A boat having an airfoil, providing aerodynamic lift, attached to the aft portion of the boat stabilized with canted vertical stabilization fins, an airfoil, providing and having aerodynamic lift, attached to the forward portion of the boat. Specifically, a boat is disclosed having an elongated air foil, pivotally attached to the forward portion of the boat and a stacked pair of elongated airfoils pivotally attached to the aft portion of the boat. The angle of attack of each of the airfoils can be independently adjusted. In addition, the aft pair of stacked airfoils as an assembly can be raised, lowered, and adjusted with respect to its angle of attack. Vertical stabilization fins are provided for the ends of the aft airfoils and the ends of the forward airfoils. The aft stabilization fins are canted to provide lateral stability and to concentrate forces acting on the boat to the middle of the boat. All of the airfoils are removably attached to the boat so that the boat can be readily configured with or without them.

An ongoing objective in watercraft hull design has been to minimize water-induced drag on the hull as it is propelled through the water, thereby effecting faster speeds and less fuel consumption. Three types of watercraft have been traditionally utilized with varying degrees of success to achieve the above objectives, the three types being displacement crafts, hydrofoil craft and planing craft. The displacement craft forms a wave at the bow of the boat which, at slow speeds has a single crest. As the speed of the craft increases, a second crest is formed which moves rearwardly, ultimately causing the craft to sink when a certain maximum speed is reached. The planing watercraft does not have this disadvantage because its hull is designed so that as the speed of the craft increases, it is lifted to and planes across the surface of the water. However, a great amount of power is required to bring the craft to planing speed, and relatively small waves at the water surface tend to capsize the craft. Thus planing vessels are dangerous to operate and primarily limited to racing events. The hyrofoil craft utilizes hydrofoils which are attached to the sides of the vessel and extend downwardly into the water below the lowermost portion of the hull of the craft. As the hydrofoil craft initially moves forward, the hull acts as that of a displacement craft. However, as its speed increases, the hydrofoils tend to lift the craft so that the hull no longer contacts the water, thereby resulting in the reduced water drag experienced by the planing craft. Hydrofoil craft exhibit considerably more stability than planing craft. All of the above watercraft have some disadvantages. The displacement craft is limited to relatively low speeds and has a maximum speed beyond which it will capsize. The planing craft can achieve high speeds, but is dangerous to operate. The hydrofoil craft, although overcoming some of the disadvantages of the displacement and planing craft, requires a specialized hull which is expensive to produce and is somewhat limited to use in larger craft.
The present invention discloses aerodynamic lift means which can be attached to either an inboard or outboard displacement type boat, preferably a water ski boat, thereby increasing its speed without the danger associated with a planing craft. The lift means acts through both the front portion and rear portion of the boat, thereby raising both the front and rear portions as the boat is propelled through the water. Such an arrangement has been disclosed and claimed in my copending application Ser. No. 890,746, filed Mar. 27, 1978, entitled "Winged Ski Boat". In the present embodiment, the lift means acting on the rear portion of the boat includes vertical stabilization fins, each having a portion canted to an angle of at least 30.degree., preferably in the range of 30.degree.-40.degree. from vertical. The canted fins serve to provide lateral stability and to concentrate forces acting on the boat to the middle of the boat. By raising both portions of the boat in this manner, some of the disadvantages of displacement type craft are overcome since the amount of hull surface area in contact with the water is reduced while at the same time the boat is stabilized. This is effected without the large power requirements and inherent danger associated with a planing craft or the unique hull design required by a hydrofoil craft.
In a specific embodiment, an outboard water ski boat is configured with a wing removably attached to the front portion of the boat and a pair of stacked wings removably attached to the rear portion of the boat. The angle of attack of each wing can be independently adjusted, thereby providing a lift adjustment means. Vertical stabilization fins are provided for the ends of the aft wings and can be provided for the ends of the front wings, the fins providing increased lateral stability for the boat. As above described, the rear vertical fins are each formed with a portion canted, inwardly or outwardly, to at least 30.degree., preferably in the range of 30.degree.-40.degree. from vertical, exemplified in the Figures by 35.degree.. A ski boat configured according to the invention has a smoother ride in that the boat rides higher on the water surface as it is propelled forward, yet remains stable. This additional height, and associated drag reduction, allows the ski boat to go faster with a given power source. In a specific model utilizing an 18 foot boat, the speed was increased from 60 m.p.h. without the lift producing wings to between 75 m.p.h. and 80 m.p.h. with the lift producing wings. Less fuel is used to maintain a predetermined speed because there is less drag created between the water and the hull surface extending into the water. Another advantage of the invention is that it allows a larger propeller to be used in conjunction with a given propulsion means because the rear portion of the boat is higher in the water than it would be without the wings, thereby lifting a portion of the propeller out of the water and reducing propeller drag.


A separation control circuit for a stereophonic receiver in which both the amount of separation between right- and left- channel signals is reduced and the amplification gain for higher frequency components of the two channel signals is reduced as the field strength of the received signal decreases. Thereby, the signal-to-noise ratio of the reproduced signal in the presence of a weak received signal is significantly improved. A single low-pass filter for each channel is used for both functions.

The present invention relates to a separation control circuit for a stereophonic receiver, and more particularly to a separation control circuit for preventing deterioration of the SN (signal-to-noise) ratio of the reproduced signal by controlling the amount of separation of a stereophonic signal in proportion to the received field strength.
In a conventional separation control circuit as shown in FIG. 1, left- and right-channel signals L and R are applied to respective output terminals L.sub.o and R.sub.o through respective coupling capacitors C.sub.2 and C.sub.3. A variable impedance circuit composed of a parallel combination of transistors 20 and 21 and a series-connected capacitor C.sub.1 for mixing purposes is connected between the terminals L.sub.o and R.sub.o. An AGC voltage is applied to control the output current of a variable current source 22, and the current output of the latter is applied as a bias current to the bases of the transistors 20 and 21 so that the impedance of the variable impedance circuit is controlled thereby.
In the circuit thus arranged, the impedance Z of the variable impedance circuit changes in proportion to changes in the AGC voltage, the latter varying according to the received field strength. Because the impedance Z becomes smaller as the received strength drops, the high-frequency components of the left- and right-channel signals L and R will be reduced due to an increased amount of mixing between channels through the variable impedance circuit. Accordingly, with it so arranged that current from the current source 22 increases when the AGC voltage decreases as the field strength is reduced, lowering of the SN ratio in the reproduced signal is reduced because of a reduction in the high-frequency separation when the field strength drops.
As set forth above, separation in the high-frequency range is reduced as the impedance Z of the variable impedance approaches 0. However, because the frequency characteristics of the amplifier do not change when the amount of separation is reduced, still there can occur some degeneration of the SN ratio when the field strength is lowered. To change the frequency characteristics of the amplifier circuit together with the separation, it is necessary to provide for each channel an LPF (Low-Pass Filter) in addition to those components shown in FIG. 1. This results in a complex circuit configuration.


A transmitter used in a communication system includes a raised cosine filter for transmit pulse shaping. A receiver in the communication system, designed to receive and demodulate transmissions from the transmitter, includes a root-raised cosine filter for receive pulse shaping. The use of a raised cosine filter in the transmitter enables reduction of peak-to-average ratio (PAR) of the output of a power amplifier used in the transmitter, enabling the power amplifier to be implemented to have relatively higher power efficiency than otherwise. In an embodiment, the transmitter and receiver employ π/2-shift binary phase-shift keying (π/2 BPSK), and the raised cosine filter in the transmitter is implemented to have a roll-off factor of 0.5 and a total length of four symbol periods. In an embodiment, the root-raised cosine filter is implemented to have a roll-of factor of 0.2 and a length of four symbol periods.

1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to communication circuits, and more specifically to pulse shaping in a communication system.
2. Related Art
Communication systems are well-known in the relevant arts, and generally include one or more transmitters and one or more receivers. The transmitters and receivers may communicate with each other using corresponding modulation techniques (digital and/or analog) and protocols. The modulation techniques include those in which information is represented as changes in one or more of the amplitude, frequency and phase of a carrier signal used in a transmitter, as is also well-known in the relevant arts. Some examples of modulation techniques used in communication systems include frequency-shift keying (FSK), phase-shift keying (PSK), quadrature-amplitude modulation (QAM), etc.
Pulse shaping generally refers to a technique by which the shape of a signal (e.g., binary pulse or a baseband signal) to be transmitted is modified (or filtered) prior to transmission. Pulse shaping may be used in a communication system for reasons such as to limit the bandwidth of a signal to fit within a channel bandwidth allocated or available for use by the signal, to mitigate the undesirable effects of inter-symbol interference due to finite bandwidth of the communication channel used (wireless or wireline), etc. Pulse shaping may also be used in a receiver, in conjunction with pulse shaping in a corresponding transmitter, to enable matched filtering of a received signal to minimize, or reduce to zero, noise due to inter-symbol interference (ISI).
The specific pulse shapes (or pulse shaping filters) that may be used in a transmitter and receiver of a communication system may be selected based on considerations such as, for example, ease of implementation, the desired level of reduction in ISI, etc.


