A cured-in-place pipe rehabilitation device launcher having a launcher assembly and a liner assist chamber, the launcher assembly includes a nozzle, an air feed chamber above the nozzle to pressurize a cured-in-place liner to aid in urging it into a pipe to be rehabilitated, and an attachment plate is disposed above the adapter. The liner assist chamber includes a base plate to attach to the attachment plate, a liner assist frame coupled to the base plate, a plurality of rollers rotationally attached to the liner assist frame, and a motor operably attached to at least one of the plurality of rollers and configured to aid in urging the cured-in-place liner into the pipe.

Prior methods for repairing damaged portions of pipelines include moving a liner tube impregnated with a liquid material capable of curing and hardening to a position within the pipe where the damaged portion is located. The liner tube is installed by pulling, pushing, or everting the liner into the host pipe. Once the liner is positioned within the host pipe, it is pressurized, usually by an inflation bladder, causing the liner to press against the interior wall of the host pipe, and the liner is cured by applying heat, such as steam or hot water. These liners can also be cured at ambient temperatures by chemical mixtures that generate an exothermic reaction, the use of ultraviolet light or other photocuring initiators, or by electron beam curing. The liner tube forms an interior liner in the pipe for the pipeline being repaired. These processes are known as cured-in-place pipe (CIPP) lining.
Though the CIPP can be pushed, pulled, or inverted (or everted) into and through the pipeline, the most prevalent method is inversion. This is where the liner tube is inverted turning over itself as the liner progresses from one access point to a predetermined second access point as described in ASTM F1216. The CIPP liner is inverted into the pipe by using a tower to suspend the liner, feed the liner into itself to turn back the liner on itself, secure the liner, and introduce water into the liner creating head pressure that causes the liner to invert down and into and through the pipeline. Compressed air is another method for causing the liner to invert and eliminates the need for a tower as the operator can select the necessary air pressure to completely invert the liner. However, this requires a pressure vessel to contain all of the liner.
Portable inverters that formed a seal around the plastic-coated surface of a resin saturated liner has become the most desired means for inverting a CIPP liner. However, the portable inverter does not provide controlled inversion of the liner as the water inversion or air inversion using a pressure vessel processes do. This is due to the erratic seal made around the liner as the surface of the liner is not consistent, and fluctuating friction occurs as the gasket presses against the liner and likewise the air pressure fluctuates. The liner inverts, then it may stall out meaning the liner is not inverting or moving through the pipe, more pressure is applied and suddenly the liner may begin inverting at an undesirable rate. Such an undesirable rate can cause the liner to invert but not be fully inflated so to allow the liner to press against the pipe wall as it inverts through the pipe ensuring any water in the pipe is not trapped between the pipe and the liner but is pushed out of the pipe by the inverting the liner tube.


An electrical connector assembly (100) includes an electrical connector and an auxiliary supporter (6) detachably assembled to the connector. The connector includes a housing (2) comprising a mating portion (22) defining a mating port (223) opening to a front face (221) thereof and a mounting portion (21) extending down from a rear part of the mating portion to be mounted onto a printed circuit board (PCB) (10) to support the mating portion; and a plurality of terminals (4) received in the housing. Each terminal is provided with a contact portion (41) exposed in the mating port and a solder tail (42) extending out of the housing to be soldered to the PCB. The auxiliary supporter is provided with a stand adapted for standing on the PCB and an upholding portion (65) to hold a front part of the mating portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector assembly having an auxiliary device assisting to support the electrical connector against tilting.
2. Description of Related Art
Signal transmission between electrical components are usually performed by a connector and a mating connector that electrically engage with each other. The connector commonly includes a mating portion for electrically engaging with the mating connector and a mounting portion for mounting to a printed circuit board (hereafter referred to as PCB). Wherein the mating portions of the connector are divided into two categories, one of which extend parallel to the PCB and the other of which extend perpendicularity to the PCB. That is to say, the former is plugged with its mating connector along a direction parallel to the PCB and the later is plugged with its mating connector along a direction perpendicular to the PCB.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,676,449 discloses a connector, a mating portion of which extends parallel to the PCB. The connector comprises a longitudinal housing, a plurality of terminals received in the housing, and a shell enclosing the housing. The housing has a base defining a mounting face to be mounted to the PCB, and a mating portion perpendicularly protruding from the base and defining a mating port therein to receive a mating connector. Each terminal comprises a solder foot extending out of the mounting face to be soldered to the PCB and a contact portion exposed in the mating port. In contrast with the base, the mating portion is impending from the PCB, thus the weight of the mating portion cause the connector to tilt down to that side the mating portion is set. That will make operation of soldering the solder feet of the terminals to the PCB become much more difficult. That even may cause the connector to be slantingly mounted on the PCB, thereby to make engagement between the connector and its mating connector become unreliable.
Therefore, to overcome above-mentioned disadvantages, an auxiliary device assisting to support the connector against tilting is desired.

Connector assembly having auxiliary device to support the connector against tilting


The present invention provides for an integrated circuit (IC) bus system. A local IC is coupled to a remote IC through a bus interface. A local memory is coupled to the local IC. A bus interface controller is employable to track data transfer requests from the remote IC for data address that are contained within at least one segment of the first partitioned memory range. The bus interface controller is further employable to stop the forwarding of a data transfer request generated within the local IC to the remote IC, if the memory segment count corresponding to the data address of the locally generated data transfer request equals zero.

Generally, computer buses are devices that are employed to transfer data between a plurality of elements in a computer system, such as between a microprocessor and random access memory, or from a floppy disk drive to a cache. A limiting factor of computer system operation can be the effective rate of data transfer from a bus on one chip to a bus on another chip. Some forms of computer bus architecture allow for the passing of information from an integrated circuit (IC) to another IC through employment of a bus interface.
The bus interface can itself be a further bottleneck for data transfers. In some conventional bus interfaces, when a local cache requests data or makes some other query regarding the data, the data request is automatically forwarded to a remote IC that has caches, irrespective of whether the remote IC has a copy of the requested information. Furthermore, the remote IC responds to the data query and sends indicia of the status of the remote caches pertaining to whether or not each of the remote cache has the requested information. This continuous transfer of control data can lead to inefficiencies of design and use, as remote cache queries and responses are passed between the local IC and the remote IC through the bus interface.
Therefore, a bus interface system is needed that overcomes some of the deficiencies of conventional bus interface systems.

Bus interface controller for determining access counts

International Business Machines Corporation


A heat exchanger includes a pair of header pipes, each having an end closed by a header cap; a plurality of heat transfer tubes interconnecting the header pipes; a plurality of fins; a side fin disposed on the outer surface of at least one of the outermost heat transfer tubes; and a side plate disposed on the outer surface of the side fin. The header cap comprises a header pipe connecting portion and a portion extending toward the side fin and side plate and having a concave portion engaged with the side fin and side plate. The header pipe and the side fin and side plate are connected to each other by the header cap; in particular, by the extended portion of the header cap, when assembled and brazed. The rotational shifting of the header pipe and the positional shifting of the side fin and side plate in the brazing process are prevented by the structure of the header cap.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heat exchanger suitable for use in automobiles, and more particularly, to an improved structure for the header cap portion and vicinity of each end portion of the header pipes of a multi-flow type heat exchanger.
2. Description of the Related Art
A multi-flow type heat exchanger, for example, used as a condenser or as an evaporator for an air conditioner in automobiles, typically comprises a pair of header pipes, a plurality of heat transfer tubes interconnecting the pair of header pipes, and fins disposed between the heat transfer tubes. The members forming the heat exchanger are first assembled, and then the assembly is integrally brazed in a furnace to form a heat exchanger.
An example of such a heat exchanger is shown in FIG. 6. During the heating phase of the brazing process, header pipe 101 may rotate at of its proper position due to an external force, such as gravity or vibration. In such a situation, inlet or outlet pipe 102, or attachment support 103 may also shift from a proper position as shown in FIG. 7, making it difficult to form a heat exchanger having a desired shape. Moreover, a connecting portion of heat transfer tube 104 and header pipe 101 may shift, which may result in an increased possibility that the heat exchanger will leak.
Further, although the heat exchanger core prepared as an assembly is secured by a jig 105 during the brazing process, fins (not shown) or heat transfer tubes 104 may become deformed or may shift due to an excessive fastening force applied by jig 105, or by a difference in thermal expansion between the heat exchanger core and jig 105. In particular, as shown in FIG. 8 (described in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open SHO 64-46680), an end portion of side fin 113, which is disposed on the outer surface of the outermost heat transfer tube 112a of a plurality of heat transfer tubes 112 connected to header pipe 111, may positionally shift, deform or improperly connect despite the presence of side plate 114. This may result in problems as shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B. FIG. 9A shows an example in which the end portion of side fin 113 has shifted out of a proper position to a position below the proper position. FIG. 9B shows an example in which side fin 113 and side plate 114 have shifted together from a proper position.
In order to prevent such positional shifts, a structure is proposed in JP-A-HEI 7-120190 wherein respective plate portions are provided to a side member (corresponding to a side plate of the present invention) and a header cap, and the plate portions are brazed to each other in an abutted condition.
However, although the positional shift between a header pipe and a side plate may be prevented, to some extent by such a proposal, it is still not satisfactory. In particular, the prevention of the positional shift of a side fin is still insufficient.


