A method of encoding position information of each recording portion on a recording medium with a predetermined number of information units, which includes the step of composing position information codes such that the first position information code of the first recording portion is different by one information unit from the second position information code of the second recording portion which is spaced by one recording portion from the first recording portion, by two information units from the third position information code of the third recording portion which is spaced by two recording portions, and by three information units or more from the fourth position information code of the fourth recording portion which is spaced by three recording portions or more.

The present invention relates to methods of encoding position information, such as track addresses, for magnetic disk drives.
The position information about the recording portion of a recording medium is encoded and recorded in each recording portion for use in specifying the head position when data is read from or written into the recording portion. This will be described in more detail taking a magnetic disk for example.
In the magnetic disk, there are provided a plurality of concentric tracks, at a given track of which the magnetic head is positioned to write into or read data from the magnetic disk. Position or address information for positioning the magnetic head has been written in a portion of each track so that the magnetic head reads the address information for positioning. Sometimes, the address information is read during a seek period when the head moves over tracks. Consequently, the coding must be made so that reading errors are minimized. An example of such codes is Gray code described in Japanese Patent Application Kokai No. 55-55483 and Mini-Micro System, February 1983, pp. 219-226.
The Gray code used as an address information code will be described with reference to FIG. 11, wherein address information 10 is expressed in Gray code 11. A recording medium 1, such as a magnetic disk, contains clock information 2 which is expressed in magnetic inversion, and address information units or bits 3a and 3b which constitute a Gray code. The address information bits 3a and 3b represent "0" and "1" respectively. The clock information 2 and the coded address information bits 3a and 3b constitute address or position information 4. A magnetic head 5 moves along a locus A to read such magnetically recorded information.
The operation will be described with reference to FIG. 12. The magnetic head 5 reads out the address information 4 to provide an address signal 6 which is composed of a clock signal 7 (produced by reading the clock information 2 and address signal bits 8a and 8b (produced by reading the encoded address information bits 3a and (3b). The address signal bits 8a and 8b representing "0" and "1", respectively, constitute an address signal. It is apparent from the graph that the address information bit 8b read out within T/2 from the clock signal 7 is recognized as "1" while the address information bit 8a read out in a period between T/2 and T is recognized as "0", wherein T is the period of a clock signal. In this way, the address information 4 expressed in Gray code and recorded on the recording medium 1 is reproduced.
The case where the recording medium 1 has a defective spot 9 will be described with reference to FIG. 13. If no magnetic inversion is recorded on the defective spot 9, then the address signal 6 read by the magnetic head 5 moving along the locus A is such as shown in FIG. 14. This address signal 6 does not have one "1" signal bit 8b because of the defective spot 9. Consequently, it is impossible to determine whether the address information 10 is "00001" or "00101" and it is impossible to reproduce the encoded information. In this way, if one of address information bits in Gray code cannot be read because of a defective spot, the encoded address information cannot be reproduced.
To solve this problem, Japanese Patent Application Kokoku No. 58-501,644 has proposed that recording a Gray code be repeated three times as shown in FIG. 15. For address information 4, three pieces of indentical address information 4a, 4b, and 4c are written in sequence. The address signal 6 read by the magnetic head 5 moving along the locus A is shown in FIG. 16(a). The address information 4a does not have one "1" signal bit 8b because of the defective spot 9 and, therefore it cannot provide the encoded address information 4. However, the two other pieces of address information 4b and 4c read out are correct so that the encoded address information 4 is reproduced under majority rule as shown in FIG. 16(b).
In general, recording media do not have a plurality of defective spots in series, and the above method is able to prevent most of errors resulting from the defective medium. However, the number of bits for encoding address information by this method is large; namely, EQU l=3.times.log .sub.2 m
wherein l is the number of bits and m is the number of pieces of address information. For example, the number of bits for encoding 32 pieces of address information is EQU 3.times.log .sub.2 32=15 bits.
As has been described above, where Gray codes are used to encode address information, only one defective spot of a recording medium makes it impossible to reproduce the encoded address information, whereas if Gray codes are written three times, the number of bits used to encode address information becomes disadvantageously large.


A hail cover for a vehicle is provided having a deformable, inflatable body member with attachment straps and an inflation tube extending therefrom. The body member has a plurality of apertures disposed therethrough. The body member is placed over top portions of a vehicle and secured thereto with the attachment straps. Once secured a user can enter their vehicle and inflate the cover to create a protective layer for the vehicle while safely inside of the vehicle. The plurality of apertures provide for a fluid-dynamic structure to the cover to assist with stabilizing the position of the cover during turbulent winds.

The love affair people have with their automobiles is a well-known fact. Countless hours are spent cleaning, waxing, and detailing cars every day, just so they can look their best as they drive down the road. While physical maintenance such as that outlined above is an important part of keeping a vehicle looking good, protecting a vehicle from environmental dangers is even more important. For those vehicle owners without a garage, a common tool to aid in this effort is the vehicle cover. While the vehicle cover does provide some protection from environmental and light physical dangers, strong physical damage, such as from hail or light tree branches, can overcome its protection. Such damage from hailstorms is immediate, long lasting, and costly. Accordingly, a need has developed for a means by which automobiles can be protected against common environmental damage, especially hail, in a quick, easy, and effective manner. The development of the hail cover fulfills this need.
The apparatus of the present invention is a cover that provides environmental protection for vehicles, especially against hail storms. It is an inflatable cover that can be carried in the vehicle when deflated, but takes the form of a large inflatable shield when inflated. It is provided with apertures disposed throughout the cover to provide for a fluid-dynamic structure, which assists with stabilizing the position of the cover during turbulent winds. In its deflated state, the cover is unfolded and placed upon the hood, passenger section, and trunk of the vehicle. Strong elastic straps are provided to secure it to the chassis and hold the invention in place. Next, the cover is inflated by way of an inflation tube, which may be accessed by an occupant while inside the vehicle. After use, the invention can be quickly deflated by way of a valve, and folded for storage.
Prior art in this field consists of reinforced covers and inflatable covers, but none with the added utility that the present invention provides. Prior art reinforced covers consist of padded covers or covers having rigid plank members incorporated into the cover. These covers are not inflatable/deflatable and tend to be unwieldy. Prior art inflatable covers do exist, but with limitations that the present invention overcomes. These prior art inflatable covers do not provide a means to inflate/deflate the cover from an occupant of a vehicle while seated inside the vehicle. They also fail to provide an option to inflate the cover by a human or an ancillary compressed air source. Furthermore, these prior art inflatable covers fail to provide the fluid-dynamic aperture structure to assist with stabilizing the position of the cover during turbulent winds.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide a vehicle cover that effectively protects a vehicle from bombardment of hail and similar objects.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a vehicle cover that is inflatable/deflatable and configured to be easily foldable, wieldable, and storable.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a vehicle cover that may be inflatable/deflatable from an occupant of a vehicle while the occupant is inside the vehicle and the cover is placed on the vehicle.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a vehicle cover that may be manually inflated by a human or inflated by connection to an ancillary compressed air source.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a quick and easy securement mechanism to secure the vehicle cover to a vehicle while in use.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a vehicle cover with a fluid-dynamic aperture structure to assist with stabilizing the position of the cover during turbulent winds.


A transmissive target includes a target layer configured to include target metal and generate X-ray when receiving electrons and a substrate configured to support the target layer and include carbon as a main component. A carbide region including carbide of the target metal and a non-carbide region including the target metal are disposed in a mixed manner on a boundary surface between the substrate and the target layer on a target layer side.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to transmissive targets and X-ray generating apparatuses which are suitably applied to diagnosis application, nondestructive radiography, and the like in fields of medical equipment and industrial equipment.
The present invention particularly relates to a transmission X-ray target including a target layer and a diamond substrate which supports the target layer. The present invention further relates to an X-ray generating tube including the transmission X-ray target, an X-ray generating apparatus including the X-ray generating tube, and an X-ray imaging system including the X-ray generating apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In X-ray generating apparatuses which generate X-rays and which are used for medical diagnosis, there is a demand for improvement of operability of the apparatuses by improving durability and facilitating maintenance so that medical modality which is applicable to home medical care and emergency medical care in cases of disasters and accidents is realized.
Main factors of determining durability of X-ray generating apparatuses include heat resistance of a target serving as an X-ray generating source.
In X-ray generating apparatuses which generate X-ray by irradiating an electron beam to a target, "X-ray generating efficiency" of the target is smaller than 1%, and therefore, most energy supplied to the target is converted into heat. When dissipation of heat generated by the target is not sufficiently performed, an adhesion property of the target is deteriorated due to thermal stress, and accordingly, the heat resistance of the target is restricted.
As a method for improving the "X-ray generating efficiency" of the target, a transmissive target including a target layer of a thin film including heavy metal and a substrate which allows X-ray to be transmitted and which supports the target layer is widely used. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-545840 discloses a rotating anode transmissive target having "X-ray generating efficiency" increased by 1.5 times or more relative to a rotating anode reflection target in the related art.
Furthermore, as a method for encouraging external "dissipation of heat" from the target, application of diamond to a substrate which supports a target layer of a lamination target is widely used. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-298772 discloses improvement of a heat X-ray property and realization of microfocus by using diamond as a substrate which supports a target layer including tungsten. The diamond is suitable for a support substrate for supporting a transmissive target since the diamond has a high X-ray transmission property in addition to high durability and high thermal conductivity.
However, the diamond has low wettability relative to molten metal and a linear expansion coefficient which mismatches that of solid metal, and accordingly, compatibility with target metal is low. Therefore, to ensure an adhesion property between the target layer and the diamond substrate is an issue to improve reliability of the transmissive target.
Japanese Patent 2002-298772 discloses generation of thermal stress between a target layer and a diamond substrate caused by mismatch of linear expansion coefficients in an X-ray generating tube including a transmissive target and occurrence of peeling and generation of crack in the target layer caused by the thermal stress. According to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-298772, since the target layer leans toward the diamond substrate, the target layer is pushed toward the diamond substrate at a time of operation of the X-ray generating tube so that the target layer is prevented from being peeled.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2012-256444 discloses occurrence of variation of output caused by thermal resistance generated between a diamond substrate and a target layer in an X-ray generating tube including a transmissive target, which is a problem to be solved. According to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2012-256444, since the target layer and a metal carbide layer of metal for forming solid solution are inserted between the target layer and the diamond substrate, an adhesion property between the target layer and the diamond substrate is improved so that the variation of output of X-ray is suppressed.
Even when the transmissive target including the metal carbide layer inserted between the target layer and the diamond substrate is used as the structure disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2012-256444, variation of output of X-ray may occur since the adhesion property of the target is not sufficiently maintained for a long period of time.

