A belt drive for a secondary unit of an internal combustion engine includes a friction wheel drive having a friction wheel, a cam device for adjusting the engagement of the friction wheel to the drive wheel of the secondary unit, the cam device having a cam, a swivel arm by which the friction wheel is connected to the cam which is rotationally mounted on a side of the engine, and a spring biasing the swivel arm in a tension direction. The friction wheel is in permanent position of frictional engagement with a drive wheel of the secondary unit to drive the secondary unit and with an outside of a belt on a drive wheel of the internal combustion engine or of another secondary unit.

The invention relates to a belt drive for auxiliary units of an internal combustion engine with which a friction wheel drive is associated for driving a secondary unit provided separately on the internal combustion engine and whose drive wheel cooperates frictionally with a friction wheel, the friction wheel being arranged for adjustment relative to the drive wheel with regard to frictional contact.
DE 39 34 884 A1 discloses a belt drive, wherein the friction wheel is driven through a belt tightener in the belt drive. The friction wheel thus driven indirectly by the belt is arranged with the belt tightener on a rocking lever, while for uncoupling the clamping roll adjustment from the friction wheel adjustment to the secondary unit's drive wheel, an eccentric device serves, which is adjustable by hand in case of need, independently of the clamping roll adjustment.
Also, unpublished patent application P 102 36 746 discloses a belt drive with a friction wheel arrangement in which a friction wheel frictionally cooperating with the outside of the belt in the wrap-around portion of the belt is also in frictional driving communication with the drive wheel of a separate secondary unit. Information for sustaining a driving, permanent position of engagement of the friction wheel with the drive wheel on the one hand and with the belt on the other cannot be learned from this document.
An object of the invention is to offer a constructionally simple readjusting device for a friction wheel cooperating directly by friction with a belt for driving a separate secondary unit to achieve of a proper permanent engagement position of the friction wheel.
The object is achieved in that the friction wheel also cooperates with the outer side of the belt in the area of its contact with a driving wheel of the internal combustion engine or auxiliary unit, and is held in a permanent position of engagement with driving wheel and belt by a rocking lever journaled at the machine end on a cam arranged for rotary movement, while the cam of the readjusting device, driven in rotation under the effect of a spring bias, acts upon the rocking lever in the tensional or pressing direction with spring bias in the corresponding direction.
With the invention a structurally simple readjustment device is advantageously achieved, whose further advantage is a compact configuration.
An advantageously great readjustment range is achieved if the cam is mounted with an eccentricity directed transversely of the tension or pressure direction of the rocking lever as its starting position.
Also, a compact cam system is advantageously achieved in that the rocking lever is journaled by an eye formed in the end section remote from the friction wheel, which is equipped in a recess coaxial with the cam axis with a biased coil turning spring, while the coil spring fixed at one end on the machine side is disposed for rotating action at the other end on the cam.
Furthermore, for the achievement of a readjustment device that is light and small, it is proposed that the cam formed from a plastic be mounted for rotation on a metal sleeve disposed in a recess and receiving the coil spring, which is disposed nonrotationally through an end section of the rotational helical spring passing through the bottom of the metal sleeve and entering conformingly into a cavity on the machine side, and furthermore is fastened, by a threaded bolt coaxial with the cam axis with the interposition of a fastening cover of the cam device, drivingly against an abutment surface on the machine side, and the cam is disposed on the metal sleeve between abutment surface and the fastening cover with axial clearance.
For an advantageously simple construction of the cam device provision is made according to the invention that the metal sleeve has on the fastening cover a marginal cut-out fitted circumferentially corresponding to the adjustability of the friction wheel for the free passage of an end section of the helical spring directed transversely to the cam axis for rotational engagement with the cam, and that the metal sleeve has an additional marginal cut-out for the engagement of an antirotational projection disposed on the fastening cover.
For an adjusting device of short and light-weight construction, the invention furthermore provides that the cam is in connection with the eye of the rocking arm formed from a plastic, with the interposition of a friction bearing sleeve, which is formed relatively close to the eye, with a fork-like friction wheel pickup, and that the cam device of the short-construction rocking arm is disposed between the secondary unit's drive wheel and the drive wheel partly covered by the drive belt on a knob provided on the front of the internal combustion engine. A space-saving arrangement of the adjusting device is thus also achieved.
Lastly, a proposal of the invention is based on the fact that the friction wheel comprises a spoked wheel body formed from plastic, with a support of a rubber material disposed on the external circumference, the spoked wheel body being supported through an integrated, encapsulated rolling bearing against a bearing pin of the fork of the rocking arm.
The invention is described with the aid of a preferred embodiment represented in the drawings.

Belt drive for auxiliary units of an internal combustion engine

Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft

Peugeot Citroen Automobiles Societe Anonyme


A lens driving device includes a fixing bracket; first and second support frames; a rotation assembly including first and second rolling balls so that the fixing bracket and the first support frame are spaced apart from each other and form a rotational connection about a first direction, and the first and second support frames are spaced apart from each other and form a rotational connection about a second direction; a driving assembly for driving the fixing bracket to rotate relative to the first and second support frames about the first direction and for driving the first support frame to rotate relative to the second support frame about the second direction; a flexible circuit board; and first and second elastic support components. The lens driving device reduces the height of the overall structure, and effectively reduces the height of the lens driving device.

With the development of photographing technology, lens driving devices have been widely used in various photographing apparatus. Consumers are fond of combining lens drive devices with various portable electronic devices such as mobile phones, cameras, computers, etc.
In the fixing bracket, the first support frame and the second support frame of the lens in the related art, the rational connection between the fixing bracket and the first support frame is achieved through rotation shafts when the fixing bracket rotates relative to the first support frame about a first direction perpendicular to the optical axis. Further, the rational connection between the first support frame and the second support frame are also achieved through rotation shafts when the first support frame rotates relative to the second support frame about a second direction perpendicular to the optical axis. The first direction and the second direction are respectively parallel to two diagonal lines of the fixing bracket. This rotational connection structure may increase the size change in the height direction of the lens module during the rotation. Accordingly, the requirement for the height direction of the overall structure is greatly increased, thereby causing the height of the lens driving device to be too high.
Therefore, it is necessary to provide a lens driving device to solve the above problems.

Changzhou AAC Raytech Optronics Co., Ltd.


The present invention includes compositions and methods of modulating the length of one or more cotton fibers in a plant by contacting the plant or tissue derived therefrom with at least one of: a nucleotide; a modulator of ectoapyrase gene transcription; or an anti-ectoapyrase antibody or fragments thereof, at a concentration that modulates growth of one or more cotton fibers.

Without limiting the scope of the invention, its background is described in connection with cotton fiber production. Cotton fibers are some of the longest single cells in the plant kingdom and are considered a model system for studying cell growth and primary cell wall deposition. Upland cotton, Gossypium hirsutum, is a widely studied species that has been used for numerous genetic and physiological studies on fiber growth (Wilkins and Arpat, 2005; Shi et al. 2006; Chen et al., 2007; Gao et al. 2007; Lee et al., 2007; Taliercio and Boykin, 2007). Cotton fibers differentiate from the epidermis of the ovule and then undergo cell expansion during the elongation phase of growth from 3 d post-anthesis (dpa) to 16 dpa (Tiwari and Wilkins, 1995; Basra and Malik, 1984) and grow via diffuse growth, which does not share the common ultrastructural characteristics found in tip-growing cells (Tiwari and Wilkins, 1995).
Fiber growth can be conveniently studied in cultured ovules, which allow for testing the effects of various growth regulators on the initiation and elongation processes. For example, Shi et al. (2006) documented the role of ethylene in regulating the growth of cotton fibers in ovule culture, and Qin et al. (2007) showed that very-long-chain fatty acids could promote cotton fiber cell elongation in ovule culture by activating ethylene synthesis.

Regulation of cotton fiber growth by extracellular nucleotides and ectoapyrases

Board of Regents, The University of Texas System


A computer database stores information on inventory product items and associated disposition instructions for unsold product. A field representative at a retail store location processes product items for disposition according to the disposition instructions maintained on the master database. Disposition instructions include destroy, donate, or special handling instructions. The field representative processes unsold product items using a data collection device that includes a data input interface and a communication interface to update the database and track unsold product items remaining in inventory. The database is updated using the input product item, and disposition instructions stored on the master database are displayed on the data collection device for implementation for each scanned product item. At the end of the visit, a credit memo is provided to the retail store for translation into a cash credit or check.

