A holding metal fitting includes: a side plate portion extending in a width direction X of a socket (a connector coupler); a bottom plate portion connected to a lower side of the side plate portion; an attachment piece portion a projecting from the bottom plate portion to the outside of a socket housing (a housing) and being attached and fixed to a circuit board; and an anchor portion extending from the side plate portion into the socket housing. Moreover, an outer wall surface (a wall surface) of the anchor portion includes an engagement portion for a resin inside the housing to engage with.

There has heretofore been used a connector designed to be capable of fixing contacts (terminals) of a socket to a circuit board and thus firmly joining the socket and the circuit board together by: burying a holding metal fitting provided with attachment piece portion portions into a housing of the socket (a connector coupler); and fixing the attachment piece portion portions of the holding metal fitting to the circuit board by soldering or the like (see Patent Literature 1, for example).
The holding metal fitting includes a side plate portion extending in a width direction of the socket, and a bottom plate portion connected to a lower side of the side plate portion. In addition, the above-described attachment piece portion portions are formed on the bottom plate portion while an anchor portion is provided on the side plate portion so that the housing can improve rigidity and strength.

Holding metal fitting, connector coupler, and connector

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.


A method of dressing a threaded grinding wheel for grinding crown gears. The method comprises providing a dressing tool in the form of a pinion member with the dressing tool having the same pitch as a mating pinion member of the crown gear. Rotating the dressing tool and the grinding wheel at respective velocities whereby the dressing tool and grinding wheel may run in mesh with one another. Moving the dressing tool across the width of the grinding wheel simultaneously with the dressing tool and grinding wheel rotating in mesh, with the dressing tool moving completely along the width of the grinding wheel. The path that the dressing tool moves along being defined as an arcuate path about a point on the grinding wheel corresponding to a center point of the mating pinion.

Crown gears, also known as face gears, are gears that are used in angle drives. Crown gears generally have teeth that are radially extending in their longitudinal direction with an increasing pressure angle from the inside end to the outside end of each tooth.
Crown gears mesh with a cylindrical pinion having straight or helical toothing. Usually, the axes of the crown gear and pinion intersect at an angle of ninety degrees with one another but this is not always the case. The angle of intersection may be other than ninety degrees, or, the axes may cross but not intersect one another. Gear sets comprising a crown gear and its mating pinion have advantages such as the absence of any need for axial adjustment of the pinion, a high gear ratio, and a high transverse contact ratio being achievable without special provisions.
A method of manufacturing crown gears is taught by U.S. Pat. No. 2,304,586 to Miller. A hobbing method is disclosed wherein the form of the hob is based on the tooth form of a pinion which meshes with the desired crown gear. The shape of the cutting edge of the hobbing tool, as seen in an axial section, is always the shape of the outer contour of a cross-section of a segment of the pinion. As the hob rotates, its helically arranged teeth emulate the movement of the teeth of the pinion turning in mesh with the crown gear.
Several methods exist for finishing crown gears. One such method is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,954,028 to Seroo et al. and comprises a grinding disc having an outer grinding periphery corresponding to the tooth profile of a mating pinion to the crown gear.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,309,530 to Perkins teaches positioning a crown gear into meshing engagement with two pinions, one pinion driving the crown gear which in turn drives the second pinion. While the gears are rotating, the crown gear is caused to traverse the pinions. The teeth of the crown gear are shaped by the form of the pinion teeth and are finished by abrasive or cutting action or by metal displacement depending on the material of the crown gear and pinions.
In a similar manner, published PCT International application No. WO 92/18279 teaches a method for finishing hardened crown gears by meshing the crown gear with a honing pinion while moving the gear and pinion relative to one another back and forth along the axis of the honing tool.
Published PCT International application No. WO 92/09395 discloses a grinding wheel for finishing crown gears which is formed based on the previously mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 2,304,586 in that the helically arranged cutting elements are essentially replaced with a grinding thread or rib helically arranged about the periphery of the tool. This type of tool is known as a hobbing grinding disc or threaded grinding wheel.
The threaded grinding wheel of WO 92/09395 is formed with the ribs being free of undercuts such that the grinding wheel may be dressed without the cross-section of the ribs being changed as a result of the dressing. Dressing of the grinding wheel surfaces takes place in dressing tool increments of 1-5 degrees between a minimum angle and a maximum angle based on the minimum and maximum pressure angles for a crown gear to be produced. This incremental dressing process, however, results in rib profile surfaces that are not smooth but instead consist of a series of flat portions due to the incremental positions of the dressing tool.
In published PCT International Application No. WO 92/11967, a hobbing grinding disc is utilized for grinding crown gears. The grinding wheel is dressed by a dressing tool having the same shape as the crown gear to be ground. While the dressing tool and grinding wheel are rotating in mesh, additional relative motion is included along the length and height of the teeth of the dressing tool to ensure that all surfaces of the grinding wheel are contacted by the dressing tool. Dressing tools of this type are complex in that accurate diamond deposition on the tooth surface geometry of the crown gear shaped dressing tool is difficult to control.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a dressing process for a threaded grinding wheel for the grinding of crown gears wherein a smooth, accurate grinding profile surface is formed with a simple dressing tool.

Method of dressing a threaded grinding wheel


A method for mitigating a leakage signal in an FMCW radar and a radar system thereof are disclosed. The method for mitigating the leakage signal in the radar system includes generating an in-phase signal and a quadrature signal for a beat signal, generating a complex signal using the in-phase signal and the quadrature signal, concentrating a phase noise of the leakage signal included in the complex signal on a stationary point, and mitigating the phase noise based on stationary point concentration (SPC) of the phase noise.

Embodiments of the inventive concept described herein relate to technologies of mitigating a leakage signal in a frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar, and more particularly, relate to a method for mitigating a leakage signal to mitigate the leakage signal which is a unique problem generated in the FMCW radar to reduce a noise floor over an overall frequency domain and thus improve a signal to noise ratio (SNR) of a target signal and a radar system therefor.
An FMCW radar has been used for various purposes, for example, moving target detection, level meters, altimeters, biometric detection, weather prediction and analysis, and image detection as well as simple static target detection. The FMCW radar is superior to the pulse radar in terms of cost, maximum transmit power, and minimum detection range. However, signals leaked from a transmitter to a receiver have several bad influences on the FMCW radar. As a representative phenomenon the leakage signal causes, there is a phenomenon in which the SNR of the target signals is seriously reduced by increasing the noise floor over the overall frequency domain in the power spectrum result which is finally obtained. In this case, the cause of the noise floor which is increased over the overall frequency is the phase noise of the leakage signal. Thus, as the leakage signal itself is increased or as the phase noise of the leakage signal is not good, the SNR of the target signals is degraded. To mitigate the leakage signal to address it, there is a need for a technology for attenuating the leakage signal itself or mitigating the phase noise.
As an existing method, first of all, there is a method for configuring a large closed loop from a radio frequency (RF) stage to a base stage. The splitting coupler capable of splitting the transmit signal is put in the closed loop. The method is to adaptively extract the error vector for the amplitude and phase information of the leakage signal to compensate it, thus generating the phase opposite to the phase of the leakage signal and adding the generated signal to the leakage signal using the synthesizing coupler to mitigate the leakage signal itself. However, the method needs many additional components to configure the above-mentioned closed loop, so the additional costs according to it are incurred.
As another existing method, there is a stationary point concentration (SPC) technique. The SPC technique concentrates the phase noise of the leakage signal on the stationary point to considerably reduce the magnitude of the phase noise of the leakage signal indicated as voltage or current noise. As the phase noise of the leakage signal is mitigated, the noise floor is significantly reduced and the SNR of the target signals is improved. This method does not need additional hardware, but the strategic frequency planning and the oversampling are required and the structure of the FMCW radar capable of applying the technique is limited.

Advanced method for mitigating leakage signal in FMCW radar and radar system therefor

KOREA ADVANCED INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY


An ion beam deposition method is provided for manufacturing a coated substrate with improved wear-resistance, and improved lifetime. The substrate is first chemically cleaned to remove contaminants. Secondly, the substrate is inserted into a vacuum chamber onto a substrate holder, and the air therein is evacuated via pump. Then the substrate surface is bombarded with energetic ions from an ion beam source supplied from inert or reactive gas inlets to assist in removing residual hydrocarbons and surface oxides, and activating the surface. After sputter-etching the surface, a protective, wear-resistant coating is deposited by plasma ion beam deposition where a portion of the precursor gases are introduced into the ion beam downstream of the ion source, and hydrogen is introduced directly into the ion source plasma chamber. The plasma ion beam-deposited coating may contain one or more layers. Once the chosen coating thickness is achieved, deposition is terminated, vacuum chamber pressure is increased to atmospheric and the coated substrate products having wear-resistance greater than glass are removed from the chamber. These coated products may be ceramics, architectural glass, analytical instrument windows, automotive windshields, and laser bar code scanners for use in retail stores and supermarkets.