Transmissive target, X-ray generating tube including transmissive target, X-ray generating apparatus, and radiography system


In an image forming apparatus, a plurality of image forming means devices are sequentially arranged along a conveyor belt and sequentially form register marks on the conveyor belt. A sensor senses the register mark formed by the individual image forming device. A correcting section corrects, based on the output of the sensor, the register position of the individual image forming device with respect to a regular deviation component and an irregular deviation component fluctuating at a particular period. The apparatus is capable of producing high quality color images suffering from a minimum of color misregister.

The present invention relates to a color copier, color printer, color facsimile apparatus or similar color image forming apparatus.
The problem with a color image forming apparatus is that any deviation of, e.g., the distance between adjacent image forming sections or the position or angle of the individual image forming section from ideal one causes colors to be brought out of register on an output image. Let this kind of deviations be referred to as regular deviations. Such misregister lowers the quality of the output image. To solve this problem, it has been customary with this kind of apparatus to determine, before actual image formation, the amount of deviation of a register position color by color, and correct the deviation.
However, the conventional correction is effective only with the regular deviations ascribable to, e.g., the degree of mounting accuracy of the individual unit and the varying ambient temperature. In practice, there also occur variation in dot position and pitch and having a particular period due to variation in the speed of the individual photoconductive drum and the speed of a conveyor belt. Let this kind of deviations be referred to as irregular deviations. As a result, the image quality available with the conventional apparatus not dealing with the irregular deviations is limited.

Apparatus for registration of plural image in an image forming apparatus


The automatic analysis system comprises an analysis device which introduces sample containers which have been placed at a predetermined placement location into an analysis unit to perform analysis on the samples, and a management device which has a function of transmitting identification information for a sample to said analysis device when an analysis request has been made for that sample. The analysis device comprises a sample information management unit which retains sample identification information transmitted from the management device as analysis-requested sample information and retains identification information for samples which have been analyzed by the analysis unit as analysis-completed sample information.

Automatic analysis systems are known, which automatically perform analysis on samples such as blood (for example, see Patent Literature 1). Automatic analysis systems are configured such that, when a sample container into which a sample has been placed is secured to a rack and the rack is placed at a predetermined placement location, that rack is automatically transported into an analysis device, and analysis of parameters designated by the physician or other user is performed on the sample.
In automatic analysis systems, generally, the analysis device which performs analysis on samples is connected to a host computer (management device) and is designed to operate based on information from the host computer. The sample to be analyzed is identified based on identification information such as a bar code affixed to the sample container, and that identification information is registered with the host computer. The analysis requestor registers the analysis parameters which the requestor wishes to have performed on each registered sample with the host computer as an analysis request, whereupon the identification information of samples for which analysis was requested is transmitted, along with information on the corresponding analysis parameters, to the analysis device, and the analysis device performs analysis on the samples based on analysis request information transmitted from the host computer.


An injection-locked frequency divider includes a ring oscillator, a signal injection circuit, a first adjustable load circuit and a second adjustable load circuit. The ring oscillator generates an oscillation signal according to a differential signal outputted by the signal injection circuit. According to an adjustable voltage, the first and second adjustable load circuits can respectively change equivalent impedances of the first adjustable load circuit and the second adjustable load circuit so that a free-running frequency of the oscillation signal of the ring oscillator is adjusted and an injection-locked frequency range of the injection-locked frequency divider is expanded.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to an injection-locked frequency divider, and more particularly to an injection-locked frequency divider with an adjustable injection-locked frequency range.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the highly developed electronic communication industry, a high-frequency frequency divider has played an indispensable role and has the functions of analyzing the frequency, generating an orthogonal signal and multiplex processing. The injection-locked frequency divider has the advantages of the high working frequency and the low power consumption, and is thus widely used in a radio frequency phase-locked loop circuit.
However, the conventional high-frequency frequency divider has an injection-locked frequency range which is too narrow. Although the injection-locked frequency range can be expanded by increasing the power of the injection signal, the power consumption is increased. Therefore, under the precondition of saving the power, it is an important target in the industry to design an injection-locked frequency divider having a wide injection-locked frequency range.

National Taiwan University of Science and Technology


A corrosion inhibitor treatment composition for cooling water systems is disclosed in which no chromate is used and no free orthophosphate is present comprising a combination of a localized corrosion inhibitor in the form of a salt of molybdenum, vanadium, or tungsten, a general corrosion and scale inhibitor comprising zinc or nickel, a pair of organic phosphonates, and a stabilizing agent.

This invention relates generally to a treatment of water used in recirculating cooling water systems and more particularly to a water treatment composition which effectively controls corrosion and scale formation, which does not rely in any way upon chromate and which will not release orthophosphate into the environment.
Corrosion occurs when metals are oxidized to their respective ions or insoluble salts. For example, corrosion of metallic iron can involve conversion to soluble iron in a +2 or +3 oxidation state or to formation of insoluble iron oxides and hydroxides. Metal loss from the solubilization of the iron causes the structural integrity of the system to deteriorate over time. Leakage between the water system and process streams can ultimately occur. Also, corrosion contributes to the formation of insoluble salts and the resultant buildup of deposits which impede heat transfer and fluid flow.
Chromate has traditionally been an extremely effective and widely used corrosion inhibitor. During recent years, however, the use of chromate has come under increasing scrutiny due to environmental concerns. In light of this, it is most desirable to develop chromate-free, environmentally acceptable corrosion inhibitors.
Similarly, orthophosphate has traditionally been used as a scale inhibitor. The release of free orthophosphate into water systems has come under increasing scrutiny also due to environmental concerns. It is therefore also desirable to develop environmentally acceptable orthophosphate-free scale inhibitors.

Use of molybdate as corrosion inhibitor in a zinc/phosphonate cooling water treatment


