A hydraulic control system comprises: a regulator valve, which regulates a fluid pressure established by an oil pump to an operating pressure required in a control circuit; a signal pressure establishing valve, which applies a signal pressure to the regulator valve to determine a level of the fluid pressure to be established by the regulator valve; and an accumulator, which accumulates the operating pressure to be applied to the control circuit. The hydraulic control system is characterized by: an accumulator control valve, which is arranged between the accumulator and the control circuit, and which is adapted to connect the accumulator with the control circuit when opened, and to disconnect the accumulator from the control circuit when closed; and a signal pressure feeding passage, which delivers the signal pressure established by the signal pressure establishing valve to a signal pressure port of the accumulator control valve thereby actuating the accumulator control valve in accordance with the signal pressure.

A hydraulic control system is employed in industrial machineries and automobiles to control and actuate a device hydraulically actuated. For instance, in an automatic transmission of vehicles, a speed ratio thereof is changed hydraulically, and a transmission torque thereof is varied according to a pressure level. For this purpose, the fluid pressure is established by driving an oil pump by a prime mover of the vehicle, and the fluid pressure thus established is regulated to initial pressure called line pressure by a regulator valve. The line pressure thus established is further regulated according to need and delivered to a transmission, a clutch, a brake and etc. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-151240 discloses an example of hydraulic control system applied to a belt-type continuously variable transmission. The hydraulic control system taught by Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-151240 comprises a high pressure hydraulic circuit for controlling the fluid pressure delivered to a pulley on which a belt is applied to change the speed ratio, and a low pressure hydraulic circuit for controlling the pressure of the oil delivered to a torque converter and the oil delivered to a portion to be lubricated. According to the teachings of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-151240, the fluid pressure established by the hydraulic pump driven by the engine is regulated to a required pressure in the high pressure hydraulic circuit by a first regulator valve. The fluid pressure thus regulated by the first regulator valve is further lowered by a second regulator valve to be delivered to the torque convertor, and the fluid drained from the first regulator valve is delivered to the portion needs to be lubricated. In addition, an accumulator is arranged in the high pressure hydraulic circuit to accumulate the high fluid pressure applied to the high pressure hydraulic circuit. A solenoid switching valve is connected with an input side of the accumulator to connect the oil pump selectively with the accumulator and the high pressure hydraulic circuit. The electric oil pump for generating high pressure is connected with an input side of the changeover valve.
The above-explained first and the second regulator valves are adapted change the pressure regulating level in accordance with signal pressure from a predetermined solenoid valve. In addition, according to the teachings of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-151240, the changeover valve is activated by an electromagnetic force of the solenoid, and the drive and the driven pulleys are individually provided with a feeding solenoid valve and a draining solenoid valve for controlling the fluid pressure delivered thereto. Meanwhile, a hydraulic control system or a hydraulic control circuit for a geared transmission is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Opens Nos. 7-119821 and 8-42677. According to the teachings of Japanese Patent Laid-Opens Nos. 7-119821 and 8-42677, signal pressure of a linear solenoid valve for maintaining a slipping state of a lockup clutch is also used to control an engagement pressure of a brake and back pressure of the accumulator.
In order to deliver large amount of high pressured fluid promptly to the pulleys thereby changing the speed ratio quickly, according to the teachings of Japanese Patent Laid-Opens No. 2010-151240, an electrically controllable solenoid valve is used as the accumulator control valve. Therefore, control response of the fluid pressure delivered to the pulley is improved. However, in the control system taught by Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-151240, the solenoid valves are used to regulate the fluid pressure, to deliver and discharge the fluid to/from the pulleys, and to connect the accumulator and the oil pump selectively. Thus, a large number of the electrically controlled solenoid valves are used in the control system taught by Japanese Patent Laid-Opens No. 2010-151240, and this will increase a cost of the control system. In addition, a size of the control system has to be enlarged.
Thus, according to the teachings of Japanese Patent Laid-Opens Nos. 7-119821 and 8-42677, the signal pressure used to control the slipping state of the lockup clutch is also used for other kind of controls. Therefore, number of parts such as solenoid valves for establishing the signal pressure to be used for other kind of controls can be reduced. However, according to the teachings of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-42677, the back pressure of the accumulator is controlled under the situation in which the slipping control of the lockup clutch is not carried out. Likewise, according to the teachings of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-119821, the engagement pressure of the brake is also controlled under the situation in which the slipping control of the lockup clutch is not carried out. That is, both Japanese Patent Laid-Opens Nos. 7-119821 and 8-42677 disclose techniques to utilize unused solenoid valve for other kind of controls, and teachings of those prior art documents do not relate to a technique to use predetermined devices or parts for multiple applications simultaneously. Therefore, the hydraulic control systems taught by Japanese Patent Laid-Opens Nos. 7-119821 and 8-42677 are required to be further downsized, and manufacturing cost thereof can be further reduced.


A ligature dispenser includes a tubular finger housing with expandable fingers at a distal end. A spreader rod passing through the tubular finger housing causes the expandable fingers to expand a ligature to where ligatures may be repeatedly placed on brackets on the braces in a patient's mouth.

Orthodontists applying elastic ligatures to connect an archwire to an orthodontic bracket require a rapid, reliable, and safe way to accomplish this task. While a variety of different instruments and methods have been developed to apply elastic ligatures to braces, one ligature at a time, these instruments and methods are generally labor-intensive and require both significant manual dexterity by the orthodontist and repeated practice to operate properly.
One example of a prior art ligature application device is the Orthodontic Ligature Gun described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,921,423 to Kesling. While effective in limited applications, the device described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,921,423 includes some inherent inefficiencies. These inherent inefficiencies become readily apparent when the user is required to grab a fresh O-shaped elastic ligature individually with the gun and then secure the fresh ligature onto the ligature gun. Once the fresh, expanded elastic ligature has been applied to the orthodontic bracket, the process of loading another fresh ligature onto the gun, expanding the ligature, and applying the expanded ligature onto the orthodontic bracket in the patient's mouth is repeated as many as 12 times per arch for a single patient. Each time a fresh elastic ligature is to be applied to the braces, the orthodontist is required to direct attention away from the patient's mouth to pick up a fresh elastic ligature and then load this fresh ligature onto the gun. This continual redirecting of the orthodontist's attention away from the primary task of applying elastic ligatures to the brackets on the braces in a patient's mouth is inefficient. And, because of the redirection of the orthodontist's attention away from the patient's mouth, patient safety may be compromised.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a ligature dispenser that quickly secures a fresh elastic ligature, expands the fresh elastic ligature, and allows an orthodontist to repetitively apply expanded elastic ligatures to multiple brackets on the braces in a patient's mouth. Such ligature dispenser will minimize the inefficient use of an orthodontist's time and increase patient safety by not repeatedly directing the orthodontist's attention away from the patient's mouth.


A lubricated bushing is mounted in a mounting cavity in a bushing housing and has a body and a flange. The body has an axial hole formed coaxially through the body to rotatably hold a shaft of a rotor of a fan and a bottom concentric recess formed in a bottom end of the body. The flange is formed on and protrudes radially out from the outer wall of the body, is mounted against an inner wall of the mounting recess, extends longitudinally from the top end of body and is shorter than half the body. Even though the inner wall of the mounting cavity tightly compresses the flange, the compressive force cannot be effectively transmitted to the body to deform the axial hole, so the shaft is kept from seizing up in the axial hole.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lubricated bushing, and more particularly to a lubricated bushing that prevents a shaft mounted in the lubricated bushing from seizing up.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With reference to FIG. 6, a conventional lubricated bushing (30) is mounted in a mounting cavity in a bushing housing of a device such as a fan, rotatably holds a shaft and has a body (35) and a mounting sleeve (31).
The body (35) is cylindrical and has an axial hole (32), an outer end, an inner end and an outer wall. The axial hole (32) is formed coaxially through the body (35) and rotatably holds a shaft of a rotor of a fan and has an inner wall. The outer end of the body (35) has a concentric recess (38), multiple lubricant notches (36), an outer edge and an annular chamfer (37). The concentric recess (38) is formed in the outer end of the body (35) and communicates with the axial hole (32). The lubricant notches (36) are formed in the outer edge of the outer end of the body (35) at intervals and communicate with the concentric recess (38). When the shaft rotates, lubricant flows through the lubricant notches (36) and the concentric recess (38) into the axial hole (32) to lubricate the shaft. The lubricant reduces friction between the shaft and the inner wall of the axial hole (32), such that the shaft wears less and has a longer life. The annular chamfer (37) is formed on the outer edge of the outer end. The inner end of the body (35) is opposite to the first end.
The mounting sleeve (31) is longer than half the body (35), is formed around and protrudes from the outer wall of the body (35) of the lubricated bushing (30), is flush with the inner end of the body (35), abuts an inner wall of the mounting cavity in the bushing housing and allows lubricant to be stored in a gap between the body (35) and the mounting recess at the outer end of the body (35). The mounting sleeve (31) has two ends, an outer wall, two chamfers (33) and multiple lubricant grooves (34). The chamfers (33) are formed respectively on the ends of the mounting sleeve (31). The lubricant grooves (34) are formed longitudinally in the outer wall of the mounting sleeve (31), align respectively with the lubricant notches (36) and communicate with the end chamfers (33) on the ends of the mounting sleeve (31) to allow lubricant to flow to allow lubricant to circulate through the axial hole (32), concentric recess (38), lubricant notches (36) and lubricant grooves (34).
The conventional lubricated bushing (30) has a number of shortcomings. The shortcomings result in excessive operation noise, bearing seizing and limited lubrication capacity.
Squeezing the lubricated bushing (30) into a mounting cavity in a bushing housing compresses the mounting sleeve (31) somewhat, which easily deforms the axial hole (32) through the body (35) and causes the inner surface of the axial hole (32) to bind against the shaft mounted in the axial hole (32). This binding between the inner surface of the axial hole (32) and the shaft results in a loud noise when the shaft rotates and may cause the shaft seize up unexpectedly in the deformed axial hole (32).
Still further, because the lubricant grooves (34) respectively align with the lubricant notches (36), lubricant easily leaks out of the lubricated bushing (30) along the aligned lubricant notches (36) and lubricant grooves (34).
Additionally, the gap formed by the mounting sleeve (31) is limited to the outer end of the body (35), so only a limited amount of lubricant can be stored in the gap.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention provides a lubricated bushing to obviate or mitigate the aforementioned problems.


