A method and apparatus for ratcheting a stimulation tool in a well in which the stimulation tool is movable from a first radial position to a second radial position without moving the tool string.

This disclosure relates to a system for treating a subterranean well formation to stimulate production, and more particularly to an apparatus and method for fracturing.
Hydraulic fracturing is used often to stimulate production of hydrocarbons from formations penetrated by the wells. Typically, a well casing, if present, will be perforated adjacent the zone to be treated. Several zones may be treated, and a zone may comprise a formation, or several zones may be treated in a single formation. After the casing is perforated, a fracturing fluid is pumped into the well through the perforations so that fractures are formed and extended in the formation. Propping agents suspended in the fracturing fluid will be deposited in the fractures to prevent the fractures from closing.
One method for fracturing involves using a jetting tool with jets, or ports, therethrough which can be used to initiate and extend fractures in a zone. It is often desirable to rotate the jetting tool so that fluid pumped through the jets acts on a zone at the same, or near the same longitudinal or axial location in the well but at a different radial location. In other words, fluid will be pumped through the jets to act on a zone in the well, and the tool will be rotated so that the jets are oriented at a different radial location in the well, but may be at the same or near the same axial location in the well.
Typically, to rotate the jetting tool, the entire tool string must be moved. As such, it is difficult, time-consuming, and sometimes not possible to rotate the jetting tool and accurately position the jetting tool radially and axially in the well. A tool that can be consistently and accurately rotated and positioned in a well for accurate placement of fractures is desirable.

Apparatus and method for ratcheting stimulation tool


The invention relates to a method for manufacturing an insulating composite containing mineral fibers, aerogel and binder. This method implies the step of suspending the fiber webs and aerosol in an air flow thereby disentangling the fiber webs and mixing fibers, aerosol and eventually binder homogeneously. The apparatus described combines spinning of the fibers, collecting them as webs, disentangling the fiber webs in suspended air, mixing the fibers with aerogel and cement as well as pressing and curing the mixture to a consolidated product of density 150 to 800 kg/m3.

It has previously been attempted to provide an aerogel-containing composite for use as an insulating material. For example WO 97/10187 A1 relates to a composite aerogel material and a method for manufacturing an aerogel containing composite comprising the steps of providing fibers in an amount of from 0.1 to 40%-vol., providing an aerogel particulate material having an average particle diameter smaller than 0.5 mm in an amount of from 5 to 97%-vol., providing a resin binder, mixing the ingredients, and consolidating the ingredients by subjecting the material to hot pressing. This prior art document relates primarily to aerogel composites for electronic purposes taking advantage of low conductivity and low dielectric constant of aerogel. For this particular application thin layers are needed, such as 0.01 to 2 mm, which means that the size of the aerogel particles will influence the mechanical properties of the composite, so the focus of this prior art is to use aerogel particulate material having a very small diameter. No information is provided in the specification regarding the method used to mix the various components of the composite and how this affects the properties of the finished product. In particular, the skilled man is unable to achieve a homogeneous composite based on the information disclosed.
Another example can be found in US 2003/0077438 A1, which also relates to a composite aerogel material and a method for providing a composite aerogel material comprising the steps of providing fibers in an amount of from 0.1 to 40%-vol., providing an aerogel particulate material having an average particle diameter of at least 0.5 mm in an amount of from 5 to 97%-vol., providing a resin binder, mixing the ingredients, and consolidating the ingredients by subjecting the material to hot pressing. The resulting composite is alleged to possess good thermal insulation and good insulation against airborne sound. However, this document provides no information regarding the method used to mix the components of the composite and how this affects the properties of the composite. It does not teach the skilled person how to achieve a high level of homogeneity in the composite.
One of the main problems of previous aerogel containing composites and methods for manufacturing thereof is lack of cohesion and mechanical strength of the composites.

Method for manufacturing an aerogel-containing composite and composite produced by that method


A printer has a carriage drive control arrangement. A first control portion is provided for controlling ink ejection of a print head. A second control portion is provided for controlling a feed motor for driving a platen. A carriage mounts thereon the print head and is provided movably along a paper on the platen. A carriage control circuit is provided for controlling a carriage drive motor. A photosensors are connected to the carriage control circuit. The photosensors produce and transmit pulse signals to the carriage control circuit where moving distance and moving velocity of the carriage are computed based on the pulse signals. A second control portion transmit data of interrupt command output conditions to the carriage control circuit, the conditions being preset moving distance and preset moving velocity. If the computed distance or velocity is coincident with the preset distance or velocity, an interrupt command signal is transmitted from the carriage control circuit to the second control portion. Based on the interrupt command signal, the second control portion will transmit necessary data for changing driving mode of the carriage drive motor by way of the carriage control circuit.

The present invention relates to a printer, and more particularly, to the printer provided with a carriage drive control arrangement, the carriage having a print head mounted thereon.
There have been known ink jet printers with a print head formed with a plurality of jet nozzles. The print head is mounted on a carriage reciprocally movable in a print direction while maintained in confrontation with a print sheet. By ejecting ink from nozzles while using a carriage drive motor to drive the carriage in the print direction, an image can be formed out of dot patterns on the print sheet.
If a DC motor is used as the carriage drive motor, a circular encoder disk formed with a plurality of radial slits is attached to the DC motor.
A photosensor for determining timing of dot printing is provided in the printer. The photosensor includes a light emitting element and a light receiving element to transmit and receive light through the slits. The photosensor emits a pulse signal formed from alternating high and low level signals, which correspond to presence and absence of slits, and having a period equal to the sum of successive high and low level signals. The number of high and low level signals outputted from the photosensor is proportional to the distance moved by the carriage. Also, time duration of one period of the pulse signal indicates the speed of the carriage. By calculating these pulse signals, the print position of the carriage and the movement speed of the carriage can be determined so that timing of the dot printings can be determined.
At every rising edge and falling edge timing of the pulse signal, interrupt signal is inputted into a CPU of a control device. The control device computes the moving speed and the moving position of the carriage based on the pulse period and numbers of the pulses of the interrupt signal, so that the carriage drive motor is subjected to feed back control in order to permit the carriage drive motor to provide a predetermined speed mode including acceleration mode, constant velocity mode and deceleration mode. A pulse counter counts the pulse signal transmitted from the photosensor, and the CPU reads the count value.
If the carriage is driven for image recordation on the print sheet, a great number of pulse signals are generated in accordance with the movement of the carriage, and the pulse signals are inputted into the control device at every minute time period as a interrupt command. Therefore, the CPU of the control device receives the interrupt command at every minute time period, while the CPU also executes data processing for image printing. Accordingly, the CPU undergoes excessive load, and as a result, the image print processing may be delayed. In particular, if the carriage is moved at high speed for high speed printing, input pitch of the interrupt command is extremely short. Consequently, a CPU capable of high speed processing is required, which increases cost of the control device.

Printer having carriage drive control arrangement


Localized, transient pressure waves are applied to tissue adjacent to target cells by means of a light source and a coupling interface placed in contact with the tissue that converts light from the light source into acoustic energy. The pressure waves cause transient poration of the cell membranes. The therapeutic agents are delivered to the site of the localized pressure waves by any suitable means, such as by injection with a needle. The light source and coupling interface can be incorporated into a catheter for application of the pressure waves to diseased blood vessels. A manually manipulable surgical device incorporating a needle for injecting the agent, light source, and coupling interface is also described.

