The invention provides an ultrasound processing unit. A controller (18) of the unit is adapted to receive ultrasound data of an anatomical region, for example of the heart. The controller processes the ultrasound data over a period of time to monitor and detect whether alignment of a particular anatomical feature (34) represented in the data relative to a field of view (36) of the transducer unit is changing over time. In the event that the alignment is changing, the controller generates an output signal for communicating this to a user, allowing a user to be alerted at an early stage to likelihood of misalignment and loss of imaging or measurement capability.

In many applications of ultrasound imaging, in particular for long-term cardiac monitoring, maintaining consistency of probe positioning relative to an imaged anatomical body or region is important. Long term monitoring involves fixing an ultrasound probe in a set position relative to a subject, having a particular region or object of interest within the field of view (FOV), and acquiring ultrasound data using the probe over an extended period of hours or days. This allows for long term monitoring of certain physiological parameters including for instance hemodynamic parameters such as end diastolic or end-systolic ventricular volume, cardiac volume, left-ventricular ejection fraction, stroke volume, cardiac output.
Long-term cardiac monitoring may make use of a transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) probe. However, external chest mounted probes can also be used. Model based segmentation may be used for monitoring the physiological parameters.
Reliable long-term monitoring relies on stability of the probe location, and consistency of the imaged region or object in the field of view. If there is movement of the imaged region within the field of view, accuracy of derived physiological parameters may be reduced. Moreover, if the region of interest, e.g. the left or right ventricle, moves completely outside of the field of view, or moves too close to boundaries of the field of view, it becomes impossible to acquire readings of parameters related the object.
Although the field of view is set accurately at the start of monitoring, over time the probe can become displaced. This results in drifting of the field of view away from the initially centered heart region, which diminishes image quality and accuracy of monitoring results, and so necessitates re-adjustment of the probe.
This poses a problem for long-term monitoring. The FOV must be frequently checked by an operator, to prevent it from drifting by too great an extent (e.g. before to a point at which monitoring becomes impossible). This is tedious for the operator, and also wastes valuable clinical time.
One possible solution would be to configure the ultrasound monitoring system to detect when monitoring of a given parameter becomes impossible due to movement of the monitored region outside the field of view and to instigate an alarm to automatically alert the operator.
This avoids the need for the operator to manually check for drifting of the probe position. However, this has the deficiency that once the alarm sounds, action must be taken immediately, since monitoring has already ceased. This interrupts operators suddenly from previous tasks, causing disruption, and also leads to problematic gaps in monitoring data while the probe is readjusted.
There is a need for an improved means for overcoming the above deficiencies in current long-term ultrasound monitoring.

Ultrasound processing unit and method, and imaging system


A power system comprising a front end regulator coupled to an input supply voltage (Vin) and providing a regulated input supply voltage (Vbp). The front end regulator compares the input supply voltage (Vin) and the regulated input supply voltage (Vbp) and maintains a substantially constant voltage difference between the input supply voltage (Vin) and the regulated input supply voltage (Vbp) to thereby reduce ripple of the input supply voltage (Vin). A DC-DC switching mode power converter is operatively coupled to the front end regulator and receives the regulated input supply voltage (Vbp). The DC-DC switching mode power converter thereby provides a regulated output voltage (Vout).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to switching mode power converter circuits, and more particularly, to a switching mode power converter having a front end regulator to control input supply ripple.
2. Description of Related Art
Switching mode DC-to-DC power converters are commonly used in the electronics industry to convert an available direct current (DC) level voltage to another DC level voltage. A switching mode converter provides a regulated DC output voltage to a load by selectively storing energy in an output inductor coupled to the load by switching the flow of current into the output inductor. A buck converter is a particular type of switching mode converter in which an input DC voltage is coupled in series with a periodically driven switch to produce a rectangular waveform at a phase node. The rectangular waveform is rectified by a diode. An output filter including an inductor and capacitor produces a smoothed DC output voltage from the rectified rectangular waveform.
More particularly, the buck converter chops the input DC voltage to achieve an output DC voltage that is lower than the input DC voltage. The input supply current approximates a square wave oscillating at the chopping frequency, the peak of which is controlled by the output load current. Input supply voltage ripple is formed by the current waveform passing through the equivalent series resistance (ESR) of the input supply decoupling capacitor and the copper trace impedance at the chopping frequency, and the equivalent series inductance (ESL) of the input supply decoupling capacitor and the copper trace inductance due to the rate of change of the current signal (dl/dtr). It is desirable to attenuate the input supply voltage ripple to prevent it from propagating to other integrated circuits powered from the same supply.
One way to attenuate the ripple is to include an RC (resistor capacitor) based low-pass filter to attenuate the switching noise produced by the integrated circuits of the system supply. A drawback of this approach is that a resistor based system would have a load dependant dropout the magnitude of which would increase with load current; i.e., the higher the voltage drop, the worse the efficiency. Another way to attenuate the ripple is to include a high value, lower ESR specialist capacitor from the system supply to ground to decouple the switching noise from the system supply. A drawback of this approach is that very low ESR capacitors generally have a cost premium associated with them.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved way to control input supply ripple in a switching mode power converter.

Method and apparatus for reducing input supply ripple in a DC-DC switching converter


A starting assembly for an automotive vehicle is connected to the clutch pedal thereof. The pivoting of the clutch pedal (in a clockwise direction in FIG. 1) pulls a clutch connector. The clutch connector pivots a clutch lever (in a counterclockwise direction in FIG. 1) which, in turn, actuates a translator. The translator transforms and translates the pivoting movement of the clutch lever into a linear movement of a starter pinion gear to engage the starter ring gear. The hyper-pivoting of the clutch pedal forces the closure of a contact switch which provides power for an electric motor (not shown) to rotate the starter pinion gear and, therefore, start the internal combustion engine of the automotive vehicle.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a starter assembly for an automotive vehicle. More specifically, the invention relates to a starter assembly actuatable by a clutch pedal.
2. Description of Related Art
Current starting assemblies for automotive vehicles utilize the potential energy stored in a battery to operate an electric motor which turns the engine until the engine is running. Theses starting assemblies are started when a starter solenoid is actuated by the closing of a circuit by the ignition key. Additional electrical energy is expended when the pinion gear of a starting assembly is moved to engage a ring gear thereof. These electrical components increase the cost and weight of a vehicle, including the increased size and capacity of the electrical battery so that the battery has enough potential energy stored to operate the starter solenoid and the additional electric motor which is used to move the pinion gear.

Engagement assembly for an automotive starter


This invention reports ciprofloxacin (CIP)-encapsulated polymeric nanoparticles and its antibacterial potential with a variety of gram positive and gram negative pathogenic bacteria. CIP-encapsulated nanoparticles of diethylaminoethyl cellulose (DEA-EC) are prepared by the multiple emulsion solvent evaporation method. CIP-encapsulated nanoparticles showed superior effectiveness to inhibit the growth of bacteria in-vitro.

Fluoroquinolones are the most famous antibacterial drugs due to their therapeutic effectiveness having tolerable side effects and provide better treatment which is becoming more prone to the beta lactam antibiotics which are not effective against resistant pathogenic bacteria. The fluoroquinolone include norfloxacin, ofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, etc. The benzopyridone nucleus (quinolone) provide various chemical sites for attachment of functional groups which enhance the antibacterial activity, and the discovery of fluorine atom and piperazinyl ring on the quinolone ring completely changed the medicinal chemistry and the clinical importance of fluoroquinolones.

Ciprofloxacin loaded diethylaminoethyl cellulose nanoparticles


In a method for checking temperature values of a temperature sensor of an internal combustion engine, a first temperature value is recorded during a first predefined time period close in time to an operating state of the starting of the internal combustion engine. With the method a check is made to determine whether a cold start of the internal combustion engine is present. An error in the first temperature value is detected if the cold start is detected and the first temperature value is greater than a temperature threshold value.

The demands imposed on internal combustion engines, in particular in motor vehicles, are increasing as a result of statutory provisions governing exhaust emissions and on account of customer requirements relating to reliability, efficient use of resources, in particular fuel, and low maintenance costs. These requirements can only be met if malfunctions of vehicle components are reliably and accurately detected and logged so that malfunctions can be neutralized or a repair of the faulty vehicle components can be initiated. Toward that end, vehicle components, in particular all vehicle components relevant to exhaust gases, such as, for example, a catalytic converter system, a lambda probe, a fuel system and a cooling system, are monitored. For motor vehicles starting with the 2006 model year for the US American market, the regulations stipulate in particular that temperature values of a coolant temperature sensor should be monitored to check that they remain within a predefined temperature range, since raw emissions of the internal combustion engine, that is to say emissions that have not undergone an exhaust gas after treatment, may be increased due to incorrect temperature values of the coolant temperature sensor. The monitoring measures are intended to ensure low-emission operation and maintain driving safety. Also part of these measures is that when faults occur an emergency running of the internal combustion engine is ensured and consequential damage can be avoided. If necessary the driver of the motor vehicle is alerted to the malfunction so that he/she can initiate an inspection and/or repair in a workshop. A control device of the internal combustion engine stores information about the faults that have occurred, such as, for example, a fault type, a fault location and where applicable the operating conditions under which the malfunction occurred. This information can be evaluated in a workshop and so assist the repair work.

