materials against the influences of weather, cold, heat, dust and other harsh environment.
Tarpaulins are used, as fabricated, mainly for covering purposes. They are often made in a shaped form after being cut to a pattern. They may be provided with edge reinforcements, eyelets (or tie points) and other holding devices, for use as covers on trucks, cars, boats, protective covers on construction jobs, on railroads and for mail traffic, as well as for many other purposes. Tarpaulins which are provided with eyelets, supporting strips or other fastening means, have become very important in the construction industry where they serve to protect against weather, particularly during rainy, cold days, and dusty days.
There are two drawbacks to conventional tarpaulins. The first is that the conventional tarpaulins come in fixed sizes, so that a given tarpaulin might be ideal to be used for covering a certain item, but it would be either too large or too small to cover another item which is considerably larger or smaller. The second problem is that when the tarpaulins are used in heavily windy areas, the conventional tarpaulins with limited tied down areas, even with the best reinforced corners and edges, were often tearing because the conventional tarpaulins could not provide sufficient pull strength. Basically too much stress was put on each fastening point, because the tarpaulins were pulled only from one angle.
In connection with the first problem aforementioned, the user of conventional tarpaulins had to purchase several different sizes to accommodate different size items to be protected. In connection with the second problem, the tarpaulins were damaged easily, mainly due to a large rip starting from a small cut around reinforcements, due to too much stress around the reinforcements.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a new and innovative adjustable tarpaulin that enables the tarpaulin to be adjusted between two or more prefixed sizes and a tarpaulin which can provide the distribution of the load from more than one angle so stress will be distributed over two different sets of tie down points.


A particle optical apparatus has a particle source for generating at least one beam of charged particles, and a magnet arrangement having two pole plates, which are arranged spaced apart from one another, such that the at least one beam of charged particles in operation passes through the pole plates, wherein trenches are provided in the pole plates, in which trenches coil wires are arranged. The trenches, when viewed in a cross section transverse to an extension direction of the trenches, have a smaller width in a region of a surface of the pole plates, than in a region arranged at a distance from the surface.

Electron microscopes are used for examining an object by directing a primary electron beam towards the object to be examined, whereupon electrons emanating from the object are guided to a detector as a secondary electron beam, and detected there.
For electron microscopes, it is generally desirable to deflect the primary and/or the secondary electron beam in a precise manner, e.g. about an angle of 10° or more; or to separate an electron beam from a counter-propagating electron beam, for being able to separately manipulate these beams. For an electron microscope operating in 180°-deflection, or an electron microscope with a mirror corrector, this typically means that both beams have to pass a deflecting field of a beam separator.
For beam guiding, magnetic fields are usually employed, which often have to fulfill high demands concerning their homogeneity, stability and edge effects. Metal plates with a high magnetic conductivity, usually of an iron-nickel-alloy, can be placed at a fixed distance opposite from one another as pole plates for generating these magnetic fields. Coils are fitted into the surfaces of the pole plates, which coils may be energized by a flow of current. A magnetic field which is homogeneous to a high degree of approximation is then generated on the areas surrounded by the coil wires. Such a device is known from German Patent No. 102 35 981.
The demands on the stability and accuracy of the geometry of the pole plates can be quite high, in particular for the electron microscopes with a mirror corrector mentioned above.

Particle optical device with magnet assembly


An image forming apparatus in which ink depletion detection accuracy will not be deteriorated even if an air bubble is created in an ink supplying path. The image forming apparatus is provided with (a) an ink storage section for storing ink therein, (b) an ink supplying path for supplying, to a print head, the ink stored in the ink storage section, and (c) an electrode for detecting whether the ink is present or absent in the ink supplying path, an amount of the ink supplied into the ink supplying path being 1.0 cc or less per minute.

The ink jet recording apparatus is an image forming apparatus for printing by jetting out (spray) ink on a sheet functioning as a recording sheet. The ink jet recording apparatus is generally provided with an ink cartridge including an ink tank. The ink is supplied from the ink cartridge to a print head. Then, the ink is jetted out from the print head onto the sheet.
In using such ink jet recording apparatus, it is necessary to replace the ink cartridge when the ink in the ink cartridge runs out (depletes). Thus, it is necessary to detect (measure) and inform how much ink is left in the ink cartridge (ink remaining amount).
In view of this, various ink cartridges have been suggested, in which the ink remaining amount can be detected. For example, Japanese Publication of Unexamined Patent Application, Tokukaihei, No. 3-288654 (published on Dec. 18, 1991) discloses an ink cartridge provided with an ink absorbing foam material in an ink tank, a filter in an ink supplying path that connects the ink tank and a print head, and electrodes in a downstream of the filter, that is, at a location between the filter and an ink jetting outlet, the electrodes detecting whether the ink is present or absent in the ink supplying path.
In an ink jet recording apparatus using such an ink cartridge, the ink is supplied from the ink cartridge to the print head by a negative pressure applied via the filter from a print head side, which is an ink spraying outlet side.
The ink jet recording apparatus using such ink cartridge is so arranged that detection of the ink in the ink supplying path is carried out by using a current flowing between the electrodes. That is, the ink becomes absent in the ink supplying path when an ink remaining amount becomes little, thereby allowing no current to flow between the electrodes. It is detected that no current flows between the electrode. Thereby, it is judged as "ink empty (ink depletion)", that is, it is judged that the ink has run out.
However, in applying the negative pressure via a filter from the print head side (the ink spraying outlet side) in order to suck out the ink, there is a possibility that printing quality would be deteriorated if the air is sucked in from the print head side.
In order to solve this problem, various methods to prevent the air from being entrained into the ink from the print head have been suggested. For example, in Japanese Publication of Unexamined Patent Application, Tokukai, No. 2002-36557 (published on Feb. 5, 2002), a buoyant force applied on an air bubble in an ink supplying chamber is set to be larger than a drag force given by velocity of flow of ink, thereby preventing the air bubble from growing in the ink supplying chamber.
Moreover, Japanese Publication of Unexamined Patent Application, Tokukai, No. 2002-67353 (published on Mar. 5, 2002) discloses an arrangement in which a first filter for preventing ink leakage and a second filter, which is finer than the first filter, for removing foreign materials are provided in an ink supplying path in this order from an upstream of the ink supplying path.
However, a larger air bubble is easy to break. Thus, in the art described in Japanese Publication of Unexamined Patent Application, Tokukai, No. 2002-36557, there is a possibility that an survived air bubble, which has not broken, enters the ink supplying chamber.
Further, in the art described in Japanese Publication of Unexamined Patent Application, Tokukai, No. 2002-36557, there is a problem that the air bubble gives influence on detection of ink depletion.
Moreover, in Japanese Publication of Unexamined Patent Application, Tokukai, No. 2002-67353, there is a problem that the second filter, which is finer than the first filter, produces a smaller air bubble, thereby deteriorating accuracy in detection of the ink depletion.


A switching unit for an electrical switching device, in particular an electrical circuit breaker, is disclosed. The switching unit includes a switching lock with a switching mechanism and a rotor housing with a contact arm disposed therein for opening and closing contacts during a rotation of the rotor housing about a rotation axis. In an embodiment, at least one lever apparatus is functionally connected at its upper end by way of the switching mechanism and at its lower end by way of a connecting pin to a face of the rotor housing.