A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the treatment of disease or ailments in humans or animals. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and apparatus to deliver surgical or therapeutic compounds such as drugs and genes into cells of human or animal tissues.
B. Description of Related Art
Gene therapy represents a promising modality for the treatment of a variety of acquired and inherited diseases afflicting humans of all ages. The therapy involves the introduction of genes into cells so as to correct for defective genes responsible for the cause of the ailment or disease. There are two approaches to performing gene therapy; ex-vivo and in-vivo. Ex-vivo requires the harvesting of cells, introduction of genes into harvested cells, and subsequent implantation of cells back into the human or animal body. In-vivo gene therapy negates the need to harvest cells since direct injection of genes into tissues is more convenient as a treatment modality. In-vivo gene therapy is desirable since it resembles conventional drug therapy.
There are several methods of gene delivery required in conjunction with in-vivo gene therapy. These methods serve to introduce the desired genes into patient cells. The most promising for high efficiency of gene expression is the use of a viral vector. A viral vector contains the therapeutic gene attached to a key promoter of an attenuated virus. Once introduced into tissue, a viral particle infects a cell lacking the desired gene and subsequently incorporates the therapeutic gene within the genetic system of the cell. But the use of a viral vector introduces issues of toxicity and safety since viral vectors can produce protein products that are allergenic to the patient as well as the possibility of causing uncontrolled growth by random translocation. Therefore the use of non-viral gene delivery methods are more desirable for the future.
Recently it was discovered that direct injection of plasmid DNA into skeletal muscle can be taken up by muscle cells and be expressed in animal cells. Direct injection of genetic material into tissues should alleviate the issues of toxicity and safety in humans but the efficiency of expression of the plasmid DNA is rather low. This is attributable to the low amount of plasmid DNA that actually get transported through cell membranes and subsequently make their way to the nuclei of cells. Thus, there exists the need to enhance transport of genetic materials into intracellular space as well as transport to the vicinity of the nucleus.
Several chemical and physical methods have been applied with direct injection of genes to enhance the efficiency of gene uptake and subsequent expression. The chemical methods range from combining the naked DNA with calcium phosphate precipitate to the use of liposomes and receptor-mediated molecules. The physical methods range from electroporation to biolistic transport.
Electroporation uses brief electrical pulses produced by electrodes in the range of kV/cm to create transient pores in cell membranes located between the electrodes. Biolistic transport is the bombardment of cells or tissues with particles coated with DNA. The particles are accelerated into tissue by devices analogous to guns. The guns generate explosive acceleration by either using very high pressure gases or by electric field discharge. These physical gene delivery methods have demonstrated practical utility for in-vitro transfection of animal and plant cells and limited in-vivo transfection of animal and human tissues.
Although electroporation and biolistics have demonstrated practical gene delivery into tissues, their use on human tissues are limiting by the nature of their means of implementation. Electroporation uses very high voltage potentials and requires that the cells be placed in between the electrodes. Gene delivery into confined spaces such as the inner walls of blood vessels and arteries is problematic due to limited working spaces and relatively delicate nature of the tissues. High voltages placed on the surface of tissues such as skin will produce damage due to excessive heating and dielectric breakdown. Particle acceleration into tissues is limiting by the use of guns requiring high gas pressure and electric discharge to accelerate them. These requirements tend to produce devices, although hand-held, that are relatively large and limit their application to superficial distances from the tissues as well as in confined spaces such as blood vessels or in various cavities of the body such as the lungs. Thus there exists a need for method and device that can effect membrane permeability with relatively less traumatic means as well as providing easy access to confined, or spaces deep within animal and human organs. Ultimately the method and apparatus serve to enhance the uptake and subsequent expression of direct injection gene therapy.
Patents of interest related to the present invention include the patents issued to Sandford et al., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,487,744, 5,371,015, 5,100,792 and 5,036,006; the patents to Shimada et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,751; Shimada et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,267,985; Lipkover, U.S. Pat. No. 5,421,816; Shapland et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,286254; Shaplan et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,498,238; Eppstein et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,445,611; the patents to Hoffinann et al., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,439,330 and 5,507,724; Crandell et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,304,120 and Miller, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 5,141,131.

Apparatus and method for delivery of surgical and therapeutic agents


Computer systems and associated methods are disclosed to implement a machine-learned shipping or delivery destination prediction model that can be used to predict shipping or delivery destinations for customer shipping or delivery requests. The prediction model may be trained using a machine learning technique to select, based on customer data, one or more location classes that correspond to different types of location data found in the customer data. Depending on the embodiment, the different types of location data may include a customer's most frequent shipping address, last shipping address, billing address, email address, or others. In embodiments, the prediction model may be used in an item ordering service to auto-populate the shipping or delivery address for a user interface or to provide location-specific shipping options or offers. In embodiments, performance of the prediction model may be determined based on actual customer feedback, and tracked to provide a model performance report.

E-commerce companies often provide shipping services for their customers to ship physical or virtual items to the customers' desired destination locations. For example, an online product vendor may allow its customers to select, purchase, and ship a product from the vendor's website. As another example, a grocery delivery service may allow its customers to deliver groceries to the customers' chosen locations. When a customer requests a delivery or shipment, the customer must manually provide a delivery or shipping address, which can be a slow and tedious step. Although some systems may maintain a known address as a default shipping address for a customer, many customers employ multiple shipping addresses (e.g., a work address and a home address), making the single default address less useful. Furthermore, because the shipping destination is only disclosed to the system at the end of the customer's interactive session, the system cannot use the shipping destination during much of the process to infer useful information about the customer and the order. Better solutions are needed to allow these systems to transparently determine the shipping destination earlier in the session, provide customers useful information based on their intended shipping destinations, and generally provide a more user-friendly ordering experience.
While embodiments are described herein by way of example for several embodiments and illustrative drawings, those skilled in the art will recognize that embodiments are not limited to the embodiments or drawings described. It should be understood, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit embodiments to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope as defined by the appended claims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word "may" is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words "include," "including," and "includes" mean including, but not limited to.
It will also be understood that, although the terms first, second, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first contact could be termed a second contact, and, similarly, a second contact could be termed a first contact, without departing from the scope of the present invention. The first contact and the second contact are both contacts, but they are not the same contact.

Machine learned item destination prediction system and associated machine learning techniques


Cutting elements include an ultrahard material body formed at high pressure and high temperature conditions in the absence of catalyzing material to provide a material microstructure comprising a matrix phase of bonded together ultrahard material particles and interstitial regions disposed throughout the matrix phase providing porosity of less than about 6 volume percent. The body may include a substrate attached thereto, and may include an infiltrant material disposed in a population of the interstitial regions. The body may have regions with different porosities, e.g., with a higher porosity region located adjacent a substrate interface and/or along a central region. The body may include more than one infiltrant, each located in different regions. The infiltrant may be introduced into the body during a separate high pressure/high temperature process. The body may include a region which extends a depth from a working surface that is substantially free of any infiltrant.

The existence and use of ultrahard materials for forming tooling, cutting and/or wear elements is well known in the art. For example, polycrystalline diamond (PCD) is known to be used as cutting elements to machine and drill metals, rock, plastics and a variety of composite materials. Such known polycrystalline diamond materials have a microstructure characterized by a polycrystalline diamond matrix first phase, that generally occupies the highest volume percent in the microstructure and that has the greatest hardness, and one or more second phases, that generally consist of a solvent catalyst material used to facilitate the bonding together of diamond grains or crystals to form the polycrystalline matrix first phase during sintering.
PCD known in the art is formed by combining diamond grains (that will form the polycrystalline matrix first phase) with a suitable solvent catalyst material (that will form the second phase) to form a polycrystalline diamond body. The solvent catalyst material can be provided in the form of powder and mixed with the diamond grains or can be infiltrated into the diamond grains during high pressure/high temperature (HPHT) sintering. The PCD material is sintered at extremely high pressure/high temperature process conditions (e.g., 45 Kbar to 70 Kbar and 1300° C. to 1500° C.), during which time the catalyzing material promotes desired intercrystalline diamond-to-diamond bonding between the grains, thereby forming a PCD structure (body).
Catalyzing materials used for forming conventional PCD include solvent metals from Group VIII of the Periodic table of elements, with cobalt (Co) being the most common. Conventional PCD can comprise from about 85 to 94% by volume diamond and a remaining amount being the solvent metal catalyst material. The solvent catalyst material is present in the microstructure of the PCD material within interstices or interstitial regions that exist between the bonded together diamond grains and/or along the surfaces of the diamond crystals.
The resulting PCD structure produces enhanced properties of wear resistance and hardness, making PCD materials extremely useful in aggressive wear and cutting applications where high levels of wear resistance and hardness are desired. Many different Industries utilize such PCD materials for cutting, e.g., in the form of a cutting element, including automotive, oil and gas, aerospace, and mining to mention a few.
For use in the oil production industry, such PCD cutting elements such as shear cutters are configured for attachment to a subterranean drilling device, e.g., a fixed cutter drag bit. Thus, such PCD shear cutters are used as the cutting elements in fixed cutter bits that drill holes in the earth for oil and gas exploration. Such shear cutters generally comprise a PCD body that is joined to a substrate, e.g., a substrate that is formed from cemented tungsten carbide. The shear cutter is manufactured using an HPHT process that generally utilizes cobalt as a catalytic second phase material that facilitates sintering between diamond particles to form a single interconnected polycrystalline matrix of diamond with cobalt dispersed throughout the matrix.
The shear cutter is attached to the fixed cutter bit via the substrate, usually by a braze material, leaving the PCD body exposed as a cutting element to shear rock as the fixed cutter bit rotates. High forces are generated at the PCD/rock interface to shear the rock away. In addition, high temperatures are generated at this cutting interface, which shorten the cutting life of the PCD cutting edge. High temperature incurred during operation can cause the cobalt in the diamond matrix to thermally expand, wherein the cobalt has a higher coefficient of thermal expansion than that of the diamond, and wherein such thermal expansion mismatch may cause stresses and cracks to develop within the microstructure during use, thereby decreasing the performance service life of the PCD cutter. Further, the cobalt present in the in the PCD matrix may facilitate the conversion of diamond back to graphite at temperatures above 700° C., which will radically decrease the performance life of the cutting element.
Attempts in the art address the above-noted limitations have focused on the removal of the catalyzing material from the PCD body. In particular, such attempts have involved removing the catalyzing material from a portion of the diamond body or throughout the entire diamond body. While removing the catalyzing material from the PCD has reduced the unwanted effects of thermal mismatch and has improved thermal stability, resulting microstructure (comprising substantially the diamond matrix phase) lacks fracture toughness and strength. Thus, it is known in the art to infiltrate the treated PCD with materials capable of providing a closer thermal expansion match with the diamond, and/or that help to improve fracture toughness, and/or that do not promote the conversion of diamond to graphite during operation. Such described attempts have been useful in providing a PCD material having improved properties of thermal stability over conventional PCD.
However, certain end-use drilling applications call for PCD materials that not only have improved thermal stability, but also demonstrate improved properties of wear and abrasion resistance. Single-stage conventional HPHT processing produces a sintered PCD body having a maximum diamond volume fraction of 94 percent. The diamond volume fraction of a PCD material directly impacts the wear and abrasion resistance for such material, and thus the end-use performance and service life. While the above-described attempts, removing the catalyzing material from the PCD, have some impact of marginally improving the wear and abrasion resistance of the PCD material, the extent of such improvement ultimately is governed by the diamond volume content which remains unchanged.
It is, therefore, desired that PCD constructions and methods for making the same be developed in a manner that provides an improved degree of wear and abrasion resistance compared to conventional PCD materials. It is also desired that such PCD construction also be capable of providing improved thermal stability if so desired.