A one man portable electromagnetic pulse transmitter includes a standard rifle having a muzzle and capable of firing a blank cartridge containing propellant. A blank firing adapter is fixed to the muzzle of the rifle. A piezolectric generator is aligned with the gas exit orifice of the blank firing adapter. An antenna is electrically connected to the piezolectric generator and an electromagnetic shield is disposed between the antenna and the piezolectric generator.

The invention relates in general to directed energy weapons and in particular to electromagnetic pulse weapons.
Directed energy weapons, such as electromagnetic pulse weapons, can be used to disrupt or destroy electronic devices. The targeted electronic devices may be, for example, communications equipment; vehicle engine control units installed in land, sea or air vehicles; weapon fire control systems; or other electronic devices. The principal problem with known directed energy weapons is their large size. The large size stems from either a large power source or a large radiating element, or both. The structure of the radiating element or antenna is related to the frequency of the directed energy. Known directed energy weapons are so large that often a vehicle is required to tow them to the area of use. Towing the directed energy weapon with a vehicle is not always desirable because it requires manpower, fuel and time to transport, setup and operate the weapon system.
A need exists for an inexpensive, one man portable directed energy weapon.

Electromagnetic pulse transmitter muzzle adaptor

The United States of America as Represented by the Secretary of the Army


Weight and complexity concerns in geared rotary actuators and stop mechanisms for aircraft or the like may be minimized in the structure including a housing (18) adapted to be fixed to another structure, a rotatable input shaft (14) journalled by the housing (18), an output shaft (22, 28) journalled by the housing and a coupling between the input shaft (14) and the output shaft (22, 28) including at least one rotatable gear (42). The system includes a mechanical sensor (66) for sensing when the gear (42) has rotated close to an overtravel position and a first stop element (82) is associated with the input shaft (14) to be rotatable therewith. A second stop element (80) is movable into interfering relation with the first stop element (82) to stop rotation thereof and is carried by a gear part (19). Also included is an actuator (60, 62, 68, 70, 72) responsive to the sensor (66) for moving the second stop element (80).

Systems including power trains for actuating, for example, control surfaces on aircraft, and which require geared rotary actuators typically require high capacity overtravel stops. Such stops prevent system components from moving past positions defining the ends of a path of travel as a result of inertial loading within the system. In the usual case, most inertial energy in the system is located at the drive motor in the power drive unit. Consequently, the preferred location for a stop mechanism is remote from the motor so that shafting between the motor and the stops can provide a soft, spring-like action when the stops are engaged. In aircraft, this means that the stop mechanism should be located very close to the geared rotary actuator which in turn is in close proximity to the control surface to be moved. And, as in all aircraft situations, it is desirable that the system be light in weight as well as of small bulk and of minimal complexity to minimize cost and enhance reliability.
The present invention is directed to the provision that a geared rotary actuator incorporating an internal stop mechanism to achieve minimal cost, weight, bulk and complexity.

Geared rotary actuator with internal stop mechanism


This invention provides fusion proteins comprising consecutive amino acids which beginning at the amino terminus of the protein correspond to consecutive amino acids present in (i) a cytomegalovirus human MHC-restricted peptide, (ii) a first peptide linker, (iii) a human β-2 microglobulin, (iv) a second peptide linker, (v) a HLA-A2 chain of a human MHC class I molecule, (vi) a third peptide linker, (vii) a variable region from a heavy chain of a scFv fragment of an antibody, and (viii) a variable region from a light chain of such scFv fragment, wherein the consecutive amino acids which correspond to (vii) and (viii) are bound together directly by a peptide bond or by consecutive amino acids which correspond to a fourth peptide linker, wherein the antibody from which the scFv fragment is derived specifically binds to mesothelin. This invention provides nucleic acid constructs encoding same, processes for producing same, compositions, and uses thereof.

Throughout this application, certain publications are referenced. Full citations for these publications may be found immediately preceding the claims. The disclosures of these publications are hereby incorporated by reference into this application in order to more fully describe the state of the art to which this invention relates.
According to current immune surveillance theory, the immune system continuously locates and destroys transformed cells. However, some cells escape from an apparently effective immune response and consequently become tumors (1-4). Tumor evasion from immune response is a well established phenomenon demonstrated in numerous studies and is caused by a wide variety of suggested mechanisms (1-4). Among these mechanisms are: the production of suppressive cytokines, the loss of immunodominant peptides, the resistance to killing mechanisms (apoptosis), and the loss of MHC class I (1-4). One of the evasion mechanisms shown to be strongly correlated with tumor progression is the loss or down regulation of MHC class I molecules. This evasion mechanism is abundant in many tumors and can result from a number of different mutations. Several studies revealed weak spots in the MHC class I loading and presentation route including loss of beta-2-microglobulin, TAP1/TAP2 mutations, LMP mutations, loss of heterozygocity in the MHC genes, and down regulation of specific MHC alleles.
Current cancer immunotherapy strategies typically employ the two arms of the immune system: the humoral and the cellular systems. In the first, systemic injection of high affinity monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) directed against cell surface tumor associated antigens has demonstrated statistically significant anti-tumor activity in clinical trials (5,6). Furthermore, anti-tumor mAbs that carry effectors such as cytokines or toxins are currently being evaluated in clinical trials (7). The second major approach for specific cancer immunotherapy employs the cellular arm of the immune system, mainly the CD8+ cytotoxic T-lymphocytes. Two major strategies are currently being used to increase the anti-tumor effectiveness of the cellular arm of the immune system: (i) active immunization of patients with peptides known to be recognized by T-lymphocytes, and (ii) adoptive transfer therapies that enable the selection, activation, and expansion of highly reactive T-cell subpopulations with improved anti-tumor potency. In the first approach, MHC-restricted peptides derived from recently identified tumor associated antigens (such as gp100, the MAGE group, NY-ESO-1) are used to vaccinate patients. These tumor specific antigen-derived peptides are highly specific due to their exclusive expression in specific tissues (8-11). The second strategy, adoptive cell transfer, has recently shown impressive results in metastatic melanoma patients in which highly selected, tumor-reactive T-cells against different over-expressed self-derived differentiation antigens were isolated, expended ex-vivo and reintroduced to the patients. In this approach, a persistent clonal repopulation of T-cells, proliferation in vivo, functional activity, and trafficking to tumor sites were demonstrated (12-14).
A new immunotherapeutic approach recently presented takes advantage of two well-established areas: (i) the known effectiveness of CD8+ cytotoxic T-lymphocytes in the elimination of cells presenting highly immunogenic MHC/peptide complexes, and (ii) the tumor-specific cell surface antigens targeting via recombinant fragments of antibodies, mainly single chain Fv fragments (scFvs). This approach utilizes a recombinant fusion protein composed of two functionally distinct entities: (i) a single-chain MHC class I molecule that carries a highly immunogenic tumor or viral-derived peptide, and (ii) a tumor-specific, high-affinity scFv fragment (15). Several groups have previously shown that a biotinylated MHC peptide multimerized on streptavidin or monomeric HLA-A2/influenza (Flu) matrix peptide complexes coupled via chemical conjugation to tumor-specific antibodies could induce in vitro T-lymphocyte-mediated lysis of coated tumor cells (16-20). However, these approaches utilize chemical conjugation and use whole antibodies or larger fragments, e.g. Fab fragments. However, production and homogeneity owing to the coupling strategy as well as tumor penetration capability are limited due to the large size of such molecules. Lev et al. describe a genetic fusion created between a single-chain recombinant HLA-A2 and tumor specific scFvs. These fusions were shown to be functional in vitro and in vivo, being able to specifically induce T-lymphocyte mediated in vitro and in vivo lysis of target-coated tumor cells (15). The stability of the new chimeric molecule is highly dependent on the presence of the peptide in the MHC groove. Therefore, dissociation of the peptide from the scHLA-A2 domain of the chimeric molecule can impair its stability. Oved et al. addressed this problem by constructing new chimeric molecules in which the peptide is connected to the scHLA-A2/scFv construct via a short linker. This new fusion protein was tested for its in vitro biochemical and biological activity (21).
There is a widely recognized need for a new fusion protein that can maintain its dual activity: bind tumor target cells through the scFv moiety as well as mediate potent, effective and specific cytotoxicity through the recruitment of CD8+ T-cells whose specificity is governed by the covalently linked HLA-A2-restricted peptide.
The MHC class I-restricted CD8+ cytotoxic T-cell (CTL) effector arm of the adaptive immune response is best equipped to recognize tumor cells as foreign and initiate the cascade of events resulting in tumor destruction. However, tumors have developed sophisticated strategies to escape immune effector mechanisms, of which the best-studied is the downregulation of MHC class I molecules which present the antigens recognized by CTLs.
To overcome the limitation of previous approaches and develop new approaches for immunotherapy, a recombinant molecule was constructed in which a single-chain MHC is specifically targeted to tumor cells through its fusion to cancer specific-recombinant antibody fragments or a ligand that binds to receptors expressed by tumor cells.

