The present invention relates to novel oxidative processes for substrates such as olefins, alkanes, aromatics and alcohols using metallic porphyrin or salen catalytic complexes which have been specifically designed to maximize catalytic activity, thereby enhancing efficiency, selectively and speed of oxidation of these substrates. The choice of the substituents in the metallic complexes may be varied, but must be chosen to prevent specific ligand set arrangements known to be stable and therefore less catalytically efficient. Coordination complexes, particularly porphyrins and salens having nitrosyl axial ligands and electron-withdrawing peripheral substituents are preferred. Ruthenium coordination metals are the preferred metal center, with the highly reactive catalytic species found to be Ru.sup.III.

The efficient oxygenation of the hydrocarbons has enormous commercial value for the production of commodity chemicals and for many important products made therefrom. For example, nylon is one such product which has enormous commercial applications and which is made from starting materials, i.e. cyclohexane, which must first be oxidized into alcohol and ketone intermediate compounds during the manufacture of nylon. The oxygenation of cyclohexane, however, is extremely expensive and inefficient, having a conversion of only 3-4%. Sufficient oxygenation of various saturated hydrocarbons has long been a difficult challenge which has provoked the search for efficient and cost effective oxidation catalysts and processes for use in the chemical industry.
Toward this end, transition metal catalysts have been studied for some time for their use as oxidation catalysts for saturated hydrocarbons. More recently, the use of metallic porphyrin complexes have been reported as effective oxidation catalysts using certain substrates, oxidants and process parameters. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,822,899 to Groves et al., describes the use of metallic porphyrin complexes as catalysts in epoxidation reactions. The process disclosed in this reference involves adding to a solution of metallic porphyrin catalyst an olefin or mixture of olefins to form a reaction solution. The reaction solution is purged with an oxidizing agent, e.g. commercially pure oxygen or air, and the reaction is conducted at ambient conditions for 24 hours. The results after 24 hours shows a maximum turnover rate of 45.4, as shown in Example 8, in the Table, Column 5. The turnover rate is the number of molecules of oxidized product turned out per each molecule of catalyst for a given time period. Thus, while U.S. Pat. No. 4,822,899 demonstrated the ability to use metallic porphyrin complexes as oxidation catalysts using air as the oxidant and under ambient conditions, the efficiency of such reactions even under the best of reaction conditions, e.g. under optimum temperature and pressure parameters, is comparatively low. That is, the turnover rate and yields represented an improvement over previous efforts but did not approach the level useful for commercial scale-up.
Subsequent efforts using metallic porphyrins as oxidation catalysts for olefins, alcohols, sulfides and alkanes using heteroaromatic N-oxides, demonstrated that the addition of strong mineral acids such as HCl and HBr enhances oxidation selectively and efficiently. See Ohtake et al. Heterocyles, Vol. 40, No. 2, pp. 867-887 (1995); Ohtake et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 114, 10660-10662 (1992). These references suggest that halogens coordinate as an axial ligand and accelerate the deoxygenation of N-oxide by ruthenium porphyrin. The use of such acids, however, may decompose some of the end products and result in halogen by-products which require appropriate separation and handling. Moreover, certain aromatics, such as benzene, were reported by Ohtake et al. as not being useful oxidative substrates. Additionally, the highest turnover rate described in Ohtake et al. over a period of 24 hours with the addition of these mineral acids was shown as 12,500. See J. Am. Chem. Soc., 114, 10661 (1992).
The use of a nitro group on a coordinated ligand has been reported in the literature. See Sheldon R. A.; Kochi J. K., Metal-Catalyzed Oxidation of Organic Compounds, p. 112-113, Academic Press (1981). The nitro group, however, is used to transfer oxygen to a substrate, i.e. to oxidize the substrate. This reference shows that the oxidation state of the metal does not change. This is in sharp contrast to the present invention where the nitrosyl group present in the porphyrin or salen ligand structure remains intact and the oxidation state of the metal center changes to the highly active M.sup.III species.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,871 to Ellis, Jr. et al., discloses iron coordination complexes containing a halogenated ligand. The iron porphyrin complex is disclosed as having Fe.sup.II and Fe.sup.III states and the improvement in oxidation of alkanes by contact with air or oxygen is reported as being due to the introduction of halogen into the coordination complex. Oxidation of propane using such complexes show a maximum turnover of 583.1 per 1.5 hours at 150.degree. C. and a maximum turnover of 849 per 6 hours at 80.degree. C. using isobutane as the substrate. This patent states in column 7, line 29, that halogenating the ligand of the iron coordination complex improves activity but has little or no effect on activity where the metal is other typical transition metals such as manganese or chromium. Furthermore, these porphyrins have been reported as being free radical initiators rather than catalysts per se. See Grinstoff, M. W.; Hill, M. G.; Labinger, J. A.; Gray H. B., Science, 1994, 264, 1311-1313.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,280,115 to Ellis, Jr. et al. discloses metal complexes of porphyrin catalysts for the oxidation of alkanes where the metal may be ruthenium. The porphyrin ring has nitro groups attached thereto in the meso and/or .beta.-pyrrolic positions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,895,680 to Ellis, Jr. et al. discloses nitride-activated metal coordination complexes such as M-X where M is a transition metal and X is a nitride on the oxidation of alkanes. The turnovers/hour (T.O./hr.) using nitride-activated Fe, Cr and Mn porphyrins are relatively low. For example, oxidation of cyclohexane to cyclohexanol and cyclohexanone using the nitride-activated catalysts showed T.O./hr. values of 33 and 23 and 27 for Cr(TPP)N, Mn(TPP)N and [Fe (TPP)].sub.2 N respectively.
Also present in the literature is a report on the theoretical existence of a ruthenium IV (Ru.sup.IV) porphyrin radical species derived from a Ru.sup.III precursor. See Mlodnicka, T., James, B. R., Metalloporphyrin Catalyzed Oxidations, 121-148, Klewer Academic Publishers, (1994). This reference used a phosphine ligand and iodosylbenzene as an oxidant to achieve low oxidation product yields and low turnovers on hydrocarbon substrates such as cyclohexane, styrene, norbornene and stilbene (see Table 1, p. 131). The experiments reported therein showed turnovers of 1.3-130/6 hrs. It should be mentioned that such low catalytic results occurred notwithstanding the use of norbornene, a relatively reactive substrate, a halogenated porphyrin and in the presence of an exotic non-commercial oxidant iodosylbenzene.
The present invention represents a significant improvement over the prior art oxidation processes which employ metallic porphyrin complexes as oxidative catalysts. The efficiency, selectivity and speed have been significantly improved over the prior art without the use of mineral acids, and such difficult substrates as cyclohexanes and benzene have been oxygenated efficiently using the present invention. Thus, the present invention addresses the long sought need of finding a means to rapidly and efficiently oxidize commercially important substrates such as olefins, alkanes, aromatics, and alcohols (aliphatic or aromatic) by carefully designing the porphyrin or salen complex and the associated ligands. The coordination complexes of the present invention are designed by selecting substituents, both on the external structure and the internal ligand set, such that the maximum activity of the catalytic metal can be obtained. The choice of substituents is dictated by the need to control the electronic structure of the catalyst to prevent or minimize the formation of a stabilized ligand set adjacent the metal, as well as to minimize or prevent the formation of stabilized electron configurations on the metal per se a phenomenon known as disproportionation.