Under a purely economic driven model, all sales operations seek to maximize profits. Many activities occurring in the normal stream of commerce can reduce profit margins or prevent increases in revenue. These activities are collectively referred to as revenue limitations, and these limitations are also called "shrink" because they shrink revenues or profit.
Revenue limitations, or shrink, can result from product loss, spoilage, obsolescence, expiration, recall, theft, fraud, damage, and destruction. All of these types of activities shrink profits and revenues in any sales operation, and revenue limitations impact profits at all levels of retail operations. Manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers share many of these business losses.
Most of these limitations are viewed as unavoidable because implementing sufficient managerial oversight to reduce shrinkage is impractical or not cost effective. That is, the projected costs associated with reducing this shrink (or loss) outweigh the expected benefits. In 2002, revenue limitations (or shrink) accounted for $31 billion in lost revenue in the United States retail industry. Accordingly, even a modest reduction in revenue shrinkage could offer a significant increase in profitability.
As an example of shrinkage, a particular retail product may be discontinued because of the new introduction of a replacement product. Under most present practices at a retail location, the discontinued product would simply be discarded even though the product is in a good condition for sale. Discarding such a discontinued product is considered a loss for accounting purposes. However, if the discontinued product were instead donated to a charity, it could be accounted for as a tax-deductible donation offsetting the loss in retail sale of the discontinued product. Or, the product might still be marketable at another retail operation specializing in the sale of discontinued items. In that later circumstance, the discontinued product may be sold to the "seconds" store for some profit realization (over the Internet on a website). Without adequate management and direction over the disposition decision, however, many businesses simply choose the simplest manner of handling such discontinued product—that is, by putting it in a trash dumpster. As such, what is needed is an improved system for tracking product inventory, identifying alternate dispositions for inventory, and providing direction on the disposition of certain product inventory.
Bar codes were originally developed in the 1950s, and bar codes are currently used as an increasingly important source of data acquisition in the retail industry. Virtually every retail operation utilizes some form of bar coding, and bar coding is emerging as a viable means for identifying and tracking product from point of manufacture to point of sale. Bar codes, however, are not known to be used to account for product items disposed by a retail operation in the situation of a discontinued product, obsolete product, or out-dated product.
A number of bar code options are available. The most prevalent bar code standard remains one-dimensional bar code symbologies. One-dimensional bar coding is well established, but it suffers from a limited data capacity of approximately 50 characters. A more advanced option is two-dimensional (2D) bar code symbology that includes stacked and matrix codes. Stacked codes feature a linear bar code with a capacity of approximately 2000 characters. Matrix coding uses patterns of cells of varying shapes offering higher data density to that of stacked codes but remains approximately a 2000 character maximum capacity. A newly emerging class of coding, composite codes, features both linear bar and matrix symbol coding and is very useful where different parts of the information may be required at different points in the product's life. Composite codes feature both a linear symbol code (e.g. a stacked code) and a matrix symbol code that packs in more encoded data, such as batch or lot identifiers and manufacturing dates.
An emerging technology that may replace bar codes is radio frequency identification tagging (RFID). Similar to anti-theft tags, RFID works using a small chip broadcasting a radio frequency signal in response to a query signal from a data collection device. While still cost prohibitive, RFIDs may emerge as a new source of data acquisition for information currently found on products in bar code format.
The most overriding weakness regarding control of shrinkage is a lack of management control. There are few, if any, management mechanisms that support tracking and control of product loss, spillage, fraud, obsolescence, destruction, and damage. While theft is one revenue limitation that the retail industry attempts to track and control, other areas of revenue limitations (or shrink) have historically seen little specific attention for tracking and management. Effective management control for destroyed, discontinued, recalled, or expired product is needed. An efficient, economical management tool for monitoring, tracking, and controlling retail product from point of manufacturing and distribution to the retail store level would solve this outstanding need, thereby increasing revenue or profit of retail operations.

Method and program for reduction of retail sales revenue limitations


A neural network can be trained for synthesizing or recognizing speech with the aid of a database produced by automatically matching graphemes and phonemes. First, graphemes and phonemes are matched for words which have the same number of graphemes and phonemes. Next, graphemes and phonemes are matched for words that have more graphemes than phonemes in a series of steps that combine graphemes with preceding phonemes. Then, graphemes and phonemes are matched for words that have fewer graphemes than phonemes. After each step, infrequent and unsuccessful matches made in the preceding step are are erased. After this process is completed, the database can be used to train the neural network and graphemes, or letters of a text can be converted into the corresponding phonemes with the aid of the trained neural network.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for conditioning a database for automatic speech processing, as well as a method for training a neural network for assigning graphemes to phonemes for automatic speech processing, and a method for assigning graphemes to phonemes in the synthesization of speech or in the recognition of speech.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known to use neural networks for synthesizing speech, the neural networks converting a text, which is represented in a sequence of graphemes, into phonemes which are converted into the corresponding acoustic sounds by an appropriate speech output device. Graphemes are letters or combinations of letters which in each case are assigned a sound, the phoneme. The neural network must be trained before being used for the first time. This is normally performed by using a database which contains the grapheme/phoneme assignments, it being established thereby which phoneme is assigned to which grapheme.
The setting up of such a database constitutes a substantial outlay on time and mental effort, since databases of this type can usually only be constructed with the aid of a language expert.

Method for conditioning a database for automatic speech processing


Laser joining of dissimilar material in order to form an integral structure. Such structure of this type, generally, allow circuit breaker components which are constructed of different material, to be joined together to form an integral circuit breaker.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the laser joining of dissimilar materials in order form an integral structure. Such structures of this type, generally, allow circuit breaker components, which are constructed of different materials, to be joined together to form an integral circuit breaker.
2. Description of the Related Art
The current process for joining dissimilar material components is projection welding, a form of resistance welding. In this case, the terminal and braid extension components, which are made of bronze and brass, respectively, have their mating parts dimpled to help direct the current to a specific location during the projection welding process. The dimples provide a region for high current densities to form and pressure contact points where the welds are actually made. With properly dressed electrodes, sufficient pressure, and adequately cleaned joints, a reliable weld can be made. But, since these conditions are not always maintained in a manufacturing element, product yield can be inconsistent and very low at times. This is particularly the case if the shape of the electrodes are not maintained. Therefore, it would be advantageous if the amount of weld yield could be increased.
It is apparent from the above that there is exists a need in the art for a welding system which is capable of welding dissimilar materials, and which at the same time can produce a high amount of yield. It is a purpose of this invention to fulfill this and other needs in the art in a manner more apparent to the skilled artisan once given the following disclosure.

Apparatus and method for laser joining bimetallic materials to circuit breaker terminals and braid extensions


An object of the present invention is to provide a flange coupling in which the height of a horizontal portion of an L-shaped pipe is made as small as possible. The present invention provides a flange coupling having a flange formed with an attaching bolt hole and a pipe connection hole and an L-shaped pipe installed in the pipe connection hole, wherein the L-shaped pipe is made of aluminum or aluminum alloy, and a horizontal portion of the L-shaped pipe is molded so that a lower face thereof is at the same level as or at the level close to a plane including the upper surface of the flange.

There has been conventionally available a flange coupling in which a pipe 4 is welded to the side face of a flange 3, for example, as shown in FIG. 1. However, the coupling of this type has a drawback of requiring a welding process. Therefore, there can be used a flange coupling in which an L-shaped pipe 4 is installed to the flange 3 and a horizontal portion 5 of the pipe 4 is extended transversely with respect to the flange 3 as shown in FIG. 2.
However, for the flange coupling shown in FIG. 2, the radius of a bent portion must be made inevitably large because of the hardness of pipe used normally, so that the horizontal portion 5 of the pipe 4 has a considerably great height h with respect to the flange 3. Therefore, the flange coupling of this type is unsuitable in the case where it is arranged in an extremely limited space near an engine.

Flange coupling and manufacturing method for the same


An inflatable convective thermal blanket is designed to have at least one section on its top surface that has securely mounted thereon at least one fluid absorbent mechanism for absorbing fluids from a subject that is placed onto the blanket, or from fluids fallen onto the blanket from other sources. The one section is configured onto the blanket in such a way that it forms a well for collecting the fluids. The fluid absorbent mechanism, which may be in the form of a pad, would absorb the collected fluid to thereby minimize evaporative and cooling effects on the subject. Instead of mounting it on top of the blanket, the fluid absorbent pad may be mounted to the underside of the blanket, with appropriate holes and/or openings provided at the fluid collecting section, so that the collected fluids are drained onto the fluid absorbent pad. To enhance the input flow of air to the blanket, as well as to enable the blanket to be flatly folded for storage or shipping, a collapsible retainer mechanism is provided at the input port(s) of the blanket. The retainer mechanism opens up to a shape that facilitates the mating of an air hose to the input port. When folded to its collapsed position, the retainer mechanism, and the input port, would lie substantially coplanarly with the blanket. When configured to the position for accepting the air hose, the retainer mechanism is positioned substantially orthogonal to the blanket.

An inflatable thermal blanket that is used to support a patient is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,936. The '936 blanket has its top layer and its bottom layer joined together at a number of point joined locations. To remove fluids that may accumulate on the blanket, drain openings are provided at the joined locations so that the fluids may be drained from the blanket onto the table or bed onto which the blanket is placed, and from there presumably to a fluid collection tray. The use of the '936 thermal blanket therefore requires that the blanket be carefully placed on the table or bed, and be positioned relative to a fluid collection tray. Alternatively, a fluid collection tray may need to be placed between the bed and the blanket for collecting the fluid that is drained from the blanket. Thus, instead of being able to use the blanket right out of the package, certain preparations need to be done before the '936 blanket could be used.
As with most, if not all, of the thermal blankets that are available, in order not to impede the flow of air into the blanket, the input port of those blankets are configured to have a particular shape that oftentimes prevents the blankets from being folded to be substantially flat, thereby requiring additional space and packaging for storage and/or shipping.