Method and device for checking temperature values of a temperature sensor of an internal combustion engine


Today the storage of audiovisual (AV) data on storage media employs standardized coding schemes, e.g. MPEG-2. End user devices for AV presentation, like disc players, contain dedicated decoders implemented in hardware, which are able to decode data streams complying with the respective standard. The efficiency of this decoding methodology relies on the standardization of appropriate coding schemes. Proprietary coding schemes may be more efficient by being adapted to the content, or may be used for content protection or optional features. Using reconfigurable decoder hardware, storing the configuration data for the actual decoder on the same storage medium as the AV data, and downloading the data to configure the player can be used to implement proprietary coding schemes. Such schemes require appropriate player hardware, suitable to execute a downloaded decoder under real-time conditions, and a standardized format to store the decoder configuration data.

Hardware architectures dedicated to a special purpose may be implemented as reconfigurable devices, or otherwise as non-reconfigurable devices such as Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). Reconfigurable devices are commonly defined as devices whose computing architecture is defined after manufacturing, and can usually be redefined. Examples are Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), which provide full flexibility in terms of hardware (HW). However, various kinds of reconfigurable architectures differing from typical FPGAs but fulfilling the general definition have been developed or are under development. Though less efficient than ASICs, such reconfigurable architectures allow the implementation of arbitrary logic functions.
Moreover, also general-purpose hardware may have functions that are adoptable by programmable parameters, e.g. a digital filter may be implemented whose coefficients are programmable, or software (SW), whether interpreted or compiled programming languages or assembly code, may be executed on general-purpose microprocessor or digital signal processor architectures. These examples are considered as software reconfiguration.
However, recently proposed video coding schemes indicate that today's general-purpose architectures and Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) do not offer the performance required for real-time decoding, especially when it comes to high-definition video. Furthermore they are expensive and power consuming.
Further it is known that storage of audiovisual (AV) data on storage media, using e.g. Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) or hard disk in a Digital Video Recorder (DVR), relies on the standardization of the employed coding scheme, e.g. MPEG-2 or MPEG-4. Hence, end user devices, like e.g. disc players, employ dedicated decoders that are usually implemented as hardware within ASICs. The decoders are able to decode data streams that are compliant with the respective standardized format, and usually give no or little possibilities for variation of the decoding. Therefore, such storage media and the decoding devices heavily rely on the standardization of appropriate coding schemes that can provide the required efficiency.

Method for decoding data received from a data source using hardware configuration data received from the same data source


A metal-insulator-metal liquid crystal display apparatus (i.e., MIM-LCD) which includes a liquid crystal display element having a lower substrate provided with a lead electrode, a pixel electrode and a MIM element connected between the lead and pixel electrodes. The LCD element also includes an upper substrate provided with a transparent counter electrode opposed to the pixel electrode. The MIM-LCD apparatus includes a constant resistor provided in series with the MIM element to prevent changes in the I-V characteristic of the MIM-element from affecting a driving voltage of the display. In an alternative embodiment, the LCD element includes a lower substrate provided with lead and pixel electrodes, an upper substrate provided with a transparent counter electrode opposed to the pixel electrode and a liquid crystal sandwiched between the upper and lower substrates. The LCD element of the second embodiment also includes first and second MIM elements connected in series with first and second constant resistors, respectively. The second MIM element has a higher resistance than the first MIM element and the second constant resistor has a lower resistance than the first constant resistor. The first MIM element and constant resistor are connected between the lead and pixel electrodes and in parallel with the second MIM element and constant resistor, to prevent image sticking.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an active matrix type liquid crystal display (referred to as active matrix type LCD hereinafter) which employs metal-insulator-metal (referred to as MIM hereinafter) elements, and more particularly, to an MIM type active matrix LCD (referred to as MIM-LCD hereinafter) free from image sticking.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the past examples of LCDs that employs MIMs, there may be mentioned those disclosed in D. R. Baraff, et al., "The Optimization of Metal-Insulator-Metal Nonlinear Devices for Use in Multiplexed Liquid Crystal Displays," IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, Vol. ED-28, pp. 736-739 (1981), and S. Morozumi, et al., "Lateral MIM-LCD with 250.times.240 Pixels," Technical Reports of Television Society of Japan (IPD83-8), pp. 39-44, December, 1983.
In addition, an active matrix LCD which uses silicon nitride of small dielectric constant as a nonlinear resistor for MIM element is disclosed in M. Suzuki, et al. "A New Active Diode Matrix LCD Using Off-Stoichiometric SiN.sub.x Layers," Proceedings of the SID, Vol. 28, pp. 101-104 (1987).
An equivalent circuit per pixel of the prior art MIM-LCD is shown in FIG. 1. A liquid crystal element 5 and an MIM element 18 are connected in series between a lead electrode 9 and a transparent counter electrode 15. The MIM element 18 operates as a nonlinear resistor element. When a voltage is applied for a long time between the lead electrode 9 and the transparent counter electrode 15 in order to drive such an MIM-LCD over a long period of time, there occurs a change in the current-voltage (referred to as I-V hereinafter) characteristic as shown in FIG. 2. In FIG. 2, the solid and the broken lines represent the initial characteristic and the characteristic after drive for 10,000 hours, respectively. With such a change in the I-V characteristic, even when a voltage which is the same as that before the change is applied between the lead electrode 9 and the transparent counter electrode 15, the voltage applied to the liquid crystal 5 becomes different from that before the change, and its display characteristic is accordingly changed. This phenomenon is called image sticking.

Metal-insulator-metal type active matrix liquid crystal display free from image sticking


A semiconductor light-emitting element according to the present invention includes: an n-type nitride semiconductor layer 21; a p-type nitride semiconductor layer 23; an active layer region 22 which includes an m plane nitride semiconductor layer and which is interposed between the n-type nitride semiconductor layer and the p-type nitride semiconductor layer; an n-type electrode 30 which is electrically connected to the n-type nitride semiconductor layer; a p-type electrode 40 which is electrically connected to the p-type nitride semiconductor layer; a light-emitting face, through which polarized light that has been produced in the active layer region is extracted out of this element; and a striped structure 50 which is provided for the light-emitting face and which has a plurality of projections that run substantially parallel to the a-axis direction of the m plane nitride semiconductor layer.

