A gas-insulated electrical equipment includes: a grounded tank filled with an insulating gas; a central conductor which is disposed inside the grounded tank and to which to apply a voltage; a high-resistance insulating portion which is disposed on an inner surface of the grounded tank and which is configured of an insulating material of high resistivity; a low-resistance insulating portion which is disposed on at least a partial front surface of the high-resistance insulating portion and which has a resistivity lower than that of the high-resistance insulating portion, and a non-linear resistance insulating portion which is disposed on at least a partial front surface of the low-resistance insulating portion and which is configured of a non-linear resistance material, which exhibits a non-linear resistivity relative to a change in electric field, and an insulating material of high resistivity, wherein the low-resistance insulating portion has a floating potential.

A gas-insulated switchgear as a gas-insulated electrical equipment secures an insulating performance by housing a central conductor, to which to apply a high voltage, in a metallic grounded tank and sealing an insulating gas in a space between the grounded tank and the central conductor. However, there is a possibility that a foreign substance (dust, a fiber, a conductive or semiconductive solid, or the like) is mixed into the grounded tank when in fabrication or when in on-site installation operation, leading to a decrease in insulating performance. The mixed foreign substance is electrically charged by an electric field generated when electrical current is supplied, and is subject to an electrostatic force in the direction in which the foreign substance floats up from an inner surface of the grounded tank. When the electrostatic force is larger than the force of gravity acting on the foreign substance, the foreign substance floats up and moves toward the central conductor. As the electric field concentrates around the foreign substance, there is a possibility that when the foreign substance comes closer to or attaches to the central conductor, a high electric field is locally generated, resulting in a decrease in the withstand voltage performance of the switchgear. Specifically, when the foreign substance is metallic and linear, the electric field concentrates strongly at a leading end of the foreign substance, causing a critical decrease in insulating performance.
With respect to the problem of the metallic foreign substance, various solutions, such as to relax the electric field concentration occurring in the portion of contact between the metallic foreign substance and a film provided on the inner surface of the tank, to prevent the metallic foreign substance from being electrically charged due to partial discharge occurring in the concentrating electric field, and thus to prevent the metallic foreign substance from floating up, are known as shown in the following.
For example, Patent Literature 1 describes a gas insulated bus which is made of a double-layered film of different materials wherein a coating film of high resistivity is provided on the inner surface of the tank, and a coating film of high mechanical strength is further provided on top of the high-resistivity coating film.
Also, Patent Literature 2 describes a closed insulating device wherein a non-linear resistance film, wherein a non-linear resistance material having non-linear resistance characteristics that a resistance value decreases with an increase in current density is filled with a filler different in permittivity from the non-linear resistance material, is provided on the inner surface of the tank.
Furthermore, Patent Literature 3 describes a gas-insulated equipment wherein an insulating film of low resistivity is provided on the inner surface of the tank, and a non-linear resistance film wherein a non-linear resistance material is contained in an insulating material is provided on top of the insulating film.


A system and method for utilizing a humidity sensor with an internal combustion engine of a vehicle is described. Specifically, information from the humidity sensor is used to adjust a desired air-fuel ratio to reduce engine misfire while improving vehicle fuel economy. Further, such information is also used to adjust timing and/or lift of the valve in the engine cylinder. Finally, diagnostic routines are also described.

Engine control methods are known which utilize a humidity sensor, such as: U.S. Pat. No. 6,575,148.
The inventor herein has recognized a disadvantage with such approaches. Specifically, if the humidity sensor degrades, the engine can operate in regions that produce degraded performance, such as engine misfires, if the engine routines incorrectly presume the humidity is lower than the actual humidity of the ambient air.
Furthermore, the inventor of the subject application has recognized that the engine control sensors typically available fail to provide enough useful information to infer humidity.

Detection of a humidity sensor failure in an internal combustion engine


In a method for setting the clutch torque of a clutch, especially a clutch disposed in a drive train of a motor vehicle, the clutch is adjusted using a clutch actuator. This clutch actuator has at least two actuator parts that may be positioned relative to each other at raster values of a position raster. A position setpoint corresponding to a clutch torque and disposed between the raster values of the position raster is calculated, and the actuator parts are positioned relative to each other at a raster value of the position raster that is adjacent to the position setpoint. In addition to the first position raster value, a second position raster value is calculated in such a manner that the position setpoint is disposed between the first position raster value and the second position raster value. The actuator parts are alternately positioned at the first position raster value and the second position raster value in such a manner that the average clutch torque more precisely matches the clutch torque setpoint than the clutch torques of the first and second position raster values.

Methods for setting the clutch torque of a clutch are known in the art. In this context, the clutch actuator has a servomotor that has as actuator parts a stator with a coil and a rotor with permanent magnet sectors that are alternately magnetized in directions opposing each other. The permanent magnet segments produce a rasterization of the actuator parts, i.e., the positions at which the actuator parts are positioned relative to each other while at a standstill are disposed at raster points of a position raster. To move the parts of the clutch toward each other and away from each other and thereby set the clutch torque, the servomotor is in a driving connection with a disengagement device of the clutch via a self-locking mechanism. To set the clutch torque, a corresponding setpoint value is first determined for the relative position of the clutch parts, which may be between the raster values of the position raster. Then, by appropriate supply of power to the coil, the actuator parts are positioned in relation to each other at a raster value of the position raster that is adjacent to the position setpoint value. Upon reaching the raster value, the servomotor is shut down and the current position is kept de-energized because of the self-locking of the clutch actuator. Because of the rasterization of the clutch actuator, the clutch may only be adjusted in steps. As a result, the setting precision of the clutch torque is limited. When a position-regulated servomotor using incremental position measurement is used, the setting precision of the clutch torque may also be influenced by the resolution of the increments if this resolution is coarser than the raster spacing of the rasterizations and/or the raster values of the position raster do not match those of the incremental travel measurement. Finally, because of the elasticity of its components and the friction that occurs during adjustment, the disengagement device is afflicted with a travel hysteresis that results in the relative positioning of the actuator parts not being converted, or being only partially converted, into a corresponding adjusting travel of the clutch. Depending on the particular hysteresis value that exists on the disengagement device and the direction in which the relative adjustment of the clutch parts is made, additional inaccuracies may occur in the setting of the clutch torque.

LuK Lamellen und Kupplungsbau Beteiligungs KG


Ultrasound scanners with anisotropic heat distributors and associated methods of operation are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, an ultrasound scanner can include a housing having a surface enclosing an internal cavity, an electronic component in the internal cavity of the housing, and a heat distributor between the surface of the housing and the electronic component. The heat distributor is in thermal communication with both the electronic component and the surface of the housing. The heat distributor includes a laminated structure having a conductive layer and a insulative layer stacked one on the other.

Ultrasound imaging systems are widely used today in medicine for visualizing and diagnosing a variety of conditions. For example, ultrasound imaging systems can be used to visualize tendons, muscles, joints, vessels, internal organs, and/or other subcutaneous body structures for detecting possible pathology or lesions. Ultrasound imaging systems are also used in obstetrics to visualize an embryo or a fetus in a mother's uterus.
Ultrasound imaging systems typically include a processing station (e.g., a computer) linked to an ultrasound scanner. During scanning, the ultrasound scanner transmits sound waves into a body structure and detects echoes from the body structure. The ultrasound scanner then transmits data representing the detected echoes to the processing station, in which images of the scanned body structure can be formed, manipulated, and displayed.
Ultrasound scanners may, for example, include an array of separate transducer elements linked independently to the processing station by individual communication wires in a cable. As the number of the transducer elements increases (e.g., for improving image resolution), the number of communication wires in the cable also increases. Such large cables, however, are less flexible than smaller cables and are thus more cumbersome to operate. As a result, cables for high resolution devices with a large number of wires may not be flexible enough to allow ready operation of the ultrasound scanner.

Ultrasound scanners with anisotropic heat distributors for ultrasound probe


An image presentation device (100) includes a set of color light sources (122, 124, 126) and a micro-display panel (150) capable of operating in both image processing and non-image processing modes. A sensor (170) is coupled to the micro-display device (150) to convert light received from the light source (122, 124, 126) into a signal value representing the output from the light source (122, 124, 126). A controller (110), responsive to the signal value, selectively and/or collectively varies the input to each of the individual light sources (122, 124, 125) to provide for consistent operating performance over the life of the product.

Video projection systems that use micro-display panels, such as digital mirror devices (DMD), are well known in the art. A desirable feature of such systems is to provide for good color accuracy and brightness consistently over the life of the product. However, as such systems are used over time, poor performance may occur due to degradation in light source performance. Various correction systems have been proposed with respect to traditional video projection systems. One such approach is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,707,596, issued to Shu Tomiya on Mar. 16, 2004, and entitled "Digital Mirror Device Projector and Method of Controlling Amount of Light Being Used in Digital Mirror Device Projector," which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. According to the patent disclosure, the inventor purports to control a lamp source output by manipulating a DMD to direct light from the lamp source to a photo-sensor, by comparing the output from the photo-sensor to a reference voltage, and by adjusting the input voltage to the lamp source to maintain constant output such that the output voltage at the photo-sensor matches the reference voltage. Tomiya's system uses a single lamp source, employing color wheel filtration that can be difficult to finely control. In addition, the proposed control system may prove ineffective when multiple light sources are introduced. It is therefore desirable to have a video projection or image presentation device that avoids the necessity and complexity of prior art systems employing color wheel and/or color filtration systems, while assuring consistent color performance and accuracy over the life of the product.

