A portable device that is placed between the ambient air outside an existing enclosed space and the existing enclosed space that pulls the ambient air through an interchangeable array of air cleaning modules and delivers the cleaned air from the air cleaning modules into the existing enclosed space. The air cleaning modules are disposed outside the existing enclosed space so that only cleaned air is drawn into the existing enclosed space. The air cleaning modules can also be capped for easy and safe disposal after use. The air cleaning modules are in fluid communication with an electric fan that is disposed inside the existing enclosed space through an air flow inlet that is part of an expandable window insert. Accordingly, the cleaned air delivered to the existing enclosed space provides its inhabitants with clean breathable air and increases the air pressure in the existing enclosed space which prevents contaminated air from the external environment from entering the existing enclose space. The portable device consists of at least one air filtering module (46), a window insert assembly (45), an air flow conduit (48), and an electric fan (49) all of which can be easily and quickly assembled and fitted to the window of a house, apartment, office or building.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to device that provides a continuous flow of clean, breathable air to an enclosed space.
2. Background of the Invention
Terrorists have begun to threaten mass destruction. Their attacks include biological, chemical and radiological weapons. They seek to inflict maximum damage by detonating these weapons in highly populated areas. Because air can quickly spread these lethal payloads, people would become victims in their homes and work places. There is a need to protect individuals and groups from this threat.
The Office of Homeland Security suggested that families retreat to a designated room. This room would be sealed with Duct tape. The tape would prevent contaminated air from entering it. This defense was quickly discredited for two reasons. First, it was unlikely that the room could be totally sealed. There would be leakage points missed such as those illustrated in FIG. 1. Second, if the room was successfully sealed, the occupants would soon be without oxygen.
Another defense is to place an air purifier or air filter in the room. But these devices only clean the air after it has entered the room. The purifiers and filters will eventually clean the air, but not before the occupants are exposed. Also, if the air pressure within the room is lower than the air pressure outside the room, contaminated air would flow into the room. Air cleaners do not add air to the room. They do not prevent this inflow of contaminated air. Finally, purifiers and filters are not effective against a full range of contaminates. Mechanical and electronic filters are effective with particulate materials but have little or no effect on bacteria and chemicals. Gas phase filters are needed for chemicals. Still other mechanisms, such as ultra-violet light, are used in purifiers which target bacteria and viruses. There is no single system that rids the air of all contaminates.
Air conditioners are similar to air filters in that they simply recirculate existing air within a room. While many contain air filters, their primary function is to cool the air, not clean it. Therefore, air conditioners would be even less effective at protecting occupants from air-borne contaminates than air cleaners or air filters.
Another defense is to build a clean-room. Clean-rooms have been used in the medical, chemical and electronics industries. In the medical and chemical industries, clean-rooms are usually designed to prevent chemical fumes and biological agents from escaping the work space. In the electronics industry, the reverse is often true. There the clean-rooms are designed to prevent outside air from contaminating the enclosed work space.
These industrial clean-rooms achieve their objective by providing a hermetically sealed room. Attached to this room is an air flow system capable of moving air in and out of the room. The air flow system is designed to clean the air of any contaminates. By balancing the inflow and outflow of air, the air flow system maintains the room at a desired pressure level and cleanliness. Ludwig G. Rockx (U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,835, Nov. 12, 1991) described the construction of an industrial clean-room. Gordon P. Sharp, et. al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,385,505, Jan. 31, 1995) describes a mechanism for controlling the air flows in and out of an industrial clean-room.
These industrial units are effective at maintaining a clean enclosed space. Unfortunately, they are not easily adapted to the residential or office work environment. Hermetically sealed spaces could be built in new private residences or offices, but they would be very costly. In existing units, it would be both costly and difficult.
Additionally, the cost of the ventilation system required to support these clean-rooms is high. Air flow systems like those described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,385,505 are expensive, usually dedicated to specific contaminates, and require highly skilled maintenance personnel. These systems are not easily or economically transferred from the industrial sector to home use.
Presently, there is no air cleaning system that can be economically and effectively installed in a residential or office space. The existing air cleaning systems suffer from one or more the following deficiencies and disadvantages:                a) They fail to prevent exterior air from seeping into the enclosed space or room.        b) They fail to compensate for pressure differentials between the enclosed space and the air outside the enclosed space.        c) They fail to provide the flexibility to respond to several different air-borne contaminates.        d) They fail to provide a means to safely maintain the system after use.        e) They fail to provide for a economical installation.        f) They are not portable.        g) They are not quickly and easily installed.        h) They require expertise to install, operate, and maintain.

Portable device with interchangeable air cleaning modules for cleaning the air outside of an existing enclosed space and delivering the cleaned air into the existing enclosed space


A timeout monitoring system including plural timeout value setting mechanisms, each of which sets a timeout value as a result of the start-up. Also included is plural timeout monitoring mechanisms, each of which do not start the timeout value setting mechanism at the following stage but stop it, when the timeout value set by the timeout value setting mechanism at the preceding stage is not set again even after a specific time has elapsed. A watchdog timer outputs an abnormality notice, when the timeout value set by the timeout value setting mechanism at the last stage is not set again even after a specific time has elapsed. Hierarchizing the software of the watchdog timer makes it possible to set a suitable timeout value in the watchdog timer for a higher-speed sensing of timeout and monitor the timeouts of plural systems at plural levels, which improves the monitoring capability.

This invention relates to a timeout monitoring system used for sensing abnormalities in a computer system or a control system, and more particularly to a timeout monitoring system capable of monitoring and sensing a timeout at a plurality of levels by use of hierarchized software programs.
This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 8-218684, filed Aug. 20, 1996, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
In the field of sensing abnormality in the computer system or the like, a timeout monitoring system using a watchdog timer has been known.
FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the configuration of watchdog timer mechanism applied to a timeout monitoring system of this type. The watchdog timer mechanism comprises a timeout monitoring process 1 in the user layer, a watchdog timer 2 in the hardware layer, a process management subsystem in the OS layer, and an OS interval timer 4 in the hardware layer. The individual layers can operate at high speeds in this order: the hardware layer, OS layer, and user layer.
The timeout monitoring process 1 sets a timeout value in the watchdog timer 2 at regular intervals of time and thereafter requests the process management subsystem 3 to execute the process again after a specific period of time and then goes into the holding state.
The process management subsystem 3 manages a plurality of process schedule queues and treats the request for reexecution as one of the process schedule queues.
The watchdog timer 2 includes a setting register 2a, an operational comparator 2b, a timer 2c, and a timeout notifying section 2d. When a timeout value is set in the setting register 2a, the watchdog timer causes the operational comparator 2b to compare the timeout value with a reference value, while causing the timer 2c to count down the timeout value. When the result of the comparison has shown that the timeout has not been set again within a specific period of time, the timeout notifying section 2d outputs a timeout notice.
The OS interval timer 4 starts the process management subsystem 3 at regular intervals of several tens of milliseconds.
Each time being started by the OS interval timer 4, the process management subsystem 3 reschedules the timeout monitoring process 1 and each execution process (not shown) on the basis of the execution condition and priority for each process in each process schedule key. As a result, although the process management subsystem 3 is started every several tens of milliseconds, the interval of time at which the timeout monitoring process is started amounts to several hundreds of milliseconds.
Consequently, the timeout value the timeout monitoring process 1 sets in the watchdog timer 2 is of the order of several seconds.
With the timeout monitoring system, however, the time required for the timeout monitoring process 1 to be restarted is influenced by the schedule policy of the process management subsystem 2, which makes it impossible to set a timeout value smaller than a value of the order of several seconds in an ordinary OS, resulting in the problem of taking a longer time to sense abnormality.
The single watchdog timer 2 can monitor only one type of timeout and therefore cannot output a notice of more than one type of timeout, which leads to the problem of being unable to monitor more than one timeout or abnormality.


Embodiments are for generating a merged file and identifying distinct portions of the merged file to improve processing efficiency receive at least two data portions to be merged; determine data formats associated with each of the at least two data portions; condition the at least two data portions based on the determined data formats, thereby creating conditioned data portions having a consistent data format; identify cutoffs for each of the conditioned data portions; after identifying cutoffs for each of the conditioned data portions, add the conditioned data portions to one another, thereby creating a merged file having the consistent data format, the merged file configured for efficient use because of ease of consistent data format and identified cutoffs.

In various technical environment implementations, files or portions of files must be merged to be used for subsequent purposes. Therefore, a need exists to develop systems, apparatus, computer program products, methods and the like that provide for generating a merged file and identifying distinct portions of the merged file to improve processing efficiency.

