Disclosed is a tandem type integrated photovoltaic module. The tandem type integrated photovoltaic module includes: a first cell and a second cell, all of which are formed respectively by stacking on a substrate a lower electrode, a photoelectric conversion layer including a plurality of unit cell layers, and an upper electrode, wherein the lower electrode of the first cell and the lower electrode of the second cell are separated by a lower electrode separation groove, and wherein a plurality of through holes are formed to be spaced from each other in the photoelectric conversion layer of the second cell in order to connect the upper electrode of the first cell with the lower electrode of the second cell.

Recently, as existing energy resources like oil and coal and the like are expected to be exhausted, much attention is increasingly paid to alternative energy sources which can be used in place of the existing energy sources. As an alternative energy sources, sunlight energy is abundant and has no environmental pollution. Therefore, more and more attention is paid to the sunlight energy.
A photovoltaic module converting sunlight energy into electrical energy has a junction structure of a p-type semiconductor and an n-type semiconductor. When light is incident on the photovoltaic module, an electron with a negative electric charge and a -hole with a positive electric charge are generated by interaction between the light and a material constituting the semiconductor of the photovoltaic module. Then, electric current flows while the electron and the hole move.
Depending on the thickness of the semiconductor of the photovoltaic module, the photovoltaic module is classified into a bulk type photovoltaic module and a thin-film type photovoltaic module. The thin-film type photovoltaic module includes a photovoltaic material layer of which the thickness is equal to or less than from several tens of micrometers to several micrometers.
At present, a bulk type silicon photovoltaic module is mainly and widely used for ground power. However, the recent increase of the demand for the bulk type silicon photovoltaic module is now increasing its price due to the lack of its raw material.
Therefore, in recent times, providing an integrated thin-film photovoltaic module has become the most important issue, which has high energy conversion efficiency and can be mass produced at a low cost. However, a single-junction thin-film photovoltaic module is limited in its achievable performance. Accordingly, a double junction thin-film photovoltaic module or a triple junction thin-film photovoltaic module having a plurality of stacked unit cells has been developed, pursuing high stabilized efficiency. The double junction thin-film photovoltaic module and the triple junction thin-film photovoltaic module are called a tandem type photovoltaic module.
In addition to this, researches are now being devoted to an integration technology for the photovoltaic module in order to improve the efficiency of the thin-film photovoltaic module.
The integration technology for the photovoltaic module is to improve the photovoltaic conversion efficiency by reducing the interfacial resistance of a large area photovoltaic module. Up to the present day, the integration technology is performed by a conventional straight line type laser scribing. Since the conventional straight line type laser scribing is performed transversely to the movement direction of the electron, the moving distance of the electron becomes shorter, and then collection efficiency can be improved. However, a photovoltaic cell cannot generate photoelectron-motive force in a laser scribed portion. Therefore, an ineffective area of a solar cell is generated.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a thin-film photovoltaic module manufactured by a conventional straight line type laser scribing.
A lower electrode 200, a photoelectric conversion layer 300 and an upper electrode 400 are sequentially formed on a substrate 100. A lower electrode separation groove P1 penetrating through the lower electrode 200 is formed to prevent a short-circuit of the lower electrodes 200. A separation groove P2 is formed to penetrate through the photoelectric conversion layer 300. An upper separation groove P3 is formed to penetrate through the photoelectric conversion layer 300 and the upper electrode 400. Unit cells UC1 and UC2 are formed by the upper separation groove P3.
Here, the photoelectric conversion layer 300 may have a structure formed by stacking a plurality of unit cell layers. The unit cell layer is a basic unit layer capable of performing photoelectric conversion. For example, the photoelectric conversion layer 300 may include two stacked unit cell layers or three stacked unit cell layers. That is, each of the unit cells UC1 and UC2 may have a structure formed by stacking a plurality of the unit cell layers. The photoelectric conversion layer 300 may include a silicon alloy intermediate reflector such as silicon oxide, silicon nitride and silicon carbide in order to maximize light trapping effect by enhancing internal reflection.
Adjacent unit cells UC1 and UC2 are connected in series to each other by the separation groove P2 connecting the upper electrode 400 with the lower electrode 200 and functioning as a path of the electron. In other words, the lower electrode 200 of a first unit cell UC1 is connected to the upper electrode 400 of a second unit cell UC2 by the separation groove P2, so that the first unit cell UC1 is connected in series to the second unit cell UC2. All of the adjacent unit cells can be connected in series to each other.
As shown in FIG. 1, the lower electrode separation groove P1, the separation groove P2 and the upper separation groove P3 are formed respectively by a laser scribing which follows straight lines 210, 310 and 410.
Here, portions formed through the extension of the lower electrode separation groove P1, the separation groove P2 and the upper separation groove P3 correspond to ineffective areas incapable of performing energy conversion. In general, a gap between the lower electrode separation groove P1 and the upper separation groove P3 is from about 200 μm to about 300 μm.
The ineffective area is generated by the laser scribing in every gap between the unit photovoltaic cells connected in series to each other.
In the photovoltaic module, when a remaining area which is obtained by removing semiconductor and conductor for the purpose of edge isolation and performs the photoelectric conversion is referred to as an effective area, a ratio of the ineffective area by the laser scribing for series connection to the effective area is from about 2.5% to about 5.0%.
Accordingly, for the purpose of manufacturing the thin-film photovoltaic module having high efficiency, an integrated thin-film photovoltaic module and a manufacturing method thereof are required, which is able to improve photovoltaic conversion efficiency of the module by reducing the ineffective area through the minimization of a portion on which the laser scribing is performed. Further, in order to obtain high energy conversion efficiency, an integration technology is needed to be applied to the tandem type photovoltaic module.

Tandem type integrated photovoltaic module and manufacturing method thereof


A closure means adapted to fit into the neck or mouth of a container, said closure means comprising a plug of resilient material said plug incorporating a slit which extends through the body of the plug characterized that, in a resting configuration and prior to insertion of the closure means into a container, the breadth of the slit is non-uniform along the length of the slit.

In life science chemistry, for example, there are a wide number of applications that involve preparation, storage and analysis of a large number of samples. Such applications include drug discovery, including combinatorial chemistry, and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) experiments. In these applications reaction tubes, vials or the like are often filled or part filled with reagents and the tubes sealed prior to further processing. In addition, multi-well plates, consisting of an array of tubes, are now used extensively in molecular biology laboratories and elsewhere.
A number of ways for sealing such tubes have been developed over the years. For example, a foil or plastic film may be applied across the entire upper surface of a plate of tubes. Thus heat sealable aluminium foils or adhesive plastic films are commercially available. Once applied, these films provide an efficient, gas and liquid-tight seal but are tiresome to apply and remove. Access to each well can only be obtained by piercing the film or by peeling off the film by hand or with a foil stripper. Consequently, this type of seal is not reusable, and is not suitable for robotic application or removal. Furthermore, the seal does not reform automatically if a sample is withdrawn with a syringe needle, pipette tip or cannula for example.
Alternatively, a seal may be achieved by placing a relatively heavy, flexible rubber mat over the entire surface of the plate. The weight of the mat and any plate(s) stacked on top of the mat keep the seal in place. It is important that the mat does not slide over the top of the plate in order to avoid cross-contamination. In the case of 96 well plates, this is achieved by having 96 raised dimples or "pimples" an the surface of the mat in an array that matches exactly the array of wells. Each dimple is sized and shaped to sit firmly into a well. Once in place, no lateral movement of the mat is possible because the perimeter of each dimple fits snugly within its respective well. However, such mats do not produce a complete, fluid-tight seal and some evaporation can still take place.
If a more fluid-tight seal is required then a cap can be applied to each tube. Strips of caps are available for multi-well plate, examples of which are sold by Advanced Biotechnologies Limited under Catalogue No AB0784. Such caps can include a piercable or septum region usually in the centre of the cap, which is easily piercable with a needle. This allows material to be withdrawn from or added to the tube or well without, supposedly, damaging the cap. However, each time a needle is inserted through the cap it causes some damage to the septum region as it punctures the surface. A syringe needle, however small, tends to act like a cutter, removing a fragment of cap each time it penetrates. Eventually, after a number of such penetrations, the damaged area no longer forms a fluid-tight seal.
Sealing devices for sealing tubes are also known from WO 83/01912 (Labsystems OY) which incorporate a slit or a channel designed to allow the passage of a pipette or capillary tube. The slits in these sealing devices are formed from two straightsided components that mate together. To be effective, the channel must remain tightly closed at all times, even when a pipette is inserted through it. However, when the pipette is withdrawn the sealing device must not have a tendency to withdraw from the tube along with the pipette. These two requirements tend to be mutually incompatible. On the one hand, a firm, liquid-tight seal is required when the sealing device is in place and the channel is unpenetrated. This requires that the opposing walls of the channel must be forced very firmly against each other. These same forces also tend to grip any pipette, needle or capillary tube that is introduced into the channel very firmly. This firm grip on the pipette etc. tends to cause the sealing device to work its way up and out of the tube as the pipette is withdrawn. This problem is compounded if multiple samples (multi-sipping) are required.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome or at least mitigate some or all of the problems outlined above.


