An air bag system has an array of detectors positioned under the seat material of a vehicle seat upon which a person or mass can be positioned. The array has a plurality of sensor leaves extending from a plurality of sensor branches. The branches extend from a trunk. Each sensor is of the type which predictably changes resistance upon the mechanical deflection thereof. A deflector is positioned to concentrate the deflection forces on the sensor leaf. Each sensor leaf has a substrate with conductive material on one side and a backer on the other. The sensor array output is supplied to a terminal and then to operation means which are connected to arm or disarm an air bag actuator to regulate the operation of the air bag in accordance with the mass such as an occupant or a child car seat on the vehicle seat. Each sensor leaf senses the force of the mass in a segment or quadrant and supplies the signals to a computer which processes and compares to known data to regulate the enabling or disabling of the air bag actuator.

1. Field
This invention relates to air bag inflation systems including sensors and systems for profiling a mass positioned on a substrate and more specifically systems and structures for profiling the mass of that which is positioned on the seat of a vehicle such as an automobile.
2. State of the Art
Today many automobiles have an air bag system which activates to inflate an air bag and in turn position the air bag in front of the operator and in some cases to position another bag in front of the front seat passengers. Air bags have also been installed in side door panels of some vehicles. The purpose of the air bags is to act as a cushion and in turn reduce injury to the operator and passengers from interaction with front structures such as the steering wheel, dash board and windshield or with side structures such as the side door or side window of an automobile arising from a sudden impact and in turn sudden change of speed of the vehicle. For example, detectors are positioned to sense the sudden deceleration of the vehicle that may be imposed by an accident or crash. The detectors are connected to the air bag system to electrically activate gas generators positioned to inject gas into and inflate one or more large air bags. The air bags thereupon rapidly inflate or deploy to function, for example, one to cushion a driver and one to cushion the passenger, positioned on the front passenger seat of the automobile. That is, the air bags inhibit the forward movement of the driver and passenger due to inertia to eliminate the resulting injury should they move into contact with the vehicle. Air bags are also configured to deflate fairly quickly so that they will not interfere with, for example, breathing of the person or vehicle egress.
It seems to be accepted that air bag arrangements are responsible for protecting and saving many people who have been in serious accidents. However, air bags have been known to inflate when the vehicle and its occupants are not in any serious jeopardy. For example, vehicles encountering a large bump or hole in the road surface reportedly have had their air bag systems activate and inflate the air bags. Minor vehicle interactions (e.g., slow speed accidents) are also believed to have led to activation when the vehicle occupants are not in serious jeopardy. Activation in such cases can impose a rearward force on an occupant that is not desired. Also activation may interfere with the driver""s vision and in turn interfere with the operation of the vehicle.
The air bag for the driver is typically positioned in the hub of the steering wheel. In some vehicles, the horn has been moved from a typical or traditional central position to buttons on, for example, spokes of the steering wheel to provide the space for the air bag. Systems for operating the horn of the vehicle in a central position of the steering wheel have been devised even though the bag is in the hub. U.S. Pat. No. 5,576,684 (Langford), the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by this reference, discloses a system suitable for use in the hub of the steering wheel with provisions for horn operation. Activation of the driver air bag inhibits driver interaction with the steering wheel, steering wheel column and even the windshield.
An inflating air bag proceeds outwardly from the vehicle structure and toward the occupant very rapidly so that it fills in the space in front of the occupant before the inertia forces on the occupant can cause the occupant to project into the vehicle structure. Thus an inflating air bag proceeds outwardly not only rapidly but also with some force inasmuch as it must absorb the force imposed on it by the forward moving occupant.
Inasmuch as the operator of a vehicle is typically over the age of 16, the range of design parameters for the driver air bag is within certain practical limits. Thus, should an air bag inflate, the speed and force exerted can be selected to be consistent with the physical characteristics (e.g., size, height, weight) of the operator. However, for the passenger seat in the front seat area of the vehicle, the occupant can range in size and configuration from a baby in a car seat to a small child to a full sized adult. Further, the front seat may have a wide variety of objects positioned on it ranging, by way of example, from a woman""s purse to a sack of groceries. Typical air bag systems do not sense the identity of the occupant or object in the seat. The air bag deploys even if there is no one or nothing in the passenger seat. Further, presently known air bag systems do not take into account the size or character of that which is in the passenger seat and are thereby unable to adjust to accommodate to the size and character of that which is in the front seat.
Because an air bag inflates with great speed and with a force sufficient to sustain the force of a large adult projecting forward at great speed, some adults are reportedly bruised or otherwise injured by the inflating air bag. Some small passengers are not able to sustain the force of the air bag and reportedly may sustain some significant injury thereby. There have been reports in the press of injuries and even fatalities of small children attributed to air bag inflation. See, P. Carbonara, IS THAT A BOMB IN YOUR DASHBOARD (MONEY magazine, NOVEMBER 1998, pp. 131-138).
To reduce injuries to small occupants, some effort is being made to install a switch to regulate the passenger side air bag. That is, an on-off switch is being incorporated into the air bag system so that an operator may deactivate the air bag depending on the nature/character of the passenger (e.g., a baby in a car seat carrier). Of course use of the on-off switch is believed to also propose risks if the operator places the switch in an xe2x80x9coffxe2x80x9d condition and fails to return it to xe2x80x9conxe2x80x9d for an appropriately sized passenger. It is also understood that some have proposed systems to vary the pressure of the air bag relative to the size of the occupant. However, no effective system for doing so is known at this time.
Systems to detect the presence of a seat occupant or object in the seat and also to determine certain characteristics sufficient to properly determine when air bag inflation is desired and when it is not desired and to provide a signal that may be used for a system to vary the pressure in the air bag have been proposed. However, such a system to be useful must be operative over a wide range of temperatures and be operative when immersed or wet. In such conditions, as well as, in normal dry conditions and temperature (e.g., 60xc2x0 F.), such systems must be able to supply signals that are suitable for determining or profiling a mass that ranges from very small to very large. Further such a system must be rugged and reliable. Such a system is not presently available or known.
An air bag system includes a detector arrangement with related circuits and components. The detector senses the presence of and supplies signals from which one may classify a mass (e.g., an object or person) positioned on a substrate such as the seat of a vehicle (e.g., automobile, truck, airplane). A sensor arrangement is positioned in the seat and configured to sense the mass and general configuration of that which is in the seat by sensing downward forces exerted in selected sectors of the seat. The sensor generates signals that are reflective of the mass on the seat. The signals are of the type which may thereafter be processed and compared with known information for a given mass to produce an output signal which arms or disarms the gas generator of an air bag to regulate the gas generator as desired.
In one form, the invention is a detector for positioning between a base and a surface. The detector is operable for detecting a force or pressure at one or more locations of a plurality of locations on a deformable surface and for generating a signal reflective of the presence of the force or pressure applied at the plurality of locations. In another form, the detector generates signals reflective of the profile and relative magnitude of the deflection and in turn the force or pressure.
A sensor mat is positioned between the base and the surface. The sensor mat is configured to mechanically deflect upon mechanical deflection of the surface toward the base upon application of the force or pressure to the surface at any one or more of the plurality of locations. The sensor mat has at least a plurality of sensors positioned for mechanical displacement upon the displacement of the surface. The sensor of said plurality of sensors is of the type which predictably changes a measurable electrical characteristic upon the application of a force thereto. Conductor means is connected to each sensor to supply electrical power thereto and is connected to at least one sensor of the plurality of sensors to transmit therefrom signals reflective of changes in the measurable electrical characteristic of the one sensor. A terminal means is conductively connected to the conductor means for electrical connection to a source of electrical power for receiving and supplying electrical power to said sensor mat and for electrical connection to an external circuit configured to receive signals reflective of said changes in the measurable electrical characteristic of at least the one sensor.
Preferably, the surface is divided into a plurality of sectors with each sector having one location of the plurality of locations. More preferably, a sensor of the plurality of sensors of the sensor mat is positioned proximate a location in a sector of the surface to mechanically deflect upon deflection of the sector at the location in that sector for supplying the signals reflecting a change in the electrical characteristic. Even more preferably, the plurality of sensors includes a separate selected plurality of sensors each of which has a predictable change in electrical resistance upon mechanical deflection thereof. One sensor or a plurality of the sensors may be force sensitive resistors.
In a preferred configuration, the conductor means includes a trunk member with a plurality of branch members extending therefrom. Each branch member has at least one sensor of the plurality of sensors, which is conductively connected thereto. More desirably, at least one branch member of the plurality of branch members has two sensors of the plurality of sensors connected thereto. In one configuration the mat includes six branch members. Preferably each of the six branch members includes two central members each having five sensors. Two outer members of the six branches each have three sensors. Inboard branch members include a left inboard member and a right inboard member each having six sensors of the plurality of sensors. Even more preferably, the sensor array is generally polygonal in projection. Each sensor is connected by conductors to a terminal circuit through a preferred connector.
In a desirable alternate, a deflector structure is positioned relative to a sensor for contacting the sensor upon application of the force in a sector of the surface.
At least one sensor of the selected plurality of sensors preferably has a substrate configured to deflect about a transverse axis and an electrically conductive composition deposited on a substrate to be deflected with the substrate about the transverse axis. The deflector structure is preferably constructed with a longitudinal axis which may be generally positioned to be in alignment with the transverse axis. Desirably the deflector structure is shaped to act as a fulcrum about which the substrate deflects upon application of said force at the location in a sector. The deflector structure is desirably sized to extend substantially the width of the substrate. In a highly preferred configuration the deflector structure is cylindrical in shape.
In one application or embodiment, the surface includes the outer material layer of a seat structure suitable for use in a vehicle. The base includes the structure of the seat structure covered with the outer material layer.
In one preferred embodiment, an air bag system is provided in which an air bag is configured to be inflated with a gas. The air bag includes a bag mechanism with a bag operable from a stored position to an expanded position by inflation with said gas. The air bag also includes gas supply means positioned for supplying gas to the air bag to urge the bag to its expanded position upon receipt of an activation signal.
The air bag system includes a sensor system for generating the activation signal. The sensor system includes a base positioned proximate the substrate with a sensor mat positioned between the base and the substrate so that upon mechanical deflection of the substrate toward the base at one or more of a plurality of locations, one or more of a plurality of sensors will deflect. Each sensor is positioned for mechanical deflection upon the deflection of the substrate at the plurality of locations. Each sensor of the plurality of sensors is of the type that predictably changes a measurable electrical characteristic upon mechanical deflection thereof.
The sensor system of the air bag also includes conductor means connected to each sensor to supply electrical power thereto and to transmit therefrom trigger signals reflective of changes in the measurable electrical characteristic of each sensor upon the application of a force or pressure to the surface. The sensor system also includes terminal means electrically associated with said conductor means for electrical connection to a source of electrical power for receiving and supplying electrical power to the sensors and to the conductor means for receiving and transmitting the trigger signals.
The sensor system of the desired air bag includes operation means conductively connected to a source of electrical power to receive electrical power therefrom and to the terminal means to receive trigger signals reflective of the changes in the measurable electrical characteristic of each sensor. The operation means is configured to compare the trigger signals with preselected operational values and calculate the difference or an error signals reflective of the magnitude of the differences there between, and to generate activation signals based on the presence of the difference or error signals of preselected magnitude. The operation means is conductively connected to the air bag means to supply said activation signals to said gas supply means.
Desirably the air bag is installed in and a part of a vehicle such as an automobile, bus, train, plane, or the like.
To profile the mass or at least one characteristic of that which is on the seat, a sensor array of the type hereinbefore is installed in the vehicle. The system includes a computer connected to the terminal structure programmed to process the signals and to enable the gas generator upon determination of a preselected mass and/or profile.