Generating and identifying distinct portions of a merged file


A method and system of engine start/stop control for a HEV that monitors the battery and requests a specific engine state based on condition of the battery. A battery parameter such as discharge power limit (DPL) or state of charge (SOC) is compared with a set of threshold levels including a MIN level, an ON level, and an OFF level and the result of the comparison provides inputs to a state machine. The state machine includes an ON state, an OFF state and a OPPORTUNISTIC state. The machine transitions between the various states as a function of DPL and SOC relative to the sets of threshold levels.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to hybrid electric vehicles and more particularly to a strategy for requesting an engine ON or OFF state based on the condition of the vehicle battery.
2. Background Art
The need to reduce fossil fuel consumption and pollutants from automobiles and other vehicles powered by internal combustion engines (ICEs) is well known. Vehicles powered by electric motors have attempted to address these needs. However, electric vehicles have limited range and limited power coupled with the substantial time needed to recharge their batteries. An alternative solution is to combine both an ICE and an electric traction motor into one vehicle. Such vehicles are typically called hybrid electric vehicles (HEV's).
The HEV has been described in a variety of configurations. Some HEV systems require the operator to select between electric and internal combustion engine operation. In other configurations the electric motor drives one set of wheels and the ICE drives a different set. Other, more useful, configurations have developed. A series hybrid electric vehicle (SHEV) is a vehicle with an engine (most typically an ICE), which powers a generator. The generator, in turn, provides electricity for a battery and motor coupled to the drive wheels of the vehicle. There is no mechanical connection between the engine and the drive wheels. A parallel hybrid electrical vehicle (PHEV) is a vehicle with an engine (most typically an ICE), battery, and electric motor combined to provide torque to power the wheels of the vehicle. A parallel/series hybrid electric vehicle (PSHEV) has characteristics of both the PHEV and the SHEV. The PSHEV is also known as a torque (or power) splitting powertrain configuration. Here, the torque output of the engine is given in part to the drive wheels and in part to an electrical generator. The generator powers a battery and motor that also provide torque output. In this configuration, torque output can come from either source or both simultaneously. The vehicle braking system can also deliver torque to drive the generator to charge the battery (regenerative braking).
A desirable result of combining the ICE with an electric motor is that the ICE's fuel consumption and pollutants are reduced with no appreciable loss of performance or vehicle range. One of the benefits of the parallel HEV configurations is that the engine can be turned off during periods of low or no power demand from the driver (e.g., waiting for a traffic light) which improves fuel economy by eliminating wasted fuel used during idle conditions. The motor can then be used primarily to propel the vehicle under conditions of low power demand. In some configurations, the engine can be disconnected from the motor and powertrain when it is not running by opening a disconnect clutch. As power demand increases, the engine can be restarted and reconnected to provide the requested torque.
The two power sources in a PSHEV work together seamlessly with a common gear system to meet the driver demand for power without exceeding the power limits of the powertrain, including the limits of the battery subsystem. A vehicle system controller performs the coordination function in this split power powertrain. Under normal operating conditions, the vehicle system controller interprets the driver's demand for power as a function of acceleration or deceleration demand. It then determines when and how much torque each power source needs to provide to the transmission to meet the driver's power demand and to achieve specified vehicle performance (i.e., engine fuel economy, emission quality, driveability, etc.). The vehicle system controller determines the operating point of the engine torque and speed relationship.
In a hybrid electric vehicle with engine start/stop capability a battery controller may limit the maximum discharge power for various reasons. For example if the battery discharge limit becomes too low there may not be enough battery power available to start the engine. Also, when the vehicle is in reverse, the generator operates at a higher speed. Under such circumstances more battery power is required in order to start the engine.

Method and system of requesting engine on/off state in a hybrid electric vehicle


The present invention relates to the discovery of soluble isoforms of an Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor, or sErbB 1/HER1 variants, the provision of the sequences of nucleic acids encoding these isoforms, purified recombinant proteins, novel antibodies specific for these isoforms, and the use of immunoassay and gene expression assay techniques to measure the concentration of these gene products in a patient biological sample. The present invention also provides methods for determining the presence of an ovarian carcinoma in the patient by assaying the concentration of soluble EGFR/ErbB1 variants in a biological sample from a patient.

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a transmembrane glycoprotein encoded by the EGFR/ERBB1/HER1 proto-oncogene. Sequence analysis demonstrated that the human EGFR is the cellular homolog of the v-erbB oncogene from the avian erythroblastosis retrovirus (Downward et al., Nature, 307, 521 (1984); Ullrich et al., Nature, 309, 418 (1984)). In recent years, a series of c-erbB related cell surface receptor tyrosine kinases has been identified. The four members of the ErbB proto-oncogene family are: ErbB1/EGFR/HER1, ErbB2/Neu/HER2 (Coussens et al., Science, 230, 1132 (1988)); ErbB3/HER3 (Kraus et al., Proc. Nat'l. Acad. Sci. USA, 86, 9193 (1989)); Plowman, et al., Proc. Nat'l. Acad. Sci. USA 87, 4905 (1990)); and ErbB4/HER4 (Plowman et al., Proc. Nat'l. Acad. Sci. USA, 90, 1746 (1993)). The Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR/ErbB1/HER1) includes three functional domains: an extracellular ligand binding domain, a transmembrane domain, and a cytoplasmic tyrosine kinase domain. The extracellular domain can be further divided into four subdomains (I-IV), including two cysteine-rich regions (II and IV) and two flanking regions (I and III) (Lax et al., Cell Regul. 2,337 (1991)). Subdomains I and III are involved in ligand binding. Ligand binding to the receptor represents the first event in a complex cascade culminating in DNA synthesis and cell division as well as other events. The full-length 170 kD human EGFR is encoded by two alternatively spliced transcripts of 5.8 and 10.5 kb (Ullrich et al., supra). In addition, alternatively spliced mRNA's from the EGFR/ErbB1/HER1 gene also encode soluble forms of this receptor. An 80 kD EGFR isoform present in human placenta extracts may be encoded by an alternatively spliced 1.8 kb RNA transcript (Ilekis et al., Mol. Reprod. Devel., 41, 149 (1995)). Furthermore, soluble EGF receptors arise from aberrant transcription products in carcinoma-derived cell lines, as exemplified by the epidermoid carcinoma line, A431 (Ullrich et al., supra). In this cell line, the EGFR gene is amplified and rearranged, and a 2.8 kb transcript arises from a translocation between the 5′-region of the EGFR gene and an unidentified region of genomic DNA (Ullrich et al., supra; Merlino et al., Mol. Cell. Biol., 5, 1722 (1985); Hunts et al., Cell Mol. Genet., 11, 477 (1988)). Alternatively spliced EGFR/ErbB1RNA transcripts of approximately 1.8-2.8 kb that encode alternate receptor isoforms containing only the extracellular ligand binding domain are also found in normal human, chicken, rat and mouse tissues (Maihle et al. Proc. Nat'l Acad. Sci. USA, 88, 1825 (1991); Petch et al., Mol. Cell. Biol., 10, 2973 (1990); Flickinger et al., Mol. Cell. Biol., 12, 883 (1991); Das et al., Endocrinology 134, 971 (1994); Rho et al., Mol. Carcinogenesis. 11, 19 (1994); Reiter and Maihle, Nucl. Acids Res., 24, 4050 (1996); Tong et al., Endocrinology 137, 1492 (1996)).
Soluble isoforms of ErbB (sErbB) receptors are being investigated in connection with several cancers (McKenzie, Biochim. Biophys. Acta, 1072, 193 (1991); Brandt-Rauf, Mutat. Res., 333, 203 (1995)). Immunoassay studies show that sErbB2 proteins are elevated in serum samples of patients with breast and ovarian cancer (Mori et al., Jpn. J. Cancer. Res., 81, 489 (1990); Meden et al., Anticancer Res., 17, 757 (1997)). Recent studies suggest that low pretreatment serum sErbB2 levels are positive predictors of responsiveness to hormonal therapy for patients with metastatic breast cancer (Hayes et al., Breast Cancer Treat., 14, 135, (1993); Leitzel et al., J. Clin. Oncol., 13, 1129 (1995); Yamauchi et al., J. Clin. Oncol., 15, 2518 (1997)). Meden et al. (supra) have reported a positive association between elevated serum p105 sErbB2 levels and shorter survival for patients with stage I through IV epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 5,674,753, issued Oct. 7, 1997, described the use of antibodies against the external EGF binding domain of EGF receptors to diagnose neoplastic diseases correlated with an increase in the level of an EGF receptor in a patient's blood.
Immunoassay studies show that the extracellular domain of ErbB1 is detectable and increased in the serum of patients with asbestosis-induced lung cancer (Partanen et al., J. Occup. Med., 36, 1324 (1994); Partanen et al., Int. J. Oncol., 4, 1025 (1994)) and in the urine of patients with squamous cell carcinomas of the head, neck, and lung (Witters et al., Clin. Cancer Res., 1, 551 (1995)). Ilekis et al. (Gynecol. Oncol., 65, 36 (1997)) have recently observed a positive association between levels of a p80 sErbB1 protein and full-length ErbB1 in tissue samples of serous cystadenocarcinomas of the ovary. In addition, ErbB1 receptors have been shown to be over-expressed in various human tumor cell lines and neoplasms (Xu et al., Proc. Nat'l. Acad. Sci, 81, 7308 (1984); Salomon et al., Crit. Rev. Oncol. Hematol., 19, 183 (1995)), including cancers of the breast (King et al., Science, 229, 974 (1985)), lung (Hendler et al., Proc. Am. Soc. Clin. Oncol., 8, 223 (1989); Veale et al., Cancer Res., 49, 1313 (1989)), brain (Schlegel et al., Int. J. Cancer, 56, 72 (1994)), bladder (Neal et al., Cancer, 65, 1619 (1990); Mellon et al., J. Urol., 153, 919 (1995)), and ovary (Berchuck et al., Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol., 164, 669 (1991); Scambia et al., J. Clin. Oncol., 10, 529 (1992)).
Thus, the current research concerning the biological role and function of EGF receptors has been contradictory, and does not provide a clear indication of how any particular EGF receptor can be used as a tool in diagnosing any particular cancer type. Therefore, a need exists for the isolation of soluble epidermal growth factor receptor protein molecules and their isoforms, and for the characterization of their correlated disease conditions. In addition, a useful, quantitative diagnostic method to detect the presence of biologically relevant, specific isoform expression in human body fluids and tissue for diagnosing the onset and progression of diseases associated with these soluble epidermal growth factor receptor protein molecules is also needed.