A nitride semiconductor including nitrogen (N) as a Group V element is a prime candidate for a material to make a short-wave light-emitting element because its bandgap is sufficiently wide. Among other things, gallium nitride-based compound semiconductors have been researched and developed particularly extensively. As a result, blue-ray-emitting light-emitting diodes (LEDs), green-ray-emitting LEDs and semiconductor laser diodes made of gallium nitride-based semiconductors have already been used in actual products (see Patent Documents Nos. 1 and 2).
In the following description, gallium nitride based compound semiconductors will be referred to herein as "nitride-based semiconductors". Nitride-based semiconductors include compound semiconductors, of which Ga is replaced either partially or entirely with at least one of aluminum (Al) and indium (In), and are represented by the compositional formula AlxGayInzN (where 0≦x, y, z≦1 and x+y+z=1).
By replacing Ga with Al or In, the band gap can be made either wider or narrower than that of GaN. As a result, not only short-wave light rays such as blue and green rays but also orange and red rays can be emitted as well. That is why by using a nitride-based semiconductor, a light-emitting element that emits a light ray, of which the wavelength is arbitrarily selected from the entire visible radiation range, is realizable theoretically speaking, and therefore, they hope apply such nitride-based semiconductor light-emitting elements to image display devices and illumination units.
A nitride-based semiconductor has a wurtzite crystal structure. FIG. 1 illustrates the planes of a wurtzite crystal structure which are indicated by four indices (i.e., hexagonal indices). According to the four index notation, a crystal plane or orientation is represented by four primitive vectors a1, a2, a3 and c. The primitive vector c runs in the [0001] direction, which is called a "c axis". A plane that intersects with the c axis at right angles is called either a "c plane" or a "(0001) plane". It should be noted that the "c axis" and the "c plane" are sometimes referred to as "C axis" and "C plane". FIG. 2(a) illustrates the crystal structure of a nitride-based semiconductor by ball-stick model and FIG. 2(b) indicates the positions of Ga and N in a nitride-based semiconductor crystal on a plane that intersects with the c-axis at right angles.
In the related art, in fabricating a semiconductor element using nitride-based semiconductors, a c-plane substrate, i.e., a substrate of which the principal surface is a (0001) plane, is used as a substrate on which nitride-based semiconductor crystals will be grown. In that case, as can be seen from FIGS. 2(a) and 2(b), there are a layer in which only Ga atoms are arranged and a layer in which only N atoms are arranged in the c-axis direction. Due to such an arrangement of Ga and N atoms, spontaneous electrical polarization is produced in a nitride-based semiconductor. That is why the "c plane" is also called a "polar plane".
As a result, a piezoelectric field is generated in the c-axis direction in the InGaN quantum well of the active layer of a nitride-based semiconductor light-emitting element. Then, some positional deviation occurs in the distributions of electrons and holes in the active layer. Consequently, due to the quantum confinement Stark effect of carriers, the internal quantum efficiency of the active layer decreases, thus increasing the threshold current in a semiconductor laser diode and increasing the power dissipation and decreasing the luminous efficacy in an LED. Meanwhile, as the density of injected carriers increases, the piezoelectric field is screened, thus varying the emission wavelength, too.
As the In mole fraction of the active layer is increased in order to emit light rays falling within long wavelength ranges such as green, orange and red rays, the intensity of the piezoelectric field further increases and the internal quantum efficiency decreases steeply. That is why in an LED that uses a c-plane active layer, the wavelength of a light ray that can be emitted from it is said to be approximately 550 nm at most.
Thus, to overcome such a problem, people proposed that a light-emitting element be fabricated using a substrate, of which the principal surface is an m plane that is a non-polar plane (which will be referred to herein as an "m plane GaN based substrate"). As shown in FIG. 1, the m plane of a wurtzite crystal structure is one of six equivalent planes that are parallel to the c-axis and that intersects with the c plane at right angles. For example, an m plane may be a (10-10) plane, which is shadowed in FIG. 1 and which intersects with the [10-10] direction at right angles. The other m planes that are equivalent to the (10-10) plane are (−1010), (1-100), (−1100), (01-10) and (0-110) planes. In this case, "-" attached on the left-hand side of a Miller-Bravais index in the parentheses means a "bar".
FIG. 2(c) shows the positions of Ga and N atoms in a nitride-based semiconductor crystal in a plane that intersects with the m plane at right angles. Ga atoms and N atoms are on the same atomic plane as shown in FIG. 2(c), and therefore, no electrical polarization will be produced perpendicularly to the m plane. That is why if a light-emitting element is fabricated using a semiconductor multilayer structure that has been formed on an m plane, no piezoelectric field will be produced in the active layer, thus overcoming the problem described above.
In addition, since the In mole fraction of the active layer can be increased significantly, LEDs and laser diodes which can emit not only a blue ray but also green, orange, red and other rays with longer wavelengths can be made using the same kind of materials.
Furthermore, as disclosed in Non-Patent Document No. 1, for example, an LED which uses an active layer that has been formed on an m plane will have its polarization property affected by the structure of its valence band. More specifically, the active layer formed on an m plane mainly emits a light ray, of which the electric field intensity is biased toward a direction that is parallel to the a-axis. In the present description, a light ray, of which the electric field intensity is biased toward a particular direction, will be referred to herein as a "polarized light ray". For example, a biased light ray, of which the electric field intensity becomes outstandingly high in a direction parallel to the X-axis, will be referred to herein as a "light ray polarized in the X-axis direction" and a direction that is parallel to the X-axis will be referred to herein as "polarization direction". Also, if when a polarized light ray is incident on an interface, the light ray transmitted through the interface is still a polarized light ray, of which the electric field intensity is still as biased as the incident polarized light ray, then the light ray is regarded herein as "maintaining its polarization property".
An LED which uses an active layer that has been formed on an m plane (which will be referred to herein as an "m plane light-emitting element") emits mainly a light ray polarized in the a-axis direction as described above but also emits light rays which are polarized in c- and m-axis directions. However, those light rays that are polarized in the c- and m-axis directions have lower intensities than the light ray polarized in the a-axis direction. That is why in this description, the following discussion will be focused on the light ray polarized in the a-axis direction.
An m plane light-emitting element has such a polarization property, and therefore, is expected to be used as a light-emitting element which can emit a polarized light ray. For example, a liquid crystal display device uses the polarization property of a liquid crystal material, and therefore, needs to use polarized light as its light source. However, as no appropriate light sources that can emit polarized light are available so far, a traditional liquid crystal display device uses a light source such as an LED or a cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) and has the emitted light passed through a polarizer to obtain polarized light. According to such a configuration, however, most of the light emitted from the light source is cut off by the polarizer, and the light cannot be used efficiently. That is why if an m plane light-emitting element is used as a light source for a liquid crystal display device, then the light can be used far more efficiently, and there is no need to cut down the power consumption of the liquid crystal display device significantly or to provide a polarizer. Consequently, the manufacturing cost can be reduced as well.

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.


The invention concerns a panel adjustment device for a drawer (2) that is equipped with a front panel (3), which is located in a cabinet (1) by means of a rail system (4) with at least one each of a drawer rail (10), a cabinet rail (18) and, optionally a drawer-décor profile (6) that is guided on both sides lengthwise; whereby, the panel adjustment device is suitable for changing the enclosed inclination angle (9) between the vertical level of the front fore side (1a) of the cabinet (1) and the vertical level of the front panel (3) of the drawer (2), and the panel adjustment device works directly or indirectly between the drawer (2) and the drawer rail (10) by a lifting and lowering device (15, 12; 23) that has a lifting and lowering element (11) so that a swiveling of the drawer (2) (and with it, the panel [3]) is possible around a swiveling axis (24); whereby, the swiveling axis (24) runs between the front panel (3) and the lifting and lower element (11), and the distance between the swiveling axis (24) and the front panel (3) is somewhat larger or smaller than the distance between the swiveling axis (24) and the lifting and lower element (11). The advantage is an economical panel adjustment device, which makes a simple, easy and quick adjustment of the inclination angle (9) between the vertical level of the front panel (3) of the drawer (2) and the vertical level of the front fore side (1a) of the cabinet (1), without a panel correction in the inclination (9) of the height (27) being necessary. Likewise, the simple operation of the panel adjustment device at the front of the drawer component, makes it possible to make adjustments without the necessity of removing the drawer (2).

AT 399 086 B shows an adjustment device for an adjustable drawer panel that operates when the panel is slanted around an amount diverging from the perpendicular by a lengthwise-adjustable railing. This type of angle adjustment is possible only if the drawer has railings.
The disadvantage of this design is the requirements of the railings as mentioned and that either a conical gap develops between the Zargen-slide and the panel or the screw-on angle is forced to bend.
Document DE 38 43 658 A1 shows a panel attachment, which the inclination of the panel is likewise adjusted, but, however, with a movable wedge. The conical gap formed there must be protected with a special cover to make it invisible and to protect it from dirt or other contamination. The bending of the screw-on angle can be intentional or can be generally prevented by loosening the fastening screws extensively.
Document AT 409 067 B shows a device, already closer to the invention, for the height and angle adjustment of the entire drawer with a front panel. The device is located between the drawer and drawer rail. Here, movable wedges are located in the front area of the drawer. They result in a height reconciliation, as well as an angle adjustment of the drawer's front panel. The means to provide the vertical adjustment to lift the drawer is provided in the rear area of the drawer, which likewise, also causes an angle adjustment of the drawer's front panel. How the wedges are moved on both sides is not shown here.
In order to correct the height of the drawer after the drawer's angle adjustment, complex shifting devices of the wedges must also be present. These complex shifting devices of the wedges must also be present if the panel's height, position is first set or adjusted, and afterwards, the reveal diagram is corrected by a drawer-panel-angle. A serious disadvantage is that the angle adjustment is located behind the drawer. To operate it, the drawer must be pulled out of the drawer. Until the panel is adjusted, it may be necessary for the user to push and pull the drawer in and out multiple times. So, the adjustment device is complicated and time-consuming to operate. Additionally, it is also relatively expensive to produce.
Document DE 44014 462 A1 shows the height adjustment of the drawer with the front panel, which device is located between the drawer and drawer rail. In the front drawer area the drawer with the panel can be raised or also (from the center position) lowered with a movable slide that is in the angled running slide slots. The disadvantage with this system is that a gap change (depth and angle) is caused by the vertical adjustment and this gap change cannot be balanced or adjusted anymore, which leads to the need for an additional adjustment device.
Besides, both devices named, have the disadvantage that a speed increase ratio of approximately 1.25 to 1.5 is present, so that a 1 mm height adjustment of the height adjustment device results in approximately 1.25 to 1.5 mm height adjustment of the drawer's front panel. The lever ratios shown here cause the following: for every degree of the drawer's angle change, the front panel changes approximately 0.25 mm, which is nevertheless substantial, with adjustable angles of +/−10 degrees of angle, which leads to a maximum deviation of 2.5 mm, which is in each case too much without some sort of compensation, in order not to become visibly apparent.
The task is, stemming from the above mentioned state of technology, is to develop an economical panel adjustment device, which makes a simple and quick adjustment of the angle inclination between the vertical level of the drawer's front panel and the vertical level of the cabinet's front side possible.


The disclosure relates to a battery pack. The battery pack comprises: a casing; a cover, which is disposed to cover the casing; a battery assembly, which is disposed within an enclosed space formed by the casing and the cover; and an end assembly, which includes a panel and two or more connectors fixed to the panel. The battery assembly is electrically connected to a device outside the enclosed space by the connectors. The panel is sealedly connected to the casing or the cover, and is fixedly connected to the casing by a bracket. In the battery pack according to the embodiment of the disclosure, the end assembly integrated with two or more connectors is fixed to the casing by the bracket, thus the weight of the connectors is borne by the bracket and the connectors are not easy to be detached.