Fusion proteins, uses thereof and processes for producing same

Technion Research & Development Foundation Ltd.


A control apparatus for a restraint device in a motor vehicle has a detector for detecting a child seat disposed on a vehicle seat, a pickup for determining the position of the vehicle seat, and an evaluation device. The evaluation device furnishes a control signal for the restraint device as a function of the vehicle seat position and as a function of a status signal of the detector for detecting a child seat.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a control apparatus for a restraint device in a motor vehicle.
Modern control apparatuses for restraint devices in motor vehicles, by using suitable sensors, detect not only whether a collision forceful enough that the restraint device should be triggered is occurring, but also whether a child seat has been placed on the front passenger seat. If a child seat on the front passenger seat is detected, then the inflation of an air bag for front-impact protection installed in front of the front passenger seat, or of an air bag for side-impact protection installed to the side of the front passenger seat, is either averted or sharply reduced. If an air bag disposed in the vicinity of a child seat is inflated without restriction, the child sitting in the child seat can possibly be injured severely. Numerous devices for detecting a child seat disposed on a vehicle seat have therefore already been proposed.
From Published, European Patent Disclosure EP 0 708 002 A1, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,618,056 which is hereby incorporated by reference, a control apparatus with a child seat detecting device is known what has one transmitting and one receiving antenna, each disposed in the vehicle seat. If a child seat equipped with a transponder/resonator is placed on a thus-prepared vehicle seat, then its presence is detected. The detection occurs via a transmitting antenna in which an exciter field is output that is picked up by the transponder, modified in a characteristic way, and transmitted back to the vehicle seat. The measurement field picked up by the receiving antenna is examined for the presence of the signal characteristic for the presence of the transponder. If a child seat disposed on the vehicle seat is detected, an impact-detecting control device that trips restraint devices is influenced in such a way that a signal for tripping the restraint device is blocked.
If the child seat is provided with two transponders and if the vehicle seat has two transmitting antennas and two receiving antennas, then from the mere detection of a child seat, the orientation of the child seat can be ascertained. A forward-facing child seat disposed on the vehicle seat can thus be distinguished from a rear-facing child seat on the vehicle seat, whose backrest thus faces the dashboard. Tripping of the restraint device can be varied depending on the orientation of the child seat. For instance, if a forward-facing child seat is detected, tripping can be allowed, while for a rear-facing child seat tripping is prevented.
Tripping of the restraint device is influenced by the known control apparatus solely as a function of the detection of a forward-facing or rear-facing child seat, and hence on the basis of only a few parameters. Under certain preconditions, tripping will therefore be prevented even when tripping would do more good than harm to the child in the child seat.
From U.S. Pat. No. 5,413,378, a control apparatus for a restraint device in a motor vehicle is known which has a weight sensor disposed in the vehicle seat. Various pickups (i.e. sensors) for vehicle seat settings, such as one pickup for the position of the vehicle seat and one pickup for the angle of inclination of the seat back, and ultrasonic sensors can also be used. Depending on the position of a passenger as detected by the sensors, the inflation of an air bag is done in metered fashion. For instance, if a passenger who is sitting far forward toward the dashboard is detected, the air bag is inflated only slightly, or in other words with a small volume of gas.

Control system for an air bag with child seat detection and seat position detection


A parts mounting apparatus includes a structure (34) on which a spindle (31) is supported to be movable up and down, and the spindle has a vacuum suction path (36). Either a normal nozzle (50) or a nozzle for image recognition (141) can be attached to a lower end of the spindle. When the normal nozzle is attached to the spindle, parts positioning jaws (61a-62b) supported on the structure performs a centering operation of the parts sucked to the normal nozzle in accordance with vertical movement of the spindle by a cam device (90) and a motor (93). When the nozzle for image recognition is attached to the spindle, a CPU (201) controls the motor so that rise of the spindle can be stopped before the nozzle for image recognition enters an operating region of the jaws.

1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for mounting surface mounting components onto a circuit board.
2. Description of the prior art
Vacuum suction type pick-and-place devices are generally used to mount surface mounting components onto a circuit board. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Gazette No. 63-178597 shows an example. The picked-up parts are often shifted in position and angle from the state proper position on the suction nozzle. Accordingly, even if the center of the nozzle coincides with the center of the land pattern of the board, the parts are not necessarily put on the right place. Therefore, the positions of the parts must be corrected before mounting. There are two ways of parts position correction. The first is correction of parts position and direction using jaws. Such a device is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Gazette No. 63-178597. In this, device the nozzle and the jaws are respectively supported on different structures; the nozzle on a movable structure and the jaws on a immobile one. The device in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Gazette No. 62-111496 is a variation of this type, in which a nozzle and jaws are supported on one movable structure.
In the second method parts position correction is done by adjusting the positional relationship between the nozzle and the circuit board, not that of the nozzle and parts. In this method, it is necessary to know the position of the parts relative to the nozzle by image recognition. An example of this type of device is shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Gazette No. 58-213496.
Furthermore, devices with nozzle changeability to handle a wide variety of parts have been developed. Examples of this sort of machine are seen in documents such as Japanese Patent Laid-Open Gazette Nos. 59-69992, 63-16700 and 1-121138.
Therefore, a principle object of the present invention is to provide a novel parts mounting apparatus.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a parts mounting apparatus capable of selectively using normal nozzles and nozzles for image recognition.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a parts mounting apparatus having jaws on the nozzle-supporting structure to mechanically position parts held on a normal nozzle during nozzle travel. These jaws are kept inactive during the use of a nozzle for image recognition.
A parts mounting apparatus in accordance with the present invention comprises a spindle (31) vertically held and having a vacuum suction path (36) inside; a group nozzles (50, 141) selectively mounted on the lower end of said spindle and made to have communication with said vacuum suction path; a nozzle for image recognition (141) included in the above mentioned nozzle group; parts positioning jaws (61a, 61b, 62a, 62b) supported on a structure (34) for centering parts sucked by a normal nozzle with their tips, the same structure also supporting said spindle being able to move upward/downward; means (30, 90, 93, 201, 208) for applying to the spindle vertical motion for picking and placing the parts; means (30, 67, 201, 208) for causing said jaws open/close movement,; and means (30, 90, 93, 201, 208) for preventing the jaws from performing the centering operation.
The spindle with a normal nozzle is raised to the upper limit of the stroke after picking up a parts, and the jaws position the part. When a nozzle for image recognition is in the place of normal nozzle, the spindle ends its upward movement before it reaches the upper limit, and the nozzle for image recognition, which has no need for mechanical positioning of parts, does not enter the working area of jaws. Consequently, the parts positioning jaws do not perform a part centering operation when the nozzle for image recognition is used.
According to the present invention, a parts mounting apparatus can be used with a nozzle for image recognition being mounted on the head portion provided with parts positioning jaws, thereby the function of the machine is enhanced.
The objects and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the embodiments of the present invention when taken in conjunction with accompanying drawings.


The present disclosure relates to a question recommending method, apparatus, and system. The method includes: constructing, by a server, an interest vector of a user according to a short-term interest, a long-term interest, and a group interest of the user, the interest vector of the user including multiple interest items; acquiring a candidate-for-recommendation question from a set of to-be-resolved questions according to the multiple interest items; estimating, according to a click-through rate (CTR) model, probability of answering the candidate-for-recommendation question by the user, and selecting a to-be-recommended question according to the estimated probability; and sending the to-be-recommended question to a client. In this way, a real-time comprehensive recommendation result can be obtained, and a question answering rate of an interactive question-and-answer platform can also be improved.

Nowadays, more interactive question-and-answer communities provide question-and-answer interaction platforms for the vast majority of users. The question-and-answer interaction platform has the following features: some users ask questions in the community as questioners, and some other users who are capable of providing answers find and answer these questions as answerers, to resolve puzzles of the questioners; the questions and answers are accumulated on the platform, to form a repository, which can directly provide answers for subsequent "questioners" who have questions the same as those in the repository. In an interactive question-and-answer community, hundreds of thousands of questions are raised every day, and to provide answers to the questions rapidly and effectively, it is necessary to provide an approach to help answerers find in time questions that meet their interests and capabilities. An objective of a question recommending system is to recommend questions that meet interests and capabilities of capable users.

Question recommending method, apparatus and system


The present invention teaches a system and method to reduce the peak-to-average power ratio of systems transmitting parallel channels. Examples of such systems are Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) and Orthogonal Code Division Multiplex (OCDM), also known as multi-code CDMA. Both systems have the disadvantage of a large peak-to-average power (PAP) ratio, which degrades the efficiency of the power amplifier of the transmitter. The present invention reduces the PAP problem by canceling the large signal peaks through subtraction of an appropriate reference function. That is, a time shifted and scaled reference function is subtracted from the sampled signal, such that each subtracted reference function reduces the peak power of at least one signal sample. In accordance with the present invention, an appropriate reference function with approximately or exactly the same bandwidth as the transmitted signal is selected. In this way it is assured that the peak power reduction does not cause any out-of-band interference. One example of a suitable reference signal for use in the present invention is a sinc function. The present invention also describes a variety of systems for implementation of the peak reduction technique. In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, forward error correction coding is applied across several OFDM/OCDM symbols, in order to correct for symbols with low average power. In case of packet transmission, a different data scrambling is applied for each retransmission, in order to ensure that the PAP ratios and error probabilities are uncorrelated for initial packets and retransmissions.

Orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) signals have been proposed for various communications applications. An OFDM signal consists of a number of adjacent carriers, closely spaced in frequency, and each modulated with data. With OFDM, a data stream of .chi. bps is transmitted over N subcarriers, each carrying .chi./N bps. An advantage of OFDM technology is that the symbol rate of the data stream is decreased by a factor of N, which gives a proportional increase in delay spread tolerance. That is, delay spread or inter-symbol interference due to signal dispersion can be reduced or even eliminated by inserting a guard time interval between the transmission of subsequent symbols, thus avoiding use of an equalizer as required in single carrier systems. The guard time allows delayed copies of each symbol to die out before the succeeding symbol is received. Thus, OFDM is attractive because of its ability to overcome the adverse effects of multi-channel transmission without the need for equalization. Orthogonal Code Division Multiplex (OCDM), also known as multi-code CDMA is similar to OFDM, with a difference that instead of N subcarriers, N codes are transmitted simultaneously.
A disadvantage with the transmission of both OFDM and OCDM signals is that the maximum possible peak power is N times larger than the average transmitted power. This large peak-to-average power (PAP) ratio reduces the efficiency of the corresponding transmitter power amplifier. In order to avoid distortion of the transmitted signal, a backoff (which is the reduction in average transmitted power relative to the maximum possible output power) has to be used which is about the same as the PAP ratio of the input signal. There is a certain tradeoff between distortion and power efficiency. That is, efficiency can be improved by decreasing the backoff, allowing for more distortion. The amount of distortion that can be tolerated, however, depends on spectral regulations and required error rate.
Due to the tradeoff which exists between power efficiency and distortion, a need exists for a system which maximizes power efficiency while at the same time minimizing distortion.

Transmission system and method employing peak cancellation to reduce the peak-to-average power ratio


A method and apparatus for improving storage controller throughput and reducing unit control block contention when selecting a Utility Volume for servicing non-specific read requests. Throughput is increased by enabling the storage controller to service non-specific read requests issued against a Utility Volume which is not the same as the device associated with the data that the non-specific read is requesting. The Utility Volume is dynamically selected by considering the current loads on the available devices for both specific and non-specific processing. A Penalty Index is assigned to each volume, wherein the Penalty Index is a weighted average of the specific and non-specific processing. The device having the lowest Penalty Index is selected as the Utility Volume for a session. A Penalty Index evaluation is made at a Reference Point which is further enabled by a random clock to ensure that sessions do not likely pick the same Utility Volume.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to data management within computer storage subsystems and in particular to an improved method and system for selecting a non-busy device address when performing non-specific read requests.
2. Description of the Related Art
Data processing systems frequently include large scale storage devices, such as Direct Access Storage Devices (DASD) which are located externally to a host computer system and sometimes at significant distances from the host computer system. A storage controller is often installed between host processors and the DASD devices themselves. The storage controller acts not only as a path director for data flowing between the host computer and the DASDs but also as a performance enhancer for the data processing system as a whole. This second activity is accomplished through the use of cached memory within the storage controller.
The IBM 3990 Model 3, and Model 6 are examples of a storage controller having a cache function. This storage controller can attach to 370, 370-XA, ESA/370 and ESCON channels which are all well known in the art. When the storage controller is operating with 370 channels, it provides path-independent device allocation. When, on the other hand, the storage controller is operating with 370-XA, ESA/370 channels, it provides both path-independent device allocation and dynamic path reconnection.
Communication between the host computer and the storage controller is typically accomplished over data channels which are well known in the art. An example of such a data channel is the IBM Corporation's ESCON channel architecture. The data channels allow communication between the host computer and the storage controller using a set of commands which direct the controller to process specific data at specific locations. For example, in the IBM System/360 and System/370 host environments, the central processing unit (CPU) issues a series of commands identified in 360/370 architecture as Channel Command Words (CCWs) which control the operation of the associated DASD through the storage controller.
A common architecture used within storage subsystems is known as "Count-Key-Data" (CKD). With this architecture, records written on a track within a DASD unit are provided with a count field (size), an optional key field (identification) and a data field (record). A record on DASD may occupy one or more units of real storage. A dataset (also known as a data item) is a logical collection of multiple records which may be stored on contiguous units of real storage or which may be dispersed. Data is then stored and/or retrieved from a DASD using write and read requests which are issued by the host system.
Another channel program protocol, known as Extended Count Key Data (ECKD) was introduced to facilitate subsystem operation in an asynchronous manner. ECKD additionally provides an extended command set from that of CKD. ECKD includes all of the CKD commands, and enhanced versions of specific commands. Existent ECKD data retrieval protocols assume a host process data read request includes data descriptors. Data descriptors identify the location of a requested data record on DASD as well as the specific DASD (a device address which may also be referred to as a Utility Volume). Situations exist, however, wherein data is retrievable without data descriptors, for example, when retrieving data that is not associated with a particular device, for example, for data resident in cache or stored for concurrent or remote copy.
A data transfer operation is initiated by the host computer generating a START I/O instruction which is passed to the channel and causes control to be relinquished to a chain of CCWs. The CCW chain is then sent over the channel to the storage controller so that control operations can be effected and the proper storage device can be selected to activate data transfer.
Each CCW is separately resident in the CPU main store and must be fetched by the channel program, decoded and transferred to the storage controller. The CCW specifies the command to be executed and the storage area, if any, to be used.
The mechanism which enables host systems to retrieve data which has previously been stored on a disk is the "data disk address". Therefore, when issuing a read request, the host system specifies where on the DASD storage subsystem the data has been placed. Later, if the host system wishes to retrieve this data it will issue a read request utilizing the same address.
Data stored on a disk within a storage subsystem is always associated with a unique data descriptor which identifies that data. In a read request the host specifies the data descriptor of the data it wishes to receive. In response to such a request the DASD subsystem will send the referenced data back to the host. For purposes of the explanation herein, such read requests which utilize data descriptors are referred to as "specific read requests".
Over the past few years, cache, or high density electronic memory has been introduced into DASD storage subsystems. Access time between the cache and the channel is much faster than that between DASD and the channel. There are various physical device movements and other operations associated with DASD which limit data transmission speed. One such limitation is the time required for the magnetic disk to rotate until it is aligned with the transducer contained in the read head. Another is the limited bandwidth associated with the magnetic transducers used to read and write data.
These limitations are not present with a cache access. Through the use of various caching algorithms, frequently used data is maintained in cache storage rather than being read directly from DASD and, as a result, can be supplied to the channel at the speed associated with electronic storage rather than that of magnetic storage.
For read operations data can be transferred between the cache and channel at channel speeds which can often be as high as 18 MB per second, for example, depending upon the host processor, cache and channel configurations. In addition, it is also possible to accept and process write operations originating from the channel at greatly improved speeds through the use of cache.
In the ECKD architecture, the host refers to data stored on disk devices by data address. The data address is composed of a unique device address and the location of the data on the device. When a host issues a data request, read or write, it must select a device address first. This selection serves two different purposes. First, it is the mechanism by which the host informs the storage controller of the device portion of the data address. Secondly, it reserves the device for the request, blocking the execution of other requests against this device. This is done to prohibit attempts of multiple concurrent accesses to the physical disk device since the mechanics of the disk do not allow concurrent accesses to the media. Third, once a chain is issued, nothing should interfere with the chain, that is, the chain is an atomic operation.
The host processor maintains a Unit Control Block (UCB) lock for every DASD. When an I/O access is requested, the host first locks the host UCB entry associated with the device and then issues the request to the storage controller. During the period that the I/O request is being serviced, the UCB entry remains locked. If another request is made for data on the same device the request will be rejected or queued until the host UCB entry is freed.
The storage controller similarly maintains a UCB lock for every device. The storage controller UCB ensures serialization between multiple hosts, in the case where multiple hosts are connected to the storage controller. This storage controller UCB prevents multiple accesses to the same DASD by more than one host processor. When a device is selected in connection with a host data request, its UCB is reserved. Any other request attempting to select this device is rejected until the original request ends.
It is important to realize that in addition to allowing faster access to data, cache memory provides another key feature. As opposed to DASD units, cache permits multiple concurrent access to its data. In the absence of the invention described herein and as a result of the prior art data selection process, two data requests are still prohibited from concurrent execution if they refer to data on the same device even when the relevant data image is in the cache. This is because specific read requests, as described above, specify a disk address regardless of whether the data is in cache since the host is unaware of the true location of the requested data. Furthermore, two data requests specifying the same disk address are prevented from executing concurrently due to the limitations of the DASD devices.
When cache is present in a storage subsystem it is necessary to have two locks in addition to those described above. The first is a physical device lock. There is one such lock per DASD device and it is held when an access to the physical device is in progress. The lock may be held due to a host data request or a storage controller internal resource management operation. This lock, instead of the UCB lock in a non-cache environment, arbitrates attempts to gain multiple concurrent access to a particular physical device.
A second lock, termed a data lock, is also necessary in a cached subsystem. There is one such lock per "data item" contained within the cache memory and the lock is reserved when accessing the "data item" in the cache. Although the size of a "data item" can vary, for exemplary purposes it is noted that in the IBM 3990 Model 3, a "data item" corresponds to one track of data. Since cache, as described above, allows for multiple concurrent accesses to data, these locks are necessary to prevent multiple concurrent accesses to a specific item of data in the cache.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that, in addition to providing cache access, it would be advantageous to permit a host system to retrieve data from a DASD subsystem on a basis other than a data descriptor. For example, in cases where the host system requests a large amount of data occupying many disk tracks the efficiency of transferring that data to the host might be enhanced if the order of data access and transfer is modified in order to minimize both seek time and latency time within the data storage subsystem.
This is generally not possible since host systems do not know the head location within the DASD subsystem and thus are not able to issue specific read requests which would minimize the disk seek and latency time. A method for permitting this type of data transfer using "non-specific reads" is described in a copending commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,408,656 filed on Sep. 23, 1992 and titled "Method and System for Non-Specific Data Retrieval in a Data Processing System".
Non-Specific Data retrieval, as described in the above referenced patent application, is a method for increasing the efficiency of data retrieval from multiple DASDs by permitting the host system to retrieve data utilizing a non-specific read request. In other words, data may be requested by the host by specifying a non-address attribute. For example, in a case where large amounts of data need to be transferred and the order of transfer is not important, the storage subsystem can retrieve data which is physically closest to the head within the DASD device.
This is accomplished by specifying boundary addresses between which all data present is to be retrieved by the storage controller and transmitted to the host system. Thus, all data records between the boundary addresses are retrieved without specifying exact address data for each desired dataset. In addition to boundary addresses, data may be retrieved "non-specifically" by specifying as the non-address attribute those datasets which have been updated subsequent to a specified event.
Even with the advent of cache memory within storage controllers and the methodology of non-specific reads, storage controller throughput can be less than desirable. Currently, many disk device I/O protocols are implemented such that the number of I/O requests that may occur concurrently is limited by the number of physical devices that exist in a computer storage subsystem. This is because the majority of protocols, including IBM ECKD, associate each I/O operation with a device address. Furthermore, most storage controllers, including the IBM Model 3990, will only accept I/O operations directed toward a physical device to which it is attached and then only one operation per physical device at a time.
Given the above storage controller implementation limitations, the maximum number of concurrent I/O requests (which is equal to the number of physical DASDs) can not be overcome. In a typical data processing environment, however, all of the devices in the storage subsystem are rarely, if ever, accessed at the same time. Often specific DASD units are much more busy than other DASD units within the same storage subsystem. In fact, there are many devices that remain continuously idle and are used only as back up units in the event that another device fails.
Storage controller throughput is improved by using non-specific read requests, that is, the host computer specifies addresses of non-busy spare devices for accessing data stored on other busy devices to allow for concurrent data transfers between the host processor and a group of DASD devices through the storage controller. This is more fully described in copending, commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,493,724, filed on Apr. 1, 1993 and titled "Utility Volume For Non-Specific Reads". While non-specific reads can enhance storage system throughput, the inventors of the present invention have discovered that if certain device addresses are used extensively as utility volumes, then queuing still occurs, thus not only reducing performance gains but possibly reducing even the base performance. Hence, good utility volume selection must take into account load dynamics in the data processing system. Heretobefore, a method for dynamic utility volume selection for improving non-busy device selection has not been known.
Thus, what is needed is dynamic selection mechanism for selecting a non-busy utility volume when servicing a non-specific read request, by considering load balancing dynamics.