Catalytic oxygenation of hydrocarbons by metalloporphyrin and metallosalen complexes


A control system for controlling operation of an execution device is provided. The control system includes a master controller, a microprocessor, and a signal line. The master controller is configured to send a control signal to the microprocessor via the signal line. The microprocessor is configured to send the control signal to the execution device to drive the execution device to operate, acquire, at a time interval, a feedback signal representing an operation state of the execution device, and send the feedback signal to the signal line. The master controller is further configured to acquire the feedback signal from the signal line, determine, from the feedback signal, the operation state of the execution device, and regulate the control signal based on the operation state.

At present, electric pumps are generally applied in the refrigeration cycle of vehicles. A control system controls the electric pump to operate. The electric pump includes a motor and a rotor. The motor drives the rotor to rotate, and a control system of the electric pump controls the motor to rotate. The control system of the electric pump includes a master controller, a microprocessor and a communication system. The master controller sends a control signal to the microprocessor via the communication system. The microprocessor analyzes the control signal, so as to control the motor to rotate. The microprocessor feeds back the operation state of the electric pump to the master controller via the communication system.
Generally, the master controller is a controller of a vehicle. The microprocessor is integrated in a printed circuit board of the electric pump. Control signals and feedback signals are transmitted between the master controller and the microprocessor via the communication system. The communication system processes communication protocols between the master controller and the microprocessor. In order to prevent mutual interference between signals, the control signal and the feedback signal are transmitted through separated signal lines, which results in a complex connection of the control system.
Therefore, it is desired to improve the conventional technology, so as to solve the above technical problems.

Hangzhou Sanhua Research Institute Co., Ltd.