With the increasingly environmental protection awareness and the risingly developing low-carbon economy, new energy vehicles will become the mainstream of future automotive industry. The reduction of the height of the vehicle helps to reduce the running resistance of the vehicle and thus to save running energy. However, the premise of reducing the height of the vehicle is to ensure that the passability and comfort of the vehicle cannot be affected, so the reduction of the height will be largely realized by reducing the overall height of the power battery and increasing the energy density of the power battery.
In the prior art, various connectors of the power battery are generally fixed to the casing. When the battery pack is subjected to a large impact, the connectors may fall off directly from the casing, causing short-circuit of the electrical circuit in the battery or even causing a fire accident. In addition, the connector has a certain weight, which may cause sealing failure between the connector and the casing due to vibration or the like during long-term use.

Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited


An enclosure made of rugged metal or plastic is provided including a top, at least one side wall and a bottom. An inlet is provided in the bottom wall and an internal chamber is provided above the inlet. This internal chamber contains a valve similar to valve 20 which is capable of opening and closing rapidly and may be controlled by external electrical or hydraulic power. Preferably a commercial available filter screen material is provided in the inlet to the internal chamber to insure that no large particles which would harm the system, are permitted to enter the internal chamber. The internal chamber is in fluid communication with an upper chamber which is preferably cylindrical and which optionally includes the diffuser material to reduce turbulence. After the fluid flows through the upper chamber, it is in substantially laminar flow and exits through a knife edge orifice into an outer chamber pool defined by an extension of the outer enclosure and the top of the enclosure. Since the fluid flowing through the knife edged orifice is of low turbulence as it passes through the secondary pool defined by the enclosure extension, the surface tension of the ball of fluid is able to prevent it from flying apart into multiple drops. The discharged ball tends to remain in one surface tension envelope, even if it changes in shape and response to the air currents and resembles an amoebae. The single enclosure structure of the present invention is easily connected to available pipe nipples pools in presently constructed amusement parks. In addition, it is less expensive than forming two enclosures, one for the upper chamber and orifice and one for the accumulator. The rugged outer enclosure protects the internal workings of the control valve, optional diffuser material and the knife edge orifice.

In U.S. Pat. 5,161,740 a pop jet fountain is disclosed including a separate accumulator 28 having an upper chamber 30 where air is located and a separate enclosure 10 containing a diffuser material 18 and a knife edged orifice in communication with an upper chamber 16. Pressurized fluid is input through a conduit 36 containing a by-pass valve 32 into a conduit 34. The fluid material is accumulated in the accumulator 28 and a conduit 21 contains a control valve 20 which activates the pop jet operation to periodically form ball in an amoebae shape due to the surface tension of the ball.
While this structure has been commercially successful, it involves the formation of two enclosures or containers 10 and 28.
Furthermore, this construction is less adapted to being located in the pool arrangements normally found in amusement parks which include a pump or other pressure source, one or more control valves and a threaded nipple to connect to the pop jet fountain structure.


A hand-held clamping drill guide including a pocket hole drill guide and a hand-held clamp. The pocket hole drill guide is rotatably attached to the end of one of two opposed C-shaped arms. The C-shaped arms are movable between an open position and a clamped position by the clamp handles. The clamp face on the other arm is pivotally attached to the end of the arm. The drill guide may be provided with more than one hole for drilling adjacent pocket holes. The clamp may be held and operated by a single hand to secure the pocket hole drill guide against a workpiece for drilling pocket holes.

The present invention is directed to a woodworking tool, in particular, a clamping pocket hole drill guide.
Pocket holes are generally drilled by stepped drill bits. The stepped drill bit is drilled at an angle through a piece of wood. The hole that is drilled permits a screw to be screwed through the wood at an angle while providing a hole in which the head of the screw can be sunk below the surface of the wood. A simple hole at an angle in a piece of wood would leave the screw head protruding from the wood up at an angle. The pocket hole provides a pocket in which the screw head sits after being screwed through the drilled hole.
Conventionally a pocket hole is drilled using a pocket hole drill guide. The drill guide is a metal block with a hole at an angle therethrough. A clamp is used to hold the drill guide securely against a piece of wood.

Hand-held clamping pocket hole drill guide


The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for reducing velocity errors when writing spiral servo information onto a disk surface of a disk drive. In one embodiment, a servo track writer is provided for moving a write head at a controlled velocity. The write head is used to write spiral servo information onto a disk surface. The write head is moved, using the servo track writer, at an actual velocity trajectory to simulate writing one spiral of spiral servo information. Differences between the actual velocity trajectory and a desired velocity trajectory are measured on a control sample by control sample basis over a window of control samples. The differences are integrated over the window. A gain, associated with the servo track writer controlling the velocity of the write head, is adjusted using the integrated differences.

