Compounds and methods suppressing aromatase activity expression in cancer cells. Provided are compounds are those of formula I:

In the United States, breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in women and is the second leading cause of death in women after lung cancer. It is estimated that 212,920 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be detected among women in the United States in the 2006 and 40,970 women will die from this disease in the same year. Approximately 60% of premenopausal and 75% of postmenopausal breast cancer patients have estrogen-dependent carcinoma. Hormone-dependent breast tumors require estrogens for their growth and are characterized by high expression of estrogen receptors (ERs). As a result, efforts to block estrogen action by interfering with the binding to its receptor or by decreasing estrogen production are used as strategies to treat hormone-dependent breast cancer. The first approach involves antiestrogen molecules that can compete with estrogen for binding to the ERs. The second method utilizes aromatase inhibitors (AIs) that inhibit the enzyme catalyzing the final rate-limiting step of the estrogen biosynthesis.
Significant research has focused on developing antiestrogens that can selectively inhibit the estrogen effects in breast tissue without antagonizing the physiological roles of estrogens in other tissues. Agents that exhibit such tissue-specific antiestrogenic/estrogenic activities have been termed selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs). Tamoxifen is the most widely used SERM in hormone-dependent breast cancer therapy and has made a substantial contribution to the reduced mortality rate in many developed countries since 1990. Although tamoxifen is still considered the "gold standard" for endocrine therapy in hormone-dependent breast cancer, its use is associated with tumor resistance and increased risk of endometrial cancer. Aromatase inhibitors, such as anastrozole, letrozole, and exemestane, significantly decrease plasma estrogen levels, are emerging as alternatives to tamoxifen due to their clinical efficacy, and have favorable safety profiles for the treatment of hormone-dependent breast cancer in postmenopausal women. However, since the AIs inhibit aromatase enzyme in a global fashion, a major long term side effect of the AIs is the reduction of the bone density which can lead to osteoporosis.
To reduce the risk of the long term side effects, a new pharmacological approach in the treatment of estrogen dependent postmenopausal breast cancer is the use of tissue-specific inhibitors of aromatase. This concept is based on the tissue-specific regulation of aromatase expression. Ten different promoter regions have been identified upstream of the coding region of the aromatase gene (CYP19). The employment of alternative promoters results in tissue specific regulation of the CYP19 expression. Each promoter is regulated by distinct hormones and second messenger pathways. In postmenopausal women, estrogens are produced by adipose tissue, including breast tissue and skin. In these tissues aromatase expression is directed by promoter 1.4 that is regulated by the synergistic actions of glucocorticoids and class I cytokines such interleukin (IL)-6, IL-11 and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα). In breast adenocarcinoma, aromatase expression and activity increase significantly compare to normal breast tissue. Breast tumors produce factors that stimulate aromatase expression locally. This stimulation is associated with switching of aromatase gene promoter from promoter I.4 to c-AMP dependent promoter I.3 and promoter II in breast cancer and surrounding adipose stromal cells. Current evidences suggest that tumor-derived factors, including the cyclooxygenase (COX) product prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), can mediate the induction of aromatase expression via promoter II by stimulating adenylate cyclase in adipose stromal cells. This biochemical mechanism may explain epidemiological observations of the beneficial effect of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) on breast cancer.
There exists a need for new compounds for treating breast cancers and other cancers as well as new synthetic approaches to making such compounds.

Sulfonanilide analogs as selective aromatase modulators (SAMs)

Abstract: wherein R1 may be alkyl, cycloalkyl, haloalkyl, aryl, substituted aryl, haloaryl, alkoxy, alkylaryl, and arylalkyl; R2 is H, alkyl, aryl, alkylaryl, arylalkyl, and cycloalkyl; R3, with the base nitrogen, forms an amide or sulfonamide; R4 is selected from nitro, amine, amide, and benzamide; or a pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof. Also provided are small molecule selective aromatase inhibitors having a molecular weight of less 500 g/mol. In some embodiments, the small molecule selective aromatase inhibitors described herein have a molecular weight of less than 450 g/mol. Also provided are methods for suppressing aromatase activity expression in cancer cells comprising the step of administering a pharmaceutically effective amount of a small molecule aromatase inhibitor to a subject in need of such treatment. In one embodiment, the cancer cells are breast cancer cells.

The Ohio State University Research Foundation


A retail customer service annunciator/pager includes a base to recline on a retail tabletop; a tapered body extending upwardly from the base; a combination switch/light adjacent the apex of the tapered body, the switch/light alternately switching a visible light on and off when the switch is manually actuated. The tapered body provides within its outer periphery one or more open compartments to store condiments. The switch/light includes a translucent or transparent lens/cover that is engraved with a company identity indicium. The tabletop annunciator/pager includes a pager including a visible light that is selectively switchable on and off; and a wireless transmitter for communicating from the tabletop annunciator/pager to a remote receiver an on-off status of the visible light. A plural channel wireless receiver responsive to plural wireless transmitters includes a processor to determine the lengths of time the lights are in an on state and a display to annunciate or record the determined lengths of time.

This invention relates generally to the field of retail customer service pagers. More particularly, it concerns a tabletop centerpiece pager useful to improve promptness of service for food and/or beverage retail customers.
Coffee shops, bars, cantinas, fast-food outlets and fine dining establishments provide tables for customers to eat and imbibe. Some such tables are big enough barely for one or two customers or patrons to place their food or drinks. Often, tables are densely packed within the drinking or dining facility. It is difficult for a retail server, e.g. a waiter or waitress, to know when a customer is in need of service, whether the service involves ordering, replenishing, ticketing, clean-up or other assistance.
Tabletop 'pagers' are known to provide a mechanism for the customer to switch on a call light or visible annunciator when such service is needed. One such recent tabletop pager is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,699,039 issued Dec. 16, 1997 and entitled ELECTRONIC TABLE PAGER AND DISPLAY DEVICE. That pager features a "menu-like" stand employing a low-energy-demand light source that is switchable on or off by the customer or server. It features a base-mounted manual switch and a separate electroluminescent (EL) surface element operating with an inverter-supplied alternating current feeding in turn a low-frequency oscillator driving the EL element to attract a waiter. The surface element frames a pair of vertical display support members extending upwardly from a base, the support members permitting a menu or advertising card to be disposed therebetween. No other functionality is provided by the prior art pager device.

Retail service/server annunciator/pager, centerpiece and system


The present invention discloses a bullet with a negative Poisson's ratio effect and a method of designing thereof. The bullet includes a cylindrical section of the bullet having a negative Poisson's ratio design, and a conical tail of the bullet and a tip of the bullet each with a matching design; the cylindrical section of the bullet is a tubular structure having periodically alternating transverse and vertical holes; the tubular structure includes a plurality of holes, with a center axis of one hole being axially perpendicular to a center axis of another adjacent hole, that is, the axis of each hole being structurally orthogonal to an adjacent hole; and the holes in rows and columns are periodically arranged into the tubular structure, which is a tubular structure having the negative Poisson's ratio effect.

Bullets can be said to be the product of civilization incorporating physics, chemistry, materials science, aerodynamics, and craftsmanship. Although their application involves killing, the bullets remain as the best choice for humans before the emergence of a new technology in which new project energy is used. How to improve the penetrability of the bullets and reduce the energy loss when a bullet discharging a chamber has been a hot topic of studies. Due to unique characteristics, negative Poisson's ratio materials and structures have been increasingly applied to different fields. A negative Poisson's ratio tubular structure has been manufactured and studied, which is a simple tubular structure exhibiting a negative Poisson's ratio behavior in compression and tension. The combination of a bullet with the tubular structure having the negative Poisson's ratio provides an idea for designing a novel bullet.
The negative Poisson's ratio materials have been developed for more than thirty years, with numerous results achieved. However, most of the existing literature is still based on the studies of two-dimensional negative Poisson's ratio materials. Three-dimensional (3D) negative Poisson's ratio materials are mostly porous structures having complex internal structures. Due to the backwardness of the manufacturing technology in the past, there are few three-dimensional negative Poisson's ratio materials that have been applied in practice. With the emergence of 3D printing technology, also named as additive manufacturing technology, this problem is solved well. The 3D printing technology is also considered as a symbol of the third industrial revolution. With this new technology, 3D negative Poisson's ratio materials and structures with complex shapes can be printed.
Base materials for designing and manufacturing the negative Poisson's ratio materials are mostly rubber, which are weak in bearing capacity and impact resistance. The mechanical properties of metallic metamaterials are generally stronger than those of elastomeric metamaterials. Combining a 3D metallic negative Poisson's ratio material having better mechanical properties with the advanced 3D printing technology to produce a negative Poisson's ratio product with practical application value has practical significance. Negative Poisson's ratio ammunition provides an idea for applying the metallic negative Poisson's ratio materials to the practice. The inventor envisaged a negative Poisson's ratio bullet according to the expansion and compression characteristics of the negative Poisson's ratio.

Bullet with negative Poisson's ratio effect and method of designing thereof


Described is a device and system for heating an electronic mobile device. The system includes a mobile electronic device including a power supply arrangement and a removable heating arrangement detachably coupled to the mobile electronic device. When the heating arrangement is coupled to the mobile electronic device, the arrangement draws power from the power supply arrangement to generate heat.