Switching units for electrical switching devices and such electrical switching devices are known in principle. They generally have a switching lock with a switching mechanism and a rotor housing. The switching mechanism is connected in the known manner to the rotor housing, such that a contact arm disposed therein can open and close contacts during the rotation of the rotor housing about a rotation axis. The switching mechanism here is generally in a mechanically transmitting arrangement in relation to the rotor housing by way of a lever kinematic, for example a toggle lever.
Known switching units have the problem that such a lever kinematic, in particular a toggle lever, has to be fastened in a secure and mechanically stable manner to the rotor housing. With known switching units fastening is generally achieved by way of a through-shaft or a through-pin, which is supported on both sides in the rotor housing. In known switching units such a connecting pin extends in a transverse manner through the rotor housing, so that conflict can result in the interior between said connecting pin and the contact arms. This means that in known switching units the rotor housing must be embodied as sufficiently large to provide enough space for the penetration of such a connecting pin.
A further disadvantage of known switching units is that the penetration of the connecting pin means that the connecting pin has to be electrically insulated. Electrical insulation, which can already be provided by the rotor housing, is bridged because of the penetrating connecting pin, so that complex and expensive separate electrical insulation of the connecting pin is required. Also this produces a tolerance chain, so that when such connecting pins, a corresponding rotor housing and the lever apparatus are manufactured, particularly small tolerances ranges have to be complied with. This increases costs further when manufacturing known switching units.

Switching unit for an electrical switching device


A magnetic tape device comprises a plurality of magnetic heads for recording or reproducing data to a magnetic tape including a data recording area, a tape running mechanism for making the magnetic tape run on the magnetic heads, and a controller for controlling a recording and reproducing operation of the magnetic heads for the magnetic tape while running. The controller includes a recording controller to control the recording and reproducing operation of the magnetic heads so as to record recording target data including a redundancy without recording the recording data and data which is the same as at least a part of the recording target data as redundant data, these data not being recorded in data recording areas adjacent with each other.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to magnetic tape devices and particularly to magnetic tape devices improving a reliability of data which are recorded on magnetic tapes.
2. Background Art
A magnetic tape device is a device for recording or reproducing data on a magnetic tape with magnetic head. The magnetic tape device is used for recording data which is managed in server computer as backup data. One of constitutions of the magnetic tape device is a helical scanning method. The helical scanning method is a method for arranging a plurality of magnetic heads around a head drum, and recording and reproducing data in track on tape by rotating the head drum and running the magnetic tape around the head drum as shown in FIG. 1 described below. Another constitution of the magnetic tape device is a linear recording method. There is provided a magnetic head assembly including a plurality of magnetic heads in the linear recording method. Then a device records or reproduces data in a running magnetic tape by moving the magnetic head assembly vertically with respect to a width of the magnetic tape as shown in FIG. 12 described below.
According to the magnetic tape device including a plurality of magnetic heads described above, there is a problem of failing in processing of reading data. More specifically, if a problem occurs in a part of magnetic heads or the data cannot be read partially due to a dirt or a scratch on the tape, the processing can be failed even if remaining data can be read normally. That is, there is a problem that reliability of a conventional magnetic tape device is lacked because the data cannot be read in case that one of a plurality of magnetic heads crashes or a dirt is attached to a part of the tape although the device includes a plurality of magnetic heads.
As the art for resolving the problem, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 5-282608 (Koyama) discloses the magnetic tape device including a plurality of magnetic heads which records data and duplicated data in adjacent tracks on a magnetic tape simultaneously. The magnetic tape device gives the recording data redundancy by recording the duplicated data.
However in the art of Koyama, data and duplicated data having redundancy are recorded in the adjacent tracks. Therefore, both data cannot be read in case that an error in reading is occurred by a dirt or a scratch in adjacent data areas on the magnetic tape. Then there is raised a problem that the reliability cannot be improved. Further there is also a problem that amount of data capacity is enormous because a copy of recording target data is recorded in addition to the original data.

Magnetic tape device and data recording method


Four shock absorbers are connected to a control cylinder. The control cylinder includes a housing body portion having two cylinder chambers which are divided by a partition wall portion; and a piston assembly which is formed by coupling two pistons with each other using a coupling rod. Two outer side control chambers and two inner side control chambers are connected to respective absorber chambers. Pressure receiving areas of outer side pressure-receiving surfaces and inner side pressure-receiving surfaces of the pistons and damping characteristics of the shock absorbers are set such that a direction in which the piston assembly moves in a region where an operation speed is low is opposite to a direction in which the piston assembly moves in a region where the operation speed is high.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vehicle suspension system. More particularly, the invention relates to a vehicle suspension system including four shock absorbers which are provided so as to correspond to a left front wheel, a right front wheel, a left rear wheel and the right rear wheel; and one control cylinder which is connected to these shock absorbers.
2. Description of the Related Art
The above-mentioned type of vehicle suspension system has been known, as disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,024,037. In a vehicle suspension system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,024,037, a control cylinder includes a cylinder housing, and a piston assembly which is fitted in the cylinder housing fluid-tightly and slidably. A suspension cylinder is formed by integrating a hydraulic cylinder and an air spring. The piston assembly is formed by coupling two pistons with each other using a coupling rod. A space in the cylinder housing is partitioned into two cylinder chambers by a partition wall. The pistons included in the piston assembly are fitted in respective cylinder chambers fluid-tightly and slidably. The coupling rod is fitted in the partition wall fluid-tightly and slidably so as to penetrate the partition wall. Four fluid chambers thus formed in the cylinder housing are connected to fluid chambers of fluid pressure cylinder portions of four respective suspension cylinders provided so as to correspond to the right and left wheels on the front side. In the control cylinder, an outer side pressure-receiving surface of one of the two pistons is used as a pressure-receiving surface which receives fluid pressure of the suspension cylinder corresponding to the left rear wheel, and an outer side pressure-receiving surface of the other piston is used as a pressure-receiving surface which receives fluid-pressure of the suspension cylinder corresponding to the right rear wheel. Also, an inner side pressure-receiving surface of one of the two pistons is used as a pressure-receiving surface which receives fluid pressure of the suspension cylinder corresponding to the left front wheel, and an inner side pressure-receiving surface of the other piston is used as a pressure-receiving surface which receives fluid pressure of the suspension cylinder corresponding to the right front wheel. Accordingly, for example, when a braking force is applied to a vehicle and pitching moment is applied to a vehicle body, and therefore the fluid pressure of each of the suspension cylinders corresponding to the right and left wheels on the front side is increased and the fluid pressure of each of the suspension cylinders corresponding to the right and left wheels on the rear side is decreased, the piston assembly does not move. Therefore, the four suspension cylinders are substantially independent of each other. As a result, pitching of the vehicle body is suppressed.
When rolling moment is applied to the vehicle body while the vehicle is turning and therefore the fluid pressure of each of the suspension cylinders corresponding to the front and rear wheels on the left side is increased and the fluid pressure of each of the suspension cylinders corresponding to the front and rear wheels on the right side is decreased, the fluid pressure applied to one of the two outer side pressure-receiving surfaces and the fluid pressure applied to one of the two inner side pressure-receiving surfaces are increased, and the fluid pressure applied to the other outer side pressure-receiving surface and the fluid pressure applied to the other inner side pressure-receiving surface are decreased. In this case, whether the piston assembly moves is not decided uniquely. If the piston assembly moves, the direction in which the piston assembly moves is not decided uniquely. Whether the piston assembly moves and the direction in which the piston assembly moves vary depending on a change in the fluid pressure caused in the suspension cylinder due to rolling of the vehicle body and a relationship of size between the outer side pressure-receiving surface and the inner side pressure-receiving surface. Namely, it is possible to make rolling rigidity on the front wheel side different from rolling rigidity on the rear wheel side, for example, by changing the relationship of size between the outer side pressure-receiving surface and the inner side pressure-receiving surface with respect to the same change in the fluid pressure caused in the suspension cylinder due to rolling.
Further, when one of the four wheels runs on a bump on a road, the piston assembly of the control cylinder moves, which makes it easier for the suspension cylinder corresponding to the one wheel to operate. As a result, transfer of the impact that is caused when the one wheel runs on the bump is reduced, which improves the riding comfort.
As described so far, the vehicle suspension system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,024,037 is good. However, the vehicle suspension system still has plenty of room for improvement.


