A bending apparatus can preclude the generation of an undesired flaw in a workpiece during the bending of the workpiece and can readily cope with workpieces of various thicknesses. The apparatus has a die having a top groove of a W-shaped sectional profile, and a pair of blades disposed on top of the groove. The blades are supported for rotation and movement by mounting plates, and a spring biases the blades to horizontal positions atop the groove. The blades can be rotated and moved by a punch until the blades become seated in the groove. Spacers that constitute extensions of side wall surfaces of the die defining opposite sides of the groove are removable from the die and replaceable to vary the distance by which the side wall surfaces are extended in correspondence with the thickness of the workpiece to be bent.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a bending apparatus having a die and a punch for bending a sheet (i.e., a workpiece).
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Kokai Patent Publication H2-112826 discloses a bending apparatus for bending a composite (laminate) metal sheet comprising an outer and an inner metal sheet and a synthetic resin layer interposed between the two metal sheets. The purpose of this apparatus is to preclude a phenomenon of bending due to deviation of the outer and inner metal sheets. To meet this end, the apparatus comprises a first die, which has an end valley for constituting a V-shaped groove and is vertically movable, and a second die, which has wall surfaces for constituting the V-shaped groove. When the first die is pushed by the punch to be lowered to a predetermined position, its end valley becomes continuous to the inclined wall surfaces of the second die, thus completing the V-shaped groove. In a first stage of operation a V-shaped bend of short inclined surfaces is formed with the first die, and in the second stage a V-shaped bend of long inclined surfaces is formed with the first and second dies to thereby correct the bend formed in the first stage.
According to this teaching, however, there is a problem in that a flaw is provided in the workpiece along the boundary between the first and second dies.
Japanese Kokai Utility Model Publication H3-14010 discloses a bending apparatus, which, like the above bending apparatus, has a purpose of precluding the phenomenon of bending when bending a composite (laminate) metal sheet. The apparatus features a pair of steel receptacles having respective spherical or semi-cylindrical journals formed on the back side. The surfaces of the steel receptacles, on which the workpiece is set, are located on the outer side of the center of rotation of the journals. In this arrangement, in an initial stage of the bending process the workpiece undergoes the bending process while the steel plate receptacles are moved away from the bending line. Thus, the phenomenon of bending due to the pulling of the workpiece toward the bending line can be basically avoided. In addition, since the amount of friction between the workpiece and the steel receptacles is reduced during the bending process, it is possible to inhibit the generation of flaws due to the friction.
In this case, however, at the end of the bending process a gap is produced between the steel receptacles. Thus, it is impossible to apply back pressure to the outer surface of the workpiece near the radius portion, and it is thus difficult to make the bending radius smaller than a certain value. Further, a flaw is likely to be produced along the borderline between the steel receptacles and the workpiece.
Japanese Kokai Utility Model Publication H2-42718 discloses a bending apparatus which seeks to solve the above problem. This apparatus comprises a V-shaped die having a central V-shaped die groove, a pair of slidable supports of an elastic material provided at the ends of the V-shaped die, and rotary dies provided on the upper end of the slidable supports and having a semi-circular sectional profile. In the initial stage of the bending process, the workpiece is bent about its portion in contact with the punch with the descent of the punch and the rotation of the rotary dies, and at the end of the bending process the V-shaped die is brought into contact with the radius portion. Thus, accurate bending can be obtained.
However, again in this case an entire surface contact cannot be obtained although an end portion of the V-shaped die is brought into contact with the workpiece at the end of the bending process, thus posing the problem that a flaw is liable to be produced in the workpiece.
Japanese Kokai Patent Publication H2-11225 discloses a further bending apparatus, which, like the above bending apparatus, seeks to suppress the phenomenon of bending. To attain this aim, in a first step an elastic block is set in a V-shaped groove of a die for bending with a punch, and a second step of bending is performed with a workpiece reception die, which is made of two different elastic materials having different hardnesses.
However, again in this case the restoration of the elastic materials from deformation is deteriorated with the lapse of time. Therefore, the apparatus is not suitable for continuous operation. In addition, it is thought that the quality of bending is subject to deterioration with the lapse of time.
Further, the width of the V of the die that is required to preclude flaws from being produced in the workpiece is 5 to 6 times the thickness of the workpiece. In the above case, however, it is possible to cope with only a single workpiece thickness.


A truck box is provided having latch elements, one or more locking mechanisms and a keyless entry system which is operative independently of the locking mechanisms to move the latch elements to an unlatched position in order to permit opening of the lid of the truck box.

One of the most popular accessories for trucks and recreational vehicles is a truck box used to store and secure a variety of tools and other items. There are a number of different types of storage or truck boxes, including cross-over boxes, side mount boxes, chest boxes, top mount boxes, RV boxes and others. Truck boxes of this type are typically formed of aluminum tread plate, and comprise a front wall, a back wall, a bottom wall and opposed end walls which are interconnected to form a hollow interior. The truck box interior is closed by a top wall or lid pivotal between open and closed positions on a hinge mounted to the back wall, usually with the assistance of gas springs.
In order to secure the lid in the closed position, most truck boxes include a pair of latch elements each mounted to the front wall in position to releasably engage one of a corresponding pair of striker bars carried by the lid. Each latch element has a capture plate which is pivotal between a latched position in which it engages one of the striker bars on the lid, and an unlatched position wherein the striker bar is released to permit the lid to be opened. The capture plates of the latch elements must be moved to the latched and unlatched positions simultaneously, and this is achieved in most truck box designs by one or more operating rods connected between the latch elements. Movement of the operating rod(s) in one direction causes the capture plates to move to the unlatched position, and the operating rod(s) may also function to return the capture plates to a latched position upon movement in the opposite direction. In alternative designs, the capture plates may be returned to a latched position by the operation of one or more return springs or by engagement of the striker plates with the capture plates.
Truck boxes of the type described above typically include one or more locking mechanisms to secure the lid in a closed position on the box. In some designs, a locking mechanism is incorporated in one or both of the latch elements to restrict movement of the capture plate between the latched and unlatched position. Other designs employ one or more locking mechanisms which are separate from the latch elements and act directly on the operating rod(s) to move the latch elements between a latched and unlatched position.
Most locking mechanisms used in truck boxes are locked and unlocked using a key. This is often inconvenient when such boxes are mounted to a pickup truck or other vehicle at a job site, for example, where a number of individuals need access to the contents of the box. Keys may be lost or misplaced, and if only one person has a key to a given box then he or she must be present in order for another to gain access. It is undesirable to leave a truck box unlocked and unattended at a job site with tools or other valuable items inside.


An illuminating wrist exerciser includes upper and lower casing members, a ring, a rotor, a magnetic element, an illumination control circuit board, a plurality of illuminators, and a coil holder. The upper and lower casing members mate each other to form an interior space receiving the rotor therein. The upper casing member forms in a top portion thereof an opening to partially expose the rotor. Opposite ends of the rotor are rotatably coupled to the ring surrounding the rotor. The magnetic element is mounted to the ring. The illumination control circuit board and the coil holder are received in a recess defined in one of the ends of the rotor. The coil holder forms a bore in which the magnetic element is received. The coil holder carries thereon at least one pair of coils. The illuminators are distributively arranged on an outer surface of the rotor and are electrically connected to the illumination control circuit board. Electrical power is induced by the magnetic interaction between the coils of the coil holder and the magnetic element and is fed to the illumination control circuit board, which in turn controls the lighting/darkening of the illuminators to thereby provide a power-generation, illuminating wrist exerciser.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an illuminating wrist exerciser, and in particular to a wrist exerciser that features rotation based power generation and includes parts for high-performance magnetic-field induced power generation and light emission.
2. The Related Arts
Wrist exercisers are widely known in exercising and training wrist-related muscles, especially for rehabilitation and therapy purposes. Examples of the wrist exercisers are illustrated in Taiwan Utility Model No. 135058 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,800,311, wherein a wrist training sphere that is operated with rotary motion thereof is provided with structures of power generation and light-emitting diode so that forcibly pulling a rope wound around a rotor to initiate rotation of the rotor causes electromagnetic interaction in a face-to-face manner between windings mounted to the rotor and magnets mounted to a casing that houses the rotor to induce electrical power for lighting the light-emitting diodes. Such structures add extra functions and surface decorations to the wrist training devices.
However, in the conventional structures of power generation and lighting elements of the known wrist training devices, the electromagnetic interaction between the magnets and the windings suffers insufficiency of power generation due generally to a large magnet gap and high magnetic leakage, which leads to relatively high magnetic reluctance, high magnetic leakage, and relatively small magnetic flux in the electromagnetic interaction, and consequently, when the rotor is in a low speed rotation, the lighting performance of the light-emitting diodes is poor, and such a problem is only overcome by increasing the rotational speed of the rotor.
In addition, other prior art references are also known, such as Taiwan Utility Model No. 580942, which discloses an "illuminating wrist exerciser ball" having a construction similar to those disclosed in Taiwan Utility Model No. 135058 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,800,311. A difference resides in that magnetic elements are provided, on surfaces thereof, alternating and adjacent positive and negative magnetic zones (namely a plurality of opposite polarities of "N" and "S") and a slide ring and an extension of a brush are set corresponding to the alternating positive and negative magnetic zones of the magnetic elements, whereby by means of the corresponding arrangement of the slide ring and the brush, windings and light-emitting diodes are connected to generate electrical power to light the light-emitting diodes. This arrangement similarly suffers the problems of large magnet gap, high magnetic reluctance, and high magnetic leakage and consequently, poor performance of power generation and lighting of light-emitting diodes. Further, the alternating arrangement of multiple positive and negative magnetic zones makes the magnetic elements and the construction of the slide ring and the brush complicated, which causes difficult in assembling and maintenance, leading to increased costs of manufacturing and maintenance. This is adverse to the industry. Further, the slide ring, the brush, and an internal support ring induces frictional resistance, high level noise and part wearing during the rotation of the rotor, and eventually reducing the operation performance and the lifespan of the wrist training devices.


