A connector housing includes a first interface containing contact portions of contact pins therein for electrically contacting an external complementary card and a second interface defining arrays of slits through which corresponding soldering portions of the contact pins to be soldered on a printed circuit board project. A plurality of spacers are formed on the second interface thus preventing solder from communicating with the soldering portions of adjacent contact pins.

1. Field of The Invention
The present invention relates to a connector housing and particularly to a connector housing which utilizes spacers to prevent pins thereof from becoming short circuited when soldering the connector onto a printed circuit board (PCB).
2. The Prior Art
Connectors are commonly used in coupling electrical signals from one device (for example, a motherboard or a module card used in personal computers) to another device (for example, an edge card which has gold fingers formed on an edge thereof). Connectors have a variety of structures but, each connector generally includes an insulative housing and a plurality of conductive contact pins firmly fixed in the insulative housing.
Each contact pin basically includes a soldering portion at one end thereof, an engaging portion firmly received in a corresponding chamber defined in the insulative housing, and a contact portion for electrically contacting a corresponding gold finger (or contact) fixed in a complementary edge card (or in a male-type connector).
Normally, the soldering portion of each contact pin is a leg projecting from a first face (interface) of the insulative housing of the connector for soldering onto a PCB, while the contacts are formed on a second interface of the insulative housing for electrically contacting the complementary connector or edge card as previously mentioned.
Referring to FIG. 7, two rows of contact pins 6 are connected by a reel carrier tape 63 at respective shoulders 60 thereof. The two rows of contact pins 6 are inserted into and fixed in an insulative housing 50 via an operational machine (not shown), and then the reel carrier tape 63 is detached by the operational machine, thus forming two shoulders 60 on each contact pin 6. Subsequently, another two rows of contact pins are positioned in the same insulative housing 50 using the same method, therefore, a connector 5 with four rows of contact pins is formed.
Referring to FIG. 6, a printed circuit board (PCB) 68 configured with the connectors via holes 62 defined therein undergoes a wave soldering procedure. Thus the solder 61 is soldered to the soldering portion of the contact pins 6 substantially at a position corresponding to the hole 62 of the PCB 68. Most of the contact pins 6 are soldered on the PCB 68 properly such as the rightmost two contact pins 6. However, in some situations, especially when the wave amplitude of the wave soldering procedure is not maintained below a threshold level, the solder passing through two adjacent throughholes 62 is apt to sputter and combine into one integration thus resulting in a short circuit between the related two contact pins. Additionally, due to insufficient preheat of the contact pins 6, the temperature difference between the two sides of the PCB 68 is significant, therefore, when the solder passes through the holes 62 by means of a capillary, the pin portion above the PCB 68 (based on the orientation of the figure) will cause the entering solder to abruptly cool, thus, damaging the surface tension thereof and causing sputtering of the entering solder (the solder above the PCB 68) thereby resulting in a short circuit between adjacent contact pins 6. If a short circuit occurs, trouble shooting and related amendments will increase costs considerably thus reducing profits.
Short circuits are so critical that a new structure is required to eliminate short circuits due to improper wave soldering procedures or other reasons, such as a conductive wire being accidentally positioned between two contact pins when the connector is mounted on the PCB thereby retaining the conductive wire between the contact pins and the PCB.

Connector housing with spacers between contact pins


A process for the preparation of hydroxyl substituted anthraquinones is described. The process couples a phthalic anhydride (substituted or unsubstituted) to benzene ring moiety substituted with at least two hydroxyl groups. Remaining hydroxy groups were converted to methoxy groups in some anthraquinones. The compounds are particularly useful for the treatment of parasitic diseases. Also, a method of treating or preventing malaria, filariasis schistosomiasis and other parasitic diseases using anthraquinones.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to novel hydroxy substituted anthraquinones and to processes for preparing these compounds. The anthraquinones can also be methoxy substituted in place of hydroxyl groups. These compounds are particularly useful in treatments for malaria, schistosomiasis and elephantiasis (filariasis) helminthic and other parasitic diseases. Certain novel anthraquinones are described.
(2) Description of Related Art
There are many parasitic diseases. Lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis) in particular is a devastating disease caused by Wuchereria bancrofti and Brugia malayi spp. The World Health Organization estimates that 120 million people globally are affected and at least 40 million are disabled both physically and psychosocially. This is one of the major public health problems with socioeconomic impacts in Africa, Asia, the Western Pacific and the Americas (Ottesen, E. A., Trop. Med. Int. Hlth. 5, 591-594 (2000)). About 90% of these infections are caused by Wuchereria bancrofti, and the remainder by Brugia spp. Humans are the only host for W. bancrofti (Anonymous, The Global Alliance for the Elimination of lymphatic Filariasis—epidemiology. Http://www.filariasis.org /2002)).
Numerous quinones including dihydroxy- and trihydroxyanthraquinones are widely distributed in plant kingdom and contribute to pigmentation in plants (Thomson, R. H., Naturally Occurring Quinonones, Academic press, pp 367-535, London (1971)). Hemerocallis fulva kwanza kaempfer (daylily) roots was reported to contain several anthraquinone derivatives, naphthaline glycosides and flavones (Cichewicz, R. H., et al., Tetrahedron 58, 8597-8606 (2002)). In our earlier studies, some of the anthraquinones isolated from daylily roots were found to be active against Schistosoma mansoni, one of the Schistosoma spp. parasites responsible for schistosomiasis (Cichewicz, R. H., et al., Tetrahedron 58 8597-8606 (2002)). Schistosomiasis is also a debilitating disease caused by parasitic trematodes of the genus Schistosoma that afflicts 200 million people worldwide. These active anthraquinones from daylily roots were assayed against filarial parasite (Brugia malayi) and were found to, be active. The presence of these active anthraquinones in daylily roots is very small.
It is also essential to explore the possible utility of these active and anthraquinone analogues as prophylactic and/or therapeutic agent for parasitic diseases. Therefore, it is a necessity to synthesize these anthraquinones to further evaluate their efficacy in vivo and determine the toxicity in order to determine their potential as therapeutic drugs for filariasis and schistosomiasis.
The production of anthraquinones was reported by the catalytic oxidation of anthracene obtained from coal tar (Nanba, Y., et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,870,655; 1975; and Rodriguez, F., et al., Separation Science and Technology 24 275-289 1989). It has also been prepared by Diels-Alder cyclo-addition and Friedel-Crafts acylation reactions using suitable reagents. The Diels-Alder reaction between 1,4-napthaquinone and 1,3-diene followed by dehydrogenation of the resulting tricyclic adduct yielded anthraquinones (Boisvert, L., J. Org. Chem. 53 4052-4059 (1988)). However, production of 1,4-naphthaquinone and 1,3-dienes are complex and costly.
The Friedel-Crafts acylation reaction is one of the most commonly used reactions in synthetic organic chemistry, which is catalyzed by Lewis acids such as AlCl3, BF3, FeCl3, TiCl4 and Sc(OTf)3 (Olah, G. A., Friedel-Crafts and related reactions, Wiley Interscience, NY, Vol II, part I (1964); Bensari, A., et al., Synthesis 267-271 (2003); Kotsuki, H., et al., Synthesis 603-606 (1999); and Kobayashi, S., Eur. J. Org. Chem. 15-27 (1999)). The mechanism involves the formation of an acylium ion intermediate that are generated by the reaction between carboxylic acid derivatives and the acid catalyst.
Another method for the preparation of anthraquinones was reported by the condensation of phthalic anhydride and benzene using an equimolecular amount of HF and BF3 as catalysts. The resulting o-benzoylbenzoic acid was then converted to corresponding anthraquinone by heating it with concentrated sulfuric acid or other means of cyclisation. The drawbacks of this method included were the purification of o-benzoylbenzoic acid from crude reaction mixture, poor yield and the formation of sulfonated products (Devic, M., U.S. Pat. No. 4,379,092 (1983)). In order to avoid these disadvantages, the reaction was attempted under gaseous phase over a solid catalyst such as silico-aluminate (Yang, P., et al., Huaxue Shijie 34 258-260 (1993)) or titanium oxide Akazawa, Y., JP 61100543 (1986)). However, these processes required high temperature and expensive installations.

Anthraquinones and process for the preparation and method of use thereof

Board of Trustees of Michigan State University


The disclosure provides methods for the use of gene expression measurements to classify or identify neuroendocrine cancer in samples obtained from a subject in a clinical setting, such as in cases of formalin fixed, paraffin embedded (FFPE) samples.