There are numerous prior art methods for coating substrates to improve their performance, e.g. lifetime, abrasion wear resistance and similar properties. For example, consider the case of plastic sunglass lenses or plastic prescription eyewear. Due to the ease of scratching plastic, abrasion-resistant coatings are deposited onto the surface of plastic lenses. These hard outer coatings increase the useful life of the lenses. To make such coatings marketable, the process for depositing these hard coatings must be inexpensive, reliable and reproducible.
Plastic lenses sold into the ophthalmic lens market are largely coated by acrylic and polysiloxane dip-coatings or spin coatings. These coatings significantly improve the abrasion resistance of the lens compared to the uncoated lens. This is particularly true for the case of polycarbonate which is very subject to abrasion. However, improved abrasion resistance of coated lenses is still a major problem in the ophthalmic lens industry. The industrial goal is to obtain plastic lenses which exhibit the same abrasion resistance as glass lenses. Current commercial plastic lenses have abrasion resistance characteristics which are poor compared to optical glass. Therefore, when purchasing lenses, one must choose between glass, which is very abrasion resistant but is heavier, or plastic which is lighter but much less abrasion-resistant.
While glass is roughly 30 times harder than plastic, there are many applications for glass where the lifetime of the product is restricted by the limited abrasion resistance of this material. Such products include architectural glass, analytical instrument windows, automotive windshields, and laser bar code scanners for use in retail stores and supermarkets. For example, the read failure rates of uncoated bar code scanner windows in typical grocery store checkout lanes increase noticeably within a matter of weeks due to damage by impacting cans and bottles.
Various coatings made by techniques other than the wet chemical methods have been suggested for plastic substrates, including lenses for optical products. Most of these coatings are so-called "plasma polymers" which are largely produced by creating a plasma from siloxane precursor gases. The substrates are exposed to the plasma, but they are not biased to cause energetic ion bombardment. The performance of these plasma polymers is often only marginally better than that of the polysiloxane and acrylic spin and dip coatings, and the performance of these coatings does not approach the performance of glass. These films are often quite soft and are not useable as protective coatings except on extremely soft substrates.
Other coating processes have been suggested in which energetic ion bombardment is caused by mounting the substrates on the powered electrode in a radio frequency (RF) plasma system and exposing the parts to the plasma, thereby creating a negative bias on the substrate surface. The resultant coatings are often more abrasion resistant than the "plasma polymers". These plasma systems are not readily scaled to a throughput required for mass production nor are they easily operated in a reproducible, controlled fashion in a production environment. The RF plasma process also suffers in that the deposition process, and the properties of the resultant coating are dependent on whether the substrate to be coated is an electrical conductor or insulator. Furthermore, if the substrate is an insulator, the thickness of the substrate strongly influences the deposition process energetics and the properties of the resultant coating. This means that for production coating of insulating substrates of different size and shape, e.g. plastic lenses, it may be necessary to have different coating processes for each type of substrate. This reduces the flexibility of the process for use in production. Additionally, systems with large area electrodes are not widely available. For example, there are no readily available commercial parallel plate RF deposition systems having large electrodes, i.e. at least one meter in diameter.
The following references illustrate prior art coating processes in which plasmas are used in direct contact with the surface of the substrate:
Rzad et. al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,156,882, describe a method of preparing a transparent plastic article having an improved protective stratum thereon. The protective stratum is deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD).
Balian et. al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,206,060, describe a process and device for depositing thin layers on a substrate using a plasma chemical vapor deposition (PCVD) technique. The substrate must be made conductive, and is used as an electrode in the PCVD process.
Reed et. al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,051,308, describe an abrasion-resistant article and a method for producing the same. The article includes a plastic substrate and a gradational coating applied by a PECVD process.
Devins et. al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,842,941, also describe an abrasion-resistant article and a method for making the same. The article includes a polycarbonate substrate, an interfacial layer of an adherent resinous composition on the substrate, and an abrasion-resistant layer applied on top of the interfacial layer by PECVD.
Brochot et. al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,093,153 describe a coated object comprising a glass substrate coated with an organomineral film by a PECVD process.
Kubacki, U.S. Pat. No. 4,096,315, describes a low-temperature plasma polymerization process for coating an optical plastic substrate with a single layer coating for the purpose of improving the durability of the plastic.
Enke et. al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,762,730, describe a PECVD process for producing a transparent protective coating on a plastic optical substrate surface.
All of the prior art plasma deposition methods for application of wear and abrasion-resistant coatings suffer from one or more of the following deficiencies and shortcomings:
(1) difficulty in pre-cleaning of substrates prior to deposition; PA1 (2) adhesion of the protective, abrasion-resistant coating; PA1 (3) permeation of the coatings by water vapor and oxygen; PA1 (4) fabrication of coherent, dense coatings; PA1 (5) control of coating properties during a deposition run and batch-to-batch variation of coating characteristics; PA1 (6) coating thickness control and reproducibility of thickness; PA1 (7) part-to-part and batch-to-batch control of coating uniformity; PA1 (8) difficulty in coating substrates of complex geometry or configuration; and PA1 (9) production readiness and ability to scale-up the deposition process for mass production.
These shortcomings are highlighted in the following review of the two preferred prior art methods for deposition of abrasion-resistant coatings on plastic optical substrates: plasma polymerization and biased RF plasma deposition.
The first problem encountered by both methods is the difficulty in pre-cleaning the substrates prior to deposition of the adhesion layer or abrasion-resistant film. Typically substrates are pre-cleaned in an inert gas or glow discharge (plasma) prior to deposition. This pre-cleaning technique suffers from low cleaning rate, and re-contamination of the substrate by sputtered contaminants which are deposited back onto the substrate.
One of the key requirements for a protective coating on a variety of substrates, including optics, is the need to provide a barrier to moisture, oxygen, and other environmental elements. This requires formation of a coating structure with optimal atom packing density. This atom packing density is maximized by a high degree of ion bombardment during film growth, which is not easily attainable or optimized by the plasma polymerization methods of the prior art.
Regarding the control of the coating properties within a single deposition run, and from batch-to-batch, it is well known that control is difficult with the plasma deposition methods. For the case of deposition of electrically insulating coatings on electrically conductive substrates by the biased RF plasma technique, it is known that as the deposited coating thickness increases, there will be a gradual decrease of the surface bias on the growing film; see Meyerson et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,647,494, column 6, line 67 through column 7, line 3. This decrease results in a change in the properties of the deposited coating, i.e. hardness, stress and hydrogen concentration.
Because the size and shape of the particular part to be coated, and its method of fixturing influence the plasma uniformity and plasma density around the part, it is difficult to predict and control deposition thickness uniformity across multiple parts coated within a single coating run using the plasma deposition methods of the prior art.
While the plasma deposition methods offer high deposition rates, it is difficult to reproducibly control deposition rate, deposition thickness and deposition uniformity across large areas with plasma deposition methods. Because of the interdependence of process variables such as pressure, gas flow rate, power, and substrate bias, accurate control of deposition thickness is difficult. Thus, it is very difficult to manufacture coating layers with thickness less than 0.1 micron, and with run-to-run thickness variation of less than approximately 10%. This is a significant disadvantage of the plasma deposition techniques of the prior art for the deposition of optical coatings, especially those requiring the use of multiple, thin layers of varying refractive index, such as antireflection coatings.
Finally, because of the sensitivity of the plasma deposition processes to substrate geometry, it is often impossible to coat parts of complex geometry or configuration. Examples of complex geometry include optical lenses with high corrective power which may be edged to a variety of shapes, industrial molds used to fabricate plastic parts, and other industrial machine parts, including shafts, gears, bearings, and the like. The current industrial trend is to fabricate many of these industrial machine parts from electrically insulating plastics and ceramics. These electrically insulating industrial machine parts are especially difficult to coat uniformly by the plasma deposition methods.
All of the difficulties above combine to make mass production of protective, abrasion-resistant coatings on a variety of substrates by the plasma deposition processes of the prior art very problematic indeed. Clearly, an improved method for flexible, reproducible, and high quality mass production of abrasion-resistant coatings has long been sought.
Ion beam etching and deposition of many materials is known in the prior art. For example, ion milling is commonly used in semiconductor processing. Ion beam systems typically are more controllable than RF plasma systems in that the deposition and etching process parameters, e.g. plasma potential, substrate bias, plasma current, gas flows and chamber pressures are not as strongly coupled as they are in the RF plasma process. This results in a wider process window and better control for ion beam processing, as compared to plasma processing. Additionally, ion beam deposition equipment is available which is capable of processing in excess of 1000 square inches of substrate material per batch. It is believed that RF equipment is not commercially available which approaches this level of scale. The combination of the higher degree of control for ion beam processing and the ability to scale to large areas allows for a process which is more easily moved into production and is more robust. However, one major disadvantage to prior art ion beam deposition processes, e.g. for deposition of DLC films, is their relatively low deposition rate which leads to long production times for thick coatings, and hence high production cost.
In an article published in Clinical Materials, Vol. 12, pages 237-244 (1993), G. Dearnaley describes a process in which low vapor pressure materials are condensed on the surface of the article to be coated and simultaneously bombarded by a high energy nitrogen ion beam. In this case, the ion energy required is greater than 10 kV. These large voltages are difficult to control and become problematic in a production environment. In addition, the coatings manufactured by this method are opaque and not useable for applications where a transparent coated product is required.
Kimock, et al., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,135,808, 5,190,807, 5,268,217 disclose direct ion beam deposition processes using a hydrocarbon gas or carbon vapor for producing abrasion wear resistant products comprising substrates with hard outer coatings of substantially optically transparent diamond-like carbon (DLC) useful for commercial articles such as optical lenses, sunglass lenses, and bar code scanner windows.