A method and apparatus for including in a processor instructions for performing horizontal intra-add operations on packed data. One embodiment of the processor is coupled to a memory. The memory has stored therein at least a first packed data. The processor performs operations on data elements in the first packed data to generate a plurality of data elements in a second packed data in response to receiving an instruction. At least two of the plurality of data elements in the second packed data store the results of an intra-add operation, at least one of these results coming from the operation on data elements of the first packed data. One embodiment of a software method utilizes horizontal intra-add instructions for performing butterfly computations as may be employed, for example, in Walsh-Hadamard transforms or in Fast-Fourier Transforms.

To improve the efficiency of multimedia applications, as well as other applications with similar characteristics, a Single Instruction, Multiple Data (SIMD) architecture has been implemented in computer systems to enable one instruction to operate on several operands simultaneously, rather than on a single operand. In particular, SIMD architectures take advantage of packing many data elements within one register or memory location. With parallel hardware execution, multiple operations can be performed on separate data elements with one instruction, resulting in significant performance improvement.
One set of SIMD instructions was defined for the Pentium® Processor with MMX™ Technology by Intel® Corporation and described in "IA-32 Intel Architecture Software Developer's Manual Volume 2: Instruction Set Reference," which is available from Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, Calif. on the world-wide-web (www) at intel.com/design/litcentr.
Currently, the SIMD addition operation only performs "vertical" or inter-register addition, where pairs of data elements, for example, a first element Xn (where n is an integer) from one operand, and a second element Yn from a second operand, are added together. An example of such a vertical addition operation is shown in FIG. 1, where the instruction is performed on the sets of data elements (X3, X2, X1 and X0) and (Y3, Y2, Y1, and Y0) accessed as Source 1 and Source2, respectively to obtain the result (X3+Y3, X2+Y2, X1+Y1, and X0+Y0).
Although many applications currently in use can take advantage of such a vertical add operation, there are a number of important applications which would require the rearrangement of the data elements before the vertical add operation can be implemented so as to provide realization of the application.
For example, an 8-point decimation in time operation of a Walsh-Hadamard transform and of a Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT) is shown in FIG. 2b. The larger 8-point transforms may be performed in stages through successive doubling. That is to say an 8-point transform can be computed from two 4-point transforms, which can be computed from four 2-point transforms. The computations at each stage are called butterflies.
A butterfly for the staged computations of FIG. 2b is shown in FIG. 2a. At each successive stage, data elements at even positions are combined with the data elements at odd positions to generate data elements of the next successive stage. In order to perform these staged computations using prior-art SIMD vertical additions and vertical subtractions, instructions substantially similar to the instruction sequence example of Table 1 may be used to shuffle and rearrange data elements for each stage.
TABLE 1Exemplary Code To Prepare Data for Vertical-Add/Vertical-SubtractOperations:movdqaxmm7, [esi]//shuffle pattern to put even elements inlow half odd in high halfpshufbxmm0, xmm7//shuffle data in xmm0pshufbxmm1, xmm7//shuffle data in xmm1movdqaxmm2, xmm0//copy xmm0 datapunpcklqdqxmm0, xmm1//combine even elements of xmm0 andxmm1. xmm1 in high half.punpckhqdqxmm2, xmm1//combine odd elements of xmm2 (equal toxmm0) and xmm1.
One drawback of this approach is that it requires additional processing time to perform the operations that shuffle and recombine the data elements between stages. Another drawback is that an additional register is used to hold a shuffle pattern for sorting the even elements into the low half of the register and the odd elements into the high half of the register. A third drawback is that the extra instructions that are required due to the necessity to rearrange data between stages reduces the code density and requires more storage in memory and in cache.
Accordingly, there is a need in the technology for providing an apparatus and method which more efficiently performs butterfly computations, such as those used in 2-point or 4-point transforms for example, without requiring additional time to perform operations that shuffle and recombine data elements. There is also a need in the technology for a method and operation for increasing code density by eliminating the necessity for the rearrangement of data elements and thereby eliminating the corresponding rearrangement operations from the code. By eliminating the necessity for the rearrangement of data elements, an additional register could also be made available that might otherwise have been used to store patterns for shuffling the odd and even data elements.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for performing horizontal addition and subtraction


Red, green, and blue signals are extracted from a composite video signal, compressed on the time axis, combined into a single RGB video signal, and displayed as three separate monochrome pictures on a single cathode-ray tube. Red, green, and blue light from the monochrome pictures is combined into a single color picture. If necessary, the color are optically enlarged to the correct aspect ratio.

This invention relates to small, high-resolution color display apparatus suitable for use, for example, as the viewfinder of a hand-held video camera with a built-in video cassette tape recorder, commonly known as a camcorder.
The viewfinders of early camcorders generally displayed black-and-white pictures on small monochrome cathode-ray tubes. Such tubes provide satisfactory resolution even on a screen of viewfinder size, measuring about 20 millimeters diagonally. However, one problem is that the user cannot see the colors of the scene which he or she is shooting.
Recently viewfinders with color liquid-crystal displays have appeared. High hopes are held for such viewfinders in the future, but at present they are expensive to manufacture and offer only poor resolution: about 300 to 400 pixels in the horizontal direction (only 100 to 130 pixels per primary color) and about 250 pixels in the vertical direction (only half the 500 effective scanning lines of the standard NTSC television scanning system). This resolution is greatly inferior to the resolution of the camera imaging device, and therefore does not enable the user to focus the camera lens accurately.
Color cathode-ray tubes are also low in resolution, owing to their use of different-colored phosphor dots or stripes illuminated through a shadow mask. To achieve higher resolution, a color viewfinder has been proposed that employs three monochrome cathode-ray tubes, one for each of the three primary colors, and combines their images into a single color picture. Such a viewfinder is large and expensive, however, and suffers from color registration error due to differences in picture size and linearity among the three tubes. The registration error can be eliminated only by difficult adjustment of the deflection systems of the three tubes. Further, even if these are precisely adjusted when new, they will tend to get out of adjustment during use.

