A novel lighting balloon apparatus is provided for various indoor and outdoor lighting applications. The lighting balloon apparatus is comprised of a unique rectangular-shaped balloon envelope body constructed from a medium weight laminate of polyester film weaved into polyester fabric using an adhesive containing an antimicrobial additive and an ultraviolet inhibitor. The rectangular-shaped body of the balloon envelope provides a means for controlling the emission of light by allowing for the accommodation of lightweight taffeta panels without compromising control. The lighting balloon apparatus is further configured to accommodate multiple lighting sources, as well as applicable mixtures thereof. The various lighting sources that may be employed are securely coupled to a harness assembly suspended within the body center of the balloon envelope structure, which is sealed with a helium tight cap system and coupled to a relay bypass system for regulating multiple lighting source socket arrangements.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to lighting balloons. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a lighting balloon apparatus configured to employ multiple lighting sources and mixtures thereof, while providing a stable and resilient illuminating body that may accommodate desired fixtures thereon.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is an increasing demand for the use of lighting balloons, particularly in the entertainment industry, due to their ability to provide various illuminations in a sensitive location lacking requisite lighting. The preference for lighting balloons is primarily attributed to their ease of use for required daytime and nighttime illumination, as well as for their applications in exterior and interior locations.
Lighting balloons found today are typically spherical-shaped and composed of rip stop or sailcloth materials coated with a polyurethane, which in many cases limits the range of lighting output. Over time, the potential illumination provided by these balloons are prone to fading due to discoloration of the light emitting material (hereinafter "the balloon envelope"). For example, the urethane coating used to seal conventional balloon envelopes has been known to chemically deteriorate as a result of sustained exposure to various lighting sources, resulting in the surface of the balloon envelope turning into an undesirable yellowish-stained shade. This discoloration inevitably shifts the intended color temperature expected from a particular lighting source, thereby frequently prompting the need to replace the balloon envelope in order to regain the desired lighting output.
Lighting balloons may be tailored to provide a soft quality of light, capable of illuminating 360 degrees from the light source. In many cases, however, 360 degrees of illumination may not be desirable and, therefore, there are instances where there is a need to control the illumination emitted from the balloon envelope. As the popularity of lighting balloons grow so do the demands of lighting professionals to have them designed to yield various desired looks and uses. Unfortunately, the illuminating direction of conventional lighting balloons are difficult to control. The difficulty associated with controlling these lighting balloons is mainly attributed to the curvature and seams associated with the commonly used spherical-shaped balloon envelope. For example, in an attempt to control the illumination emitted by such balloons, lighting designers have been known to add black tarp-like materials onto the surface of the balloon envelope to block light. However, this typically does not achieve the desired result, but rather results in the body of the spherical-shaped balloon envelope to roll in the direction of the weight added, only to further alter the desired direction of lighting output.
There was a time when most locations were able to accommodate lighting balloons that simply emitted day light (i.e., a color temperature of 5500 Kelvin) and tungsten light (i.e., a color temperature of 3200 Kelvin) without worry of miss-matching in the color temperature of lighting sources. However, today's professionals encounter many challenges due to the various lighting sources that are now more frequently utilized, such as sodium vapor lighting used to illuminate roads at night and metal halide and mercury vapor lighting that is typically found in industrial areas and stadiums. There exists a desire, particularly in the filming community, to have the color temperature of light emitted by balloon envelopes match the color temperature of light emitted by fixed illuminating structures found in various locations. For example, when legacy film lighting instruments are utilized by professionals in the filming community, the light emitted by these legacy instruments need to be recolored in final production to match the pre-existing lighting captured in various scenes, thereby unnecessarily increasing the costs in producing such films. Although conventional lighting balloons have improved over time by providing for multiple source lighting, they continue to lack in meeting the increasing demands of those industries commonly requiring the use of such lighting structures. Conventional lighting balloons, in providing multiple source lighting, typically require the use of multiple lighting balloons structures and harnesses or, alternatively, the use of colored sleeves that need to be assembled onto lighting fixtures prior to inflation. These conventional means are severely deficient in that the use of additional lighting structures and components are costly, while sacrificing the lightweight maneuverability and power consumption benefits associated with earlier lighting balloons.
Accordingly, there exists a need in the art for a reliable and resilient lighting balloon apparatus configured to employ multi-faceted ambient light sources.


A storage device for metal bar cropping lines, comprising: elements for forming a plurality of compartments parallel to each other and arranged side-by-side for storing cropped metal bars, said compartments being arranged longitudinally with respect to a cropping line; elements for conveying said cropped metal bars, fed by said cropping line, selectively to said storage compartments; and flexible elements for shifting said storage compartments transversely to said cropping line between a position for receiving said cropped metal bars and a position for unloading said cropped metal bars.

The present invention relates to a storage device which can be optimized for metal bar cropping lines.
It is known that lines for cropping metal bars meant to constitute the reinforcement frames of reinforced-concrete structures and the like are used in the field of building. These so-called "fixed" cropping lines generally have means for feeding the metal bars to a cropping station provided with locator means adapted to adjust the length of the portions cropped from the bars; the feeder means take the bars to be cropped from a corresponding magazine and push them into abutment against the locator means, along a measuring unit generally provided with roller supporting means. Adapted cropping means then crop the bars to the preset size.
In other cases, no locator means are provided and the bars to be cropped are measured by means of wheels connected to encoder devices.
In performing the cropping operation, there is an economic requirement to minimize waste. In order to achieve this result, an electronic computer is normally used; according to the batches to be produced, the computer associates several sizes so as to approximate the total length of the bars to be cropped. The batches to be produced are in fact generally constituted by bars of different lengths according to the various intended uses.
It is thus known that it is necessary to arrange, to the side of the cropping line, storage devices adapted to separately collect the bars cropped according to the different sizes, so as to reconstitute the batches. In practice, the metal bars are cropped automatically into portions having different lengths, which correspond to the required sizes; these portions are then conveyed to respective storage areas. This step is usually defined "cropping optimization".
Simpler cropping lines usually have two storage areas, arranged respectively on either side of the line. The storage areas have respective fixed comb-shaped devices, often four on the left and four on the right, generally one whereof is adapted to receive the bars which will remain straight and the other one is adapted to receive the bars to be shaped, which are then conveyed to bending benches. Each one of the comb-shaped devices forms a plurality of stores meant to receive respective groups of bars cropped to the different intended sizes. Before being removed from the storage devices, the cropped bars are generally tied in bundles.
In order to move the cropped bars it is usually necessary to use a crane. This is a considerable drawback, especially as regards the bars to be conveyed to the bending benches.
In order to overcome this drawback, i.e., to avoid the use of cranes, it has been suggested to use a storage device constituted by a large truck movable along rails arranged transversely below the cropping line. The truck is adapted to receive the cropped bars and to sort them directly to the bending benches; for this purpose, the truck is provided with a plurality of roller conveyors, usually four, meant to receive the different batches of bars to be kept straight or to be shaped.
In addition to allowing a smaller number of stores and therefore reduced cropping optimization, this solution entails a higher cost. The fact is also objected that both the bars to be kept straight and the bars to be shaped are collected on the truck, and this is a cause of potential confusion. Moreover, the presence of a movable element is a risk factor with respect to the system safety.
Another solution which has been suggested in order to obviate the above-mentioned drawbacks consists in laterally sorting the bars to be shaped to a chain conveyor which directly feeds a bending bench arranged to the side of the cropping line. In practice, the cropped bars to be bent fall laterally onto the chains, which are actuated along planes lying transversely to the cropping line and provided with teeth which form appropriate compartments, the bars being then conveyed to the bending bench.
This solution allows to reduce the system bulk and to avoid the risks connected to moving parts, but it does not allow true cropping optimization. The device in fact has a single store which can be selected, i.e., which is available to divide the different batches of bars, and it is therefore impossible to separate the bars after cropping. Accordingly, the most important characteristic distinguishing cropping lines, i.e., optimization, is set aside.

Device for selective storage of bars for metal bar cropping lines


A system for attaching a module to an object includes a module having an oblong shape, and an elastic ring. Each elongated end of the module has a recess with an interior surface formed by an upper and lower lip, and the distance between the interior surfaces of the recesses is substantially equal to the inner diameter of the elastic ring such that the module can be releasably affixed to the elastic ring. The system provides easy and reliable attachment of the module to a piece of clothing, for example.

There have been a number of methods for attaching an accessory, for example electronic modules such as GPS modules, electronic music players, sensors, etc., to objects. Examples of such methods usually include inserting the accessory into some sort of a pouch which is in turn attached to a strap or article of clothing that can then be worn by a user. These prior art methods have several disadvantages. For example, the need for a pouch with the proper dimensions for the accessory, e.g. if the user dislikes or loses a pouch which comes with their object it can be difficult to find a replacement with the same dimensions. Additionally, users typically like compact accessories where considerable design effort goes in to making the accessory small only to end up having to place the accessory in to a bulky pouch, device or pocket in order to utilize the accessory.
The aim of the present invention is to provide a universal method of attaching an accessory, such as an electronics module, to an object, such as a user's person or clothing.