Image presentation device with light source controller


Power control systems and methods are provided to control when and how power is removed from devices. A power control system includes a sensing module that detects an output voltage level of a battery pack. A shutoff module initiates a shutoff routine when the output voltage level decreases to a device shutoff voltage level. The device shutoff voltage level is greater than the battery pack shutoff voltage level. A bypass module prevents the initiation of the shutoff routine when the device performs one or more operations that are known to cause high battery current spikes that will resultant in significant voltage drops from the battery pack.

It is common for existing battery packs, such as lithium ion battery packs, to have a low voltage protection circuits integrated into the battery packs. When the battery voltage drops below a predetermined voltage the low voltage protection circuit turns off the battery pack. The low voltage protection circuit then will not let the battery pack resume providing power until the voltage exceeds a predetermined voltage and the battery pack is removed from the circuit and reinserted into the host device. For example, a battery pack having a low voltage protection circuit having a threshold voltage of 6.0 volts will be shutoff by the low voltage protection circuit when the battery pack generates an output voltage of less than 6.0 volts. Even after the battery pack has been removed and reinserted, the low voltage protection circuit will not allow the battery to provide power until the voltage generated by the battery pack exceeds 6.5 volts.
There are several drawbacks associated with such conventional battery packs. Existing devices that use conventional battery packs are forced to stop operating when the conventional low voltage protection circuit removes power. This can be problematic in many situations, such as when data is stored in a volatile memory or when a device shutdown procedure is desired for proper operations.
Another drawback associated with conventional battery packs that include low voltage protection circuits is that the low voltage protection circuits do not account for predictable and momentary high current drain conditions. For example, a printing device may have a high current drain and produce a low output voltage during a printing operation. This momentary low voltage condition may cause the low voltage protection circuit to shut off power, even though the battery pack does not need to be recharged.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for systems and methods that provide better control over how and when power is removed from battery packs during low voltage conditions.


An improved carton cutter has an incrementally extendable fully retractable first cutting blade with a depressible safety guard at its front end. A strap cutting second blade is fixed at a hooked rear end of the cutter. A ratchet mechanism provides audible evidence of the amount of blade extension and a pointer shows the position of the front blade. The front blade is mounted on a lockable slide. Both blades are easily removable without disassembly and precisely positioned without noticeable play.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a cutting device, more particularly a box or cardboard cutter.
2. Background of the Art
Although the cutter of the invention has numerous uses, its most prominent use would be in the grocery industry where those charged with stocking shelves must open cartons sometimes referred to as "shippers" which contain a number of individual boxed products which are placed on shelves for retail sale.
Both fixed blade and adjustable blade box cutting knives are known in the art. Sharp blades are required for efficient opening of cartons. Despite the spring-like guards on some carton cutters, such as the resiliently deflectable springs of U.S. Pat. No. 4,503,612, there remains a serious threat of cuts which can probably never be completely eliminated as long as sharp blades are employed. Most guards are a step in the right direction and are improved upon in the present invention.
A significant problem for grocery stores and consumers arises from the lack of depth control and lack of positioning control which results from the use of conventional cutters. A very significant percentage of damage in grocery stores occurs because of these factors. Stocking personnel cut through the carton into the product boxes which are generally made from paperboard and easily cut. Present regulations prohibit the sale of retail boxes that have been partially opened which increases the cost associated with the problem. In addition, some boxes include plastic strapping which must be cut. Plastic strapping on cartons is difficult to cut efficiently with a conventional box cutter. Although specially shaped cutters are known for strap cutting, they are a separate tool which requires the stockers to have both tools available and the blades are not efficiently arranged. Additional cost and efficiency loss is associated with discovery by a worker at one end of the store that the cutter he needs is at the other end of the store. These problems and more are solved by the improved box cutter of the present invention.


An organic light emitting diode display includes a substrate having three folded portions overlapping each other, and a first light emitting unit, a second light emitting unit, and a third light emitting unit on respective ones of the three folded portions of the substrate, the first through third light emitting units overlapping each other and emitting different colors, wherein the first through third light emitting units are on a same surface of the substrate, when the substrate is unfolded to have the three folded portions substantially planar.

1. Field
The described technology relates generally to an organic light emitting diode display, and more particularly, to an organic light emitting diode display with an improved arrangement structure of pixels.
2. Description of the Related Art
An organic light emitting diode display includes a plurality of pixels and an organic light emitting diode for each pixel. The organic light emitting diode includes two electrodes and an organic emission layer between the two electrodes. Electrons injected from one electrode and holes injected from the other electrode are coupled with each other in the organic emission layer to generate excitons, so light is emitted while the excitons emit energy.
The organic light emitting diode display includes red pixels, green pixels, and blue pixels to implement color images. A red organic emission layer, a green organic emission layer, and a blue organic emission layer are positioned in the red pixel, the green pixel, and the blue pixel, respectively. The red organic emission layer, the green organic emission layer, and the blue organic emission layer may be formed by a vacuum deposition method using a deposition mask.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the described technology and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.


An organic light emitting display device and a method of fabricating the same. A dummy pattern is formed in an emission region to increase the step height of the emission region by an electrode material while a thin film transistor is fabricated, so that a distance between a pixel electrode and a donor film is decreased during fabrication of an organic layer. This reduced distance reduces laser energy for transfer using laser-induced thermal imaging, thus improving life span and efficiency of the device. Further, the pixel electrode can extend into a thin film transistor region and a capacitor region, thus enhancing an aperture ratio.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an organic light emitting display device and a method of fabricating the same, and more particularly, to an organic light emitting display device with a pixel region having an increased step difference to facilitate the deposition of an organic layer using a laser-induced thermal imaging method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Among flat panel display devices, an organic light emitting display device has a fast response time shorter than 1 ms, consumes little power, and has a wide viewing angle range because it can emit light by itself. As a result, the organic light emitting display device has the advantage of a moving picture displaying medium regardless of the size thereof. Further, the organic light emitting display device can be fabricated at a low temperature, and its fabricating process is simple based on the existing semiconductor processing technology, thus attracting attention as a next generation flat panel display device.
According to materials and processes, the organic light emitting display device can be widely classified into a polymer device using a wet process, and a small molecule device using a deposition process. As a method for patterning a polymer or small molecule emission layer, an inkjet printing method is applied using limited materials for organic layers except for the emission layer, and has a complicated structure to be applied to a substrate. Further, a metal mask is needed to pattern the emission layer by the deposition process, so that there is much trouble in fabricating a large-sized device.
Meanwhile, a laser-induced thermal imaging (LITI) method has been recently developed as an alternative to the foregoing patterning method. The laser-induced thermal imaging method converts laser light from a light source into heat energy, and uses the heat energy to transfer a pattern forming material to an objective substrate, thus forming a pattern on the substrate. In the laser-induced thermal imaging method, a donor substrate formed with a transfer layer, a light source and an objective substrate are needed. Further, in the laser-induced thermal imaging method, the donor substrate and the objective substrate are laminated so that the donor substrate is adhered to the highest portion of the objective substrate.
However, in typical LITI processes for forming an organic light emitting display device, a large gap exists between the donor substrate and the pixel electrode. This large gap requires more laser energy for the LITI process, leading to damage and deterioration of the organic emission layer. Therefore, what is needed is an improved structure where this large gap is not apt to occur.

Organic light emitting display device and method of fabricating the same


A touch panel includes a first substrate, a low light-shielding decoration layer, and a transparent conductive pattern. The first substrate has a peripheral region. The low light-shielding decoration layer is disposed within the peripheral region of the first substrate. The transparent conductive pattern includes transparent touch electrodes and transparent conductive lines. The transparent touch electrodes are at least disposed on the first substrate. The transparent conductive lines are disposed on the low light-shielding decoration layer within the peripheral region. Each of the transparent conductive lines is connected with at least one of the transparent touch electrodes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a touch panel, and more particularly, to a touch panel having transparent touch electrodes and transparent conductive lines respectively disposed within a viewing region and a peripheral region by using a single transparent conductive pattern.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, mobile phones, GPS navigator system, personal digital, tablet PCs, assistants (PDA) and notebook PCs with touch functions have been wildly used in modern life. In the above-mentioned electronic products, the touch display devices can be obtained by integrating the original display function with the touch sensing function. Nowadays, an out-cell touch display panel, which includes a display panel and a touch panel adhered to each other, is one of the mainstream development in the field of the touch display devices. Generally, the touch panels can be mainly divided into two types according to their configurations, i.e. the glass/glass touch panels and the one glass solution (OGS) touch panels. In the OGS touch panel, since a touch sensing unit is formed on the cover glass directly, the total amount of glass substrate is reduced to provide a thinner and simplified structure.
In a traditional OGS touch panel, metal conductive lines are usually disposed in a peripheral region and may be used to electrically connect transparent touch electrodes within a viewing region. A black matrix is also disposed within the peripheral region as a light shielding material so that the metal conductive lines within the peripheral region can be shielded and the appearance of the touch panel can be improved. In addition, since the metal conductive lines and the transparent touch electrodes usually have different compositions and conductivity, the reliability of the touch panel is often negatively affected due to some electrical damages, such as electrostatic discharge, occurring in junctions between the metal conductive lines and the corresponding transparent touch electrodes. In another case, in order to show different color appearance in the peripheral region of the touch panel, a low light-shielding decoration layer is usually disposed within the peripheral region. However, since the low light-shielding decoration layer has low optical density and high light transmittance, the metal conductive lines within the peripheral region covered by the low light-shielding decoration layer can be usually seen by users, and the appearance of the touch panel will be severely affected consequently.


