The invention relates to a connecting piece for a fuel injector of an internal combustion engine comprising at least one high-pressure input port and at least one high-pressure output port, wherein the high-pressure input port and the high-pressure output port open into an internal high-pressure accumulator of the connecting piece and/or the injector via separate high-pressure feed channels.

In known injection systems for internal combustion engines, in particular the common-rail injection, the fuel is brought to the required pressure level by a central high-pressure pump. The pressurized fuel is distributed to the individual fuel injectors via a common pipe system.
Here, two possibilities for fuel distribution become apparent, namely a pipe system with a parallel or series connection of the individual injectors. In the first variant, the individual injectors are connected in parallel to a common distribution pipe of the high-pressure line. The second variant provides a supply of the fuel from a high-pressure pump to a first injector from which the fuel is passed on to the subsequent injector. For such an interconnection, each injector must include at least two high-pressure ports, one of which is used as input and one is used as output.
A general problem of such common-rail injection systems, in particular in series connections, consists in that pressure waves generated by the high-pressure pump can propagate into the injectors via the fuel lines and impair the uniform fuel flow desired there. Therefore, it is desirable to eliminate or at least attenuate the propagation of the triggered pressure pulsations of the high-pressure pump by suitable measures.
This object is achieved by a connecting piece for a fuel injector of an internal combustion engine according to the features of claim 1. Advantageous embodiments of the connecting piece are subject-matter of the dependent claims.
Due to the at least two high-pressure ports, the generic connecting piece is suitable for establishing a series connection comprising a plurality of fuel injectors. One port here serves as a high-pressure input port and at least one second port serves as a high-pressure output port.
According to the invention, it is proposed to provide separate high-pressure channels within the connecting piece for the high-pressure ports, i.e. the at least one high-pressure input port and the at least one high-pressure output port, via which high-pressure channels the respective ports separately open within an internal high-pressure accumulator. An essential aspect here is the fact that the ports, i.e. the at least one high-pressure input port and the at least one high-pressure output port only indirectly are in fluid connection with each other via the internal high-pressure accumulator.
As a result, possible pressure pulsations within the high-pressure lines can be eliminated or sufficiently attenuated by means of the internal high-pressure accumulator so that forwarding of these fluctuations from a first injector of the series connection to at least one downstream injector is inhibited or at least reduced.
It is advantageous when the internal high-pressure accumulator is part of the connecting piece or is at least partly formed within the connecting piece. Alternatively, however, an existing high-pressure accumulator might also be used within a connected injector in which the high-pressure channels of the connecting piece open separately from each other. For this purpose, the high-pressure channels hence are separately guided to the interface of the connecting piece with the injector, where they then open separately into the internal high-pressure accumulator of the injector.
According to an advantageous aspect of the invention, a throttle is additionally installed in the high-pressure feed channel from the high-pressure input port up to the internal high-pressure accumulator. The same can also be provided in the high-pressure feed channel from the high-pressure output port to the high-pressure accumulator. What hence is imaginable is a variant in which a throttle is provided in merely one of the two high-pressure feed channels, but a configuration with an integrated throttle in both high-pressure feed channels is preferred.
By using at least one throttle within at least one of these high-pressure feed channels, the above-mentioned pressure pulsations within the high-pressure lines can be attenuated even more strongly. Such a throttle can be implemented by a defined diameter taper of the respective high-pressure feed channel. What is expedient is a taper of the diameter in the direction of the high-pressure accumulator.
By way of precaution it is pointed out that the use of such a throttle in at least one of the high-pressure feed channels is advantageous, but does not constitute an absolutely necessary prerequisite for a successful implementation of the invention and therefore merely forms an optional feature of the invention.
The constructional design of the connecting piece or the concrete shape is not limited in principle. What is found to be advantageous, however, is a symmetrical, in particular axially symmetrical design of the connecting piece. What is conceivable is the configuration as a T-shaped connecting piece or T-piece, wherein both the high-pressure input port and the high-pressure output port are formed at the head area of the T-piece. The foot of the T-shaped connecting piece forms the interface to the injector.
The internal high-pressure accumulator can be formed within the T-piece as a longitudinal bore in the direction of the foot of the T-piece. Ideally, the high-pressure feed channels open at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the bore of the high-pressure accumulator.
The connection of external high-pressure lines to the high-pressure input port or the high-pressure output port can be effected in a releasable manner. Ideally, the high-pressure input port and/or the high-pressure output port comprises a thread for the screw connection of an external high-pressure line. Particularly preferably, this is an external thread which is provided on the outside of the connection of the high-pressure input port or high-pressure output port.
The assembly of the connecting piece with the injector can likewise be effected by means of a releasable connection. Here as well, a screw connection of connecting piece and injector housing, in particular by means of one or more clamping nuts, is found to be advantageous. It should be noted that the connecting piece need not necessarily be a component to be separated from the injector or injector housing. It is furthermore conceivable that the connecting piece is part of the injector housing, i.e. formed by a portion of the injector/injector housing. Theoretically, it is also imaginable that the injector/injector housing and the connecting piece are formed from a one-part basic component. The interface mentioned above then is only a theoretical interface between the two areas of the one-part component.
Furthermore, it can be provided that the connecting piece provides at least one internal filter which forms the fluid connection between the internal high-pressure accumulator of the connecting piece and the injector receiving the connecting piece. According to a preferred embodiment, there is provided a corresponding filter housing which serves to receive the filter, wherein the filter housing forms the corresponding connection interface of the internal high-pressure accumulator with an injector.
Beside the inventive connecting piece, the present invention also relates to a fuel injector with at least one connecting piece according to the present invention. Accordingly, the fuel injector has the same advantages and properties as they have already been explained above with reference to the connecting piece. In particular, a corresponding injector also comprises such an embodiment in which the internal high-pressure accumulator for connecting the high-pressure input port and/or high-pressure output port is partly or completely integrated within the fuel injector housing. In such a case, the high-pressure feed channels of the connecting piece end at the interface to the injector separately from each other. The injector includes forwarding channels in its corresponding interface area, whereby the high-pressure feed channels ultimately can open into the internal high-pressure accumulator separately from each other.
Moreover, the invention also relates to an injection system comprising a plurality of injectors according to the present invention, wherein the same are connected to each other in series via their connecting pieces.
Finally, the invention also relates to a machine comprising an internal combustion engine and an injection system according to the present invention. Accordingly, the same advantages and properties as they have been indicated already in conjunction with the explanations of the connecting piece of the invention are obtained both for the injection system and for the machine.

Connecting piece for a fuel injector of an internal combustion engine


A driver training system includes a training controller, a heads-up display device, and a driving cue adherence controller. The training controller is configured to receive inputs related to an operational state of a vehicle and an environment surrounding the vehicle, and to determine a driving cue based on the received inputs. The heads-up display device is configured to present the driving cue as an augmented reality graphic element in view of a driver by projecting graphic elements on a windshield of the vehicle. The driving cue adherence controller is configured to continuously determine a current level of adherence to the driving cue, and an aggregate level of adherence to the driving cue based on the continuously determined current level of adherence to the driving cue over a predetermined time period. The heads-up display device is configured to present the continuously determined aggregate level of adherence in view of the driver.

Driving can seem less dangerous than it really is. Paradoxically, most drivers believe they are better than average at driving. In fact, many drivers may routinely behave badly while driving because the behavior goes uncorrected. However, any mistake made while driving has the potential to lead to a collision or other dangerous circumstance.
Generally, driver behavior is safest when the driver is engaged and not distracted. However, a typical commuter situation may foster driver disengagement and distraction. While commuting, the driver may have a low level of stimulation, little investment in the outcome of a routine task, no reward for good driving behavior. Furthermore, there is generally no feedback on the driver's performance other than the bare minimum base-line of not wrecking their vehicle. Therefore, while commuting a driver may enter a state of malaise and be more likely to be distracted by any task the driver finds more engaging.

Driver training system using heads-up display augmented reality graphics elements


The disclosed embodiments include gravel pack assemblies, method to bypass a fluid restrictor during gravel packing operations, and methods to control fluid flow during and after gravel packing operations. In one embodiment, a gravel pack assembly including a flow restrictor that is coupled to a downhole string that is deployed in a borehole is disclosed. The flow restrictor forms a first fluid passageway from the borehole to an internal cavity of the string. The gravel pack assembly includes a fluid bypass portion having a first chamber, a sealing member inserted into the first chamber; and an actuation assembly operable to actuate the sealing member. The fluid bypass portion forms a second fluid passageway from the borehole to the internal cavity of the downhole string prior to actuation of the actuation assembly. After actuation of the actuation assembly, fluid flow through the second fluid passageway is restricted by the sealing member.