System for attaching a module to an object


The present invention is related to the use of Botrytis cinerea strains, its spores, hyphae mycelium, sclerotia, intra and/or extracellular organic molecules, such as proteins, nucleic acids, polysaccharides, lipids and secondary metabolites for the biosynthesis of gold nanoparticles (AuNps). In general terms, the present invention is focused to use B. cinerea strains and/or molecules generated by this organism for the biological synthesis of AuNps, being then the field of application, the synthesis of nanomaterials, specifically AuNps using the phytopathogenic fungus B. cinerea and/or its intra or extracellular proteins purified individually or in combination thereof or any of other intra and/or extracellular molecule produced by this organism as a biological system of synthesis. The metallic nanoparticles are used in various applications including: semiconductors, photoluminescence, biomedicine, imaging for the medical diagnostic, catalysts (dispersed and supported) and in therapies against some types of neoplasia (cancer), among others.

The nanoparticles are structures with a size ranging from 1 to 100 nanometers and are especially attractive due to its optical, chemical, photoelectrochemical and electrical properties (Wilson M., Kannangara K., Smith G, Simmons M., Raguse B. Nanotechnology: Basic Science and Emerging Technologies. Chapman and Hall/CRC 2002; Jain, P. K., Huang, X., El-Sayed, I. H. El-Sayed, M. A. 2008. Noble metals on the nanoscale: optical and photothermal properties and some applications in imaging, sensing, biology and medicine. A of Chem Res. 41:1578-1586).
The synthesis of nanoparticles of different compositions and sizes is a field of investigation of great interest in the last years. Currently, the large scale production of AuNPs is carried out by chemical processes, which require the use of reducing agents to generate the particles from soluble gold salts. There are also physical processes, which require operating at reduced pressures and high temperatures. In both cases associated with AuNPs production, are produced chemical toxic compounds, due to the reactive agents and the operating conditions of the signaled systems; which present problems related to stability, aggregation and control of the desired size of the generated nanoparticles (Sau T. K., Murphy C. J. 2004. Room temperature, high-yield synthesis of multiple shapes of gold nanoparticles in aqueous solution. J Am Chem Soc 126:8648-8649).
Given the relevance of this topic worldwide, indispensable is the need to implement alternative and efficient processes for obtaining metallic nanoparticles that are "environmentally friendly" without requiring high quantities of energy. In this regard, biological systems are good candidates to do this. Currently, there are various publications on this topic, specifically related to the capacity of some organisms to generate these structures including bacteria and fungi (Brown S, Sarikaya M, Johnson E A. 2000. Genetic analysis of crystal growth. J Mol Biol 299: 725-735; Nair B, Pradeep T. 2002. Coalescence of nanoclusters and formation of submicron crystallites assisted by Lactobacillus strains. Cryst Growth Des 2: 293-298; Husseiny M I, Abd El-Aziz M, Badr Y, Mahmoud M A. 2007. Biosynthesis of gold nanoparticles using Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Spectrochimica Acta Part A 67: 1003-1006; Narayanan K B, Sakthivel N. 2010. Biological synthesis of metal nanoparticles by microbes. Adv Colloid Interface Sci 156: 1-13; Thirumurugan G, Veni V S, Ramachandran S, Rao J V, Dhanaraju M D. 2011. Superior wound healing effect of topically delivered silver nanoparticle formulation using eco-friendly potato plant pathogenic fungus: synthesis and characterization. J Biomed Nanotechnol. 7: 659-66; Mourato A, Gadanho M, Lino A R, Tenreiro R. 2011. Biosynthesis of crystalline silver and gold nanoparticles by extremophilic yeasts. Bioinorg Chem Appl. 2011: 546074; Balagurunathan R, Radhakrishnan M, Rajendran R B, Velmurugan D. 2011. Biosynthesis of gold nanoparticles by actinomycete Streptomyces viridogens strain HM10. Indian J Biochem Biophys 48: 331-335; Tikariha, S.; Singh, S.; Banerjee, S.; Vidyarthi, A. S. 2012. Biosynthesis of gold nanoparticles, scope and application: A review. IJPSR 3: 1603-1615).
The probable mechanisms by which peptides, bacteria, fungi, and plants catalyze the extracellular synthesis of metal nanoparticles have been recently revised (Durán N, Marcato P D, Durán M, Yadav A, Gade A, Rai M. 2011. Mechanistic aspects in the biogenic synthesis of extracellular metal nanoparticles by peptides, bacteria, fungi, and plants. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 90: 1609-1624).
B. cinerea is a phytopathogenic fungus which infects a large number of vegetal species of great economic importance including fruit trees, ornamental plants and vegetables. This fungus produces a disease known as grey mold generating a serious problem on pre and postharvest in strawberries, raspberries, apples, pears, chestnuts, kiwi and grapes among others. In the grapevine, this fungus produces the bunch rot, (van Kan J. A. 2006. Licensed to kill: the lifestyle of a necrotrophic plant pathogen. Trends Plant Sci. 11, 247-253; Elad, Y., Williamson, B., Tudzynski, P. and Delen, N. eds. 2007. Botrytis: Biology, Pathology and Control. The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers).
Traditionally, B. cinerea has been studied with the objective of generating strategies to allow its control, and thus, to reduce the economic loss associated with the infections generated by the fungus. Up to today, there are no studies in nanotechnology field where cultures, propagules or molecules of B. cinerea are used in the process of synthesis of metallic nanoparticles. Our results show that B. cinerea in liquid medium is able to catalyze the synthesis of gold nanoparticles at room temperature from a solution of HAuCl4. The formation of nanoparticles is verified by the change of color of the reaction solution from pale yellow to reddish o purple. Moreover, the solutions containing the nanoparticles present a maximum of absortion at 540 nm, characteristic of the presence of this type of structures (Castro M E, Bravo M, Castillo A. 2012. Biosíntesis de nanopartículas de plata y oro por el hongo fitopatógeno Botrytis cinerea. XXI Congreso Latinoamericano de Microbiologia. Santos, Brasil. 28 de Octubre-1 de Noviembre).
Respect to the intellectual property, the patents related to synthesis of metallic nanoparticles mostly consist of the use of chemical processes for the synthesis of these structures, some of them allow the production of particles of a certain size and morphology. This is the case of the U.S. Pat. No. 6,929,675 in which is described a chemical system for the generation of copper, silver and gold nanoparticles. In specific relation with the AuNps, it is also possible to find some publications, like the patent US 20070125196, in which is disclosed the synthesis of AuNPs in a size ranging from 30 to 90 nm using a aqueous medium containing sodium acrylate and also the publication US 20060021468 in which is described a chemical process to control the uniformity of the generated particles.
Finally, it should be noted that although there are patents related to the use of biological systems for the synthesis of AuNps, there are currently no patents describing the use of B. cinerea or the molecules produced by said fungus for such purposes. In this context, the patent of greatest similarity is the patent published by a researcher of University of Illinois in the year 2010 (Publication US No. 20100055199), in which is described the use of the fungus Trichoderma reesei for the synthesis of AuNps.


A releasably locking handle for a retractable blade utility knife The handle is formed from a pair of elongated mating handle halves connected by a central pivot. A slidable blade carrier is supported between the handle halves. The handle has a dual locking mechanism which provides for pivotal opening of the handle only when the blade carrier is in a fully forward position. A magnet which is fixed in the handle slidably supports the blade carrier.

The invention relates to a retractable blade utility knife handle and more particularly to a retractable blade utility knife handle having a pair of releasably locking, pivotable handle halves.
In retractable-blade utility knives, the blade is slidably movable from a sheathed position to an extended unsheathed position wherein the knife blade projects through an opening in the knife handle to present a cutting edge. Such a utility knife is disclosed in Weimann U.S. Pat. No. 4,663,845, entitled "Utility Knife" wherein the knife incorporates a blade carrier which mounts and supports the blade within the interior of the knife handle for selective longitudinal movement therein. The blade carrier includes a thumb actuated button to release the blade carrier from one of several latching positions for slidably shifting the blade to another longitudinal position. The halves of the knife handle are connected by a central pivot. The handle halves are releasably locked so that they can be pivoted laterally relative to one another when the blade carrier is in any longitudinally shifted position, thereby allowing the blade to be replaced and providing access to a blade storage compartment.
A typical shortcoming of retractable-blade utility knives is the lack of stability of the blade when the knife is forcibly twisted sideways during use. For example, under conditions in which a substantial force is applied to the side of the blade proximate the lower cutting edge, it is possible for the lower edge of the blade to slip off of the blade carrier, thereby freeing the blade to fall out of the handle. Another drawback of conventional utility knife handles is the possibility that the handles can be opened inadvertently. Yet another shortcoming of conventional utility knives is that the blade carrier and blade tend to rattle, as they are not fixed to the handle. A further drawback of conventional retractable blade knives is that if the blade carrier is shifted longitudinally when no blade is installed in the blade carrier, the corners of the blade carrier, on occasion, will become stuck at various locations in the handle, causing the blade carrier to shift or slide irregularly.