Embodiments relate to the detection of RNA in a sample of cells. More particularly, methods concern the localized detection of RNA in situ. The method relies on the conversion of RNA to complementary DNA prior to the targeting of the cDNA with a padlock probe(s). The hybridization of the padlock probe(s) relies on the nucleotide sequence of the cDNA which is derived from the corresponding nucleotide sequence of the target RNA. Rolling circle amplification of the subsequently circularized padlock probe produces a rolling circle product which may be detected. Advantageously, this allows the RNA to be detected in situ. In additional methods, rolling circle amplification products are sequenced.

It is generally desirable to be able sensitively, specifically, qualitatively and/or quantitatively to detect RNA, and in particular mRNA, in a sample, including for example in fixed or fresh cells or tissues. It may be particularly desirable to detect an mRNA in a single cell. For example, in population-based assays that analyze the content of many cells, molecules in rare cells may escape detection. Furthermore, such assays provide no information concerning which of the molecules detected originate from which cells. Expression in single cells can vary substantially from the mean expression detected in a heterogeneous cell population. It is also desirable that single-cell studies may be performed with single-molecule sensitivity which allows the fluctuation and sequence variation in expressed transcripts to be studied. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) has previously been used to detect single mRNA molecules in situ. Although permitting determination of transcript copy numbers in individual cells, this technique cannot resolve highly similar sequences, so it cannot be used to study, for example, allelic inactivation or splice variation and cannot distinguish among gene family members.
The only option available for assigning transcript variants to a single cell in a given tissue involves polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of laser-capture microdissected material, which is time consuming and error prone, and thus not suitable for diagnostics.
As an alternative to PCR- and hybridization-based methods, padlock probes (Nilsson et al., 1994) have for many years been used to analyze nucleic acids. These highly selective probes are converted into circular molecules by target-dependent ligation upon hybridization to the target sequence. Circularized padlock probes can be amplified the localization of target molecules, including, where DNA targets are concerned, at the single-cell level. Such a protocol is described in Larrson et al., 2004), in which the target DNA molecule is used to prime the RCA reaction, causing the RCP to be anchored to the target molecule, thereby preserving its localization and improving the in situ detection.
While RNA molecules can also serve as templates for the ligation of padlock probes (Nilsson et al., 2000), RNA detection with padlock probes in situ has so far proven more difficult than DNA detection and is subject to limitations (Lagunavicius et al., 2009). For example, the high selectivity reported for padlock probes with in situ DNA detection and genotyping has not been reproduced with detection of RNA targets in situ. This is possibly due to problems with ligation of DNA molecules on an RNA template, since it is known that both the efficiency and the specificity of the ligation reaction are lower compared to ligation on a DNA template (Nilsson et al., 2000; Nilsson et al. 2001). It has recently been demonstrated that RNA molecules may be detected in situ with padlock probes and target-primed RCA (Lagunavicius et al., 2009; Stougaard et al., 2007). However, thus far, detection through target-primed RCA has for the most part been restricted to sequences in the 3′-end of non-polyadenylated RNA or sequences adjacent to the poly(A)-tail of mRNA. Since target-priming of the RCA reaction is dependent on a nearby free 3′-end that can be converted into an RCA primer, it is thought that this limitation results from the formation of RNA secondary structures which impede the polymerase action (3′ exonucleolysis) required to convert the RNA into a reaction primer. The detection efficiency of direct mRNA detection with padlock probes has been estimated to be as low as 1% (Nilsson et al., 2001). For the detection of non-polyadenylated RNA molecules, it has been noted that ligation of the probes using an internal hairpin structure as template resulted in higher detection efficiency than using the RNA molecule itself as ligation template (Stougaard et al., 2007). This indicates that better ligation conditions are required to be able to efficiently detect and genotype RNA directly with padlock probes in situ.
None of the methods for in situ detection of RNA presented thus far provide the possibility to detect sequence variation at the single nucleotide level and in particular to genotype transcripts. In the present embodiment, by converting an RNA target molecule into cDNA, the reduction in padlock probe ligation efficiency and specificity is avoided and the excellent genotyping properties provided by padlock probes are preserved. In addition, it has been found that unlike many previously described methods, embodiments are not restricted to detection of sequences positioned at specific sites in the RNA molecules.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Methods for identifying nucleic acid sequences


A system and method is provided for generating a software application including a plurality of components, a first set of the components having metadata descriptors expressed in a structured definition language for defining configuration information of the software application and a second set of the components being expressed as a series of scripted instructions coupled to the metadata descriptors for defining a workflow of the software application. The software application is used for facilitating interaction with a schema-defined service by a terminal device over a network. The system and method comprise a workflow extractor for identifying a workflow sequence generated by a modeling tool in an output of the modeling tool. The workflow sequence is associated with at least one of a flow diagram or a relational diagram of the modeling tool for describing interactions between a pair of components of the first set of components. The system and method also include a workflow generator for generating a workflow mechanism based on the identified workflow sequence, the workflow mechanism for associating processing of the metadata descriptors of one component of the pair of components with the other component of the pair of components during execution of the software application. The workflow mechanism can be a component mapping expressed in the metadata descriptors of the first set of components or expressed as the series of scripted instructions.

There is a continually increasing number of terminals and mobile devices in use today, such as smart phones, PDAs with wireless communication capabilities, personal computers, self service kiosks and two-way pagers/communication devices. Software applications which run on these devices increase their utility. For example, a smart phone may include an application which retrieves the weather for a range of cities, or a PDA may include an application that allows a user to shop for groceries. These software applications take advantage of the connectivity to a network in order to provide timely and useful services to users. However, due to the restricted resources of some devices, and the complexity of delivering large amounts of data to the devices, developing and maintaining software applications tailored for a variety of devices remains a difficult and time-consuming task. These software applications can be used to facilitate the interaction with a variety of back-end data sources (such as Web services) and respective runtime environments of networked devices and terminals.
Currently, mobile communication devices are configured to communicate with Web Services through Internet-based Browsers and/or native applications, using modeling tools such as UML tools to assist in workflow expression in software application development. Undesirably, application developers need to have experience with programming languages such as Java and C++ to construct these hard-coded native applications. Further, there is an undesirable need to implement maintenance operations pertaining to compiled applications, including version, update, and platform type maintenance. There is a need for application development environments that can facilitate the interfacing of workflow expressed through modeling tools with the description of data source interfaces, such as Web Services Description Language (WSDL).
Systems and methods disclosed herein provide a component-based application development environment to obviate or mitigate at least some of the above presented disadvantages.

System and method and apparatus for using UML tools for defining web service bound component applications


A computer-based system and method, and a computer readable medium comprising software, for automatically determining whether a financial transaction, such as a mortgage loan must and does comply with relevant legislation. Stored business rules determine whether the financial transaction comply with relevant legislation using phraseology used by the relevant legislation. A knowledge base stores mappings of business rules corresponding to transaction objects representing the financial transaction. An application database includes the terms of the financial transaction and other information necessary to make compliance determinations. A natural language processor generates programming code comprised of programming concepts, which implements the business rules. A rule engine executes the programming code and maps the programming concepts to functions that are associated with a transaction object representing the financial transaction. An application server instantiates a transaction object representing the given financial transaction based on the stored terms of the financial transaction, executes functions are associated with the transaction objects so that the rule engine can make a compliance determination. The application server also outputs findings reports with the compliance determinations, including reasons for the finds that are stored in a reason test database.

Legislation affecting an industry, such as the financial services industry, are often enacted at various governmental levels, including, federal, state and municipal or county levels. For example, in 1994, the United States Congress enacted the Federal Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act, which regulated the making of mortgage loans.
Traditionally, compliance with legislation affecting the financial services industry was determined either manually or by a specially developed computer program. In either case, compliance with relevant legislation is determined by comparing the terms of a given financial transaction, such as a loan, with the requirements and restrictions of the relevant legislation. Known computer based approaches to determining compliance with legislation use traditional, procedural programming languages, wherein compliance is determined in a "linear" fashion, that is, a series of sequential conditions that are evaluated. After every possible condition is evaluated, the results of the evaluations are output.
A disadvantage of such a "linear" programming approach is that for every financial transaction to be analyzed, the program must run from the beginning to the end, and many conditions that are not relevant to determining whether the given financial transaction complies with the relevant legislation are nevertheless evaluated. Such an approach consumes more computing resources, including processing time and memory, than is necessary.
Another disadvantage of such a linear approach is that the relevant legislation, which is generally comprised of a set of rules, must be translated into a sequential computer program. Translating the legislation into a sequential computer program requires substantial modifying of the general framework of the legislation from a system of rules to a sequential computer program comprised of multiple branching decision points.
There are known computer based approaches that employ rules-based programming. Such known rules-based programming approaches, however, require that the language of the legislation itself be translated into the syntax of the rules-based computer programming language.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a computer based approach to determining whether a given financial transaction complies with relevant legislation that does not have the disadvantages of the known approaches.