The present disclosure relates generally to gravel pack assemblies, method to bypass a fluid restrictor during gravel packing operations, and methods to control fluid flow during and after gravel packing operations.
A gravel packing operation is sometimes performed prior to commencement of a hydrocarbon production operation to reduce the amount of unwanted formation sand that may flow into downhole strings (such as production strings) that are deployed in a borehole during the hydrocarbon production operation. During a gravel packing operation, a fluid containing gravel pack slurry is pumped into a production zone of the borehole. After the gravel pack slurry is pumped into the production zone, the gravel pack slurry is dehydrated to form gravel packs around future production regions and to inhibit sand flow into the downhole strings.
Fluid restrictors, such as inflow control devices (ICDs) and autonomous inflow control devices (AICDs), are sometimes coupled to downhole strings that are deployed in a hydrocarbon well to facilitate uniform fluid flow throughout the downhole strings during hydrocarbon production operations. However, fluid restrictors inherently inhibit fluid flow, including fluid flow of the gravel pack slurries during gravel packing operations, which in turn causes insufficient dehydration of the gravel pack slurries, and may result in voids of gravel packs around desired regions of the downhole strings.
The illustrated figures are only exemplary and are not intended to assert or imply any limitation with regard to the environment, architecture, design, or process in which different embodiments may be implemented.

Gravel pack assemblies and methods to bypass a fluid restrictor during gravel packing operations


Methods and systems for enhanced 2-wire and 3-wire wireless local area network (WLAN) Bluetooth coexistence solution may include determining whether adaptive frequency hopping is active in a Bluetooth communication device. If the adaptive frequency hopping is active, handshaking with a collocated non-Bluetooth communication device may be disabled. The collocated non-Bluetooth communication device may be a wireless local area network communication device. If the adaptive frequency hopping is inactive, handshaking with the collocated non-Bluetooth communication device may be enabled. If the adaptive frequency hopping is inactive, the Bluetooth communication device may initiate handshaking prior to transmitting data. If the adaptive frequency hopping is inactive, the Bluetooth communication device may also respond to the handshaking initiated by the collocated non-Bluetooth communication device. The handshaking may be executed via a 2-wire Bluetooth/WLAN coexistence interface or a 3-wire Bluetooth/WLAN coexistence interface.

Some conventional communication systems are known to support wireless and wireline communication between wireless and/or wireline communication devices. Such communication systems range from national and/or international cellular telephone systems to the Internet, and to point-to-point in-home wireless networks. Each type of communication system is designed, and hence operates, in accordance with relevant communication standards. For instance, wireless communication systems may operate in accordance with one or more standards including, but not limited to, IEEE 802.11, Bluetooth, advanced mobile phone services (AMPS), digital AMPS, global system for mobile communications (GSM), code division multiple access (CDMA), local multi-point distribution systems (LMDS), multi-channel-multi-point distribution systems (MMDS), and/or variations thereof.
Depending on the type of wireless communication system, a wireless communication device, for example, a cellular telephone, two-way radio, personal digital assistant (PDA), personal computer (PC), laptop computer, or home entertainment equipment, communicates directly or indirectly with other wireless communication devices. For direct communications, also known as point-to-point communications, the participating wireless communication devices tune their receivers and transmitters to the same channel, or channels, and communicate via those channel(s). Each channel may utilize one or more of the plurality of radio frequency (RF) carriers of the wireless communication system. For indirect wireless communication, each wireless communication device communicates directly with an associated base station, for example, for cellular services, and/or an associated access point, for example, for an in-home or in-building wireless network, via an assigned channel or channels.
In order for each wireless communication device to participate in wireless communication session, it utilizes a built-in radio transceiver, which comprises a receiver and a transmitter, or it is coupled to an associated radio transceiver, for example, a station for in-home and/or in-building wireless communication networks, or a RF modem. The transmitter converts data into RF signals by modulating the data in accordance with the particular wireless communication standard. However, different communication systems may use different standards, for example, the IEEE 802.11 standard and the Bluetooth standard, which may share the same RF spectrum.
In order to alleviate signal interference from sharing an RF spectrum with other communication systems, the Bluetooth standard allows frequency hopping where information is transmitted at various frequencies. In this manner, the energy of the transmitted signal is spread across the RF spectrum in 79 channels with each channel separated by 1 MHz, between 2.402 GHz and 2.480 GHz. The Bluetooth standard allows 1600 frequency hops per second. The advantage of the frequency hopping system is that it spreads information across a wide band of frequencies. Therefore, signals transmitted by other systems using a portion of the same frequency spectrum may appear as noise to only some of the frequencies used by Bluetooth in frequency hopping. Similarly, only a portion of Bluetooth transmission may interfere with signals transmitted by other systems.
Two or more Bluetooth devices, up to a total of eight devices, may comprise a piconet with one master device and up to seven slave devices. The piconet may share a common communication data channel that presently may have a total capacity of 1 megabits per second (Mbps), up to a theoretical maximum of 3 Mbps. This data channel is divided in to time slots of 625 microseconds. Although a master device may initiate contact with any slave device, a slave device may only respond to a master device. A piconet link between a master device and a slave device may be either synchronous connectionless oriented (SCO) or asynchronous connectionless (ACL). The piconet may support up to three SCO links, and any remaining bandwidth may be utilized by ACL links.
In some current systems, a Bluetooth device may share a platform with a WLAN device. For example, a device such as a cellular telephone may have integrated thereon, a Bluetooth radio and a Wireless LAN radio. This is known as coexistence. There are times when the Bluetooth radio and the WLAN radio may need to transmit simultaneously. Since the Bluetooth radio and the WLAN radio are close to each other in distance, transmission by one radio may interfere with transmission from the other radio.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Enhanced 2-wire and 3-wire WLAN Bluetooth coexistence solution


Provided is a high-strength cold-rolled steel sheet has a chemical composition containing, by mass %, C: 0.10% or more and 0.6% or less, Si: 1.0% or more and 3.0% or less, Mn: more than 2.5% and 10.0% or less, P: 0.05% or less, S: 0.02% or less, Al: 0.01% or more and 1.5% or less, N: 0.005% or less, Cu: 0.05% or more and 0.50% or less, and the balance being Fe and inevitable impurities, and a tensile strength of 1180 MPa or more, in which a steel sheet surface coverage of oxides mainly containing Si is 1% or less, a steel sheet surface coverage of iron-based oxides is 40% or less, CuS/CuB is 4.0 or less, and a tensile strength is 1180 MPa or more, where CuS denotes a Cu concentration in a surface layer of a steel sheet and CuB denotes a Cu concentration in base steel.

Nowadays, in response to the need for reducing CO2 emission and for collision safety, weight reduction and strengthening of automobile bodies are underway. Although a steel sheet having a tensile strength of 980 MPa grade is mainly used for automobiles currently, since there is a growing demand for increasing the strength of a steel sheet, there is a demand for developing a high-strength steel sheet having a tensile strength of more than 1180 MPa. However, in the case where there is an increase in the strength of a steel sheet, there is a decrease in ductility, and there is a risk of delayed fracture due to hydrogen entering from the environment.
In addition, since an automotive steel sheet is used in a painted state, the steel sheet is subjected to a chemical conversion treatment such as a phosphating treatment as a pretreatment of such painting. Since such a chemical conversion treatment is one of the important treatments performed on a steel sheet in order to achieve satisfactory corrosion resistance after painting has been performed, an automotive steel sheet is required to have excellent chemical convertibility.
Si is a chemical element which increases the ductility of a steel sheet while maintaining the strength of the steel sheet through solid solution strengthening of ferrite and decreasing the grain diameter of carbides inside martensite or bainite. In addition, since Si inhibits the formation of carbides, Si facilitates the formation of a sufficient amount of retained austenite, which contributes to an increase in ductility. Moreover, it is known that, since Si decreases the degree of concentration of stress and strain in the vicinity of grain boundaries by decreasing the grain diameter of grain boundary carbides inside martensite or bainite, there is an improvement in delayed fracture resistance. Therefore, many methods for manufacturing a high-strength thin steel sheet utilizing Si have been disclosed.
Patent Literature 1 describes a steel sheet excellent in terms of delayed fracture resistance having a chemical composition containing, by mass %, 1% to 3% of Si, a microstructure including ferrite and tempered martensite, and a tensile strength of 1320 MPa or more.
Examples of a chemical element which improves delayed fracture resistance include Cu. According to Patent Literature 2, there is a significant improvement in delayed fracture resistance due to an improvement in the corrosion resistance of a steel sheet as a result of adding Cu. In addition, the Si content in Patent Literature 2 is 0.05 mass % to 0.5 mass %.
Patent Literature 3 describes a steel sheet having a chemical composition containing, by mass %, 0.5% to 3% of Si and 2% or less of Cu and excellent chemical convertibility. In Patent Literature 3, excellent chemical convertibility is achieved despite the Si content of 0.5% or more by pickling the surface of a steel sheet, which has been subjected to continuous annealing, in order to remove a Si-containing oxide layer formed on the surface layer of a steel sheet when annealing is performed.


A hydraulic element, in particular for arranging in a pressure line between a master cylinder and a slave cylinder of a hydraulic clutch actuating arrangement, having a housing which has a master-cylinder-side hydraulic connection and a slave-cylinder-side hydraulic connection and which holds a valve arrangement, a simpler design is obtained in that the valve arrangement has two valve bodies which are mounted in a floating fashion in the housing and which can be moved relative to one another counter to the force of a spring.