This disclosure relates to cancers of unknown origin, or carcinoma of unknown primary (CUP). These terms refer to a disease where malignant cancer cells are found in tissue where the malignant cells did not originate. The terms also refer to condition of metastasized cancer cells in a tissue, such as that of a human patient, but the place the cancer began is not known.
Cancer can occur in any tissue of a body with multiple organ types and can form a primary tumor. Cells from a first formed primary tumor can re-locate to other tissues in a body through a process called metastasis. Metastasized cancer cells may look like the cells in the tissue from which the cancer originated. As an example, breast cancer cells that have spread to lung tissue appear similar to cells in a primary breast cancer tumor because the cancer began in the breast.
When metastasized cancer is detected without knowledge of the tissue where the cancer first began to grow, the metastasized cancer is called a cancer (or carcinoma) of unknown primary (CUP) or occult primary tumor.
Neuroendocrine neoplasia occurs in a variety of organ sites and tissue types. But where neuroendocrine tumors are present in a location distinct from the site of origin, they can provide a diagnostic challenge because clinical context is lacking. Identifying the site of origin for neuroendocrine tumors has become increasingly important (see for example, Klimstra et al. 2010 "The pathologic classification of neuroendocrine tumors: a review of nomenclature, grading, and staging systems." Pancreas 39(6): 707-712; and Scarpa et al. 2010 "Pancreatic endocrine tumors: improved TNM staging and histopathological grading permit a clinically efficient prognostic stratification of patients." Mod Pathol. 23(6): 824-833).
The subtyping of neuroendocrine tumors is also important (see for example, Cheuk et al. 2001 "Immunostaining for thyroid transcription factor 1 and cytokeratin 20 aids the distinction of small cell carcinoma from Merkel cell carcinoma, but not pulmonary from extrapulmonary small cell carcinomas." Arch Pathol Lab Med. 125(2): 228-231; Bobos et al. 2006 "Immunohistochemical distinction between merkel cell carcinoma and small cell carcinoma of the lung." Am J Dermatopathol. 28(2): 99-104; Srivastava et al. 2009 "Immunohistochemical staining for CDX-2, PDX-1, NESP-55, and TTF-1 can help distinguish gastrointestinal carcinoid tumors from pancreatic endocrine and pulmonary carcinoid tumors." Am J Surg Pathol. 33(4): 626-632; and Sangoi et al. 2011 "PAX8 expression reliably distinguishes pancreatic well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumors from ileal and pulmonary well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumors and pancreatic acinar cell carcinoma." Mod Pathol. 24(3): 412-424).
A panel of immunohistochemical stains (CDX-2, PDX-1, NESP-55, TTF-1, PAX8) has been proposed to distinguish between gastrointestinal, pancreatic, and pulmonary carcinoid tumors. But this approach appears to have relatively low sensitivities. Additionally, unknown primary sites are estimated to occur in up to 10% of cases of well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumors (Zuetenhorst et al. 2005 "Metastatic carcinoid tumors: a clinical review." Oncologist 10(2): 123-131).
Citation of the above documents is not intended as an admission that any of the foregoing is pertinent prior art. All statements as to the date or representation as to the contents of these documents is based on the information available to the applicant and does not constitute any admission as to the correctness of the dates or contents of these documents.


A lint roller with a case is provided. The lint roller has a handle and a roller support section. A case is provided as well to fit over the support section when the lint roller is not in use. The handle has a lip at one end that is the same shape and thickness as an edge of the case. The case provides protection for the adhesive roller to prevent it from unintentionally sticking to anything and means to stand the lint roller up, taking up less storage space.

Lint rollers are well known for use in removing micro-debris such as lint and pet hair, from furniture, linens and clothes. In use, such lint rollers are typically coated with adhesive masking tape sheets wound around a cylindrical core that rotates. When the adhesive tape becomes contaminated with micro-debris, the contaminated adhesive sheet is then peeled off and discarded, readying a subsequent adhesive sheet for more use.
There are several known types and styles of lint rollers. Examples of such prior art devices are McKay, U.S. Pat. No. 5,027,465 band U.S. Pat. No. 4,399,579, Kucera, U.S. Pat. No. 4,727,616 and Stetson U.S. Pat. No. D342,610. These previously known lint roller assemblies typically comprise a handle secured to a cylindrical lint roller support. A tubular cylindrical adhesive lint roller is then removably mounted to the support such that the adhesive roller is rotatable relative to the handle.
Storing lint rollers when not in use presents a problem because the past, prior art designs do not provide a cover for the adhesive section. In addition, there are no means for storing the roller in an upright position. So, the adhesive part sticks to the surface on which the roller is resting, and usually to any surrounding objects it may bump into when being moved. Trying to stand a prior art design on its end usually ends up with the roller falling over, sticking to a nearby object, and then bringing both the roller and the object it is stuck to, off the shelf upon which it rests. If it doesn't fall off the shelf, it will act as a domino and knock everything in the surrounding area over.


Various implementations described herein are directed to a non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of computer-executable instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to: receive a range of headings at a marine electronics device and analyze sonar data received from a sonar device coupled to a vessel to determine a first characteristic measured at a first location. The first characteristic may be a bottom hardness, a bottom composition, a transition between bottom compositions, a water temperature, or a thermocline. The instructions may further cause the computer to: compare the first characteristic to a second characteristic measured at a second location and transmit instructions to an autopilot to move the vessel in a heading in the range of headings. The instructions are based at least in part on the comparison between the first characteristic and the second characteristic.

This section is intended to provide background information to facilitate a better understanding of various technologies described herein. As the section's title implies, this is a discussion of related art. That such art is related in no way implies that it is prior art. The related art may or may not be prior art. It should therefore be understood that the statements in this section are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Operators of marine vessels may use instruments to map the water and underwater terrain in the vicinity of the marine vessel, and to detect fish or objects in the water. One or more sonar transducer arrays may be used to map the water and underwater terrain. The map of the underwater terrain within the vicinity of the vessel may be used for navigation purposes.


Machine memory fragmentation in a computer system having a host operating system and virtual machine running on a hypervisor hosted by the host operating system is reduced by having the hypervisor identify and release those machine memory pages that are more likely than others to reduce the fragmented state of the host machine memory.

Over the past decade, enterprises have experienced a substantial increase in the productivity of its workforce when providing them with business mobile devices. In the past, given their high cost, business mobile devices were mainly allocated to management and focused on providing employees with email access and cellular phone capabilities. However, recent improvements in the computing power, mobile display technologies and connection speeds of mobile devices, combined with the continued decreases in hardware costs, have made powerful mobile devices available even to the general public for personal use. More and more individuals personally own powerful mobile devices, such as smartphones, that, in addition to serving as a cellular phone, can be used in many of the same ways as a desktop or a laptop, such as accessing emails, browsing documents or the internet, game playing, listening to audio or viewing videos, and personal information management (PIM).
Due to the above trends in mobile devices, enterprises are currently experiencing an "invasion" of personal devices into the workplace. Given the sophisticated capabilities of their personal mobile devices, employees no longer desire possessing separate personal and business mobile devices and continually pressure information technology (IT) departments to support personal devices brought into the workplace. As such, IT departments struggle to maintain a proper balance between enabling a certain level of access to enterprise data (e.g., such as access to email, contacts, documents, and the like) on personal devices and ensuring adequate security measures to protect corporate intellectual property in such enterprise data. This phenomenon has led enterprises to investigate the viability of a "Bring Your Own Device" (BYOD) strategy to IT, where a personal mobile device is provisioned by IT departments with the capability of operating as a complete business mobile device in a secure fashion.
Virtualization has been proposed as a solution for consolidating personal and business uses in a single mobile device. With virtualization, personal and work environments remain isolated. As a result, the user need not provide enterprise IT departments any control of the user's personal environment and the enterprise IT departments can retain strict control of the user's work environment. Another important feature of virtualization is that the user's work environment will be platform independent. Regardless of the type of personal mobile device the user chooses, the resulting work mobile device through virtualization will be identical. Therefore, enterprise IT departments need to support only one type of work mobile device.
When a mobile device is provisioned in the manner described above for both personal and work uses, it is not uncommon for a hypervisor to be hosted on an underlying host operating system (OS), and to rely on the host OS kernel memory allocation module to allocate machine memory of the host (as distinct from "physical" memory of a VM running on the mobile device, portions of which may not necessarily map to machine memory at any particular moment in time due to the capability of some hypervisors to allocate an amount of machine memory to a VM that may be more than a currently available amount of machine memory in the host) for both the hypervisor and any virtual machine (VM) instantiated by the hypervisor (e.g. a virtual work mobile device running on the personal mobile device). Further, it is not uncommon for the memory provisioned by the host OS kernel memory allocation module to the VM and hypervisor to be "pinned" such that the host OS cannot unilaterally revoke or modify the address or size of the memory allocation. That is, unlike ordinary applications on the host OS, the hypervisor is explicitly aware of the machine addresses of memory allocations, so pinning is required to prevent the host OS from unilaterally modifying those machine addresses. Memory allocations for the hypervisor and VM can remain pinned in the foregoing manner for extended durations because pinned pages are not immediately returned to the host OS when they are no longer required by the VM or hypervisor, but are instead reused by the VM and hypervisor. The long-lived pinned pages can, over time, fragment the machine memory of the host to such a degree that the host OS kernel cannot satisfy large, contiguous machine memory allocation requests from requestors such as applications, host kernel device drivers and subsystems, etc. Further, because all machine pages allocated to the hypervisor and VM are pinned, standard host OS kernel defragmentation mechanisms cannot operate on the pages to reduce fragmentation. As a result, even when sufficient free machine memory exists for the host OS to use separate from the pinned memory allocated to the VM and hypervisor, it may not be possible for the host OS to satisfy certain memory allocation requests, such as those requiring a large number of contiguous pages (i.e., 2n contiguous pages, where n>0).
Large contiguous page allocations are routinely required for page tables, the network stack and device drivers and therefore an inability to satisfy such memory allocations can be catastrophic for the host OS. The inability to satisfy large contiguous page allocations may result in the host OS attempting to swap certain machine memory pages to disk to free such memory pages with the hope that some of the freed pages will form sufficiently contiguous blocks to satisfy the request. Additionally, if the memory request is non-blocking (i.e., the request must be satisfied immediately and the thread invoking the request cannot be blocked (put to sleep) while waiting for memory to free up) and/or there exists no swap mechanism (as is the case with the Android® OS), an out-of-memory (OOM) "killer" component of the kernel, and in some implementations, a low memory killer component of the kernel, may be invoked, asynchronously terminating processes, some of which may be essential to sustaining the user experience on the mobile device. Worse, livelock, where the system consumes CPU cycles but makes no progress, can result as processes are terminated, restarted and terminated again when required. For example, the system may terminate process A to supply a large, contiguous machine memory page request made by process B. The system may then restart process A and terminate process B to supply a large, contiguous machine memory page request made by process A. Such a terminating and restarting loop, known as "livelock," can repeat ad infinitum.

