A power divider includes a substrate, a signal reception terminal formed in a first layer of the substrate for receiving signals, a first output terminal formed in the first layer for outputting radio-frequency (RF) signals, a matching terminal formed in a third layer of the substrate, a second output terminal formed in the third layer for outputting RF signals, a grounding plate formed in a second layer of the substrate, surrounding a hole and forming a circular shape, a first block transmission line formed at a position corresponding to the hole in the first layer and coupled to the signal reception terminal and the first output terminal, and a second block transmission line formed at a position corresponding to the hole in the third layer, coupled to the matching terminal and the second output terminal, and having a shape identical to a shape of the first block transmission line.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power divider and a dual-output radio transmitter, and more particularly, to a power divider and dual-output radio transmitter has small volume and simple structure, and is suitable for multi-band or wideband operations.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With the advancement of wireless communication, wireless communication systems supporting multi-input and multi-output (MIMO) technology, such as IEEE 802.11 compatible systems, are increasing in number, in order to improve transmission efficiency and rate, as well as quality of services. The concept of MIMO is to transmit and receive radio signals via multiple (or multi-set of) antennas, such that system throughput and transmitting range can be increased without additional bandwidth or transmit power expenditure, and thus, spectrum efficiency and transmitting rate can be enhanced.
To transmit and receive signals via smart antennas in a MIMO system, a corresponding radio-frequency (RF) processing circuit is required to properly distribute transmitting signals to each antenna. Therefore, a power divider is necessary. For example, in a 2T/2R (2 transmitters, 2 receivers) MIMO system, an RF signal processing circuit may divide a signal into two RF signals with the same power and 90-degree phase difference, so as to emit the two RF signals via two transmission antennas. The power divider capable of reaching 90-degree phase difference is an important component in the field of RF signal processing. However, the prior art power divider of 90-degree phase difference requires large layout area. Besides that, the prior art power divider is usually designed for narrow band or single band applications, leading to increase of power consumption and deviation of phase difference when the power divider is used in wideband or multi-band operations.

Power divider and dual-output radio transmitter


Disclosed herein is a breathable film and a breathable, cloth-like film/nonwoven composite made from the breathable film which is stretch-thinned and bonded to a fibrous polyolefin nonwoven web. Certain thermoplastic films such as, for example, linear low density polyethylene films are difficult to thermally bond to, for example, polypropylene nonwoven webs due to the incompatibility of the two polymers. The present invention incorporates a bonding agent into one or both of the two layers thereby making it easier to thermally bond the two layers together. Processes for forming the various composite are also disclosed.