Soluble epidermal growth factor receptor-like proteins and their uses in cancer detection methods


A method and apparatus are disclosed whereby a time-slicing approach to the delivery of packet data is enabled. The approach is particularly suited to enabling power management by mobile terminals where receiver demands otherwise place strenuous requirements on an internal power source such as a battery.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the content delivery utilizing Internet Protocol (1P) networking, particularly, although not exclusively data networks.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Wireless IP networks, and particularly mobile wireless IP networks typically include a terminal having stringent power requirements. Such a mobile terminal may be required to operate for lengthy periods on an internal source of power. In the case of simplex wireless IP networks exemplified by the Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) terrestrial (DVB-T) and satellite (DVB-S) networks, typically a large part of the energy requirement of a terminal is due to the demands of a receiver necessary to receive transmissions carrying a range of content.
It is the case, however, that a user of the terminal may at an application level, as set out in the well-known Open System Interconnect (OSI) model, make a selection of particular content from the range of content presently received by the terminal. Although such a selection may take place in a unicast environment, that is a one to one transmission, more typically the content is distributed in a one to many transmission, that is a multicast environment.
A well-known mechanism for facilitating the delivery of content in a multicast environment is provided by the Session Announcement Protocol (SAP), details of which are set out in RFC2974 published by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF repository at http://www.ietf.org) and the Session Description Protocol (SDP), details of which are to be found in RFC2327 published by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF repository at http://www.ietf.org) which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. In summary, an Application Programming Interlace (API) is provided which facilitates communication between applications over an IP protocol. The API listens at a particular address for information identifying available streams of content, so-called services. The information provided at that address is then provided to an application, a browser for example, which in turn uses the API to access a selected stream by opening a socket at which the selected stream can be heard. Typically, the selection of the desired content is made by a user via the browser, i.e. by clicking on a particular link.


An Intelligent Television provides unique user interfaces and user interface interactions to provide social media. The interfaces and interface are intuitive and allow the user to quickly retrieve and view social media with respect to content displayed on the Intelligent Television. Further, intuitive user interface interactions are provided to allow for the quick and efficient posting of social media from the Intelligent Television to a social media site.

Consolidation of device features or technological convergence is in an increasing trend. Technological convergence describes the tendency for different technological systems to evolve toward performing similar tasks. As people use more devices, the need to carry those devices, charge those devices, update software on those devices, etc. becomes more cumbersome. To compensate for these problems, technology companies have been integrating features from different devices into one or two multi-functional devices. For example, cellular phones are now capable of accessing the Internet, taking photographs, providing calendar functions, etc.
The consolidation trend is now affecting the design and functionality of devices generally used in the home. For example, audio receivers can access the Internet, digital video recorders can store or provide access to digital photographs, etc. The television in home audio/video systems remains a cornerstone device because the display function cannot be integrated into other devices. As such, consolidating home devices leads to integrating features and functionality into the television. The emergence of the Smart Television (Smart TV) is evidence of the trend to consolidate functionality into the television.
A Smart TV is generally conceived as a device that integrates access to the Internet and Web 2.0 features into television sets. The Smart TV represents the trend of technological convergence between computers and television sets. The Smart TV generally focuses on online interactive media, Internet TV, on-demand streaming media, and generally does not focus on traditional broadcast media. Unfortunately, most Smart TVs have yet to provide seamless and intuitive user interfaces for navigating and/or executing the various features of the Smart TV. As such, there are still issues with the consolidation of features and the presentation of these features in Smart TVs.

Systems and methods for providing social media with an intelligent television


A mulching blade for rotary lawn mowers having a centrally-disposed mounting point and two cutting arms extending outwardly therefrom, each cutting arm having a leading edge and a trailing edge, the leading edge being sharpened to form a cutting edge for severing grass, at least one of the arms being angled downwardly from said trailing edge to said leading edge to induce grass clipping upwardly for subsequent engagement with the cutting edge of the second cutting arm in order to finely mulch the grass clippings. Each cutting arm is generally horizontally planar proximate to the cutting edge to allow for ease in resharpening.

The present invention relates to a lawn mower blade for rotary lawn mowers and, in particular, to a novel mulching blade for rotary lawn mowers of the type used by commercial lawn services and commercial landscapers.
In performing lawn services and landscaping service in the nature of mowing lawns and trimming, it is a consistent desire to mulch the grass clippings as fine as possible so that the clippings can be utilized as nutrients, beneficial to the lawn, by having the clippings gravitationally filtered down to the soil. At the outset, rotary-type lawn mowers had poor distribution of grass clippings which required additional labor to rake the clippings for disposal and thereby deprive the lawn of the nutrient value of the clippings. There have been improvements in the mower blades utilized with rotary mulching mowers in an attempt to minimize this problem and the collection of clipping deposits within the rotary blade housing which have deleterious effects upon mower performance. In particular, Wininger in U.S. Pat. No. 3,003,298; Davis in U.S. Pat. No. 2,836,024; Cope in U.S. Pat. No. 3,538,692 and Freedlander in U.S. Pat. No. 3,343,352 have addressed attempted improvements in mulching the lawn clippings utilizing either a particularly shaped blade or a combination of blade and housing improvements to improve the mulching characteristics of the particular mower.
Applicant's invention is directed towards a novel blade for obtaining improved mulching characteristics. Applicant's rotary blade could have application to lawn mowers of the domestic type in which a single rotary blade revolves within a housing, but Applicant's invention is more particularly suited to commercial or industrial rotary mowers in which there are usually two or three rotary blades positioned within sectionalized housings and powered by a single engine utilizing either pulley or gear connections for the rotation of the blades.
Applicant's novel blade structure is designed to induce and control the turbulence within the blade housing to ensure that the grass clippings are subjected to a plurality of significant contacts with the cutting edge of the blade.


A rudder mechanism for a marine vessel comprising of rudder that contains a first water flow surface essentially in planar form and an opposite second water flow surface essentially in planar form; a vertical rudder shaft that the rudder is linked by rotation around an axis that essentially extends perpendicular to the water flow surfaces of said rudder; and a drive mechanism for rotating the rudder around said axis. The rudder mechanism contains a rudder slot comprising the vertical rudder shaft and extending from the top section of the rudder towards the bottom section, wherein the rotatable link of the rudder and the vertical rudder shaft is essentially located close to the bottom of said rudder slot and is essentially linked to the vertical rudder shaft of said drive mechanism in such manner to exert force in the radial direction.

Steering devices are provided at the rear side of marine vehicles such as vessels to change the direction of movement both in forward and backward directions while maneuvering, such devices consist mainly of an arm, a shaft, and a rudder.
In a typical shaft-rudder construction, vertical axis of the rudder shaft becomes positioned on the front of the rudder when the marine vehicle moves forward, and since the area on the rudder's front section that is exposed to water load during forward motion is relatively small, the rudder can be easily controlled. In other words, since no rudder area is left on the front of the rudder shaft while moving forward, water cannot exert force on such 'non-present' area, which provides an easy control of steering attempts of the vessel.
The preceding condition, however, is much different as such vessel moves backward. In other words, the vertical axis of the rudder shaft becomes positioned on the rear with respect to the rudder's surface area, exposing the rudder's area to water load when the vessel moves backward, and making difficult to control the rudder and exposing the mechanical components thereof to external forces.
The disadvantages are proposed to be addressed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,806,068 issued to the same inventor. In essence, the rudder device of U.S. Pat. No. 7,806,068 comprises an arrangement attached to the vertical rudder shaft in a way to rotate the rudder around an axis perpendicular to the lateral surfaces thereof at an upper side of the rudder. Rotation of the rudder is achieved by a drive, such as piston extending substantially in vertical direction and connected to the vertical rudder shaft from one end and to the rudder from the other end.
While the rudder mechanism of U.S. Pat. No. 7,806,068 provides an effective solution for the purpose, it may not always exhibit a robust rudder structure under the impact of high water forces due to relatively insubstantial constructional structure with the vertical rudder shaft. This may be particularly important as far as relatively large sized sailboat rudders are concerned. On the other hand, positioning of the drive element of U.S. Pat. No. 7,806,068 in vertical direction requires higher moment forces to rotate the rudder rotation axis since the directing of the moment force comes close to the rudder rotation axis.


Provided is an ink used for ink-jet recording, which ink comprises triethanolamine in an amount of 2% by weight or more, but less than 5% by weight based on the total weight of the ink and a dye having a pyrene ring.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink capable of forming a flourescent image which is suitably used for ink-jet recording, an ink cartridge employing the ink, and an ink-jet recording method and an ink-jet recording apparatus employing the ink.
2. Related Background Art
Hitherto, various compositions have been reported regarding an ink which employs a fluorescent dye containing a pyrene ring as the coloring material primarily for writing materials. For instance, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-73324 has proposed a fluorescent water-based ink for a ball-point pen which comprises a fluorescent dye of from 0.01 to 30%, triethanolamine of from 5 to 50%, a viscosity modifier composed of a high molecular compound, and water, and which has a solid content of from 15 to 60% in a dry state and a viscosity of from 50 to 2,000 cP.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 59-43076 has proposed a yellow fluorescent ink for ink-jet recording which provides good properties with improved water- and light-fastnesses by adding a fluorescent whitening agent in an amount of from 1 to 5% to yellow ink.
The foregoing ink disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-73324, however, is required just to satisfy a desired coloring ability and a light fastness when it is used to produce an image of the single color applied onto a medium such as paper, and it is formulated as such.
Upon forming a fluorescent image by employing an ink-jet recording method, the ink used for producing the fluorescent image is required to provide the performance peculiar to the ink-jet recording method. To be more specific, the ink is required to exhibit various properties for ensuring stable high printing quality in the ink-jet recording, including an anti-clogging property to nozzles, stability in re-ejection property of ink after a printing pause, and a property for minimizing a chance of a whisker-like feathering which may occur when an image is printed on a recording medium such as paper, or of a color bleed in boundary portions of an image due to different color inks.
In addition, when producing a multi-color image by using the ink-jet recording method, a secondary color obtained by mixing two colors such as yellow, red, green, and blue and the like instead of using a single color, or even a tertiary color produced by adding black to the foregoing two colors may be printed. When printing an image of such mixed colors, the mixed-color image is required to show a good coloring ability and a light fastness. No fluorescent ink, however, has been available which can be suitably used for ink-jet recording and which is formulated with attention paid to the foregoing respects.