A belt tensioner (10) for a seatbelt system comprises a tensioner tube (20) having an open outlet end and a force transmission element (22) which is guided in the tensioner tube (20) and which leaves the tensioner tube (20) via the open outlet end, a gas generator (18) providing compressed gas for displacing the force transmission element (22) within the tensioner tube (20) as well as a drive wheel (16) rotated by the force transmission element (22) leaving the tensioner tube (20). There is provided a guiding component (24) surrounding the drive wheel (16) into which guiding component the force transmission element (22) enters upon leaving the tensioner tube (20). At the guiding component (24) an energy-dissipating structure (50) is provided which the force transmission element (22) contacts when it has at least substantially completely left the tensioner tube (20).

The invention relates to a pyrotechnically driven belt tensioner for a seatbelt system.
A belt tensioner serves for reducing certain influences which are affecting restraint of the vehicle occupant, before the forward displacement of the vehicle occupant and, where appropriate, the use of a force limiter will start. Said influences include the so-called film-reel effect (belt webbing loosely wound onto the belt reel) and the belt slack (belt webbing being loosely adjacent to the vehicle occupant). The belt tensioner reduces the belt slack and the film reel effect within a split second by e.g. winding webbing onto a belt reel of a belt retractor and in this way tensioning the belt webbing. The vehicle occupant thus may take part in the vehicle deceleration at an early stage. Moreover, the conditions for subsequent use of a force limiter will improve.
Usually today pyrotechnically driven belt tensioners are in use so that the high forces required for belt tensioning can be provided within a sufficiently short time.
In a known configuration of a belt tensioner a force transmission element is provided which is displaced by the gas pressure generated by a gas generator in a tensioner tube when the belt tensioner is activated. The force transmission element interacts with the belt reel and rotates the latter so as to tension the belt.


The present invention looks for large regions of white or black pixels. In those regions, it is very likely the next few pixels will continue to be the same all white/black value. The present invention replaces the actual encoding of those pixels with whether or not the multi-bit jump was a success. If the jump was unsuccessful then each of the bits unsuccessfully jumped over is encoded using a predefined location in the probability table.

Data compression systems are known in the prior art that encode a stream of digital data signals into compressed digital code signals and decode the compressed digital code signals back into the original data. Data compression refers to any process that attempts to convert data in a given format into an alternative format requiring less space than the original. The objective of data compression systems is to effect a savings in the amount of storage required to hold or the amount of time required to transmit a given body of digital information.
To be of practical utility, a general purpose digital data compression system should satisfy certain criteria. The system should have reciprocity. In order for a data compression system to possess the property of reciprocity it must be possible to re-expand or decode the compressed data back into its original form without any alteration or loss of information. The decoded and original data must be identical and indistinguishable with respect to each other. The property of reciprocity is synonymous to that of strict noiselessness used in information theory. Some applications do not require strict adherence to the property of reciprocity. One such application in particular is when dealing with graphical data. Because the human eye is not that sensitive to noise, some alteration or loss of information during the compression de-compression process is acceptable.
The system should provide sufficient performance with respect to the data rates provided by and accepted by the devices with which the data compression and de-compression systems are communicating. The rate at which data can be compressed is determined by the input data processing rate into the compression system, typically in millions of bytes per second (megabytes/sec). Sufficient performance is necessary to maintain the data rates achieved in present day disk, tape and communication systems which rates typically exceed one megabyte/sec. Thus, the data compression and decompression system must have enough data bandwidth so as to not adversely affect the overall system. The performance of data compression and decompression systems is typically limited by the computations necessary to compress and de-compress and the speed of the system components such as, random access memory (RAM), and the like, utilized to store statistical data and guide the compression and de-compression process. Performance for a compression device is characterized by the number of processor cycles required per input character under the compressor. The fewer the number of cycles, the higher the performance.
Another important criteria in the design of data compression and de-compression systems is compression effectiveness, which is characterized by the compression ratio. The compression ratio is the ratio of data size in uncompressed form divided by the size in compressed form. In order for data to be compressible, the data must contain redundancy. Compression effectiveness is determined by how effectively the compression procedure uses the redundancy in the input data. In typical computer stored data, redundancy occurs both in the nonuniform usage of individual symbology, example digits, bytes, or characters, and in frequent recurrence of symbol sequences, such as common words, blank record fields and the like.
General purpose data compression procedures are also known in the prior art, three relevant procedures being the Huffman method, the Tunstall method and the Lempel-Ziv method. The Huffman method is widely known and used, reference thereto in article of D. A. Huffman entitled "A Method For Construction Of Minimum Redundancy Codes", Proceedings IRE, 40, 10 pages 1098-1100 (September 1952). Reference to the Tunstall algorithm may be found in Doctoral thesis of B. P. Tunstall entitled "Synthesis of Noiseless Compression Codes", Georgia Institute of Technology (September 1967). Reference may be had to the Lempel-Ziv procedure in a paper authored by J. Ziv and A. Lempel entitled "A Universal Algorithm For Sequential Data Compression", IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, IT-23, 3, pages 337-343 (May, 1977).
One of the first general purpose data compression procedures developed is the Huffman method. Briefly described, the Huffman procedure maps full length segments of symbols into variable length words. The Huffman data compression procedure suffers from two limitations. Firstly, the Huffman procedure operates under the constraint that the input data to be compressed be parsed into fixed length segments of symbols. Although the Huffman procedure provides the best compression ratio that can be obtained under these constraints, when the constraint is relaxed it is possible to obtain significantly better compression ratios by utilizing other procedures. Secondly, Huffman coding requires full knowledge of the statistical characteristic of the source data. The Huffman procedure operates under the assumption that the probability with which each fixed length input segment occurs is known. This requirement of the Huffman procedure can in practice, be satisfied by the use of an adaptive version of the procedure which accumulates the necessary statistics during processing of the data. This, however, is cumbersome, and requires considerable working memory space and performs sub-optimally during adaptation.
The Tunstall algorithm, which maps variable length segments of symbols into fixed length binary words, is complimentary to the Huffman procedure with the fixed length constraints now applied to the output segments instead of the input segments. Like the Huffman procedure, the Tunstall procedure requires a foreknowledge of the source data probabilities. Again this foreknowledge requirement can be satisfied to some degree by utilizing an adaptive version which accumulates the statistics during processing of the data.
The Lempel-Ziv procedure maps variable length segments of the symbols into variable length binary words. It is asymptotically optimal when there are no constraints on the input or output segments. In this procedure the input data string is parsed into adaptively grown segments, each segment consisting of an exact copy of an earlier portion of the input string suffixed by one new symbol from the input data. The copy which is to be made is the longest possible and is not constrained to coincide with any earlier parsed segment. The code word which replaces the segment in the output contains information consisting of a pointer to where the earlier copied portion begins, the length of the copy, and the new symbol.
It would appear that Huffman or Shannon-Fano coding is the perfect means of compressing data. However, this is not the case. As mentioned above, these coding methods are optimal when and only when the symbol probabilities are integral powers of 1/2, which is usually not the case.
The technique of arithmetic coding does not have this restriction: It achieves the same effect as treating the message as one single unit (a technique which would, for Huffman coding, require enumeration of every single possible message), and thus attains the theoretical entropy bound to compression efficiency for any source.
In arithmetic coding, one decision after another is encoded to define successfully smaller, lesser included intervals along a number line. Additional information on arithmetic coding can be found in "An Introduction To Arithmetic Encoding"; by G. G. Langdon, Jr., IBM Journal of Research and Development, Vol. 28, n. 2, March 1984, 135-149; and "Arithmetic Compression Code Control Parameters Approximation"; by D. R. Helman, G. G. Langdon, Jr., and J. J. Rissanen, Vol. 23, n. 11, April 1981, 5112-5114 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,905,297, "Arithmetic Coding Encoder And Decoder System", Langdon, Jr. et al. all incorporated herein by reference.
As noted in the above articles, arithmetic coding provides that each decision has a plurality of possible exclusive outcomes "or events". Each outcome or event is represented in data by a symbol. In the imaging environment, for example, each decision may correspond to whether or not a given pixel is black. The decision outcome being represented by a Y (or YES) symbol if the pixel is black or an N (or NO) symbol if the pixel is not black. Thus, a plurality of decisions may then be represented by a sequence of symbols, e.g., YNNY . . . .
In accordance with prior arithmetic coding teachings, a probability line has a current interval defined thereon. The first current interval is 0 to 1. The current interval is divided into segments in which segment corresponds to one possible outcome for the next decision. Where there are only two possible outcomes for each decision, the current interval is divided into two segments. The length of each segment is based on its respective associated probability. The respective probabilities may remain fixed or may adapt as decision data is entered.
It is the correlating of large segments to symbols which occur with greater frequency that leads to the compression effect. In the former cited article ("An Introduction To Arithmetic Encoding"), a 4-symbol arithmetic coding example is set forth in which each decision can result in an "a" event (having a 50% probability), a "b" event (having a 25% probability), a "c" event (having a 12.5% probability), or a "d" event (having a 12.5% probability). Representing the four events in binary form would require two bits for each decision, where the events would be represented respectively by 00, 01, 10, 11. For three decisions such as "aab" which is highly likely, the straight forward encoding data would be 00 00 01; requiring six bits. However, as observed in the article at page 137, the arithmetic coding approach permits the sequence "aab" to be represented by the value 0.001. Instead of six bits, the information can be represented in three bits. This conservation of bits results as successive events having relatively high associated probabilities occur.
The conservation deteriorates if numerous events occur for which there are low probabilities and relatively short line segments. With the above noted probabilities, a sequence of events "dd" would be represented with encoded data as 11 11 whereas, by arithmetic coding, the "dd" events would be represented by 111111. Provided that the larger segments in fact correspond to events that occur with correspondingly greater frequency, the additional bits needed for less probable symbols are outweighed by the conservation achieved when more probable symbols occur.
When looking for the best lossless compression ratios, arithmetic coding is the state of the art, especially when considering adaptive algorithms. When the arithmetic coder is given a good context model, the compression ratios improve from 200% to 300% over other available LZ based techniques. Additionally, in many cases where the data is nearly random (multi-bit data/photographs), arithmetic coding can obtain a 20% compression when LZ would expand the image.
Memory has become a problem for many systems. In particular, in a laser printer system, 4 MB of RAM is now required to allow the printer to handle 600 DPI data at 12 ppm. The next generation products will have 32 ppm engines with 600 DPI data at 2 bits/pixel. The amount of data has more than doubled, but the memory constraint of 4 MB is constant. The reason the data has more than doubled is due to the page pipe architecture needed to keep several pages in the printer at once. While the current page is very nearly through the printer, the next page begins to move. Descriptions of both pages are needed to keep the printer streaming and still allow for recovery from paper jams or other errors.
Perhaps one of the most serious drawbacks of arithmetic coding is the data throughput performance. Some significantly complicated logic is required to sustain just one bit/cycle performance. This has created a dilemma for the imaging systems because the following constraints have diverged:
Lossless Compression Required for Fidelity in Most Areas PA1 Algorithm Must Adapt to Many Forms of Data PA1 High Compression Ratios--More Data in Systems, Cost Pressure PA1 Higher Data Throughput/Data Needed Real Time
It is presently possible, but difficult to produce arithmetic coding hardware capable of operating at a 66 MHz rate. This yields between 6.0 MB/s to 7.5 MB/s data rates when using the standard one bit at a time approach. The next generation printers need data at a rate of 5.5 MB/s. Real time constraints and the overhead associated with controlling the hardware compressor indicate that the single bit context model is not acceptable. A minimum of 9 MB/s is required to allow for this overhead.

