The invention provides a breath monitoring device comprising means to record a first breathing state of a user, and means to detect a deviation from the recorded breathing state in a subsequent use of the device by a user. The invention further provides a method of monitoring breaths, the method comprising the steps of:                (a) recording the first breathing state of a person from a breath of a person; and        (b) detecting a deviation from the recorded first breathing state in a subsequent breath from a person.

It is known to provide instruments which measure a breathing parameter of a user's breath, and which displays the result of the measurement for a user, sports scientist or doctor to review, for example.
In particular, devices are known for use in calorimetry, to study the energy of metabolism in humans and animals. Calorimetry is used, for example, for diagnosis of metabolic disorders and for calculating nutritional requirements of a subject. A useful calorimetric measure for nutritional and sports scientists when assessing the health and fitness of a subject is the volume of oxygen consumed at rest, and during or after physical exertion.
Indirect calorimetry often involves measuring the amount of carbon dioxide exhaled by a subject, which can in turn be used to calculate the oxygen consumption of a subject.
The measurement of the volume of oxygen consumed and/or the amount of carbon dioxide exhaled by a subjected are normally measured as a single reading, at rest, during or after physical exertion. Multiple measurements may be taken and plotted on a chart to indicate changes in oxygen and/or carbon dioxide measured over a period of time.
One problem with measuring parameters of breathing states, such as volume of oxygen consumed at rest and/or during or after physical exertion, is that the devices used to monitor the breathing parameter lead the user to "force" a breath, due to having to exhale and inhale through a breathing tube attached to the device. Thus the subject does not always breathe normally, and forces a breath from their lungs, or into their lungs as an instinctive reaction. The measurement of forced breaths does not give an accurate indication of the breathing parameter measured, as the breath will generally have a greater volume, speed, oxygen and/or carbon dioxide content or, if multiple breaths are measured, have irregular time intervals between breaths, or a lower or higher number of breaths in a predetermined time period than would be measured during normal breathing. It would be advantageous to provide a breath monitoring device which allows a user to determine whether a monitored breathing state is a "normal" breath or a "forced" breath.
Furthermore, with known devices for monitoring breath parameters, it is not generally possible to determine whether or not, during subsequent use of the devices, whether the same user is breathing into the device during each monitoring session. Thus, it would be advantageous to provide a device which would monitor and determine whether or not the same user is using the monitoring device on subsequent uses, after detecting and storing breath parameters of a specified user.
It is therefore an aim of preferred objects of the present invention to overcome or mitigate at least one of the problems of the prior art, whether expressly described hereinabove or not.


Systems and methods are described herein for a multi-level battery protection system. In some embodiments, a multi-level battery protection system can include multiple levels at the junction box level and multiple levels at the battery level. In some embodiments, at the junction box level, the multi-level battery protection system can include junction box fuses and a current limiting circuit. In some embodiments, at the battery level, the multi-level battery protection system can include battery fuses and a microprocessor circuit.

The past several decades have seen a steady increase in the number of unmanned underwater robotic systems deployed for use in the ocean. These systems are also referred to as autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). All of these systems are equipped with energy systems including batteries to accomplish their respective mission. Battery modules may experience high current events which may lead to battery failure. For example, for an autonomous vehicle that is first switched on, the battery module may experience a high current as the capacitors are being charged. Such an event would lead to one or more of the batteries' fuses to blow and would require opening up the battery module to replace the battery fuses after every high current event. By providing a multi-level battery protection system, the battery module can be protected against a spectrum of battery failure modes.

System and methods for multi-level battery protection


An electrographic imaging element useful for forming colored images is described. The element contains an imaging layer structure and a support structure. The support structure contains an electrically conductive polymeric release layer formed by polymerizing a mixture containing a polymerizable, ethylenically unsaturated ammonium precursor; a polymerizable, ethylenically unsaturated, organo-silicone precursor; a polymerizable precursor containing at least two polymerizable, ethylenically unsaturated functional groups; optionally, a polymerizable, ethylenically unsaturated acidic precursor containing at least one carboxylic acid group; and, optionally, a monofunctional precursor containing one polymerizable, ethylenically unsaturated functional group. The element is particularly useful for forming large size images, such as are required for banners, billboards, and other out-of-doors advertisements.

In electrographic imaging a latent image of electric charge is formed on a surface of a carrier. Toner particles that are attracted to the charge are applied to the surface of the carrier to render the latent image visible. The toned image is fixed, either by fusing the toner particles to the surface of the carrier, or by first transferring the toned image to a receptor and fusing, or otherwise permanently affixing, the particles to the receptor.
The latent image is produced by imagewise deposition of electrical charge onto the carrier surface. Typically, charged styli, arranged in linear arrays across the width of a moving dielectric surface, are used to create the latent image. Such processes are disclosed, for example, in Helmberger, U.S. Pat. No. 4,007,489; Doggett, U.S. Pat. No. 4,731,542; and St. John, U.S. Pat. No. 4,569,584.
After the latent image has been created on the surface of the carrier, toner is applied to produce a toned image. The toner is fixed to the surface of the carrier by heat fusing, or, if the toner is dispersed in a liquid, by drying and then, optionally, by heat fusing. When fixing is by drying only, the image is comparatively fragile and can be damaged by physical contact, abrasion, and the like.
Because color electrography needs only a carrier comprising a dielectric layer over a conductive support, it has, from its inception, been used for applications in which large size images are needed, such as for store graphics, posters, signs, banners, and other out-of-doors advertisements. In these applications the need for image protection is intense. Consequently, the color electrographic art has, from the outset, endeavored to protect the image.
One well-known way of protecting the image is to overlaminate the image with a permanent transparent protective film to form a laminate consisting of, in order, the carrier, the image, and the transparent protective film. In this method, the image is both fixed and protected between the original carrier and the transparent protective film in a single step.
In overlamination, the original carrier becomes an integral component of the final product. The carrier typically comprises a conductive base paper, which is unsuited for outdoor uses, even when protected by the overlaminated transparent protective film. Thus, overlamination is generally not suitable for preparing images for outdoor applications.
Another way of using the image, which avoids having the conductive base as part of the final product, is to laminate a receptor onto the toner that forms the image and then remove and discard the original carrier. In a second step, a permanent protective transparent film is laminated to the image and receptor, to form an element comprising the receptor, the toner image, and the permanent protective transparent film. The toner image is fixed and protected between the receptor and the permanent protective transparent film in two steps. This process is described in Chou, U.S. Pat. No. 5,262,259.
An alternative way that avoids having the conductive base as part of the final product is to laminate a receptor onto the surface of the dielectric layer which contains the toner that forms the image. Then the conductive base is removed and discarded, leaving behind the dielectric layer. This forms a product, comprising the receptor, the toner image, and the dielectric layer, in which the dielectric layer now serves as a protective layer. The image is fixed and protected between the dielectric layer and the receptor in a single step. Electrographic elements useful in this process are disclosed in Cahill, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,414,502 and 5,483,321.
If the imaged and toned dielectric layer is to be transferred to provide a protective layer for the image, the dielectric layer must be able to release from the conductive base. To enhance release, a non-conductive release layer has been provided between the dielectric layer and the conductive base, increasing the cost and manufacturing complexity for the elements and lowering the density of the image. Therefore, to reduce manufacturing cost and improve image density, a need exists for electrographic imaging elements that do not comprise a separate release layer.

Imaging element having a conductive polymer layer


A liner for use in a bulk container is provided. The liner comprises a first flexible portion, a second flexible portion, a first seal joining the first and second portions, a second seal joining the first and second portions, a third seal joining the first and second portions, and a fourth seal joining the first and second portions. The first portion is a better barrier than the second portion.