Many of today's products include man-made, synthetic components, personal care absorbent articles such as diapers being but one example. Today's diapers typically include a synthetic fiber nonwoven web as the body side liner material positioned adjacent the baby's skin. Inside the diaper there is an absorbent core which may be made from natural wood pulp fiber in combination with synthetic fibers and superabsorbents. The backing materials or outercovers of diapers have traditionally been made from plastic films due to cost considerations and the liquid impermeable nature of plastic films.
While plastic films are efficient at containing liquids and other waste matters during use, the same plastic films have certain disadvantages in that they are not pleasing to the touch and they do not readily pass water vapor so that, from a wearer wellness standpoint, plastic films tend to cause skin hydration thereby making infants more prone to diaper rash. One solution has been to supplant normal nonporous plastic films with breathable plastic films as the diaper backing material. There are a number of ways of making a film breathable including aperturing and the use of fillers. When fillers are used, the film is often crushed between rollers to crack the filler or stretched so as to create small gaps between the polymer and the particles embedded in the polymer. This creates a tortuous path from one surface of the film to the other and thus provides a path for the escape of water vapor while acting as a barrier to liquids such as water and urine. Polyolefin films are often used for making breathable films. A particularly useful film for such applications is made from a linear polyolefin containing organic and/or inorganic fillers. Such filled polyolefin films provide good water vapor transmission thereby making the diapers more comfortable to the wearer. As a result, the relative humidity and temperature within the diaper or other product can be reduced by using breathable materials. Despite this, such breathable films have the disadvantage of being cold and clammy because breathable films pass moisture to the outside of the product where it condenses readily on the film surface. Consequently, another solution has been to attempt to use nonwoven materials as the backing material for diapers.
Fibrous nonwoven webs when used as the backing material for diapers alleviate the above-mentioned film problems, however, such fibrous nonwoven webs generally provide poor barriers to the passage of liquids including urine. As a result, most nonwovens, by themselves, are not suitable as backing materials. Some fibrous nonwoven webs work better than others at repelling liquids, especially when they include a layer of fine fiber nonwoven material such as a layer of meltblown. Meltblown fibrous webs are made from fibers formed by extruding molten thermoplastic material through fine die capillaries to form molten threads or filaments which are then attenuated using high velocity gas. The resultant fibers generally have very small diameters, usually 10 microns or less, and are collected on a forming surface in the form of a fibrous nonwoven batt with very small pore structures which tend to inhibit liquid flow. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 3,849,241 to Buntin et al. Even with the use of meltblown layers, however, such fibrous nonwovens do not always prove to be totally suitable as a backing material for personal care products.
In view of the foregoing deficiencies of both films and fibrous nonwovens, attempts have been made to combine the two materials thereby making it possible to rely upon the strengths of one material to overcome the weaknesses of the other. An example of combining the best attributes of a breathable film and a fibrous nonwoven is via the combination of a filled linear polyolefin film and a polypropylene or polypropylene copolymer spunbond web. In order for these two materials to work in unison, they must somehow be joined or laminated to one another. There are a number of methods for joining films and nonwovens including thermal and ultrasonic bonding, gluing, needling and sewing. For purposes of maintaining a liquid barrier, needling and sewing are generally undesirable due to the fact that the holes these processes create are relatively large and therefore permit leakage of liquids. Adhesives and gluing can be undesirable for their own reasons including undue blockage of the breathable film pores and overall stiffness of the laminate. Lamination of the film and fibrous nonwoven layers should be relatively complete. As a general matter, to achieve good lamination between a film and a nonwoven using an adhesive, either a thin, uniform layer of adhesive must be sprayed across the entire interface of the two materials or larger more localized quantities of adhesive must be used at spaced-apart intervals. Uniform applications of adhesive can and often do block the pores on one surface of the film thereby rendering the previously porous film nonporous. This is not desirable. Using larger quantities of adhesive in more localized areas reduces the amount of film surface that is being blocked by the adhesive, the drawback being that the film/nonwoven laminate tends to become stiff due to the concentrated application of adhesive. Consequently, it would be more desirable to use thermal lamination techniques.
Thermal lamination can be accomplished through the use of heat and pressure as with heated pattern rolls and with ultrasonics. Both techniques are very well suited for joining films and nonwovens when the two materials are made from the same polymer. In some cases, however, the polymers used to make the film are not the same as those used to make the fibrous nonwoven web. This can be because of both cost and physical properties. Linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) films and polypropylene nonwoven webs are one example. These polymers are thermally incompatible with one another in that they cannot be thermally laminated to one another with a bond force of at least 5 grams. There also exists the situation where the polymers used to make the two layers are the same and therefore compatible but to bring about thermal lamination so much heat and pressure must be used that perforations end up being formed in the film layer and oftentimes the laminate is too stiff. As a result, there is a need for a process for thermally bonding such incompatible and compatible materials so that the advantages of the two materials as well as the thermal lamination process can be used. There is also a need for the resultant product. As explained in detail below, these needs have been satisfied by the present invention.

Breathable, cloth-like film/nonwoven composite


The brightness of an actual image produced by an image sensor (e.g., CCD) of an electronic camera, is controlled with image size detection circuitry which, in response to electrical signals received from the electronic camera, determines an actual image area occupying a total image area of the image sensor. A control signal, based on the actual image area, is generated and sent to the electronic camera for controlling the electronic shutter.

The invention relates to displaying images generated by a camera, and, in particular, to images generated by an electronic camera attached to a medical viewing instrument.
In general, medical viewing instruments, such as endoscopes, are instruments for viewing the interior of an object, such as the human body. For example, during a surgical procedure, an endoscope is inserted into the body to view an internal organ or anatomical body passage, such as the intestine.
A typical endoscope includes an elongated outer tube within which a lens system is disposed at a distal end. Light reflected from the object being viewed travels through the lens system and exits at a proximal end of the tube for viewing by a user either directly or via an imaging device, such as an electronic camera having a charge coupled device (CCD). The camera generates a video signal that represents the optical image of the object being viewed with the endoscope. The video signal generated by the camera is processed and displayed on a display device, such as a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) Monitor.
In applications where a camera is used, a coupler having a zoom lens assembly may be positioned between the endoscope and the camera. The endoscope/coupler combination, in essence provides an endoscope with zoom capability.


An opposed current flow magnetic pulse forming and joining system in electrical communication with a magnetic pulse power supply having a positive connection and a negative connection. The system may be used in forming individual workpieces or joining multiple workpieces, including joining by magnetic pulse welding. The system includes a first section, a second section, an insulator, and a first and a second pair of conductors. The first and second sections cooperate to enclose the workpiece(s) and function to create an electromagnetic force similar to that produced by a single closed coil. The system is configured to achieve desirable current flow by minimizing inductance, inductive reactance, and impedance in the conductors. The pairs of conductors may incorporate closely spaced individual conductors, braided conductors, and coaxial conductors. The current flow in the individual conductors of each pair of conductors is opposed, as is the current flow through the sections.