Handheld portable systems such as mobile electronic devices ("MEDs") may be used in both indoor and outdoor environments. In certain instances, the MED may be used in an extremely low temperature environment (e.g., a shipping yard in the winter, an industrial freezer, etc.). When the user is operating the MED in the low temperature environment, the user expects the MED to operate as effectively as it does in average temperature environments. However, in the low temperature environment, the functionality of certain components of the MED may be significantly degraded or possibly terminated. For example, when subjected to the low temperature environment, an internal circuitry, a battery, and/or a display screen of the MED may experience impaired performance. The circuitry may develop frost or condensation; the chemical reactions within a battery may proceed at a reduced rate; the display screen may fade or exhibit a delayed response time.
In addition, only a small percentage of a total number of MEDs owned by the user may be subjected to the low temperature environment. Thus, it would be advantageous to have a single model of the MED which is adaptable to maintain unimpaired operation in the low temperature environment.

Device and system for heating a mobile electronic device


A method, computer program product and apparatus for minimizing occupant injury by optimizing occupant restraint properties and/or actions in real time, during pre-crash and crash phases. The restraint system uses three catalogs and a database linking these catalogs. The catalogs include a catalog of possible occupant states, a catalog of possible collision scenarios, and a catalog of potential restraint control laws. The database is an assessment of injury outcome for each possible combination of occupant state, collision scenario, and restraint control law. In addition to the catalogs, the method requires four computational components: an occupant identifier, a collision identifier, a restraint law optimizer, and a restraint controller.

Automobiles and other vehicles are increasingly utilizing a variety of automated technologies that involve a wide variety of different vehicle functions and provide vehicle occupants with a diverse range of benefits. Some of those functions are more central to the function of the vehicle, as a vehicle, than other more ancillary functions. For example, certain applications may assist vehicle drivers to "parallel-park" the vehicle. Other automated applications focus on occupant safety. Safety restraint applications are one category of occupant safety applications. Airbag mechanisms or systems are a common example of a safety restraint application in a vehicle. Vehicle applications can include more discretionary functions such as navigation assistance, and environmental controls, and even purely recreational options such as DVD players, Internet access, and satellite radio. Automated devices are an integral and useful part of modern vehicles. Automatic transmission is an example of an automated application geared towards vehicle functionality. However, the automated devices embedded into vehicles need to do a better job of taking into account the context of the particular vehicle, and the person(s) or occupant(s) involved in using the particular vehicle. In particular, such devices typically fail to fully address the interactions between the occupants within the vehicle and the internal environment of the vehicle. It would be desirable for automated applications within vehicles to apply more occupant-centric and context-based "intelligence" to enhance the functionality of automated applications within the vehicle.
Additionally, safety belt restraint system (or sub-system) and air bag systems (or sub-systems) can be designed to meet separate and distinct safety criteria and performance standards based on regulatory and compliance tests and then used together as a combined system to provide occupant protection during frontal vehicle crashes. The performance, in terms of known, measurable occupant injury performance standards such as head injury criteria (HIC) and resultant chest acceleration of these combined systems may be less than the performance of the individual sub-system. Moreover, conventional restraint practices do not provide any or limited adaptation to the crash severity or occupant properties.
Today's restraint systems may even injury the occupant when deployed in an undesirable situation. For example, an air bag deployed when a crash is relatively mild, when an occupant is out of position, or where the occupant is a child, can lead to more serious injuries than if the restraint is not deployed at all. A more intelligent system may decide to deploy the air bags at a slower speed, or not deploy them at all, based on the type of accident and occupant. While the theory of safety restraint design has advanced greatly in the last decade, many of the advancements have remained in the laboratory. Particularly, there has been great progress in computer modeling of restraint systems, which is important since small modifications in the output of various restraint components often lead to significant changes in the safety of the occupants.
An aspect of some of the various embodiments of the present invention overcomes some shortcomings of conventional practices regarding sensing of occupant vehicle and crash.
An aspect of some of the various embodiments of the present invention overcomes some shortcomings of conventional practices by providing, such as but not limited thereto, a real-time process (takes place during the crash) with sensing of the conditions (occupant, vehicle, crash), development of probabilistic estimates of these conditions, and then optimization of the restraint or other safety systems.
Conventional practices are capable of sensing the presence of the occupant and/or belt use but this information is used to trigger a small set of discrete restraint modalities (e.g., air bag deployment or non-deployment, pretensioner deployment or non-deployment). Similarly, the assessment of crash severity triggers a discrete set of restraint modalities. At most, two modalities are used in current restraint systems. With regard to conventional practices, a single mode of operation of the seatbelt and airbags may be too strong for a light crash—thereby causing more injury to the occupant, than had the restraint devices not been activated. Thus, a desirable aspect of some of the various embodiments of the present invention is that it may provide a safety system that can accurately determine the optimal restraint system response to minimize injury to the occupant.
Regarding a collision, occupant properties are evolving in time, and true prediction of these properties in real time is not accurate in conventional practices. Thus, an aspect of an embodiment of the present invention may focus on real-time optimization, probabilistic estimates.
None of the uses of the prior art include calculating actual conditions in real time in a probabilistic manner—leveraging computer-intensive statistical analysis. There is a long-felt need in the art for a restraint system that can optimize a vehicle's restraints for different passengers, and make optimization adjustments in real time. The present invention satisfies this need.

System and method for minimizing occupant injury during vehicle crash events


A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes implanting an impurity into a crystalline semiconductor film that is formed over a base and includes a first part in contact with the base, a second part and a third part, so that at least the second part and the third part are doped with the impurity while the first part is prevented from being doped with the impurity, and forming a source and a drain in the second part and the third part, respectively. The implanting includes depositing a material of the crystalline semiconductor film over the base. The forming includes heating at least the second part and the third part.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, and a semiconductor device manufactured by the method.
2. Related Art
In electro-optic devices such as liquid crystal displays and organic EL displays, a transparent substrate made of inexpensive glass, resin or the like is used as a substrate. Since the substrate made of such a material has low heat resistance, semiconductor elements including thin-film transistors (TFTs) and various devices integrated on the substrate are normally manufactured by a low-temperature process (Refer, for example, to Japanese Patent No. 3528182).
There are generally strong demands for size reduction and density increase of semiconductor devices equipped with transistors and the like, to achieve a higher definition and so on of electro-optic devices on which the semiconductor devices are mounted for example.
However, in a transistor formed by a typical low-temperature process, the source and drain thereof are formed as an amorphous semiconductor layer because of impurity implantation into them. Therefore, especially in a transistor with a minute size, the parasitic resistance of the source and drain is too large to realize good electrical characteristics of the transistor.
It would also be possible to arrange semiconductor elements such as transistors three-dimensionally in order to achieve a higher density that offers a higher definition. However, when transistors and the like are manufactured on each of multiple semiconductor layers deposited on top of each other, high-temperature heat treatment performed for each layer for activating impurities gives semiconductor elements on other layers, a thermal history above the maximum temperature employed in normal process design for the semiconductor elements. This problem makes process design very difficult and complex, precluding use of e.g. a heat-sensitive salicide process.

Method of manufacturing semiconductor device and semiconductor device


A self-sealing washer for use on a fluid containing housing includes a semi-rigid circular member having a horizontal portion and a relatively short vertical portion disposed at the distal edge thereof suitable to be received into a channel provided on a flat surface of the housing. The horizontal portion of the circular member includes a centrally disposed through aperture to receive the screw therein, the screw has a relatively large head portion. A first elevation portion is provided on the circular member which is disposed remote from the distal edge and a second elevation portion generally centrally disposed within the first elevation portion which terminates in a relatively sharp edge. Preferably the second elevation portion is higher than the first elevation portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to washers, and more particularly, to a self-sealing washer suitable for use on a fluid containing housing.
2. Discussion of the Relevant Art
The art abounds with numerous washers used for retaining a screw or bolt within its threaded hole during shock, continuous vibrations and humidity in the atmosphere so that the atmosphere does not penetrate the inner part of the housing on which it is used. Alternatively, washers have been proposed to seal a liquid or fluid containing housing so that there is no seepage out of the screw holes placed in the sealing cover.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,663,910, issued on May 12, 1987, to screw. The rib appears to form a sharp edge.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,481,515, issued on Jan. 22, 1924, to H. P. Kraft, discloses a corrugated washer. The corrugations of course appear on both sides of the washer however they are not successful at sealing liquids from seeping out of the screw hole.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,715,756, issued on Dec. 29, 1987, to Danico, et al., discloses a nut and washer type fastener with the washer member having a skirt portion and an end portion into which a nut member is secured. A collar section connects the skirt portion to the end portion. The collar section is designed to fracture at a predetermined torque load and is contrary to the teachings of the instant invention.
The instant invention overcomes the shortcomings known in the art by providing a seal between the screw head and the housing in addition to a seal around the opening into which the screw is threaded thereby preventing any leakage to the outside atmosphere, which has not been accomplished until the present invention.


A return spring (40,60) operable with piston means (30) for use in fluid operated friction torque transmission devices (11) including relatively rotatable members (12,13) carrying a plurality of torque plates (18,22), one of the members providing a fluid chamber (34) in which the piston means is reciprocable. Such a spring comprises flexible base means (41,61) carried within a recess (50,51) provided in the rotatable member and spring tab means (43,66) extending from the flexible base means and engageable with a wall (52) of the piston means; the tab means being movable with the piston means upon movement thereof in and out of the chamber in response to activation of the piston means.