Method for forming a cutting element and downhole tools incorporating the same


A hitting device for cajon includes a base having a cajon hitting assembly, a shaft, and a driving portion assembled thereon. When the treading portion is treaded, the first end of the bar member is pivoted about the pivoting portion, so that the bar member drives the driving member to move longitudinally and the arm drives the shaft to rotate along a direction where the cajon hitter moves forward the hitting surface of the cajon.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a percussion instrument, and more particularly to a hitting device for cajon in which the hitting device is driven by treading.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As shown in FIG. 8, a conventional cajon hitting device includes a cajon hitting assembly 91 and a pedal assembly 92. The cajon hitting assembly 91 includes a first post 911. A first shaft 912 is pivoted with the first post 911. A hitter 913 is configured to the first shaft 912. A clamp 914 is configured at the bottom of the first post 911 to clamp a fastening bracket 931 of a cajon 93 for positioning. The pedal assembly 92 includes a base 921 having a pedal plate 922 and a second post 923. The pedal plate 922 is connected to the second post 923 via a driving member 924. A second shaft 925 is connected to the second post 923. The first shaft 912 and the second shaft 925 are connected by a wire 94. Accordingly, when the pedal plate 922 is treaded, the first shaft 912 is rotated, and further drives the second shaft 92 to rotate via the wire 94 so that the hitter 913 is swung radially and percusses to the cajon 93.
In order to allow the cajon 93 be hit, the cajon hitting assembly 91, the pedal assembly 92, and the wire 94 are essential. The pedal assembly 92 is connected to the cajon hitting assembly 91 via the wire 94, such that when the pedal assembly 92 is treaded and the second shaft 925 is rotated, the rotation of the second shaft 925 would further drive the first shaft 912 to rotate via the wire 94 and allows the hitter 913 to hit the cajon 93. However, the pedal assembly 92 makes the cajon hitting device be complicated, and also increases the cost and the time for assembling the cajon hitting device to the cajon 93.
The present invention is, therefore, arisen to obviate or at least mitigate the above mentioned disadvantages.


A cross-road motor vehicle exhaust gas analyzer uses tunable infrared laser differential absorption spectroscopy incorporating photon infrared detection to determine the absolute fractional absorption of a laser by the gaseous medium. Spectroscopic constants of the gaseous species of interest are applied to the absolute fractional absorption to calculate the pertinent absolute column densities. In addition to a laser that sweeps across one or more absorption line of an component of interest, the system of the invention includes a laser source tunable over an absorption line of a reference species; the calculated column density of the reference species is used to normalize the concentration of the component of interest to the fuel consumption rate of the motor vehicle.

Improved measurements of pollution emissions by automobiles have become increasingly important as the overall emissions have decreased, since more precision is required to accurately gauge the various pollutants. Instrumentation is available for making accurate measurements in fixed locations, such as garages, where the vehicles are stationary. However, such measurements do not represent vehicle emissions under actual operating conditions; also, vehicle emission standards relying on such periodic measurements can be circumvented.
It is therefore desirable to analyze emissions of individual vehicles "on the fly" so to speak, as they pass measurement sites in the course of normal travel over highways or city streets. Several remote sensing cross-road instruments capable of instantaneously measuring pollutants emitted by passing vehicles have been described. These devices work by directing infrared or ultraviolet radiation across the roadway. Passing cars leave exhaust plumes in the radiation paths and the molecules in the exhaust absorb some of the radiation. The amount of radiation absorbed can be correlated with the column density of the molecular absorber. The column density of carbon dioxide is measured and the emission indices of pollutants are determined as ratios with respect to carbon dioxide. This reference molecule allows meaningful pollutant emission measurements to be made without knowledge of the precise location or extent of dilution of the exhaust plume.
Although these devices have been adequate for monitoring the historically high concentrations of carbon monoxide which they were first developed to measure, they suffer from a relatively low signal-to-noise ratio and they therefore do not provide the desired accuracy for measurement of the concentrations of the various other pollutants present at much lower levels. Specifically, the radiation sources are incoherent, relatively broad-band lamps. The filters used to preferentially pass the absorption frequencies of the various constituents to the detectors pass relative broad-bands of frequencies and the detectors thus receive inputs that are affected by a number of factors in addition to the monitored absorptions. In addition, the broad emitting area of incoherent sources limits the distance that light from these sources can propagate without significant spreading. The spreading over distance traveled of light from incoherent sources can be compensated for with larger beam-forming and collection optics, but such optics greatly increases the cost and complexity of these instruments. Also, these devices cannot calculate the absolute column density of a pollutant and so require frequent field calibration using expensive analyzed gas samples in order to operate in a dependable manner.

Laser system for cross-road measurement of motor vehicle exhaust gases


Disclosed herein are computer aided design (CAD) techniques to implement a unified data schema and graphical user interface (GUI) to link ECU/devices, in-vehicle communications, and vehicle harness information together with respect to architectural relation, performance relation, and cost relation, and to facilitate a designer's understanding and manipulation of this information. The domain-specific information from each domain is converted to objects in this unified data schema and stored in a unified database that is accessible to every domain, so that the impact of the current state in the device domain can be accessed and analyzed by a designer from any domain. This approach enables design data sharing and real-time collaboration between different electrical/electronic (E/E) design domains, thereby facilitating the realization of design data collaboration, design change management, and product lifetime management (PLM) and product data management (PDM) implementation.

Electronic systems are no longer isolated with a vehicle; instead they are distributed with their functionality dependent on multiple electronic control units (ECUs) and sub-systems connected over numerous harnesses and network buses. However, the specification of these distributed systems does not fit well with conventional vehicle design methodologies, which are based on the design self-contained systems. For proper and reliable operation, the interfaces between sub-systems/ECUs must be not only specified at the signal/connectivity level, but also must meet specified performance requirements. This ensures that when the vehicle manufacturer (who typically plays the role of systems integrator) integrates the various components from various suppliers, the vehicle electrical system will perform as expected. Therefore, a key to a successful integration at the vehicle level is to accurately characterize the complete electrical/electronics (E/E) architecture of the vehicle, which comprises: power/ground distribution; electrical connectivity (i.e., wiring); network buses, network topology and messaging strategies; and distribution of system functionality into electronic control units (ECUs) and other devices. Due to the complexity of modern vehicles, vehicle manufactures have evolved from a component/subsystem focus to specifying a performance-driven E/E architecture for the vehicle. However, the designers of an E/E architecture for a vehicle typically are compartmentalized into separate design domains, such as wire harness design, software design, electronic control unit (ECU) design, network bus design, and the like. In most instances, the designers in a given design domain focus on the architecture of that domain with little collaboration or information sharing among the various design domains, resulting in a bottom-up development process that can introduce cost overruns, delay the final development of the E/E architecture, and produce a non-optimal E/E architecture for the vehicle.

GUI-facilitated change management for vehicle electrical/electronic architecture design


A wastewater treatment apparatus including a biotreatment tank and a floating clarifier within the tank. The floating clarifier includes a floating base and a perimeter wall mounted to and beneath the floating base. A plurality of tented panels mounted to the clarifier walls forms an apertured bottom of the floating clarifier having a plurality of tortuous outlets. The biotreated wastewater from the biotreatment tank enters the floating clarifier, where the suspended solids within the biotreated water settle and descends out of the apertured bottom of the clarifier. The biotreatment tank and clarifier operate continuously while equalizing variations in the wastewater feed rate.