Memory defragmentation in a hosted hypervisor


Techniques for making internal data from a source application available through an application programming interface (“API”). Embodiments may analyze a source application to determine a storage location and a first storage format of internal data, wherein the source application does not provide an API through which the internal data is accessible. Embodiments may then extract the internal data from the storage location, and convert the extracted data from the first storage format to a common storage format. Embodiments may then provide an API to make the converted data available.

Embodiments of the invention relate to data management, and more particularly, to providing an application programming interface (hereinafter "API") for the internal data of a source application.
Many production environments include older software applications that are still in use, but are no longer in development. While these older software applications may be functioning properly in their originally-intended role, often times a business may wish to modify these applications to introduce new features. For instance, the business may wish to add a reporting mechanism to a software application that generates and maintains a set of data. However, such modifications are often difficult. For instance, the business may not have access to the source code for the original application. As a second example, even if the source code is available, the architecture used to develop the original application may not easily support the introduction of new features. Continuing this example, this problem may be compounded if the software developers are no longer familiar with the programming language the source code for the older software application is written in. Additionally, even creating an external tool to construct reports using the data may be difficult, since the older software application may not provide an API for accessing the data.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Framework for system communication for handling data

International Business Machines Corporation


The invention proposes a hoisting-cable drive for a mobile crane, which hoisting-cable drive uses a single bottom-hook block (15) instead of a known double bottom-hook block. However, to prevent this single bottom-hook block (15) from tilting in the two cable lines (9, 10), for example due to possible variations in the elongation of the two cable drives, the hoisting-cable drive according to the invention comprises a kinematic force equilibrium device (17, 21), which can equalize such differences. To this effect, another embodiment of the hoisting-cable drive according to the invention uses a hoisting-cable load pickup (21) within each cable line arrangement so that the rotary speed of the winches (7, 8) can be varied, taking into account any load differences in the individual hoisting-cable lines (9, 10). Furthermore, the invention also proposes that the rotary speed of the winches (7, 8) be adjusted, taking into account the geometric winch states and crane states.

Due to the ever advancing technical development of modern cranes, and in particular due to developments in the mobile crane sector, which in the context of the present invention includes in particular mobile telescopic cranes and mobile crawler cranes with braced mast booms, so-called lattice boom cranes, both the load capacities and the dimensions of the cranes, in particular the boom lengths of mobile cranes, are increasing significantly. However, this primarily positive development in crane design results in the cable drives that are necessary for hoisting operations of the cranes meeting their technical limits with increased frequency.
Due to the ever increasing carrying capacity of cranes, the tensile forces which a hoisting cable has to withstand are clearly increasing. In the case of unchanged materials characteristics this often leads to an increase in the cable diameter. As a rule this is also associated with a further increase in the diameter of the cable drums or the hoisting winches. Furthermore, due to the ever increasing dimensions of the cranes, in particular of the boom lengths, the cable lengths that have to be stored on the cable drum also increase, which also results in increasing winch diameters or cable drum diameters. These ever increasing winch diameters or cable drum diameters in turn require ever increasing driving torques of the winches; driving torques which at times can now hardly be generated with the usual drive units.
In order to satisfy the need for ever increasing sizes of winch drums or cable drums and the associated increase in driving torques, the use of a so-called double bottom-hook block as shown in FIG. 1 is known. In contrast to a single bottom-hook block, such a double bottom-hook block comprises two separate sheave sets, each of which is a component of two separate cable drives, wherein each cable drive is operated by a separate winch. In order to prevent the double bottom-hook block from assuming an inclined position, for example as a result of unequal cable elongation in the individual cable drives or as a result of not completely accurate synchronous operation of the winches, in other words to prevent the individual cable lines of a cable drive with a double bottom-hook block from being subjected to different loads, such a double bottom-hook block comprises a mechanical load equalisation which couples the two separate sheave sets such that different elongation in the cables or not completely accurate synchronous operation of the cable winches can be compensated for.
However, such double bottom-hook blocks with mechanical load equalisation often prove disadvantageous because, as a result of the increased design height due to the mechanical load equalisation, they directly result in a loss of hoisting height. Furthermore, double bottom-hook blocks always comprise multiple joints, which in particular during slinging and putting down cause problems so that such double bottom-hook blocks overall are relatively unwieldy. Because double bottom-hook blocks have to provide load equalisation for very considerable forces, namely for the sum of the forces from several hoisting-cable lines, these double bottom-hook blocks are often very solid and extremely difficult to handle.
Another known approach to the problem of synchronising two separate winches for the hoisting-cable drive of a crane provides for the two winches to be synchronised directly mechanically, for example by means of a toothed wheel arrangement. It is also known to continuously monitor the angular velocity of two separate hoisting winches and to equalise any difference in speed by changing the angular velocity of at least one of the two winches. Since it is not possible—either by means of mechanical synchronisation or by means of monitoring the angular velocity of the hoisting winches—for example to take into account different cable elongation in the two hoisting-cable lines, this approach to synchronising two hoisting winches is also unsatisfactory. Furthermore, in these synchronisation methods it is not possible to take into account the influence that the cable layer at the time has on the respective cable drum, or to take into account other geometric influences such as for example small differences in the diameters of the cables. Accordingly, cable drives that are operated by means of such known synchronisation methods often have a tendency to stress the individual cable lines unevenly, which at times in extreme cases can lead to overloading.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,579,931 A an improved method and system for a liftcrane in which a load is lifted through the combined action of first and second hoist drums are disclosed. The known method and system use a first rope wound on one hoist drum and a second rope wound on the second hoist drum. The ends of the ropes opposite the hoist drums are linked together to transmit tension between them. The load is coupled to the ropes. If the take up speed of one of the ropes exceeds the take up speed of the other, the linked ends of the ropes will shift. This condition is detected and the operation of at least one of the first and second hoist drums is modified to bring the take up rates into balance. This system is advantageously used with a hoist block sheave arrangement. This system can also be used with a single rope in which each of the ends of the single rope are wound on a separate one of the hoist drums and the load is coupled to the middle of the rope.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,651,961 B1 discloses a multi-block rigging system for a heavy crane, pulling or lifting device. The system uses sheave blocks in series orientation to enable the use of standard, economical or preferred, size winch drums and standard, economical or preferred, diameter and length wire rope, each forming a separate set of reeving lines. Each set of reeving lines moves its corresponding load block a proportional distance of the total travel length for the load hook. Alternatively, different line parts of line for each reeved set enables different travel speeds of the load block for different capacity requirements.
In DE 34 04 505 A1 a length compensation between two ropes in a rope drive, in particular for cranes, is disclosed. Here, the free ends of two ropes are in each case attached to two jokes, from which at least two rope sections are passed over compensating pulleys, the two rope sections consisting of a right-hand and a left-hand wire rope.
DE 41 30 970 A1 corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,296 A discloses a control system for an electric motor arranged to drive a rope drum of a mine winder or a hoist system which includes a conveyance supported by a rope and which forms an oscillating system. The known control system includes a load sensor which monitors the load in the rope and a rope length sensor which monitors the length of rope paid out from the rope drum. A motor control unit is responsive to signals from the sensors and calculates set points for speed, acceleration and jerk of the oscillating system. The control unit generates a control signal which is related to a natural oscillation mode of the oscillating system so as to prevent the excitation of oscillations in the system, and controls a motor drive in accordance with the control signal.
A further control and hydraulic system for liftcrane is known from EP 0 422 821 B1 corresponding to U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,189,605 A, 5,297,019 A, and 5,579,931 A. This known lift crane includes controls by which an operator can run the lift crane and mechanical subsystems each powered by a closed loop hydraulic system having a pump and an actuator. According to this known system a controller responsive to the controls and connected to the mechanical subsystems is provided, and further the controller is capable of running a routine for controlling said mechanical subsystems to define operation of the lift crane.

Hoisting-cable drive comprising a single bottom-hook block and two winches


In a pump having a piston, supported displaceably in a pump cylinder, for aspirating a pressure fluid via a feed line and for expelling this pressure fluid into a line, particularly a brake line, the pump cylinder is intended to rest with a stop ring on a shoulder of the housing. This housing shoulder is adjoined by an annular chamber having a filter, which toward the housing forms an annular gap into which the feed line for pressure fluid discharges. The pump cylinder stop ring is intended to include a radius of curvature and to rest on the housing shoulder, also having a radius of curvature in the region of a bearing face.