Ion beam process for deposition of highly wear-resistant optical coatings


Aqueous ink for ink-jet recording which contains at least a water-insoluble coloring matter, water and a resin as main components and which takes the form of an emulsion, in which the coloring matter is at least one yellow hue coloring matter selected from the group consisting of a quinophthalone compound represented by the formula (1);

Aqueous ink has been ordinarily used as ink for recording in ink-jet recording system. Aqueous ink basically comprises a coloring matter, water and an organic solvent, and it contains water as a main solvent in consideration of an odor and a safety to human bodies and surroundings.
Further, as a coloring matter, water-soluble dyes such as acid dyes, basic dyes, reactive dyes and direct dyes are generally used.
With respect to ink for ink-jet recording and a coloring matter, the following various characteristics are required.
That is:
(1) Properties of ink, such as a viscosity, a surface tension, a specific conductivity, a density and pH are appropriate.
(2) A long-term storage stability of ink is good.
(3) A dissolution stability of a dissolution component is so high that clogging of a nozzle does not occur.
(4) A quick-drying property in a recording material is good.
(5) A recorded image is vivid, and light resistance and water resistance are good.
However, a coloring matter and ink that satisfy all these characteristics have not yet been provided.
Especially, in ordinary aqueous ink, water-soluble dyes are used. Accordingly, when water is spilled on a recorded image, a dye is eluted, and a recorded image is blotted therewith or disappeared. Thus, it is much problematic in a water resistance.
At present, various studies have been made upon focussing on the improvement of the water resistance.
For example, a method in which an organic solvent or a resin is added to ink using a pigment or an oil-soluble dye as a coloring matter or aqueous ink using a water-soluble dye has been studied. However, in case of using a pigment, there were problems that a dispersion stability was bad and a storage stability was poor, inducing clogging of a nozzle. In case of using an oil-soluble dye, an organic solvent was used, posing a problem of an environmental sanitation such as an odor, and ink blotting notably occurred, decreasing qualities of an image. Moreover, even in case of using ink containing additives, there were problems that a storage stability was poor, clogging of a nozzle occurred, and ink was not jetted well because a viscosity of ink was increased.
Recently, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 340835/1994 describes ink using an aqueous dispersion containing a polyester resin colored with a dye or a pigment as a disperse phase. However, a pigment still suffers from these problems. Since a dye is also poor in a compatibility with a resin, it also involves such problems that a precipitate appears in ink, a storage stability is poor and clogging of a nozzle occurs.
As stated above, the characteristics of ink used in the ink-jet recording system in particular are greatly influenced by the characteristics intrinsic to the coloring matter. Thus, the discovery of a coloring matter that satisfies these conditions is quite important.
An object of the present invention is to provide a coloring matter which is excellent in solubility into an organic solvent, water resistance, light resistance and compatibility with a resin in particular.
Another object of the present invention is to provide aqueous yellow hue ink for ink-jet recording using the same, which is excellent in water resistance, light resistance and storage stability, and which is most suited for ink-jet recording system.

Yellow hue compound and aqueous ink for ink-jet recording system using the same

Abstract: and a pyridone azo compound represented by the formula (2);

Abstract: The ink is ink for ink-jet recording having excellent light resistance and storage stability, and enables formation of a high quality image without blotting, and obtained recording image is excellent in water resistance as ink for ink-jet recording.


Embodiments of the present invention provide an automated network security system for dynamically managing network security rules. The system uses a cognitive engine to capture network traffic and analyze behavioral data about said network traffic. Based on analysis of the behavioral data, the system may identify one or more vulnerabilities in the network security system and determine one or more changes to the network security rules to remedy the one or more vulnerabilities. The system further uses a robotic process automation system to test and simulate the one or more changes.

Network security systems require frequent updates to the set of rules that manage the flow of network traffic between an internal and external network. Updating said network security systems is a time-consuming and laborious process. In many cases, updates to a network security system occur only after vulnerabilities in the network security system have been exposed. Utilizing a cognitive engine and a robotic process automation system to identify vulnerabilities, test updated rules, and update the network security system overcomes these problems.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Network security system with cognitive engine for dynamic automation


A detection arrangement for detecting a wear status of a chopping knife arrangement of a chopping device provided for processing a product flow, wherein the chopping device has a revolving chopping drum receiving the chopping knife arrangement and at least one shear bar which cooperates with the chopping knives, with a sensor arrangement which has a magnetic exciter arrangement and a flux conducting device magnetically coupled thereto. The sensor arrangement provides a pole arrangement which forms at least one magnetic pole with a pole surface for conducting magnetic flux, wherein at least a portion of the chopping knife passes the pole arrangement during a rotation of the chopping drum. A voltage induced when a chopping knife arrangement passes the sensor arrangement forms the measured magnetic value, which is used by the evaluation unit to determine the state of wear of the chopping knife arrangement.

The invention is directed to a device for detecting the wear status of a chopping knife arrangement of a chopping device provided for processing a product flow.
A generic sensor arrangement which detects the revolving knives of a chopping drum arrangement by means of inductive sensors and derives a wear status of the chopping knives from the determined magnetic flux is known from DE 10 2017 103 537. Wear is determined from the induced voltage.
In addition, a similar cutting sharpness detection device is known, inter alia, from EP 1 522 214. In this case, optical sensors such as camera systems, lasers and near infrared sensors are used as detection devices.
Optical sensors have the problem particularly that the cutting edge analysis is made more difficult by the high revolving speeds of the chopping knives, which often leads to poor-quality analysis results. On the other hand, the analysis of an induced voltage is influenced appreciably less by the high revolving speeds of the chopping knives to be detected. However, the evaluating process which is exclusively directed to the induced voltage does not always lead to a sufficiently accurate estimation of a wear status.

CLAAS Selbstfahrende Erntemaschinen GmbH


Various embodiments of the present invention provide methods, apparatuses, systems, computing devices, and/or the like that are configured to enable effective and efficient aggregate user-document interaction monitoring in collaborative document server systems. For example, certain embodiments of the present invention provide methods, apparatuses, systems, computing devices, and/or the like that are configured to perform aggregate user-document interaction monitoring in collaborative document server systems using one or more of collaborative document graph-based user interfaces, collaborative document graph-based interface objects, edge-wise visual effect objects, collaborative document node objects, collaborative document node elements, document transition edge objects, and document transition edge elements.

Various methods, apparatuses, and systems are configured to provide techniques for aggregate user-document interaction monitoring in collaborative document server systems. Applicant has identified many deficiencies and problems associated with existing methods, apparatuses, and systems for aggregate user-document interaction monitoring in collaborative document server systems. Through applied effort, ingenuity, and innovation, these identified deficiencies and problems have been solved by developing solutions that are in accordance with the embodiments of the present invention, many examples of which are described in detail herein.

Collaborative document graph-based user interfaces


The invention relates to a method for stopping a glass panel conveyed from a furnace into a tempering station or a bending and tempering station. In the method, a glass panel is carried upon rolls and pressed by means of overhead press rollers, as the conveying speed of the rollers is decelerated for stopping the glass panel. Over a deceleration distance, the rate of deceleration is within the range of 0.6-3 m/s.sup.2. By virtue of the overhead press rollers, the rate of deceleration can be increased, such that the glass exit speed from a furnace can be raised and, at the same time, the glass cooling time can be minimized prior to a tempering process.

In prior known methods, if the glass has an exit speed from a furnace of more than 800 mm/s, the deceleration distance will be more than 640 mm and the deceleration time 1.6 seconds or more. This is due to the fact that the deceleration of glass carried on rolls must be maintained at or below 0.5 m/s.sup.2, otherwise slippage occurs between the glass and the rolls, resulting in marks on the glass. Since the conveyance and deceleration sequence becomes relatively long, typically in excess of 2 seconds, the leading edge of the glass will have time to cool before bending and/or tempering can be started. The cooling can be offset by overheating the glass in the furnace, but the consequence of overheating is an increased susceptibility to various optical flaws.

Method for stopping a glass panel conveyed from a furnace into a tempering station or a bending and tempering station


A method for providing real-time individualized customer support simultaneously to a plurality of customers in a chat-room environment is disclosed. The method monitors the content of chats or conversations between service representatives and customers to automatically formulate product and service offerings and other services to customers in response to the chat content.