The present invention relates to a pharmaceutical composition for preventing or treating lupus, containing a compound represented by a formula I, an optical isomer thereof or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof as an effective component, as well as a treatment method using the compound, and use of the compound in the manufacture of a medicament for treating lupus. The pharmaceutical composition according to the present invention shows an excellent effect of preventing or treating lupus.

Lupus is an autoimmune disease related to antibodies attacking connective tissues, wherein it is also associated with a production of antinuclear antibodies, i.e., a circulating immune complex, as well as with an activation of a complement system. This disease is systemic, such that it may occur in all organ systems and also cause severe tissue injuries. Patients with lupus may also produce auto-antibodies having anti-DNA, anti-Ro and anti-platelet specificities, and cause the occurrence of diseases such as glomerulonephritis, arthritis, serositis, neonatal complete heart block or haematological abnormality.
Unless treated, lupus may become fatal because it starts attacking skin and joints and progresses into attacking even internal organs, e.g., lung, heart and kidney, out of which a kidney disease is of most concern. A kidney injury, which is measured by means of the amount of proteinuria in urine, is one of acute injury parts associated with the pathogenicity of lupus and accounts for 50% or more of the mortality and incidence rate of the lupus disease.
For now, there has been no infallible remedy for lupus patients. In a practical viewpoint, doctors generally use a number of immunosuppressants, e.g., a high dose of corticosteroid, prednisone, azathioprine or cyclophosphamide, wherein there is a problem in that a considerable number of such drugs have potentially harmful side effects to patients under treatment.
Prior Art References
Patent Document
Korea Patent Application Publication No. 2014-0128886

Compositions for preventing or treating lupus


Methods and apparatus for setting the signal-sampling period of each grid wire in a digitizing tablet having grid wires that are sequentially and repetitively scanned to develop a positional signal related to a cursor so as to reduce jitter associated with non-movement of the cursor and signal error associated with rapid movement of the cursor. The method comprises setting the signal-sampling period of each grid wire to a longest signal-sampling period the digitizer tablet is designed to employ if the cursor is not moving and setting the signal-sampling period of each grid wire to a value inversely related to the present speed of movement of the cursor such that the faster the present speed of movement of the cursor the shorter the signal-sampling period of each grid wire as compared to the longest signal-sampling period the digitizer tablet is designed to employ. The present position of the cursor is then saved as the prior position of the cursor for the next time the steps of the method are performed. The method can also be applied to other positional determination devices in which a cursor is moved over a scanned sensing surface. The apparatus performs the method.

This invention relates to positional determination systems and devices such as digitizers and, more particularly, to a method and associated apparatus for dynamically setting the scanning rate of positional sensing elements of the device in direct relation to the speed of movement of a cursor over a sensing surface of the device so that the faster the cursor is moving, the faster the scanning rate and the shorter the time each sensing element is sampled.
Electro-magnetic digitizers are well known in the art. As depicted in FIG. 1, a typical electro-magnetic digitizer 10 comprises a tablet 12 over which a cursor 14 is moved to input positional information to a computer connected to the tablet 12. The tablet 12 contains a grid of wires used to sense the position of the cursor 14. There are a plurality of equally-spaced X-wires 16 and a plurality of equally-spaced Y-wires 18 perpendicular to the X-wires 16. Either the wires 16, 18 can be powered and the electro-magnetic signal from the wires 16, 18 detected in the cursor 14 or the cursor 14 can be powered and the electro-magnetic signal from the cursor 14 detected in the wires 16, 18. A powered cursor 14 is preferred for so-called "cordless" digitizers in which the cursor 14 has no physical connection to the tablet 12.
Since the wires 16, 18 are spaced and discrete, it is impossible to develop a continuous signal indicating the position of the cursor 14 in the coordinate system defined by the wires 16, 18. The wires 16, 18 must be scanned sequentially to determine the signal being developed in each as a result of the electro-magnetic signal from the cursor 14. Then, the position of the cursor 14 can be determined mathematically from the data using well-known techniques. Typically, the approach is as depicted in FIG. 2. First, the electronic associated with the tablet 12 scans (i.e. sequentially samples) the signals on the wires 16 of the X grid and then the wires 18 of the Y grid are scanned. This process repeats continually to develop the necessary signals for position determination of the cursor 14.
Within each grid sample period 20, the wires 16 or 18 of a particular grid are sampled sequentially as depicted in FIG. 3. Actually, each sample 22 of a wire 16, 18 is an integration process of the signal being induced into the wire by the electro-magnetic signal from the cursor 14. The integration period for each wire 16, 18 determines the length of each grid sample period 20 and the length of each grid sample period 20 determines the overall scanning rate of the tablet.
Early digitizers operating in the above-described manner had a fixed integration period for each wire 16, 18 as determined at the time of manufacture. More recently, digitizers operating in the above-described manner have been provided with a statically adjustable integration period for each wire 16, 18 as determined from operator inputs at the time of and prior to digitizing with the digitizer as depicted in FIG. 4. In this prior art approach, the logic of the digitizer first reads the inputs from the operator. It next sets the integration period for the wires 16, 18 as a pre-established function of the operator inputs. Digitizing is then accomplished using this pre-established integration period for the wires 16, 18 for all functions of the digitizer.
The problem is that a digitizer is a dynamic device which respond differently under different dynamic conditions. If the cursor 14 is unmoving at position X1, Y1 in FIG. 1 there is one response. If the cursor 14 is moving position X1, Y1 to position X2, Y2 slowly, there is a second response. If the cursor 14 is moving position X1, Y1 to position X2, Y2 rapidly, there is yet a third response. As the integration rate is reduced (i.e. the wires 16, 18 are scanned at a faster rate), the noise (resulting in data jitter) of the system gets worse. This is most evident when the cursor 14 is not moving. Thus, to reduce jitter when the cursor 14 is not moving or moving very slowly, one should employ a slow scanning rate. On the other hand, if the cursor 14 is moved rapidly employing a slow scanning rate, there can be considerable positional error in the signal. If one pictures the cursor 14 being moved in a curve at high speed at an extremely slow scanning rate (approaching the ridiculous for demonstration purposes), it will be realized that the cursor 14 can be "seen" at the start of the curve and not "seen" again until the end of the curve. Thus, the positional data developed will indicate that the cursor 14 jumped from the starting position to the ending position along an assumed straight line. In the prior art system of FIG. 4, therefore, the operator (and the tablet logic) are placed on the horns of a dilemma as to what integration rate to employ. Typically, a middle point is chosen such that if the cursor 14 is moved at medium speed the developed signal will be acceptable. While at rest, the cursor 14 may have signal jitter and during rapid movement, the cursor 14 may suffer from positional inaccuracies.
Other positional devices which scan sensing elements in relationship to a cursor moved over a sensing surface encounter a similar problem. It is particularly important to solve the problem in the pen-based computer systems presently being developed where the digitizing surface is associated with a relatively small display panel and the cursor is pen-shaped. In such systems, faithful reproduction of the pen movement in the data supplied to the computer is particularly important.
Wherefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of operating electro-magnetic scanning digitizers to prevent signal jitter at slow cursor speeds and during cursor non-movement. non-movement.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of operating electro-magnetic scanning digitizers to prevent signal error at high cursor speeds and during cursor non-movement.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method of operating electro-magnetic scanning digitizers in which the scanning speed of the grid wires is dynamically adjustable.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method of operating positional devices which scan sensing elements in relationship to a cursor moved over a sensing surface to prevent signal error at high cursor speeds and during cursor non-movement.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method of operating pen-driven computing devices having a pen-shaped cursor which is moved over a sensing surface to assure highly accurate positional reproduction and prevent signal error at high cursor speeds and during cursor non-movement.
Other objects and benefits of the invention will become apparent from the detailed description which follows hereinafter when taken in conjunction with the drawing figures which accompany it.