The present invention relates to improvements in pumps having a piston displaceably supported in a pump cylinder for aspirating a pressure fluid via a feed line and for expelling the pressure fluid into a line, particularly a brake line.
Pumps of this kind are used especially in ABS brake systems. As a rule, the pumps serve to pump brake fluid back into a fluid tank or reservoir.
It is self-evident that in operation of a brake system, dirt, abraded particles, oil deposits or the like collect in the brake fluid and can impair the operation of the brake system. For this reason, the brake fluid should be passed through filters during its circulation.
One such filter is located in the aforementioned pump, for instance, and shields the feed line from the suction chamber. Such a filter is suggested, for instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,887,870. Such a filter can also be found in German Published Patent Application No, 32 36 536. In the corresponding annular chamber, these filters form an annular gap toward the pump housing, so that fluid is present in this annular gap, upstream of the filter. However, since in the known pumps the pump cylinder rests with a stop ring, upstream of the annular chamber, on a housing shoulder with a precisely defined bearing surface area which cannot be altered, enlarging this annular gap presents considerable difficulties, yet the enlargement is desirable to improve the suction. In a larger annular gap, there is more fluid present upstream of the filter and subjected to the pumping action.
Altering the annular gap can be done only by shifting the bearing face outward, but this would necessitate enlarging the diameter of the pump cylinder and hence of the entire pump.


A method and apparatus for optimizing the resilience of a network using a combination of in-band and out-of-band signaling is disclosed. The metric used in the embodiment's algorithm to determine resilience is the maximum number of protected neighbors. Nodes closer to the controller are assigned a higher weight than those further from the controller because if their connection to the network is interrupted, all their downstream nodes will be affected and disconnected. Therefore, when determining a path to the controller, switches with alternate paths to the controller are preferred. Dedicated connections using out-of-band signaling are assigned to convert unprotected nodes to protected nodes thus improving the resilience of the network.

In a conventional network architecture, there is a coupling of the forwarding and control planes in that both control and data packets are transmitted on the same link, hence the control traffic and data traffic is equally affected when a failure occurs. To simplify, control traffic is the traffic between a network element, referred to herein as a controller, that controls how flows of data are to be processed and forwarded and a forwarding element, referred to herein as a switch. Data traffic is the data payload that is sought to be transferred from one node to another node in a network. Throughout this application, forwarding element(s) are referred to as switch(es). However, the use of the term switch shall not be construed to limit such forwarding elements to Ethernet or layer 2 switches.
This coupling of the forwarding and control planes in a conventional network architecture usually results in an overly complicated control plane and complex network management. Disadvantageously, this is known to create a large burden and high barrier to new protocols and technology developments. For the most part, controllers and switches are tasked with minimizing the distance between nodes using a routing protocol such as Open Shortest Path First (OSPF). OSPF (IETF RFC 2328) is a link-state protocol in which a router broadcasts its neighbors' link-state information to all the nodes in the routing domain. Using this information every router constructs the topology map of the entire network in the domain. Each router maintains a link-state database which reflects the entire network topology. Based on this topology map and the link cost metrics, the routers determine the shortest paths to all other routers using Dijkstra's algorithm. This information is in turn used to create routing tables that are used for forwarding of IP packets.
The primary disadvantage of using a shortest-path routing protocol is that it does not consider network resilience or protection. In evaluating a network design, network resilience is an important factor, as a failure of a few milliseconds may easily result in terabyte data losses on high-speed links. As used herein resilience is the ability to provide and maintain an acceptable level of service in the face of faults and challenges to normal operation. A network element or forwarding element that has greater resilience is better protected from faults and challenges to normal operation than a network element or forwarding element that has lesser resilience. As used herein failure probability is the frequency with which an engineered system or component fails, expressed as the number of failures per hour, or the probability of each node fails in the long term.
Despite the rapid improvement in line speeds, port densities, and performance, the network control plane mechanisms have advanced at a much slower pace than the forwarding plane mechanisms. To overcome the cited disadvantages, the OpenFlow split architecture protocol has been developed.
A split-architecture network design introduces a separation between the control and forwarding components of a network. Among the use cases of such architecture are the access/aggregation domain of carrier-grade networks, enterprise networks, Internet service provider (ISP) networks, mobile backhaul networks, cloud computing, multilayer (L3, L2 and L1, OTN, WDM) support networks and data centers, all of which are among the main building blocks of a network architecture. Therefore, proper design, management and performance optimization of these networks are of great importance.
Unlike the conventional network architecture which integrates both the forwarding and the control planes in the same network element, a split architecture network executes the control plane on control elements (e.g., a controller) that might be in different physical locations from the forwarding elements (e.g., switches). The use of a split architecture enables the simplification of the switches implementing the forwarding plane and shifts the intelligence of the network into a number of controllers that oversee the switches. The control traffic (sent as, e.g., flow entries, packets, frames, segments, protocol data units) in a split-architecture network can be transmitted on different paths from the data traffic (sent as, e.g., packets, frames, segments, protocol data units) or even on a separate network. Therefore, the reliability of the control plane in these networks is no longer directly linked with that of the forwarding plane. However, disconnection between the control plane and the forwarding plane in a split architecture network could disable the forwarding plane. When a switch is disconnected from its controller, it cannot receive any instructions on how to forward new flows and becomes offline for all practical purposes.
In a split architecture network, the controller collects information from switches, and computes and distributes the appropriate forwarding decisions to the switches. Controllers and switches use a protocol to communicate and exchange information. An example of such protocol is OpenFlow (see www.openflow.org), which provides an open and standard method for communication between a switch and a controller, and it has drawn significant interest from both academia and industry.
FIG. 1 is a diagram 100 showing an overview of the OpenFlow interface between a switch 109 and a controller 101. Switch 109 is a component of network elements 105. Controller 101 communicates with switch 109 over secure channel 103 using the OpenFlow protocol. The flow or forwarding table 107 in an OpenFlow switch is populated with entries from controller 101, as seen in FIG. 2 consisting of: a rule 201 defining matches for fields in packet headers; an action 203 associated to the flow match 204; and a collection of statistics 205 on the flow 206.
When an incoming packet matches a particular rule, the associated actions are performed on the packet. As seen in FIG. 2, a rule 201 contains key fields 202 from several headers in the protocol stack, for example Ethernet MAC addresses, IP address, IP protocol, TCP/UDP port numbers as well as the incoming port number. To define a flow, all the available matching fields may be used. But it is also possible to restrict the matching rule to a subset of the available fields by using wildcards for the unwanted fields.
The de-coupled control platform of the split architecture eases the task of modifying the network control logic and provides a programmatic interface upon which developers can build a wide variety of new protocols and management applications. In this model, the data and control planes can evolve and scale independently, while the cost of the data plane elements is reduced.
It is well known that link and switch failures can adversely affect network performance. For example, a failure of a few milliseconds may easily result in terabyte data losses on high-speed edges. A link failure can occur over a link transporting control traffic, data traffic or both and it indicates that traffic traversing a link can no longer be transferred over the link. The failure can be either of a link between two switches or of a link between one controller and the switch to which it connects. In most cases, these links fail independently.
A switch failure indicates that a network element or forwarding element is unable to originate, respond, or forward any packet or other protocol data unit. Switch failures can be caused by software bugs, hardware failures, mis-configurations and similar issues. In most cases, these switches fail independently.
Special failure cases include connectivity loss between a switch and a controller: A switch can lose connectivity to its controller due to failures on the intermediate links or nodes along the path between the switch and the controller. Whenever a switch cannot communicate with its assigned controller, the switch will discard all the packets on the forwarding plane managed by the controller, even though the path on the forwarding plane is still valid. In other situations, a subset of the traffic can be forwarded by the forwarding plane or similar limited functionality can continue for a limited amount of time until a connection with an assigned controller or another controller is re-established. Therefore, this can be considered as a special case of switch failure.
Conventional split architecture design assumes the use of either fully in-band or fully out-of-band connectivity between forwarding and control planes. As used herein, in-band connections mean that data and control traffic share the same physical connections and out-of-band connections mean that data and control traffic share different physical connections. In conventional networks, where both control and data packets are transmitted on the same link, the control and data information are equally affected when a failure happens. When used in a split architecture, disconnection between the controller and the forwarding plane could disable the forwarding plane as the switch is unable to receive any instructions on how to forward new flows.
In conventional split-architecture network designs, each switch is pre-programmed with a path to reach the controller. Upon a link or node failure, the switch relies on the controller to detect such failure and re-compute the new path for the switch. Detection of any failures in switches or links by the controller must be based on some implicit mechanisms, such as when Hello messages are not received by the controller from a switch. This introduces significant delays in the network as it must detect the exact location of the failure and then re-establish the controller-switch connections. If no backup path can be configured for a switch, then the connection of the switch to the controller will be interrupted.
Studies of the resilience of networks have historically assumed an in-band control model, meaning that the control plane and data plane have the same resilience properties. The existing work on the connectivity between the control plane and forwarding plane in the split architecture assumes either fully in-band or fully out-of-band connections. In the fully in-band scenario, a single infrastructure is used for both data and control traffic. In the fully out-of-band scenario, the control traffic is carried over a separate network from the data network. While the latter scenario provides a more reliable connection to the switch for control traffic, it can be very costly to set up a completely separate network for the control traffic. Although split-architecture networks use an out-of-band model, link and switch failures are still a concern as a single controller is directly coupled by a link to each network element acting as a switch. In such a network, if the link between the controller and switch fails, the switch is unable to update its forwarding table and eventually fails.
When using a split architecture in the access/aggregation network environment, the advantages of sending control traffic out-of-band may not always hold. First, the network can be geographically distributed. Thus, a direct link between every switch to the controller may require long-distance fiber and costly deployment. Second, even in a single geographic location, when the size of the network grows to a large scale, building a separate out-of-band dedicated network for the control plane can be expensive. What is desired is a hybrid design for connection between the controller and the switches that is capable of incorporating both in-band and out-of-band models.