System and method for automated compliance with loan legislation


Accommodating a welding control cable for connecting a welding power supply and a robot main body and a wire feeder sensor cable connected to a wire feeder encoder in a robot main body driving power cable connecting the robot main body and the robot controller of an arc welding robot. This configuration saves the number of cables to be connected thus improving the installation workability in system deployment on site as well as reducing the overall cost.

In recent years, the importance of support for quality standards such as ISO has been increased and the need for high-quality welding is getting higher, a flexible welding system capable of supporting small lot multi-production required by diversified customer needs, e.g. in the automotive industries.
In order to assure the improvement of welding quality, a welding power supply capable of performing stable wide-range welding from a low current area to a high current area, which is from 30 A to 350 A, has been developed. A wire feeder equipped with an encoder is employed to increase the stability of welding in the low current area. A robot controller and a welding power supply are integrated to dramatically reduce the footprint. These efforts has provided speedy installation and system startup as well as flexible system deployment (for example, refer to Takuji Hayashi, "Development of Robot Equipped with Full Digital Welding Power Supply" disclosed in "Welding Engineering" (Japan Welding Engineering Society) Vol. 51, No. 1, page 72 (2003).
FIG. 3 shows a general configuration of a conventional arc-welding robot.
Referring to FIG. 3, a robot main body 101 connects to a robot controller 102 via a robot drive power cable 102a for driving the robot and a robot control cable 102b for position control of the robot.
The robot controller 102 connects to a welding power supply 103 via an interface cable (not shown). The robot controller 102 and the welding power supply 103 are connected in a housing to form an integral shape.
To the robot main body 102 are attached a welding torch 104 and a wire feeder 105 for feeding welding wire to the welding torch 104.
FIG. 4 is a detailed explanatory drawing of the vicinity of the wire feeder 105.
Between the robot main body 101 and the welding power supply 103 is connected a welding control cable 103a. Inside the welding control cable 103a are accommodated a power cable 105b for driving a wire feeder motor 105a and gas valve control cable 105d for a gas valve 105c and a power voltage feedback cable 105e.
Between the wire feeder 105 and the welding power supply 103 is connected a feeder sensor cable 103b for stabilizing the wire feed amount to a wire feeder encoder 105f in order to monitor the wire feed speed.
Gas required for welding is supplied from a gas bomb 106 to a welding torch 104 via a gas flow regulator 107, a gas hose 108, a hose (not shown) in the robot main body 101 as well as a gas hose 105g and a gas valve 105c.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


Semiconductor devices having reinforcement structures configured to mitigate thermomechanical stresses, and associated systems and methods, are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a semiconductor package includes a semiconductor die and a substrate coupled to the semiconductor die. The substrate can include a base structure and a reinforcement structure at least partially within a die shadow region of the substrate. The reinforcement structure can be at least partially surrounded by the base structure. The reinforcement structure has a higher stiffness than the base structure.

Packaged semiconductor dies, including memory chips, microprocessor chips, and imager chips, typically include a semiconductor die mounted on a substrate and encased in a protective covering. The semiconductor die can include functional features, such as memory cells, processor circuits, and imager devices, as well as bond pads electrically connected to the functional features. The bond pads can be electrically connected to terminals outside the protective covering to allow the semiconductor die to be connected to higher level circuitry.
In some semiconductor assemblies, a packaged semiconductor die can be electrically coupled to a printed circuit board (PCB) via solder bumps arranged in a ball grid array (BGA). However, cyclic heating and/or cooling of the semiconductor package can induce significant thermomechanical stress between the semiconductor package and the PCB due to a mismatch in the coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) of these components. Often, the stress can induce cracking of the semiconductor package at or near the solder joints, which can render the semiconductor package inoperable.

Semiconductor devices with reinforced substrates


An on-board vehicle display arrangement of a computer graphics device and two video cameras for generating left-viewpoint image and right-viewpoint image of vehicle guiding information, an image synthesizer for synthesizing the left-viewpoint image and right-viewpoint image by alternately arranging their elements by pixel, and a stereoscopic display for separately displaying a left-viewpoint image and a right-viewpoint image of the synthesized image, which images are provided inside the vehicle to display a stereoscopic image with outside information taken through the video cameras, vehicle travel guiding information generated by the computer graphics device according to navigation data, presumed travelling information generated by the computer graphics device according to a prospective running condition estimated from the results of detection of current driving conditions of the vehicle.

The present invention relates to an information display device for a vehicle, which device is capable of stereoscopically displaying an image containing information for guiding the vehicle or information of circumstances outside the vehicle.
Japanese Laid-open patent publication No. 63-211100 discloses such a conventional method that, when an image of the front crossing is displayed on a screen and a direction of turning left or right at the crossing thereof is indicated by an arrow to guide the vehicle, a pseudo three-dimensional image by means of two-dimensional perspective is used for giving a three-dimensional effect to the object of the image displayed on the screen.
Japanese Laid-open patent publication No. 64-83424 discloses a conventional display device for a vehicle, which device is capable of detecting a current running condition of the vehicle, estimating a future travelling course of the vehicle, preparing a pseudo three-dimensional image of the presumed course by applying a two-dimensional perspective method and by projecting through a projector the prepared image onto a screen provide on a portion of a front glass of the vehicle in such a way that the image may be superimposed on an actual scene ahead of the vehicle.
The problems involved in the above-mentioned conventional method and device are as follows:
The perspective image displaying method can not produce a sufficient three-dimensional image, e.g., of a scene ahead of the vehicle with due impression of distance or of guidance at the crossing with due impression of reality.
The device for projecting a pseudo three-dimensional (two-dimensional perspective) image of a presumed travelling state of the vehicle in the direction of the front glass can not allow an observer to see the image as if it is overlapped on the actual scene ahead of the vehicle with a due impression of distance and space.


An electromagnetic switch includes a pair of fixed contacts disposed and fixed in a contact housing case with a predetermined distance therebetween; a movable contact disposed in the contact housing case so as to contact and separate from the pair of fixed contacts; and an electromagnet unit which brings the movable contact into and out of contact with the pair of fixed contacts. The electromagnet unit has a magnetic yoke enclosing an exciting coil, a movable plunger having a contact pole surface facing the contact pole surface of the magnetic yoke, and a linking shaft which links the movable plunger and the movable contact, and magnetic paths through which a holding force is generated by external magnetic fluxes generated by a flowing current when the movable contact contacts the pair of fixed contacts, are formed on the contact pole surface of the magnetic yoke.

For an electromagnetic switch, such as an electromagnetic relay or an electromagnetic contactor, which carries out switching of a current path, various kinds of contact mechanism have heretofore been proposed wherein an arc generated at an open contact time when a movable contact is separated from fixed contacts is extinguished in order to switch the contact mechanism from a closed state, in which a current flows by contacting the fixed contacts and movable contact each other, to an open state by interrupting the current.
For example, an electromagnetic switch including a pair of fixed contacts, each having a fixed contact point, which are spaced with a predetermined distance from each other, a movable contact, having movable contact points at the left and right ends thereof, which is disposed so as to be able to come into and out of contact with the pair of fixed contacts, and an electromagnet device, which drives the movable contact, is proposed, as described in PTL 1.
The electromagnet device of the electromagnetic switch includes a U-section magnetic yoke having an upper opening, an upper magnetic yoke covering the upper opening of the magnetic yoke, a movable core which is moved up and down by an exciting coil, and a linking shaft which links the movable core and the movable contact through a through hole formed in the upper magnetic yoke.

Electromagnetic switch having magnetic yoke with slits

FUJI ELECTRIC FA COMPONENTS & SYSTEMS CO., LTD.


A stirring apparatus that includes a coupling member and a bladed impeller that is offset from the coupling member by an extension. The stirring apparatus also includes a support that prevents the apparatus from tipping over. The stirring apparatus further includes an extraction facilitating component designed to allow for easier removal of the apparatus from a tank. In addition, a method for stirring a substance in a tank.