A method of processing audio information for broadcast to an audience can include changing first audio information from occurring in a first time interval to occurring in a second time interval to provide time-changed audio information. The time-changed audio information can be combined with second audio information that is responsive to the first audio information to provide broadcast audio information.

1. Technical Field
The invention generally relates to the field of information processing and, more particularly, to methods, systems, and computer program products for processing audio information.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known that momentary periods of silence exist during normal conversations. For example, in a question and answer session, there is usually a period of silence that occurs between the end of a question the answer provided thereto. Furthermore, periods of silence can also occur during normal conversation between two or more parties. Accordingly, this momentary silence is more or less expected is normal situations.
It is also known that in some situations (which fall outside the realm of a normal conversation) unusually long periods of silence can be introduced where otherwise normal periods of silence would occur. For example, when a conversation is occurring over a great distance, such as via a satellite link, the propagation delay associated with the transmission of audio from a local site to a remote site coupled with the propagation of audio information from the remote site back to the local site can introduce such long periods of silence. These long periods of silence during the conversation can become awkward and unproductive as the participants may be unsure as to how long to wait before speaking again.
It is known to address the situation discussed above by recording an entire conversation in a medium which can allow "off-line" editing to reduce the amount of silence present in the conversation. For example, a question and answer session conducted by via satellite can be recorded on audiotape whereupon the recording can be edited to reduce any silence between the questions and answers. However, this approach may not be feasible when the session is to be carried out in real-time or near real-time.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Changing time intervals of the occurrence of audio information from local and remote sites

International Business Machines Corporation


Chemical cutting processes and tool for use in a well bore useful in the cutting of high strength and corrosion-resistant downhole tubular goods. The cutting tool has an elongated tool body adapted to be inserted into a well conduit and positioned at a downhole location for effecting a cutting action. The tool body comprises a chemical section and a cutting section having a plurality of cutting ports therein for discharge of the chemical cutting agent. The cutting ports extend transversely of the major axis of the elongated tool body and are arranged in at least first and second groups. The first group of cutting ports is arranged in a configuration conforming to the desired shape of the cut and define a first pattern. The second group of cutting ports conform generally to the first pattern and are in a canted relationship with respect to the first pattern. At least some of the cutting ports in the first group are in a staggered relationship relative to at least some of the cutting ports in the second group. Cutting ports maybe arranged circumferentially of the tool body to provide first and second planar patterns in a converging relationship such that they intersect at a locus externally of the tool body. The cutting ports may also be arranged to cut relatively large perforations in downhole tubular goods. The cutting ports lie in first and second ring-shaped configurations in an annular relationship with one another with one pattern forming a frustoconical configuration.

These are many circumstances in the oil industry where it is desirable to cut into or through downhole tubular goods within a well. For example, in the course of drilling a well, the drill pipe may become stuck at a downhole location. This may result from "keyseating" or as a result of cuttings which settle within the well around the lower portion of the drill string. In order to remove the drill string from the well, it may be necessary to sever the drill pipe at a location above the stuck point. Similarly, it is often necessary to carry out downhole cutting operations during the completion or operation or abandonment of oil or gas well. For example, it is sometimes desirable to sever casing or tubing at a downhole location in order to make repairs or withdraw the tubular goods from a well which is being abandoned or repaired. In most cases, the pipe is reusable. In other circumstances, it is desirable to cut slots, grooves or perforations in downhole tubular goods. Thus, it is a common expedient to perforate the casing and surrounding cement sheath of a well in order to provide fluid access to a hydrocarbon bearing formation. Similarly, it is sometimes desirable to perforate tubing in the completion or recompletion of a well.
Chemical cutters can be used to significant advantage in the application of chemicals to cut, sever or perforate downhole tubular goods. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,918,125 to Sweetman discloses a downhole chemical cutter which employs cutting fluids that react violently with the object to be cut with the generation of extremely high temperatures sufficient to melt, cut or burn the object. In the Sweetman procedure, halogen fluorides are employed in jet stream impinging on the downhole pipe to sever or perforate the pipe. The attendant reaction is highly exothermic and the pipe is readily penetrated. Examples of chemical cutting agents disclosed in Sweetman are fluorine and the halogen fluorides including such compounds as chlorine trifluoride, chlorine monofluoride, bromine trifluoride, bromine pentafluoride, iodine pentafluoride and iodine heptafluoride. The cutting fluid is expelled from the tool through radial ports in jet cutting streams. In Sweetman, the cutting ports extend radially from a central bore within the discharge head of the cutting tool which terminates in a reduced diameter bore which is open to the lower or front end of the cutting tool. The reduced diameter bore is internally threaded to receive a threaded plug which closes the lower end of the bore.
As further disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,619,318 to Terrell et al., objects may be perforated or in some instances, completely dissolved with no debris left in the well through the use of a downhole chemical cutter. As disclosed in this patent, the chemical cutting tool may be provided with a downwardly extended nozzle provided with a suitable stand-off sleeve. In addition to the halogen fluoride cutting agents as disclosed in the aforementioned patent to Sweetman, further cutting agents as disclosed in the Terrell et al. patent include nitrogen fluoride sources.
Other than the particular adaptation of a nozzle configuration as described in the aforementioned Terrell et al. patent, the normal practice in severing downhole tubular goods is to arrange the cutting ports which are located on the circumferences of the cutting head radially and perpendicular to the centerline of the tool, defining a disk-like planar pattern. Thus, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,076,507 to Sweetman, a cutting head is disclosed in which a plurality of jet passages of restricted diameter extend radially through the wall of the cutting head body in a single plane perpendicular to the vertical centerline of the head. A similar configuration is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,125,161 to Chammas. Here, the cutting head is a cylindrical member provided with a plurality of discharge ports arranged radially about the outer diameter of the head through which the chemical cutting agent issues in a plane generally perpendicular to the vertical centerline of the head. The cutting ports are bridged with a piston provided with o-rings to prevent the entry of fluids through the ports. A lower portion of the tool is provided with openings through which well fluid exerts hydrostatic pressure on the bottom of the piston, holding the piston in place before the tool is fired.
Yet another chemical cutting tool is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,494,601 to Pratt et al. Here, a lower part of the cutting head structure is open to well fluid and a piston plug is interposed immediately above the cutting ports. The cutting ports may be closed to the exterior of the well by means of an internal sleeve positioned in the bore of the cutting head immediately in front of the piston. As in the cutting tools described above, the cutting ports lie in a single plane perpendicular to the centerline of the tool.

Downhole chemical cutting tool and process


A method for separating a multitude of biological objects by the type of the object. The method utilizes the differences in the viscoelastic properties for the different types of objects. As an example but not limited to: the method can be applied to most tumor cells that might be present in a sample of blood, allowing the tumor cells to be separated from the majority of the normal blood cells.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to the separation of different types of biological objects.
2. Prior Art
It is often desirable to examine biological samples, and specimens for signs of abnormality and disease. A partial list of biological samples is bodily fluids such as blood, urine, and spinal fluids, Tissue, and tumor biopsies, water and soil samples, and plant tissues and fluids. Current practice is to search for and examine the biological objects of interest in the sample. A partial list of biological objects is cells, bacteria, viruses, and yeast. Within the sample there are usually a large number of biological objects of the same that are not of interest. It is therefore advantageous to separate and remove most of objects that are not of interest thus concentrating the objects of interest.
As an example, the cells in a sample of blood or spinal fluid might need to be examined for indications of cancer. Because these types of samples might well contain millions of cells, it is very advantageous to separate the majority cells and fluids that are not of interest, thus concentrating the cells of interest.
In blood and spinal fluids it is desirable to remove plasma, erythrocytes red blood cells, and leukocytes (white blood cells), thus concentrating the small number of cells that are not normally present and that might exhibit signs of abnormality such as cancer. As leukocytes are often very similar to the cells of interest it is difficult to remove these cells without losses. The resulting concentrated cells of interest are then used for further analysis.
Prior to the invention the main methods of separating cell types were: Separation by size, by centrifugation (density/specific gravity), and chemical properties.
Separation by size is usually done by filtering through a filter, or a array of one or more hollow tubes with a specific hole size. Cells that are larger then the hole stay on one side of the filter while smaller cells go through the filter and are collected on the other side of the filter. If the two types of cells have an overlapping size distribution (a certain portion of the cells of one type are larger while another portion are smaller then the other type of cell), then the filter does not separate the two types effectively, resulting in a loss of some of the cells of interest thus reducing separation efficiency. Moreover, filtering using too high of a force can cause cells to rupture.
Separation by centrifugation works well when the two types of cells are very different as in the example of the separation of white and red blood cells. But centrifugation fails when the two types of cells have similar density and size, such as white blood cells and cancer cells. A further limitation of centrifugation-based cell separation is that the density of the cells are not constant, as even dead cells react to the conditions of their surrounding and environment.
Separation by chemical properties utilizing immuno-based chemistry by antibody binding of the cell to a surface antigen (which can possibly be attached to magnetic beads) is expensive, labor-intensive, and time-consuming. Many of the steps can have cell losses thus reducing the separation efficiency of this type of method. Also, cells will be lost if they don't have the matching antigen, and/or if the antigen is obscured by other blood components. Blood plasma proteins may coat the cells in circulation (a possible method of cancer cells evading the immune system) thus preventing their recognition by the antibody. The cells separated by this method are often in a form that is difficult for a visual examination of the results.
Separation by the above methods can damage the cells both bio-chemically, and mechanically, thus changing the cell morphology, and inhibiting subsequent processing, and analysis.