Small, high-resolution color display apparatus


An information providing server has information on plural printers. The information providing server provides a user of a portable terminal with the information on the plural printers by sending the information on the plural printers to the portable terminal. The portable terminal sends an e-mail to which a file to be printed is attached to a printer selected by the user. Each of the plural printers has a plurality of print conditions to which different e-mail addresses are respectively assigned. The printer that has received an e-mail specifies a print condition from an e-mail address indicating the destination of the e-mail. The printer then prints the file attached to the received e-mail under the specified print condition.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing system, a printing apparatus, a printing method and a program.
2. Description of the Related Art
In case of printing a file which is prepared by a user using a computer, the computer converts data of the file to print data and outputs the print data to a printer connected to the computer.
The printer prints the file using the print data supplied from the computer.
There may be a case where a user is out of an office and there are no available printers so that the user cannot execute printing.
Even if there is an available printer, it takes time to set up the connection of a computer to the printer.


Embodiments disclosed herein utilize statistical approximations to manage large filesystem-based caches based on imperfect information. When removing entries from a large cache, which may have a million or more entries, the cache manager does not need to find the absolutely oldest entry that has been accessed the least recently. Instead, it suffices to find an entry that is older than most. In embodiments disclosed herein, statistical sampling of the cache is performed to produce models of different properties of the cache, including the number of entries, distribution of access times, distribution of entry sizes, etc. The models are then used to guide decisions that involve those properties. The size of the samples can be adjusted to balance the cost of acquiring the samples against the confidence level of the models produced by the samples. To achieve randomness, entries are stored using prefixes of addresses generated via a message-digest function.

Communication of data over computer networks, particularly the Internet, has become an important, if not essential, way for many organizations and individuals to disseminate information. The Internet is a global network connecting millions of computers using a client-server architecture in which any computer connected to the Internet can potentially receive data from and send data to any other computer connected to the Internet. The Internet provides a variety of methods in which to communicate data, one of the most ubiquitous of which is the World Wide Web, also referred to as the web. Other methods for communicating data over the Internet include e-mail, Usenet newsgroups, telnet and FTP.
The World Wide Web is a system of Internet servers, typically called "web servers", that support the documents and applications present on the World Wide Web.
Documents, known as web pages, may be transferred across the Internet according to the Hypertext Transfer Protocol ("HTTP") while applications may be run by a Java virtual machine present in an internet browser. Web pages are often organized into web sites that represent a site or location on the Web. The web pages within a web site can link to one or more web pages, files, or applications at the same web site or at other web sites. A user can access web pages using a browser program running on the user's computer or web-enabled device and can "click on" links in the web pages being viewed to access other web pages.
Each time the user clicks on a link, the browser program generates a request and communicates it to a web server hosting web pages or applications associated with the web site. The web server retrieves the requested web page or application from an application server or Java server and returns it to the browser program. Web pages and applications can provide a variety of content, including text, graphics, interactive gaming and audio and video content.
Because web pages and associated applications can display content and receive information from users, web sites have become popular for enabling commercial transactions. As web sites become more important to commerce, businesses are increasingly interested in quickly providing responses to user's requests. One way of accelerating responses to requests on a web site is to cache the web pages or applications delivered to the requesting user in order to allow faster access time to this content when it is next requested.
Conventional web content caching systems and methods generally enforce limits on cache size by employing a least-recently-used (LRU) algorithm. Generally, when a cache is at its limit and a new entry needs to be added to the cache, the entire cache is scanned and the cache entry that has been used the least recently is selected and then removed from the cache. This process may be repeated until enough room has been created in the cache for the new entry.

System and method for managing large filesystem-based caches


Systems and methods are provided for adapting automotive mmW radar technology to meet the requirements of autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems. Embodiments of the present disclosure provide solutions for several design challenges from this adaptation, such as utilizing a limited number of antenna channels to scan in both azimuth and elevation.

Applications for autonomous and unmanned systems include pursuit, formation flight, terminal guidance, and collision avoidance. However, sensor solutions that enable these applications have thus far focused on: (i) cameras, which are ineffective in darkness, sun glare, rain, and fog; (ii) Global Positioning System (GPS), which can be denied or spoofed; and (iii) surface radar, which can be either too expensive or too inaccurate.
Millimeter-wave (mmW) radar performs well in degraded visual environments. It can also be small enough and cheap enough to mount onto an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for onboard sensing.
Features and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken in conjunction with the drawings, in which like reference characters identify corresponding elements throughout. In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the corresponding reference number.

Millimeter-wave radar for unmanned aerial vehicle swarming, tracking, and collision avoidance

The Government of the United States of America, as represented by the Secretary of the Navy