Method for optimal retrieval of non-volume-specific data

International Business Machines Corporation


Disclosed is a process for degassing liquid sulfur under pressure. A stream of liquid sulfur containing polysulfides and hydrogen sulfide and a stream of an oxidizing gas are introduced into a vessel and intimately mixed to provide intimate contact between the two streams. The streams are passed through the vessel at a pressure of at least about 40 psig and at a temperature and for a residence time sufficient to remove substantially all of the polysulfides and hydrogen sulfide from the liquid sulfur.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the chemical arts. In particular, it relates to a process for degassing liquid sulfur.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
An important process for removing hazardous hydrogen sulfide (H.sub.2 S) from various waste gases, including gases produced during the refining of petroleum products, is known as the Claus process. It involves the following net reaction: EQU H.sub.2 S+1/2O.sub.2 .fwdarw.H.sub.2 O+S (1)
Unfortunately, the handling of the liquid sulfur produced by plants using the Claus process can be extremely difficult. Many fires and explosions have occurred during the storage and transport of liquid sulfur, because of the accumulation of toxic and highly flammable H.sub.2 S gas.
The H.sub.2 S gas is produced by the gradual decomposition of polysulfides present in the liquid sulfur as represented by the following equation: ##EQU1## The dissolved H.sub.2 S then passes into the gas phase by physical desorption. ##EQU2## Consequently, to be successful, a degassification process must not only remove H.sub.2 S, but must also remove polysulfides, to prevent the subsequent generation of additional H.sub.2 S.
It is a disadvantage of modern, commercial degassification processes that they require large, complex and, accordingly, expensive equipment. For example, in one process, known as the Shell process, degassing takes place in a storage tank or sulfur pit equipped with stripping columns, where liquid sulfur is vigorously agitated by bubbling air therethrough at atmospheric pressure. The stripping columns are open at their tops and bottoms to allow the sulfur to circulate at a rate of a few hundred times per hour. The bubble air, together with an additional flow of air, is then used as a low pressure sweep gas to displace the gases produced by the degassification process. The low pressure gases so produced are then fed to an incinerator where the H.sub.2 S is oxidized to SO.sub.2 and released to the atmosphere. Depending on the design, a liquid or gaseous catalyst, such as ammonia, ammonium thiosulfate, urea, morpholine, or an alkanol amine may be added for accelerating the decomposition of the polysulfide into H.sub.2 S.
In an alternative process, known as the SNEA process, degassing takes place by repeated circulation and spraying of the liquid sulfur into the sulfur pit. Release of dissolved H.sub.2 S is achieved by spraying liquid sulfur through jets at a specific velocity. Ammonia, injected at the suction of the recirculation pump, is typically used as a catalyst. After the H.sub.2 S gas is released, it is removed by a sweep gas and fed to an incinerator. Both the stripping columns used in the Shell process and the circulation/spraying equipment used in the SNEA process are costly and require a large amount of space. Further, it is a disadvantage of both processes that they require the additional step of having to incinerate the H.sub.2 S-containing sweep gases.
It is another disadvantage of modern, commercial degassification processes that they require a relatively long retention time in the sulfur pit. For example, the Shell process typically requires the liquid sulfur to be recirculated through the stripping columns for about twenty to about twenty-four hours, while the SNEA process typically requires the liquid sulfur to be recirculated through the spray jets for about twenty-four to about thirty hours.
Accordingly, there has existed a definite need for a degassification process that not only effectively reduces the H.sub.2 S content of liquid sulfur, but is simple, requires a minimum amount of space, and is inexpensive. There has existed a further need for a process that takes a relatively short amount of retention time to achieve the desired liquid sulfur degassification. There has existed a still further need for a process that does not require incineration of the H.sub.2 S gas released from the liquid sulfur. The present invention satisfies these and other needs, and provides further related advantages.

Process for the high pressure degassing of hydrogen sulfide from liquid sulfur


A bulk acoustic wave (BAW) resonator having a first electrode, a second electrode, and a piezoelectric layer between the first electrode and the second electrode. The first electrode is of a first electrode material. The second electrode is of a second electrode material. The piezoelectric layer is of a piezoelectric material doped with at least one rare earth element. The BAW resonator has a resonant frequency dependent at least in part on respective thicknesses and materials of the first electrode, the second electrode and the piezoelectric layer. The resonant frequency has a temperature coefficient. At least one of the first electrode and the second electrode includes a niobium alloy electrode material that, relative to molybdenum as the electrode material, reduces the temperature coefficient of the resonant frequency of the BAW resonator.