Arithmetic coding compressor for encoding multiple bit values


A method of sizing bundled resource blocks (RBs) having at least one user equipment (UE)-specific demodulation reference signal in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system is disclosed. According to one embodiment, the method includes: receiving configuration information related to at least one UE-specific demodulation reference signal; receiving a plurality of resource blocks (RBs) from a network, wherein the plurality of resource blocks comprises the at least one UE-specific demodulation reference signal, at least one cell-specific demodulation reference signal or data, wherein a number of the plurality of RBs is dependent on a size of a system bandwidth, the size of the system bandwidth corresponding to one of four size ranges; and processing at least one of the received plurality of RBs by bundling the plurality of RBs into RB bundles, wherein the size of each RB bundle is based on the one of the four size ranges.

1. Field
Embodiments of the present invention relate to the bundling of resource blocks (RBs) in a user equipment (UE) performing channel estimation based on a reference signal.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) is a 3rd Generation (3G) asynchronous mobile communication system operating in wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) based on European systems, global system for mobile communications (GSM) and general packet radio services (GPRS). The long term evolution (LTE) of UMTS is under development by the 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP), which standardized UMTS.
In an LTE communication system, a base station may utilize one of several antenna diversity schemes in transmitting data to a mobile terminal (or user equipment (UE)). These antenna diversity schemes correspond to the number of transmit antennas (or transmit antenna ports) used by the base station in transmitting the data to the mobile terminal. Transmissions to the mobile terminal include reference signals used for demodulation of transmitted data.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


The method of selectively climate controlling the formulation and distribution to points of sale to customers of pet food.

This invention relates generally to methods of formulation and distribution of pet food to optimize nutrition of pets; more particularly, it concerns modification of ingredient formulation of pet foods, on a seasonal basis, as related to distribution destination, and under different climate conditions.
Multiple ingredients are currently included in pet food distributed in containers. The ingredient formulations are established company-by-company, as applicable throughout the United States, and throughout the year.
There is need for a way to enhance pet food nutrient effectiveness, under different weather conditions, considering that at any locality, weather and temperature will change, on a seasonal basis.
It becomes impractical and highly inconvenient (measuring, weighing and calculating) for the pet owner to change pet food formulation on a day-to-day, or week-to-week basis, as weather changes, considering that a large number (typically over 20) of ingredients are included in a typical formulation, and a weight percent balance of ingredients is required.
There is need for a simple, effective pet food supply process, to overcome these problems and difficulties. In this regard, there is need for efficient variance in pet food supply, to maintain optimum metabolic function in companion animals, at varying climate conditions.

Selected climate change control of pet food formulation and distribution


Provided is a self-adjustable universal spanner employing a variable jaw sizing feature including: a spanner head having an upper slide groove and a lower groove for inserting a bolt therebetween; a ratcheting size-adjustment member slidable along the upper groove to fasten and unfasten the bolt; and a jaw sizing member movable in the lower groove in a stepped manner to vary a width between the ratcheting size-adjustment member and the jaw sizing member so that the spanner can fasten and unfasten various sizes of bolts. In addition, a pair of bolt holding members may be installed between the upper and lower grooves. Therefore, the present invention is capable of fastening or unfastening more sizes of bolts than that of a single spanner head. In addition, it is possible to fasten bolts and nuts using a user's one hand by employing a bolt holding member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a self-adjustable universal spanner and, more particularly, to a self-adjustable universal spanner employing a size enlarger capable of changing a dimension of the spanner in order to fasten or unfasten various bolts and nuts having different diameters.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, spanners for fastening or unfastening bolts and nuts may be classified into a general spanner set, a ratchet spanner set, a monkey spanner, and so on. The general spanner set is comprised of a plurality of spanners having different sizes so that they should perform repeated operations of insertion and separation into/from bolts and nuts, thereby making a user perform troublesome operations. The ratchet spanner set includes a ratchet handle for continuously operating the spanner, and sockets having various sizes inserted into the ratchet handle. The monkey spanner can adjust its size by rotating a screw to accommodate various sizes of bolts and nuts; however, it is also troublesome to operate the spanner due to repeated insertion and separation.
In addition, in the case of the conventional ratchet spanner set, since the ratchet handle is operated spaced apart from a bolt by a large gap due to the socket inserted into a head of the bolt, a user should use one hand to grip the ratchet handle and the other hand to grip the socket on the bolt head in order to perform a stable operation. Further, the general spanner set and the monkey spanner also require using both hands to prevent the bolt head from separating from the spanner.
Moreover, the conventional spanners should have a plurality of spanners or sockets corresponding to sizes of bolts and nuts. Therefore, when any one of the tools is lost during the operation, the operation may be stopped due to the lost size. In addition, due to inconvenience of storage and management of numerous parts, it is very difficult to use the conventional spanners in dangerous environment such as a high attitude and so on.
In order to solve the problems, spanners disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,202,516 and 6,945,143 have been proposed. However, the spanner of '516 patent has a structure that a bracket is installed at an outer surface of the spanner head to prevent a ratchet member and a size adjustment member from retracting and separating from a slide groove, still remaining problems such as lack of durability and inconvenience of use. In addition, in the spanner of '143 patent, a semi-circular projection of a ratchet and side-adjustment member is inserted into a semi-circular slide groove formed at an upper jaw of a spanner head to be securely slid along the groove, a sloped surface of the adjustment member is in contact with a bottom surface of the slide groove of the spanner head, and an upper surface of the adjustment member is in contact with a sloped surface of the upper jaw of the spanner head, thereby making the adjustment member turn over to prevent retreat of the adjustment member. However, an angle between the bottom surface of the lower jaw of the spanner head and the bottom surface of the slide groove has a range of 147±3° due to small friction therebetween, thereby accommodating only two or three sizes of bolts. In order to accommodate more sizes, the head should have a larger size, and the ratchet and size-adjustment member should be larger, thereby generating problems such as lack of durability and bolt braking.

Self-adjustable universal spanner with variable jaw spacing


A system (100) and method (400) for touchless object control is provided. The system can include a sensing unit (110) for capturing a first signal (677) reflected off a first object (151) at a first time and a second signal (679) reflected off the first object at a second time, a phase detector (116) for identifying a first phase difference (601) between the first signal and the second signal, and a processor (117) for updating an expected location of the first object using the first phase difference. A first object (143) can control a movement of a second object (124) using touchless control.