The present invention aims to improve image quality in an image forming apparatus in which plural color toner images are formed on a photosensitive member and the toner images are collectively transferred onto a transfer material, and provides such an image forming apparatus that includes a first charge member for charging the photosensitive member, a digital optical system for exposing image information on the photosensitive member, a first developing device for inversion-developing a first latent image formed on the photosensitive member with first toner, a second charge member for charging the photosensitive member developed by the first developing member, a second developing member for developing a second latent image formed on the photosensitive member by exposing second image information onto the charged photosensitive member, with second toner, and a transfer means for collectively transferring first and second toner images formed on the photosensitive member onto a transfer material, and wherein an exposure amount of each pixel at a non-image portion in second exposure is made substantially equal to or greater than an exposure amount at a non-image portion in first exposure.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a laser beam printer, an electrostatic recording apparatus and the like, and more particularly, it relates to an image forming apparatus in which multi-color printing can be performed.
2. Related Background Art
In recent image forming techniques, different color visualized images or different information images have been composed on a single sheet, and, to this end, image forming apparatuses having a plurality of developing devices have been in the market. Among these techniques, a technique in which while a latent image bearing member is being rotated by one revolution latent images are visualized with plural colors by using two or more developing devices and at the same time the visualized images are transferred onto a sheet has been proposed. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,572,651 and 4,416,533 disclose a technique in which development is performed by applying DC bias to two developing device to generate constant electric fields. These Patents mainly disclose a method for forming a latent image but do not teach problems during the development.
On the other hand, U.S. Pat. No. 4,349,268 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 56-144452 disclose a technique in which second color development is performed by using AC developing bias with non-contact development, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 56-12650 discloses a technique in which non-contact development is performed by using DC bias. These techniques aim to prevent second color developer from rubbing a first color developed image, thereby preventing distortion of the image. Incidentally, the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 56-144452 does not teach or disclose potential of the first color developed image at all.
As mentioned above, in the conventional image forming apparatuses for forming a plurality of developed images, the technique in which second development is effected not to distort the previously developed image is used.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,660,961 discloses a technique in which potential of a latent image to be firstly developed is increased (level-up). In this technique, after a first color developed image is formed, by uniformly charging an entire surface of a latent image bearing member with polarity same as that of developer, the potential of the latent image to be firstly developed can be substantially the same as potential of a non-image portion, so that distortion of the firstly formed image can effectively be prevented. An image forming apparatus using this technique is called as a one-pass multi-color print image forming apparatus of negative-negative re-charging type which has recently been investigated widely.
Further, recently, particularly in a field of high speed image forming apparatuses, a multi-color image forming apparatus in which amorphous silicone having high durability is used in a photosensitive member has been studied.
However, in the above-mentioned conventional techniques, there arises the following problem.
In some photosensitive members, since electrostatic capacity thereof becomes great, sufficient charging cannot be achieved by the re-charging, and, due to limitation regarding compactness and cheapness of the image forming apparatus, a re-charger having sufficient ability cannot be used. Thus, also in the above-mentioned negative-negative re-charging process, in dependence upon the construction of the photosensitive member and the image forming apparatus, since the potential of the latent image to be firstly developed cannot be substantially the same as the potential of the non-image portion, the first color developed image is distorted during the second color development, or density unevenness or fogging occurs during the second development.
FIGS. 12A to 12F show steps of an example of a conventional image forming process. In each of FIGS. 12A to 12F, surface potential of a photosensitive member is schematically shown.
In FIG. 12A, the photosensitive member is charged by a corona charger to +400V, for example. Then, in FIG. 12B, first exposure is effected regarding the photosensitive member on the basis of a first image signal to reduce surface potential of an exposure portion to +50V (at the maximum), for example, thereby forming a first electrostatic latent image. Then, in FIG. 12C, the exposure portion is inversion-developed by applying developing bias voltage (for example, +300V: shown by the dotted line) to a sleeve of a first developing device.
After first development, in FIG. 12D, re-charging is performed. In this case, as mentioned above, in dependence upon the construction of the photosensitive member and the image forming apparatus, the first developing image portion cannot be charged sufficiently while suppressing increase in potential of the first developing non-image porion. For example, the first developed image portion is charged merely to 250V, for example. Thus, if, in FIG. 12E, exposure responding to second image information is performed, and, in FIG. 12F, inversion-development is performed by applying developing bias voltage (for example, +300V: shown by the dotted line) to a sleeve of a second developing device, second developer will be developed also at the first developing image portion, thereby causing color-mixing.
If the bias voltage of the second developing device is selected to, for example, +200V to prevent the color-mixing, sufficient second developing density cannot be obtained, and, since a difference between the developing bias and the potential of the first developing non-image area also becomes great (200V), reversal toner having polarity opposite to desired polarity will be developed. Even the toner having desired polarity, unless the potential of the photosensitive member is greater than the developing bias potential by about 100V, the toner is developed. Thus, in this example, it is desirable that the potential of the second developing non-image portion becomes 400V greater than the developing bias by 100V at the first developing portion and the first non-developing portion. That is to say, after re-charging, the surface potential of the drum at the second development position must be converged regarding the first developing non-image portion and the first developing image portion.
As a means for solving the above problem, it is considered that the construction and bias of the re-charger are selected appropriately. FIG. 13 is a graph showing test results regarding relations between current applied to a corotron wire of the re-charger and drum surface potentials at the first developing non-image portion and the first developing image portion after the re-charging. From FIG. 13, it can be seen that it is difficult to converge the first developing non-image portion and the first developing image portion by the corotron re-charger (this is referred to as "re-charge convergence" hereinafter).
Alternatively, it is considered that a scorotron re-charger is used as a re-charger so that drum direction current flowing through the first developing non-image portion is reduced and drum direction current flowing through the first developing image portion is maintained. FIG. 14 is a graph showing test results regarding relations between voltage applied to a grid and drum surface potentials at the first developing non-image portion and the first developing image portion after the re-charging. As can be seen from FIG. 14, when the voltage applied to the grid becomes substantially the same as the first developing non-image portion, the first developing image portion can be sufficiently charged while suppressing the potential of the first developing non-image portion, thereby improving the convergence.
However, in such grid voltage, since great drum direction current is required for sufficiently increasing the potential of the first developing image portion after re-charging, a larger-sized re-charger must be provided, resulting in disadvantage regarding the cost and compactness (inner space) of the apparatus. This is true particularly when an amorphous silicone drum having great specific inductive capacity (hard to be charged) is used.
As a further method, there has been proposed a technique in which, after first development, uniform exposure is effected in a process prior to second exposure, and potential of a latent image for a first color developed image is made substantially the same as a non-development portion. However, in this technique, since a uniform exposure means must be provided for the process prior to the second exposure, disadvantage regarding the cost and compactness of the apparatus is arisen.

Image forming apparatus for forming plural toner images on photosensitive member and for transferring toner images onto transfer material collectively


To securely lock connectors for charging, a charging connectors 1 is engaged with a vehicle-side connector 25, lock balls 9 are engaged with an engaging groove 28 and a locking member 10 is engaged with the lock balls 9. As a result, the connectors 1 and 25 are locked. Since the connectors 1 and 25 are locked by a ball lock mechanism taking advantage of the engagement of the lock balls 9, the connectors can be more securely locked even if the connectors and wires are heavy as compared to a prior art locking mechanism adopting an elastically deformable resin lance or engaging member and, therefore, a better reliability can be ensured.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a locking device or construction for connectors and to a use thereof for a charging connector used for charging and/or for a high-voltage cable connector.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An electric vehicle includes a vehicle-side connector secured to the vehicle body and connected with a battery mounted on the vehicle. The battery is charged or recharged with a charger. More particularly, a charger-side connector is connected with the charger via a flexible cable. Charging is performed with the charger-side connector engaged with the vehicle-side connector. In such a case, it is necessary to provide a locking means for locking the connectors so as to prevent the charger-side connector from disengaging from the vehicle-side connector during charging.
A locking mechanism that has been used in a wiring harness includes a mechanism for lockingly engaging an elastically deformable resin lance or engaging member formed in the connector with an engaging portion formed in a mating connector.
A wiring harness type of locking mechanism with a resin engaging member is not well suited for use in a charging connector for the following reason. When the charger-side connector is engaged with the vehicle-side connector, the locking mechanism bears the weight of the charger-side connector and the weight of wires extending from the charger-side connector. Since the wires used for charging are thicker and heavier than those used for the wiring harness, the locking mechanism adopting the resin engaging member cannot sufficiently bear the weight of the wires for charging.
The present invention was developed to avoid the above problem, and an object thereof is to securely lock connectors, in particular used for charging.

Locking device for high-voltage cable connectors


Techniques are disclosed for performing video synthesis of audiovisual content. In an example, a computing system may determine first parameters of a face and body of a source person from a first frame in a video shot. The system also determines second parameters of a face and body of a target person. The system determines that the target person is a replacement for the source person in the first frame. The system generates third parameters of the target person based on merging the first parameters with the second parameters. The system then performs deferred neural rendering of the target person based on a neural texture that corresponds to a texture space of the video shot. The system then outputs a second frame that shows the target person as the replacement for the source person.