Dynamically-adjustable scanning rate in digitizers


A lighting device (100) has a support structure having lighting elements (422) arranged thereon. The support structure has an internal cooling duct having a duct wall. At least a part of duct wall is in thermal contact with the lighting elements. The cooling duct is configured to allow a natural air flow absorbing heat generated by the lighting elements from the duct wall. The cooling duct extends through the support structure from a first opening having a first cross-sectional area to a second opening having a second cross-sectional area. The cooling duct contains a filler body (412) having a substantially bi-conical shape. The filler body and the duct wall form a cooling duct portion with a third cross-sectional area greater than the first cross-sectional area and/or the second cross-sectional area. The lighting device is part of a lighting system. The system comprises a control unit (700) coupled to the lighting device.

In a lighting device, primary energy—usually electrical energy—supplied thereto is converted into light, i.e. radiation having a wavelength in the visible range. Although the efficiency of the energy conversion from the primary energy into light energy may be quite high, still a portion of the primary energy will be converted into heat energy when generating light energy. The heat that is generated in the lighting device needs to be discharged to avoid temperatures in the lighting device to rise beyond acceptable limits.
Reference US 2009/0073688 discloses a light fixture including a member having a substantially frusto-conical shape. Light emitting diodes, LEDs, are disposed on the member. A channel in the member is configured to transfer heat generated by the LEDs through convection.
Reference US 2010/0314985 discloses a LED light bulb having a hollow LED support/heat sink with fins extending internally. Heat generated by the LEDs is conducted through the heat sink fins and is removed by a convectively driven air flow that flows through the LED support/heat sink.
For higher lighting outputs and/or lower construction volumes of the lighting device, the reference explains that passive cooling may be insufficient, and active cooling should be applied, e.g. by application of a cooling fan drawing air through the LED support, or by application of a corona discharge air pump to stimulate air flow through the LED support.
However, an additional component like a cooling fan requires additional space in the lighting device, requires energy, and may involve a device having moving parts which are susceptible to wear and produce noise.


In an ink jet printer using an ink cartridge having an ink tank for storing ink therein and a recording head for ejecting the ink stored in the ink tank as ink drops and forming an image on a recording paper sheet, the detection accuracy of a displacement detection sensor for detecting a displacement of printing position is improved while reducing manufacturing costs of the displacement detection sensor. The displacement detection sensor is comprised of a light emitting device for emitting diffused light, a first lens for focusing the light emitted from the light emitting device on a recording paper sheet, a second lens for focusing the light reflected by the recording paper sheet and a light receiving device for receiving the light focused by the second lens. By focusing the diffused light emitted from the light emitting device by the first lens, the diameter of a beam spot projected on the recording paper sheet is made smaller than a longitudinal dimension and a width dimension of each component forming a displacement detection pattern.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet printer having a function of automatically correcting displacement of printing position occurring when an ink cartridge is mounted.
2. Description of the related Art
Conventionally, an ink jet printer having a function of automatically correcting displacement of printing position by forming a predetermined displacement detection pattern on a recording paper sheet by a recording head after an ink cartridge is mounted, reading the pattern by a displacement detection sensor and adjusting control timing of the recording head on the basis of the result has become commercially practical.
FIG. 6 shows a configuration of the displacement detection sensor for detecting the displacement of printing position used in the conventional ink jet printer. The displacement detection sensor 104 is comprised of a light emitting device 141 for emitting light on a recording paper sheet 2 at a predetermined radiation angle, a light receiving device 144 for receiving the light emitted from the light emitting device 141 and reflected by the recording paper sheet 2, a sensor housing 150 for accommodating these components and so on.
FIG. 7A shows a displacement detection pattern formed on the recording paper sheet 2 and a beam spot of light projected on the recording paper sheet 2 from the light emitting device 141. FIG. 7B shows an electric signal output from the light receiving device 144. Recently, in the ink jet printers, it is required to increase the detection accuracy of the displacement of printing position by the displacement detection sensor 104 following to further development of high resolution, so that the displacement detection pattern 80 shown in FIG. 7A comes in predisposed to be miniaturized. In order to detect such a miniaturized displacement detection pattern 80 with a high degree of accuracy, it is desirable to set the diameter of a beam spot 170 irradiated to the recording paper sheet 2 smaller corresponding to the miniaturization of the displacement detection pattern 80. However, in the configuration of the conventional displacement detection sensor 104 shown in FIG. 6, the diameter of the beam spot 170 depends on directional characteristics of the light emitting device 141 and a distance between the light emitting device 141 and the recording paper sheet 2, so that the designer of the ink jet printer cannot arbitrarily decide the diameter of the beam spot 170. As shown in FIG. 7A, the diameter of the beam spot 170 may become larger than a longitudinal dimension L and a width dimension W of the displacement detection pattern 80.
In such a case, as shown in FIG. 7B, an electric signal 190 having a waveform with small amplitude (small S/N) is output from the light receiving device 144. Thus, the detection error of the displacement detection sensor 104 becomes large and therefore, minute displacement of printing position cannot be corrected to respond to high-resolution printing satisfactory to the user.
Thus, there is the conventional ink jet printer, for example, having a configuration that a slit for detecting an edge of the displacement detection pattern is provided on a light receiving portion of the light receiving device so that the edge of the displacement detection pattern can be detected at the side of the light emitting device even when the diffused light is emitted from the light emitting device to ensure detection accuracy of the displacement detection sensor. However, such a light receiving device having the slit used in the printer contributes to an increase in manufacturing costs of the overall printer due to its high cost price.
Besides Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-527472 discloses a displacement detection sensor in which a Fresnel lens provided at a side of a light emitting device and an aspherical lens provided at a side a light receiving device are formed in an integral manner. Furthermore, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-229995 discloses a displacement detection sensor having a plurality of light emitting devices for emitting lights of different colors and a lens assembly with a plurality of lenses for deflecting and focusing the light emitted from each of the light emitting devices at a predetermined position on a recording paper sheet. However, since a plurality of lenses must be integrally formed with a high degree of accuracy in both the displacement detection sensors, manufacturing costs become higher and thus, these sensors are not suited to printers for consumers requiring low price. Furthermore, since the Fresnel lens disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-527472 diffuses light in the direction other than the displacement detection pattern, projection efficiency of the light to the recording paper sheet is deteriorated, thereby decreasing the S/N of the signal output from the light receiving device.


A method of making a reinforced laminate, including the steps of placing a reinforcing grid on a first outer sheet of thermoplastic, preparing an elastomeric material capable of forming a tie layer between two sheets of thermoplastic, and laminating a second outer sheet of thermoplastic to the first sheet of thermoplastic and the reinforcing grid with the tie layer of elastomeric material therebetween, whereby the reinforcing grid is held by the elastomeric tie layer in between the first outer sheet of thermoplastic and the second outer sheet of thermoplastic, and the reinforcing grid being displaceable within the elastomeric tie layer. A reinforced laminate, including a first outer layer of thermoplastic, a second outer layer of thermoplastic, a reinforcing grid disposed between the first outer layer and the second outer layer, a tie layer of elastomeric material disposed between the first outer layer and the second outer layer arranged to hold the reinforcing grid but allow slippage of the reinforcing grid in the tie layer upon tensile loading of the reinforced laminate, and wherein the first outer layer, the second outer layer, the reinforcing grid, and the tie layer are laminated together to form a reinforced laminate.

Thermoplastic sheets have provided effective and relatively light weight covers for a wide variety of uses including cargo and container covers, ground covers, and temporary building covers. The thermoplastic sheets are waterproof, and can include additives for ultraviolet protection from degradation in sunlight, flame retardants, and coloring pigments depending on the intended use.
Reinforced thermoplastic laminates have been made previously with a reinforcing grid between two sheets of thermoplastic to enhance the physical performance of the product. The reinforcing grid is typically a scrim of woven or nonwoven fabric. In some reinforced thermoplastic laminates, the thermoplastic sheets are bonded to each other in between the grid pattern of the reinforcing material. Thermoplastics with different melt characteristics for laminating the sheets around the grid also have been utilized. Although the heat sealing provides good bonding around the reinforcing grid, these reinforced thermoplastic laminates are nonetheless susceptible to tearing as shown in FIG. 6.
Another type of reinforced thermoplastic laminate includes a layer of flexible adhesive in between the thermoplastic sheets. The grid is disposed within the layer of flexible adhesive. The flexible adhesive allows the scrim to slip in between the thermoplastic sheets, thereby providing good tear resistance. The enhanced tear resistance of the laminate results from the tendency of the strands of the scrim to slide together without breaking within the laminate when a tear is pulled. However, laminates with adhesives, although having improved tear resistance, can delaminate as shown in FIG. 7. These laminates are particularly susceptible to outdoors delamination due to water or heat sensitivity. Therefore, reinforced thermoplastic laminates without adhesives have enhanced lamination strength, but diminished tear resistance, while those with adhesives have enhanced tear resistance, but diminished lamination strength.