Many industries, such as the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, require mixing of substances (e.g., chemicals) in extremely clean environments. In order to meet the requirements of these industries, specially-designed mixing tanks and stirring mechanisms have been developed.
Substances in many of the above-mentioned tanks are discharged from the tanks by being allowed to flow through openings located at or near the bottom of the tanks. Therefore, in order to promote homogeneity of the flows coming out of the tanks, the stirring mechanisms are typically located at the bottom of the tanks.
One currently-available stirring mechanism has a first portion thereof (i.e., an exterior portion) configured to be positioned on the outside of a tank and a second portion (i.e., an interior portion) configured to be positioned on the inside of the tank. Each of the interior portion and the exterior portion have magnets included therein.
The interior portion includes a cavity and, when positioned inside of the tank, the cavity accommodates the insertion therein of a raised feature on the bottom surface of the tank. Because the thickness of the tank is substantially uniform, the raised feature inside of the tank has an associated indentation on the outside of the tank. When the indentation has dimensions that allow for the interior portion to be inserted into the indentation, the interior portion may be magnetically coupled to the exterior portion through the tank wall at the location of the indentation.
In operation, once the exterior portion is positioned in the indentation and the raised feature is inserted into the cavity of the interior portion, the exterior portion is rotated about a fixed axis by a motor and a set of gears that are positioned outside of the tank and that are connected to the exterior portion. Because of the magnetic coupling between the interior portion and the exterior portion, as the exterior portion is rotated, the interior portion, which has a set of blades attached thereto, is also rotated. As the interior portion and blades are rotated, the set of blades agitates and/or mixes the substances at the bottom of the tank and a degree of homogeneity is achieved locally at the bottom of the tank.
Because the blades are positioned adjacent to the bottom of the tank, very little fluid flow is possible between the blades and the bottom of the tank. In other words, very little exhaust flow is possible below the bottom of the blades. Therefore, the above-discussed mixing tank is only relatively successful at homogenizing substances at the bottom of a tank.
In addition to the above, because the blades are positioned adjacent to the bottom of the tank, substances at the top of the tank are oftentimes too far away from the blades to be substantially agitated or mixed by the blades. Therefore, the likelihood of achieving a homogeneous mixture throughout the tank using the above-discussed mixing tank is even further reduced. At least in view of the above factors, the composition of substances flowing out of the tank when the tank is relatively full may differ from the composition of substances flowing out of the tank when the tank is relatively empty due, which is an undesirable condition.
Also, the presence of an indentation at the bottom of the tank and the need to position the second portion relative to the indentation makes insertion of the stirring mechanism relatively difficult, particularly in relatively tall tanks. Further, the presence of the indentation makes the tank more difficult to clean than smooth-bottomed tanks.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art to provide an apparatus and method for mixing, agitating or stirring substances that are configured to promote substantial homogeneity throughout a tank. Further, there is a need in the art for such mixing, agitating or stirring apparatuses that may be more easily inserted and removed from a tank, so that the tank may be easily cleaned. Even further, there is a need in the art to provide a mixing apparatus and method for mixing substances that minimize friction and wear, thereby reducing the amount of particulates that get released into a tank during mixing.

Tripod-mounted magnetic mixer apparatus and method


A device stores one-time pad data for use in carrying out various tasks. In order to preserve the ability to carry out important tasks that require the use of one-time data, use of the one-time pad data held by the device is controlled such that an amount of this one-time pad data is only usable by a predetermined set of important tasks comprising at least a replenishment task for replenishing the device with one-time pad data.

As is well known, two parties that posses the same secret random data can provably achieve both unbreakable secure communication using the Vernam cipher, and discrimination between legitimate messages and false or altered ones (using, for example, Wegman-Carter authentication). In both cases, however, data used from the secret random data shared by the parties must not be re-used. The term "one-time pad" is therefore frequently used to refer to the secret random data shared by the parties and this term, or its acronym "OTP", is used herein for secret random data shared by more than one party. Although for absolute security the one-time pad data must be truly random, references to one-time pads (OTP) herein includes secret data that may not be truly random but is sufficiently random as to provide an acceptable degree of security for the purposes concerned.
The fact that the OTP data is effectively consumed when used gives rise to a major drawback of the employment of OTP cryptographic systems, namely that the OTP must be replenished.
One approach to sharing new OTP data between two parties is for one party to generate the new OTP data and then have a copy of the data physical transported in a storage medium to the other party. This is costly to do, particularly where it needs to be done frequently; furthermore, it may not be feasible to adopt this approach (for example, where one of the parties is a communications satellite).
Another approach is to send the OTP data over a communications link encrypted using a mathematically-based encryption scheme. However, this approach effectively reduces the security level to that of the encryption scheme used; since no such schemes are provable secure and may well prove susceptible to attack as a result of advances in quantum computing, this approach is no better than replacing the intended OTP system with a mathematically-based scheme.
More recently, quantum key distribution (QKD) methods and systems have been developed which enable two parties to share random data in a way that has a very high probability of detecting any eavesdroppers. This means that if no eavesdroppers are detected, the parties can have a high degree of confidence that the shared random data is secret. QKD methods and systems are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,515,438 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,999,285. In known QKD systems, randomly polarized photons are sent from a transmitting apparatus to a receiving apparatus either through a fiber-optic cable or free space.
As a consequence of the actual and perceived problems of sharing secret random data, OTP cryptographic systems have generally only been used in applications where the security requirements are paramount such as certain military and government applications.
Because OTP cryptography is generally only employed where very high security is needed, the types of system where it is used are those where other components of the overall system do not significantly compromise the level of security provided by OTP cryptography. In particular, there is little point in using OTP cryptography for passing secret messages between parties if the messages are to be stored or subsequently transmitted in a manner that is significantly less secure. Furthermore, the storage of the OTP data itself represents a security threat and unless the OTP data can be stored in a highly secure manner, it is better to share OTP data only at a time immediately before it is to be consumed.

Method of managing one-time pad data and device implementing this method

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A floating mooring structure including a framework formed by a plurality of equidistant parallel tubes, a second plurality of tubes extending through the first plurality tubes and a third plurality of tubes extending through the first plurality spaced from and below the second plurality of tubes. The structure also includes peripheral berthing beams and additional flotation tanks with shock-absorbing fenders and with vent tubes that help stabilize the structure and serve as mooring posts for vessels.

Floating structures already exist and are used as floating platforms that are anchored to the seabed and where vessels can berth. Some of these are used as supports for goods transport or they can have nets and/or cages added that hold marine species for fattening/growth. Other structures add beams and vertical ropes that hang in the water to which certain marine species adhere and grow, normally bivalve molluscs, such as mussels and oysters. Typically, such structures suffer from high levels of tension and compression from waves which break their components. At the same time, the structures are subjected to tensions from twisting and turning which cause flotation and stability problems along with cracks and fissures, frequently on the beams, which are normally the result of fatigue in the material from which they are made, and in the joints that connect the beams.
Document ES 2387769 shows this floating structure as being made up of a framework of tubes of varying diameters, where the tubes of smaller diameter are placed longitudinally on the structure and cross a semi-cylindrically shaped upper section of the larger diameter tubes that are placed transversally along the structure. In this structure, the line of flotation of the structure is lower, and the twisting motion that the tubes tend to be subjected to are compensated for by a downward movement coming from the load. Moreover, the stability of the structure is improved and, consequently, capsizing is avoided and the joints between the tubes offer a greater tolerance to breakage or tearing.
On this type of floating structures, particularly on those structures used as platforms for the cultivation of molluscs, the sides are used as berthing beams for vessels. During the berthing process, contact between the vessel and the structure occurs. Moreover, the different levels between the two floating bodies is magnified in stormy conditions, and repeated collisions mean that a large part of the molluscs being cultivated are dislodged. This requires a solution that absorbs the energy produced in these collisions with the aim of protecting the species being cultivated.
The risks of deformation or breakages when the kinetic energy from a vessel is absorbed are very frequent and damaging. Hence, these risks should be prevented with the addition of essentially limited elastic deformation systems, for example, shock-absorber type protection, tires or elastic padding, or other solid types of cushioning that are more voluminous, heavy and expensive.


A method for automatically identifying wireless signal quality of a region includes receiving signal quality information associated with wireless signals received by each of a plurality of mobile endpoints and receiving location information identifying locations of each of the plurality of mobile endpoints. The method also includes, based on the received signal quality information and the received location information, identifying a first region of an area, the first region having a first signal quality.