Torque transmitting systems are widely employed in automobile transmissions to provide selective, relative rotation between components of the transmission. As is well known to the art, one widely accepted form of an automatic, vehicular transmission employs compound planetary gear sets that utilize three clutch assemblies and two braking bands to preclude relative rotation between selected components in order to obtain the desired function of the compound planetary gear sets. The operator selects the driving range from the neutral, forward (either the standard drive, the "Intermediate" or the "Lo" forward selections) or reverse, and the transmission automatically changes gear ratios in relation to the vehicle speed and the engine torque input, as permitted within the range selected. Vehicle speed and engine torque signals are constantly fed to the transmission in a manner well known to the art in order to provide the proper gear ratio for maximum efficiency and performance at all throttle openings.
A planetary gear train consists of a center, or sun, gear, an internal gear and a planetary carrier assembly which includes and supports the smaller planetary gears, or pinions. When the sun gear is held stationary and power is applied to the internal gear, the planetary gears rotate in response to the power applied to the internal gear and thus "walk" circumferentially about the fixed sun gear to effect rotation of the carrier assembly in the same direction as the direction in which the internal gear is being rotated.
When any two members of the planetary gear train rotate in the same direction and at the same speed, the third member is forced to turn at the same speed. For example, when the sun gear and the internal gear rotate in the same direction, and at the same speed, the planetary gears do not rotate about their own axes but rather act as wedges to lock the entire unit together to effect what is known as direct drive.
Whenever the carrier assembly is restrained from spinning freely, and power is applied to either the sun gear or the internal gear, the planetary gears act as idlers. In that way the driven member is rotated in the opposite direction as the drive member. Thus, when the reverse drive range is selected, a brake band assembly is actuated frictionally to engage the carrier assembly, and restrain it against rotation, so that torque applied to the sun gear will turn the internal gear in the opposite direction in order to reverse the rotational direction of the drive wheels, and thereby reverse the direction of the vehicle itself. The friction band assemblies are normally operated by servo mechanisms, many varieties of which are known to the art, but the present invention does not relate to servo mechanisms, and they will not be further described herein.
It should be appreciated that a second friction applying band assembly may also be employed when the engine compression, acting through the transmission, is being employed to effect a braking action. To understand this operation it is desirable to know that in a compound planetary gear set, multiple planetary gear sets may be employed, and adjacent planetary gear sets may utilize sun gears fabricated in one piece. A sprag assembly is frequently employed selectively to preclude the common sun gears from rotating in one direction.
Adjacent planetary gear sets also generally connect the carrier of the first set to the internal gear of the second set. To make the two planetary gear sets effective a roller clutch assembly is generally employed to hold the carrier of the second set against rotation in at least one direction.
To provide a means of connecting and disconnecting the power output from the converter to the transmission gear train, a clutch assembly is generally employed. Typically a clutch assembly includes a clutch housing which is splined to the input shaft. A series of torque plates are connected, as by tangs, to the clutch housing, and a second series of torque plates are connected, also by tangs, to a clutch hub member. An actuating piston is hydraulically operated frictionally to lock the torque plates together, and a release spring is employed to retract the piston when the hydraulic pressure is released. By effecting a spline connection between the main transmission shaft and the clutch hub member, whenever hydraulic pressure is supplied to the clutch assembly the input shaft directly rotates the main transmission shaft. When the hydraulic pressure is released, the clutch assembly disengages the aforesaid drive connection, and the transmission is in neutral.
A similar clutch arrangement may also be employed selectively to connect the outer race of the sprag to the transmission housing. When the outer race of the sprag is so connected to the housing, the sprag is effective in securing the sun gear connected to the sprag against rotation, and the power output from the converter is received by the transmission output shaft at the gear reduction ratio associated with "second" gear.
A third such clutch arrangement is employed to lock the pinions of the adjacent planetary gear set together so that they act as wedges to allow the two adjacent planetary gear sets to rotate as one unit. In this arrangement the power output from the converter is received by the transmission output shaft in what is designated as "third" gear.
Actuation of the first and third described clutch arrangements is generally effected when the operator selects the "reverse" range of operation.
Piston return springs are required and customarily employed to force the piston back into it's bore after piston apply pressure has been removed. These springs are usually located around the periphery of the clutch pack and react against either the piston or the first reaction plate to push the piston back. Inasmuch as these springs are on the same side as the clutch plates, they are located radially either inside or outside of the cylindrical area taken up by the clutch plates.
When the piston is applied, there is a bending moment generated between the piston apply force and the spring return force. This is because the springs are not located in the center of the piston. This bending moment causes deformation of the piston or the first reaction plate, resulting in non-uniform loading of the friction plates.
This uneven radial loading on the friction plates results in uneven unit and thermal loading, thereby causing friction material of bonding failure to occur earlier than what would occur if the loading were uniform.

Piston return spring system with self-adjusting clearance feature


A magnetic write head having a write pole with a tapered trailing edge and a magnetic oscillator formed on the trailing edge of the write pole. The magnetic oscillator is sandwiched between the magnetic write pole and a trailing magnetic shield. The write head also includes a non-magnetic, electrically conductive bump structure located over a back portion of the magnetic oscillator between the magnetic oscillator and the trailing magnetic shield. The presence of the non-magnetic, electrically conductive bump structure causes electrons to properly flow through the magnetic oscillator in a direction that is generally perpendicular to the plane of the magnetic oscillator, even when the magnetic oscillator is formed on an inclined plane on the tapered trailing edge of the write pole. This thereby ensures optimal performance of the magnetic oscillator.

The ever increasing need for digital data storage has driven an ever increasing demand for improved magnetic data storage systems, such as magnetic disk drive systems. The magnetic disk drive includes a rotating magnetic disk, write and read heads that are suspended by a suspension arm adjacent to a surface of the rotating magnetic disk and an actuator that swings the suspension arm to place the read and write heads over selected data tracks on the rotating disk. The read and write heads are located on a slider that has an air bearing surface (ABS). The suspension arm biases the slider into contact with the surface of the disk when the disk is not rotating, but when the disk rotates air is swirled by the rotating disk. When the slider rides on the air bearing, the write and read heads are employed for writing magnetic impressions to and reading magnetic impressions from the rotating disk. The read and write heads are connected to processing circuitry that operates according to a computer program to implement the writing and reading functions.
The write head includes at least one coil, a write pole and one or more return poles. When current flows through the coil, a resulting magnetic field causes a magnetic flux to flow through the coil, which results in a magnetic write field emitting from the tip of the write pole. This magnetic field is sufficiently strong that it locally magnetizes a portion of the adjacent magnetic media, thereby recording a bit of data. The write field then travels through a magnetically soft under-layer of the magnetic medium to return to the return pole of the write head.
A magnetoresistive sensor such as a Giant Magnetoresistive (GMR) sensor or a Tunnel Junction Magnetoresistive (TMR) sensor can be employed to read a magnetic signal from the magnetic media. The magnetoresistive sensor has an electrical resistance that changes in response to an external magnetic field. This change in electrical resistance can be detected by processing circuitry in order to read magnetic data from the magnetic media.
As magnetic bit sizes decrease in order to accommodate ever increasing data density demands, the ability to maintain a stable magnetic signal on a media becomes ever more challenging. The smaller magnetic bit size and smaller magnetic spacing makes the magnetic bits less stable, and prone to data loss. One way to overcome this challenge is to increase the magnetic coercivity and magnetic anisotropy of the magnetic recording layer of the magnetic media. However, this also makes the magnetic media harder to write to, requiring a high magnetic write field to record to the media. This challenge is further exacerbated by the reduced size of the write head that is needed to record the smaller bit. As the write head becomes smaller, the amount of write field that it can produce is also reduced. Therefore, there remains a need for a magnetic recording system that can effectively record a stable magnetic signal to a recording media at very high data densities.

Magnetic recording head with non-magnetic bump structure formed on spin torque oscillator


This disclosure provides methods and compositions to inhibit or suppress tumor growth or to treat cancer by inhibiting VprBP kinase activity. Also provided are methods of determining the effectiveness of the methods and compositions to inhibit or suppress tumor growth or to treat cancer by inhibiting VprBP kinase activity, methods for detecting a cancer, and methods for screening potential agents that inhibit VprBP kinase activity.

Genomic DNA in human cells is hierarchically packaged by histones to form a highly repressive structure of chromatin. The basic unit of chromatin is the nucleosome, which consists of 147-bp of negatively supercoiled DNA wrapped a core histone octamer containing pairs of each of the four core histones, H2A, H2B, H3 and H4. The dynamic posttranslational modifications of histone N-terminal and C-terminal domains (called histone "tails"), which extend away from the nucleosome, govern the structural diversity of chromatin and the accessibility of DNA, thus representing an important molecular mechanism underlying regulation of gene expression. VprBP is a nuclear protein that can interact with HIV viral protein R and the Cullin 4-DDB1 ubiquitin ligase complex. Its cellular function has been studied mainly with respect to its role in regulating Cullin 4 E3 ubiquitin ligase activity and cell cycle progression. However, subsequent studies, predominantly from Inventor's laboratory, have revealed that VprBP stably binds to promoter nucleosomes and that this association represses p53-mediated chromatin transcription (Mol Cell Biol 32, 783-796). The C-terminal region of VprBP has an ability to interact with H3 N-terminal tails protruding from nucleosomes and is critical for the observed functions of VprBP. Overexpression and mutations of VprBP have been detected in bladder/breast/prostate cancer cells supporting the idea that it possesses oncogenic properties.