The use of magnetic pulse technologies in forming and joining components has been known for years. The widespread use of magnetic pulse forming and joining has been generally limited to use with tubular workpieces of relatively simple geometries. Traditionally, magnetic pulse forming and joining has been accomplished through the use of a closed coil configured such that the parts to be formed or joined can be slid into and out of the coil. Such closed coils have not allowed the application of magnetic pulse technologies to workpieces having anything other than simple shapes.
To overcome the limitations inherent in closed coils, numerous split concentrators have been developed to provide additional flexibility to closed coil devices. Such split concentrator designs are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,486,356, 3,412,590, 3,391,558, and 3,252,313, just to name a few. Still, use of a split concentrator with a closed coil device does not provide the flexibility needed in many situations; after all the formed or welded workpiece must still be able to slide out of the coil.
Others have essentially cut a closed coil device in half so that it can be opened to insert and remove workpieces, yet still create a closed coil when the halves are brought together. Such configurations have been plagued by sparking along the interface between the two sections which leads to premature wear and failure of the coil. Yet another problem plaguing magnetic pulse technology systems has been the lack of control of the current as it passes through the sections. Prior art systems have failed to recognize the importance that the electrical characteristics of the entire system have on the current flow within the sections. A magnetic pulse technology power source may be tens of feet away from the actual forming or joining device. The power transmission systems responsible to transmitting hundreds of thousands of amperes at an electrical potential of thousands of volts are generally the source of several problems. Large power transmission circuits operating at the frequencies used in magnetic pulse forming and joining, generally tens of kHz, produce large inductance loads which negatively impact the operation.
Reducing the inductance in magnetic pulse technology systems is very important for two reasons. First, high inductance in a magnetic pulse system has the effect of reducing the magnitude of the current, which consequently reduces the magnitude of the electromagnetic pulse force. Therefore, by reducing the inductance in a magnetic pulse system, the electromagnetic pulse force can be increased without making any changes to the magnetic pulse power supply, thereby improving the forming or joining of the workpiece(s). Secondly, high inductance in a magnetic pulse system has the effect of reducing the current frequency in the system, which consequently increases the rise time of the magnetic pulse force, which is particularly important in magnetic pulse welding. Therefore, by reducing the inductance in a magnetic pulse system, particularly in the conductors, the rise time of the magnetic pulse force can be reduced, again, without making any changes to the magnetic pulse power supply. Prior magnetic pulse technology systems have not been designed with reduction of inductance of the conductors, and all the associated benefits, in mind. The present system addresses this need.
The field of magnetic pulse forming and welding has needed a design in which multiple individual components can be easily configured around a workpiece in such a manner that each component constitutes a separate electrical circuit, yet when properly installed and operated, the individual components work together to produce the same effect as a single closed coil. While some of the prior art devices attempted to improve the state of the art, none has achieved the unique and novel configurations and capabilities of the present invention. With these capabilities taken into consideration, the instant invention addresses many of the shortcomings of the prior art and offers significant benefits heretofore unavailable.

Opposed current flow magnetic pulse forming and joining system


An electric connection terminal can prevent electric ereosion caused in some equipment made of an aluminum material and attached to a car body for electric conduction of the equipment through the terminal such as an earth bracket which connects an earth line to the car body. The terminal comprises a first attaching member (1) made of an aluminum material and having a connecting portion (4) of a car body at the top end and a coupling portion (6A) at the bottom end, a second attaching member (2) made of a brass material and having a connecting portion (5) of an earth line at the top end and a coupling portion (6B) at the bottom end, and a water-proof layer (3) molded by a plastic resin for interconnecting said coupling portions (6A, 6B) of said first and second attaching members (1, 2) by embedding said portions (6A, 6B) in the plastic resin.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electric connection terminal which connects an electric wire to a piece of equipment or to another electric wire to provide an electrical connection, and more particularly to an electric connection terminal, such as an earth bracket, which electrically connects a car body to an earth line drawn out of an electrode in a car to form an earth circuit.
2. Statement of the Prior Art
A conventional electric connection terminal, such as a typical earth bracket, is made of a single metal material such as brass and has a common construction in which an electric wire is connected to one end of the terminal and a piece of equipment is connected to the other end of the terminal.
In reference to the earth bracket, it is expected from the standpoint of car body weight that bodies made of an aluminium material will be come more common in the near future. However, in the conventional construction, the bracket is made of a single metal material, such as brass, the connection between an aluminium member and another member, made of a metal material other than aluminium, for example, between an aluminum body and a brass bracket or, between an aluminium bracket and a copper earth line, are subject to electric erosion of the aluminum material Accordingly, it is necessary in the art to eliminate this problem.
In addition to the earth bracket, any electric connection terminal which connects an aluminium wire to a piece of equipment or to a copper wire is subject to electric erosion.


A porous film includes a porous substrate, and a porous layer provided on at least one surface of the porous substrate. The porous layer includes the following resin A and resin B, and satisfies that α/β is less than 1.0, where α is a surface opening ratio of the porous layer and β is a cross-sectional porosity of the porous layer. The resin A is a resin having a melting point of 150° C. or higher, or a resin having no substantial melting point. The resin B is a resin having a melting point of lower than 150° C., or an amorphous resin.