Method and apparatus for use within a wireless OFDM network that transmits and receives first and second packets each having header bits and utilizing variable header repetition. The header bits in the first packet are communicated on multiple OFDM symbols and repeated on a plurality of OFDM subcarriers in a first frequency band. The header bits in a second packet are communicated on fewer OFDM symbols and in a second frequency band that overlaps with and is wider than the first frequency band.

Conventional multi-user communications system use frame-based (or packet-based) transmission to communication between two or more users over a shared channel based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)—(OFDM is also sometimes referred to as multicarrier modulation.) A packet is usually formed by a preamble, header, and payload, and transmitted using time-sharing or contention-based media access methods. An example of such a system includes IEEE 802.11 (Wireless LAN), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), and ITU G.9960 (G.hn). These systems use OFDM transmission, which is also sometimes referred to as Discrete Multi-Tone (DMT) which divides the transmission frequency band into multiple subcarriers (also referred to as tones or sub-channels), with each sub-carrier individually modulating a bit or a collection of bits.
The header contains important control information for the receiver to decode the payload properly, and also provides information about the packet length for virtual carrier sensing. Hence, it is essential to decode the header reliably. In G.9960, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, and should be familiar to those skilled in the art, the header containing PHYH bits (header information block) is carried over one or two OFDM symbols (D=1 or 2), and within each symbol, multiple header information blocks are repeated over the entire frequency band. (See Editor for G.9960, "ITU-T Recommendation G.9960: Next generation wire-line based home networking transceivers—Foundation," ITU-T SG15/Q4, January 2009) The default value of D is 1, but expanding it to 2 in some cases is under discussion. See, for example, "G.hn: PHY-Frame Header Extension," ITU Temporary Document ITU-T SG-15/Q4 09CC-046, August 2009, and ITU Temporary Document ITU-T SG15/Q4 09XC-100 entitled "G.hn: Using Two Symbols for the Header of PHY Frame on Coax," July, 2009, filed in the priority application and incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
The possibility of carrying more than PHYH bits in the header (H=1 or 2) is also under discussion as disclosed in the "G.hn: PHY-Frame Header Extension" article and in "G.hn: Extended PHY Frame Header," ITU-T SG15/Q4 09XC-119, July 2009, filed in the priority application and incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

Method and apparatus for variable header repetition in a wireless OFDM network with multiple overlapped frequency bands


A drive system includes a first switching unit, a first capacitor, a step-down circuit, a second capacitor, and a discharging unit. The first switching unit is configured to convert energy, stored in an electrical storage device, to electric power that is supplied to a motor. The first capacitor is connected to the first switching unit and configured to smooth voltage that is supplied from the electrical storage device to the first switching unit. The step-down circuit is connected to the first capacitor and configured to step down voltage of the first capacitor. The second capacitor is connected to the step-down circuit and configured to draw electric charge stored in the first capacitor. The discharging unit is configured to discharge electric charge stored in the second capacitor.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a drive system and a vehicle including a drive system.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, electromotive vehicle, such as electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles and fuel-cell vehicles, that travel by driving a motor with electric power stored in a power supply device have become a focus of attention. These electromotive vehicles include a converter that outputs high-voltage direct-current power by stepping up voltage, supplied from the power supply device, to a predetermined voltage and a capacitor that smoothes the voltage output from the converter. These electromotive vehicles include an inverter that converts direct-current power, output from the converter, to alternating-current power and a drive motor that is driven by alternating-current power output from the inverter.
In such an electromotive vehicle, in order to improve the safety of the vehicle, it is required to quickly discharge the energy of high-voltage direct-current power stored in the capacitor in the event of collision of the vehicle. For example, in order to satisfy the standard associated with protection of an electric power control device, which is regulated in United States laws and regulations, that is, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 305, it is required to set the voltage of the capacitor to a predetermined value or below within 5 seconds from a collision.
As a technique for rapidly discharging electric charge stored in a smoothing capacitor, there is, for example, a technique for causing the smoothing capacitor to generate heat by connecting a plurality of resistors to the smoothing capacitor.
In addition, there is a technique for adjusting the amount of electric charge that is stored in a smoothing capacitor by connecting a capacitor in parallel with the smoothing capacitor (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2011-210026 (JP 2011-210026 A) and Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2009-232537 (JP 2009-232537 A)).
However, in the above-described related techniques, a resistor having a large rated power is required, so a system including a heat dissipation cooling device may increase in size. In addition, it is difficult to control the voltage of the smoothing capacitor only by connecting a capacitor in parallel with the smoothing capacitor.

Drive system and vehicle including drive system


A pilot pressure sensor detects a pilot pressure from an arm operating unit and outputs a pilot pressure signal. A drive signal corresponding to the pilot pressure signal is then outputted from a controller to a solenoid-operated proportional valve. Through the solenoid-operated proportional valve, a pilot pressure is fed to an auxiliary selector valve so that an opening of said auxiliary selector valve becomes greater. Of pressure oil delivered from a first hydraulic pump, a flow rate of the pressure oil to be branched to a side of a by-pass circuit is hence increased. The pressure oil fed through the by-pass circuit passes through a merging directional control valve and is caused to merge with pressure oil fed from a second hydraulic pump. The thus-merged pressure oil is then fed to a hydraulic arm cylinder.