Electro-acoustic transducers, such as surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonators and bulk acoustic wave (BAW) resonators, are used in a wide variety of electronic applications, such as cellular telephones, smart phones, electronic gaming devices, laptop computers and other portable communications devices. BAW resonators include a resonator stack mechanically isolated from a substrate by an acoustic reflector. For example, BAW resonators include film bulk acoustic resonators (FBARs), which have a resonator stack isolated from a substrate by a cavity that which functions as the acoustic reflector, and solidly mounted resonators (SMRs), which include a resonator stack isolated from a substrate by a stack of alternating layers of low acoustic impedance material and high acoustic impedance material (e.g., an acoustic Bragg reflector). BAW resonators are used to construct electrical filters and voltage transformers, for example.
Typically, a BAW resonator has a layer of piezoelectric material between two electrodes. Examples of the piezoelectric material include aluminum nitride (AlN), zinc oxide (ZnO), and lead zirconate titanate (PZT). Aluminum nitride is advantageous since aluminum nitride maintains its piezoelectric properties at a high temperature (e.g., above 400° C.).
A BAW resonator has a series electrical resonance and a parallel electrical resonance. The series resonance is at a series resonant frequency Fs at which a dipole vibration in the resonator stack is in phase with the electric field applied to the piezoelectric layer. On a Smith Chart, the series resonance frequency Fs is the frequency at which the Q circle crosses the horizontal axis. The series resonance frequency is governed by, inter alia, the total thickness of the resonant stack. Decreasing the total thickness of the resonant stack increases the series resonance frequency. Moreover, the thickness of the piezoelectric layer determines the bandwidth of the BAW resonator. Specifically, a certain electromechanical coupling coefficient kt2 is needed for the series resonance of the BAW resonator to have a specified bandwidth. The kt2 of a BAW resonator is influenced by several factors, such as the respective dimensions (e.g., thickness) of the piezoelectric layer and of the electrodes, and the composition and structural properties of the piezoelectric material and the electrode material(s). Typically, for a particular piezoelectric material, increasing the thickness of the piezoelectric layer increases kt2. Once the bandwidth is specified, kt2 is set, and the thickness of the piezoelectric layer of the BAW resonator is fixed.
Recently, piezoelectric materials having a different relationship between kt2 and the thickness of the piezoelectric layer have been disclosed. These materials enable a defined kt2 to be obtained using a thinner piezoelectric layer and thicker electrodes. Additionally, electrode structures that increase the Q-factors of the resonances (and the Q-factor of the parallel resonance in particular) have been disclosed. BAW resonators incorporating these developments have better performance than conventional BAW resonators. However, in some cases, properties of the improved BAW resonators are more temperature dependent than those of conventional BAW resonators
What is needed, therefore, is an improved BAW resonator having properties that are less temperature dependent.

Bulk acoustic wave devices with temperature-compensating niobium alloy electrodes

Avago Technologies International Sales Pte. Limited


A shift-by-wire type control device whose control target is an automatic transmission including a parking lock mechanism, the shift-by-wire type control device includes an electronic control unit that controls the automatic transmission in response to an instruction to select a shift range when selection of the shift range based on an operation on a to-be-operated part is performed.

The present disclosure relates to a shift-by-wire type control device.
As a shift-by-wire type control device, there is known a control device described in JP 2013-104463 A. A control target of the control device described in JP 2013-104463 A is an automatic transmission including a parking lock mechanism, and the control device operates in response to an instruction from a range selection device in which selection of a shift range is not identified by the mechanical position of a to-be-operated part. Meanwhile, there is a case in which due to instantaneous power interruption of the control device, etc., the control device is reset and abnormally activated (reactivated), and in a shift-by-wire type using a range selection device such as that described above, when the control device is abnormally activated, a shift range having been selected before the abnormal activation cannot be identified from the mechanical position of the to-be-operated part. In addition, in a parking lock device (50) described in JP 2013-104463 A, a detent plate (62) is switched between two positions: a position in which the parking lock device (50) is placed in a locked state, and a position in which the parking lock device (50) is placed in an unlocked state. In such a configuration, even though it can be identified whether the shift range having been selected before abnormal activation is a parking range or a non-parking range from the state of the parking lock device (50), when the selected shift range is the non-parking range, it cannot be identified which one of a forward range, a reverse range, and a neutral range is the shift range from the state of the parking lock device (50).
In view of a problem specific to the shift-by-wire type control device such as that described above, JP 2013-104463 A describes a technique for appropriately setting a shift range after returning from a reset state of the control device. Specifically, JP 2013-104463 A describes that in order to suppress the occurrence of a strange noise caused by the parking lock device switched from an unlocked state to a locked state in a state of a high vehicle speed, when the vehicle speed upon returning from a reset state is higher than a preset threshold, the shift range is set to the neutral range. However, in such a configuration, even if the vehicle has been traveling (traveling at a higher speed than the above-described threshold) in the forward range before abnormal activation of the control device, the automatic transmission is switched to a neutral state after the abnormal activation of the control device, and thus, there is a possibility that driver's drivability may decrease, e.g., a driver perceives a loss of drive power. Hence, it is desired that when a reset of the control device has occurred, a state before the reset be able to be maintained, but in a configuration such as that described above, when a reset of the control device has occurred during traveling of the vehicle, a distinction between a neutral state and a forward range state has not been able to be made.


A rotational movement detection device includes a rotating member including a through hole passing therethrough from a first surface to a second surface opposite the first surface, the rotating member rotating around the through hole to generate a magnetic field around the rotating member, a rotation angle detection part that detects a rotation angle of the rotating member, a movement detection part that detects a movement along a rotational axis of the rotating member, and a holding part including a guide part and an arrangement part formed integrally therein, the guide part being inserted into the through hole to guide the rotation of the rotating member and to hold the rotating member, the arrangement part having thereon the movement detection part arranged facing a side surface of the rotating member.

A lever switch device including the following configuration is known. A first rotating body and a second rotating body that rotate in response to a rocking operation on an outer lever are provided, and two magnetism detection elements, which are provided corresponding to respective magnets mounted in the center of the rotating bodies, are used to detect magnetism of the two magnets. A control means detects a rotation angle of each of the rotating bodies on the basis of detection signals from the magnetism detection elements and outputs an operation signal based on the detected rotation angle (see Patent Document 1, for example).

KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOKAI RIKA DENKI SEISAKUSHO


A cross for a universal joint in a vehicle driveshaft assembly is comprised of a hollowed block of material having four openings. The hollowed block holds an inner cross that has a first cross member and a second cross member. Each cross member has an end portion that extends through a thrust bearing, and each thrust bearing is engaged with an opening in the hollowed block. The resulting thrust bearing joint can operate at higher loads than conventional cross designs.

In most land vehicles in use today, a drive train assembly is provided for transmitting rotational power from an output shaft of an transmission to an input shaft of an axle assembly so as to rotatably drive one or more wheels of the vehicle. To accomplish this, a typical vehicular drive train assembly includes a hollow cylindrical driveshaft tube. A first universal joint is connected between the output shaft of the transmission and a first end of the driveshaft tube, while a second universal joint is connected between a second end of the driveshaft tube and the input shaft of the axle assembly. The universal joints provide a rotational driving connection from the output shaft of the transmission through the driveshaft tube to the input shaft of the axle assembly, while accommodating a limited amount of angular misalignment between the rotational axes of these three shafts.
A typical universal joint includes a cross having a central body portion with four cylindrical trunnions extending outwardly therefrom. The trunnions are oriented in a single plane and extend at right angles relative to one another. A hollow cylindrical bearing cup having a cylindrical outside wall and a circular end wall is mounted on the end of each of the trunnions. A bearing structure, such as a plurality of needle bearings or roller bearings, is provided between the trunnion and the associated bearing cup to facilitate relative rotational movement therebetween. The bearing cups that are mounted on a first opposed pair of the trunnions can be connected to a first yoke secured to a first component of the drive train assembly, while the bearing cups mounted on a second opposed pair of the trunnions can be connected to a second yoke secured to a second component of the drive shaft assembly.
When the bearing cups are mounted on the associated trunnions, the circular end walls of the bearing cups are disposed adjacent to the axially outer ends of the trunnions and bearings. If the inner surfaces of these end walls directly contact the axially outer end surfaces of the trunnions during operation, friction caused by such direct contact can generate undesirable heat and wear. However, if the inner end surfaces of the bearing cups do not fit snugly against the axially outer end surfaces of the trunnions, relative axial movement between the bearing cups and the trunnions can cause imbalances and result in undesirable noise and vibrations. Thus, to address these situations, it is known to position a thrust washer between the inner end surface of the bearing cup and the axially outer end surface of the trunnion. A typical thrust washer is formed from a relatively low friction, wear resistant material, such as plastic, that can absorb the thrust loads that occur between the end of the trunnion and the bearing cap and take up any looseness therebetween.
A thrust washer can absorb some axial load and torque from the vehicle driveline such as that experienced under normal driving conditions. However, a typical Cardan universal joint is not equipped for handling high axial loads and torque. Under high thrust loads, the normal tolerance of a thrust washer will be exceeded, resulting in unacceptable vibrations in the vehicle driveline. In addition, excessive axial loads and torque may cause the ends of a typical cross to flex while placing unacceptable load and torque on the lug structures of the yoke. Thus, it would be desirable to provide an improved structure for a universal joint assembly that addresses these concerns.