In recent years a number of industries have adopted the FIBC or bag-in-box concept for storing and transporting liquid and particulate commodities in relatively large quantities. For example, the FIBC or bag-in-box concept has been employed for transporting in bulk such diverse products as vegetable oils, salad dressings, syrups, soy sauce, peanut butter, pharmaceuticals, talc, motor oil, industrial chemicals, detergents in liquid or powder form, and toiletry products or ingredients.
The FIBC concept is a bulk container system comprising a flexible liner in a flexible or semi-flexible bag. In one embodiment, a FIBC bag is made of a woven material (e.g., woven polymer, TYVEX®, canvas, wire mesh or net). The flexible liner is typically chemically resistant and impermeable to water and air and serves as the container for a selected commodity. The FIBC bag serves as a protective container for the liner and its contents. A FIBC bag is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,596,040 to LaFleur et al., which issued Jun. 17, 1986, and is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
The bag-in-box concept comprises a flexible liner and a rigid or semi-rigid box. The flexible liner is typically chemically resistant and impermeable to water and air and serves as the container for a selected commodity. The box may be made of plywood or other wood materials, cardboard, fiberboard, metal, or plastic. The box serves as a protective container for the liner and its contents. A box for a bag-in-box system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,533,122 to Plunkett, which issued Mar. 18, 2003, and is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. A bag for use in a bag-in-box system is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/818,882, which was filed Apr. 6, 2004, is entitled "Bag With Flap For Bag-In-Box Container Systems" and is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
By way of example, a liner used for shipping commodities in bulk, via a FIBC or bag-in-box system, typically may have a volume on the order of 300 gallons. In one embodiment, the liner will include at least a drain fitting near the bottom of the liner whereby the liner's contents may be removed. In other embodiments, the liner will include at least a filler fitting near the top of the liner whereby the liner may be filled with its contents. In other embodiments, the liner will include both a filler fitting near the top of the liner and a drain fitting near the bottom of the liner. In one embodiment, the drain fitting is on the gusseted side as described with respect to U.S. Patent Application No. 60/720,855, which was filed Sep. 26, 2005, entitled "Flexible Liner With Fitting On Gusseted Side."
The liner may be of any suitable configuration. For example, the liner may be generally shaped like a cube, or a pillow, a parallelepiped, or any other suitable configuration. It also can be configured so that a cross-section that is generally parallel to the top and bottom of the liner is square, rectangular, circular, or any other suitable geometry.
In embodiments of the liner with at least a drain fitting, the outer container (i.e., the bag of a FIBC system or the box of a bag-in-box system) is provided with a discharge opening at or towards the bottom end of the outer container through which the liquid or particulate contents can be discharged from the liner via its drain fitting. The discharge opening of the outer container may be fitted with a drain fitting that mates with or accommodates the drain fitting of the liner. This mating arrangement between drain fittings of the liner and outer container assures that material discharged from the liner will be directed to the intended receiving facility and prevents the material from accumulating in the bottom of the outer container.
In embodiments of the liner with at least a filler fitting, the outer container usually comprises a cover or top panel that is removable to permit access to the liner and the filler fitting.
One consideration of the FIBC or bag-in-box mode of shipment of materials in bulk is that the outer container can be a non-returnable or one-way container. For example, where the outer container is a box for a bag-in-box system and is generally made of a corrugated fiberboard or the like, the box can be discarded after use. Alternatively, the box may consist of interlocking panels of metal, wood, or a stiff or rigid plastic material, in which case the box may be disassembled and returned to the shipper after the associated liner has been emptied of its contents.
Where the outer container is a bag for a FIBC system and is made of a low cost woven material, the bag can be discarded after use. Alternatively, where the material of the bag is more expensive, the bag may be collapsed and returned to the shipper after the associated liner has been emptied of its contents.
With respect to the FIBC and bag-in-box concepts as applied to bulk shipment of commodities, the plastic flexible liners have taken various forms. One common form is the so-called "pillow" type, which consists of at least two sheets of plastic film sealed together at their edges. Another common form is the six-sided flexible liners (e.g., liners that take the shape of a cube or rectangular parallelepiped when filled) made from a plurality of sheets of plastic film. An example of this is described with respect to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/900,068, which was filed Jul. 27, 2004, entitled "Flexible Liner For FIBC Or Bag-In-Box Container Systems," hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Regardless of the form the liner takes, the top half of the liner is generally more susceptible to flex crack failure than the bottom half from the film moving back and forth, typically resulting from greater product movement toward the top of the product than toward the bottom. This can lead to a breakdown of the liner's structural and/or barrier properties, possibly resulting in product degradation, loss of shelf life, contamination, damage to the contents, and/or loss of materials. In the past, particularly with pillow-shaped liners, this flex cracking has been reduced by packing the top part of the bag or box, above the liner, with a dunnage material to immobilize the upper portion of the liner. Having to add dunnage materials increases the cost and time required to ship goods and materials and does not always work, as some materials tend to settle over time, and liners are not necessarily always filled to the same height or extent.
There is a need in the art for a system and method of reducing flex crack failure in the liner of a FIBC or bag-in-box system, thereby preventing breakdown of the liner's structural and/or barrier properties and the harms associated with such breakdowns.

Flexible liner for FIBC or bag-in-box container systems with improved flex crack resistance


A transfer case having a two-speed drive assembly includes a directly coupled shift operator with feedback. The shift operator includes an electric, pneumatic or hydraulic motor which directly, rotatably drives a shift rail. The shift rail includes threads and receives a shift fork having complementary threads. The shift fork engages a dog clutch. Bi-directional rotation of the shift rail correspondingly bi-directionally translates the shift fork to select direct drive (high gear), reduced speed drive (low gear) or neutral operation of the two-speed drive assembly. A shift rail position sensor provides data to associated logic and command circuitry regarding the actual position of the shift fork.

The invention relates generally to shift operators for speed change gearing and more specifically to a shift operator having a single shift rail and feedback assembly for use in motor vehicle drive line components such as transmissions, transfer cases, differentials and the like.
In many motor vehicle drive line components such as transfer cases, a two-speed assembly typically including a planetary gear speed reduction unit, provides a high and low speed range which provides optimum vehicle operation on conventional roads and off-road situations, respectively. When engaged, the speed reduction assembly reduces the speed of the output of the vehicle transmission by a factor of approximately three to four. Thus, while the automatic transmission operates in its normal speed range and with normal shift points, the transfer case output shaft speed and vehicle speed is correspondingly reduced. When the transfer case speed reduction assembly is disengaged or by-passed, the input and output speeds of the transfer case are the same. Such speed reduction assemblies also commonly provide a neutral position which disconnects the transmission output from the motor vehicle drive line.
The mechanism which achieves the range selection of the speed reduction assembly has many different configurations.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,770,280 a rotating cam axially translates a cam follower and associated shift rail which correspondingly translates a clutch collar through at least one compression spring. The spring temporarily stores energy if an attempted shift results in gear clashing until synchronism is achieved and then completes the shift.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,407,024, a dog clutch is engaged by a shift fork which includes a cam follower. The shift fork and cam follower are moved bi-directionally by a circular cam which is rotated by an electric motor through an energy storing spring. Again, if attempted engagement of two gears causes interference and clashing, the energy storing spring allows the drive motor to complete its motion and the energy stored in the spring completes the shift when gear tooth interference ceases.
As to providing feedback signals to a controller regarding the actual position of a shift fork in such a two-speed operator assembly, numerous designs provide no feedback whatsoever. Others such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,159,847 provide feedback regarding the operational state of a transfer case but such feedback is derived from the location of a part distinct from and often remote from the actual shift fork. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,245, a position sensor is operably disposed adjacent a shift rail and thus provides its position, not the position of the shift fork.
It is apparent from a review of the foregoing prior art patents as well as prior art shift rail operators and sensors that improvements in these assemblies are both possible and desirable.


A conductive nanowire film based on a high aspect-ratio metal is disclosed. The nanowire film is produced by inducing metal reduction in a concentrated surfactant solution containing metal precursor ions, a surfactant and a reducing agent. The metal nanostructures demonstrate utility in a great variety of applications.

Applications of thin, transparent and electrically conducting films are numerous. The most attractive application is as a transparent electrode for low-cost photovoltaics and other opto-electronic applications. Light emitting devices often require such electrodes, in particular, large area displays. Currently, the existing technology uses conducting metal oxide films, primarily indium-tin oxide (ITO) and doped zinc oxide for these applications. These films have a limited transparency/conductivity trade-off and are produced by expensive vacuum deposition techniques. Such films are also hard and brittle and may therefore be unsuitable for flexible coatings such as plastic electronics. A flexible alternative that has been considered is a film of a conducting polymer, but such films are much less conductive and more sensitive to radiation and chemical attack and would thus not be good candidates for ITO replacement.
In recent years, there is a growing interest in finding alternatives for these transparent oxide electrodes. The primary candidates have been carbon nanotube-based electrodes. However, such films could not exceed the performance of ITO films in terms of conductivity vs. visible light transmittance. There are several problems in producing highly conductive, transparent carbon nanotube mesh films. The limited solubility of the tubes makes it difficult to disperse them in various solvents for efficient coating applications. To produce such dispersions, high molecular weight polymer surfactants are required, which produce an insulating or semiconducting layer [1] around the nanotubes and thus significantly increase the inter-tube contact resistance.
Another alternative is to use pure carbon nanotube meshes or fabrics for this purpose, but here the nanotube density is too high and optical transmission is degraded, and it is thus difficult to integrate such meshes into thin-film devices. The same difficulties hold for other types of prefabricated nanowires made of various oxides and semiconductors.
Recently, thin conducting films consisting of high aspect ratio nanostructures have been suggested as a substitute for metal oxide based transparent electrodes, particularly in combination with conducting polymer based devices [2, 3, 4]. Such films, made of metallic nanowires have high conductivity while maintaining a metal volume fraction as low as ˜1% and thus are highly transparent.
Many schemes of synthesizing conducting and semi-conducting nanowires were developed in the last 15 years. A very high control level of the nanowires geometry and composition, including modulation of compositions along or across the nanowires, has been achieved. A control over the position and orientation of the nanowire growth has been achieved in catalytic growth of carbon nanotubes and semiconductor nanowires by positioning of the catalyst particles at selected places. However, the task of forming uniform thin films of such elongated nano-objects to obtain highly conductive meshes over large areas has been more difficult to achieve. High molecular weight polymeric surfactants are required for dispersing the nanowires/nanotubes in various solvents. These polymers usually form insulating barriers over the nanowires, which would then require annealing to reduce inter-wire electrical resistance [2], unless the polymer itself is (semi-)conducting [1, 4].
Peumans et al., have recently published a first calculation and demonstration of a random silver nanorods mesh electrode as a replacement for a metal oxide film in a polymer based solar cell [2]. Peumans et al used prefabricated silver nanorods with an average aspect ratio of ˜84, coated by a high molecular weight polymer and dispersed in a solvent to prepare the thin conductive film. The film required substantial annealing to reduce the contact resistance between the nanorods, which probably was the primary factor limiting the performance of this film. The film, with comparable transmittance and conductivity to an ITO film, exhibited 19% higher photocurrent when used for the polymer solar cell compared to the ITO analog.
Gold nanowires have also been prepared in oleylamine, employing a variety of methods.