A method and apparatus for forming a permanent, composite skin replacement consisting of an epidermal component and a porous, resorbable, biosynthetic laminated dermal membrane component for use in wound repair. The dermal membrane is formed in the apparatus, which permits regulation of variables affecting membrane structure. The dermal membrane may be modified to incorporate biologically active molecules to enhance wound repair and to reduce infection when the skin replacement is applied to a wound.

Treatment of wounds, particularly burn wounds, requires early coverage of the wound to reduce fluid loss, pain, and infection by microorganisms. In addition, wound coverage facilitates repair of wounds which may involve restoration of both the epidermis and dermis. Burn wounds include partial thickness burns which destroy some, but not all of the epidermis and may destroy a portion but not all of the dermis. Most partial thickness burns will heal spontaneously if treated properly with synthetic dressings which can protect the wound and promote rapid epithelialization with minimal inflammation and scar formation. Full thickness burns destroy all of the epidermis and all of its adnexal structures (e.g. hair follicles, sweat glands and sebaceous glands) and usually all of the dermis. Full thickness burns may be treated initially by temporary coverage, but subsequently require grafting. Other wounds include donor sites which are the location from which undamaged (healthy) skin is removed for a skin graft. Parts of the epidermal adnexal structures remain in the donor site, regenerate the epidermis and heal the donor site spontaneously if the site is treated with appropriate dressings.
A successful skin graft requires that the graft accept onto debrided wounds (wounds from which the dead tissue or "eschar" has been removed) of the recipient to provide permanent re-establishment of he dermal and epidermal components of skin. The graft should not evoke an immune response which can destroy the graft and should provide or include a suitable dermal component to support the growth and development of a normal epidermis. The graft should suppress the formation of granulation tissue which causes scarring.
Treatment of wounds typically involves using skin grafts from ex vivo skin sources. Several types of skin grafts have been used to cover and/or repair damaged skin, for example in burn surgery. Autograits are the most effective skin grafts and are tissue transplants derived from the injured individual usually in the form of split-thickness skin grafts if used for permanent skin repair. A split-thickness skin graft consists of skin removed from a donor site and placed on a full thickness wound after debridment of the eschar to close and heal the wound. Split-thickness skin grafts consist of the epidermis, part, but not all of the eidiermal adnexal structures and part of the dermis. Typically, a split-thickness skin graft is meshed (short alternating incisions) which allows for a maximum of 1:10 expansion of the graft tissue and usually an expansion of 1:3 or less. Other types of skin grafts include allografts which are tissue transplants between individuals of the same species but different genotypes, and homografts which are allografts from humans. Xenografts are tissue transplants between individuals of different species. Homografts of skin may come from live donors or from skin preserved in skin banks.
Permanent repair of excised full thickness and/or partial thickness burns ultimately requires restoration of stable tissue as a protective covering on the exterior of the body. Ideally, the repaired tissue duplicates the structure and functions of undamaged skin, including compartmentalization into normally organized epidermal and dermal components. Meshed split-thickness autograft meets these criteria, but is often unavailable in sufficient amounts for large body surface area (BSA) burns. In addition, contemporary procedures for surgical application of meshed autograft also inflict further injuries to patients and ordinarily accomplish ratios of tissue expansion that are less than 10 -fold the size of the donated tissue. These limitations in the use of meshed autograft for treatment of large BSA burns result in repeated surgical operations, protracted hospitalization, and undesirable cosmetic results. Thus, skin replacement after large BSA burns remains an unsolved problem.
Factors involved in graft success include characteristics of both the graft and the wound. Unmeshed split-thickness autograft provides the highest probability of acceptance and persistence of the wound, in addition to the high quality of repair for skin loss injuries including excised full thickness burns, achieved by such grafts. However, even an optimal graft of this kind may be only partially accepted on a suboptimal woundbed depending, for example, on the depth of exci sion, type of tissue in the woundbed and presence of infection.
Similarly, differences in graft acceptance may be expected depending on the composition of the graft applied to an optimal woundbed. In comparison to split-thickness autograft, biological materials such as fresh or frozen allograft dermis, fresh or processed porcine xenograft, collagen-based dermal implants and cultured human keratinocyte (HK) cell sheets, may be expected to be accepted onto wounds, in part, according to their respective capabilities to support ingrowth of the fibrovascular tissue (connective tissue and blood vessels). Cultured HK cell sheets, due to the intrinsic lack of vascular supply in the epidermis, may be expected to be accepted onto wounds corresponding predominately to the degree and quality of vascularized connective tissue in the woundbed. Acceptance of 60 to 80% of HK cell sheets onto beds of granulation tissue after allograft removal has been reported (Gallico et al, New Eng. J. Med., 311(7):448-451 (1984)) but the acceptance of cultured HK grafts onto freshly excised full thickness burns has met with little success. Furthermore, although granulation tissue may serve as a satisfactory woundbed for acceptance of cultured HK and other grafts, it is also associated with the formation of scar tissue.
Disadvantages of skin grafts other than autografts include infection and frequent rejection by the recipient requiring the use of immunosuppressive agents. Research efforts have been directed towards developing functional synthetic substitutes that overcome the disadvantages of skin substitutes composed of animal skin to provide permanent wound closure.
Criteria for synthetic skin substitutes include: rapid adherence to the burn wound soon after placement; proper vapor transmission to control evaporative fluid loss from the wound and to avoid the collecion of fluid between the wound and the dressing material. Skin substitutes should also be flexible, durable and resistant to tearing and should act as a barrier to microorganisms, as well as limit the growth of microorganisms already present in the wound. The substitutes should exhibit tissue compatibility, i.e. not provoke inflammation or foreign body reaction in the wound which may lead to the formation of granulation tissue. An inner surface structure should be provided that permits ingrowth of fibro-vascular tissue. Hansbrough, (speaker), J. of Trauma 24:S31-S35 (1984).
A variety of materials that are obtained from either in vitro or ex vivo preparations have been proposed. These preparations may be grouped into temporary skin substitutes, i.e. requiring subsequent autografting, and permanent skin substitutes. Temporary skin substitutes generally consist of those formed from biological materials, for example allografts and xenografts, and those substitutes formed from materials such as synthetic polymers. Permanent skin substitutes for full thickness wounds include autografts and dermal-epidermal composites. For partial skin substitutes dermal replacements such as collagen-based implants or epidermal substitutes, for example sheets of human epidermal cells, have been investigated as permanent skin substitutes.
The use of synthetic polymeric materials in various forms has been promising for the development of skin structures having the ability to induce cellular migration and proliferation into the graft, but has been limited by the high incidence of infection and inability to promote vascularization and epithelialization. Epithelialization of the membrane graft provides a barrier to infection and contributes to the control of fluid loss. In addition polymeric materials may fail to adhere to the wound or to control infection.
Various materials have been demonstrated to function as full (epidermal and dermal) or partial (epidermal or dermal) permanent substitutes for meshed split-thickness autograft. The use of tissue culture techniques for normal HK can accomplish expansion ratios (the ratio of the original size of the donor skin to the area of cultured cells at the time of grafting) that can exceed 1000-fold of the original size in a period of from 3 to 4 weeks. Boyce and Ham, J. Tiss. Cult. Meth. 9(2):83-93(1985); J. Invest. Dermatol. 81(1), Supp. 335-405 (1983). HK cultures of these kinds will form multilayered sheets and have been shown to provide wound closure after application to excised full thickness burns as sheets on top of allogeneic dermis. Cuono et. al., The Lancet 1:1123-1124(1986). The high expansion ratios of HK and their ability to form sheets contribute to both the predictability and rate of graft acceptance onto wounds. Some full permanent skin substitutes are applied in two stages with de-epidermized allograft applied first to the woundbed followed either by autologous epidermal suction blisters (Heck et. al. , J. Trauma 25(2):106-112 (1985)) or by autologous HK cultures (Cuono et. al., supra). Although such approaches may offer distinct advantages over meshed split-thickness autografting, they remain subject to availability and variability of human allograft. Furthermore, these kinds of approaches require two events of graft acceptance to complete wound closure, whereas split thickness autograft requires only one.
The desirability of using biological materials has led to the development of skin substitutes using collagen, which is a major component of normal connective tissue. However, the use of collagen alone, for example as a reconstituted collagen film or sheet, has not been demonstrated to serve as an effective wound covering because it stimulates the development of granulation tissue and elicits a chronic inflammatory response before being resorbed (biodegraded). In addition, collagen in the form of sheets is inelastic and fails to control the growth of microorganisms in the wound. Work with collagen-based sponges as wound dressings indicates that structural characteristics of the sponge such as pore size and fibrous structure may be affected by regulation of freezing temperature, viscosity and pH of the collagen dispersion used to form the sponge. Doillon et al, J. Biomed. Materials Res., 20: 1219-1228 (1986).
Dermal-epidermal composites are a useful alternative for wound coverings. These materials generally consist of two components; a component for adherence to the wound, with a semi-permeable membrane as the exterior component. Examples include the material Biobrane.RTM. (Tavis et al, Burns, 7:123-130 (1981)) as a temporary wound covering. Biobrane.RTM. consists of a knitted nylon mesh covered with a thin silicone membrane, with the layers bonded with collagen peptides.
Permanent dermal skin replacement has been demonstrated using resorbable synthetic composites consisting of collacen and chondroitin-6-sulfate (glycosaminoglycan (GAG)) dermal membranes as described by Burke et al, Ann. Surg. 194(4):413-428 (1981); Yannas et al, Science 214:174-176 (1982), Yannas et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,060,081; and Boyce et al, Program of the Amer. Burn Assoc., 18th Ann. Meeting, Abst. No. 30 (1986). In addition, allogeneic dermis (Cuono et al, supra, and Heck et al, supra) and fibroblast-collagen-gel mixtures (Bell et al, J. Invest. Dermatol. 81(1), supplement:2s-10s(1983)) have been used. Unfortunately, allogeneic dermis may be difficult to obtain in large quantities and may serve to transmit disease between the donor and the reciient. Fibroblast mixtures are unstable over lone periods of storace and may be excessively thick for use as certain grafts, such as split-thickness skin grafts.
The composite membrane described by Yannas et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,060,081 consisting of a dermal layer of collagen and a mucopolysaccharide such as chondroitin-6-sulfate (a glycosaminoglycan (GAG)) is covered with a Silastic.RTM. (medical grade silicone rubber) "epidermal" component. While this skin substitute is biodegradable and is not inflammatory or immunogenic, it requires that the Silastic.RTM. epidermis be removed at a later date and that the dermal layer be covered with a thin autograft to provide the epidermal component for permanent wound closure. The material is also limited by premature loss of the Silastic.RTM. layer leading to damage of the neodermis formed by vascularization of the collagen framework. This may be followed by development of granulation tissue which leads to scarring and undesirable functional and cosmetic results.
Imporoved methods for culturing epidermal cells such as HK have been developed and attempts have been made to grow the cells on artificial membranes such as that developed by Yannas et al, supra. In particular, improvements have been made in culture media, for example using the culture medium MCDB 153 described by Boyce and Ham, in In Vitro Models for Cancer Research, Vol. II (Eds. Webber and Sekely, Boca Raton, CRC Press, p. 245-274 (1986); J. Tiss. Cult. Meth. 9(2): 83-93 (1985); and J. Invest. Dermatol. 81(1) supplement: 33s-40s (1983)). More recently, this medium has been further modified to contain elevated amounts of selected amino acids. Pittelkow et al, Mayo Clin. Proc. 61: 771-777 (1986).
Although prior attempts have achieved growth of the cells on an artificial membrane, certain problems remain unsolved. For example, when HK cells are inoculated on the collagen-GAG membrane described by Yannas et al., the cells tend to migrate down into the interstices of the membrane which results in a material that is not structurally compartmentalized into epidermal and dermal components in the manner of normal skin.
There is a continuing need for a composite skin replacement for permanent wound coverage and repair which provides discrete epidermal and dermal components, promotes wound healing and reduces infection and which optimizes fibro-vascular invasion from the wound bed into the dermal component. In addition, efficient and inexpensive methods for manufacturing such composites are needed.