1.) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a hydraulic circuit for a hydraulic shovel, and specifically to a hydraulic circuit for a hydraulic shovel, said hydraulic circuit having a plurality of hydraulic sources and being provided with a circuit for replenishing pressure oil from a predetermined one of the hydraulic sources to a predetermined actuator drive circuit when plural actuators are operated at the same time.
2.) Description of the Related Art
A hydraulic shovel carries working equipment for performing work such as excavation. This working equipment is composed of working members, such as a boom, arm and bucket, pivotally connected to corresponding pins and hydraulic actuators, such as hydraulic cylinders, for driving these working members, respectively. In actual work by the hydraulic shovel such as excavating, unloading or grading work, the working members such as the boom, arm and bucket are often operated simultaneously.
A hydraulic circuit for permitting smooth movements of working members, such as a boom, arm and bucket, in combination upon such simultaneous operation is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Publication (Kokoku) No. HEI 2-16416.
The construction of an essential part of the hydraulic circuit according to this conventional art is illustrated in FIG. 8. The conventional art will hereinafter be described with reference to FIG. 8. As is depicted in the diagram, the hydraulic circuit according to this conventional art has a fist hydraulic pump 15, a second hydraulic pump 18, a directional control valve 16 for controlling a flow of pressure oil delivered from the first hydraulic pump 15, a hydraulic cylinder 14 for driving a boom 13, a directional control valve 19 for controlling a flow of pressure oil delivered from the second hydraulic pump 18, and a hydraulic cylinder 12 for driving an arm 11. On a downstream side of the directional control valve 16, a merging directional control valve 17 is arranged to guide the pressure oil from the first hydraulic pump 15 to the hydraulic arm cylinder 12. This merging directional control valve 17 is designed so that the pressure oil from the first hydraulic pump 15 is guided to the hydraulic arm cylinder 12 only when the hydraulic arm cylinder 12 is operated in an extending direction, namely, to move the arm 11 in a direction C (hereinafter referred to as the "arm-crowding direction"). Further, a by-pass circuit 41 is arranged to by-pass the pressure oil from an upstream side of the directional control valve 16 to a pressure oil feeding side of the merging directional control valve 17 via a restrictor 40. The directional control valve 16 is fed with a pilot pressure from a boom operating unit 21 and the directional control valve 19 and the merging directional control valve 17 are each fed with a pilot pressure from an arm operating unit 22, whereby the spool positions of the individual directional control valves are controlled.
According to the conventional hydraulic circuit constructed as described above, a spool of the directional control valve 16 is moved corresponding to a quantity of operation (which may hereinafter be called a "stroke") of the boom operating unit 21 so that the pressure oil from the first hydraulic pump 15 is fed to the hydraulic boom cylinder 14. When the arm operating unit 22 is operated, on the other hand, a spool of the directional control valve 19 and that of the merging directional control valve 17 are both moved corresponding to a stroke of the arm operating unit 22. When operated in the arm-crowding direction, the hydraulic arm cylinder 12 is also fed with the pressure oil from the first hydraulic pump 15 in addition to the pressure oil fed from the second hydraulic pump 18. Namely, when the boom operating unit 21 is not operated, the pressure oil from the first hydraulic pump 15 is guided to the merging directional control valve 17 through a center by-pass line 42 of the directional control valve 16. When the directional control valve 16 is operated, on the other hand, a portion of the pressure oil fed from the first hydraulic pump 15 is guided to the merging directional control valve 17 through the by-pass circuit 41 by way of the restrictor 40.
Accordingly, even upon combined operation of the boom 13 and the arm 11, especially upon operating the arm 11 in the crowding direction, the portion of the pressure oil fed from the first hydraulic pump 15 is guided, in addition to the pressure oil fed from the second hydraulic pump 18, to the hydraulic arm cylinder 12 so that the moving speed of the arm 11 can be increased.
Further, owing to the arrangement of the restrictor 40 in the by-pass circuit 41, it is possible to prevent the pressure oil from excessively flowing to a side of the hydraulic arm cylinder 12 from the first hydraulic pump 15. This makes it possible to prevent the moving speed of the boom 13 from being lowered.
As has been described above, the conventional art can improve the moving speed of the arm 11 without extremely lowering the moving speed of the boom 13 upon combined operation of the boom 13 and the arm 11. In the case of a hydraulic shovel, a higher arm-crowding speed generally leads to improvements in the operability and working efficiency upon excavation. The hydraulic circuit according to this conventional art is therefore an effective hydraulic circuit for a hydraulic shovel.
Incidentally, in excavating work by the hydraulic shovel, the boom 13 is often operated up or down while causing the arm 11 and a bucket 20 to pivot toward an unillustrated main body of the hydraulic shovel. At this time, a quantity of operation of the boom 13 is generally smaller than quantities of operation of the arm 11 and the bucket 20. In such excavating work, a flow rate of the pressure oil required for the hydraulic boom cylinder 14 becomes lower than that required for the hydraulic arm cylinder 12. Conversely, it is necessary to feed the pressure oil at an increased flow rate to the hydraulic arm cylinder 12, because the arm 11 is required to move faster and large excavational reaction force, hence, high load is exerted on the arm 11.
Upon performing such work, the above-described conventional art is unable to feed the pressure oil at a higher rate toward the hydraulic arm cylinder 12 because the restrictor 40 is arranged with its opening fixed. As a consequence, it is impossible to increase the speed of the arm 11. There is accordingly further room for improvements in the operability and working efficiency upon excavation.
In such excavating work, the quantity of operation of the boom 11 is small as described above. Large restriction resistance is therefore produced at the directional control valve 16 so that the pressure oil retained on an upstream side of the restrictor 40 is discharged into a tank through an unillustrated relieve valve. The conventional art is hence accompanied by a problem that an energy loss is large and the fuel consumption is deteriorated.

Hydraulic by-pass circuit for a hydraulic shovel

Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd.


An electronic device includes a main body and a plurality of paper trays. The main body includes a mounting plate, and the mounting plate defines a paper outlet. A mounting bracket is secured to the main body. A control module is disposed on the mounting bracket. A driving member is connected to the paper trays. The control module is capable of causing the driving member to move the paper trays along a direction parallel to the mounting plate, so that one of the paper trays is aligned with the paper outlet.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to electronic devices with paper sorting apparatuses.
2. Description of Related Art
Often printers will have many print jobs to process, in a short time, that may come from many different users. Thus it is helpful to have print jobs sorted for easy retrieval by users. However, present paper sorters are complicated and expensive.

Electronic device with paper sorting apparatus


Provided is a structure with a conductive plug including a substrate, a first dielectric layer, an etch stop layer, a second dielectric layer, a conductive plug and a liner. The substrate has a conductive region therein. The first dielectric layer, the etch stop layer and the second dielectric layer are sequentially formed on the substrate and have at least one opening therethrough. Besides, the opening has a substantially vertical sidewall. The conductive plug fills in the opening and is electrically connected to the conductive region. The liner surrounds the upper portion of the conductive plug. A method of forming a structure with a conductive plug is further provided.

Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a method of forming the same, and more particularly to a structure with a conductive plug and a method of forming the same.
Description of Related Art
Along with the development of science and technology, semiconductor devices are required to miniaturize so as to meet the current trends of light, thin, short and small products. However, some process problems emerge as the size of semiconductor devices is scaled down.
For example, when a contact is downsized, the aspect ratio of the contact is increased, and thus, the etching becomes difficult and the process window becomes small. For a contact etching process, undesired profiles such as tapered and/or bowing profiles, rather than desired vertical profiles, are often observed.

Structure with conductive plug and method of forming the same


The present invention provides a compound represented by formula I, pharmaceutically acceptable salts, enantiomers, diastereomers or racemates thereof, the preparation method thereof, the pharmaceutical composition comprising the same, and the use thereof in the preparation of a medicament for treating a disease or condition mediated by EED and/or PRC2. The compound of the present invention can be used treating PRC2-mediated diseases or conditions.

Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) is a core member of the Polycomb Group. It has histone methyltransferase activity, and can specifically catalyze the trimethylation modification (H3K27me3) of lysine at position 27 of histone H3 to suppress the expression of specific genes. The methyltransferase activity of PRC2 is derived from its catalytic member EZH2. However, EZH2 has no catalytic activity when it is alone. It needs to form a complex with at least two other members of PRC2, i.e., EED and SUZ12, to catalyze the methylation modification. Therefore, EZH2, EED and SUZ12 are considered as the core components of the PRC2 complex. Recent studies have found that the core components of PRC2 are overexpressed in a variety of tumor cells, and their abnormal activity is the direct reason of the onset and deterioration of various malignant tumors. At the same time, recent gene sequencing results of lymphoma patients showed that EZH2 exhibits activating mutation in patients with germinal center B cell lymphoma (GCB-DLBCL). The mutated EZH2 alters the substrate specificity of PRC2, thereby increases the level of H3K27me3 in cells. Down-regulating the expression of EZH2 or other core components by the siRNA method will significantly inhibit the proliferation of lymphoma cells, which indicates that the occurrence and development of GCB-DLBCL is closely related to the excessive activation of PRC2. Therefore, PRC2 is a very promising target for the development of anticancer drugs, and the discovery of inhibitors that target PRC2 is currently a hot topic in the pharmaceutical industry. Recently, two major pharmaceutical companies, Novartis and AbbVie, have invented a small molecules that inhibit PRC2 activity by targeting EED (Reference: Novartis EED226, US 2016/0176682, J. Med. Chem. 2017, 60, 2215-2226, J. Med. Chem. 2017, 60, 415-427, Nat. Chem. Biol. 2017, 13, 381-388; AbbVie's A-395, Nat. Chem. Biol. 2017, 13, 389-395), this kind of compound shows very strong inhibitory activity at the molecular level, cell level and animal experiments. In summary, the PRC2 complex is considered to be a key driver for the occurrence and development of a variety of malignant tumors, and the development of inhibitors that target EED to inhibit PRC2 activity is currently very hot in the industry and is conducive to the use in the related new drug development.

Triazolopyrimidine, triazolopyridine compounds, and the composition thereof for treating PRC2-mediated diseases

SHANGHAI INSTITUTE OF MATERIA MEDICA, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES


A vehicle suspension mounting structure and method can include a control arm connected to a bushing via a fastener rod and the method of connecting the same. The bushing can be attached to a portion of the vehicle frame. The fastener rod can be inserted into a cavity in the control arm such that the fastener rod extends away from the control arm and is prevented from being removed from the cavity in the control arm by a lip provided at a proximal end (relative to the control arm) of the fastener rod. The mounting structure and method can provide a safer and stronger connection between the control arm and bushing. In addition, serviceability can be improved and cost savings can be realized in some cases.