Method for the separation and sorting of different biological objects utilizing differences in their viscoelastic properties


A method and apparatus for measuring communications link quality provides accurate on-chip estimation of the difficulty of achieving a particular bit error rate (BER) for a communications link. A low cost/complexity accumulator circuit connected to internal signals from a clock/data recovery (CDR) circuit provides a measure of high frequency and low frequency jitter in a received signal. The low frequency jitter measurement is used to correct the high frequency jitter measurement which may otherwise contain error. The corrected output may be used to adjust operational characteristics of the link or otherwise evaluate the link for operating margin. The correction may be performed by subtracting a portion of the low frequency jitter measurement from the measured high frequency jitter, or the value of the low frequency jitter measurement may be used to select between two or more correction factors that are then applied to the high frequency jitter measurement.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to communication link circuits, and more particularly, to communications link quality measurement circuits.
2. Description of the Related Art
Interfaces between present-day system devices and also between circuits have increased in operating frequency and complexity. In particular, high speed serial interfaces employ sophisticated clock-and-data-recovery (CDR) receiver techniques including data/clock extraction, jitter reduction via feed-forward and feedback circuits, phase correction, error correction, error recovery circuits and equalization circuits in order to improve performance.
Channel quality and bit error rate (BER) requirements of a given interface determine the "difficulty" of the interface in terms of receiver signal processing requirements and power/voltage requirements, transmitter power levels and overall interface architecture. Generally, especially in an integrated circuit (IC) implementation, a wide margin is provided to meet various customer and channel requirements, yielding a less than optimal design from a power/complexity design point. The above-incorporated patent applications describe techniques for adapting interface circuits in order to reduce complexity and power requirements. However, it is necessary to measure interface signal quality in order to adapt an interface dynamically to channel and application conditions. Even with statically selectable interface complexity and power/voltage levels, in order to know the confidence level of an interface, testing is required.
Measurements of interface quality are typically performed by phase margin measurements, e.g., a receiver eye diagram measurement that provides a measure of the performance of the interface on a given physical channel. Other techniques include measuring loop error parameters of a PLL (phase-lock-loop) or DLL (delay-locked loop) in order to determine the level of jitter present at the receiver.
However, the interface may not already include a DLL or PLL circuit adaptable for measuring loop error parameters as part of the design, and such circuits are costly additions to a system (e.g., such circuits have high area and power requirements) and are inherently mixed-signal circuits that are difficult to design and implement. Further, other measurement circuits such as eye diagram measurements are also costly to implement. The above techniques are also not always indicative of true channel quality, as depending on interface design, decrease in eye width or increase in PLL/DLL error signal amplitude may not accurately indicate the resulting channel quality.
It is therefore desirable to provide a method and apparatus for measuring interface quality that provides an accurate estimate of the difficulty of achieving a particular level of interface BER performance. It would further be desirable to provide a method and apparatus for measuring interface quality that have low incremental cost for addition to an integrated circuit having CDR receiver circuitry.

Method and apparatus for measuring communications link quality


An integrated circuit is provided with adjustable transistor body bias circuitry and adjustable power supply circuitry. The adjustable circuitry may be used to selectively apply body bias voltages and power supply voltages to blocks of programmable logic, memory blocks, and other circuit blocks on the integrated circuit. The body bias voltages and power supply voltages may be identified by computer aided design tools. The body bias voltages may be used to reduce leakage currents and power consumption when high speed circuit block operation is not required. Reduced power supply voltages may also be used to reduce power consumption when high speed circuit block operation is not required. To ensure optimum switching speeds, circuit blocks for which high-speed performance is critical can be provided with minimal body bias voltage or no body bias and can be provided with maximum power supply levels.

This invention relates to integrated circuits, and more particularly, to circuitry and design systems for integrated circuits that can be used to improve performance and reduce power consumption by making transistor power supply and body bias adjustments.
There is an ongoing effort in the semiconductor industry to improve device performance. Improvements in speed, power consumption, and density have been achieved by scaling down transistor components to smaller sizes and lower operating voltages. Part of these scaling efforts have resulted in reduced values of transistor threshold voltage. Low transistor threshold voltages are generally advantageous, because they help to improve transistor switching speed. However, low transistor threshold voltages may also lead to increased transistor leakage currents. Elevated levels of transistor leakage are undesirable, because transistor leakage can produce undesired power losses.
To ensure that transistor leakage currents do not become excessive as threshold voltages are scaled to lower values, some integrated circuits are operated with reduced power supply voltages. For example, the positive power supply voltage that is used to power an integrated circuit's core logic may be reduced from 1.5 volts to 1.2 volts in an attempt to compensate for the leakage current increases that are produced from threshold voltage reductions. Although reductions in power supply voltages can be helpful in reducing power consumption, power supply voltages cannot be reduced too much without adversely affecting transistor switching speeds.
To address these issues, some integrated circuit designs use body biasing arrangements in which the bulk or body terminals of certain transistors in the circuit are biased to increase the transistors' threshold voltage. Transistors with body terminals that are biased in this way exhibit reduced leakage. Power can also be conserved by placing portions of a circuit that are not being used into a sleep state by removing their positive power supply voltage.
Although techniques such as these help to reduce power consumption while preserving device performance, it is not always possible to bias the body terminal of transistors in active circuits, because body bias arrangements reduce transistor speed. Moreover, transistors that form part of an active circuit cannot be placed in a sleep state, because the circuit will not function in its sleep state.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide improved ways in which to address transistor performance and power consumption challenges for integrated circuits.

Integrated circuits with adjustable body bias and power supply circuitry


An oil sump, preferably made of plastic or metal, for motors or transmissions and having a filter housing, comprises a filter housing top shell, a filter housing bottom shell, a filter medium, a filter inlet, and a filter outlet, and an oil drain opening in the floor area of the oil sump, which is implemented in such a way that it is closable using an oil drain screw having external thread, which comes from the oil sump bottom side. The filter housing comprises an internal thread which is implemented to receive the external thread of the oil drain screw, the filter housing being at least partially fastened on the oil sump via the oil drain screw, which closes the oil drain opening and engages using its external thread in the internal thread on the filter housing side.

Oil sumps known from the prior art, preferably made of metal or plastic, typically have a separate filter placed in direct proximity to the oil sump floor, comprising at least one oil filter medium and one oil filter housing, which is preferably implemented as a suction oil filter. Oil sumps of this type having such an oil filter are known. The filters disclosed above have the problem that complex fastening/fixing of the components to one another is necessary due to the separation of the components, such as the oil sump and oil filter in particular. A connection of these components is performed in the prior art by riveting, etc., for example. Furthermore, oil filters placed separately in an oil sump have a gap between the filter bottom side and the interior side of the oil sump, which results in uncontrolled air suction and the generation of noise by movement of the loose filter in the oil sump. This results in a decrease of the filter efficiency and reduction of the usage comfort.
In other cases, the filter is fastened permanently in the oil sump, for example, by welding/gluing, and is no longer removable. These embodiments have the disadvantage that a separate replacement of the filter is not possible and a replacement of the oil sump/oil filter unit is thus very complex and costly.

IBS FILTRAN KUNSTSTOFF-/METALLERZEUGNISSE GMBH


An educational device having a chamber with a plurality of holes extending through the chamber. A plurality of ropes are selectively configured in the chamber and portions of the ropes are exposed outside the chamber. The ends of the exposed ropes are connected to knobs that allow a user to pull on a selected rope end thereby causing a movement of another rope end through another hole. The device encourages and permits a mental determination of the configuration of ropes within the chamber.

The need to improve education, especially in science and mathematics, has fostered a search for better and more effective teaching methods. One development has been the move from fact-learning teaching methods which concentrate on memorization and recitation to process-oriented teaching methods which focus on developing problem-solving skills. This movement was justified, in part, by the recognition that teaching a student to solve a problem early in their academic lives produces a better understanding of scientific and mathematical principles in future educational endeavors. Also, a student who possesses process-oriented skills is believed to be capable of easily finding facts in reference materials while a student who only learns facts may be unable to perceive, understand, and conceptualize the underlying principles. Thus, the move toward process-orientated learning has created a need for demonstrative tools and other aids that can be used by the teacher in the classroom.
The present invention discloses a process and apparatus which permits and encourages the use of process-oriented thinking and which enables teachers to effectively and efficiently assist students in the art of creative thinking. In addition, the present invention discloses a device that incorporates simple structural elements combined in unique manners to create an educational tool to enable students to learn a process of thinking that in effect lasts a life-time.

Board of Regents, The University of Texas System


Embodiments of the present invention include circuitry for issuing address and data signals to a memory array using a system clock and a write clock. A locked loop may be used to compensate for additional delay experienced by the system clock relative to write clock and ensure synchronization of the clock signals. A write latch enable block may be used to develop a write latch enable signal for issuance along with a corresponding address signal. The write latch enable signal can be timed such that it arrives at an appropriate time to issue the data corresponding to the issued address.