Methods for improving the production of a secondary metabolite by a fungus by increasing the yield or productivity of the secondary metabolite produced by the fungus are described. The methods include increasing the expression of LYS14, for example, by transforming a cell with a nucleic acid molecule encoding LYS14.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to secondary metabolite production by fungi. More particularly, the invention relates to modulation of secondary metabolite production by fungi through genetic manipulation of such fungi.
2. Description of the Related Art
Secondary metabolite production by various fungi has been an extremely important source of a variety of therapeutically significant pharmaceuticals. β-lactam antibacterials such as penicillin and cephalosporin are produced by Penicillium chrysogenum and Acremonium cirysogenum, respectively, and these compounds are by far the most frequently used antibacterials (reviewed in Luengo and Penalva (1994), Prog. Ind. Microbiol. 29: 603–38; Jensen and Demain (1995), Biotechnology 28: 239–68; Brakhage (1998), Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 62: 547–85). Cyclosporin A, a member of a class of cyclic undecapeptides, is produced by Tolypocladium inflatum. Cyclosporin A dramatically reduces morbidity and increases survival rates in transplant patients (Borel (1986), Prog. Allergy 38: 9–18). In addition, several fungal secondary metabolites are cholesterol lowering drugs, including lovastatin, which is made by Aspergillus terreus and several other fungi (Alberts et al. (1980), Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 77: 3957–3961). These and many other fungal secondary metabolites have contributed greatly to health care throughout the world (see Demain (1992), Ciba Found. Symp. 171: 3–16; Bentley (1991), Crit. Rev. Biotechnol. 19: 1–40).
Unfortunately, many challenges are encountered between the detection of a secondary metabolite activity to production of significant quantities of pure drug. Thus, efforts have been made to improve the production of secondary metabolites by fungi. Some of these efforts have attempted to improve production by modification of the growth medium or the bioreactor used to carry out the fermentation. Buckland et al. (1989), in Topics in Industrial Microbiology: Novel Microbial Products for Medicine and Agriculture, Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 161–169, discloses improved lovastatin production by modification of carbon source and also teaches the superiority of a hydrofoil axialflow impeller in the bioreactor. Other efforts have involved strain improvements, either through re-isolation or random mutagenesis. Agathos et al. (1986), J. Ind. Microbiol. 1: 39–48, teaches that strain improvement and process development together resulted in a ten-fold increase in cyclosporin A production. While important, studies of these types have still left much room for improvement in the production of secondary metabolites.
More recently, strains have been improved by manipulation of the genes encoding the biosynthetic enzymes that catalyze the reactions required for production of secondary metabolites. Penalva et al. (1998), Trends Biotechnol. 16: 483–489 discloses that production strains of P. chrysogenum have increased copy number of the penicillin synthesis structural genes. Other studies have modulated expression of other biosynthetic enzyme-encoding genes, thereby affecting overall metabolism in the fungus. Mingo et al. (1999), J. Biol. Chem. 21: 14545–14550, demonstrate that disruption of phacA, an enzyme in A. nidulans that catalyzes phenylacetate 2-hydroxylation, leads to increased penicillin production, probably by elimination of competition for the substrate phenylacetate. Similarly, disruption of the gene encoding aminoadipate reductase in P. chrysogenum increased penicillin production, presumably by eliminating competition for the substrate alpha-aminoadipate (Casquiero et al. (1999), J. Bacteriol. 181: 1181–1188).
Thus, genetic manipulation holds promise for improving production of secondary metabolites. Genetic manipulation to increase the activity of biosynthetic enzymes for secondary metabolite production or to decrease the activity of competing biosynthetic pathways has proven effective for improving production. Maximum benefit can be achieved by combining several strategies of manipulation. For example, modulating the expression of genes that regulate the biosynthetic enzyme-encoding genes can improve production. In addition, genetic manipulation can be used to impact upon the challenges that are encountered in the fermentor run or downstream processing (e.g., energy cost, specific production of desired metabolite, maximal recovery of metabolite, cost of processing waste from fermentations). There is, therefore, a need for methods for improving secondary metabolite production in a fungus, comprising modulating the expression of a gene involved in regulation of secondary metabolite production in fungi.
One challenge is to identify the types of genes that would be useful for such modulation. Todd and Andrianopoulos (1997), Fungal Genetics and Biology 21: 388–405, teaches that Zn(II)2Cys6 proteins (zinc binuclear cluster proteins, or "ZBC proteins") are involved in a wide range of processes, including primary and secondary metabolism. This reference teaches that such proteins are primarily, though not exclusively, transcriptional activators. Chang et al. (1995), Applied Environ. Microbiol. 61: 2372–2377, teaches that increased expression of aflR, a ZBC protein, relieves nitrate inhibition of aflatoxin biosynthesis in Aspergillus parasiticus. PCT Publication WO 00/37629, teaches that over-expressing lovE, another ZBC protein, increases lovastatin production in Aspergillus terreus. Noel et al (1998), Mol. Microbiol. 27: 131–142, teaches that xlnR, a ZBC protein, induces expression of xylanolytic extracellular enzymes in Aspergillus niger. Hasper et al. (2000), Mol. Microbiol. 36: 193–200, teaches that xlnR also regulates D-xylose reductase gene expression in Aspergillus niger. D'Alessio and Brandriss (2000), J. Bacteriology 182: 3748–3753, discloses that Gal4p, a ZBC protein, can activate the PUT (proline utilization) genes in a Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain lacking the normal gene for regulation of this pathway, PUT3. PCT Publication WO 00/20596 discloses that prtT, a ZBC protein, activates extracellular proteases in Aspergillus niger.
Numerous studies have examined the effects of mutations in genes that encode ZBC proteins. Crowley et al (1998), J. Bacteriol. 180: 4177–4183, discloses that a single missense mutation in UPC2, a ZBC gene, results in pleiotropic effects in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Friden et al. (1989), Mol. Cell. Biol. 9: 4056–4060, teaches that a large internal deletion in Leu3p, a ZBC protein, in Sacclzaromyces cerevisiae causes the protein to be a constitutive transcriptional activator. Oestreicher and Scazzocchio (1995), J. MoL Biol. 249: 693–699, discloses that a single amino acid change in Yc462, a ZBC protein, leads to constitutive, hyperinducible and derepressed expression of at least three genes in Aspergillus nidulans. Wang et al. (1999), J. Biol. Chem. 274: 19017–19024, discloses that nine distinct missense mutations in LEU3 affect the masking of the activation domain of that ZBC protein. Dickson et al. (1990), Nucleic Acids Res. 18: 5213–5217, discloses that single amino acid changes in the C terminal region of Gal4p and Lac9p, two ZBC proteins, lead to constitutive expression of target genes. Marczak and Brandriss (1991), MoL CelL Biol. 11: 2609–2619, teaches that single point mutations in PUT3, a ZBC gene from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, lead to either constitutive or uninducible expression of proline utilization genes. Carvajal et al. (1997), Mol. Gen. Genet. 256: 406–415, teaches that single amino acid substitutions in Pdr1p, a ZBC protein from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, are responsible for over-expression of three transporter genes associated with multiple drug resistance. Nourani et al. (1997), Mol. Gen. Genet. 256: 397–405, teaches that substitutions in a conserved region of Pdr3p, a ZBC protein from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, leads to gain of function mutations. Zhou et al. (1990), Nucleic Acids Res. 18: 291–298, discloses that deletion of all or part of the linker region of Leu3p results in unmodulated activation of Leu3p target genes. Herlich et al. (1998), Fungal Genetics Biol. 23: 1807–1845, teaches that deletion of three amino acids in the C terminus of AflR results in increased expression of the aflatoxin pathway.
These studies demonstrate that ZBC genes can be manipulated in beneficial ways and may have promise as regulators of secondary metabolism. Unfortunately, no one has been able to create a commercial process in which production of a useful secondary metabolite has been significantly increased through the action of a ZBC protein. There is, therefore, a need for new commercial processes using ZBC proteins, or variants thereof, to significantly increase useful secondary metabolite production.

Modulation of secondary metabolite production by zinc binuclear cluster proteins


Video signal processing apparatus includes a picture enhancement processor for processing a video signal to produce an enhanced video signal. The video signal includes a signal component representing video image data and another signal component representing non-image data such as vertical sync and a binary information component. The binary information component represents binary information that may occur, for example, during vertical blanking such as closed caption data, content advisory information (V-chip), or extended data services information. A control unit modifies the enhancement performed by the picture enhancement processor during intervals of the video signal that include non-image information. Modifying enhancement processing (e.g., reducing or disabling) during intervals that include the non-image information reduces degradation of the non-image information caused by the enhancement processing.

Television receivers employing picture enhancement processors are known. There are, for example, processors which provide noise reduction for both luma and chroma, processors which provide vertical and/or horizontal peaking and processors which provide non-linear processing (e.g., so-called "black stretch" or "white stretch" processors), to name but a few.
Typically, picture enhancement processing provides a substantial benefit by improving the subjective appearance of displayed images. However, enhancement processing may produce undesirable effects under certain conditions. One such case is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,202,765 by Roger L. Lineberry entitled TELEVISION RECEIVER WITH PICTURE IN PICTURE PROCESSING AND NON-LINEAR PROCESSING which issued Apr. 13, 1993. Lineberry found that "black stretch" processing of the main or large picture signal in a picture-in-picture (PIP) television receiver can cause the black level of the small or inset picture to be "modulated" by (i.e., be dependent on) the black level of the main picture. Lineberry addresses the problem by disabling black stretch processing during the small picture interval.
Picture enhancement processing such as peaking can degrade displayed images under certain signal conditions such as when the signal-to-noise ratio is poor or when interference (e.g., impulse noise) is present. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,384,306 by Frank C. Liu entitled VARIABLE PEAKING CONTROL CIRCUIT which issued May 17, 1983, the level of peaking is varied so as to avoid excessive peaking of impulse noise present in the active video or displayed portion of the signal. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 4,376,952 by Troiano entitled NOISE RESPONSIVE AUTOMATIC PEAKING CONTROL APPARATUS which issued Mar. 15, 1983 describes varying peaking as a function of noise by sampling noise during the horizontal blanking interval of a received signal. Another example of varying the level of peaking is video depeaking via AGC control as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,071,064 by Milbourn entitled VIDEO DE-PEAKING CIRCUIT IN LUMINANCE CHANNEL IN RESPONSE TO AGC SIGNAL which issued Jul. 20, 1976.