Various methods exist for providing support to customers and purchasers of products and services. The types of support typically required by customers include questions about the operation or use of a product or service, questions about a recent or outstanding bill, complaints about a service or product, payment of outstanding bills, and inquiries regarding additional services or products. Customers needing support want a system that is easy to use, fast, reliable, individualized, and personal.
Phone support methods provide customers with individualized, one-on-one attention; however, a customer service representative must be dedicated to each customer inquiry, creating the need for a significant number of customer service representatives and the potential for substantial delays in service when customers are placed on hold. Even after completion of a service call, substantial service representative time is required to generate reports or logs of the service call and to handle any follow-up work. In addition, phone support systems often require customers to step through a multitude of tedious and confusing sorting prompts.
Support methods utilizing telefacsimile responses to customer inquiries have lower demands on customer service representative time and can easily handle frequently asked questions and provide detailed instructions. Such methods, however, are not easy to use and often require the customer to have a relatively detailed understanding of the problem. In addition, these methods are not fast and are not individualized.
Support methods utilizing the internet and e-mail provide similar types of benefits and challenges. E-mail allows a customer to type in the request in any form, and a customer service representative interprets the request and provides the necessary response. Unfortunately, significant delays between an e-mail request and an e-mail response are typical. On-line chats provide a direct interface with a service representative, but still require a larger number of dedicated service representatives and significant post-session follow-up by the service representative.
A customer support method is needed that can easily and rapidly provide support to customers for all types of customer requests. This system would preferably maximize the individualized attention to each customer while minimizing the time demands on each customer service representative. In addition, the customer support method should take advantage of this time spent interacting with existing customers to illustrate and offer additional services and products to these customers.


The present disclosure relates to dosage forms and methods that enhance the absorption of minocycline in the gastrointestinal tract and thereby enhance bioavailability of the minocycline, and further provides methods of using these dosage forms for the treatment of conditions such as acne.

Minocycline, when administered in currently available dosage forms has various side effects. These side effects include those affecting the gastrointestinal tract, such as reflux, and vestibular side effects or symptoms such as vertigo, dizziness, ear and labyrinth disorders, and nausea. It would therefore be desirable to develop a dosage form that regulates the delivery and/or absorption of minocycline so that the incidence of side effects in human patients is reduced or eliminated without compromising therapeutic efficacy.

Gastroretentive dosage forms for minocycline


A method and a system of generating a video image sequence. According to one embodiment, the method includes positioning a plurality of camera systems relative to a scene such that the camera systems define a gross trajectory. The method further includes transforming images from the camera systems to superimpose a secondary induced motion on the gross trajectory. And the method includes displaying the transformed images in sequence corresponding to the position of the corresponding camera systems along the gross trajectory.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to image and video processing.
2. Description of the Background
For applications such as advertising, sports and entertainment, it is often desirable to take a set of images of an object from a large number of cameras that surround the object, and then play back those images in sequence to create an effect as if one is flying around the object. This special effect is sometimes referred to as the "fly-around" effect. A subset of the fly-around effect is when the displayed images are all from the same instant in time; this is sometimes referred to as the "3D stop-motion" effect. If the cameras are positioned in a closed-ended configuration, such as a circle or ellipse, the effect is sometimes referred to as the "spin-image" effect.
FIG. 1 illustrates one known technique for realizing this effect. As illustrated in FIG. 1, multiple cameras are set up in a ring, fixated on a single point of interest (PO) in space. Playing back one frame from each camera creates the appearance of spinning around the POI. Furthermore, playing back frames from a single time step, across all cameras, yields the appearance of freezing the action in time while a virtual camera spins around the frozen actor.
The process of taking images for this purpose is tedious and costly. First, all cameras must be aligned with great precision so that their central viewing rays pass through the same POI on the object. Otherwise, the set of images when played back will appear bumpy and jittery. In addition, after the set of images are taken, one may want to alter the POI around which to create the fly-around effect. This typically involves reorienting the cameras and retaking a whole new set of images. These two difficulties are compounded when dealing with an unsupervised moving object or a dynamic scene (rather than an actor following instructions). There may not be time to align all of the cameras to satisfy the condition that all central rays intersect at the POI, and the object motion may not occur again in the same place. It may also not be possible to align some of the cameras with the POI due to constraints on their allowed motions.

System and method for manipulating the point of interest in a sequence of images


The present disclosure describes an implantable medical device utilizing an event-triggered prognostic indicator. The disclosure describes techniques for prognostics and management of implantable medical systems to facilitate continuity of performance of sensing and therapy delivery functions by providing adequate response time to handle emerging issues prior to adverse clinical impacts. In accordance with the present disclosure, event-triggered prognostic indicators facilitate the identification of potential device conditions.

A wide variety of implanted medical devices (IMDs) for delivering a therapy or monitoring a physiologic condition which can employ one or more elongated electrical leads and/or sensors are available. Such IMDs can monitor or deliver therapy to the heart, muscle, nerve, brain, and stomach or other organs.
Examples of such IMDs include implantable cardioverter/defibrillators (ICD), implantable pulse generators (IPG) and pacemaker/cardioverter/defibrillators (PCD) that provide sensing of arrhythmias and programmable staged therapies including pacing regimens and cardioversion energy and defibrillation energy shock regimens in order to terminate a sensed arrhythmia with the most energy efficient and minimally traumatic therapies.
In such IMDs, the integrity of the device is of great importance. The IMDs are desired to be capable of reliable operation and be designed for safety. The implanted IMD are desired to be capable of autonomous operation without active or continuous external monitoring. This is because patients with the IMDs typically resume normal activities of daily life shortly after the implant is performed.
Moreover, the IMDs are desired to consume low power due to the balance needed between device longevity to reduce surgical replacement burden and the miniaturization of the IMDs for comfort and cosmetic reasons. Strict power management constraints are placed on electronics design, and extensive and creative power management and ultra-low power electronic design techniques are desired for the IMDs. This focus precludes the use of many commercially available prognostic sensors, and limits the ability to run computationally expensive firmware algorithms for routine prognostic analysis. As a point of reference, various commercially available prognostic sensors consume more power than the entire power budget of an implantable medical device, where the average power consumption in a modern pacemaker is on the order of tens of microwatts.
Many of the conventional solutions employed in IMDs for fault detection have utilized periodic testing that includes measurements of one or more parameters to determine whether the integrity of the IMD is compromised. One of the challenges associated with the conventional solutions is that the periodic measurements may not always detect with the intermittent nature of the various device conditions that may impact the IMD operation. Additionally, the periodic measurements may not identify device conditions expeditiously for effective containment and to prevent error propagation.
Techniques are needed that will support continuous real-time monitoring and identification of device conditions to prevent error propagation that may lead to adverse performance of an IMD.


Arrangements for communication and/or noise attenuation within an aircraft, and aircraft and methods for making aircraft including such arrangements are provided. In one example, an arrangement includes an array of first microphones cooperatively configured to be directed towards a first aircraft operator when disposed in a first cockpit seat to receive a first communication input from the first aircraft operator. An array of first speakers is cooperatively configured to be directed towards the first aircraft operator when disposed in the first cockpit seat to provide a first communication output to the first aircraft operator.

Aircraft cockpit areas in general can be relatively noisy during flight and aircraft operators, e.g., pilots, copilots, and the like, typically wear headsets for communicating in such an environment, for example, with air traffic control, receiving alert messages, or the like. Further, wearing headsets allows the aircraft operators to communicate at normal speaking volume levels that are less likely to be transmitted into the cabin area to help maintain a quiet or un-disturbing environment for the passengers.
However, aircraft operators are flying aircrafts for relatively long periods of time and wearing headsets can become cumbersome and/or uncomfortable over extended periods of time. Further, wearing headsets can make communicating between the pilot and the copilot and/or other aircraft operators somewhat awkward or uncomfortable.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a headset-less arrangement for aircraft operators that facilitates communication at normal or reduced volume levels, and an aircraft and a method for making an aircraft including such an arrangement. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the various embodiments described herein will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background.

Arrangements and methods for enhanced communication on aircraft


An at least second-order active filter circuit includes an operational amplifier (Op) whose frequency response, in conjunction with an RC network (R1, R2, C1, C2), serves to set a predetermined low-pass characteristic. The frequency response of the operational amplifier (Op) forms an integral part of this low-pass characteristic.