Method and apparatus for preparing composite skin replacement

The Regents of the University of California


An object of the invention is to provide a poly(phenylene ether) resin composition that allows production of laminated sheets excellent in heat resistance and processability, even in case of using a low molecular weight PPE for convenience in prepreg manufacturing without the sacrifice of dielectric characteristics.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to heat-resistant poly(phenylene ether) (hereinafter, referred to as PPE) resin compositions useful as insulation materials for printed wiring boards or the like, prepregs using the PPE resin compositions, and laminated sheets using the prepregs.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, along with the progress in technology for integration of semiconductor devices used in electronic devices, higher density electronic packages, and higher density wiring of printed wiring boards, as well as in junction and mounting technologies, there have been continuous advances made in electronic devices, and in particular some startling advances in the electronic devices that uses broadband, such as mobile communication devices.
Printed wiring boards, a constituent for such electronic devices, are heading toward more highly multilayer boards and more concise finer pitch wiring simultaneously. It is effective to reduce the dielectric constant of the materials used therein for raising signal transmission speed to the level needed for acceleration of information processing, and to use materials with a lower dielectric dissipation factor (dielectric loss) for reducing transmission loss.
Accordingly, PPE resins are suitable as a material for the printed wiring boards used in the electronic devices that utilize broadband, as PPE resins have favorable high frequency characteristics (dielectric characteristics) for example in dielectric constant, dielectric loss, and the like. However, PPE resins were not so far sufficiently high in heat resistance and dimensional stability. In addition, these PPE resins carry the disadvantage that they generally have a high melting point, and the use of such a PPE resin for production of prepregs for ordinary multilayer printed wiring boards often resulted in increase in melt viscosity of the prepreg, causing processing defects such as voids and scratches during production of the multilayer sheets and providing multilayer sheets not highly reliable in quality.
PPE resin compositions aimed at improvement in heat resistance and dimensional stability, prepregs using the PPE resin compositions, and laminated sheets using the prepregs were disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 8-231847. They are respectively the PPE resin compositions containing PPE, triallyl isocyanurate and nonreactive brominated compound; the prepregs using the PPE resin compositions; and the laminated sheets using the prepregs.
However, when the resin composition described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 8-231847 was used, it was difficult to produce multilayer sheets, as the PPE per se has a high melting point and thus the melt viscosity of the resin composition is too high at ordinary heat-pressing temperature to interpose internal conductive patterned layers into the multilayer printed wiring board.
Alternatively, PPE resin compositions comprising a PPE having a smaller molecular weight and thus better fluidity of the melt resin during processing and an improved processability at ordinary heat-press temperature, the prepregs using the PPE resin compositions and the laminated sheet using the prepregs are proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-265777. The PPE resin compositions described therein was effective in improving the efficiency of producing multilayer sheets.
And U.S. Pat. No. 6,352,782 discloses PPEs, of which the terminal hydroxyl group is capped with the group represented by the following formula. Even though the molecular weight of the PPEs used are not definitely described at all in the EXAMPLEs therein, the number averaged molecular weight of the PPE is described as preferably less than 10,000 and in particular about 300 to 5,000 (still more preferably about 500 to 5,000).

As described above, it is effective to reduce the molecular weight of PPEs in order to raise the fluidity of melt PPE resins and thus the efficiency of prepreg production.
However, the reduction in molecular weight of PPEs is also accompanied with a problem of the decrease in heat resistance of the resulting laminated sheets. Although it may be possible to increase the amount of a crosslinking curing agent, triallyl isocyanurate, for prevention of the decrease in heat resistance, it also accompanies the decrease in relative content of the PPE having excellent dielectric characteristics, making it difficult to produce lower dielectric constant products. Incidentally, the laminated sheets prepared by using the compositions described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-265777 above have a dielectric constant of 3.5 to 3.7 (1 MHz) when combined with an E-glass cloth, and of 3.3 to 3.5 (1 MHz) when combined with an NE-glass cloth.
In this context, there exist a need for products having further lower dielectric constant, to cope with the recent drastic increase in the amount of information processed in broadband devices.

Poly (phenylene ether) resin composition, prepreg, and laminated sheet

Abstract: The poly(phenylene ether) resin composition according to the present invention comprises poly(phenylene ether) and a crosslinking curing agent, wherein the poly(phenylene ether) is represented by the following formula (I) and the number averaged molecular weight thereof is in the range of 1,000 to 7,000.

Abstract: [wherein, X is an aryl group; (Y)m is a poly(phenylene ether) moiety; Z is a phenylene group and the like; R1 to R3 each independently is a hydrogen atom, and the like; n is an integer of 1 to 6; and q is an integer of 1 to 4.]


An electronic device includes one or more processors and memory storing a first logical table for a first time. The first logical table includes a plurality of logical columns, each logical column including an input vector of a plurality of input parameters corresponding to a respective time, and a plurality of logical rows intersecting with the plurality of logical columns, each logical row corresponding to a respective input parameter. The device updates a respective logical column with a first input vector that corresponds to a second time subsequent to the first time, thereby obtaining a second logical table; obtains a first transposed kernel matrix between the second logical table for the second time and the first input vector; determines a first predicted output value for the second time; and outputs the first predicted output value.

With the advancements in electrical systems, electrical controllers have become almost ubiquitous. For example, many devices, such as home appliances (e.g., heaters, dryers, dish washers, microwaves, etc.) and industrial tools, utilize electrical controllers to provide various electrical controllers for operations.
In some cases, such as in navigation and control of aircraft and spacecraft, electrical controllers need to receive signals (e.g., translational and angular position, velocity, acceleration, etc.) at high speed. In some cases, electrical controllers need an estimation of a subsequent signal. Trackers that are configured to receive a series of signals over time can determine a subsequent signal based on a series of electrical signals measured over time.
With the increased amount of data (e.g., big data) and the complex relationship among data sets, it has become necessary to have trackers that can handle multiple inputs (and multiple outputs). However, the speed of conventional trackers has limited applications of such trackers.