A rear frame (11) includes: a first inclined part (11A) having a rearward rising incline, a trailing arm attachment part (11B) extending horizontally at the rear side of the first inclined part (11A), and a second inclined part (11C) having a rearward rising incline at the rear side of the trailing arm attachment part (11B). An upward-convex first protrusion (41), in which at least a portion of the front end section of a trailing arm (21) is accommodated, is formed in the trailing arm attachment part (11B), a downward-convex second protrusion (42) is formed in the front section of the first inclined part (11A), and the first protrusion (41) and the second protrusion (42) are disposed so as to mutually overlap in the vehicle width direction.

In general, a trailing arm attachment part which attaches a trailing arm of a rear wheel suspension to a vehicle body is required to have high rigidity from the viewpoint of steering stability, and the like. Means conventionally used to achieve high rigidity in a trailing arm attachment part includes: a configuration using a reinforcing member in the attachment part, a configuration which increases the plate thickness of the attachment part, or a configuration which forms the attachment part from a high-strength member, and so on. However, each of these approaches inhibits weight reduction, as well as leading to increased costs, and consequently there has been scope for improvement from the viewpoint of weight reduction and cost.
More specifically, the trailing arm attachment part is subject to the following requirements: (a) the part must have high rigidity from the viewpoint of steering stability, and the like; (b) the part must be positioned higher than the wheel center, from the viewpoint of steering stability, and the like; and (c) the part must be horizontal from the viewpoint of the ease of assembly.
Effective means for achieving (b) and (c) above is to provide a horizontal portion in the kick-up part of the rear frame. However, in this case, an inclined part having a relatively steep angle of incline is formed in the rear frame described above. Furthermore, in the event of a front collision, the load of the collision is liable to be concentrated in the inclined part, and therefore it is necessary to improve rigidity in the vicinity of the inclined part and to transmit the collision load in a smooth fashion.
Patent Document 1 discloses providing a kick-up part having a rear rising incline which links a side sill rear part and a rear frame front part in a low-front and high-rear fashion, and providing an attachment part for attaching the trailing arm of a rear wheel suspension on the kick-up part. However, in the prior art structure disclosed in Patent Document 1, since an opening section passing through the front linking end of the trailing arm is formed with a large opening in the kick-up part, then the rigidity becomes lower although the weight of the components increases, and there has been scope for weight reduction.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2007-290665