A secondary battery such as a lithium ion battery has been widely used for portable digital equipment such as a smart phone, a tablet, a mobile phone, a notebook computer, a digital camera, a digital video camera, and a handheld game console, portable equipment such as an electric tool, an electric motorcycle, and an electric assist bicycle, and an automobile such as an electric automobile, a hybrid vehicle, and a plug-in hybrid vehicle.
In general, the lithium ion battery has a structure in which a secondary battery separator and electrolytes are interposed between a positive electrode in which a positive electrode active material is laminated on a positive electrode current collector, and a negative electrode in which a negative electrode active material is laminated on a negative electrode current collector.
As the secondary battery separator, a polyolefin-based porous substrate is used. Examples of characteristics required for the secondary battery separator include: a characteristic that the secondary battery separator contains an electrolytic solution in a porous structure and enables movement of ions, and a shutdown characteristic that when a lithium ion battery generates heat abnormally, the porous structure is closed due to melting by the heat and the movement of ions is stopped, causing power generation to stop.
However, the secondary battery separator is required to have not only the above characteristics, but also higher heat resistance along with higher capacity and a higher output of the lithium ion battery in recent years. When the battery is further heated after the above shutdown characteristic is activated when the lithium ion battery generates heat abnormally, film rupture of the secondary battery separator occurs. In addition, when shock is applied to the lithium ion battery, the secondary battery separator generates heat under pressure locally applied and, then, film rupture of the secondary battery separator may occur. To prevent these problems, the secondary battery separator is required to have heat rupture resistance at high temperature in addition to the shutdown characteristic.
In a step of producing a secondary battery, adhesiveness between a separator before impregnation with an electrolytic solution and an electrode is required to: (i) maintain a laminated body obtained by laminating a positive electrode, a separator, and a negative electrode, when the laminated body is transported; (ii) prevent deformation of a shape of a laminated body of a wound positive electrode, separator, and negative electrode when the laminated body is inserted into a can such as a cylindrical type can and a square type can while being pressed; (iii) increase energy density by placing more laminated bodies in a can via pressing the laminated body; and (iv) further prevent deformation of a shape of a laminated body after the laminated body is inserted into an exterior material in the laminate type battery.
On the other hand, the lithium ion battery is also required to have excellent battery characteristics such as high output and long life so that battery characteristics are not allowed to deteriorate when the heat resistance is imparted to the secondary battery separator, and the lithium ion battery is required to exhibit good battery characteristics.
For these requests, Japanese Patent No. 5183435 describes that a heat shrinkage ratio is reduced by laminating a porous layer containing inorganic particles on a porous film mainly containing a polyolefin. Japanese Patent No. 5286817 describes that heat resistance is improved by laminating a heat resistant layer containing heat resistant resins. JP 2013-20769 A describes that heat resistance is improved by laminating heat resistant resins and adhesiveness with an electrode after an electrolytic solution is injected is improved by laminating fluorine resins.
However, although the heat shrinkage ratio is reduced by the inorganic particles in Japanese Patent No. 5183435, when temperature reaches a high-temperature range after shutdown, thermal film rupture of both the porous layer containing inorganic particles and a polyolefin as a substrate is likely to occur, and sufficient heat resistance cannot be ensured. In addition, adhesiveness with the electrode is not provided, and thus efficiency in the step of producing a secondary battery and high energy density cannot be achieved. In Japanese Patent No. 5286817 and JP 2013-20769 A, although the heat resistant resins are laminated, heat rupture resistance is low due to high porosity of the surface. When a proportion of the heat resistant resins is increased to improve the heat rupture resistance, the deterioration of the battery characteristics is large and the cost also increases. In addition, adhesiveness with the electrode is not provided, and thus efficiency in the step of producing a secondary battery and high energy density cannot be achieved. The adhesiveness of the adhesive porous layer described in JP 2013-20769 A is the adhesiveness with the electrode after injection of the electrolytic solution and is different from the adhesiveness with the electrode before the injection of the electrolytic solution.
It could therefore be helpful to provide a porous film and a secondary battery separator at low cost having high heat rupture resistance and adhesiveness with an electrode, and excellent battery characteristics, as well as to provide a secondary battery with high heat resistance, high productivity, high capacity, high output, long life and low cost.

Porous film, separator for secondary batteries, and secondary battery


A method and apparatus for performing post-process antialiasing of polygon edges. According to one aspect of the invention, a method is provided for modifying the color of a pixel in a texture mapped representation of an image generated from a plurality of polygons. According to this method, it is determined that an edge of one of the plurality of polygons intersects a scan line in the texture mapped representation at an intersection point. In addition, the pixel within which this intersection point lies is determined. The color for this pixel is identified by pixel data stored as part of the texture mapped representation. A filter is performed using the texture mapped representation as an input texture map by: 1) determining a texture point in the input texture map that corresponds to the intersection point; 2) performing a filter on texels in the input texture map identified by that texture point to determine a corrected color for the pixel; and 3) altering the pixel data stored as part of the texture mapped representation for the pixel containing the intersection point to indicate the corrected color. According to another aspect of the invention, the filter used in this method is either a linear filter, a bilinear filter, a quadratic filter, or a cubic filter. According to another aspect of the invention, the step of performing the filter is performed using the same hardware used for performing the texture mapping of the texture mapped representation.