A rechargeable battery includes an electrode assembly including a first electrode plate, a second electrode plate, and a separator between the first and second electrode plates; a first collector plate and a second collector plate electrically coupled to the first electrode plate and the second electrode plate, respectively; a case accommodating the electrode assembly and the first and second collector plates; and a cap assembly coupled to the case, wherein the cap assembly comprises a cap plate sealing the case, and wherein a reinforcing protrusion part is on the cap plate extending along a length of the cap plate.

1. Field
The present invention relates to a rechargeable battery.
2. Description of the Related Art
A rechargeable battery may be charged and discharged unlike a primary battery that may not be recharged. A low capacity rechargeable battery that comprises a pack shaped battery cell may be used as a power source for various small portable electronic devices such as cellular phones, laptop computers, and camcorders. A high capacity rechargeable battery that has several tens of the battery cells that are connected may be used as power sources for driving motors such as hybrid automobile.
The rechargeable battery may be fabricated into various shapes including a cylindrical and a rectangular box shape and typically includes an electrode assembly having a positive electrode and a negative electrode and an insulating separator that is between the electrodes and is wound and inserted into a case. The case is mounted with a cap assembly that is formed with an outer terminal to provide a battery.
When a rechargeable battery undergoes deformation due to external forces, internal short-circuits are generated in the rechargeable battery, increasing an internal pressure, resulting in a fire or explosion. Accordingly, there is a need for a rechargeable battery having increased strength.


The present invention relates to compositions containing a novel protein and methods of using those compositions for the diagnosis and treatment of immune related diseases.

Immune related and inflammatory diseases are the manifestation or consequence of fairly complex, often multiple interconnected biological pathways which in normal physiology are critical to respond to insult or injury, initiate repair from insult or injury, and mount innate and acquired defense against foreign organisms. Disease or pathology occurs when these normal physiological pathways cause additional insult or injury either as directly related to the intensity of the response, as a consequence of abnormal regulation or excessive stimulation, as a reaction to self, or as a combination of these.
Though the genesis of these diseases often involves multistep pathways and often multiple different biological systems/pathways, intervention at critical points in one or more of these pathways can have an ameliorative or therapeutic effect. Therapeutic intervention can occur by either antagonism of a detrimental process/pathway or stimulation of a beneficial process/pathway.
Many immune related diseases are known and have been extensively studied. Such diseases include immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, non-immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, infectious diseases, immunodeficiency diseases, neoplasia, etc.
T lymphocytes (T cells) are an important component of a mammalian immune response. T cells recognize antigens which are associated with a self-molecule encoded by genes within the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). The antigen may be displayed together with MHC molecules on the surface of antigen presenting cells, virus infected cells, cancer cells, grafts, etc. The T cell system eliminates these altered cells which pose a health threat to the host mammal. T cells include helper T cells and cytotoxic T cells. Helper T cells proliferate extensively following recognition of an antigen -MHC complex on an antigen presenting cell. Helper T cells also secrete a variety of cytokines, i.e., lymphokines, which play a central role in the activation of B cells, cytotoxic T cells and a variety of other cells which participate in the immune response.
A central event in both humoral and cell mediated immune responses is the activation and clonal expansion of helper T cells. Helper T cell activation is initiated by the interaction of the T cell receptor (TCR)—CD28 complex with an antigen-MHC on the surface of an antigen presenting cell. This interaction mediates a cascade of biochemical events that induce the resting helper T cell to enter a cell cycle (the G0 to G1 transition) and results in the expression of a high affinity receptor for IL-2 and sometimes IL-4. The activated T cell progresses through the cycle proliferating and differentiating into memory cells or effector cells.
In addition to the signals mediated through CD28 [Carreno et al., (2002) Annu Rev Immunol 20: 29-53], the molecule SLAM is also able to provide the second signal for co-stimulation of T cells necessary for proliferation [Aversa et al., (1997) J Immunol 158(9): 4036-4044, Aversa et al., (1997) Immunol Cell Biol 75(2): 202-205]. SLAM is a member of the family of molecules that contain extracelluar Ig-like repeats and also contain a SAP intracellular binding site characterized by the motif TxYxxV/I. Tyrosine phosphorylation of this motif greatly increases the binding of SAP with SLAM. As SAP is associated with X-linked lymphoproliferative disease, a greater understanding of the SAP/SLAM interaction may lead to further insights into treatment of this disease [Howie et al, (2002) Blood 99(3): 957-965, Latour et al., 2001, Nat Immuno 2(8): 681-690, Morra et al. 2001 J Biol Chem 276(39): 36809-36816, Nichols et al., 2001 Nat Immunol 2(8): 665-666].
SLAM has been implicated in Th1 cell response, suggesting that this molecule may play a role in inflammation and autoimmune diseases [Cocks et al., (1995) Nature 376 (6537): 260-263, Aversa et al., (1997) Immunol Cell Bio 75(2): 202-205]. SLAM and CD3 crosslinking on the surface of T cells induces proliferation of T cells and an increase in Interferon gamma (IFN-γ) production. The reasons above lead to the search and discovery of a new member of the SLAM family, PRO20080. It is shown herein, that PRO20080 has homology to SLAM, and like SLAM, has expression in B cells, T cells and memory T cells. PRO20080 is upregulated on activated T cells, exhibits homotypic binding, contains SAP binding motifs and interacts with SAP in T cells. PRO20080 plus CD3 co-stimulation induces the proliferation of T cells and increases the production and secretion of IFN-γ. Evidence is also shown for PRO20080 in the Th1 mediated delayed-type hypersensitivity response, thus making PRO20080 a potential target for treatement of inflammation and Th1 mediated autoimmune diseases.

Compositions and methods for the treatment of immune related diseases


An air conditioner system has a boiler for generating a refrigerant vapor from a liquid refrigerant therein and a condenser for condensing the refrigerant vapor to the liquid refrigerant. An expander connects the boiler and the condenser to generate output energy when the refrigerant vapor passes therethrough from the boiler to the condenser in a first direction. A fan produces an ambient air flow through the boiler and the condenser to provide heat input for vaporizing the liquid refrigerant in the boiler and cooling the air flow and for extracting heat from the condenser to condense the refrigerant vapor to the liquid refrigerant. A water mist is generated that contacts the air flow intermediate the boiler and the condenser for further cooling the air flow through heat of vaporization of the water so that air exiting the condenser is cooler than the ambient air flow entering the boiler. The further cooling of the air flow produces air at a temperature effective to condense the refrigerant vapor flowing in the first direction at a rate that produces a pressure differential between the boiler and the condenser that results in sufficient kinetic energy in the refrigerant vapor passing through the expander to produce a net surplus of output energy.

There are many sources of energy other than conventional fuels, such as solar, geothermal, waste heat from direct user sources. In many cases, the energy source is a low temperature energy source. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,551,238, issued Sep. 3, 1996, teaches the use of concentration energy in a solution, such as brine, to produce useful energy.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,214,170, issued Jul. 7, 1980, teaches a power generation-refrigeration system for extracting energy from a refrigerant with a turbine where the extracted energy is used to compress refrigerant and/or to generate electrical energy. The initial heat source is a low temperature heat source such as solar heated water or waste water from a manufacturing process. Three different heat exchangers and two turbine units are required, as well as a complex refrigerant flow system operating in a refrigerant mode or a power-generating mode.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,150,585 issued Sep. 29, 1992, also teaches a system for extracting energy from a refrigerant to generate electrical energy. The refrigerant is vaporized by the heat in a location to be cooled and additional energy is provided by a conventional compression process using a motor driven compressor before the vaporized refrigerant is passed through a turbine for converting kinetic energy in the refrigerant into electrical energy. The system taught herein also uses energy in cooling water supplied to the compressor to augment the energy in the vaporized refrigerant.
The systems described in the '170 and '585 patents require complex heat exchangers and piping or a motor-driven compressor in order to extract energy from the refrigerant. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a relatively simple system with heat exchangers supplied from a single working fluid and without motor driven compressors in a normal operating mode for providing a refrigerated air flow while extracting energy from a refrigerant.
Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.


A screen including a plurality of decks vertically stacked above one another, at least one of the decks bearing at least one sieve, the screen including means for vertically separating the decks from one another, suitable for selectively adjusting a vertical distance between each deck of the plurality of decks and at least one other deck of the plurality of decks.

Screens are commonly used in the mining industry to separate the pellets of a mined granular product based on their respective particle sizes. To that end, each screen comprises a plurality of sieves having different meshes, and the product passes through the different sieves, from the sieve with the coarsest mesh to the sieve with the finest mesh. The largest pellets are then collected on the surface of the first sieve, and the finest are collected below the last sieve, for example using a hopper.
To favor the flow of the product between two successive sieves, the latter are generally stacked above one another.
To favor the passage of the pellets with the smallest particle sizes through the meshes of the sieves, each sieve is generally vibrated by an electrical vibrator, such as an unbalanced vibrator.
The existing screens are not, however, fully satisfactory. In fact, it is regularly necessary to operate on a sieve for maintenance of the screen. This operation is generally done by an operator, who to that end is required to enter the small vertical space separating two consecutive sieves. The operator must thus perform the maintenance while being confined in a narrow space where the air is most often saturated with fine particles. These operating conditions often cause work-related illnesses, in particular respiratory illnesses.