The present invention relates to wastewater treatment apparatus, and more particularly to a continuous wastewater treatment apparatus incorporating a floating clarifier.
Wastewater from municipal sewage or industrial waste systems is treated prior to release to the environment to meet strict government standards for water quality. This treatment often includes biological treatment processes to degrade the organic contaminates in the wastewater. Biological treatment involves balancing several conditions--for example, the amount of organic waste, the amount of microbes, and the amount of oxygen--so that the microbes convert the organic waste to carbon dioxide and more microbes.
Biological treatment systems include: (1) a biological reactor, (2) a clarifier, and often (3) equalization capacity. The biological reactor includes a tank and an aeration device. Many different aeration devices are known in the art, including coarse-bubble diffusers and impeller draft tubes. In the reactor, the wastewater is aerated so that the microbes suspended in the wastewater consume the organic matter.
After biotreatment, the biologically treated wastewater is fed to a clarifier. The clarifier is a device for settling or separating biological solids from the biologically treated wastewater to produce clarified effluent. The clarifier also concentrates the suspended solids--which includes the microbes--in an underflow stream from the bottom of the clarifier. The underflow returned to the biological reactor is known as "return activated sludge" (RAS). The portion of these solids wasted from the system are known as "waste activated sludge" (WAS). The clarifier typically includes a tank designed to provide sufficient surface area so that the suspended solids in the biologically treated wastewater can settle and concentrate. Several types of clarifiers are known in the art; any geometric shape can be used, for example, circular, square, and rectangular. A variety of sludge removal mechanism exist, including hopper-bottom clarifiers and mechanical clarifiers. The underflow solids from the clarifier are returned to the biological reactor. WAS is removed from the system for further processing and/or disposal, as is known in the art. The clarified, biologically treated wastewater ("treated wastewater") is then discharged for further treatment or directly to the receiving stream.
Equalization refers to capacity of the wastewater treatment facility to store wastewater feed (organic loading) surges above the design capacity until the system can treat the wastewater during subsequent, less-than-capacity demands. Flow equalization may be used to improve clarification ("hydraulic equalization"). Equalization typically involves retrofitting an existing wastewater treatment facility by installation of additional tankage prior to aeration (biological reactor).
It is known to provide equalization by designing a biological treatment unit with built-in equalization capacity. This combination is known in the art as a "variable depth reactor" (VDR), as described in Scroggins & Deiters, Wastewater Cleanup: Put Activated-Sludge Treatment to Work, Environmental Engineering World, November-December 1995, at 22. The wastewater can flow to the VDR at varying rates, yet biotreated wastewater can be drawn for clarification at a consistent, continuous rate. However, the VDR requires a separate clarification unit, which adds to the cost of the treatment system and increases its complexity of operation.
It is also known to utilize a single tank for biological treatment and clarification using batch (non-continuous) processing. This system is known in the art as a "sequencing batch reactor" (SBR). A "batch" of wastewater is fed to the SBR tank, where the wastewater is aerated to effect biological reaction and then settled for clarification. A portion of the settled solids is wasted directly from the SBR tank. Typically, a wastewater system using SBR technology cycles the wastewater flow stream between two SBR tanks in order to provide wastewater treatment that is more continuous than a single SBR tank. In tandem operation, one SBR tank in effect provides equalization capacity while the other SBR tank processes the wastewater.
SBR technology has several disadvantages associated with batch processing. First, the entire wastewater flow to an SBR tank must be discharged after treatment in a fraction of the time that is available for loading the tank. This increases the size and cost of discharge facilities and piping relative to a continuous process. Also, since the aeration requirements must be met in a fraction of the time that would be available for continuous operation, the aeration equipment must have a much higher capacity than that of a continuous aeration process.

Wastewater treatment apparatus with floating clarifier


The position of intra-osseous implants and abutments to analogs is enabled and enhanced by using the longitudinal axial locked position of a post (12a) of an implant (12) having a locking taper in a bore (10a) of an implant (10) having a generally matching locking taper as a reference to determine the position of a stop surface (14c) on impression posts, abutment analog posts and the like received in the bore of an implant and implant analog. In another embodiment the bore (16) of an implant analog (16) is provided with a shelf (16c) located at a position determined by the axial distance of the locked position of the abutment post to prevent over-seating. Controlled retentive resistance and stability of a post is provided by using flats formed in the bore of an implant analog and by forming rings on a post receivable in the bore of an implant or implant analog. One such ring (18c) is formed with an outer periphery sized and configured to allow bending of the outer peripheral portion in a direction opposite to the direction of insertion in a bore to provide greater retentive resistance than insertion resistance.

Implant systems comprising an implant having a tapered bore adapted to receive therein an abutment post or the like formed with a matching taper for retention of the post in the implant are known. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,738,623, assigned to the assignee of the present invention, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by this reference. It is also known to provide such posts, which are intended to be used as impression posts or temporary abutment posts, with a longitudinally extending slot in the end thereof in order to more easily remove the posts. Generally, such posts are made of titanium or titanium alloy due to their biocompatibility characteristics. However, titanium has a major limitation relating to the phenomenon of memory. It is possible for the diameter of the slotted post to either widen or narrow over time making the nature of the fit of the post in an abutment unpredictable. The property of memory can cause an abutment to become loose in clinical function and result in an unpredictable degree of retention.
There is a need to be able to replicate the position that an abutment would have in an implant in a system using abutment analogs, impression posts and the like made of the same or different materials which accurately and reliably correspond to the locked position of a permanent abutment in an intra-osseous implant. Among the factors which need to be dealt with in doing this is the existence of hydraulic pressure resisting the seating of a post as well as the need for having the post retain its seated position whether gravity is adding a force against seating or toward seating, as in the use in upper teeth versus lower teeth. There is also a need to be able to determine the appropriate height of an abutment which will provide an aesthetic submucosal prosthetic margin placement.

Method and apparatus for replicating the position of intra-osseous implants and abutments relative to analogs thereof


Information received from a communication network and recorded during absence is stored in a storage unit in a state of being divided into blocks in accordance with a change in the transmission form including the transfer rate, the encoding method, and the like. Transmission conditions, such as the transfer rate, the encoding method, and the like, are stored in a control table for each stored block. Information relating to response messages to be transmitted in a recording operation during absence is encoded by one of various kinds of encoding methods, and the transfer rate during transfer of each message is assigned. Upon call reception, a message adapted to the capabilities of the communication partner's terminal is selected and transmitted.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a multimedia communication apparatus for performing transmission/reception of image information and voice information via a digital communication network, and more particularly, to a multimedia information communication apparatus which is suitable for storing encoded data.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the case of using a conventional analog telephone circuit, a telephone can transmit only voice, and data can be transmitted only at a low speed.
Recently, however, as a result of progress in communication technology, semiconductor technology and optical technology, digital networks have been provided, and it becomes possible to transmit data having a large capacity at a high speed.
Digital transmission has features in that, for example, the same level of data quality can be maintained without degrading the data quality during data transmission, a particular transmission channel corresponding to the characteristics of the medium of transmitted data is not required, and therefore all media can be dealt with. Hence, it becomes possible to perform transmission between complex media terminals. As a result, multimedia communication apparatuses have appeared, in which a telephone can silmultaneously transmit images as well as voice.
Transmitted voice data may comprise 64 Kbps (.mu.-law, A-law), 64 Kbps/56 Kbps/48 Kbps (SB-ADPCM), 32 Kbps (AD-PCM), 16 Kbps, 8 Kbps, or the like.
Transmitted image data having a large capacity is recuded to data having a small capacity after being subjected to band compression using various methods, such as movement compensation, frame skipping, interframe compensation, intraframe compensation, DCT (discrete cosine transform), vector quantization transform, and the like, so that the image data can be transmitted through a digital network. H. 261 recommended by ITU-T (which succeeds CCITT) is an image encoding method in which data can be transmitted at a transmission speed of 64 Kbps of a basic interface of an ISDN (integrated services digital network). International standardization by the ITU-T, and the like has been intended so that mutual communication can be performed between terminals which deal with voice data and image data, and service provisions, protocol provisions, provisions for the configuration of multimedia multiplexed frames for AV (audiovisual) services, such as video telephones, video conferences, and the like using a digital network, have been announced as H. 320, H. 242, H. 221, and the like recommended by the ITU-T.
In H. 221, the frame configuration, exchange of terminal capabilities, and code allocation of an FAS (frame alignment signal) and a BAS (bit allocation signal) in a communication mode in AV series for 64 Kbits to 1920 Kbits are defined.
In H. 242, protocols for exchange of capabilities between AV terminals using a BAS, the switching of the communication mode, and the like are defined. In H. 320, system aspects for all AV services are defined.
In the above-described recommendations, methods for performing communication of multimedia, comprising images, voice, data, and the like, between terminals according to procedures, such as a sequence of in-channel exchange of terminal capabilities using a BAS, a mode-switching sequence by assigning a communication mode, and the like, after setting of an end-to-end physical connection and in-channel establishment of synchronization using an FAS are provided.
However, methods for changing capabilities of a terminal in accordance with a situation, and methods of selecting a communication mode within the range of exchanged capabilities are not provided.
In multimedia communication, the information transfer speed for voice information is determined by assigning a voice-encoding method, and the transfer speed of data information is determined by assigning the value of the transfer speed when data information is used. The transfer speed for image information is obtained by subtracting the transfer speed of voice information and the transfer speed of data information from the information transfer speed of the entire communication channel which has been set.
A function of performing a recording operation during absence is desired in multimedia communication apparatuses, such as video telephones, and the like, as well as in ordinary telephone sets which transmit only voice.
Response messages (images and/or voice) to be transmitted in an recording operation during absence may be subjected analog recording on a magnetic tape, or the like, and image information and voice information received during absence may be decoded into analog signals and may be recorded on a magnetic tape. However, such an approach results in a large amount of stored information, thereby causing troublesome control of stored information, the necessity of the control of a tape-driving system, and an increase in the size of the entire system. Furthermore, alanog recording causes inconvenience in reutilization of received images, and the quality of images and voice is degraded due to reproduction by decoding.
Accordingly, it is desirable to perform digital recording of received signals, particularly, received image signals, and to store the signals in a recording medium in an encoded state.
According to the above-described recommendations, capabilities of terminals in communication are exchanged when starting the communication. Capabilities to be exchanged between terminals comprise, for example, kinds of information which can be dealt with (images, voice and data), encoding methods, and the transfer rate of each information to be transmitted. The transmission-side terminal transmits information, which belongs to the kind of information selected within the range of capabilities of the reception-side terminal, in permissible encoding method and transfer rate in accordance with the result of the exchange of capabilities between the terminals.
Even during communication, the kind of information to be transmitted, the encoding method, the transfer rate, and the like can be changed within permissible ranges. Accordingly, the comminication partner's terminal may change any of the transmission capabilities in the course of a recording operation during absence. Hence, for example, even if the kind of communicated information is changed, information before and after the change must be stored in a correlated state, and must be appropriately reproduced whenever necessary.
A response message transmitted in a recording operation during absence must be adapted to the capabilities of the communication partner's terminal. That is, the message must be encoded in an encoding method which can be decoded by the communication partner's terminal. If the communication partner's terminal does not have capabilities to receive the response message, the response message cannot be transmitted to the communication partner's terminal (or cannot be reproduced by the communication partner's terminal).