The invention relates to the field of active filter circuits, and in particular to an active filter circuit with an operational amplifier which serves to construct higher-order low-pass filters.
Higher-order low-pass filters can be realized by cascading second-order sections or second-order sections and a first-order section without feedback. Such filter circuits avoid the use of inductors, but require an active circuit in the form of an idealized amplifier, which is generally an operational amplifier. With this idealized amplifier, active negative or positive feedback is implemented and the absence of feedback within and outside the respective low-pass filter is ensured.
Various realizations of second-order low-pass filters with operational amplifiers are known including for example, active filter circuits with three operational amplifiers (FIG. 1), active filter circuits with multiple negative feedback (FIG. 2), and active filter circuits with single positive feedback (FIG. 3). All these circuits realize the transfer function of a second-order low-pass filter with a known transfer function that can be expressed as:
                              G                                (            p            )                          =                              v            ′                                1            +                          a              ·                              p                                  ω                  g                                                      +                          b              ·                                                p                  2                                                  ω                  g                  2                                                                                EQ        .                                                    (          1          )                    where    p=Laplace operator    ωg=cutoff frequency of low-pass filter    v′=passband gain of low-pass filter    a=first filter coefficient of transfer function    b=second filter coefficient of transfer function
The dimensionless filter coefficients a and b of the transfer function G(p) are set by choosing appropriate parameters for the respective RC network. With these coefficients and by connecting such low-pass filters, generally filters with different filter coefficients, in series without feedback, filters with predetermined characteristics can be realized. Known examples of different filter types are Bessel, Butterworth, and Chebyshev filters. These filter types differ by the different filter coefficients ai and bi. More detailed explanations can be found, for example, in U. Tietze and Ch. Schenk, "Halbleiter-Schaltungstechnik", 10th Edition, Springer-Verlag, 1993, ISBN 3-540-56184-6, in Chapter 14.1, "Theoretische Grundlagen von Tiefpaβfiltern", pages 391 to 413.
A disadvantage of these known circuits is that at a high cutoff frequency of the low-pass filter, the transfer function of the amplifier may influence the desired transfer function of the low-pass filter by its real frequency and phase characteristics. To avoid this or make the influence negligible, the transit frequency fT of the operational amplifier with negative feedback must be far outside the desired low-pass characteristic. The realization of a high cutoff frequency of the low-pass filter requires a transit frequency of the operational amplifier which is higher than the cutoff frequency of the low-pass filter by at least a factor of 20 to 100, depending on the accuracy required. The high-frequency charge reversal of the respective parasitic or load capacitances involves a high current drain of the operational amplifier. Therefore, the realization of the high transit frequency may not be possible at all.
Therefore, there is a need for an active filter circuit that provides an active low-pass filter with a defined characteristic for relatively high pass frequencies which avoids the disadvantage of the high current drain.

Active filter circuit with operational amplifier


The invention is directed to toothbrushes that include a handle, a neck a head, and a polishing member attached to the head, where the polishing member includes a base proximate the backside of the head and a plurality of projections of sufficient size and shape and disposed in a pattern on the base that are effective to provide polishing of teeth.

Toothbrushes that contain both bristles for brushing teeth and elements for polishing teeth are known. However, designs and configurations of polishing elements used in conventional toothbrushes may not provide sufficient polishing. Therefore, it would be advantageous to provide a toothbrush that not only provides effective brushing and cleaning of teeth, but that also provides enhanced polishing, i.e. removal of extrinsic stains, of teeth. The toothbrushes of the present invention utilize a novel polishing member that provides such enhanced removal of extrinsic stains from teeth.


A DC converter circuit having high reliability is provided. The DC converter circuit includes: an inductor configured to generate electromotive force in accordance with a change in flowing current; a transistor including a gate, a source, and a drain, which is configured to control generation of the electromotive force in the inductor by being on or off; a rectifier in a conducting state when the transistor is off; and a control circuit configured to control on and off of the transistor. The transistor includes an oxide semiconductor layer whose hydrogen concentration is less than or equal to 5×1019 atoms/cm3 as a channel formation layer.

In recent years, a circuit which converts DC voltage at a given value into DC voltage at another value (also referred to as a DC converter circuit or a DC-DC converter) is used in various electronic devices when power supply voltage at a stable value is generated from voltage with large fluctuation or when power supply voltage at a plurality of different values is needed, for example.
As the DC converter circuit, there is a non-isolated DC-DC converter circuit formed using, for example, a coil, a diode, and a transistor (e.g., Patent Document 1). The non-isolated DC-DC converter circuit has advantages of a small circuit area and low production cost.

DC converter circuit and power supply circuit

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


The present invention provides a compound having a glucokinase activating action being useful for prevention or treatment of diabetes mellitus, etc. being represented by the formula (I):

Glucokinase (GK) (ATP: D-hexose 6-phosphotransferase, EC220.127.116.11) is one (hexokinase IV) of the four kinds of hexokinases of mammals. Hexokinase is an enzyme in the first stage of glycolysis system and catalyzes the reaction from glucose to glucose hexaphosphate.
Expression of glucokinase is limited mostly to liver and pancreatic beta cells and plays an important role in sugar metabolism by controlling the rate-determining step of glucose metabolism of those cells. Glucokinases of liver and pancreatic beta cells are different in sequences of N-terminal 15 amino acids as a result of difference in splicings but their enzymatic properties are same. In the three hexokinases (I, II and III) other than glucokinase, their enzymatic activity is saturated at the glucose concentration of not more than 1 mM while Km of glucokinase to glucose is 8 mM which is near the physiological blood sugar level.
Accordingly, from the normal blood sugar level (5 mM), an increase in intracellular glucose metabolism takes place via glucokinase in a mode which is correspondent to changes in blood sugar of postcibal blood sugar increase (10 to 15 mM).
With regard to a compound which is structurally related to the compounds of the present invention, a compound represented by the formula (A)
is, for example, described (refer, for example, to JP-T-2000-501914).
However, the compound represented by the above formula (A) has a methoxy group at 7-position of a quinazoline skeleton but the compound according to the present invention is different from the above in such a respect that it is hydrogen atom or fluorine atom. With regard to a compound where 7-position of a quinazoline skeleton is hydrogen or fluorine atom, there is no specific description therein.
With regard to a compound having a quinazoline skeleton and diabetes mellitus is mentioned as an object disease thereof, a compound represented by the formula (B)
is, for example, described (refer, for example, to JP-T-2002-536414). The compound represented by the above formula (B) is identical with the compound according to the present invention in such a respect that it has a quinazoline skeleton and has a methoxy group at 6-position of a quinazoline ring. However, the compound represented by the formula (B) has a hydroxyl group at 7-position of a quinazoline ring and a group bonding to an amino group bonded to 4-position of a quinazoline ring is different from that of the compound according to the present invention.

Substituted quinazoline or pyridopyrimidine derivative

Abstract: X is nitrogen atom, etc.; Y is oxygen atom, etc.; R1 is an optionally substituted five to six-membered heteroaryl group, etc.; R2 is hydrogen atom or fluorine atom; and ring A is a monocyclic or bicyclic heteroaryl group which may have a substituent represented by the formula (II)]

Abstract: or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof.


A device and method to improve accuracy of a water meter where a fluid is introduced into a valve assembly having an external casing. The fluid contacts a toggle stopper having a shaft, plate, and guides. A calibrated spring positioned around the shaft in contact with the plate assesses if the desired fluid meets a predetermined pressure. If yes, the calibrated spring compresses thereby toggling the plate within the chamber to allow desired fluid to enter the chamber. If no, the calibrated spring remains in an expanded state to seal the valve assembly. Upon such seal, there is an equalizing of both the desired and undesired fluids to the same pressure by decreasing the volume of the undesired fluid, causing the calibrated spring to compress and reopen.

One of the hallmarks of industrialized society is the ability to move large quantities of liquid from a centralized source to a second location—often traversing large distances and complex geography. One example is municipal transport of treated, purified and potable water from a centralized facility to individual residents for consumption. A second example is transporting low temperature liquid natural gas (LNG) from centralized containers to commercial facilities to provide energy. Yet a third example is moving crude oil through various pipelines in remote and desolate areas to coastal ports for transport via tanker for refining into petroleum.
In each of the aforementioned examples, it becomes crucial to accurately measure the volumetric quantity of fluid flowing through these various conduits, tubes and pipelines. This is because the volume transported and ultimately received by the consumer directly correlates to the price charged for the fluid. In most cases, this volume is gauged through a meter placed within the stream of the passing fluid—rather than measuring an end-filled reservoir.
As previously discussed, access to a municipal water supply represents one of the most important examples of transport of large quantities of fluid (here, water) from a centralized source to various end users. Current statistics suggest that over three and one-half billion people throughout the world have access to a centralized water supply for domestic and commercial use. This water supply is accomplished through a series of conduits, pipes and fittings. In most cases, the centralized facility—usually a public utility—controls the supply, delivery, purification and processing of the water being delivered. Often, this water is delivered to these end users with a specific level of pressure to provide a sufficient flow rate for use in a variety of different applications. Typically, the specific water pressure delivered by most centralized municipal water generally ranges from 30 to 85 psi.
Measuring and gauging the actual amount of water consumed from a municipal water authority by a residence currently is unfortunately more of an art than science. Most public utilities position individual water meters at each residential and commercial facility that draw from the centralized offerings of potable water. These water meters are measured each month either manually—or more recently through automated systems—to bill each consumer for water drawn and used from the municipal water authority. Accordingly, most measurement of water drawn by end users occurs generally at the point of delivery of the fluid.
Despite advances in civil engineering, which include pre-fabricated conduits for transport of treated water, there exist several drawbacks that impede the accurate measurement of water drawn by consumers. Many of these drawbacks are due to air being introduced within the various conduits that form the water supply lines. The quantity of this air varies from small air bubbles caused by cracks, holes or breaches within the conduits, to larger air pockets resulting during repair and/or maintenance of the water supply lines. In addition, damage to the water supply lines, often caused by natural disaster, accident or similar event can also trigger introduction of quantities of air.
Regardless of the cause, these air bubbles or air pockets will travel along the path of water flow within the water supply lines and will ultimately be delivered to the residential or commercial facility. As a result, the introduction of this air into the water supply line will be measured by the water meter and charged to the corresponding facility as drawn/used water. This is due to the fact that most, if not all, conventional water meters are not structured to distinguish between air flow and water flow passing therethrough. Put another way, a water meter would read (and correspondingly bill) passage of five liters of water and one liter of air as six liters of water. As a result, accidents or degrading of municipal water supply lines—the root of which is ultimately the responsibility of the public utility—will lead to introduction of air, higher meter readings and unfortunately higher billings to the end user.
Another factor that further complicates this issue is that most municipalities (or in the alternative states) have enacted ordinances or other laws, which prohibit tampering or altering convention water meters. As such, end users cannot place any type of venting device to remove trapped air within the water supply line just prior to the water meter—without violating some form of local law. This is particularly frustrating as it is the underlying municipality that is often the cause of this air within the water supply lines—a predicament that is ultimately paid for by the consumer.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art of water distribution for an appropriate way to eliminate the charging of under users/consumers of public utilities for the passage of air through a water meter prior to being drawn into a domestic or commercial facility. Put another way, there is a need for an effective device—placed subsequent to the water meter but prior to the underlying facility—that will reduce a conventional water meter from charging for air passing through the water supply. Moreover, such device should be robust, simply designed and which functions to enhance rather than alter the functionality of the water meter. Such a device should not solely be used for improving the accuracy of water meter readings, but could also be used to properly measure other fluid flows such as liquid natural gas, crude oil and/or petroleum passing through a conduit.