Ink, ink cartridge and recording unit, ink-jet recording method and ink-jet recording apparatus


An inspection apparatus of an electric junction box is provided, by which improper mounting of electric parts can be detected. The inspection apparatus 1 has a CCD camera 5, an image-processing device 7 and a control device 8. The CCD camera picks up images of fuse 14 in the electric junction box 12 as a subject of the inspection. The image-processing device 7 stores an image consulting data 60. The image consulting data 60 includes a plurality of images of each fuse 14 having the same item symbol with regard to every item symbol, the fuses 14 being used in the electric junction box 12. The control device 8 stores normal data indicating the proper item symbol of the fuse 14 to be mounted on a corresponding mount 13. The image-processing device 7 extracts the image most analogous to the image picked up by the CCD camera 5 from the images in the image consulting data. The control device 8 judges the quality of the item symbol of the fuse 14 having the most analogous image on the basis of the normal data.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inspection method of an electric part such as a fuse and terminal fittings, to an inspection apparatus of an electric junction box for inspecting whether or not an electric part such as a fuse having an item symbol, which should be mounted on a mount, is mounted, and to an inspection apparatus of a terminal fittings for inspecting the quality of the terminal fittings mounted on an insulator.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Generally, on a motor vehicle as a mobile unit, there are mounted various electronic equipment, for example, lamps such as headlamps and tail lamps, and motors such as a starter motor and a motor for an air-conditioner.
In order to supply the electric power to the various electronic equipment, there are disposed junction blocks at suitable positions in the motor vehicle. In the junction block, wiring boards having printed-wiring boards and bus bars are laminated, into which various electric circuit units are integrated, thereby the junction block is constituted.
Since the junction block may have fuses, relays and bus bars, the junction block may be called as a fuse block, relay box, or an electric junction box as the general term. In this specification, the aforementioned fuse block, relay box and junction block are hereinafter called an electric junction box.
In such a junction box, various electric parts such as fuses, relays, diodes and fusible links are mounted. Each terminal of these electric parts is connected to the wiring board. The junction box electrically connects wires, which are connected to the power sources or loads, to the various electric parts in accordance with a predetermined pattern.
For example, a fuse, which is one of the aforementioned electric parts, has a plurality of item symbols having different capacity. On the outer surface of the fuse, there is shown a mark (for example, 10 A and 20 A) according to the permissible current. Generally, in the electric junction box, there are mounted fuses having a plurality of item symbols.
When the electric junction box, in which fuses having a plurality of item symbols are mounted, is assembled, a worker mounts each fuse having a required permissible current on a corresponding predetermined position in the electric junction box. Thereafter, whether or not each fuse is properly mounted on the corresponding position is judged by carrying out a continuity test for the electric junction box together with the visual inspection thereof.
In addition, the motor vehicle has a wiring harness for supplying the electric power and control signals to the various electronic equipment mentioned above. The wiring harness comprises a plurality of electric wires and connectors, which are connected to ends of the wires. The wire is so-called a coated wire having an electrically conductive core and an electrically insulating coating portion, which coats the core. The connector has a terminal fittings as an electric part and an insulating connector housing.
The terminal fittings is made by bending an electrically conductive sheet metal and has a pressure-welding part to be pressure-welded to the wire and a caulking piece for caulking the wire. The pressure-welding part has a pair of blades for pressure welding. A pair of the blades cut the coating portion of the wire so as to come in contact with the core when the wire is press-fit between a pair of the blades, thus the pressure-welding part is pressure-welded to the wire. The caulking piece caulks the wire by being bent. The connector housing has a plurality of mounts on which the terminal fittings are mounted. The connector housing mounts the terminal fittings thereon by mounting the terminal fittings on the mounts thereof.
After the terminal fittings are mounted on the mounts of the connector housing, the wire is pressure-welded to the pressure-welding part of the terminal fittings and the caulking piece is bent, thus the terminal fittings is fixed to the wire. In this way, the wiring harness is assembled. When the wiring harness is assembled, the quality of the pressure-welding part and the caulking piece of the terminal fittings, which is mounted on the connector housing, have so far been inspected by a known appearance inspection apparatus. Also, the quality of the pressure-welding part and the caulking piece of the terminal fittings, to which the wire is pressure-welded, have so far been inspected by a known appearance inspection apparatus.
The appearance inspection apparatus mentioned above stores one image of a non-defective terminal fittings in advance and another image of a non-defective terminal fittings to which a wire is pressure-welded in advance. Then, after obtaining an image of the terminal fittings mounted on the connector housing to be inspected and an image of the terminal fittings to which the wire is pressure-welded, the quality of the terminal fittings and that of the pressure-welding state of the wire have so far been judged by comparing these images with the images of the non-defective.
In the aforementioned conventional assembling method of the electric junction box, since a worker selects a required fuse and mounts it on a corresponding position of the electric junction box, there is a possibility that a fuse of improper permissible current is mounted on the corresponding position. Furthermore, since a worker confirms the permissible current of the fuse mounted on the position by the visual inspection, there is a possibility that a fuse of improper permissible current is still mounted on the corresponding position.
In addition, since the terminal fittings is made of sheet metal, if the brightness of the lighting or the positional relation between the terminal fittings and the lighting is changed, the image of the terminal fittings mounted on the connector housing changes. Therefore, when the quality of the terminal fittings is judged by using the appearance inspection apparatus mentioned above, mistake in the judgement, such as judging a non-defective terminal fittings to be defective and judging a defective terminal fittings to be non-defective, can often arise. Therefore, so far it has been difficult to securely judge the quality of the terminal fittings.
As described above, it has been difficult to securely judge the quality of a fuse or a terminal fittings with the conventional inspection method.


A semiconductor chip assembly includes a semiconductor chip that includes a conductive pad, a conductive trace that includes a pillar and a routing line, and a ground plane. The pillar is press-fit into an opening in the ground plane, and the ground plane is electrically connected to the pad.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor chip assembly, and more particularly to a semiconductor chip assembly with a ground plane and its method of manufacture.
2. Description of the Related Art
Semiconductor chips have power, ground and input/output pads that must be connected to external circuitry in order to function as part of an electronic system. The connection media is typically an array of metallic leads (e.g., a lead frame) or a support circuit (e.g., a substrate), although the connection can be made directly to a circuit panel (e.g., a mother board). Several connection techniques are widely used. These include wire bonding, tape automated bonding (TAB) and flip-chip bonding.
First-level packages include a chip and a connection technique. First-level packages provide contacts connected to the power, ground and input/output pads to provide power, ground and signal transmission for the chip. First-level packages also provide thermal expansion compatibility with the chip, heat removal from the chip, and low signal transmission delay and electrical noise.
First-level packages include through-hole packages such as the dual in-line package (DIP), single in-line package (SIP), zig-zag in-line package (ZIP) and pin grid array (PGA). First-level packages also include surface mount packages such as the small outline package (SOP), quad flat package (QFP), leadless chip carrier (LCC), plastic leaded chip carrier (PLCC), ball grid array (BGA) and chip scale package (CSP).
First-level packages can be a single-chip module (SCM) or a multi-chip module (MCM), depending on whether the package contains a single chip or multiple chips. Multi-chip modules provide the most circuits in the least amount of space, and are widely used in mainframes, workstations and consumer electronics as well as medical, aerospace, automotive and telecommunication devices.
Second-level packages includes groups of first-level packages along with other components such as capacitors, resistors, inductors, filters, switches, optical devices and radio frequency devices, mounted on a printed circuit board (PCB).
Telecommunication devices require chips to operate at high frequencies such as 30 to 300 GHz. At these frequencies, the signal lines generate electromagnetic and electrostatic fields which can cause cross-talk in adjacent signal lines. Cross-talk can increase signal line impedance, signal transmission delays and impedance mismatching leading to uncontrolled signal reflections. Thus, cross-talk is a critical problem that requires some form of compensation.
Ground planes are common in first-level packages and printed circuit boards to provide a signal return path and increase signal integrity.
Ground planes in first-level packages not only reduce cross-talk, but also reduce interference from external noise, prevent passage of incoming neutrons and increase heat removal from the chip. As a result, ground planes in first-level packages improve high frequency stability, noise immunity, isolation characteristics and heat dissipation. Furthermore, ground planes in first-level packages provide performance integration and hardware miniaturization with short design time and low cost that surpass ground planes in printed circuit boards.
Ground planes in first-level packages have been provided by the flag of the lead frame that supports the chip. However, the chip is typically mechanically attached to the flag by solder, which can run-out from underneath the chip. In addition, the chip is typically electrically connected to the flag by a lengthy wire bond, which can increase inductance and reduce power efficiency.
Ground planes in first-level packages have also been provided by a metal plate that is incorporated into a plastic encapsulant. However, it is difficult to orient and mechanically assemble the chip, the lead frame and the ground plane before the encapsulant is formed to provide a mechanically stable structure.
In view of the various development stages and limitations in currently available semiconductor chip assemblies, there is a need for a semiconductor chip assembly with a ground plane that is cost-effective, reliable, manufacturable, versatile, provides excellent mechanical and electrical properties, and makes advantageous use the particular connection joint technique best suited for a given application.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Semiconductor chip assembly with pillar press-fit into ground plane


The present invention provides methods for identifying oligosaccharides specific to cancer and methods for determining a strain of cancer in an individual. The present invention also provides methods for diagnosing cancer or a stage of cancer in an individual by detecting the presence or absence of specific cancer markers and methods for treating cancer by administering antibodies directed to such markers. In addition, the present invention provides cancer markers comprising O-linked oligosaccharides and kits for diagnosing or treating cancer.

Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of death from cancer and has the highest mortality rate among the gynecologic malignancies in the United States. According to the American Cancer Society (2002), approximately 23,300 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the United States and 13,900 will die from the disease. Ovarian tumors are classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) according to their cell type and include, for example, epithelial, germ cell, stromal, and metastatic tumors. Epithelial tumors are the most common type with abnormal masses that typically develop on the surface of ovaries. Stromal and germ cell tumors are typically rare.
Ovarian cancer is often called a "silent killer" due to the lack of noticeable early symptoms. In fact, symptoms specific to ovarian cancer develop only after the disease has spread out of the ovary. Early diagnosis is important because ovarian cancer is very treatable when detected early. For example, if ovarian cancer is detected before it has spread out of the ovary, 95% of women will survive longer than five years; however, if diagnosed in advance stages, only 28% of women will survive longer than five years.
Current approaches to identifying biological markers for diagnosing and treating cancers have mainly focused on proteomics. For example, proteins such as osteopontin, periostin, and HE7 (WFDC2) were identified through proteomics or gene expression analyses and have been suggested to be potential diagnostic markers for ovarian cancer (Kim et al., JAMA, 287:1671-1679 (2002); Hellstrom et al., Cancer Res., 63:3695-3700 (2003); Gillan et al., Cancer Res., 62:5358-5364 (2002)). However, their utility as markers for diagnosing cancer is unknown.
Mucins are expressed and secreted by various epithelial cell types (Van den Steen et al., Crit. Rev. Biochem. Mol. Biol., 33:151-208 (1998)). Epithelial cells are expressed on the outer walls of tissues/organs and are involved in cell-cell or cell-matrix interactions, often acting as the interface between tissues and their environment. Mucins are secreted by normal secretory epithelial cells and have a central role in maintaining homeostasis and the survival of cells (Hanisch, Biol. Chem., 382:143-149 (2001)). Mucins are often characterized as large glycoproteins associated with high levels of glycosylation. Oligosaccharides, primarily O-linked or mucin-type oligosaccharides, make up a large fraction of the mass of mucins (Van den Steen et al., id).
Mucins have long been implicated in the pathogenesis of cancer (Hollingsworth et al., Nat. Rev. Cancer, 4:45-60 (2004)). Most types of adenocarcinomas (i.e., epithelial cell cancers) are often accompanied by high levels of mucin production (Hollingsworth et al., id). For example, mucins such as MUC1 and CA 125 (MUC 16) are elevated in ovarian cancer (Stimpfl et al., Cancer Lett., 145:133-141 (1999)). MUC 1 is found to be commonly associated with breast cancer (Hanisch et al., Eur. J. Biochem., 236:318-327 (1996); Lloyd et al., J. Biol. Chem., 271:33325-33334 (1996); Croce et al., Br. Cancer Res. Treatment, 81:195-207 (2003)). CA 125 (MUC 16) has been commonly used in the clinic as an ovarian cancer marker and has been assessed as a useful biochemical tool for both monitoring and prognostic evaluation of patients with ovarian cancer (Bast et al., N. Engl. J Med., 309:883-887 (1983); Bast et al., J. Clin. Invest., 68:1331-1337 (1981)). However, elevated serum CA 125 levels are found in only 50% of those patients with FIGO (International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics scoring system) stage I ovarian cancer (Jacobs et al., Hum. Reprod., 4:1-12 (1989)). In addition, a significant proportion of women with benign conditions such as endometriosis or pelvic inflammatory disease also have raised CA 125 levels (Jacobs et al., id; Mashasi et al., Obstret. Gynecol., 72:328-331 (1988)). Therefore, elevated serum CA 125 levels is not an adequate indicator for detecting early onset ovarian cancer.
The evaluation of the levels of mucins such as CA 125 are complicated by several factors. First, mucins are highly heterogeneous glycoproteins with high molecular weights (e.g., 107 Daltons). Second, antibody methods currently used to detect mucins are imprecise and not quantitative. Third, mucins that are commonly detected, such as CA 125, are not expressed equally by the different tumor types of ovarian cancer.
As such, there is a need in the art for the identification of biological markers for the early detection or diagnosis of adenocarcinomas such as ovarian cancer or breast cancer. The present invention satisfies this and other needs.

Methods of oligosaccharide profiling for the detection of cancer

The Regents of the University of California


Peptides which have an amino acid sequence identical to sequences found in tumor rejection antigen precursors, such as NY-ESO-1, and SSX-2, are disclosed. These peptides bind to MHC-Class II molecules, such as HLA-DR molecules, and provoke proliferation of CD4+ cells.

It is fairly well established that many pathological conditions, such as infections, cancer, autoimmune disorders, etc., are characterized by the inappropriate expression of certain molecules. These molecules thus serve as "markers" for a particular pathological or abnormal condition. Apart from their use as diagnostic "targets", i.e., materials to be identified to diagnose these abnormal conditions, the molecules serve as reagents which can be used to generate diagnostic and/or therapeutic agents. A by no means limiting example of this is the use of cancer markers to produce antibodies specific to a particular marker. Yet another non-limiting example is the use of a peptide which complexes with an MHC molecule, to generate cytolytic T cells against abnormal cells.
Preparation of such materials, of course, presupposes a source of the reagents used to generate these. Purification from cells is one laborious, far from sure method of doing so. Another preferred method is the isolation of nucleic acid molecules which encode a particular marker, followed by the use of the isolated encoding molecule to express the desired molecule.
To date, two strategies have been employed for the detection of such antigens, in e.g., human tumors. These will be referred to as the genetic approach and the biochemical approach. The genetic approach is exemplified by, e.g., dePlaen et al., Proc. Natl. Sci. USA 85: 2275 (1988), incorporated by reference. In this approach, several hundred pools of plasmids of a cDNA library obtained from a tumor are transfected into recipient cells, such as COS cells, or into antigen-negative variants of tumor cell lines which are tested for the expression of the specific antigen. The biochemical approach, exemplified by, e.g., O. Mandelboim, et al., Nature 369: 69 (1994) incorporated by reference, is based on acidic elution of peptides which have bound to MHC-class I molecules of tumor cells, followed by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromography (HPLC). Antigenic peptides are identified after they bind to empty MHC-class I molecules of mutant cell lines, defective in antigen processing, and induce specific reactions with cytotoxic T-lymphocytes. These reactions include induction of CTL proliferation, TNF release, and lysis of target cells, measurable in an MTT assay, or a 51Cr release assay.
These two approaches to the molecular definition of antigens have the following disadvantages: first, they are enormously cumbersome, time-consuming and expensive; and second, they depend on the establishment of cytotoxic T cell lines (CTLs) with predefined specificity.
The problems inherent to the two known approaches for the identification and molecular definition of antigens is best demonstrated by the fact that both methods have, so far, succeeded in defining only very few new antigens in human tumors. See, e.g., van der Bruggen et al., Science 254: 1643-1647 (1991); Brichard et al., J. Exp. Med. 178: 489-495 (1993); Coulie, et al., J. Exp. Med. 180: 35-42 (1994); Kawakami, et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 91: 3515-3519 (1994).
Further, the methodologies described rely on the availability of established, permanent cell lines of the cancer type under consideration. It is very difficult to establish cell lines from certain cancer types, as is shown by, e.g., Oettgen, et al., Immunol. Allerg. Clin. North. Am. 10: 607-637 (1990). It is also known that some epithelial cell type cancers are poorly susceptible to CTLs in vitro, precluding routine analysis. These problems have stimulated the art to develop additional methodologies for identifying cancer associated antigens.
One key methodology is described by Sahin, et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92: 11810-11913 (1995), incorporated by reference. Also, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,698,396, and patent application Ser. No. 08/479,328 filed Jan. 3, 1996. All three of these references are incorporated by reference. To summarize, the method involves the expression of cDNA libraries in a prokaryotic host. (The libraries are secured from a tumor sample). The expressed libraries are then immunoscreened with absorbed and diluted sera, in order to detect those antigens which elicit high titer humoral responses. This methodology is known as the SEREX method ("Serological identification of antigens by Recombinant Expression Cloning"). The methodology has been employed to confirm expression of previously identified tumor associated antigens, as well as to detect new ones. See the above referenced patent applications and Sahin, et al., supra, as well as Crew, et al., EMBO J 144: 2333-2340 (1995).
The SEREX methodology has been employed in a number of instances to identify cancer associated antigens. See, e.g., PCT/US99/06875, describing a cancer associated antigen found to be expressed by, inter alia, esophageal cancer and melanoma. This antigen is referred to as NY-ESO-1. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,804,381 as well as Chen, et al, Proc. Natl. Acad Sci USA—92:8125-8129 (1995). Additionally, a family of related antigens, the "SSX" family, has been identified using this methodology. See PCT/US99/14493 and Ser. No. 09/105,839 filed Jun. 26, 1998 in this regard.
Following the identification of full length molecules as cancer associated antigens, the next step has been to identify those portions of the antigens which are relevant as binding partners for MHC or HLA molecules. The resulting complexes serve as targets for identification by T cells, which then proliferate and eliminated the cells which present such complexes.
Early work focused on the identification of those peptide molecules which bind to Class I molecules stimulating proliferation of CD8+ T cells. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,925,729, which shows this for one family of antigens. Also see PCT/US99/06875 and PCT/US99/14493 for further work on the identification of peptides which bind to MHC molecules. All of these are incorporated by reference.
The presence of antibodies against a particular molecule suggests that a process other than presentation by MHC Class I molecules is involved. In PCT/US99/06875, supra, evidence is presented showing that the NY-ESO-1 molecule is processed to peptides which are presented by MHC Class II molecules.
This work has been continued. The disclosure which follows shows that additional peptides have been identified which bind to MHC Class II molecules, and stimulate proliferation of CD4+ T cells. These peptides are derived from both NY-ESO-1 and SSX-2. These, and other features of the invention, are set forth in the disclosure which follows.