Compositions and methods for the treatment of VprBP-related cancers


A method for spraying a medium mist, especially a medium mist used in firefighting, over a large area, in which method at least two sprays of medium mist are formed, of which a first spray (S1) is within a second medium mist spray (S2) at least at or near the spraying point. During the formation of the sprays (S1, S2), the medium is set into a swirling motion at least before the discharge opening (5, 13) of the nozzle used to form each spray (S1, S2) and/or at least before the sprays (S1, S2) are mixed with each other, and that the swirling directions of the medium in different sprays (S1, S2) are opposite to each other, whereby a preferably homogeneous mist spray spread over a large area is achieved.

The present invention relates to a method as defined in the preamble of claim 1 for spraying a medium mist, especially a medium mist used in firefighting, in which method at least two sprays of medium mist are formed, of which a first spray is within a second medium mist spray at least at or near the spraying point.
The invention also relates to a spraying nozzle as defined in claim 6, comprising a frame with an inlet formed in it, a first nozzle chamber with a first nozzle opening, a second nozzle chamber with a discharge opening formed as a ring-like opening around the discharge opening of the first nozzle chamber, and at least one medium passage from the inlet to each nozzle chamber.
On the other hand, various spraying nozzles for producing a liquid mist are known. In prior art, nozzles using a so-called swirl chamber inside the nozzle are known. Even with a low pressure, such nozzles can easily produce a good uniform spray, which "swirls" because the water is passed tangentially into the swirl chamber and the mist spray is discharged out of the nozzle in an orbicular fashion. In this case, too, the cross-sectional pattern of the spray produced as seen perpendicularly to the main spraying direction is circular, in other words, the middle area within the spray is not covered but remains void of mist. It has been possible to correct this deficiency by using a nozzle that forms a full spraying cone. In addition to the foregoing, nozzles of this type produce a spray that comes out straight from the center of the nozzle. This should make the spray a full cone. This may work if the swirling circle is not very large and the pressure is fairly high. Experience shows, however, that the middle spray forms large drops, and therefore the mist produced by the nozzle is not of uniform quality. A nozzle applying such a solution is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,129,154. This solution, too, involves the problem that the mist can not be spread over a sufficiently large area, especially when relatively low pressures are used.
Especially fire extinguishing systems using water mist require a spray that covers a sufficiently large area. The sprinkler nozzles used in traditional fire extinguishing systems are provided with a barrier plate placed in front of the spray discharged from the nozzle head to spread the spray over a large area. Such sprays are not mist-like and these nozzle heads involve the problem that they leave a void in the middle area of the spray, where no extinguishing medium can be sprayed by the nozzle head.
The object of the present invention is to create a completely new type of solution that makes it possible to produce a homogeneous spray that is spread over a large area. Thus, the aim is to spread the mist over a sufficiently large area and so that a good mist coverage is achieved and, on the other hand, so that the flow of the sprayed medium is about the same in the whole coverage area. It is thus also an aim to ensure that no so-called voids are left in the spraying pattern produced. Yet another objective of the invention is to create a nozzle especially for use in connection with relatively low pressures. Yet another objective of the invention is to achieve a solution for a nozzle for use in firefighting that is especially suited for the spraying of water mist.

Method for spraying a medium and spraying nozzle


A method and related apparatus for sensing selected emotions or physical conditions in a human subject. The technique employs a two-dimensional camera to generate a facial image of a human subject. Then, an image processing module scans the image to locate the face position and extent, and then scans for selected critical areas of the face. The size and activity of the selected critical areas are monitored by comparing sequential image frames of the subject's face, and the areas are tracked to compensate for possible movements of the subject. The sensed parameters of the selected critical areas are compared with those stored in a database that associates activities of the critical areas with various emotional and physical conditions of the subject, and a report or assessment of the subject is generated.

The present invention relates generally to biometric techniques for sensing stress and emotion in human subjects and, more particularly, to non-invasive, optical systems and methods for sensing stress and emotion. The underlying principle on which the present invention is based is that internal emotional and physiological states of a human subject are correlated with transient and vibratory surface motions of the skin, and that these motions provide insight into the subject's physiological and psychological state. Moreover, this insight can enable a reliable assessment of the affect and credibility of the subject through the application of algorithms based on established databases.
More specifically, the relationships between emotions and a subject's facial expressions and movements have been well documented by Paul Ekman and others. The Facial Action Coding System (FACS), by Paul Ekman, Wallace V. Friesen and Joseph C. Hager, originally published in 1978 by Paul Ekman, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, Calif., includes an ACS Manual and other materials defining the emotion-expression relationships in detail. Dr. Ekman has authored or edited numerous other published papers and books in the same subject matter. See, for example, "What The Face Reveals: Basic and Applied Studies of Spontaneous Expression Using The Facial Action Coding System (FACS)," Ekman, P. & Rosenberg, E. L. (editors), Oxford University Press, New York, 1997.
The best known prior art technique for making such measurements of facial features and movements was based on the use of laser Doppler vibrometry (LDV) and relatively primitive electro-mechanical sensors. LDV is a technique for detecting surface vibration without physical contact and is widely used in engineering and manufacturing applications.
As useful as LDV has proven to be for making measurements of facial movements, the method has significant drawbacks. A laser beam must be pointed at a specific test point on the subject's skin that is believed to be indicative of an emotional state. The vibrations or transient motions induce frequency modulation on light that is reflected back to the instrument, and well-known heterodyne laser detection methods are used to recover the mechanical signal for display and processing. The beam must be maintained on the test point to make the measurement, and this requirement presents some practical problems, in general requiring that the subject's movements be constrained to some degree during the test.
A more serious limitation is that only a single point can be examined at a time with conventional LDV hardware. While it is known that monitoring many points on the subject's skin simultaneously provides significant information concerning the subject's affect, a separate LDV instrument would be required to monitor the response at each point to capture all of the spontaneous facial movements needed to detect a particular emotional condition. The pioneering work of Ekman and Friesen on micro-expressions showed that many facial muscle groups are involved in the involuntary transient expression of emotion. For a brief time of about 300 ms (milliseconds) or so, the face of a subject responds involuntarily to emotion-evoking stimuli such as questions, comments, or scenes, and these fleeting expressions can be detected and interpreted. The Facial Action Coding System developed by Ekman et al. maps specific emotions to coordinated motions in more that twenty facial muscle groups. Hence, being unable to monitor all or most of these muscle groups at the same time is a serious limitation for LDV instruments.
Lastly, signal processing for the received signal in an LDV instrument is somewhat problematic, requiring algorithms to remove subject motion artifacts. The LDV is useful for making high fidelity measurement of skin surface movements for cardiology and other applications, but it would be highly desirable if the motions of an entire face could be sensed at an instant, so that correlated responses among muscle groups could be detected and processed. The present invention is directed to this end.

Robust and low cost optical system for sensing stress, emotion and deception in human subjects


A miniature motor comprising a case formed of a metallic material into a bottomed hollow cylindrical shape on the inner circumferential surface of which a permanent magnet is fixedly fitted, a rotor consisting of an armature facing the permanent magnet and a commutator, a case cover fitted to the opening of the case, and having brushes for making sliding contact with the commutator and input terminals electrically connected to the brushes; the rotor being rotatably supported by bearings provided on the bottom of the case and the case cover, in which electronic components are inserted in series between a pair of the input terminals via spring members made of an electrically conductive material.

FIG. 1 is a partially sectional side view illustrating an example of miniature motors to which this invention is applied. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 31 refers to a case formed of a metallic material, such as mild steel, into a bottomed hollow cylindrical shape, to the inner circumferential surface of which a permanent magnet of an arc-segment shape, for example, is fixedly fitted. Numeral 33 refers to a case cover formed of a thermoplastic resin material in such a manner as to fit to the opening of the case 31. Numeral 34 refers to a rotor consisting of an armature 35 facing the permanent magnet 32, and a commutator 36, and rotatably supported by bearings 37 and 38 each provided on the case 31 and the case cover 33.
Numeral 39 refers to a brush arm formed of an electrically conductive material into a strip shape, having a brush 40 for making sliding contact with the commutator 36, and provided in the case cover 33. In the case cover 33, also provided is an input terminal 41 for electrically connecting the brush arm 39 so that power can be fed from an external d-c source to the armature 35 via the brush arms 39, the brushes 40 and the commutator 36.
As current is fed to the armature 35 of a miniature motor of the above-mentioned construction, rotating force is generated in the armature 35 existing in a magnetic field formed by the permanent magnet 32 fixedly fitted to the inner circumferential surface of the case 31, and thus the rotor 34, and various equipment connected to the rotor 34 are caused to rotate.
In the miniature motor as described above, a capacitor, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, is usually installed to reduce electrical noise. In FIGS. 2 and 3, like parts are indicated by like numerals shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 2 shows an example in which a capacitor 42 is connected across input terminals 41 and 41 via lead wires 43. FIG. 3, on the other hand, shows an example in which capacitors 42 are installed on the inside surface of the case cover 33; one lead wire 43a of the capacitor 42 being connected to the input terminal 41, and the other lead wire 43b to a case 31 made of a metallic material.
The example shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, however, involve extremely complex and troublesome operations to connect the lead wires 43, 43a and 43b to the input terminal 41 or the case 31. That is, soldering operations associated with electrical connections, and operations of placing and cutting the lead wires 43, 43a and 43b require a certain degree of skill, leading to increased time and manhours, and to increased manufacturing cost accordingly. Furthermore, soldering in a limited space tends to make connections between members quite unstable, resulting in vulnerability to vibration, impact, etc. during service, and in inadequate reliability in terms of electrical connection.