A semiconductor nonvolatile memory apparatus is composed of differential cells in which data can be written electrically, data reading sense amplifiers for reading data from these cells, and threshold voltage shift checking sense amplifier connected to respective sense inputs of the sense amplifiers through selecting switching elements and checking threshold voltages of respective transistors within the differential type cells. According to this semiconductor nonvolatile memory apparatus, data can be read out at high speed without increasing the chip size.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor nonvolatile memory apparatus having a differential type cell in which data can be electrically written.
2. Description of the Related Art
A differential type cell for use in a nonvolatile semiconductor memory apparatus, may be formed a using two transistors/cell as illustrated in FIG. 1. In this example, the cell employs an N channel FAMOS (Floating gate Avalanche injection MOS) used in an ultraviolet erasable read only memory (EPROM).
In FIG. 1, reference numerals 11 and 12 designate transistors of N channel FAMOS configuration which constitute the two transistors of the differential memory cell. In the normal mode, one of the transistors 11 and 12 is in its ON state and the other is in its OFF state. Reference numerals 13 and 14 designates a pair of bit lines, 15 a word line and 16 and 17 column selecting transistors, respectively.
Further, in FIG. 1, reference numerals 18 and 19 designate dummy cells (placed in ON state constantly), 20 and 21 N channel transistors, 22 and 23 body cell selecting transistors, 24 and 25 dummy cell selecting transistors, 26 and 27 bias circuits for carrying out the level shift, 28 a differential amplifier type sense amplifier, 29 and 30 load transistors, 31 and 32 or 33 and 34 load adjusting transistors and 35 and 36 sense lines, respectively. A.sub.X2 is a gate input signal for switching dummy cell selecting transistor 24 and A.sub.X2 is a gate input signal for switching dummy cell selecting transistor 25. A.sub.X3 is a gate input signal for switching load adjusting transistor 31 and /A.sub.X3 is a gate input signal for switching load adjusting transistor 33. The output of a column decoder (not shown) is applied to the gates of column selecting transistors 16 and 17 for selecting bit lines 13 and 14. When the transistor 31 is turned ON in the test mode, the transistor 31 and the circuit of the transistor 32 become parallel to the transistor 29 to thereby increase the potential of the sense line. The transistors 30, 33 and 34 are placed in a similar relationship.
In the circuit of FIG. 1, the two transistors/cell of the transistors 11 and 12 are differentially operated such that one is operated as ON cell (non-programmed cell) and the other is operated as OFF cell (programmed cell) to supply the potential through the bit line and the bias circuit to the sense lines 35 and 36. Since the cells are operated differentially, the bit lines 13, 14 and the sense lines 35, 36 also are operated differentially, whereby the content of the cell can be propagated at high speed by the sense amplifier 28.
In the above-mentioned two transistors/cell system, the two transistors are operated differentially so that, if the threshold voltage is increased by a very small threshold voltage shift in the DC operation, then the sense amplifier 28 determines that the writing is finished. However, in the high speed access mode, that is, the AC operation mode, a constant amount of the threshold voltage shift is necessary, and in order to check the reliability, it is important to monitor the threshold voltage shift in the cell. In the die sort stage of the manufacturing process or in a commercially available programmer (writing device), the threshold voltage shift is generally checked in substantially the DC operation at low speed. In FIG. 1, in addition to the body cell, the dummy cells 18 and 19 are provided to check the above-mentioned threshold voltage shift. Logic levels of the signals relevant thereto at that time are represented in FIG. 2. If the logic levels are selected as shown in FIG. 2, then an intermediate level occurs in the level of the sense line (35 or 36) of the side which is not checked to thereby check the content of the cell.
In such conventional circuit, the switching transistors 22 and 23 whose gate inputs are A.sub.xl, A.sub.x1 must be provided between the bit line and the sense line. However, these switching transistors 22 and 23 operate as resistance elements to cause the speed of the bit line data to be decreased.
Accordingly, in order to omit the above-mentioned transistors 22 and 23, the column decoder may be divided into left and right column decoders to carry out the above-mentioned operation. In this case, however, the threshold voltage shift of the column decoder outputs is doubled (the wiring is generally made by a bilayer aluminum at a large pitch), which becomes disadvantageous from an integrated circuit area standpoint. Further, since the dummy cell and a peripheral transistor are manufactured by different manufacturing processes, the dummy cell and the peripheral circuit must be isolated by a constant distance, which unavoidably results in a large integrated circuit area.

Semiconductor nonvolatile memory apparatus including threshold voltage shift circuitry


We disclose herein a semiconductor device sub-assembly comprising a plurality of semiconductor units of a first type, a plurality of semiconductor units of a second type; a plurality of conductive blocks operatively coupled with the plurality of semiconductor units, a conductive malleable layer operatively coupled with the plurality of conductive blocks, wherein the plurality of conductive blocks are located between the conductive malleable layer and the plurality of semiconductor units. In use, at least some of the plurality of conductive blocks are configured to apply a pressure on the conductive malleable layer, when a predetermined pressure is applied to the semiconductor device sub-assembly. At least one semiconductor unit of a second type is configured to withstand an applied pressure greater than a threshold pressure.

Individual semiconductor chips can be connected in parallel within a single pressure contact housing to provide a single device containing multiple chips with a current handling capability that is ideally the sum of the capability of all the chips contained within the housing.
For optimum performance of the multiple chip device, the following requirements must be met:                The pressure distribution across each chip and between chips should be uniform.        The applied pressure should be within a defined operating range.
WO/2017/220955 demonstrates a multiple-chip semiconductor device sub-assembly that incorporates stacks of disc springs in line with each semiconductor unit, uses an internal support frame to limit the displacement of the disc springs and provides current bypass of the disc springs using a disc with multiple through holes and a flat, malleable, conductive diaphragm. This is shown in FIG. 1.
During operation, power dissipated in the semiconductor chips causes them to heat up. The chips have a defined maximum temperature for safe operation. In typical applications, therefore, the chips must be cooled to ensure they are kept within the safe temperature range. Heat is extracted from the chips by conduction through the main electrode. The heat may be transferred to a liquid coolant using liquid-cooled heatsinks or the air using air-cooled heatsinks.
As per the devices that are shown in WO/2017/220955, significant heat transfer can only be achieved through one electrode—the electrode in direct pressure contact with the semiconductor units. This heat transfer 50 is shown in FIG. 2. The use of the stacks of disc springs, which are vital for ensuring pressure uniformity, could reduce the efficiency of heat transfer between the chip and main electrode on the sprung side of the device to the point that heat transfer in this direction is considered to be negligible. WO/2017/220955 also demonstrates alternative devices, whereby the disc springs are omitted and instead the diaphragm is designed to act as the spring mechanism.
The efficiency of the heat transfer from the chips to the device's main electrodes determines the amount of power that can be dissipated in the chips. The presence of the disc spring stacks or sprung diaphragm means that heat could only be extracted through the unsprung side 50 of the device.
Typical high power single-chip pressure contact semiconductor devices like Thyristors, do not use disc spring stacks, but instead use solid electrodes 17, 18 on both sides of the device (as shown in FIG. 3). This allows for heat transfer from the chip to both main electrodes.
Traditional multi-chip pressure contact semiconductor devices adopt a similar approach to permit heat transfer to both main electrodes, as shown in FIG. 4. However, devices manufactured in this way suffer from a serious design flaw. When such a device is operated, heat is generated by the chips within the device whilst the outer surfaces of the device are cooled. This means that the internal surfaces of a device's main electrodes are hotter than their external surfaces. This temperature mismatch leads to differential thermal expansion through the electrodes. As the internal surfaces are hotter, they expand to a greater extent than the external surfaces, which leads to bending of the electrodes.
A small amount of distortion can be tolerated, as the main electrode material has some elasticity, which means that pressure contact is maintained for very low levels of distortion. However distortion of the main electrodes can lead to total loss of pressure contact with the some chips, meaning the cooling of affected chips is severely impaired. The level of distortion increases significantly as electrode area is increased. This means that this approach is only suitable for devices with a small overall contact area containing small numbers of chips. When large-area devices containing large numbers of chips are designed in this manner the bending of the electrodes is so great that the performance of such devices is significantly impaired.
Tinschert et al, "Possible failure modes in Press-Pack IGBTs" 2015, investigates the poor reliability of traditional design press-pack IGBT devices. The authors conclude that the premature failures are the result of a mixture of over-pressurisation and under-pressurisation of certain chips in a device, resulting from thermo-mechanical distortion of the device's main electrodes. This paper shows that with a ΔTj of 78° C. the cycles to failure is approximately 6,000 cycles for an IXYS multi-chip pressure contact device of traditional construction. This compares unfavourably with single-chip pressure contact devices, for which at a ΔTj of 80° C. the cycles to failure is far in excess of 100,000 cycles.
Frank, Øyvind Bjerke, "Power Cycle Testing of Press-Pack IGBT Chips", 2014 follows up work from the study by Tinschert et al (2015). Individual press-pack IGBT chips are subjected to power cycling. The author found that individual chips have a lifetime that is orders of magnitude greater than fully-assembled devices, indicating that the traditional multi-chip pressure contact device design significantly limits their life expectancy.


Apparatus is provided for repairing a cardiac valve, the apparatus can include a flexible annuloplasty structure having a sleeve with an elongated tubular side wall and a distal tip. A first tissue anchor can passing through the distal tip of the sleeve, and a second tissue anchor can pass through a section of the tubular side wall. The first and second tissue anchors can extend in a substantially same direction. A longitudinal portion of the tubular side wall can be disposed between the first and second tissue anchors, and have a first lateral part opposite a second lateral part and closer to the first and second tissue anchors than the second lateral part is to the first and second tissue anchors. The second lateral part can have a degree of tension that is larger than a degree of tension of the first lateral part.