Resiliency-aware hybrid design of controller-switch connectivity in a split-architecture system


A method for modulating a downhole telemetry signal uses a fluid pressure pulse generator that generates pressure pulses of multiple pulse heights in a drilling fluid. The method comprises: converting measurement data into a bitstream comprising symbols of a selected symbol set; encoding the bitstream into a pressure pulse telemetry signal using a modulation technique that includes amplitude shift keying, wherein each symbol of the selected symbol set is assigned a pressure pulse having a unique amplitude; and generating pressure pulses in the drilling fluid corresponding to the telemetry signal. Alternatively, the method can comprise a modulation technique that includes amplitude shift keying and phase shift keying and wherein each symbol of the selected symbol set is assigned a pressure pulse having a unique combination of amplitude and phase.

The recovery of hydrocarbons from subterranean zones relies on the process of drilling wellbores. The process includes drilling equipment situated at surface and a drill string extending from the surface equipment to the formation or subterranean zone of interest. The drill string can extend thousands of feet or meters below the surface. The terminal end of the drill string includes a drill bit for drilling (or extending) the wellbore. In addition to the conventional drilling equipment mentioned, the system also relies on some sort of drilling fluid system, in most cases a drilling fluid or "mud" which is pumped through the inside of the pipe, which cools and lubricates the drill bit and then exits out of the drill bit and carries the rock cuttings back to surface. The mud also helps control bottom hole pressure and prevent hydrocarbon influx from the formation into the wellbore which can potentially cause a blow out at surface.
Directional drilling is the process of steering a well away from vertical to intersect a target endpoint or follow a prescribed path. At the terminal end of the drill string is the bottom-hole-assembly (or BHA) which comprises of 1) drill bit; 2) steerable downhole mud motor of rotary steerable system; 3) sensors of survey equipment (Logging While Drilling (LWD) and/or Measurement-while-drilling (MWD)) to evaluate downhole conditions as drilling progresses; 4) equipment for telemetry of data to surface; and 5) other control process equipment such as stabilizers or heavy weight drill collars. The BHA is conveyed into the wellbore by a string of metallic tubulars (drill pipe). MWD equipment is used while drilling to provide downhole sensor and status information to surface in a near real-time mode. This information is used by the rig crew to make decisions about controlling and steering the well to optimize the drilling speed and trajectory based on numerous factors, including lease boundaries, existing wells, formation properties, hydrocarbon size and location, etc. This can include making intentional deviations from the planned wellbore path as necessary based on the information gathered from the downhole sensors during the drilling process. The ability to obtain real time MWD data allows for a relatively more economical and more efficient drilling operation.
The currently used MWD tools contain a sensor package to survey the well bore and send data back to surface by various telemetry methods. Such telemetry methods include but are not limited to the use of hardwired drill pipe, acoustic telemetry, fibre optic cable, Mud Pulse (MP) telemetry and Electromagnetic (EM) telemetry.
MP telemetry involves using a fluid pressure pulse generator to create pressure waves in the drill mud circulating in the drill string. Mud is circulated between the surface and downhole using positive displacement pumps. The resulting flow rate of mud is typically constant. The pulse generator creates pressure pulses by changing the flow area and/or path of the drilling fluid as it passes through the MWD tool in a timed, coded sequence, thereby creating pressure differentials in the drilling fluid. The pressure differentials or pulses may be either negative pulses or positive pulses in nature. Valves that use a controlled restriction within the circulating mud stream create a positive pressure pulse. Some valves are hydraulically powered to reduce the required actuation power typically resulting in a main valve indirectly operated by a pilot valve. The pilot valve closes a flow restriction which actuates the main valve to create a pressure drop.
The pressure pulses generated by the pulse generator are used to transmit information acquired by the downhole sensors. Signals from the sensor modules are received and processed in a data encoder in the BHA where the data is digitally encoded. A controller then actuates the pulse generator to generate the mud pulses which contain the encoded data. For example, the directional or inclination data is conveyed or modulated through the physical mud pulse at a particular amplitude and frequency. Typically a high-frequency sinusoid waveform is used as the carrier signal, but a square wave pulse train may also be used.
A number of encoding schemes can be used to encode data into mud pulses. These schemes include amplitude phase shift keying (ASK), frequency shift keying (FSK), phase shift keying (PSK), or a combination of these techniques. FSK is a frequency modulation scheme in which digital information is transmitted through discrete frequency changes of a carrier wave. The simplest FSK is binary FSK (BFSK). BFSK uses a pair of discrete frequencies to transmit binary (0s and 1s) information. ASK conveys data by changing the amplitude of the carrier wave; PSK conveys data by changing, or modulating, the phase of a reference signal (the carrier wave). ASK and PSK are each based on the modulating of a slightly different parameter of the signal frequency. It is known to combine different modulation techniques. For example, combining ASK and PSK is a digital modulation scheme that conveys data by changing, or modulating, both the amplitude and the phase of a reference signal (or the carrier wave).
The choice of modulation scheme uses a finite number of distinct signals to represent digital data, known as symbol sets. PSK uses a finite number of phases, each assigned a unique pattern of binary digits. Usually, each phase encodes an equal number of bits. Each pattern of bits forms the symbol that is represented by the particular phase. A demodulator at surface, designed specifically for the symbol-set used by the modulator, determines the phase of the received signal and maps it back to the symbol it represents, thus recovering the original data. An example of an 8 state PSK modulation scheme is shown in FIG. 1 (PRIOR ART), wherein a phase diagram and a waveform graph show how an eight (8) state symbol set can be modulated by generating a pressure pulse at a particular phase in that time period. The phase diagram shows how each three (3) bit symbol 000-111 is assigned one of the available 45° phases and the waveform graph shows a pressure pulse representing one of the 3 bits at each of the 8 phases in the time period. A telemetry signal can then be transmitted wherein a pressure pulse is generated per time period having a selected phase representing a particular 3 bit symbol.
To increase the data rate, the time period to transmit each pressure pulse can be reduced; however, reducing the time period also reduces the separation between phases, and increases the difficulty in decoding the telemetry signal at surface, especially when there has been significant attenuation of the signal as it traveled through the earth.

Downhole telemetry signal modulation using pressure pulses of multiple pulse heights