As multimedia distribution services are becoming more popular worldwide, there is increasing demand to make more content available that is tailored to particular regions. Some of these services have responded to this demand, for example, by providing more content with subtitles and/or dubbed audio. In another example, some services have re-shot videos by utilizing regional actors and/or actresses that are popular within the particular region. While these efforts may be somewhat helpful to make content more accessible to particular regions, there remain several challenges. In an example, re-shooting a video to include new actors and/or audio tracks may require significant computing resources.

Person replacement utilizing deferred neural rendering


Optical add/drop nodes are used in a network having a pair of optical transmission paths for transmitting optical signals in opposite directions to each other. Each add/drop node comprises a variable split ratio optical coupler for splitting an optical signal output from a transmitter. The split ratio of the variable split ratio optical coupler is set such that the optical power levels of the signals added through the respective optical add/drop nodes are equal to one another respectively on the pair of optical transmission paths.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical network system in which each transmission path consists of a pair of optical fibers for transmitting signals in opposite directions to each other, and to an optical add/drop device used in such an optical network system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, optical network systems have been developed to be mainly used for long-distance transmission. The optical network systems are designed in such a way that the distance between optical nodes provided on each transmission path is generally, for example, 100 km. Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 1, optical amplifiers are provided between respective optical nodes (or at the respective optical nodes) for amplifying optical signal in such optical network systems.
The optical network system shown in FIG. 1 is a WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplex) system in which signals at a plurality of wavelengths (λ1 through λ4) are multiplexed and transmitted and in which four optical nodes and four WDM optical amplifiers are provided on the transmission path. In this configuration, each optical node adds and drops, to and from the main transmission path, the light with the wavelength corresponding to the optical node.
In recent years, optical networks have also been realized for use in urban areas with relatively short transmission distances. These networks are often called optical metro access networks, and the distance between optical nodes is generally 10 km. This means that the transmission loss between optical nodes in these networks is relatively small. Accordingly, the optical metro access network can be configured so that one optical amplifier is provided for a plurality of optical nodes, as shown in FIG. 2, in order to reduce costs. In the example shown in FIG. 2, one WDM optical amplifier is provided for the four optical nodes.
However, if the optical signals are added to the main transmission path through optical nodes with the same optical power, the power will be different among the respective wavelengths in the multiplexed WDM light. Here, optical levels at the input port of the optical amplifier used in a ring optical network system including four optical nodes and an optical amplifier provided between optical node (#1) and optical node (#4) are discussed. The optical signals are transmitted in the counterclockwise direction in the above configuration in FIG. 3.
In this case, the distances between the respective optical nodes and the optical amplifiers are different from each other. Thus, in the example in FIG. 3, when the optical signals with equal power are added to the main transmission path through the respective optical nodes, the optical power level of the signal added through optical node (#1) is the minimum while the optical power level of the signal added through optical node (#4) is the maximum at the input port of the optical amplifier. In other words, the levels of the respective optical signals are very different from one another. This causes the problems listed below.    (1) The dynamic range of the receiver has to be broadened.    (2) Crosstalk is caused when dropping signals in the respective optical nodes.    (3) Signals deteriorate due to gain saturation in the WDM optical amplifier.
Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-15729 (FIGS. 2 and 3, paragraphs 0037 through 0041, and Abstract)) discloses a technique for solving these problems. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-15729 (FIGS. 2 and 3, paragraphs 0037 through 0041, and Abstract) In the optical network system described in Patent Document 1, variable optical attenuators (VOA) are provided at the respective optical nodes for adjusting the optical power of each of the added signals, as shown in FIG. 4. The variable optical attenuators provided at the respective optical nodes are respectively adjusted such that the levels of the signals are equal to one another at the input port of the optical amplifier provided on the transmission path. As a result, all of the wavelengths of the WDM light including the signals added through the optical nodes have a generally equal power.
An O-UPSR (Optical Unidirectional Path Switched Ring) is known to be one of several configurations that improves the reliability of optical networks. In the O-UPSR, duplex optical transmission paths are used; in these paths, a pair of optical fibers transmits the same data in opposite directions.
However, the technique of making the optical power levels of the signals added through respective optical nodes equal to one another on the transmission path in a system that transmits signals in opposite directions through a pair of optical fibers is not known. Accordingly, in this case it is assumed that each optical node used in such a system has a configuration shown in FIG. 6.
In the optical node shown in FIG. 6, optical signal output from the transmitter (E/O) is split by a bidirectional splitting coupler. The split ratio is 1:1. The output of the bidirectional splitting coupler is a pair of signals that are added to the transmission path in the clockwise direction and the counterclockwise direction, and the optical power of each of the signals is adjusted by the variable optical attenuators (VOA). The adjustment by the variable optical attenuators for the transmission paths in the clockwise direction and in the counterclockwise direction is performed on the basis of the method described in Patent Document 1, being explained with reference to FIG. 4.
Via the above configuration, it is essentially possible to make the optical power levels of the respective wavelengths in the WDM light including signals added through the optical nodes equal to one another on the transmission paths, respectively in the clockwise direction and in the counterclockwise direction. However, in this configuration, the optical power of each of the signals added through the respective optical nodes is decreased. This causes the problems listed below.    (1) Transmission distance is shortened.    (2) The number of WDM optical amplifiers has to be increased.    (3) The number of optical nodes that can be provided on the network is decreased.
As described above, the technique of making the optical power of the respective wavelengths in the WDM light including signals added through optical nodes equal to one another in optical network systems using a pair of transmission paths that transmit signals in opposite directions has not been conventionally established. Also, when the optical power levels at the respective wavelengths in the WDM light are made to be equal to one another by combining the prior art configuration, the optical power of the signals is decreased.


A system includes a controller configured to control an operational behavior of a turbine system. The controller includes a droop response system configured to detect one or more operational characteristics of the turbine system as an indication of a frequency variation of an electric power system associated with the turbine system. The droop response system is further configured to generate a response to vary an output of the turbine system in response to the indication of the frequency variation. The controller includes a multivariable droop response correction system configured to determine one or more possible errors associated with the one or more operational characteristics of the turbine system, and to generate a plurality of correction factors to apply to the response generated by the droop response system. The plurality of correction factors is configured to correct the response generated by the droop response system.

The subject matter disclosed herein relates to industrial control systems, and more specifically, to droop response control industrial control systems for turbines.
Power generation systems may include certain industrial control systems to provide control and analysis of the turbine and generator systems that may be included in the power generation system. For example, the industrial control systems may include controllers, field devices, and sensors for control and analysis of the turbine and generator systems. The industrial control system may control a droop response, or the percent frequency (or speed) variation required to cause a full (e.g., 100%) power output change of the turbine and generator systems. It may be useful to provide improved methods to control droop in turbine and generator systems.

Systems and methods of droop response control of turbines


The invention is directed to the use of a formulation comprising meloxicam or a pharmacologically acceptable meloxicam salt of an organic or inorganic base thereof for the long-term treatment of musculoskeletal disorders in cats. No negative effects on renal function occur following a treatment from 10 to 20 months or more.