Provided is an assembled wire 10 having a substantially rectangular cross section, and is formed by assembling a plurality of strands 7. Each strand 7 has a conductor portion 11 and a strand insulating layer 13 covering the conductor portion 11. The strand insulating layer 13 preferably contains at least one kind of resin in which 50% weight loss in Tg-DTA occurs at from 300° C. to 500° C. The strand insulating layer 13 contains particles. The particles are particles having volume resistivity of 1×106 Ω·cm or more, and, for example, inorganic substances such as silica, titania, alumina, aluminum nitride, magnesium oxide, silicon nitride, and silicon carbide; and resins such as silicone are applicable.

In a stator of a motor used in a car, for example, enamel wires with circular cross sections have been conventionally used as winding wires. However, in recent years, to improve a space factor, use of flat winding wires having rectangular cross sections has been increasing. Also, a manufacturing method in which winding wires are wound around a core of a stator has been conventionally adopted in many cases. However, with adoption of the flat winding wires, a method of forming a coil by forming winding wires into segment coils of short length, installing the segment coils to a stator, and then connecting end portions of the segment coils with each other by welding have been increasingly adopted.
However, each flat winding wire has a large cross sectional area, and this leads to a problem that a winding loss may become larger due to eddy current generated when a frequency of the motor is increased due to increased rotational frequency of the motor.
To solve this, a segmented conductor in which a plurality of conducting wires are unified has been proposed. That is, using a segmented conductor formed of a plurality of conducting wires as segment coils can suppress the influence of the eddy current.
A plurality of strands having insulation layers such as oxide films on their surfaces are bundled and unified to form the segmented conductor having a substantially rectangular cross section, for example. With such a segmented conductor, a fill factor of the conductor to a slot of the stator can be improved and, since the oxide film insulates each strand, an increase in an alternating current resistance due to a skin effect and the eddy current can be suppressed.
As such a segmented conductor, for example, there is an assembled conductor formed by unifying a plurality of conducting wires, each of which includes a rectangular shaped conducting strand and a coating layer provided on outer periphery of the conducting strand (Patent Document 1).
Also, there is a coil including assembled wires formed of a plurality of linear conductors and single wires, in which portions exposing from slots of a stator are formed of the single wires that are joined to each other in its longitudinal direction (Patent Document 2).

Assembled wire, segmented conductor, and segment coil and motor using the same

ESSEX FURUKAWA MAGNET WIRE JAPAN CO., LTD.


A BIOS module for automatic restoring and the related method are provided. The BIOS module has a BIOS memory and a prime BIOS code embedded therein. When the contents of a BIOS memory is damaged, a backup BIOS code can be loaded from other storage media for rebooting the computer system. The BIOS code comprises a BIOS function program module having a compressed function program, a detecting means for detecting the correctness of the BIOS function program module, a restoring module responsive to the detecting means for automatic rebooting the computer when the decompressing procedure has errors to load and execute the BIOS backup code from other storing media. And after rebooting the computer system successfully the restoring module also can restore the BIOS backup code into the BIOS memory. Besides, a differentiating means is applied to check the versions of the backup BIOS code and the prime BIOS code. When the prime BIOS code can boot the computer system successfully and the version thereof is latest than that of the backup BIOS code, the prime BIOS code can be backuped to the storage media.