Multimedia information communication apparatus which stores received information in an encoded state


Circuit and methods for automatic clock skew compensation in circuits having two power domains. When one of the power domains is operated with a lowered supply voltage, lowering the supply voltage tends to slow the clock pulse and produces clock skew. Circuitry is provided for selectively delaying the clock pulse in one of the power domains to reduce the clock skew by comparing the clock pulses, and then automatically delaying the clock pulse in one of the domains by a delay determined to minimize the skew. A method is provided where the clock skew between two clock pulses is determined and the delay needed in one of the clock pulses to reduce the skew is determined by sampling the clock skew using a plurality of delays at multiples of a minimum delay, and then automatically delaying the one clock pulse by selecting an appropriate delay. The method may be iterated.

In integrated circuits, power consumption and management of power is a critical issue. The reduction of power consumption has become and continues to be increasingly important as more devices are manufactured for battery use, such as portable devices. In the prior art, the use of voltage scaling to reduce power consumption is practiced. Voltage scaling reduces the supply voltage level to portions of an integrated circuit. Often power management techniques are incorporated that detect time periods when a portion of the circuit is less active, or idle, and the power supply to that portion may be reduced. Various phrases describing voltage scaling are used. Dynamic voltage scaling (DVS), adaptive voltage scaling (AVS) and module level voltage scaling (MLVS) are all described in the literature relating to integrated circuits.
A problem that inherently arises when supply voltage level scaling is used in an integrated circuit is cross power domain clock skew. That is, when a clock signal is used in two power domains, and one of them has a voltage supply that changes due to voltage scaling, an increase in clock skew will typically occur. The design used to implement the circuit therefore must be performed with such tolerances that the clock skew does not create erroneous operation. As is known, if a set up time requirement for a data register is violated, or a hold time requirement is violated, the register may not function correctly. Metastable or oscillating operation may occur, or a register may erroneously "flash through" passing data to the output in the wrong clock cycle.
FIG. 1 depicts, as a simplified example, registers and a clock tree for two portions or domains within a single integrated circuit of the prior art. In FIG. 1, a circuit is shown receiving a clock signal labeled CK into two power domain regions, power domain 1 (labeled "PD1") and power domain 2 (labeled "PD2"). In PD1, a clock tree circuit 10 comprised of a plurality of parallel buffer circuits 11 is shown. As is known in the art, a clock tree is used to fan out a heavily loaded clock signal to various registers or loads so that each load receives a rising and falling edge of the signal CK at very close to the same time, so that the circuitry may correctly latch and hold data inputs as Q outputs of synchronous registers in the circuit. A typical register 13 is shown receiving a clock pulse CP1 in PD1. Similarly, power domain PD2 is subject to voltage scaling and comprises a clock tree 15 of buffers 17 which receive the clock pulse CK and fan out the local clock signals. Register 19 receives a clock pulse CP2. Register 19 is coupled to register 13 in PD1, thus the registers communicate across the two power domains. PD1 is not subject to supply voltage scaling; however, PD2 is subject to supply voltage scaling.
FIG. 2 depicts a typical timing diagram for clock pulses CP1 and CP2 when the supply voltages for PD1 and PD2 are the same. In FIG. 2, no difference in time is apparent at the rising edge of CP1 and CP2, that is, there is no clock skew between the domains PD1 and PD2. In contrast, in FIG. 3, the effect of voltage scaling in PD2 is shown. The timing diagram of FIG. 3 shows the relative timing of the rising edges of CP1 and CP2 when the voltage scaling is in effect. In FIG. 3, there is a time difference between the rising edges, and clock skew is occurring. As the supply voltage to the circuitry in PD2 is reduced, the time delays increase and thus, CP2 arrives later in time to register 19 than CP1 arrives to register 13. If this skew increases to a large skew (in time), erroneous operation of the two registers may occur.
A continuing need thus exists for an improved clock skew compensation circuit and methods that provide for robust operation of the clocked circuits across power domains even when voltage scaling is applied to a portion of the circuitry.

Circuit and method for clock skew compensation in voltage scaling

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


In a hybrid outboard motor equipped with an internal combustion engine and electric motor as selective sources of power for driving the propeller and further provided with the first output shaft connected to the engine for transmitting its output to the propeller and the second output shaft connected to the motor for transmitting its output to the propeller, the first and second output shafts are disposed coaxially, so that the amount of space required for installing the shafts is smaller by the length of their coaxial portion relative to the prior art in which the shafts are simply connected in tandem. As a result, the size and weight of the outboard motors can be reduced, thereby enhancing its ease of operation and portability.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an outboard motor, particularly to an outboard motor equipped with both an internal combustion engine and an electric motor for driving the propeller, namely, a hybrid outboard motor.
2. Description of the Related Art
The hybrid outboard motor is a well-known type of outboard motor that has two sources of power for driving the propeller, an internal combustion engine and an electric motor. As taught by Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. Sho 59(1984)-230894 (particularly page 2, upper left column, lines 9 to 13, and FIG. 1), for example, the hybrid outboard motor is typically equipped with a first output shaft connected to the engine for transmitting its output to the propeller and a second output shaft connected to the motor for transmitting its output to the propeller, and the first and second output shafts are simply connected in tandem.
From the viewpoint of operating ease and portability, an outboard motor is preferably small and light in weight. However, the configuration taught by the reference does not enable adequate size and weight reduction because the space occupied by the first and second output shafts is proportional to their combined lengths.


A player position determining and course management system for a golf course having a plurality of roving units for use by players in playing the course is disclosed. Each roving unit includes a central processing unit (CPU) including a data processor for executing various tasks ranging from fastest execution of a task to slowest execution of a task on a schedule of priorities of task completion, a real-time means for controlling the processor to give the tasks priority ranging from fastest execution of a task with highest priority to slowest execution of a task with lowest priority, and a means for precisely timing functions of the system including modulating means utilizing a common digital modulation technique for digitally modulating data transmitted to and from all of the roving units. Each of the roving units include a monitor for displaying the golf course including each of the holes with its tee box, fairway, green, cup and hazards, as well as the position of the roving unit on the course in real time. Additionally, the system includes a course management base station for transmitting and receiving information to the roving units and a monitor for displaying the the location of each roving unit on the golf course in real time.