High-speed multi-input tracker based on in-memory operations of time-dependent data


A communication system which enables conventional telephone-type facsimile apparatus to reliably and efficiently communicate over a conventional two-way voice radio communication system. The system includes an interface unit which is connected to the facsimile apparatus and to the transceiver apparatus of the radio communication system without modification to either unit. The interface unit transmits and receives information over the radio system in the form of a series of data packets, each containing origin address, destination address, send sequence and check digit information for optimum transmission accuracy and efficiency. A confirmation packet of like send sequence sent by the receiving unit when received at the transmitting unit verifies transmission. In the absence of such verification the data packet is retransmitted.

This invention relates in general to a communications interface device whereby a facsimile transceiver is enabled to send and receive copies of documents over a two-way voice radio transceiver; and more particularly to a communications interface device which contains electrical interface means which, when connected to a standard facsimile transceiver, simulate a two-wire public switched telephone line; which contains facsimile data modulator and demodulator means for converting facsimile image data into audible tones, and audible tones into facsimile image data; which contains destination addressing means to allow a user to selectively transmit a facsimile message to any one of multiple compatible devices on the same radio channel; which provides error detection and correction means which assure error-free communications over the radio channel; and which contains radio interface means which, connected to a voice radio, simulate an external microphone, talk switch, and speaker.
Facsimile transceivers have commonly been used to send and receive copies of written documents over two-wire voice telephone lines. Such a facsimile transceiver contains station selection (dialing) means to place calls over the public switched voice telephone network; answering means to detect ringing signals from the telephone central office; and electrical coupling means to send and receive analog electrical signals in the voice frequency range, at signal levels and frequencies compatible with the voice telephone network. Such a facsimile transceiver also contains optoelectronic document scanning means, which, for each horizontal scan line of a predetermined height across the document to be copied, produce a string of digital data, where for example a binary one digit represents a black picture element of a predetermined size, and a binary zero digit represents a white picture element. Such a transceiver also contains modulation means which, for transmission, convert digital image data into tones in the voice frequency range, as well as demodulation means which, for reception, convert audio tones into binary image data. Such a facsimile transceiver also contains hard-copy printing means, such as a thermal print mechanism which makes images by selectively heating elements on a thermal print head in contact with thermally-sensitive paper, or a laser print mechanism which produces images on bond paper using a xerographic process, or similar print mechanism; such printing means convert the received digital image data into a printed document, reproducing a copy of the transmitted document. Such facsimile transceiver also includes a timing and control means which control and coordinate the above elements in accordance with procedures and protocols established by telephone authorities and by international telecommunications standards bodies.
There are many applications in which it would be desirable to send and receive documents using such a facsimile transceiver, but where telephone lines are not available. Examples include mobile vehicles, temporary work locations, and remote and undeveloped areas.
Various means have been developed to send and receive digital data over wireless radio links. A radio modem for example may be connected between a computer or data terminal and a radio transceiver. The means for data transfer between the computer or data terminal and the radio modem comprise a direct electrical connection of two closely-located data devices, for example, an RS-232 serial data interface (Electrical Industries Association Standard RS-232). The radio modem contains means for converting digital data received from the computer or data terminal into electrical signals which modulate the carrier of the connected transceiver. Conversely, the radio modem demodulates signals received from the radio so as to regenerate digital data, and passes the data to the connected computer or data terminal. However, a facsimile transceiver cannot be connected to such a radio modem, which lacks the telephone line interface means required for communicating with standard facsimile transceivers.
Other means have been developed to allow devices with telephone-line interfaces--telephone sets, data modems, and the like--to communicate over wireless radio links. A radiotelephone set for example contains telephone line simulation means, coupled to or combined with a radio transceiver. If a facsimile transceiver were connected at each side, two radiotelephones could send and receive messages. Unfortunately, communications errors may frequently be introduced by noise and interference on the radio communications bands, and such a radiotelephone set does not contain means for detecting and correcting such errors. A short burst of noise that may only be annoying in a voice conversation can render unintelligible several lines of image data in a facsimile transceiver connection. Furthermore, a radiotelephone system is generally restricted to only two stations, because neither the radiotelephone set nor the facsimile transceiver contains means for selectively transmitting to one of several stations which use the same communications channel. Still further, some radiotelephones use two radio frequencies, one for each voice direction. In urban and other developed areas, available radio channels are scarce, and licensing authorities are reluctant to assign channels to parties of only two users, the more so where two radio channels are required by each system. These factors limit the usefulness of radiotelephone equipment for facsimile communications.
Means have also been developed recently which allow devices with telephone-line interfaces to communicate over cellular telephone systems. Such a cellular telephone interface device contains a telephone line simulation means, combined with a cellular telephone interface means. If a facsimile transceiver were connected to such a device, it could send and receive messages over the cellular telephone network. Unfortunately, as with radiotelephones, communications errors may frequently be introduced by noise and interference on the radio communications channels. Further, cellular systems periodically switch the radio channel in use from one frequency to another, to improve signal strength for moving cellular telephones, and even with fixed stations to balance channel usage; such channel switching causes brief lapses in communications which are only a minor disturbance for voice conversations, but result in data errors for facsimile equipment. Such a cellular telephone interface device does not provide means for detection and correction of communications errors. Furthermore, cellular telephone service is still unavailable in many remote and undeveloped areas throughout the world. Even where cellular service is available, the use of cellular telephones is economically impractical for many high-volume commercial and industrial users, because of the relatively high prices charged by cellular telephone providers for each minute of service; such users often choose to use independently-owned two-way radio equipment in preference to a cellular telephone system.
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a communication system which permits a conventional facsimile transceiver to send and receive messages over a two-way voice radio transceiver.
A more specific object of the present invention is to provide a simulated telephone line interface to the facsimile transceiver such that a user may send and receive facsimile messages using operating procedures substantially the same as though the facsimile transceiver were connected to the public switched telephone network.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a modulator and demodulator means which convert audible tones received from the attached facsimile transceiver into digital image data which can be temporarily stored within the device for subsequent transmission over the connected radio, and conversely, which convert stored digital image data previously received from the connected radio into audible tones, so that received messages can be delivered to the connected facsimile transceiver for hard-copy printing.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a means of simulating the circuit switching action of the public telephone network by converting the destination station address "dialed" by the user at the facsimile transceiver into a digital address which is embedded within each block or "packet" of image data subsequently transmitted over the radio, and by further providing that only the addressed station will retain and deliver the message to its attached facsimile transceiver. This allows three or more devices to share the same radio channel.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a error detection and correction means which segment facsimile image data into packets of digital bits prior to transmission over the radio channel; which perform a mathematical operation on the data contained within each such packet to develop a unique cyclical redundancy check value for that packet; which embed this check within each packet at time of transmission; which continue to store each packet, after transmission, until positive acknowledgement of correct reception is received from the destination station; which upon reception of a packet of image data from another station, independently develop the check value for the data actually received, compares it with the transmitted check value, and then causes a response to be returned to the transmitting station acknowledging positively that the packet of data was successfully received, or negatively that an error was detected; which, after transmission of a packet of image data, upon reception of a positive acknowledgement, continue with the following packets of image data, or upon receipt of negative acknowledgement, or if no acknowledgement is received within a specified time, retransmit the packet of data; which contain mechanisms for successively repeating the transmission of image data packets that have not yet been successfully delivered; and which provide sufficient temporary image data storage capacity to hold transmitted and received packets of image data during the process of error detection and correction.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a voice radio interface means which include a modulator that encodes facsimile image data in the form of audio tones which can be transmitted over voice radios; which provide user-adjustable audio output levels, for compatibility with a wide range of existing and future voice radio equipment without requiring modification to such radios; which provide a connection point through which such audio output signals can be connected directly into the voice microphone input to a radio; which provide a push-to-talk signal to simulate the action of a user-activated talk button on a voice microphone, which signal is connected to the radio, and is activated to switch the radio from listen to talk whenever appropriate in order to transmit facsimile images; which provide a connection point that receives audio input signals from the speaker or earphone output of a radio; which provide automatic gain control to allow operation over a wide range of radio voice output levels; and which provide demodulation capabilities to convert audio tones back into image data.


A reciprocating power saw, in particular a saber saw, with a housing (1), a motor-driven reciprocating stroke bar (2) that has a tool receptacle (3) at its free end, and a bearing means (4), which axially displaceably and pivotably bears the stroke bar (2) in the tool-side end zone of the housing (1). The bearing means (4) has a guide part (5) with a bearing passage (6) for receiving the stroke bar (2), wherein the bearing means (4) is mounted by an elastic secondary bearing element (8) in a receiving passage (7) in the housing (1).