1. Field
The presently disclosed subject matter relates to a vehicle suspension system and a method of mounting a control arm of the suspension system to a vehicle frame. More particularly, the disclosed subject matter relates to a vehicle suspension system in which the control arm is attached by a fastening rod that extends from a cavity in the control arm and is connected via bushing to the vehicle frame. The rod can include a stopping structure configured to prevent the rod from passing completely through the cavity located on the control arm.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Typical vehicle suspension systems often require a great number of attachment mechanisms, and a great deal of space. The high number of components and their complex shapes also add cost and weight to a vehicle. In addition, the large volume required for these components also creates restrictions in vehicle design and also creates problems during repair in terms of added time required due to limited access to components, and added cost due to this added repair time and multiple part requirements. One area of concern is how each component is attached to the frame of a vehicle, particularly the suspension system components.
The vehicle suspension system connects the wheel mount structure with the vehicle frame. The suspension also controls a position of a tire with respect to the vehicle body for its ideal position during operation of the vehicle, and thus ensures optimal handling safety. It also prevents the wheel's axle/shaft from directly transmitting an impact or vibration from the road surface to the vehicle frame and in this way prevents damage of the vehicle cargo and improves the ride comfort for the vehicle passengers. Accordingly, the connection of the upper and lower portions of the vehicle's suspension system generally is made to be flexible to absorb the impact from the road surface, and to simultaneously moderate various forces applied to the vehicle's wheels.
Vehicle suspension systems typically include a complicated set of linkages, pneumatic devices, and springs that are designed to provide a smooth and relatively controlled ride for a vehicle. For example, a four bar linkage suspension can include lower and upper control arms connected on each side of the frame of a vehicle. The control arms are rotatably connected to the vehicle frame (e.g., by a "bar" type pivot/connecting device) so that they can rotate and move substantially vertically with respect to the vehicle frame. A knuckle typically connects each of the lower control arms to a respective upper control arm and a wheel mount structure can be attached to the knuckle. Thus, the wheel, when mounted, is permitted to move in a vertical direction relative to the vehicle frame.
The manner in which each of the components of a vehicle suspension system is connected to the frame of the vehicle and to each other has not typically been given a great deal of consideration other than to ensure proper functionality. For example, the control arms in a suspension system can be mounted in a variety of ways to the frame of a vehicle. The means of attachment can affect performance, safety, ease of serviceability and overall cost for a vehicle suspension system.
The control arms are specifically designed and positioned to allow the steering knuckles to move in a prescribed three-dimensional arc. Typically, the inner ends of the lower control arm have pressed-in bushings. Bolts, which pass through the bushings, serve to attach the lower arm to the vehicle frame. This is typically accomplished by pressing the bolt into the outer edge of the lower arm to simplify production of the parts. However, when an external force larger than a frictional force is applied to the bolt, the bolt can dislodge and retract from the same direction on the vehicle.
As shown in FIG. 5, a cross-sectional view of a conventional fastening mechanism can be provided where a fastener rod 25 is pressed in from the outer edge of a control arm 27 so that the fastener bolt shaft 28 is fed into the control arm cavity 29. This conventional fastening mechanism does not prevent the fastener bolt 25 from being dislodged and pulled out from the control arm 27. This method is typically used when the lower arm is made from a relatively lightweight material, such as aluminum, and it is thus necessary to use a bolt of relatively heavier weight material, such as steel, to connect to the bearing and vehicle frame. If the lower arm is made from a relatively heavy weight material, such as steel, a bolt may not even be necessarily used. For example, a rod like connection structure for connecting the lower control arm to the bushing and thus to the vehicle frame could be integrally formed with the steel lower control arm, or could be welded directly to the steel lower control arm.
Thus, other designs of mounting the lower arm exist wherein the fasteners are welded onto the arm or machined directly out of the arm material, integrating the arm and fastener into one piece. However, if the fastener is made from the same lightweight material as the lower arm, safety could be compromised, since the fastener undergoes a great deal of stress and is typically constructed from a relatively strong material. Typical mounting designs require heavyweight material for the connection between the lower control arm, bushing and vehicle frame.
Another example of a typical suspension system includes that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,938,220 (the '220 patent), which discloses a pivot bushing for a McPherson Type Suspension. The '220 patent describes a suspension arm of a three-point type. The suspension arm includes an outer anchoring point (for mounting of a lower bearing of a spring strut) and two inner anchoring points in the form of pivot means for pivotal mounting of the suspension arm to the vehicle body. The front pivot means is formed by a bushing extending essentially in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle and comprises a sleeve formed in the suspension arm. An elastic bushing element is inserted in the sleeve and is also shaped as a sleeve. The screw and bushing element and their guiding sleeve form an essentially conventional pivot means with the screw serving as a pivot axis.
There exists a need to provide a mount structure and method for mounting a lower control arm of a vehicle suspension system such that safety, cost-effectiveness, a ease of serviceability, are achieved.


An optical receiver having an optical IQ modulator configured to generate an optical local-oscillator (OLO) signal for optical homodyne detection of an optical input signal applied to the optical receiver. The optical receiver further has (i) a phase detector configured to generate an electrical measure of the phase difference between the OLO signal and a carrier wave of the optical input signal and (ii) a phase-lock loop configured to drive the optical IQ modulator using the electrical measure. In an embodiment, the phase detector is configured to generate the electrical measure using both I and Q components of the homodyne-detected signal and in a manner that enables the optical receiver to be compatible with the M-QAM modulation format.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates to optical communication equipment and, more specifically but not exclusively, to coherent detection of modulated optical signals.
2. Description of the Related Art
This section introduces aspects that may help facilitate a better understanding of the invention(s). Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is in the prior art or what is not in the prior art.
Coherent detection is used in optical transport systems, for example, because it is compatible with advanced modulation formats, such as quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) and quadrature-amplitude modulation (QAM), which enable the corresponding system to achieve a relatively high spectral efficiency, e.g., better than 1 bit/s/Hz. The use of polarization multiplexing serves to further increase the bit rate and spectral efficiency approximately by a factor of two. However, a major challenge of this particular transmission format is the need for fast and precise polarization tracking and, in the case of homodyne detection, for phase and carrier-frequency locking of the optical local-oscillator signal.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Generation of an optical local-oscillator signal for a coherent-detection scheme


A model governance framework uses a shared ledger on the back of a blockchain. The solution tracks various analytic tracking documents (ATDs) and associated assets, like requirements and sprints, through various stages of an ATD lifecycle. Data schema and data distributions are also tracked. The decision models, corresponding variables and execution codes are also tracked. Existing variables and execution codes are made available via a preexisting asset ATD for reuse. Various transactions provide mechanism for accessing and manipulating the various assets through a recorded ledger of events and approvals. A system provides tracking of the approvals and the approvers of all model assets that are touched by any participant, and further provides access control and security for multi-user access. An application layer provides graphical access to the various aspects of the blockchain. Event notification provides the backbone for interfacing with various external systems like email servers and version control systems.

Organizations are increasingly using decision models for making decisions. These decision models comprise of statistical and machine learning based algorithms or even expert knowledge based equations, representing relationships derived from data elements and features/variables derived from the input data to inform one or more decisions or outcomes. Often, there is execution code that goes hand-in-hand with the models. Collectively these data elements, features, models, and decisioning processes significantly influence many outcomes, as they drive decisions pertaining to marketing offers, loan origination, fraud detection, collection strategy, and a variety of other risk and operation functions.
Consequently, these data elements affect key metrics, such as revenue and loss of the organization, or customer impact. Given this critical impact, it is a key imperative for organizations to track the provenance of the decision models deployed for making decisions. Furthermore, accountability for the outcome necessitates tracking of the history of the models, code, and design assumptions, along with the details of various individuals who designed the various components of the model and thus impact its performance.
To make matters even more critical, various laws and regulations govern many organization processes. Consider, for example, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), a United States law, which makes it unlawful for any creditor to discriminate against any applicant based on various protected characteristics. In such a scenario, it is important to build the models to such specifications that can convincingly demonstrate that the model adheres to any relevant laws and regulations. It becomes critical, for example, that one can diligently track who defined and approved the requirements for such a model, approved of utilized data, designed and approved of derived features, and designed and approved the built model. Further, there must be tracking of the testing and formal model governance function of the model review and model testing.
Development of analytic models requires tracking and approvals across the entire model development, testing, governance, and deployment process and such approvals should be immutable such that each atomic design is reviewed as to compliance with the process. This would include any record of approval by the external agency for future reference.
Hitherto, variety of techniques have been employed for tracking decision models used for decisions. They often suffer from a few key challenges, which make them ineffective. Most significant of these limitations is lack of a built-in mechanism for diligently and exhaustively tracking all the aspects of changes and modifications in these systems. Often, organizations do not understand the code behind the models, how features were derived or approved, and/or cannot deploy or maintain these models. Worse, some organizations deploy models without having the appropriate atomic governance of data, features, model design, and production data environment statistics approved and monitored. Equally important is the limitation of many of these systems to guarantee that unauthorized changes cannot be made to any aspect of the information being tracked. Many such systems also suffer from lack of transparency, making their information less reliable. This poses tremendous operational risk to organizations and owners who increasingly run their business on data driven models.
The above limitations might be able to be addressed with a blockchain. The most well-known blockchain, Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency blockchain, is public and allows anyone to participate and access the ledger. The trust, security and consensus in such an open and public blockchain is achieved by masses of independent miners solving expensive cryptographic problems. According to various estimates, achieving consensus in Bitcoin consumes more electricity a year than the country of Ireland. For most industry-level enterprises and businesses, this is wasteful and unnecessary. In such applications, only a limited set of permissioned parties need to participate and have access to the shared ledger. Shared ledger is defined subsequently. In such systems, trust and consensus is dependent on the established relationship between the parties in the real world. Such systems can also limit permissions and access to the participating parties based on their role. These networks have access control layer built into the blockchain nodes. Furthermore, only known nodes are allowed to participate. These ecologically responsible uses of blockchain leverage trust through permissions, roles, and process.