Screen comprising a plurality of stacked decks and means for vertically separating the decks from one another


A burnishing drill includes a cylindrical shank and a drill body connected to the shank. Drilling edges, reaming faces and reaming edges are formed on a first reduced-diameter portion, a second reduced-diameter portion and a third reduced-diameter portion located at a foremost end of the drill body respectively. The reaming faces which are located axially at backward positions of the drilling edges and the reaming edges extend radially outward from the foremost end of the drill and incline axially in the rearward direction, and also extend radially outward and incline in the rearward direction with respect of the rotational direction. Since an inner surface of the hole drilled and reamed by the drilling edges and the reaming edges can be further smoothed by the reaming faces, the surface roughness of the finished hole can be much improved.

The present invention relates to a burnishing drill providing both drilling and reaming functions.
There are known various types of burnishing drills including drilling edges and reaming edges, that are adapted to form a hole in a workpiece made of a material such as cast iron. The workpiece is first drilled by the drilling edges which are made of hard metal. The drilled hole is further worked by the reaming edges which have an external diameter that is slightly larger than that of the drilling edges, to provide a relatively smooth inner wall of the finished hole.
Since such burnishing drills generally have the linear reaming edges which extend radially outward from a foremost end of the drill and incline axially in a rearward direction, much burden is often applied to the reaming edges while cutting and this results in the lowering of the centering and stabilizing properties of the drill. Therefore, when the rotational center of the reaming edges deflects, the reaming edges can not finish the inner surface smoothly. Especially when the burnishing drills cut a relatively hard workpiece at relatively high feeding and rotating speeds, they tend to provide a finished hole with rough inner face.


A method of hole defect repair includes removing one or more defects at or near a desired hole in a part by removing a portion of the part proximate the desired hole in a series of chain link patterns, and welding a filler material to the part after removing the chain link pattern portion of the part.

The present invention relates to methods of repairing base materials, and more particularly to methods of repairing damaged base materials having holes disposed therethrough.
It is possible to repair worn, corroded, or otherwise damaged holes in metallic base materials. However, known repair techniques cause excessive removal of parent material. For instance, in order to repair a crack that has formed at a perimeter of a rivet hole in a flange made of AA6061 aluminum (Al), the hole is remachined to a larger diameter to remove the crack. In other words, a circular hole would be remachined co-axially with the centerline axis of the existing (and damaged) rivet or bolt hole and to a diameter larger than the desired (i.e., blueprint) rivet hole diameter. A bushing is then press-fit or adhesively bonded to the flange inside the remachined hole to produce a repaired hole at the desired blueprint specifications, for parameters such as size and shape. However, this type of repair is not a structural repair, and the load-carrying capabilities of the repaired structure are less than ideal. Also, because of the parent flange material removal, there is a finite number of times the repair can be performed. Hole walls may also be repaired by various fusion welding processes, however, the processes often lead to unacceptable weld defects. Therefore, there is a need for improved methods of repairing damaged holes in metallic parent materials.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A method of controlling an automatic transmission of a motor vehicle having clutches controlled by an electronic control unit. A transmission rotational speed in an initial transmission stage is determined. If a first transmission shifting rotational speed is reached, the transmission is shifted from the initial transmission stage to a target transmission stage. A target transmission rotational speed of the target transmission stage is then ascertained. A difference is next ascertained between the target transmission rotational speed and a second shifting transmission rotational speed. An initial counter value, of a counter, is determined, which depends on the transmission rotational speed difference. The counter is next caused to carry out counting, from the initial counter value, as time progresses. If and when the counter value reaches zero, the transmission is shifted from the target transmission stage toward the initial transmission stage.

It is known that the shifting point for shifting from one transmission stage to another transmission stage, of an automatic transmission of a vehicle can be influenced by various factors. Among these are, e.g., the position of the gear selection lever, program switches, kick-down switches, transmission fluid temperature (or transmission lubricant temperature), rotational speed of the transmission input, and/or braking signals. Many times, in practice, an automatic transmission will execute a shift to a higher or lower transmission stage in a relatively short time period, namely when the automatic control criteria for such shifting of the transmission are satisfied. The result may be rapid back and forth shifting between two transmission stages, sometimes called "oscillative shifting".
Such back and forth shifting may occur, e.g. when negotiating mountain roads. At constant load, the traction force of the engine after an up-shift is less than the sum of the forces of resistance to the forward motion of the vehicle, wherewith the acceleration of the vehicle decreases until eventually the absolute speed of the vehicle is decreased. If a limit value is reached at which a down-shift ought to be performed, the transmission is caused to so downshift, into a lower transmission stage. In such a lower transmission stage, the traction force is now greater than the aggregate resistance forces, so that the vehicle can again accelerate. If the driver seeks to accelerate, he will continue driving in this mode until once again a limit value is reached at which up-shifting ought to be performed. Such a back and forth shifting between transmission stages, when carried out by an automatic transmission, is regarded as an unpleasant occurrence, because each shifting process entails disengagement of a coupling and thereby interruption of the tractional force.
In the light of this, the underlying problem of the present invention was to devise a means of controlling the shifting point for selecting the currently most favorable transmission stage, in an automatic transmission of a vehicle, whereby disadvantageous back and forth shifting (oscillative shifting) is avoided or is at least reduced.

Method for controlling an automatic vehicle transmission in order to reduce back-and-forth shifting


A mounting device for mounting a peripheral device on a casing of an electronic apparatus includes a pair of spaced-apart upright mounting plates, each having a lower edge adapted to be fixed to a base plate of the casing, and each being formed with a mounting recess on one side confronting the other mounting plate. The mounting recess is defined by a pair of upright clamping walls and a connecting wall which interconnects the clamping walls. Each of a pair of anchoring members has an upright engaging wall formed with an engaging projection adapted to engage a respective outer side wall of the casing, and a pair of wing portions extending transversely, from the engaging wall. The anchoring members are inserted respectively into the mounting recesses via open upper ends of the latter, and are clamped between the clamping walls of the respective mounting recess.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mounting device for mounting a peripheral device on a casing of an electronic apparatus, more particularly to one which facilitates installation and detachment operations of the peripheral device to and from the electronic apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electronic apparatus is typically installed with a peripheral device, such as a hard disk drive, a floppy disk drive, or a CD-ROM drive, which is connected electrically to a central processing unit (CPU) of the electronic apparatus for providing desired data storage and/or retrieval functions. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, conventionally, the peripheral device 12 is mounted within a casing 11 of the electronic apparatus using a mounting unit 13 which includes a pair of L-shaped mounting plates 131, and a plurality of screw fasteners 132, 133. The casing 11 includes a horizontal base wall 111, and a rectangular surrounding wall 112 which extends upwardly from the base wall 111 and which is formed with a horizontal top flange 113 that extends horizontally toward an interior of the casing 11. Each of the mounting plates 131 includes a vertical plate portion 135 for attaching to a respective outer side wall of the peripheral device 12, and a horizontal plate portion 134 for attaching to the base wall 111 of the casing 11. A first set of the screw fasteners 132 extends through the vertical plate portions 135 of the mounting plates 131 and into the outer side walls of the peripheral device 12 for fastening the mounting plates 131 to the peripheral device 12. A second set of the screw fasteners 133 extends through the horizontal plate portions 134 of the mounting plates 131 and into the base wall 111 of the casing 11 for fastening the mounting plates 131 to the casing 11, thereby mounting the peripheral device 12 on the base wall 111. The peripheral device 12 is typically disposed adjacent to one side of the surrounding wall 112. The casing 11 is mounted with a front cap 114 at the surrounding wall 112 to permit access to the peripheral device 12. The top flange 113 of the surrounding wall 112 on said one side adjacent to the peripheral device 12 is formed with notches 115 to permit extension of a tool therethrough for operating the screw fasteners 133.
Since the screw fasteners 132, 133 are relatively small and need to be operated one at a time using the tool, installation and detachment of the peripheral device 12 to and from the electronic apparatus are labor and time consuming.
Therefore, the main object of the present invention is to provide a mounting device which facilitates installation and detachment operations of a peripheral device to and from a casing of an electronic apparatus.
Accordingly, the mounting device of the present invention includes a parallel pair of upright mounting plates, and a pair of anchoring members. Each of the mounting plates has a lower edge adapted to be fixed to a base plate of the casing, and a mounting side which confronts the other one of the mounting plates and which is formed with a mounting recess with an open upper end. The mounting recess is defined by a pair of upright clamping walls which are opposite to each other and which extend transverse to a longitudinal direction of the mounting plate, and a connecting wall which extends parallel to the longitudinal direction of the mounting plate and which interconnects the clamping walls. Each of the anchoring members has an upright engaging wall with two opposite vertical edges, and a pair of wing portions extending transversely from the vertical edges of the engaging wall. The engaging wall is formed with an engaging projection which projects in a direction opposite to the wing portions and which is adapted to extend into and engage a respective one of two opposite outer side walls of the peripheral device. The anchoring members are inserted respectively into the mounting recesses via the open upper ends. Each of the wing portions of the anchoring members engages a respective one of the clamping walls in the mounting recesses of the mounting plates such that each of the anchoring members is clamped between the clamping walls of the mounting recess of the respective one of the mounting plates.