1. Field
The present embodiments of the invention generally relates to the field of touchless motion sensing, and more particularly to input pointing devices.
2. Introduction
Motion detection systems can include radar systems, video camera monitoring systems, outdoor lighting systems, and medical diagnostic systems. Motion detection systems generally include a sensor which converts a physical signal into an electronic signal. The sensor performs the task of capturing the signal and converting it to a suitable format for processing. A motion detection system can include a input device for interpreting the sensory information and identifying whether an object has moved.


Apparatus for applying uniform layers of adhesive to contoured surfaces of a substrate comprises, in one embodiment, a die head mounted to an adhesive dispenser and having contoured first and second die faces offset relative to each other. One of the die faces is operable to contact the contoured surface of the substrate, and a contoured slot outlet in fluid communication with the adhesive dispenser is disposed between the die faces for applying adhesive material to the contoured surface of the substrate. In another embodiment of the invention for simultaneously applying adhesive to multiple non-coplanar surfaces of a substrate, the die head comprises multiple non-coplanar die faces, each having first and second die face portions offset relative to each other. One of the die face portions of each multiple die face is operable to contact a respective non-coplanar surface of the substrate. A slot outlet communicates with each of the multiple die faces for applying adhesive material to each of the multiple surfaces of the substrate. In yet another embodiment of the invention for applying adhesive material to flexible members of a substrate, a die head comprises first and second die face portions offset relative to each other and contoured to provide a uniform layer of adhesive to the flexible member of the substrate. Methods of applying uniform layers of adhesive to contoured surfaces of a substrate are also disclosed.

Contact and non-contact slot nozzle dies for applying uniform layers of adhesive material to planar surfaces of a substrate are known in the art, particularly in the application of adhesives to carton flaps and moving webs, for example. Several known contact and non-contact slot nozzle dies for use with adhesive dispensers include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,774,109 and 5,389,151, both assigned to Nordson Corporation of Westlake, Ohio, assignee of the present invention. As the terminology would imply, "contact" slot nozzle dies are adapted to contact the substrate during application of the adhesive material, while "non-contact" slot nozzle dies, on the other hand, have a defined spacing or gap between the elongated slot outlet of the die and the moving substrate during the adhesive application process.
In the "contact" application of adhesive material to a substrate, a die head structure is typically mounted to an adhesive dispenser and includes an adhesive channel which terminates in an elongated slot outlet at a lower end of the contact die. The contact die generally includes a back plate, an intermediate shim, and a front plate which are fastened to an adapter mounted to the adhesive dispenser. The intermediate shim typically includes a cut-out region which defines an adhesive channel between the back and front plates of the contact die. The adhesive channel terminates in the elongated slot outlet which is disposed generally transversely to the direction of travel of the moving substrate. The contact die has lower surfaces which lie in a horizontal plane to contact the planar surface of the substrate during the adhesive application process. The back plate of the contact die serves as a doctor blade to remove excess adhesive from the planar surface of the substrate to achieve a uniform layer of adhesive on the substrate.
While "contact" slot nozzle dies have been used widely in the past for applying uniform layers of hot melt adhesive to planar surfaces of a substrate, such as to carton flaps and moving webs, there is a need for a die head structure which is suitable for contact application of adhesive to non-planar, contoured surfaces of a substrate. Additionally, there is a need for a contact die head which is adapted to simultaneously apply uniform layers of adhesive to multiple non-coplanar surfaces of a substrate. Moreover, there is a need for a contact die head structure which accommodates for flexibility in the substrate during the contact application of adhesive.
In the automobile manufacturing industry, for example, there is a need for a contact die structure which is adapted to apply hot melt adhesive layers to contoured surfaces of an automobile weatherstrip. As shown in FIG. 1, a prior art process for the continuous in-line manufacture and flocking of automobile weatherstrips is shown generally as numeral 10. As is know in the art, automobile weatherstrips are designed to be attached around the inside perimeter of a door window frame for providing an impervious barrier or seal between the frame and the window glass. Weatherstrips are generally made of cured rubber material and have a particular configuration or profile for attachment about the perimeter of the door window frame. It is customary in the industry to apply flocking material to surfaces of the weatherstrip which contact the window glass to reduce undesirable friction between the contacting surfaces. The flocking material also serves a cosmetic purpose to provide a decorative surface to the weatherstrip which is partially visible from inside the passenger cabin.
In the known prior art process 10 of FIG. 1, raw material is fed into an extruder 12 which has a die outlet configured to provide the desired profile of the weatherstrip. The raw material is heated within the extruder 12 and forced under pressure through the die outlet. The heated and cured rubber weatherstrip is then conveyed to a water bath 14 where it is cooled before being transported to an adhesive application booth 16.
Adhesive application booth 16 is conventionally used in the in-line manufacturing process 10 to apply solvent-based adhesives to surfaces of the weatherstrip which are to be flocked. Typically, the solvent-based adhesive, such as Lord Corporation's "Flock-Loc" Product No. 7615, has a low flash point so a Halon exhaust system, shown generally as 18, is required to evacuate hazardous solvent effluents 20 from the booth. The solvent-based adhesive is typically dripped (at room temperature) onto selected surfaces of the moving weatherstrip, while brushes or other flexible-type applicators are used to spread the adhesive into layers having desired width and thickness. An exit conveyor 22 is provided downstream of the adhesive booth 16 to transport the weatherstrip to a conventional flocking booth 24 where flocking fibers are applied to the adhesively coated surfaces of the weatherstrip. After the flocking step, the weatherstrip is typically cooled through a cooling conveyor and water bath 26 before being passed downstream for further processing and installation.
It will be appreciated that the application of solvent-based adhesives to the weatherstrip in the prior art process has several disadvantages. The solvent-based adhesives typically have a low viscosity so it is difficult to effectively control application of the adhesive in a uniform layer to selected surfaces of the weatherstrip. Additionally, the brush or flexible-type applicators used to spread the adhesive generally require extensive manual set-up and adjustment in clamp fixtures, and do not provide adequate sharp edge control of the adhesive layers. Moreover, the hazardous nature of the solvent-based flocking adhesives presents environmental and operational concerns in the automobile weatherstrip manufacturing process. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that uniformity of the adhesive layers on the weatherstrip is critical in the flocking operation for achieving flocked surfaces which have complete coverage with sharply defined edges.
Accordingly, it is an objective of the present invention to provide an improved adhesive dispensing system which eliminates the use of solvent-based adhesives in the process of manufacturing and flocking automobile weatherstrips. It is also an objective of the present invention to provide an improved adhesive dispensing system which applies more uniform layers of adhesive on selected surfaces of the weatherstrip, with sharper edge control. Moreover, it is also an objective of the present invention to provide an improved adhesive dispensing system which is readily interchangeable to accommodate for different profiles of weatherstrips which may be encountered in the in-line manufacturing and flocking process.

Method and apparatus for applying uniform layers of adhesive to contoured surfaces of a substrate


A portable electronic device (10) includes a body section (11), a film keypad (12), a printed circuit board (13) and a positioning device. The body section (11) defines an opening (111). The film keypad (12) is mounted to the body section (11). The positioning device is configured for aligning the film keypad (12) with the printed circuit board (13).

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to portable electronic devices, and particularly, to a portable electronic device having a film keypad assembly.
2. Description of Related Art
With the ongoing development of technologies, keypad assemblies used in portable electronic devices such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) are becoming smaller and thinner.
A film keypad assembly typically includes a film and a printed circuit board (PCB). The film keypad assembly has a plurality of key patterns arranged on one side of the film and a plurality of protrusions protruding from the opposite side of the film to the key patterns. The protrusions are used to abut against electrical contacting points of the PCB.
However, when bonding the film to the PCB, the protrusions may not accurately abut against the corresponding electrical contacting points due to alignment errors.
Therefore, there is room for improvement within the art.


Disclosed herein is an intelligent robot cleaner. The intelligent robot cleaner primarily senses foreign matter sucked through a suction unit under the control of a control unit, and secondarily senses an article collected in a collection unit, if articles other than the foreign matter are sensed, thus allowing a use to recognize accurate information about the article collected in the collection unit and preventing valuables or small articles from being lost. The intelligent robot device may be associated with an artificial intelligence module, a unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), a robot, an augmented reality (AR) device, a virtual reality (VR) device, devices related to 5G services, and the like.

A conventional robot cleaner sucks dust and foreign matter from a floor surface corresponding to a cleaning target region, while moving along a preset travel path. The travel path along which the conventional robot cleaner moves is preset. Since there may be various obstacles on the travel path, people try to find solutions to the problem.
In order to cope with the obstacles, the conventional robot cleaner generally identifies the obstacle that hinders the robot cleaner from moving, and then sets a travel path to bypass the corresponding obstacle.
Furthermore, while the conventional robot cleaner cleans along a predetermined travel path, the cleaner may not identify small articles or valuables as the obstacle and may suck them. Thus, the conventional robot cleaner is problematic in that it continues to operate without recognizing the small articles or valuables as the obstacle and thus the valuables may be lost.


