A power switch module designed to be mounted in gas-filled containers of gas-insulated switchgear is provided, wherein each vacuum switch tube of the power switch has a corresponding rectilinearly movable actuating rod leading into the gas-filled container through a bellows-type seal. The power switch module includes two insulating support devices arranged symmetrically on a partition, between which the corresponding vacuum switch tubes supported by a pole support device and a pole head device. Such power switch modules are used in gas-insulated switchgears.

A gas-insulated switchgear of the type mentioned above is known from German Patent No. 4,211,154 A1. According to this reference, the power switches designed as vacuum switch tubes are fastened to an insulating plate using two supports, with the insulating plate being in turn connected to the front and rear walls of the container through angle brackets. Furthermore, an additional insulating plate arranged under the vacuum switch tubes, similarly fastened to the inner walls of the container, serves for additional fastening of the vacuum switch tubes within the container. The insulating plates are dimensioned so that the vacuum switch tubes are accessible during assembly at the points required therefor and the insulating gas can circulate sufficiently around the vacuum switch tubes during operation.
German Patent No. 3,436,173 A1 discloses a power switch mounted on the inside of the front wall of a metal capsule filled with insulating gas, in a housing made of insulating material. No sealed bellows are, however, provided here for feed-through. German Patent No. 4,210,716 A1, on the other hand, discloses a multipole vacuum switch whose poles are surrounded with shell-type insulating pieces. These vacuum switches are not, however, mounted in gas-filled containers.

Vacuum switch assembly including housing insulating support


Nanoscale metal halide perovskites are provided. The nanoscale metal halide perovskites may have a 2D structure, a quasi-2D structure, or a 3D structure. Methods also are provided for making the nanoscale metal halide perovskites. The color emitted by the nanoscale metal halide perovskites may be tuned.

Earth abundant organometal halide perovskites have emerged as a promising class of light emitting materials that may exhibit high color purity and tunability. While bulk perovskite thin films can be prepared by relatively facile low temperature solution processing, they often suffer from low photoluminescence quantum efficiency (PLQE), possibly due to emission quenching caused by defects. Although single crystalline nano/microscale perovskites have demonstrated high PLQEs, they have been prepared only by wet-chemistry methods. For example, green emitting nanoscale three-dimensional (3D) methylammonium lead bromide perovskites (MAPbBr3) prepared by wet-chemistry techniques have shown PLQEs up to 93%. (see, e.g., L. C. Schmidt et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2014, 136, 850-853; S. Gonzalez-Carrero et al. J. Mater. Chem. A, 2015, 3, 9187-9193; H. Huang et al. Advanced Science, 2015, 2, 1500194; C. Muthu et al. Rsc. Adv., 2014, 4, 55908-55911; and O. Vybornyi et al. Nanoscale, 2016, DOI: 10.1039/c5nr06890h).
Highly luminescent two-dimensional (2D) layered lead bromide perovskite nano/microdisks with deep blue emissions also have been reported (S. Gonzalez-Carrero et al. J. Mater. Chem. A, 2015, 3, 14039-14045; P. Audebert et al. Chem. Mater., 2009, 21, 210-214; L. T. Dou et al. Science, 2015, 349, 1518-1521). In addition to higher PLQEs, these nanoscale perovskites also have shown purer and narrower emissions, and higher stability, as compared to their bulk counterparts. The methods used to synthesize these perovskites and others, however, typically are difficult, suffer from relatively low product yields, and/or do not produce high quality perovskites either consistently or at all.
Organometal halide perovskites also have been demonstrated to exhibit high color tunability across the visible to near infrared regions. This feature has been explored through synthetic control of 3D perovskite structures by using different halide anions, i.e., Cl, Br, I, and their mixtures (see, e.g., F. Zhang et al. Acs. Nano., 2015, 9, 4533-4542; D. M. Jang et al. Nano. Lett., 2015, 15, 5191-5199; N. Pellet et al. Chem. Mater., 2015, 27, 2181-2188; Y. H. Kim et al. Adv. Mater. 2015, 27, 1248-1254; and J. H. Noh et al. Nano. Lett. 2013, 13, 1764-1769).
The use of bulk quasi-2D layered lead(II) iodide perovskites with tunable absorptions as light absorber in photovoltaic cells (PVs) has been reported (I. C. Smith et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Edit., 2014, 53, 11232-11235; and D. H. Cao et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2015, 137, 7843-7850). Although these hybrid perovskites have shown better moisture resistance than pure 3D perovskites, the color tuning of perovskites by organic cations remains challenging, due at least in part to the wet-chemistry techniques used to prepare them. This likely is due, at least in part, to the difficulty associated with controlling crystal growth in a solution phase containing different organic cations. Due at least in part to this difficulty, non-uniform products with impure emissions often are produced.
Also, the color tuning of lead (II) bromide perovskites by using organic cations to control the thickness of the obtained nanoplatelets has been reported, but the products suffer from relatively low quantum efficiency, and their emissions are not pure, i.e., include broad and multiple peaks, due at least to the fact that the process results in the formation of mixed perovskites having different thicknesses (J. A. Sichert et al. Nano. Lett., 2015, 15, 6521-6527).
Therefore, there remains a need for nanoscale metal halide perovskites that are stable, color tunable, exhibit narrow emissions, have high quantum efficiencies, and/or are capable of being made by a relatively simple process that may permit control over the crystalline structure of the nanoscale metal halide perovskites.

Luminescent metal halide perovskites and methods

Florida State University Research Foundation, Inc.


This application provides a data transmission method, a terminal device, and a network device. The method includes: sending, by a terminal device, first information to a network device, where the first information is used to indicate a first channel quality indicator (CQI) corresponding to a first block error rate; and sending, by the terminal device, second information to the network device by using radio resource control (RRC) signaling or media access control (MAC) signaling, where the second information is used to indicate a difference between the first CQI and a second CQI, the second CQI is a CQI corresponding to a second block error rate, and the first block error rate is greater than the second block error rate.

An ultra-reliable and low latency communications (URLLC) service is an important service in a 5G communications system, and requires very high reliability and a very short latency during transmission. Therefore, to ensure reliability of the URLLC service, a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) technology is allowed to be used during transmission of URLLC service data in the 5G communications system. To be specific, after sending the URLLC service data (including one or more data packets) to a receiver, a transmitter retransmits, to the receiver based on a negative message that is fed back by the receiver and that is used to indicate that one or more data packets fail to be sent, the data packets that fail to be sent, to reduce a probability that the URLLC service data fails to be sent.
Currently, a terminal device may report, to a base station, a channel quality indicator (CQI) that can reflect quality of a current channel. In this way, after receiving the CQI, the base station may determine, by using the CQI, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) used when sending data to the terminal device. In a same channel quality condition, a smaller CQI fed back by the terminal device indicates higher transmission reliability and a lower block error rate when the base station transmits data by using the MCS corresponding to the CQI. Therefore, after obtaining quality of a current channel between the terminal device and the base station, the terminal device may determine, based on a block error rate corresponding to a reliability requirement of a current service, a CQI to be reported to the base station.
Because an MCS determined by a base station based on a smaller CQI is also lower, when the base station initially transmits and retransmits URLLC service data, by using the MCS, a relatively large quantity of spectrum resources are occupied during initial data transmission and data retransmission, thereby resulting in relatively low spectrum resource utilization. Therefore, how to improve frequency resource utilization during transmission of the URLLC service data while meeting reliability of a URLLC service is an urgent problem to be resolved.