The present disclosure is directed to injectors with integrated igniters providing efficient injection, ignition, and complete combustion of various types of fuels. These integrated injectors/igniters can include, for example, insulators with adequate mechanical and dielectric strength to enable high-energy plasma generation by components that have very small dimensions, multifunction valving that is moved to injector multiple bursts of fuel and to induce plasma projection, a fuel control valve at the interface to the combustion chamber for the purpose of eliminating fuel drip at undesired times, and one or more components at the interface of the combustion chamber for the purpose of blocking transmission of combustion sourced pressure.

Renewable resources are intermittent for producing needed replacement energy in various forms such as electricity, hydrogen, fuel alcohols, and methane. Solar energy is a daytime event, and the daytime concentration varies seasonally and with weather conditions. In most areas, wind energy is intermittent and highly variable in magnitude. Falling water resources vary seasonally and are subject to extended draughts. In most of the earth's landmass, biomass is seasonally variant and subject to draughts. Throughout the world, considerable energy that could be delivered by hydroelectric plants, wind farms, biomass conversion, and solar collectors is wasted because of the lack of practical ways to save kinetic energy, fuel, and/or electricity until it is needed.
The world population and demand for energy has grown to the point of requiring more oil than can be produced. Future rates of production will decline while demands of increasing population and increasing dependence upon energy-intensive goods and services accelerate. This will continue to hasten the rate of fossil depletion. Cities suffer from smog caused by the use of fossil fuels. Utilization of natural gas including natural gas liquids such as ethane, propane, and butane for non-fuel purposes has increased exponentially in applications such as packaging, fabrics, carpeting, paint, and appliances that are made largely from thermoplastic and thermoset polymers.
Coal has relatively low hydrogen to carbon ratio. Oil has higher hydrogen to carbon ratio and natural gas has the highest hydrogen to carbon ratio of fossil hydrocarbons. Using oil as the representative medium, the global burn rate of fossil hydrocarbons now exceeds the equivalent of 200 million barrels of oil per day.
Global oil production has steadily increased to meet growing demand but the rate of oil discovery has failed to keep up with production. Peak production of oil has occurred and the rates of oil production in almost all known reserves are steadily decreasing. After peak production, the global economy experiences inflation of every energy-intensive and petrochemical-based product. Conflict over remaining fossil fuel resources and the utilization of oil to fuel and lubricate machines of destruction spurred World War I, World War II, and every war since then. Replacing the fossil fuel equivalent of 200 million barrels of oil each day requires development of virtually every practical approach to renewable energy production, distribution, storage, and utilization.
Air and water pollution caused by fossil fuel production and combustion now degrades every metropolitan area along with fisheries, farms, and forests. Mercury and other heavy metal poisoning of fisheries and farm soils is increasingly traced to coal combustion. Global climate changes including more powerful hurricanes and tornados, torrential rainstorms, and increased incidents of fire losses due to lightning strikes in forests and metropolitan areas are closely correlated to atmospheric buildup of greenhouse gases released by combustion of fossil fuels. With increased greenhouse gas collection of solar energy in the atmosphere, greater work is done by the global atmospheric engine including more evaporation of ocean waters, melting of glaciers and polar ice caps, and subsequent extreme weather events that cause great losses of improved properties and natural resources.
Previous attempts to utilize multifuel selections including hydrogen, producer gas, and higher hydrogen-to-carbon ratio fuels such as methane, fuel alcohols, and various other alternative fuels along with or in place of gasoline and diesel fuels have variously encountered and failed to solve difficult problems, and these attempts are expensive, produce unreliable results, and frequently cause engine degradation or damage including:
(1) Greater curb weight to increase engine compression ratio and corresponding requirements for more expensive, stronger, and heavier pistons, connecting rods, crankshafts, bearings, flywheels, engine blocks, and support structure for acceptable power production and therefore heavier suspension springs, shock absorbers, starters, batteries, etc.
(2) Requirements for more expensive valves, hardened valve seats, and machine shop installation to prevent valve wear and seat recession.
(3) Requirements to supercharge to recover power losses and drivability due to reduced fuel energy per volume and to overcome compromised volumetric and thermal efficiencies.
(4) Multistage gaseous fuel pressure regulation with extremely fine filtration and very little tolerance for fuel quality variations including vapor pressure and octane and cetane ratings.
(5) Engine coolant heat exchangers for prevention of gaseous fuel pressure regulator freeze-ups.
(6) Expensive and bulky solenoid operated tank shutoff valve (TSOV) and pressure relief valve (PRD) systems.
(7) Remarkably larger flow metering systems.
(8) After dribble delivery of fuel at wasteful times and at times that produce back-torque.
(9) After dribble delivery of fuel at harmful times such as the exhaust stroke to reduce fuel economy and cause engine or exhaust system damage.
(10) Engine degradation or failure due to pre-detonation and combustion knock.
(11) Engine hesitation or damage due to failures to closely control fuel viscosity, vapor pressure, octane or cetane rating, and burn velocity,
(12) Engine degradation or failure due to fuel washing, vaporization and burn-off of lubricative films on cylinder walls and ring or rotor seals.
(13) Failure to prevent oxides of nitrogen formation during combustion.
(14) Failure to prevent formation of particulates due to incomplete combustion.
(15) Failure to prevent pollution due to aerosol formation of lubricants in upper cylinder areas.
(16) Failure to prevent overheating of pistons, cylinder walls, and valves consequent friction increases, and degradation.
(17) Failure to overcome damaging backfiring in intake manifold and air cleaner components.
(18) Failure to overcome damaging combustion and/or explosions in the exhaust system.
(19) Failure to overcome overheating of exhaust system components.
(20) Failure to overcome fuel vapor lock and resulting engine hesitation or failure.
Further, special fuel storage tanks are required for low energy density fuels. Storage tanks designed for gasoline, propane, natural gas, and hydrogen are discrete to meet the widely varying chemical and physical properties of each fuel. A separate fuel tank is required for each fuel type that a vehicle may utilize. This dedicated tank approach for each fuel selection takes up considerable space, adds weight, requires additional spring and shock absorber capacity, changes the center of gravity and center of thrust, and is very expensive.
In conventional approaches, metering alternative fuel choices such as gasoline, methanol, ethanol, propane, ethane, butane hydrogen, or methane into an engine may be accomplished by one or more gaseous carburetors, throttle body fuel injectors, or timed port fuel injectors. Power loss sustained by each conventional approach varies because of the large percentage of intake air volume that the expanding gaseous fuel molecules occupy. Thus, with reduced intake air entry, less fuel can be burned, and less power is developed.
At standard temperature and pressure (STP) gaseous hydrogen occupies 2,800 times as much volume as liquid gasoline for delivery of equal combustion energy. Gaseous methane requires about 900 times as much volume as liquid gasoline to deliver equal combustion energy.
Arranging for such large volumes of gaseous hydrogen or methane to flow through the vacuum of the intake manifold, through the intake valve(s), and into the vacuum of a cylinder on the intake cycle and to do so along with enough air to support complete combustion to release the heat needed to match gasoline performance is a monumental challenge that has not been adequately met. Some degree of power restoration may be available by resorting to larger displacement engines. Another approach requires expensive, heavier, more complicated, and less reliable components for much higher compression ratios and/or by supercharging the intake system. However, these approaches cause shortened engine life and much higher original and/or maintenance costs unless the basic engine design provides adequate structural sections for stiffness and strength.
Engines designed for gasoline operation are notoriously inefficient. To a large extent this is because gasoline is mixed with air to form a homogeneous mixture that enters the combustion chamber during the throttled conditions of the intake cycle. This homogeneous charge is then compressed to near top dead center (TDC) conditions and spark ignited. Homogeneous-charge combustion causes immediate heat transfer from 4,500° F. to 5,500° F. (2,482° C. to 3,037° C.) combustion gases to the cylinder head, cylinder walls, and piston or corresponding components of rotary engines. Protective films of lubricant are burned or evaporated, causing pollutive emissions, and the cylinder and piston rings suffer wear due to lack of lubrication. Homogeneous charge combustion also forces energy loss as heat is transferred to cooler combustion chamber surfaces, which are maintained at relatively low temperatures of 160° F. to 240° F. (71° C. to 115° C.) by liquid and/or air-cooling systems.
Utilization of hydrogen or methane as homogeneous charge fuels in place of gasoline presents an expensive challenge to provide sufficient fuel storage to accommodate the substantial energy waste that is typical of gasoline engines. Substitution of such cleaner burning and potentially more plentiful gaseous fuels in place of diesel fuel is even more difficult. Diesel fuel has a greater energy value per volume than gasoline. Additional difficulties arise because gaseous fuels such as hydrogen, producer gas, methane, propane, butane, and fuel alcohols such as ethanol or methanol lack the proper cetane ratings and do not ignite in rapidly compressed air as required for efficient diesel-engine operation. Diesel fuel injectors are designed to operate with a protective film of lubrication that is provided by the diesel oil. Further, diesel fuel injectors only cyclically pass a relatively minuscule volume of fuel, which is about 3,000 times smaller (at STP) than the volume of hydrogen required to deliver equivalent heating value.
Most modern engines are designed for minimum curb weight and operation at substantially excess oxygen equivalence ratios in efforts with homogeneous charge mixtures of air and fuel to reduce the formation of oxides of nitrogen by limiting the peak combustion temperature. In order to achieve minimum curb weight, smaller cylinders and higher piston speeds are utilized. Higher engine speeds are reduced to required shaft speeds for propulsion through higher-ratio transmission and/or differential gearing.
Operation at excess oxygen equivalence ratios requires greater air entry, and combustion chamber heads often have two or three intake valves and two or three exhaust valves. This leaves very little room in the head area for a direct cylinder fuel injector or for a spark plug. Operation of higher speed valves by overhead camshafts further complicates and reduces the space available for direct cylinder fuel injectors and spark plugs. Designers have used virtually all of the space available over the pistons for valves and valve operators and have barely left room to squeeze in spark plugs for gasoline ignition or for diesel injectors for compression-ignition engines.