Isolated peptides which bind to MHC Class II molecules, and uses thereof


A protective device 10 for a user's arms and legs including a compartmented cover member 20 dimensioned to encircle a portion of a selected one of the user's arms and legs and provided with a plurality of generally identical shock absorbing units 12 dimensioned to be received in a plurality of generally identical compartments 26 disposed on the cover member 20 in a closely aligned side by side fashion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of protective devices in general, and in particular to a protective device that is specifically designed for the practitioners of martial arts.
2. Description of Related Art
As can be seen by reference to the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,866,909; 4,213,202;, 4,872,215; and 5,090,053, the prior art is replete with myriad and diverse protective gear constructions.
While all of the aforementioned prior art constructions are more than adequate for the basic purpose and function for which they have been specifically designed, they are uniformly deficient with respect to their failure to provide a simple, efficient, and practical protective device specifically designed to provide protection for the user's forearms and thighs.
As can be seen by reference to the above cited patents, the prior art devices seem to concentrate on providing protection for the user's tipper torso, while basically ignoring the user's arms and legs in general, and in particular the forearms and thighs which are the recipient of a large percentage of forcible blows delivered during martial arts training.
As a consequence of the foregoing situation, there has existed a longstanding need among practitioners of the martial arts for a new and improved protective device that provides impact resistant protection to the user's arms and legs while not infringing to any noticeable degree the mobility of the user in either the defensive or offensive mode, and the provision of such a construction is a stated objective of the present invention.


A speech recognition technique is described that has the dual benefits of not requiring collection of recordings for training while using computational resources that are cost-compatible with consumer electronic products. Methods are described for improving the recognition accuracy of a recognizer by developer interaction with a design tool that iterates the recognition data during development of a recognition set of utterances and that allows controlling and minimizing the computational resources required to implement the recognizer in hardware.

This invention relates to speech recognition, and in particular, to techniques for making a recognizer and performing speech recognition. This invention also relates to methods of improving the accuracy of a recognizer through tuning of recognition parameters.
Speech recognizers are systems that are typically designed to recognize a spoken word or phrase. The words or phrases that the system is able to recognize are commonly referred to as the recognition set. Speech recognition systems are typically implemented in hardware, software or as a combination of hardware and software. In general, there are two types of speech recognizers: speaker-dependent and speaker-independent. Speaker-dependent recognizers operate by requiring the user to record the words or phrases in recognition set before first use. These words or phrases are then analyzed to produce templates representing the acoustic features of the words or phrases in the recognition set. In operation, an unknown word or phrase is spoken by the same user who performed the recording. The acoustic features in the unknown word or phrase are analyzed to form a pattern that is compared to the several templates in order to decide which of the words or phrases in the recognition set was spoken. This comparison is generally done using dynamic time warping, which allows the unknown phrase to be spoken at a different cadence than that of the phrases that produced the templates, without degradation of the recognition capability. While speaker-dependent recognition devices perform well, they are limited in their general applicability by the requirement that the user must train them and that they work well only for the user that trained them. For these reasons, speaker-independent speech recognition devices are highly desired for many applications. Their benefit is that any speaker may use them without that speaker having to say the phrases before first use.
Speaker-independent speech recognizers consume various amounts of computing resources. For example, some recognizers are made from a limited number of computing and memory resources (e.g., execution of the order of a few million instructions per second (MIPS) using a few kilobytes of random access memory (RAM), tens of kilobytes of read-only memory (ROM) and a limited power supply) which makes the recognizer have a low cost. Other recognizers require a large number of arithmetic and addressing units, hundreds or more MIPS, megabytes of RAM and ROM and an unlimited power supply. Recognizers with constrained computational resources are generally adapted for use in a single product and are included as part of that product. Recognizers with unconstrained computational resources usually stand-alone and are accessed remotely via telephone or some other device by multiple users. Because of this difference, speech recognizers used in constrained computing environments must be economical in terms of the resources required for their use while large speech recognizers are less subject to this limitation.
To train a speaker-independent speech recognizer to recognize a specific set of phrases in a constrained computing environment, many recordings of each of the phrases in the recognition set must be obtained. By contrast, the acoustic model in a computationally unconstrained speaker-independent recognizer is trained once for all recognition sets with which it will be used for the given language. This advantage of training an acoustic model, which describes acoustic elements in a language, once for all recognition sets instead of once for each recognition set is offset by the significant resource requirements of such recognizers that make them incompatible with use in many consumer electronic and similar products. An example of a computationally constrained speaker-independent speech recognizer that requires recordings of each vocabulary for training is given in U.S. Pat. No. 5,790,754. Examples of computationally unconstrained speaker-independent recognizers that are trained on acoustic models for each language are given by Bourlard and Morgan (1997), Nuance Corporation (www.nuance.com), OGI Campus, Oregon Health & Science University (OGI/OHSU), Center for Spoken Language Understanding (CSLU), and SpeechWorks (www.speechworks.com).
Major drawbacks of current art speaker-independent speech recognizers are that those inexpensive enough to be used in consumer electronic products require training by collection of recordings of each of the phrases in each recognition set, while those that do not require such recordings require computational resources that render them cost ineffective for use in consumer electronic products.

Method and apparatus of specifying and performing speech recognition operations


A tubular device including a tubular having a continuous wall and a substantially constant inner radial dimension and an outer surface that varies in radial dimensions configured to lessen a reduction in a longitudinal dimension of the tubular in response to radial expansion of the tubular in comparison to a reduction in the longitudinal dimension of a constantly-dimensioned-inner-and-outer-radially-surfaced-tubular made of a same material as the tubular.

Actuators that are used in connection with tubular systems, such systems being for, for example, carbon dioxide sequestration and hydrocarbon production, employ a variety of motive devices. Electrical motors, solenoids, shape memory alloys and hydraulic systems, are a few of the motive devices successfully employed. Each motive device has specific advantages as well as drawbacks and each finds applications to which they are well suited. A wide variety of ever changing and expanding applications results in operators of tubular systems remaining receptive to new actuators employing new motive devices


Disclosed is a miniature portable memory device, comprising: a memory card unit; a shell, which is provided with a reception slot inside for receiving and accommodating said memory card unit, one end of said shell is provided with a first opening portion for insertion of said memory card unit into said reception slot, and a second opening portion is provided on said shell, so that when said memory card unit is inserted into said reception slot, said memory card unit is exposed to outside of said shell through said second opening portion; and a cover body, provided with a connection portion, that can be inserted into said first opening portion of said shell, and well fits therein. An indented portion is provided on one end of said first opening portion, and a protrusion portion is provided on said connection portion and corresponding to said indented portion, so that when said cover body is inserted into said first opening portion, said protrusion portion is inserted into said indented portion, such that when said cover body is inserted into and capped onto said shell, the engagement and connection can be much more tightly fit and secure.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable storage device, and in particular to a miniature portable memory device.
2. The Prior Arts
With the increasing popularity of portable disk, portable disk is now widely accepted by the public for the convenience of its portability and fast data access, and it now has the tendency of gradually replacing CD players. As such, it is designed and developed toward high storage capacity, light weight, and thin profile for convenient carriage so as to meet customer's requirements. In general, a miniature portable disk is composed of a memory card unit and a shell. The shell is provided with reception slot therein for receiving and positioning the memory card unit, and is used to glue and fix a memory card into the reception slot by means of gluing. However, after long time usage, the gluing and adhesion tends to deteriorate, thus the memory card unit is liable to be detached from the reception slots.
By way of example, referring to Patent Number M326205 of ROC Taiwan, which shows an improved structure of a miniature portable memory device. Referring to FIG. 1 for a schematic diagram of a miniature portable memory device of the prior art. As shown in FIG. 1, a miniature portable memory device 10 includes: an outer shell 12, a reception slot 14 provided thereon for receiving and accommodating a memory card unit 16; a cover plate 18 provided at a top portion in a proper location of the reception slot 14, and is used to shield a portion of an area of the reception slot 14, thus when a memory card unit 16 is put in, it is fastened into the reception slot by means of the cover plate 18. However, this kind of design is still liable to have certain inconvenience, such as when inserting memory card unit in the reception slot, the memory card unit must be tilted to a certain angle to be put in the reception slot. The same condition exists when pulling a memory card unit out of a reception slot. In addition, in this design, the area shielded by the cover plate is rather too small, and that is liable to cause the slipping out of a memory card unit.