From DE 100 59 382, FIG. 6, in particular, a generic hydraulic element, a so-called anti-vibration unit is disclosed, which comprises two independent spring-loaded check valves. The opening pressure in both flow directions can be determined individually by spring preload for each direction. Such a part consists of many components and is complicated in assemblage.
Hydraulic elements in which valve function is formed by means of pinch valves for a flow direction.
Generic hydraulic elements known from the state of the art comprise a variety of individual parts by which the assemblage is complex.


Method and apparatus for configuring a processor embedded in an integrated circuit for use as a logic element is described. In one example, a processing apparatus in an integrated circuit includes a point-to-point data streaming interface and arithmetic logic unit (ALU) circuitry. The ALU circuitry includes at least one input port in communication with the point-to-point data streaming interface. The processor may also include a register file and multiplexer logic. The multiplexer logic is configured to selectively couple the register file and the point-to-point streaming interface to the at least one input port of the ALU circuitry.

Programmable logic devices (PLDs) exist as a well-known type of integrated circuit (IC) that may be programmed by a user to perform specified logic functions. There are different types of programmable logic devices, such as programmable logic arrays (PLAs) and complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs). One type of programmable logic device, known as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), is very popular because of a superior combination of capacity, flexibility, time-to-market, and cost.
An FPGA typically includes an array of configurable logic blocks (CLBs) surrounded by a ring of programmable input/output blocks (IOBs). The CLBs and IOBs are interconnected by a programmable interconnect structure. The CLBs, IOBs, and interconnect structure are typically programmed by loading a stream of configuration data (known as a bitstream) into internal configuration memory cells that define how the CLBs, IOBs, and interconnect structure are configured. An FPGA may also include various dedicated logic circuits, such as memories, microprocessors, digital clock managers (DCMs), and input/output (I/O) transceivers.
Notably, an FPGA having embedded processor or controller circuitry is referred to as a system-on-chip (SoC). An SoC is a fully functional product having its electronic circuitry contained on a single chip. An SoC typically includes all the required ancillary hardware components to facilitate operation of the embedded processor or controller circuitry. For example, an SoC for a cellular telephone may include a microprocessor, an encoder, a decoder, a digital signal processor (DSP), random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), and the like.
An embedded processor is conventionally used as a central processing unit configured to sequentially process instructions contained in software program code (i.e., the conventional fetch, read, execute, write cycle). In some cases, however, it is desirable to use the processor as a logic element. For example, it may be desirable to use an embedded processor in an FPGA to implement a state machine. Since a conventional embedded processor is designed with a software-centric view of a system, it does not provide for efficient implementation of logic elements. For example, if a conventional embedded processor is used to implement a state machine, driving the input/output interface of the processor takes a large percentage of the processing time, which deleteriously affects performance.
Accordingly, there exists a need in the art for a method and apparatus for configuring a processor embedded in an integrated circuit for use as a logic element.


A network arrangement for aggregation of groups of tunable sources in a photonic network is disclosed. The network arrangement includes transmit edge elements having a plurality of tunable optical transmitters, an optical switch and a cyclic optical multiplexer, and receive edge elements having optical demultiplexers, optical switches and a plurality of optical receivers. A variety of arrangements are disclosed including protected and unprotected network architectures. The network arrangement disclosed is particularly useful for overcoming the problem of scaling a photonic network.

Presently existing optical networks include optical-to-electrical-to-optical (OEO) conversion at many points. A typical wavelength switch used today converts the input light signal into an electronic signal to detect the routing information, switches the electronic signal, and then eventually reconverts it back into a light signal for further transmission. This device, commonly referred to as an Optical-Electrical-Optical (OEO) switch, not only depends on current semiconductor technologies and processes, but also requires a transmitter and a receiver for each transmission port. These factors cause OEO switches to be large in size, to have high power consumption in the range of kilowatts, to be network protocol and transmission rate dependent, to lack scalability, and to be costly.
All-optical networks encounter issues of aggregating and disaggregating communication channels. Power combiners may be used to aggregate channels, but have the inherent problem of introducing high loss as channels are aggregated. Overcoming losses with all-optical amplifiers introduces noise. This issue is exacerbated as networks are scaled to larger sizes and denser frequencies, from systems with 32 optical channels with 100 GHz channel spacing, through 128 channel systems with 25 GHz channel spacing. This trending towards denser and denser frequencies is expected to continue as systems expand beyond the existing use of C-band into L-band.
Therefore, what is required is a method or system which would allow the network to establish photonic connections without the necessity of intermediate OEO conversion yet also allow effective scaling of the network to larger and larger networks.

Architecture for dynamic connectivity in an edge photonic network architecture


The invention relates to a dispenser for delivering portions of liquid to pasty substances, having a storage container and a pumping chamber, the pumping chamber having at least one valve, and having a delivery head which can be displaced relative to the storage container and the displacement of which allows the substance to be delivered, the delivery head further having formed in it a delivery channel with a delivery opening, which delivery opening can be closed by a closure part which is removable, but is held in captive fashion on the delivery head. In order to specify such a dispenser for delivering portions of liquid to pasty substances which is configured in an advantageous manner, in particular, in respect of a closure part, it is proposed that the closure part is a sliding part which also forms a delivery-channel portion and interacts with a fixed closure pin.

A wide variety of different configurations of dispenser of the type in question are already known. Reference need merely be made, for example, to the disclosure content of EP 214 106 B1 or DE 102 22 375 A1.
Such dispensers have in common the fact that the closure part which is seated on the outside on the delivery opening executes a circular movement or, in any case, substantially a circular movement when it moves into the open position. A correspondingly reverse movement takes place when the delivery opening is closed. This is associated, in some cases, with the substances being sheared off.
Taking the above described prior art as the departure point, it is an object of the invention to specify such a dispenser for delivering portions of liquid to pasty substances which is configured in an advantageous manner, in particular, in respect of a closure part.


In a webbing retractor, when a V-gear rotates in a take-up direction at an angular velocity of less than a preset upper limit angular velocity VH and a braking pawl moves toward an engaging position, an anchor claw of the braking pawl meshes with an internal tooth of a braking gear, and the braking gear is connected via the braking pawl to the V-gear so as to rotate integrally in the take-up direction. In this way, a coil portion of a torsion coil spring twists in the take-up direction (diameter contracting direction) via anchor pins. Therefore, an inner diameter of the coil portion contracts, and an inner peripheral surface of the coil portion press-contacts an outer peripheral surface of a braking shaft. End locking is prevented from arising when a spool, which rotates in the take-up direction, stops.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a webbing retractor that takes-up and accommodates a webbing for restraining the body of a vehicle occupant seated in a seat.
2. Description of the Related Art
A locking mechanism, which restricts rotation of a reel shaft (a spool) in a pull-out direction at a time of rapid deceleration of a vehicle, is provided at a webbing retractor which structures a seat belt device of a vehicle, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 10-230817 for example. It is known that, in such a webbing retractor, when, from the state in which the webbing belt is pulled-out from the spool, the entire amount of the webbing belt is suddenly taken-up onto the spool due to the urging force of a take-up spring, a so-called end locking phenomenon may arise in which, due to the angular acceleration in the decelerating direction (negative angular acceleration) which arises immediately before completion of the taking-up and the shock applied to the spool at the time when the entire amount of the webbing belt is taken-up, the spool locking mechanism operates such that rotation of the spool in the pull-out direction is locked.
The webbing retractor of JP-A No. 10-230817 is equipped with a ratchet wheel which is supported so as to be able to rotate relative to the spool, and which operates the locking mechanism by causing a delay in rotation with respect to the spool; a lock arm which is pivotally-supported at the ratchet wheel so as to swing freely, and which meshes with internal teeth of a gear case so as to impede rotation of the ratchet wheel in the pull-out direction; and an inertial plate which is supported so as to be able to rotate relative to the spool, and which, when rotational speed in the webbing pull-out direction of a predetermined amount or more is applied, causes a delay in rotation with respect to the spool and swings the lock arm in the direction of the internal teeth of the gear case.
Further, in the above-described webbing retractor, due to rotation of the spool in the take-up direction after the spool is locked by the aforementioned locking mechanism, a cam portion, which is formed at the side end surface of one axial direction end side of the spool, pushes an arm portion formed integrally with the lock arm so as to swing the lock arm in a direction of canceling engagement with an engaged portion. In this way, if the spool is rotated slightly in the take-up direction, the locking of the spool by the locking mechanism can be released. Therefore, in a case in which end locking arises, if the webbing belt can be rewound slightly by forcibly pulling-out the belt and creating leeway in winding, the end locking can be cancelled.
However, the webbing retractor disclosed in JP-A No. 10-230817 does not prevent end locking in and of itself.