Meloxicam is the only molecule licensed for treatment of chronic musculoskeletal disorders in cats. These conditions affect the quality of life of cats and often require treatment. Impaired renal function is currently listed as a contraindication on NSAID data sheets. However, chronic renal disease and chronic musculoskeletal disorders, such as osteoarthritis (OA) are common in elderly cats and often coexist. Osteoarthritis affects synovial joints, associated with loss of cartilage, inflammation, bone remodelling and formation of osteophytes. It is usually idiopathic and primarily affects elbow joints and hips. Clinical signs include for example difficulty in jumping, lameness, stiffness as well as behavioural changes such as demeanour, reduced grooming and resentment of handling.
Meloxicam was licensed for long-term use in cats in 2007 at an oral dose of 0.1 mg/kg on day 1 followed by 0.05 mg/kg. However, there is no prior art that demonstrates that the use of meloxicam is appropriate for long-term treatment of feline. It is reported by Gunew that feline suffering from osteoarthritis can be treated with meloxicam in a concentration range between 0.01-0.03 mg/kg. (Gunew et al., Long-term safety, efficacy and palatability of oral meloxicam at 0.01-0.03 mg/kg for treatment of osteoarthritic pain in cats. Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery 2008, 10, 235-241) The trials were completed after a mean treatment duration of 5.8 months. However, since this study does not include any comparable placebo product and uses subjective measurements only, its conclusions are questionable. A short-term (23 days) concept study performed by Clarke & Bennett has also shown that a daily meloxicam dosage of 0.05 mg/cat can be used to treat osteoarthritis. (Clarke & Bennett, Feline osterarthritis: a prospective study of 28 cases. Journal of Small Animal Practice 2006, 47, 439-445) This study does not include any thorough investigation and assessment of meloxicam treatment over a longer period of time.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to develop a long-term treatment of musculoskeletal disorders in cats, especially aged cats, with and without pre-existing renal disease and without accelerating the progression of renal diseases in cats.

Use of meloxicam for the long-term treatment of musculoskeletal disorders in cats


In an optical modulator of the invention, a signal electrode and a ground electrode are formed along a pair of branching waveguides of a Mach-Zehnder type optical waveguide, and a first region positioned on an input side of an interaction section of light and an electric signal is made a forward modulation section, and a second region positioned on an output side is made an inverse modulation section, and a spacing or the like of the signal electrode and the ground electrode is optimized so that that a loss produced in the second region is relatively greater than a loss produced in the first region, with respect to a high frequency component of an electric signal propagated through the signal electrode. As a result a wider modulation bandwidth can be realized.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical modulator and an optical transmitter used for optical transmission, and in particular relates to an optical modulator of a waveguide type which modulates light using an electro-optic effect, and to an optical transmitter which uses this.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, an optical waveguide device which uses an electro-optic crystal such as lithium niobate (LiNbO3), lithium tantalate (LiTaO2) or the like, is manufactured by forming a metal film on a part of a crystal substrate and thermal diffusing, or by proton exchanging in benzoic acid after patterning, to thereby form an optical waveguide, and afterwards providing electrodes in the vicinity of the optical waveguide. As one optical waveguide device which uses an electro-optic crystal, there is known an optical modulator as shown for example in FIG. 28.
In general, the optical modulator, depending on the shape of the optical waveguide, is divided into a phase modulator as shown at the top of FIG. 28, and an intensity modulator as shown at the bottom of FIG. 28. In the case of the phase modulator, a signal electrode 131 is formed on one optical waveguide 102 which is formed on a substrate 101. Furthermore, in the case of the intensity modulator, the optical waveguide 102 comprises an input waveguide 121, a branching section 122, branching waveguides 123 and 124, a multiplexing section 125, and an output waveguide 126, and a coplanar electrode is formed with a signal electrode 131 provided on one branching waveguide 123, and a ground electrode 132 provided on the other branching waveguide 124.
In such an optical modulator, for example in the case where a Z-cut substrate 101 is used, the refractive index change due to an electric field in the Z-direction is used. Therefore, the electrode is arranged directly above the optical waveguide 102. More specifically, in the case of the intensity modulator at the bottom of FIG. 28, the signal electrode 131 and the ground electrode 132 are respectively patterned on the branching waveguides 123 and 124. At this time, in order to prevent the light propagated through the respective branching waveguides 123 and 124 being absorbed by the signal electrode 131 and the ground electrode 132, a buffer layer (not shown in the figure) is provided between the substrate 101 and the electrodes 131 and 132. For the buffer layer, an oxide silicon (SiO2) or the like of a thickness of 0.2 μm to 1 μm is used.
In the case of driving the above optical modulator at a high speed, the output terminal of the signal electrode 131 is made a traveling-wave electrode by grounding via a resistance (not shown in the figure), and a high frequency electric signal E such as a microwave is applied from an input terminal of the signal electrode 131. At this time, due to the electric field generated between the signal electrode 131 and the ground electrode 132, the refractive index of the optical waveguide 102 changes. Therefore, in the phase modulator at the top of FIG. 28, the phase of the light L propagated through the optical waveguide 102 is modulated in accordance with the electric signal E. Furthermore, in the intensity modulator at the bottom of FIG. 28, the refractive index of the branching waveguides 123 and 124 is changed for each, so that the phase difference of the light L propagated through each of these is changed, and an intensity modulated signal light L is output from the output waveguide 126.
In the optical modulator driven at high speed as described above, it is known that a wide band optical response characteristic is obtained by controlling the effective refractive index for the electric signal E by changing the cross-section shape of the signal electrode 131, and matching the propagation speed of the light L and the electric signal E. However, regarding the electric signal E propagated through the signal electrode 131, if the frequency thereof becomes high, the transmission losses increase. Therefore there is a problem in that the modulation band width is limited, so that high speed modulation becomes difficult.
As previous technology related to widening the band width of the optical modulator, for example as shown in FIG. 29, a configuration has been proposed where, of the interaction section for the light L and the electric signal E, the direction of the refractive index change is reversed by inverting the polarization direction in the remaining part 111 (surrounded by the dotted line in the figure) with respect to the polarization direction of the substrate 101 (direction of the crystal axis) of the part from the input side to a certain length (refer for example to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication Nos. 2005-284129, 2005-221874, and 2006-47746). By means of this configuration, when modulation in the non-inversed region where the polarization direction is not changed is the forward direction, then in the polarization inversed region, modulation in the opposite direction occurs. That is to say, the polarization inversed part becomes an inverse modulated section, and the other part becomes a forward modulated section. As described above, since the loss of the electric signal E is great at high frequency, the intensity of the inverse modulation in the polarization inversed region is great at low frequency, and is small at high frequency. As a result, in the overall optical modulator, the modulation at low frequency is suppressed, so that the high frequency dependency is reduced, that is, the modulation bandwidth becomes wide.
Furthermore, as another conventional technology for improving the response characteristics of the optical modulator or the like, a configuration is also proposed where the electrode width of the signal electrode and the ground electrode is changed along the light propagation direction, to thereby prevent resonance of an acoustic wave (for example surface acoustic wave) which is produced when a modulating signal of a high pulse shape is applied between the electrodes, so that occurrence of ripple is suppressed, (refer for example to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-275589).
However, in the conventional technology which gives a wider band width by using the above inverse modulation, since the modulation component of the high frequency band in the polarization inversed region (inverse modulation section) has not become small enough, then in the high frequency band, a certain amount of inverse modulation occurs. Therefore there is a problem in that the amount of improvement in bandwidth is limited.
Furthermore, in the conventional technology for improving the response characteristics by changing the electrode width of the signal electrode and the ground electrode along the light propagation direction, the influence on the light due to the resonance of the generated acoustic wave attributable to the piezoelectricity of the substrate can be reduced, but an increase in the propagation loss of the electrical signal in the high frequency as mentioned above cannot be effectively suppressed. Therefore there is the problem that it is difficult to realize a wider band width.