Computer disk drives store information on magnetic disks. Typically, the information is stored on each disk in concentric tracks that are divided into sectors. Information is written to and read from a disk by a transducer that is mounted on an actuator arm capable of moving the transducer radially over the disk. Accordingly, the movement of the actuator arm allows the transducer to access different tracks. The disk is rotated by a spindle motor at high speed which allows the transducer to access different sectors on the disk.
A conventional disk drive, generally designated 10, is illustrated in FIG. 1. The disk drive comprises a disk 12 that is rotated by a spin motor 14. The spin motor 14 is mounted to a base plate 16. An actuator arm assembly 18 is also mounted to the base plate 16.
The actuator arm assembly 18 includes a transducer 20 mounted to a flexure arm 22 which is attached to an actuator arm 24 that can rotate about a bearing assembly 26. The actuator arm assembly 18 also contains a voice coil motor 28 which moves the transducer 20 relative to the disk 12. The spin motor 14, voice coil motor 28 and transducer 20 are coupled to a number of electronic circuits 30 mounted to a printed circuit board 32. The electronic circuits 30 typically include a read channel chip, a microprocessor-based controller and a random access memory (RAM) device.
The disk drive 10 typically includes a plurality of disks 12 and, therefore, a plurality of corresponding actuator arm assemblies 18. However, it is also possible for the disk drive 10 to include a single disk 12 as shown in FIG. 1.
FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram which illustrates a conventional disk drive 10 that is coupled to a host computer 33 via an input/output port 34. The disk drive 10 is used by the host computer 33 as a data storage device. The host 33 delivers data access requests to the disk drive 10 via port 34. In addition, port 34 is used to transfer customer data between the disk drive 10 and the host 33 during read and write operations.
In addition to the components of the disk drive 10 shown and labeled in FIG. 1, FIG. 2 illustrates (in block diagram form) the disk drive's controller 36, read/write channel 38 and interface 40. Conventionally, data is stored on the disk 12 in substantially concentric data storage tracks on its surface. In a magnetic disk drive 10, for example, data is stored in the form of magnetic polarity transitions within each track. Data is "read" from the disk 12 by positioning the transducer 20 above a desired track of the disk 12 and sensing the magnetic polarity transitions stored within the track, as the track moves below the transducer 20. Similarly, data is "written" to the disk 12 by positioning the transducer 20 above a desired track and delivering a write current representative of the desired data to the transducer 20 at an appropriate time.
The actuator arm assembly 18 is a semi-rigid member that acts as a support structure for the transducer 20, holding it above the surface of the disk 12. The actuator arm assembly 18 is coupled at one end to the transducer 20 and at another end to the VCM 28. The VCM 28 is operative for imparting controlled motion to the actuator arm 18 to appropriately position the transducer 20 with respect to the disk 12. The VCM 28 operates in response to a control signal icontrol generated by the controller 36. The controller 36 generates the control signal icontrol for example, in response to an access command received from the host computer 33 via the interface 40 or in response to servo information read from the disk surface 12.
The read/write channel 38 is operative for appropriately processing the data being read from/written to the disk 12. For example, during a read operation, the read/write channel 38 converts an analog read signal generated by the transducer 20 into a digital data signal that can be recognized by the controller 36. The channel 38 is also generally capable of recovering timing information from the analog read signal. During a write operation, the read/write channel 38 converts customer data received from the host 33 into a write current signal that is delivered to the transducer 20 to "write" the customer data to an appropriate portion of the disk 12. As will be discussed in greater detail, the read/write channel 38 is also operative for continually processing data read from servo information stored on the disk 12 and delivering the processed data to the controller 36 for use in, for example, transducer positioning.
FIG. 3 is a top view of a magnetic storage disk 12 illustrating a typical organization of data on the surface of the disk 12. As shown, the disk 12 includes a plurality of concentric data storage tracks 42, which are used for storing data on the disk 12. The data storage tracks 42 are illustrated as center lines on the surface of the disk 12; however, it should be understood that the actual tracks will each occupy a finite width about a corresponding centerline. The data storage disk 12 also includes servo information in the form of a plurality of radially-aligned servo spokes 44 (or wedges) that each cross the tracks 42 on the disk 12. The servo information in the servo spokes 44 is read by the transducer 20 during disk drive operation for use in positioning the transducer 20 above a desired track 42 of the disk 12. Among other things, the servo information includes a plurality of servo bursts (e.g., A, B, C and D bursts or the like) that are used to generate a Position Error Signal (PES) to position the write head relative to a track's centerline during a track following operation. The portions of the track between servo spokes 44 are used to store customer data received from, for example, the host computer 33 and are referred to as customer data regions 46.
It should be understood that, for ease of illustration, only a small number of tracks 42 and servo spokes 44 have been shown on the surface of the disk 12 of FIG. 3. That is, conventional disk drives include one or more disk surfaces having a considerably larger number of tracks and servo spokes.
During the disk drive manufacturing process, a special piece of equipment known as a servo track writer (STW) is used to write the radially-aligned servo information which forms servo spokes 44. A STW is a very precise piece of equipment that is capable of positioning the disk drive's write head at radial positions over the disk surface, so that servo information is written on the disk surface using the disk drive's write head with a high degree of positional accuracy.
In general, a STW is a very expensive piece of capital equipment. Thus, it is desirable that a STW be used as efficiently as possible during manufacturing operations. Even a small reduction in the amount of data needed to be written by the STW per disk surface can result in a significant cost and time savings.
A STW is used to write servo information, by controlling the position of the disk drive's write head, on a disk surface in a circumferential fashion at each radius at which the disk drive's write head is positioned. During drive operation, the servo information is used to position the transducer of the disk drive over the appropriate data track and data sector of the disk. Accordingly, as the number of tracks per inch (TPI) increases, the amount of time necessary to write servo information increases. That is, the number of circumferential passes that a STW must make over a disk surface increases as TPI increases. Thus, unless more STWs are supplied, manufacturing times will continually increase as the TPI increases.
Instead of using a STW to write servo information in a circumferential fashion at each radius, the assignee of the present invention presently uses a STW to write servo information in a spiral fashion (in at least some of its disk drives). Specifically, the STW moves the write head in a controlled manner (e.g., at a constant velocity or along a velocity profile) from a location near the outer diameter of the disk to a location near the inner diameter of the disk (or visa-versa) as the disk spins.
FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic representation of a disk surface 210 having a first spiral of servo information 215 written thereon. The dashed line, identified by reference numeral 220, represents a track. The first spiral of servo information 215 may make multiple revolutions around the disk surface 210 (roughly two revolutions as shown in FIG. 4), but only crosses track 220 once.
FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic representation of a disk surface 210 having a first spiral of servo information 215 and a second spiral of servo information 225 written thereon. As shown in FIG. 5, the first and second spirals 215, 225 are interlaced with one another and are written approximately 180 degrees apart. Again, each spiral crosses track 220 only once.
Additional spirals of servo information may be written on the disk surface 210 depending upon the servo sample rate (that is, the number of servo samples required for each track 220 to keep the disk drive's transducer sufficiently on-track). For example, if a servo sample rate of 120 equally-spaced servo sectors per track was required, 120 equally-spaced spirals would be written on the disk surface 110. Accordingly, by writing servo information in a spiral fashion, the time necessary to write servo information on disk surface 110 using the STW is a function of the servo sample rate (i.e., the number of spirals of servo information to be written) rather than the number of tracks.
Referring again to FIGS. 4 and 5, the spirals of servo information are written by moving the disk drive's write head using the STW in a generally radial direction (more accurately, in a radial direction along an arc due to the position of the bearing assembly), while both the disk is spinning and the write head is enabled. The direction of disk rotation is indicated by an arrow as shown in each of FIGS. 4 and 5.
The disk drive's write head is enabled for nearly its entire stroke (i.e., from a position near the OD to a position near the ID or visa-versa) while under the control of the STW. As a result, a continuous spiral of servo information is written.
Each of the spirals of servo information includes sync marks written at fixed time intervals by the disk drive's write head. As mentioned above, the STW is used to move the disk drive's write head at some fixed velocity (or velocity profile) in a generally radial direction across the disk surface. If the time interval between sync marks is known and the velocity of the disk drive's write head is known, the distance between sync marks along a spiral can be determined. Specifically, the following formula may be applied: Distance=(STW Velocity)(Time), where Distance represents the radial distance between sync marks, Velocity represents the radial velocity of the disk drive's write head (under control of the STW) and Time represents the interval between sync marks.
For example, the interval between sync marks may be set at 1 microsecond, while the write head may be controlled to move at a radial velocity of 10 inches per second along its stroke. Thus, the radial distance between sync marks can be calculated to be 1 microinch along each spiral.
Each sync mark along a given spiral corresponds to a unique radius. Accordingly, the sync marks may be used to accurately position a transducer of a disk drive over the disk surface.
While it might be desirable to write spiral servo information across the entire disk surface (as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5), in practice, this is not the case. Instead, the servo track writer brings the write head from zero velocity to a constant velocity over a relatively short period of time. Spiral servo information is not written until the write head is brought to a constant velocity. Accordingly, there is some portion of the disk surface onto which spiral servo information cannot be written because the write head has not been brought to a constant velocity.
It is desirable for the servo track writer to bring the disk drive's write head to a constant velocity as soon as possible, so that more of the disk surface may be used to write spiral servo information (and, hence, so that more of the disk surface may be used to write final servo information, if final servo patterns are self-servo written using spiral servo information). Using a servo track writer in this manner presents new problems, as prior servo track writers only were required to move the disk drive's write head in small radial steps across the disk surface.
One problem relates to velocity overshoots and undershoots. Specifically, in bringing the write head from zero velocity to a constant velocity, the servo track writer's pushpin is designed to follow a velocity trajectory. (As is well-understood by those skilled in the art, the servo track writer's pushpin provides a mechanical linkage between the servo track writer and the disk drive.) However, because of gain variation and other errors, the velocity of the servo track writer's pushpin deviates from the desired velocity trajectory at a transition point between an initial acceleration region and a zero acceleration region, resulting in either velocity overshoots or velocity undershoots. These velocity errors are written into the spiral servo information (e.g., sync marks are not placed at their proper locations). When the spiral servo information is used for self-servo writing, the velocity errors may be propagated into the final servo patterns.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to develop a technique for reducing velocity overshoots and undershoots when transitioning from the initial acceleration region to the zero acceleration region.

Method and apparatus for reducing velocity errors when writing spiral servo information onto a disk surface


A method and apparatus for transmitting energy pulses in a conductive fence system which includes two or more conductive lines (1-4), one or more pulse generators (A-D) capable of transmitting energy pulses along each conductive line, and junction points (5-8) where the conductive lines are in contact or close physical proximity to each other. Operation of the energy pulse generators (A-D) are coordinated to ensure that the effective pulses in the vicinity of a junction point (5-8) are within a predetermined pulse rate and magnitude range.

In security systems, it is common to have a number of electric fence energisers operating on different conductive lines which combine to form a perimeter fence. One reason for having a number of energisers rather than just a single energiser is to enable sectorisation. For example, at a particular time one section of the security fence may be live, whereas another section of security fence may for various reasons not be live. A typical reason is that staff may be working in that area. At other times the whole of the fenced area may be live.
Another reason for having a number of energisers is in situations where the total size of the fence is greater than that which a single energiser could adequately power along.
Over the years, safety regulations have been enacted which limit the frequency and magnitude of energy pulses that can be delivered by electric fence energisers. This is to ensure that if a person or animal touches or falls against a fence and for whatever reason remains there, the electrical energy received by that person or animal is unlikely to permanently damage them.
With security systems that have two or more energisers on a security system, a problem can occur whereby at a junction between the conductive lines a person can receive a pulse having a greater magnitude than generated singly by an energiser. That is, with two energisers firing (on average every second) at a junction to both conductive lines can either receive effectively a single double every pulse resulting from the synchronous firing of the energisers, or more likely pulses at a rate less than the recommended one second apart.
The pulses received at a junction point from multiple energies shall now be referred to as an effective pulse.
These are understandably undesirable situations for safety reasons but an inevitable result of using multiple energisers for sectorisation purposes.
One possible solution to this problem is to reduce the energy output of the electric fence energisers. However, this is not an effective solution and at points of the electric fence line subject to the effects of only one energiser firing, the pulse is unlikely to be strong enough to form an effective deterrent and thus defeat the purpose of having a security system.
Another possible solution is to build physical barriers at the junction such that a person is prevented from touching conductors in a manner that would allow them to receive a compound shock. However this creates a point on the perimeter that an intruder may find much easier to cross, and would therefore defeat the purpose of having such a security system. The construction of such barriers also significantly increases the cost of the system.
It is an object of the present invention to address the foregoing problems or at least to provide the public with a useful choice.
Further aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the ensuing description which is given by way of example only.

Safety operation of an electric fence at its junction points


Techniques for consent centric data compliance checking are disclosed. In an example embodiment, multiple applications associated with an organization are received. Further, a purpose for each of the multiple applications associated with the organization is derived. Furthermore, consents of data subjects are captured for the derived purpose of each of the multiple application in a data subject preference master. Also, reconciliation of the data subject preference master and data subjects' data available in the organization is performed to determine consent lacking information.