Memory systems may employ a plurality of clock signals, including a write clock signal and a system clock signal. The memory system may issue write data signals to the memory device in accordance with the write clock and issue command and address signals to the memory device in accordance with the system clock. Referring to FIG. 1, a memory system 10 includes a controller 20. The controller issues write clock 22 and system clock 24 signals to the memory device 30 having 128 data inputs (DQs) 32a-h and command and address inputs (not shown). The write clock signal 22 is routed to the device 30 at a plurality of write clock inputs 34a-h, each local to a respective group of DQs 32a-h.
The write clock signal 22 is issued to each DQ through local clock trees 36a-h. The memory system 10 of FIG. 1 includes a clock input for every 16 DQs and the device 30 includes 128 DQs, as shown. The system clock signal 24, however, is applied to the device 10 at a signal system clock input 40. The system clock signal 24 may be used throughout the memory device 30, for example, for clocking circuits to capture command and address signals in synchronicity with the system clock signal 24. While the system clock signal 24 may be used for a variety of functions on the memory device 20, the controller 20 issues address and command signals destined for the memory device 30 in accordance with the system clock signal 24. The system clock signal 24 is routed internally through a global clock tree 42 so that the system clock signal 24 can be used to synchronize various operations according to the system clock signal 24. The system clock signal 24 is also routed by the global clock tree 42 to each of the local clock trees 36a-h (connections not shown in FIG. 1 for simplicity).
Accordingly, write data signals are received in accordance with the write clock signal at each DQ 32a-h and command and address signals received in accordance with the system clock signal at the command and address inputs, respectively. For the memory device to accurately capture and match address signals with the correct corresponding write data, the write clock and system clocks should be in synch at the DQs and the address inputs. However, as shown in FIG. 1, the internal system and write clock paths may differ, and as a result, the system and write clocks would be out of synch by the time they reach the individual DQs 32a-h and address inputs. For example, the system clock experiences extra delay due, for example, to the global clock tree 42. Traditional systems ensure sufficient synchronization between the DQs and the address inputs by delaying the write clock signals an additional amount such that they are delayed by approximately the same amount as the system clock signal is delayed due to the different internal clock path.
As memory speeds continue to increase, however, the traditional method for ensuring write and system clock synchronization by delaying the write clock signal to match the system clock signal delay may fail. As clock speeds continue to increase, the delay from the system clock input 40 to the individual DQs 32a-h may be on the order of several clock periods. Furthermore, the delay experienced by the system clock signal will vary according to process, voltage and temperature conditions of the memory device 30.
Accordingly, simply delaying the write clock an additional amount to match a delay of the system clock may not suffice. For one thing, the process, voltage and temperature variation may not affect the delays in the same manner, continuing to contribute to a mismatch. Further, as the mismatch of delay increases to several clock periods, received data signals may be stored while waiting for receipt of the corresponding system clock signal. It may be difficult to know how much storage would be needed to accommodate the delay in receipt of the system clock signal. It is also difficult to match the received write data signals with the corresponding address signals that are received, routed and therefore delayed in the same manner as the system clock signal.
The problem is still further exacerbated because write data is captured at the frequency of the original write clock signal while the system clock may be internally divided by two on the memory device. Accordingly, phase control between the slower system clock and the faster write clock signal may be of increasing importance.
There is accordingly a need for a system of coupling write data and address signals to a memory device that accommodates the different routing of system clock and write clock signals such that the system clock and write clock signals are in synch and the correct address signals are matched with their corresponding write data.

Systems and methods for issuing address and data signals to a memory array


A method and apparatus is presented for performing a sequence-level CRC calculation on fiber channel communications within a switching platform domain. A CRC generator searches the data communication for frames that contain the type of data for which a sequence-level CRC is desired, such as for a sequence containing SCSI data. If found, and the type of data allows multiple frames per sequence, the present invention creates a CRC value for the sequence. An intermediate CRC value is stored in a queue to allow the simultaneous calculation of sequence level CRC values for multiple frames. With inbound data, the sequence-level CRC is appended to the end of the sequence data. With outbound data, the calculated value is compared with the appended, expected value, With single-frame fiber channel protocols, the frame-level CRC value is obtained directly from the frames entering the switching platform domain. This value is placed in a local queue, from which it is appended to the data payload by a processor for transmission within the switching platform. When the single frame is leaving the switching platform domain, the flow of data leaving the switching platform domain is monitored and the frame-level CRC value calculated by the fiber channel controller is replaced with the original frame-level CRC value.

In conventional networked systems, data is often transmitted between digital devices over a variety of protocols. Switching platforms exist that are capable of converting and switching data from one protocol to another. For instance, data can be transmitted by an IBM mainframe over an ESCON channel protocol. A switching platform can receive such an ESCON data stream and redirect the data over a different bus protocol like SCSI, or even a network media such as ATM. Using such devices, IBM mainframes can communicate to otherwise incompatible devices such as a SCSI storage device using a known protocol like ESCON.
Switching platforms may also allow remote access to devices that are physically located beyond the limits of a particular communications media. For instance, local fibre channel data streams can be converted to a wide area network such as SONET and then be transmitted across the continent. A separate switching platform at the receiving site can receive the network protocol data stream and convert it back to the original channel protocol or even another protocol altogether, whatever is appropriate for the receiving device.
As is well known, it is important that any data corruption along a transmission path be identified and corrected. Standard techniques for detecting data corruption include parity checks and CRCs (or cyclic redundancy checks). Parity checks require that an additional bit be added onto each byte of transmitted data. The additional bit is selected so that the entire byte contains either an odd number of 'one' bits (odd parity) or an even number of 'one' bits (even parity). Unfortunately, this error detection scheme does not check errors that create an even number of bit errors within a single byte.
The CRC technique is an improvement over simpler methods of error detection. In standard techniques, a CRC value is appended onto a grouping of data during data transmission. When the data is received, a new CRC value is calculated and compared with the original value. If the values do not match, there has been a transmission error. Alternatively, the data and the appended CRC value are combined to calculate a CRC value, which can then be compared with a constant to determine if there were any errors during transmission.
While various channel and networking protocols check for point-to-point data transmission problems using parity checking and CRC values, these end-to-end techniques are not useful in discovering data transmission problems within the switching platform domain. In other words, if transmission errors arise in the transmission from one switching platform to another, it would be inefficient to require the destination (i.e., the remote storage device) to discover the transmission problem and then request a retransmission from the source (i.e., the computer).
What is needed is a technique to calculate and check CRC values in a switching platform domain beyond that provided by the basic point-to-point protocols used by the attached devices. Specifically, what is needed is a method and device that snoops the hardware used for normal fibre channel communications to create a sequence-level CRC generator and checker.
At the same time, some fibre channel protocols such as FC-BB, FC-BB2, and FC-IP do not utilize sequences, and instead transmit data only in single fibre channel frames. When transmitting these protocols, there is no need for the switching platform domain to create a sequence level CRC value, since there are no sequences and each individual frame contains its own CRC value. This value is not recalculated within the switching domain because these fibre channel protocols require that intermediate switches existing between the originator and responder pass the frame-level CRC values unaltered. Thus, it is necessary for the method and device that generates a sequence-level CRC value for multiple-frame sequences to also allow single fibre channel frame communications of these protocols to pass through the switching domain with their frame-level CRC values unaltered.

Frame-level fibre channel CRC on switching platform


A computer-based method for displaying an implement payload weight to an operator of a vehicle is provided. The method includes calculating an implement payload weight at a lift position, displaying, at a first location on a monitor, the calculated implement payload weight, determining an accuracy of the calculated implement payload weight, and displaying, at a second location on the monitor proximate to the first location, an accuracy indicator based on the accuracy of the calculated implement payload weight.

Off-highway vehicles, such as, for example, wheel loaders, wheel excavators, track loaders, track excavators, backhoe loaders, forestry machines, etc., are commonly used in material moving applications such as construction and demolition, mining, quarrying and stockpiling, forestry, waste processing, etc. To effectively accomplish tasks associated with these applications, the vehicles are typically outfitted with hydraulically-powered work implements such as buckets, forks, grapples, etc. A prime mover, for example a diesel, gasoline, or gaseous fuel-powered engine, may drive one or more hydraulic pumps that provide hydraulic power to the work implement. Hydraulically-powered work implements are typically controlled based on an actuation position of an operator interface device, such as a joystick, a pedal, etc.
Knowledge of the implement payload weight during operation of the vehicle is important for many reasons, including, for example, safety, work efficiency, etc. With respect to work efficiency, U.S. Pat. No. 7,627,410 describes a method of loading a truck with material using a loader that includes a step of determining a target load for a final pass.
Known systems display implement payload weights to the operator of a vehicle only when the implement is moving within a limited range of motion, also known as the weigh range. Unfortunately, the implement payload weight is not displayed to the operator when the implement is positioned above (tip off) or below (low lift) the weigh range. It is desirable to display the implement payload weight to the operator over the entire range of motion of the implement, and to provide an indication of the accuracy of the implement payload weight calculation.