Cellular service providers (CSP) provide wireless services to their subscribers in many areas of the country. However, coverage of their cellular network may still be spotty. Users who pass through areas with poor coverage may experience degradation of voice quality or call disconnection. Users who are annoyed by the spotty coverage may call their CSP and request that they add equipment to their network; however it can be a challenge to decide where to invest limited resources of the CSP in order to get the greatest impact for their investment. In addition, some locations may experience sporadic interference from other equipment. The interference may be confined to a limited area within a given cell and finding the area may prove to be a difficult task.
A similar scenario may exist in the enterprise environment where wireless phones are deployed. Many deployments require dedicated teams with special equipment to walk around buildings in an attempt to map the signal strength with the goal of optimizing the positioning of the wireless antennas. The site mapping process may need to be repeated a few times as the information technology department learns about the calling and mobility patterns of users and as the impact from local interferences is better understood.
Some CSPs implement GPS and other location technologies into their cellular phones and mobile devices. Some implementations allow users to communicate device location (e.g., latitude and longitudes) with multiple levels of precision. The devices may also enable notification ability wherein mobile devices provide intelligent alerts from within an enterprise based on business process and event triggers.

Method and system for automatically identifying wireless signal quality of a region


Disclosed is a method for forming improved Si--O containing coatings on electronic substrate. The method comprises converting hydrogen silsesquioxane resin into a Si--O containing ceramic coating in the presence of hydrogen gas. The resultant coatings have improved properties such as stable dielectric constants.

The present invention relates to a method of forming novel Si--O containing coatings. The method comprises converting hydrogen silsesquioxane resin into Si--O containing ceramic coatings in the presence of hydrogen gas. The resultant coatings have desirable properties.
The use of silica-containing ceramic coatings derived from hydrogen silsesquioxane resin on electronic devices is known in the art. For instance, Haluska et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,756,977 describe processes for forming coatings on electronic devices which comprise diluting hydrogen silsesquioxane in solvents, applying the solutions to substrates, evaporating the solvents and heating the coated substrates to a temperature of about 150.degree. to about 1000.degree. C. in air. This patent, however, does not describe the use of hydrogen gas in the conversion of hydrogen silsesquioxane resin into the silica containing ceramic.
The conversion of hydrogen silsesquioxane resin to a Si--O containing ceramic in other environments is also known in the art. For instance, European Patent Application No. 90311008.8 teaches the conversion of hydrogen silsesquioxane resin to a Si--O containing ceramic by heating a substrate coated with the resin in an inert gas atmosphere. This patent too, however, does not describe the use of hydrogen gas in the pyrolysis atmosphere curing conversion of hydrogen silsesquioxane resin into the silica containing ceramic.
The present inventors have now discovered that hydrogen silsesquioxane resin can be converted into Si--O containing ceramic coatings with improved properties by heating in an environment containing hydrogen gas.

Method of forming SI-O containing coatings


A PTAT circuit includes a first, second, third, and fourth transistors plus a resistor. The first and second transistors have control terminals coupled to each other. The third and fourth transistors have control terminals coupled to each other. The third transistor sources a first current to the first transistor and the fourth transistor sources a second current to the second transistor. The resistor is coupled at a node to the second transistor. A current source circuit sources additional current into the node that is derived from the first and second currents. In one implementation, the additional current is a scaled mirror of the second current. In another implementation, the additional current is a scaled mirror of the sum of the first and second currents. An output current is obtained by mirroring one of the first-third currents. A band-gap output voltage is obtained by applying the additional current across a resistance.

Ultra-low current and/or voltage references are required in most low power circuit applications. Examples of such applications include circuits which are powered by a battery and are always on.
The area of an integrated circuit which is occupied by an ultra-low current and/or voltage generator is typically dominated by the presence of a large resistor, not the presence of the included transistors. In this regard, those skilled in the art understand that to reduce the current consumption of the generator by one-half, the size of the included resistor needs to be increased by two times. Thus, there is a known trade-off between power/current and occupied area.
A figure of merit (FOM) is known which can be used to compare current/voltage generators: FOM=TCC*A*M; where TCC is the total current consumption, A is the area of the generator circuit, and M is the Monte-Carlo mismatch of the generator circuit. It is desired to minimize the FOM. In this regard, the circuit designer desires for a same mismatch and area to reduce the current consumption, or for a same mismatch and current consumption to reduce the area. One known solution for reducing the area creates the large resistor by using a switched capacitor resistor circuit with an external clock reference. Another solution for creating a large resistor is use a MOSFET device operating in the triode region. Reference is made to U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0241809 (the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference). The foregoing solutions are not, however, satisfactory.


The specification provides compositions and methods to treat neurodegenerative diseases.

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) has been proposed as a gaseous signaling molecule along with nitric oxide and carbon monoxide (Olson (2011) American Journal of Physiology—Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology 301, R297-R312). A number of studies examined therapeutic potential of H2S-donating compounds and H2S gas itself for a number of animal models of human disease and injury including ischemic brain injury (Caliendo et al. (2010) J Med Chem 53, 6275-6286; Predmore et al. (2010) Journal of Cardiovascular Translational Research 3, 487-498).
Gaseous H2S, however, may be difficult to be used clinically because of its characteristic odor and toxicity at high concentrations (Olson (2011) American Journal of Physiology—Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology 301, R297-R312; Reiffenstein et al. (1992) Annu Rev Pharmacol Toxicol 32, 109-134). Sodium sulfide (Na2S) and sodium hydrosulfide (NaHS) have been used as H2S donor compounds in the majority of experimental studies (Caliendo et al. (2010) J Med Chem 53, 6275-6286; Predmore et al. (2010) Journal of Cardiovascular Translational Research 3, 487-498). However, because the half-lives of these sulfide salts are very short in biological fluid, plasma sulfide levels rapidly increase after bolus administration of Na2S or NaHS and then return to baseline instantaneously (DeLeon et al. (2012) Anal Biochem 421, 203-207). To sustain "physiological" levels of sulfide in circulation after bolus administration, many slow-releasing H2S donor compounds, including ACS48, have been developed (Caliendo et al. (2010) J Med Chem 53, 6275-6286; Lee et al. (2010) J Biol Chem 285, 17318-17328).
While it has been reported that low and physiological levels of H2S protect neurons, H2S also exhibits neurotoxicity especially at high concentrations (Reiffenstein et al. (1992) Annu Rev Pharmacol Toxicol 32, 109-134). Some investigators have suggested that H2S-induced neurotoxicity may be mediated via enhancement of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor activity (Chen et al. (2011) J Cell Physiol 226, 1308-1322; Qu et al. (2006) Stroke 37, 889-893; Cheung et al. (2007) Neuropharmacology 53, 505-514), because toxicity of H2S was abolished by NMDA receptor antagonists in vitro and in vivo (Qu et al. (2006) Stroke 37, 889-893; Cheung et al. (2007) Neuropharmacology 53, 505-514). Based on these observations, it would be desirable to deliver H2S specifically to the central nervous system with a hybrid NMDA receptor antagonist that is capable of slowly releasing H2S in circulation to treat neurodegenerative diseases.