Blockchain for data and model governance


A vehicle system includes a processing device programmed to monitor an operating state of a vehicle and the operation of at least one subsystem module. Depending on the operating state of the vehicle, the processing device can detect a subsystem module failure. If a failure is detected, the processing device can perform a remedial action. The remedial action taken may be based on the type of failure detected.

Redundancy in electrical systems is one way to mitigate problems in case one of the systems fails. Redundancy, in the context of electrical systems, typically involves having multiple systems providing the same or similar outputs. That way, if one system fails, the other systems that rely on the failed system may still operate, although sometimes in a diminished capacity.


The present invention relates to a process for treating a wastewater comprising an ammonium ion species and a phosphorus ion species. The process comprises the steps of: (i) treating the effluent in a first stage of the process to convert the phosphorus to a phosphorus-containing salt; (ii) treating the wastewater in a second stage of the process to convert the ammonium ion species to gaseous ammonia; (iii) removing the struvite and/or other phosphorous containing salts from the effluent; and (iv) removing the gaseous ammonia from the wastewater.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for recovery of nutrients from a wastewater. As used through out this specification, the term "wastewater" is intended to any wastewater contain ammonia (also referred to in this specification as "ammonium species") and phosphorus. Non-limiting examples of wastewaters which may be treated using the present process include water borne waste flow of human domestic, industrial, commercial or agricultural origin.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The need to protect natural waters from excessive concentrations of nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P) is well documented and widely accepted. Most jurisdictions in developed countries regulate the concentration of N and P which can be released into receiving waters.
The prior art includes the development of numerous technological advances which purportedly effect these controls.
Generally, the prior art advances fall into the categories of: (i) diversion for land application (DFLA) for use as fertilizer, or (ii) conversion to an innocuous form. For anthropogenic wastes, DFLA is only practiced in a few instances in developed countries using urine from specialized waste-separating toilets. DFLA is the primary choice for disposal of agricultural wastes. When dealing with liquid wastes from anthropogenic sources, soluble N is biologically converted to nitrogen gas through the processes of nitrification and denitrification (NDN); and P is generally converted by complexing with an aluminum or iron salt to form an insoluble and biologically unavailable precipitate. Other rarely used, but available solutions are: a commercial process for recovering P as calcium phosphate, adjusting the pH and dosing the wastewater containing ammonia with phosphorous and magnesium to cause struvite precipitation, and raising the pH and stripping the ammonia in a column.
Despite the advances made in the art, there is still room for improvement. For example, the disadvantages of the current state of the art lie with the considerable volume and energy requirements which are inherent in the processes. Specifically, DFLA requires large storage volumes for the resultant fertilizer products since it is only possible to make agricultural applications one or two times per year. Further, this approach is accompanied by the release of undesirable odors; both from the storage facilities, and when the wastes are applied to the land. Still, further depending on temperature and soil moisture, a considerable fraction of the applied ammonia may be lost by volatilization.
DFLA is energy intensive as a form of fertilizer application in that it is a separate process and is not combined with other tillage activities. DFLA does not allow the control of the fertilizer composition and its application must be regulated to prevent overloading of the soils with particular constituents (e.g., P). Further, DFLA often involves considerable transport costs when relatively dilute materials are transported long distances. This often leads to over application, and consequential problems with overland runoff. This is estimated to contribute as much as two-thirds of the surface water pollution in the USA.
Conversion of ammonia by NDN requires large volumes in the treatment plants, considerable expenditure of energy for aeration, and more elaborate process control over and above that required for simple organics removal. In many instances an electron acceptor such as methanol must be added at extra expense to facilitate denitrification. Additionally a valuable fertilizer is destroyed rather than being recovered for reuse.
P sequestering generally results in considerable additional sludge being generated when metal salts are added due to co-precipitation of other naturally occurring species in addition to the P. This sludge must be treated and then transported to a disposal site. A potentially useful mineral is turned into a waste product rather than being diverted for use as fertilizer.
Thus, despite the advances made to date, there is still considerable room for improvement.

Process for recovery of nutrients from wastewater


An outside door handle assembly for a vehicle includes a grip cover, a grip body that is provided hinge-rotatable outward in a width direction of the vehicle in an outer panel of a vehicle door, and is engaged with the grip cover, and a balance weight that is included in the grip body to be hinge-rotatable in an opposite direction of a hinge-rotation direction of the grip body with respect to a hinge rotation point on an extension line of the grip body.

In general, an outside door handle assembly for a vehicle is provided in a door outer panel, and thus when a user grips the outside door handle and pulls outward in a width direction of the vehicle to open the door, one side of the outside door handle rotates outside in the width direction of the vehicle while the other side of the outside door handle is supported by the door outer panel such that a door latch rod or a cable connected to the outside door handle is pulled and thus a door latch is released, thereby opening the door locked on the vehicle body.
A conventional outside door handle assembly for a vehicle includes an outside door handle provided to protrude outward in a width direction of the vehicle of a door outer panel for easy operation by a user, a base structure that is provided for installation of the outside door handle in a door outer panel, and a balance weight or a blocking lever that is connected with the outside door handle so as not to forcibly rotate by an impact force of the outside door handle, which occurs when a side collision accident occurs.
However, such a conventional outside door handle assembly requires a structure such as an additional base to install the outside door handle in the door outer panel, thereby increasing the number of parts of the vehicle, the weight, and the production cost of the vehicle, and it is not easy to install the outside door handle in an assembly hole formed in the door outer panel.
Meanwhile, in order to solve such a problem, a conventional outside door handle assembly in which a base structure is integrally formed or combined with the outside door handle without a separate base structure has been proposed, but a parting line is formed in the outside door handle, thereby deteriorating an external appearance, and since a cover part and functional parts are unified, a coating/plating area is exposed to the outside and thus only a coating/plating material can be used.
The above information disclosed in this background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Outside door handle assembly for vehicle