Vehicle payload weight display method and system


A device for estimating a rolling condition of a body of a vehicle having: a unit for estimating a first quantity (xcfx86, xcex3V, Gy, Ff) corresponding to roll angle (xcfx86) of the vehicle body around a rolling axis; a unit for estimating a second quantity corresponding to a change rate (xcfx86) of the roll angle of the vehicle body; a unit for estimating a third quantity indicating a relative magnitude (xcfx86/xcfx86limit, xcex3V/(xcex3V)limit, Gy/Gylimit, Ff/Fflimit) of the first quantity with reference to a first limit value predetermined therefor; a unit for estimating a fourth quantity indicating a relative magnitude (xcfx86/xcfx86limit) of the second quantity with reference to a second limit value predetermined therefor; and a unit for estimating the rolling condition as a combination of the third and fourth quantities such that the rolling condition is intensified along with increase of the third quantity as well as increase of the fourth quantity.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for estimating a rolling condition of a vehicle such as an automobile.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When a vehicle such as an automobile is driven to turn along a curved course, its body flexibly supported above its wheels via elastic suspensions inclines outside of the turn according to a centrifugal force acting virtually at the center of gravity of the vehicle body.
A parameter which indicates how far the vehicle body is proceeding in such a rolling movement is useful for automatic behavior controls of vehicles such as an automatic suspension control for automatically varying the spring constant and/or the damping coefficient of the suspensions, a vehicle stability control for automatically braking a selected one or more of pairs of front and rear wheels so as particularly to stabilize the turning performance of the vehicles. It would also be desirable for a driver of a vehicle if the vehicle is equipped with an indicator for indicating to the driver when such a rolling of the vehicle body due to the turning centrifugal force is imminent.
In Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication 6-297985, it has been proposed to estimate the roll angle of a body of a four wheeled vehicle based upon three displacement sensors provided to detect a displacement of each of three wheels selected from the four wheels relative to the vehicle body and a lateral acceleration sensor, such that a three dimensional position of a virtual plane traversing three fixed points of the vehicle body relative to the ground surface is calculated based upon the output of the three displacement sensors by solving three one-dimensional three variables simultaneous equations so as thereby to determine the height of the center of gravity of the vehicle body above the ground surface, and a torque for rolling the vehicle body is calculated by multiplying the height with the mass of the vehicle body and an output of the lateral acceleration sensor. According to the invention described in this publication, the vehicle is automatically braked when the roll angle exceeds a predetermined threshold value.
In Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication 63-116918, it has been proposed to estimate a rolling condition of a vehicle based upon load sensors for detecting loads of actuators provided for respective wheels, a vehicle speed sensor, a steering angle sensor, displacement sensors and an acceleration sensor. According to the invention described in this publication, the estimated rolling condition is shown to the driver by an indicator, and when the rolling condition exceeds an allowable limit, the vehicle is automatically braked, with execution of an engine slow down.
In Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication 3-70614, it has been proposed to estimate roll angle of a vehicle body by assuming a vehicle as a simple harmonic rotary oscillation system, such that the roll angle of the vehicle body is obtained as a solution for the rotational angle of the simple harmonic rotary oscillation equation based upon displacements of the vehicle body detected at front left, rear left, front right and rear right wheels and a lateral acceleration detected by a lateral acceleration sensor. According to the invention of this publication, the roll angle thus estimated is supplied to a control unit for controlling active suspensions of the four wheels, together with other input parameters such as vehicle speed, pitch angle of the vehicle body, pressure of a main tank of the control system, etc.
The present application contemplates that in evaluating the rolling of a vehicle body caused by a turn running thereof, it will be worthwhile to estimate it as a xe2x80x9crolling conditionxe2x80x9d indicative of how close the rolling is momentarily approaching to a limit thereof allowable for ensuring a stabilized running of the vehicle.
In is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a device for estimating such a xe2x80x9crolling conditionxe2x80x9d of the vehicle body that is indicative of how close the rolling is momentarily approaching to an allowable limit thereof so as to ensure a stabilized running of the vehicle, wherein the rolling condition is not a mere roll angle of the vehicle body but a quantity which is informative of the current rolling state in reflection of its allowable limit and in connection with an urgency of counteracting thereagainst.
In order to accomplish such a primary object, the inventor proposes a device for estimating a rolling condition of a body of a vehicle having the vehicle body, a pair of front wheels, a pair of rear wheels, and suspension means for supporting the vehicle body on the pairs of front and rear wheels, the vehicle body being able to roll relative to the wheels around a virtual axis of rolling provided by the suspension means, the device comprising:
means for estimating a first quantity corresponding to roll angle of the vehicle body around the rolling axis;
means for estimating a second quantity corresponding to a change rate of the roll angle of the vehicle body;
means for estimating a third quantity indicating a relative magnitude of the first quantity with reference to a first limit value predetermined therefor;
means for estimating a fourth quantity indicating a relative magnitude of the second quantity with reference to a second limit value predetermined therefor; and
means for estimating the rolling condition as a combination of the third and fourth quantities such that the rolling condition is intensified along with increase of the third quantity as well as increase of the fourth quantity.
The above-mentioned device according to the present invention, when it comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of means for detecting lateral acceleration Gy of the vehicle body, a combination of means for detecting yaw rate xcex3 of the vehicle body and means for detecting vehicle speed V, and a combination of means for detecting yaw rate xcex3 of the vehicle body and means for detecting lateral acceleration Gy, may be constructed such that the second quantity estimation means comprise means for cyclically conducting such calculations as
{dot over (xcfx86)}(t+xcex94t)={dot over (xcfx86)}(t)+{xcfx89o2(xcex3Vxcfx86oxe2x88x92xcfx86(t))xe2x88x922xcfx89oxcex6{dot over (xcfx86)}(t)}xcex94t and
xcfx86(t+xcex94t)=xcfx86(t)+{dot over (xcfx86)}xcex94t
at a minute cycle time xcex94t of time t so as to cyclically renew values of {dot over (xcfx86)} and xcfx86 by respective newly calculated values thereof and to estimate the third quantity by dividing each instant value of {dot over (xcfx86)} by a limit value {dot over (xcfx86)}limit predetermined therefor as an allowable limit thereof, wherein xcfx86 is the roll angle of the vehicle body around the rolling axis, {dot over (xcfx86)} is change rate of the roll angle xcfx86, xcfx89o is a natural frequency of the vehicle body in rolling around the rolling axis in oscillation, X is either the lateral acceleration Gy, xcex3V or Ff representing (I{dot over (xcex3)}+LrMGy)/H, xcfx86ois a roll angle induced in the vehicle body by a unit lateral acceleration applied thereto, and xcex6 is a damping coefficient in the rolling of the vehicle body around the rolling axis, while I, Lr, M and H are the inertial moment of the vehicle body in yawing around the center of gravity thereof, a distance between the axis of the rear wheels and the center of gravity of the vehicle body, the mass of the vehicle body, and the wheel base of the vehicle, respectively.
According to the optional provision of the means for detecting the yaw rate xcex3, the means for detecting the vehicle speed V, and/or the means for detecting the lateral acceleration Gy, the means for estimating the third quantity may estimate the third quantity as either xcex3V/(xcex3V)limit by dividing each instant value of a product of xcex3 and V by a limit value (xcex3V)limit predetermined therefor as an allowable limit thereof, Gy/Gylimit by dividing each instant value of Gy by a limit value Gylimit predetermined therefor as an allowable limit thereof, Ff/Fflimit by dividing each instant value of Fy by a limit value Fflimit predetermined therefor as an allowable limit thereof, or a weighted combination of xcex3V/(xcex3V)limit, Gy/Gylimit, and Ff/Fflimit according to the running conditions and/or road conditions.
The means for estimating the third quantity may also estimate the third quantity as xcfx86/xcfx86 limit by dividing each instant value of xcfx86 in the cyclical calculation by a limit value xcfx86limit predetermined therefor as an allowable limit thereof.

Device for estimating rolling condition of vehicle body with limits of roll angle and angular speed


The present invention provides an OLED element, a substrate (1), an OLED thin film element (2), being positioned on the substrate (1), an organic package thin film (3), being positioned on the substrate (1) and completely covering the OLED thin film element (2), an inorganic package thin film (4), being positioned on the substrate (1) and completely covering the organic package thin film (3), a protective cover (5) sealing the peripheric edges of the substrate (1) and mantling on the inorganic package thin film (4) and a rigid support plate (6) positioned at a side of the protective cover (5) away from the substrate (1). The OLED element of the present invention possesses the better mechanical property and is hard to be damaged by an external force. Meanwhile, the better airtightness protection can be provided to the OLED thin film element.

Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) is a flat panel display technology which has great prospects for development. It does not only possess extremely excellent display performance but also properties of self-illumination, simple structure, ultra thin, fast response speed, wide view angle, low power consumption and capability of realizing flexible display, and therefore is considered as "dream display". Meanwhile, the investment for the production equipments is far smaller than the Liquid Crystal Display (LCD). It has been favored by respective big display makers and has become the main selection of the third generation display element.
The OLED element generally comprises a glass substrate, an OLED thin film element on the glass substrate and a package cover plate, employed to resist the environmental atmosphere, and prevent the invasion of the water vapor and oxygen into the inside of the OLED element. The package cover plate is another glass plate in general. The OLED thin film element generally comprises an ITO transparent anode located on the glass substrate, a Hole Injection Layer (HIL) located on the ITO transparent anode, a Hole Transporting Layer (HTL) located on the Hole Injection Layer, an emitting material layer (EML) located on the Hole Transporting Layer, an Electron Transport Layer (ETL) located on the emitting material layer, an Electron Injection Layer (EIL) located on the Electron Transport Layer and a Cathode located on the Electron Injection Layer. For promoting the efficiency, the emitting material layer is generally applied with co-host system.
Due to the sharp edges of the glass plate, the issues of the improper protection in the process period can easily happen, and it is fragile as being suffered from mechanical loading. Such problems can be more obvious when it is applied for the large scale OLED elements. Besides, the glass plate (substrate or package cover plate) is very difficult to be connected with traditional fixing ways, such as screws, clamps, drilling, etc. to install the OLED element to the expected locations, such as on the wall.
The present OLEDs have regular shells in general. The regular shell can provide the mechanical package surrounding the outside of the OLED element but not directly contact with the OLED element in the entire shell areas. The robustness of the OLED element itself is not promoted. The mechanical collision will impact the OLED element inside the shell when mechanical collision happens. Ultimately, the OLED element must be damaged. Another kind of shell is to embed the OLED element inside the shell to promote the mechanical property of the OLED embedded inside the shell. However, such kind of shell cannot preserve the OLED element in seal condition and unable to provide better airtightness protection for the OLED thin film element.
Therefore, there is a need to provide a new type OLED element, to significantly promote the mechanical property of the OLED element, and meanwhile, to provide a better airtightness protection.

Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd


A pair of through-holes 41a and 41b having the same shape are formed and aligned in a flexible board 4 on which a wiring pattern 42 is formed. A piezoelectric actuator 3 made of a piezoelectric bi-morph device is inserted into the first through-hole 41a and then into the second through-hole 41b from the opposite surface side. As a result, both the ends in the longitudinal direction of the piezoelectric actuator 3 contact the same surface of the flexible board 4. The flexible board 4 is disposed so that it contacts a touch sensor portion except for a part of the flexible board 4. Thus, a high performance force sense feedback function caused by the panel that deforms corresponding to an input operation can be accomplished at low cost.

In recent years, input apparatuses called touch panels have been used for information processing apparatuses such as automatic teller machines in financial institution, ticketing machines in railroad stations, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), and so forth. The touch panel type input apparatus correlates icons and so forth displayed on a display such as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) with the coordinate system on the display panel and displays the position that the user has touched with his or her finger or a pointing device such as a pen so as to accomplish a GUI (Graphical User Interface) function.
In the conventional touch panel type input apparatus, when the user operates it and inputs data thereto, for example an icon that he or she has pressed varies in its appearance or an operation sound occurs so as to inform him or her that the input operation has been accepted. In contrast, in a recent touch panel, when the user presses an icon or the like, the height of the panel varies, causing a force sense to be fed back to his or her finger or a pointing device. As a result, since the user can feel as if he or she touched (clicked) a switch button, his or her operational feeling improves.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-259059 (laid open on Sep. 13, 2002) discloses a resistor film type touch panel having a structure of which a plurality of electrode sheets on which transparent electrodes are formed are layered in such a manner that they are spaced apart by a predetermined length and their electrodes are oppositely aligned. In particular, paragraphs [0037] to [0042] and FIG. 6 describe a touch panel having a multilayer structure, three or more electrode sheets, and actuators such as bobbin coils disposed between a casing that fixes the touch panel and a casing that fixes the display side so as to feed back a force sense to the touch panel.
Piezoelectric actuators that use piezoelectric bi-morph devices are thought to be suitable to accomplish such a force sense feedback function. The piezoelectric actuator has a structure of which a plurality of film-shaped piezoelectric members are adhered through an electrode sheet. The piezoelectric actuator has a characteristic of which when a voltage is applied between both surfaces of the piezoelectric actuator, it curves. Thus, when the actuators are disposed between the casing of the panel side on which touch sensors that detect a touching operation or a pressing operation and the casing of the display side, the panel surface can be moved upward and downward.
Next, with reference to FIG. 13 and FIG. 14, an example of the structure of the conventional touch panel type input apparatus having the force sense feedback function will be described.
FIG. 13 is a perspective view showing an example of the structure of the conventional touch panel type input apparatus that has the force sense feedback function.
As shown in FIG. 13, the conventional input apparatus has a touch sensor portion 102 that covers the display surface of for example a liquid crystal display portion 101. Piezoelectric actuators 103 are disposed between the touch sensor portion 102 and the liquid crystal display portion 101. In the example shown in the drawing, four piezoelectric actuators 103 are diagonally disposed on the upper surface of the liquid crystal display portion 101. In such a structure, the same drive voltage is applied to the piezoelectric actuators 103 so that the entire touch sensor portion 102 is moved upward and downward. Although the piezoelectric actuators 103 are actually disposed between a metal frame of the liquid crystal display portion 101 and a metal frame of the touch sensor portion 102, these metal frames are disposed outside the display area of the liquid crystal display portion 101 and the touch sensor portion 102 and the metal frames are omitted in the drawing.
FIG. 14 is a sectional view showing the mounting structure of the conventional piezoelectric actuator 103.
FIG. 14 shows a cross section viewed from arrow E of FIG. 13. When a drive voltage is applied to the piezoelectric actuator 103, it curves and deforms upward and downward. When the center portion and both the end portions contact and press the touch sensor portion 102 or the liquid crystal display portion 101, the force sense feedback function is accomplished.
However, it is not desired that the piezoelectric actuator 103 directly contract the touch sensor portion 102 and the liquid crystal display portion 101. Conventionally, a plurality of spacers having a predetermined thickness are disposed at a plurality of positions on the upper surface and the lower surface of the piezoelectric actuator 103. In the example shown in FIG. 14, two spacers 104a and 104b are disposed at nearly end portions of the lower surface of the piezoelectric actuator 103 and one spacer 104c at the center portion of the upper surface thereof so that these spacers touch the liquid crystal display portion 101 and the touch sensor portion 102. In this structure, even if the piezoelectric actuator 103 deforms downward, the center portion of the lower surface of the piezoelectric actuator 103 and both the end portions of the upper surface thereof can be prevented from directly contacting the liquid crystal display portion 101.
However, when the piezoelectric actuator is mounted with one upper spacer and two lower spacers, several problems will arise.
The first problem is the accuracy of the thickness of spacers. When the spacers are too thick, since they deform by themselves, force that presses the touch sensor portion is transferred to the piezoelectric actuator. Thus, since the piezoelectric actuator is damaged, the thickness of the spacers cannot be unnecessarily increased. In other words, the spacers need to have a height (for example, 100 μm) so that corresponding to the amount of deformation of the center portion of the piezoelectric actuator, the spacers do not deform against the pressure from the touch sensor portion.
Thus, as spacers, a thin sheet material is used. These spacers are adhered at predetermined positions of the piezoelectric actuator. When a double-sided adhesive tape is used to adhere the spacers, the working efficiency is relatively improved. However, since the double-sided adhesive tape deforms in the thickness direction to some extent, it is difficult to accurately maintain the thickness of the spacers and the double-sided adhesive tape. Instead, when an adhesive agent is used to adhere the spacers to the piezoelectric actuator, the adhering work takes a time and the productivity deteriorates.
When the piezoelectric actuators are wired, the following problem will reside. Normally, the piezoelectric actuators are wired with lead wires. However, lead wires that can be used are very thin. In addition, since lead wires are connected to moving portions, the lead wires tend to break. In addition, lead wires should be carefully routed in a limited space. When lead wires are not fixed for moving portions, they may slip to the display area of the display portion. In addition, since a plurality of piezoelectric actuators are disposed, a plurality of types of piezoelectric actuators that have lead wires of different lengths should be provided corresponding to routing, distance to drivers, and so forth. Thus, the productive efficiency is low.
In addition, when the piezoelectric actuators are directly mounted on the metal frames of the liquid crystal display portion and so forth through the spacers with the double-sided adhesive tape, not only cannot the accuracy of the thickness be maintained, but it becomes difficult to replace the piezoelectric actuators with other ones as a problem with respect to maintenance. Maintenance frames made of plastics or the like may be used to hold the piezoelectric actuators. However, when members such as frames are disposed between the touch sensor portion and the liquid crystal display portion, the efficiency of which the deformation of the piezoelectric actuators is transferred to the touch sensor portion deteriorates. In addition, since new parts are used, the production cost rises. Moreover, the difficulty of the mounting work cannot be lightened.