Compositions and methods to treat neurodegenerative diseases


A vending machine has a dispensing wheel rotatably mounted on a head with an outer peripheral rim on the wheel having elements displaced angularly from one another in an endless row and radially relative to a central axis of the wheel so as to define a driven gear on the wheel and an alignment device permitting latching of the wheel at, and releasing it from, a desired orientation on the head in a dispensing cycle such that during removing the head from, and remounting it upon, a housing the wheel will be held in a desired relationship with the head in which only given items can pass through the wheel in response to the next deposit of a coin in an actuation mechanism and rotating of a drive gear of the mechanism and driven gear therewith through an actuation cycle corresponding to the dispensing cycle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to vending machines and, more particularly, is concerned with dispensing wheel alignment devices in vending machines.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One general type of prior art vending machine, that has been manufactured and sold heretofore by the inventor herein, includes a merchandise storage and dispensing head, a housing supporting the head, a coin-actuated mechanism mounted on and extending into the interior of the housing to where the mechanism operably engages the head, and a coin box disposed in a lower base of the housing below the mechanism for receiving coins from the operation of the coin-actuated mechanism. An upper body of the housing rests on the lower base which closes the bottom of the housing. The upper body of the housing has an interior compartment and supports the merchandise storage and dispensing head at an upper open end of the upper body of the housing. The coin box is typically accessible through one of the end walls of the housing lower base by a key-actuated lock.
More particularly, the merchandise storage and dispensing head includes a globe or canister, a hopper and a dispensing wheel. The canister is disposed above the upper open end of the upper body for storing the items of merchandise in the globe. The hopper is attached to and disposed below the globe and supported on the upper open end of the upper body. The dispensing wheel is seated within the hopper so as to underlie the globe and revolve in the hopper to dispense a preset amount of items of the merchandise from the globe, in response to operation of the coin-actuated mechanism, into a dispensing chute typically mounted to and disposed within the upper body below the dispensing wheel and extending to a location at the exterior of the upper body where the preset amount of items can be retrieved by a user.
The coin-actuated mechanism has exposed at the exterior of the upper body a coin deposit slot and a handle accessible for operation by a user. The handle can be rotated when one or more coins of correct denomination, or properly configured tokens, are inserted into the coin deposit slot. Rotation of the handle, in turn, rotates a gear meshing with a toothed edge of the dispensing wheel within the upper body compartment such that rotation of the coin-actuated mechanism causes the dispensing wheel to revolve and dispense merchandise through the dispensing chute. Also, as the coin-actuated mechanism completes its rotation the coin or token is discharged from it into the coin box in the lower base below the upper body compartment.
In this type of vending machine, the head and housing are held together by a central assembly rod which at a lower end bypasses the coin box and is threadably affixed to the bottom wall of the lower base. The central assembly rod extends therefrom upwardly from the lower base through the interior compartment of the upper body and therefrom through the dispensing wheel and the globe to a top cap which seats on and closes an open top of the globe. At such top location of the vending machine, an upper end of the assembly rod is locked into a top key-operated lock that is threaded onto the upper end of the central assembly rod so as to provide sufficient downward force against the top cap to secure together all components of the vending machine between the lower base and the top cap.
It is essential to initially correctly assemble the merchandise storage and dispensing head upon the housing and to do so after each replenishment of merchandise in the canister of the head, in order to ensure that the initial or starting position of the dispensing mechanism in its operating cycle of rotation is properly aligned with a drive gear of the coin actuation mechanism so that the dispensing of the desired quantity or amount of merchandise from the dispensing mechanism to the discharge chute will occur in response to each coin deposited in the coin actuation mechanism. Heretofore, it has been the responsibility of persons who place the head upon the housing to manually rotate and thereby adjust the dispensing mechanism to the desired angular position in its rotation cycle at which the dispensing mechanism is properly aligned with the drive gear of the coin actuation mechanism. However, it frequently arises that many such persons fail to accurately place the dispensing mechanism at the desired starting position which then results in malfunction of the dispensing mechanism in the form of jamming of the merchandise in the dispensing mechanism or improper dispensing of more merchandise that than desired in response to each coin that is deposited in the coin actuation mechanism such that the owner of the vending machine suffers a loss in revenue as a result.
Consequently, a need exists for an innovation which provides a solution to the aforementioned problem in the prior art without introducing any new problems in place thereof.

Dispensing wheel alignment devices in vending machine


After beaten, pulp is mixed with a filler to obtain a mixture of the pulp and the filler. Additives are added to the mixture, which is made into pater and then hot-pressed. The filler content of the mixture is in the range of 20 wt % to 80 wt %. After the additives are added, a polymeric viscosity improver with high viscosity is added to produce a narrow diaphragm or a thin compact diaphragm with high aspect ratio. These diaphragms have high rigidity and a wide reproduction frequency range.

1. Technical Field
The present technical field relates to a method of manufacturing a narrow diaphragm or a thin diaphragm used in various audio and video devices, and also relates to a loudspeaker, an electronic apparatus, and a device each of which includes the narrow or thin diaphragm.
2. Background Art
Conventional loudspeaker diaphragms are used in cone-type electrodynamic loudspeakers and have the shape of a circle or a rectangle with an aspect ratio of 5 or less. These diaphragms are manufactured from paper which is made from wood or non-wood pulp. In the paper-making step, a filler and an impregnant are added to the pulp. The filler content is controlled to be not more than 20 wt % or so.

Manufacturing method for narrow-type diaphragm and thin-type diaphragm, speaker-use diaphragm manufactured using same manufacturing method, speaker, electronic apparatus, and movable device

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.


A computer-implemented machine learning model training method and resulting machine learning model. One embodiment of the method may comprise receiving at a computer memory training data; and training on a computer processor a machine learning model on the received training data using a plurality of batch sizes to produce a trained processor. The training may include calculating a plurality of activations during a forward pass of the training and discarding at least some of the calculated plurality of activations after the forward pass of the training.

The present application generally relates to information technology and, more particularly, to resource management during training of machine learning models.
The development of the EDVAC computer system of 1948 is often cited as the beginning of the computer era. Since that time, computer systems have evolved into extremely complicated devices. Today's computer systems typically include a combination of sophisticated hardware and software components, application programs, operating systems, processors, buses, memory, input/output devices, and so on. As advances in semiconductor processing and computer architecture push the performance of the computer higher and higher, even more advanced computer software has evolved to take advantage of the higher performance of the hardware, resulting in computer systems today that are much more powerful than just a few years ago.
One technology that has evolved to take advantage of this new capability is machine learning models, such as the feedforward neural network. Feedforward neural networks have been used extensively over the last decade in applications ranging from computer vision to speech recognition and natural language processing. Many of the recent successful recognition systems are built on top of this architecture.
A simple feedforward neural network comprises a sequence of layers. The number of layers and parameters of a neural network increases with the size of datasets required to implement these models. For example, a typical neural network for image classification may include 16 layers and over 130 million parameters, resulting in a trained model that is over 500 megabytes.

Model training with variable batch sizing and gradient checkpoint segments


The application relates to a semiconductor component, a photo-reflective sensor, and also a method for producing a housing for a photo-reflective sensor, wherein the housing lower part is monolithic and has at least two cavities into which an emitter and a detector are introduced.

Photo sensors are used for detecting objects within a specific region. A photo sensor is an electronic-optical system comprising an emitter and a detector. A semiconductor chip which emits an electromagnetic radiation is hereinafter considered to be an emitter. The emitter is also referred to as transmitter or radiation source. The emitting semiconductor chip can emit, for example, an infrared radiation or visible light and is preferably a light emitting diode or a laser diode. The detector, by contrast, is a semiconductor chip which detects an electromagnetic radiation, and which is also referred to as sensor or receiver. The detector is sensitive to the emitted radiation of the emitter. The detecting semiconductor chip is preferably a phototransistor, a photoresistor or a photodiode.
The functional principle of a photo sensor will be explained briefly below. The emitter emits an electromagnetic radiation in a specific wavelength range with a corresponding light intensity I. The detector is sensitive at least to this specific wavelength range of the radiation. The beam path between emitter and detector is altered by an object to be detected in the photo sensor. The resultant alteration of the impinging luminance of the radiation is registered in the detector. This registration is converted into an electrical switching signal in a subsequent step, said signal then being processed further.
The luminance L is defined as the ratio of the emitted light intensity I to the size A of its apparent luminous area. Luminance has the SI unit candela cd per square meter m2. Luminance is the photometric equivalent to radiance L(λ) having the unit watt*meter−2*steradian−1 or W·m−2·sr−1 in radiometry.
In the case of photo sensors, a distinction is made, in principle, between one-way photo sensors and photo-reflective sensors. In the case of one-way photo sensors, emitter and detector are opposite one another, wherein the main emission direction of the emitter lies directly in the direction of the detector. Accordingly, the detector constantly detects the luminance caused by the emitter. As soon as an object enters the beam path between emitter and detector, the beam path is interrupted. The resultant non-detection of the emitted radiation of the emitter is evaluated in a further-processing unit.
In the case of photo-reflective sensors, in contrast to the one-way photo sensor, emitter and detector are not opposite one another and are furthermore preferably situated in a common housing. As a result, the construction is less complex. In principle, in the case of photo-reflective sensors, a distinction is made between two methods for detecting objects.
In the case of the first method, a reflective element is arranged on a first side, and the housing with emitter and detector is arranged on an opposite side. The element and the housing are oriented in such a way that an interruption of the beam path by an object causes a change in luminance in the detector.
Alternatively, no reflector is used. If an object is in the beam path of the emitter, then the radiation of the emitter impinges on the object and is scattered at the object surface on account of the surface configuration of the object. As a result of the scattering, part of the emitted radiation will impinge on the detector. The change in the luminance in the detector is registered.
Detector and emitter are increasingly being accommodated on a carrier within a housing. If detector and emitter are accommodated in a housing, it is necessary to prevent a short-circuiting of the optical signal path. A direct beam path from emitter to detector should therefore be prevented. For this purpose, optical barriers have hitherto been introduced into the housing, said optical barriers being positioned between emitter and detector. Said barriers are subsequently introduced into the housing by means of adhesives. However, the adhesives used are transparent to the emitting electromagnetic radiation. Consequently, a short-circuiting of the optical signal path cannot be ruled out by said barriers.
Therefore, it is an object of the invention to provide a semiconductor component, a photo-reflective sensor, and also a method for producing a housing for a photo-reflective sensor which are realized in a very simple manner and prevent a direct short-circuiting of the optical signal path.

Semiconductor component, reflected-light barrier and method for producing a housing therefor


Configurably storing data in a plurality of files based on expressions and conditions associated with the data. Logging software enables tracking of the navigation pattern of users for selected network properties under specified conditions. The logging software is configurable such that most current and future logging specifications may be fulfilled without any code changes to the logging software.