The present invention relates generally to yardage systems and more particularly to a new and improved golf course yardage and information system.
Before starting play on an unfamiliar or infrequently played course, golfers typically familiarize themselves with the layout of each hole. This gives the golfer the knowledge at the tee box of a particular hole being played, for example, as to whether the hole is a `dog leg left`, a `dog leg right`, or straight; whether any hazards, such as sand traps, bunkers, and water traps, are hidden from view; whether and where the range is posted to calculate yardage from the ball's (and the golfer's) present location to the front of the green, the rear of the green, the pin, a key hazard, or a desired lay up position for the green approach shot.
Customarily, golf courses market informative books on the course in the pro shop, to indicate layout features for each hole and yardage from a few locations along the hole to the center of the green. Also, yardage markers typically are provided at sprinkler heads along the route of each hole, so that the player will know the range from that point to the center of the green. These playing aids provide information on the hole layout and location of hazards, and also allow the golfer, by pacing off yardage from the ball to the nearest sprinkler head, to estimate yardage from the ball to the center of the green. Such measures are by no means precise, but do enhance one's knowledge of the hole, and thereby, an opportunity to improve one's game. They also exact a cost--slowing the pace of play of every golfer behind the one or more who are familiarizing themselves with the course, pacing off yardage, and so forth. Slow play has an adverse effect on the course's daily revenue, as well as on other players' enjoyment of the game.
Various proposals have been made toward improving golf course information systems. The intent of these ostensible improvements has been to reduce the average player's score; to increase enthusiasm and speed of play; and to enhance the player's knowledge of the course regarding every hole, the yardage from the ball or "lie" to the green, the distance and bearing to the pin, and the location of hazards. Proposals have included use of buried electrical wires in various layout configurations about the course for interaction with mobile overland components, or of radio direction finding or triangulation techniques, to inform the golfer of gross features of the course and distances from specific markers to the pin or flag for the hole being played.
A recent proposal for a position and distance measuring system for a golf course enlists the capabilities of the existing U.S government-sponsored Global Positioning System (GPS) which was established over the last 20 years with space satellites and ground based stations. The GPS system was established as a means for determining distance, range, and position for various governmental purposes, but has become quite useful in many industrial and commercial applications as well. A number of earth-orbiting satellites provide reference points from which to determine the position of a point on or near the earth, using the ground-based receivers. The orbits of these satellites are monitored by the ground station GPS receivers, and the travel times of signals received from the satellites are used to measure distance to each satellite. Each timing signal from a satellite is coded to permit the receiver to determine the elapsed time between launching of the signal from the respective satellite and receipt at the GPS receiver antenna, and thereby to calculate the distance as the product of that elapsed time and the speed of light. Receivers need not be restricted to large ground stations, but are available in portable, mobile and hand-held versions, for a multitude of private navigation, position and distance-measuring systems.
Distance measurements to three GPS satellites can accurately define the position of an object (i.e., that of the GPS receiver, whether of the stationary or portable type) on or near the surface of the earth. A fourth satellite provides a distance measurement that serves to verify clock timing within the GPS system. With several satellites in "view", and through the use of a computer, the GPS receiver theoretically can calculate distances virtually instantaneously with great accuracy. In practice, however, even small errors that typically occur in the calculated measurement of satellite signal travel time from system and natural phenomena severely reduce the accuracy of the distance and position calculations. Error causing phenomena include atmospheric propagation, receiver contributions, satellite ephemeris (transient), and satellite clock. Furthermore, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) purposely introduces errors in the satellite signals to deny civilian users fall accuracy. Erroneous measurements of 100 meters or so may be tolerated in many GPS-based measurement systems, but would be unacceptable in a golf course positioning and distance measuring system.
The recently proposed golf course position GPS system employs purely conventional differential GPS, which has found wide use to reduce errors in distance measuring systems. The differential GPS (DGPS) system broadcasts error correction information from a ground receiver of known location in the vicinity of the user. Two GPS receivers are used, one at a known fixed position, so that the difference between that known position and its position calculated from the satellite GPS signal fixes the error in the signal. The fixed position (reference) receiver provides a continuous correction for use by all other receivers, which may be mobile, within its reception area. Knowledge of the error allows all distance and position calculations at the user's receiver to be corrected. Conventional DGPS can reduce errors in position calculations to allow accuracies of within about five meters--quite suitable for most commercial needs, but still unacceptable for a golf course distance measuring system. However, the same conventional DGPS system may be used to determine the location of a golf cart receiver relative to the pin on a hole of a golf course as to determine the location of a ship relative to a land-based point of interest. Weather conditions and terrain have little effect on position determination in the GPS system, and few restrictions are imposed on size or location of a user's receiver.
Details of DGPS are readily available from a number of sources, an example being Blackwell, "Overview of Differential GPS Methods", Global Positioning System, vol. 3, pp. 89-100, The Institute of Navigation, Washington, D.C. (1986). The Blackwell (Stanford Research Institute International) paper details four differential GPS techniques, one of which is virtually identical to the previously proposed GPS-based golf course positioning system.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a new and improved golf course yardage and information system utilizing DGPS.
Another object of the invention is to provide such a system having considerably greater accuracy than is available with conventional DGPS.

Golf course yardage and information system


Strip lighting assemblies are useful for supporting and illuminating light bulbs in a variety of contexts, including bookshelves and display cases, while maintaining the lighting hardware and wiring in relative obscurity, to avoid detracting from the display being illuminated. A strip lighting assembly is provided which arranges two conductive strips in vertical fashion, to achieve a relatively narrow and nonobtrusive assembly. A special socket design is also provided, which may accommodate a variety of light bulbs or power chords. The socket includes a movable insert which may be adjusted to alter the size of the receptacles of the socket, increasing the receptacle area to accommodate larger light bulb terminals or power chords, and decreasing the receptacle area to snugly fit smaller light bulb terminals.

1. Technical Field
This invention pertains to a strip lighting assembly for holding and illuminating a variety of light bulbs.
2. Background Art
Strip lighting assemblies are frequently used to provide illumination for displays, bookcases, shelving, and other areas to provide bright light while maintaining light bulbs and wiring in relative obscurity. Ideally, such assemblies should be easy to mount, and provide for a variety of choices in terms of types and spacing of light bulbs. Furthermore, it may be desirable to keep such an assembly to a relatively narrow width, so that the assembly itself is not as noticeable as the objects being illuminated and displayed.
A variety of strip lighting assemblies are known in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,934,956 to Conti describes a lighting strip in which a pair of socket elements are electrically connected to dual conductors, which conductors may be folded to create a narrow lighting strip. Other strip electrical assemblies designed to hold and provide electric current to light bulbs or other electrical appliances are disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 3,524,921 to Wolf, U.S. Pat. No. 2,042,105 to Kelley, U.S. Pat. No. 1,955,531 to Christopher, U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,035 to Hoyt, U.S. Pat. No. 4,514,791 to Tokieda, U.S. Pat. No. 3,894,225 to Chao, U.S. Pat. No. 2,666,907 to Hensley, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,500,036 to Szentveri.
Similarly, a number of wiring assemblies are known in the prior art, for providing electricity to a remote light or other appliance while keeping the wiring relatively obscure, such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,524,921 to Wolf, U.S. Pat. No. 4,143,931 to Skare et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 2,749,382 to Lockard.
The invention claimed herein represents an improvement over the strip lighting assemblies known in the prior art, in terms of its narrow, unobtrusive construction, and in terms of the variety of electrical contacts that may be easily made without adaptors. The narrow construction is in part related to vertical placement of conductors within the assembly. Specific mechanisms using vertically arranged conductive paths are known in the prior art for particular applications, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,010,463 to Ross for an electrified bulletin board, which allows illumination of specially designed push-pin bulbs. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,920,467 to Honsberger teaches the use of plural conductive layers to support illuminating devices which extend to varying depths in that base. U.S. Pat. No. 4,744,766 to Hall et al. discloses a low voltage electrical distribution system using a pair of planar conductive layers for mounting a jack plug. U.S. Pat. No. 3,007,131 to Dahlgren et al. teaches an electrical connector for connecting wide, printed circuit cables having more than one layer of conductors. While these devices are useful for their intended purpose, they are not appropriate for situations in which a relatively narrow strip lighting assembly is desirable.
While each of these mechanisms known in the prior art is useful for its intended purpose, a strip lighting assembly is needed which is relatively narrow, so as to permit the assembly to be as unnoticeable as possible, while permitting a variety of types of light bulbs to be easily mounted and illuminated, and permitting flexible options for supplying current to the assembly.