Many organizations obtain, store, and/or safeguard private information and/or data relating to individuals. Also, customers, employees, organizations and other entities are all eager to maintain adequate protection of their private information from unauthorized and unnecessary access. Data breach events may occur in which private data becomes unprotected, is removed, is stolen, and/or otherwise transferred from the control of an organization. Breach events may result from, for example, the actions of malicious outside parties, accidental disclosure, and/or other causes. Upon the occurrence of a breach event, one or more entities including, for example, federal government, state government, foreign government, political union, law enforcement, private entity, and other entities may each require compliance with complex specific rules, regulations, and laws related to data breach reporting. Complying with all of the applicable laws, rules, and regulations upon the occurrence of a data breach event may therefore be cumbersome. Thus, increasing compliance requirements for the organization are leading to a tougher operating environment for the organization.

System and method for consent centric data compliance checking


There is provided a method comprising: determining that a random access procedure is to be applied in response to initiating a beam failure recovery, BFR, procedure; selecting a beam with which the random access procedure is to be attempted; determining whether or not the selected beam is allocated with a contention free preamble; and performing one of the following: 1) upon determining the positive, applying a contention free random access, CFRA, procedure based on a first limit for an access attempt counter; and 2) upon determining the negative, applying a contention based random access, CBRA, procedure based on a second limit for the access attempt counter, wherein the first and second limits are different.

A user equipment (UE) may be connected to one or more beams for communication. For example, fifth generation wireless system (5G) is proposed to operate with multiple beams. That may mean that the UE is receiving and/or transmitting data with multiple beams during a communication session with the network and or another device. If a connection to a beam is lost e.g. due to signal level degradation, the UE may try to recover that or another beam before triggering a beam failure.


Methods and apparatus are provided for performing loopback testing of integrated circuits (“ICs”). In an embodiment of the invention, an IC can be tested on an undiced wafer by coupling a wireless transmitter of the IC to a wireless receiver of the IC. Core circuitry of the IC can be controlled to cause the transmitter to send at least one signal to the receiver. Upon receipt of the at least one signal, the receiver can send a signal to the core circuitry, which can determine, and possibly record, whether the transmission and receipt were successful. The invention advantageously facilitates efficient testing of unpackaged ICs at the wafer level.

This application relates to integrated circuits ("ICs"). More particularly, this application relates to loopback testing for ICs.
Efficient testing of ICs is a key challenge in the semiconductor industry. Typically, a relatively large number of ICs may need to be automatically tested within a relatively short period of time. The tests can be used, for example, to identify defective ICs which are subsequently discarded.
Automated testing of ICs has traditionally been performed after the IC has been diced from its wafer and packaged in various materials (e.g., plastic). The packaged IC would be automatically placed into a customized holder ("socket") that was electrically coupled to input/output ("I/O") pins of the IC for testing. However, many modern ICs are used without a package and are mounted directly on a circuit board. Such unpackaged ICs provide lower cost of manufacture and reduced consumption of circuit board area. Unfortunately, these unpackaged ICs can be significantly more difficult to test than packaged ICs.
For example, it can be very difficult and costly to build sockets for holding unpackaged ICs. As a result, these ICs are typically tested while they reside on an undiced wafer using specially-designed probes. Unfortunately, these probes often require relatively large openings on the tested ICs and a relatively large number of signal lines (e.g., to support companion ground lines), especially when the test signals contain radio-frequency ("RF") content. As such, the area requirements can make them impractical, and sometimes impossible, to use with many modern ICs.
In view of the foregoing, it would be desirable to provide methods and apparatus for efficient wafer-level testing of ICs. Furthermore, it would be desirable to achieve such wafer-level testing with relatively low additional area and complexity.

Methods and apparatus for integrated circuit loopback testing


Some example forms relate to an electrical interconnect for an electronic package. The electrical interconnect includes a dielectric layer that includes a trench formed into one surface of the dielectric layer and a signal conductor that fills the trench and extends above the one surface of dielectric layer. The electrical interconnect further includes a conductive reference layer mounted on an opposing side of the dielectric layer. The conductive reference layer is electromagnetically coupled to the signal conductor when current passes through the signal conductor.

Mobile products (e.g., mobile phones, smart phones, tablet computers, etc.) are continually being designed to be more compact and portable. Therefore, it is extremely important to reduce the form factor, z-height and weight of the electronic devices that are included in mobile products.
One of the concerns that can arise as things are made smaller is signal integrity issues. As examples, channel impedance discontinuity and crosstalk are the common issues that are continually addressed during high-speed package and PCB design.
In some electronic devices, signal crosstalk is a common issue that occurs in conventional systems which include multiple high-speed parallel busses. Signal crosstalk issue may have negative design impacts by limiting the high-speed parallel bus design scaling (e.g., frequency, power, silicon real-estate, package layer-count and channel length).
Conventional solutions that seek to mitigate signal integrity issues typically require some form of design trade-off. One or more of these design trade-offs usually constrain enabling smaller form factor high-speed packages and PCBs as well as more compact high-speed packages and PCBs.
As a first example, high-speed packages and PCBs may increase the layer count and/or Z-height of the high-speed packages and PCBs. The number of signal routing layers and grounding layers may be increased to alleviate the signal integrity issues (e.g., due to breakout/congested routing areas or routing-over-void/split-plane areas).
As a second example, high-speed packages and PCBs may reduce routing density (i.e., increase in routing pitch). The layout of high-speed packages and PCBs may be optimized to reduce signal integrity issues by keeping interconnects with at least 2×-spacing away from one another to (i) reduce crosstalk; and (ii) have a transition to other routing layer to avoid routing over-void/split-plane areas.
As a third example, high-speed packages and PCBs may require an increase in power consumption. This increase in power consumption is typically combined with circuit patterns where active crosstalk cancellation and terminations are applied to mitigate crosstalk and reflection.
Therefore, a need exists for an interconnect structure that may address channel impedance discontinuity and crosstalk issues while minimizing any design trade-offs. Addressing channel impedance discontinuity and crosstalk issues while minimizing any design trade-offs may enable smaller form factor and more compact package & PCB designs. Smaller form factor and more compact package & PCB designs may be especially important in the mobile space of Wearables, Tablets, Smartphones and Ultrabooks (among other electronic devices).

Electrical interconnect for an electronic package


Provided is a system to automatically recover a computer system after a failed attempt, or failed attempts, to boot a target operating system on the computer system.

Boot start up problems limit system performance and can lead to undesirable down time and in extreme situations, the user deeming the machine as unrecoverable. This can ostensibly create a situation where data is lost, not by necessity, but by lack of experience or frustration. The source of boot problems abound and can come from registries getting corrupted, system files corruption, service problems, and missing drivers, to name a few.
In conventional systems, a user is left to determine what is causing the problem in order for the user to be able to fix the problem. There are no effective ways to diagnose problems that occur, i.e., the problems that caused the boot failure. Instead, conventional systems at most provide manual recovery that seeks to restore some previous stored default or "safe" boot environment. The most common examples are recovery boot disks or a user's ability to boot from the original CD-ROM of the operating system. The process is manually operated, because the computer system polls the user to initiate recovery.
Some systems attempt to expedite boot start-up upon a boot failure by storing multiple basic input/output system (BIOS) initial memory locations in hardware or firmware. The BIOS, the main operating system BIOS, may start up via executing a boot loader sequence starting at a fixed, stored memory location of a boot block. If that main boot loader sequence does not initiate, then the firmware/hardware may instruct the system to go to a second memory location of the boot block to execute a "safe" boot loader sequence, for example, a separately stored, factory default boot loader sequence. Of course, in practice such systems are incomplete.
These systems do not actually diagnose the reasons for boot failure; instead they are based on restoring the system state to a previously bootable one, irrespective of the cause of the failure. These systems require a separate recovery disk, which in some circumstances may not be available, either because the disk is not available or because the failure to even initialize drivers in the computer system means that the computer system does not recognize its own CD-ROM, floppy, Universal Serial Bus (USB), or other drives. Plus these techniques are only directed to the situation where memory location access and code execution is affected. That is, the techniques are only directed to problems right at the earliest stages of start-up. These systems do not address or correct for boot problems that arise after the boot loader has started.