Therefore, it is extremely difficult to deliver by any conduit greater in cross section than the gasoline engine spark plug or the diesel engine fuel injector equal energy by alternative fuels such as hydrogen, methane, propane, butane, ethanol, or methanol, all of which have lower heating values per volume than gasoline or diesel fuel. The problem of minimal available area for spark plugs or diesel fuel injectors is exacerbated by larger heat loads in the head due to the greater heat gain from three to six valves that transfer heat from the combustion chamber to the head and related components. Further exacerbation of the space and heat load problems is due to greater heat generation in the cramped head region by cam friction, valve springs, and valve lifters in high-speed operations.
In many ways, piston engines have been the change agents and have provided essential energy conversion throughout the industrial revolution. Today compression ignition internal combustion piston engines using cetane-rated diesel fuel power most of the equipment for farming, mining, rail and marine heavy hauling, and stationary power systems, along with new efforts in smaller engines with higher piston speeds to improve fuel efficiency of passenger and light truck vehicles. Lower compression internal combustion piston engines with spark ignition are less expensive to manufacture and utilize octane-rated fuels to power a larger portion of the growing 900 million population of passenger and light truck vehicles.
Octane and cetane rated hydrocarbon fuel applications in conventional internal combustion engines produce unacceptable levels of pollutive emissions such as unburned hydrocarbons, particulates, oxides of nitrogen, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide.
Conventional spark ignition consists of a high voltage but low energy ionization of a mixture of air and fuel. Conventional spark energy magnitudes of about 0.05 to 0.15 joule are typical for normally aspirated engines equipped with spark plugs that operate with compression ratios of 12:1 or less. Adequate voltage to produce such ionization must be increased with higher ambient pressure in the spark gap. Factors requiring higher voltage include leaner air-fuel ratios and a wider spark gap as may be necessary for ignition, increases in the effective compression ratio, supercharging, and reduction of the amount of impedance to air entry into a combustion chamber. Conventional spark ignition systems fail to provide adequate voltage generation to dependably provide spark ignition in engines such as diesel engines with compression ratios of 16:1 to 22:1 and often fail to provide adequate voltage for unthrottled engines that are supercharged for purposes of increased power production and improved fuel economy.
Failure to provide adequate voltage at the spark gap is most often due to inadequate dielectric strength of ignition system components such as the spark plug porcelain and spark plug cables.
High voltage applied to a conventional spark plug, which essentially is at the wall of the combustion chamber, causes heat loss of combusting homogeneous air-fuel mixtures that are at and near all surfaces of the combustion chamber including the piston, cylinder wall, cylinder head, and valves. Such heat loss reduces the efficiency of the engine and may degrade the combustion chamber components that are susceptible to oxidation, corrosion, thermal fatigue, increased friction due to thermal expansion, distortion, warpage, and wear due to loss of viability of overheated or oxidized lubricating films.
Even if a spark at the surface of the combustion chamber causes a sustained combustion of the homogeneous air-fuel mixture, the rate of flame travel sets the limit for completion of combustion. The greater the amount of heat that is lost to the combustion chamber surfaces, the greater the degree of failure to complete the combustion process. This undesirable situation is coupled with the problem of increased concentrations of un-burned fuel such as hydrocarbons vapors, hydrocarbon particulates, and carbon monoxide in the exhaust.
Efforts to control air-fuel ratios and provide leaner burn conditions for higher fuel efficiency and to reduce peak combustion temperature and hopefully reduce production of oxides of nitrogen cause numerous additional problems. For example, leaner air-fuel ratios burn slower than stoichiometric or fuel-rich mixtures. Moreover, slower combustion requires greater time to complete the two- or four-stroke operation of an engine, thus reducing the specific power potential of the engine design. With adoption of natural gas as a replacement for gasoline or diesel fuel must come recognition of the fact that natural gas combusts much slower than gasoline and that natural gas will not facilitate compression ignition if it is substituted for diesel fuel.
In addition, modern engines provide far too little space for accessing the combustion chamber with previous electrical insulation components having sufficient dielectric strength and durability for protecting components that must withstand cyclic applications of high voltage, corona discharges, and superimposed degradation due to shock, vibration, and rapid thermal cycling to high and low temperatures. Furthermore, previous approaches to homogeneous and stratified charge combustion fail to overcome limitations related to octane or cetane dependence and fail to provide control of fuel dribbling at harmful times or to provide adequate combustion speed to enable higher thermal efficiencies, and fail to prevent combustion-sourced oxides of nitrogen.
In order to meet desires for multifuel utilization along with lower curb weight and greater air entry it is ultimately important to allow unthrottled air entry into the combustion chambers and to directly inject gaseous, cleaner-burning, and less-expensive fuels and to provide stratified-charge combustion as a substitute for gasoline and diesel (petrol) fuels. However, this desire encounters the extremely difficult problems of providing dependable metering of such widely variant fuel densities, vapor pressures, and viscosities to then assure subsequent precision timing of ignition and completion of combustion events. In order to achieve positive ignition, it is necessary to provide a spark-ignitable air-fuel mixture in the relatively small gap between spark electrodes.
If fuel is delivered by a separate fuel injector to each combustion chamber in an effort to produce a stratified charge, elaborate provisions such as momentum swirling or ricocheting or rebounding the fuel from combustion chamber surfaces into the spark gap must be arranged, but these approaches always cause compromising heat losses to combustion chamber surfaces as the stratified charge concept is sacrificed. If fuel is controlled by a metering valve at some distance from the combustion chamber, "after dribble" of fuel at wasteful or damaging times, including times that produce torque opposing the intended output torque, will occur. Either approach inevitably causes much of the fuel to "wash" or impinge upon cooled cylinder walls in order for some small amount of fuel to be delivered in a spark-ignitable air-fuel mixture in the spark gap at the precise time of desired ignition. This results in heat losses, loss of cylinder-wall lubrication, friction-producing heat deformation of cylinders and pistons, and loss of thermal efficiency due to heat losses from work production by expanding gases to non-expansive components of the engine.
Efforts to produce swirl of air entering the combustion chamber and to place lower density fuel within the swirling air suffer two harmful characteristics. The inducement of swirl causes impedance to the flow of air into the combustion chamber and thus reduces the amount of air that enters the combustion chamber to cause reduced volumetric efficiency. After ignition, products of combustion are rapidly carried by the swirl momentum to the combustion chamber surfaces and adverse heat loss is accelerated.
Past attempts to provide internal combustion engines with multifuel capabilities, such as the ability to change between fuel selections such as gasoline, natural gas, propane, fuel alcohols, producer gas and hydrogen, have proven to be extremely complicated and highly compromising. Past approaches induced the compromise of detuning all fuels and canceling optimization techniques for specific fuel characteristics. Such attempts have proven to be prone to malfunction and require very expensive components and controls. These difficulties are exacerbated by the vastly differing specific energy values of such fuels, wide range of vapor pressures and viscosities, and other physical property differences between gaseous fuels and liquid fuels. Further, instantaneous redevelopment of ignition timing is required because methane is the slowest burning of the fuels cited, while hydrogen burns about 7 to 10 times faster than any of the other desired fuel selections.
Additional problems are encountered between cryogenic liquid or slush and compressed-gas fuel storage of the same fuel substance. Illustratively, liquid hydrogen is stored at −420° F. (−252° C.) at atmospheric pressure and causes unprotected delivery lines, pressure regulators, and injectors to condense and freeze atmospheric water vapor and to become ice damaged as a result of exposure to atmospheric humidity. Cryogenic methane encounters similar problems of ice formation and damage. Similarly, these super cold fluids also cause ordinary metering orifices, particularly small orifices, to malfunction and clog.
The very difficult problem that remains and must be solved is how can a vehicle be refueled quickly with dense liquid fuel at a cryogenic (hydrogen or methane) or ambient temperature (propane or butane), and at idle or low power levels use vapors of such fuels, and at high power levels use liquid delivery of such fuels in order to meet energy production requirements?
At atmospheric pressure, injection of cryogenic liquid hydrogen or methane requires precise metering of a very small volume of dense liquid compared to a very large volume delivery of gaseous hydrogen or methane. Further, it is imperative to precisely produce, ignite, and combust stratified charge mixtures of fuel and air regardless of the particular multifuel selection that is delivered to the combustion chamber.
Accomplishment of essential goals including highest thermal efficiency, highest mechanical efficiency, highest volumetric efficiency, and longest engine life with each fuel selection requires precise control of the fuel delivery timing, combustion chamber penetration, and pattern of distribution by the entering fuel, and precision ignition timing, for optimizing air utilization, and maintenance of surplus air to insulate the combustion process with work-producing expansive medium.
In order to sustainably meet the energy demands of the global economy, it is necessary to improve production, transportation, and storage of methane and hydrogen by virtually every known means. A gallon of cryogenic liquid methane at −256° C. provides an energy density of 89,000 BTU/gal, about 28% less than a gallon of gasoline. Liquid hydrogen at −252° C. provides only about 29,700 BTU/gal, or 76% less than gasoline.
It has long been desired to interchangeably use methane, hydrogen or mixtures of methane and hydrogen as cryogenic liquids or compressed gases in place of gasoline in spark-ignited engines. But this goal has not been satisfactorily achieved, and as a result, the vast majority of motor vehicles remain dedicated to petrol even though the costs of methane and many forms of renewable hydrogen are far less than gasoline. Similarly it has long been a goal to interchangeably use methane, hydrogen or mixtures of methane and hydrogen as cryogenic liquids and/or compressed gases in place of diesel fuel in compression-ignited engines but this goal has proven even more elusive, and most diesel engines remain dedicated to pollutive and more expensive diesel fuel.