Data transmission method, terminal device, and network device


A dilation image is generated from an original digital image utilizing a processing image (b) and a target image (T), where each pixel in the target image is processed in parallel. The process entails, for each target pixel, i) determining coordinate values for the target pixel, ii) determining a surrounding pixel area for the target pixel, iii) and processing each pixel in the surrounding pixel area to determine whether or not to updated the value of the target pixel. In processing each surrounding pixel, a determination is made whether the pixel has a value of 1. If not, then the next surrounding pixel is processed. If so, then a determination is made which pixel element of the structuring element overlays the target pixel, and whether that pixel has a value of 1. If so, then the value of the target pixel is updated. If not, then the next pixel in the surrounding pixel area is processed. Once the target pixel has been updated one time, the processing of the remaining surrounding pixels is terminates. If processing of all surrounding pixels results in no update to the target pixel, then the target pixel is not updated. After all target pixels have been processed, the resultant image is output as the dilation image.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to image processing techniques for generating a dilation image, and more specifically relates to performing morphology of a digital image utilizing parallel binarization processing of each pixel of an image, and performing parallel processing of each pixel in a target image to obtain a dilation image.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a dilation image is generated from an input image in four steps: binarization, extension, dilation, and clipping, where each step is performed sequentially and the binarization and dilation processes are performed on each pixel of the input image in sequence. For example, in the binarization step, each pixel of the input image is binarized in sequence utilizing a threshold value for each pixel. The result is a binarized image in which each pixel is represented by either a 0 or a 1. The binarization process typically is performed by scanning each row of the input image from left to right to process each pixel in sequence, then processing the next row of pixels from left to right, etc. until all rows have been processed. An example of a conventional binarization process of an input image is shown in FIG. 1A where a threshold value (T=4) is utilized. In the extension step, additional pixels are added to the boundaries of the binarized image according to the dimensions (height and width) of a Structuring Element (SE) and the location of the origin thereof, which is utilized for the dilation process. Thus, the extended image is a binary image that is larger in size than the original binary image obtained by binarizing the input image. Two example types of structuring elements are shown in FIG. 1B, while an example of an extension process is shown in FIG. 1C.
The conventional dilation process is then performed on each pixel of the extended binary image in sequence, much like the binarization step processes each pixel in sequence. Thus, the conventional dilation process can be time consuming depending on the size of the image. In more detail, in the dilation process, the extended binary image is first utilized to create a processing image, where each pixel of the binary image that includes a value of 1 is identified as a pixel of interest. FIG. 1D depicts an example of a conventional process for obtaining a processing image. The structuring element is then used to generate the dilation image from the processing image. FIGS. 1E and 1F depict a conventional sequential dilation process, which will now be described in detail.
In the conventional sequential dilation process, the structuring element is applied to each pixel in sequence, with the origin of the SE being placed upon the pixel being processed. The first row of the processing image is scanned, left to right, in sequence. Pixels surrounding the first pixel of interest are then processed in sequence utilizing the overlapping pixels of the structuring element so that the value of each pixel of the processing image in which an overlapping pixel of the structuring element that includes a 1 is updated by 1. Each pixel in the first row is scanned in sequence for pixels of interest with the structuring element being translated across the row accordingly. Once each pixel in the first row of the processing image has been processed in sequence, the second row of the processing image is processed, left to right, in the same manner. This sequential dilation image processing continues until each row of the processing image has been processed.
After the dilation image has been generated, the dilation image is clipped by deleting the pixels added in the extension process. In this regard, the additional extended pixels are required to be processed in the sequential processing, thereby adding additional processing time. Each pixel in the dilation image with a value of 1 is then retained, thereby resulting in dilated image that has more object pixels (pixels with a value of 1) than the original input image. The clipped image is then output as the final resulting image. An example of the clipping process is depicted in FIG. 1G.
One problem with the foregoing conventional dilation image process is that each pixel of the image is processed sequentially during both the binarization process and during the dilation processes. Another problem is that the binarization, extension, dilation and clipping process are each performed in sequence. As a result, the time needed to generate the dilation image increases with the size of the digital image. Thus, very high resolution images (e.g., a 2048×2048, or 2K×2K, pixel digital image) require a greater amount of time to process. For instance, it has been found that the foregoing conventional sequential process applied to a 2K×2K image was able to process 0.20 frames per sec (fps), or approximately 5 seconds to process one frame. As will be described below, the invention has been found to result in the ability to process approximately 250 frames per second., or 0.004 seconds to process one frame.

Generating a dilation image utilizing parallel pixel processing


A sampling circuit includes a metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistor that includes a third metallization receiving a reference voltage between a first metallization coupled to a source region of the transistor and a second metallization coupled to a drain region of the transistor.

The sampling of a signal is a phase during which an analog signal is converted into a discrete series of values. For this purpose, values of the signal are sampled at defined intervals, generally, regular intervals. A sampling circuit is an electronic circuit capable of implementing such a phase, its function thus is to record and to store a value of a signal, at a first time, into a new signal, and of holding this voltage value constant until a second sampling time.
The sampling of an analog signal often is the first step of a conversion to a digital signal. Thus, a sampling circuit may form part of a device of conversion of an analog signal into a digital signal (ADC, Analog to Digital Converter).
It would be desirable to at least partly improve certain aspects of known sampling circuits.


A system and method of verifying whether a certificate has been revoked by providing a DNS responder containing a certificate revocation list (CRL), parsing the CRL into DNS zones, and distributing this information to the respective primary DNS responders based upon DNS zones. Information about a specific certificate is gathered by querying a DNS responder for certificate validation information, receiving such information, and reporting the results of the queries to a client software application so that the user of the system can be informed as to whether the certificate has been revoked or not.

Given the rapid expansion of the Internet, the widespread transmission of data and the ongoing concerns of privacy and security, cryptography, including the use of certificates, public, and private keys, is an area to which considerable attention must be directed. Additionally, maintaining the validity of electronic certificates is a crucial part of ensuring electronic security. The need for maintaining security exists in the transmission of e-mail, use of Secured Socket Layer (SSL), use of IP Secure (IPSec), use of Smart Cards, signing applets or other computer readable instructions, and software licensing.
E-mail can be digitally signed to ensure authentication of the sender. A certificate is used to validate the sender's identity. SSL is a protocol used to provide encrypted communications over the Internet. SSL is under the application layer (HTTP, SMTP, Telnet or FTP), and above the connection layer (TCP/IP), and relies upon certificates. IPSec is a protocol providing security for electronic transmissions at the packet level. IPSec is used to secure packets at the network layer traveling between two devices or peers as the authentication between them can rely upon certificates. Smart Cards use certificates to verify the private key on the smart card. Applet and code signing involves digitally signing the applet or code using certificates, either privately created, or received from a Certificate Authority, for validating signatures. Certificates can be used to help software vendors track licenses. A key can be provided to a customer downloading software, thereby allowing the customer to decrypt and use the downloaded software product. The customer provides identification information that is used to create a certificate for the customer. The keys that allow the customers to access the software are then bound to the certificate. Tracking the customer's certificate allows the reader to control the customer's ability to use the software. When the certificate is revoked, the customer can no longer use the software thereby allowing the vendor to control licensing.
In the above cases, electronic transmissions are made over an unsecure network. Therefore, when the transmission of data needs to be secured, the use of a certificate is often required. For this process to be secure, it is necessary to determine if the certificate is still valid, i.e.; that it has not been revoked.
A certificate is analogous to a passport, driver's license, or other identification means. It is used to prove the identity of an entity in a way that can be verified through a third party. For example, the United States State Department issues passports and has checks in place to ensure that the information contained on an issued passport properly and truthfully identifies the entity shown in the passport. A certificate authority ("CA") performs the same function for digital certificates as the State Department does for passports. To issue a certificate, the CA requires independently verifiable information to be submitted so that the identity of the certificate requesting entity can be known. Upon verification, the CA issues a certificate to the requesting entity and ties the certificate to the entity's identification. This can be achieved by having the requesting entity provide appropriate identification, and prove that they possess an associated private key. The certificate now serves as an electronic identification for that entity since it has been verified by a trusted third party.
Once a certificate has been issued to an entity, the certificate must be managed. For example, the entity's name or address may change, the entity may cease to exist, the certificate may need to be suspended or the entity may have lost the private key or the pass phrase that guards it. If these, or other events occur so that the identity is compromised, it may be desirable to revoke the certificate so that the certificate is no longer valid.
Traditionally, revocation under an X.509 compliant PKI involves contacting the CA that issued the certificate and requesting that the certificate be revoked. The certificate is then published in a certificate revocation list (CRL). The CRL contains the identification information of all certificates from that CA that have been revoked. However, it is up to a party wishing to validate a certificate to query the CRL from the CA. If the certificate that is the subject of the query is listed in the CRL, then it has been revoked. Generally, the CRL also contains the revocation date and time associated with a revoked certificate. Unfortunately, very few software applications that rely upon certificates actually perform the task of finding and checking the CRL for revoked certificates. Traditionally, the entire CRL of the CA must be downloaded by the software application in order to check for certificate revocation. Also, there are many CA's and the CRL must be downloaded from each CA. To compound the problem, CRL's are published in versions and updates so that to search a revoked certificate the most current CRL and any subsequent updates or addendums need be searched for all CA's. Therefore, the processing and transmission time for checking revocation is a difficult and computationally intensive task. While real-time checking does exist, these methods are neither sufficiently scalable nor simple to have obtained widespread use or support.
In further describing this invention, the following terms may be used:
Certificate—an electronic document used to identify an individual, a server, a company, or some other entity, and to associate that entity with a public key. Certificates generally contain identifying information about the certificate holder, an associated key and information about the Certificate Authority.
Certificate Authority—an entity that authenticates identities and issues certificates to those entities.
Domain Name System ("DNS")—a general purpose distributed data query service for translating host names into Internet addresses.
Public Key—one key of a key pair that is used to encrypt or decrypt a message or document and mathematically linked to a private key.
Private Key—one key of a key pair that is used to encrypt or decrypt a message or document encrypted with a public key and mathematically linked to the public key.
Public Key Infrastructure—a system for providing public and private key pairs as well as publishing public keys.
Validation—the process of determining whether a public key is still valid.
Authentication—the process of using a public key and certificate to determine that a transmission signed by the associated private key was actually sent from the named sender.