Described is an optical imaging system which a plurality of optical imaging devices coupled to one another via a communication network. Each of the optical imaging devices may include an apparatus for optically reading encoded data and storing the data in a data file, a voice recording apparatus for recording a voice message and storing the message in a message file and a voice reproducing apparatus. In addition, the device may include a file handling apparatus for assembling a transmission file and addressing the transmission file to an intended recipient one of the plurality of devices. The transmission file may include the data and message files. The transmission file is configured so that, upon receipt by the recipient device, the message file is automatically executed and played. Furthermore, the device may include a communication apparatus for communicating with other devices via the network, wherein the communication apparatus forwards the transmission file to the recipient device via the network. Thus, when the transmission device receives the transmission file, the message file is played and the data file may be displayed to the recipient.

A conventional scanner/imager is capable of capturing data, such as bar codes, images, etc. Such data may be transmitted, via a network, to other devices where the data may be viewed/utilized by a user. The scanners may be mobile and have a wide variety of utilization in different industries. Such mobile scanners may also communicate using a wireless communication network.
For example, a check-out clerk in a retail store may need a price check for a particular product. The check-out clerk would contact, e.g., via radio, a floor clerk. The floor clerk would have to find the particular product in the store and check the price displayed. If the displayed price does not match to the price shown by scanning the bar code of the product using a wireless scanner, the floor clerk has to contact a computer clerk. The computer clerk, using a main computer which holds pricing data, finds the price for the product and makes appropriate adjustment. The floor clerk check the price of the product using the wireless scanner again; and if that price matches to the displayed price, the floor clerk would contact, via radio, the check-out clerk to inform him of the correct price for that product.

System and method for voice/data messaging application


Signal routing resource tiles that can be manipulated as circuit "cells" in that they can be readily characterized and implemented on a programmable logic device, e.g., a field programmable gate array (FPGA). In one embodiment, vertical placement and horizontal placement routing resource tiles are provided. Routing resources tiles may be selectively added in areas of the programmable logic device determined to be prone to high signal congestion, e.g., the central portions of the array, and along the array perimeter. The additional routing resource tiles simplify routing for complex logic functions and increase utilization of configurable logic blocks (CLBs) forming the array. The tiles can be positioned within the array in any position horizontally or vertically within the CLB array. Specifically, placement can be either in the core of the chip or along the periphery with each tile providing programmable connections to the existing routing resources (e.g., input/output ports) within the CLBs. A corner tile is also provided that permits interconnection between horizontal and vertical tiles. The tiles are modular in nature so the number of tiles provided within an array and their placement are determined based on the array's particular need for routing resources, e.g., an array can have one, two or more tiles associated with a row or column of CLBs in areas of the chip where congestion is typically encountered. Each tile of the present invention can also include a plurality of switch matrices, buffers, or other active gates to facilitate signal routing.

Programmable integrated circuits such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs) are examples of integrated circuit devices that have an array of programmable logic blocks surrounded by peripheral input/output blocks. Also located within the array are signal routing resources that are programmable. Programmable logic blocks are often referred to as configurable logic blocks (CLBs). CLBs may be configured to implement specific logic functions selected from a macro cell library. Many manufacturers of ASICs, FPGAs or CPLDs have developed extensive libraries of logic functions that may be implemented in the CLBs. As is well understood in the art, FPGAs and CPLDs may be configured to rapidly perform desired logic functions to shorten the design and fabrication time schedule of a custom integrated circuit device.
Typically, each CLB has a plurality of input ports (for example, 15 inputs) which may include signals, clock and control inputs, and a plurality of output ports (for example, 5 outputs). Using the programmable routing resources discussed above, each CLB input and output port (e.g., "input" and "output") can be programmably connected by interconnect segments to other selected CLB outputs and its input or to the input/output blocks. In this manner, circuit designers can implement complex logic functions on the integrated circuit device. These interconnect segments are laid out in areas of the device between the CLBs and between the CLBs and the input/output blocks reserved for such interconnections. The segments are typically routed in either a horizontal or vertical direction with, by way of example, the horizontal metal segments routed in a layer of metal either above or below the vertical metal segments.
As manufacturing techniques improve, the size of the CLBs decreases and thereby the number of CLBs that can be placed within a programmable logic device increases. As the number of CLBs that can be provided within an array increases, the complexity of logic functions that can programmed onto the integrated circuit device also increases. However, as the number of CLBs increases, signal routing between CLBs and input/output blocks becomes a major problem for circuit designers. As is well known in the art, routing the interconnections between large numbers of CLBs is a very difficult task that: (1) requires sophisticated placement and routing application software; and (2) demands large amounts of routing resources, (e.g., routing time is a function of the routing resources).
In prior art programmable logic devices, the locations of the signal routing resources are predefined. In effect, unlike the CLBS, the signal routing resources of the prior art are not modular, e.g., they are not provided in discrete "cells" that can be placed within the array. Therefore, a signal routing resource allocation or design that is operable for an N.times.N array can supply extremely insufficient amount of interconnects for a larger array (e.g., 2N.times.2N).
Therefore, a significant limitation on the complexity of logic functions that can be implemented on the integrated circuit device is attributed to a lack of sufficient routing resources for interconnecting CLBs within a programmable logic array. In view of this limitation, it is a common practice to fully utilize all routing resources within a programmable logic array long before all of the available CLBs can be utilized. As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, routing congestion usually occurs worst in the middle of the circuit or in other known areas of the circuit. CLB "under-utilization" is expensive because the price of integrated circuit devices is highly dependent on the physical dimension of the device and full CLB utilization is desired.
One method to increase CLB utilization is to manually lay-out a portion of the routing resources ("interconnects"). For instance, this method would provide for manually redesigning the predefined routing resource design for a programmable logic device based on its array size. However, manual lay-out is a time consuming and expensive task that is prone to mistakes. Further, it is difficult and time consuming to run design verification and simulation software on circuits having at least a portion of the interconnections manually redone thereby increasing the possibility that design errors will not be detected until after release of the circuit. Lastly, since the number of array sizes is only limited by semiconductor fabrication equipment, this method can require a new interconnect design for each array size.
One method to increase signal routing resources within a programmable array is to increase the resource allotment within the macro cell defining the CLB. However, doing so can require modification of the macro cell library of logic functions when the macro cells include the interconnect segments. Modification of the macro cell library is a time consuming effort and, once modified, each macro cell must be resimulated and proper operation verified, which is an expensive and time consuming task. Also, modifying each macro cell can be unnecessary because routing congestion usually occurs in particular selected targeted areas, as indicated above. If the above is done, then the die size increases as well as the cost thereof and, in addition, many routing resources may be left unused.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a signal routing design that provides a more modular mechanism for providing signal routing resources to a programmable logic array. Further, it would be desirable to provide, in a system as above, additional routing channels in selected areas of the programmable arrays where signal congestion typically is encountered. Finally, it would be desirable to provide the above within a circuit design that does not require modification of the CLB macro cell design so that existing libraries can be used to provide new, high density, device families that have significant numbers of CLBs on the device.

Tile-based modular routing resources for high density programmable logic device


According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided an oral fluid collection device. The oral fluid collection device comprises a handle, a swab holder, and a swab. The swab is in the form of a hollow tube of absorbent material coaxially located about the swab holder, such that the swab is supported by the swab holder along the entire length of the swab.

Oral fluid is now often used as a diagnostic matrix for the detection of analytes such as antibodies, antigens, hormones and pharmaceutical drugs including drugs of abuse. The main advantages of oral fluid over other biological fluids are that oral fluid is easily accessible by non-invasive means, does not require experience in collection, as is the case with blood, and can be easily collected under observation. As such, oral fluid is used in laboratory-based and point-of-care tests for the detection of drugs of abuse, viruses and bacteria like HIV and Helicobacter pylori, therapeutic drug monitoring and DNA typing. Oral fluid is now also the preferred and most convenient matrix for testing motorists driving under the influence of drugs.
It is desirable that the procedure for using oral fluid as a diagnostic matrix should involve a rapid collection phase (important for on-site testing), the collection of a sufficient volume for immediate and subsequent analysis, and the ability to extract the analyte under investigation from the oral fluid.
Usually, oral fluid is collected by placing some form of an absorbent material in the mouth followed by extraction of the oral fluid from the absorbent material, which can be made of cotton, cellulose, rayon or any other suitable material. There are several devices described in the prior art for the collection of oral fluid. For example, WO2006/064285 describes an analyte collection apparatus that can be used for collecting oral fluid, wherein an absorbent pad is releasably gripped by a set of fingers at the end of a handle. As such, this device requires that the absorbent material is robust enough to swab a subject's mouth without the risk of mechanical failure of the material during the process, and therefore that the absorbent material is of a sufficiently high density to provide this robustness. However, the higher the density of the absorbent material, the slower rate of the sample collection and the poorer the analyte recovery. The higher density of the absorbent material therefore compromises the performance of its saliva collection function. Furthermore, the device has no means of indicating that a sufficient volume of saliva has been collected.
WO2008/012566 describes a device for the collection of oral fluid wherein a cotton or rayon swab is woven onto the end of a shaft. A glaze may then be applied over the surface of the swab to prevent disintegration of the swab in use. Without the glaze the swab would be required to be of sufficiently high density to prevent disintegration. In either case, the high density of the material or the applied glaze causes a reduction in the saliva collection performance of the device.


Disclosed and claimed are novel Bacillus thuringiensis isolates, pesticidal toxins, and genes. The subject invention also provides novel methods of controlling diamond back moths.