Mounting device for mounting a peripheral device on an electronic apparatus


A wiper device enables to wipe selectively the unit heads to of an inkjet head has a simple, compact construction. The wiper device of a printer has four wiper units arranged in a line. When a drive shaft turns based on rotation of a wiper motor, the four wiper units operate sequentially from one end to the other in an outbound operating sequence, and operate sequentially in the reverse order in a return operating sequence. Four head units each have a row of unit heads, and a row of unit heads. The four wiper units can move to a position enabling wiping unit heads, and a position enabling wiping unit heads.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a wiper device that wipes ink or other fluid from the nozzle face of a fluid ejection head, to a fluid ejection device, and to a wiping method.
2. Related Art
Inkjet printers are one type of fluid ejection device having a fluid ejection head for ejecting ink or other fluid. Ink and foreign matter such as paper dust may accumulate on the nozzle face of the inkjet head (fluid ejection head) in an inkjet printer. One method of the related art used to prevent problems caused by the accretion of such matter on the nozzle face is to wipe the nozzle face with the edge of a wiper blade made from rubber or other elastic material to remove the accretion.
JP-A-2001-30507 describes a device having a wiper for each nozzle head in an inkjet printer having four nozzle heads that eject different colors of ink. Each wiper is mounted on a wiper carrier, and a wiper moving means is provided for each wiper carrier. Each wiper moving means can be driven independently. The nozzle heads that need wiping can therefore be wiped selectively.
JP-A-2011-104979 describes an inkjet printer having plural maintenance units corresponding to plural heads. A wiper unit and a drive mechanism for the wiper unit are mounted on each maintenance unit. The technology described in JP-A-2011-104979 enables selectively wiping plural heads by independently driving the plural maintenance units.
JP-A-2014-43026 describes an inkjet printer with plural heads that has fewer wipers than the number of heads. The inkjet printer taught in JP-A-2014-43026 wipes four heads with two wipers by moving a carriage carrying the four heads relative to the two wipers. As a result, plural heads can be selectively wiped using fewer wipers than the number of heads.
To selectively wipe plural heads (nozzle heads) as described in JP-A-2001-30507 and JP-A-2011-104979, the related art provides a wiper for each head and independently drives the wipers to wipe the heads. However, devices that have an actuator for each wiper require more parts and have a complicated construction, and are therefore difficult to make small. Furthermore, because an inkjet printer with line heads has large head units with many nozzles, segmenting a single head unit into plural nozzle groups for wiping is desirable. However, because this further increases the number of wipers and actuators, the number of parts also increases and the size increases.
In contrast to the above, JP-A-2011-104979 discloses a printer that can selectively wipe plural heads using a configuration with fewer wipers than heads by moving a carriage relative to the wipers. However, while this construction enables reducing the size of the wiper device by reducing the number of wipers, it requires a mechanism for moving the carriage relative to the wipers. More specifically, to move the carriage from the print position to the maintenance position to wipe the heads, a mechanism for moving the carriage relative to the wipers is needed in addition to the mechanism for moving the carriage between the print position and the maintenance position. A complex carriage moving mechanism is therefore required, making it difficult to reduce the size of the device.
Furthermore, selectively wiping plural heads takes a long time if wiper operation is slow. Shortening the wiper operating time is therefore also desirable.

Wiper device, fluid ejection device, and wiping method


A method of preparing carbon-loaded, gold-based nanoparticle catalysts useful as anode catalysts for the electrocatalytic methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) as well as the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). AumPtnM100-m-n catalysts may be prepared by either a two-phase protocol or by a thermal decomposition/reduction protocol. The prepared nanoparticles having different bimetallic ratios are assembled on carbon black support materials and activated by thermal treatment. This approach provides good control of nanoparticle size, composition and/or surface properties. Electrocatalytic MOR activities of the prepared and activated AuPt nanoparticle provided in accordance with the methods of the invention are present in both acidic and alkaline electrolytes.

Electrochemical fuel cells convert chemical energy of fuels directly into electrical energy to provide a clean and highly efficient source of electrical energy. Like a battery, a fuel cell consists of two electrodes (an anode and a cathode) separated by an electrolyte typically made of a thin polymeric membrane. In a typical fuel cell, hydrogen gas from the fuel reacts electrochemically at the anode electrode and is converted into protons and electrons. The protons move through the electrolyte to the other electrode (i.e., the cathode), where they combine with the product from the reduction of oxygen from the air to form water, which is expelled from the cell as vapor. The involvement of hydrogen and oxygen in the two reactions, one releasing electrons and the other consuming them, yields electrical energy that is tapped from across the electrodes.
Because of the high conversion efficiencies and low pollution, fuel cells such as hydrogen and direct methanol fuel cells are becoming increasingly attractive power sources for mobile and stationary applications. Such applications include on-board electric power for advanced propulsion systems for non-polluting vehicles. While researchers around the world are developing potential fuel cell applications including electric vehicles and portable electrical power supplies, these developments face challenging scientific problems in the areas of materials science, interfacial science and catalysis. In proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), hydrogen ions must be transported through a semi permeable membrane. Hydrocarbon fuels must first be converted to pure hydrogen by reforming, and the overall conversion requires complex process technology. In addition, substantial investments must be made in safety and controls.
Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) offer a simpler solution and require no reformer. Direct methanol fuel cells are increasingly considered an attractive power source for mobile applications because of the high energy density, the fuel portability, and the easily renewable feature of methanol. The fuel portability of methanol is particularly important in comparison with the difficulties of storing and transporting hydrogen.
In fuel cell reactions, both anode and cathode catalysts are very important for many reasons.
Anode Catalysts:
The readily-obtainable energy density (approximately 2000 Wh/kg) and operating cell voltage (0.4 V) for methanol fuel cells is presently lower than the theoretical energy density (approximately 6000 Wh/kg) and the thermodynamic potential (approximately 1.2 V) for such fuel cells. These problems are largely caused by poor activity of the anode catalysts and "methanol cross-over" to the cathode electrode. These problems account for a loss of about one-third of the available energy at the cathode and another one-third at the anode.
Pt-group metals have been extensively studied for both anode and cathode catalysts, but a major problem is the ease with which they may be poisoned by CO and CO-like intermediate species typically present. Binary PtRu nanoparticle catalysts on carbon supports are currently considered among the most promising catalysts. Binary PtRu catalysts exhibit a bifunctional catalytic mechanism in which Pt provides the main site for the dehydrogenation of methanol and Ru provides the site for hydroxide (OH) and for oxidizing CO-like species to CO2.
Recently, gold at nanoscale sizes was found to exhibit unprecedented catalytic activities, both for CO oxidation and for electrocatalytic activity for CO and methanol oxidation. Studies show that nanoscale gold-based bimetallic materials may provide a synergistic catalytic effect for the methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) at the anode in methanol oxidation fuel cells. For example, the synergistic catalytic effect of gold-platinum (AuPt) nanoparticles might suppress adsorbed poisonous species by changing the electronic band structure to modify the strength of the surface adsorption.
While bimetallic AuPt is a known electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction in alkaline fuel cells, few reports concern utilizing AuPt nanoparticles with controllable size and composition in fuel cell catalyst applications. In such bimetallic systems, Pt could provide the main hydrogenation or dehydrogenation sites, while Au together with Pt could speed up the removal of poisonous species. In the past, decreasing activation energy to facilitate oxidative desorption and suppressing adsorption of CO were believed to lead to sufficiently-high adsorptivity to support catalytic oxidation in alkaline electrolytes. However, it has recently been shown that catalysts prepared by impregnation from Pt and Au precursors provided results similar to those of monometallic Pt catalysts, suggesting that the presence of Au did not significantly affect the catalytic performance of Pt. This is attributed to phase-segregation of the two metals due to their miscibility gap. As such, only Pt participates in the adsorption of CO and the catalytic reaction. How the bimetallic catalytic properties depend on nanoparticle preparation and composition is an important area for the development of new or improved catalysts for fuel cell research.
Cathode Catalysts:
As previously stated, both the energy density and operating cell voltage for direct methanol fuel cells are currently much lower than values that are theoretically possible. At the cathode, the kinetic limitation of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is a problem of interest in proton exchange membrane fuel cells operating at low temperature (<100° C.) and in DMFCs. The rate of breaking O═O bonds to form water strongly depends on the degree of the oxygen interaction with the adsorption sites of the catalyst and competition with other species in the electrolyte (e.g., CH3OH). There is also strong adsorption of OH forming Pt—OH, which causes inhibition of the O2 reduction.
The present inventors have recently investigated gold and gold alloy nanoparticles as potential electrocatalysts fuel cell reactions such as CO and methanol oxidation reactions and oxygen reduction reactions. The exploration of gold nanoparticles in catalysis shows potential applications in fuel cell related catalytic reactions. The nanoparticle surface properties are essential for the adsorption of oxygen and the catalytic reaction of gold at nanoscale sizes. Bimetallic AuPt composition may produce a synergistic catalytic effect that involves the suppression of adsorbed poisonous species and the change in electronic band structure to modify the strength of the surface adsorption for ORR.
The study of AuPt binary and AuPtM ternary nanoparticles with controllable size and composition for fuel cell catalyst applications is important because metal nanoparticles in the size range of approximately 1-10 nm undergo a transition from atomic to metallic properties, and the bimetallic composition could produce synergistic effect. For example, for the adsorption of (OH−)ads (i.e., OH− species adsorbed on the catalyst surface) in an alkaline medium the presence of Au in Pt catalysts could reduce the strength of the Pt—OH formation. A full understanding of how the synergistic catalytic effect operates at the nanoscale gold and gold-platinum surface remains elusive. Gold-based binary (AuPt) and ternary (AuPtM) nanoparticles of 1-10 nm core sizes with controllable Au, Pt and a third metal (M), for example, M=W, Ti, Cr, Fe, Mn, etc. have been prepared. These nanoparticles may be assembled onto high surface area carbon nanomaterials with controlled dispersion and loading. The carbon-supported AuPt/C or AuPtM/C nanoparticles are processed by thermal treatment to achieve desired characteristics including size, composition and alloy properties. The electrocatalytic activity of such thermally treated, carbon-supported nanoparticles may be evaluated in both methanol oxidation reactions (MOR) and oxygen reduction reactions (ORR).
The introduction of the third metal component into the binary nanoparticles forms AuPtM ternary nanoparticles. Ternary nanoparticles are expected to lead to several important modifications of the catalytic properties, possibly including further modification of the electronic structure, introduction of an oxide component on the catalyst surface via the propensity of oxide formation of the metal component, and control of the size increase during thermal treatment via alloying with the metal. The relatively low cost of the third component metal should help lower the cost of catalyst materials. Metals such as W, Ti, Pt, Cr, Fe, and Mn, all having melting points higher than Au may be used to prepare AuPtM nanoparticle catalysts. The research is coupled with combinatorial knowledge base for better design of binary and ternary nanoparticles with controllable size, composition and phase properties. The binary/ternary catalysts can be used not only as methanol-tolerant cathode catalysts in fuel cell membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs), but also as CO-tolerant catalysts in combination with the desired oxide support materials for water-gas shift reactions.