An inhaler including an outlet and a plurality of sealed compartments containing medicament is disclosed. An opening mechanism is provided to open the compartment presently aligned with the outlet. An indexing mechanism sequentially aligns the compartments with the outlet. A latch is provided for latching the opening mechanism in an energized position. The latch cannot latch the opening mechanism before the indexing mechanism has aligned the next compartment with the outlet. A method of priming an inhaler and a method of dispensing a medicament from an inhaler is also disclosed.

There are different types of inhalers on the market. A pressurized Metered Dose Inhaler (pMDI) releases a fixed dose of substance in aerosol form. A powder inhaler generally releases a dose of powdered substance entrained in an air stream. In a powder inhaler the powder may be provided in a bulk container of the inhaler from which doses of powder are metered for dispensing. As an alternative to a bulk container, powder inhalers may comprise a single compartment or a plurality of compartments for containing one or more discrete doses of powdered substance. Such compartments may take the form of sealed blisters in a blister pack, a cavities-containing strip joined to a sealing strip or other suitable forms.
EP 1 220 698 discloses an inhaler for medicament in powder form. The medicament is arranged in the inhaler in a number of enclosures. When the airflow in the inhaler reaches a certain threshold value, a breath-activated activating means causes an elongated hollow body to pierce the enclosure so that the medicament is accessed. This is, for example, illustrated in FIGS. 3-6 of EP 1 220 698. After the medicament has been inhaled, the user closes a mouthpiece cover, which leads to retraction and latching of the hollow body into a firing position, and also movement of the enclosures one step. However, with that type of inhaler, if the mouthpiece cover is not properly closed, there may be a risk of the hollow body becoming retracted and latched although the inhaler has not been completely indexed to the next enclosure. Thus, the next time the user wants to inhale, the hollow body may risk either entering the same enclosure or just hit an intermediate portion between two enclosures, without delivering any medicament.
WO2009/008001A2 discloses a dry powder inhaler having a breath actuation feature. Opening a mouthpiece cap energises a spring. On inhalation, a flap is moved which triggers the release of the spring, driving a mechanism to (i) puncture a foil sealed medicament cavity and (ii) ratchet an indexer around a set of ratchet teeth on the periphery of a disc of medicament cavities. On closing the cap, the breath flap is re-set and the disc indexed around by one cavity. The disc is moved around progressively as the cap is closed and it is not clear at what point the breath flap is re-set, nor indeed how the breath flap is re-set. There is potential for the breath flap to be re-set before the disc has been fully indexed, e.g. if the cap is partly closed and then re-opened.


A system for providing electrical contacts between a die and an electrical device includes a die and a package. The package includes a first major surface, a second major surface, a first scalloped edge, a second scalloped edge and a solid end adapted for insertion into a slot. The solid end and the scalloped edges carry current greater than the current needed for an input/output signal. The socket includes a base having an opening therein adapted to receive the package. A slot is located at one end of the opening in the base. The slot is provided with a plurality of conductors for carrying currents greater than the current needed for an input/output signal. A first edge and second edge of the opening include a plurality of spaced overhangs positioned over the opening. The overhangs are sloped with respect to the major planar surface.

As more and more capability is being designed into semiconductor devices, such as memory modules and microprocessors, there are an increasing number of leads or input/output elements being placed onto electronics packages. In the past, peripherally leaded packages provided an adequate number of leads or input/output elements. Peripherally leaded packages have leads or input/output elements along the edges of the electronic component. In many applications, such packages provide an adequate number of input/output elements. In the past few years, however, many semiconductor devices have required more input/output elements than provided in a peripherally leaded package.
To provide additional electrical contacts for a semiconductor device, many have used a grid array package. In a grid array package the input/output elements are placed on the surface of the semiconductor devices. The grid array packages have many advantages, including simplicity, high contact density, and extremely low inductance due to the short paths between the contact and the element within the semiconductor device. There are several types of grid arrays. Ball grid arrays and chip scale packages have hemispherical solder balls as input/output elements. Pin grid arrays have gold plated pins as input/output elements. Land grid arrays have flat, gold plated pads as input/output elements.
In general, the grid array packages are lower cost solutions than the peripherally leaded packages. Of the grid array packages, the most simple and least costly is the land grid array package. Most of the grid array packages have been successfully implemented in products. However, the land grid array packages have technical limitations that stand in the way of wide acceptance of this technology in a useable product. The technical limitations include the fact that land grid array packages have limited current carrying capability. Currently, the lands of the land grid array are used either to carry input/output signals or to carry power. Simply put, the capability of the individual lands to carry power is limited due to the small size of the land grid array and the electrical connections made to the land grid array. This limits the amount of power that can be input to such packages.
Another technical problem with land grid array packages is that there is a short wiping distance between the land and the contact as the contact is initially placed in contact with the land. The wiping distance is the length of travel between an individual land or pad of the land grid array and the contact which is placed in electrical communication with the pad. Generally, longer wiping distances are preferred since the longer wiping distance tends to insure penetration of any oxide layer on the individual land or pad, so that a good electrical contact is made.
There is a growing demand for high loads and evenly distributed loads on a die package. Current land grid array packages have difficulty in handling a high load and difficulty in distributing the load on the packages evenly. This lacking is yet another technical hurdle that stands in the way of acceptance of land grid arrays becoming a widely used packaging technique in various products.
Thus, there is a need for a land grid array packaging method and apparatus that allows the simple, high contact density, low inductance land grid array solution to become widely used. There is a need to overcome the limited current carrying capability of the land grid array package. There is a further need to lengthen the typical short wiping distance to assure reliably good electrical contact between the contacts and the individual lands. There is also a need to meet the demand for high and evenly distributed die loads.
The description set out herein illustrates the various embodiments of the invention and such description is not intended to be construed as limiting in any manner.


Described are memory devices having stacked DRAM cells, resulting in an increase in DRAM cell bit-density. The area of a unit cell is composed of a capacitor, a cell transistor, an isolation region and a connection region, where every capacitor and active region for the cell capacitor is electrically isolated. The memory cells have supporting bars. Methods of forming a memory device are described. The methods include patterning the isolation region with supporting bars, removing non-insulator layers after isolation region patterning, and filling the opened region with an insulator.

Electronic devices, such as personal computers, workstations, computer servers, mainframes and other computer related equipment such as printers, scanners and hard disk drives use memory devices that provide substantial data storage capability, while incurring low power consumption. There are two major types of random-access memory cells, dynamic and static, which are well-suited for use in electronic devices. Dynamic random-access memories (DRAMs) can be programmed to store a voltage which represents one of two binary values, but require periodic reprogramming or "refreshing" to maintain this voltage for more than very short periods of time. Static random-access memories (SRAM) are so named because they do not require periodic refreshing.
DRAM memory circuits are manufactured by replicating millions of identical circuit elements, known as DRAM cells, on a single semiconductor wafer. Each DRAM cell is an addressable location that can store one bit (binary digit) of data. In its most common form, a DRAM cell consists of two circuit components: a field effect transistor (FET) and a capacitor.
The manufacturing of a DRAM cell includes the fabrication of a transistor, a capacitor, and three contacts: one each to the bit line, the word line, and the reference voltage. DRAM manufacturing is a highly competitive business. There is continuous pressure to decrease the size of individual cells and to increase memory cell density to allow more memory to be squeezed onto a single memory chip, especially for densities greater than 256 Megabits. Limitations on cell size reduction include the passage of both active and passive word lines through the cell, the size of the cell capacitor, and the compatibility of array devices with nonarray devices
In a 3D-DRAM with stacked unit cell layers, it is necessary to reduce the area of a unit cell in order to increase bit density per unit area for a given number of stacked cells. The area of a unit cell is composed of capacitor, cell transistor, isolation, and connection region (contact and metallization). Therefore, there is a need in the art for memory devices and methods of forming memory devices that have a reduced unit cell area.