The invention relates to a reciprocating power saw, in particular a saber saw or the like, having a housing, a motor driven, reciprocating stroke bar, which has a tool receptacle at its free end and a bearing means, which axially displaceably and pivotably bears the stroke bar in the tool-side end zone of the housing, wherein the bearing means has a guide part with a mounting passage for receiving the stroke bar.
Reciprocating power saws, in particular saber saws, of the aforementioned type are used in working work pieces or the like. A motor-driven stroke bar is mounted in a housing and a tool receptacle is provided at its free end for receiving a tool, in particular a saw blade. The reciprocating displaceable stroke bar is mounted with its tool-side end zone axially displaceable and pivotable in the housing by a bearing means. For increasing the cutting performance of the reciprocating power saw, the reciprocating movement is superimposed by a movement component transverse to the reciprocating movement. In particular in the presence of the additional movement component transverse to the stroke bar, the stroke bar must be mounted on the housing to be pivotable.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,945,120 discloses a reciprocating power saw having a housing, a motor-driven reciprocating stroke bar, which has a tool receptacle at its free end. In addition, the reciprocating power saw has a bearing means with a guide part having a bearing passage, which has a spherical external contour. The guide part is mounted in the housing such that it can be pivoted.
The drawback in the known solution is that the guide part must be precision manufactured, because the inside of the housing, in particular the drive zone, must be sealed to prevent leakage of oil or grease.
An additional drawback in the known solution is that in the wear of the guide part no precise bearing of the stroke bark in the housing is assured and as a result, the service life is shortened and noise production increases due to the moving stroke bar.
Furthermore oscillations occurring at the stroke bar bearing are transmitted directly to the housing resulting in stress to the operator.

Reciprocating power saw with secondary bearing element


An apparatus for electronically monitoring an adjusting drive controlling a moving part in a vehicle is proposed wherein a position-dependent anti-jam system is realized. The signals of a switching strip and of an incremental sensor are considered in different manners, depending on the position of the moving part.

The invention relates to an apparatus for electronically monitoring an adjusting drive arranged in a vehicle.
DE-A 44 16 803 already discloses a method and an apparatus for the adjustment of power-operated parts, in particular, in a vehicle body. Therein at least two redundantly operating sensor systems are used, thus improving the reliability for the collision recognition. This serves to prevent the jamming of objects in the power-operated parts.

Device for electronically controlling a motor vehicle displacement mechanism


An automated software testing method is disclosed. It includes receiving a data set that includes information for testing a software application under test. The received data set is automatically converted into a series of test instructions that is operative to be run against the software application under test.

Automated software testing tools for software applications have been offered commercially since the late 1970s. Users of these tools can write scripts that provide then with instructions to simulate user actions including computer mouse movements and keyboard presses. Automated testing tools can also be programmed to capture values and state information from the application under test so that these values can be compared to benchmarks and used to ascertain whether the application under test is performing according to specification.
Existing tools allow users to create scripts via manual coding and recording. Manual coding involves writing instructions in a scripting language. Although this method can produce scripts that reliably simulate user actions, these scripts tend to be difficult to create and require the user to be skilled in programming.
Recorders are software programs that monitor and capture user activity including mouse movements and keyboard presses. These events are saved into a file called a recording. Although recorders provide ease of use over manual coding, they can produce scripts that do not work reliably and are difficult to maintain.


An animal management system and scanning access device are disclosed. The scanning access device accesses RFID label disposed on/in animal body, and the information of the accessed RFID label is subsequently processed and transmitted to the animal management system via a communication transmission module for comparison. The scanning access device includes a first access module for accessing the RFID label disposed on/in animal body, an interface for the first access module to be coupled thereto and receiving the information of the RFID label accessed by the first access module, an input module for receiving operation message, a processing module for processing the information of the RFID label received by the interface and/or the operation message received by the input module, and a transmitting/receiving module for transmitting the processed information obtained from the processing module via the communication transmission module and/or receiving another information transmitted by the communication transmission module.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to animal management systems and scanning access devices, and more specifically, to an animal management system and scanning access device capable of accessing an RFID label disposed on/in animal body for performing management procedure.
2. Description of Related Art
Chips implanted in family pets are originally developed by western developed nations for achieving objective of reducing stray animal number and further lessening society cost and social problems caused by stray animals. In addition, a complete domestic family pet registration and management system can be established by implanting chip inside animal bodies, thereby efficiently controlling domestic pet number and supervising rabies vaccination and inspection on domestic dogs, and then preventing rabies epidemic and other similar situation from happening.
Pet chips are mainly implanted inside pets such as dogs and cats, the chip is encapsulated inside a biochemical glass tube compatible to animal tissue, a microchip is numbered and registered, size of the microchip is about 13 mm×2 mm, and is capable of staying inside animal body for many ten years, far longer than general animal life. The implanting location of chip is at "right in the center of shoulder blade at animal back" according to international standard specification. The chip is mostly unlikely to slip away if implanted right in the center of the shoulder blade. In addition, the chip can also be worn by the animal in a collar, e.g. around the animal neck, and the microchip is embedded inside the collar.
Nowadays, many nations have adopted a chip implantation program on animals and also have been supervising animal vaccination and inspection by using scanner device. However, the vaccination and inspection system or animal management system is not yet well established. Furthermore, in a situation of insufficient equipments while carrying out the program, each local organization is incapable of reaching a projected goal pertaining to animal management. For instance, chip information accessed by the scanner device can only be saved in memory of the scanner device but not immediately transmitted back to animal management system, therefore animal management personnel cannot be immediately informed of the animal status. Besides, the prior scanner device must be applied closely to animal body in order to access chip information effectively, and apparently scanning the chip of a fierce animal is commonly very dangerous for animal management personnel, unavoidably causing animal management personnel to be scared and difficulty in operation.
Hence, how to establish a perfect animal management system and device, providing convenient methods of vaccination and inspection and management to animal management personnel for reducing society cost and effectively controlling social problems caused by stray animals, is a highly urgent issue in the related industry.

Animal management system and scanning access device


The present invention is a capacitor of a triphenyl phosphine oxide film as a base dielectric. More specifically, the base dielectric film is selected from the group consisting of Bisphenol-A (Bis-A PEPO). 4xe2x80x2,4xe2x80x2-biphenol (BP-PEPO), and Hydroquinone (HQ-PEPO). TPPO based polymers have a very high breakdown strength, dielectric constant, low dissipation factor and high energy density. An ultra-thin coating can leverage the capabilities of this new dielectric, and potentially other commercial polymer films, to make possible energy storage in excess of 1 J/cc. The triphenyl phosphine oxide film can be fabricated containing a conducting PolyANiline (PAN) polymer layer located between the electrode and core polymer, or by being dip coated with PAN.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to AB block co-polymers comprising, as the A component, a triphenyl phosphine oxide (TPPO) monomer and, as the B component, another monomer which may be the same or different, and to ultra-high density, low loss, thin film capacitors containing these AB block co-polymers.
2. Description of the Background
Metallized film capacitors are utilized in a broad range of electrical and electronic components. Various dielectrics and different structures make these products suitable for versatile applications in automotive and entertainment electronics, telecommunications, and industrial and medical electronics (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,691,442; 6,040,416; 5,387,629; and 5,134,207).
Metallized film capacitors are generally used to store energy. Some applications use capacitors to perform specific functions such as filtering, timing, and decoupling. The advantages of metallized film capacitors include high temperature operation, exceptional stability, low power loss, close tolerance, long life, high reliability, and lower volume, cost, and weight.
Many different kinds of polymer film capacitors exist which are identified by the dielectric material that is used in their construction. Common dielectric materials used to make polymer film capacitors include polycarbonate, polyester, polypropylene, polystyrene and polysulfone. The use of these polymers allows for advanced electronic packaging techniques, resulting in improved system performance and reliability.
These conventional polymeric materials, however, have several disadvantages as a dielectric film material, including a great decrease in dielectric properties in a humid atmosphere, film forming difficulties, small dielectric constants, small energy storage density, and instability at increasingly high temperatures.
In conventional capacitors, the dielectric material exists in the form of thick layers which must be self-supporting and thick enough to sustain the necessary operating voltage and physical handling. The large thickness of the polymer sheets in this case reduces the energy storage density of the capacitors. In conventional capacitors which employ a polymer sheet as the dielectric material, the layer of dielectric material typically has a thickness of at least 3-6 microns. Because the ability of a capacitor to store energy is inversely proportional to the thickness of a dielectric material, reduction of the thickness of the base film is required to improve capacitance of the capacitor. Conventional polymer films cannot satisfy the requirement for the reduction of film thickness sufficiently, because a very thin film has poor workability or processability in the production step of capacitors.
In addition to the current need for thin film capacitors, persons skilled in the art are faced with many manufacturing limitations. The polymeric materials must satisfy a number of critical thermal, environmental, and electrical requirements to meet the required performance criteria for microelectronics applications. These desired attributes include thermal stability, low moisture uptake, high breakdown voltage, low dielectric constant, low loss tangent, low leakage current, high glass transition temperature, and low surface roughness. When attempting to increase the energy density, the dielectric constant and breakdown voltages should remain fixed due to fixed polymer chemistries. If the voltage of the capacitor is raised above the corona inception voltage, rapid degradation of the dielectrics can occur. Dielectric degradation by thermal loads and electrostrictive forces can occur in high voltage rates, e.g., dV/dt, and high rep-rate pulse applications.
Thus, a need currently exists in the art for ultra-high density low loss thin film dielectric polymers. A material with a high dielectric constant that is stable at high voltages and temperatures is needed.
The present invention relates to capacitors comprising AB block co-polymers and other polymers. Particularly, the present invention relates to ultra-high density, low loss, thin film capacitors containing AB block co-polymers comprising, as the A component, a triphenyl phosphine oxide (TPPO) monomer and, as the B component, another monomer which may be the same or different. Such capacitors provide a novel film capacitor free from the disadvantages and problems in existing film capacitors.
According to an embodiment of the invention, a capacitor comprises a triphenyl phosphine oxide film as a base dielectric film, wherein the triphenyl phosphine oxide film is fabricated containing a conducting PolyANiline(PAN) polymer layer located between the electrode and core polymer. The said triphenyl phosphine oxide film is stretched either bi-axially or uni-axially.
In another embodiment of the invention, a capacitor comprises a base dielectric, wherein said base dielectric is an A-B block co-polymer comprising a triphenyl phosphine oxide (TPPO) or TPPO derivative A block and a monomer B block, wherein the monomer B block is selected from a group consisting of Bisphenol-A (Bis-A PEPO), 4,4xe2x80x2-biphenol (BP-PEPO), and Hydroquinone (HQ-PEPO). The TPPO derivative comprises a moiety attached to a phenyl ring opposite to a P=O bond in said TPPO. Alternatively, the moiety is either an electron withdrawing moiety or an electron donating moiety. The electron withdrawing moiety is selected from a group consisting of F, Cl, CN, and NO. The electron donating moiety is selected from a group consisting of OCH3, CH3, and NHR2.
Other embodiments and advantages of the invention are set forth, in part, in the description which follows, and, in part, will be obvious from this description and may be learned from the practice of the invention.