A stump grinding wheel includes a wheel disc, which includes multiple recesses formed about its periphery. A peripheral cutter assembly is disposed in each one of the recesses and is mounted on the wheel disc. Multiple side cutter assemblies are mounted on the wheel disc, and each one includes a first pocket and a second pocket. The first pocket is disposed on one side of the wheel disc and the second pocket is disposed on the other side of the wheel disc, and a wear pad is formed adjacent a selected end of each pocket. A cutting tooth is received in aligned openings formed in the first pocket, the wheel disc, and the second pocket. A nut threadably engages the cutting tooth of the side cutter assembly to secure the tooth to the first and second pockets, and to secure the pockets to the wheel disc.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to the art of grinding tree stumps and other materials. More particularly, the invention relates to the art of wheels that are used to grind tree stumps and other materials. Still more particularly, the invention relates to wheels for grinding tree stumps and other materials that provide improved installation, positioning and orientation of cutting tools which are mounted on the wheel, thereby improving the performance and the life of the wheels.
2. Background Art
In order to remove tree stumps and other similar materials from the ground during construction or other work, a stump grinder is typically used. The stump grinder usually includes a driven wheel, which is known as a stump grinding wheel, and specialized cutting tools are mounted on the sides and on the outer periphery of the wheel. When it is desired to remove a stump, the stump grinder is activated, thereby turning or rotating the wheel, and the cutting tools that are mounted on the wheel are brought into contact with the stump. As the wheel rotates, the cutting tools gradually cut and disintegrate the stump, thus removing the stump from the ground.
In the prior art, some particularly effective stump grinders have included cutting tools that have become known in the art as side cutter assemblies. A side cutter assembly typically includes pairs of cutting teeth, in which the teeth of each pair extend through the wheel in opposing directions. More particularly, one tooth of a pair of teeth extends through the wheel so its respective cutting tip protrudes through one side of the wheel, and the other tooth of the pair extends through the wheel so its respective cutting tooth protrudes through the other side of the wheel. Each pair of teeth seats in a pair of mechanical pockets, each one of which is disposed on an opposing side of the wheel. A nut is threaded onto each tooth to securely clamp the teeth to the pockets, and in turn to clamp the pockets to the wheel. In the prior art, about twenty or more side cutter assemblies are mounted on the wheel in helical patterns to maximize cutting efficiency, and each side cutter assembly is mounted on the wheel in a generally circumferentially-extending orientation.
To increase the cutting ability of the stump grinding wheel, some side cutter assemblies have been modified to form peripheral cutter assemblies, which enable cutting teeth to be placed about and to extend from the peripheral edge of the wheel. This is typically accomplished by forming radial slots in the periphery of the wheel and securing the teeth in specialized mechanical pockets, which seat in the radial slots and typically are secured to the wheel by welding. These peripheral cutter assemblies are significant, since they typically make the initial contact with the stump, and also accomplish a significant amount of grinding due to the fact that they are mounted on the fastest-moving part of the wheel, that is, on the periphery of the wheel.
During use of the stump grinder, the fast-moving nature of the peripheral edge of the wheel subjects the wheel periphery and the peripheral cutter assemblies to extreme wear from abrasive materials that are trapped between the rotating wheel and the uncut portion of the stump. While the prior art helical mounting patterns of the circumferentially-extending side cutter assemblies create an excellent cutting pattern, they leave large areas of the periphery of the wheel unprotected, and thus vulnerable to such extreme wear. This wear undesirably shortens the life of the wheel. As a result, there is a need in the art for a stump grinding system that uses a pocket with a new shape, which enables improved positioning, placement and orientation of the side cutter assemblies to protect the peripheral areas of the wheel and thus extend the life of the wheel.
A second disadvantage of prior art stump grinding wheels is the congested location of certain side cutter assembly pockets with respect to other side cutter assembly pockets and to the peripheral cutter assembly pockets. More particularly, in order to optimize the amount of cutting performed by the wheel, side cutter assemblies are mounted in the above-mentioned helical patterns, which extend outwardly to the periphery of the wheel. Some side cutter assemblies may be mounted in close proximity to one another, and such close proximity of circumferentially-oriented assemblies may cause them to interfere with one another and create congested areas. In addition, certain side cutter assemblies are mounted along the periphery of the wheel between the peripheral cutter assemblies in a circumferentially-oriented manner, and the close proximity of the side cutter assemblies with the peripheral cutter assemblies may cause them to interfere with the welds that secure the peripheral cutter assemblies to the wheel, thereby creating additional congested areas. These congested areas may pack with dirt and pieces of the stump, which may in turn cause the wheel to undesirably become unbalanced. An unbalanced wheel often generates severe vibration and thus requires replacement, resulting in increased cost and lost production. As a result, there is a need in the art for a stump grinding wheel having improved positioning, placement and orientation of side cutter assemblies to reduce the potential for creating congested areas along the periphery of the wheel.
A third disadvantage of prior art stump grinding wheels is misalignment of the cutting teeth, which may be created by mounting side cutter assemblies in a circumferentially-oriented manner. More particularly, with prior art stump grinding wheels, the cutting edges of the teeth on one side of a wheel typically are properly aligned to cut a stump, but the teeth on the opposite side of the wheel may not be properly aligned. As described above, a pair of teeth extends through the wheel, with each tooth of the pair extending in opposite directions, and the pair of teeth seats in a pair of mechanical pockets, each one of which is disposed on an opposing side of the wheel. Each tooth includes a cutting edge, which is typically a carbide edge, and optimally is aligned at a desired angle for easy cutting of a stump. This desired cutting angle is measured radially from the center of the wheel.
The circumferential mounting orientation of the side cutter assemblies often impedes uniform alignment of the cutting edges of the teeth, so that the cutting edges on one side of the wheel are undesirably disposed at different angles when compared to the cutting edges on the other side of the wheel. As a result, the cutting edges on one side of the wheel may be uniformly aligned, while the cutting edges on the other side of wheel are not, causing a considerable difference in cutting performance when using the cutting edges on one side of the wheel as compared to using the cutting edges on the other side of the wheel. For example, an operator of a stump grinder using a wheel with such cutting tools may experience smooth cutting when advancing the wheel into the stump one way, which uses the cutting edges on one side of the wheel that are properly aligned. However, when the operator advances the wheel into the stump from the opposite direction, which uses the cutting edges on the other side of the wheel that are not properly aligned, the wheel may bounce, vibrate and/or cut poorly. Such bouncing and vibration can cause damage to the stump grinding machine and lost production. Therefore, there is a need in the art for a stump grinding wheel that provides improved uniform alignment of the edges of the cutting teeth to enable optimum cutting by cutting edges on both sides of the wheel.
A fourth disadvantage of prior art stump grinding wheels is shifting of the alignment of the teeth when they are tightened down. More particularly, each tooth of each side cutter assembly typically includes a square section that seats in a corresponding square recess in its respective mechanical pocket. When the tooth is inserted into the pocket and tightened down with a nut, the square section of the tooth rotates slightly until a wall or corner of the square section meets and seats against a corresponding wall or corner of the recess in the pocket. As described above, the alignment of the cutting edge of each tooth is important. Such slight turning of the tooth in the pocket may cause the cutting edge of the tooth to undesirably turn, resulting in the cutting edges of the teeth on one side of the wheel being at different angles from the cutting edges of the teeth on the other side of the wheel, as measured radially from the center of the wheel. This contributes to the above-described problem of the cutting edges of the teeth cutting well when the operator advances the wheel into the stump one way, but then cutting poorly when the operator advances the wheel into the stump from the opposite direction. As a result, there is a need in the art for a stump grinding wheel that enables the cutting teeth to maintain proper alignment as they are tightened down.
A fifth disadvantage of stump grinding wheels of the prior art is that, while the combination of side cutter assemblies and peripheral cutter assemblies on a wheel works well on large powerful machines, such an aggressive combination of cutter assemblies may cause the wheel to hang up or stall on smaller machines. More particularly, the use of side cutter assemblies and peripheral cutter assemblies, which grab and dig into the stump as they cut, requires a significant amount of power in order to keep the wheel rotating. Since smaller stump grinding machines generate less power than larger machines, the smaller machines may not have enough power to keep the wheel moving as the aggressive combination of side cutter and peripheral cutter assemblies grabs and digs into the stump. In addition, sometimes a wheel having an aggressive combination of side cutter assemblies and peripheral cutter assemblies will move up or climb up on the stump that is being cut, which can upset or overturn a smaller stump grinding machine, potentially damaging the machine. Thus, there is a need in the art for a stump grinding wheel that provides for the optional use of a less aggressive combination of cutting assemblies when a smaller stump grinding machine is employed, while retaining the robustness of the cutting assemblies that are used on larger machines.
As a result, a need exists in the art for a stump grinding wheel that reduces or minimizes the above-described disadvantages. The stump grinding wheel of the present invention satisfies this need.