System and method for electronic certificate revocation


In a vehicle control system, when an inter-vehicular distance between a subject vehicle and a preceding vehicle detected by a radar device is less than or equal to a predetermined value, automatic braking is performed or an alarm is activated to alert a driver to prevent a collision. A stationary object detection threshold value of a reception level of a reflected wave for detecting a stationary object is set higher in a predetermined region compared to a moving object detection threshold value of a reception level of a reflected wave emitted from the radar device for detecting a moving object such as a preceding vehicle. Thus, the system prevents a gate or an article in the roadway, which are not obstacles, from being erroneously recognized as obstacles. As such, unnecessary automatic braking and alarm activation for the gate and the article in the roadway can be prevented.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle control system. The vehicle control system includes a transmitting means mounted on a vehicle for transmitting an electromagnetic wave toward a predetermined detection area. A receiving means receives a reflected wave of the electromagnetic wave transmitted by the transmitting means and reflected from an object. An object detecting means detects the object based on the reflected wave or one of the reflected waves which has a reception level greater than or equal to a detection threshold value received by the receiving means. A vehicle control means controls the vehicle based on a result of detection by the object detecting means.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-9841 discloses an object detection system in which a detection area for detecting a target is divided into a plurality of small detection area sections. A reception level of a reflected wave from each small detection area section is added and stored in an addition memory established for each distance. When the added value exceeds a threshold value, a distance to a target is detected, so that a reflected wave from rain particles or snow particles is prevented from being erroneously detected as a hazardous object during rainfall or snowfall.
In a collision damage alleviating system or a collision preventing system, the system automatically brakes a subject vehicle or raises an alarm for urging the subject vehicle driver to voluntarily brake the subject vehicle in order to avoid colliding against a preceding vehicle or a stationary object. The system is actuated when an inter-vehicular distance between the subject vehicle and the preceding vehicle detected by a radar device decreases to a value less than or equal to a threshold value, or when the collision of the subject vehicle against the stationary object cannot be avoided. However, there is a possibility that a radar device erroneously detects an article in the roadway over which the subject vehicle can pass or a gate under which the subject vehicle can pass as an obstacle, so that an unnecessary automatic braking or alarm is actuated for such a stationary object.


An insulative body having first and second porous insulation members and a ceramic binder. Each of the first and second porous insulation members is formed of a fibrous, low-density silica-based material and cooperatively defines a joint. The ceramic binder is disposed between a pair of mating surfaces that form the joint. The ceramic binder couples the first and second porous insulation members together. A method for bonding insulative bodies to one another through the use of an ceramic/organic thermal setting binder is also provided.

The present invention relates generally to thermal insulation tiles and more particularly to a method for bonding thermal insulation tiles.
Thermal insulation tiles, such as those used to insulate the space shuttle orbiter, are typically formed from low-density fibrous materials having extremely high temperature resistance and a relatively low coefficient of thermal expansion as compared to metals. These materials are well known in the art and include, for example, FRCI (fibrous refractory composite insulation) and AETB (alumina enhanced thermal barrier) materials.
In fabricating the tiles, fibers of an insulating material, such as silica, alumina boro-silicate and alumina, are mixed with water to form a slurry. The slurry is deposited into a casting tower where the water is drained and the silica fibers are subjected to compressive forces to form a raw block of insulation material having a cross-sectional area that may range from 144 square inches to almost 576 square inches depending upon the dimensions of the casting tower. The raw block is then dried in an oven and subsequently fired (sintered) to bond the fibers of the insulating material together. Thereafter, tiles are formed from the fired block through conventional machining processes wherein tiles of a desired shape are cut from the solid block.
One drawback associated with this process is the maximum size of the tiles that can be formed. As the surface of the space shuttle orbiter, for example, is relatively large, it is highly desirable to form the tile as large as possible so as to reduce the labor that is required to affix the tiles to the orbiter, as well as minimize the use of the material which bonds the tiles to the orbiter to thereby minimize the weight of the orbiter""sthermal protection system. In covering a leading or trailing edge of a craft, a tile having a length in excess of 6 feet is highly desirable.
To some extent, the size of the tiles may be increased by enlarging the size of the casting tower. In practice, however, casting towers that produce raw blocks having dimensions greater than 22xe2x80x3xc3x9722xe2x80x3xc3x977xe2x80x3 inches are not practical due to the increased rate at which defects and other problems are encountered in the manufacturing process. Problems such as weight associated with transporting a large block filled with water, the inability to completely dry very large raw blocks, overheating the exterior portion of the raw block during the firing operation and underheating the interior portion of the raw block during the firing operation frequently lead to defects such as shrinking, cracking and improper bonding of the fibers. As the material that is used to form the raw blocks is relatively expensive, the increased rate of defects renders the formation of relatively large fired blocks commercially impracticable.
Another drawback associated with the previously known methods of forming tiles concerns the manner in which tiles having a complex shape are formed. Tiles which are relatively flat and sized approximately equal to the cross-section of the fired block are relatively easy to machine with little waste. Tiles having a complex shape, however, are routinely carved from a fired block, with the remainder of the fired block being discarded as scrap. As mentioned above, the material that is used to form the raw blocks is relatively expensive. Consequently, tiles that are produced in a process wherein large amounts of the fired blocks are scrapped are extremely costly to produce.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for a method for forming relatively large insulation tiles. There also remains a need in the art for a method for forming a complex shaped insulation tile which produces relatively less scrap. There also remains a need in the art for a method for bonding insulation tiles together.
In one preferred form, the present invention provides an insulative body having first and second porous insulation members and a binder. Each of the first and second porous insulation members is formed of a fibrous, low-density silica-based material and cooperatively defines a joint. The binder is disposed between a pair of mating surfaces that form the joint. The binder couples the first and second porous insulation members together.
In another preferred form, the present invention provides a method for coupling a first porous insulation member to a second porous insulation member wherein each of the first and second porous insulation members are formed of a fibrous, low-density silica-based material. The method includes the steps of: providing an ceramic/organic thermal setting binder having a thermal set organic binder and a ceramic binder; applying the ceramic/organic thermal setting binder between a pair of mating surfaces formed into the first and second porous insulation members; heating the first and second porous insulation members to a first predetermined temperature to initially cause the thermal set organic binder distribute the ceramic binder through a joint formed by the mating surfaces of the first and second porous insulation members and thereafter cure the organic binder to form a well bonded joint; heating the bonded first and second porous insulation members to a second predetermined temperature to bum out the thermal set organic binder; and firing the bonded first and second porous insulation members at a third predetermined temperature to cause the ceramic binder to fixedly couple the mating surfaces of the first and second porous insulation members to one another.


Heated cylinder and process of using same for heating a fibrous material web in machines for one of producing and refining the fibrous material web. The heated cylinder includes a cylinder jacket having an outer jacket layer with good heat conductivity, a heat insulating layer positioned contiguous to and inside of the outer jacket layer, and at least one heating system positioned outside the cylinder jacket adapted to heat at least a surface of the cylinder. The process includes heating a surface of the cylinder to a temperature between about 120 and 250xc2x0 C. with the at least one heating system, and guiding a material web over a portion of the surface of the cylinder such that the material web contacts the surface of the cylinder for a period of at least about 50 ms.