Reinforced laminate with elastomeric tie layer


To prevent a decrease in display quality caused when a display apparatus performs pause driving. One end of the n-th scanning signal line (GLn) is connected to the n-th stage circuit (UCn) of a driver circuit. The other end of the n-th scanning signal line is connected to a waveform adjusting circuit (HKn) which adjusts the waveform of the pulse signal of the n-th scanning signal line (GLn) by using a clock signal (CKA) and the pulse signal of the m-th scanning signal line (GLn−1) scanned prior to the n-th scanning signal line.

Recently, there has been an increasing demand for narrowing the picture-frame in display apparatuses such as a liquid-crystal panel used in a notebook PC. In contrast, in a gate-driver monolithic liquid-crystal panel which includes TFTs (thin film transistors) as switching devices and in which gate signals are input to the display area from a gate driver formed in the picture-frame area, the narrowness of the left and right areas of the picture-frame is influenced, to a large extent, by the size of the gate driver. Accordingly, if a configuration of one-side drive, not two-side drive, is employed, the area of the left and right sides of the picture-frame may be reduced. The two-side drive indicates that gate drivers are disposed on both left and right sides of the picture-frame. The one-side drive indicates that a gate driver is disposed only on the left or right side of the picture-frame.
Recently, there are known display apparatuses which perform pause driving in which, during a period over which the potential of the pixels is held, the driving voltage of the display panels is switched OFF in order to achieve low power consumption of the display apparatuses. For display apparatuses used in notebook PCs, there is an increasing demand for a configuration in which a touch panel overlies a display panel. In these display apparatuses, it is necessary to interrupt and pause driving of the gate drivers, for example, due to acquisition of a time for driving the touch panels and a difference between the display frequency of the display panels and the operating frequency of the touch panels.
Display panels such as a liquid-crystal panel use the output scanning signal at a stage subsequent to the target stage. In contrast, at a pausing stage in which pause driving is performed, it is not possible to receive the output operation signal from a subsequent stage, which may cause a decrease in display quality. Accordingly, there is a known technique in which, when pause driving is performed, in order to improve display quality before and after a pause period, one frame period is divided into periods, and the voltage, the timing, the polarity of the driving signal provided to a period are changed (for example, see PTL 1).

Display device including a driver circuit outputting a pulse signal to scanning signal lines and method of driving the display device


A method and apparatus of processing data to support Augmented Reality (AR) are provided. In the method, an image file including at least a scene description stream, an object descriptor stream, and a visual stream including a real-world medium is received, the scene description stream including an AR node that represents information about at least one piece of AR content used to augment the real-world medium, information about an AR locator and an object descriptor Identifier (ID) is acquired from the AR node, the AR locator describing when the at least one piece of AR content appears and how the real-world medium is augmented with the at least one piece of AR content and the object indicator ID identifying an Object Descriptor (OD) that describes the at least one piece of AR content, and at least one elementary stream descriptor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data processing method and apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus of processing image file data to support Augmented Reality (AR).
2. Description of the Related Art
AR is a technology that provides a display of virtual objects overlaid on objects of the real world. AR is also called mixed reality in that a virtual world image, having specific information included therein, is combined with a real world image in real time and the composite of the two images is displayed. In other words, AR is a hybrid virtual reality system that combines the real environment with a virtual environment.
In AR, which supplements the real world with the virtual world, the virtual world is built by computer graphics. However, the main subject of AR is the real environment. The computer graphics provide additional information that supplements the real environment. That is, AR blurs the distinction between the real environment and a virtual screen by overlaying a Three-Dimensional (3D) virtual image on a real image that is viewed by the user.
Virtual reality technology draws a user into the virtual environment so that the real environment is not perceivable to the user. However, the AR technology that mixes the real environment with virtual objects allows the user to view the real environment, thus offering an enhanced sense of reality and additional information. For example, a Two-Dimensional (2D) or 3D image of the location, phone number, etc. of a shop may be overlaid on an image captured by a smartphone camera.
The AR technology may be used in a variety of distinct applications such as remote medical diagnosis, broadcasting, architecture design, manufacturing process management, etc. Along with the recent growth of smartphones, the AR technology has been actively commercialized and its application range is expanded to location-based services, mobile games, mobile solutions, education, etc.
Given the broad range of applications, there is a need for an apparatus and a method for managing and processing data to support AR.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present invention.

Method and apparatus of processing data to support augmented reality


A method for determining the orientation of Chinese words is provided. The amount of dark pixels in each column of a Chinese word image is calculated. Then, a first point, a second point, and a third point are determined. The first point and the second point correspond to the columns with the largest and the second largest amount of dark pixels, respectively. The third point is located between the first point and the second point. The Chinese word is right-side up if the third point is located on the left side of the Chinese word. The Chinese word is upside down if the third point is located on the right side of the Chinese word.

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a method for determining the orientation of Chinese words and, in particular, to a method for determining the orientation of Chinese words using the projection of the Chinese words in the vertical or horizontal direction.
2. Related Art
Currently, the technique of optical character recognition (OCR) has been widely used for building large-size literature database and making electronic business documents. Using the OCR technique, paper documents can be readily transformed into text images, which are then in turn changed into digital texts. Therefore, a large amount of documents can be transformed into editable text files. This saves a lot of efforts for manually entering the texts.
To use the OCR technique on paper documents, it is usually necessary to scan the documents into image first. Afterwards, the text inside the image is singled out and rearranged by cutting or merging. Finally, the words are compared and recognized.
It is often the case that the user puts the document upside down when scanning an image. As a result, the image received by the word recognition system may not be right-side up. In this case, the word recognition system has to first detect the orientation of the text in the image, for the convenience of subsequent recognition processes.
In comparison with the English system, where only 26 alphabets are involved, determining the orientation of Chinese words is much more complicated. R.O.C. Pat. No. 206,290 discloses a method for determining the orientation of Chinese words. This method is based on the measurement of spacing between words. However, it has to perform the calculation on the words in the entire document before the orientation can be determined.

Method for determining orientation of chinese words


An electronic device with a display, a touch-sensitive surface, one or more processors, and memory detects a first portion of a gesture, and determines that the first portion has a first gesture characteristic. The device selects a dynamic disambiguation threshold in accordance with the first gesture characteristic. The dynamic disambiguation threshold is used to determine whether to perform a first type of operation or a second type of operation when a first kind of gesture is detected. The device determines that the gesture is of the first kind of gesture. After selecting the dynamic disambiguation threshold, the device determines whether the gesture meets the dynamic disambiguation threshold. When the gesture meets the dynamic disambiguation threshold, the device performs the first type of operation, and when the gesture does not meet the dynamic disambiguation threshold, the device performs the second type of operation.

The use of touch-sensitive surfaces as input devices for computers and other electronic computing devices has increased significantly in recent years. Exemplary touch-sensitive surfaces include touch pads and touch screen displays. Such surfaces are widely used to manipulate user interface objects on a display.
For electronic devices with touch-sensitive surfaces, existing methods for interpreting user gestures are inefficient. In particular, electronic devices may not accurately interpret gesture inputs in accordance with a user's intent. For example, when displaying a page in an electronic document, such devices may turn to a next page in the electronic document in response to the user's gesture, when the user actually wanted to highlight a portion of the displayed page. Thus, the user has to go back to the correct page and then retry the gesture input to highlight the portion of the correct page. This is tedious and creates a significant cognitive burden on the user. In addition, such undo-and-retry actions waste time and energy. This latter consideration is particularly important in battery-operated devices.

Device, method, and graphical user interface with a dynamic gesture disambiguation threshold


The data processing device maintains two stacks. The length of the basic unit of information is different for each stack. Pops and pushes cause a change in the stack pointer which differs dependent on which stack is used. Instructions refer to different locations on the stack as registers defined by an offset of a number of basic units relative to the top of stack. In an embodiment a reference to registers is normally interpreted as a reference to one of a set of registers (including the top of stack register) without push or pop, but a reference to one register is interpreted as a reference to, top of stack including a push or pop.