1. Field of the invention
The invention relates to the field of computer systems. More specifically, the invention relates to the antialiasing of video images.
2. Background information
In order to display three-dimensional objects, a computer system typically models the objects using polygons (e.g., triangles). When these polygons are drawn on a raster graphics display, the polygons are typically sampled at pixel centers. This technique causes non-vertical and non-horizontal polygon edges to appear jagged. When a polygon is moved slowly on a display, the "jags" on a jagged polygon edge appear to crawl as one views successive frames of the image (This visually annoying phenomenon is commonly known as the "crawling ants" or the "jaggies effect"). The jaggies effect is a well-known instance of a phenomenon known as aliasing. Operations that have the visual effect of removing the jaggies effect are referred to as "antialiasing" operations. For a further description of antialiasing, see Foley, James D., et al. Computer Graphics Principles and Practice, 2nd Edition, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. (1990) pp. 132-144 (referred to herein as the "Foley" reference).
Improving the appearance of texture-mapped polygons requires antialiasing texture mapping, as well as antialiasing polygon edges. There are many well-known techniques for antialiasing texture mapping (see OpenGL Reference Manual: The Official Reference Document for OpenGL. Release 1, OpenGL Architecture Review Board, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. (1992) pp. 295-296). One such technique employs bilinear filtering. When applying bilinear filtering, the output pixel is a function of four adjacent input pixels and can be considered a 2.times.2 convolution with weights as shown below: ##EQU1## where f.sub.1, and f.sub.2 are in the range [0,1].
The techniques of antialiasing polygon edges fall into one of three categories: pre-processing, multi-sampling, and post-processing. The pre-processing techniques require the antialiasing operations to be performed before a scene is "rendered" (The term "rendered" is used herein to refer to the conversion of a set of polygons into a set of pixel data representative of an image to be displayed on a computer screen). Typically, the pre-processing techniques are computation intensive and require additional hardware (e.g., an "alpha" buffer). For a description of pre-processing techniques, see OpenGL Reference Manual: The Official Reference Document for OpenGL, Release 1, OpenGL Architecture Review Board, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. (1992) pp. 295-296; and Niimi, Haruo et al. A Parallel Processor System for Three-Dimensional Color Graphics, Computer Graphics, Vol. 18, No. 3 (July 1984), pp. 67-76. The multi-sampling techniques require rendering the entire scene multiple times (or at a higher resolution) and accumulating the results. As a result, the multi-sampling techniques typically require expensive hardware to maintain a high frame rate when drawing each pixel many times (typically 8-16 times). In addition, the multi-sampling techniques are currently too slow for low-cost, real time three-dimensional graphics rendering. For a further description of multi-sampling techniques, see Akeley, Kurt. Reality Engine Graphics, Computer Graphics Proceedings, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. (1993), pp. 109-126.
The post-processing technique is taught in Bloomenthal, Jules. Edge Inference with Applications to Antialiasing, Computer Graphics, Vol. 17, No. 3 (July 1983), pp. 157-162 (referred to herein as the "Bloomenthal" reference). The Bloomenthal reference describes the following steps: 1) rendering an entire non-texture mapped scene with aliased polygon edges; 2) inferring the polygon edges in the scene; and 3) antialiasing polygon edges in the non-texture mapped scene by modifying certain output pixels based on values of certain input pixels in the scene. The manner in which the output pixels are modified is determined using a digital box filter. The digital box filter requires computing the intersection of the pixel with the polygon, computing the area of this intersection, and computing the convolution weights from this area. Unfortunately, due to the computational effort required to infer the polygon edges and to determine the exact areas of intersection, this technique is currently too slow to be commercially viable.

Method and apparatus for performing post-process antialiasing of polygon edges


A tigers trap board game is provided and consists of a game board having a playing surface with horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines forming playing position intersections. There are a pair of first playing pieces representing tigers for a first player and a plurality of second playing pieces representing trappers for a second player. When the first playing pieces are trapped during the play of the game by the second playing pieces, cages can be placed onto them to indicate this.

The instant invention relates generally to games and more specifically it relates to a tigers trap board game, which provides a game played by two players that involves strategy and patience in trapping two tiger playing pieces.
There are available various conventional games which do not provide the novel improvements of the invention herein disclosed.


A system is provided that is conducive to multi-stage stimulation in a near-continuous fashion. That is, unlike conventional stimulation systems, embodiments herein may operate without the requirement of traditional plug-setting, perforating and fracturing interventions on a zone by zone basis for a cemented completion. Rather, the system is outfitted with frac sleeves that may be shifted open to expose the bore to the formation while simultaneously achieving a seal through a ball drop technique. Once more, this manner of operation is rendered practical by the sleeve being of a passable configuration such that cementing of the casing is not impeded.