An integrated circuit ESD protection circuit (270) is formed with a combination device consisting of a gated diode (271) and an output buffer MOSFET (272) where the body tie fingers of a first conductivity type (307) are formed in the substrate (301, 302) and isolated from the drain regions of a second conductivity type (310) using a plurality of diode poly fingers (231, 232) which are interleaved with a plurality of poly gate fingers (204, 205) forming the output buffer MOSFET (272).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed in general to integrated circuit electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection devices and methods for operating same. In one aspect, the present invention relates to an ESD protection circuit that uses output transistors and diodes as ESD protection devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
An integrated circuit (IC) may be subject to an ESD event in the manufacturing process. during assembly and testing, or in the system application. Some on-chip ESD protection networks use an active MOSFET (metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor) rail clamp protection scheme with large ESD diodes between the input/output (I/O) pads and the power supply rails.
FIG. 1 illustrates in schematic diagram form a conventional ESD protection circuit 100 for protecting an I/O pad 116. The ESD protection circuit 100 is connected to a boost bus 101, a first power supply VDD 102, a trigger bus 103, a second power supply VSS 104, and a third power supply VSS_BULK 105. In the ESD protection circuit 100, a rail clamp device 117 has current electrodes coupled between the VDD 102 and VSS 104. Though shown as an NMOS MOSFET transistor, the rail clamp device 117 may be of a different type, for example, a PMOS transistor, a BJT (bipolar junction transistor), an SCR (silicon-controlled rectifier), or a GGMOS (grounded gate MOS) transistor. The ESD protection circuit 100 also includes a trigger circuit 118 that is coupled between the boost bus 101 and VSS 104 for providing a trigger signal 119 to the gate of the rail clamp transistor device 117. Other clamp trigger signals can also be provided on the trigger buss 103. As depicted, a first diode 110 is coupled between VDD 102 and the I/O pad 116, a second diode 112 is coupled between the boost bus 101 and the I/O pad 116, and a third diode 120 is coupled between the I/O pad 116 and the VSS 104. There are also first and second diodes 124, 126 coupled between VSS and VSS_BULK in opposite directions for purposes of providing additional ESD protection to and from the semiconductor substrate. To provide ESD protection for CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) I/O circuits, the ESD protection circuit 100 also includes a PMOS (P-type metal oxide semiconductor) output buffer transistor 114 and an NMOS (N-type metal oxide semiconductor) output buffer transistor 122 coupled to drive an internally generated signal on an I/O pad 116. The gates of output buffer transistors 114, 122 receive predriver signals PD.P, PD.N, respectively.
As will be appreciated, ESD diodes 110, 120 may be sized for conducting a relatively large ESD current, where ESD diode 110 provides a high-current ESD path from the I/O pad 116 to VDD in case of a positive ESD event on the I/O pad 116, and ESD diode 120 provides a high-current ESD path from VSS to I/O pad 116 in case of a negative ESD event on the I/O pad 116. During an ESD event that requires shunting a high ESD current from VDD to the VSS by rail clamp transistor device 117 (e.g., a positive ESD zap on I/O pad 116 with respect to another I/O pad), the trigger circuit 118 provides the voltage from boost bus 101 to the gate of rail clamp transistor device 117. ESD diode 112 provides a separate current path from the I/O pad 116 via the boost bus 101 to power trigger circuit 118. Since very little current is required to power trigger circuit 118, the voltage drop across ESD diode 112 during an ESD event is much smaller than the voltage drop across diode 110. In this manner, the boost bus 101 supplies a voltage that is higher than the VDD voltage 102 through the trigger circuit 118 to the gate of rail clamp transistor device 117 during an ESD event, thereby providing increased conductivity of the rail clamp device. The boost bus 101 can be relatively narrow due to the very little current it needs to conduct.

Combined output buffer and ESD diode device


A heating device in which uniform heating of an article to be processed is possible even in the case a temperature change which leads to a loss of the uniformity of the temperature distribution in a narrowly delineated area, and in which a reduction in the size of the device is possible. The heating device has a plurality of heaters, each heater having a single bulb of transparent material in which there is a filament that is divided in the axial direction into several filament parts and the respective filament parts are supplied with power independently of each other.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a heater and a heating device with heaters. The invention relates especially to a heater and a heating device with heaters for irradiating an article to be processed with light which is emitted for purposes of heating of the object to be processed.
2. Description of Related Art
In general, thermal processing is used in the production of semiconductors in different processes, such as layer formation, oxidation diffusion, diffusion of impurities, nitriding, layer stabilization, silicide generation, crystallization, ion implantation-activation and the like. To improve the yield and the quality in the production of semiconductors, rapid thermal processing (RTP) is desired, in which the temperature of an article to be processed, such as a semiconductor wafer or the like, is rapidly raised or lowered. In RTP, a thermal processing device of the light irradiation type using light irradiation from a light source, such as a filament lamp or the like, is popularly used.
In a filament lamp in which there is a filament within a bulb of transparent material, at least 90% of the input power is completely radiated, and heating of the article to be heated without contact is possible. Therefore, the filament lamp is a lamp in which light can be used as heat. In the case of using such a filament lamp as a heat source for heating a glass substrate or a semiconductor wafer, the temperature of the article to be heated can be raised or lowered more quickly than in a resistance heating process.
This means that thermal processing of the light irradiation type can, for example, raise the temperature of the article to be processed to at least 1000° C. within ten to a few dozen seconds. The article to be processed is rapidly cooled after light irradiation is stopped. This thermal processing of the light irradiation type is normally carried out several times.
When the article to be processed is, for example, a semiconductor wafer, and if no uniformity of the temperature distribution is caused in the semiconductor wafer during heating, there is the possibility that a defect of crystal transition occurs, that is, a phenomenon called slip in the semiconductor wafer, and inferior goods will be formed. Therefore, in the case of carrying out RTP of a semiconductor wafer using a thermal processing device of the light irradiation type, it is necessary to carry out heating to obtain a high temperature, maintaining the high temperature and cooling such that the temperature distribution on the entire surface of the semiconductor wafer is made uniform. That is, in RTP, highly precise uniformity of the temperature of the article to be processed is required.
Japanese patent publication JP-A-HEI 7-37833 discloses, as a conventional heating device, one in which light which is emitted from a filament lamp is used to heat a glass substrate or a semiconductor wafer. As is shown in FIG. 11, this heating device is arranged such that an article to be processed is mounted within a chamber which has been formed from a transparent material, on the top and the bottom, therefore on both sides, outside this chamber there are several filament lamps arranged opposite each other at the top and bottom, and moreover, crossing one another, and that these filament lamps irradiate the article to be processed from the two sides with light and thus heat it.
FIG. 12 is a perspective in which the above described device is shown simplified and the heating filament lamps which are located on the top and bottom, i.e., on the two sides, and the article to be processed are not shown. As is shown in the drawing, the heating filament lamps which are located on the top and bottom, i.e., on the two sides, are arranged such that the tube axes cross. Therefore, the article to be processed can be uniformly heated. Moreover, with this device a temperature decrease because of the heat radiation action in the edge area of the article to be processed can be further prevented. By the measure that, with respect to the article to be processed, the lamp output of the heating filament lamps L1, L2 on the two ends of the top side is made larger than the lamp output of the heating lamps L3 in the middle area, the temperature of the edge areas A1-A2, B1-B2 of the area to be processed can be increased. Furthermore, the temperature of the edge areas A1-B1, A2-B2 of the area to be processed can be increased by the measure that, with respect to the article to be processed, the lamp output of the heating filament lamps L4, L5 on the two ends of the bottom side is made larger than the lamp output of a heating lamps L6 in the middle area.
However, it was found that the disadvantage described below arises in the above described conventional heating device. Specifically, when the article to be processed is, for example, a semiconductor wafer, a metal oxide film is formed on the surface of the semiconductor wafer by a sputtering process or the like, and impurities are doped in the semiconductor wafer by ion implantation. There are cases in which a temperature distribution occurs in the semiconductor wafer by the influence of the following factors that are deviations in the film thickness of such a metal oxide and deviations in the implantation conditions of the impurity ions. Such a temperature distribution is not limited to the linear edge areas A1-A2, B1-B2, A1-B1, A2-B2 and the like as shown in FIG. 12, but can occur in a narrow area such as, for example, only in the peripheral region of the A1 area.
Using the above described conventional heating device, the temperature drop in the linear areas, like in the edge areas A1-A2, B1-B2, A1-B1, A2-B2 or the like of the article to be processed can be prevented. However, in the case in which, in the linear edge area A1-A2 as shown in FIG. 12, the vicinity of the A1 area and the vicinity of the B1 area exhibit different temperature reduction tendencies, the two cannot be adjusted to one suitable temperature. This means that the temperature cannot be controlled in a narrow area, resulting in the following disadvantages:                a temperature distribution occurs in the processing temperature of the article to be processed and        the functions which are desired for t he article to be processed are adversely affected by it.
Here, for example, in Japanese patent application publication JP-A-2002-203804 and corresponding U.S. patent application publication US 2004/0112885 A1, a thermal processing device is disclosed as is shown in FIG. 13. This device in a lamp housing comprises a first lamp unit for which there are several U-shaped, double-ended lamps arranged in the parallel and perpendicular directions with respect to the page of the drawings, in which there are feed devices for the filaments on the two ends of a bulb; and a second lamp unit which is located underneath this first lamp unit and in which several straight, double-ended lamps are arranged along the page of the drawings in a direction which is perpendicular to the page of the drawings, in which feed devices for the filaments are located on the two ends of a bulb. This thermal processing device is used for thermal processing of an article to be processed, such as a semiconductor wafer or the like, which is located underneath the second lamp unit.
It is disclosed that, in such a thermal processing device, in the article to be processed, there is a device for adjusting the U-shaped lamps of the first lamp unit which are located above a terminal part to a high output in order to increase the temperature of the terminal part on a support ring which has the tendency to a temperature which is lower than the other areas and on which the article to be processed is placed.
Japanese patent application publication JP-A-2002-203804 and corresponding U.S. patent application publication US 2004/0112885 A1 show that such a thermal processing device is used essentially as follows:
First, the heating area of the semiconductor wafer, which is the article to be processed, is divided into several concentric, center-symmetrical zones. By a combination of the distributions of the illuminance of the lamps of the first and second lamp units, patterns of the combined distributions of the illuminance are formed which correspond to the respective zone and which are center-symmetrical to the middle of the semiconductor wafer. Thus, heating is carried out according to the temperature change of the respective zone. Here, to suppress the effect of variations of the illuminance of the light from the lamps, the semiconductor wafer, which is the article to be processed, is turned. This means that heating of the respective zone which is arranged concentrically with an individual illuminance is possible.
Therefore, the technology described in Japanese patent application publication JP-A-2002-203804 and corresponding U.S. patent application publication US 2004/0112885 A1 enables the temperature to be controlled in a narrow region of the article to be processed. It can be imagined that the above described disadvantage can thus be advantageously eliminated; but, the following disadvantages occur in such a thermal processing device in practice.
The U-shaped lamps each consist of a horizontal part and a pair of vertical parts. However, only the horizontal part in which the filament is located contributes to emission. Between the filament located within the respective lamp and the filament located within the lamp which is adjacent to the horizontal part of the lamp on the same axis, there are two silica glass walls which form the respective vertical part. Furthermore, on the boundary between the horizontal part and the vertical part, a curved surface is formed, by which the horizontal part and the vertical part are formed integrally with one another. Therefore, between the adjacent filaments there is a space with a rather large overall length which does not contribute to emission. As a result, it can be imagined that the disadvantage arises that a nonuniformity of temperature occurs in the area directly underneath this space.
This means that the illuminance changes (decreases) relatively drastically in the area directly underneath the above described space even by a combination of the distributions of the illuminance of the lamps of the first and second lamp units which correspond to the respective zone, and even by the combined distribution of the illuminance on the semiconductor wafer which is center-symmetrical. Therefore, it can be imagined that it is relatively difficult to reduce the temperature nonuniformity in the vicinity of the area directly underneath the above described space even if heating which corresponds to the temperature change of the respective zone is to be carried out.
Also, since, in such a thermal processing device, there has recently been the tendency to make the space (mainly in the vertical direction) for the arrangement of the lamp units extremely small, when using U-shaped lamps, a space is required which corresponds to the vertical part of the lamp. This thermal processing device is therefore not advantageous with respect to the saving of space in the vertical direction.