The invention relates to a data processing device for storing data and executing instructions. Such a data processing device is described in the architectural overview of the Philips 80C51XA processor, published in the 1996 data handbook IC25 published by Philips Semiconductors, pages 33 to 56.
A stack can be maintained for example by means of a stack pointer register which stores a memory address pointer. During a push operation the memory address pointer is incremented and information is stored at the memory location to which it points. By means of successive pushes information is thus written into a series of consecutive memory locations. This information can be read by addressing memory locations relative to the top of stack.
The pop operation is the reverse of the push operation. During a pop operation information is read from the memory location to which the address pointer points and the memory address pointer is decremented.
The 80C51XA processor supports such a stack mechanism because it has instructions with an addressing mode in which addresses are expressed by reference to a register which contains a memory address pointer. By referring to a register the instruction identifies memory address pointer in that address as the pointer to the memory location that is to be used as the source of an operand or the destination of a result. Several registers can be used in this way, and therefore each can be used as a stack pointer. The 80C51XA processor also specifically defines a user stack and a system stack for return from procedure calls and interrupts. The stack pointer to these stacks map to one of the normal registers.
There is an addressing mode in which execution an instruction will implicitly cause the register to which it refers to be incremented or decremented together with its functional operation of the instruction. Increments or decrements are in units of 16 bit words addresses, that is, the content of the register is incremented or decremented by 2 byte addresses at a time.
Stacks provide a powerful mechanism for managing information, especially when used to execute programs defined by higher level languages. This means that large numbers of items will be stored on a stack and that a stack will use a considerable amount of randomly accessible memory space.
Amongst others, it is an object of the invention to provide for a processing device in which less memory space is needed for stacked information.
It is another object of the invention to reduce the amount of memory space needed for storing programs that make use of stacks.
It is another object of the invention to provide a powerful set of stack handling instructions without making instructions unduly large.
The processing device according to the invention is characterized by a means for maintaining push and/or pop information in basic units of a first and second length on a first and second stack respectively, the first and second length being unequal, and not an integer multiple of one another, and where the first stack is used for addressing and the second stack is used for data. The first stack may be used for example for numerical data values, to be used as operands in various arithmetic and/or logic instructions, in which case that basic unit if for example a 16 bit word and the second stack may be used for addresses to be used as addresses for operands in such arithmetic and/or logic instructions, in which case the basic unit is for example a 24 bit word.
Thus, the lengths of basic units are for example 16 bit and 24 bit for the first and second stack respectively. As a result, when a first and second stack pointer are used which point to a memory addressed in terms of bytes, the first stack pointer will be changed by two byte addresses as a result of a push and/or pop and the second stack pointer will be changed by three byte addresses as a result of a push or a pop. The first stack may be used for example for numerical data values, to be used as operands in various arithmetic and/or logic instructions and the second stack may be used for addresses to be used as addresses for operands in such arithmetic and/or logic instructions.
The basic length of data values and addresses will generally differ due to the different use that is made of these two types of information. When, contrary to the invention, only one basic unit length is available for stacking both type s of information this means that storage space on the stack will be wasted on useless information. This is avoided by the invention due to the use of stacks with different lengths for basics tacking units. The invention is not limited to addresses and data: the invention may be used under any circumstances where two types of information with different meaningful lengths are used.
An embodiment of the processing device according to the invention is that the instruction set uses a first and second addressing mode for designating storage locations in terms of an offset relative to a top of the first and second stack respectively, expressability of the offset being restricted to numbers of basic units for one of the first or second stacks. In this embodiment the instructions can be kept short, because they address offsets in units adapted to the relevant stack and no instruction space is wasted by expressing offset which would express finer differences in that stack.
Further embodiments of the processing device according to the invention are that push and pop are coded by sacrificing a small amount of the offsets that can be specified relative to the top of stack, preferably the largest offset.


Embodiments of the present invention allow players to instantly access and begin playing games through an online service. To make the games instantly available, an online service keeps instances of games running in active memory waiting for a player to be added. The game instances running in active memory are not attached to a player profile or an I/O channel from a game client. Once the player requests a game, the player's player profile is loaded into the running game instance and an I/O channel is mapped from the game client to the game instance. From the player's perspective, the preloaded game instances allow the player to browse directly from game to game with very little delay. To optimize the usage of server-side resources, historical usage data may be analyzed to anticipate demand for different games.

To switch to a new video game, media may need to be removed from a game console and new media inserted. Once the new media is inserted, the game may be loaded from passive or secondary memory (e.g., the game media) into the game console's active memory before the player is able to begin play. Currently, a similar process occurs with an online game service. Once the player makes a request to play a game through an online service, the servers that provide the online game service load an instance of the requested game from secondary storage into an active memory for the server. The player may then play once the game is in the active memory.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A cleaning sponge connection for a wringer type sponge mop is disclosed. A latch hook at a lower end of an operating rod has a free end portion of a predetermined length and a non-circular cross-sectional shape. An elongate sponge clamp includes an elongate upper wall and a pair of opposing side walls which retain a sponge. The sponge clamp has at least one arch integrally formed in the elongate upper wall thereby defining a latch passageway extending longitudinally along the elongate upper wall. The latch passageway receives the free end portion of the latch hook to removably secure the sponge clamp to the operating rod. The latch passageway has a non-circular cross-sectional opening corresponding to the non-circular cross-sectional shape of the free end portion of the latch hook for preventing rotational movement of the sponge clamp about the latch hook. In addition, the upper wall of the sponge clamp has a recess that is at least as long as the predetermined length of the free end portion of the latch hook extending longitudinally along the upper wall of the sponge clamp to define a guide channel for receiving the latch hook. The guide channel is aligned with and adjacent to the latch passageway for guiding the free end portion of the latch hook into the latch passageway. The guide channel preferably extends the full length of the sponge clamp.

Wringer mops with replaceable cleaning sponges are well known and usually require the removal and replacement of a threaded bolt and nut to remove and replace the cleaning sponge. The removal and replacement of the threaded bolt and nut usually requires the use of hand tools which may not be readily available and which are not easily operable in the typical confined space available for positioning. Also, the nut and screw arrangement may become rusted or corroded with use and may be difficult to remove and replace.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,481,688 discloses a cleaning sponge connection that does not require bolts or screws. Essentially, an operating rod's latch hook is wedged into a sponge clamp's arcuate latch hook tunnel thereby holding the sponge clamp between a pair of opposing rollers. This design, however, suffers from three distinct disadvantages. First, changing the angular position of the cleaning sponge is awkward and difficult. The user must free the latch hook from its wedged position in the sponge clamp by forcing down one side of the sponge clamp, while keeping the rollers apart, and with enough longitudinal force to liberate the wedged latch hook. Second, the sponge mop relies on the rollers themselves to inhibit rotational movement of the cleaning sponge about the latch hook while in operation. This stress on the rollers has a deleterious effect on the rollers yieldable clamping, resulting in less force when squeezing water from the cleaning sponge. Third, the provided guide channel does not keep the sponge clamp properly oriented to the operating rod, the rollers, and the rest of the mop assembly, when removing or replacing the cleaning sponge.
Other prior art devices also present difficulties when removing and replacing the cleaning sponge. One known method of guiding a latch hook into position is to form an angled recess in the sponge clamp. One such prior art device, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,862,550, uses an offset downwardly sloped recess in combination with a raised tab in a sponge clamp's latch hook tunnel to guide the sponge mop's latch hook into the sponge clamp. The latch hook is then pivoted into alignment with the longitudinal center line of the retaining latch hook tunnel. Initial and final alignment, however, rely on the installer's ability to orchestrate the operating rod, the sponge clamp, and the opposing rollers in parallel and angled positions in tight spaces. In addition, this sponge clamp relies on the opposing rollers to inhibit rotational movement about the latch hook.
Still other prior art devices are designed as multipurpose replacement sponge assemblies for mops. U.S. Pat. No. 4,908,901, for example, is designed for use with a variety of different mops. A first connection is provided by a threaded screw at the top of a latch hook tunnel so that an operating rod can be threaded therethrough. Although a threaded screw attachment does inhibit rotational movement, the threads may be stripped or otherwise corroded. A second connection means is provided by two raised tabs, each of which receive a spaced apart L-shaped connecting element. Both the tabs and the L-shaped connecting elements suffer from a necessarily light construction to facilitate their placement. This designed flexibility lends itself to fatigue, brittleness, and failure. A third connection means accepts an operating rod's latch hook. The attachment means for a latch hook, however, fails to inhibit rotational movement about the latch hook and does not provide an orienting guide means.

Wringer-type sponge mop and sponge clamp therefor


A method of forming a manufacture includes forming a trench in a doped layer; and forming a gate dielectric layer along sidewalls of an upper portion of the trench. The method further includes forming a first conductive feature along sidewalls of the gate dielectric layer, wherein the first conductive feature has a first depth in the trench. The method further includes forming an insulating layer covering the first conductive feature and the first insulating layer. The method further includes forming a second conductive feature along sidewalls of the second insulating layer, wherein the second conductive feature has a second depth in the trench different from the first depth.

Many metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOS FETs) for high voltage applications have a vertical structure. The term "vertical structure" or sometimes referred to as "a vertical MOS transistor" refers to the arrangement that the source terminal and the drain terminal of the vertical MOS transistor are positioned one over another. In contrast, "a planar MOS transistor" refers to the arrangement of a transistor that the source terminal and the drain terminal of the planar MOS transistor are positioned at substantially the same horizontal planar level. Compared with a planar MOS transistor occupying the same area in a semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) chip, a vertical MOS transistor is usable of withstanding a greater drain-to-source voltage difference and a greater current level and is configurable to have low turned-on drain-to-source resistance.

Transistor and method of manufacturing the same

TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY, LTD.