Automated recovery of unbootable systems


A multiphase encoded protocol has sufficient density of commands to allow a rich language to be realized on a bus. When ten field bits are dedicated to commands, it is possible to have more than six million words to choose from per clock. Architecture to implement the multiphase encoded protocol and synchronize the bus includes an extracted clock, a command element, and a data element. One-bit multipliers are used as correlation elements to provide feedback into slaved delay-locked loop (DLL) devices, which provides precise phase alignment for successful data extraction of several channels.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to networks. In particular, the present invention relates to network buses.
2. Background Information
A bus is generally defined as a common physical signal path that includes wires or other media (e.g., optical fiber) across which signals can be sent from one part of the network to another. One common characteristic of buses is that as the bus matures, the functions that need to be transmitted and received increase. However, any defined bus by design has an upper limit of functions that the bus can handle. Put another way, the bus may be limited in the number of words in its command/control vocabulary. The size of the command/control vocabulary tends to dictate the variety of functions the bus can handle.
Another common characteristic of buses is that operations on the buses must be synchronized for the bus to operate properly. A bus typically has three parts, a clock, data lines, and control lines. The clock gives the bus integrity, which allows the bus parts to work together as a unit. The clock may be inferred by the fundamental frequency of transmission from the command/control lines or data lines. The data lines typically carry data and the command/control lines typically carry command and control signal values.
One drawback of some existing networks is that there is a relationship between the clock and the data lines that must be maintained for the network to function as intended. This is because the clock and data on the data lines come from different sources. If any part of the bus (e.g., data on the data lines) goes faster or slower where it falls outside a window of margin that is governed by the clock edge, the bus will have errors and perhaps fail to perform its intended function. As the bus operates faster and faster, the clock in relation to the data lines and control lines can fail to perform its intended function.
Networks sometimes simultaneously transmit several channels to increase bandwidth. Channels are typically separated using different signal trace paths, wires, wavelengths, or colors (for optical transmission). It is common for one channel to take one path to a receiver while another channel takes a different path to the same receiver. Moreover, one channel's transmitter may fire at one time while another channel's transmitter may fire at a different time.
When these (and other) conditions exist (e.g., different colors, different trace paths, different transmitter firing times), the channels may be skewed at the receiver. This is because different colors may travel through the transmission media (e.g., the atmosphere, optical fiber) at different speeds or may take different paths and as a result arrive at the receiver at different times. When channels take different paths, one path may be longer or shorter than another path, or one path may be faster or slower than another path, which also means the signal values on channels may arrive at the receiver at different times. When the transmitter fires at different times the channels are launched at different times, which again means the signal values on channels may arrive at the receiver at different times. At the receiver, the conversion in the optical transducers may cause channels to be skewed as well because each optical transducer may have a different delay.
To compensate for channel skew, the receiver must synchronize the incoming channels in some manner. One current scheme to synchronize channels at the receive end involves aggregating multiple channels at a time, which each has at least one embedded clock, and connecting the aggregated lines at a register. Data is clocked into the register using a discrete clock. When the register sees that the data is settled the next data on the channels is clocked into the register. This scheme typically slows down communications, however, because the receiver must wait for all command/control information and data to be assembled before it determines the intended use of that function.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Multiphase encoded protocol and synchronization of buses


A hydraulic braking system for a vehicle having a wheel includes a wheel brake cylinder operatively connected to the wheel for applying braking force to the wheel, and a master cylinder for generating hydraulic pressure in response to depression of a brake pedal and for supplying the hydraulic pressure to the wheel brake cylinder. The master cylinder is connected to the wheel brake cylinder via a first conduit. The wheel brake cylinder is connected to a reservoir for storing brake fluid via a second conduit. A normally closed solenoid valve is disposed in the second conduit. A hydraulic pressure pump is disposed in the first conduit and includes an inlet connected to the master cylinder and an outlet connected to the wheel brake cylinder. A third conduit connects the second conduit at a point between the normally closed solenoid valve and the reservoir to the first conduit at a point between the inlet of the hydraulic pressure pump and the master cylinder.

A conventional hydraulic braking system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,878,715 published on Nov. 7, 1989. As shown in FIG. 3 of this patent, the hydraulic braking system includes a wheel brake cylinder and a master cylinder. The wheel brake cylinder is operatively connected to a wheel of a vehicle to apply braking force to the wheel. The master cylinder generates a hydraulic pressure in response to depression of a brake pedal and supplies the hydraulic pressure to the wheel brake cylinder. The master cylinder is connected to the wheel cylinder via a first conduit and a normally open solenoid valve is disposed in the first conduit. The wheel brake cylinder is connected via a second conduit to a reservoir storing brake fluid discharged from the wheel brake cylinder. A normally closed solenoid valve is disposed in the second conduit. The reservoir is connected via a third conduit to a junction portion of the first conduit between the normally open solenoid valve and the master cylinder. A hydraulic pressure pump is disposed in the third conduit. An inlet of the hydraulic pressure pump is connected to the reservoir and an outlet of the hydraulic pressure pump is connected to the junction portion of the first conduit.
A change over valve is disposed in the first conduit between the junction portion and the master cylinder. The change over valve is positionable in a first position in which the master cylinder is connected to the normally open solenoid valve and the inlet of the hydraulic pressure pump is disconnected from the master cylinder, and a second position in which the inlet of the hydraulic pressure pump is connected to the master cylinder and the master cylinder is disconnected from the normally open solenoid valve. When the change over valve is positioned in the second position, the hydraulic pressure pump draws brake fluid from a master reservoir via the master cylinder and pumps the brake fluid to the wheel brake cylinder so that hydraulic pressure can be supplied to the wheel brake cylinder even if the brake pedal is not depressed.
However, since this hydraulic braking system includes the change over valve for supplying hydraulic pressure to the wheel brake cylinder when the brake pedal is not depressed, the system is expensive and rather large.


Methods for inhibiting lysis of coagulated blood and reducing risk of excessive lysis comprising administration of lysis-inhibiting amounts of apolipoprotein E4, and methods for inhibiting lysis of coagulated blood and reducing risk of excessive lysis comprising administration of a specific level of a lysis-inhibiting agent wherein the specific level is based on the apolipoprotein phenotype of an individual, are provided. Methods for enhancing lysis of coagulated blood by administration of an Apo E peptide fragment to blood containing a clot lysis agent are also provided.

Homeostasis is a term known generally to reference a procedure where bleeding or hemorrhage is stopped by either a surgical means or through administration of a coagulation agent. In contrast to many thrombolytic therapies, which administer a clot lysis agent to breakdown or lyse coagulated blood associated with various ischemic diseases, the need to maintain or enhance the coagulation of blood is also a therapeutic and beneficial procedure.
More specifically, the administration of a clot lysis agent such as tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) within several hours following a stroke is useful in the lysis of blood clots for an individual suffering from an ischemic disease, such as ischemic stroke. If excessive or uncontrollable bleeding results from these therapies, however, it is beneficial to coagulate the blood and/or stop the bleeding. As a result, the administration of a lysis-inhibiting agent may be a beneficial procedure for treating the excessive or uncontrolled bleeding.
This beneficial process can be seen through the process of treating individuals suffering from hemophilia. To treat hemophilia, for instance, many individuals are offered various blood clotting agents and factors to cease or maintain the associated bleeding. Often these individuals, however, develop an insensitivity to these clotting factors, thereby creating the need for new clotting agents to control excessive bleeding.
As undesirable and uncontrollable bleeding can occur in connection with many medical disorders and ischemic diseases, for example, acute stroke, acute myocardial infarction, peripheral arterial occlusion, pulmonary embolism, and venous thrombosis, there is a continuing need to advance and improve current therapeutic treatments in both prophylactic and interventional therapies.

Methods for controlling the lysis of coagulated blood with apolipoprotein e4 phenotype


A process for partial oxidation of a hydrocarbon gas or liquid, involving the steps of partial oxidation and removal of soot by forming a slurry having water and carbon from the gaseous oxidation product, and separating part of the water from the slurry to obtain a soot composition having less water, wherein the separation is performed by means of a decanter centrifuge.

Partial oxidation processes for hydrocarbon feedstocks were developed and commercialised during the 1950's. The best known processes, such as the Shell gasification process and the Texaco gasification process, have been utilised in a number of commercial plants.
Such partial oxidation or gasification processes utilising hydrocarbon feedstock normally comprise three principal steps: (a) the actual partial oxidation or gasification step, in which the feedstock is converted into raw synthesis gas in the presence of oxygen and steam; (b) cooling the hot gases leaving the reactor; and (c) carbon and ash removal, in which residual carbon and ash contained in the reactor outlet gas is removed in a water wash, thereby obtaining an aqueous slurry comprising carbon and ash. The mixture of carbon and optionally ash is also referred to as soot. The amount of ash and carbon in the slurry will depend on the feedstock, operating conditions and on the type of gasification reactor used. The water content of the slurry is subsequently lowered by means of a dewatering process step.
A dewatering process is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,628,911. This publication describes a dewatering of the soot slurry, to which a flocculant has been added, by means of a movable filter, consisting of a horizontally movable filterband followed by two vertically moving filterbands compressed by means of rollers pressing the filterbands together to exert a constant pressure until the water content of the soot filtercake is reduced to less than 80%. Thereafter the soot filtercake is released onto a movable conveyor belt, in the form of dry flakes or plates with an average thickness of about 2 mm.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,255,278 describes the dewatering of a slurry containing 14.9 wt % solids as obtained in a coal gasification process by means of a continuous centrifuge, model LB224 manufactured by Bird Machine Co. Inc. of South Walpole Mass. The process produced a cake containing 66 wt % solids and water containing 12 wt % solids. The water as obtained in this process cannot be considered to be clean. Furthermore, the soot particle properties of a coal gasification process differ substantially from the properties of the soot particles of a gasification process wherein the feedstock is a gaseous or liquid hydrocarbon as in the present invention. It is known that the solid particles in a coal gasification derived slurry have a greater size, i.e. having a Sauter-mean diameter (d50) of about 20 μm, than the solids as obtained in a mineral oil gasification derived slurry, which may have a d50 of about 2-8 μm. Furthermore the dry bulk density of the dry soot 'coal' particles is about 400 kg/m3 while the dry bulk density of the soot particles of the present process is between 5-15 kg/m3.
A disadvantage of the process of U.S. Pat. No. 5,628,911 is that by pressing the filterbands together water is obtained which contains considerable amounts of soot and ash. Furthermore a considerable amount of wash water is obtained when the filterbands are cleaned. These water streams must be treated before it can be disposed into the environment.