A method and a device for adjusting an audio signal, and an audio system are provided. The method includes: obtaining a candidate audio signal (S1); obtaining a current noise signal in an environment (S2); calculating a first plurality of difference values in loudness between the candidate audio signal and the current noise signal (S3); modifying the first plurality of difference values with a plurality of target factors, where the plurality of target factors are obtained based on a plurality of test noise signals and a corresponding plurality of test audio signals (S4); and modifying the candidate audio signal with the modified first plurality of difference values to obtain a target audio signal (S5). Therefore, loudness loss of the audio signal perceived due to the noise signal can be compensated, and an overcompensation issue can be solved.

In presence of an environment noise, audio signal loudness of an audio playback device perceived by listeners may get influenced by the competing sound of noise. Since audio loudness is a psychoacoustic correlation of physical strength of an audio signal, the perceived audio loudness may decrease with the competing sound level increasing. More theoretical fundamentals on audio loudness may be referred to an article of Moore, Brian C. J. et al., published in JAES VOLUME 45 issue 4 pp. 224-240 dated April 1997.
Practices have been taken to acoustically optimize audio systems, but have limited effect on achieving good acoustics in a poor acoustic environment.
Therefore, there is a need for a method for improving acoustics performance of an audio playback device under a noisy environment.

Method and device for adjusting audio signal, and audio system

Harman International Industries, Incorporated


A thermoplastic resin composition is here provided which contains (I) 99 to 1% by weight of a polyphenylene ether resin alone or a mixture of the polyphenylene ether resin and a styrene polymer, (II) 1 to 99% by weight of at least one kind of resin selected from the group consisting of a polycarbonate resin and polyoxymethylene resin, and (III) 0.1 to 100 parts by weight, based on 100 parts by weight of the resins (I) +(II), of a multi-phase structure thermoplastic resin which is composed of 5 to 95% by weight of an epoxy group-containing olefin copolymer and 95 to 5% by weight of a vinyl polymer or copolymer obtained from at least one kind of vinyl monomer, either of both the components being in the state of a dispersion phase having a particle diameter of 0.001 to 10 .mu.m.. A method for preparing the above-mentioned thermoplastic resin composition is also provided here.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thermoplastic resin composition having excellent mechanical toughness, heat resistance, electrical properties, moldability, chemical resistance, impact resistance and appearance of molded articles made therefrom, and a method for preparing the same. This composition of the present case can be widely utilized as materials for electrical and electronic parts, machine parts, automobile parts and the like.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, with regard to engineering plastics, various new functions are additionally demanded, and various attempts have been made. One of them is a composition comprising a combination of plural engineering plastics, and this composition has features of the respective plastics and is known as a polymer alloy.
A polyphenylene ether resin is excellent in heat resistance, moldability and mechanical strength, but it has the drawback that its physical properties are somewhat poor. In consequence, the range of its uses is limited at times. On the other hand, a polycarbonate resin has excellent heat resistance, physical properties at low temperatures and impact resistance, but it is poor in chemical resistance and moldability and further has the disadvantage that stress cracks tend to occur therein. Furthermore, a polyoxymethylene resin is excellent in electrical properties but is poor in impact resistance. In particular, it can be presumed that materials having excellent heat resistance and impact resistance will become more and more important, and if the above-mentioned drawbacks of the polyphenylene ether resin and the other resins can be eliminated, they will become extremely useful materials. However, compositions of the polyphenylene ether resin and a polyamide resin or aromatic polyester resin are known, but there have not been compositions in which the polycarbonate resin and polyoxymethylene resin or another resin are used.
This reason is that these resins cannot be mixed easily with each other, since the chemical structures of the resins are different, and affinity between the resins is insufficient.

Blend of polyphenylene ether, polycarbonate or polyoxymethylene resins and multi-phase thermoplastic resins


An analgesic composition in parenteral unit dosage form or in a unit dosage form suitable for delivery via the mucosa comprising an amount of buprenorphine which is less than the clinical dose required to achieve pain relief and an amount of naloxone such that the ratio by weight of buprenorphine to naloxone is in the range of from 12.5:1 to 27.5:1, or an amount of naltrexone or nalmefene such that the ratio by weight of buprenorphine to naltrexone or nalmefene is in the range of from 12.5:1 to 22.5:1. The analgesic action of the buprenorphine is potentiated by the low dose of naloxone, naltrexone or nalmefene.

Buprenorphine (International Non-proprietary Name for N-cyclopropylmethyl-7α-[1-(S)-hydroxy-1,2,2-trimethylpropyl]6,14-endoethano-6,7,8,14-tetrahydro-nororipavine) has been shown in clinical trials to be a potent opiate partial agonist analgesic lacking the psychotomimetic effects found with other opiate analgesics. Buprenorphine effectively relieves moderate to severe pain in doses of 0.1 mg or more administered either parenterally or sublingually. The optimum therapeutic range for single doses is 0.3 mg-0.6 mg by injection and 0.2 mg-0.8 mg for sublingual tablets.
In animal tests and in man buprenorphine has been shown to have both agonist (morphine-like) and antagonist properties. However from direct dependence studies in animals and in man it has been concluded that buprenorphine does not produce significant physical dependence, as indicated by animal self administration studies and by the measurement of euphorigenic effects in human post addicts. However, buprenorphine suffers from side effects typical of opiate agonists such as nausea and vomiting, constipation and respiratory depression in some patients, although there is a ceiling to its effects on respiratory depression as a direct consequence of its partial agonist properties.
Naloxone (International Non-proprietary Name for 1-N-allyl-14-hydroxynorhydromorphinone) is a narcotic antagonist which has been incorporated into oral and sublingual preparations of various opioids in order to protect the preparations from parenteral abuse, whilst maintaining the analgesic effect of the opioid.
GB-A-2150832 describes analgesic compositions in sublingual or parenteral dosage form comprising an active dose of buprenorphine and an amount of naloxone sufficient to prove aversive to a narcotic addict by parenteral administration but insufficient to compromise the analgesic action of the buprenorphine. Preferably the parenteral dosage form contains naloxone and buprenorphine within the weight ratio of 1:3 to 1:1 and the sublingual form within the ratio 1:2 to 2:1.
Naltrexone (International Non-proprietary Name for 1-N-cyclopropylmethyl-14-hydroxynordihydro-morphinone) is a pure opiate antagonist which, when administered orally (50 mg/day) as a maintenance drug for opiate addicts, blocks the effects of self-administered opiates and this contributes to the extinction of drug craving.
Nalmefene (International Non-Proprietary Name for (5)-17-(cyclopropylmethyl)-4,5-epoxy-6-methylene-morphinan-3,14 -diol) is a structural analogue of naltrexone with opiate antagonist activity.
GB-A-2167663 describes an analgesic composition in parenteral or sublingual unit dosage form comprising an active dose of buprenorphine and an amount of naltrexone sufficient to prove aversive to a narcotic addict by parenteral administration but insufficient to compromise the analgesic action of the buprenorphine wherein the dose of buprenorphine in the parenteral form is from about 0.3 mg to about 0.6 mg and in the sublingual form from about 0.1 mg to about 0.4 mg and the weights of buprenorphine to naltrexone for the parenteral form are within the ratio of 12:1 to 3:1 and for the sublingual form are within the ratio 4:1 to 1:1.