Exploring, drilling and completing hydrocarbon and other wells are generally complicated, time consuming and ultimately very expensive endeavors. In recognition of these expenses, added emphasis has been placed on efficiencies associated with well completions and maintenance over the life of the well. Over the years, ever increasing well depths and sophisticated architecture have made reductions in time and effort spent in completions and maintenance operations of even greater focus.
Well stimulating applications which include perforating and fracturing of a cased well during completions constitute one such area were significant amounts of time and effort are spent. This is particularly true where increases in well depths and sophisticated architecture are encountered. Once the casing hardware is cemented in place, stimulating applications generally take place in a zone by zone fashion. For example, a terminal end of the well may be perforated and fractured followed by setting of a plug immediately uphole thereof. Thus, with the lowermost zone initially stimulated, the zone above the plug may now also be stimulated by way of repeating the perforating and fracturing applications. This time consuming sequence of plug setting, perforating and then fracturing is repeated for each zone. That is, likely 15-20 zones or more of a given well may be stimulated in this manner. Further, for any given zone, each step of plug setting, perforating and fracturing requires its own dedicated application trip into the well via wireline from surface or other appropriate conveyance.
All in all, where stimulating operations are involved, the operator is likely faced with days' worth of time dedicated to the task. In today's dollars this may translate into several hundred thousand dollars of lost time. Once more, footspace at the surface of the oilfield adjacent the well is taken up by simultaneously competing types of equipment. For example, since each zone requires separate dedicated applications of plugging, perforating and fracturing, all such equipment must remain at the oilfield surface throughout stimulation operations. Thus, so as to be available for later use, frac trucks are left running in place after use in one zone so as to be available for use in the next zone. In fact, this particular inefficiency is often exacerbated where a continuously running but intermittently utilized frac truck breaks down due to repetitive cycles of pumping and powering down to allow for plugging and perforating.
Ultimately, once each zone has been stimulated, the well is left with twenty or so isolated zones. Thus, a milling application may ensue where a milling tool is dropped through the well which mills out all of the plugs. As such, flow through the central bore of the well may be restored. Unlike the previous steps, at least the milling may take place through each zone with only one trip into the well with the milling tool.
Efforts have been undertaken to reduce the overall time and number of trips into the well that result from the zone by zone and stepped nature of stimulation operations. For example, the casing at each zone may be outfitted with a shifting sleeve that also includes a ball seat such that the sleeve may be opened and the wellbore exposed to the surrounding formation. That is, rather than separately introducing perforating and fracturing equipment into the well during separate dedicated trips to each zone, ball actuation may be used to open the sleeves one by one for targeted stimulation. That is to say, a ball of appropriate size may be dropped into the well, eventually finding the seat and sleeve of corresponding size and pressurizably opening that sleeve. The ball and seat may then serve the isolation function and the opened sleeve may obviate the need for perforating. Therefore, stimulation of the zone may take place with only the introduction of fracturing equipment.
In theory the above ball drop technique may save a significant amount of time and trips into the well for sake of stimulation. Unfortunately, such a system renders a host of challenges to the rest of well operations. That is to say, as noted below, applications before and after stimulation are likely to be adversely affected by the use of conventional ball-drop and sleeve shifting hardware.
Conventional ball-drop and sleeve shifting hardware requires fairly complex architecture that is incorporated into the casing and present from the outset of completions. This sophisticated architecture includes the noted sleeve which is likely to present a significant restriction into the main bore of the well. Further, complex mechanical parts such as springs, pressure support mechanisms, ratchets and other features of the ball seat are also likely to protrude into the main bore. Thus, as a practical matter, in spite of the potential time saving benefits, operators are likely to forego ball-drop sleeve shifting stimulation techniques.

Continuous multi-stage well stimulation system


A wind turbine has a nacelle wherein a component is equipped with a first temperature sensor for detecting a temperature of the component, a second temperature sensor for detecting an outside temperature inside or outside the nacelle, a heater associated with a component to heat the latter, and a heater controller. The detected temperature of the component and the detected outside temperature are provided as input signals to the heater controller which activates the heater for heating when the detected temperature of the component is below a predetermined switch-on value for the heater. The switch-on value for the heater is, in at least one predetermined temperature interval, dependent on the detected outside temperature. The switch-on value for a first outside temperature is greater than the switch-on value for a second outside temperature in the temperature interval when the second outside temperature is greater than the first outside temperature.