A data warehouse is a database designed to support decision-making in an organization. A typical data warehouse is batch updated on a periodic basis and contains an enormous amount of data. For example, large retail organizations may store one hundred gigabytes or more of transaction history in a data warehouse. In another example, tracking the usage of different resources or properties (e.g., web sites) across a network involves logging billions of hits every day and storing them in the data warehouse. The data in a data warehouse is typically historical and static and may also contain numerous summaries. It is structured to support a variety of analyses, including elaborate queries on large amounts of data that can require extensive searching.
Existing systems require creation of a new service to log information to different files within the data warehouse. Further, existing systems are restrictive in that they fail to allow customization of the files including customization of the columns in the files. Such systems also limit the log cut frequency to hourly and daily values.
A data warehouse may store user navigation data (e.g., clickstream data). Existing systems track the user navigation patterns by generating cookies and storing relevant information on a client device to be later stored in the data warehouse. Further, the existing systems require creation of a new service to track specific properties (e.g., web pages) or require modification to the properties to be tracked. For example, in existing systems, the individual properties read and write cookies that are stored on the client device. However, such de-centralized systems have to update each of the property pages every time a change in cookie behavior is desired.
Accordingly, a configurable logging system that filters, organizes, and stores a large amount of data is desired to address one or more of these and other disadvantages.

Expression-based web logger for usage and navigational behavior tracking


Systems and methods for improving MEMS gyroscope start time are provided. In one embodiment, a circuit board for a MEMS gyroscope system comprises: a proof mass assembly; a proof mass control loop coupled to the proof mass assembly by a first proof mass motion sensor pickup line and a second proof mass motion sensor pickup line, where the proof mass control loop generates a set of drive signals that operate the proof mass assembly using a first capacitive signal from the first proof mass motion sensor pickup line and a second capacitive signal from the second proof mass motion sensor pickup line; and a tunable capacitive coupler connected to at least one of the first or the second proof mass motion sensor pickup lines, where the tunable capacitive coupler varies at least one of the first and second charge signals as a function of the drive signals.

In micro-electromechanical (MEMS) device gyroscopes, proof masses are oscillated to vibrate at a resonance frequency. The oscillations are locked to the resonance frequency by a control loop that senses motion of the proof masses and provides a feedback signal to a set of drive electrodes. One challenge in working with MEMS gyroscopes is developing devices that have fast start times. That is, when a MEMS gyroscope is first started, the proof masses are not operating and therefore there is no signal into the control loop that regulates the drive electrodes. But as the proof masses continue to be driven, a small signal will begin to develop. During the initial stages of startup, this signal is very small in magnitude and easily masked by higher magnitude noise on the pickup lines that senses motion of the proof masses. This noise on the pickup lines enters the control loop and results in an erroneous feedback signal to the drive electrodes, increasing the amount of time necessary for the proof masses to reach their operating resonance frequency.
One significant source of noise which can masks the true proof mass motion signals is parasitic coupling between circuit board traces carrying the drive signals to the drive electrodes and the pickup traces carrying sensed motion signals to the control loop. Modeling and simulation of circuit board layouts can go a long way towards designing circuit boards for MEMS devices that either reduce, or at least balance, coupling between device components. However, such models for MEMS devices are inherently limited in their ability to accurately predict coupling in fabricated MEMS devices. Further, device fabrication vendors are inherently limited to manufacturing tolerances which can introduce unknowns not easily accounted for through prefabrication modeling.
For the reasons stated above and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the specification, there is a need in the art for systems and methods for improving MEMS gyroscope start time delays.


A suspension device is provided for the spring-loaded suspension of a weight body (3) relative to a substructure (1) such as a vehicle body, a cab (3) of a truck relative to the vehicle chassis (1). The suspension device has a spring/absorber device (2) arranged between the weight body (3) and the substructure (1) for absorbing shocks and vibrations. The suspension device includes at least one Watt's linkage arrangement (6) connecting the weight body and the substructure for reducing the degrees of freedom of motion of the weight body (3). The suspension device requires little maintenance and has little clearance and is suitable for setting the degrees of freedom of motion of the weight body as well as for absorbing and preventing the undesired motions of the weight body along other directions in space. The suspension device thus makes possible an inexpensive and reliably operating suspension especially of truck cabs.

Suspension device of the type mentioned in the introduction are used, as an example, but by no means exclusively, in trucks and similar heavy trucks in order to uncouple the cab from the chassis of the vehicle with respect to vibrations and motions. Since the spring rates of the chassis springs are inevitably high in heavy trucks because of the high vehicle loads, unevennesses of the road surface or even vibrations from axles and the powertrain are still transmitted to the chassis to a considerable extent via the axle spring system.
Cab suspensions in which the cab is supported at the vehicle chassis with the use of a separate suspension system have been developed to minimize the transmission of such shocks and vibrations to the cab and consequently to the driver's workplace in terms of ergonomics and occupational safety for the driver. Due to the fact that the weight of the cab is much lower than the weight of the vehicle, such suspension systems for the cab can be designed with considerably lower spring rates and softer shock absorbers than the axle suspension, and unevennesses and vibrations originating from the powertrain or axles of the vehicle can therefore be isolated or kept away from the driver's workplace considerably better thanks to such cab suspension systems.
However, such suspension device for cabs are of a relatively complicated design, especially if higher requirements are imposed on the absorption of lateral forces or kinematics, for example, the suppression of pitch and roll. Thus, similarly to the case of axle suspensions of motor vehicles, it may often even be necessary to provide additional roll stabilizers, besides the spring and absorber elements proper.
To limit, for example, the undesirable lateral roll of the cab relative to the vehicle chassis, for example, during slant travel or travel in a curve, but, for example, also in case of unevennesses on one side of the road surface, roll stabilizers in the form of torsion bars, by which the shock absorber strokes of the suspension elements of the cab, which elements are the left and right suspension elements relative to the direction of travel, can be coupled with one another to a certain extent, are frequently necessary in suspension device according to the state of the art. However, such torsion bars are, first, highly stressed components, which therefore tend to be expensive.
In order to additionally also prevent or absorb motions or vibrations of the cab in the lateral transverse direction, it is frequently also necessary to provide additional spring/absorber units in the transverse direction of the vehicle, or roller guides for guiding the cab in the vertical direction of motion. Roller guides for limiting the transverse motion are, however, complicated and therefore expensive and, moreover, they have a high maintenance requirement. In addition, such roller guides are often susceptible in terms of fatigue strength and, moreover, they often entail rather substantial noise generation, which in turn has a disadvantageous effect on the ergonomics of the driver's workplace, which should actually be improved.
By contrast, motion absorbers arranged in the transverse direction of the vehicle are inevitably limited to being able to absorb dynamic lateral forces only. By contrast, lateral absorbers are ineffective due to their design in case of quasistatic loads as they develop, for example, during prolonged travel in curves or slant travel.
The devices known from the state of the art for suppressing rolling motions and for absorbing motions of the cab in directions other than in the principal shock direction are therefore of a complicated design, especially because of the high loads acting and, moreover, as was already explained, they have limited suitability.


A control system is disclosed that is configurable (e.g., by a programmer) so as to enable input from multiple sources to capture to multiple controls. Also or alternatively, the system is configurable so as to enable input from multiple sources to capture to a single control. The system also provides a consistent and extendable scheme for filtering out conflicting events for individual controls. In one embodiment, this means that the system is configurable (e.g., based on the programmer's asserted preferences) so as to enable a selective determination as to whether additional inputs can be captured for a given control.

Controls are interface elements utilized by computer programmers to build graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Different controls support different types of interaction with a user of a computer program. Some controls, such as radio buttons, check boxes, drop-down lists and toolbars support selection-type functionality. Other controls, such as tabs and scrollbars, support navigation-type functionality. Other controls, such as text boxes and combo boxes support text input functionality. Other controls, such as tooltips, progress bars and labels, support output functionality. Still other controls support window-oriented functions. In many cases, a computer programmer will have access to control toolkits that contain a collection of controls from which to choose.
Recently, devices that support simultaneous (or practically simultaneous) activation of multiple inputs by one or multiple users have been introduced. Unfortunately, current control systems are generally not configured to effectively manage this type of multiple input scheme. Many current systems are limited to single input controls, which are not particularly effective in terms of their ability to support a multi-input (e.g., multi-touch) scenario. It is common for single input controls to malfunction and/or appear to be broken under such circumstances.
For example, one can imagine an interface that incorporates a traditional scrollbar that is a composite control containing other controls such as an "UP" button, a "DOWN" button and a "THUMB" slide for dragging and scrolling. Within many multi-input systems, should one try to press the UP and DOWN buttons simultaneously, the buttons will fire up and down commands at the same time. The application is unlikely to be configured to effectively handle the conflicting events.
A reliable solution for avoiding control conflicts is to limit user input for the entire application to single inputs only. However, in these circumstances, the multi-input functionality adds no value. Thus, there is a need for a control scheme configured to effectively manage multiple inputs from one or multiple users.
The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended for use as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

Selective enabling of multi-input controls


A process is provided for defending objects emitting an infrared radiation, in particular ships, against missiles, which are equipped with intelligent infrared seeker heads. Following location of the missile, adjacent the object a large area pyrotechnical perturbing radiation cloud, which releases high infrared radiation in a short period of time, which hashes the locking on and pursuit electronics of the seeker head, and subsequently releases a weak infrared radiation for a comparatively long period, is produced between the object and the missile. Immediately following the end of the high radiation phase of the perturbing radiation cloud, several fake target clouds are set up that then lead the missile step-by-step away from the object to be defended. The perturbing radiation clouds are produced by the droppable bodies, whose active masses comprise phosphorus flares and phosphorus pellets.