Accuracy enhancing valve assembly and method

MICROFLOW, LLC, a Delaware Limited Liability Company


In a servo writer for writing servo data on a magnetic disk medium of a large-capacity flexible disk using a magnetic head, the servo writer includes a direct-acting head carriage for supporting the magnetic head. The direct-acting head carriage is used in a high-density type flexible disk drive for carrying out data recoding and reproducing operations to and from the magnetic disk medium of the large-capacity flexible disk. A connection rod integrates the direct-acting head carriage with an actuator of the servo writer.

This invention relates to a method of writing servo data on a magnetic disk medium such as a large-capacity flexible or floppy disk by a magnetic head and a servo writer for the large-capacity flexible or floppy disk.
As is well known in the art, a flexible or floppy disk drive (which may be abbreviated to "FDD") is a device for carrying out data recording and reproducing operations to and from a magnetic disk medium such as a flexible or floppy disk (which may be abbreviated to "FD") inserted therein. In recent years, FDs have been more and more improved to have a greater capacity. Specifically, development has been made of FDs having a storage capacity of 128 Mbytes (which may be called large-capacity FDs) in contrast with FDs having a storage capacity of 1 Mbyte or 2 Mbytes (which may be called small-capacity FDs). Following such development, the FDDs have also improved to accept the large-capacity FDs for data recording and reproducing operations to and from the magnetic disk media of the large-capacity FDs.
Throughout the present specification, FDDs capable of recording/reproducing data for magnetic disk media of the large-capacity FDs alone will be referred to as high-density exclusive type FDDs. On the other hand, FDDs capable of recording/reproducing data for magnetic disk media of the small-capacity FDs alone will be called low-density exclusive type FDDs. Furthermore, FDDs capable of recording/reproducing data for magnetic disk media of both the large-capacity and the small-capacity FDs will be called high-density/low-density compatible type FDDs. In addition, the high-density exclusive type FDDs and the high-density/low-density compatible type FDDs will collectively be called high-density type FDDs.
The low-density exclusive type FDD and the high-density type FDD are different in mechanism from each other in several respects, one of which will presently be described. In either FDD, a magnetic head is supported by a head carriage which is driven by a drive arrangement to move in a predetermined radial direction with respect to the magnetic disk medium of the FD inserted in the FDD. The difference resides in the structure of the drive arrangement. More specifically, the low-density exclusive type FDD uses a stepping motor as the drive arrangement. On the other hand, the high-density type FDD uses a linear motor such as a voice coil motor (which may be abbreviated to "VCM") as the drive arrangement.
Now, description will be made of the voice coil motor used as the drive arrangement in the high-density type FDD. The voice coil motor comprises a voice coil and a magnetic circuit. The voice coil is disposed on the head carriage at a rear side and is wound around a drive axis extending in parallel to the predetermined radial direction. The magnetic circuit generates a magnetic field in a direction intersecting that of an electric current flowing through the voice coil. With this structure, by causing the electric current to flow through the voice coil in a direction intersecting that of the magnetic field generated by the magnetic circuit, a drive force occurs in a direction extending to the drive axis on the basis of interaction of the electric current with the magnetic field. The drive force causes the voice coil motor to move the head carriage in the predetermined radial direction. Throughout the present specification, the head carriage driven linearly by such a linear motor will be called a direct-acting head carriage.
In the meanwhile, the large-capacity FD generally has an external configuration which is substantially identical with that of the small-capacity FD. Specifically, both of the large-capacity and the small-capacity FDs have a flat rectangular shape with a width of 90 mm, a length of 94 mm, and a thickness of 3.3 mm in the case of a 3.5-inch type FD. As is well known in the art, the FD comprises a disk-shaped magnetic disk medium covered with a case which is called a shell. The case consists of an upper case and a lower case with the magnetic disk medium sandwiched therebetween. The upper and the lower cases have upper and lower openings, respectively. The magnetic disk medium of the FD is accessed by upper and lower magnetic heads via the upper and the lower openings. The magnetic disk medium of the FD has both sides on which a plurality of tracks are concentrically disposed along a radial direction. The magnetic disk medium of the large-capacity FD has a track width (track pitch) which is narrower than that of the magnetic disk medium of the small-capacity FD. Inasmuch as the magnetic disk medium of the large-capacity FD has a narrower track width (track pitch), servo data for position detection is preliminarily written on the magnetic disk medium of the small-capacity FD.
As is well known in the art, the small-capacity FD is sold in two forms as follows. In a first form, the small-capacity FD is sold with an unformatted, unitialized disk medium. In a second form, the small-capacity FD is sold with a formatted disk medium whereby an unformatted disk medium is formatted by a formatter. On buying the small-capacity FD with the unformatted disk medium, a user carries out writing/reading of data in/from the magnetic disk medium after the unformatted disk medium is initialized or formatted. On the other hand, on buying the small-capacity FD with the formatted disk medium, a user can immediately carry out writing/reading of data in/from the magnetic disk medium without initialization or formatting.
In contrast with this, the large-capacity FD is sold in two forms as follows. In a first forms, the large-capacity FD is sold with a servo-formatted disk medium whereby an unformatted disk medium is servo-formatted by a servo writer (or servo data is written in the unformatted disk medium). In a second form, the large-capacity FD is sold with a data-formatted disk medium whereby the servo-formatted disk medium is data-formatted by a formatter. On buying the large-capacity FD with the servo-formatted disk medium, a user carries out writing/reading of data in/from the magnetic disk medium after the servo-formatted disk medium is data-formatted by the formatter. On the other hand, on buying the large-capacity FD with the data-formatted disk medium, a user can immediately carry out writing/reading of data in/from the magnetic disk medium without data-formatting. In servo-format using the servo writer, the servo writer constructs the tracks on the unformatted disk medium at a track pitch of about 10 .mu.m, partitions each track into a plurality of sectors, and writes position information for the tracks and the sectors on the magnetic disk medium. The servo writer may be called a servo track writer.
In order to write the servo data on the unformatted disk medium of the large-capacity FD, a conventional servo writer uses, as a drive mechanism, a head carriage into which a head gimbal assembly (HGA) used in a hard disk drive (HDD) is modified and writes the serve data on the magnetic disk medium by the magnetic head with a load/unload mechanism for the magnetic head set outside. The unformatted disk medium is rotatably supported by a spindle via an air bearing. The conventional servo writer can directly write the servo data on the unformatted disk medium without the case (shell).
As is well known in the art, in the hard disk drive, the magnetic head is supported by a supporting spring (load arm) in a suspension fashion. The magnetic head consists of a core for recording information on a hard magnetic disk medium of a hard disk and a slider for having the core surface with an extremely narrow gap (which is called a spacing) left between the hard magnetic disk medium and the core. Such a magnetic head is called a monolithic head. In the hard disk drive, it is not presumed that a recording medium moves up and down on rotating of the recording medium. This is because the hard magnetic disk medium is used as the recording medium for the hard disk drive.
It is assumed that the recording medium presents flexiblity like the flexible magnetic disk medium of the flexible disk. In the above-mentioned supporting structure (the head gimbal assembly) for magnetic heads in the hard disk drive, a position of a pair of upper and lower magnetic heads shifts from a desired track position on the recording medium. In other words, in a case where the head carriage for the servo writer is one into which the head gimbal assembly used in the hard disk drive is modified, it is very difficult to select and adjust the magnetic heads because of adverse effect of balance of the pair of upper and lower magnetic heads. A yield factor in the magnetic head is degraded and the magnetic head becomes expensive. When a load of the head gimbal assembly is not balanced, modulation occurs due to corrugation of the flexible magnetic disk medium. As a result, it is impossible to write the servo data on the flexible magnetic disk medium.
Furthermore, inasmuch as the head gimbal assembly is particularly processed to enable loading and unloading, the rigidity of a connection rod for mounting the head gimbal assembly must be improved and this results in degraded mechanical characteristics of the serve writer from the point of view of mass.