Integrated fuel injectors and igniters and associated methods of use and manufacture


To miniaturize an organic EL device and improve its reliability. An organic EL comprising: a second electrode formed to face against a plurality of first electrodes each of which is formed on each pixel and electronically connected to a pixel driving signal; a luminescent layer interposed between the first electrode and the second electrode; a plurality of input/output signal lines arranged in the peripheral region, one ends of which are electrically connected to the pixel driving signal lines and the other ends of which are electrically connected to external circuits; and a wiring line for the second electrode electrically connected to the second electrode in the peripheral region and, wherein, at least a part of the plurality of input/output signal is collected in the peripheral region in the direction from the one end to the other end to form a contact area, and the wiring line for the second electrode is electrically connected to the second electrode in the contact area.

This invention relates to an organic EL (Electro-Luminescent) device and a various electronic apparatus employing the organic EL device.
As disclosed in Patent Document 1, this kind of organic EL device has, for example, an organic EL element as a luminescent element in each pixel in the image display region on a substrate. An organic EL element consists of anodes formed for every pixel, a cathode opposite to a plurality of anodes, and an organic EL layer interposed therebetween. In a peripheral region located around the image display region, there are a plurality of signal lines serving as a supply path of a driving signal for driving each pixel, and a cathode wiring line connected to the cathode of the organic EL element. According to the technique described in Patent Document 1, the cathode is electrically connected to a cathode wiring line formed below the cathode on a substrate with interposing a supplemental electrode in a connecting region located along one side of the image display region (see FIGS. 1(c) and 2 in Patent Document 1).
[Patent Document 1] Japan Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-288994.
In the case a plurality of signal lines are arranged under the cathode wiring line in the peripheral region on the substrate, as shown in the connecting region disclosed in Patent Document 1, a step could occur on the surface of the region where the cathode wiring line contacts with the cathode since the signal lines are arranged right under the contact area. This step causes an unfavorable influence in a protecting layer coating process and its etching process onto the surface of the contact area of the cathode wiring line at the time of manufacturing organic EL devices. That is, this step on the surface of the cathode wiring line can deteriorate the coating coverage of a protecting layer or an unnecessary area can be subject to erosion by etching. In this case, the manufacturing yield of the organic EL device may falls or the electrical connection between the cathode wiring line and the cathode may deteriorate to cause a malfunction. Moreover, such step makes the thickness of the cathode wiring line uneven. The uneven layer thickness makes resistance distribution uneven which causes current to be accumulated on a specific region with a low resistance to cause the organic EL device deteriorated. As the result, reliability on the organic EL device goes down.
On the other hand, when the area of the contact region is increased in order to ensure an enough capacity in the contact area of the cathode wiring line, the peripheral region is also increased and the size of the substrate should be enlarged, thus making difficult to miniaturize the organic EL device.
Under the reflection of these problems, the object of the present invention is to provide an organic EL device with a good electrical connection between the cathode wiring line and the cathode, a compact size, and a high reliability, and an electronic device employing such organic EL device.

Electro-optical device and electronic apparatus


A droop characteristic or an inverse droop characteristic may fail to be sufficiently corrected depending on the temperature of a semiconductor laser. An image forming apparatus includes a droop correction unit configured to supply a correction current of which an attenuation tendency or a gradual increase tendency changes according to data about the temperature.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to correction of light amount variations of a light source in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electrophotographic image forming apparatus performs light amount control (automatic power control; hereinafter, referred to as APC control) to stabilize the light amount of laser light (light beam) emitted from a semiconductor laser to expose a photosensitive member. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-223716 discusses the foregoing APC control. In an image forming apparatus discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-223716, a light receiving element (photoelectric conversion element) receives laser light in each scanning cycle of the laser light. The value of a current supplied to the semiconductor laser is controlled so that the amount of light that is incident on the light receiving element coincides with a target light amount.
FIG. 7 is a chart illustrating a light emission characteristic of a semiconductor laser (relationship between a driving current and an emitted light amount). The value of the driving current for a target light amount P varies with temperature. The APC control discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-223716 can be performed in each scanning cycle or a plurality of scanning cycles to control the laser light to the target light amount even if the temperature of the semiconductor laser varies due to the emission of the laser light.
If a constant current continues to be supplied to a semiconductor laser for a relatively long period, the semiconductor laser itself causes self-heating. Some semiconductor lasers have a characteristic that the light amount of the laser light is attenuated due to self-heating after a start of the supply of the driving current and stabilizes after a lapse of certain time. Such a characteristic is commonly referred to as a droop characteristic of the semiconductor lasers. Some semiconductor lasers have a characteristic that the light amount of the laser light gradually increases due to self-heating after a start of the supply of the driving current and stabilizes after a lapse of certain time. Such a characteristic is commonly referred to as an inverse droop characteristic of the semiconductor lasers. Variations in the light amount of the laser light can cause uneven potentials of exposed portions formed on the photosensitive member, and as a result, the amount of toner adhering to the exposed portions becomes uneven. This leads to a drop in the image quality of the output image.
To correct such a droop characteristic or inverse droop characteristic, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2012-40779 discusses an image forming apparatus that stores predetermined correction data in a memory in advance and corrects the driving current supplied to the semiconductor laser by using the correction data.
As illustrated in FIG. 8, the droop characteristic or inverse droop characteristic varies with temperature. More specifically, the amount of attenuation or the amount of gradual increase per unit time varies with the temperature of the semiconductor laser. The image forming apparatus that corrects the driving current supplied to the semiconductor laser by using the same correction data regardless of the temperature of the semiconductor laser therefore may fail to sufficiently correct the droop characteristic or the inverse droop characteristic, depending on the temperature of the semiconductor laser.

Image forming apparatus with light amount control


A sheet cutting apparatus includes: a cutting blade for cutting a sheet; an inserting device for inserting the sheet into a cutting position to be cut by the cutting blade; a taking out device for taking out the sheet from the cutting position after the sheet has been cut by the cutting blade; and an airflow generating device provided downstream of the cutting position in a direction of taking out the sheet by the taking out device for supplying an airflow to the cutting position.

The present invention relates to a sheet cutting device that cut several sheets of paper, to a sheet finisher equipped with the sheet cutting device, and to an image forming system provided with the sheet cutting device.
A sheet finisher carrying out various types of post-processing (finishing) is connected to a high speed image forming apparatus such as an image forming apparatus employing the electro-photography method, and a multiple-function image forming system has come into wide use that make it possible to carry out within a single apparatus various types of finishing operations such as punching, stapling, and folding of paper sheets on which images have been formed.
A sheet finisher is available that include a sheet cutting device for aligning and cutting the edges of stacks of sheets having a plurality of sheets after carrying out various types of finishing operations such as hole punching, stapling, folding, etc., and the following types of devices are known as sheet cutting devices.
In other words, a cutting device for cutting a plurality of sheets of paper stacked one on top of the other on a table, in which the stack of paper sheets is cut by a cutter that rises from below in a diagonally upward direction while the stack of sheets is being kept pressed by a sheet pressing member that comes down from above the sheets while being guided by vertical guides, and the sheet pressing member and the cutter are each provided with a separate motor whose rotation is transmitted to a screw, the nut engaging with that screw is coupled by a link to the sheet pressing member or the cutter, thereby making it possible to drive them using even a small motor. (See, for example, Patent Document 1.)
Patent Document 1: Japanese Non-Examined Patent Publication No. 2003-136471.
In the configuration disclosed in Patent Document 1, size reduction of the apparatus is being aimed at because the drive can be realized using small motors and the apparatus can be used as a peripheral device of office equipment used in offices with limited installation space. However, the paper shreds generated at the time of cutting may not drop down but may get adhered to the table or to the paper pressing member. Because, the static electricity generate while carrying out the different processes of punching, stapling, folding, etc., or the static electricity generate due to the friction between the table and the sheet pressing member at the time of insertion into the cutting section, or the static electricity generate at the time of cutting.
If the cutting operation is carried out with the paper shreds adhering to the table or to the paper pressing member, the paper shreds leave their marks on the stack of sheets because the force of pressing the stack of sheets is large, and hence the finishing quality will be lost. Further, because of the adhered paper shreds, when a new stack of sheets is inserted into the cutting section, the outer sheets in a stack of sheets may get slightly shifted or may get folded.

Sheet cutting device, sheet finisher equipped therewith, and image forming system provided therewith

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.