This invention relates to a process for defending objects emitting an infrared radiation, in particular ships, against missiles, which are equipped with intelligent, in particular, scanning, imaging, correlating and/or spectral filtering infrared seeker heads, and droppable bodies to carry out the process.
It is well-known to defend water borne, land borne or airborne; objects emitting an infrared radiation, in particular ships but also airplanes and tanks, against missiles equipped with infrared seeker heads, in that upon detection of the approach of a missile one or more protechnic fake target clouds are launched in succession by means of droppable bodies in the air space adjacent the object, the clouds guiding the infrared seeker head of the missile from the object and towards themselves. For example, reference is made to European Patent No. 0 240 819 wherein droppable bodies generating fake targets are placed and ignited in such a manner at specified times in predetermineed spatial regions that the generated fake targets lie on a deflection curve at specified intervals in time and space and are to be steered towards in such a manner in succession by the missile that its flight path passes over in the deflection curve and finally in the direction of deflection.
The fake target clouds comprise burning phosphorus flares, such as plates or strips which are coated with red phosphorus and which are ejected from the droppable body at a predetermined height at the desired point and in so doing are ignited.
However, the goal of the latest development in infrared seeker heads is to make the seeker heads "intelligent" and thus to make them immune to conventional infrared fake targets, i.e., to design them in such a manner that they respond to the object signature, in particular the ship signature. The development is proceeding in different directions. Thus, for example, for the imaging "gated video - target seeker heads" an adaptive "tracking gate" is used, which can be adapted accurately to the size of the targeted ship by means of video processors and suitable algorithms. The viewing window of the seeker head can be reduced after locking on the ship size, with the result that fake target clouds, which are generated outside this adaptive window, thus above or next to the ship, remain ineffectrive.
For the "correlation trackers" a human operator usually locks on the target. After locking on the object, the seeker head then finds by means of comparison (cross correlation) of two successive images (stored reference image/actual image) its way unimpeded into the target, even if infrared fake target clouds are produced in the vicinity of the target.
Another method to eliminate false targets consists of a frequency analysis by means of the seeker head, which can distinguish between the radiation characteristics of the infrared radiators (for example ship engines) of the target that exhibit a comparatively low temperature and the radiation characteristics of a hot fake target cloud. Thus, in summary the known infrared fake target clouds are not in a position to defend an object against missiles equipped with intelligent seeker heads.

Process for defending objects emitting an infrared radiation, and droppable bodies to carry out the process


A display panel device includes a front sheet that is glued on a front face of a plasma display panel. The front sheet includes a mesh made of a light shield member that has a blackened front surface and a plane size larger than a screen. A length between diagonal lattice points of the mesh is shorter than a cell pitch that is longer one of the cell pitches in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction of the screen. An arrangement direction of the mesh is inclined with respect to an arrangement direction of the cells in the screen.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display panel device including a flat display panel and a front sheet that is glued on the display panel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Technology development of a plasma display panel (PDP) that is a self-luminous device is directed to a large screen for providing more powerful display. One of the important tasks for a large screen is weight reduction of the panel.
In general, a display device including a plasma display panel has a filter plate having a base of a tempered glass. This filter plate is arranged in front of the plasma display panel with air gap. The filter plate has various functions of adjusting a display color optically, preventing reflection of external light, shielding electromagnetic waves, and shielding near infrared rays concerning displaying operation and a function of protecting the plasma display panel mechanically. In addition, arranging the filter plate in front of the plasma display panel is also effective for sound isolation of vibrational sounds generated by the plasma display panel.
However, the filter plate is not desired for a large screen of the plasma display panel because it has a large weight. In order to reduce a weight of the display device, another structure is suitable in which a thin filter having a base of a resin film is glued directly on the front face of the plasma display panel instead of attaching the filter plate. Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 2001-343898 discloses a front filter that includes a transparent conductive film for a measure against EMI and a anti-reflection film that is glued on the front side of the front filter.
When a thick transparent sheet is glued on the front face of the plasma display panel, light from the screen is scattered at the surface of the sheet (i.e., an interface between the sheet and air) that is farther than the surface of the panel. As a result, a phenomenon in which a contour of the highlight portion of the image may be blurred, which is called a "halation" becomes conspicuous. In addition, microscopic asperities on the front surface of the sheet may cause distortion of a reflected image of the external light.


A swash-plate compression device of the variable capacity type used in a refrigerating system of a vehicle comprises a swash-plate compressor and a control valve for autonomously adjusting the pressure in a crank chamber of the compressor. The control valve is opened and closed to introduce some of a refrigerant, which is discharged from the compressor, into the crank chamber. The opening of the control valve is controlled in accordance with a target differential pressure between the actual discharge pressure of the discharged refrigerant and the mean internal pressure of the entire compression chambers of the compressor or between the actual discharge pressure and the peak value of the internal pressure of the compression chamber so that the actual capacity of the compressor is feedback-controlled to be adjusted to a target capacity therefor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a swash-plate compression device of the variable capacity type used for indoor air conditioning, and more particularly, to a compression device suited for use in an air conditioning system of a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
A swash-plate compression device of this type is described in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2001-107854, for example. This conventional compression device comprises a swash-plate compressor, which includes a crank chamber, a swash plate rotatable in the crank chamber, and a plurality of pistons that reciprocate as the swash plate rotates. The reciprocation stroke of each piston settles the capacity of the compressor.
On the other hand, the tilt angle of the swash plate, which settles the reciprocation stroke of each piston, is adjusted by means of the pressure in the crank chamber. Accordingly, the capacity of the compressor of this type can be varied by adjusting the pressure in the crank chamber.
If the compression device described above is used in an air conditioning system, the compressor is inserted in an external refrigerant circulation path. A refrigerant that is compressed by the compressor at high pressure is discharged from the compressor into the circulation path. In a compression device, in general, the pressure in its crank chamber can be autonomously adjusted. More specifically, the pressure in the crank chamber is feedback-controlled so that an actual differential pressure of the refrigerant between two given points in the external circulation path is equal to a target differential pressure. In consequence, the capacity of the compressor is varied by the pressure control in the crank chamber. More specifically, the actual differential pressure of the refrigerant is obtained from refrigerant pressures at two points between the compressor and a condenser, while the target differential pressure is settled according to external information from various external information detectors.
As mentioned before, the compression device autonomously adjusts the pressure in the crank chamber. Therefore, the compression device described in the aforesaid publication further comprises a refrigerant passage, through which some of the refrigerant discharged from the compressor is introduced into the crank chamber, and a solenoid valve inserted in the refrigerant passage.
The solenoid valve includes a valve body that adjusts the opening of the refrigerant passage. An electromagnetic force corresponding to the target differential pressure is applied to the valve body. On the other hand, the valve body is subjected to the aforesaid actual differential pressure of the refrigerant in the direction opposite to direction of the electromagnetic force. Thus, the refrigerant passage or the opening of the solenoid valve is adjusted in accordance with the electromagnetic force and the actual differential pressure. In consequence, the feed of the refrigerant into the crank chamber is adjusted, so that the pressure in the crank chamber (or the capacity of the compressor) can be feedback-controlled in accordance with the target differential pressure.
For the feedback control of the pressure in the crank chamber, the compression device described in the aforesaid publication uses the actual differential pressure of the refrigerant between two points in the external circulation path. In order to stabilize the feedback control, in this case, the actual differential pressure of refrigerant should be increased to a high level. To attain this, the compression device has a throttle that restrains the flow of the refrigerant between the two points in the circulation path. However, this throttle lowers the pressure of the refrigerant that is supplied from the compressor to the condenser, thereby causing a loss of the refrigerant pressure and lowering the efficiency of the air conditioning system.

Swash-plate compression device of variable capacity type