Servo writer for a large capacity floppy disk having an integrated direct-acting head carriage and actuator


A low noise, high gain-bandwidth preamplifier is formed which employs positive, capacitive feedback to compensate the frequency response of the amplifier for an applied input capacitance. The circuit includes a differential amplifier circuit with conventional resistive, negative feedback. The circuit further includes a pair of compensating capacitors coupled across the amplifier, providing positive feedback which compensates for an applied input capacitance. The preamplifier circuit provides a high gain-bandwidth along with enhanced noise performance.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to signal amplifiers and, more particularly, to a low noise transimpedance preamplifier circuit employing capacitive feedback to compensate for an undesired bandwidth roll-off.
2. Description of the Related Art
Low noise preamplifier circuits are commonly used in instrumentation and communication applications to provide signal gain with minimal added noise, thus maintaining a high signal-to-noise ratio. The smaller the desired signal which is applied to the amplifier, the more critical it is that the signal-to-noise ratio is properly maintained.
A typical preamplifier circuit for use in an optical receiver circuit front end is illustrated in FIG. 1. Referring to FIG. 1, a photodetector 10 is coupled to an input of an amplifier circuit 12. The photodetector 10 includes a photodiode 10a having an associated parasitic capacitance 10b. The value of the parasitic capacitance 10b is proportional to the size of the photodetector 10. When connected to the preamplifier circuit, the capacitor 10b creates a loading effect which limits the frequency response of the preamplifier circuit.
The circuit of FIG. 1 includes a resistor 14, which is connected across the amplifier circuit 12 from the input to the output. In transimpedance amplifiers, the resistor 14 is referred to as a transimpedance resistance and, in part, determines the gain and noise properties of the preamplifier circuit 12. By reducing the value of the resistor 14, the loading effects of capacitor 10b can be reduced. However, reducing the value of the transimpedance resistor 14 also results in increased noise which reduces the signal-to-noise ratio, and therefore, the sensitivity, of the preamplifier circuit 12.
To avoid the undesired effects associated with reducing the transimpedance resistor 14, other circuits have been used which employ post-amplification equalization. Such circuit topologies are generally referred to as high-impedance amplifiers, or integrating front end amplifiers. These circuits employ a very high impedance input circuit which, when combined with an input capacitor such as 10b, results in an integration function. The combination of the high input impedance and parasitic capacitor 10b severely limits the frequency response of these amplifiers. Thus, an equalization circuit must be employed after the integrating amplifier in order to restore the required frequency response. In order to be effective, the time constants of the equalization circuit must be precisely selected and maintained. Therefore, this technique is complicated and expensive to implement, therefore, rendering it prohibitive for many applications.
Accordingly, there remains a need for a low noise preamplifier circuit which employs a simple circuit topology to compensate the frequency response of the amplifier in the presence of an applied input capacitance.

Low noise, bandwidth compensated transimpedance amplifier

International Business Machines Corporation


A plasma polymerization method of preparing an electrochemical cell wherein the composite electrode material adheres to the current collector to create good electrical contact is provided. The electrode/current collector comprises a current collector having a layer of electrically conductive polymeric adhesive material on at least one surface of the current collector and either a composite cathode and composite anode, wherein the layer of polymeric adhesive material is positioned between the current collector and composite electrode. The composite electrode remains substantially and permanently attached to the electrically conductive polymeric adhesive material layer on the surface(s) of the current collector during the life of the electrochemical cell or battery.

Non-aqueous lithium ion electrochemical cells typically include an anode, a lithium electrolyte prepared from a lithium salt dissolved in one or more organic solvents and a cathode of an electrochemically active material, typically an insertion compound. During discharge, lithium ions from the anode pass through the liquid electrolyte to the electrochemically active material of the cathode where the ions are taken up with the simultaneous release of electrical energy. During charging, the flow of ions is reversed so that lithium ions pass from the electrochemically active cathode material through the electrolyte and are plated back onto the lithium anode.
Recently, the lithium metal anode has been replaced with a carbon anode such as coke or graphite intercalated with lithium ions to form Li.sub.x C. In operation of the cell, lithium ion passes from the carbon through the electrolyte to the cathode where it is taken up just as in a cell with a metallic lithium anode. During recharge, the lithium ion is transferred back to the anode where it reintercalates into the carbon. Because no metallic lithium is present in the cell, melting of the anode does not occur even under abuse conditions. Also, because lithium is reincorporated into the anode by intercalation rather than by plating, dendritic and spongy lithium growth does not occur.
Composite electrodes refer to cathodes and anodes wherein the cathode is comprised of materials other than compatible cathodic materials and the anode is comprised of materials other than compatible anodic materials. Typically, the composite electrode contains a polymer which acts to bind the composite materials together. Composite electrodes are well known in the art. For example, a composite cathode can comprise a compatible cathodic material, a conductive material, and a polymeric binder. Similarly, for example, a composite anode can comprise a compatible intercalation anodic material and a polymeric binder.
In order to enhance the overall current produced by solid or liquid batteries, it is conventional to employ several electrochemical cells in a battery. When so employed, the current from each of the cells is accumulated so that the total current generated by the battery is roughly the sum of the current generated from each of the individual electrochemical cells employed in the battery. One method for accumulating the current from individual electrochemical cells employs a current collector that is attached to the cathode or the anode of the electrochemical cell. Typically, the current collector is a metal foil or grid or a conductive plastic which is coupled to other current collectors in the battery so that the current generated by each cell is collected and accumulated over all of the cells. Current collectors are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,925,752, 5,011,501, 5,441,830 and 5,464,707. Thus, the total current generated by the battery is a summation of the current generated by each of the electrochemical cells employed in the battery minus whatever current is lost due to resistance in the current collector. To minimize resistance, a large contact surface area between the current collector and the electrode is employed. Notwithstanding the benefits of using current collectors in electrochemical cells, metal current collectors often do not adhere to electrodes. This inevitably reduces the performance of the cell and battery.

Methods for coating current collector with polymeric adhesives


A field winding type synchronous motor comprises a stator, a rotor with field windings, a brushless exciter, and a rectification circuit rectifying an output of the brushless exciter. A first circuit in parallel with the field windings includes a discharge resistor and a first switching device with a backward diode. The discharge resistor and the first switching device are connected in series. A second switching device is provided in one of the DC lines connecting the first circuit and the rectification circuit. The first switching device is controlled by a potential obtained by resistor dividing of an induced voltage in the field windings and a connection from the potential via a diode to anode adjacent to the rectification circuit on the one of the DC lines with the second switching device thereon. The second switching device is closed in a synchronous speed.