A device for use in an electronic musical instrument, in which data representing musical factors such as a tempo, a pitch and a timbre are changed at each repetition of an automatic performance, to thereby automatically effect variable automatic performances. Further, data representing a chord type and a chord root are input by a character-data input device such as a ten-key pad, and thus a chord input operation is facilitated, and moreover, a complicated finger manipulation becomes unnecessary. Furthermore, data representing chord types is input by at least one of the pitch input devices, and data representing chord roots is input by at least one of the other pitch input devices, and thus a chord performance is facilitated. Further, many types of chords can be performed, and moreover, the type and the root of a chord to be next performed, as well as those of a chord currently performed, are displayed, and thus the content of the chord to be next performed can be known in advance, whereby a chord performance can be smoothly effected.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a musical-factor data changing device and a chord processing device for use in an electronic musical instrument. More particularly, this invention relates to an improved musical-factor data changing device for changing data representing a musical factor according to the contents of a sequence to be performed, and further, relates to an improved chord processing device by which a chord performance and a chord input operation are facilitated.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in the technical field of electronic musical instruments, there is utilized an electronic musical instrument for storing sequence information, the information elements of which concerning performances are arranged in the performance order, for sequentially reading the sequence information and effecting an automatic performance by using the read sequence information. The sequence information comprises a plurality of elements of key number data and step-time data. The key number data represents pitches of musical tones; and the step-time data represents a time from a moment corresponding to the first note of a piece of music (i.e., the first note of the first bar of the piece of music) to another moment at which a sounding of a musical tone of the piece of music is started.
When effecting such an automatic performance, a player must preset musical-factor data (e.g., timbre data designating the timbre of each musical tone, transposition data, and tempo data denoting the tempo at which the music is performed) in an electronic musical instrument before an automatic performance is effected. Namely, prior to the automatic performance, the player must set the musical factors by turning on a timbre switch corresponding to a desired timbre and adjust a transposition knob or control and a tempo control, to thus set the desired data.
Where each musical factor is established prior to an automatic performance as above described, however, the musical factors are not changed but are fixed thereafter until the performance is completed. Consequently, the conventional electronic musical instrument encounters a problem in that the content of an automatic performance becomes monotonous.
Therefore, a countermeasure has been considered whereby, in the middle of an automatic performance, the timbre switch is placed in another position and/or the transposition control and the tempo control are operated, but it is very troublesome to carry out such a countermeasure in the middle of a performance. Further, it is necessary to timely perform such a countermeasure, because the content of the performance becomes unnatural if such a countermeasure is effected at a pause (e.g., an end of a bar) during a performance. It is very difficult, however, to timely effect such a countermeasure.
Furthermore, the conventional electronic musical instrument provides a function known as a fill-in function, i.e., a function of changing the content of an automatic performance of one phrase or two phrases in response to a depression of a fill-in button thereof in the middle of the performance. Nevertheless, the content of the performance returns to the original content thereof after such a fill-in performance (i.e., the performance using the fill-in function) is completed. Moreover, the fill-in button must be operated for executing the fill-in function, and thus the conventional electronic musical instrument encounters another problem in that the execution of the fill-in function is troublesome.
Further, various devices to be employed in the conventional electronic musical instrument for the facilitating of a chord performance have been proposed. For example, a device for performing an automatic chord-form performance has been proposed whereby the automatic chord-form performance is effected by automatically repeating a chord performance by continuing to press (or by once pressing) each of the keys of an accompaniment portion of a keyboard corresponding to the musical tones of a chord, while an automatic rhythm performance is effected.
Another proposal is for a device for effecting a one-finger chord performance. An this device, the one-finger chord performance is effected by automatically repeating a performance of a type of chord (e.g., a major triad) by continuing to press (or by once pressing) a key of an accompaniment portion of a keyboard corresponding to a root of the chord, while an automatic rhythm performance is effected and, for example, the type of chord to be performed is changed according to the number of pressed keys, explained below. Namely, the type of chord is changed to a minor triad by simultaneously continuing to press (or only once pressing) another key together with the key corresponding to the root of the major triad, and then the type of chord is further changed to a seventh chord by simultaneously continuing to press (or only once pressing) still another key together with the keys respectively corresponding to the minor triad.
The automatic chord-form performance can be effected by only turning on each of keys corresponding to musical tones composing a chord to be performed, and thus it is not necessary to repeat an on-and off-operation of each of the keys. Consequently, a chord performance and/or a chord input operation can be facilitated. A problem remains, however, in that all of the keys composing the chord must be pressed, and thus the finger manipulation becomes difficult. In contrast, when performing the one-finger chord performance, the finger manipulation becomes easier. A problem arises, however, in that the number of types of chords available cannot be more than the number of fingers, and thus is five at most.

Musical-factor data and processing a chord for use in an electronical musical instrument


A flash memory device and a method of programming the same include a memory cell array, a pass/fail check circuit and a control logic circuit. The memory cell array includes multiple memory cells arranged in rows and columns. The pass/fail check circuit verifies whether data bits selected by a column address during a column scan operation have program data values. The control logic circuit detects fail data bits from the selected data bits and stores the column address in response to the verification result of the pass/fail check circuit. The control logic circuit also compares a number of the fail data bits with a reference value and controls generation of the column address according to the comparison result.

The present invention relates to a flash memory device, and more particularly, to a flash memory device capable of verifying whether selected data bits have program data values, and a programming method of the flash memory device.
Generally, a flash memory device is a kind of electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM), in which multiple memory regions are simultaneously erased or programmed in one program operation. Because EEPROM can be electrically erased and programmed, it is extensively employed in system programming or in auxiliary devices, which require continuous updating. Also, because a flash EEPROM (hereinafter, referred to as flash memory) has a higher degree of integration than a typical EEPROM, it is particularly useful in high capacity auxiliary memory devices.
A flash memory device may include a NAND flash memory or a NOR flash memory, according to the structure of the corresponding logic gate used in each storage device. The NAND flash memory device provides a higher degree of integration, as compared to the NOR flash memory device.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a typical NAND flash memory device.
Referring to FIG. 1, the NAND flash memory device 10 includes a memory cell array 20, a row selection circuit (X-SEL) 40 and a page buffer circuit 60. The memory cell array 20 includes multiple cell strings (i.e., NAND strings) 21 connected to bit lines BL0 to BLm−1, respectively. Each cell string or column includes a string selection transistor SST as a first selection transistor, a ground selection transistor GST as a second selection transistor, and multiple flash EEPROM cells or memory cells MC0 to MCn−1 connected in series between the selection transistors SST and GST.
The string selection transistor SST in each column includes a drain connected to the corresponding bit line and a gate connected to a string selection line SSL. The ground selection transistor GST includes a source connected to a common source line CSL and a gate connected to a ground selection line GSL. The memory cells MC0 to MCn−1 are connected in series between the source of the string selection transistor SST and the drain of the ground selection transistor GST. The cells in each cell string include floating gate transistors. Control gates of the floating gate transistors are connected to corresponding word lines WL0 to WLn−1, respectively.
The string selection line SSL, the word lines WL0 to WLn−1, and the ground selection line GSL are electrically connected to the row selection circuit 40. The row selection circuit 40 selects one of the word lines WL0 to WLn−1 according to row address information, and supplies word line voltages to the selected word line and unselected word lines according to each operating mode. For example, the row selection circuit 40 supplies a program voltage to a word line selected during a program operating mode, and passes voltages to unselected word lines. The row selection circuit 40 supplies a ground voltage GND to a word line selected during a read operating mode. The program voltage, the pass voltage and the read voltage are higher than a power supply voltage.
Bit lines BL0 to BLm−1 in the memory cell array 20 are electrically connected to the page buffer circuit 60. The page buffer circuit 60 detects data from the memory cells of the word line selected through the bit lines BL0 to BLm−1 during a read/verify operating mode. It is determined whether the memory cell is a programmed cell or an erased cell through a detect operation of the page buffer circuit 60. Additionally, the page buffer circuit 60 supplies a power supply voltage (i.e., a program-inhibited voltage) or a ground voltage (i.e., a program voltage) to the bit lines BL0 to BLm−1 during a program operating mode, according to data to be programmed. The page buffer circuit 60 may include page buffers corresponding to bit lines BL0 to BLm−1, respectively. Alternatively, each page buffer may be configured to share a pair of bit lines.
The memory cell of the NAND flash memory 10 is erased and programmed through a Fowler-Nordheim tunneling current. Erasing and programming methods of a NAND flash memory are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,473,563 to Suh et al., entitled "Nonvolatile Semiconductor Memory," and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,696,717 to Koh, entitled "Nonvolatile Integrated Circuit Memory Devices Having Adjustable Erase/Program Threshold Voltage Verification Capability."
Additionally, the flash memory device is programmed using incremental step pulse programming (ISPP) in order to accurately control threshold voltage distributions of their memory cells. An exemplary programming method of the flash memory device using the ISPP method is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,266,270, to Nobukata, entitled "Non-Volatile Semiconductor Memory and Programming Method of the Same." One example of a circuit generating a program voltage according to the ISPP method is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,642,309, to Kim, et al., entitled "Auto-Program Circuit in a Nonvolatile Semiconductor Memory Device," and in Korean Patent No. 2002-39744 entitled "Flash Memory Device Capable of Preventing Program Disturb and Method of Programming the Same."
During a program operation of the flash memory device 10, data to be programmed are sequentially delivered to the page buffer circuit 60 by a byte or word unit. When the data to be programmed, e.g., one page, are loaded into the page buffer circuit 60, the data in the page buffer circuit 60 are simultaneously programmed into the memory cell array 20 (e.g., memory cells of a selected page), according to a program command.
To program a flash memory device using the ISSP method, a cycle during which data are programmed (hereinafter, referred to as a "program cycle") includes multiple program loops (i.e., "ISSP loops"). Additionally, each ISSP loop is divided into a program loop and a program verify loop. During the program loop, memory cells are programmed under a bias condition according to a typical method. During the program verify loop, it is determined whether memory cells are programmed to a required threshold voltage. Until all the memory cells are programmed within the predetermined number of times, the program loops are repeatedly performed. The program verify operation is essentially the same in the read operation except that read data are not output.
A verify method for determining whether memory cells are programmed to a required threshold voltage includes a wired-OR type method and a column scan type method (also, referred to as a "Y-scan method"). An exemplary memory device using a column scan method is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,282,121, to Cho, et al., entitled "Flash Memory Device with Program Status Detection Circuitry and the Method Thereof."
The typical flash memory device 10 further includes a column selection circuit (not shown) and a pass/fail check circuit (not shown). After a program operation, when verifying a program state using the Y-scan method, the column selection circuit selects page buffers of the page buffer circuit 60 by predetermined unit in response to a column address. Data bits of the selected page buffers are transferred to the pass/fail check circuit through the column selection circuit. The pass/fail check circuit determines whether all inputted data bits have program data values. When the memory cells are normally programmed, the data bits have program data values, referred to as "program pass." In this case, the column address is incrementally increased (increased by one column address), and the incremented column address is provided into the column selection circuit. Following data values are selected by the counted-up column address.
When the memory cells are programmed abnormally, data bits of the memory cells do not have program data values, referred to as "program fail." In this case, the flash memory device terminates the Y-scan operation, and increases a program voltage by a predetermined level through the ISSP method after storing the column address. Then, the flash memory device performs the programming operation again. After the repeated programming operation, the flash memory device again performs the Y-scan operation starting from the stored column address. This program verify operation repeats until the failed cells are normally programmed, and also until all the memory cells of the selected page are selected, i.e., the last column address is generated.
FIG. 2 is a graph illustrating changes of a threshold voltage distribution of a conventional flash memory device programmed according to an ISPP method.
Referring to FIG. 2, the typical flash memory device performs program operations according to the ISPP method in order to raise a threshold voltage of a cell in an erased state higher than a verify voltage with respect to a read voltage. When using the ISPP method, threshold voltage distribution of the cell overlaps that of the normally-programmed cell. When it is determined that all of the cells to be programmed are normally programmed during a program verify operation, the flash memory device finishes a verify operation and terminates a program. The threshold voltage distribution of the normally-programmed cells is higher than the verify voltage, as illustrated in FIG. 2.
However, there may be some cells that do not have a voltage higher than the verify voltage during the program operation. These cells are not normally programmed and may be referred to as "slow cells" or "fail bit cells." As illustrated in FIG. 2, the threshold voltage distribution of the slow cell (hereinafter, referred to as the "fail bit cell") is lower than the verify voltage.
When performing a verify operation through the Y-scan method, the flash memory device terminates the Y-scan operation and stores a column address when there is a fail bit cell. Then, the flash memory device raises the program voltage by a predetermined level and performs the program operation again. After performing the program operation, the flash memory device performs the Y-scan operation starting from the stored column address. This operation repeats until all fail bit cells are normally programmed, and the program voltage incrementally increases each time the operation repeats. As a result, the number of program loops increases, and a program time for the flash memory device increases. Additionally, an unnecessary program voltage is applied to the normally-programmed cells due to the repeating program loops, causing unnecessary stress to the normally-programmed cells. Due to this stress, the threshold voltage distribution of the normally-programmed cells may shift in the direction of the arrow illustrated in FIG. 2, resulting in decreased reliability of the programmed cell.
Consequently, program performance deteriorates because the flash memory device repeatedly performs program loops in order to normally program a few fail bit cells.