A noise filter includes a capacitor having a hot side input terminal, a hot side output terminal, a ground side input terminal, and a ground side output terminal. A circuit board includes a hot side input electrode connected to the hot side input terminal, a hot side output electrode connected to the hot side output terminal, a ground side input electrode connected to the ground side input terminal, and a ground side output electrode connected to the ground side output terminal. The impedance of the ground side input terminal seen from the ground side output electrode is larger than both the impedance of the ground side output terminal seen from the ground side output electrode and the impedance of the hot side output terminal seen from the ground side output electrode. For this purpose, a stray capacitance formed between the ground side input electrode and the ground side output electrode is reduced by increasing a gap therebetween. Accordingly, excellent noise-reducing characteristics are provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mounting structures for noise filters, and more particularly, to a mounting structure for a noise filter including a four-terminal capacitor.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIGS. 6(A) and 6(B) illustrate a known noise filter relevant to the present invention (see, for example, Japanese Examined Utility Model Registration Application Publication No. 1-22258, Japanese Examined Utility Model Registration Application Publication No. 2-18587, and Japanese Examined Utility Model Registration Application Publication No. 6-31777). FIGS. 6(A) and 6(B) are a top view and a right side view, respectively, of a noise filter 1.
With reference to FIGS. 6(A) and 6(B), the noise filter 1 includes a four-terminal capacitor 2. The capacitor 2 has a chip-like shape and is provided with first and second terminal electrodes 5 and 6 on first and second end surfaces 3 and 4, respectively, which extend parallel to each other so as to face each other.
In addition, as shown clearly in FIG. 6(B), the noise filter 1 includes a hot side lead 10 that is bent in a U shape in such a manner that first and second leg portions 7 and 8 extend parallel to each other and a middle portion 9 connects the first and second leg portions 7 and 8 at one end thereof.
The hot side lead 10 is connected to the first terminal electrode 5 at the middle portion 9 thereof such that the first and second leg portions 7 and 8 extend parallel to the first and second end surfaces 3 and 4 of the capacitor 2. In addition, the first and second leg portions 7 and 8 of the hot side lead 10 respectively define a hot side input terminal connected to a power source and a hot side output terminal connected to a load circuit.
In the following description, reference numeral "7" is used to denote not only the "first leg portion" but also the "hot side input terminal", and reference numeral "8" is used to denote not only the "second leg portion" but also the "hot side output terminal".
The noise filter 1 further includes a ground side lead 14 that is bent in a U shape in such a manner that first and second leg portions 11 and 12 extend parallel to each other and a middle portion 13 connects the first and second leg portions 11 and 12 at one end thereof. The leg portions 11 and 12 of the ground side lead 14 are not completely shown in FIGS. 6(A) and 6(B).
The ground side lead 14 is connected to the second terminal electrode 6 at the middle portion 13 thereof such that the first and second leg portions 11 and 12 extend parallel to the first and second end surfaces 3 and 4 of the capacitor 2, that is, parallel to the first and second leg portions 7 and 8 in the hot side lead 10. In addition, the first and second leg portions 11 and 12 of the ground side lead 14 respectively serve as a ground side input terminal connected to a power source and a ground side output terminal connected to a load circuit.
In the following description, reference numeral "11" is used to denote not only the "first leg portion" but also the "ground side input terminal". In addition, reference numeral "12" is used to denote not only the "second leg portion" but also the "ground side output terminal".
A circuit board on which the above-described noise filter 1 is mounted includes a hot input electrode connected to the hot side input terminal 7, a hot side output electrode connected to the hot side output terminal 8, a ground side input electrode connected to the ground side input terminal 11, and a ground side output electrode connected to the ground side output terminal 12.
FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating an equivalent circuit of the noise filter 1 and the manner in which the hot side electrodes and the ground side electrodes of the circuit board are connected when the noise filter 1 is mounted on the circuit board. In FIG. 7, elements in the equivalent circuit of the noise filter 1 that correspond to the elements shown in FIGS. 6(A) and 6(B) are denoted by the same reference numerals in order to clarify the correspondence between the elements shown in FIG. 7 and those shown in FIGS. 6(A) and 6(B).
FIG. 7 shows a hot side input electrode 45 connected to the hot side input terminal 7, a hot side output electrode 46 connected to the hot side output terminal 8, a ground side input electrode 15 connected to the ground side input terminal 11, and a ground side output electrode 16 connected to the ground side output terminal 12. Although the overall body of the circuit board is not illustrated, the hot side input electrode 45, the hot side output electrode 46, the ground side input electrode 15, and the ground side output electrode 16 are provided on the circuit board.
The above-described circuit board is typically fixed to a chassis 17 made of metal with a metal screw 18. Accordingly, the ground side output electrode 16 is electrically connected to the chassis 17 via the metal screw 18.
When the noise filter 1 shown in FIGS. 6(A), 6(B) and 7 is in operation, a noise signal is transmitted from the ground side output terminal 12 to the chassis 17 via the ground side output electrode 16 on the circuit board and the metal screw 18. At this time, since the ground side output electrode 16 and the chassis 17 are only electrically connected to each other with the metal screw 18, there may be a case where the above-described noise signal cannot be sufficiently grounded.
In addition, in the circuit board, since the ground side input electrode 15 and the ground side output electrode 16 are disposed adjacent to each other and near each other, a stray capacitance 19 shown by the dashed lines in FIG. 7 is unavoidably formed.
Therefore, the noise signal that is transmitted from the ground side output terminal 12 to the ground side output electrode 16 and is grounded as described above is transmitted to the ground side input electrode 15 via the stray capacitance 19, as shown by the dashed arrows 44, and is then transmitted to the ground side input terminal 11, which reduces the noise reduction effect.
In addition, when the noise filter 1 shown in FIGS. 6(A), 6(B) and 7 is in operation, the noise signal is transmitted from the hot side output terminal 8 to the ground side output terminal 12 via the capacitor 2, as shown by the dashed arrows 47, and is then transmitted to the chassis 17 via the ground side output electrode 16 on the circuit board and metal screw 18. At this time, the impedance of the capacitor 2 at the noise frequency range may be high or the residual inductance of the ground side lead 14 may affect the noise signal as the residual impedance. In such cases, the above-described noise signal cannot be sufficiently grounded.
In the above-described situation, a portion of the noise signal transmitted from the hot side output terminal 8 to the capacitor 2 does not flow through the capacitor 2 but flows into the hot side lead 10 toward the hot side input terminal 7, as shown by the dashed arrows 48. In addition, a portion of the noise signal that flows through the capacitor 2 does not flow into the ground side lead 14 but flows toward the ground side input terminal 11, as shown by the dashed arrows 49. This also reduces the noise reduction effect.


A low permeability fabric and airbag formed therefrom suitable for use in protection of a vehicle occupant in the event of a collision are provided. In particular, the present invention provides an uncoated fabric preferably formed from a substantially symmetrical weave construction of nonsized nylon yarn at a fabric cover factor of not greater than 0.85. The fabric is characterized by an air permeability of not greater than 0.8 cubic feet of air per minute per square foot of fabric at a pressure drop of 125 Pa (0.5 inches of water) across the fabric. a method for formation of the fabric is also provided.

For many uses of industrial fabrics, it is critical for such fabrics to possess a controlled and limited air permeability. This is particularly true of fabrics for use in airbags since permeability affects the ability of the bag to inflate in a controlled and consistent manner according to a given design, so as to ensure the effectiveness of the system during a collision event.
Airbag equipment installed on a fixed portion of an automobile, airplane or other passenger vehicle in opposed relation to an occupant therein plays an important roll in the protection against injury to that occupant which may arise due to a collision with a fixed portion of the vehicle body during an accident. As will be appreciated, airbags may be produced in a number of manners and from a number of different materials. However, airbags are typically formed, at least in part, from some type of woven textile material. Such textile materials are disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,508,073 to Krummheuer et al. issued Apr. 16, 1996; 5,503,197 to Bower et al. issued Apr. 2, 1996; 5,356,680 to Krummheuer et al. issued Oct. 18, 1994; 5,421,378 to Bower et al. issued Mar. 30, 1994; 5,277,230 to Sollars, Jr. issued Jan. 11, 1994; 5,259,645 to Hirabayashi et al. issued Nov. 9, 1993; 5,110,666 to Menzel, et al. issued May 5, 1992; 5,093,163 to Krummheauer, et al. issued March 1992; 5,073,418 to Thornton et al. issued Dec. 17, 1991; 5,011,183 to Thornton et al. issued Apr. 30, 1991; 4,977,016 to Thornton et al. issued Dec. 11, 1990; 4,921,735 to Bloch issued May 1, 1990; and 3,814,141 to Iribe et al. issued Jun. 4, 1974 (all specifically incorporated herein by reference).
As will be appreciated, very low air permeabilities may be achieved through the use of coatings applied to a fabric construction. However, the use of such coatings presents a disadvantage from both an economic as well as a functional standpoint. Specifically, the use of coatings may add substantial cost to the finished product while at the same time adding bulk to the finished product which translates to a greater folded volume of the final airbag configuration thereby requiring a greater allocation of space within the vehicle deployment system.
In the attempt to avoid the use of coatings while at the same achieving low and controlled air permeabilities, a number of approaches have been taken. The above-referenced U.S. patents to Thornton et al. and Bloch propose the achievement of low permeability characteristics through the use of mechanical deformation processes, in particular calendering, to close the voids at the interstices between overlapping yarns in the fabric so as to reduce permeability to a desired level. While such calendering operations may reduce permeability, this operation may also have the affect of increasing cost while yielding undesirable changes to the flexibility and feel of the fabrics.
In another approach, fabrics have been produced using very tight weave constructions thereby packing the yarns so tightly together that permeability is reduced to a desired level. In some instances, it is necessary to achieve permeabilities in the range of about 1 cubic foot per minute per square foot of fabric or less as measured at a pressure differential of 125 Pa (0.5 inches of water) in order to meet certain automotive specifications. In order to achieve such levels through tight weave constructions, it has generally been thought necessary to pack the yarns at a density to achieve a fabric cover factor of greater than 0.85. One such known construction is a 420 denier nylon fabric having 57 threads per inch in the warp and 53 threads per inch in the fill sold under the trade designation MICROPER.TM. by Milliken & Company in LaGrange, Ga.
As will be appreciated by those of skill in the art, the term "fabric cover factor" is used to define the packing factor of yarns in a fabric construction in relation to the maximum number of threads which can lay side by side. The maximum number of threads per inch is defined by the following formula:
1. Maximum threads per inch=(fiber specific cover factor).times.(the square root of the cotton count). PA1 2. Cotton count=5315/denier. PA1 3. Warp cover factor=threads per inch in the warp divided by maximum threads per inch. PA1 4. Fill cover factor=threads per inch in the fill divided by maximum threads per inch. PA1 5. Fabric cover factor=(warp cover factor+fill cover factor)-(warp cover factor.times.fill cover factor).
Cotton count is defined by the formula:
The fiber specific cover factors have been determined over the years by researchers. By way of example, the generally accepted cover factor for nylon is 24.4.
As will be appreciated, by using formulas 1 and 2 above, one can readily determine the maximum number of threads per inch which could be placed side by side for a given denier and fiber type. One can then determine a relative cover factor based on the actual weave density in a given fabric by the following relations:
By way of illustration, a 420 denier nylon fabric as described above having 57 threads per inch in the warp and 53 threads per inch in the fill has a warp cover factor of 0.66, a fill cover factor 0.61 and a fabric cover factor of 0.866.
While low permeability fabrics having cover factors greater than 0.85 have been available, the formation thereof has required a relatively high number of threads per inch which necessarily increases the raw material costs. Moreover, it is generally understood that in order to achieve such very high cover factors, weaving must be carried out by mechanical (i.e. Rapier) weaving processes rather than by water-jet insertion or other means which are substantially faster and less expensive.
Notwithstanding the achievements which have been made in reducing air permeability to this point, it is anticipated that fabrics of even lower permeabilities achieved without the need for expensive and complex calendering operations or high cover factor configurations represent a desirable and useful advancement over the present art. The fabrics of the present invention may be woven on efficient water-jet weaving machines due to their relatively low cover factor requirement and exhibit desirable low permeability characteristics without requiring the need for complex coatings or calendering operations and thereby represent a useful advancement over the present art.