The speech synthesis apparatus of the present invention includes: a text analyzer operable to generate a phonetic and prosodic symbol string from character information of an input text; a word dictionary storing a reading and an accent of a word; an voice segment dictionary storing a phoneme that is a basic unit of speech; a parameter generator operable to generate synthesizing parameters including at least a phoneme, a duration of the phoneme and a fundamental frequency for the phonetic and prosodic symbol string, the parameter generator including a calculating means operable to obtain a sum of phrase components and a sum of accent components and to calculate an average pitch from the sum of the phrase components and the sum of the accent components, and a determining means operable to determine a base pitch from the average pitch; and a waveform generator operable to generate a synthesized waveform by making waveform-overlapping referring to the synthesizing parameters generated by the parameter generator and the voice segment dictionary.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a speech synthesis apparatus that synthesizes a given speech by rules, in particular to a speech synthesis apparatus in which control of pitch contour of synthesized speech is improved in a text-to-speech conversion technique that outputs a mixed sentence including Chinese characters (called Kanji) and Japanese syllabary (Kana) used in our daily reading and writing, as the speech.
2. Description of the Related Art
According to the text-to-speech conversion technique, Kanji and Kana characters used in our daily reading and writing are input and converted into speech in order to be output. This technique has no limitation on the vocabulary to be output. Thus, the text-to-speech conversion technique is expected to be applied to various technical fields as an alternative technique to recording-reproducing speech synthesis.
When Kanji and Kana characters (hereinafter, referred to as a text) are input to a conventional speech synthesis apparatus, a text analysis module included therein generates a string of phonetic and prosodic symbols (hereinafter, referred to as an intermediate language) from the character information. The intermediate language describes how to read the input sentence, accents, intonation and the like as a character string. A prosody generation module then determines synthesizing parameters from the intermediate language generated by the text analysis module. The synthesizing parameters include a pattern of a phoneme, a duration of the phoneme and a fundamental frequency (pitch of voice, hereinafter simply referred to as pitch) and the like. The determined synthesizing parameters are output to a speech generation module. The speech generation module generates a synthesized waveform generated in the prosody generation module and a voice segment dictionary in which phonemes are accumulated, and then outputs synthetic sound through a speaker.
Next, a conventional process conducted by the prosody generation module is described in detail. The conventional prosody generation module includes an intermediate language analysis module, a phrase command determination module, an accent command determination module, a phoneme duration calculation module, a phoneme power determination module and a pitch contour generation module.
The intermediate language input to the prosody generation module is a string of phonetic characters with the position of an accent, the position of a pause or the like. From this string, parameters required for generating a waveform (hereinafter, referred to as waveform-generating parameters), such as time-variant change of the pitch (hereinafter, referred to as a pitch contour), the duration of each phoneme (hereinafter, referred to as the phoneme duration), and power of speech are determined. The intermediate language input is subjected to analysis of the character string in the intermediate language analysis module. In the analysis, word-boundaries are determined based on a symbol indicating a word""s end in the intermediate language, and a mora position of an accent nucleus is obtained based on an accent symbol.
The accent nucleus is a position at which the accent falls. A word having an accent nucleus positioned at the first mora is referred to as a word of accent type one while a word having an accent nucleus positioned at the n-th mora is referred to as a word of accent type n. These words are referred to an accented word. On the other hand, a word having no accent nucleus (for example, xe2x80x9cshin-bunxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cpasokonxe2x80x9d, which mean a newspaper and a personal computer in Japanese, respectively) are referred to as a word of accent type zero or an unaccented word.
The phrase command determination module and the accent command determination module determine parameters for response functions described later, based on a phrase symbol, an accent symbol and the like in the intermediate language. In addition, if a user sets intonation (the magnitude of the intonation), the magnitude of the phrase command and that of the accent command are modified in accordance with the user""s setting.
The phoneme duration calculation module determines the duration of each phoneme from the phonetic character string and sends the calculation result to the speech generation module. The phoneme duration is calculated using rules or a statistical analysis such as Quantification theory (type one), depending on the type of an adjacent phoneme. Quantification theory (type one) is a kind of factor analysis, and it can formulate the relationship between categorical and numerical values. In addition, in the case where the user sets a speech rate, the phoneme duration determination module is influenced by the speech rate. Normally, the phoneme duration becomes longer when the speech rate is made slower, while the phoneme duration becomes shorter when the speech rate is made faster.
The phoneme power determination module calculates the value of the amplitude of the waveform in order to send the calculated value to the speech generation module. The phoneme power is a power transition in a period corresponding to a rising portion of the phoneme in which the amplitude gradually increases, in a period corresponding to a steady state, and in a period corresponding to a falling portion of the phoneme in which the amplitude gradually decreases, and is calculated based on coefficient values in the form of a table.
These waveform generating parameters are sent to the speech generation module. Then, the synthesized waveform is generated.
Next, a procedure for generating a pitch contour in the pitch contour generation module is described.
FIG. 14 is a diagram explaining the generation procedure of the pitch contour and illustrates a model of a pitch control mechanism.
In order to sufficiently represent differences of intonation between various sentences, it is necessary to clarify the relationship between pitch and time in a syllable. The xe2x80x9cpitch control mechanism modelxe2x80x9d described by a critical damping second-order linear system is used as a model that can clearly describe the pitch contour in the syllable and can define the time-variant structure of the syllable. The pitch control mechanism model described in the present specification is the model explained below.
The pitch control mechanism model is a model that is considered to generate a fundamental frequency providing information about the voice pitch. The frequency of vibration of vocal cords, that is, the find a mental frequency, is controlled by an impulse command generated at every change of phrase, and a stepwise command generated at every rising and falling of an accent. Because of delay characteristics of physiological mechanisms, the impulse command of the phrase is a curve (phrase component) gradually descending from the front of a sentence to the end of the sentence, (see the waveform indicated with a broken line in FIG. 14), while the stepwise command of the accent is a curve (accent component) with local ups and downs, (indicated by a waveform with a solid line in FIG. 14). Each of these two components are modeled as a response of the critical damping second-order linear system of the corresponding command. The pattern of the time-variant change of the logarithmic fundamental frequency is expressed as a sum of these two components.
The logarithmic fundamental frequency F0(t) (t: time) is formulated as shown by Expression (1).                                                                         Ln                                                  xe2x80x83                                                                  F0                                                        (                    t                    )                                                              =                              xe2x80x83                                                                            ln                                                        xe2x80x83                                                      Fmin                                +                                                      ∑                                          i                      =                      1                                        I                                                                          Api                                                              xe2x80x83                                                                                Gpi                                                                    (                                                  t                          -                          T0i                                                )                                                                                +                                                                                xe2x80x83                                                                            ∑                                      j                    =                    1                                    J                                                                  Aaj                                                        {                                                                  Gaj                                                                          (                                                      t                            -                            T1j                                                    )                                                                    -                                              Gaj                                                                          (                                                      t                            -                            T2j                                                    )                                                                                }                                                                                (        1        )
In Expression (1), Fmin is the lowest frequency (hereinafter, referred to as a base pitch), I is the number of phrase commands in the sentence, Api is the magnitude of the i-th phrase command in the sentence, T0i is a start time of the i-th phrase command in the sentence, J is the number of accent commands in the sentence, Aaj is the magnitude of the j-th accent command in the sentence, and T1j and T2j are a start time and an end time of the j-th accent command, respectively. Gpi(t) and Gaj(t) are an impulse response function of the phrase control mechanism and a step response function of the accent control mechanism given by Expressions (2) and (3), respectively.
Gpi(t)=xcex1i2texp(xe2x88x92xcex1it)xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(2)
Gaj(t)=min[1xe2x88x92(1+xcex2jt)exp(xe2x88x92xcex2jt), xcex8]xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(3)
Expressions (2) and (3) are the response functions when txe2x89xa70; and when t less than 0, Gpi(t)=Gaj (t)=0. In addition, min [x, y] in Expression (3) means either one value of x and y that is smaller than the other. This corresponds to the fact that in actual speech, the accent component reaches an upper limit thereof within a finite time period. In the above, xcex1i is a natural angular frequency of the phrase control mechanism for the i-th phrase command, and is set to 3.0, for example. xcex2j is a natural angular frequency of the accent control mechanism for the j-th accent command, and is set to 20.0, for example. xcex8 is the upper limit of the accent component and is selected to be 0.9, for example.
The fundamental frequency and the pitch controlling parameters (Api, Aaj, T0i, T1j, T2j, xcex1i, xcex2j and Fmin) are defined as follows. [Hz] is used as a unit for F0(t) and Fmin; [sec] is used for T0i, T1j and T2j; and [rad/sec] is used for xcex1i and xcex2j. For Api and Aaj, values obtained when the units for the fundamental frequency and the pitch controlling parameters are defined as mentioned above are used.
In accordance with the generation procedure described above, the prosody generation module determines the pitch controlling parameters from the intermediate language. For example, the creation time T0i of the phrase command is set at a position where punctuation in the intermediate language exists; the start time T1j of the accent command is set at a position immediately after a word-boundary symbol; and the end time T2j of the accent command is set at a position where the accent symbol exists or at a position immediately before a symbol indicating a boundary between the word in question and the next word in a case where the word in question is an even accent word having no accent symbol.
Api and Aaj, indicating the magnitudes of the phrase command and the accent command, respectively are obtained as quantized values normally by text analysis, each having any of three levels. Thus, Api and Aaj are defined depending on the types of the phrase symbol and the accent symbol in the intermediate language. In some recent cases, the magnitudes of the phrase command and the accent command are not determined by rules, but are determined using a statistical analysis such as Quantification theory (type one). In a case where a user sets the intonation, the determined values Api and Aaj are modified.
Normally, the set intonation is controlled to be any of 3 to 5 levels by being multiplied by a constant value previously assigned to each level. In a case where the intonation is not set, the modification is not performed.
The base pitch Fmin expresses the lowest pitch of the synthesized speech and is used for controlling the voice pitch. Normally, Fmin is quantized into any of 5 to 10 levels and is stored in the form of a table. Fmin is increased when high-pitch voice is preferred, or is decreased when low-pitch voice is preferred, depending on the user""s preference. Therefore, Fmin is modified only when the user sets the value. The modifying process is performed in the pitch contour generation module.
The conventional pitch contour generating method mentioned above had a serious problem where the average pitch fluctuates to a large degree depending on the word-structure of the input text to be synthesized. The problem is explained below.
FIGS. 15A and 15B are diagrams illustrating a comparison of pitch contours having different accent types. When the pitch contours shown in FIGS. 15A and 15B are compared to each other, the average pitch in a text including successive unaccented words (FIG. 15A) is clearly different from that in a text including successive accented words (FIG. 15B). When a person recognizes the voice pitch, it is considered that the person relies on the average pitch, not on the base pitch. In many cases, the text-to-speech conversion technique is used not for the speech synthesis of a single sentence, but for the speech synthesis of a composite sentence. Therefore, there was a problem where the speech was hard to hear because the voice pitch raises or falls in some sentences, according to the conventional method.
Moreover, the user""s setting of the intonation is realized by multiplying the magnitudes of the phrase command and the accent command obtained by a predetermined procedure by a certain constant value. Therefore, in a case where the intonation is increased, it is likely that the voice pitch becomes in part extremely high in a certain sentence. Such synthesized speech is hard to hear and has a bias in tones. When such synthesized speech is heard, the part of the speech with a degraded quality is likely to remain in the ears.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a speech synthesis apparatus that can produce synthesized speech that is easy to hear, with fluctuation of the average pitch between sentences suppressed.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a speech synthesis apparatus that can prevent the voice pitch from being extremely high and can produce synthesized speech that is easy to hear.
According to an aspect of the present invention , a speech synthesis apparatus includes: a text analyzer operable to generate a phonetic and prosodic symbol string from character information of an input text; a word dictionary storing a reading and an accent of a word; a voice segment dictionary storing a phoneme that is a basic unit of speech; a parameter generator operable to generate synthesizing parameters including at least a phoneme, a duration of the phoneme and a fundamental frequency for the phonetic and prosodic symbol string, the parameter generator including a calculating means operable to obtain a sum of phrase components and a sum of accent components and to calculate an average pitch from the sum of the phrase components and the sum of the accent components, and a determining means operable to determine a base pitch from the average pitch; and a waveform generator operable to generate a synthesized waveform by making waveform-overlapping referring to the synthesizing parameters generated by the parameter generator and the voice segment dictionary.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the calculating means calculates an average value of the sum of the phrase commands and the sum of the accent commands as the average pitch. This calculation is undertaken based on creation times and magnitudes of the respective phrase commands, start times, end times and magnitudes of the respective accent commands. The determining means determines the base pitch in such a manner that a value obtained by adding the average value and the base pitch becomes constant.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a speech synthesis apparatus includes: a text analyzer operable to generate a phonetic and prosodic symbol string from character information of an input text; a word dictionary storing a reading and an accent of a word; a voice segment dictionary storing a phoneme that is a basic unit of speech; a parameter generator operable to generate synthesizing parameters including at least a phoneme, a duration of the phoneme and a fundamental frequency for the phonetic and prosodic symbol string, the parameter generator including a calculating means operable to overlap a phrase component and an accent component, obtain an approximation of a pitch contour from the overlapped phrase and accent components and calculate at least a maximum value of the approximation of the pitch contour, and a modifying means operable to modify a value of the phrase component and a value of the accent component by using at least the maximum value; and a waveform generator operable to generate a synthesized waveform by making waveform-overlapping referring to the synthesizing parameters generated by the parameter generator and the voice segment dictionary.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the calculating means calculates a maximum value and a minimum value of the pitch contour from a creation time and a magnitude of the phrase command and a start time, an end time and a magnitude of the accent command. The modifying means modifies the magnitude of the phrase component and the magnitude of the accent component in such a manner that the difference between the maximum value and the minimum value is made substantially the same as the intonation value set by a user.


The present disclosure provides for systems and methods including pre-moistened dressings with a treatment composition, wherein the dressings can include a water proof occlusive material on one side and an absorbing material for the treatment composition, thereby enabling direct contact transfer of the treatment composition to the skin surface. The treatment composition can include 2-70% wt/vol of a magnesium complex in water. The dressings can be replaced every one to three days for a total treatment time of one to 36 days or more. The treatment systems can be used to treat psoriasis and chronic inflammation, among others.

The present subject matter relates generally to treatment, mitigation, prevention, and cosmetic improvement of plaque psoriasis and the treatment of adhesive capsulitis and chronic pain with transdermal delivery of magnesium ions.
Plaque psoriasis affects 1-3% of the population. Psoriasis is characterized by reddened inflamed papules that coalesce to form round or oval, silvery, scaling plaques distinguished from normal surrounding skin. The exact cause of psoriasis is unknown, however, genetic predisposition, skin injury, emotional stress, infections, environmental factors and certain drugs have been implicated. The disease is characterized by chronic lifelong exacerbations and remissions causing physical and emotional distress.
One focus of psoriasis treatment has been the use of systemic TNF-alpha inhibitors (Skin Therapy Letter. 2004; 9(10)) for patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. Drawbacks to systemic treatments have been serious adverse side effects and cost of multiple thousands of dollars a year. Current treatments for patients with mild plaque psoriasis remain topical steroids, coal tar preparations, and topical moisturizers. While these treatments usually result in improvement of the psoriasis, it is not usual for longer term remission to occur. Coal tar preparations are messy to apply while topical steroids can be associated with atrophy of the skin. Moisturizers generally improve the appearance of plaque psoriasis by improving scaliness, however, complete remissions are not typical.
Accordingly, there is a need for a simple, cost-effective, and efficacious system and method for treating patients with plaque psoriasis.
Further, chronic inflammatory conditions involving the joints and spine are the cause of immeasurable morbidity and loss of productivity. Current treatments rely on systemic non steroidal anti-inflammatory agents (NSAIDs) taken orally, orally administered corticosteroids and injections of corticosteroids usually in combination with a local anesthetic into the affected joint or spine.
Accordingly, there is also a need for a simple and cost effective treatment for patients who cannot tolerate NSAIDs or who cannot take them do to other concomitant medical conditions such as gastrointestinal disease. There is also a need for a simple and cost effective treatment for patients who want to avoid the side effects related to the long term use of oral corticosteroids or those who cannot take corticosteroids do to concomitant medical conditions. Further there is a need for effective relief of pain for chronic inflammatory conditions of the joints and spine without addictive potential.