Analgesic compositions containing buprenorphine

Reckitt Benckiser Healthcare (UK) Limited


A chip package having a lead frame, a chip, a plurality of bonding wires, and an insulation material is provided. The lead frame comprises a die pad, a plurality of leads, a plurality of signal pads and a plurality of non-signal pads. The signal pads and non-signal pads are underneath the signal leads and non-signal leads respectively. The non-signal pad is directly connected to a non-signal plane in the circuit board through its own vias. The signal pad has a structure which extends toward its adjacent non-signal pads. With the signal pad size enlarged, the capacitance between the non-signal plane in the circuit board and the signal pad is increased. The increased capacitance compensates the inductance induced from the bonding wires and improves the response of the signal propagation path for RF applications.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mounting pad structure of wire-bonding type lead-frame packages. More particularly, the present invention relates to a mounting pad structure which can improve the performance of wire-bonding type lead-frame packages.
2. Description of the Related Art
Modern electronic products typically enclose a semiconductor chip and a carrier for electrically connecting with the semiconductor chip. At present, there are three major techniques for connecting a chip to a carrier, namely, a wire-bonding process, a flip-chip process and a tape-automated-bonding (TAB) process. If the carrier is a lead frame, the wire-bonding process is often used to connect the chip with the leads on the lead frame. Bonding wires of a package induces parasitic inductance which becomes more significant when the operating frequency is beyond several giga-hertz (GHz) for Radio Frequency (RF) products. The parasitic inductance has adverse effects on the circuit performance. Therefore, a method for reducing the parasitic inductance and improving the frequency response at high frequencies shall be introduced.
FIG. 1A is a schematic cross-sectional view of a conventional QFN (Quad Flat Non-Lead) package mounted on a circuit board for RF applications. FIGS. 1B and 1C are perspective view and top view respectively of the coplanar bonding wire structure of single-ended mode shown in FIG. 1A. As shown in FIGS. 1A, 1B and 1C, the chip package 100 comprises a chip 110, a lead frame 120, a plurality of bonding wires 130 and an insulation material 140. The lead frame 120 has a die pad 121 and a plurality of ground leads 122 and signal leads 123. The ground leads 122 and signal leads 123 are distributed evenly at the peripheral area of the die pad 121. The chip 110 is attached to the die pad 121 through adhesive glue. The bonding wires 130 connecting the chip 110 to the respective leads 122, 123 are formed in a wire-bonding process. The die pad 121 and the ground lead 122 are electrically grounded to a ground plane 170 through a ground pad 181, a die pad landing and ground vias 160. The insulation material 140 encapsulates the chip 110, the lead frame 120 and the bonding wires 130. The die pad 121, the ground leads 122, and signal leads 123 of the chip package 100 are attached to the circuit board 190 through the application of adhesive materials.
FIG. 1D is a top view of the mounting pad structure of single-ended mode shown in FIG. 1A. In the conventional pad design, the signal pad 182 is underneath the signal lead 123 and has a shape which corresponds to the signal pad 182. Similarly for the ground pad 181, it is underneath the ground lead 122 and has a shape which corresponds to the ground pad 181. The ground pad 181 is connected to the die pad landing which is underneath the die pad 121 and is electrically grounded to a ground plane 170 through ground vias 160.
FIG. 2A is a perspective view of a conventional coplanar bonding wire of differential mode. FIG. 2B is a top view of a conventional coplanar bonding wire of differential mode. The differential mode involves one transmission line 231 carries a positive signal and the other transmission line 231 carries a negative signal for signal pins. The signals are equal in amplitude and opposite in polarity. The two transmission lines 231 have a differential impedance of around 100 Ohms. The two signal leads 223 are adjacent to each other in a differential-mode wire-bonding type package. To the opposite side which is adjacent to the other signal lead 223, there is an adjacent ground lead 222. Underneath the signal lead 223, there is a signal pad 282 and similarly, there is a ground pad 281 underneath the ground lead 222. The size and shape of the ground pad 281 and the signal pad 282 correspond to the ground lead 222 and the signal lead 223 respectively. The ground pad 281 is connected to the die pad landing which is underneath the die pad and is electrically grounded to a ground plane 170 through ground vias 160.

Mounting pad structure for wire-bonding type lead frame packages


A compound bow has an improved vibration damping function. The compound bow includes a bow main body including a handle and a pair of limbs; upper and lower pulley assemblies each including a pulley and a cam; a bowstring; first and second cam cables that are wound around the cam of each of the upper and lower pulley assemblies as the bowstring is pulled; a bowstring support bar whose one end is coupled to the handle and whose other end is coupled to a cushioning member that contacts the bowstring; and a first cam cable anti-vibration bar including a coupling bar coupled to the handle, and an anti-vibration member that is coupled to the rear end of the coupling bar and whose rear surface contacts one of the first and second cam cables when the bowstring is released to thus return to an original position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a compound bow, and more particularly, to a compound bow which can damp vibrations that are generated in a handle to thus improve accuracy of an arrow when a bowstring is pulled.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, compound bows are configured so that a bowstring may be easily pulled without using a large force and arrow-shooting power is increased during shooting, by using an effect of a cam or wheel, to thus result in a fast speed of an arrow with very strong power, and are widely used mainly for hunting.
As shown in FIG. 1, a conventional compound bow is configured to have an upper limb 20 that is coupled to the upper portion of a handle 10 at the center of which a grip portion is formed, and lower limb 26 coupled to the lower portion of the handle 10. A cut-out portion is formed between the upper limb 20 whose edges are spaced apart from each other, and a cut-out portion is formed between the lower limb 26 whose edges are spaced apart from each other. Rotating shafts 70 are formed through the edges of the upper limb 20 and the cut-out portion, and through the edges of the lower limb 26 and the cut-out portion, respectively. Upper and lower pulleys 30 and 36 are rotatably combined with the respective rotating shafts 70.
A guide groove is formed on the outer circumferential surface of each pulley 30 or 36. A bowstring 50 is wound along the guide groove of each pulley 30 or 36, and the respective ends of the bowstring 50 are combined with each pulley 30 or 36. In addition, a cam 32 or 38 rotating with the pulley 30 or 36 is coupled in each pulley 30 or 36. As the bowstring 50 is pulled, cam cables 40 and 46 are formed between both the pulleys 30 and 36 so as to be wound on the cams 32 and 38, respectively.
Further, a cable guard 60 is laterally mounted at one side of a center portion of a handle 10, in which the cable guard 60 pushes the cam cables 40 and 46 to one side of the bowstring 50 so that an arrow is not prevented from being shot during shooting.
When the bowstring 50 is pulled in the prior art compound bow that is configured as described above, the lower and upper pulleys 30 and 36 are rotated and thus the cams 32 and 38 coupled to the lower and upper pulleys 30 and 36 are rotated, to thereby wind and pull the cam cables 40 and 46. When the bowstring 50 is released in a let-off state, an arrow obtains a strong driving force while the bowstring 50 returns to an original position instantaneously by a strong elastic force of the bow.
As described above, while the bowstring 50 returns to an original position when the arrow is shot, vibrations are generated from the bowstring 50 that is formed between the pulleys 30 and 36. Such vibrations are ultimately transferred to the handle 10 to thereby cause a problem that degrades the accuracy of the arrow. Thus, as shown in FIG. 1, in order to solve such a problem, a bowstring support bar for supporting the bowstring 50 is provided at the lower side of the handle 10. One end of the bowstring support bar 80 is coupled to the lower side of the handle 10, and the other end thereof is bonded to a contact rubber 81 that supports in contact with the bowstring 50. When the bowstring 50 returns to an original position at a let-off state, that is, at a firing state, the bowstring 50 is in contact with the contact rubber 81 of the bowstring support bar 80, thereby damping the vibrations of the bowstring 50. Thus, such vibrations generated from the bowstring 50 can be attenuated to some extent even in the case of the compound bow of FIG. 1. However, vibrations transmitted to the handle 10 cannot be removed satisfactorily so that a user can hardly feel the vibrations.

Compound bow having improved vibration-damping performance


Each of game machines sends result information indicating an individual ID and play result to a server. The server has a common ID control file and an individual game control file, which store common points, a common ID and an individual ID, associated with each other. A CPU converts the result information into common points, and allows the converted common points to be reflected in the common points in the common ID control file corresponding to the individual ID.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a game system comprising a plurality of game machines and servers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Game machines capable of being connected with servers are in widespread use with the improvement of communication networks, such as the Internet. From the game machines like that, players can sometimes buy some items, for example clothes of a character appearing in the game with points given in accordance with the result of the game.
However, as the existing game system is constructed independently by every kind of game, with the points a player getting in a certain game, the player can't buy any items appearing in the other games. In other words, the existing points are given in accordance with the result of a certain game, but the scope of use is limited to that game.

Game system, server apparatus and register terminal


A conversion kit for converting an ATV into a low profile, vehicle with a driver cage and roll bar. The conversion kit includes a sub-frame assembly made of lightweight tubular material. During assembly, the ATV's front suspension, handlebars, front wheels, front shocks, and hand and foot controls are disconnected from the ATV. The sub-frame assembly is longitudinally aligned and connected to the A-Arm mounting brackets on the ATV's main frame assembly. The sub-frame assembly includes a protective cage frame and a roll bar. The ATV's front suspension and A-arms are re-connected to A-arm mounting brackets attached to the front section of the sub-frame assembly. The sub-frame assembly includes foots pedals and receives the ATV's handlebars with the hand controls. The kit includes a cable and wire harness sets and a seat belt assembly. It may also include an optional seat, mirrors, wheel extension adaptors, a foot shield and a rear wing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to kits that enable one type of vehicle into another vehicle and more particularly, to kits used to easily convert an ATV into a low profile, car-like vehicle, and then allows the car-like vehicle to easily reconfigured into an ATV.
2. Description of the Related Art
Four wheel all-terrain vehicle (referred to hereinafter as an 'ATV') are vehicles used in rugged terrain, such as dirt back roads and trails. Because drivers sit upright, the center of gravity of the ATV and rider is relatively high similar to a motorcycle. Because ATV's are driven at high speeds and over rough terrain and obstacles, they often spill or rollover injuring the driver. Possessing adequate strength, learning how to lean into corners, and how to simultaneously steer, control the throttle, the brakes and gears are all important skills that must be perfected to prevent spills or rollovers. Unfortunately, young or inexperienced drivers do not have these skills and therefore, are more likely to spill or rollover. A lower profile car-like vehicle that has the same handlebars, throttle control, brakes, gears, engine, transmission and throttle and brakes components used on an ATV that includes a roll cage that young or inexperienced drivers may use to master the driving skills used with an ATV, would be highly desirable.
Many ATV owners enjoy riding their ATV's not only on back roads and on trails but also on sand dunes and beaches. Because beaches have less obstacles, drivers often drive at higher speeds. Unfortunately, sand on a beach is much softer than a trail, which cause spills or rollover. Many ATV owners forgo riding their ATV's on sand dunes or on beaches. Some ATV owners elect to purchase a separate vehicle specially made for use on sand, such as a dune buggy. The purchase of two separate vehicles is expensive and prohibited for some users.
What is needed is a conversion kit that allows an owner of an ATV to easily convert the ATV into a low profile car-like vehicle similar to a dune buggy that uses the ATV's handlebars, main body, engine, transmission, wheels, and throttle, gear, and brake controls and can also be easily converted from the low profile car-like vehicle back to the ATV.
It is an object of the present invention provides a conversion kit that permits conversion of an ATV into a lightweight, low profile four wheel dune buggy. It is also an object of the present invention to provide a conversion kit that uses the ATV's front suspension, main body, engine, transmission, handlebars, foot controls and hand controls so young drivers become familiar with then learn how to safely operate the vehicle. It is another object of the present invention to protect the driver in a protective cage and roll bar.