In one aspect, an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) receiver includes an offset compensator, a fast Fourier transform (FFT) block, a control unit, a channel impulse response estimation block, and a sampling offset estimation block. The offset compensator is configured to receive a digital input signal and a sampling offset, and to convert the digital input signal into a baseband signal in accordance with the sampling offset. The fast Fourier transform (FFT) block is configured to perform an FFT operation of the base band signal output from the offset compensator and to output a corresponding FFT result. The control unit is configured to generate OFDM symbol information and a plurality of control signals based on the FFT result. The channel impulse response estimation block is configured to periodically generate receiving channel impulse response information of a receiving channel based on the FFT result. The sampling offset estimation block is configured to generate the sampling offset based on the FFT result, the receiving channel impulse response information, the OFDM symbol information, and the plurality of control signals.

Digital communication systems are known which utilize orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulators/demodulators to modulate and demodulate quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) coded signals. In OFDM, data is transmitted in parallel using orthogonal sub-carriers, and an equalizer functions to compensate for channel distortion in each sub-channel.
OFDM has been increasingly adopted in high-speed multimedia data transmission systems (e.g., digital broadcasting). Exemplary systems include x digital subscriber line (xDSL), Wifi, Wimax, digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB), digital video broadcasting terrestrial-handheld (DVB-T/H), and integrated services digital broadcasting-terrestrial (ISDB-T).
OFDM communication systems exhibit reduced communication errors and relatively high communication quality by executing synchronization between a transmitting signal and a receiving signal before data transmission/reception between a transmitter and a receiver. Usually, synchronization functionality in OFDM communication systems is separated into frequency synchronization for equalizing the carrier frequency of a transmitter with that of a receiver, and time synchronization for determining a start point of an OFDM symbol.
However, even when exact synchronization is accomplished at the beginning of transmission/reception, the start point of a symbol drifts with the lapse of time. This is because a sampling clock of a transmitter is not (and cannot) be the same as that of a receiver. The result is a sampling offset which must be periodically compensated for in the synchronization scheme. This is done by periodically sending a recognizable symbol to the receiver, or by sending a pilot signal to the receiver whose position is recognized by the receiver. The receiver utilizes the symbol or pilot signal to estimate a sampling offset. However, this approach suffers a drawback since external signal interference (e.g., analog broadcasting signals) can introduce errors in the symbol or signal received by the receiver.

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing receiver


An adjusting device for positioning a load comprises a spindle-type lifting gear, first and second bearing brackets with bearing pins that engage in a respective bearing bush of the gear unit housing for the swivelable bearing support of the gear unit housing of the spindle-type lifting gear, a driving motor with a motor shaft, and a motor flange unit with a flange housing that is rigidly connected to the driving motor on one side and to the gear unit housing on the other side. The flange housing is secured to one of the side surfaces of the gear unit housing at which the bearing bushes of the gear unit housing are arranged. The driveshaft of the spindle-type lifting gear extends parallel to the swiveling axis around which the spindle-type lifting gear is swivelable. The flange housing has, on the side facing the swiveling axis, a recess into which part of the end portion of the arm of the bearing bracket adjacent to the flange housing projects.

a) Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to an adjusting device for positioning a load, comprising a spindle-type lifting gear with a spindle, a spindle nut arranged on the spindle, and a gear unit housing having first and second bearing bushes at opposite side surfaces, the spindle or the spindle nut and a driveshaft for driving the spindle or the spindle nut being rotatably supported in the gear unit housing, first and second bearing brackets, each with a stand and an arm which projects therefrom and which has, in an end portion adjoining its free end, a bearing pin that engages in a respective bearing bush of the gear unit housing for the swivelable bearing support of the gear unit housing of the spindle-type lifting gear, a driving motor with a motor shaft, and a motor flange unit with a flange housing that is rigidly connected to the driving motor on one side and to the gear unit housing on the other side, and a coupling arranged in the flange housing for transmitting torque from the motor shaft to the driveshaft of the spindle-type lifting gear.
b) Description of the Related Art
Adjusting devices for positioning a load having spindle-type lifting gears, also called spindle nut gears, are known in various embodiment forms. Adjusting devices of this type are used for positioning loads in the form of structural component parts or component assemblies. For example, these adjusting devices are used in lifting platforms, lifting jacks, vertically adjustable platforms, valves with valve slides that are adjustable by motor, forms for concrete that are adjustable by motor, and so on.
Besides spindle-type lifting gears in which the spindle nut is mounted in bearings in a gear unit housing so as to be rotatable and fixed with respect to axial displacement and in which a spindle which is fixed with respect to relative rotation is adjusted in axial direction during the rotation of the spindle nut, there are also known spindle-type lifting gears in which the spindle is mounted in bearings in the gear unit housing so as to be rotatable and fixed with respect to axial displacement and in which a spindle nut which is arranged on the male thread of the spindle and fixed with respect to rotation is adjusted in axial direction of the spindle during the rotation of the spindle.
The spindle nut or spindle is driven by means of a driving motor whose motor shaft is coupled with a driveshaft projecting out of the gear unit housing of the spindle-type lifting gear. Motor flange units for facilitating the connection of the driving motor and the spindle-type lifting gear are already known. These motor flange units comprise a flange housing and a coupling arranged in the flange housing. The flange housing is fastened to the gear unit housing of the spindle-type lifting gear on one side and to the housing of the driving motor on the other side so that generally it is possible for the driving motor to be held at the gear unit housing so that a separate bearing support of the driving motor can be dispensed with. When connecting the flange housing to the gear unit housing and the motor housing, a connection is produced at the same time between the driveshaft of the spindle-type lifting gear and of the motor shaft of the driving motor and the coupling of the motor flange unit so that the torque-transmitting connection is formed between the motor shaft and the driveshaft.
In applications in which the adjusting device swivels a load around a swiveling axis, the swiveling of the load also brings about a (generally smaller) swiveling of the gear unit housing of the spindle-type lifting gear around a swiveling axis. Adapter pieces are usually provided to enable a swiveling bearing support of the gear unit housing for applications of this type. The gear unit housing can be screwed into these adapter pieces which have bearing bushes or bearing pins. Bearing pins or bearing bushes of bearing brackets arranged at a stationary carrying part, for example, a supporting table, cooperate with these bearing bushes or bearing pins of the adapter pieces, and the load is swiveled around a swiveling axis relative to this carrying part. Further, the load is swivelably connected to the spindle (in case of an axially adjustable spindle) or to the spindle nut (in case of an axially adjustable spindle nut). A swivelable bearing support of the adapter pieces connected to the gear unit housing at the swivelable load and a swivelable bearing support of the axially adjustable spindle or axially adjustable spindle nut at a stationary carrying part, for example, a supporting table, can also be provided. The additional adapter pieces lead to additional expenditure in production and assembly.
Another adjusting device of the type mentioned above is known from AT 008 083 U1 which shows and describes the spindle-type lifting gear and bearing brackets of this device. The bearing bushes for the swivelable bearing support of the spindle-type lifting gear are arranged directly in the gear unit housing in this device, and pocket holes in which sliding bushes are inserted are formed at opposite side surfaces of the gear unit housing. The bearing pins of bearing brackets project into these bearings bushes for the swivelable bearing support of the gear unit housing. The bearing pins are arranged at arms which project from the stands and which are formed in the shape of an inverted V.
For reasons of space (because a compact construction of the gear unit housing of the spindle-type lifting gear is desirable), the bearing bushes and the driveshaft in this previously known adjusting device of the type mentioned above are arranged at side surfaces of the gear unit housing which extend at right angles to one another, i.e., the swiveling axis and the axis of the driveshaft are at right angles to one another. When the driving motor is arranged at the gear unit housing by means of a motor flange unit, the weight of the driving motor can lead to an undesirably high torque around the swiveling axis of the gear unit housing depending on the position of the gear unit housing.