Method of synthesizing and processing carbon-supported, gold and gold-based multimetallic nanoparticles for use as catalysts

The Research Foundation of the State University of New York


Compute client processes are currently limited to a small percentage of the data I/O bandwidth available from a parallel file system's total aggregate I/O bandwidth. I/O bandwidth is limited by the pathways linking the parallel file system's data storage servers to the clients process's computer system and the number of stops the data makes in route before arriving in the client's memory space. Both of these limitations are overcome by hosting the entire set of file system storage servers or object storage servers within the same common global shared memory, parallel computer system, as the requesting client process. The data moves once, in parallel, from the storage devices, directly to the storage servers memory, which is the same memory address space as the compute client. This provides the compute client with low-latency access to the “Entire Aggregate I/O Bandwidth” provided by all of the File System Data Storage Servers.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to the field of large data input/output (I/O) transfer into, and out of, large compute systems and large data storage systems. It is particularly directed towards reducing the data access latency times and increasing the data I/O transfer rates for compute clients processing extremely large data sets within large, shared-memory compute systems.
2. Description of Prior Art
Demand is growing to find solutions to the "big data" challenge faced by government and business, for example, in areas such as fraud detection, remote sensor data analysis, financial modeling, social network analysis, and risk analysis. Many data intensive computing applications need to process an enormous amount of data in a timely manner, and if too much time is spent loading a required data set into a compute client's memory, then the entire production workflow will be delayed. The same logic holds for processes that are generating very large data sets. The newly generated large data sets need to be quickly made available for the next step in the larger production workflow. To support such an environment, a supercomputer architecture is required that incorporates hundreds or thousands of CPU cores for handling multiple processing threads and supersized memories to hold more of the very large data sets. Simply put, the more data the supercomputer can process at any given time, the quicker the results are presented to decision makers. When it comes to mission-critical pattern discovery problems in government and business, whoever obtains the answers first is one step ahead of their adversary or competitor.
The challenges to meeting "big data" demands are many:
The compute hardware needs to be able to scale up to an extraordinary level—thousands of CPU cores and multiple terabytes of memory—which is far beyond the capacity of any commodity X86 server. Computer software needs to be able to take advantage of the scaled-up hardware platform. And, an extremely efficient data access input/output system that can quickly load the "big data" into system memory and just as quickly store the processed data onto reliable media is needed to complete the system.
The ability to build larger and larger compute systems has been facilitated by advances in massively parallel compute system techniques, algorithmic resource orchestration techniques (Map Reduce and others), low-cost/high-performance CPU's, and the advent of both open-source and proprietary Parallel File Systems. Parallel File Systems such as "Lustre" [See "Lustre scalable storage" Copyright 2006 Cluster File Systems —Rights owned by ORACLE Corp.], and IBM's GPFS (General Parallel File System) [Refer to F. B. Schmuck and R. L Haskin, GPFS: a shared-disk file system for large computing clusters, in proceedings of Conference of Files and Storage Technologies (FAST'02), 2002] have allowed these newer and larger parallel compute systems to scale up to higher and higher numbers of compute nodes and compute-cores and still have enough File System I/O Bandwidth to allow for very good compute performance on many classes of applications.
Parallel File Systems generate very high "Total I/O" Bandwidth levels by utilizing multiple "File System Data Storage Servers" like the dual socket server 110 in FIG. 1 (Lustre uses "Object Storage Servers (OSS's) and IBM's GPFS uses NSD Servers (Network Shared Disk Servers)). Each File System Data Storage Server (OSS or NSD Server) is attached to one or more "Data Storage Devices," like 109 in FIG. 1, via a storage network fabric 106 that in many HPC environments is implemented using Infiniband (IB) switches and (IB) Host Channel Adapters (HCA's) 104. The "Data Storage Device" 109 often consists of a "Storage Controller" 107, and a High-Performance or High-Capacity Disk Storage Devices 108 or Solid-State Disk (SSD) Storage Devices (many new systems are using SSDs in combination with SATA or SAS Disks to balance total I/O operations with total storage capacity). Sometimes "File System Data Storage Servers," like 110 in FIG. 1, are paired with Storage Subsystems, like 109 in FIG. 1, that are implemented as raw "Trays-of-Disks" without Disk-Controllers. These Trays-of-Disks are referred to as JBOD's (just a Bunch Of Disks), and require additional Data-Block management software to run within the "File System Data Storage Server" 110 to accomplish the functionality required for the "JBOD" to serve as a suitable Storage Device 109. The "Zetta File System," or ZFS [open source licensed By Oracle Corp.], is one candidate application for handling JBOD's and is being utilized by the Lawrence Livermore National Labs (LLNL) team, in combination with the Lustre File System as a part of their "Next-Generation" Sequoia Super Computer installation which hopes to have a "Total File System I/O Bandwidth of between 500 GB/s and 1000 GB/s.
The data blocks in the Parallel File System are "Striped" or spread across multiple "File System Data Storage Servers," like the 111 grouping of FIG. 1, and their associated collective sets of Storage Devices 113 in FIG. 1. The sequence of events for a compute client to receive the data stored in the Parallel File Systems after a client data request is:
1—The data blocks are copied from "Disk Storage Devices —108 data storage locations" and into "Storage Controllers 107 memory—Data Movement #1,
2—The data blocks are then copied from "Storage Controller 107 memory" into "File System Data Storage Servers 110 memory"—Data Movement #2,
3—The data blocks are then copied from all of the "File System Data Storage Servers 110 memory" into the client 101-1 memory space—Data Movement #3.
Moving the data blocks three times before they can be utilized is very inefficient, but for many parallel applications the inefficiency is accepted as current practice and the job schedules are allocated by compute time required as well as data I/O transfer time. All of these "Data Movement processes" are running in parallel, simultaneously across all of the File System Data Storage Servers and their respective Storage Controllers and Disk Storage Devices. The aggregate data I/O speed for the entire File System is a function of the available bandwidth for all of the File System Data Storage Servers operating in unison. The grouping of File System Data Storage Servers 111 in FIG. 1 has the potential I/O bandwidth of 8 GB/s because each of the 4 servers can maintain 2 GB/s and the set of 2 disk Storage Devices, 109 in FIG. 1, can each maintain 4 GB/s.
The total I/O performance of the Parallel File Systems can be scaled up by adding more File System Data Storage Servers, see 201 in FIG. 2, and more Disk Storage Devices, 202 in FIG. 2. The additional server and storage resources allow the example Parallel File System in FIG. 2 to provide an aggregate potential data I/O bandwidth of 20 GB/s instead of the original potential of I/O speed of 8 GB/s. The combination of adding more Storage Servers and more Storage Devices creates a very high Total potential I/O Bandwidth solution for use by the massively parallel compute systems and their applications.
The use of Parallel File Systems, like Lustre and GPFS, for massively parallel compute systems has worked well because each compute node in the massively parallel compute system typically needs to use only a small portion of the I/O Bandwidth to accomplish its compute tasks and to deliver intermediate or final results. The High Speed Parallel File Systems in use at Large Supercomputing Centers are used to take very rapid "Snap-shots" of intermediate compute results for complex compute jobs that can sometimes take days or weeks to complete. The snapshots are called "Check Points" and they require very High Total I/O Bandwidth since each of the many thousands of compute nodes are sending copies of their intermediate compute results out for analysis and algorithmic tuning.
One of the HPC systems at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Jaguar, has over 26,000 compute nodes with approximately 180,000 compute-cores, and its Lustre Parallel File Systems operate at 240 GB/s and 44 GB/s. That meant that each "File System Client", like 101-2 in FIG. 1, on a small compute node, could "Simultaneously Share" about 9-12 MB/s on average of the "Total File System I/O," when all of the many thousands of compute nodes were working together in parallel on one large problem. The peak File System I/O performance for a single specific "File System Client," like 101-2 in FIG. 1, on a Jaguar compute node was just over 1.25 GB/s. This means that the peak "File System Client" I/O Bandwidth performance available for a single node on Jaguar is 0.5% of the "Total I/O" Bandwidth available from the entire File System. This level of I/O performance works very well for the large scale scientific simulation problems that have been tailored to work on the massively scaled parallel compute systems like "jaguar" with it's thousands of separate compute nodes that typically begin processing jobs with a few small-sized data sets for each compute node. But there are many additional types of compute problems that require the manipulation and processing of very large data sets that must first be loaded into the memory space of one compute system before processing can begin.
Many US Government projects have requirements to rapidly access and process large numbers of files in the 5 GB to 15 GB range. There are many fielded systems are producing data sets at a rate of 1 Tera Byte (TB) or more per hour, and there are several ongoing projects that produce data sets that range from 4 to 6 TB in size. The users of these large, Multi-TB data sets would like to have the ability to rapidly load and process entire multi-TB files in "Large Shared Memory" compute systems, like 112 in FIGS. 1 and 2, and utilize the compute systems 100's or 1000's of compute-cores to reduce the "Raw multi-TB" data sets into useful, user friendly, result sets. The task of crafting algorithms to process these Very Large Multi-TB data sets is much easier to accomplish if the entire data set can fit within the internal memory address space of a large "Common Global Shared Memory" compute system and be acted on by all of the 100's or 1000's of compute-cores resident with the single large "Common Global Shared Memory" compute system.
An example of using a "Common Global Shared Memory" compute system in combination with a typical Parallel File System to process very large data sets can be further examined by using the performance characteristics of Oak Ridge's "Jaguar" Supercomputer. Jaguar's "Peak I/O Performance" for a single compute node was 1.25 GB/s. Using that I/O Bandwidth value for the I/O performance of a single "File System Client" within a "Large Shared Memory" compute system, such as 112 in FIG. 1 or 2, results in a 15 GB file loading into the "Large Shared Memory" Compute system in just 12 seconds. An acceptable data I/O transfer time for many situations. But the time required to load a 6 TB file from a modular storage device or a current implementation of a typical Parallel File System, 111 and 201 and 202 from FIG. 2, into the same large "Common Global Shared Memory" compute system, 101-1 in 112 of FIG. 2, would be at least 4,800 seconds! Having 100's or 1000's of processing cores waiting over 4,000 seconds for a data set to load into a system like 112 in FIG. 1 or 2, would be a terrible waste of an expensive compute resource.
The "Peak I/O bandwidth" available for a specific application compute client from the total aggregate I/O provided by the Parallel File Systems' entire collection of "File System's Data Storage Servers," like 111 and 201 added together in FIG. 2, can be limited by many of the physical and logical elements that interconnect a typical Lustre or GPFS Parallel File System implementation.
A significant implementation element that can limit the "I/O Bandwidth Performance" for a specific "File Systems' Client" is the total number, and bandwidth capacity, of the physical or logical I/O network pathways available to link the specific "Application Compute Client" with the "Data Storage Servers" of the Parallel File System. The designs and implementations of "Application Compute Clients" will vary across the range of commercially available Parallel File Systems. The number of I/O network pathways supported by a specific "Application compute client" implementation, combined with the I/O bandwidth available for "Application compute client" use within each supported I/O network pathway, will significantly affect the total I/O Bandwidth for the specific "File System Client."
The physical linkage between the "Application compute client" processes 101-1 and the collective set of "File System Data Storage Servers" 111 and 201, is depicted in FIGS. 1 and 2 with the HCA's 104 supporting the external I/O connectivity from the 101-1 Client within the large "Common Global Memory Compute System," 112, and the Infiniband Switch 105 that in-turn provides the I/O network pathway connectivity to the entire collection of "File System Data Storage Servers" 111 and 201 in FIG. 2.
One specific current example of how a Parallel File System's design and implementation of its "Application compute client" can limit the total amount of File System I/O Bandwidth available to a specific "Application compute client" is Lustre's current Client design and implementation. As currently implemented, a Lustre Client can have one physical Infiniband connection. This means that a QDR (Quad Data Rate=4 GB/s) or DDR (Double Data Rate=2 GB/s) IB connection between a Lustre File System Client 101-1 and HCA 104 in FIG. 2 over to the 105 IB switch, would be the only I/O pathway between the Lustre File System Client and the collection of "File System Data Storage Servers" (OSS's for Lustre). Current Lustre Client instances utilizing a single QDR IB connection as its I/O network pathway to the "File System Data Storage Servers" have been able to achieve sustained I/O rates of up to 3.2 GB/s after considerable tuning adjustments were made, and while the Lustre Client was servicing several separate processes within a "Large Shared Memory" compute system with data blocks from several unique files that were striped across all of the "File System Data Storage Servers" (OSS servers) within the specific Lustre File System.
A redesign and re-implementation of the Lustre Client software would be required to permit the Lustre "File System Client" process to utilize two or more physical IB connections as its I/O network pathway to the "File System Data Storage Servers." An implementation that allowed a Lustre File System Client to utilize two QDR IB connections would potentially be able to achieve I/O bandwidth rates up to a maximum of 6 or 7 GB/s, but even this level of File System Client I/O Bandwidth performance is still a very small percentage of the total I/O Bandwidth available from Parallel File Systems that can achieve 100's of GB/s of total I/O Bandwidth. If the File System Client 101-1 in 112 of FIG. 2 was able to operate at 6 GB/s of I/O Bandwidth, it would still be utilizing less than ⅓ of the total potential File System I/O of 20 GB/s derived from the Parallel File System's "File System Data Storage Servers" in 111 and 201 in FIG. 2.
Existing Parallel File Systems (like Lustre and GPFS) perform well at distributing a small share of the total file system I/O to the thousands of compute nodes in today's large supercomputing compute clusters. However, for cases where very large data files need to be quickly loaded into a single, multi-processor compute node, the existing Parallel File Systems are not capable of providing more than a very small percentage of the total I/O Bandwidth to an individual compute client. A more efficient use of the Large Shared Memory Compute System, 112 in FIG. 2, would be had if there were a way for all of the Parallel File Systems aggregate I/O to be available for the compute client or clients within the Large Shared Memory Compute system.
Therefore, there is a need for a solution to improve the "Peak I/O Bandwidth Performance" for a single "File System Client," 101-1 in FIGS. 1 and 2, in a large "Common Global Shared Memory" Compute System, 112 in FIGS. 1 and 2.