Input device and process for manufacturing the same, portable electronic apparatus comprising input device


A wall plate assembly includes a wall plate with an insertion slot for the installation of a HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) connector of a HDMI cable, a signal amplifier connected to the back side of the wall plate for receiving the installed HDMI connector and amplifying the signal, and a support device, which comprises a vertical support frame vertically adjustably fastened to the wall plate below the insertion slot and a horizontal support frame horizontally adjustably fastened to the vertical support frame for holding down the installed HDMI connector on the vertical support frame.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wall plate structure for receiving a HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) connector and more particularly, to a wall plate assembly that has support means adjustable to hold down the installed HDMI connector.
2. Description of the Related Art
Following fast development of high technology, advanced and sophisticated consumer electronic products are continuously created and put into market. In a house, many electric cables and connection devices may be arranged on the ceiling, wall or floor for the installation of electronic products. Arranging electric cables and connection devices on the outside of the ceiling, wall or floor destructs the sense of beauty of the house. Further, it is not safe to have electric cables and connection devices exposed to the outside. In a modern building, electric cables and connection devices are embedded in the ceiling, wall or floor, and wall plates are provided on the outside of the ceiling, wall or floor for the installation of an electronic product.
Further, following fast development of modern technology, LCD and plasma monitors and televisions are created to substitute for the early design of CRT monitors and televisions. Modern color video monitors and televisions provide high-definition, high-contrast and colorful images. Further, the number of TV channels has also been increased from the early limited number to the modern several hundred channels. Previously, one may use a video tape recorder and player to play videotapes. However, a videotape has a big size.
Further, a videotape tends to be damped to go mouldy. Therefore, VCD and DVD players are created to substitute for videotape recorders and players. A VCD or DVD player needs a signal cable to transmit audio and video signals to a television. An early design of signal cable for this purpose is a DVI (Digital Video Interleaved) compression/decompression (codec) format based on the Intel i750 chipset and used for storing video on digital media and supported through the Media Control Interface (MCI) for Windows. It is based on a VQ (vector quantization) algorithm. There are two formats: a symmetric real-time video (RTV) codec and an asymmetric production-level video (PVL). The compression ratio is within 80:1˜200:1. In actual practice, a signal cable of this format has numerous drawbacks as follows:
1. DVI format can only transmit images without sound, and speaker means must be added so that sound can be heard. The wiring of the speaker means complicates the installation.
2. During transmission of image signal through the signal cable at a distance, image signal attenuation occurs, resulting in signal instability and low video signal quality.
3. There is no means to indicate the transmission status during transmission of video signal through the signal cable. If the signal cable fails or is damaged, the user does not know the situation at once, and it will take much time and labor to examine the whole system.
4. When the connector at one end of the signal cable is connected to a wall plate, the connector suspends outside the wall plate and may be stretched away from the wall plate accidentally, interrupting signal transmission.
To eliminate the aforesaid problems, HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) format is developed.
HDMI is an all-digital audio/video interface capable of transmitting uncompressed streams. HDMI is compatible with High-bandwith Digital Content Protection (HDCP) Digital Rights Management technology. HDMI provides an interface between any compatible digital audio/video source, such as a set-top box, a DVD player, or the like and a compatible digital audio and/or video monitor, such as digital television.
HDMI supports digital video formats, such as SXGA, UXGA, SDTV and HDTV, and digital audio formats, such as CD/DVD-Audio, Dolby Digital/DTS.
A HDMI cable includes a digital audio line for multi-channel transmission. HDMI is capable of transmitting 8-channel compressed or non-compressed digital audio signals at a time, eliminating an extra sound source cable and simplifying wiring arrangement.
When comparing to DVI's 8-bit color depth, HDMI provies 10-bit˜12-bit color depth for every prime color. Further, a HDMI connector has a size about equal to a USB connector that is much smaller than a DVI connector. Similar to a regular consumer electronic video end connector, a HDMI connector is plug and ply design.
In the computer world, HDMI is already found on many peripherals and a few newer video cards, with adoption rapidly increasing.


A light deflector includes a fixing portion, a movable portion and a reinforcing member. The movable portion includes a mirror portion for deflecting light by swinging about a predetermined swing axis, a torsion bar fixedly supported on the fixing portion and having an axis serving as the swing axis, and a supporting body configured to support the mirror portion and fixed to the torsion bar. The supporting body includes a contact surface to be held in contact with the mirror portion and a non-contact surface opposite to the contact surface. The reinforcing member is provided only on the non-contact surface out of the contact surface and the non-contact surface of the supporting body and reinforces the supporting body and adjusts a center of gravity of the movable portion so that the center of gravity of the movable portion is located on the axis.

The present disclosure relates to a light deflector used in forming an electrostatic latent image and the like, and an optical scanning device and an image forming apparatus with such a light deflector.
In an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, a light beam modulated in accordance with image data is generated, reflected and deflected, whereby an image bearing member such as a photoconductive drum is scanned with the deflected light beam to form an electrostatic latent image. The light deflector is a device for reflecting and deflecting a light beam. A technique using a MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) mirror as a light deflector instead of a polygon mirror has been proposed. The MEMS mirror has an advantage of speeded-up scanning, low power consumption and the like.
The light deflector using the MEMS mirror includes a torsion bar, a mirror portion swingable about an axis of the torsion bar and mirror drivers. The mirror portion and the torsion bar are resonated by the mirror drivers and a light beam incident on the mirror portion is scanned by being reflected and deflected in this state.
When the mirror portion is swung about the axis of the torsion bar, an acting moment of inertia is larger on opposite ends of the mirror portion than in a center of the mirror portion in a direction intersecting with the torsion bar. Thus, the mirror portion may be bended when being swung. A light deflector provided with ribs has been proposed to suppress this bend.
This light deflector is provided with a vibrating system composed of a plate-like movable portion, a reflection film formed on the movable portion to reflect light, a first shaft member for supporting the movable portion swingably about an X-axis relative to a supporting member and ribs arranged on the movable portion, and a driving system for swinging the movable portion relative to the supporting member. The ribs are so arranged on one and the other surfaces of the movable portion that a moment of inertia on the one surface and that on the other surface are equal with respect to the first shaft member.
In this light deflector, the ribs are respectively arranged on the one and the other surfaces of the movable portion so that the moment of inertia on the one surface of the movable portion and that on the other surface are equal with respect to the first shaft member (torsion bar). This suppresses movements (e.g. vertical movements) of the movable portion formed with the reflection film other than swinging movements about the first shaft member when the movable portion (mirror portion) formed with the reflection film is swung.

Light deflector, optical scanning device and image forming apparatus


This application pertains to amine-functionalized polymers by ring-opening metathesis (ROMP) of amine functionalized cycloalkenes.

The catalytic functionalization of alkenes represents a sustainable and efficient method for the synthesis of molecules that are relevant for the chemical, pharmaceutical, and agrochemical industry. Such organic transformations are attractive as valuable building blocks, which are obtained economically from relatively inexpensive starting materials. Notably, the direct C—H functionalization of amines with alkenes, or hydroaminoalkylation, has gained notoriety due to the fact that polysubstituted amines can now be easily obtained in the absence of any protecting/directing groups or photoinitiators.i
It is known in the art that group 3 (Sc), 4 (Ti, Zr), and 5 (Nb, Ta) metal complexes may serve as powerful precatalysts in hydroaminoalkylation reactions. For example, N,O-chelated pyridonate tantalum based complexes were shown capable of reacting with sterically demanding internal alkenes and facilitate their reaction with secondary anilines. These reactions occurred in a 100% regioselective manner to give the branched products.
Despite the high demand of simple and economical methods for synthesis of amine building blocks in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and agrochemical industry, there are known issues with the catalytic systems presently in use. For instance, hydroaminoalkylation often requires high reaction temperatures (>110° C.) and quite long reaction times (>20 h), which many catalysts are not robust enough to tolerate. Moreover, substrate compatibility of these catalysts is known to be problematic, especially for internal alkenes such as cyclohexene and cyclooctene. The fact that excess alkene (at least 1.5 equivalents excess) is needed to achieve full substrate conversion remains a challenge as well.
In the case of the catalytic systems, where the active species have a Ta—NMe2 moiety, the excess alkene is often justified by the deleterious side reactions between the released HNMe2 and the alkene reagents, thereby affecting the stoichiometry of the reaction. The use of TaMe3Cl2 proved to be successful, as hydroaminoalkylations of amine and alkene substrates was achieved using this catalyst in stoichiometric amounts, but with the caveat that TaMe3Cl2 is light and temperature sensitive and therewith not suitable for large scale industrial processes. Using a similar approach, the addition of 1-octene to 4-methoxy-N-methylaniline at room temperature was achieved with a phosphoramidate supported Ta-Me complex as the catalyst. Although this catalyst demonstrated high reactivity, the phosphoramidate Ta-Me complex actually required excess alkene in order to fully convert the substrates. To improve the stability of early transition metal complexes, steric bulk in the form of e.g. bulky alkyl groups, such as for example CH2SiMe3 and CH2CMe3, may be complexed to the metal centre. Earlier, Wilkinson and Schrock have described the alkyl tantalum complexes Ta(CH2SiMe3)3Cl2 and Ta(CH2CMe3)3Cl2. However, their activity in hydroaminoalkylation reactions has not been reported in the art.
Martinez et al. (Applied Petrochemical Research, 5: 19-25) have adopted a strategy that utilizes ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) of amine functionalized, strained cylooctene monomers, followed by hydrogenation, to obtain linear polymers analogous to polyethylene with the key introduction of a covalently bound functional group to the backbone. However, the often observed incompatibility of the commercially available Grubbs Catalyst to monomers bearing unprotected amine functional groups limits the usefulness of this approach, as the Grubbs metathesis catalyst is deactivated during ROMP with amine containing cycloalkene monomers.
Thus, the efficient preparation of amine-containing polyolefinic materials remains a synthetic challenge.

Amine functionalized polymers and methods of preparation