A backside illuminated imaging sensor includes a semiconductor layer having a P-type region. A frontside and backside P+ doped layers are formed within the semiconductor layer. An imaging pixel having a photodiode is formed within the semiconductor layer, where the photodiode is an N− region formed within the P-type region of the semiconductor layer between the frontside P+ doped layer and the backside P+ doped layer.

Many semiconductor imaging sensors today are front side illuminated. That is, they include imaging arrays that are fabricated on the front side of a semiconductor wafer, where light is received at the imaging array from the same front side. However, front side illuminated imaging sensors have many drawbacks, one of which is a limited fill factor.
Backside illuminated imaging sensors are an alternative to front side illuminated imaging sensors that address the fill factor problems associated with front side illumination. Backside illuminated imaging sensors include imaging arrays that are fabricated on the front surface of the semiconductor wafer, but receive light through a back surface of the wafer. However, to detect visible light from the backside, the wafer must be extremely thin. Micro-lenses may be included on the back surface of the wafer in order to improve the sensitivity of the backside illuminated sensor. The thickness of the wafer may be optimized in order to improve the spectral performance and reduce crosstalk. That is, as the final semiconductor wafer thickness is increased, light can be more effectively collected by the wafer. This is particularly true for red light, which penetrates deeper into silicon before being absorbed. At the same time, blue light, which is absorbed near the surface, may generate photoelectrons that recombine at the back surface, return to the back surface or are collected at a neighboring pixel. Photoelectrons that recombine at the back surface of the silicon may lead to reduced sensitivity, while photoelectrons that are collected at a neighboring pixel may lead to crosstalk of the imaging sensor. As the final semiconductor wafer thickness is decreased, more of the red light passes completely through the collection region without being absorbed and thereby further reduces sensitivity. Thus, a need exists for a backside illuminated device with improved sensitivity that reduces crosstalk.

Backside illuminated imaging sensor with backside P


A conference system includes a controller and clusters of media nodes. Each media node performs media packet processing operations and connects with other media nodes and client devices. The controller sends to a client device contact information for candidate clusters. The controller receives from the client device a measure of reachability to each candidate cluster as determined by the client device using the contact information. The controller receives from the client device a request to join a communication session. Responsive to the request, the controller determines a best cluster among the candidate clusters to which the client should connect for the communication session based on the measures of reachability to the candidate clusters, and selects a media node in the best cluster. The controller sends to the client device contact information for the media node to enable the client device to connect to the media node for the communication session.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) cloud-based conference services enable business-to-business and business-to-consumer conferencing but can incur relatively high wide area network costs, latency penalties, and possible quality degradation. When building a conferencing service for SaaS delivery, it is advantageous to deploy media nodes, which perform audio and video switching, mixing, transcoding and other related real-time operations, across a multiplicity of geographies. This allows users to connect to closer media nodes to reduce latency. However, as the number of geographies scales up to dozens and even hundreds, challenges arise in how users should discover which media node to connect to for a conference session.

Conference session access using reachability information for distributed clusters of media nodes


Electrostatic fibers with high efficiency for small particles and low pressure drop are formed by spot laminating an assembly of a stack of at least 2 layers of thermoplastic, electrostatic, non-woven media having lightweight scrims disposed on each end face of the stack between the nip of a roller with a pattern of raised dots and a heated roller or ultrasonic generator.

The recognition of the adverse effects of inhaled particles especially particles in the sub 10 micron range has led to the development of filter to remove these particles from air streams. These filters are commonly designated as HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) and ULPA (Ultra Efficiency Particulate Air) filters.
Although the acronym, HEPA was not used until the late 1940's, filter media that could satisfy the minimum HEPA high performance characteristics were produced in the late 1930's. A filter material containing crocidolite asbestos in a coarse fiber matrix provided adequate performance with a single layer of media. This media was improved in the early 1940's by the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) to provide several magnitude of order improvement in performance. Enhanced evaluation techniques also contributed to the development of more effective filters. During the same period, many alternate fine fibers were tested for use in fine particle filters including other types of asbestos, glass wool, rock wool and some organic fibers. HEPA grade filter media was manufactured from all of these filters. However, a media formed of a matrix of asbestos fibers combined with paper fibers was found to be the best for rapid, large scale commercial production. This material was the first to be designated a HEPA media.
After World War II, this industry grew at a dramatic pace driven by the nuclear arms race. The possibility of mutual assured destruction created the need to filter radioactive particles from air breathed by personnel as well as the requirement to remove radioactive particles from the processing environment. Efforts were concentrated on improving performance of the asbestos-matrix fiber media as well as searching for domestic substitutes for the previously imported fibers. A number of natural grasses and regenerated cellulose viscose fibers were found to be suitable substitutes for the matrix fibers. However, only asbestos fibers were utilized as the filter media. In the later 1940's, glass microfibers were developed. They were only available in small quantities for research. The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) explored the use of glass microfibers in the development of a 100 percent inorganic paper. Pilot production of glass paper began at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS). Full scale production of glass paper began in 1952.
Shortly after the development of microfiber glass paper, a fire occurred in a filtration system at an Atomic Energy Commission (now DOE) using asbestos fiber media containing combustible matrix fibers. The fire was extremely hazardous in widely dispersing the asbestos fibers as an aerosol throughout the facility. It was later discovered that inhaled asbestos fibers were a latent carcinogen. This caused the industry to substitute glass microfibers in HEPA filter media.
Over the next two decades (1955-1975), there were only modest improvements in HEPA media and essentially all of these were in improved performance of the media. This lull resulted from satisfaction with existing media, existence of a substantial nuclear weapon stockpile, and a diversion of funding and research activity to higher priority projects.
However, from 1975 forward, the fast growth of industries such as integrated circuits, microelectronics, and biological industries requiring clean room manufacturing facilities created the need for new media having several orders of magnitude improved performance.
The most common commercial Intermediate Efficiency HEPA and ULPA (Ultra Low Penetration Absolute) media grades sold worldwide are composed of borosiliate glass microfibers bound together by an acrylic resin. However, as recently as 1994, the ASHRAE (American Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers) industry stopped using glass media and converted to the use of organic fiber media due to concerns with glass fibers dislodging from the media, becoming airbound and inhaled.
The most commonly used organic media is formed from melt blown media and particularly melt blown media that carries an electrostatic charge. Several weights of media are available from several suppliers. Weights range from 10 to 80 grams per square yard. Randomly charged melt blown electrostatic media were tested in accordance with the invention. The pressure drop and efficiencies were not satisfactory to be used to replace the following commercial filters.
TABLE 1 ______________________________________ Type Capture Particle/Micron ______________________________________ Intermediate at least 95% 0.30 Efficiency HEPA at least 99.97% 0.30 ULPA at least 99.999% 0.12 ______________________________________
The medical industry has also adopted electrostatic media for use in filters for spirometry, anesthetic gas, pulmonary function, CPAP sleep apnea apparatus, incubation, respiratory care, breathing circuits and ventilation. The electrostatic media used for these applications is a fibrous, thermo plastic organic media. This media is supplied in grades from 15 grams per square yard to 300 grams per square yard. It is backed with a Nylon or Polyester scrim of from about 0.1 to about 1.0 ounces per square yard on at least one side, preferably both sides and sealed along all its outer edges.
The electrostatic fiber material is formed into a needle-punched, non-woven fabric capable of 99.9% efficiency in the removal of particles from 0.1 to 0.5 microns. Preferably the fibers are organic, thermoplastic mixture of a polyalkylene fiber such as polypropylene and an anionically substituted acrylic fiber. The needle-punched material is very open and some of the fibers are loose and can be dislodged from the fabric. In the manufacture of the fabric for medical applications the fibers are needled together to a layer of scrim material on the lower side. A top layer of scrim is then applied to the needled fabric to assure retention of loose fibers. The top layer seals the edges of the assembly. The efficiencies of these filters need improvement and the edge sealing operation is inefficient and increases the cost of manufacture of the media.


A user interface for a charging column having a display and a touch-sensitive surface. The display and the surface are adhesively bonded to one another by an optically clear adhesive.

In electrical engineering, the term charging station denotes any stationary apparatus or electrical installation which serves to feed energy to mobile rechargeable battery-operated devices, machines or motor vehicles by simple positioning or plugging-in, without having to remove the energy storage element—for instance the traction battery of an electric automobile. Charging stations for electric automobiles are colloquially also referred to as "electricity charging stations" and can comprise a plurality of charging points, which are characterized as "charging columns" depending on the design.
Known systems here include, in particular, DC rapid charging systems (high performance charging, HPC), such as the so-called combined charging system (CCS) widely used in Europe. In DC charging of the generic type, direct current is fed from the charging column directly into the vehicle and, for this purpose, is provided from the electricity grid by means of a powerful rectifier or at solar charging stations by means of large buffer rechargeable batteries. In the vehicle there is a battery management system, which communicates with the charging column in order to adapt the current intensity or to end the process upon reaching a capacity limit.
In this case, the power electronics are usually situated in the charging column. Since the DC connections of the charging column are directly connected to corresponding connections of the traction battery, high charging currents can thus be transmitted with low dosses, which enables short charging times.
EP2875989, which is incorporated by reference herein, discloses a charging station, the user interface of which comprises a screen unit having a touch-sensitive display surface. For fitting the screen unit in the charging station, a cutout is made in the housing of the charging station on the front side at viewing level. The screen unit is secured behind the cutout in such a way that the touch-sensitive display surface is accessible from the user side.
US2011145141, US2015077239 and WO13063306, all of which are incorporated by reference herein, relate to further relevant charging columns having displays.