A golf putter in which most of the clubhead mass is distributed at three or more prescribed locations within a “Mass Ring” approximately equidistant from, and as remote as possible from, the clubhead planar center of mass with the clubshaft axis preferably forward of the clubhead center of mass thus maximizing both putter and clubhead planar moment of inertia for improved putter performance during mis-hits. Maximum remote mass is achieved by interconnecting the remote high mass areas (Mass Ring) with the putterface striking area and the putter shaft connection point with a light weight rigid open (see thru) truss system so arranged to enhance the Sighting Field and/or sight or aim line on the putterhead while preventing undesirable vibration of individual clubhead members. Such Sighting Field and Sight Line can be further enhanced via use of one of several light weight replaceable and angular adjustable Sighting Fields and/or Sight Lines preferable to an individual golfer.

The present invention relates to golf clubs and more particularly to putters. Superior putters are characterized by repeatable accurate sighting or aim, good forgiving performance on miss-hits, and a solid feel communicated to the hands upon impact with a golf ball.
Historically, most putters, being of the blade type, derived from irons, require the player to draw or imagine an aim line to the target, through the ball at right angles to the putterface. Some putters, especially mallet types, have one or more relatively short axially oriented (target line) Sight Lines, but they are visually overwhelmed by the larger transverse oriented putterface and the transverse putterhead lines. Axial sighting or aim is also effectively blocked by the golf ball in front of the putterface.
Forgiving performance is a major objective of most modern putter designers, especially those targeting non-professional players. Even if a clubhead is delivered square to the target line at impact, a golf ball will lose both distance and accuracy (i.e., go off line) if the ball is not struck precisely on an axis in front of the putter planar center of mass. The degree of distance loss and mis-direction from a particular miss-hit is directly related to the putter planar moment of inertia ("MOIP"). This is determined by the clubhead or putterhead planar moment of inertia ("MOICH") and the position of the shaft in the putterhead which shaft weight and the shaft's own axial moment of inertia ("MOI") contributes to the putter MOI. The higher the MOIP, the less the distance loss and angular misdirection for a given miss-hit. Putters typically have 9 to 13 cm facewidths with head weights of 280 to 320 gms and have MOIP of 2000-8000 gm cm2. (Long shafted putters are heavier). Putters typically produce 2% to 8% of distance loss with a 1 cm toe or heel miss-hit.
"Solid feel" is a more subjective term, but most golfers agree, undamped vibrations from center hits (on center of mass line) are helpful in establishing a feel for putt distance vs. putterhead striking velocity. Excessive strike face, or other putterhead interval vibration, is undesirable for putters and other clubs, and is traditionally eliminated through clubhead geometry (thick strike faces reinforced with bottom flanges or solid mallet type bodies). Harsh torsional vibrations from miss-hit putts are undesirable and can only be reduced by increasing putter MOI or vibration dampening elastomers in or behind the strike face.
Toe-heel weighted putters (transverse bi-polar weighted) are the most popular type in current use, largely replacing traditional "blade" styles. Extreme bi-polar weighting such as that by Finney (U.S. Pat. No. 4,898,387), McGeeney (U.S. Pat. No. 5,938,543), Long (U.S. Pat. No. 4,693,478), and Duclos (U.S. Pat. No. 4,508,350), have produced designs with MOIP up to 8300 gm-cm2 for conventional sized putters (less than 13 cm facewidth and about 300 gms head weight). They are typically characterized by short or no axial alignment features. Sighting Fields are defined herein as axially oriented, usually light, bright, or white colored, areas roughly the width of a golf ball, on top of a putter which reduce the visual blocking effect on aim of a ball in front of a putterface. Sight Lines herein refer to axial lines, dots or points on top of a putter through the intended strikepoint or parallel to it, to assist or facilitate axial (ball to target) "aim" or "sighting." Axial bi-polar weighted (fore and aft weighted) designs (i.e. Winchall 5,080,365, and Pelz U.S. Pat. No. 4,754,976) have better sighting characteristics, but no better MOICH because a 13 cm putter facewidth must have slightly less than 13 cm of depth to conform to USGA Rules.
FIGS. 1-4 compare prior art idealized theoretical maximum MOICH for transverse bi-polar or toe-heel weighted (FIG. 1) axial bi-polar (FIG. 2), and the present invention (FIGS. 3 and 4). All four theoretical putterheads have a 12.7 cm (5 in.) facewidth, weigh 300 gms (with weightless frames) and are USGA conforming dimensionally. The maximum theoretical planar MOICH for each using MOICH (I)=Mass (M) X (radius of gyration (r))2 is:
MOICHa.Transverse Bi-polar (FIG. 1)12097 g-cm2b.Axial Bi-polar (FIG. 2)12097 g-cm2c.Present invention tri-polar Mass Ring18901 g-cm2(FIG. 3)d.Present invention Multi-polar Mass Ring23710 g-cm2(FIG. 4)
In preferred embodiments of the present invention, putter moment of inertia (MOIP) exceeds the MOICH values above because the shaft axis is substantially forward of the center of mass.
Putters with elongated (over 75% of facewidth) axial Sighting Fields or Sight Lines are less common, but do exist. Current examples include, Callaway's White Hot "2-Ball" putter, Golf Digest, 3-02, Pg. 159 (a derivative of Pelz U.S. Pat. No. 4,754,976), as well as, Winchall 5,080,365, and other T-shaped putters cited (Klein U.S. Pat. No. 5,072,941, Panlin U.S. Pat. No. 4,141,556, Dalton 4,138,117, Bendo 5,470,070, Lin U.S. Pat. No. 5,795,239, Jenkins U.S. Pat. No. 6,045,453, Whitney D U.S. Pat. No. 323,688, Lannoch D 422,328). None of these maximizes either MOICH or MOIP. The present invention maximizes both. Most of these utilize a "Sight Line": (an elongated line less than 1 cm wide through the intended strike point). Few (only Pelz and Klein) use an axial Sighting Field (but no Sight Line). Again, only the present invention combines a Sighting Field with maximum MOICH and MOIP. Only one Sight Field putter U.S. Pat. No. (4,962,293 to Jazdzyk) other than the present invention attempts to take all components outside the Sighting Field or Sight Line out of planar view, but this design does not address MOI and uses a transparent/translucent putterhead material, thus not conforming to USGA rulings The present invention uses a high open area rigid putterhead frame and dark non-reflective planar coloration outside the Sighting Field or Sight Line.

Golf putter with improved miss-hit performance, aim and feel


A method for reducing fault detection time in a network includes routers configured to exchange messages via at least one switch to check mutual reachability, each message including a list of routers reachable from the sending router. The method includes snooping, by the switch, a message from a router to extract the list of routers reachable from the router; and, when a network fault occurs that prevents the router from being reachable via the switch, sending, by the switch and to all the other routers connected to the switch, a network fault message including an empty list of routers, so that the receiving routers, not seeing their own identifier in the list, declare the adjacency with the sending router closed, and proceed to reroute traffic on a new route.