An integrated circuit package system including a plurality of substrates and a plurality of semiconductor devices formed on each of the substrates. An edge connection system is provided and an electrical edge connector on each of the substrates is for attachment to the edge connection system. A vertically stacked configuration of the substrates is formed by attaching the substrates to the edge connection system.

Integrated circuits are what power many of today's consumer electronics, for instance, cellphones, video cameras, portable music players, computers, etc. As customer demand improves integrated circuit performance, faster, more reliable, and higher-density circuits, need to be produced at a lower cost. Packaging goals of the future for these integrated circuits will be met by increasing the density of chips while reducing the number of internal electrical interconnections. Packaging with fewer interconnects can potentially shorten the circuit length, decreases potential failure points, reduces circuit resistance, and reduce inter-line capacitance or cross-talk. Various techniques, such as, flip chip, ball grid array (BGA), chip on board (COB), and multi-chip modules (MCM), have been developed to meet the continued demands for improving integrated circuit system performance.
MCM packaging is a design that enhances electrical performance by reducing circuit resistance and parasitic capacitance while reducing the size and weight of the total package. MCM package configurations mount several die onto a substrate, which permits a higher density per unit area than direct attachment of each individual die to a printed circuit board. Ultimately, as the demand for higher-density circuits continued, MCM package configurations needed to evolve to the next generational level.
For even higher density applications, MCM substrates have been stacked to provide a three-dimensional structure. Unfortunately, stacked MCM substrates are prone to expensive and complex layer formation, warpage and co-planarity issues, interconnection difficulties, heat dissipation problems and electromagnetic interference dilemmas. For example, impedance mismatches and capacitive interferences within interconnects between modules, may cause discontinuities in signal transmissions that can result in erroneous data transmissions. Additionally, heat dissipation problems are confounded by the use of heat sinks, which disrupt interconnect patterns between adjacent MCM substrates. Furthermore, high frequency applications on one MCM substrate can disrupt integrated circuit systems sensitive to such energy on adjacent MCM substrates.
Thus, a need still remains for an integrated circuit package system employing multiple substrates, each with one or more semiconductor chips, which reduces fabrication complexities and answers operational difficulties. In view of the ever-increasing need to save costs and improve efficiencies, it is more and more critical that answers be found to these problems.
Solutions to these problems have been long sought but prior developments have not taught or suggested any solutions and, thus, solutions to these problems have long eluded those skilled in the art.

Integrated circuit package system with edge connection system


The present invention is aimed at providing a two-dimensional photonic crystal wavelength multiplexer/demultiplexer capable of multiplexing and demultiplexing both TE and TM-polarized lights. In the wavelength multiplexer/demultiplexer, first and second resonators having the same resonance wavelength λr are provided between first and second waveguides and which are separately provided in a two-dimensional photonic crystal having a photonic band gap for the TE polarization. A first polarization converter for converting a TM-polarized light to a TE-polarized light is provided on the first waveguide 121 between the first and second resonators and. Similarly, a second polarization converter for converting a TE-polarized light to a TM-polarized light is provided on the second waveguide between the first and second resonators and. Among the light propagating through the first waveguide, the TE-polarized light with wavelength λr is introduced from the first resonator into the second waveguide, whereas the TM-polarized light is converted to a TE-polarized light by the first polarization converter and then introduced through the second resonator into the second waveguide.

Optical communication is a technique that could play a central role in future broadband communications. Accordingly, for widespread use of the optical communication, the optical components used in optical communication systems are required to be higher in performance, smaller in size and lower in price. Optical communication devices using photonic crystals are one of the leading candidates for the next-generation optical communication components that satisfy the aforementioned requirements. Some of these devices have already been put into practical use, an example of which is a photonic crystal fiber for polarization dispersion compensation. Furthermore, recent efforts have had the practical goal of developing optical multiplexers/demultiplexers and other devices that can be used in wavelength division multiplexing.
A photonic crystal consists of a dielectric body in which a periodic structure is formed. Typically, the periodic structure is created by providing the dielectric body with a periodic arrangement of modified refractive index areas, i.e. the areas whose refractive index differs from that of the dielectric body. Within the crystal, the periodic structure creates a band structure with respect to the energy of light and thereby produces an energy region in which the light cannot be propagated. Such an energy region is called the "photonic band gap" or "PBG."
Providing an appropriate defect in the photonic crystal creates a specific energy level within the PBG ("defect level"), and only such light that has a wavelength (or frequency) corresponding to the defect level is allowed to be present in the vicinity of the defect. A defect that is shaped like a point can be used as a resonator for the light having the aforementioned wavelength, whereas a linearly shaped defect can be used as a waveguide.
As an example of the previously described technique, Patent Document 1 discloses a two-dimensional photonic crystal having a body (or slab) provided with a periodic arrangement of modified refractive index areas, in which a linear defect of the periodic arrangement is created to form a waveguide and a point-like defect is created adjacent to the waveguide to form a resonator. This two-dimensional photonic crystal functions as the following two devices: a demultiplexer for extracting a component of light whose wavelength equals the resonance frequency of the resonator from the components of light having various wavelengths and propagated through the waveguide and for sending the extracted light to the outside; and a multiplexer for introducing the same light from the outside into the waveguide.
Including the one disclosed in Patent Document 1, many two-dimensional photonic crystals are designed so that a wide PBG is created for either a TE-polarized light, in which the electric field oscillates in the direction parallel to the body, or a TM-polarized light, in which the magnetic field oscillates in the direction parallel to the body. In this case, it is possible that no PBG is created for the other polarized light, or a PBG may be created for this polarized light but only under non-optimal conditions.
For example, if the photonic crystal is designed so that a PBG for the TE polarization (TE-PBG) is created and a defect level (resonance wavelength) due to a point-like defect (resonator) is created within the TE-PBG, it is possible that a PBG for the TM polarization (TM-PBG) is not created within the wavelength range of the TE-PBG. In this case, a TM-polarized light having the resonance wavelength does not resonate at the resonator. Therefore, in an attempt to demultiplex light having the resonance wavelength from broadband light passing through a waveguide located in the vicinity of the resonator, though the TE-polarized light can be almost completely extracted, the demultiplexing efficiency will be low since the TM-polarized light cannot be extracted. A similar problem also arises in the case of multiplexing.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-272555 (Paragraphs [0023] through [0027] and [0032]; FIGS. 1 and 5 through 6)

Polarization-independent two-dimensional photonic crystal multiplexer/demultiplexer


A method of advertising includes using light towers for new uses. Specifically, a skeleton may be employed to connect to a frame supporting at least one LED light from a frame connected to a mast of the light tower. The skeleton may locate a first display at a desired distance from the at least one LED light to backlight the first display. While first displays may be used with many embodiments, still other embodiments may have a second display as a vertically oriented display along a portion of the mast. The second display may deploy with the extension of mast portions for at least some embodiments.

Light towers have been around for a number of years. Many of these towers utilize high temperature lighting options. However, with the advent of LED lighting, lower temperature lights can give rise to at least one new option of advertising.
There is believed to be a need to provide at least one new advertising option for using light towers.


An automated analysis device includes: a first measurement unit having a reaction disc for retaining a plurality of reaction cells containing a mixed solution of sample and reagent on a circumference, a light source for irradiating the mixed solution contained in the reaction cells with light, and a light-receiving unit for detecting the irradiated light; a cleaning mechanism for cleaning the reaction cells having undergone measurement; disposable reaction containers for containing the mixed solution of sample and reagent; a second measurement unit that has a plurality of measurement channels for retaining the disposable reaction containers, and includes a light source for irradiating the disposable reaction containers retained in each of the plurality of measurement channels with light; a read unit for reading identification information; and a control unit for controlling an analysis condition for the sample on the basis of the information that has been read.