Ischemic heart disease causes mitral regurgitation by the combination of ischemic dysfunction of the papillary muscles, and the dilatation of the left ventricle that is present in ischemic heart disease, with the subsequent displacement of the papillary muscles and the dilatation of the mitral valve annulus.
Dilation of the annulus of the mitral valve prevents the valve leaflets from fully coapting when the valve is closed. Mitral regurgitation of blood from the left ventricle into the left atrium results in increased total stroke volume and decreased cardiac output, and ultimate weakening of the left ventricle secondary to a volume overload and a pressure overload of the left atrium.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A combination hitch for allowing a towed vehicle to be fastened to a tow vehicle. The combination hitch includes a base for being attached to the bed of the tow vehicle, the base including a ball hitch member located substantially over the centerline of the rear axle of the tow vehicle. The combination hitch also includes a superstructure movable between a first position attached to the base and second position attached to the base. The superstructure has a pin box hitch member located substantially directly over the ball hitch member and the centerline of the rear axle of the tow vehicle when the superstructure is in the first position and not located substantially directly over the ball hitch member and the centerline of the rear axle of the tow vehicle when the superstructure is in the second position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to trailer hitch apparatuses, and in particular, to a combined trailer hitch apparatus attachable to a tow vehicle for alternately towing gooseneck and fifth wheel trailers.
2. Information Disclosure Statement
It is often desired to use a single tow vehicle (e.g., a pickup truck or the like) to tow a gooseneck trailer and, alternately, a fifth wheel trailer. Both fifth wheel trailers and gooseneck trailers are commonly towed by trucks having substantially flat beds (e.g., a conventional pickup truck) and are conventionally mounted or xe2x80x9chitchedxe2x80x9d to the tow vehicle substantially between the rear wheels and over the rear axle of the tow vehicle. The front of a fifth wheel trailer is normally constructed so as to extend over the rear bed of a tow vehicle and includes a kingpin depending from the bottom thereof for engaging a fifth wheel hitch mechanism mounted to the bed of the tow vehicle substantially between the rear wheels and over the rear axle of the tow vehicle. The front of a gooseneck trailer is normally constructed with a curved neck for extending over the rear bed of a tow vehicle with the neck terminating in a receiver for receiving a hitch ball of a ball-type hitch mechanism mounted to the bed of the tow vehicle substantially between the rear wheels and over the rear axle of the tow vehicle.
A preliminary patentability search in Class 280, subclasses 415.1, 416.1, 416.3, 417.1 and 901, produced the following patents, which appear to be relevant to the present invention: Meyerhofer, U.S. Pat. No. 5,788,257, issued Aug. 4, 1998; Cattau, U.S. Pat. No. 5,772,229, issued Jun. 30, 1998; Putnam, U.S. Pat. No. 5,513,869, issued May 7, 1996; Jaun, U.S. Pat. No. 5,344,172, issued Sep. 6, 1994; Hohrman, U.S. Pat. No. 4,883,285, issued Nov. 28, 1989; Taylor, U.S. Pat. 4,546,994, issued Oct. 15, 1985; Schneckloth, U.S. Pat. No. 4,183,548, issued Jan. 15, 1980; and Johannes, U.S. Pat. No. 3,790,188, issued Feb. 5, 1974.
Nothing in the known prior art, either singly or in combination, disclose or suggest the present invention. More specifically, nothing in the known prior art discloses or suggests a combination hitch including a base for being attached to the bed of a tow vehicle, the base including a ball hitch member located substantially over the centerline of the rear axle of the tow vehicle; and a superstructure movable from a first position attached to the base to a second position attached to the base, the superstructure having a pin box hitch member located substantially directly over the ball hitch member and the centerline of the rear axle of the tow vehicle when the superstructure is in the first position and not located substantially directly over the ball hitch member and the centerline of the rear axle of the tow vehicle when the superstructure is in the second position.
The present invention provides a hitch for allowing a towed vehicle (e.g., a fifth wheel or gooseneck trailer or the like) to be fastened to a tow vehicle (e.g., a pick up truck or the like). A basic concept of the present invention is to provide a combination hitch that allows quick and easy conversion between a fifth wheel hitch and a gooseneck hitch, etc., without requiring tools of any type.
The combination hitch of the present invention comprises, in general, a base for being attached to the bed of a tow vehicle, the base including a ball hitch member located substantially over the centerline of the rear axle of the tow vehicle; and a superstructure movable from a first position attached to the base to a second position attached to the base, the superstructure having a pin box hitch member located substantially directly over the ball hitch member and the centerline of the rear axle of the tow vehicle when the superstructure is in the first position and not located substantially directly over the ball hitch member and the centerline of the rear axle of the tow vehicle when the superstructure is in the second position.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a combination hitch that allows the same tow vehicle to be utilized for fifth wheel trailer and gooseneck trailer towing, etc., without being cumbersome or time consuming.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a combination hitch having a superstructure that merely slides forward of the centerline of the rear axle of the tow vehicle (towards the front of the tow vehicle) to expose a ball hitch member for optimum towing.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a combination hitch having superstructure that merely slides over the centerline of the rear axle of the tow vehicle to position a pin box hitch member for optimum towing.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a combination hitch having superstructure that merely slides rearward of the centerline of the rear axle of the tow vehicle (toward the rear of the tow vehicle) to position a pin box hitch member for optimum or enhanced towing without damaging the tow vehicle or towed vehicle.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a combination hitch that can be very quickly and efficiently repositioned by pulling a single handle to unlock the superstructure from the base, requiring no tools and no hardware removal.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a combination hitch having a pin box that tilts fore and aft and side to side, and also swivels a limited amount about an axis to allow compensation for misalignment between tow vehicle and towed vehicle during fastening of the towed vehicle to the combination hitch (i.e., during hook-up).
Another object of the present invention is to provide such a combination hitch that will work with a fastening system such as the mounting apparatus disclosed in King, U.S. Pat. No. 6,158,761, issued Dec. 12, 2000, so that no modification (e.g., holes cut, burned or drilled) is required to the bed of the tow vehicle, etc.

Combination fifth wheel and gooseneck hitch


In an embodiment, a method is provided for conducting a search. In this method, a message is received from a client application. A user that initiated the message is identified and context information associated with the user is retrieved. Thereafter, a business object associated with the context information is identified and a domain associated with the business object is identified. Here, the domain includes a number of terms, and one or more of these terms are selected to be included in a query. A search of a data source can then be conducted using this query.

Generally, a search engine is a program that is designed to search for information from a variety of sources of data, such as the World Wide Web and File Transfer Protocol (FTP) servers. Many of these conventional search engines are designed to conduct searches based on matching of keywords. For example, a conventional search engine searches documents for keywords, which are specified by a user, and returns a list of documents where the keywords are found. However, conventional search engines often do not take into account the context to which the keywords are specified. For example, a search engine processing a keyword "table" cannot differentiate a furniture "table" from a database "table." As a result, many of these conventional search engines are notoriously inaccurate at searching for keywords that have different meanings in different contexts.


A filter module is provided for an optical communications system. The filter module includes a lens, three optical fibers, an optical filter, and a mirror. The three optical fibers are arranged on a single side of the lens. The lens includes a first face coated with the optical filter and that faces the mirror. The optical fibers are arranged on a second face of the lens. A cascade of the filter modules are configured to connect and form a multiplexing/demultiplexing unit.

The present invention relates to a filter module constructed as a demultiplexing/multiplexing module suitable for an optical communication system based on the wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) transmission modes.
In general, in conventional optical communication systems, a large number of demultiplexing modules are used to demultiplex (split) demultiplexing (splitting) wavelength multiplex signals transmitted through optical fiber into the individual wavelength signals and a large number of multiplexing modules are used to multiplex (combine) a plurality of optical signals different in wavelength into an optical fiber (for example, National Publication of International Patent Application No. 10-511476).
Additionally, three-port filter modules as shown in FIG. 10 have been conventionally used as filter modules capable of demultiplexing/multiplexing of an optical signal in a particular wavelength band.
As shown in FIG. 10, such a filter module comprises a single optical fiber collimator (hereinafter referred to as "single FC") 71 and a dual optical fiber collimator (hereinafter referred to as "dual FC") 72, and a cylindrical tube 73 for integrally holding both FC's 71, 72.
The single FC 71 comprises a single-core capillary 76 for holding an optical fiber 75, a refractive index distribution type rod lens 77, and a tube 78 for integrally holding these components. The two opposing faces of the single-core capillary 76 and rod lens 77 are each polished so as to be inclined. The single-core capillary 76 and the rod lens 77 are subjected to core alignment for the purpose of preventing the inclination deviation, and are fixed in the tube 78 with the aid of an adhesive so that the core aligned arrangement may be maintained.
On the other hand, the dual FC 72 comprises a two-core capillary 82 for integrally holding two optical fibers 80, 81 and a refractive index distribution type rod lens 83. The two opposing faces of the two-core capillary 82 and rod lens 83 are each polished so as to be inclined. The two-core capillary 82 and the rod lens 83 are subjected to core alignment and are jointed to each other, with the aid of the rings of an adhesive 85 applied onto the peripheries of the two opposing end faces, for the purpose of maintaining the core aligned arrangement. Additionally, the jointed parts are bonded to each other with the aid of an adhesive 86 for reinforcement covering the jointed parts. Yet additionally, an inserted short tube 84 is made to fit around the two-core capillary 82.
After both FC's 71, 72 have been fabricated, a board with a wavelength selective transmitting film (filter) 87 is bonded onto the front face of the dual FC 72, namely, the end face of the rod lens 83 with the aid of an adhesive 90 in a core aligned manner. Additionally, the bonded parts are bonded with the aid of an adhesive 91 for reinforcement covering the bonded parts.
Subsequently, both FC's 71, 72 are subjected to a mutual core alignment, both FC's are bonded in the interior of the tube 73 with the aid of an adhesive 92 for the purpose of maintaining the core aligned arrangement.
The position of both open ends of the tube 73 are respectively made to coincide with the positions of the end faces of both FC's 71, 72. Additionally, a resin based adhesive 88 is applied onto the respective end faces for the purpose of holding the optical fiber 75 and the optical fibers 81, 80. Thus, the filter module shown in FIG. 10 is fabricated.
According to the filter module constituted as described above, a wavelength multiplexed optical signal is input into or output from one of the two optical fibers 80, 81 of the dual FC 72 (for example, the optical fiber 80), and an optical signal of the wavelength band reflected on the filter 87 is input into or output from the other optical fiber (for example, the optical fiber 81). Additionally, an optical signal in the wavelength band selectively passing through the filter 87 is input into or output from the optical fiber 75 provided in the single FC 71.
In this connection, the conventional filter module has the following problems.
(1) The size of the filter module is large. Additionally, the three ports are arranged apart at both ends of the module. Accordingly, when a plurality of filter modules are connected in cascade to form a multichannel demultiplexing/multiplexing unit, a large space is needed for wiring the individual filter modules and optical fibers for connecting the filter modules. More specifically, when wiring is made by bending the optical fibers, a large space is needed, which permits ensuring the curvature radii of the fibers sufficiently large (for example, 30 mm or more) to prevent the break damage of the optical fibers. Thus, the size of the fabricated multichannel demultiplexing/multiplexing unit becomes large, and it is difficult to reduce the size thereof.
(2) The number of components is large, which leads to the increase in fabrication cost.
(3) The number of the processes for core alignment and fixation is large; more specifically, the following processes (a) to (c) for core alignment and fixation are needed.
(a) A process, in the fabrication of a single FC 71, for core alignment of the optical fiber 75 and the rod lens 77, and fixation thereof.
(b) A process, in the fabrication of a dual FC 72, for core alignment of the two-core capillary 82 and the rod lens 83, and fixation thereof.
(c) A process for core alignment of the single FC 71 and the dual FC 72, and fixation of both in the tube 73 when both FC's 71, 72 are fixed in the tube 73.
(d) A process for core alignment and fixation of the filter 87 to the rod lens 83 when the filter 87 is bonded onto the end face of the rod lens 83.
As described above, three or four processes for core alignment and fixation are needed, which results in elongation of the fabrication time, increase of the fabrication cost, and reliability degradation of the product characteristics of the filter module.