Technology is disclosed for limiting the number of central data store accesses required when performing a series of steps, such as a workflow. A local data store is coupled between a central data store and a system carrying out a workflow. Alternatively, a Transfer Engine is coupled between the local data store and the central data store to transfer data between the local data store and central data store. The Transfer Engine allows the data formats in the central data store and local data store to be independent of each other. During a workflow step, the system stores attributes related to the workflow in the local data store—updating modified attribute values and creating entries for newly added attributes. The system determines whether any attributes in the central data store need to be updated with attribute information from the local data store. The system only updates the central data store with local data store attribute values for new and modified attributes when necessary—avoiding central data store updates after every workflow step.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to technology for limiting central data store accesses during a workflow or another series of processing steps.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the growth of the Internet, the use of networks, and other information technologies, Identity Systems have become more popular. In general, an Identity System provides for the creation, removal, editing and other managing of identity information stored in various types of data stores. The identity information pertains to users, groups, organizations and/or things. For each entry in the data store, a set of attributes are stored. For example, the attributes stored for a user may include a name, address, employee number, telephone number, email address, user ID and password. The Identity System can also manage access privileges that govern what an entity can view, create, modify or use in the Identity System. Often, this management of access privileges is based on one or more specific attributes, membership in a group and/or association with an organization.
Identity Systems frequently store most attributes in one or more central data stores, such as a directory or database. As the volume of data maintained in the central data store grows, pressure on the bandwidth of the central data store mounts—data store bandwidth can be a limiting factor in the amount of data and other resources the Identity System can support. Central data store accesses can also be time consuming—taking place remotely over a network connection in some implementations.
Some Identity Systems employ workflows to carry out a variety of operations, such as adding and modifying identity profiles for system users. A workflow breaks an operation into a series of steps that are performed by the Identity Systems and other entities. In some instances, the Identity System calls on another entity to carry out a function called for in a workflow step, such as provisioning resources to a user. The Identity System then waits for the called entity to complete the assigned function.
Identity Systems employing workflows typically update the central data store at the end of each step in a workflow—updating the attributes related to the workflow. This places substantial demands on central data store bandwidth. In many instances, the updates of attributes in the central data store are unnecessary. Only certain circumstances require attributes in the central data store to be up to date. For example, an updated attribute is necessary when another entity needs to use the attribute. These circumstances, however, do not typically occur after every workflow step. It is desirable to reduce the number of central data store updates performed in each workflow.
Some Identity System users also employ an Access Systems. An Access System provides for the authentication and authorization of users attempting to access resources. For efficiency purposes, there is an advantage to integrating the Identity System and the Access System. Additionally, integrating the Identity System and the Access System allows for single-sign-on functionality across multiple resources. Thus, there is also a need to reduce workflow related accesses of a central data store, such as a directory, in an Access Systems and integrated Identity/Access Systems. Systems other than Identity and Access Systems can also benefit from reducing central data store accesses when carrying out workflows.

Employing local data stores to maintain data during workflows


The ceiling fan display comprises a stand having a vertical support with a horizontal support base extending from the bottom of the vertical support, and a horizontal support arm extending from the top of the vertical support. The ceiling fan is disposed at the distal end of the horizontal support arm. The horizontal support base is comprised of structural members that extend outward from the vertical support to form a “T” shaped outline. Boxes of the displayed ceiling fans may be stacked on the horizontal support base as a part of the sales display.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is applicable generally to modular product displays and display stands. Specifically, the invention relates to a display for a ceiling fan, with the display preferably having a base to support fans offered for sale and signage brackets advertising the fans.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Ceiling fan displays may exhibit multiple types and models of fans in a relatively limited space. The displays are primarily comprised of a relatively large mechanical framework suspended from the ceiling or extending upward from the floor. The multi-product displays commonly occupy an aisle or section of a retail store and allow customers to view an entire product line from a single vantage point. Boxes containing the actual products are generally stored remotely, and the assistance of a sales person may be required to locate a specific model. Decorative lights and other types of displays are commonly interspersed with the exhibited ceiling fans. The displays may include a relatively complex panel of electrical controls designed to individually turn the display fans on and off.
Multi-product ceiling fan displays are not readily mobile and not easily adaptable to the special needs of a retailer. These displays are large, expensive, cumbersome, and fixed in a single location. These characteristics prevent the display from being moved to the front of a retail store, for example, where a product may be more effectively promoted. Additionally, ceiling fan manufacturers who wish to have their product displayed must compete with other fan and light manufacturers for the relatively limited space on the large multi-product displays. Further, because of the complexity of the wiring required for the multi-product control panels, all of the displayed fans may not function as intended.
The prior art also includes ceiling fan displays for individual fans. These displays may be assembled from lumber available at a retailer's store. While these displays are more mobile than the multi-product displays, they must be custom assembled for each individual display. Moreover, they cannot be quickly and easily disassembled and shipped to a new location, and subsequently re-assembled.
A need exists for a more flexible and efficient means of displaying ceiling fans. The present invention has the advantage of individually displaying a ceiling fan in its normal, hung position, while simultaneously allowing substantially more flexibility in the sales presentation of the merchandise. The lightweight tubular design of the present invention allows the display to be shipped "knocked down" to a retailer, and assembled quickly and easily there. The present invention allows customers to view the product, and immediately and directly access the available boxed ceiling fans without the assistance of retail store personnel.


An alkaline electrochemical cell having a hydrogen absorbing alloy negative electrode. The electrochemical cell comprises an alkaline electrolyte comprising an additive material which reduces cell pressure by decreasing hydrogen gas evolution.