Heater and heating device with heaters with lamps having an independently powered multiple part filament


Methods of making a targeted modification in a male fertility gene in the genome of a plant are disclosed. The methods involve contacting a plant cell with an engineered double-strand-break-inducing agent capable of inducing a double-strand break in a target sequence in the male fertility gene and identifying a cell comprising an alteration in the target sequence. Also disclosed are plants, plant cells, plant parts, and seeds comprising a male fertility gene with an alteration in a male fertility gene. Nucleic acid molecules comprising male fertility genes with at least one targeted modification therein, optimized nucleic acid molecules encoding endonucleases that are engineered double-strand-break-inducing agents and expression cassettes, host cells, and plants comprising one or more of the nucleic acid molecules are further disclosed.

Development of hybrid plant breeding has made possible considerable advances in quality and quantity of crops produced. Increased yield and combination of desirable characteristics, such as resistance to disease and insects, heat and drought tolerance, along with variations in plant composition are all possible because of hybridization procedures. These procedures frequently rely heavily on providing for a male parent contributing pollen to a female parent to produce the resulting hybrid.
Field crops are bred through techniques that take advantage of the plant's method of pollination. A plant is self-pollinating if pollen from one flower is transferred to the same or another flower of the same plant or a genetically identical plant. A plant is cross-pollinated if the pollen comes from a flower on a different plant.
In certain species, such as Brassica campestris, the plant is normally self-sterile and can only be cross-pollinated. In self-pollinating species, such as soybeans and cotton, the male and female plants are anatomically juxtaposed. During natural pollination, the male reproductive organs of a given flower pollinate the female reproductive organs of the same flower.
Maize plants (Zea mays L.) can be bred by both self-pollination and cross-pollination techniques. Maize has male flowers, located on the tassel, and female flowers, located on the ear, on the same plant. It can self or cross pollinate. Natural pollination occurs in maize when wind blows pollen from the tassels to the silks that protrude from the tops of the incipient ears.
The development of maize hybrids requires the development of homozygous inbred lines, the crossing of these lines, and the evaluation of the crosses. Pedigree breeding and recurrent selection are two of the breeding methods used to develop inbred lines from populations. Breeding programs combine desirable traits from two or more inbred lines or various broad-based sources into breeding pools from which new inbred lines are developed by selfing and selection of desired phenotypes. A hybrid maize variety is the cross of two such inbred lines, each of which may have one or more desirable characteristics lacked by the other or which complement the other. The new inbreds are crossed with other inbred lines and the hybrids from these crosses are evaluated to determine which have commercial potential. The hybrid progeny of the first generation is designated F1. In the development of hybrids only the F1 hybrid plants are sought. The F1 hybrid is more vigorous than its inbred parents. This hybrid vigor, or heterosis, can be manifested in many ways, including increased vegetative growth and increased yield.
Hybrid maize seed can be produced by a male sterility system incorporating manual detasseling. To produce hybrid seed, the male tassel is removed from the growing female inbred parent, which can be planted in various alternating row patterns with the male inbred parent. Consequently, providing that there is sufficient isolation from sources of foreign maize pollen, the ears of the female inbred will be fertilized only with pollen from the male inbred. The resulting seed is therefore hybrid (F1) and will form hybrid plants.
Field variation impacting plant development can result in plants tasseling after manual detasseling of the female parent is completed. Or, a female inbred plant tassel may not be completely removed during the detasseling process. In any event, the result is that the female plant will successfully shed pollen and some female plants will be self-pollinated. This will result in seed of the female inbred being harvested along with the hybrid seed which is normally produced. Female inbred seed does not exhibit heterosis and therefore is not as productive as F1 seed. In addition, the presence of female inbred seed can represent a germplasm security risk for the company producing the hybrid.
Alternatively, the female inbred can be mechanically detasseled by machine. Mechanical detasseling is approximately as reliable as hand detasseling, but is faster and less costly. However, most detasseling machines produce more damage to the plants than hand detasseling. Thus, no form of detasseling is presently entirely satisfactory, and a need continues to exist for alternatives which further reduce production costs and to eliminate self-pollination of the female parent in the production of hybrid seed.
Mutations that cause male sterility in plants have the potential to be useful in methods for hybrid seed production for crop plants such as maize and can lower production costs by eliminating the need for the labor-intensive removal of male flowers (also known as de-tasseling) from the maternal parent plants used to produce the hybrid seed. Mutations that cause male sterility in maize have been produced by a variety of methods such as X-rays or UV-irradiations, chemical treatments, or transposable element insertions (ms23, ms25, ms26, ms32) (Chaubal et al. (2000) Am J Bot 87:1193-1201). Conditional regulation of fertility genes through fertility/sterility "molecular switches" could enhance the options for designing new male-sterility systems for crop improvement (Unger et al. (2002) Transgenic Res 11:455-465).
Besides identification of novel genes impacting male fertility, there remains a need to provide a reliable system of producing genetic male sterility.

Methods and compositions for producing male sterile plants


Embodiments of the present invention provide a tunable inductor having a magnetic core which has an air gap. In order to vary the inductance of the inductor, the inductor includes a tuner that is moveable relative to the magnetic core in the vicinity of the air gap. An actuator is attached to the tuner which, upon actuation, moves the tuner relative to the magnetic core to thereby vary the spacing between the tuner and the core in the vicinity of the air gap. The variation of the spacing between the tuner and the magnetic core varies the effective air gap of the overall inductor in the desired fashion.