The present invention relates to an RF antenna structure that includes a planar structure and a loading plate, such that the planar structure is mounted between a ground plane and the loading plate to form an RF antenna. The loading plate may be about parallel to the ground plane and the planar structure may be about perpendicular to the loading plate and the ground plane. The loading plate may allow the height of the RF antenna structure above the ground plane to be relatively small. For example, the height may be significantly less than one-quarter of a wavelength of RF signals of interest. The planar structure may include two conductive matching elements to help increase the bandwidth of the RF antenna structure.

As technology progresses, wireless devices tend toward smaller sizes and wireless communications protocols become increasingly sophisticated. Support for multiple communications bands with wider bandwidths in a single device is becoming available. For example, the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11n wireless communications standard specifies support for wireless communications using a first communications band between about 2.4 gigahertz (GHz) and about 2.4835 GHz, and a second communications band between about 4.9 GHz and 5.825 GHz. Therefore, the second communications band has a bandwidth of about 17.25%.
A wireless local area network (WLAN) access point may be installed in a hot spot to provide wireless access to end users. The WLAN access point may need to be compact for ease and flexibility of installation. Therefore, any radio frequency (RF) antennas installed in the WLAN access point may have significant size and dimension restrictions. For example, any RF antenna in a WLAN access point may be restricted in height to about 12 millimeters (mm). Additionally, the WLAN access point may be a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) WLAN access point, which utilizes multiple antennas. Therefore, the RF antennas in a MIMO WLAN access point may have additional size and dimension restrictions, and may need to be of reasonable cost. If a WLAN access point supports communications using the IEEE 802.11n communications protocol, an RF antenna in the WLAN access point may need to support the 2.4 GHz to 2.4835 GHz communications band, the 4.9 GHz and 5.825 GHz communications band, or both. Further, if a MIMO WLAN access point supports communications using the IEEE 802.11n communications protocol, one or more RF antennas in the access point may be a single band antenna for isolation from other bands, or one or more RF antenna in the access point may support two or more communication bands to minimize the number of RF antennas. Thus, there is a need for an RF antenna that is small, cost effective, wide bandwidth, dual band, or any combination thereof.

Low-profile wide-bandwidth radio frequency antenna


Systems and methods of controlling characteristics of messages in sub-1 GHz networks (e.g., IEEE 802.11ah networks) are disclosed. One or more data structures indicating tone scaling parameters may be stored at or accessible to transmitters and receivers. The data structures may be organized based on a frame format, a wireless network bandwidth, and/or the number of spatial streams in use at the wireless network. Information stored in the data structures may be used in generation and processing of messages communicated via the sub-1 GHz network.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates to wireless data communications.
2. Background
Advances in technology have resulted in smaller and more powerful computing devices. For example, there currently exist a variety of portable personal computing devices, including wireless computing devices, such as portable wireless telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and paging devices that are small, lightweight, and easily carried by users. More specifically, portable wireless telephones, such as cellular telephones and Internet Protocol (IP) telephones, can communicate voice and data packets over wireless networks. Many such wireless telephones incorporate additional devices to provide enhanced functionality for end users. For example, a wireless telephone can also include a digital still camera, a digital video camera, a digital recorder, and an audio file player. Also, such wireless telephones can execute software applications, such as a web browser application that can be used to access the Internet. As such, these wireless telephones can include significant computing capabilities.
In some communication systems, networks may be used to exchange messages among several interacting spatially-separated devices. Networks may be classified according to geographic scope, which could be, for example, a metropolitan area, a local area, or a personal area. Such networks may be designated respectively as a wide area network (WAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), a local area network (LAN), a wireless local area network (WLAN), or a personal area network (PAN). Networks may also differ according to the switching/routing techniques used to interconnect the various network nodes and devices (e.g., circuit switching vs. packet switching), the type of physical media employed for transmission (e.g., wired vs. wireless), and the set of communication protocols used (e.g., Internet protocol suite, SONET (Synchronous Optical Networking), Ethernet, etc.).
Wireless networks may be preferred when network elements are mobile and have dynamic connectivity needs or if the network architecture is formed in an ad hoc, rather than fixed, topology. Wireless networks may employ intangible physical media in an unguided propagation mode using electromagnetic waves in the radio, microwave, infra-red, optical, or other frequency bands. Wireless networks may advantageously facilitate user mobility and rapid field deployment when compared to fixed wired networks.
Devices in a wireless network may transmit/receive information with other devices/systems. The information may include packets. The packets may include overhead information (e.g., header information, packet properties, etc. related to routing the packets through the network) as well as data (e.g., user data, multimedia content, etc. in a payload of the packet).

Tone scaling parameters in Sub-1 GHz networks


Hydrophilic inter-penetrating network charge modified microporous membranes are provided as well as a method of preparing the membranes by casting a membrane matrix blend containing matrix polymer, a solvent system, a wetting polymer compatible with the matrix polymer, and a charge modified system which forms a cross-linked inter-penetrating network structure within the microporous membrane substrate during the membrane fabrication process which network structure optionally can be locked in by heat curing. The membranes are useful for filtering ultra pure water with 18 megaohm-cm resistivity for the electronic industry, and they can also be used for the removal of a variety of contaminants from fluid media, such as very fine negatively charged particles, bacteria and endotoxins, with greatly enhanced filtration efficiency.

Microporous membranes are usually defined as thin walled structures having an open spongy morphology with a narrow pore size distribution. The mean pore sizes for microporous membranes typically range between 0.01 .mu.m and 10 .mu.m; although it is to be understood that the principles of the present invention are applicable to membranes having a still greater range of porosities. Traditionally, microporous membranes are useful to remove fine contaminants from liquid and gas media. The particulate material, such as dust or bacteria, can be removed by a microporous membrane filter through the mechanical sieving mechanism. In this mechanism, the filtration efficiency is controlled by the relative size of the particulate and membrane pore size. To achieve absolute particle retention, a microporous membrane with fine pore size is required to meet the requirement of pharmaceutical and electronic industries. However, membranes with such a fine pore size tend to have undesirable characteristics of high pressure drop across the membrane, lower flow rate, reduced dirt capture capacity, and shortened membrane life. The suspended particulate materials can also be removed from the fluid by electrokinetic adsorption mechanism. Most suspended particulate materials which are commonly encountered in industrial practice have a negative zeta potential. Such contaminants can be removed from the fluid by the electrokinetic adsorption mechanism. By imparting a positive zeta potential to the surface of filter membranes, the particulates capture efficiency can be greatly improved. This is true even for particulates whose size is much smaller than the membrane pore size. As a result, the membrane filter with charge modification has a better fluid flow rate and a longer filter life than a membrane filter with a comparable pore size rating but without any surface modification.
Conventional cationic charge modified microporous membranes for the filtration of ultra pure water typically have a proper charge density, but a poor 18 megaohm-cm water resistivity recovery. U.S. Pat. No. 4,702,840 to Degen discloses charge modified membranes prepared by casting acidic polymer solution comprising a matrix polymer and a primary activated polymer having epoxy functional groups on a supportive material to form a thin film, followed by immersing the film in a liquid bath. The resulting nascent membranes are washed in water and finally dried in an oven. During this membrane fabrication process, epoxy functional groups of the primary activated polymer available for the reaction with amino or carboxyl functional groups of the polyamide matrix polymer will be de-activated through an acid-catalyzed ring-opening reaction due to the presence of acidic solvent. Therefore, complete grafting of the primary activated polymer on the polyamide membrane surface can be a problem.
It is an object of the present invention to provide charge modified microporous membranes for filtration applications, particularly the filtration of ultrapure water used in the manufacture of computer chips in the electronic industry where a fast 18 megaohm-cm water resistivity recovery is an important requirement.