This invention relates to rechargeable electrochemical cells. In particular this invention relates to a metal hydride rechargeable electrochemical cell.
Rechargeable electrochemical cells using a hydrogen absorbing alloy as the active material for the negative electrode are known in the art. The negative electrode is capable of the reversible electrochemical storage of hydrogen. The positive electrode typically comprises a nickel hydroxide active material. The negative and positive electrodes are spaced apart in an alkaline electrolyte, and a suitable separator (i.e., a membrane) may be positioned between the electrodes.
As shown by reaction (1), upon application of an electrical current to the negative electrode, the hydrogen absorbing alloy (M) is charged by the absorption of hydrogen to form a hydride (Mxe2x80x94H).
M+H2O+exe2x88x92xe2x86x92Mxe2x80x94H+OHxe2x88x92(Charging)xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(1)
During discharge, the stored hydrogen is released by the hydride to provide an electric current and participates in electrochemical reaction, as shown by reaction (2).
xe2x80x83Mxe2x80x94H+OHxe2x88x92xe2x86x92M+H2O+exe2x88x92(Discharging)xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(2)
Examples of hydrogen absorbing alloys are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,551,400, 4,728,586, 5,096,667, 5,135,589, 5,277,999, 5,238,756, 5,407,761, and 5,536,591, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The reactions at a conventional nickel hydroxide positive electrode as utilized in a nickel-metal hydride electrochemical cell are as follows:
Ni(OH)2+OHxe2x88x92xe2x86x92NiOOH+H2O+exe2x88x92(Charging)xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(3)
NIOOH+H2O+exe2x88x92xe2x86x92Ni(OH)2+OHxe2x88x92(Discharging)xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(4)
Hence, as shown by reactions (1) and (2) above, the charging and discharging of the electrochemical cell involves the hydriding and dehydriding of the hydrogen storage alloys. Generally, the hydriding and dehydriding reactions in the electrochemical cell are accompanied by electrochemical charge transfer. These reactions also involve the transport of hydrogen atoms into and out of the hydrogen absorbing alloy. During the operation of the cells, particularly during high rate charge and discharge, significant hydrogen pressures can develop (especially if the hydrogen transport lags behind in one direction or the other).
Specifically, during cell charging, atomic hydrogen is formed at the surface of the negative electrode. Preferably, the atomic hydrogen reacts with the hydrogen absorbing alloy as shown by reaction (1) to form a hydride. However, depending on charge conditions and surface properties of the hydrogen absorbing alloy, some of the atomic hydrogen may instead recombine with another atomic hydrogen to form molecular hydrogen gas.
While cells typically operate at pressures greater than atmospheric pressure, excessive hydrogen pressure is undesirable since it can result in a loss of aqueous-based electrolyte material, thereby limiting cell life. Also, if excess hydrogen pressure is not vented, the cell can burst, deform, or otherwise be destroyed.
Clearly, it is desirable to limit excessive hydrogen overpressure in electrochemical cells. Reduction of the internal cell pressure increases the cycle life of the electrochemical cell. The present invention relates to additive materials which may be added to cell components for reducing cell pressure by decreasing hydrogen gas evolution within the electrochemical cell.
An objective of the present invention is an electrochemical cell having decreased cell pressure. Another objective of the present invention is an electrochemical cell with improved cycle life.
These and other objectives of the invention are satisfied by an alkaline electrochemical cell, comprising: a positive electrode; a negative electrode comprising a hydrogen absorbing alloy active electrode material; and an alkaline electrolyte comprising an additive material reducing cell pressure by decreasing hydrogen gas evolution.
These and other objectives of the invention are also satisfied by an electrolyte for an alkaline electrochemical cell having a negative electrode including a hydrogen absorbing alloy, the electrolyte comprising: an alkaline ion-conducting medium; and an additive material reducing cell pressure by decreasing hydrogen gas evolution.
These and other objectives of the invention are also satisfied by an alkaline electrochemical cell, comprising: at least one positive electrode; at least one negative electrode; and an alkaline electrolyte, the negative electrode comprising: a conductive substrate; and an active composition affixed to the substrate, the active composition comprising: a hydrogen absorbing alloy, and an additive material reducing cell pressure by decreasing hydrogen gas evolution.
These and other objectives of the invention are also satisfied by an electrode of an alkaline electrochemical cell, comprising: a conductive substrate; and a active composition comprising: a hydrogen absorbing alloy active electrode material, and a additive material reducing cell pressure by decreasing hydrogen gas evolution.
Disclosed herein is an alkaline, metal hydride electrochemical cell. The electrochemical cell comprises one or more positive electrodes, one or more negative electrode, and an alkaline electrolyte. Separators are typically positioned between the positive and negative electrodes to electrically isolate the positive electrodes from negative electrodes.
Each of the positive electrodes comprises a positive electrode active material that is affixed to a conductive substrate. Preferably, the positive electrode active material comprises a nickel hydroxide active electrode material. Each of the negative electrodes comprises a negative electrode active material that is affixed to a conductive substrate. In the present invention, the negative electrode active material is a hydrogen absorbing alloy. It is within the spirit and scope of the present invention that any hydrogen absorbing alloy can be used.
Generally, the conductive substrates used for the positive and negative electrodes may be any electrically conductive support structure. Examples of conductive substrates include expanded metal, mesh, foam, grid, and plate. The substrate may be made from any electrically conductive material. The materials are preferably chosen so as to be immune from corrosion at the pH and potential at which the electrodes operate. The conductive substrate for the positive electrode is preferably a nickel foam or a nickel alloy foam. The conductive substrate for the negative electrode preferably has the form of an expanded metal. The substrate may comprise nickel, a nickel alloy, copper, a copper alloy, nickel-plated copper, or copper-plated nickel.
The alkaline electrolyte is an ion-conducting medium. The electrolyte is preferably an aqueous solution of an alkali metal hydroxide. Examples of alkali metal hydroxides include potassium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide, lithium hydroxide, and mixtures thereof. Preferably, the alkali metal hydroxide comprises potassium hydroxide. More preferably, the alkali metal hydroxide comprises about a 30 weight percent aqueous solution of potassium hydroxide.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the electrolyte further comprises an additive material which decreases the pressure within the electrochemical cell by reducing the evolution of hydrogen gas. Preferably, the additive material is selected from the group consisting of thiourea, urea, thiophene, thioalcohol, thiocyanate, pyrrole, cysteine, cynanide, sulfide, bisulfide, and mixtures thereof. More preferably, the additive comprises thiourea.
Specifically, the additive material may be added to the electrolyte by being mixed into the aqueous solution with the alkali metal hydroxide. Preferably, about 0.01 weight percent to about 5 weight percent of the additive material is added to the electrolyte. More preferably, about 0.05 weight percent to about 1 weight percent of the additive material is added to the electrolyte.
The additive material may be added to other components of the electrochemical cell. In another embodiment of the present invention, the additive material may be mixed with the hydrogen absorbing alloy to form an active composition. The active composition may then be affixed to a conductive substrate to form a negative electrode for an substrate. This may be done by first making the hydrogen absorbing material into a paste (with the addition of water and a thickener) and physically mixing small amounts of the additive material (for example, the thiourea) into the paste. The paste is then applied to the conductive substrate to form a negative electrode. Preferably, the active composition comprises between about 0.01 to about 5 weight percent of the additive material. More preferably, the active composition comprises between about 0.05 to about 1 weight percent of the additive material.
The additive material may also be added to the positive electrode active material. This may be done by first making the positive electrode material into a paste via the addition of water and a thickener. The additive material is then physically mixed into the paste and the paste and is applied to the conductive substrate to form the positive electrode. Preferably, the positive electrode active composition comprises between about 0.01 to about 5 weight percent of the additive material. More preferably, the positive electrode active composition comprises between about 0.05 to about 1 weight percent of the additive material.
The additive material may be added to one or more of the separators. For example, the thiourea may be added to a separator by first forming an aqueous solution of the thiourea and then soaking the separator in this solution.
Hydrogen evolution proceeds at the surface of the hydrogen absorbing alloy. While not wishing to be bound by theory, it is believed that the mechanism for hydrogen evolution in a metal hydride electrochemical cell may be explained as follows. During charging of the electrochemical cell, water dissociates into hydrogen atoms and hydroxyl ions. The hydrogen atoms from the water molecules adsorb onto the surface of the hydrogen absorbing alloy. This is shown by equation 5(a) below.
M+H2O+exe2x88x92xe2x86x92Mxe2x80x94H (adsorbed)+OHxe2x88x92xe2x80x83xe2x80x835(a)
The adsorbed hydrogen may then be absorbed into the hydrogen absorbing alloy so as to form a metal hydride as shown by reaction 5(b). Alternately, the adsorbed hydrogen atoms may combine with other adsorbed hydrogen atoms to form hydrogen molecules as shown by reaction 5(c).
Mxe2x80x94H (adsorbed)xe2x86x92Mxe2x80x94H (absorbed)xe2x80x83xe2x80x835(b)
Mxe2x80x94H (adsorbed)+Mxe2x80x94H (adsorbed)xe2x86x922M+H2(gas)xe2x80x83xe2x80x835(c)
When hydrogen gas is formed via reaction 5(c), hydrogen gas evolution occurs and the hydrogen pressure within the electrochemical cell increases. It is noted that if the surface of the hydrogen absorbing alloy is covered with an oxide or other impurity, hydrogen evolution is preferred rather than hydride formation.
Again, while not wishing to be bound by theory, it is further believed that the additive material of the present invention (or the ionized components of the additive) adsorbs onto the surface of the hydrogen absorbing alloy and inhibits atomic hydrogen recombination (i.e., inhibits the atomic hydrogen from coming together to form the molecular hydrogen). This decreases the evolution of hydrogen gas within the electrochemical cell and also increases the amount of atomic hydrogen available for hydride formation. It is noted that any species that competes with hydrogen adsorption onto the surface of the alloy material will have a negative influence on the kinetics of the hydrogen evolution reaction.
Also disclosed herein is an electrolyte for an electrochemical cell. The electrolyte comprises an ion-conducting medium, and an additive comprising a compound selected from the group consisting of Preferably, the additive comprises thiourea.
The ion-conducting medium is preferably, an aqueous solution of an alkali metal hydroxide. The alkali metal hydroxide may be selected from the group consisting of potassium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide, lithium hydroxide, and mixtures thereof.

Electrochemical cell having reduced cell pressure


A nail-permeable medication means is disclosed for delivering a medicament through nails, claws, hoofs, or other similar hardened tissue of dermal derivation. The nail-permeable medication means includes a proteolytic enzyme component which facilitates permeation of substances through the hardened nail or keratin tissue, and also includes a medicament component selected to treat a specific disease. The nail-permeable medication means is particularly useful for treating onychomycosis of the fingernail or toenail, and avoids the need for more drastic therapeutic modalities, such as removal of the nail.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to the medical treatment of diseased nails, claws or hoofs (i.e., unguis), and specifically relates to the treatment of diseased nails by facilitating penetration of medication through the nail.
2. Statement of the Art
Humans and animals alike are commonly plagued by the infiltration of micro-organisms beneath the nail, claw or hoof which results in a disease condition causing pain, discoloration, and frequently loss of the unguis. In humans, for example, some diseases which attack the nail or nail bed can be treated fairly successfully with the use of cleansing and/or antiseptic preparations, while other diseases require treatment by such means as systemic drug therapy. Nonetheless, many disease conditions of the nail, particularly onychomycosis (i.e., fungal diseases), have had a relatively low success rate for treatment due to the intransigent nature of the infectious micro-organisms.
It has been estimated that greater than twenty percent (20%) of the population of the United States over the age of 40 suffers from onychomycosis of the fingernails or toenails. The disease is known to occur to a lesser extent in people below the age of forty, but the occurrence of disease is still significant. Unfortunately, the current modalities for treatment of onychomycosis show a very low success rate.
Common means of treating microbial diseases, including onychomycosis, include oral administration of drugs and laser therapy. Laser therapy, as yet, is not well-developed nor widely practiced, and is very expensive because it must be conducted in a doctor's office by a trained technician. Systemic drug therapy through oral administration has also proven to be relatively unsuccessful because of drug intolerances, the expense of the medications and low patient compliance.
The most common means of treating onychomycosis is to remove the nail completely and topically apply medication to the underlying nail bed. However, not only is such treatment cosmetically unsightly, but the fungus which invades the nail often remains in the matrix of the finger or toe (where the nail is formed) and the disease reoccurs immediately upon, or during, ingrowth of the new nail.
Undoubtedly, treatment of diseases involving nails would be greatly enhanced by the ability to access the area around and below the nail, as well as to penetrate the nail itself, without having to remove the nail. However, the thick and/or hardened nature of nails renders access through, and to the area below, the nail very difficult. The same can be said of diseases involving the claws or hooves of animals.
The usefulness of antifungal drugs in treating onychomycosis has been limited heretofore because of resistance to penetration of the nail or because of limited access to the nail bed through the nail. Thus, it would be an improvement in the art to provide means for enhancing penetration of the nail so that treatment of the nail with medication may occur at the situs and without having to remove or otherwise significantly damage the nail. It would also be advantageous to provide such penetration means at a reasonable cost to the consumer, and in a form which would facilitate and encourage proper and consistent self-use by the afflicted person.
The art has disclosed the use of various substances as permeation facilitators in drug delivery systems, but such permeation enhancers have only been used in connection with permeation of the epidermis. Examples of such methods and systems have been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,156,846; U.S. Pat. No. 5,296,222; French Patent Publication No. 2,448,903; and French Patent Publication No. 2,556,218. The permeation of thickened nails, or other unguis, presents unique difficulties not encountered in permeation of the epidermis. To date, no means have been developed to enhance permeation of nails for effective treatment of diseases involving nails, or other unguis.