The present application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119 of German Patent Application No. 199 29 520.4, filed on Jun. 28, 1999, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a heated cylinder for drying a fibrous material web, particularly a paper, cardboard, or tissue web in machines for producing or refining the same, including a cylinder jacket whose outer layer exhibits good heat conductivity.
2. Discussion of Background Information
Drying cylinders of this kind are generally known and are usually heated with steam from the inside. Additional external heating elements can be provided based upon induction heating technology. Here, an equalization of temperature is reached between the internal and external side of the cylinder jacket, which limits the maximum surface temperature of the drying cylinder.
In addition, metal drying cylinders of this kind, for reasons of production and strength, have a large jacket thickness. The low heat resistance associated therewith also limits the maximum temperature difference between individual heating zones along the drying cylinder. An additional factor is the relatively long periods required for the cylinder material to heat up and cool down.
The object of the invention is therefore to increase the maximum surface temperature of the cylinder jacket in a heated cylinder and to improve the heat flow proceeding from the heating unit to the fibrous material web via the cylinder jacket.
According to the invention, this goal is achieved in that at least one heating system positioned outside the cylinder is assigned to the outer jacket layer for the purpose of heating and in that a heat-insulating layer lies contiguous to the outer jacket layer but inside the cylinder jacket. This insulation prevents heat flow to the internal part of the cylinder, with the result both that greater surface temperatures are possible and that a large quantity of heat can be released from the heating system to the fibrous material web. The insulation also renders unnecessary an internal heating system for the cylinder jacket.
To reduce the heating up and cooling off periods, the external jacket layer should preferably include metal and be as thin as possible. This also increases the maximum temperature difference between the different heating zones.
Even for the case in which the external jacket layer is among the essential factors determining the stability of form and the strength of the cylinder, it is desirable for the thickness of the external jacket layer to be less than about 30 mm, preferably less than about 5 mm.
However, if the stability of form and strength of the cylinder are primarily determined by the insulating layer and/or by a support structure within the cylinder jacket and contiguous to the insulating layer, it is advantageous if the external jacket layer has a thickness of less than about 5 mm, ideally less than about 1 mm, and particularly less than about 0.2 mm.
The support structure may include metal, in which case the thermal effect of an induction heating system must be taken into account.
Lighter cylinders generally result, however, when the supporting insulting layer and/or the supporting structure include a fiber-reinforced, thermally insulating plastic. This means that the insulating layer and the support structure can optionally also form a single element of the cylinder jacket, one that is structured or multi-layered.
Under certain circumstances, advantages with respect to stability and strength, or advantages relating to production, will also result if the insulating layer and/or the supporting structure occupy at least a considerable portion of the inner compartment of the cylinder; ideally they will occupy the entirety of the inner compartment.
The diameter of the cylinder determines the jacket surface to be heated, which in turn limits the maximum diameter; at the same time, however, it has an effect on the period of contact with the fibrous material web, which results in a minimum.
Particularly good results were achieved with cylinders whose diameters lie in the range of about 500 to 3000 mm, preferably between about 1200 and 1800 mm.
To profile the moisture distribution crosswise to the fibrous material web, the heating system will preferably include an infrared and/or induction heating system and should have a plurality of heating zones along the cylinder which can be separately controlled and which should have a zone width of preferably less than about 200 mm. The optimal zone width will be determined by the expense of the heating system and by the heat flow between the heating zones. Good results can be achieved with zone widths in a range of about 30 to 100 mm, chiefly in a range between about 40 and 75 mm.
In this connection, the heat flow between the heating zones can be further reduced if the external jacket layer has a reduced thickness in the area between the heating zones. This can be achieved in a simple manner, with a narrow circumferential groove, preferably one that runs outward and does not compromise the quality of the fibrous material web.
To efficiently influence the moisture distribution or the drying of the fibrous material web overall, while avoiding heat damage to the web surface, the maximum surface temperature of the cylinder should lie between about 120 and 250xc2x0 C., preferably between about 150 and 200xc2x0 C. To this end, it is usually necessary for the entire available heating capacity to be at least about 60 kW/m for a cylinder diameter of up to about 1200 mm; for a cylinder diameter between about 1200 and 1800 mm it should be at least about 80 kW/m, and for a cylinder diameter of greater than about 1800 mm at least about 120 kW/m.
In addition, in order to guarantee a sufficient heat flow to the fibrous material web, the contact period of the cylinder with the fibrous material web should be at least about 50 ms, preferably a minimum of about 80 ms, and particularly a minimum of about 120 ms.
The present invention is directed to a heated cylinder for heating a fibrous material web in machines for one of producing and refining the fibrous material web. The heated cylinder includes a cylinder jacket having an outer jacket layer with good heat conductivity, a heat insulating layer positioned contiguous to and inside of the outer jacket layer, and at least one heating system positioned outside the cylinder jacket adapted to heat at least a surface of the cylinder.
In accordance with a feature of the present invention, the fibrous material can be one of a paper, a cardboard, and a tissue web.
According to another feature of the instant invention, the outer jacket layer can include metal. A stability of form and strength of the cylinder may be fundamentally determined by the outer jacket layer. The outer jacket layer can have a thickness of less than about 30 mm, and preferably less than about 5 mm. Further, greater than 80% of the shape stability and firmness of the cylinder can be determined by the outer jacket layer. Moreover, other materials, such as those utilized in standard dry cylinders, can be used for the outer jacket layer.
In accordance with another feature of the invention, the insulating layer fundamentally determines a stability of form and strength of the cylinder. The insulating layer may include a fiber-reinforced plastic (GFK or CFK). Further, the outer jacket layer has a thickness of less than about 5 mm, preferably less than about 1 mm, and, in particular, less than about 0.2 mm. Further, greater than 80% of the shape stability and firmness of the cylinder can be determined by the insulating layer.
According to still another feature of the instant invention, a supporting structure may be positioned contiguous to and inside the insulating layer. A stability of form and strength of the cylinder may be fundamentally determined by at least one of the insulating layer and the supporting structure. For example, greater than 80% of the shape stability and firmness of the cylinder can be determined by the supporting structure adjacent to the insulating layer. The supporting structure can include metal, e.g., steel or cast steel. Alternatively, or additionally, at least one of the supporting insulating layer and the supporting structure may include a fiber-reinforced plastic, e.g., GFK or CFK. Further, the outer jacket layer can have a thickness of less than about 5 mm, preferably less than about 1 mm, and, in particular, less than about 0.2 mm. Still further, at least one of the insulating layer and the supporting structure may fill up an essential portion of an inner area of the cylinder, and preferably can fill up an entirety of the inner area. Alternatively, an inner area of the cylinder can be empty.
In accordance with a still further feature of the instant invention, a diameter of the cylinder can lie in a range from about 500 to 3000 mm, and preferably about 1200 to 1800 mm.
According to still another feature of the present invention, the heating system can include at least one of an infrared and an induction heating system.
Further, the heating system may include a plurality of separately controllable heating zones arranged along the outer jacket layer. The plurality of heating zones may have a zone width of less than about 200 mm, preferably in a range from about 30 to 100, and, in particular, in a range from about 40 to 75 mm. The outer jacket layer may have a reduced thickness in an area between the heating zones. Further, the reduced thickness areas can include a narrow circumferential groove, and the narrow circumferential groove can be arranged on an outside of the outer jacket layer.
Moreover, the surface of the cylinder can be heatable to a maximum surface temperature between about 120 and 250xc2x0 C., and preferably between about 150 and 200xc2x0 C.
In accordance with another feature of the invention, an entire available heating capacity can be at least about 60 kW/m for a diameter of the cylinder up to about 1200 mm. Further, an entire available heating capacity can be at least about 80 kW/m for a diameter of the cylinder between about 1200 and 1800 mm. Still further, an entire available heating capacity can be at least about 120 kW/m for a diameter of the cylinder greater than about 1800 mm.
In accordance with a still further feature of the present invention, a contact period between the surface of the cylinder and the fibrous material web is at least about 50 ms, preferably at least about 80 ms, and, in particular, at least about 120 ms.
According to still another feature of the instant invention, the cylinder jacket can be located on a grid-like supporting structure, and the insulating layer may be air within the grid-like supporting structure.
The present invention is also directed to a process of using a heated cylinder including a cylinder jacket having an outer jacket layer with good heat conductivity, a heat insulating layer positioned contiguous to and inside of the outer jacket layer, and at least one heating system positioned outside the cylinder jacket. The process includes heating a surface of the cylinder to a temperature between about 120 and 250xc2x0 C. with the at least one heating system, and guiding a material web over a portion of the surface of the cylinder such that the material web contacts the surface of the cylinder for a period of at least about 50 ms.
In accordance with a feature of the invention, the at least one heating system can include a plurality of heating zones, and the outer jacket layer can include reduced thickness areas located between the heating zones. Further, the heating of the surface can include sectionally heating the outer jacket layer between the areas of reduced thickness. In this manner, the areas of reduced thickness reduce heat flow between zones formed by the areas of reduced thickness.
According to still another feature of the present invention, the surface of the cylinder is heatable to a maximum surface temperature between about 150 and 200xc2x0 C.
In accordance with another feature of the invention, the contact period is at least about 80 ms, and, in particular, at least about 120 ms.
According to yet another feature of the instant invention, for a cylinder diameter up to about 1200 mm, an entire available heating capacity can be at least about 60 kW/m. For a cylinder diameter of between about 1200 and 1800 mm, an entire available heating capacity can be at least about 80 kW/m. For a cylinder diameter greater than about 1800 mm, an entire available heating capacity can be at least about 120 kW/m.
Other exemplary embodiments and advantages of the present invention may be ascertained by reviewing the present disclosure and the accompanying drawing.


A sign in which multiple scenes are presented in sequence is comprised of a plurality of juxtaposed rotationally driven display units that are assembled with triangularly-shaped hollow sleeves whose side panels are constituted by transparencies on each of which there is a portion of a different complete scene. There are adapters on the upper and lower ends of the display units which have bushings for allowing the juxtaposed display units to be journaled for rotation on a stationary light transmissive tubes that serves as axles. The tubes are retained at their lower ends in a row of equally spaced apart and colinear bores and they are retained at their upper ends by a plate which also has a corresponding row of bores that provide for stabilizing the upper ends of the tubes and for maintaining them in perfect alignment and spacing. The units are driven rotationally in synchronism by means of an electric motor that provides the power input to mechanical elements which interlock all of the display units mechanically to assure that they rotate in and remain in synchronism such that when corresponding panels of the display units, which panels each represent a portion of a scene, are rotated into coplanar and stationary position the scene is formed for visualization.