A field winding type synchronous motor is a synchronous machine and several methods of starting it up are known.
A typical example is a method using an inverter. The method using an inverter makes it easy to start a field winding type synchronous motor, because the motor revolving speed can be adjusted to a variable speed when the motor is started. However, in a case where there is no need for variable speed motor run after the motor is put into synchronization with an electric power system, the inverter would be used only when the motor is started and, thus, the initial cost for the inverter and its installation or the like would become an excessive burden.
As a method of starting up such motor without using an inverter, there is a direct online startup method (DOL startup). DOL startup is a startup method similar to full voltage startup of an induction motor. Despite the synchronous motor, DOL startup starts up such motor by taking advantage of the characteristics of an induction motor only when starting up it. In the field winding type synchronous motor, usually, rotor's field windings are excited by a DC current sourced from an AC brushless exciter. DOL startup makes the field windings disconnected from the AC brushless exciter and puts the field windings in a short-circuited state when the motor is started, in order to gain the characteristics of an induction motor. Besides, a discharge resistor DR is connected to a short-circuited circuit in order to reduce a startup current.
However, the discharge resistor DR is a device that is needed only when the motor is started and, inversely, comes to create a loss when the motor is running steadily at a synchronous speed, which results in a decrease in the efficiency of the motor. For this reason, the discharge resistor DR has to be disconnected when the motor is running steadily. Besides, to put the motor into synchronous run, it is needed to take steps for switching to a DC current sourced from the AC brushless exciter when the motor has accelerated nearly to asynchronous speed after it is DOL started.
In the circumstances as above, with regard to circuitry for switching from startup to synchronous run of the field winding type synchronous motor, various circuitry arrangements are under study; for example, those are known that are described in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Sho 59-222087, Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 06-343250, and Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 03-078478.
Among them, in a circuitry arrangement as described in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Sho 59-222087, a connection from an AC brushless exciter and a rectification circuit to field windings is made via a thyristor. A discharge resistor DR is disposed in parallel with the field windings. In this circuitry arrangement, the thyristor and a gate circuit serve as a circuit for switching the motor to synchronous run.
In a circuitry arrangement as described in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 06-343250, a circuit presented in FIG. 6 attached to this document is the circuit that serves to disconnect a discharge resistor DR and switch the motor to synchronous run. In this circuit, the discharge resistor DR is disconnected by a thyristor 24A. Motor startup with the field windings being short-circuited generates an induced current. The thyristor 24A and a diode 24B are provided to conduct this induced current to the discharge resistor DR. Upon switching of the motor to synchronous run, a DC current flows. But, because the thyristor 24A is turned off and the diode 24B is placed in an orientation to block the DC current, the discharge resistor DR is put in a disconnected state. In this circuitry arrangement, a circuit for switching the motor to synchronous run is a thyristor 2a.
A circuitry arrangement as described in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 03-078478 is characterized by being provided with a device for positively detecting that the motor has switched to synchronous run.
In the case of the circuitry arrangement as described in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Sho 59-222087, there is no circuit for disconnecting the discharge resistor DR. By turn-off of the thyristor, a DC current is conducted to the field windings and, at the same time, this current is also conducted to the discharge resistor DR. Consequently, as noted previously, even in the synchronous run state of the motor in which a DC current is conducted, the current continues to flow to the discharge resistor DR, thus creating a loss and resulting in a decrease in the efficiency of the motor.
In the case of the circuitry arrangement as described in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 06-343250, disconnecting the discharge resistor DR and switching the motor to synchronous run are performed by a gate control circuit 23 for the thyristors. Four thyristors exist in this circuitry arrangement. Accordingly, the gate control circuit 23 needs to have as many signal transmitting ports as the thyristors and the size of the gate control circuit 23 becomes larger. When this circuit is placed in a rotor, it would occupy a large mounting area. Besides, for the thyristor 24A for disconnecting the discharge resistor DR, there is a possibility that a signal is input to its gate because of noise or malfunction of the gate control circuit 23 to turn the thyristor on, thus conducting a current to the discharge resistor DR during synchronous run of the motor.
In the case of the circuitry arrangement as described in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 03-078478, because a discharge resistor DR does not exist in this circuitry arrangement, it is anticipated that, during the DOL startup of the motor, a current increases, causing a large disturbance to the system.
By the inventions disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application Nos. Sho 59-222087, Hei 06-343250, and Hei 03-078478, it is considered too difficult to reduce a startup current and positively disconnect the discharge resistor DR after the motor is put into synchronous run.
The present invention is intended to provide a field winding type synchronous motor having a discharge resistor DR included in a field circuit, provided with circuitry capable of switching the motor to synchronous run and disconnecting the discharge resistor DR, reducing the possibility that the discharge resistor DR is reconnected because of disturbance or the like after the motor is put into synchronous run, and allowing for downsizing of the circuitry.


Apparatus for storing items within a vehicle compartment that can be operated single-handedly, are provided. A cover is pivotally attached to a vehicle compartment floor (or to a base secured to a vehicle compartment floor) and is movable between a closed position in overlying, face-to-face relation with the floor and an open position wherein the cover is disposed substantially transverse to the floor. A wall is pivotally attached to the cover front side and is movable between a stored position in face-to-face relation with the cover front side and an operative position disposed substantially transverse to the base and to the cover. A spring is configured to urge the wall to a predetermined position when the cover is moved from a closed position to an open position. An elastic strap is secured to the cover and is configured to secure articles placed between the elastic strap and the cover.

Motor vehicles are typically provided with a cargo storage compartment of some type. For example, sedan-style automobiles are conventionally equipped with a trunk. Sport/utility and mini-van vehicles, in which there are two or more rows of seating, are conventionally provided with a cargo storage area behind the last row of seating.
Items carried within vehicle cargo storage areas are often free to move about during vehicle operation, which may be undesirable. Cargo netting may be used to restrain items from movement within vehicle cargo storage compartments. While such netting may adequately restrain items from movement, cargo netting may require the use of two hands to hold the cargo netting back while placing items therewithin, which may be cumbersome.
Various devices are known for dividing vehicle storage compartments to prevent movement of items stored therein. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,027,155 to Wisniewski et al. describes a storage system for a vehicle cargo compartment that includes a cover that is removably attached to the floor of the cargo compartment and that is configured to rotate between open and closed positions. U.S. Pat. No. 5,669,537 to Saleem et al. describes a storage unit that extends between, and connects to, vehicle panels of a vehicle storage area. U.S. Pat. No. 5,501,384 to Wisniewski describes a storage system for a vehicle that includes a molded bin and a cover pivotally secured to the bin.
Unfortunately, these devices are somewhat complex and bulky and are not adapted to be compactly stored within vehicle cargo storage areas. Moreover, in automotive vehicles such as sport/utility vehicles and mini-vans, cargo storage space may be somewhat limited. Accordingly, a need exists for a cargo storage device that can securely retain items within a cargo storage area during operation of a vehicle and that can be easily stored in an out-of-the-way location when not needed, and without requiring that the storage device be removed from the cargo storage area. In addition, a need exists to maximize the efficiency and utilization of existing cargo storage space without intruding on passenger space.

Collapsible storage apparatus for vehicle cargo compartments


A combination of a rubber or other elastomer part and a plastic or metal part is bonded by both chemical and mechanical means. The mechanical means is in the form of molded rivets integrally manufactured in the molding process as part of the elastomer. Appropriate mating holes are made in the plastic or metal parts to receive the rivets during the molding process or at least before the rivets are cured. Conventional chemical bonding materials for the circumstance are employed with the rivet bonding to provide dual bonding strength. The parts of a blowout preventer, such as at the T-seal and the upper seal, are disclosed as preferred examples of locations that are subject to high pressure and temperature where an elastomer part is bonded to a plastic or a metal part.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to the bonding together of high performance parts, one of which is rubber or other elastomer and the other part being plastic or metal and more particularly to the bonding together of such parts that are part of a well head blowout preventer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are chemical bonding materials that are considered to be high performing in applications where an elastomer, typically rubber, is bonded or adhered to a dissimilar material, such as plastic or metal. One such application is in blowout preventers where the packer for closing off the annulus of a well, sometimes under emergency conditions, is made up of a combination of elastomer and plastic and/or metal parts. Typically, the packer either closes around a well pipe extending through the central bore or opening of the blowout preventer, or packer assemblies close together after the well pipe is sheared off.
The bonding of parts is necessary to prevent the elastomer parts from separating from the dissimilar material parts when subjected to extremely high pressures (e.g., 10,000 to 20,000 psi) or extremely high pressures and temperatures (e.g., 180.degree. F. to 400.degree. F.). A slight separation becomes a problem in the overall operation in two main ways. First, a slightly separated part changes the dimensioning of the assembly of parts, which dimensional change can interfere with normal operation and can cause the interfering part to be cut off when operation forces the closing or opening of other parts of the assembly. Thus, a separated elastomer part that is supposed to seal is often cut off so that it no longer adequately seals in the intended manner. Secondly, separation of assembly parts, one of which is an elastomer that readily "flows" when subjected to extremely high pressures or high pressure and high temperatures, creates "gaps" and permits the extrusion of the elastomer between adjacent metal pieces where the metal-to-metal contact or fit is less than perfect. High pressures tend to extrude the elastomer through small gaps. High temperatures cause the elastomer to become soft, so when present together, elastomers extrude rather easily. Extrusion of the elastomer can result in both high pressure and low pressure leaks and other harmful conditions, which, if bad enough can result in premature wear-out of parts and even in creating dangerous operating conditions.
Even the toughest metal/plastic-to-elastomer bonding materials can fail under adverse conditions. First, the bonding material between metal or plastic and an elastomer is usually the weakest structural link of the assembly. Second, the composition material itself can degrade and either become soft or brittle. If it becomes soft, then the bonding material can itself extrude away from the bonding surface under high pressure conditions. If the material cracks, then it no longer is an acceptable bonding material. Third, however, and perhaps more importantly since bonding materials are known that exhibit reasonably stable properties even under extremely high pressures and temperatures, the interface surfaces of rubber and metal or rubber and plastic do not exhibit the same dimensional stability as each other under high pressure and high temperature conditions. That is, one surface will expand more than the other, thereby causing breakaway from the bonding material, especially after repeatedly being subjected to normal and then high pressure and high temperature conditions.
Thus, it is a feature of the present invention to provide an improved bonding of rubber or other elastomer to metal or plastic, which bonding must be maintained under extremely high pressure or high pressure and high temperature conditions.
It is another feature of the present invention to provide such an improved bonding in the parts of a blowout preventer.
It is still another feature of the present invention to provide such an improved bonding of parts in a blowout preventer by achieving a combination of a mechanical and a chemical bond.