Inter-penetrating network charge modified microporous membrane


The present invention relates to fusion proteins which are capable of binding to phosphatidylserine comprising a phosphatidylserene binding ligand and a modified O6-alkylguanine-DNA alkyltransferase which is capable of autoconjugation to an O6-benzylguanine-modified label, the fusion proteins being capable of binding to phosphatidylserine on the surface of a cell undergoing apoptosis. The invention also relates to recombinant polypeptide precursors of the fusion proteins which comprise a secretion leader sequence, purification tag, protease cleavage site and the fusion protein. Also included in the scope of the invention are nucleic acids encoding the recombinant polypeptide precursor, vectors comprising the nucleic acids, host cells comprising the vectors, methods of production of the fusion proteins, kits and assays for detecting apoptosis.

The present invention relates to fusion proteins which are capable of binding to phosphatidylserine, comprising a modified O6-alkylguanine-DNA alkyltransferase which is capable of autoconjugation to an O6-benzylguanine-modified label, the fusion proteins being capable of detecting apoptosis in a cell population. The invention also relates to recombinant polypeptide precursors which comprise a secretion leader sequence, purification tag, protease cleavage site and the fusion protein. Also included in the scope of the invention are nucleic acids encoding the recombinant polypeptide precursor, vectors comprising the nucleic acids, host cells comprising the vectors, methods of production of the fusion proteins, kits and assays for detecting apoptosis.
Apoptosis, also termed programmed cell death, is a natural process used by cells to self-destruct and control aberrant growth. To date, scientists have continued to seek more insight in order to understand the complexity of the cellular events that occur when cells undergo apoptosis. The field of drug discovery has also witnessed development of therapies that seek to eliminate diseased cell populations by selectively driving target cells into apoptosis. In both cases, availability of tools that allow for the specific detection and study of apoptotic cell populations are important.
Annexin A5 (or annexin V) is a cellular protein in the annexin group and is commonly used in flow cytometry to detect apoptotic cells by its ability to bind to phosphatidylserine. Phosphatidylserine acts as a marker of apoptosis when it occurs on the outer surface of the plasma membrane of a cell. Annexin A5 has been proposed to play a role in the inhibition of blood coagulation by competing for phosphatidylserine binding sites with prothrombin and also to inhibit the activity of phospholipase A1. These properties have been found by in vitro experiments.
The use of Annexin A5 (36-kDa) as a ligand that specifically binds phosphatidylserine residues on the surface of cells undergoing apoptosis remains one of the most popular methods of detection of apoptosis. This is possible because in normal cells phosphatidylserine residues are restricted to the inner layer of the cell membrane where they contribute to intracellular signalling. On the other hand, when cells undergo apoptosis, phosphatidylserine is flipped and exposed to the outer surface of the cell membrane where it plays a role in the recognition of apoptotic cells by phagocytes, such as macrophages and dendritic cells. The presence of phosphatidylserine on the cell surface is a clear indication of apoptosis and the ability of Annexin A5 to bind to phosphatidylserine is useful for the in vitro or ex vivo detection of apoptosis. Because, annexin A5 binds to phosphatidylserine with high affinity; fluorescently labelled Annexin V can be used to detect phosphatidylserine that is exposed on the outside of apoptotic cells.
Previously several types of Annexin A5-fluorescent probes have been developed and are readily available commercially from different vendors. Most of these probes have been optimized for molecular imaging and are delivered in the form of an easy to use kit. Most of the commercially available annexin A5-fluorescent probes are prepared by chemical modification and conjugation strategies, which have several limitations. For example, one method relies on the coupling of fluorophores to annexin A5 via the lysine side chains of the annexin A5 protein using amine-reactive fluorophores. This approach has several drawbacks which includes heterogeneous annexin A5 conjugated products as a result of inability to control the number of bound fluorophores. In addition, in some instances fluorescence quenching may occur as a result of multiple fluorophores binding to annexin A5 in close proximity to each other. A further, drawback of the chemical conjugation approach is that the conjugation of fluorophores to freely accessible lysine residues may occur in the active binding site of the ligand which inhibits the ability of annexin A5 to bind to phosphatidylserine.
Other approaches which have sought to solve the abovementioned shortcomings of chemical conjugation include the genetic fusion of annexin A5 to fluorescent proteins such as eGFP. This approach has resulted in functional proteins being produced but the protein products also suffer from several limitations, including high background noise, irradiation with other dyes and the high cost of production of each different annexin A5-fluorophore colour or wavelength.
The present invention is aimed at overcoming the difficulties experienced with chemically conjugating dyes to annexin A5 and/or using non-specific fluorescent proteins.

Fusion proteins for the detection of apoptosis


An assembly for facilitating the use of paint applicator accessories in connection with a plastic container is provided. The assembly includes a nozzle device housed within a container lid and having a suction line, which extends into the paint container. The assembly also includes one or more vent holes. The assembly can be used to supply paint to a paint applicator device by attaching an intake conduit of the paint applicator to the nozzle device. As paint is siphoned out of the container by the applicator device, the vent holes allow air to flow into the container to replace the volume of withdrawn paint.

The most common way to store paints or other coatings has been within circular metal cans having removable metal lids. In use, the lid is removed using a prying tool, the paint is stirred and then poured from the can. Alternatively a brush is dipped directly into the can for applying paint to a surface. Most metal cans, such as steel paint cans, are moved and carried using a bail handle made from a steel wire which is mounted in bosses on opposite sides of the container.
Traditional metal paint cans have numerous drawbacks. First, removal of the lid requires a prying tool and can be difficult. Replacement of the lid may also be difficult because a hammer or mallet is often required to completely reseat opposed mating grooves on the lid and container and to effectively seal the container. Alternatively, individuals sometimes step on the top of the can to press the lid into place. This practice may be hazardous if one loses their balance, and messy when paint remains in the container grooves as a result of the pouring process.
Over time, due to the moisture inherent within the paint, metal pails and lids have a tendency to rust or corrode. If rust pieces fall into the paint, they often render the paint useless. Metal paint cans are also susceptible to impact damage when they are dropped, or impacted from the side. Once the can is deformed, seating and reseating the lid can be difficult and it is difficult and often impossible to return the can to a desired shape.
Pouring paint from metal paint cans is yet another difficult task due to the can's configuration. Flowing paint is difficult to guide because no spout formation exists upon the can. Paint usually runs down the side of the can and fills to container grooves in the lid seat area. The result is a messy container, which is difficult to open upon next use. Manufacture of paint cans has also been difficult. The formation and attachment of metal wire bail handles is a difficult task to perform.
Various types of applicators have been developed to simplify and accelerate the painting process. For instance, roller applicators have been developed which hold a supply of paint in a cylindrical handle attached to the roller. In addition, powered sprayers and rollers have also become popular. However, pouring paint from conventional containers for use in these types of applicators can be messy.
In one type of roller applicator, paint is delivered from the handle to the roller by a piston, which exerts force on the fluid in the handle reservoir for application on a surface. For convenience, these applicators are equipped with an intake valve, which can be attached to a tube that is positioned in a bucket or can of paint. Retraction of the piston in the cylindrical handle creates a vacuum and draws paint through the tubes and into the handle reservoir. Examples of such rollers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,732,503, 3,554,659, 4,824,272 and 4,695,176, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference. Powered sprayers, rollers or brushes are also popular for applying paint. Some sprayers are equipped with a paint cup into which paint from the can is poured for application. However, in other cases, a larger supply of paint is needed for powered sprayers or rollers. In these cases, it is often desirable to pump paint directly from the original container for application with the sprayer or roller. Such powered sprayers, rollers or brushes employ a pump, air compressor or similar device to draw or force paint out of a reservoir through and into a conduit communicating with the applicator. Examples of such powered applicators are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,494,199, 4,175,300, and 4,904,434, which are hereby incorporated by reference. Special tops for metal paint cans have been developed to facilitate the transfer of paint from the can to applicator devices, such as those described above. Typically these involve a sealing cover, which is positioned over the top of a paint can as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,175,300 and 4,695,176. A tube extending through the lid is attached to the applicator device so that paint may be siphoned out of the container and into the applicator.
In light of the advent of improved paint containers as are described herein, there exists a need for a need for ways to use applicator devices, which draw paint directly from a container, in connection with such new containers.