The invention disclosed herein relates to a sign and particularly to an automatically changeable sign in which a plurality of information bearing panels rotate intermittently in unison to compose different scenes that may be pictorial, artistic or informational.
Illuminated displays or signs which exhibit pictorial information, graphics, written descriptions and the like wherein when several sets of panels each containing a portion of a different scene are rotated to a coplanar position, an intelligible scene is composed for being visualized. Signs having these general characteristics have been proposed wherein portions of any of the scenes appear on corresponding sides of elongated triangular assemblies which rotate in unison on a vertical axis and stop in coplanar position A sign of this general type is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,381,616. This patent discloses display units in which portions of a scene are formed on a plurality of rotatable triangularly arranged transparency panels, each of which units contains an elongated centrally located light source to provide for visualizing the scene. The patent does not disclose all of the structural details for making an operative sign but it does reveal some of the problems which the sign disclosed herein has solved. One problem to be solved is that of avoiding leakage of light along the lines where the edges of the panels of the display units meet when members of a single scene arrive in coplanar position. This problem can be avoided by constructing the sign in such a way that tolerances can be kept very low as in the case of the present invention so the joints between adjacent panels of the display units are hardly visible. The solution proposed in the cited patent is one that attempts to compensate for rather than eliminate light leakage gaps between the edges of the panels by closing the gaps with flaps that overlay each other and are mounted to the edges of the individual triangular display units. Such gaps may not be too distracting if only alpha numeric information or scenes are being presented in sequence but they spoil the aesthetic quality of artistic pictorial scenes.


The invention relates to control unit for a domestic appliance, especially for a washing machine with a fascia panel (10) to which is assigned at least one control button (16), indicator (18) or similar arranged within a panel opening (12, 14), with a board 22 for mounting at least one electrical or electronic component (24, 26, 28) arranged at a distance behind the fascia panel (10), and with a sealing element (34) arranged between the fascia panel (10) and the board (22) by means of which the at least one electrical or electronic component (24, 26, 28) is to be protected against water or similar, whereby the sealing element (34) is attached to the fascia panel (10) of the control unit.

The invention relates to a control unit for a domestic appliance, especially for a washing machine of the type specified in the pre-characterizing clause of claim 1.
A control unit of this kind is, for example, already known from DE 103 08 204 B3, with a control button, indicator or similar arranged within a panel opening of a fascia panel. At a distance behind the fascia panel or control buttons or indicators or similar, a board is arranged that serves to hold at least one electrical or electronic component. In order to protect the at least one electrical or electronic component against water entering via the fascia panel, a sealing element formed as a sealing layer is arranged between this and the board. The sealing element is directly attached to the board by a plurality of attaching areas that are provided between, or outside, the electrical or electronic components.
A disadvantage with an arrangement of this kind of sealing element is, however, that the board has to be of relatively large construction in order to be able to attach the sealing element over the attaching areas. In other words, the individual electrical or electronic components can only be arranged on the board at a relatively large distance from each other because board areas have to be provided between these at which the sealing element can be attached. Something else that must also be regarded as disadvantageous is the fact that water entering via the fascia panel or between this and the control buttons, indicators or similar has to be led out of the area between the mounting panel and sealing element in a relatively complicated manner, by means of drain openings arranged within the sealing element.
A further control unit is known from DE 10 2004 048 755 A1. Opposite a housing that carries a circuit board holding several micro switches, an assembly is mounted that itself includes a front wall and rear wall serving as fascia panels. Both the front wall and the rear wall are each pierced by openings through which switch plungers to operate the respective micro switches project. The front wall and rear wall of the control elements are furthermore arranged at a considerable distance from each other in the area of which a sealing element in the form of resilient sealing mat with through openings for the plungers is arranged. The sealing mat also lies flat, flush against the inner surface of the front wall. Furthermore, the sealing mat is in contact with the outer circumference of the corresponding plunger forming a tight seal over a corresponding length. Each plunger is surrounded at the rear wall end by a cap which is assigned to the sealing mat. The sealing mat is thus supported by resting on the inner surface of the back of the fascia panel against the rear wall.
A disadvantage of this known control unit is the fact that it is extraordinarily difficult to seal in the area of the plunger. This is especially due to the fact that in each case there has to be a mechanical decoupling between each two adjacent plungers by means of a suitable shaping so that when one of the buttons on the front assigned to the respective plunger is pressed the adjacent plunger is moved with it. Due to the corresponding loose arrangement of the sealing mat required on the inner surface of the front wall serving as a fascia panel, it is therefore possible that water can penetrate into the space between the front and rear wall. For this reason, a water drain has to be provided in the area between the front and rear wall on the one hand and on the other hand it is necessary for the sealing element to be correspondingly reliably sealed with respect to the plungers. Both methods incur significant production costs.


Described herein are methods and devices (e.g., routers) that add in-network services to a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) network. A method can include a router of the MPLS network receiving a packet and modifying the packet by adding one or more MPLS extension headers, adding a header of the extension header(s), and adding an indication within an MPLS label stack that one or more MPLS extension headers have been added to the packet. The method can also include the router forwarding the packet as modified to another router of the MPLS network. In certain embodiments, an extension header label (EHL) within a label value field of a label stack entry indicates that one or more MPLS extension headers have been added to the packet. In other embodiments, a forward equivalent class (FEC) indicates that one or more MPLS extension headers follow the MPLS label stack.

MPLS was originally conceived to improve the packet forwarding performance of Internet Protocol (IP) routers. However, it has subsequently been extended to carry other layer network technologies (like Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), Frame Relay (FR), Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy (PDH), etc.) by the use of Pseudowire (PW) encapsulation techniques. The architecture of the MPLS standard is set out in RFC 3031 entitled "Multiprotocol Label Switching Architecture" submitted by E. Rosen et al. in January 2001 to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Electronic copies of this document are available for download from the URL: www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3031.txt. Updates to the MPLS standard are made available on the IETF's website https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/.
MPLS essentially enables faster routing decisions by preconfiguring "tags" which determine a path between one router and the next. The "tags" are essentially labels carried in short packet header fields which are extracted by switching/forwarding network nodes (known as label switched routers (LSRs)). LSRs are preconfigured to associate certain labels with particular outgoing port(s) and hence traffic containing that label can be routed without a more detailed inspection of the packet header. This avoids the need for hop-by-hop routing decisions to be made on the IP layer network address, instead traffic is sent along a path predetermined by a particular set of labels.
MPLS label stacking is already known in the art as a means of implementing MPLS tunneling. To implement MPLS tunneling, an outer transport label is used to establish a bulk transport Label Switched Path (LSP) (which functions as a tunnel), often between the provider edge devices of a provider's network, and within each bulk LSP, inner transport labels are used to identify each traffic flow. Each packet can carry many label stack entries organized as a last-in-first-out stack. In normal forwarding across an MPLS network, a LSR processes only the top (i.e., outermost) label. At any LSR, a labelled header can be added to the stack (by the LSR performing a "push" operation) or removed from the stack (by the LSR performing a "pop" operation). The label stacking allows the aggregation of LSPs into a single LSP for a portion of the route, which creates a "tunnel".
While MPLS has provided many benefits over prior networking protocols, as well as over some newer network protocols, it was not specifically designed to support in-network services. In-network services, as the term is used herein, refers to functions, applications, or services applied by network devices (e.g., routers) on user traffic.

MPLS extension headers for in-network services


A method for asexual in vitro propagation of corn plants is described. The plant tissue (shoot tips or apices) are differentiated with 2,4-dichlorophenoxy acetic acid (2,4-D) and N.sup.6 -benzyladenine (BA) and mixtures thereof and then the differentiated tissue is grown in indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) to produce the corn plant which is fertile.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an in vitro method for asexually propagating corn plants in vitro into a fertile corn plant. In particular the present invention relates to the use of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) or N.sup.6 -benzyladenine (BA) and mixtures thereof to produce differentiated corn tissue from shoot tips or apices and then growing the differentiated tissue in indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) composition to produce the corn plant.
(2) Prior Art
An efficient and reproducible in vitro technique permitting the production of whole plants from transformed cells is an integral part of successful genetic engineering of plants (Vasil, I. K., BioTechnology 8, 296-31 (1990); and Potrykus, I., Physiol. Plant. 79, 125-134 (1990)). Currently, immature zygotic embryos are the most reliable explant source to develop regeneratively-competent calli, cell suspensions and protoplasts for transformation of corn (Rhodes, C. A., Pierce, D. A., Mettler, L. J., Mascarenhas, D., and Detmer, J. J., Science 240, 204-207 (1988); Fromm, M. E., Morrish, F., Armstrong, C., Williams, R., Thomas, J., Klein, T. M., BioTechnology 8, 833-839 (1990); and Gordon-Kamm, W. J., Spencer T. M., Manganno, M. L., Adams, T. R., Daines, R. J., Willets, N. G., Rice, T. B., Mackey, C. J., Krueger, R. W., Kaush, A. P., Lamaux, P. G., Plant Cell 2,603-608 (1990)).
Plant regeneration through somatic embryogenesis has been routinely achieved in Zea mostly from in vitro cultures of 1-2 mm long immature zygotic embryos excised precisely 10-15 days after fertilization (Springer, W. D., Green, C. E., Kohn, K. A., Protoplasma 101, 269-281 (1979); Vasil, V., Lu, C., Vasil, I. K., Protoplasma 127, 1-8 (1985); Duncan, D. R , Williams, M. E., Zehr, B. E., Widholm, J. M , Planta 165,322-332 (1985); Hodges, T. K., Kamo, K. K., Imbrie, C. W., Becwar, M. R., BioTechnology 4, 219-223 (1986)). Cultures of tassel primordia (Rhodes, C. R., Green, C. E., Phillips, R. L., Plant Sci 46, 225-232 (1986)), mature seed embryos (Wang, A., Plant Cell Rep. 6, 360-362 (1987)), and leaf segments (Conger, B. V., Novak, F. J., Afza, R., Erdelsky, K., Plant Cell Rep. 6, 345-347 (1987)) of corn have also regenerated plants through somatic embryogenesis.
What is needed is a method for producing mature corn plants using an asexual, genotype-independent reproduction, wherein the plants are fertile.