A method and device for slitting a magnetic recording medium which can maintain high cutting quality of the cutting edges of upper and lower rotary blades by adjusting the device slightly even if the cutting edges are worn to a certain degree and thus ensure the quality of the slit surface of the magnetic recording medium. When the lower rotary blade 2 and upper rotary blade 1 are slid and rotated with the respective side surfaces of the cutting edges thereof in contact with each other, and a long magnetic recording medium supplied between the upper and lower rotary blades is successively slit to thereby produce a plurality of magnetic recording mediums, an angle of intersection between the rotary shaft 14 of the upper rotary blade 1 and the rotary shaft 24 of the lower rotary blade 2 is adjusted according to the states of wear of the upper and lower rotary blades.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and a device for slitting a magnetic recording medium and, in particular, to such method and device which slide and rotate the respective cutting edges of upper and lower rotary blades to thereby slit a wide magnetic recording medium into a plurality of narrow magnetic recording mediums.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in various fields, there are used a magnetic tape cassette such as an audio cassette, a video cassette and the like in which a long magnetic tape wound round a hub or the like is incorporated in a freely movable manner, and a magnetic disk cartridge in which a circular magnetic disk is movably stored. A magnetic recording medium including the magnetic tape, magnetic disk and the like is treated in the form of a long tape in its manufacturing process.
In manufacturing the magnetic recording medium, generally, a magnetic paint is coated on a plastic film and is then dried to form a magnetic layer. Alternatively, a ferromagnetic material is coated on a plastic film base by vacuum evaporation, sputtering or the like to form a magnetic layer, thereby producing a wide magnetic tape blank. After that, the wide magnetic tape blank is cut by a slitter into a magnetic tape having a given width.
A slitting device for slitting the magnetic tape blank is known in which, normally, a magnetic tape blank is moved between two or more pairs of an upwardly located disk-like upper rotary blade and a downwardly located disk-like lower rotary blade rubbing against each other. The magnetic tape blank is pressure slit by the upper and lower rotary blades to thereby manufacture a plurality of magnetic tapes each having a given width.
In a method using the above slitting device, the slitting speed is fast and the productivity is high. However, since the magnetic tape blank is slit from above by the upper rotary blade, there can be left, in the slit edge surface of the resultant magnetic tape having a given width, a slit trace extending in the longitudinal direction of the slit edge surface. Also, the magnetic layer may be removed from the slit edge surface. Additionally, when the magnetic tape is moved within a cassette or a recording and reproducing apparatus, the magnetic tape may contact the flange surface of a guide roller or the like to cause the removal of the magnetic layer and the shaving off of the plastic film base to thereby produce dropouts, so that the electromagnetic conversion characteristic of the magnetic tape may deteriorate.
Therefore, to solve the above-mentioned problems, several methods have been proposed. For example, in Japanese Patent Publication No. 62-202385 of Showa, there is disclosed a method in which the angle of a cutting edge of a cutting blade is set at a given angle with respect to a moving magnetic tape blank or the speed of rotation of a rotary blade is set in a given range.
However, in this method as well, when the cutting edge becomes dull, the surface quality of the cut portion deteriorates and, therefore, the cutting edge must be frequently replaced. The manufacturing line must be stopped for a relatively long time whenever the cutting edge is replaced.
Also, in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2-41892 of Heisei there is disclosed a structure of a slitting knife in which, in the finishing structure of a cutting edge of a disk-shaped upper rotary blade, the cutting edge of the upper rotary blade is formed in a recessed structure that allows the cutting edge of the upper rotary blade to contact a lower rotary blade at a given angle. That is, by working the cutting edge of the upper rotary blade to have a given angle in the recessing direction, even if the cutting edge is somewhat worn, the cutting quality of the cutting edge can be adequately maintained.
As described above, conventionally, there have been proposed several devices which aim at maintaining the cutting quality of the cutting edge even after it is used for a long period of time. In any of them, after the cutting edge is worn a given amount, the cutting edge must be whetted again to thereby keep the shape of the cutting edge at a given level at all times. If the cutting edge is worn further, then the worn cutting edge must be replaced with a new one. This inevitably results in operational losses and increases costs.

Method and device for slitting magnetic recording medium


Disclosed is a data collection and analysis system that is capable of extracting data from various disparate sources, i.e., contact channels, storing the data and analyzing the data to show trends in the business operation. The data is stored in a data model that uses a star schema approach to providing a unified data source. Analyzed data can be made available to users on a nearly real time basis that allows the users to view trends in business operation and plan accordingly.

A. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to database systems in general and more particularly to databases that integrate information regarding communications with business enterprises, efficiently sorting and storing such information as well as accessing and reporting such information in a variety of report formats.
B. Background of the Invention
Present day packaged database applications are somewhat limited in their ability to integrate business contact functions. For example, common customer relationships management (CRM) software systems are able to provide some business analytics for single channels through which outside contacts communicate with the business (contact channels). However, such common CRM software systems are incapable of providing an integrated database system that is capable of analyzing data unified across a number of different contact channels. In other words, integration of a series of different databases for different contact channels to provide an overall view of the integrated business contact system such that analytics can be applied to that overall system has not previously been offered as a packaged application.
Typical CRM applications will allow the user to perform case management and tracking of customer preferences. Typically a customer may wish to contact a customer support center, for example, to report a problem they are having with a particular product that they have purchased. For example, a customer may report a problem with a washing machine or some software they have purchased. The customer typically calls to a customer support center that then prepares a ticket that includes a case number. The case number is then tracked by the CRM application. When the customer calls in again, the support organization can identify the customer and track the status of the repair. Similarly, when a customer calls a sales organization they may be inquiring about a purchase they have made. The customer is given a purchase number to identify that customer. When the customer calls in again, information regarding the previous purchases of that customer is provided to the sales attendant. Some CRM applications and supporting software are capable of analyzing customer purchases to develop insights into customer purchasing habits and likely purchase preferences. Hence, typical CRM applications are somewhat limited in the information that they can provide.
In the contemporary economy, businesses have many different contact channels. For example, a business may have an automatic call distributor (ACD) that is used with an interactive voice response (IVR) system to direct customers to particular customer service representatives that have expertise in a particular area. Further, the business may have a web page which allows customers to enter into interactive sessions on the web page and learn more information about products and support issues. Further, email can be used by businesses to contact customers and for customers to contact the business regarding both sales and support issues.
Applicant is unaware of any existing system other than the invention herein claimed that can integrate the data that is generated by each of these different contact channels, including the customer relationships management channel, to perform business analytics and determine the success of any particular product, the efficiency of customer support, and similar issues.

Datamart including routines for extraction, accessing, analyzing, transformation of data into standardized format modeled on star schema


A computer implemented method including generating one or more threads to operate a storage system, the storage system including one or more system resources, and each of the one or more threads associated with one of a plurality of tasks of the storage system. The method includes updating one or more performance counters of the storage system in response to a change in operating state of one of the one or more threads. The method includes generating a performance snapshot by sampling a state of the tasks associated with the threads and the performance counters, identifying one or more intervals of performance degradation of the storage system from the performance snapshot, and determining a correlation between one or more of the plurality of tasks and the one or more identified intervals of performance degradation.

A distributed storage system may include a plurality of storage devices (e.g., storage arrays) to provide data storage to a plurality of nodes. The plurality of storage devices and the plurality of nodes may be situated in the same physical location, or in one or more physically remote locations. The plurality of nodes may be coupled to the storage devices by a high-speed interconnect, such as a switch fabric. Debugging IO performance-jitter in a high-end storage system is a challenging issue problem due to multiplicity and diversity of flows running in the system and complexity of dependencies between the flows.


A vehicle door lock control arrangement includes a spring lock and an external actuator which is releasably connected to a release lever on the lock side. The release lever can be pivoted between a rest position and a release position against the force of a first spring to act on a pawl which normally retains the lock in its locked position. A further spring is also provided which prevents the lock from being partially released when it is connected to the external actuator. For this purpose, the further spring normally holds the release lever in the rest position but its connection to the release lever is automatically released during the initial actuation of the release lever.

This invention relates to lock control arrangements for controlling locks in vehicle doors.
During the assembly of a lock control arrangement for a vehicle door, and specifically when the external actuator for the lock, which may, for example, be integrated in the exterior door handle, is connected to the lock release lever, it may happen that the lock is partially released unless the lock control arrangement has a special provision to prevent this. The result is that the lock is then secured, but it cannot be unlocked again.
In order to counteract this, a so-called pin blocking arrangement has been developed. In this arrangement, the lock release lever is blocked relative to the lock housing by a pin. When the lock release lever has been connected to the external actuator, this pin is removed, after which the normal functioning of the lock is permitted. When the pin is removed, it can sometimes drop into the lock control arrangement or into the door and thus cause malfunctions or undesirable noises. Moreover, it is not possible to use this pin blocking arrangement when a so-called unit carrier is used for fitting the door together in which the door lock control, a window winder and other components are preassembled on a board, and this board is attached to the interior pawl of the door. When the release lever has then been connected to the external actuator, there is no longer any access to the specific location to be able to remove the blocking pin.

Lock control arrangement for a vehicle door


A spindle shaft device including a shaft, a first torque sensor, and a second torque sensor. The shaft extends along an axial direction and comprises a first side portion, a second side portion, and a central portion located between the first side portion and the second side portion. The central portion has a central torsional rigidity with respect to the axial direction. The first side portion has a first torsional rigidity with respect to the axial direction. The second side portion has a second torsional rigidity with respect to the axial direction. The first torsional rigidity is smaller than the central torsional rigidity. The second torsional rigidity is smaller than the central torsional rigidity. The first torque sensor is disposed on the first side portion. The second torque sensor is disposed on the second side portion.

Today's electric-assisted bicycles (also known as "motor-assisted bicycle") are equipped with torque sensors to detect the force the user pedals the bicycle. Based on the feedback of the sensor, the electric-assisted bicycle can convert electrical energy into kinetic energy to help users tackle ascends and hills, and can stop converting electrical energy into kinetic energy when coasting on flat terrain or downhill so as to operate in a power-saving mode. Accordingly, the electric-assisted bicycles have become popular due to general ease of use when riding on a variety of terrains.
However, most of the electric-assisted bicycles have problems, such as inaccurate torque measurement and long response time, failing to timely reflecting the actual pedal force and pedaling cadences.

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