Flash memory device and method of programming flash memory device


A focal plane shutter device which, regardless of the number of times of operation, does not lose precision of operation. The shutter device has bend portions disposed in drive arms which drive shutter blades. The convex portions of the bend portions (ridge portions) face an adjacent shutter baseplate side. These bend portions reduce or eliminate friction as between caulking pins connecting blades to the drive arms, thereby increasing reliability.

The present invention relates to a focal plane shutter device used on a photographic apparatus, for example, a camera or an electronic still camera. In known focal plane shutter devices, drive arms, which drive the shutter blade(s), are straight. As users request more and more detailed pictures, and new types of picture presentations, increases in film sensitivity and quicker, more reliable shutter speeds are required. Increased shutter speeds require more reliability and precision from the shutter blades and the drive arms. However, in known shutter devices, having straight drive arms, as the shutter performs more operations, the blind speed (speed of the shutter blades) of the shutter varies dramatically. Such inconsistency leads to diminished shutter precision in proportion to the number of shutter operations.


A double layer perpendicular magnetic recording medium having a high medium S/N ratio at a recording density of 50 Gb/in2 or higher and a magnetic storage apparatus with a lower error rate and excellent reliability are provided. In a perpendicular magnetic recording medium in which a soft magnetic underlayer 12, an intermediate layer 13, and a perpendicular magnetic recording layer 14 are sequentially formed on a substrate 11, the intermediate layer 13 is made to be a non-magnetic amorphous alloy, in which Ni is a main component and Zr is contained, and the soft magnetic underlayer 12 is constituted of ferromagnetic nan-crystals precipitated by annealing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic storage apparatus and a magnetic storage medium, particularly to a magnetic storage apparatus having a recording density of 50 Gb/in2 or higher and a magnetic storage medium to achieve the recording density.
2. Description of the Related Prior Art
In recent years, an amount of information handled by computers has been steadily increased, and a larger capacity and higher transfer rate are more and more required of a magnetic disk storage device of an external storage device. So far, a magnetic disk storage device having the maximum recording density of 10 Gb/in2 class has been commercialized. This kind of magnetic disk storage device adopts a longitudinal magnetic recording method. However, influence of a so called thermal fluctuation has become conspicuous, in a state where a magnetic energy possessed by becoming extremely fine recording bits decreases as the recording density increases and a recorded magnetization is reversed due to demagnetizing field working at a bit-transition and ambient heat. Therefore, it is considered to be difficult to attain an areal recording density exceeding 40 Gb/in2 in the conventional longitudinal magnetic recording method that uses a recording layer of a Co alloy series.
On the other hand, a perpendicular magnetic recording method is a magnetic recording method, in which magnetization is formed in a direction perpendicular to the surface of a recording medium film and such that adjacent recording bits become antiparallel to each other. Unlike the longitudinal magnetic recording method, the perpendicular magnetic recording method has a small demagnetizing field at the bit-transition, and has a characteristic that the magnetization is stably maintained as the recording density becomes higher. Accordingly, the perpendicular magnetic recording method is considered as one of the strong means for attaining a high recording density that exceeds the thermal fluctuation limit of the current longitudinal magnetic recording method. Media used in the perpendicular magnetic recording method are classified into two types; one is a single layer perpendicular magnetic recording medium having a perpendicular magnetic recording layer formed on a substrate via a non-magnetic underlayer, and the other is a double layer perpendicular magnetic recording medium where a soft magnetic underlayer is formed on a substrate and the perpendicular magnetic recording layer is formed on the soft magnetic underlayer directly or via a non-magnetic intermediate layer. In the single layer perpendicular magnetic recording medium, a ring-type head similar to the one used in the current longitudinal magnetic recording medium is generally used. However, since a gradient of a magnetizing field of the perpendicular magnetic recording is not steep, there is a problem that resolution is not improved. On the other hand, in the double layer perpendicular magnetic recording medium, a single pole type head can be utilized, where a strong magnetizing field of the perpendicular magnetic recording and a steep gradient of magnetizing field are obtained. As a result, it is advantageous that the resolution is improved in comparison with the single layer perpendicular magnetic recording medium. For this reason, a combination of the double layer perpendicular magnetic recording medium and the single pole type head is considered to be effective for commercializing the perpendicular magnetic recording method.
The double layer perpendicular magnetic recording medium can obtain the high resolution, but on the contrary, noise originated in the soft magnetic underlayer is problematic, in addition to noise originated in the recording layer, which can be seen in the single layer perpendicular magnetic recording medium as well. The noise is classified into a spike noise and a transition noise; the former occurs from a magnetic domain wall of the soft magnetic underlayer and the latter occurs by fluctuation of a magnetization transition in the recording layer owing to a magnetization state of the soft magnetic underlayer. With regard to the former spike noise, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 7(1995)-129946 gazette and Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 11(1999) 191217 gazette, there is a method where a hard-magnetic pinning layer is provided between the soft magnetic underlayer and the substrate to control a magnetic domain structure of the soft magnetic underlayer, thereby the spike noise is reduced. On the other hand, the latter transition noise is observed in a state of superposing the transition noise originated in the recording layer itself. Therefore, details are not yet clear as to how much the magnetization state of the soft magnetic underlayer influences the fluctuation of the magnetization transition in the recording layer.
When it is considered that the perpendicular magnetic recording method in the combination of the double layer perpendicular magnetic recording medium and the single pole type head is applied at the recording density exceeding the thermal fluctuation limit of the longitudinal magnetic recording method, both of a medium noise originated in the recording layer and the medium noise originated in the soft magnetic underlayer need to be reduced. The present invention has been created to solve the above-described problems. More specifically, the object of the present invention is to provide the perpendicular magnetic recording medium having a high medium S/N ratio at the recording density of 50 Gb/in2 or higher, and to facilitate the achievement of a high density magnetic storage device.

Perpendicular magnetic recording media and magnetic storage


The present invention is directed to a wavelength converter comprising a non-luminescent substrate layer, at least one polysiloxane layer, wherein at least one of the polysiloxane layers comprises a phosphor material.

In the optoelectronic industry down-conversion elements, i.e., wavelength converters, are used that can efficiently down-convert higher energy light into lower energy light. More specifically, the conversion element needs to down-convert blue light (or violet, or near-UV light) into light with longer wavelengths, e.g., cyan, green, yellow, orange, red, and/or near-IR. For high power applications, the down-conversion elements must be stable at elevated temperatures for prolonged periods of time, e.g., >200° C. for thousands of hours.
There are several down-conversion options available in LED (light emitting diode) products today. The most common forms of down-conversion elements are i) ceramic converters, ii) phosphor-in-glass converters, iii) phosphor-in-silicone converters, and iv) phosphor-in-silicone-on-glass converters. Ceramic and phosphor-in-glass converters are stable at high temperatures. However, certain compositions do not lend themselves to being made into ceramic or phosphor-in-glass form. For example, it is often difficult to densify certain nitride or oxynitride phosphors into efficient ceramics. Sometimes, it is also difficult to incorporate certain nitride or oxynitride phosphor powders into a glass matrix without damaging the phosphor powder. The high temperatures required to melt the glass often end up damaging the phosphor. The situation is different for phosphor-in-silicone and phosphor-in-silicone-on-glass conversion elements. In this case, incorporating any phosphor powder or combination of phosphor powders is more-or-less possible. However, even the most stable optical silicones are often not stable enough to operate for long periods of time at temperatures near or above 200° C.