I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to inductors and, more particularly, to a tunable inductor.
II. Description of Relevant Art
Tunable inductors, and in particular MEMS tunable inductors, form an important component of both power and communication systems. Tunable inductors are used as a frequency control element in communication systems, allowing communication networks to be used in different frequency bands. Variable inductors can be used to vary the resonant frequency of inductor-capacitor (LC) tanks used in voltage controlled oscillators and other RF circuits and to control bandwidth and cut-off frequency of tunable filters. In power systems, tunable inductors can change the impedance of matching networks during operation, allowing load matching for more efficient power delivery.
There have been previously known MEMS tunable inductors which utilize actuators, such as electrostatic actuators, to vary the inductance of the inductor. A survey of the forms of MEMS tunable inductors commonly used is given in M. M. Teymoori and J. M. Ahangarkolaei, "MEMS tunable inductors: a survey," Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, vol. 5, 2011, pp. 1868-1878, herein incorporated by reference. To briefly summarize, the largest tuning ratios are typically achieved using switch-based techniques, where the configuration of discrete inductors is changed, by for instance adding additional inductors in series by closing MEMS switches. Although effective, this technique only allows only a handful of specific inductance to be obtained; continuous tuning is impossible without an infinite number of segments and switches. A number of approaches have been demonstrated for creating continuous tuning, but typically with much smaller tuning ratios. These methods include changing the permeability of a magnetic material in the core by an additional bias field, or physically changing the position of coils relative to each other to change the coupling between them. A magnetic core can also be selectively inserted or retracted into a coil to change the inductance. As discussed in the survey paper, the best continuous tuning techniques available generally only can obtain a tuning ratio of 3 or 4.
The inductance of an inductor is dependent upon the strength and scale of the magnetic field that is created when electrical current passes through one or more inductors wound around the core. Consequently, inductors with magnetic cores of high permeability, such as iron-containing alloys or ceramics, are oftentimes used to increase the magnetic field response of the inductor. For a magnetic core inductor where the magnetic flux is contained within the core, the inductance L is given by
      L    =                            N          2                                  μ                      r            ,            core                                            μ          0                                  A          core                            l        core              ,where N is the number of turns, lcore is the length of the loop, Acore is the core cross sectional area, μr,core is the relative permeability of the core and μ0 is the permeability of free space.
As shown, when the magnetic core fully links all of the inductor coils through a closed loop, the inductance is directly proportional to the permeability of the core. For example, common core materials such as iron-containing alloys or ceramics have permeabilities in the hundreds or thousands while some exotic materials, such as metglas, exhibit permeability in the millions. However, for high currents, most magnetic materials begin to saturate thus reaching a maximum magnetic flux density above which the inductor behaves nonlinearly.
In order to prevent saturation of the magnetic core, many magnetic cores include an air gap. With an air gap, the inductance of the coil is dominated by the air gap when μr,core is large; the inductance is approximately given by
      L    =                            N          2                                                                                l                gap                                                              μ                  0                                                                  A                  gap                                                      +                                          l                core                                                              μ                                      r                    ,                    core                                                                                μ                  0                                                                  A                  core                                                                        ≈                                    N            2                                          μ            0                                          A            gap                                    l          gap                      ,where Agap is the area of the gap and lgap is the length of the gap. Consequently, by providing an air gap, the linearity of the inductor is improved but at a great loss in the overall inductance of the inductor.

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army


A primary connector (10, 20) includes a primary housing (11, 31) and a number of terminal groups. The primary housing includes a periphery wall (111, 311) and a side wall (112, 312) disposed at opposite sides of the primary housing and extending along a longitudinal direction, a slot (113, 313) defined between the periphery wall and the side wall, and a number of passageways (114, 314) extending along a transverse direction for receiving the number of terminal groups. Each terminal group includes a predetermined terminal (22, 42) having a contact section (221, 421) exposed to the slot and a pair of soldering portions (222, 422) respectively extending from opposite sides of the contact section and inserted outwardly from the periphery wall and the side wall.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a board to board connector assembly, and more particularly to a board to board connector assembly including a female connector and a male connector mated with each other to establish electrical connection between a mother board and a daughter board.
2. Description of Related Art
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20130149908 published on Jun. 13, 2013 discloses a hermaphroditic board to board connector assembly including a female connector and a male connector having same configurations. The female connector has a female housing having a supporting wall and a plurality of female terminals. Each female terminal has a contact section striding across and supported on the supporting wall and a soldering portion extending from the contact section for being soldered on a board. The female terminal is easy to be pelt from the board due to one soldering portion. In addition, the female terminal is short of sufficient resilient force since the contact section strides across and is supported on the supporting wall.
A board-to-board connector assembly having an improved terminal arrangement is desired.

Board to board connector assembly having improved terminal arrangement


A correct image reflecting telescope with zoom capability comprised of a flat mirror, a parabolic primary mirror, and an image correcting system. The flat mirror reflects the incoming light from the telescope aperture into the parabolic primary mirror. The reflected light from the primary mirror passes back through a small centrally located opening in the flat aperture mirror and into an image correcting lens system. The image correcting system repositions the focal point of the primary mirror from a point in front of the flat aperture mirror to a point behind this mirror for observation with an eyepiece. The image correcting system makes the telescope useful in terrestrial as well as celestial applications and it can be moved with respect to the primary mirror such that a zoom feature results. This intrinsic zoom of the telescope allows an observer to use a single eyepiece in place of many, eliminates the need for an additional finder scope, and also makes the telescope useful in spotting scope applications. The eyepiece can remain at a stationary level for all observable directions.

The present invention relates to telescopes, more specifically to an improved version of reflective telescope whereby the image is corrected intrinsic to the telescope optics. This feature combined with a nearly stationary eyepiece and zoom capability make it particularly useful for terrestrial as well as celestial use.
This invention uses a specially designed telescope mount of my co-pending application. This mount has multiple degrees of freedom to accommodate the additional range of motion requirements and can easily be used in either a horizontal or vertical manner depending on individual comfort preferences and telescope size.
One object of the invention is to improve the optical performance of a reflecting telescope over that of the Newtonian, Cassegrain, Gregorian, Maksutov and Schmidt-Cassegrain types. This optical advantage results from blocking less of the incoming light then these other telescope types. These other telescopes in general block more light as telescope aperture increases, whereas the amount of light blocked by a telescope of the present invention remains constant, independent of telescope size. Furthermore, the blockage of light that does occur is far less then that of even the smallest of the other telescope types.
Another object of the invention is to enhance the usefulness of a reflecting telescope design by incorporating image correcting optics into the design. This allows the telescope to be used for terrestrial as well as celestial observation at a reduced cost. The advantage of this is most apparent when compared to the Newtonian type of telescope which generally cannot be used for terrestrial observation even with external correctors. This is because the image it creates is rotated at some angle dependent on the eyepiece location in addition to being inverted. The other types of reflecting telescopes can have their images corrected, but they require additional external optical components to do it.
Another object of the invention is to enhance the usefulness of a reflecting telescope design by maintaining the eyepiece at a comfortable viewing level. The advantage of this is readily apparent when compared to a large Newtonian telescope of equal size since the Newtonian eyepiece height is directly related to its aperture size. An observer using a large Newtonian design would require a ladder to reach the eyepiece while an observer using the present invention could sit in a chair while observing the same images. Similarly, the advantage is apparent when compared to most other types of telescopes which typically require viewing angle attachments to view objects overhead whereas the present invention does not.
Another object of the invention is to enhance the usefulness of a reflecting telescope by incorporating a zoom feature into the design. This zoom feature utilizes the same optical components as the image corrector thus combining features without increasing cost. Therefore fewer external optical components are required to achieve equal magnification performance. Additionally this feature can eliminate the need for an external finder scope since a reduction in magnification can also be achieved.
Another object of the invention is to achieve a lower cost compared to most other telescope designs. This advantage can be achieved by first using elementary optics rather than custom components, or components requiring specially shaped optical pairs to eliminate aberrations. And second, by reducing the precision requirements of its secondary mirror compared to the other telescopes mentioned. And third, by eliminating the need for as many external optical components as possible; This includes components such as finder scopes, viewing angle attachments, zoom attachments, image correctors, image reducers, and multiple eyepieces all of which the other telescope types use at substantial additional cost.
Another object of the invention is to create a reflecting telescope design that is rugged enough to remain collimated after being set at a factory. The advantage of this is most apparent when compared to the Newtonian design which generally requires collimation with each use, particularly when transported, to maintain optimum performance. The very stable design structure of the present invention makes it useful as a spotting type field telescope which generally cannot be done effectively using a reflective type telescope.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become increasingly apparent upon consideration of the drawings and ensuing description.

Correct image zoomable reflecting telescope with near stationary eyepiece


Various embodiments are generally directed to an apparatus, method and other techniques to determine that a shared surface is shared between a first application and a second application, determine that a fast clear operation has been performed on the shared surface, the fast clear operation comprising clearing one or more locations of one or more buffers. Further, various embodiments may include writing pixel value information to the one or more locations of the one or more buffers and performing a resolve operation on the shared surface.

With advances in microprocessor and other related technology, today's computers are equipped with processing capabilities that were once the exclusive domain of large mainframe computers. To exploit these capabilities, today's computers are often equipped with multi-tasking operating systems that allow multiple tasks of the same or different applications to be executed at the same time. These operating systems also enable concurrent displaying of multiple applications through windowing and other techniques within the constraint of the available shared surface of a display device. That is, the execution of these applications is rendered and shared on a shared surface.