As is known, modern telematic networks based on the Internet Protocol (IP), such as the Internet network, henceforth referred to as IP networks, nowadays constitute the telecommunications infrastructure on which an ever-increasing number of services and applications are destined to converge. Many of the new applications, such as voice (VoIP, Voice over IP) and video communications, require high levels of reliability and availability that translate into increasingly pressing requirements regarding the performance of network safety mechanisms in the case of a fault. The protocols of the Internet Suite can be used to implement widespread communications, via a group of individual networks, different for the type of technology used, in particular both of local type (Local Area Networks—LAN) and of geographical type (Wide Area Networks—WAN), which are interconnected in various ways to form what, as a whole, is typically called an internetwork.
The IP networks or internetworks are thus created via the interconnection of various subnetworks, through devices called routers, which are capable of forwarding data packets to the destination network based on the address contained within them.
With reference to the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model, routers process data packets at Layer 3 (Network Layer) and implement the transfer of information (routing) from the source to the destination via the IP network. To reach the destination, data packets generally pass through one or more intermediate nodes (routers), each of which determines, based on the contents of its own routing table, which is the next router (generally known as next hop) to which data packet are to be forwarded in order to reach the final destination. The look-up in the routing table for the next hop to use involves running a so-called "longest match" process on the address prefixes contained in routing table, using the destination IP address of the data packet being processed as the look-up key. On IP networks, routing is normally performed by using dynamic routing protocols that first acquire information of the network topology, then compute the route to the destination based on the network topology and appropriate cost metrics, and finally allow the contents of the routing table to be automatically compiled and updated.
Routers can be interconnected via several different transmission technologies, among which Local Area Networks (LAN) and Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN) represent transmission technologies of particular interest because they employ network devices which are known as switches and are widely used in the creation of data packet networks, in particular switches based on Ethernet technology. In detail, switches are devices that perform functions that, for some aspects, are similar to those performed by routers, and are used to make sub-networks that are homogeneous in terms of the technology employed. Nevertheless, unlike routers, switches process data packets at Layer 2 (Link Layer) of the OSI model, and this function is generally know as "bridging". The main difference between routers and switches is thus determined by the different "positioning" of the respective functions in the layered network architecture.
In networks including switches based on Ethernet technology, switching is managed by consulting a bridging table in which, in correspondence to the Layer 2 addresses, also known as Medium Access Control (MAC) addresses, there are specified the ports on which the respective data packets with a particular destination MAC address must be transmitted. Unlike the routing tables, the bridging tables are not compiled via routing protocols, but via learning mechanisms which are based on inspection of the MAC addresses of the received data packets, and which, in the case of unknown MAC addresses, provide for the broadcast (or flooding) transmission of the data packet on the ports.
When faults occur that involve routers or transmission links, routers must be able to detect the unreachability of the neighboring nodes and ensure the recovery of data packet forwarding, using any alternative routes that are available.
In particular, it is the task of the dynamic routing to recompute the routes, based on the new network typology, to determine an alternative routing for the data traffic affected by the fault. In order to guarantee limited service inefficiency, especially for services characterized by more stringent requirements, such as VoIP services, it is necessary to minimize rerouting time, in particular the time needed to complete the convergence process of the routing protocol.
Rapid convergence of the routing protocol can be achieved only by promptly identifying the occurrence of a fault, or rather the unreachability of a neighboring router.
In order to do so, routing protocols utilize the periodic exchange of appropriate messages, generally known as "hello" messages, for checking the reachability of neighboring routers, and fault detection time depends on the frequency of the "hello" messages. However, this frequency cannot easily be increased due to the processing load that the management of the "hello", messages involves and the additional traffic on the network. Typically, the generation frequency of the "hello" messages is set to one each ten seconds and a connectivity is declared as lost when non-reception of a predetermined number (typically four) of consecutive reply messages is detected, or when a predetermined maximum time (such as forty seconds) is passed from reception of the last message. This limitation becomes even more evident the larger the number of neighboring routers with which the "hello" messages must be exchanged.
For this reason, fault detection and notification of this event to the routing protocol is, as a rule, expediently entrusted to the lower layers, such as the physical or data link layer. This is the case of links based on SONET/SDH transmission systems or on Frame Relay or ATM virtual circuits. These connection technologies are in fact widely exploited, especially for wide-area router interconnections, and are capable of limiting the fault detection time, reducing the overall routing protocol convergence time.
The case in which the routers are connected via local area networks, such as Ethernet, is different. Due to its characteristics of simplicity of use and low cost, the use of this technology is widespread, especially for local connections.
FIG. 1 shows an example of traffic rerouting in a multiaccess local network with one Ethernet switch. The configuration shown in general terms in FIG. 1 corresponds to a typical situation that occurs in some scenarios of practical interest. A typical application in this respect can be found in the context of the structure of a Point Of Presence (POP), i.e. a node of a Service Provider's IP backbone network, in order to create an interconnection, inside the POP, between routers belonging to different levels of the network structure. In this context, routers A and B may perform the link functions (gateway) to the external networks of other Service Providers or to the Internet network, while routers E and D may belong to the backbone transit segment, i.e. they terminate the wide-area connections with other POPs. A similar configuration may also be used for interconnecting Service Provider's access routers E and D, which terminate client links, with the transit routers A and B. Another possible practical application of this layout is represented by the collection and aggregation of the traffic, in local environments or distributed on a metropolitan/regional scale, of client access devices for their interconnection to the POP's routers.
With reference to FIG. 1, in normal conditions router A reaches router F via route i including link LAC, switch C, link LEC, router E, and link LEF. A fault involving link LEC causes loss of traffic originating from router A until it is rerouted. However, switch C has no way of informing router A of the fault, and therefore router A detects the fault only after losing a number of "hello" messages, with a consequent loss of traffic for at least thirty seconds (using default values). Once unreachability of router E is detected, the routing algorithm running in router A recomputes a new route j, via router D, on which the traffic directed to router F can be rerouted.
This routing inefficiency is due to the fact that switch C is not configured to propagate information regarding the state of its own interfaces to the routers, and hence the routers must rely exclusively on the "hello" messages generated by the routing protocol.
For this reason, the need is felt for solutions that allow more rapid and efficient detection of loss of reachability between neighboring routers in the network, for routing protocol purposes, which are interconnected via a local network Layer 2 switch.
The Internet-Draft "MultiAccess Reachability Protocol (MARP)" of A. Retana and R. White, submitted on March 2003 for the Network Working Group of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), describes a Multiaccess Reachability Protocol (MARP) that defines a protocol to quickly determine the existence or aliveness of devices attached to a shared media (broadcast) subnet, in particular, a protocol which allows for fast discovery when a device drops off of a broadcast media link for various purposes, including loss of routing protocol neighbors, and for fast notification of loss of connectivity to devices attached to such a shared media subnet. In particular, this protocol allows a router connected to a Layer 2 network switch to request the transmission of an explicit notification message when a fault occurs that causes loss of connectivity with a neighboring router, for example, on the link between a neighboring router and the network switch.
US 2005/0018667 discloses a system and method for exchanging awareness information in a network environment, including receiving a packet at a network element and identifying a sequence number included in the packet that correlates to awareness information associated with one or more adjacent network elements. A table included in the network element may be updated in order to account for the awareness information included within the packet that has not been accounted for by the network element. In cases where the awareness information included in the packet has already been accounted for, the packet may be ignored.

Method for reducing fault detection time in a telecommunication network


Pattern categorization is provided by a self-organizing analog field/layer which learns many-to-many, analog spatiotemporal mappings. The field/layer employs a set of input nodes, each input node having two long term memory weights, and a set of output nodes. Each input node is for categorizing patterns with respect to a plurality of categories. The long term memory weights of an input node encode the patterns categorized by the input node. Each input node generates signals as a function of respective long term memory weights and input signals to the input node. Each input node is coupled to a different output node. Each output node receives signals generated by the respective input node and selects a category of the respective input node. The output nodes provide a mapping between plural parts of the input pattern and plural categories of the input nodes. Category selections of the output nodes are modified such that sum of the output signals from the output nodes is within a predefined range. Upon the sum of the output signals being within the predefined range, the output nodes provide categorization of the input pattern from the mapping between plural parts of the input pattern and plural categories of the input nodes.

A neural network is generally an electronic system (usually implemented in software but may be a combination of hardware and software) for modeling or simulating the brain. All neural networks can be completely and uniquely specified by describing the four attributes of architecture, propagation rules/equations, activation rules/equations and learning rules/equations.
The architecture attribute specifies the organization of neurons or nodes (the fundamental processing element or unit of a neural network) into clusters, clusters into layers, and layers into the overall neural network. For many neural networks, clusters are not used; hence, the neurons are organized directly into layers. In addition, layers may be arranged in a hierarchy. To that end, the architecture attribute also describes the "permitted" flow of information or signals within the neural network by specifying actual (or rules for) physical (specific) and broadcast (non-specific) connectivity paths between layers, clusters, and/or neurons (nodes).
Propagation rules/equations provide a detailed description, usually mathematical, of information/signal flow for every permitted physical and broadcast connectivity path specified in the architecture. This includes initial conditions and evolution over time.
Activation rules/equations provide a detailed description, usually mathematical, of how each neuron specified in the architecture processes its information (signals) to produce output information (signals). This includes initial conditions and evolution over time. In a so called "winner take all" activation, for a given set of inputs to the network neurons, one and only one neuron outputs a logical one and all other neurons output a zero. In a "many-two-many" activation, several of the network neurons generate a non-zero output.
Learning rules/equations provide a detailed description, usually mathematical, of how each "persistent memory" in the network persists and/or changes over time. "Persistent memories" (commonly called weights or synapses) are those variables used in the propagation rules/equations or activation rules/equations, whose values must be retained for proper functioning of the neural network. This includes specification of all initial conditions for these variables.
Through learning, a neural network is trained so that application of a vector or set of inputs produces the desired (or at least consistent) set of outputs. Both output sets as well as inputs sets are referred to as vectors. Learning is usually accomplished by sequentially applying input vectors, while adjusting network weights according to the learning rules/equations. During learning, the network weights gradually converge to values that enable each input vector to produce the desired output vector.
Learning or training a neural network is said to be either "supervised" or "unsupervised". In supervised learning, an external "teacher" evaluates the behavior of the network and directs weight definitions accordingly. This is typically implemented by each input vector being paired with a target vector representing the desired output vector. Each pair of input vector and target vector is called a training pair. An input vector is applied, an output vector of the network is calculated and compared to the corresponding target vector, and the difference (error) is fed back through the network. As a result of this feedback, weights are changed according to the learning rules/equations which generally minimize the error. A sequence of such training pairs forms a training set. Each training pair (i.e., the vectors thereof) is applied to the neural network in sequence. The weights are adjusted for each applied vector until the error for the entire training set is below a threshold.
In unsupervised learning, there is no teacher, i.e., there are no target vectors and hence no comparison to predetermined outputs. Instead, the training set consists solely of input vectors. The learning rules/equations modify network weights (i.e., the network self-organizes) to produce output vectors that are consistent. Specifically, application of one of the training vectors produces the same output vector as application of an input vector sufficiently similar to the training vector. To that end, the learning process or training process extracts the statistical properties of the training set and groups similar input vectors into classes. Applying a vector from a given class to the network input will produce a specific output vector.

Analog pattern categorization system having dual weighted connectivity between nodes