Process to dewater a soot water slurry obtained in a gasification process


Embodiments of the present disclosure include method for optimizing an internal memory for calculation of a convolutional layer of a convolutional neural network (CNN), the method including determining a computation cost of calculating the convolutional layer using each combination of a memory management scheme of a plurality of memory management schemes and data partition sizes of input feature map (IFM) data, kernel data, and output feature map (OFM) data to be loaded in the internal memory; identifying one combination of a memory management scheme and data partition sizes having a lowest computation cost for the convolutional layer; and implementing the CNN to use the one combination for calculation of the convolutional layer.

Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) have become a highly useful tool for artificial intelligence tasks such as image classification and processing. Early CNN algorithms demanded huge amounts of computing power and implementations are commonly executed in cloud computing and high powered server systems. However, as the algorithms have been improved, the requirements of computing power have been mitigated, producing even better performance while using less resources. As a result, CNN applications are becoming increasingly popular and smaller, less powerful devices, such as consumer electronics, home appliance products, personal and mobile devices, are benefitting from CNN enabled implementations for tasks such as object classification, object detection, object recognition, image segmentation, language processing, and more.
However, many of these smaller and less-powerful devices may still have certain limitations on hardware computing power due to various reasons such as cost, form factor, and power consumption which limit their ability to effectively and efficiently run robust CNN implementations.
The performance of CNN algorithms is mainly dependent on two factors: matrix computation capability and memory access time, with memory access time becoming the more critical factor in determining algorithm performance in most cases. The limitations on performance are exacerbated when considering embedded systems, which have lower arithmetic computation capabilities as well as smaller internal memory (SRAM) and external memory (DRAM). CNN algorithms manage vast amount of data, including input, output, and kernels. In order to maximize the utilization of the available arithmetic units, data needs to be loaded into the internal memory from the external memory prior to computation and the computation results must be temporarily stored in internal memory before the computation results are moved back to external memory.
In modern embedded systems, such as those found in consumer electronics and home appliance products, this memory management approach may be too costly. CNN data is often too large to fit in the internal memories of embedded systems. Additionally, CNN data may need to be reused an extremely large number of times—upwards of thousands or tens of thousands of times—during calculation of the convolutional layers. Thus, it is desirable to reduce system throughput by keeping as much CNN data loaded in the internal memory until all convolutional layer calculations requiring the loaded data are completed. However as noted, due to the limited amount of internal memory in embedded systems, it may be necessary to reload the same CNN data from the external memory into the internal memory multiple times, leading to added cost by utilizing more hardware resources such as memory bandwidth, thereby increasing processing time and consuming more power.
Traditional methods of optimizing memory use for CNNs, typically involving arbitrarily selected partitioning of inputs, kernels, and outputs of the CNNs, have failed to provide effective optimization which takes into consideration the multi-dimensional aspects of the CNN data (e.g. height, width, depth), as well as providing an approach which is equally effective and applicable to a widely varying set of dimensional values. Thus, the existing systems and methods are unable to provide a solution for optimizing data partitioning of CNN data and determining an optimal memory management scheme for managing an internal memory during convolutional layer calculations for CNNs. Therefore, it may be advantageous to provide an optimization method for optimal data partitioning and memory management for use in CNNs to reduce the memory bandwidth requirement and improve performance of CNNs in a wide range of implementations including embedded systems.

Optimizing data partitioning and replacement strategy for convolutional neural networks


An external resonator type light emitting system includes a light source oscillating a semiconductor laser light and a grating device providing an external resonator with the light source. The light source includes an active layer oscillating the semiconductor laser light. The grating device includes an optical waveguide having an incident face to which the semiconductor laser is incident and an emitting face of emitting an emitting light of a desired wavelength, a Bragg grating formed in the optical waveguide, and a propagating portion provided between the incident face and the Bragg grating. Formulas (1) to (4) are satisfied.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an external resonator type light emitting system.
2. Related Art Statement
It has been generally utilized a semiconductor laser of Fabry-Perot (FP) type including an optical resonator constructed with an active layer and mirrors provided on both end faces of the active layer. However, according to such FP type laser, light is oscillated at a wavelength satisfying conditions for oscillating standing waves. The longitudinal mode thus tends to be of multi mode, and the oscillating wavelength is changed particularly when a current or temperature is changed, resulting in a change of optical intensity.
Therefore, for the purpose of optical communication or gas sensing, it is required a laser capable of single mode oscillation and with good stability of wavelength. It has been thereby developed a distributed feed-back (DFB) laser and a distributed reflection (DBR) laser. According to these laser systems, diffraction gratings are provided in a semiconductor material to oscillate light having only a specific wavelength utilizing the dependency of the gratings on wavelength.
According to the DBR laser, concaves and convexes are formed on a surface of a waveguide extended from a waveguide of the active layer to provide a mirror utilizing Bragg reflection for realizing a resonator (Patent Document 1; Japanese Patent Publication No. S49-128,689A; Japanese Patent Document 2; Japanese patent Publication No. S56-148,880A). Since diffraction gratings are provided on both ends of the optical waveguide layer according to the laser, light emitted from the active layer is propagated through the optical waveguide layer, and a part of the propagating light is reflected by the diffraction gratings, returned into a current injection part and then amplified. As light component having oily a single wavelength is reflected at a specific direction from the diffraction grating, the wavelength of the laser light is made constant.
Further, as the application, it was developed an external resonator type semiconductor laser including a diffraction grating as a part separated from the semiconductor to form an external resonator. Such type of laser provides one having stability of wavelength, stability of temperature and controllability. The external resonator includes a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) (Non-patent document 1) and a volume hologram grating (WIG) (Non-patent document 2). Since the diffraction grating is composed of a member separated from the semiconductor laser, it is characteristic that its reflectance and length of the resonator can be independently designed. And, since it does not affected by elevation of temperature rise due to heat generation caused by current injection, it is possible to further improve the stability on wavelength. Further, the temperature dependency of refractive index of the semiconductor is different, it is possible to improve the stability on temperature can be improved by designing the refractive index together with the length of the resonator.
According to Japanese Patent document 6 (Japanese Patent Publication No. 2002-134,833A), it is disclosed an external resonator type laser utilizing a grating formed in a waveguide composed of quartz glass. It aims at providing a frequency-stable laser suitably used in environment under which room temperature is considerably changed, (for example, up to 30° C. or higher) without a temperature controller. It is further described to provide a laser free from temperature dependency with mode hopping prevented and without dependency of oscillating frequency on temperature.

External resonator type light emitting system


A floor mat is provided which has a message assembly comprising a plurality of triangular shaped members with each member having one substantially inclined side and an opposite side formed at a substantially right angle. An exit message is formed on a series of adjacently located inclined sides of a series of elements making the message readable from about three feet from the mat to the mat itself when facing these inclined elements. An entrance message is formed on a plurality of adjacent right angle sides making the entrance message visible from about ten feet to within three feet of the mat when facing the right angle side of the mat. When either the entrance or exit message is being viewed, the other message is hidden from view.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally drawn to door mats having message or pictures therein and more particularly to such mats which provide different messages or pictures when viewed from the entrance or exit side of the mat.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Floor mats are known which have pictures, logos or writing thereon. Examples of such mats are seen in U.S. Pat. No. DES. 200,152 and U.S. Pat. No. DES. 350,253. The messages include writings such as "welcome" and have surface textures varying from thick mat to slight corrugations. However, none of these mats provide one message when viewing the mat from its entrance side and a second message when viewing the mat from the exit side with the non-viewed message being hidden from view.
Door mats are also known which which have triangular, spiked and truncated triangular surfaces. Examples of such mats are seen in U.S. Pat. No. 385,044; U.S. Pat. No. DES. 187, 639; U.S. Pat. No. DES. 105,428; and U.S. Pat. No. DES. 310,460. None of these mats, however, have any teaching of how messages may be placed on such surfaces let alone how differing entrance and exit messages may be placed thereon which will allow only one message to be read while hiding the other message when viewing the mat from either the entrance or exit side.
Signs and carpets are also known which display different images or messages depending upon the angle of view of the sign or the mat angle of the carpet. Examples of such arc soon in U.S. Pat. No. 4,255,380 dealing with signs and U.S. Pat. No. 3,674,616 dealing with carpets. However, there is no teaching in either patent how a door mat may be designed to have different entrance and exit messages with variable distances of view which is needed in a welcome mat.
The sign patent has triangles of equal inclanation on which different messages are printed. Thus the differing messages would be visible from the same distances from the sides of the sign. This is unsuitable for a mat. The carpet dopends on the stroked inclanation of the carpet fibers to display different pictures. Again this is unsuitable for a mat.
Thus what was needed was a door mat having an entrance message viewable from a first distance away from the mat entrance side while hiding the mat's exit message and an exit message different from the entrance message which is viewable from a second shorter distance facing the exit side of the mat while hiding the entrance message.

Door mat having differing messages when viewed from incoming and existing sides