Techniques for clearing a shared surface


An apparatus configured to be movably mounted upon a rope for lifting and pulling a load as the apparatus travels along the rope. The apparatus can also be used to retract a rope. In one embodiment, the apparatus comprises a pneumatic cylinder having first and second gas ports for receiving and venting a pressurized gas. The cylinder includes a piston and piston rod that move in response to the pressurized gas. A portion of the piston extends from the cylinder. The apparatus further comprises a first ascender and a second ascender. The first ascender is attached to the portion of the piston rod that extends from the cylinder. The second ascender is attached to the cylinder. Each ascender comprises a body through which a rope passes and a locking device that allows movement of the ascender, with respect to the rope, in a first direction, and prevents movement of the ascender, with respect to the rope, in a second direction. The second ascender includes means for attaching a load. When the apparatus is used to lift a load, pressurized gas is alternately introduced into one port and vented from the other port thereby causing the apparatus to climb the rope along with the load. When the apparatus is used to retract a rope, the attaching means of the second ascender is anchored to a secure object. Pressurized gas is alternately introduced into one port and vented from the other port so as to cause movement of the piston and piston rod in the first and second directions. When the piston rod moves in the second direction, the locking device of the first ascender clamps onto the rope thereby retracting the rope in the second direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a devices for lifting or pulling or heavy objects.
2. Problem to be Solved
Winches are typically used to lift heavy loads or pull loads across horizontal obstacles. Winches are either motor-driven or hand powered and utilize a drum around which a wire rope (i.e. metal cable) or chain is wound. However, the winding of the wire rope or cable around the drum often results in undue stress on the cable or rope thereby causing the cable or rope to become tangled or stuck. Manually lifting or pulling heavy objects is not a viable option due to the strength required to lift or pull such objects. Often, fatigue and injury result from manually lifting or pulling such objects.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for lifting or pulling heavy loads which solves the problems associated with the conventional methods and techniques described above.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for lifting or pulling heavy loads which can be manufactured at reasonable costs.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in light of the ensuing description of the present invention.
The present invention is directed to an apparatus that is configured to be movably mounted upon a rope for lifting or pulling a load as the apparatus travels along the rope. The apparatus can also be used to retract a rope.
In one embodiment, the apparatus comprises a device having a housing and a chamber configured for receiving a pressurized medium. The device further includes first and second port in communication with the chamber for receiving and venting the pressurized medium. The apparatus further includes a member that is movably disposed within the chamber and has a portion extending from the chamber. The member is movable in a first direction when the pressurized medium is introduced into the first port, and in a second direction when the pressurized medium is introduced into the second port. The apparatus further comprises a first braking device attached to the portion of the member extending from the chamber. The first braking device is configured to be movably mounted upon a rope. The first braking device comprises a body through which the rope passes and a locking device movably attached to the body. The locking device allows movement of the first braking device, with respect to the rope, in the first direction, and prevents movement of the first braking device, with respect to the rope, in the second direction. The apparatus further comprises a second braking device attached to the housing. The second braking device is configured to be movably mounted upon a rope. The second braking device comprises a body through which the rope passes and a locking device movably attached to the body of the second braking device. The locking device allows movement of the second braking device, with respect to the rope, in the first direction, and prevents movement of the second braking device, with respect to the rope, in the second direction. The second braking device includes means for attaching the second braking device to an object.
If the apparatus is to be used for lifting or pulling a load, the attaching means is used to attach the load to the second braking device. If the apparatus is to be used to retract a rope, wire or cable, the attaching means is used to attach the second braking device to an anchoring object, e.g. tree, pole, vehicle bumper, boulder, etc.

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army


The control device of a movement simulator, between its input formed of a control signal and its output formed of a measured magnitude among its speed, its position and its acceleration, by a transfer function B(z−1)/A(z−1) includes a corrector synthesized from the modelling of the movement simulator and equivalent to a RST controller. The controller includes a reference input, a retro-action input whereon is applied the measured magnitude and an output producing the control signal. The transfer function between the reference input of the controller and the measured magnitude is H(z−1)/W(z−1). The device has a reference filter whose input is a sinusoidal reference signal c(t) at a frequency wc and applying at output a filtered reference signal on the reference input of the controller. The reference filter has a transfer function Rr(z−1)/Fr(z−1), whose denominator and numerator are adapted to ensure, for the frequency wc, effective tracking by the movement simulator of the sinusoidal reference.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to movement simulators controlled in position, in speed or in acceleration.
2. Description of Related Art
The movement simulators are used, among other things, for testing the frequency response of a component laid on the table top of a movement simulator capable of generating movements such as instantaneous rotational movements around an axis. A particularly interesting category of movements for conducting tests is formed of movements such as the position, the speed or the angular acceleration of the axis is a sinusoidal function characterised by an amplitude and a frequency. A reference signal of the form Aej·w·t is hence applied while adopting a complex notation) and the characteristic measurements are performed on the sensor to be tested. But this test is only valid if the movement simulator has effectively a movement which follows the reference signal. Consequently the actual movement of the movement simulator should be as close as possible with respect to the reference. Incidentally, the word component defines here any inertial component or any type of sensor measuring a position, a speed or an acceleration.
Control systems for movement simulator are already known by the patent application WO2006/131664A or the article <<Implementation of RST controllers for a flexible servo considering practical limitations>> by CHAMPENOIS G. and AP. in Industrial Automation and Control, 1995, p. 209-213 ISBN 0-7803-2081-6.
The structure of the control loop in position (in speed or in acceleration) of a movement simulator is generally complying with the diagram represented on FIG. 1. The physical system to be controlled 10 is formed of a current amplifier 11, of a direct current or alternating current motor 12 (for instance a brushless alternating current motor: <<AC brushless>>), of the axis 13 of the machine and of a sensor 14. The current amplifier 11 receives for instance a signal in the form of a voltage u(t) and applies consequently the intensity i(t) corresponding at the terminals of the electric motor 12. The axis 13 of the movement simulator coupled to the rotor of the electric motor 11, the circulation of a current i(t) adapted in the stator sets in rotation the axis 13 around its axis of symmetry. The sensor 14 measures an instantaneous kinematic magnitude y(t) relative to the movement of the axis 13 of the movement simulator. This measured magnitude y(t) may be either the position of the axis or the speed thereof, or still the acceleration thereof (angular or linear measured magnitude).
The control loop consists of a control law 20 which, from the inputs formed simultaneously of the reference signal c(t) and of the measured magnitude y(t), determines the value of the signal u(t) to apply to the controlled system 10. This command law is established by a synthesis algorithm from a physical modelling of the behaviour of the system to be controlled.
The closed loop presented on FIG. 1 has the particularity of exhibiting a "low-pass" behaviour between the reference c(t) and the measurement y(t). Which means that the quality of the tracking of a sinusoidal reference depends on the frequency of this reference. For the low frequencies (for instance of the order of the Hertz), there is no particular difficulty for ensuring a tracking of the reference without the occurrence of a significant error, so called the tracking error, between the reference c(t) and the measured magnitude y(t), for instance the position. Conversely, the more the frequency of the sinusoidal reference increases, the more the tracking error becomes significant. For these high frequencies, the position of the axis stills follows a sinusoidal movement but with a certain attenuation of the amplitude which is increasingly marked as the frequency rises. The cut-off frequency of the control loop is defined as the frequency for which the amplitude of the reference undergoes a ±3 dB attenuation.
It is desirable that the cut-off frequency, which is an indicator of the performances of the control loop, is as high as possible. Nevertheless the maximal value of the cut-off frequency is limited because of the high frequency dynamics which cannot be taken into account in the modelling of the controlled machine, a modelling on which the synthesis of the control law is based. These high frequency dynamics on the modelling are for instance due to the electric dynamics of the motor or, still, the resonances of the mechanical structure.
Besides, so that the control loop is stable regardless of the movement one wished to impart to the movement simulator, a so-called robust controller should be designed relative to these high frequency dynamics. As a reminder, the robustness property of a control loop guarantees the stability of the control loop when the system to be controlled departs from the rated model. However, from a theoretical viewpoint, robustness and performances are proved to be two antagonistic notions. I.e. the robustness necessary in the control loop provides limitations for the performances of this control law, and in particular lowers the cut-off frequency of this control law. All the known control systems used on the current movement simulators are subject to such constraint.
Moreover, it should be added that the sinusoidal movement of the axis is not only attenuated relative to the reference signal but also phase-shifted relative thereto. This phase-shift rises significantly when the frequency increases. The phase-shift starts to be significant at frequencies much lower than the cut-off frequency of the slaving.
The movement simulators being machines designed for metrology, this attenuation and this phase-shift cause great difficulties for accurate characterisation of the components to be tested.
The purpose of the invention is hence to remedy the shortcomings aforementioned while suppressing or at least while reducing highly any attenuation and any phase-shift of the measured magnitude (position, speed or acceleration) relative to the sinusoidal reference.