Method for asexual in vitro propagation of fertile corn plants

Board of Trustees operating Michigan State University


Disclosed herein is a process of preparing a solid polymer electrolyte type fuel cell formed by combining a cathode current collector, a cathode containing cathode particles, an ion exchange membrane, an anode containing anode particles and an anode current collector characterized by comprising reducing a catalyst metal salt in an organic solution with the solid polymer electrolyte, depositing the reduced catalyst metal in the solid polymer electrolyte to form the cathode and/or the anode, interposing the cathode and/or the anode between the respective current collectors and the ion exchange membrane and pressing for assembling the fuel cell.. Also disclosed is the same process as above except that the support is present in the solid polymer electrolyte.. In the fuel cells prepared in accordance with the present invention, the catalyst metal always exists in the solid polymer electrolyte, and even if a cavity is formed in the solid polymer electrolyte, the catalyst metal is not exposed to the cavity. Accordingly, almost all the catalyst metals can be utilized to generate energy at the high efficiency.

This invention relates to a process of preparing a solid polymer electrolyte type fuel cell employing an ionic conductive solid polymer diaphragm (membrane).
A solid polymer electrolyte type fuel cell has attracted the attention as a source of electricity of an electric automobile and a space craft because it is more compact and may generate higher current density compared with a phosphoric acid type fuel cell. Many proposals as to various electrode structures, methods of preparing catalysts, systems of constituting the fuel cells and the like have been made in this technical field. The electrode structure of a current fuel cell is mainly prepared by loading solid polymer electrolyte around carbon particles supported with a catalyst metal which are eventually present in the solid polymer electrolyte. This conventional electrode for a fuel cell is prepared by contacting the carbon particles previously supported with the catalyst metal with the solid polymer electrolyte.
According to this process of preparation, however, the carbon particles B of which all the surface is covered with the catalyst metal A exist in contact with the solid polymer electrolyte C as shown in FIG. 1, and if a cavity D is formed in the solid polymer electrolyte C, a catalyst metal A' supported on the surface of the carbon particles B facing the cavity D does not contact with the solid polymer electrolyte so as not to function as a catalyst so that the utilization efficiency of the catalyst metal cannot be elevated. Therefore, the voltage drop in the range of the current density practically employed is large and certain limitation to the current density practically employed is present for maintaining a fixed voltage.
In order to elevate the utilization rate of the catalyst metal, a method of directly supporting the catalyst metal on the solid polymer electrolyte membrane (ion exchange membrane) is attempted, but since a metal salt other than that combined with the ion exchange group of the membrane exists in the free state in the membrane, the former is likely to be deposited in the cavity of the membrane to become larger when it is reduced. Accordingly, it is difficult to finely deposit the catalyst metal of high concentration and is nearly impossible to support a fixed amount of the catalyst metal only on the surface of the membrane.

Process of preparing solid polymer electrolyte type fuel cell


A RAID system is provided which can be implemented as a hardware RAID system while avoiding certain shortcomings of previous RAID systems. The RAID system makes it possible to avoid or reduce the number of buffers or processors and can take advantage of drive logic to achieve RAID functions or enhancements. RAID functionality can be provided in a manner to accommodate one or more ATA drive interfaces. To avoid drive replacement problems, host requests for drive serial numbers are responded to with a mirror serial number. In one embodiment, the read address is used to select which drive will perform a read operation.

In many contexts, it is useful to provide partial or full redundancy for stored data. Although the present invention is not necessarily limited to disk drives, in the context of disk drives, data redundancy is sometimes described or provided as one of various types of RAID (redundant array of inexpensive drives) systems. In one such system, each disk drive has a corresponding "mirror" drive and operations are coordinated such that all, or substantially all, data written to one drive is also written to the other. Many previous RAID systems were provided primarily for purposes of data integrity, such that if some or all data was corrected or destroyed in one copy, another copy of the same data was available.
One common operation generally associated with RAID systems is drive select, and is typically used for determining from which of the two (or more) disk drives of the RAID system, data requested by the host, will be read. At least some previous approaches have used relatively complex systems of microprocessors and/or data buffers for performing operations such as drive select, or other RAID functions. Such approaches have contributed to undesirably high costs for RAID systems and, accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide an implementation for a RAID system, while eliminating the need for a microprocessor and/or data buffers.
In some approaches to RAID systems, read functionality is achieved substantially by software running on a host device. Such systems can be vulnerable, however, if the host device operating system fails to "boot" on one of the drives of the RAID system. This is believed to be a difficulty with software RAID systems, even though "boot files" may reside on both disks of a RAID system. Accordingly, it would be useful to provide a RAID system which is relatively less susceptible to boot up problems than the typical software RAID system.
In at least some RAID systems, RAID functionality is provided on a circuit board which often, but not always, occupies a PCI slot and which is typically substantially stand-alone, in the sense that it does not substantially take advantage of capabilities which are, or can be, available on other components of the RAID system, such as drive firmware or other logic. Accordingly, it would be useful to provide a RAID system which utilizes drive firmware to augment its functionality.
Many previous RAID systems respond to a read error by switching future reads to a secondary or backup disk of the RAID system. Often, it is left to the user to attend to the task of resynchronizing the data (so that at least two copies of all data are distributed among the disk of the RAID system). Until such manual resynchronization is performed, there is a risk that an error in the second disk of the RAID system could render some data irretrievably lost. Accordingly, it would be useful to provide a RAID system which can readily resynchronize data after an error, preferably in a manner substantially transparent to the user.
Many previous RAID systems are directed to data security and integrity. Little, if any, attention has been given to opportunities for enhancing system performance, such as decreasing latency and/or improving data throughput. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a RAID system which provides enhanced performance using a two (or more) disk combination.
In a number of contexts, it may be desirable to perform a substantially full transfer or copy of the contents of one disk to another. One example might occur when one drive of a RAID or multi-drive system is replaced. Disk duplication provides another example. Such operations often involve transferring data from a source drive, to a host computer and then transferring the data from host computer to the other drive, for writing thereon. This procedure can be undesirably slow. Other examples of undesirably slow host-mediated transfers can include data transfers for purposes such as disk resynchronization, error correction, and the like. Accordingly, it would be useful to provide a system for transferring information between two or more disk drives in a RAID system or multi-disk system which does not require mediation of intermediate transfer to a host computer.
Many previous RAID systems use circuitry for providing at least some RAID functionality which resides on cards positioned a substantial distance from the drives, often providing for communication through relatively long ribbon cables and the like. Relatively long path lengths can undesirably degrade signal quality, particularly in the case of high speed data transfer rates. Accordingly, it would be useful to provide a RAID system which can reduce the length of some signal paths compared to previous RAID systems.
Many previous RAID systems, intended for use in a typical personal computer or desktop computer context, employ the same general type of disk drives which are used as individual disk drives in non-RAID applications. Most desktop computers have a chassis which defines one or more "bays" for accommodating disk drives or similar components, each bay having a "form factor" which is substantially a rectangular solid having a width, height and depth. Disk drives intended for use in desktop computers are typically manufactured to fit within a predefined "form factor." There are, in general, several well-established form factors including, e.g., a "5.25 inch drive" form factor, a "3.5 inch drive" form factor, and a "CD ROM" form factor. Because, as noted, many previous approaches to a RAID system for a desktop computer have employed substantially standard disk drives, in many previous approaches a two-drive RAID system would require the use of two drive bays, plus, possibly, additional space (potentially occupying yet another drive bay) for control cards, connectors, or other components. Because it is generally desirable to minimize spatial requirements of a system (e.g., to free space for other components and/or simplify cooling requirements), it would be useful to provide a desktop computer RAID system which can be substantially positioned within a single drive bay, such as a single 5.25 inch form factor, a single 3.5 form factor, or a single CD ROM form factor, preferably, including any required control cards, connectors or similar components.

RAID system and method compatible with improved drive select


An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) system that converts an analog input signal into a digital output circuit uses a method of shaping a pseudo-random signal such that the ADC system can be used with input signals having wider swings. The ADC system also includes a quantizer having a comparator offset of less than =/−¼ least significant bit (LSB) in a stage calibrated for gain errors. A method of operating an ADC circuit includes measuring an amplitude and polarity of an input signal voltage and changing characteristics of a pseudo-random signal to ensure that a subsequent stage of the ADC circuit is not saturated. An implementation of the ADC circuit alters the pseudo-random signal based on the amplitude of the input signal such that when the input signal goes close to a positive rail, the pseudo-random signal alternates between a first range, and when the input signal goes close to a negative rail, the pseudo-random signal alternates between a second range.

Analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) are employed in a variety of electronic systems including computer modems, wireless telephones, satellite receivers, process control systems, etc. Such systems demand cost-effective ADCs that can efficiently convert an analog input signal to a digital output signal over a wide range of frequencies and signal magnitudes with minimal noise and distortion.
An ADC typically converts an analog signal to a digital signal by sampling the analog signal at pre-determined sampling intervals and generating a sequence of binary numbers via a quantizer, wherein the sequence of binary numbers is a digital representation of the sampled analog signal. Some of the commonly used types of ADCs include integrating ADCs, Flash ADCs, pipelined ADCs, successive approximation register ADCs, Delta-Sigma (ΔΣ) ADCs, two-step ADCs, etc. Of these various types, the pipelined ADCs and the ΔΣ ADCs are particularly popular in applications requiring higher resolutions.
A pipelined ADC circuit samples an analog input signal using a sample-and-hold circuit to hold the input signal steady and a first stage flash ADC to quantize the input signal. The first stage flash ADC then feeds the quantized signal to a digital-to-analog converter (DAC). The pipelined ADC circuit subtracts the output of the DAC from the analog input signal to get a residue signal of the first stage. The first stage of the pipelined ADC circuit generates the most significant bit (MSB) of the digital output signal. The residue signal of the first stage is gained up by a factor and fed to the next stage. Subsequently, the next stage of the pipelined ADC circuit further quantizes the residue signal to generate further bits of the digital output signal.
On the other hand, a ΔΣ ADC employs over-sampling, noise-shaping, digital filtering and digital decimation techniques to provide high resolution analog-to-digital conversion. One popular design of a ΔΣ ADC is multi-stage noise shaping (MASH) ΔΣ ADC. A MASH ΔΣ ADC is based on cascading multiple first-order or second-order ΔΣ ADCs to realize high-order noise shaping. An implementation of a MASH ΔΣ ADC is well known to those of ordinary skill in the art. While both pipelined ADCs and ΔΣ ADCs provide improved signal-to-noise ratio, improved stability, etc., ΔΣ ADCs generally provide higher levels of resolution and therefore are preferred in applications involving asynchronous digital subscriber lines (ADSL), very high speed digital subscriber lines (VDSL), etc. Highly-linear, high-resolution and wide-bandwidth ADCs are required for VDSL systems.
Any stage of a pipelined ADC can be calibrated digitally by inserting a pseudo-random test signal at an input of the stage to be calibrated. However, adding such pseudo-random test signal at one stage may result in such an output signal from the calibrated stage that the stage following the calibrated stage may be saturated. Thus for example, if a first stage of a pipelined ADC is calibrated using a pseudo-random test signal, the second stage of the pipelined ADC will be saturated.

Method and apparatus for an ADC circuit with wider input signal swing


A method and system are provided to determine a relative position vector between primary receiver associated with a reference station and secondary receiver associated with a user. The method and system determine a position of the reference station at the reference station according to signals received thereat from a plurality of satellites, determine a position of the user receiver at the user based on measurements obtained thereat and on error corrections computed at the reference station, and compute the relative position vector by differencing the position of the reference station and the position of the user.

The global positioning system (GPS) uses satellites in space to locate objects on earth. With GPS, signals from the satellites arrive at a GPS receiver and are used to determine the position of the GPS receiver. Currently, two types of GPS measurements corresponding to each correlator channel with a locked GPS satellite signal are available for civilian GPS receivers. The two types of GPS measurements are pseudorange, and carrier phase for two carrier signals, L1 and L2, with frequencies of 1.5754 GHz and 1.2276 GHz, or wavelengths of 0.1903 m and 0.2442 m, respectively. The pseudorange measurement (or code measurement) is a basic GPS observable that all types of GPS receivers can make. It utilizes the C/A or P codes modulated onto the carrier signals. The measurement records the apparent time taken for the relevant code to travel from the satellite to the receiver, i.e., the time the signal arrives at the receiver according to the receiver clock minus the time the signal left the satellite according to the satellite clock. The carrier phase measurement is obtained by integrating a reconstructed carrier of the signal as it arrives at the receiver. Thus, the carrier phase measurement is also a measure of a transit time difference as determined by the time the signal left the satellite according to the satellite clock and the time it arrives at the receiver according to the receiver clock. However, because an initial number of whole cycles in transit between the satellite and the receiver when the receiver starts tracking the carrier phase of the signal is usually not known, the transit time difference may be in error by multiple carrier cycles, i.e., there is a whole-cycle ambiguity in the carrier phase measurement.
With the GPS measurements available, the range or distance between a GPS receiver and each of a multitude of satellites is calculated by multiplying a signal's travel time by the speed of light. These ranges are usually referred to as pseudoranges (false ranges) because the receiver clock generally has a significant time error which causes a common bias in the measured range. This common bias from receiver clock error is solved for along with the position coordinates of the receiver as part of the normal navigation computation. Various other factors can also lead to errors or noise in the calculated range, including ephemeris error, satellite clock timing error, atmospheric effects, receiver noise and multipath error. With standalone GPS navigation, where a user with a GPS receiver obtains code and/or carrier-phase ranges with respect to a plurality of satellites in view, without consulting with any reference station, the user is very limited in ways to reduce the errors or noises in the ranges.
To eliminate or reduce these errors, differential operations are typically used in GPS applications. Differential GPS (DGPS) operations typically involve a base reference GPS receiver, a user (or navigation) GPS receiver, and a data link between the user and reference receivers. The reference receiver is placed at a known location and the measurements obtained there at are supplied to the user receiver. By differencing the measurements taken at the reference station and the user receiver, most of the errors or noises in the calculated ranges can be eliminated or greatly reduced. Differential operations using carrier-phase measurements are often referred to as real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning/navigation operations.
The fundamental concept of Differential GPS (DGPS) is to take advantage of the spatial and temporal correlations of the errors inherent in the GPS measurements to cancel the noise factors in the pseudorange and/or carrier phase measurements resulting from these error factors. When the distance between the reference and user receivers is within a certain limit, carrier-phase differential or RTK techniques are the most accurate techniques available for positioning and navigation purposes. However, the accuracy of RTK techniques diminishes as the correlation of the error factors diminishes when the distance between the reference and user receivers becomes too large.
For wide-area operations, various regional, wide-area, or global DGPS (hereafter referred to as wide-area DGPS or WADGPS) techniques have been developed. A WADGPS system includes a network of multiple reference stations in communication with a computational center or hub. Error corrections are computed at the hub based upon the known locations of the reference stations and the measurements taken by them. The computed error corrections are then transmitted to users via data link such as satellite, phone, or radio. Although the accuracy of the WADGPS systems are enhanced by using multiple reference stations, it has not been able to match the accuracy of a local RTK system, which is capable of reaching accuracies in the order of one centimeter as long as the separation distance between the reference and user receivers is sufficiently short.

Moving reference receiver for RTK navigation


A method and a system for controlling combustion of a natural gas engine. The method includes: determining, based on a current operation parameter of a natural gas engine, an operation state of the natural gas engine, and calculating a total injection quantity of natural gas and pilot diesel required by the natural gas engine in the operation state; adopting a direct injection diffusion-combustion mode in a case that the operation state is an idle state or a low load state; adopting a natural gas homogeneous hybrid active control compression-ignition mode in a case that the operation state is a medium load state; configuring the total injection quantity into three parts including a compression-ignition natural gas injection quantity, a pilot diesel injection quantity, and a diffusion-combustion natural gas injection quantity in a case that the operation state is a high load state, and sequentially injecting them into a combustion chamber.

In recent years, the large-scale haze weather has brought a great impact on the production and the life of the residents, and endangered people's health. The particles emitted by motor vehicles are one of the main sources of urban smog.
According to different fuels used by the motor vehicles, the motor vehicles include diesel (gasoline) motor vehicles and natural gas motor vehicles. The natural gas motor vehicles use natural gas as fuel. Since methane in the natural gas does not contain carbon chains, the amount of soot generated during the combustion of the natural gas is relatively low. Therefore, the use of natural gas as fuel for motor vehicles can effectively control emissions and is of great significance to alleviating environmental pollution.
The increase of compression ratio of a conventional natural gas engine is knock-limited. In addition, due to the slow combustion speed of the natural gas, the thermal efficiency and power performance of the natural gas engine operating in a traditional combustion mode are lower than those of a diesel engine with the same displacement.
In order to improve the thermal efficiency and power performance of the natural gas engine, according to a conventional method, a small amount of diesel is injected at a position near the top dead center of compression, and then the natural gas is injected to the flame in burning the pilot diesel so as to be burned by the burning diesel, realizing diffusion combustion of the natural gas. In this combustion mode, the natural gas engine is not knock-limited and has a thermal efficiency and power performance close to those of the diesel engine with the same displacement.
Studies show that in the above method, the diesel is injected for combustion of the natural gas, a fuel rich zone exists during the combustion process of natural gas, and a certain amount of soot is still generated. Although the amount of the PM (Particulate Matter) and PN (Particulate Number) in the exhaust gas emitted by the natural gas engine is much lower than the amount of the PM and PN in the exhaust gas emitted by the diesel engine, a post-processing system is required to be configured as that of the diesel engine to meet a strict Euro VI emission standard, thereby resulting in a high cost.