Each of the inner and outer rings of a non-retainer type rolling bearing has a wear-resistant solid film of a fluorine-containing synthetic resin formed on its track surface. The solid film carries a very small amount of grease having a low vapor pressure, e.g. fluorine-containing grease, as an effective lubricant for the inner and outer rings, and the rolling elements held therebetween, while the solid film is also restrained from producing dust. The amount of the grease does not exceed 5% of the volume of the open space in the bearing.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a rolling bearing of- the type not having any retainer (non-retainer type), and more particularly, to a rolling bearing having a bearing ring of thin wall thickness relative to its outside diameter.
2. Description of the Related Art
A rolling bearing of the type having a thin wall thickness is usually employed when a bearing having a relatively large diameter is required for making, for example, a support for the rotation of any of various kinds of machines. Such a bearing, or more particularly its retainer is, however, insufficient in rigidity.
As a result of rotation, the retainer is deformed and has a lower degree of roundness, and is very likely to make irregular contact with either an inner or an outer ring, become unevenly worn and produce dust of wear.
Such dust exerts an adverse effect on the manufacture of semiconductors, or like devices which have to be manufactured in a clean environment, and no known bearing of the type mentioned above can, therefore, be used in any such environment.
With this invention a non-retainer type rolling bearing which does not have any retainer makes it possible to include a greater number of rolling elements having a smaller distance from one another circumferentially of the bearing.
The smaller spacing between every two adjoining rolling elements, however, makes it likely that they may easily interfere with each other.
There are, thus, likely to occur a number of problems including the wear of the rolling elements, the wear caused on the track surfaces of the rings by the rolling elements sliding thereon, and the rolling motions of the rolling elements at a different speed from one another, resulting in the uneven distribution of the rolling elements, or the fluctuation of torque.
These problems can be improved to some extent or other if it is possible to make a thorough control of various conditions in the manufacture of rolling bearings including the selection of the optimum number and size of the rolling elements. Such a control is, however, very difficult to realize.


A parking guidance system for large vehicles has a horizontal bar, a data collection assembly and a console unit. The horizontal bar is hollow and is mounted on the rear bumper, and houses the data collection assembly. The data collection assembly uses multiple ultrasonic transmitter and detector modules and an option vide camera module. A console unit mounted in a driver compartment receives data from the data collection assembly and processes the data to proved warnings to a user.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a parking guidance system, and more particularly to a back-up sensor system installable on large vehicles and operated by wireless signal transmission.
2. Description of Related Art
Back-up sensors are becoming standard equipment in small passenger vehicles. Currently, dual-sensor versions and four-sensor versions are available on the market. In fact, small passenger vehicles only need a pair of back-up sensors on the rear bumper for obstacle detection when they are moving in the reverse direction.
However, current designs of back-up sensors make no distinction between passenger cars and large vehicles. Large vehicles such as trucks, trailers, buses and articulated vehicles require more than one pair of sensors around the sides and the back of the vehicles. Since their extended chassis and enormous bodies often block off a large portion of the driver's view especially around the rear section of such vehicles, additional sensors are required to cover the blind spots.
The conventional back-up sensors are hard-wired to a control box that is connected to a console unit in the driver compartment. For a large vehicle, the rear bumper is usually very far from the driver compartment. Therefore extensive wiring is needed to connect multiple back-up sensors on the vehicle bumper to the control box in the driver compartment. Also, this type of installation often involves drilling many holes in the external shell through which electrical wires pass to the driver's compartment.
Since back-up sensors are conventionally installed on the vehicle's rear bumper with external wiring, the sensors and the wiring are subject to wear and tear from nature and abrasive wear.
Therefore, conventional back-up sensor installations on large vehicles faced system reliability and complicated installation problems.

Parking guidance system for large vehicles


A cutting blade cover(10) is used for protecting a cutting blade(11) having a shank member(16) connected to a driving unit of a reaper and a plate-shaped blade member(17) continuous with the shank member(16) and provided with a cutting portion(18) at a tip portion thereof that is orthogonal to the shank member(16). The cutting blade cover(10) comprises a bag-shaped accommodating portion(24) for accommodating the cutting portion(18) provided at the tip portion of the plate-shaped blade member(17) and a shank retaining portion(25) for retaining the shank member(16).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cover for a cutting blade used for a reaper in which a cutting blade reciprocates.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 9, a hand-held brush cutter 100 provided with an engine 101 mounted at one end thereof and a disk-shaped cutter 102 at the other end thereof that is rotated to cut bushes and the like has been used.
Recently, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, there has been proposed a hand-held reaper 12 comprising an engine 13 at a rear end thereof and a cutting blade 11 at a forward end thereof that reciprocates, as a power driven reaper for cutting off nuts or branches that cannot be handled by the brush cutter 100. The cutting blade 11 is constituted by a bar-shaped shank member 16 attached to a driving unit. 15 of the reaper 12 and a plate-shaped blade member 17 integral with the shank member 16 and having a cutting portion 18 at a tip end thereof that is orthogonal to the shank member 16.
While a variety of cutter covers are used for protecting disc-shaped cutters in the brush cutter (see FIG. 1 of Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. Sho 63-56213), there is a need for a protection cover suitable for a cutting blade for a power driven reaper that has a shank member at a base end thereof and a cutting portion at a tip end thereof.
In consideration of above-mentioned circumstances, it is an object of the invention to provide a cutting blade cover for a cutting blade of a reciprocating type that is easily attachable and detachable, is highly retentive, and is fabricated at a low cost.
In one aspect of the invention, a cutting blade cover for protecting a cutting blade constituted by a shank member connected to a driving unit of a reaper and a plate-shaped blade member formed continuously with the shank member and having a cutting portion at a tip portion thereof that is orthogonal to the shank member, comprises: a bag-shaped accommodating portion for accommodating the cutting portion provided at the tip portion of the plate-shaped blade member; and a shank retaining portion for retaining the shank member.
According to the cutting blade cover described above, the cutting portion at the tip end is covered and protected and the tip portion is retained by the bag-shaped accommodating portion, and the rearward shank member is retained by the shank retaining portion integral with the bag-shaped accommodating portion. Therefore, the cover is easily attachable and detachable and is highly retentive.
In another aspect of the invention, the cutting blade cover further comprises an elastic portion that is formed continuously with a tip portion of the bag-shaped accommodating portion and is elastically deformed when an external force is applied to the bag-shaped accommodating portion.
According to the cutting blade cover described above, since the elastic portion is provided at the tip end of the bag-shaped accommodating portion for accommodating the cutting portion, the external force applied to the tip portion of the cutting blade is relieved due to the elastic portion. Therefore, protective effect for the tip portion of the cutting blade is further enhanced, and the cutting blade cover itself is protected. Furthermore, because only the extension of the tip of the bag-shaped accommodating portion provides the elastic portion without a substantial increase in weight and cost, this cutting blade cover is suitable as a protection cover of this type.
In still another aspect of the invention, the cutting blade cover further comprises a first displacement restricting portion provided between the bag-shaped accommodating portion and the shank retaining portion, for supporting a base end portion of the plate-shaped blade member and the shank member so as to restrict displacement of the cutting blade from the bag-shaped accommodating portion.
According to the cutting blade cover described above, the first displacement restricting portion serves to restrict axial movement of the cutting blade.
In a further aspect of the invention, the cutting blade cover further comprises a base plate portion covering a side surface of the plate-shaped blade member, the bag-shaped accommodating portion and the shank retaining portion being provided on the base plate portion; and a second displacement restricting portion provided along a rear peripheral portion of the base plate portion, for supporting a base end portion of the plate-shaped blade member of the cutting blade so as to restrict displacement of the cutting blade from the bag-shaped accommodating portion.
According to the cutting blade cover described above, movement of the cutting blade as large as the base plate portion is restricted by the second displacement restricting portion.
It is preferable that the bag-shaped accommodating portion and the shank retaining portion are formed of synthetic resin integrally with the base plate portion covering the side surface of the plate-shaped blade member.
According to the cutting blade cover having such a structure, the cutting blade cover can be fabricated easily and at a lower cost.
It is preferable that the bag-shaped accommodating portion includes a ridge-shaped retaining portion extending in a direction of the shank to sandwich and securely retain a tip portion of the cutting blade with the cutting portion of the cutting blade accommodated in the bag-shaped accommodating portion.
According to the cutting blade cover having such a structure, the retaining portion serves to sandwich and securely retain the tip portion and the play of the tip portion is thereby avoided. In addition, since the retaining portion is ridge-shaped and partially formed in the bag-shaped accommodating portion in the direction of the shank, it is easy to make a spacing of the retaining portion smaller to be adapted to the plate-shaped blade member having a relatively small thickness.
These objects as well as other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become more apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings.