Triphenyl phosphine oxide polymer capacitors


A memory address generation method and circuit architecture for time-multiplexed RS-based LDPC code decoder is presented. The method is developed for non quasi-cyclic RS-based LDPC code decoder implementation. A circuit for the memory address generation method achieves low area. High throughput time-multiplexed RS-based LDPC code decoder design models and circuit architectures are presented. The decoder models are specifically developed for 10BASE-T (10-Gigabit Ethernet Transceiver Over Copper) system. These time-multiplexed architectures enable higher throughput with lower area.

Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) codes with iterative decoding based on belief propagation algorithm (also known as the sum-product (SP) algorithm) have excellent error correcting capability approaching the Shannon limit. Moreover, very high decoding throughput can be achieved since the SP decoding algorithm is inherently fully parallelizable.
Recently, LDPC codes have been adopted as the FEC (forward error correction) coding scheme for many digital communication standards. In particular, the RS (Reed-Solomon)-based LDPC code (see, I. Djurdjevic, J. Xu, K. Abdel-Ghaffar, and S. Lin, "A class of low-density parity-check codes constructed based on Reed-Solomon codes with two information symbols," IEEE Communications Letters, Vol. 7, pp. 317-319, 2003) has been adopted to be used in 10 Gigabit Ethernet over copper (10GBASE-T). The RS-based LDPC codes are constructed based on an algebraic method. This method is based on the structure of Reed-Solomon codes with two information symbols. Constructed RS-based LDPC codes are free of cycles of length 4 and have good minimum distances. For example, a regular (2048, 1723) RS-based LDPC code whose column and row weights are 6 and 32 has at least 8 minimum distance. At the BER (bit error rate) of 10−6 assuming BPSK (binary phase shift keying) transmission over an AWGN (additive white gaussian noise) channel, the code performs at a distance of 1.55 dB from the Shannon limit and achieves a 6 dB coding gain over the uncoded BPSK.
LDPC codes are identified by parity-check matrices and LDPC code decoder complexity depends on the structure pattern of the parity-check matrix. In other words, if a parity-check matrix has a specific regular pattern, it can be used to design a low complexity decoder architecture. The parity-check matrix of the RS-based LDPC codes is simple in structure since it consists of square matrices. However, if a constraint such that the row weight of parity-check matrix is equal to the size of submatrix is not satisfied, these submatrices do not result in circulant matrices, i.e., each submatrix is not cyclically shifted version of identity matrix. In this case, it may appear that the parity-check matrix doesn't have any kind of regular pattern. Thus this fact makes it hard to derive an efficient memory address generation (MAG) scheme for the time-multiplexed (TM) RS-based LDPC decoder architectures (for the TM LDPC decoder architecture, see, T. Zhang and K. K. Parhi, "Joint (3,k)-regular LDPC code and decoder/encoder design," IEEE Trans. Acoust., Speech, Signal Processing, Vol. 52, pp. 1065-1079, April 2004) though a simple MAG scheme is essential for any kind of TM LDPC code decoder architecture.
For high decoding throughput applications such as the 10GBASE-T, it may be difficult to implement a RS-based LDPC decoder based on the TM decoder architecture since the number of clock cycles required per each iteration in the architecture is directly proportional to the size of the submatrix. For example, the RS-based LDPC code used in the 10GBASE-T has 64×64 submatrix and 128 (=2*64) clock cycles are required per each iteration. In addition, since a large volume of messages are passed between memories and processing units, the number of required processing units is significantly large. Thus, a methodology for designing new TM RS-based LDPC code decoders oriented for high decoding throughput should be developed, which can leads to a low-cost decoder architecture.
What is needed is a new MAG scheme for the TM RS-based LDPC code decoder and a methodology that leads to low cost decoder architectures allowing high throughput.

System and method for designing RS-based LDPC code decoder


This disclosure describes techniques for mitigating rounding errors in a fixed-point transform associated with video coding by applying a variable localized bit-depth increase at the transform. More specifically, the techniques include selecting a constant value based on a size of a fixed-point transform in a video coding device and applying a variable localized bit-depth increase at the transform with a value equal to the constant value. Applying the variable localized bit-depth increase includes left-shifting a transform input signal by a number of bits equal to the constant value before the fixed-point transform, and right-shifting a transform output signal by a number of bits equal to the constant value after the fixed-point transform. The constant value is selected from a plurality of constant values stored on the video coding device. Each of the constant values is pre-calculated for one of a plurality of different transform sizes supported by the video coding.

Digital video capabilities can be incorporated into a wide range of devices, including digital televisions, digital direct broadcast systems, wireless broadcast systems, personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptop or desktop computers, tablet computers, digital cameras, digital recording devices, digital media players, video gaming devices, video game consoles, cellular or satellite radio telephones, video teleconferencing devices, and the like. Digital video devices implement video compression techniques, such as those described in the standards defined by MPEG-2, MPEG-4, ITU-T H.263, ITU-T H.264/MPEG-4, Part 10, Advanced Video Coding (AVC), or proposed ITU-T H.265, High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), and extensions of such standards, to transmit and receive digital video information more efficiently.
Video compression techniques may perform spatial prediction and/or temporal prediction to reduce or remove redundancy inherent in video sequences. For block-based video coding, a video frame or slice may be partitioned into macroblocks. Each macroblock can be further partitioned. Macroblocks in an intra-coded (I) frame or slice are encoded using spatial prediction with respect to neighboring macroblocks. Macroblocks in an inter-coded (P or B or Generalized P/B) frame or slice may use spatial prediction with respect to neighboring macroblocks in the same frame or slice or temporal prediction with respect to other reference frames.
The video compression techniques may also perform linear transforms to represent residual video block data, which is the difference between a video block of a current frame to be coded and a predictive video block of a reference frame, in an efficient manner for coding. In some cases, the video coding devices may use fast implementations of linear transforms that are performed using cascaded butterfly structures. The number of cascaded butterfly structures used to represent a transform depends on the size of the transform. In order to reduce computational complexity within video coding devices, linear transforms may be implemented as fixed-point transforms instead of floating point transforms. Fixed-point implementations, however, may introduce rounding errors at each of the cascaded levels of butterfly structures used to represent the transform. In the case of fixed-point transforms, therefore, the cumulative rounding error increases with the size of the transform.

Variable localized bit-depth increase for fixed-point transforms in video coding


In a method for controlling network congestion, a parameter to bar access from specific user equipment is adjusted. The adjusted parameter in a specific system information block which is different from a System Information Block Type2 is transmitted. The method may be performed by a base station.