Systems and methods for treating skin conditions with magnesium ion compositions


An HDMI connector assembly includes a female connector and a male connector. The female connector includes a female housing which has a front and a back surface and defines first passageways and a second passageway both communicating with the front and the back surface, electrical terminals received in the first passageways, an indicate terminal received in the second passageway, and a female metallic shell. The back of the indicate terminal forms a welding portion protruding out from the back surface for connecting with an indication circuit of a printed circuit board. The front of the indicate terminal forms a contact portion being at the front of the front surface. The female metallic shell defines a space for receiving the female housing therein. At least one grounding portion protrudes from the bottom of the female metallic shell for connecting with a ground circuit of the printed circuit board.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) connector assembly, and more particularly to a HDMI connector assembly which can indicate an engaging status between a male connector of the HDMI connector assembly and a female connector of the HDMI connector assembly.
2. The Related Art
HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) is a transmission interface developed for multimedia audio video systems including DVD players, digital TV set, etc. The HDMI can transmit high quality digital signal without D/A conversion before the signal is transmitted. Meanwhile, the HDMI can effectively reduce signal interference and attenuation.
However, the conventional HDMI connector assembly gives no indication when the male connector and the female connector are engaged, so the user don't know whether the male connector and the female connector are engaged properly. Therefore, it is necessary to provide an HDMI connector assembly which can give an indication when the two connectors mates with each other.


Systems and methods for automatically placing a fire system device icon on a drawing of a building floor plan are provided. Such systems and methods can include parsing a drawing file, searching the drawing file as parsed for a text string that matches known device address formats, storing the text string with coordinates corresponding to a location of the text string in the drawing file, retrieving a plurality of device addresses, matching the text string with one of the plurality of device addresses, and placing the fire system device icon for the one of the plurality of device addresses at the coordinates corresponding to the location of the text string in the drawing file.

The ability to display a building floor plan with graphical representations of fire system devices, for example, fire system device icons for smoke detectors, pull stations, zones, and the like, has become a minimum-to-compete feature for fire building management systems and is becoming commonplace on fire panel displays. However, the process of configuring the fire system device icons on the building floor plan has historically been a manual process that can take many hours to perform and a significant amount of time to maintain.
Some systems and methods have been developed to automate placing the fire system device icons on the building floor plan, such as the systems and methods disclosed in U.S. Publication No. 2011/0218777. However, such systems and methods rely on graphical pattern matching and image processing pattern matching techniques, which can be unacceptably inaccurate.
In view of the above, there is a continuing, ongoing need for improved systems and methods.


A barcode reader device for processing a plurality of documents having a transport system for transporting the documents along a travel path through a reading area; a blocking member; and a bearing member for pivotally suspending the blocking member along the travel path prior to the reading area, with the blocking member being disposed in spaced-apart relationship to the transport system so as to form an elongated, adjustable opening between the transport system and the blocking member for passing the documents one at a time.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic barcode reader for documents.
2. Description of Related Art
Automated barcode reader devices are well known in the industry. These devices take the documents generally vertically stacked in a stacker and process them through a reading area one at a time. This reading area has at least one laser beam. The laser beam passes over and reads a series of printed bars forming a readable code or scan code. Based on a specific computer program, the readers can sort the data read from said bars according to one or more parameters determined by the program. They can also store the data or determine the route the item thus scanned has to follow to continue with its working proceedings. A number of these devices have document transport systems for processing documents through the reading area.
However, in most of these prior art devices, the documents scanned have a standard format of limited dimensions. Hence, the types of transport devices used with barcode readers are usually designed to process documents of similar characteristics, that is, dimensionally similar documents, such as a batch of invoices carrying a similar format or a batch of similar stubs. This limitation is due to the fact that the transport and sliding of documents are performed inside the transport machine through calibrated paths. The kinetic energy received by each individual document when being transported and the elements that make them go slower (friction, weight, etc.) need to be reasonably similar in these devices, since it is extremely important to ensure a steady speed of the document to be read in the reading area. Consequently, in the devices of the prior art the amount of movement given to each individual document generally should be similar for every document, since the mass is substantially similar in each document. With the processed documents being similar, the transport device manufacturer can thus ensure a predictable behavior for each document sliding or traveling inside their machines.
In the case of processing envelopes containing mail, this sliding and transporting task for the envelopes becomes difficult due to a number of reasons. First, the envelopes which have already been closed, with documents inside, are not usually evenly thick since there may be some differences within a certain range or format. Even when the envelopes are essentially equal in size and the location of the barcode to be read is in the same predetermined area, they may have one or more sheets of paper inside, thus resulting in the thicknesses of the envelopes varying. That is, some envelopes may contain only one sheet and others may contain two, three or more folded sheets. Consequently, their volume and mass vary. When this happens, both their thicknesses and their amount of movement will differ.
When the contents of the envelopes are similar, thickness variations are also essentially similar. This is crucial in the transport machines known in the prior art, since it is necessary to have an entrance opening to the reading area with a transversal section perpendicular to the document to be read, ensuring in this way the selection and transport of one document at a time. If two documents run together, one on top of the other, the document on the lower position is not read. However, it is usually the case that when there are uneven folds of paper or documents of different formats or clips in the envelope, there are also differences in thickness that obstruct the transport in the prior art transport machines. This is because all the existing transport machines have an entrance passage that restricts the thickness of the document, thus ensuring that only one document comes into the reading area at a time.
In summary, there are no transport devices or barcode readers for envelopes in the prior art that can read envelopes of different thicknesses, sizes or volumes within the same batch, at great speeds. Such prior art devices cannot ensure the transport of one envelope at a time through the reading beam when the envelopes differ in height or thickness depending on their contents.
If envelopes coming from different proceedings are sorted into batches of similar sizes, the different thicknesses of the envelopes may obstruct the normal functioning of traditional transport machines. Hence, it is desirable to have a new transport device to ensure that the envelopes come into the reading area of the laser beam one by one. These include envelopes of different acceptable sizes and thicknesses. Additionally, it is desirable to ensure that the output speed is greater than the input speed so as to avoid jams outside the reading area. This ensures a correct classification or selection of paths for the documents. This implies that the amount of movement to be given when leaving the reading area should be independent of the amount of movement initially given to the envelope. The amount of movement should be sufficient enough so as not to depend on the volume or mass of the envelope.
Hence, it is desirable to introduce new transport device which can read printed barcodes on envelopes that differ in height, size and thickness in the same batch. This new transport device should allow the transport of the envelopes one at a time at an acceptable speed, even when they are different in height, size or thicknesses, within a determined range. This new transport device should also permit their transport even when the different thicknesses and heights for a given envelope, e.g., thicker on one side than the other side of the same envelope.

Document transport apparatus and method for barcode readers


Nickel is selectively held in contact with a particular region of an amorphous silicon film. Crystal growth parallel with a substrate is effected by performing a heat treatment. A thermal oxidation film is formed on the silicon film by performing a heat treatment in an oxidizing atmosphere containing a halogen element. During this step, in the silicon film, impurities included such as oxygen or chlorine, are segregated with extending along the crystal growth, the crystallinity is improved, and the gettering of nickel element proceeds. A thin-film transistor is formed so that the direction connecting source and drain regions coincides with the above crystal growth direction. As a result, a TFT having superior characteristics such as a mobility larger than 200 cm2/Vs and an S value smaller than 100 mV/dec. can be obtained.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a crystalline thin-film semiconductor and a manufacturing method thereof. The invention also relates to a semiconductor device using the above thin-film semiconductor and a manufacturing method thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
Techniques are known in which a crystalline silicon film is formed on a glass or quartz substrate and thin-film transistors (hereinafter referred to as TFTs) are formed by using the silicon film. Such TFTs are called high-temperature polysilicon TFTs or low-temperature polysilicon TFTs.
In the case of high-temperature polysilicon TFTs, a crystalline silicon film is formed by a technique including a heat treatment at a relatively high temperature of 800-900° C. It can be said that this technique is derived from an IC manufacturing process using a single crystal silicon wafer. Naturally, high-temperature polysilicon TFTs are formed on a quartz substrate, which withstand the above-mentioned high temperature.
On the other hand, low-temperature polysilicon TFTs are formed on a glass substrate, which is inexpensive but is apparently lower in heat resistance than a quartz substrate. To form a crystalline silicon film for low-temperature polysilicon TFTs, heating at lower than 600° C. which a glass substrate can withstand or laser annealing which causes almost no thermal damage on a glass substrate is performed.
The high-temperature polysilicon TFT is advantageous in that TFTs having uniform characteristics can be integrated on a substrate.
On the other hand, the low-temperature polysilicon TFT is advantageous in that a glass substrate can be used which is inexpensive and can easily be increased in size.
According to the current manufacturing techniques, there are no large differences in characteristics between the high-temperature polysilicon TFT and the low-temperature polysilicon TFT. That is, in both cases, the mobility is 50-100 cm2/Vs and the S value is 200-400 mV/dec. (VD=1 V).
However, these values are much worse than those of MOS transistors formed on a single crystal silicon wafer. In general, the S value of MOS transistors formed on a single crystal silicon wafer is 60-70 mV/dec.
At present, there are active matrix liquid crystal display devices in which an active matrix circuit and peripheral driver circuits are integrated on the same substrate by using TFTs. In this type of configuration, the source driver circuit of the peripheral driver circuits is required to operate at a frequency higher than a little more than 10 MHz. However, at present, a circuit using high-temperature polysilicon TFTs or low-temperature polysilicon TFTs can provide a margin of operation speed that is as small as several megahertz.
For this reason, at present, a liquid crystal display device is constituted by dividing its operation (called "divisional driving"). However, this method has several problems; for example, stripes appear on the screen due to, for instance, a slight deviation in the division timing.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Semiconductor device and its manufacturing method