Composition and method for treating diseased nails


Various aspects of the invention provide memory devices, methods of storing and reading data, and silver/molecular-layer/metal (SMM) junctions. One aspect of the invention provides a memory device including a plurality of SMM junctions and an electrical structure configured to permit application of electricity across one or more of the plurality of SMM junctions. Another aspect of the invention provides a method of storing data on a memory device including a plurality of SMM junctions. The method includes applying electrical energy across a subset of the SMM junctions to switch the junction to a more conductive state. Another aspect of the invention provides an SMM junction including a silver layer, a copper layer, and a molecular layer positioned between the silver layer and the copper layer.

Although the capacity of existing memory devices (e.g., hard disk drives, flash drives, and the like) have rapidly grown, the demands of consumer, commercial, industrial, and government users continues to keep pace and, in some instances, outpace currently technologies. For example, a 30 gigabyte portable media player that provided more than adequate storage five years ago may now be inadequate to store the ever-increasing catalog of full-length motion pictures available for purchase and download.
In many applications, merely increasing storage capacity by adding additional discs or chips is often not acceptable or desirable, particularly in portable devices.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved memory devices that are capable of storing large amounts of data in small footprint.

Memory devices, methods of storing and reading data, SMM junctions, and methods of preparing alumina substrates

The University of Memphis Research Foundation


In a stator core having “N” slots, a tooth-width centerline of a linear yoke and a first extension line extended horizontally from a center of rotary shaft toward the linear yoke form a first angle. Assume there are first point on the first extension line at a first distance from the center, a second extension line drawn at a second distance horizontally from the center toward the linear yoke and extended vertically toward arc-shaped yokes, and a third extension line drawn from the center toward teeth ends of the linear yokes with angle “K”. The second and third extension line intersect at a second point. A line between the first and second points intersects with the first extension line, thereby forming the first angle. In this structure, 0<a<b, and (360/2N−60/2N)°<K<(360/2N+60/2N)° are established, where “a”, “b” are the first and the second distances respectively.

FIG. 9-FIG. 11 show conventional motors. FIG. 9 shows a sectional view of a conventional round motor, FIG. 10 shows a sectional view of a conventional flat motor, and FIG. 11 shows another conventional flat motor.
The round motor shown in FIG. 9 is a brushless motor, and formed of stator 101 and rotor 102. Each one of a plurality of teeth 103 of stator 101 is wound with a winding in a concentrated manner. Stator 101 has six slots. Rotor 102 includes permanent magnets 111 in which eight poles are available. The conventional motor shown in FIG. 9 thus forms a permanent-magnet motor having 8 poles and 6 slots.
A stator core of stator 101 comprises teeth 103 arranged radially, and arc-like yoke 104 coupling respective teeth 103 to each other. Each one of teeth 103 has tooth-end wider section 105, having a wider width along the rotational direction, at its inner end. Between the adjacent wider sections 105, slot open 106 is formed, and between adjacent teeth 103, slot 107 is formed. Each one of teeth 103 is wound with winding 109 via insulator 108. Windings 109 regularly employ three-phase windings.
Rotor 102 is rotatably held inside stator 101 via clearance in between, and concentric with stator 101. Rotor core 110 is mounted with ring-shaped permanent magnets 111. A rotary shaft is inserted into shaft hole 112. Rotor 102 is rotated on the rotary shaft with a rotating magnetic field generated by an electric current running through windings 109 provided to stator 101.
The flat brushless motor shown in FIG. 10 has been designed for downsizing the round brushless motor shown in FIG. 9 and yet for obtaining higher power. A structure of this kind of flat brushless motor is disclosed in, e.g. Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 2002-136090. Flat brushless motor 120 shown in FIG. 10 includes teeth 123 arranged in parallel with each other; however, teeth 123 have different shapes, so that cogging torque tends to occur.
FIG. 11 shows another conventional flat motor, which produces less cogging torque than the motor shown in FIG. 10. In FIG. 11, elements having the same functions as those shown in FIG. 9 have the same reference marks, and the descriptions thereof are omitted here.
Stator 113 of the motor shown in FIG. 11 includes a plurality of teeth 103 radially arranged, arc-like yokes 104 and linear yokes 114 coupling respective teeth 103 to each other at the outer walls of teeth 103. Two arc-like yokes 104 and two linear yokes 114 are alternately connected to each other so that two linear yokes 114 can be in parallel with each other. This structure forms the motor flat, which allows providing a compact brushless motor outputting higher power.
However, the foregoing shape of stator 113 sets a limit to a sectional area of the windings at flat sections because the sectional area of each one of three-phase windings differs from each other, and the entire windings are thus determined under this limitation. As a result, the higher power of the flat motor shown in FIG. 11 is limited, so that it may happen that necessary power cannot be obtained from the motor.

Electrical machine having a flattened stator with inclined teeth


Programmable logic device integrated circuits are provided that have configurable receivers with dynamic phase alignment capabilities. In situations in which receivers require dynamic phase alignment circuitry, programmable logic elements can be configured to implement a dynamic phase alignment data capture and synchronization circuit. In situations in which dynamic phase alignment receiver circuitry is not required, resources are made available for implementing other user logic. Multiple dynamic phase alignment receiver circuits can share an eight-phase dynamic phase alignment clock signal that is generated by a phase-locked-loop circuit. Switches may be configured to selectively route the dynamic phase alignment clock signal to desired locations on the programmable logic device integrated circuit.

This invention relates to integrated circuits such as programmable logic device integrated circuits, and more particularly, to integrated circuits with configurable dynamic phase alignment circuitry.
Programmable logic devices are a type of integrated circuit that can be programmed by a user to implement a desired custom logic function. In a typical scenario, a logic designer uses computer-aided design tools to design a custom logic circuit. When the design process is complete, the tools generate configuration data. The configuration data is loaded into a programmable logic device to configure the device to perform the functions of the custom logic circuit.
In a typical system, a programmable logic device integrated circuit and other integrated circuits are mounted on a circuit board. The circuit board contains conductive paths that interconnect the integrated circuits. A system may also have paths that interconnect integrated circuits on different boards. Programmable logic devices contain transceiver circuitry for transmitting and receiving data over these communications paths.
Programmable logic device transceiver circuitry includes input and output drivers. The input and output drivers may use differential signaling schemes in which a pair of signals are referenced to each other or single-ended signaling schemes, in which signals are referenced to ground. In high-speed environments, the input and output drivers are generally differential drivers and handle differential signals.
Some programmable logic device architectures rely extensively on complex hardwired transceiver circuitry. For example, programmable logic devices are available that include transceivers with dynamic phase alignment capabilities. These devices use multiphase clocks. Hardwired dynamic phase alignment circuitry is used to select an optimal clock phase for data capture operations.
While hardwired programmable logic device transceivers with dynamic phase alignment capabilities are appropriate for some logic designs, the inclusion of complex transceiver circuitry of this type is not always desired and can add needless overhead. As a result, other programmable logic device architectures forgo complex transceiver circuitry and only support limited transceiver functionality. Devices of this more limited type have transceivers without dynamic phase alignment capabilities. Although these devices use less hardwired circuitry to capture incoming data, the benefits of dynamic phase alignment are lost.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide an integrated circuit such as a programmable logic device integrated circuit with configurable dynamic phase alignment circuitry.

Programmable logic device integrated circuits with configurable dynamic phase alignment circuitry


System and method for controlling current across a load. A preferred embodiment comprises a current varying circuit (such as current varying circuit 525) that can create a sequence of voltage drops in a driver circuit (such as the driver circuit 505) coupled to an inductive load (such as the inductive load 535). By initially producing a large voltage drop and then stepping the voltage drop down gradually, the current in the inductive load can be rapidly removed without producing a current undershoot, which, in certain applications, can result in unwanted noise and vibration.

The amount of current flowing through an inductive load (such as a valve or solenoid, for example) can be used to control the operation of many devices. For example, the amount of current flowing through an automotive brake solenoid can determine the amount of braking pressure being applied. There are times when the current through the inductive load needs to change quickly from one current level to another current level. Referring back to the automotive brake solenoid example, there may be a need to rapidly apply a significant amount of braking pressure and then release the braking pressure. This may be needed for applications such as anti-lock braking, vehicle traction control, anti-skid control, and so forth.
One way to accomplish the rapid change in the inductive load current is to use a closed control loop to allow a voltage across the inductive load to fly-back and snub. This allows for a rapid change in the current across the inductive load.
A disadvantage of the prior art is that the rapidly changing voltage can result in a very fast current transition through the load. This change (dI/dT) may be too fast for the control loop to respond to and may result in a current undershoot in the system. In the automotive brake solenoid example, current undershoot can result in a shuttering of the brakes, which provide an unpleasant sensation (and noise) for the operator of the automobile.

Current control via a variable voltage snubbing network