Wireless communication devices have become smaller and more powerful in order to meet consumer needs and to improve portability and convenience. Consumers have become dependent upon wireless communication devices and have come to expect reliable service, expanded areas of coverage, and increased functionality. A wireless communication system may provide communication for a number of cells, each of which may be serviced by a base station. A base station may be a fixed station that communicates with mobile stations.
As wireless communication devices have become more advanced, the potential uses of wireless communication devices have also increased. One such advancement is the introduction of machine-to-machine (M2M) devices. These devices may provide little or no human interface. Instead, these devices may provide a wireless link to a base station. The wireless link may be provided to an application that uses the wireless link to send information to and receive information from the base station.
Because these devices do not merely provide an interface for human interaction, many more of these devices may rely on a single base station. With an increase in the number of wireless devices communicating with a base station, there is potential for the base station to be overloaded. Benefits may be realized by preventing the base station from becoming overloaded.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Reducing congestion in wireless communication networks


A magnetic rotation detector includes a magnetic rotor having magnetic bodies, a detecting body that detects a change in magnetic flux that is caused by the magnetic bodies as the magnetic rotor rotates; and an abnormality determination portion that monitors an apparent fluctuation in rotational speed of the magnetic rotor based on a result detected by the detecting body and that determines that the magnetic rotor is in an abnormal state if the fluctuation occurs at a specific position of the magnetic rotor. The abnormality determination portion detects the occurrence of the fluctuation at the specific position of the magnetic rotor by making a determination on a distance between apparent positions of the magnetic bodies which correspond to the apparent fluctuation in rotational speed and calculates the distance on the basis of a product of an interval of generation of noise in an output signal detected by the detecting body and a rotational speed of the magnetic rotor at the time of generation of noise.

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a magnetic rotation detector used to detect a rotational speed of a wheel of a vehicle, a vehicle control apparatus employing the magnetic rotation detector, and a method of making a determination on an abnormality in a magnetic rotor.
2. Description of Related Art
A magnetic rotation sensor is known as a device for detecting a rotational speed of a wheel in a vehicle (e.g., see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-59416 (pages 3 and 4, FIG. 1)). A magnetic rotation sensor of this kind is composed of magnetic bodies and a detector. The magnetic bodies are disposed at equal intervals on an outer periphery portion of a rotor that rotates in synchronization with an object whose rotational speed is to be detected. The detector is a pick-up such as a hall device or the like, and is disposed outside the rotor while facing it. If the rotor rotates, the magnetic bodies disposed on the outer periphery of the rotor cause a change in magnetic flux around the pick-up. The pick-up detects the change in magnetic flux and outputs a signal. Thus, movements of the magnetic bodies causing the change in magnetic flux, namely, rotation of the rotor can be detected on the basis of the signal output from the pick-up.
A magnetic rotation sensor of this kind is disposed on a rotational axle for wheels or the like. However, since a structure for mounting the magnetic rotation sensor cannot be sealed, foreign matters inevitably penetrate into the sensor. If iron fragments or the like have penetrated thereinto, they may adhere to the magnetic bodies disposed on the outer periphery portion of the rotor and may disturb a change in magnetic flux. If the change in magnetic flux is thus disturbed, a fluctuation in rotational speed is erroneously detected even though the rotor itself rotates at a constant speed.

Systems and methods for detecting of abnormality in magnetic rotors


Apparatus and methods for acoustically isolating logging tool receiver and transmitter sections. One or more modular isolators is arranged between the receiver and transmitter sections. The modular isolators comprise a high tensile strength while also providing for a high wave attenuation level. The modular isolators are mechanical mass-spring systems capable of absorbing acoustic waves propagating along the logging tool. The mass is a swinging sleeve, and the spring includes a Belleville spring stack. The use of the strong modular isolators provides acoustic isolation between the transmitters and receivers for the complete sonic frequency band at multiple modes.

The generation and recording of borehole acoustic waves is a key measurement employed in oilfield wireline logging. Many borehole tools and methods are currently available for taking acoustic measurements. Some tools include a single source of sonic waves and two or more receivers; however, most of the tools now include many receivers arranged in an array. While the currently available acoustic tools are useful in providing a large range of information regarding the adjacent formation and the borehole parameters, a primary use of acoustic borehole measurements is the estimation of compressional wave formation slowness.
Compressional or extensional wave formation slowness is typically estimated using travel times acquired via a first motion detection process. In the case of a single source, two receiver tool suggested by the prior art, formation slowness is estimated by subtracting the arrival times between two receivers and dividing by the inter-receiver spacing. This estimate, however, is subject to inaccuracies due to tool tilt, borehole washouts, bed boundary effects, etc. Additional acoustic sources and receivers and more robust methods such as STC (Slowness-Time-Coherency analysis) among others have been used to reduce the inaccuracies introduced by such environmental effects.
The above described travel time measurement technique for determining formation slowness suffers from other shortfalls as well. Many existing methods provide only one-dimensional values of formation slowness along the borehole axis and discards valuable information inherent in the signal regarding properties of the formation in other directions such as radial (i.e. shear) and/or azimuthal directions that are perpendicular to the borehole axis. However, it is useful to induce a flexural or dipole mode to enable shear measurements.
To overcome the difficulty in assessing the slowness distribution in both the axial and radial directions, a travel time tomographic inversion (namely "tomography") can be employed. The aim of a travel time tomographic inversion is to find a solution or a model (i.e. formation slowness distribution along and around a borehole) that minimizes the discrepancy between measured travel times and calculated ones at all source-receiver pairs. The governing equation of travel time tomography is generally non-linear but can be solved by an iterative solution algorithm starting with an initial model. At each iteration of this solution process, the following two steps are executed: forward modeling and inversion. By "forward modeling", the travel time is calculated for each source and receiver pair with a given model (from either an initial guess or the result of the previous iteration). However, since the model used is unlikely to be the true subsurface model, the calculated travel times are typically not consistent with the actual measured travel times. Hence, followed by this "forward modeling" step, the discrepancy between the actual measured and the calculated travel times is calculated and then minimized by an optimization/minimization method (e.g. a back-projection or conjugate-gradient) to update/adjust the previous resultant model. These two steps are conducted iteratively until a best fit is achieved (i.e. the travel time errors converge). Thus, the final solution model is obtained.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,081,611 (B. Hornby, 1992) proposed such a tomography method based on inversion of travel times measured by a sonic tool. Hornby alleges that his method is able to determine slowness distributions away from the borehole. The method disclosed by Hornby, however, is not in frequent use, presumably because the modeling kernel based on a ray tracing technique for refraction waves is unreliable. In addition, the Hornby method requires implicitly imposed virtual layers along the borehole axis, which lacks robustness regarding prior information and geological support. Furthermore, the method taught by Hornby is limited to only two dimensions, i.e. along borehole axis and one of the radial directions.
As described previously, the modeling is a required step in this tomographic inversion and its robustness and efficiency is crucial to the success of the inversion. Although ray tracing is a well know numerical simulation technique and widely used in acoustic domain for travel time computations, there are numerous limitations of this method preventing its robust use for sonic tomography. For instance, the sonic tool itself provides a direct link between the transmitter and the receivers. The propagation of the waves through the tool string introduces noise to the measurement signals. Accordingly, there has been some introduction of intra-tool acoustic isolators between transmitters and receivers to reduce signal noise. One method of acoustic isolation is to increase the distance between the transmitters and receivers. However, the greater the spacing between the transmitters and receivers, the lower the acoustic signal amplitude. Therefore, it is desirable to limit the length between the transmitters and receivers, and yet to also acoustically isolate them from one another along the tool string.
In addition, the mechanical strength requirements of an acoustic isolator are rigorous for most downhole tools. Many downhole tools extend downhole for thousands of meters, and therefore an isolator must have adequate strength to support any portions of the tool suspended therefrom. In addition, there may be well deviations that the isolator must be able to negotiate, all the while maintaining structural integrity and still acoustically isolating the receivers and transmitters. However, typical isolators are not strong enough to support high operational tensile loads, negotiate well deviations, and still provide acoustic isolation both in the extensional and flexural measurement target frequencies.
The present invention is directed to overcoming, or at least reducing the effects of, one or more of the problems outlined above.

Acoustic isolator between downhole transmitters and receivers


Presuming a case of dividing a control plane of a base station controller (RNC) into an apparatus to control a cell resource and an apparatus to control each of mobile stations (MS), it is a problem to be solved to distribute a load on the mobile station controller by setting an additional mobile station controller due to an increase in subscribers. Cell control radio control servers (Cell control RCS) 7a, 7b are nodes to control common resources, e.g., radio common channel, cell spread code, electric power, etc., bound to a cell, mobile station control radio control servers (Serving RCS) 8a, 8b are nodes to control each of mobile stations (MS) 5, and movement control/location management of the mobile stations (MS) 5, radio individual channel control, etc. are performed. Cell control radio bearer server (Cell control RBS) 9a, 9b process traffic flowing on a radio common channel according to an instruction of the cell control radio control servers (Cell control RCS) 7a, 7b, and mobile station control radio bearer servers (Serving RBS) 10a, 10b process traffic flowing on the radio individual channel according to an instruction of the mobile station control radio control servers (Serving RCS) 8a, 8b.