System and method for increasing application compute client data I/O bandwidth performance from data file systems and/or data object storage systems by hosting/bundling all of the data file system storage servers and/or data object storage system servers in the same common global shared memory compute system as the application compute clients


An object of the present invention is to provide an illumination apparatus which includes an illumination fixture having an open-type reflector and a metal halide lamp, and can suppress a decrease in intensity and occurrence of glare. The illumination apparatus includes a metal halide lamp and an illumination fixture. The metal halide lamp includes an arc tube which has therein a pair of electrodes, an inner tube which houses the arc tube and has a pinch seal part at one end, and an outer tube which houses the inner tube and has a base at one end. The illumination fixture includes a reflector having a concave reflecting surface, a socket, and an attachment. In the inner tube, a diffusing part which diffuses light emitted from the arc tube is formed in an area closer to a lower end of the inner tube than a center between the pair of electrodes.

Conventionally, a metal vapor discharge lamp that has characteristics of high intensity, high efficiency, and a long life, such as a metal halide lamp is widely used in various places because of the above characteristics. Recently, a low-power-consumption metal halide lamp which is compact and has high color rendering properties has been developed, and such a metal halide lamp is used as, for example, a light source of an illumination apparatus (a so-called spotlight) which illuminates articles on display such as a commercial product or the like in a spot manner.
A conventional illumination apparatus includes, in addition to the above metal halide lamp, a reflector having a concave reflecting surface to reflect light emitted from the metal halide lamp in a desired direction. As the reflector, a so-called closed-type reflector is typically used, which has an opening (light extracting part) closed with, for example, a front glass plate. This is because of the following reason. If the metal halide lamp that does not take explosion-proof measures is damaged by some reasons, a fragment of the damaged metal halide lamp is prevented from scattering to outside of the reflector.
On the other hand, because the metal halide lamp has high intensity, if direct light emitted from the metal halide lamp enters human eyes, glare is caused. Therefore, concavo-convex processing for diffusing light is performed on the front glass plate, or a glare cap for shielding light emitted from the metal halide lamp is provided on the front glass plate, for example (such as a patent document 1).
Patent Document 1: Japanese Published Patent Application No. H11-96973

Illumination apparatus and metal vapor discharge lamp


A guard member for use with a dough sheeter having a shut-off mechanism includes a first portion structured to be coupled at or near a dough feed opening of the dough sheeter and a second portion coupled to the first portion. The second portion having a front face and an opposite rear face, the rear face being structured to engage and activate the shut-off mechanism when contact is made with the front face by an outside force.