Method and system for controlling combustion of natural gas engine


A word translation device stores a first-language word search TRIE structure (100), a second-language word search TRIE structure (200), a first-language word information record (110), a second-language word information record (210) in a bilingual dictionary. The first-language word search TRIE structure (100) is provided for searching for words of the first language. The second-language word search TRIE structure (200) is provided for searching for words of the second language. The first-language word information record (110) includes first translation information for identifying a translation of each of the words stored in the first-language word search TRIE structure (100). The second-language word information record (210) includes second translation information for identifying a translation of each of the words stored in the second-language word search TRIE structure (200). By referring to the first and second word information records (110) and (210), word translation between the first and second languages can be performed with high precision at high speeds.

By a word translation technique, an input word of a first language is referred to a bilingual dictionary, and a translation of the word in a second language is extracted from the bilingual dictionary. The extracted translation is then output. By a sentence translation technique, an input sentence in a first language is analyzed in terms of morpheme, and the group of the words constituting the sentence is extracted. Translations of the extracted words are retrieved from a bilingual dictionary, and a translation in the form of a sentence is formed on the basis of the links between the words. For example, Non-Patent Reference 1 discloses a machine translation system that utilizes the links between words.
Such word and sentence translation techniques are utilized in electronic word translation devices and computers. In an electronic word translation device, bilingual dictionaries of two or more languages are stored in a memory. When a user inputs a word of a first language, a translation of the word is extracted from one of the bilingual dictionaries, and is displayed on a display.
Patent Reference 1 discloses a technique for saving each user the trouble of selecting the type of dictionary when a search is carried out in an electronic dictionary device. Based on a search word that is input by a user, dictionaries are searched for a direction word, and the contents of dictionaries containing the direction word are collectively displayed.
[Patent Reference 1]    Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-276479
[Non-Patent Reference 1]    Suzuki and Tochinai, "Machine Translation System Using Conjunctive Relations of Words", IPSJ Transactions, Vol. 29, No. 4, 1988

Word translation device, translation method, and computer readable medium


A fuel system and associated method include a fuel injector and associated injector cup having an integral device that provides rotational orientation while allowing axial sliding engagement of the fuel injector relative to the cup after assembly. One embodiment includes retention tabs in the cup that engage corresponding grooves in the injector.

Various types of internal combustion engines use a common fuel rail to distribute fuel to individual fuel injectors that inject a specified amount of fuel into corresponding intake ports or directly into the cylinders. A fuel injector cup is typically used to couple the upper end of the fuel injector to the fuel rail, with the lower end of the injector being seated into a corresponding bore in the intake manifold or cylinder head. The injector/cup interface includes an upper (fuel) seal, while the injector/bore interface includes a lower (air) seal. An injector retention/orientation clip may be used to facilitate proper positioning of the fuel injector during assembly (and/or maintenance) and to secure the injector to maintain the upper and lower seals during assembly and operation of the engine. Alternatively, a fuel injector/cup assembly may use a "snap fasten" feature to couple the cup to the fuel injector and eliminate the injector clip. Both methods require relatively tight tolerances for the individual components to assure that the overall tolerance stack-up associated with the fuel rail, cup, fuel injector, clip (where present), and intake manifold/cylinder head is controlled to maintain the integrity of the upper and lower seals during operation of the engine.


Provided is a method for determining one or more profile parameters of a structure using an optical metrology model, the optical metrology model comprising a profile model, an approximation diffraction model, and a fine diffraction model. A simulated approximation diffraction signal is generated based on an approximation diffraction model of the structure. A set of difference diffraction signals is obtained by subtracting the simulated approximation diffraction signal from each of simulated fine diffraction signals and paired with the corresponding profile parameters and used to generate a library of difference diffraction signals. A measured diffraction signal adjusted by the simulated approximation diffraction signal is matched against the library to determine at least one profile parameter of the structure.

1. Field
The present application generally relates to optical metrology of a structure formed on a semiconductor wafer, and, more particularly, to determining one or more profile parameters of a structure using approximation and fine models in optical metrology.
2. Related Art
In semiconductor manufacturing, periodic gratings are typically used for quality assurance. For example, one typical use of periodic gratings includes fabricating a periodic grating in proximity to the operating structure of a semiconductor chip. The periodic grating is then illuminated with electromagnetic radiation. The electromagnetic radiation that deflects off of the periodic grating is collected as a diffraction signal. The diffraction signal is then analyzed to determine whether the periodic grating, and by extension whether the operating structure of the semiconductor chip, has been fabricated according to specifications.
In one conventional system, the diffraction signal collected from illuminating the periodic grating (the measured diffraction signal) is compared to a library of simulated diffraction signals. Each simulated diffraction signal in the library is associated with a hypothetical profile. When a match is made between the measured diffraction signal and one of the simulated diffraction signals in the library, the hypothetical profile associated with the simulated diffraction signal is presumed to represent the actual profile of the periodic grating.
Hypothetical profiles, which are used to generate simulated diffraction signals, are generated based on a profile model that characterizes the structure to be examined. Thus, in order to accurately determine the profile of the structure using optical metrology, a profile model that accurately characterizes the structure should be used.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Determining profile parameters of a structure using approximation and fine diffraction models in optical metrology


A nonvolatile memory storage controller for delivering log likelihood ratios (LLRs) to a low-density parity check (LDPC) decoder for use in the decoding of an LDPC encoded codeword. The controller includes partitioning circuitry for identifying a set of soft-decision reference voltages having the smallest calculated introduced error value based upon the estimated BER of the nonvolatile memory. The controller further includes read circuitry for reading an LDPC encoded codeword stored in a nonvolatile memory storage module using the set of soft-decision reference voltages having the smallest calculated LLR introduced error value to provide a plurality of soft-decision bits representative of the codeword. The controller further includes an LLR look-up table accessible by the read circuitry to provide LLRs to the LDPC decoder for the subsequent decoding of the codeword.

A solid state drive (SSD) is a data storage device that utilizes solid-state memory to retain data in nonvolatile memory chips. NAND-based flash memories are widely used as the solid-state memory storage in SSDs due to their compactness, low power consumption, low cost, high data throughput and reliability. SSDs commonly employ several NAND-based flash memory chips and a flash controller to manage the flash memory and to transfer data between the flash memory and a host computer.
While NAND-based flash memories are reliable, they are not inherently error-free and often rely on error correction coding (ECC) to correct raw bit errors in the stored data. Additionally, the bit error rate (BER) of the flash memory changes over the lifetime of the device. It is well known that NAND flash memory program/erase (PE) cycling gradually degrades the storage reliability of the memory device and stronger ECC techniques may be necessary over the lifetime of the device to ensure the data integrity. The lifetime of a flash block may be defined as the maximum number of P/E cycles after which the ECC in the SSD controller can no longer ensure the required storage reliability within a specific guaranteed data storage time. The gradual wear-out of the flash memory, as a result of the P/E cycling, undesirably diminishes the memory cell noise margin and increases the raw bit error rate (RBER) of the device.
One commonly employed error correction code for nonvolatile memory storage modules, such as SSDs, is the low-density parity-check (LDPC) code. An LDPC code is a linear error correcting code having a parity check matrix with a small number of nonzero elements in each row and column. Soft-decision message passing algorithms are known in the art for decoding data encoded with LDPC error correction codes, such as the sum-product algorithm (SPA) and the min-sum algorithm. These soft-decision message passing algorithms are iterative in nature and attempt to decode the encoded data by assigning probability metrics to each bit in an encoded code word. The probability metrics indicate a reliability of each bit, that is, how likely it is that the bit read from the memory is not in error. These probability metrics are commonly referred to log likelihood ratios (LLRs) in the case of LDPC decoding. These LLRs values are often stored in LLR look-up tables, which are accessible by the NAND flash controller.
NAND-based flash storage suffers from low endurance as each flash memory cell can tolerate only a limited number of program/erase (P/E) cycles. Due to the program/erase wear-out of the flash memory, the bit error rate (BER) of the memory device typically increases during its lifetime and as such, more error correction coding will be needed to guarantee the integrity of the stored data as the devices ages. It follows that the threshold voltage distribution and associated log likelihood ratios (LLRs) of the flash memory device also change over the lifetime of the device, as the LLR values are measures of the reliability of the data read from the memory storage.
To read the LDPC encoded data from the memory storage, a set of reference voltages are selected based upon the number of reads required and the number of bits used to represent the LLR value. The set of reference voltages selected determines the LLR values selected from the LLR look-up table. The accuracy of the LLR values are affected by the selection of the reference voltages used to read the memory storage. The selection of reference voltages that do not accurately represent the threshold voltage distribution of the memory storage result in the introduction or errors into the approximation of the LLR values which negatively impacts the LDPC performance. As such, it is important to select the best set of reference voltages to be used to read the LDPC encoded data from the memory module.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is an improved system and method for decoding LDPC encoded data, wherein the best set of reference voltages are identified and used to read the LDPC encoded data and to extract the LLR values from the LLR look-up table prior to decoding of the data.

System and method with reference voltage partitioning for low density parity check decoding