United States patent application publication 2010/0253079 discloses a wind turbine having a heating device. The heating device has a thermal switch, which monitors the temperature of at least one component of the wind turbine and is operated when a threshold temperature is reached. A monitoring unit is also provided, which interacts with the heating device such that the monitoring unit activates the heating device until the thermal switch acts, and thereupon transmits an enabling signal for running up the wind turbine to the control device. Thus, it is achieved that at least temperature-critical components of the wind turbine are preheated to an operating temperature before running up. Furthermore, this publication discloses to provide a reheating module, which operates the heating device further still after reaching the temperature threshold and emitting the enabling signal, in order to further increase the temperature or to stabilize the value of the temperature. The reheating module can be connected to an outside temperature sensor in order to carry out reheating in those situations in which this is worthwhile and necessary because of a particularly low outside temperature.
United States patent application publication 2010/0135793 A1 discloses a lubrication system for a wind turbine, in which a heating system is provided in order to control oil depending on predicted outside influences such as a predicted wind speed, a predicted outside temperature, a predicted air pressure and/or a predicted air density.
United States patent application publication 2009/0191060 A1 discloses a wind turbine which is provided with a gearbox and in which a pump conveys a circulating lubrication medium. A heating device is provided in order to heat the lubricant in a conveying line to a temperature which prevents damage to the pump.
United States patent application publication 2009/0200114 discloses a heat management system for a gearbox of a wind turbine, in which the suction line for the lubricant of the gearbox is surrounded by a heating device. Temperature sensors determine the oil temperature in the gearbox, in the suction line, in the pump and the ambient temperature. If the ambient temperature and the oil temperature fall below a predetermined value, the heating device is activated.

Wind turbine and method for heating a component in a wind turbine


A transmission apparatus includes: a module configured to receive and transmit data externally, the data received and to be transmitted being transferred via an interface internally; a framer configured to process transmission and reception of the data processed by the module; a transmission channel on which predetermined data is transmitted and received to and from the framer; and a controller configured to determine a combination of setting values for transmission and reception in accordance with a surrounding environment of the transmission channel, based on an error rate when the predetermined data is transmitted and received for each combination of setting values for transmission and reception on the transmission channel, and to perform setting for transmission and reception via the interface, based on the determined combination of setting values for transmission and reception.

In recent years, for transmission apparatuses, due to increase in traffic through the Internet, and the like, increase in data capacity, reduction in size of devices, and cost reduction are desired to be achieved. In order to achieve increase in data capacity, reduction in size of devices, and cost reduction, a wide variety of optical pluggable modules (which will be hereinafter referred to as modules) in accordance with a transmission distance and a status of support for an internal function, or the like, have been developed. A transmission apparatus is configured such that a predetermined module is mounted on each line card in the apparatus, and thus, corresponds to a desired specification. Interfaces of various different transmission rates are used for the modules, and data transmission is realized in the line cards via the interfaces.
FIG. 11 and FIG. 12 are block diagrams illustrating related art examples of a line card. As illustrated in FIG. 11, a line card 600 includes a CFP module 601 (CFP: 100 G form-factor pluggable, the c stands for the Latin letter used for expressing the number of 100), a framer 602, an electrical interface 603, a card controller 604, and a connection connector 605. The line card 600 has a transmission capacity corresponding to 100 Gbps×2 ports, which is realized by the two CFP modules 601. A signal externally input in each of the CFP module 601 is processed in the corresponding framer 602 via the corresponding electrical interface 603. In this case, the electrical interface 603 has a configuration of 11.18 Gbps×10 lanes at a rate of OUT-4 (optical transport unit 4).
As illustrated in FIG. 12, a line card 700 includes a CFP2 module 701, a framer 702, a gear box 703, an electrical interface 704, an electrical interface 705, a card controller 706, and a connection connector 707. Similar to the line card 600, the line card 700 has a transmission capacity corresponding to 100 Gbps×2 ports, which is realized by the two CFP2 modules 701. In the line card 700, the gear box 703 configured to change 28 Gbps×4 lanes to 11.18 Gbps×10 lanes is provided between each of the CFP2 module 701 and the corresponding framer 702. A signal externally input in the CFP2 module 701 is input to the corresponding gear box 703 via the electrical interface 704 of 28 Gbps×4 lanes, and then, is transmitted from the gear box 703 to the framer 702 via the corresponding electrical interface 705 of 11.18 Gbps×10 lanes.
In the electrical interface 603 of the line card 600 and the electrical interfaces 704 and 705 of the line card 700, in order not to cause bit error generation, characteristic optimization for a transmission device (for example, the CFP module 601 in the line card 600, or the like) and a reception device (for example, the framer 602 in the line card 600 or the like) is performed. In the characteristic optimization, the characteristic of the transmission device, the characteristic of the reception device, and the characteristic of a transmission channel between the transmission device and the reception device are modeled, and setting values for the transmission device and the reception device are determined by simulation using the model, or the like. For example, examples of a setting value for the transmission device include an amplitude value of a transmission output, a pre/post-emphasis value, and the like. Examples of a setting value for the reception device include an equalizer gain value, and the like.
Validity of a setting value for the transmission device and a setting value for the reception device, which have been derived by the above-described simulation, is checked by real machine verification in which the setting values are actually set to the transmission device and the reception device and an error rate is checked, or the like. After the validity is confirmed, the setting values are set to the line cards 600 and 700 and thus an operation is performed, so that the generation of a bit error is not caused in the line cards 600 and 700, and stable signal transmission is realized.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2010-34777 discusses a related art example.
Incidentally, the characteristic of a transmission channel between the transmission device and the reception device changes due to an external (surrounding) environment, such as a temperature and a humidity on the transmission channel. FIG. 13 is a chart illustrating the characteristic of a transmission channel. In FIG. 13, the ordinate axis indicates the magnitude (MAGNITUDE) of a transmission channel loss. The abscissa axis indicates a frequency (FREQUENCY) at transmission and also a transmission speed (a transmission rate) on the transmission channel. Graphs G1 and G2 indicate the characteristic of the transmission channel (the transmission speed−the transmission channel loss) in different external environments.
As illustrated in FIG. 13, values at frequencies F1 and F2 differ between the graphs G1 and G2 and, when the external environment differs, the characteristic of the transmission channel changes. As the transmission speed increases (the frequency F1 to the frequency F2), the transmission channel loss greatly increases, so that the change in characteristic of the transmission channel due to the change in external environment increases.