Dough sheeters for many specific products have been provided including both batch and continuous strip forming devices having automatic and manual feeds. With manual feed devices, caution and great care must be exercised by the operator to avoid injury, particularly the catching and crushing of fingers and hands by and between cooperating dough rollers. This is especially true in the case of dough sheeters being used by relatively young and/or inexperienced operators with the highest incidence of carelessness and inattention.
FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate an example of a dough sheeter apparatus 10 (hereinafter "dough sheeter") with an added dough rolling attachment 12. Such example dough sheeter 10 is known as a Rol-Sheeter model manufactured by Acme Pizza and Bakery Equipment of Commerce, Calif. Dough sheeter 10 includes a housing 14 having an inlet 16 into which an operator would insert a generally thick piece of dough (not shown) for processing. Once inside the dough sheeter 10, the inserted dough passes between a number of adjustable rollers (not shown) in a manner that flattens the dough into a thin piece of dough having a generally uniform desired thickness. After passing through the internal rollers, the dough exits the housing 14 via outlet 18 where the flattened dough is disposed on conveyor 20. In the example Rol-Sheeter shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the flattened dough then passes under the rolling attachment 12 which causes the flattened dough to be rolled into a generally cylindrical shape, such as for use in making a loaf of bread.
As shown in greater detail in FIG. 2, the dough sheeter 10 further includes a safety bar 22 disposed generally across inlet 16 and a central guard member 23 extending generally downward and outward in the inlet 16 above the safety bar 22. Safety bar 22 includes a first end 24 that is generally movably coupled to the housing 14 and an opposite second end 26 that extends through a slot 28 in the housing 14 and is coupled to a shut-off mechanism 30. Safety bar 22 and central guard member 23 are thus arranged in a manner such that if an operator were to attempt to place a hand into the inlet 16 while the dough sheeter 10 was powered on, thus risking possible injury due to the internal moving parts, such attempt would tend to raise the safety bar 22 and thus activate the shut-off mechanism 30, shutting off the dough sheeter 10. However, such actuation of the shut-off mechanism 30 would only occur when an operator attempted to reach under the safety bar 22, thus causing it to move upward. In an instance where the operator reaches over the safety bar 22, for instance attempting to reach around central guard member 23 instead of under, the safety bar would not be moved upward, and thus the shut-off mechanism would not be activated. Such instances commonly lead to injury to the operator.
Accordingly, there exists a need in the art for improved safety equipment for use with dough sheeters, particularly improved safety equipment that may be readily applied to existing units.


Alternative network access for a mobile device having a first radio and a second radio, or in some cases, only one radio can include using a first radio in a first connection with a first access point. Whether to establish a second connection with a second access point using a second radio is determined. The determination is based on a first set of access conditions associated with the first access point and a second set of access conditions associated with the second access point. The second connection is established with the second access point using the second radio based on the determining, which indicates establishing the second connection.

Related Field
The subject matter discussed herein relates generally to wireless mobile devices and, more particularly, to the selection of network access for such mobile wireless devices.
Related Background
Rapid growth in mobile devices, such as smart phones, tablets, and connected laptops, and the proliferation of applications in these devices have created a tremendous need to increase wireless data communication capacity.
Mobile devices use wireless communication services provided by one or more mobile operators and/or technology companies. The wireless communication demand is often higher than the mobile operators and technology companies can provide.


Devices and systems having one or more of the following components: a compliant pillar with a modified tip surface (non-flat tip) and a corresponding compliant socket; an optical/electrical I/O interconnect and a corresponding compliant socket; a lens/waveguide optical pillar, a polymer bridge, and an L-shaped pillar, are described herein. In addition, methods of making these components and methods of using these components are disclosed herein.

Conventional chip manufacturing is divided into front-end, back-end, and tail-end processing. Front-end of the line (FEOL) processing refers to the fabrication of transistors, while back-end of the line (BEOL) processing describes wafer metallization. Tail-end of the line (TEOL) processing refers to the packaging of the individual dice. Generally, the final wafer-level process step is the fabrication of vias through a passivation layer to expose the die pads, which serve as the interface between the die and the package. Each individual die, while still part of the wafer, is then functionally tested for wafer sort. The dice that pass this test are shipped to a packaging foundry where they are individually placed in a temporary package for burn-in. These dice are then individually packaged into their final package and tested again for functionality. This final step concludes tail-end processing and the functional packaged dice are ready for system assembly.
The mechanical performance of a package is important for wafer-level testing, protection, and reliability. Wafer-level testing of electrical devices requires simultaneous reliable electrical contact across a surface area. Typically, neither the wafer nor the testing substrate is planar enough to enable this reliable temporary electrical contact. In-plane (i.e., x-, y- axis) compliance is generally required to account for potential problems such as, for example, thermal expansion mismatch between the chip and printed wiring board and the probe contact leads. Wafer-level testing and burn-in demand significant out-of-plane (i.e., z-axis) compliance in order to establish reliable electrical contact between the pads on the non-planar wafer and pads/probes on the board surfaces. Non-compliance of the input/output (I/O) interconnects/pads out-of-plane, as well as in-plane (i.e., x-, y- axis), can cause difficulties in performing wafer-level testing and poor reliability. For optical interconnection, the alignment between the chip and the board should be maintained during field service to minimize optical losses due to offset.
A key interconnection level that will be severely challenged by gigascale integration (GSI) is the chip-to-module interconnection that integrates the packaged chip into the system. A gigascale system-on-a-chip (SoC) demands the development of new and cost-effective integrated input/output (I/O) interconnect solutions that use high-performance integrated electrical, optical, and radio frequency (RF) approaches to meet all of the I/O requirements of the 45 to 22 nm International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) technology nodes (International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS), 2002 update, SIA). Meeting these challenges is essential for the semiconductor industry to transcend known limits on interconnects that would otherwise decelerate or halt the historical rate of progress toward GSI and beyond. In general, power, clock, and signal I/O functions will require the selective integration of fine pitch electrical (<30 μm pitch area array), optical, and RF I/O interconnect technologies. These high-density integrated I/O are needed for novel 3D structures as well as for high current (>400A) and high bandwidth (>40 Tbs) applications. To solve the above issues it is required to overcome long-range and fundamental barriers in chip-to-module interconnects by advancing fine-pitch compliant interconnections, optoelectronic and RF interconnections, and wafer-level testing and burn-in.
Accordingly, there is a need in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and/or inadequacies.

Dual-mode/function optical and electrical interconnects, methods of fabrication thereof, and methods of use thereof


A control circuit (16) is configured to detect the impedance P1 of a load (3) and control each of the reactance value L1 of a first variable reactance element (12), the reactance value L2 of a second variable reactance element (14), and the phase shift amount φ of a phase shifter (15) on the basis of the detected impedance P1. Consequently, impedance matching can be achieved even with the phase shifter (15) that performs discrete phase shift control.

Mechanically controlled impedance tuners are capable of matching the impedance of a signal source and the impedance of a load by driving a slug in a waveguide using a motor.
Mechanically controlled impedance tuners need a lot of time to completely drive the slug.
Patent Literature 1 below discloses an electronically controlled impedance tuner as a compact impedance tuner that operates faster than mechanically controlled impedance tuners.
The impedance tuner disclosed in Patent Literature 1 includes a variable reactance element and a phase shifter.
The phase shifter of the impedance tuner controls the phase of a signal from a signal source to a load connected to the impedance tuner in a manner as to move the impedance of the load to a point on a constant conductance circle passing through the 50Ω point of the Smith chart.
The variable reactance element of the impedance tuner achieves impedance matching by transforming the impedance at the point on the constant conductance circle to 50Ω.

Impedance tuner and signal amplification device


A thin-film transistor, a method for manufacturing the same and a display device including the same are provided. The thin-film transistor may include a substrate, and an active layer formed on the substrate. The active layer may be made from an oxide semiconductor. A gate electrode may be formed above the active layer or below the active layer. A conductive layer may come in contact with the active layer, may be overlapped with at least a part of the gate electrode, and may be insulated from the gate electrode. A source electrode and a drain electrode may be electrically connected to the active layer. The conductive layer can reduce a channel length of the thin-film transistor and increase a capacitance between the source electrode and the gate electrode or between the drain electrode and the gate electrode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thin-film transistor, a method for manufacturing the thin-film transistor and a display device including the thin-film transistor, and more particularly, to a thin-film transistor capable of improving driving characteristics, a method for manufacturing the thin-film transistor and a display device including the thin-film transistor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, with growing interest in information displays and an increasing demand for portable electronic devices, light and thin-film type flat panel display (FPD) devices have been widely studied and commercialized. In particular, among the flat panel displays, liquid crystal display (LCD) devices and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) devices have been widely studied, and a thin-film transistor (TFT) has been used as a switching element and/or a driving element in the LCD device and the OLED device.
A channel region of the thin-film transistor means a path of carriers caused when a gate voltage is applied between a source electrode and a drain electrode. Typically, the current driving ability of the thin-film transistor (TFT) deteriorates as the channel length increases. To compensate for the deterioration of the TFT, the driving voltage can be increased. Higher driving voltage, however, results in decreased power efficiency and lifespan of the TFT.

Thin-film transistor, method for manufacturing the same and display device including the same