Frequency response optimisation of a movement simulator by adaptive sinusoidal reference tracking


A power actuator assembly for a latch includes first and second articulated levers. The first lever includes cam follower surfaces and the second lever includes at least one stop member which pivots between first and second positions as each lever travels between first and second positions. A motor-driven cam having driving members and stop members drives the first lever. More particularly, each driving member has a path of travel that engages one of the cam follower surfaces for a portion of the travel path to drive the first and second levers and is in disengaging alignment with the cam follower for another portion of travel. The cam stop members abut the stop member of the second lever when the cam driving members are in the non-aligned position, whereby the levers may be activated without driving the cam. The assembly can be employed, inter alia, in a lock application or a power release application so as to preclude the necessity of having to backdrive the power actuator.

Power lock mechanisms used in vehicles often employ an electric motor or actuator to move one or more lock levers between locked and unlocked positions. Typically, these latches are also equipped with a manual lock, typically an inside lock button and/or outside key cylinder. If the electric motor is constantly coupled with the lock lever(s) it has to be back-driven when the manual lock is operated. This adds to the effort required to actuate the manual lock and increases the noise of the locking/unlocking operation.
One solution to avoid back-driving the motor when the lock lever is manually operable is to equip the actuator with a return spring that automatically back-drives the motor to its initial position after each lock or unlock cycle. This allows for enough lost motion in the mechanism so that the next manual cycle can be performed without moving the motor. Alternatively, the lock actuator can include a clutch mechanism for disengaging the motor after each lock or unlock cycle. However, these solutions add parts, complexity, and costs to the lock actuator. For example, approximately 30% of the torque generated by the motor is often used to load the spring.
A similar problem arises in a power release application wherein, typically, a lever has to be actuated to move from a first position to a second position. For example, in a trunk release application, a motor is connected to an output arm which drives a release pall from a first position to a second position in order to release a trunk latch. In this case, the output arm is typically biased via a spring to cause the output arm to automatically return to its initial position in order to restart the sequence. Again, it would be desirable to actuate the output arm on the return stroke without having to backdrive the motor.


A rotating intermediate drum having mounted thereon optical head is made smaller than stationary upper and lower drums in diameter and spiral grooves are formed on the rotating intermediate drum on its surfaces opposing the stationary upper and lower drums. An optical tape is transported in a floated condition relative to a drum circumferential surface owing to a synergy of a dynamic pressure based on the rotation of the rotating intermediate drum and the air exhausted from the spiral grooves. Therefore, an information signal is recorded on and/or reproduced from the optical tape when the optical tape is transported in the floated condition from the head drum having the trilayer structure composed of the stationary upper and lower drums and the rotating intermediate drum therebetween.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to optical head apparatus and, more particularly, to a rotating optical head apparatus for use with an optical recording and/or reproducing apparatus which employs an optical tape as a recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In accordance with the development of technology in which an optical tape is employed as an optical recording medium, an optical recording and/or reproducing apparatus has been proposed, in which an optical head is mounted within a rotating drum and the rotating drum is rotated while the optical tape helically wrapped around the circumferential surface of the rotating drum by a predetermined wrapping angle is being transported, thereby a desired information being optically recorded and reproduced.
This optical recording and/or reproducing apparatus employs the helical scan system, i.e., the system in which a scanning locus of an optical beam emitted from the optical head mounted within the rotating drum is sequentially and obliquely formed with respect to the transport direction of the optical tape, whereby an information can be optical recorded on and reproduced from the scanning locus.
When the optical tape wrapped around the rotating drum is transported and the information is optically recorded and reproduced by the optical head, the optical tape must be transported on the rotating drum stably and smoothly
To this end, such a technique is proposed, in which a layer of air, i.e., so-called air film is formed between the transport surface (circumferential surface) of the rotating drum and the tape surface and the tape is transported under the condition that the tape is floated on the circumferential surface of the rotating drum.
According to the above-mentioned technique, the rotating drum is formed to have a bilayer structure in which an upper drum is formed as a rotating drum having a head and a lower drum is formed as a stationary drum for guiding the tape. Then, the rotating drum is rotated at high speed to supply the air into the spacing between the circumferential surface of the drum and the tape to thereby form the air film. In order to maintain the air film amount (thickness of the air film), such a proposal is also made, in which a spiral groove of pump-out type is formed on one of the opposing surfaces of the rotating drum and the stationary drum and the air is blown out from the spiral groove by the rotation of the rotating drum to thereby increase the air pressure relative to the tape.
However, according to the aforesaid structure, while the tape is in the floated state relative to the rotating drum under the condition that the tape is transported in the stationary state (transported in the forward (FWD) mode) upon recording and reproducing, in the non-stationary state transport (search mode or the like), the tape comes in contact with the rotating drum. There is then the risk that the tape will be damaged.


Embodiments described herein relate to apparatuses and methods for registering and storing a local key associated with a local application of a communication device, including, but not limited to, receiving a request from the communication device to register and store the local key, evaluating the request based on at least one first policy, and sending the request to register and store the local key to a secure key storage.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to security objects used in communication systems and, more specifically, to generation, management, distribution, federation, and/or applied key management of security objects.
2. Background
In security systems, an encryption key refers to a parameter or data that dictates how plain data may be translated into encrypted data during an encryption process and encrypted data into plain data during a decryption process. Typically, the encryption key is made available both of a source device (e.g., a transmitting device) and a target device (e.g., a receiving device) in a communication transaction. Given that encryption keys are used pervasively, effective management of the encryption keys (as well as other security objects) to defend and respond to threats against the security systems is of paramount importance.
Traditionally, encryption key management is initiated and executed at the device level (e.g., by the source device and/or the target device that are involved in the communication transaction). Communication management, on the other hand, is traditionally centrally managed at a higher level (e.g., by a server for the source device and target device). The end result may be that the encryption management is procedurally unsynchronized with communications management. Thus, loose controls of encryption keys, as demonstrated in current public key infrastructure (PKI) instances, may result. In addition, loose controls of symmetric keys generated and distributed in an enterprise may also occur. Accordingly, an end result may be a breakdown in communication management or communication security. Similar problems confront other types of encryption objects.
Various tools for full disk encryption may require gathering keys in a location for management. Conventionally, no mechanism exists to automate gathering and storing of keys across various local user applications, for example, as a part of recovery operations. Secure Shell (SSH) and other interface/protocol for system access conventionally focus on localized generation of encryption keys for user authentication. Local applications may use local keys to unlock application functionalities as a part of software licensing on a client. Some applications such as, but not limited to, messaging, communication application, and the like may require separate distribution of symmetric and/or asymmetric keys for encrypted communication. Storage or distribution of encrypted information may require separate key management and distribution activities.

Server-client key escrow for applied key management system and process


A hair care device includes a hair comb with a plurality of combing teeth. The effective teeth spacing between adjacent combing teeth is adjustable. At least some of the combing teeth are thermally conductive so that heat can be conducted from the hair comb to a user's hair via the thermally conductive combing teeth when hair is being engaged under tension by the combing teeth.

Hair care devices with means for imparting tension to hair are known and widely used for general hair care such as combing and styling or for smoothing and tidying hair which has become messy. These types of hair care apparatus are also used to perform hair treatments as well as removing dirt and disentangling greasy and lumpy hair.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,729,907 describes such a hair care device as an attachment for a hair dryer with a comb and a heat transmissive plate for simultaneously drying and straightening of one's hair.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,939,850 describes a combined hair comb and dryer device having baffles arranged to focus the warm hair moving through the device towards the hair as the hair is moving through the comb.
United Kingdom Publication No. GB 2,365,335 describes a hair care apparatus with a combined hair dryer and comb for drying and straightening hair.
Hair care apparatus and devices having means for combing or imparting tension to hair, such as the ones described above, usually include a plurality of elongated teeth which are distributed along its length and overhanging an elongated base of the main housing of the devices or apparatus. In use, the elongated teeth engage with hair and are intermediate of the scalp and the handle portion of the apparatus or devices. Known hair care devices, attachments and apparatus with such combing or tension imparting characteristics usually suffer from the common shortcoming that the teeth spacing is not always suitable which means that different devices, attachments or apparatus must be selected for different persons in order to achieve optimal styling, caring or treatment to hair of different thickness or characteristics. Hence, it will be highly desirable if there can be provided devices, attachments or apparatus with such features which alleviate shortcomings of such conventional means or devices. Such devices or apparatus should be relatively simple and easy to use without requiring complicated or careful adjustment steps.

Combing device with adjustable teeth spacing


A computer-implemented method includes tracking, by a computer device, movements of a user viewing a dashboard containing visualizations. The method also includes generating, by the computer device, heatmaps having hotspots onto the dashboards in view of the tracked movements of the user. Additionally, the method includes generating, by the computer device, bounding boxes around the hotspots. Further, the method includes mapping, by the computer device, the bounding boxes to the visualizations. The method also includes creating, by the computing device, a tree diagram listing the hotspots which correspond to the bounding boxes. Additionally, the method includes generating automatically, by the computing device, a story or exploration from the tree diagram.

Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to analytics and, more particularly, to autogenerating stories and explorations from business analytics applications.
Business analytics applications are applications for visualizing, analyzing and sharing data. These business analytics applications are often consumed in a read-only mode, or on devices which do not capture user interactions.

Autogenerating stories and explorations from business analytics applications

International Business Machines Corporation