An apparatus for detecting a measurand includes a fiber field access block having a clad fiber positioned in the fiber field access block such that a portion of the fiber is exposed to an outer surface and any cladding on that portion of the clad fiber is thinner than required to prevent an evanescent wave from escaping the clad fiber. A measurand sensitive layer is provided over the outer surface. A grating is present in either the measurand sensitive layer or the fiber. An optical source and an optical detection component are coupled to the clad fiber. The optical detection component measures shifts in output signals resulting from presence of the measurand in the environment of the fiber field access block caused by changing Bragg conditions which result from swelling of the measurand sensitive layer. The concentration of the measurand can be determined from the detected shifts.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to sensors, and, more particularly, to sensors of various analytes fabricated by positioning on a fiber field access block a corrugated measurand sensitive layer whose properties ar changed as a result of interactions with the environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
One conventional device for detecting the presence of analytes is an extrinsic polymer swelling sensor that uses reflections form a surface which is moved by the swelling of the polymer to provide an indication of the concentration of analytes. This type of sensor cannot be protected from the effects of temperature and is vulnerable to vibrations, pressure changes, and contaminants that may exist in the analyte.
Several other fiber optic chemical sensors rely on conventional spectroscopic instrumentation. In these cases the detector is usually a photomultiplier tube or a photodiode. The sources are usually a tungsten-halogen lamp, a xenon arc lamp, or an argon ion laser. These types of sensors require sophisticated, miniaturized demodulation equipment.
Other attempts have been made to use sensors to exploit properties of fiber optic media to transport light between a sample and the light source or detector. These techniques use light wavelengths in the blue or ultraviolet range in order to be sensitive to the spectral characteristics of the species formed by reaction of an indicator reagent with the analyte. These wavelengths require special lasers and are not transmitted well due to the absorption properties of the fibers. Additionally, the sensor stability is generally limited by the indicator. Since the detection mechanism requires photoexcitation, photodecomposition becomes an additional problem. Moreover, the associated dyes are usually unstable.
When light passes through a gradient in the index of refraction, such as may be created by an acoustical wave acting on the medium in which light is travelling, the light is diffracted. Structures with periodic distribution of the index of refraction are useful for providing phase matching between light modes that travel with different propagation velocities. This type of periodic distribution of the index of refraction is referred to as a grating structure.

High accuracy and high sensitivity environmental fiber optic sensor with corrugations


An organic electroluminescence display that drives a display panel by a digital driving scheme. The organic electroluminescence display includes: a data driver that supplies a data signal in units of subframes to the display panel; and a power supply that supplies a high-potential voltage to the display panel, wherein the power supply that varies the high-potential voltage supplied to subpixels of the display panel for each subframe.

Field
This document relates to an organic electroluminescence display and a driving method thereof.
Related Art
An organic electroluminescence element used for an organic electroluminescence display is a self-luminous element including a light emission layer formed between two electrodes. The organic electroluminescence element is an element in which electrons and holes are injected into the light emission layer from an electron injection electrode (e.g., cathode) and a hole injection electrode (e.g., anode). As excitons formed as the injected electrons and holes are combined fall from the excited state to the ground state, light is emitted.
In the organic electroluminescence display, when a scan signal, a data signal, power, and the like, are supplied to a plurality of subpixels disposed in a matrix, selected subpixels emit light to display an image.
Driving schemes of the organic electroluminescence display are divided into an analog driving scheme for driving the organic electroluminescence device by supplying current or voltage to a display panel and a digital driving scheme for adjusting light emission time. The digital driving scheme includes an ADS (Address Display Separation) driving scheme and an AWD (Address While Display) driving scheme.
In a conventional ADS driving scheme, subframes and addressing time are limited by the frame rate and resolution of a display device, and are under many time constraints because multiple frames are required to achieve sufficient color depth. In a conventional AWD driving scheme, each subframe includes an erasing period for erasing a data signal if required. In this case, the duty cycle (ratio of on time to total light emission time) decreases by an amount equal to the erasing period.
As a consequence, the conventional ADS and AWD driving schemes face numerous difficulties in realizing a large-area, high-resolution display panel due to the aforementioned problems, and thus these problems must be overcome.

Organic electroluminescence display and driving method thereof


A system and method for multivolume file system backup without suspending activity of user application programs uses a file system snapshot of two and more partitions or volumes of the storage device, or two and more data storages, significantly increasing computer system availability and allows backing up two and more partitions of the storage device without interrupting computer services. Backup procedure is performed online, simultaneously creates snapshots of two and more partitions of the storage device or storage devices in the pre-selected point of time and copies data blocks from partitions into the backup storage device, optionally through the intermediate storage device. When a write command is directed to a data storage block identified for backup that has not yet been backed up, the identified data storage block is copied from the storage device to the intermediate storage device, the write command is executed on the identified data storage block from the storage device, and the data storage block is copied from the intermediate storage device to the backup storage device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer systems and, more specifically, to a system and method for providing multi-volume online data backup.
2. Background Art
Typically, an operating system of a computer system includes a file system to provide users with an interface while working with data on the computer system's disk and to provide the shared use of files by several users and processes. Generally, the term "file system" encompasses the totality of all files on the disk and the sets of data structures used to manage files, such as, for example, file directories, file descriptors, free and used disk space allocation tables, and the like. File systems may also enhance system performance with additional functions such as, for example, caching, access markers and fault-tolerance.
Generally, a file system architecture that provides a recoverable file system is preferable to conventional file systems that lack this feature. In conventional systems, "careful" write and "lazy" write are the two main approaches to implementing input-output support and caching in file systems. Typically, a careful write is implemented in file systems developed for VAX/VMS and other similar closed operating systems. A lazy write is generally implemented in the HPFS (High Performance File System) of the OS/2 operating system and in most UNIX file systems.
In the event of an operating system failure or power supply interruption, for example, input-output operations performed at that time are immediately interrupted. Depending on what operations were performed and how far the execution of these operations had advanced, such interruption may affect the integrity of the file system.
When a file system of any type receives a request for renewal of disk content, the file system must perform several sub-operations before the renewal can be completed. In file systems using the strategy of careful write, these sub-operations always write their data onto the disk.
A file system utilizing the careful write policy generally sacrifices its performance for reliability. On the other hand, a file system with lazy write typically increases performance due to the strategy of write-back caching. Writeback caching is a caching method in which modifications to data in the cache aren't copied to the cache source until absolutely necessary. This method of caching using the lazy write policy provides several advantages over the careful write policy, which accordingly increases system performance.
Recoverable file systems, such as, for example, Microsoft NTFS (Windows NT File System), may provide greater reliability than file systems with careful write, but also provide the performance of file systems with lazy write.
The high reliability of the recoverable file system has its disadvantages. For each transaction that modifies the volume structure, the file system must enter one record into the journal file for each transaction sub-operation. The integration of journal file records into packets may increase the efficiency of the file system: for each input-output operation, several records may be simultaneously added to the journal. Moreover, the recoverable file system may use optimization algorithms, such as those used by file systems utilizing lazy write. The file system may also increase the intervals between writing the cache contents to the disk, because the file system can be recovered if a failure occurs before the modifications are copied from cache to the disk. The utilization of these tactics to improve performance generally compensates for and may even exceed the performance losses incurred by protocolling the transactions.
But, neither careful write nor lazy write can guarantee protection of user data. If a system failure occurs at the moment an application writes to a file, then the file may be lost or destroyed. Moreover, in the case of a lazy write policy, the failure may damage the file system because the lazy write policy may have destroyed existing files or even made all information on the volume unavailable.
In contrast, recoverable file systems, such as, for example, Windows NTFS, possesses greater reliability in comparison with traditional file systems.
The development of file systems demonstrates that fault-tolerance and recoverability of file systems after failures are important design considerations. To provide maximum reliability, it is necessary to periodically copy all files as an immediate copy or cast of the file system, e.g., a snapshot. By its functionality, a snapshot is very similar to the journal of a recoverable file system, as they can both restore the system to the integral state. A snapshot guarantees full data recovery, but incurs high expenses in creation and storage.
Snapshot creation generally involves sector by sector copying of the whole file system, i.e., service information and data. If the file system is currently active, then files may be modified during copying—some files can be open for writing or locked, for example. In the simplest case, the file system can be suspended for some time and during that time a snapshot is recorded. Of course, such an approach cannot be applied to servers where uninterruptible activity of the file system is necessary.
In most cases the archiving of one disk or one partition is insufficient. Data for one program (for example, Microsoft SQL Server) can be located on several hard disk drives (HDD) or on several partitions of one or more hard disk drives. In this case, it is necessary to stop the SQL Server, so that data of SQL Server will not change on one of these partitions during backup. If SQL Server's writes are not be stopped or suspended then data on one backed-up partition will not correspond to data on the other partitions. Data on a second partition can changes during the backup process of a first partition, and backed-up data from both partitions will not be synchronized.
One of solutions to this problem is stopping/suspending SQL Server service, which controls write operations to the partitions, to create a backup of the volumes. But, in this case, the SQL Server will not save the information on the volumes until the end of the backup process (i.e., the SQL Server is off-line during the backup process). In most cases, a lot of time, sometimes tens of minutes is needed for the backup process.
For example, one common problem in the context of backing up large amounts of data relates to database backups, particularly where the databases are large and distributed across several physical drives, or several partitions, or several volumes. Thus, the conventional approach would be to freeze the entire database (or at least block attempts to write to the database, but possibly allowing reads to the database), and use the now frozen database for backups. This is done because if a backup is done of one of the volumes, while the user application that utilizes the database is writing to a different volume, portions of the backup will be out of sync with the original copy of the database. Therefore, since such a situation is not acceptable, the entire database is often frozen, and then backed-up. The problem is that during that time, the database is not available, and for large enough databases, the time involved can be considerable.
Accordingly, due to the disadvantages associated with conventional data backup systems, there is a need for a multi-volume data backup process that is both reliable and efficient not just for one partition of the data storage device, but for two and more partitions of one and more data storage device. Moreover, there is a need for an online data backup process that allows a computer system to remain online while data on multiple volumes is being backed-up and also addresses the disadvantages associated with conventional back-up systems.

System and method for using multivolume snapshots for online data backup