Optical modulator and optical transmitter


A leisure vehicle configured to be propelled by a friction between a drive wheel thereof and a ground surface with which the drive wheel is in contact, including a power unit configured to drive the drive wheel, a speed control device configured to control drive of the drive wheel, and a controller configured to control the speed control device to increase a rotational speed of the drive wheel while maintaining a state in which the drive wheel does not slip on the ground surface in a predetermined amount or more.

A leisure vehicle, for example, an ATV, typically runs with wheels on the ground through various conditions, such as sandy soil. In such cases, the ATV is more likely to start and accelerate on the sandy soil. Since a grip force between the wheels and a ground surface of the sandy soil is small, it is in many cases difficult to start or accelerate the vehicle without occurrence of a substantial slip. If a large drive force (rotational torque) is applied to a drive wheel during a start or during acceleration, the drive wheel tends to slip, making it difficult to achieve a smooth start or smooth acceleration. In such situations, a driver of the vehicle is required to manipulate an accelerator of the vehicle to cause a power unit such as an engine to drive the wheel with a small drive force (drive torque) during the start and to gradually increase the drive force after the start. During the acceleration of the vehicle, such manipulation of the accelerator is required to inhibit a substantial slip as well. Such a situation takes place when the vehicle is running on roads such as a snowy road, a muddy road, a wet road, and so on, because the grip force between the wheels and their ground surfaces is small (Publication of Japanese Examined Utility Model Application No. Hei. 5-9562).


A remote smart battery for supplying a cellular telephone comprises a series of electric energy storage cells, a set of supply contacts connected to the storage cells for supplying electric energy from the storage cells to the cellular telephone, a connector having a plurality of female contacts arranged to be respectively connected to the male contacts of an IC card connector already provided on the cellular telephone. The smart battery further comprises a magnetic stripe reading device, an IC card reading device, and a PCMCIA card reading device. Finally, a microcontroller interfaces the cellular telephone with the reading devices. The microcontroller provides the cellular telephone with a supplement of programming to enable use of the cellular telephone for at least one additional function. Use of the cellular telephone for at least one additional function will be authorized in response to information read on a card by the microcontroller through one of the reading devices. As a first example of additional function, a universal remote control device can be connected to the microcontroller to enable the use of the keyboard of the cellular telephone to control operation of the universal remote control device. As another example of additional function, the microcontroller will be capable of transmitting information toward a remote central processor through the cellular telephone.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to new concept of smart battery for supplying a cellular telephone and for enabling the use of the cellular telephone for at least one additional function.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Cellular telephony is a widely used technology. The most expensive element of the portable cellular telephones presently available on the market is by all means the rechargeable battery. And many battery modules may be required by a single user to ensure a full day of operation of his (her) cellular telephone.


An electrical architecture for an aircraft is provided. The electrical architecture is particularly suitable for relatively small, compact, and lightweight aircraft. In one embodiment, the electrical architecture includes an electrical generator component coupled to the aircraft engine, and an air compression system coupled to the electrical generator component. The electrical generator component is configured to receive mechanical power from the engine and to generate a constant frequency AC electrical power from the engine mechanical power, and the air compression system is configured to receive the constant frequency AC power as an input and, in response thereto, produce a pressurized air output having variable characteristics (for example, a variable flow rate or a variable air pressure).

Conventional transport aircraft typically utilize pneumatic, hydraulic, and electric power from main engines to support various aircraft systems during flight. In addition, conventional transport aircraft typically utilize pneumatic and electric power from onboard auxiliary power units (APUs) to support aircraft systems during ground operations. Aircraft air conditioning systems (also known as environmental control systems, or ECSs) are typically the largest secondary power users on commercial transport aircraft. Some conventional ECSs use high temperature/high pressure air extracted from the engine compressor stages (bleed air). In such a pneumatic bleed architecture, hot pressurized air is extracted from the compressor section of the engine, cooled, and then routed through ducting to pneumatically power utilization equipment such as the ECS. The APU typically drives an air compressor to provide a source of air for the utilization equipment at certain times during flight and on the ground before the main engines are started. During a typical engine start, pressurized air provided by the APU compressor (or the other engine if it is running) is routed through a duct to an air turbine starter on each engine. During engine start, the supply of air to other utilization equipment is temporarily suspended until the engine is successfully started, to allow the entire air flow from the source to be utilized to start the engine. When pneumatic bleed air is extracted from an engine, this work (performed by the engine) does not help to produce thrust, so engine fuel economy is adversely affected. However, during some phases of engine operation it is necessary to reduce pressure inside the engine by extracting bleed air to maintain proper operability margin.
A traditional pneumatic architecture would not be cost effective in a smaller, lightweight aircraft that must satisfy new FAA requirements for passenger fresh air flow (which will result in greater ECS power consumption and reduction in airplane fuel consumption compared with current production aircraft). There have been few advances in pneumatic technology to serve as enablers for a substantially improved pneumatic aircraft architecture.
Modern aircraft are beginning to employ an all-electric architecture. An all-electric architecture eliminates pneumatic (bleed) air extraction from the engines and APU. An all-electric architecture uses large electrical generators driven by the engines, and large generators on the APU, to produce electrical power sufficient to drive major system utilization equipment. These generators produce variable frequency AC electrical power, in which the frequency of the power tracks the speed of the engine rotor to which the generator is connected. A majority of the AC power is immediately rectified to produce DC power which is supplied to large motor controllers that operate the motors in the ECS equipment, hydraulic motor pumps, and other equipment. These large motor controllers offer continuously variable motor control, good motor torque characteristics, high efficiency, soft start, and low inrush current. However, they are large, heavy, and require a special liquid cooling system to address the high densities of heat that are generated during power conversion. The all-electric architecture can generally be characterized as being efficient for long flights, but very complex. Consequently, such an all-electric architecture may not be the best approach for a smaller aircraft with a lower target cost and shorter mission range.
A traditional all-electric architecture ceases to be cost effective or meet cost and weight targets when it is scaled down to meet the needs of a much smaller aircraft. In particular, the large motor controllers and power conversion equipment required to operate major systems on the aircraft from power sources that produce variable frequency AC power are bulky, heavy, costly, and require a special liquid cooling system. In addition, many smaller motor loads located throughout the aircraft require motor controllers to be compatible with variable frequency AC power, resulting in added complexity, cost and weight. Although the efficiency gained for long flights is better for the all-electric architecture than for a traditional pneumatic system, the all-electric architecture has not been demonstrated to be the most cost effective approach for a much smaller aircraft with shorter range.

Electrical systems architecture for an aircraft, and related operating methods