Insects and other pests cost farmers billions of dollars annually in crop losses and in the expense of keeping these pests under control. The losses caused by insect pests in agricultural production environments include decrease in crop yield, reduced crop quality, and increased harvesting costs.
The soil microbe Bacillus thuringiensis (B.t.) is a Gram-positive, spore-forming bacterium characterized by parasporal crystalline protein inclusions. These inclusions often appear microscopically as distinctively shaped crystals. The proteins can be highly toxic to pests and specific in their toxic activity. Certain B.t. toxin genes have been isolated and sequenced, and recombinant DNA-based B.t. products have been produced and approved for use. In addition, with the use of genetic engineering techniques, new approaches for delivering these B.t. endotoxins to agricultural environments are under development, including the use of plants genetically engineered with endotoxin genes for insect resistance and the use of stabilized intact microbial cells as B.t. endotoxin delivery vehicles (Gaertner, F. H., L. Kim [1988] TIBTECH 6:S4–S7). Thus, isolated B.t. endotoxin genes are becoming commercially valuable.
Höfte and Whiteley classified B.t. crystal protein genes into four major classes (Höfte, H., H. R. Whiteley [1989] Microbiological Reviews 52(2):242–255). The classes were CryI (Lepidoptera-specific), CryII (Lepidoptera- and Diptera-specific), CryIII (Coleoptera-specific), and CryIV (Diptera-specific). The discovery of strains specifically toxic to other pests has been reported (Feitelson, J. S., J. Payne, L. Kim [1992] Bio/Technology 10:271–275). CryV has been proposed to designate a class of toxin genes that are nematode-specific. Lambert et al. (Lambert, B., L. Buysse, C. Decock, S. Jansens, C. Piens, B. Saey, J. Seurinck, K. van Audenhove, J. Van Rie, A. Van Vliet, M. Peferoen [1996] Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 62(1):80–86) describe the characterization of a Cry9 toxin active against lepidopterans. Published PCT applications WO 94/05771 and WO 94/24264 also describe B.t. isolates active against lepidopteran pests. Gleave et al. ([1991] JGM 138:55–62), Shevelev et al. ([1993] FEBS Lett. 336:79–82; and Smulevitch et al. ([1991] FEBS Lett. 293:25–26) also describe B.t. toxins. Many other classes of B.t. genes have now been identified.
WO 94/21795, WO 96/10083, related U.S. patents, and Estruch, J. J. et al. (1996) PNAS 93:5389–5394 describe toxins obtained from Bacillus microbes, wherein the toxins were purportedly produced during vegetative cell growth. These toxins were thus termed vegetative insecticidal proteins (VIP). These toxins were reported to be distinct from crystal-forming δ-endotoxins. These applications make specific reference to toxins designated Vip1A(a), Vip1A(b), Vip2A(a), Vip2A(b), Vip3A(a), and Vip3A(b). See also Lee et al., AEM vol. 69, no. 8 (August 2003), pages 4648–4657, for a discussion of Vip3 mechanism of action and truncation. There are no known reports of Vip3 proteins having activity against diamondback moths (Plutella xylostella).
Diamondback moths are known to develop resistance to various chemical pesticides, as well as some B.t. Cry toxins such as Cry1Ab, Cry1Ac, and Cry1C. See, e.g., Syed, A. R. (1992), Insecticide resistance in diamondback moth in Malaysia, pp. 437–442, in N. S. Talekar (ed.) Management of Diamondback Moth and Other Pests: Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop, AVRDC, Taiwan; Shelton, A. M., et al. (1993), Resistance of diamondback moth to Bacillus thuringiensis subspecies in the field, J. Econ. Entomol. 86:697–705; Tabashnik, B. E., et al. (1990), Field development of resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis in diamondback moth, J. Econ. Entomol. 83:1671–1676; Tabashnik, B. E., et al. (1993), Increasing efficiency of bioassays: evaluating resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis in diamondback moth, J. Econ. Entomol. 86:635–644; Tanada, H. (1992), Occurrence of resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis in diamondback moth, and results of trials for integrated control in a watercress greenhouse, pp. 165–173, in N. S. Talekar (ed.) Management of Diamondback Moth and Other Crucifer Pests: Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop, AVRDC, Taiwan; Zhao, J. Z., et al. (1993), On-farm insecticide resistance monitoring methods for diamondback moth, Acta Agriculturae Sinica 1(1):(in press); Zhu, G. R., et al. (1991), Insecticide resistance and management of diamondback moth and imported cabbage worm in P. R. China, Resistant Pest Management Newsletter 3(2):25–26; Tabashnik, B. E., (1994), Evolution of resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis, Annual Review of Entomology 39:47–49; Metz, T. D., et al. (1995), Transgenic broccoli expressing a Bacillus thuringiensis insecticidal crystal protein: Implications for pest resistance management strategies, Molecular Breeding 1:309–317; Perez, C. J., et al. (1995), Effect of application technology and Bacillus thuringiensis subspecies on management of B. thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki-resistant diamondback moth (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae), J. Econ. Entomol. 88:1113–1119; Shelton, A. M., Jr., et al. (1993), Resistance of diamondback moth (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae) to Bacillus thuringiensis subspecies in the field, J. Econ. Entomol. 86:697–705; Tang, J. D., et al. (1996), Toxicity of Bacillus thuringiensis spore and crystal protein to resistant diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella), Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 62:564–569; Zhao, J. Z., et al. (2001), Different cross-resistance patterns in the diamondback moth (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae) resistant to Bacillus thuringiensis toxin Cry1C, Journal of Economic Entomology 94(6):1547–1552; Cao, J., et al. (1999), Transgenic broccoli with high levels of Bacillus thuringiensis Cry1C protein control diamondback moth resistant to Cry1A or Cry1C, Molecular Breeding, 5(2):131–141.
New classes of toxins and genes are described in WO 98/18932. They are distinct from those disclosed in WO 94/21795, WO 96/10083, WO 98/44137, and Estruch et al.

Polynucleotides, pesticidal proteins, and novel methods of using them


Particularly, a system and method are disclosed that enable an author of a subsection of a document quickly to locate referenced information in other parts of the document or different documents prepared by other authors and then incorporate that information in their own document. An author tags information in their document that other authors might wish to import. Each time the document is updated, or as requested by the author, the author's tags and other tags that reference information that is importable by default (e.g., section headings, figures, tables) are exported to a tag repository that is accessible to all other authors. The tag repository also holds the tags generated by other authors from different documents. Using information finding/linking programs any of the authors can search the tag repository and select tags corresponding to information they would like to import into their own documents. The information can be imported by reference, by hypertext link, or by simple copying, among other techniques.

A document preparation project, such as writing the user manuals for the Unix operating system, can involve many authors collectively writing tens of manuals comprising thousands of pages. In such a project an author of one manual section often needs to reference or include in their section data or information from different sections and/or manuals.
In a conventional document preparation system an author needing to find such information must laboriously scan the other sections and/or manuals until they find the file that contains the desired information.
Once an author finds the desired information, they can employ one of many prior art mechanisms to incorporate the found information in the target document. For example, a hypertext link that references the desired information can be inserted into the target document that causes the linked information to be printed out whenever the target document is printed.
Today, this method is generally only possible when the link and the cross-referenced material are in the same manual. This method does not work in any commercially-available system when information needs to be accessed across multiple manuals. However, this too might also be possible given World Wide Web technology. As an alternative to automatic incorporation the author can simply copy the information into their own section.
The prior art document preparation methodology becomes unmanageably complex and inefficient when many authors from different groups and in different physical locations cooperate to write multiple manuals of a large product or project. Additional complexity is added when the documents are being written or updated concurrently, in which case the search for current or a correct version of the information to link could be never ending.
Generally, the cross-reference is limited to standard entities supported in the document preparation system, such as chapters, figures, sections, etc. An author might wish to import only a small part of another author's document that is not necessarily characterized as a standard textual unit (e.g., section, chapter, figure, table, list, etc.). For example, an author might want to import part of a phrase that specifies a value for a parameter that appears in more than one document. Using prior art mechanisms, such as tables of contents or indices, it would be difficult to provide meaningful information about such importable information that would enable the author to find it, let alone import it.

Linking related data in a document set including a plurality of books written by different groups of authors in a computer network


An interface requests instructions from a data store storing instructions of an application to be processed by a data processor, and receives and transmits the instructions to the data processor. The interface includes: an input that receives the instructions from the data store via at least one input bus; a buffer that stores received instructions; an output that outputs instructions to the data processing apparatus via the output bus; a control signal input that receives a control signal; and a buffer controller that controls the buffer to request an instruction subsequent to a previously received instruction within an instruction stream of the application from the data store in response to detection of no control signal on the control signal input and to detection of available buffer storage capacity. In response to a control signal received at the control signal input, the controller controls at least one of input and storage of instructions within the interface in order to seek to reduce instruction movement through the input.