Transmission apparatus, line card and control method of transmission apparatus


A scavenger receptor A expression down-regulator and a drug for preventing or treating arteriosclerosis which contain, as the active ingredient, a C-terminal globular domain of adiponectin, adiponectin, or a gene encoding the domain or adiponectin. According to the present invention, there is provided a preventive or therapeutic agent capable of directly preventing intimal thickening, which constitutes an essential feature of arteriosclerosis. This effect can be attained through arresting the onset and development of arteriosclerosis by reducing the expression level of scavenger receptor A in arterial walls and preventing lipid buildup in macrophages.

The term "arteriosclerosis" refers to a pathological condition where the walls of an artery lose elasticity and become brittle. Arteriosclerosis is one of key factors causing aduet diseases, including cerebral hemorrhage, cerebral infarction, myocardial infarction, and nephrosclerosis. Known causes of arteriosclerosis include hyperlipidemia, and bacteria, viruses, or lipid peroxide in blood. However, the pathogenesis of arteriosclerosis has not yet been fully elucidated. In any case, since arteriosclerosis has been observed to begin with thickening of arterial walls caused by damage to the arterial intima or endothelium, there is keen demand for development of a drug capable of inhibiting thickening of the arterial intima.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a drug which is effective for preventing or treating arteriosclerosis.


A rolling bearing device includes a rolling bearing and an oil supply unit. The oil supply unit includes a lubrication oil tank, a pump which sucks lubrication oil from the lubrication oil tank and discharges the lubrication oil from a discharge porta driving section which drives the pump and a generator section which supplies the driving section with electric energy. The oil supply unit is attached to a fixed-ring-side member of the rolling bearing or a spacer adjacent to the rolling bearing. The oil supply unit further includes a communication unit which transmits operation information of the oil supply unit to an outside.

A rolling bearing device which incorporates an oil supply unit therein is conventional (see Patent Literature 1). In this rolling bearing device, an oil supply unit is mounted on an inner diameter surface of one of two mutually opposed track rings of the rolling bearing, or a fixed-side track ring in this case. The oil supply unit includes a lubrication oil tank which stores lubrication oil; a pump which pumps out the lubrication oil stored in the lubrication oil tank into the bearing; and an electric power generator which drives the pump. The device also includes means which controls the pump in accordance with bearing conditions thereby controlling an amount of discharged oil.
Patent Literature 2 also discloses a rolling bearing device which includes a similar oil supply unit.


An organic EL display device includes a first substrate, a plurality of organic EL devices arranged on the first substrate, a second substrate arranged above the first substrate, and a filling layer arranged between the first substrate and the second substrate, and displays an image on the second-substrate side. The organic EL display device is characterized in that: the organic EL devices each have a light-emission layer, a reflection electrode formed below the light-emission layer and reflecting light from the light-emission layer upwards, and an upper electrode formed above the light-emission layer and having a light transmission property and reflectivity; a structure for resonating the light emitted by the light-emission layer is formed between the reflection electrode and the upper electrode; and the filling layer includes fine particles for diffusing light exiting from the upper electrode added therein.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an organic EL display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a top emission type organic EL display device, a micro-cavity structure is known which utilizes a light resonance effect between two electrodes constituting an organic EL device to enhance the intensity of extracted light.
In the micro-cavity structure, reflection is repeated between a reflection electrode formed under a light-emission layer and a semi-transparent electrode formed on the light-emission layer. The thicknesses of respective layers stacked between the two electrodes are set in such a manner that light emitted by the light-emission layer is enhanced and extracted to a top side.
JP H11-329742 A describes that a light diffusion color filter having a light diffusion property is provided on a light-extraction side of an organic light-emission layer.