A versioned-data management system (VDMSMS) is provided with a method for determining candidates for promotion in association with a user task. The VDMS maintains a list of parts changed as a result of a user task, referred to as a promote group. Before performing any changes the user informs the VDMS which user task is to be associated with the changes. All parts subsequently changed are automatically placed by the VDMS in the promote group associated with the given user task. When the parts associated with a user task for a given variant level are promoted, an iterative process is performed to determine the complete set of parts that must be promoted in support of the requested promote. Initially the set includes those parts in the promote group at the given variant level. Then all the other promote groups are searched to determine whether they contain any of the parts at the given variant level that are already in this set. For any that do, the parts in those promote groups for the given variant level are added to the set of parts to be promoted.

Modern computer installations generate, manipulate, and store enormous quantities of data. Data base management systems have emerged as an indispensible component of such installations, serving the purpose of promoting efficient data storage and program design, enhancing file maintenance and modification, and eliminating data redundancy. The typical data base management system (DBMS) includes programs which interface with designers and users, accept and understand models or tables for subsequent use in organizing data, organize data according to the models or tables, store and retrieve the data in the actual data base contained in a computer storage subsystem. perform queries on the data, and generate reports based on the stored data.
A DBMS may be designed to store data according to any of a variety of data models, where the data model is the basic organizational concept for the underlying data base. These models, or schemes, for data base organization can be divided into several different classes, including hierarchical, network, relational, and entity-relationship. A detailed discussion of these types of data-bases may be found in "The Database Book," by Mary E. S. Loomis, Macmillan Publishing Company New York, N.Y. 10022 (1987). The present invention is applicable to all of the above data-base schemas. The preferred embodiment is described with particular reference to the entity-relationship modelling methodology provided by the Repository Manager/MVS product, which uses the DB2 relational DBMS as a back end to manage the storage and retrieval of data on the computer hardware. Entity-relationship databases are discussed in "The Entity- Relationship Model--Towards a Unified View of Data," by Peter Chen, ACM Trans. on Data Base Systems, Vol. 1 (1976). Relational data-bases and DB2 in particular is discussed in "IBM Database 2: General Information," IBM Publication GC26-4373 (1990). The Repository Manager/MVS product is discussed in "Repository Manager: Concepts and Facilities," IBM Publication SR21-3608 (1990).
A significant problem in maintaining any data base whose data entries represent objects, events, people, or relationships in the real world, is that although those things may change over time, the typical DBMS maintains only a single version of any given entry, making it impossible to concurrently represent a thing in its past, present, and future states. A second significant problem, which arises in maintaining a data base which is shared among a plurality of users, involves the toleration of concurrent but independent work on the same data entries by different users without sacrificing the semantic consistency of the data. Yet a third problem in maintaining a data base involves maintaining a record of the state of the data base itself as it existed at given times in the past. Such information is often needed for error recovery and for audit-trail purposes. Typical solutions to this problem involve taking "snapshots" of the data base and logging change activity, so that if necessary the data base can be "reconstructed" as it existed at some point in the past. This reconstruction is usually a time-consuming batch procedure, and a system so constructed cannot allow the past and current data bases to be accessed concurrently.
A solution to all of these problems is to maintain versions of the data entries. These versions may correspond to the different states of the real-world things represented, or to work in progress by different users. Such an approach is called versioning, and in general requires that the DBMS control the creating of the versions and all access to them, both to assure the semantic consistency of the data in all its versions, and to free users from the need to deal with the additional complexity that such a versioning scheme requires. Users of non-versioned data base systems sometimes simulate versioning by giving qualified names to the data base entries. However, this approach is undesirable, because it conceals from the DBMS the true identity of the things represented, and makes it impossible for the DBMS to verify the semantic consistency of the data base.
The generally preferred approach to implementing versioning is to provide direct versioning of entries in the DBMS, with the versioning managed by the DBMS to preserve the semantic validity of the data in the system. Such a system provides both parallel and serial versioning, with the capability for the user to define a hierarchy of versions, and to direct the DBMS to move versions of data from one hierarchy level to another. It also provides historical versioning of the database, allowing the user to view the data as it existed at any arbitrarily-selected time in the past. It provides a simplified programming interface that allows a user tool to interact with the data as though it were not versioned, the specification of which version is seen being made outside the program.
In a versioned-data management system (VDMS) environment, all the changes associated with a given user task are tightly coupled in the sense that subsequent access applies either to all of the changes or none of them. A consequence of this tight coupling is that all the changes associated with a given user task must be promoted at the same time. However, these changes typically involve more than one part in the VDMS and may have been performed by more than one tool. Since multiple tools may have been involved, having each tool maintain a list of what parts were changed would not be sufficient. The user would be forced to remember all the tools involved and then combine the lists. In addition, each tool may use a different means to maintain its list, thus complicating the job of combining the lists. To complicate matters further, a change to one part may cause the VDMS to trigger a change to other parts. Such a situation can occur in an entity-relationship VDMS, where the delete of an entity results in all relationships that pointed to the entity also being deleted. In this case, expecting the tool to maintain a change list is untenable, because the tool cannot be aware that other parts were also changed and hence would fail to include them on its list of changed parts. Yet another complication arises where a user makes changes to parts, promotes them, and then makes a subsequent change. The affected parts will show up more than once in the promote group, once at the higher variant level as the result of the promote of the part to the higher variant level, and once more at the leaf variant level as a result of the subsequent change at the leaf variant level. A tool maintaining the list of changed parts would have to be aware that multiple versions of a part exist at the same time. Tools known in the art are not aware that multiple versions exist. Providing the needed changes to these tools to be aware of multiple versions is costly and not desirable.
Heretofore, the known method for solving the above problems has been to design tools that are aware not only of the parts themselves, but also of the different versions of those parts. However, this solution is itself undesirable because of the complex design requirements it places on every tool provided for the VDMS.

Versioned-database management system in which tasks are associated with promote groups which comprise a set of parts whose changes are to be promoted

International Business Machines Corporation


A roller for a crop conditioning system having a roller body with a compressible base mat, with a side of the base mat including a plurality of generally arcuate recessed areas and an plurality of raised areas adjacent the recessed areas, with each raised area including one or more longitudinally oriented slits therein.

The present invention relates to a system for the conditioning of various crops or foliage, for use in the agricultural and farming industry. The conditioning system facilitates the removal of moisture from the crop and reduces drying time.
When a crop such as hay or alfalfa is cut in the field, a windrower or swather is generally utilized. The windrower typically includes cutting surfaces to sever the fiber of the crop and the cut crop is left in a row in the field to dry before it is bailed or otherwise handled.
The time that it takes the crop to dry in the field before it can be bailed or further handled can be critical. It is very important to shorten that time as much as possible to avoid possible problems that may be encountered with the crop.
Devices referred to as conditioners are generally utilized to reduce the moisture in the crop, and/or to facilitate the faster drying of the crop. Conditioners are oftentimes mounted on a windrower, mower or other device, or they may be a separate unit. Conditioners currently available typically crimp and/or break down the stem of the hay and assist in the removal, or the facilitation of the moisture, in the fiber of the crop.
Conditioners typically include two or more elongated parallel rollers, slightly spaced apart from one another. The respective adjacent rollers rotate in opposite directions from one another such that the crop is fed through the gap between the two rollers. The rollers are typically made of steel, but with a rubber, elastomer or other compressible surface or coating around the circumference.
Conditioners or conditioning equipment may be operated as stationary equipment, mobile equipment, or combined with crop harvesting or swathing equipment.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide and improved crop conditioning system, and more particularly, an improved roller for use in a crop conditioning system.

Crop conditioning system with lobed rollers


An inflatable safety restraint assembly for a vehicle having a front instrument panel and a side pillar. The inflatable safety restraint assembly includes an inflator device and a gas flow control structure connected in gas flow communication to the inflator device to receive inflation gas supplied by the inflator device. The inflatable safety restraint assembly also includes an airbag cushion that is connected in gas flow communication to the gas flow control structure. Upon activation of the inflator device, initial deployment of the airbag cushion occurs from a lower portion of the side pillar. The initial deployment of the airbag cushion occurs in a cross-vehicle direction toward a longitudinal centerline of the vehicle.