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd


Encoded picture data or encoded difference data is decoded by an intraframe decoder. To an adder, zero data is given through a switching circuit at the time of the decoding of intraframe coded data, and when interframe coded data, i.e., difference data is decoded, a decoded value of a previous frame is supplied through the switching circuit. By the adder, the decoded value of the previous frame and the decoded difference value are added to allow the decoding of interframe coding.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to decoding apparatus of a digital video signal compressed by highly efficient coding.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When a digital video signal is transmitted or recorded/reproduced, highly efficient coding for compressing data is frequently employed. The highly efficient coding compresses the transmission data by using spatial correlation and time correlation of an image. For highly efficient coding of a video signal, intraframe encoding and interframe encoding are known. A difference lies in that data to be encoded is intraframe picture data or a difference between two consecutive frames in time between these encoding.
For an example of the highly efficient coding, transform coding is known. The transform coding, particularly two-dimensional ones, divides picture data into blocks of (8.times.8) picture elements, for example, and performs orthogonal transformation for each block. Transformation components (called coefficient data) are their direct current components and high frequency components. Generally, since the direct current components are large and the high frequency components are small, the bit number as a whole can be reduced by allocating an appropriate bit number to each coefficient. Recently, DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform) has particularly been drawing attention.
In the case of the intraframe coding, picture data of one frame is segmented into two-dimensional blocks such as (8.times.8), and each block is DCT-encoded. Further, by DCT-encoding a difference between two consecutive frames in terms of time, interframe coding is achieved. In general, the intraframe coding does not need a frame memory to thereby reduce the hardware size but the data compression rate is low. On the other hand, the interframe coding requires a frame memory but the data compression rate is high. In view of these points, when highly efficient coding is adopted in a digital VTR, an encoding method to be employed is selected in consideration of the tape consumption amount at the time of recording. Also, it is considered that in a camera-integrated VTR, the interframe coding is adopted, while in a stationary VTR, the intraframe coding is used.
However, when there is a difference between the highly efficient coding methods in two kinds of digital VTRs, a picture recorded by one VTR cannot be reproduced by the other.

Decoding apparatus of a compressed digital video signal


A sensor that can rapidly and accurately detect a side collision of a vehicle. The sensor includes a fixed member in a vehicle door and a movable member that has an impact receiving part. The impact receiving part has a high rigidity outside of the fixed member. The impact receiving part also has energy absorbing parts with lower rigidity and a detection part arranged opposite to the movable member at a predetermined interval above the fixed member. When the impact receiving part receives an impact exceeding a predetermined valve, the energy absorption parts are deformed so as to move the movable member. This movement is then detected by the detection part.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a collision detection sensor of an air bag device used for protecting passengers mainly during a collision of a vehicle, from the side.
2 Description of the Related Art
Recently, vehicles have been equipped with air bag devices for protecting passengers from impact by detecting a collision and immediately providing an expanded air bag as a protection measure for passengers during a vehicle collision, in addition to a seat belt device.
The conventional air bag device for protecting passengers during a head-on collision is provided at the steering wheel or a part of the instrument panel in general, to reduce impact from the front. Recently however, combined use of an air bag device that is operated corresponding to a collision from the side has been examined in order to further improve safety during a collision, and for example, a collision detection sensor for detecting a side collision from the deformation of a vehicle door has been proposed.
As for the conventional example, a collision detection sensor was proposed in which two pairs of comb-shaped electrodes are used with their contact operation parts arranged alternately, and the sensor is operated only when at least one of the contact operation parts of the respective comb-shaped electrodes, that is, both pairs of the comb-shaped electrodes are turned on (PCT/WO90/06247).
However, as this sensor is operated only when an impact force is received on an area larger than a prescribed area, the sensor might not operate when a locally large load that should be regarded as a collision, such as a collision against a pole, is received.
Recently however, combined use of an air bag device that is operated corresponding to a collision from the side has been examined in order to further improve safety during vehicle collision. Thus, development of a detecting means that can assure accurate and prompt detection of a side collision is urgently required.


The present disclosure provides a light-adjusting glass and a smart vehicle window. The light-adjusting glass has a transmittance adjustment region and an encapsulation region; the light-adjusting glass includes: a first and second substrates opposite to each other, and a dye liquid crystal layer between the first and second substrates in the transmittance adjustment region, and a frame sealant in the encapsulation region; the first substrate includes a first base and a first electrode layer on a side of the first base proximal to the dye liquid crystal layer; the second substrate includes a second base and a second electrode layer on a side of the second base proximal to the dye liquid crystal layer; a conductive structure is provided in the frame sealant; a first and second voltage transmission structures electrically insulated from each other are on the first base.

At present, the light-adjusting glass is used more and more extensively in the fields of building and traffic, and existing customers of automobiles, high-speed rails, passenger planes and the like are interested in a dye liquid crystal light-adjusting glass. Products such as Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystal (PDLC) smart glass, electrochromic smart glass and the like exist in an existing smart glass market. The PDLC smart glass may only realize a switching between transparency and haze, and does not shade light or insulate heat; the electrochromic smart glass has the problems of a complex film forming process, a long response time (8 to 20 s), bluish light in a dark state and the like. The dye liquid crystal light-adjusting glass realizes a switching between a bright state and a dark state by utilizing a selective absorption of dichroic dye molecules in liquid crystals to light, and greatly improves optical properties such as black state purity, response time and the like compared with the existing PDLC smart glass and the electrochromic smart glass.

Light-adjusting glass and smart vehicle window

Beijing BOE Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd.


Systems which have an integrated unit or module and ENTERTAINMENT, COACH, and INTERNET modes of operation. Operation of the system may be controlled with a dedicated remote unit. The ENTERTAINMENT mode of operation allows a user to watch television or play an audio or video disk, and the COACH mode gives a user access to user-selected information stored on a disk of the character just described. In the INTERNET mode, the user can log onto and surf the Internet.