The problem of accessing instructions that are stored in a data store such as a memory and providing them to a data processor is a problem that has been addressed in a variety of ways. Access to memory can be expensive, as measured by a variety of metrics. Dedicated local memory is fast, can provide a high bandwidth, is power efficient and readily available, but is costly in area. By contrast, on-die shared and/or arbitrated memory consumes more power and may not always be available or satisfy peak bandwidth requirements, but the cost of implementation is reduced. Off-chip memory is the cheapest, but suffers the largest penalty in power consumption, access latency and available bandwidth. Any limitation in memory access performance either due to latency or bandwidth limitations inflicts also a penalty in the processor efficiency, as it will stall when the required instruction is not available. All three issues regarding shared memory access: latency, bandwidth and power consumption can be mitigated by providing an intermediate data store. In some systems, a program instruction cache is provided such that the instructions can be accessed from within the cache. This provides fast access of the instructions, but has the disadvantage of being a reactive mechanism, which makes autonomous decisions on which instruction to store are based solely on the history of the instructions or instruction addresses being requested by the processor. To mitigate this disadvantage, caches are often equipped with complex prediction logic with the goal to maximise the probability of keeping the requested instructions in its local store, as a consequence such devices have high power consumption, thus caches are very power hungry. This can be a particular disadvantage where the program is long and many instructions are stored.
An alternative is to buffer the instructions prior to use in a FIFO buffer. This is cheaper than a cache but has less flexibility. This lack of flexibility means that instructions have to be moved more often which costs power and can also lead to stalling in the processor where an instruction is not available at the appropriate time.
Many of the above solutions are specific to particular architectures and thus, new solutions need to be designed for new systems.


A rolling bearing unit with a rotational speed sensor comprising a stationary outer ring having a first raceway, a rotatable inner ring having a second raceway, a plurality of rolling elements rotatably provided between the first and second raceways, a sensor support case having a step portion for axial positioning, a detecting portion and a sensor mounted therein, an encoder having circumferentially changing magnetic characteristics and connected to the rotatable ring, a cover made of a synthetic resin, connected to the stationary ring, and having a fitting portion with respect to the outer ring, the fitting portion formed with a groove for mounting an seal-ring therein, a mount hole for inserting part of the sensor support case therein, and a portion abutted to the step portion of the sensor support case for axial positioning, and an elastic member having a first portion engaged with the cover and a second portion engaged with the sensor support case to fix the sensor support case to the cover.

The present invention is related to a rolling bearing unit with a rotational speed sensor, which is utilized to rotatably support a road wheel with reference to a suspension apparatus while detecting the rotational speed of the road wheel.
The road wheel is rotatably supported by a rolling bearing unit with reference to a suspension apparatus. In addition, the rotational speed of the road wheel must be detected in order to control an anti-lock braking system (ABS) and traction control system (TCS). Accordingly, recently the rolling bearing unit with rotational speed sensor, that is the rolling bearing unit having a rotational speed sensor installed therein, is broadly used to rotatable support the road wheel while detecting the rotational speed of the road wheel.
Japanese Utility Model Publication JITSUKAI HEI No. 7-31539 discloses one example of the prior art structures of the rotational speed sensor, which is also referred to as rpm detector in this specification, for use in such an object.
An object of this publication is to provide a rolling bearing unit with rotation speed sensor wherein it is possible to take out only the rotation speed sensor from the hub cap for exchange and maintenance, to make short the axial size of the bearing unit, and to stabilize the sensor performance.
In this structure, a pair of bolts and nuts are used to securely fix a sensor to a cover of the rolling bearing unit. (see e.g. FIG. 3 of the publication). This step is carried out in the assembling site of the rolling bearing unit with rotational speed sensor but inconvenient to need a long process time. In addition, the disengagement and engagement of the bolts and nuts for repairing the rotational speed sensor in the rolling bearing unit are also troublesome. This leads to cost-up in the production and repair.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,946,295 which is incorporated in the present specification by reference, discloses another example of the bearing unit with rpm detector where the sensor is easily-engaged and disengaged with and from the bearing unit for easy inspection and repair. No special tool is used to install the sensor at the end of the stationary outer ring. However, no seal device is installed in this structure to protect the encoder and sensor from outside. Specifically, the seal ring 10 in this structure is used for isolating the space for installing the rolling members 3 from outside, but not for isolating the encoder and sensor from outside. Accordingly, for example, when it rained, water drops may be kept attached to the clearance between the encoder 19 and sensor 8, which may lead to damages of the encoder and/or sensor if the automobile is started with the attached water drops frozen.
JP Patent Publication TOKUKAI BEI No. 9-1964945 discloses another example of the bearing unit with rpm detector, where the holder 26 with the sensor 12a embedded therein can be easily installed and removed with respect to the cover 23 fixed to the outer ring 2a without any special tool. However, some improvements are required in assembling the bearing unit with rpm detector. Specifically the cylindrical support body 27 must be placed in alignment with the holder 26 in phase in a circumferential direction. Therefore, the holder must often be rotated inside the cylindrical support body, but due to the presence of the elastically compressed O-ring on the cylindrical support body, the force to rotate the holder is substantially large to easily worsen the assembly performance of the bearing unit with rpm detector. In addition to the assembly performance, the performance of the rotational speed sensor must be taken into consideration with respect to the installation of the holder into the cover of the bearing unit.
The mechanism of the rotational speed sensor is detailed later referring to FIGS. 73 to 76.

Rolling bearing unit with rotational speed sensor


An apparatus and method is disclosed for programmable determination of frequency, phase, and jitter relationship of a first clock and a second clock in an electronic system. In a first, initialization, mode, a first register and a second register are initialized with a first bit pattern and a second bit pattern, respectively. In a second, normal, mode, the first clock is coupled to the first register and the second clock is coupled to the second register. A compare unit observes the bit patterns of the first and second registers and reports when one or more predetermined relationships between the first clock and the second clock occur.

1. Field of the Invention
The current invention generally relates to electronic systems having a plurality of clocks, the clocks having related frequencies. More particularly, the current invention detects if each of the plurality of clocks is operating at a proper speed relative to other clocks in the plurality of clocks, and has phase and jitter characteristics are within predetermined bounds.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic systems, such as, for examples, computer systems or components of computer systems, often have a plurality clocks having required relationships between different clocks in the plurality of clocks. For example, an electronic system may have two clocks that must have the same frequency. As another example, the electronic system may have a first clock having a first frequency, and a second clock having a second frequency that is a multiple of the first frequency. For example, in electronic systems having a phase locked loop (PLL), a designer must detect when the PLL has locked onto an oscillator frequency coupled to the PLL.
For example, if two clocks are required to have the same frequency, the designer may have additional requirements as to phase relationships between the two clocks, and may have further requirements as to jitter between the two clocks. The phase and jitter relationships between the two clocks need to be margin tested during system test. Jitter is temporary frequency changes in the first clock relative to the second clock. During system test, stress testing of the phase and jitter relationships should be performed. During normal operation of the electronic system, the frequency, phase, and jitter requirements must be guaranteed. During testing of a prototype electronic system, relaxed tolerance of frequency, phase, and jitter are often allowable, and a programmable test of such relationships is desired.
Existing art, such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,418,502, "AGP Clock Start/Stop Detection Circuit", for example, provide detection that two clocks (i.e., AGP_CLK and STROBE clock) have a proper frequency relationship. However, the existing art does not provide a programmable method and apparatus to provide accommodation for, or stress testing of, phase and jitter relationships between clocks in a plurality of clocks in an electronic system.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and apparatus to provide programmable accommodation for stress testing of phase and jitter relationships between clocks in a plurality of clocks in an electronic system.

Clock frequency detect with programmable jitter tolerance

International Business Machines Corporation


A car seat includes an actuator capable of changing an orientation of a rest surface of a seat back laterally by turning and moving at least a side portion frame that is part of the car seat frontward and rearward, and a controller configured to exercise control over the actuator. The controller includes a run-time posture support unit configured to execute a run-time posture support control under which when a car makes a turn, the actuator is regulated to cause the rest surface of the seat back to be oriented in a direction of the turn. The run-time posture support unit is configured to regulate the actuator in accordance with a placement of the seat in the car, when the run-time posture support unit executes the run-time posture support control.

A vehicle seat of which a rest surface is rendered adjustable in lateral orientation is to known in the art. For example, Patent Documents 1 to 3 disclose a vehicle seat comprising a seat back of which a rest surface orientation can be changed to the left or to the right by turning a plate member, referred to as back plate or pressure-receiving member, disposed between left and right side frames of the seat back.
As alternatives to the mechanisms disclosed in Patent Documents 1 to 3, various other mechanisms for changing the orientation of the rest surface of the seat back, such as a side support actuating mechanism, for example, as disclosed in Patent Document 4, may be utilized. To be more specific, a cable pulling mechanism is provided to cause left and right side support devices constituting the side support actuating mechanism to be actuated independently so that, for example, the left side support device may be actuated to turn the left support member forward, thereby causing the left side portion of the seat back to be pushed out forward. The seat back with its left side portion pushed out forward this way resultantly appears to have its rest surface as a whole oriented to the right; accordingly, the orientation of the rest surface of the seat back can be changed herein.


A system and method provided for limiting access to directory information in a hosted, shared access environment. In situations where a third party provides hosting on a network server of services, such as e-mail, multiple third party entities may be given access to the same directory. In this situation it may be desirable to limit access to certain portions of the directory so that one entity cannot view address information for another entity. Each entry in the directory may include a form and each form may be modified to include an additional field. The additional field may be employed to associate hierarchal information with the particular entry. Access to certain views of the directory may be then restricted and access provided to other views which include modified selection criteria. Upon access to the directory, a filtering process may be performed whereby only entries in the directory which include the same hierarchal information are employed when building a view of the directory.