As described on page 96 in "W-CDMA Mobile Communication System" (supervising editor Keiji Tachikawa, published by Maruzen Co., Ltd. on Jun. 25, 2001) standardized by 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) which is a standardization association of industry, a third generation mobile network to which W-CDMA (Wideband-Code Division Multiple Access) radio technique is applied includes a radio area network (called RAN) and a core network (called CN). The radio area network related to this invention is a network in which radio control and station movement control depending on W-CDMA (Wideband-Code Division Multiple Access) radio technique is performed.
FIG. 11 shows an architecture diagram of the radio area network. 1 denotes a packet switchboard belonging to the core network (CN), and 2 denotes a voice switchboard belonging to the core network (CN). 3a-3c denote base station controllers (RNC) belonging to the radio area network (RAN), 4a-4d denote base stations (NodeB) belonging to the radio area network (RAN). 5 denotes a mobile station (MS).
FIG. 12 outlines an operation when transmission is originated from the mobile station (MS) in the radio area network (RAN). When the mobile station (MS) 5 starts voice/packet communication, the mobile station (MS) 5 requests the base station controllers (RNC) 3a-c to allocate a radio signaling resource which is necessary for transmission of signaling at first. This request is sent to the base station controllers (RNC) 3a-c through the base stations (NodeB) 4a-d which terminate this channel using a radio common channel which can be used commonly by all of the mobile stations (MS) 5. By this request, the base station controllers (RNC) 3a-c allocate a radio individual channel used by the mobile station (MS) 5 for transmission of signaling, and notify the base stations (NodeB) 4a-d of radio individual channel information. In this way, resources, e.g., spread code, frequency, etc. is allocated to the mobile station (MS) 5. When the resources for the mobile station (MS) 5 in the base stations (NodeB) 4a-d have been secured, the base station controllers (RNC) 3a-c notify the mobile station (MS) 5 of this radio individual channel information. Accordingly, the radio signaling resource has been allocated.
After then, the mobile station (MS) 5 notifies the core network (CN) of a request to originate transmission of a packet or to originate transmission of voice using this radio signaling resource. By this request, the core network (CN) requests the base station controllers (RNC) 3a-c to allocate a radio call resource used for packet communication or voice call. By this request, the base station controllers (RNC) 3a-c determine to increase the radio individual channel used, and notify the base stations (NodeB) 4a-d of this. When the base stations (NodeB) 4a-d have added the resources for the mobile station (MS) 5 at the base stations (NodeB) 4a-d, the base station controllers (RNC) 3a-c notify the mobile station (MS) 5 of this radio individual channel information. Accordingly, the radio call resource has been allocated. Then, the mobile station (MS) 5 becomes able to perform the packet communication or voice call.
In FIG. 12, a flow concerning information for security and authentication sent and received between the mobile station (MS) and the radio area network (RAN)/core network (CN), a flow concerning various synchronization/timing control, and sending and receiving of various information between the mobile station (MS) and the core network (CN) are omitted as they are not directly related to this invention.
Further, concerning radio area network (RAN) architecture in the future, MWIF (Mobile Wireless Internet Forum) is proposing Open RAN Architecture (MTR007v1.0.0). Mapping of open radio area network (OPEN RAN) and 3GPP radio area network (3GPP RAN) described on page 52 of this document is illustrated in FIG. 13. In FIG. 13, the base station controllers (RNC) 3a-c are divided into two planes, i.e., bearer plane (Bearer Plane) for handling user traffic and control plane (Control Plane) for controlling the mobile station (MS) and the base station (NodeB). Further, each of them is split into a part for handling cell resources, described as CRNC/DRNC and a part for handling resources allocated to the mobile station (MS), described as SRNC. This architecture aims at optimally arranging many functions provided in the base station controller (RNC) in present condition, and suggests that there is a possibility to decompose and restructure the present architecture.
This invention intends to solve the problem in the open radio area network architecture with presumption that the open radio area network (RAN) will develop based on the open radio area network architecture (Open RAN Architecture) of MWIF. Particularly, in the open radio area network architecture, the control plane (Control Plane) of the base station controller (RNC) is divided into a part for controlling the cell resources and a part for controlling each of the mobile stations (MS), and each of the parts is provided additionally according to a number of cells or a number of the mobile stations (MS). This suggests that control of the base station controller (RNC) is distributed to functions of cell control and mobile station (MS) control, and also suggests that a load is distributed in each level of the cell control or the mobile station (MS) control. The open radio area network architecture describes this method to distribute functions, however does not regulate a load distributing system of each of the functions. It is a subject of this invention to provide the load distributing system which can be applied to this new area network architecture.

Radio area network control system and a wide area radio area network control system


A system or method for controlling an engine in a hybrid vehicle include cranking the engine subject to a first torque limit in response to an engine start request, receiving an engine rotational position signal, and cranking the engine subject to a second torque limit in response to the engine rotational position signal indicating a number of engine revolutions being less than a threshold value.

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) utilize a combination of an internal combustion engine with an electric machine to provide the power needed to propel a vehicle. This arrangement provides improved fuel economy over conventional vehicles that possess only an internal combustion engine. An HEV may improve fuel economy by shutting down the engine during times that the engine operates inefficiently or is not otherwise needed to propel the vehicle. This may occur, for example, when the vehicle stops at traffic signals, stop signs, or when the electric machine is able to provide sufficient power to propel the vehicle without use of the engine. In these situations, the internal combustion engine is shutdown and the battery and electric machine provide power to propel the vehicle.
If additional power is requested or needed by the vehicle, the internal combustion engine is restarted using various methods. Such methods include a traditional starter motor or electric machine rotating the engine and firing the engine when the engine rotational speed exceeds a threshold value. These traditional engine start/restart methods may result in damage to the engine or transmission in the cases where the engine or transmission do not freely rotate, such as when the engine is hydrolocked, for example. As such, it is desirable to alter the engine restart strategy or avoid restarting the engine.

Hybrid-electric vehicle engine starting method and system


A lever 46 is pivotally fitted on a connector body 44 of a male connector 45, and the connector body 44 is fitted into a hood portion 42 of a female connector portion 43, using the lever 46. Insertion limitation thickened portions 56 for preventing the lever 46 from being inserted into the female connector portion are formed respectively on inner surfaces of the hood portion 42. The insertion limitation thickened portions 56 serve as a fulcrum for the pivotal movement of the lever 46 when removing the male connector 45. With this construction, terminals (wiring terminals) in the female connector portion are prevented from damage and deformation.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a lever-fitting type connector in which female and male connectors can be easily fitted together by operating a lever.
2. Related Art
FIGS. 7 and 8 show a frame-connecting type connector 1 disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 6-251826. This connector 1 comprises a female connector portion 3, provided on a connection box body 2 of an electric connection box or the like, a male connector 5 for fitting into a hood portion 4 of the female connector portion 3, and a frame 6 for inserting and fitting the male connector 5 into the hood portion 4 of the female connector portion 3. The frame 6 includes a body 7 having the male connector 5 pivotally received therein, and a pivot leg portion 8 projecting from one end of the body 7, and an operating projection 9 projecting from the other end of the body. A sliding shaft 10 is formed at a distal end of the pivot leg portion 8. This sliding shaft 10 is received and retained in a slide groove 12 formed in a frame support portion 11 formed on an outer surface of the female connector portion 3.
As shown in FIG. 8, the sliding shaft 10 is retained in the slide groove 12, and the operating projection 9 is pressed to pivotally move the frame 6 about an axis of the sliding shaft 10 in a direction of arrow a, thereby inserting and fitting the male connector 5 into the female connector portion 3. For withdrawing the male connector 5 from the female connector portion 3, the operating projection 9 is pressed in a reverse direction to pivotally move the frame 6 in a direction opposite to the direction of arrow a, so that the male connector 5 can be withdrawn from the hood portion 4 of the female connector portion 3.
In this operation, the sliding shaft 10 serves as a fulcrum, and the operating projection 9 serves as a force-applying point, and a support portion, at which the male connector 5 is pivotally supported on the frame 6, serves as an operating point, and therefore the male connector 5 can be fitted into and withdrawn from the female connector portion 3 with a small force. Therefore, the operating force, required for fitting the male connector 5 into the female connector portion 3, can be reduced.
However, the above frame-connecting type connector 1 has a drawback that the frame 7, fitted on the male connector 5, are flexed or bent laterally during the operation, so that those portions of the frame 7, pivotally supporting the male connector 5, are liable to be disengaged from the male connector 5. Therefore, there may be proposed a construction in which the body 7 of the frame 6 is, together with the male connector 5, fitted in the hood portion 4 so that the flexing of the side walls of the body 7 can be prevented by inner surfaces of the hood portion 4. In such a construction, one end portion of the body 7 is retained, for example, on the hood portion 4 of the female connector portion 3, and the frame 6 is pivotally moved about this retained end portion serving as a fulcrum, and by doing so, the male connector 5 can be fitted into and withdrawn (or removed) from the hood portion 4 of the female connector portion 3. In this construction, however, when the frame 6 is to be fitted into the female connector portion 3 in such a manner that the one end portion of the frame 6, pivotally supported on the male connector 5, projects forwardly from the fitting side or surface of the male connector 5 in the fitting direction, there is a possibility that this projected end portion damages or deforms wiring terminals (e.g. tabs) provided in the female connector portion, and therefore some countermeasures against this are needed.

Lever-fitting type connector with lever insertion limitation and withdrawal portion