A vehicular alternator is provided which can suppress the vibration of a circuit board. The vehicular alternator has a rectifier that includes a plurality of diodes forming a full-wave rectifier circuit, a pair of negative and positive terminal side heat sinks that hold the diodes, and a circuit board connecting the diodes and a stator coil to one another, wherein the negative and positive terminal side heat sinks and the circuit board are mounted on a casing at a plurality of mounting portions, which are superposed with one another in an axial direction of a shaft, by using mounting members. Between adjacent ones of the mounting portions, there are formed abutment portions in which the circuit board is superposed on and placed in abutment with the negative terminal side heat sink or the positive terminal side heat sink, and the abutment portions are fixed to each other by rivets.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an alternator that is provided with a rectifier which is mounted, for example, on a vehicle for rectifying an alternating current generated in a stator coil of a stator into a direct current.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, in an alternator for a vehicle as described in a first patent document (Japanese patent 4020211, paragraphs 0010-0013 and FIG. 2 through FIG. 4), incorporated herein by reference, there is provided a rectifier 12 that is electrically connected to a stator coil 16 for rectifying an alternating current generated in the stator coil 16 into a direct current. The rectifier 12 includes a plurality of diodes 23, 25 that form a full-wave rectifier circuit, a negative terminal side heat sink 26 and a positive terminal side heat sink 24 that serve to hold these diodes 23, 25, respectively, and a circuit board 20 that serves to make electrical connections between the diodes 23, 25 and the stator coil 16, wherein the negative terminal side heat sink 26, the positive terminal side heat sink 24 and the circuit board 20 are mounted on a casing 3 at three mounting portions 20a, 20b, 20c, which are superposed with one another in an axial direction of a shaft 6, by the use of screws 40.
In this case, the circuit board 20 of the rectifier 12 is arranged in a bridge state between two points of the mounting portions 20a, 20b, 20c, and vibration suppression portions 20ab, 20ac, each having a thickness larger than that of each of the mounting portions 20a, 20b, 20c, are provided on the mounting portions 20a, 20b, 20c so as to reduce the easiness or frequency of occurrence of a vibration mode. As a result, the occurrence of the vibration mode of the circuit board 20 between the above-mentioned two points can be suppressed.
In addition, in a rectifier of a vehicular alternator as described in a second patent document (Japanese patent 3826775, paragraph 0022 and FIG. 5), incorporated herein by reference, a fastening metal fitting 58 with a female threaded portion 59 formed therein is inserted in a terminal block 50, and a through hole 44 is formed in a region of a positive terminal side cooling fin 42 at a location opposing the fastening metal fitting 58, wherein a fastening bolt 70 is caused to extend or penetrate into the through hole 44 in the positive terminal side cooling fin 42 to be placed into threaded engagement with the female threaded portion 59 of the fastening metal fitting 58, whereby the positive terminal side cooling fin 42 and the terminal block 50 are fixedly connected with each other.
As shown in FIG. 3 of the above-mentioned first patent document, in this rectifier 12, each of the first insulating members 41 is of a cylindrical shape and has a flange interposed between the negative terminal side heat sink 26 and the positive terminal side heat sink 24. The circuit board 20, the positive terminal side heat sink 24 and the negative terminal side heat sink 26 are formed or assembled into an integral unit by causing second insulating members 42, each of which takes a cylindrical shape and has a flange, to extend through holes in the first insulating members 41 and the positive terminal side heat sink 24 and holes in the mounting portions 20a, 20b, 20c.
Further, the rectifier 12 thus integrally assembled is fixedly secured to a rear bracket 2 by causing the screws 40 to penetrate or extend through the respective second insulating members 42 to be threaded with the rear bracket 2.
The flanges of the first insulating members 41 are sandwiched between the negative terminal side heat sink 26 and the positive terminal side heat sink 24 which are both made of aluminum and hence have thermal expansion coefficients different from that of the first insulating members 41. As a result, in case where the alternator is mounted on a vehicle and used under an environment in which the temperature of the alternator changes from −40 degrees C. to 120 degrees C, the mutual connection or coupling of the circuit board 20, the positive terminal side heat sink 24, and the negative terminal side heat sink 26 often becomes unstable.
Therefore, there has been a problem that vibration applied to the alternator when it is mounted on the vehicle might directly cause damage or breakage in the connecting portions of the diodes 23, 25 and the circuit board 20.
In addition, the vibration suppression portions 20ab, 20ac provided on the rectifier 12 are larger in thickness than the mounting portions 20a, 20b, 20c, so there has also been another problem that the weight of the circuit board 20 itself is increased, giving rise to a feat that the increased weight might be applied to the above-mentioned connecting portions.
Also in the above-mentioned second patent document, the through hole 44 is formed in the positive terminal side cooling fin 42 that will have potential, and the fastening bolt 70 is penetrated or extended through the through hole 44 and is then coupled to the fastening metal fitting 58, so there has been a further problem that partial discharge might occur under a use environment in which foreign matter is liable to be attached to the positive terminal side cooling fin 42.
Furthermore, because the fastening metal fitting 58 is inserted into the terminal block 50, and a through hole 36 for coupling operation of the fastening bolt 70 is formed in the negative terminal side cooling fin 32, there has been a still further problem that a complicated structure results, too.


A toner container adapted for containing toner includes a first side wall and a second side wall opposed to each other. The toner container longitudinally extends between the first side wall and the second side wall and includes a handle to be held when the container is attached to or detached from the apparatus main body and a retaining portion provided on the first side wall to be engaged with a portion of the apparatus main body when the container is installed in the apparatus main body. The handle is provided at a position shifted to the second side wall from a center of the container in the longitudinal direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a toner container and a developer replenishing device which is detachably installed to an image forming apparatus, such as a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile machine, and the like with toner, in order to replenish a developing device provided in the image forming apparatus, and an image forming apparatus to which such toner container or developer replenishing device is installed.
2. Description of the Related Art
A toner container disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2003-280344 is known as prior art. The toner container includes a box-like container to be charged with toner and a toner replenishing device provided at a bottom of the container in order to discharge toner to replenish a developing device with the toner.
Such a toner container is attached to or detached from an apparatus main body with an end (for example, top end corner) of the container held by a user.
Since a toner container is manufactured to allow the container to contain a predetermined amount of toner and to smoothly replenish the developing device with the toner within the container, an ease for attachment and detachment of the container to and from the apparatus main body of the image forming apparatus is hardly considered. Therefore, it is typical that the container is attached to or detached from the apparatus main body while an end of the container is held by the user.
However, if the user attempts to attach and detach the toner container while he/she is holding the container, the container is not always in a state of enabling the user to hold it with ease. In this regard, there are often such cases that the user cannot stably hold the container, which causes a troublesome in attachment and detachment of the container.
Also, if the image forming apparatus, for example, is for the use of multi-color print in which a plurality of toner containers containing different colors of toner are installed side by side into the apparatus main body, there have been such problems that it is difficult to insert fingers between two adjacent toner containers and thus to hold the container easily and securely.

Toner container, developer replenishing device, and image forming apparatus


According to one embodiment of the invention, a method for optimizing revenue for an operator of a network comprises receiving control information by a network device. The control information includes a first airtime representing an amount of airtime used for wireless data transmissions to a first group of network devices. The method further involves an operation of computing an airtime allocation for the first group of network devices based on the first airtime and lease rates. The lease rates are prices per unit of airtime to be paid by an operator associated with one or more of the network devices.

Until fairly recently, cellular telephone networks were implemented and managed separately from wireless networks (e.g., wireless local area networks "WLANs", Wi-Fi™ hot spots, etc.). There were a number of reasons why these two networking platforms were initially implemented and managed separately. For instance, mobile network operators typically were unable to leverage existing resources (e.g. hardware, software, personnel, etc.) to support both cellular services and wireless services. The resources needed for supporting transmissions over a cellular band are quite different from resources needed to support transmissions over a wireless frequency band. Furthermore, the fiscal benefits in supporting multiple types of communication services were not present at that time.
Recently, however, there has been a proliferation of dual-mode devices into the consumer marketplace. Dual-mode devices enable Internet connectivity through different communication services, namely cellular services and wireless services. This provides consumers with greater flexibility in downloading data according to a selected characteristic—cost effectiveness, fastest download rate or most reliable connection.
With the proliferation of dual-mode devices, mobile network operators have begun to recognize the operational benefits in providing multiple avenues to offload certain data traffic as well as the fiscal benefits that are realized by supporting higher levels of data traffic. For instance, mobile network operators are able to lease excess capacity on their underlying physical networks to multiple entities through wireless virtualization. "Wireless virtualization" refers to the running of multiple virtual networks which are leased to mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) by the mobile network operator (MNO), the entity owning the underlying physical network.
Wireless virtualization is an approach where underlying physical network interfaces are abstracted by more than one virtual interface, which enables better sharing of the physical interface and the medium used by the radio associated with that virtual interface. Virtualization usually involves the application of three fundamental concepts for sharing a resource: (1) abstraction, (2) programmability, and (3) isolation. "Abstraction" ensures that the same interface is available to all the virtual entities using the systems. "Programmability" ensures that each of the virtual interfaces is able to affect properties of the underlying physical interface without conflicting with the requirements of other virtual entities. Lastly, "isolation" is a property which ensures that the load on one virtual entity does not affect the other, and essentially, each of the virtual interfaces is able to work independent of each other.
Therefore, since networks are designed to provide access to different types of virtualized radio platforms, a mechanism is needed for supporting these different types of radios for achieving optimal revenue recovery and/or aggregated throughput.

Hybrid wireless virtualization architecture

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.