As is well known, Lotus Notes is a groupware type of software application which allows parties to manage and access information across a number of different computing platforms. An application employed in this type of groupware may consist of several individual database designs that work together to perform a specific task. A typical Lotus Notes application may consist of a set of design elements that specify, among other things, the types of documents in the database, as well as the way that the documents can be indexed and viewed.
A database employable in the Notes environment may be resident on a networked server and may be accessible by other networked computers running compatible applications. In configurations where this type of access is provided, a Domino server program may be resident on the networked server. The Domino server program includes the logic to respond to incoming request from another computer and provide the requested information, as well as performing numerous other tasks.
One function which may be provided by a Domino server is the hosting of e-mail services, which includes the accessing and use to email information stored in a database. The networked system described above may be further configured to allow client's computers to access the database through various web based functions, such as Internet web-browsing. The Domino hosting configuration may also be established such that all of the capabilities of a groupware product, such as Lotus Notes, may be employed by one or more entities who do not wish to build or otherwise maintain an internal infrastructure which includes the requisite hardware and software.

System and method for address book customization for shared emessaging


A multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antenna for a radar system that includes a receive antenna, a first transmit antenna, and a second transmit antenna. The receive antenna is configured to detect radar signals reflected by a target toward the receive antenna. The first transmit antenna is formed of a first vertical array of radiator elements. The second transmit antenna is formed of a second vertical array of radiator elements distinct from the first vertical array. The second transmit antenna is vertically offset from the first transmit antenna by a vertical offset distance selected so an elevation angle to the target can be determined.

Many ground vehicle (e.g. automotive) radar systems in use today are only able to determine distance and a horizontal or azimuth angle to a target or object. The transmit antenna and receive antenna for such a system are typically vertical arrays of radiator and detector elements or patches, respectively. However, it has been recognized that it is desirable to determine a vertical or elevation angle to the object so elevated objects such as a bridge or building overhang is not inadvertently designated as object that is in the travel path of the vehicle.
As automotive radar systems are especially sensitive to cost factors, the number of transmit antenna and receive antenna inputs is generally held to a minimum. The number of transmit and receive antennas influences the radar spatial capability in azimuth and elevation and also drives system cost. That is, more antennas provide better capability at the expense of increased cost. Prior attempts to add elevation resolution increased number of transmit and/or receive antennas with the attendant increase in system cost. In order to increase antenna gain, receive antenna may have multiple strings or arrays of detector elements. Parallel arrays increase spacing between the phase-centers of the sub-arrays which leads to grating lobes that cause an undesirably large variation in receive antenna sensitivity for various azimuth angles. One way to reduce the effects of grating lobes is to provide an analog beam-former designed to overlap the sub-arrays to effectively reduce the spacing between the phase-centers of the sub-arrays. However, this approach typically requires a complex multi-layer feed structure leading to undesirable higher cost.


The present invention discloses a use of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine in the manufacture of a medicament for treatment of urogenital tract infection. N-acetyl-D-glucosamine exhibits a function of suppressing the transplantation of exotic microorganisms and promoting the repair of topical skin tissue, and the formulation comprising it as a main active component is used for the prevention and treatment of urogenital tract infection and has advantages such as notable therapeutic effect, easy preparation, non-irritation, non-contamination, etc.

Urogenital tract infection is a common disease, which is chronic and refractory and greatly interferes with a patient's normal life. At present, the main medicaments for treating urogenital tract infection mainly are broad spectrum antibiotics and Chinese lotion. However, the abuse of broad spectrum antibiotics results in drug resistance in microorganisms causing urogenital tract infection, so that the therapeutic effect became worse and worse although the dose of antibiotics increased gradually. On the other hand, the conventional treatment with antibiotics can hardly bring about better effect. For example, condyloma acuminatum virus can hardly be treated. In addition, the treatment of urogenital tract infection with Chinese lotion also has disadvantages, for example, unremarkable effect, inconvenient use, and contamination of clothing. Hence, a medicament for effectively treating urogenital tract infection is in need.
In the research of "bio-waves" theory, the present inventor has set up a bacterial wave growth model. Through researching, it is known that this wave is of its intrinsic regulation mechanism: some chemical substances are able to participate the regulation in the bio-wave process, so as to transform an abnormal periodic slow wave into a normal physiological chaotic quick wave, and these kind of substances are known as promoting wave factors. Through separating, purifying and identifying, it is determined that one of the factors is N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, the promoting wave function of which is shown in regulating the coupling oscillation of cellular membrane protein and sugar coating. Many biochemical and physiological processes of the human body need the participation of the promoting wave factors, and it would lead to an abnormal state, if these kind of promoting wave factors are lacking in the living body.
N-acetyl-D-glucosamine is a chemical reagent. From the 1990s, it has been continually used to treat diseases such as pericementittis (WO9102530A1), intestinal inflammation (WO9953929A 1), cornea disease (JP10287570A2), hypertrophy of the prostate (US05116615), organic pathologic changes of lower digestive tract mucous membrane (WO93/1475), etc. as a tissue growth regulation agent (WO18702244), and in cosmetology (JP59013708A2), shampoo preparation (JP2011505A2), etc., but it has not been used in the manufacture of a medicament for treating urogenital tract infection.

Use of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine for preparing medicines for urogenital tract infection's treatment and prevention

Third Military Medical University, Chinese People's Liberation Army, P.R. of China

Bio-Wave Institute of Suzhou Hi-Tech New District Corporation, Ltd.

Beijing Sino-HongKong Dafu Science & Technology of Biowave, Ltd.


A gas turbine blade assembly includes a neck defining a neck cavity, and has a first end and a second end at an opposite side relative to the first end. A platform has first and second sides. The first side is disposed on and faces the second end of the neck. An airfoil is supported on the second side of the platform. The neck, platform and airfoil define an inner cooling passage extending through the neck, platform and into the airfoil. The neck defines at least one core channel extending between the cooling passage and the neck cavity. The platform defines at least one film cooling channel extending from the first side facing the neck cavity to the second side disposed exterior to the airfoil to permit cooling air to flow through the inner cooling passage into the neck cavity and through the platform exterior to the airfoil.

Concave platforms of cooled industrial gas turbine (IGT) blades experience high metal temperature and thermal strain during operation. For example, the GE 7FA+e 1st stage turbine blade experiences severe thermo mechanical fatigue (TMF) initiated cracking at a leading edge and trailing edge of the platform that leads to high scrap rates and possible platform separation during operation. The crack results from a large, thin uncooled concave platform constrained by a relatively cooler airfoil and buttress structure that puts the platform in a state of high compressive strain at steady state operating conditions. The transient start-up condition results in a more severe compressive strain than steady state because of the large mass difference between the platform web and the rest of the component. Because of the mass difference the platform heats up more rapidly. Similarly the platform cools down more rapidly upon shutdown putting the platform into a tensile loading condition. The field parts also experience platform thermal barrier coating (TBC) spallation and significant platform oxidation.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a gas turbine blade assembly which overcomes the above-mentioned drawbacks and disadvantages.


A collector module (1) is described with a collector manifold (20) having two chambers. This collector module (1) has at least one collector tube (2), which has an absorber tube (4) and a tubular jacket (3). A connector (40) for each collector tube is provided which embraces the collector manifold (20) and receives the end of its tubular jacket (3). The connector (40) has a cup-shaped receiving part (41) glued on its collector tube and a U-shaped connecting part (45) formed on the cup-shaped receiving part (41), which engages the collector manifold (20). A sealing device (60) is arranged on the U-shaped connecting part (45). A torsion-stiff, self-supporting device is provided accordingly by this structure, in which each collector tube is not loaded with external forces, during to thermal expansion, transport, mounting or the like.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a collector module comprising a collector device having two chambers, especially a collector manifold, which has at least one nipple arranged perpendicular to the collector device; at least one collector tube, which comprises an absorber tube and a tubular jacket, the absorber tube being slipped on the nipple; a coaxial tube being arranged in the nipple, which is fixed at one end in the absorber tube and at the other end in the collector device; and a connector surrounding the collector device and receiving the open end of the tubular jacket.
2. Description of the Related Art
A collector module of this type is known from German Utility Model G 201 01 139. The collector tube with its absorber tube is inserted in the nipple. Also the connector is constructed so that the collector tube can be inserted in it. All component parts are thus connected with each other by a plug connection. Because of this feature there is certain movability during thermal expansion of the parts. Different embodiments are described, which relate, among other things, to a force-locking and form-locking reception of the collector tube in the connector.
Although the collector tube is fixed in the connector that is designated a housing, rotation or twisting of the collector tube cannot be completely prevented. The housing receives the collector tube and forms a rigid framework with it. This structure has inherent disadvantages. The unavoidable pressing forces of the nipple via the O-rings and the hydraulic pressure of the heat transfer medium disadvantageously act on the collector tube. Also exterior forces act on the rigid housing due to thermal expansion of the collector tube, because the housing presses perpendicularly to the nipple on the collector tube. These types of forces can also occur during transport or mounting. Furthermore the nipple inserted in the collector tube can tilt or tip due to the existing degrees of freedom. These forces, which always act on the sensitive connection between the nipple and the collector tube, can increase the risk of breakage for the collector tube. If the degrees of freedom required to take care of that are provided, the required strength or rigidity for a self-supporting frameless structure for the module cannot be guaranteed without more.