Sample tests that handle samples of blood, urine and the like collected from patients are classified into multiple testing fields such as a biochemical test, an immunological test and a blood coagulation test, and these multiple test results are integrated to confirm diagnosis and treatment effects.
For example, as tests for analyzing components such as blood and urine, a biochemical test that causes a reagent to react with a sample and measures components such as saccharide, lipids, proteins and enzymes, and an immunological test that measures antibodies produced when bacteria or virus enters the body, hormones, tumor markers and the like by an antigen-antibody reaction are known. Generally, the biochemical test is performed by using a biochemical automated analysis device which mixes a sample and a reagent and measures a change in color due to the chemical reaction by transmitted light, and the immunological test is performed by using an immunological testing device which, after adding antibodies in which a light emitter is bound to an antigen contained in a sample to cause an antigen-antibody reaction and washing the unbound antibodies, measures the light emission amount due to the bound antibodies. However, with the development of measurement instruments and measurement reagents in recent years, it has become possible to measure with high sensitivity due to transmitted light or scattered light using measurement methods such as immunoturbidimetry and a latex flocculation method even in a biochemical automated analysis device, and it has become possible to measure part of tumor markers, hormones and the like. Therefore, there are cases where it is possible to deal with testing items in which separate devices were conventionally required by a single device, and the difference between the two has become smaller.
In addition, in the blood coagulation test, there are tests for measuring blood coagulation time (hereinafter simply referred to as hemostatic function test, blood coagulation time measurement, etc.), which are a test of blood coagulation fibrinolytic markers for measuring control factors of blood coagulation reaction such as ATIII, enzymes working at the stage of fibrinolysis such as PIC, byproducts due to fibrinolysis such as D-dimer and FDP, and a test of hemostatic function such as PT, APTT and fibrinogen by activating the blood coagulation factors contained in the sample to proceed the blood coagulation reaction and measuring the precipitated fibrin.
In the former test of the blood coagulation fibrinolytic markers, a sample and a reagent are reacted and a change in the color due to the chemical reaction is measured, and thus a measurement with a biochemical automated analysis device is possible. In the latter hemostatic function test, it is necessary to measure the blood coagulation time and the detection method is different, and thus a dedicated blood coagulation automated analysis device is necessary.
In the hemostatic function test, it is known an automated analysis device using a method of optically measuring a change in turbidity accompanying the precipitation of fibrin and a method of physically measuring a change in viscosity accompanying the precipitation of fibrin. In recent years, in order to respond to the request for consistently measuring samples of the same patient and reporting the results, a blood coagulation analysis device in which a photometer measuring blood coagulation fibrinolytic markers and a blood coagulation time measurement unit measuring hemostatic testing items are mounted on one device has been generally known.


A microprocessor system has a bus system for coupling several processing units, each having an appertaining private cache memory and a common main memory. When an address operation of a transaction is executed, a transaction identification number is generated and transmitted on the system bus to all other subscribers together with the fed address of the initiating subscriber. In each subscriber, memory means are provided for storing the transmitted address and the co-delivered transaction identification number. Simultaneously with the assignment of the system bus for further transmissions, the address stored in the memory means are monitored in test means of the subscribers, and after monitoring, a synchronization signal and possibly accompanying signals are set by all subscribers for the abortion or continuation of a transaction. Given continuation with a data operation, an allocation of the data operation to its corresponding address operation can be achieved by return transmission of the associated transaction identification number together with the data to the initiating subscriber, which permits that the sequential order of the data operations sequence is not bound to that of the corresponding address operations.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multiprocessor system with a system bus to which several processing units having appertaining private cache memories and a common joint memory are connected as subscribers/users.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The development of hardware and software technology in the last few years has led, to an increasing extent, to multiprocessor systems that are used in data processing systems for an increase of the system capacity. Multiprocessor systems of this type use a system bus for the coupling of several processing units with one common main memory. Apart from the low costs, such a system bus has the advantage that, as a standardized transmission medium, it must merely be developed once and can be expanded in capacity and function via the connection of additional, also different processing units in a relatively simple fashion.
Due to the high data traffic between the processing units and the main memory, the requirements of the system bus are very high. The average data access time in the system is determined by the access time of the main memory and the capacity of the system bus. Due to the relatively long access time of the main memory, despite increasing integration and speed of the available memory modules, an output that is sufficiently high in multiprocessor systems can only be achieved with assistance of the private cache memories respectively assigned to the individual processing units. Best suitable for this purpose are copyback caches whereby, contrary to write-through-caches where all write accesses basically also go to the main memory and therefore burden the system bus, data changes are permitted in the cache memory without the main memory having to be brought to the same level.
This results in the necessity of guaranteeing the data consistency in the system, since memory data can be present in the main memory as well as in one or several private cache memories simultaneously. This means that, in the case of each transaction, the current value must be preserved independently from the fact of whether the data have been stored only in the main memory or additionally in one or several cache memories, or they have been modified in the cache memory and still have the current value only in that cache memory.
The responsibility of the cache memory for the correctness of data in the entire system can be recognized from several states which can be assigned to each cache memory entry. They result in the so-called MOESI model which has been applied, for example, in connection with the IEEE Futurebus in the article by Paul Sweazey and Alan Jay Smith, entitled "A Class of Compatible Cache Consistency Protocols and Their Support by the IEEE Futurebus", published 1986 by the IEEE, and whose name derives from the initial letters of the states--Modified, Owned, Exclusive, Shared and Invalid, hence, the MOESI model.
A transaction initiated by a processing unit consists of a sequence of operations on the system bus, for example given a read transaction, first the address and, subsequently, the appertaining data are transmitted. With a simple "non-pipeline" operating mode, whereby merely one address can be transmitted, and then there is waiting for the data, already considerable downtimes at the system bus develop when the access time of the responding subscriber is only slightly larger than zero. These downtimes can be partially used for the transmission of further addresses, in that in the "pipelining" operating mode, the transmitted addresses can be processed in parallel fashion by the receiving subscribers. However, in order to guarantee a clear assignment, the sequence of the data operations is bound to the sequential order of the corresponding address operations. A satisfactory operation of the system bus can be achieved when the access times of the parallel-operating units are approximately equal.
Since in real systems, however, considerable differences may occur in the access times, for example due to disturbances from refresh, in/output accesses, cache memory interventions, etc., and in the transit times due to variously-long paths, the utilization of the system bus is not sufficient to achieve a better average data access time. Moreover, the data consistency monitoring of the private cache memories which is necessary for each assignment of the system bus, naturally requires a certain time, so that the assignment of the system bus for the subsequent transaction can only be started with a corresponding delay.

Multiprocessor system having a system bus for the coupling of several processing units with appertaining private cache memories and a common main memory


A compound of the following formula:

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is a gut hormone produced by intestinal endocrine L-cells in response to nutrient ingestion. GLP-1 inhibits glucagon secretion and stimulates glucose-dependent insulin release from the pancreas. It was observed that administration of GLP-1 significantly lowered blood glucose levels in Type II diabetes patients (Zander M, et al. Lancet 2002, 359: 824-830).
However, GLP-1, whether endogenously or exogenously administered, degrades rapidly. (Kieffer T. J., et al. Endocrinology 1995, 136: 3585-3596; and Mentlein R, et al. Eur. J. Biochem. 1993, 214: 829-839). The degradation is attributable to dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP-IV), a member of the prolyl peptidase family. Recent clinical data indicate that inhibiting DPP-IV resulted in enhanced insulin secretion, reduced plasma glucose concentrations, and improved pancreatic β-cell function (Pederson R. A., et al. Diabetes 1998, 47: 1253-1258; and Ahren B, et al. Diabetes Care 2002, 25: 869-875). Thus, inhibitors of DPP-IV are potential drug candidates for Type II diabetes.
Dipeptidyl peptidase VIII (DPP-VIII), another member of the prolyl peptidase family, is highly homologuous to DPP-IV. Some functions ascribed to DPP-IV have been found to derive from the activity of DPP-VIII (Rosenblum J. S., et al. Current Opinion in Chemical Biology 2003, 7: 496-504).

Abstract: A compound of the following formula:

Abstract: wherein R1 R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, W, X, Y, Z, m, n, and p are as defined herein. This invention also covers methods for inhibiting dipeptidyl peptidase IV or VIII, or treating Type II diabetes with such a compound.


Systems and methods for object detection in a dusty environment can enhance the ability of autonomous machines to distinguish dust clouds from solid obstacles and proceed appropriately. A library of dust classifiers can be provided, where each dust classifier is separately trained to distinguish airborne dust from objects in the environment. Different dust classifiers can correspond to different categories of dusty environments. Based on current conditions, control logic in an autonomous machine can categorize its environment and select a corresponding dust classifier. The dust classifier output can be used to alter a behavior of the autonomous machine, including a behavior of the control logic. For instance, the control logic can apply a consistency check to the output of the dust classifier and an output of an AI-based object classifier to detect instances where the object classifier misidentifies dust as an object.

Autonomous machinery can be used in construction, mining, and other industrial operations to reduce the need for human labor and the attendant risks of injury or death. Autonomous machinery is typically outfitted with a variety of environmental sensors (e.g., cameras, LIDAR, etc.) to collect data about the surroundings and control logic to interpret the sensor data (e.g., detecting nearby objects) and regulate action of the machinery accordingly, allowing the machinery to perform a desired operation while avoiding collisions with other objects. When the control logic is unable to interpret the sensor data with high confidence, the machinery may stop and wait for input from a human supervisor.
Industrial sites, such as mines and construction areas, can be dusty environments. Dust particles or dust clouds in the air can register on environmental sensors and can be incorrectly identified by the control logic. For example, a dust cloud may be mistakenly identified as a solid obstacle. resulting in frequent stoppages of autonomous machinery. This can reduce productivity of the autonomous machinery as the autonomous machine may stop and wait for human intervention or reroute itself when it could have proceeded safely through the dust cloud.

Automated object detection in a dusty environment