Wavelength converter; method of its making and light-emitting device incorporating the element

Abstract: Furthermore, the present invention is directed to a method for preparing a wavelength converter, a light emitting device and a method for preparing a light emitting device.


In a method of managing 3D video stream, 3D video stream is output to a connected display. The connected display displays the 3D video stream after a delay associated with the connected display. A timing offset is determined based on the delay. The timing offset is operable to be used to synchronize shutter operations of at least one shutter glasses with the presentation of the 3D video stream. A shutter control signal based on a frame start indication from the 3D video stream is transmitted. The frame start indication is operable to be used to determine a frame rate of the 3D video stream, and the shutter control signal is operable to be used to maintain synchronization of the shutter operations of the at least one shutter glasses with the presentation of the 3D video stream at the connected display.

Depth perception for a three dimensional television (3D TV) is provided by capturing two views, one for the left eye and other for the right eye. These two views are compressed and sent over various networks or stored on storage media. A decoder decodes the two views and sends the decoded video to the 3D TV for display. The two views are known to be either merged into a single video frame (e.g., checker board pattern, left and right, or top and bottom panels) or kept separate. The views are known to be displayed using a time sequential format in which one eye view follows another eye view in an alternating format.
In order to view 3D content, an end consumer uses a shutter glasses such as phase-shutter glasses. The shutter glasses must allow each eye to observe the corresponding image at the corresponding time. For example, the left side of the shutter glasses is open when the left eye image is displayed and the right side is closed, which allows the left eye to view the image but not the right eye. Similarly, the right side of the shutter glasses is open when the right eye image is displayed and the left side is closed, which allows the right eye to view the image but not the left eye.
The 3D TVs are known to emit a shutter control signal that is synchronized with the right or left eye image being displayed. However, this shutter control signal is known to be individualized for each 3D TV according to the manufacturer and, in some instances, the model of the 3D TV. The shutter control signal is not functional for 3D TVs from other manufacturers without a standardized protocol. Also, the shutter control signal is not functional for a non-3D-ready TV. Furthermore, it is difficult to provide an accurate shutter control signal from a set top box (STB) or another device outside the non-3D TV because of a timing difference due to differences in internal buffering, transmission delay, image processing delay etc on the end video rendering device. For example, the displayed frame at the TV lags behind the frame output from the STB for some amount of time, which varies from one display device to another display device, and thus, the shutter control signal emitted from the STB or devices other than the TV itself would not synchronize with the left or right eye image displayed on the TV. This can cause crosstalk of images because of the offset in left/right eye timing that in turn degrades or destroys the 3D effect.

Method and apparatus for managing 3D video content


Disclosed is a fuel cell device comprising: a fuel cartridge to accumulate a fuel therein; and a fuel cell device main body to generate electric power by using the fuel accumulated in the fuel cartridge, wherein the fuel cell device main body is provided with a cartridge conveying body, the fuel cartridge being attached to and detached from the cartridge conveying body, and the cartridge conveying body is provided so as to be rotatable with respect to the fuel cell device main body.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel cell device and an electronic equipment.
2. Description of Related Art
A fuel cell extracts electric power by an electrochemical reaction of a fuel, and the research and development of the fuel cell have widely been performed. As a fuel to be used for an electrochemical reaction of the fuel cell, a hydrogen gas which is generated by reforming a raw fuel such as methanol with a reformer can be cited. Moreover, a fuel cell using the methanol as it is also exists.
It is considered that these fuels are normally accumulated in a detachably attachable container to a fuel cell device. Moreover, an electronic equipment capable of attaching and detaching the whole fuel cell device including a fuel container has also been considered. See, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publications Nos. 9-213359, 2004-213959, and 2004-265835.
Now, in order to realize a detachably attachable fuel cartridge to a fuel cell device in an electronic equipment such as a notebook-sized personal computer, it is required that an operator using the electronic equipment can freely attach and detach the fuel cartridge by a simple operation without reversing the equipment.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a fuel cell device capable of freely attaching and detaching a fuel cartridge by a simple operation and an electronic equipment equipped with the fuel cell device.

Fuel cell device and an electronic equipment using fuel cell device


A folder includes a first cylinder having at least one first gripper for holding signatures and at least one tucker for tucking the signatures to define a first fold, a second cylinder having at least one first jaw for holding the signatures at the first fold, a first motor driving the at least one first gripper, and a second motor separate from the first motor, the second motor driving the at least one tucker of the first cylinder and the at least one first jaw of the second cylinder.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to printing presses and more particularly to a folder for a printing press.
2. Background of the Invention
Web printing presses print a continuous web of material, such as paper. In a folder of the printing press, the continuous web is cut into signatures and then folded. Various types of folders are known in the art, one of which is a combination folder.
Generally, combination folders incorporate a series of cylinders that uniquely provide functions to complete different portions of the fold, with each cylinder able to perform one or more functions. In order to provide for different types of printed products, the relative positions of cylinders within the combination folder may be altered. FIG. 1 shows the basic cylinder construction for a combination folder, for example a tucking cylinder. The basic cylinder shown herein is known in the art and is provided here for improved understanding of the present invention. A first function part 1, such as a tucking section, is mounted directly to a shaft 2 of the cylinder by a first arm 3 and a second arm 4. The shaft 2 supports a first hollow hub 5 and second hollow hub 6, which run concentric to the shaft 2. First and second hollow hubs 5, 6, in turn, support a third arm 8 and a fourth arm 9, which support a second function part 7, for example a gripper section. The shaft 2 and each hub 5, 6 can be driven by first and second drive gears 10, 11, respectively, which can be phased with respect to each other using helical gears.
Existing combination folders typically require a fold mode change and incorporate air cylinders to slide the helical gears to a required position. The helical gears, which are keyed to the main cylinder bodies, in turn, phase the cylinder bodies. This is incorporated to phase one set of cylinder bodies with respect to the other.
A drawback of the air cylinder and helical gear structure is that the helical gears may fail to shift, or seize, when changing relative position. This is due to the weight of the cylinder bodies or from the hubs freezing to the shaft due to lack of lubricant or due to fretting corrosion.
In order to reduce the likelihood of seizing, periodic maintenance is performed on the combination folder. However, the maintenance is time-consuming and increases the downtime of the folder.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,405,126 purports to disclose a folder having at least a first longitudinal folding device, driven severing members, and a second longitudinal folding device to which folding copies are supplied via a section of a conveyor belt which is disposed over a second loadable copy delivery. The folder comprises drawing devices disposed upstream of the severing members in the web-and-copy direction, first drive means for separately and controllably driving said drawing devices, and second drive means for driving said severing members and said cross-folding devices. The folder further includes a separate drive for driving said outwardly swingable conveyor belts. The second longitudinal folding device comprises components, and may include a phase-controllable separate electric motor for driving said components. The second drive means is an electric-motor drive. From one of the cutting or severing cylinders, the drive of the electric motor is transmitted to a gear. By means of the gear, the drive drives a folding cylinder, from there to a folding-jaw cylinder and then to a gripper cylinder. Furthermore, the drive of the second longitudinal fold can also be effected by the electric motor.
The '126 patent has the disadvantage that the folding cylinder, folding-jaw cylinder, and gripper cylinder are driven by the same drive and, thus, adjustment and mode changes are difficult.
European Patent Application No. 0 699 524 A2 purports to disclose a printing unit with elements driven by dependent electric motors, identified by the letter M in the figures. Folding devices in figure twenty-two each have a separate motor that directly drives the folding cylinders in the folding devices. EP Patent No. EP 0 699 524 A2 has the disadvantage that one motor drives the folding cylinders of a folder, thus making phase changes difficult.


A seatbelt apparatus includes an electric motor 20 for winding a seatbelt 12, and a microcomputer 30 for controlling the electric motor 20. The microcomputer 30 controls the electric motor 20 so as to wind the seatbelt 12 at a winding load which increases to a first winding load at a first rising gradient when collision is detected using a detected length and a detected vehicle velocity by a length sensor 41 and a vehicle velocity sensor 42. The microcomputer 30 controls the electric motor 20 so as to wind the seatbelt 12 at a winding load which increases to a second winding load which is larger than the first winding load at a second rising gradient which is larger than the first rising gradient when an emergency braking operation is detected by detection signal from a brake switch 43. Therefore, the seatbelt can be wound at a winding mode and a winding load which can protect a passenger without giving much feeling of discomfort.

Hitherto, an apparatus of this type is adapted to predict a collision with an object of collision and detect the collision as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 6-286581. A seatbelt is wound at a first winding load when the collision is predicted. The seatbelt is wound at a second winding load which is larger than the first winding load when the collision is detected,
As the apparatus in the related art as described above, although a passenger is protected by winding of seatbelt when a collision is predicted and when the collision is occurred, such winding of the seatbelt constrains the passenger, and if the constraining force of the seatbelt is too large, it gives the passenger a sense of discomfort. Therefore, it is desired to provide a winding mode and a winding load of the seatbelt which can protect a passenger while giving the passenger the sense of discomfort as little as possible.