This application is related to and claims the benefit of the filing date of U.S. provisional application No. 60/115,197 filed Jan. 6, 1999, and the following identified U.S. patent applications, which are incorporated herein by reference:
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/707,623, entitled xe2x80x9cEducational and Training Devices and Methodsxe2x80x9d filed on Sep. 5, 1996 and issued on Oct. 5, 1999 as U.S. Pat. No. 5,961,333;
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/641,911, entitled xe2x80x9cInformation Retrieval and Presentation Systems With Direct Access To Retrievable Items Of Information,xe2x80x9d filed on May 2, 1996 and issued on Mar. 12, 1998 as U.S. Pat. No. 5,751,369;
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/624,983, entitled xe2x80x9cOperation of Information/ Entertainment Centers,xe2x80x9d filed on Mar. 29, 1996 and issued on Jun. 9, 1998 as U.S. Pat. No. 5,764,304, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application No. 08/569,310 filed Dec. 8, 1995;
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/624,984, entitled xe2x80x9cData Storage Devices,xe2x80x9d filed on Mar. 29, 1996 and issued on Sep. 1, 1998 as U.S. Pat. No. 5,801,784, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/569,310 filed Dec. 8, 1995;
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/625,719, entitled xe2x80x9cMethods of Producing Data Storage Devices for Appliances,xe2x80x9d filed on Mar. 29, 1996 and issued on Apr. 27, 1999 as U.S. Pat. No. 5,898,462, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/569,310 filed Dec. 8, 1995;
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/621,638, entitled xe2x80x9cSystems In Which Information Can Be Retrieved From An Encoded Laser Readable Disc,xe2x80x9d filed on Mar. 26, 1996 and issued on Mar. 8, 1998 as U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,102, which is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/569,310, filed Dec. 8, 1995; and
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/569,310, entitled xe2x80x9cSystems With A Remote Control In Which Information Can Be Retrieved From An Encoded Laser Readable Disc,xe2x80x9d filed Dec. 8, 1995 and issued on May 5, 1998 as U.S. Pat. No. 5,748,254, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/505,969, filed Jul. 24, 1995, now abandoned.
Heretofore invented have been certain new and novel products which feature an integrated module having: (a) a player for an optically readable, encoded data storage device such as a video compact disc, an audio compact disc, a laser disc, or a digital video disc; (b) a player for retrieving data from the disc; and (c) a screen on which the retrieved information can be displayed. Stored on the optically readable disc is data constituting a hierarchy of user-retrievable, multiple choice menus and, for each of the choices in the lowest level menu employed in navigating a particular course through the hierarchy, instructions or other information sought by the user. With the appliance in a COACH mode of operation, the selected information can be retrieved from the disc and displayed statically on the screen of the system or presented as a video for visual and audible reception, often as a demonstration of a technique for performing a particular task or a step of that task. Various products in this family have one or more additional, user-selectable operating modes in which the appliance is operative to carry out a different function called up by choosing the appropriate user-selectable mode. Examples of the operating modes built into various modules are:
These have now been invented and disclosed herein certain new and novel appliances of the character described above. Appliances embodying the principles of the present invention have a COACH mode of operation as described above and also an INTERNET mode of operation which allows an appliance user to easily and quickly connect to and reach a site on the Internet. To employ the INTERNET mode of operation, the appliance user does not need to know anything about computers or how computers are used to access the Internet.
Appliances employing the principles of the present invention may also have one or more of the other operating modes discussed abovexe2x80x94ENTERTAINMENT, APPLIANCE, TELEPHONE, or SECURITY. The user employs dedicated mode selection buttons to select the ENTERTAINMENT, INTERNET, COACH, and TELEPHONE modes. The dedicated buttons are typically found on a remote control component of the appliance, but these buttons can also be duplicated in the integrated module of the appliance. The TELEPHONE mode may also be entered via a conventional telephonic component of the appliance, and operation of the appliance is automatically switched to the SECURITY mode when a doorbell at a controlled entrance is rung. Diagnostic functions are invoked automatically by information received from the control box of a controlled appliance and by commands issued by the appliance user and from the service/repair facility.
As suggested above, the ability to log onto the Internet by pressing a single button is a significant advantage of appliances embodying the principles of the present invention. This makes the Internet accessible to persons having no experience with or interest in computers and may allow even an experienced computer user to reach an Internet site more quickly.
The objects, features, and advantages of the invention will be apparent to the reader from the foregoing and the appended claims and as the ensuing detailed description and discussion of the invention proceeds in conjunction with the accompanying drawing.


The invention relates to a process and device for detecting and/or compensating for static jointing and wear errors in the fine drilling of workpieces by means of an adjusting tool (18) bearing an adjustable cutting insert (28) and capable of being clamped to a machine shaft (14). According to the invention, before a drilling or a series thereof is made, the diameter of the circle of travel of a radially outer cutting edge (44) of the cutting insert (28) is measured on the clamped adjusting tool with the machine shaft (14) rotating and evaluated within the adjusting tool (18) for adjustment purposes.

In the machining of workpieces in machining centers a number of successive operations are performed, starting with reaming and ending with fine drilling.
The required tools are for the most part interchanged automatically. During the interchange, errors of greater or lesser magnitude occur statistically which can be attributed to various causes:
When the tool is being attached to the cutting position on the machine shaft a displacement of the axle or a faulty angle setting (tilting) may occur between the machine axle and the axle of the adjusting tool.
A similar faulty axle or angle setting may occur at other disconnecting points of the tool.
Errors can also be caused by dirt at the cutting positions and disconnecting points.
When the cutting inserts are being clamped in position or the cutting parts are being fixed in their carriers the clamping or fixing may be faulty.
In addition, systematic wear errors occur and cause a gradual reduction of the drilling diameter. Especially in soft workpieces, a built-up edge may form which is due to the deposit of metallic particles on the edge during machining, with a resulting change in the edge's geometry. In addition, there are fatal errors which make it necessary to replace a tool, such as breaking of the edge and cutting inserts being left out of the tool components or coming loose from them.
All these errors produce variation in both the drilling diameter and in the quality of the drilling. Previously there was no easy way of detecting these errors before machining had actually taken place. This is particularly true of jointing and tolerance errors which do not exceed certain limits of accuracy. These errors could only be detected by checking the results of the drilling (post-process checking), for example, by the use of sensors to measure the workpiece directly, and were the cause of undesirable defective goods.
It is moreover known with respect to precision-adjustment heads (EP-B 0 491 724) how to adjust the radius of a cutting edge at the toolhead to a set predetermined drilling diameter within a tolerance range either manually or, for example, by means of an adjustment motor. The potential accuracy of precision-adjustment heads could not be fully accounted for by the statistically occurring errors, especially in machining centers.
In the light of the foregoing, the purpose of the invention is to develop a process and a device which will make it possible to detect and compensate for statistical jointing and wear errors in fine drilling before the process starts.
In claims 1 and 13 combinations of characteristics are proposed for the accomplishment of this purpose. Advantageous embodiments and additional forms of the invention will be found in the subclaims.

Process and device for detecting and compensating for jointing and wear errors in fine drilling

Komet Praezisionswerkzeuge Robert Breuning GmbH


A lathe chuck assembly is configured for high-speed turning operations. The assembly includes a riser adapter and a yolk plate movably connected with respect to the riser adapter. First, second and third cam arms are connected to the yolk plate for grasping a workpiece for turning operations. Each cam arm includes a cam slot formed therein. A face plate is mounted to the riser adapter. The face plate includes first, second and third cam arm openings formed therein for receiving cam pins for cooperation within the respective cam slots. The face plate includes a locally thickened cross-sectional area surrounding each cam arm opening for added structural integrity and a plurality of locally thinned cross-sectional areas spaced across the face plate for weight reduction. A web structure of substantially uninterrupted cross-sectional thickness is provided for structural integrity at high rotational speeds.

Lathe chucks are typically used for securing aluminum wheels or other substantially round workpieces in a machine for turning operations. A prior art lathe chuck is illustrated in FIGS. 1-3.
The prior art lathe chuck assembly 10 illustrated in FIGS. 1-3 comprises a riser adapter 12, a face plate 14, a locator ring bearing 16, a yolk plate 18, and a cam arm 20. The cam arm 20 is pivotally connected to the yolk plate 18 by a pivot pin 22 and bearing 24. A cam pin 26 is mounted to the face plate 14, and rides in a cam slot 28 formed in the cam arm 20 such that the cam arm 20 is pivoted inward for securing an aluminum wheel to the lathe chuck assembly 10 as the face plate 14 moves away from the yolk plate 18. As shown in FIG. 2, the face plate 14 includes three cam arm slots 30, 32, 34 for mounting three cam arms 20 at equally spaced positions about the periphery of the face plate 14. Referring to FIG. 3, it is illustrated that the face plate 14 comprises a substantially constant cross-section.
This prior art lathe chuck assembly 10 illustrated in FIGS. 1-3 is typically useful up to speeds of approximately 2800 RPMs, and may fail at speeds thereabove.
It is desirable to provide a lathe chuck assembly which may be used at speeds of 4,000 to 5,000 RPM without risk of failure and without substantial added weight.


Method and device for controlling a motor in a powered seat, wherein one of normal and reverse drive signals from manual or auto switch is detected by a central processing unit, which in turn provides a first period of time defined between one point when the motor starts to drive in normal direction and another point when the normal drive of the motor is stopped, and a second period of time defined between one point when the motor starts to drive in reverse direction and another point when the reverse drive of the motor is stopped, and then, a motor torque switch element brings resistor in electrical connection with the motor terminal, only druing one of those first and second periods of time.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and device for controlling motor in a powered seat for an automobile in order to adjust and actuate the movable parts of seating posture adjustment devices according to the physique and taste of an occupant on the seat.
2. Description of Prior Art
In general, a powered seat for automobile is equipped with various seating posture adjustment devices workable under motor controls, such as a seat slide device, a vertical position adjustment device (a seat lifter), and a reclining device.
The motors used in this particular seat are DC geared motor in most cases, and they are connected with motor control devices, permitting their controls to be made by on/off switching operations with associated motor control relays. As a means for stopping the motors is normally formed by a dynamic braking system utilizing a short circuit formation between both terminals of each motor so as to instantaneously cease the drive of motor and keep the motor in such stopped state. The dynamic braking is indeed effective in improving a precision in stopping the motor or the associated movable parts of seating adjustment devices.
In this powered seat, in particular, with regard to such device having a relatively wide movable range as the seat slide device, it is so designed that the associated motors will be driven more rapidly with an increased rotational speed in order to insure more quick movement of the related movable parts of slide device.
However, in the present system, the motor starts to work or stop, quite abruptly, due to the on/off switching operations which causes an abrupt supply or cut of a voltage to the motor. Thus, such abrupt starting or stop operation is transmitted through the devices to an occupant on the seat as a great shock or impact, so that he or she feels uneasy in adjusting or controlling the slide device or other similar device.
Generally, an incentive in solving this problem arises to use a transistor-based motor speed control device having transistors or field effect transistors (FET).
But, such motor control device tends to be complicated in structure and higher in costs, because of those expensive transistors. Further, the transistors are prone to emitting a heat or switching noises, which will adversely affect the adjacent electronic elements and circuits.

Method and device for controlling motor in a powered seat