This invention relates generally to inflatable safety restraint assemblies and, more particularly, an inflatable safety restraint assembly including an inflatable airbag cushion for use in a vehicle such as an automobile.
It is well known to protect a vehicle occupant by means of inflatable restraint systems which self-actuate from an undeployed or static state to a deployed state without the need for intervention by the operator, i.e., "passive restraint systems." Such systems commonly contain or include an inflatable vehicle occupant restraint or element, such as in the form of a cushion or bag, commonly referred to as an "airbag cushion." In practice, such airbag cushions are typically designed to inflate or expand with gas when the vehicle encounters a sudden deceleration, such as in the event of a collision. Such airbag cushion(s) may desirably deploy into one or more locations within the vehicle between the occupant and certain parts of the vehicle interior, such as the doors, steering wheel, dashboard or the like, to prevent or avoid the occupant from forcibly striking such parts of the vehicle interior.
Current front passenger inflatable restraint systems typically include a module assembly located beneath, or within, a front instrument panel. Upon an occurrence of a collision, an airbag cushion inflates and typically deploys in front of the occupant such as through a deployment door opened by the inflating airbag cushion. Recently, an increased focus has been given to minimizing and/or eliminating injuries to an out-of-position occupant, i.e., an occupant not seated in the optimal passenger riding position. Current front passenger inflatable restraint systems may have difficulty providing desired out-of-position occupant protection, particularly due to, for example, the opening of the deployment door and initial inflation forces. In addition, automobile manufacturers often add costly occupant detection systems to supplement current front passenger inflatable restraint systems.
Current passenger inflatable restraint systems located beneath the front instrument panel typically have other disadvantages as well. One example is the cost associated with designing and constructing a visually appealing and functional deployment door. Another disadvantage is the amount of space within the instrument panel encompassed by passenger airbag module, thereby limiting, for example, instrument panel styling and glove box size.
There is a need for an improved inflatable restraint system. More particularly, there is a need for an improved passenger side inflatable restraint system that requires less space within the front instrument panel of the vehicle.

Lower side piller passenger inflatable safety restraint assembly


A query processing system applies transforms to convert a collection of predicate statements to two parts, a matrix and a set of reduced predicate statements, and evaluates the matrix and reduced predicate statements when querying data. The query processing system applies the transforms to extract conjunctive predicates or disjunctive predicates from the predicate statements to provide the set of reduced predicate statements and generates the matrix using the extracted conjunctive predicates or disjunctive predicates. When data is received for querying, the query processing system evaluates the matrix and reduced predicate statements for the data to provide search results. The query processing system may first identify candidate predicate statements that may be satisfied for the data from the matrix and then evaluates the reduced predicate statements for those candidate predicate statements.

As the amount of available digital information continues to grow exponentially, search techniques have become paramount for quickly and efficiently querying information. For some domains, query processing is performed by expressing queries using a set of predicate statements and evaluating the predicate statements for data being queried. In some cases, tens of thousands of predicate statements are generated by machine learning that need to be evaluated at run time. Given the large number of evaluations that need to be performed, it is an expensive operation in terms of processing requirements for conventional query processing systems to completely and accurately perform these evaluations and difficult for the conventional query processing systems to return results in an acceptable amount of time.

Query processing using matrix and reduced predicate statements


An image capture apparatus includes an image capture unit, a recording unit, a wireless communication unit and a control unit. The recording unit records digital image captured by the image capture unit on a recording medium. The wireless communication unit transmits the digital image recorded on the recording medium to an external recording apparatus. The control unit determines, using additional information corresponding to the digital image recorded on the recording medium, whether or not the digital image recorded on the recording medium is already transmitted to the external recording apparatus. The additional information is received from the external recording apparatus. The control unit controls the wireless communication unit to transmit the digital image recorded on the recording medium to the external recording apparatus if the control unit determines that the digital image recorded on the recording medium is not already transmitted to the external recording apparatus.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image communication apparatus, method and system, and more particularly to techniques of wireless (radio) transmission of digital image information picked up and stored by an electronic apparatus having an image pickup unit, to another recording device which records the received digital image information.
2. Related Background Art
An image pickup device (such as an electronic still image camera) for picking up still images has generally a recording medium having a small capacity. For example, the recording medium is a semiconductor memory such as an SRAM and a flash memory or a magnetic recording medium such as a floppy disk. An image pickup device (such as a camera integrated VTR) for picking up moving images stores the images in a recording medium such as a magnetic tape. Image data picked up and stored by such an image pickup device can be reproduced by utilizing an image reproduction function of the image pickup device itself.
In order to edit, modify and print image data, it is necessary to store the image data picked up by the image pickup device in a recording device (such as a storage unit) having a recording medium of a large capacity and to thereafter process the stored image data by using a personal computer or the like.
In such a case, a user is required to connect the image pickup device and recording device with a cable or infrared transceivers.
If a cable is used for such connection, the distance between the image pickup device and recording device is limited by the length of the cable. If the cable is short, the image pickup device and recording device are required to be set near to each other. If infrared transceivers or the like are used for such connection, an occurrence frequency of transmission errors may become high depending upon the communication state of a transmission path, and reliable data communication may become impossible.
In order to transfer image data picked up by the image pickup device to the recording device, a user is required to manually perform all operations from selection of image data to transfer thereof. The user operations therefore become complicated.
It is also necessary for the user to manually perform all operations including deletion of image data on the side of the image pickup device, after the data picked up by the image pickup device is stored in the recording device. The user operations therefore become complicated.

Image communication apparatus for wireless communication of digital images, and method thereof


A device for harvesting crops comprising woody material including a processor arranged to mechanically work the woody material and to feed the mechanically worked woody material to a bale-forming mechanism, the bale-forming mechanism being arranged to form a bale of the mechanically worked woody material. The present invention also extends to a method for harvesting crops comprising woody material in a continuous operation including the steps of: (a) mechanically working the woody material using a processor of a harvesting device; (b) feeding the mechanically worked woody material to a bale-forming mechanism of the harvesting device; and (c) forming a bale from the mechanically worked woody material.

Woody crops are a potential source of fiber and biomass for energy. They can also be planted to reclaim contaminated soils, to protect sloping land against erosion, to act as a windbreak, or to create a buffer near sensitive waterways. Fast growing woody crops are an attractive proposition because of their widespread adaptation to various soils and climates and their short rotation. Some woody crops such as willow, poplar, aspen, alder, caragana and other species may be planted specifically for their short-rotation and their abundant biomass production. Several native species of woody plants (brushes) also grow naturally on abandoned land or near waterways.
There is a need to harvest regularly these woody crops for profitable uses of this fibre and biomass, and also to rejuvenate the vegetation. Typically, fast-growing woody crops are composed of a large number of stems ranging from 20 to 80 mm in diameter and 3 to 5 m in length after three years of growth. A three-year rotation is often considered the optimum cycle time to harvest for maximum yield over an extended life-cycle of 20 years and more for several perennial woody crops that spontaneously regrow after cutting. Conventional agricultural harvesters used for non-woody crops are not suitable for harvesting woody crops because they are not adapted for cutting through the relatively wide and hard stems of the woody crops. Also, the rigidity of the woody crop stems makes their baling more of a challenge.
For large area plantations of these woody crops, specialized cutter heads have been designed to cut the base of the woody crop stems and to feed the long stems into a precision-chop self-propelled (SP) forage harvester (U.S. Pat. No. 6,062,011). The SP cutter-chipper harvests woody crops in the form of chips which may be handled with augers and conveyors and stored in piles or silos.
One problem with the SP cutter-chipper is the relatively high cost of the machine, especially for small land owners. A second problem is the high moisture of the chips which form a dense pile with limited natural aeration and limited drying during storage. A third problem is the unsuitability of the SP cutter-chipper to harvest narrow strips of woody plants or to access uneven terrain with rocks or bumps where abundant brush may grow. Therefore, such a system works well for relatively large and flat areas, and where the 40 to 50% moisture content of the wood chips is acceptable, or where the wet chips can be dried artificially.
A number of attempts have been made to harvest woody crops in the form of bales which dry naturally to a greater extent than chips and which are easier to handle with a front-end loader readily available on many farms, thereby not requiring specialized augers or conveyors to handle the chips. U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,398 describes a system which cuts the stems, accumulates them on the side of the harvester and drops a bunch of stems on the side without tying or bundling. U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,479 describes a system which cuts the stems, conveys them in a bundle, slicing regularly, and tying the stems in relatively small bales. U.K. Pat. No. 2,357,417 describes a third system which proposes using a SP cutter-baler that ties large bales.
However, these prior systems are expensive, inefficient and not well suited for harvesting small areas. Therefore, it is desired to improve on these prior systems and to provide an efficient, low-cost baler-type harvesting device for woody crops to produce bales that can be handled easily, stored, and left to dry naturally during storage.

Device and method for harvesting woody crops

Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada as represented by the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada


Disclosed is a heat-dissipating light-emitting device, including a light-emitting element, a heat-conducting base plate in physical contact with a heat sink, and a driver circuit. The driver circuit and light-emitting element are electrically coupled to each other and electrically isolated from the base plate. The light-emitting device and heat sink may be included in a light fixture. Also disclosed is a method for assembling the light-emitting device.

Recent years have seen a rapid development of brighter, more efficient electric light-emitting components. Devices like light-emitting diodes (LEDs) promise longer useful lives, greater reliability, better miniaturization, and greater energy efficiency than older electroluminescent technologies such as incandescent light bulbs. The greater energy efficiency means that for every lumen of light, the new electric light-emitting components waste less energy in the form of heat. Nonetheless, electric light-emitting components still generally produce some waste heat. Furthermore, many necessary elements in circuits that deliver electricity to electric light-emitting components inevitably generate waste heat as well. Waste heat can have a deleterious effect on the performance of electric light-emitting components. Long-term operation at higher temperatures decreases the useful lifespan of many electric light-emitting components, requiring more frequent replacements and decreasing their reliability. Moreover, some devices, such as LEDs, become less energy efficient as they heat up. This causes the devices either to dim, or to draw more current to produce the same output in lumens; moreover, if the devices draw more current to match their previous luminous output, they will necessarily produce greater quantities of waste heat, as will other elements in the circuit driving the light-emitting components. This results in further wear on the light-emitting components and circuit elements, and in a corresponding decrease in efficiency. The effects of waste heat can thus have a cascading effect, greatly increasing energy and replacement costs attendant to illumination.
Therefore, there remains a need for light-emitting devices that effectively dissipate heat from electric light-emitting components and associated circuitry.

Heat-dissipating light-emitting device and method for its assembly


A method and apparatus for a circuit physically realizing a virtual ground function and having improved accuracy and stability is described. A stable bias current source is coupled to a bandgap reference generator and resistances to produce a virtual ground voltage of a precise value, this voltage is then coupled to an operational amplifier configured in a unity gain configuration. The circuit thus created offers numerous advantages over the virtual ground circuits in use in the prior art. An integrated circuit implementing this circuit is described, and alternative packaging embodiments are disclosed. Other embodiments are also disclosed.

Heretofore, in the field of single supply circuits in general, there have been several approaches to designing a virtual ground voltage reference which allow the circuit to accept as input a signal centered around ground, with positive and negative values at different times, and create an output which reflects the entire waveform without loss of data due to waveform clipping. To prevent the clipping of the input waveform a virtual ground is required to terminate the input voltage signal and the output load and thus translate the output so that it is centered around a reference voltage. Some typical approaches to designing a virtual ground voltage reference are to create voltage divider circuits using discrete components. These discrete solutions have several drawbacks which disadvantageously affect the circuits in which they are used, including poor load regulation, excessive power dissipation, large circuit board area requirements, and excessive numbers of component requirements. Accordingly, improvements which overcome any or all of these problems are presently desirable.

Fixed voltage virtual ground generator for single supply analog systems


The present invention pertains to a multiphase pulse width modulator which allows for continuous conduction of current through each winding of a multiphase motor at all times of the motor's operation. In a preferred embodiment, the multiphase pulse width modulator is for an N-phase motor, where N.gtoreq.3. The multiphase pulse width modulator is comprised of a clock for producing a switching frequency. The modulator is also comprised of means for providing N phase displaced signals to the respective N phases of the N phase motor such that the signals allow for continuous conduction of current through each winding in the motor at all times of the motor's operation. The providing means is connected to the clock for receiving the switching frequency, and connected to the N phases of the N phase motor to provide the N signals to the respective N phases of the N phase motor.

The prior art, as shown in FIG. 7, discloses a single phase triangle wave fed to each pulse width modulator of a three phase drive. The result is that all upper transistors can turn on during 1/2 of the pulse width modulator cycle, and all lower devices can turn on during the other 1/2 cycle. This results in no current flow and no conduction and no gain when the command is zero. A large three phase command causes a condition where current is always flowing in a winding (continuous conduction) and results in full gain. In between is discontinuous conduction where the gain varies from zero to maximum. FIG. 8 shows a graph of the gain of the motor through zero command with respect to the prior art.
Discontinuous conduction causes a stability problem in high bandwidth servos by reducing gain and bandwidth. See IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, Vol. 1A-21, No. 1, January/February 1985. The present invention allows for continuous conduction at all times (even zero command), by providing a phase difference between oscillator signals provided to each pulse width modulator. The result is that gain is held constant through zero command because no discontinuous conduction occurs.

Multiphase pulse width modulator for a multiphase motor


A process for identifying TPMS electronic wheel sensors on a production line is disclosed. The line of identification data is transmitted in digital bit stream between the electronic wheel sensor and the production line database. Data from the electronic wheel sensors is provided to the vehicle electronic control unit at a subsequent point on the assembly line.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle manufacturing system for the installation of tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) in which the electronic wheel sensors are identified, and verified to the designated vehicle. A digital code is transmitted to identify the wheel sensors and may also specify the location of the wheel sensors on the vehicle.
2. Background Art
Tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) have been developed to monitor tire pressure levels and operating temperatures. It has been found that maintaining tire inflation to the proper pressure can improve vehicle performance and gas mileage. Government regulations have recently been adopted that encourage the adoption of tire pressure monitoring systems as original equipment in new vehicles.
Tire pressure monitoring systems have been developed that include a radio frequency link between sensors mounted to the tire or wheel and the vehicle's electrical system. In the vehicle manufacturing process, the tire pressure monitoring sensors must be activated and checked for operability. Tire pressure monitoring systems may be of a low level type wherein the tire pressure monitoring sensors indicate that there is a problem with regard to tire pressure, but do not identify the specific tire that is improperly inflated. Other more sophisticated systems include identification of a specific tire that is improperly inflated to the on-board diagnostic system of the vehicle.
In some manufacturing plants, several parallel assembly lines are provided to manufacture vehicles. In other manufacturing plants, one or more assembly lines may be split into a plurality of parallel line segments for installation of tire pressure monitoring systems, final vehicle assembly operations, and quality assurance testing. While parallel manufacturing lines and operations may improve the efficiency of assembly operations, problems arise when programmable radio frequency devices, such as electronic wheel sensors are installed, programmed and tested.
Radio frequency transmissions between the assembly line and the electronic wheel sensors are used to identify the wheel sensors to the on-board vehicle diagnostic system. Radio frequency transmissions must be limited in range and power. It is difficult to control radio frequency transmissions when production lines and programming stations are located in close proximity to one another, for example, when programming stations and wheel sensors are less than 10 meters apart. When in such close proximity, stray radio frequency transmission from one line programming station may be picked up by another line's programming station. This can result in erroneous programming of electronic wheel sensor identification information and complications in the programming process.
There is a need for a reliable and effective manufacturing system for programming electronic wheel sensors and their associated on-board diagnostic systems. This need is particularly strong in assembly plants having several production lines with multiple programming stations located in close proximity to one another that are used to activate, program and test electronic wheel sensors. With more sophisticated tire pressure monitoring systems, there is a need for a system that identifies the wheel location of an electronic wheel sensor on a vehicle.

Method of programming a tire monitoring system


A method for forming and filling a container. The method includes: determining an effective fill area of an opening of the container through which fluid can pass while a stretch rod is seated within the opening; actuating a seal pin to open a nozzle passage of the nozzle to allow the fluid to flow through the nozzle passage and through the opening to simultaneously form and fill the container; detecting a degree to which the nozzle passage is open; increasing fill velocity of the fluid to the nozzle as the nozzle passage is opened; setting fill velocity of the fluid to a maximum fill velocity when the nozzle passage is opened such that an area of the nozzle passage is at least equal to the effective fill area at the opening of the finish; and closing the seal pin after the container is formed and filled.

This section provides background information related to the present disclosure, which is not necessarily prior art.
As a result of environmental and other concerns, plastic containers, more specifically polyester and even more specifically polyethylene terephthalate (PET) containers are now being used more than ever to package numerous commodities previously supplied in glass containers. Manufacturers and fillers, as well as consumers, have recognized that PET containers are lightweight, inexpensive, recyclable and manufacturable in large quantities.
Existing container forming and filling methods and systems are suitable for their intended use, but are subject to improvement. For example, existing container forming and filling methods and systems are unable to create an optimized flow rate of fluid through a filling nozzle for simultaneously forming and filling a polymeric container. As a result, existing container forming and filling systems are unable to maximize the efficiency and speed of the forming and filling process, limit fluid turbulence, limit cavitation, limit sheer, reduce fluid foaming, optimize energy consumption, and reduce torque and stress on a filling cylinder, servo, and other components of the system. The present teachings provide for methods and systems for simultaneously forming a container from a preform and filling the container with fluid that address these shortcomings in the art, as well as provide numerous advantages as recognized by one skilled in the art.