With the advancement of electronic techniques and the development of internet communication, multimedia computers become one of the popular electronic products. In each computer, a BIOS device mounted on the motherboard is applied to serve as a communicating interface between the hardware and the operating system of the computer. By executing the BIOS code stored in the BIOS memory some instructions are performed to boot the computer. These instructions comprise of configuring the CPU; testing the DRAM; initializing the chipset and peripheral equipments; and driving the soft disks and hard disks; then loading the operating system such as DOS, Windows or Linux. After above booting procedures are completed, the BIOS device proceed to do some coordination works for assisting the operating system or application program in communications among the peripheral equipments. Therefore, no matter what type of computer, notebook or desktop, only the content of the BIOS memory is valid and correct, the computer can be booted successfully into the required operating system, and the hardware can be initialized and tested to ensure being in normal state.
According to maintain service records of computers, the damage of BIOS device or flash ROM is the main cause that the computers can not be booted successfully. And except-less BIOS devices can not be repaired due to physical damage, most of them can be repaired by service engineers applying some specific kit or procedures. However for most consumers whose computers are unable to boot, they have not the proper kit and related knowledge to handle it by themselves. Therefore these consumers have to send their computers to the maintain stations for repairing. And that causes interference for the daily works of consumers and increases maintain cost.
For solving above issues, some methods like using two BIOS ROM or adding storage space of the ROM are provided. For example, in Taiwan patent issue No. 446864, a method to automatic backup BIOS is disclosed, wherein the space of BIOS ROM is increased to contain an extra restoring BIOS code. If some errors occur in the booting procedures, the restoring BIOS code is automatically loaded to reboot the computer again. The method can prevent the BIOS device from damaging by consumers because they maybe try to fix it. However the cost of BIOS devices will increase because it is required to increase space of the BIOS ROM.
Besides, in Taiwan patent issue No. 428748, the design of mounting two sets of BIOS devices simultaneously on one motherboard is disclosed, wherein a logic circuit and a differentiating circuit are introduced to switch on another BIOS device for rebooting the computer when one BIOS device is damaged in operation. However, similar to above method, such design will cause the prime cost increased due to adding the physical components such as the differentiating circuit, the logic circuit, and an extra BIOS device on the motherboard.
In Taiwan patent issue No. 454145, a switching interface is introduced to control and substitute the BIOS device on the motherboard. By adding an extra memory for storing the backup BIOS code and the switching interface on the motherboard, according to the operation state of the BIOS device the switching interface can determine to switch the booting priority to the extra backup memory or not for solving the failure of the BIOS device. However it also causes cost increasing due to the extra memory and the switching interface.
Except for the increasing cost due to the extra components, memories, interfaces as mentioned above, the conventional BIOS backup apparatuses also are short of friendness in operation for consumers. In the typical design to backup and restore BIOS, consumers have to pick up and execute instructions from the menu on a screen panel or to disassemble the computer case for replacing the new components. For example, when the BIOS device booting fails, the appearance on screen will change to an operating menu and the consumers are demanded to decide whether or not rebooting again by the backup BIOS code and restoring the BIOS code to repair the damaged BIOS device. However, it is a real torment to most consumers to understand what meanings of the instructions on the menu and make the proper choice based on that.
Even more, in some BIOS backup design, the consumers are demanded to switch a jumper on the motherboard for activating the backup BIOS device or to plug some components provided by the motherboard manufacturing company into the slot panels on the computer cases. And these methods are real persecutions to consumers. Therefore most consumers would rather send the computers to the maintain stations for saving their useless mental and physical efforts. However, the manufacturing companies have to spend lots of cost and manpower on fixing the BIOS devices and serving the consumers.

Module and method for automatic restoring BIOS device


An electronic system includes: a communication unit for providing a factor; a storage unit, coupled to the communication unit, for consolidating history with the factor; a control unit, coupled to the storage unit, for: estimating a delay based on the factor and the history; predicting traffic based on the estimated delay; and determining an alternate route based on the predicted traffic.

Modern consumer and industrial electronics, especially devices such as graphical display systems, televisions, projectors, mobile phones, portable digital assistants, navigation systems, and combination devices, are providing increasing levels of functionality to support modern life including three-dimensional display services. Research and development in the existing technologies can include many different directions.
One such direction that has received limited research and development is traffic. Little has been done to provide improved, much less enhanced, traffic information. Currently, while traffic information is available, such traffic information generally only describes the condition of a certain traffic route at the present.
Current traffic prediction systems provide an estimate of the traffic scenario along a route that is valid only at the beginning of a navigation session. This estimate may be updated as the navigation session progresses. Further these estimates are based on a limited number of data sources, like historical data, live data from users, or sensors.
Present congestion is provided primarily by traffic sensors. Future congestion is largely predicted based on present congestion, historical trends, etc. Such predictions are inherently uncertain. The effectiveness of traffic management systems would be increased by the availability of reliable predictions of the future location of commuter vehicles on the roadway.
Methodologies exist to measure or predict the traffic flow as a car moves along a particular roadway. However, such methodologies rely on long-term historical data, which is not a good predictor of future traffic flow, or are one dimensional in predicting traffic flow as a function of arrival time at a certain point. There remains a need to accurately predict road capacity at future intervals as a function of not only time, but other parameters as well.
Thus, a need still remains for an electronic system with prediction mechanism to estimate time. In view of the ever-increasing commercial competitive pressures, along with growing consumer expectations and the diminishing opportunities for meaningful product differentiation in the marketplace, it is increasingly critical that answers be found to these problems. Additionally, the need to reduce costs, improve efficiencies and performance, and meet competitive pressures adds an even greater urgency to the critical necessity for finding answers to these problems.
Solutions to these problems have been long sought but prior developments have not taught or suggested any solutions and, thus, solutions to these problems have long eluded those skilled in the art.

Electronic system with prediction mechanism and method of operation thereof


An arrangement in connection with a conductor track, the conductor track having a connection groove extending in the longitudinal direction of the track for connecting devices to the conductor track, and current conductors mounted in the connection groove in the longitudinal direction thereof for supplying power by an adapter to the devices connected to the conductor track. To provide a simple solution which expedites the installation, the arrangement has at least one signal conductor fixed to the outer surface of the conductor track for supplying a bus control signal to a device connected to the conductor track by an adapter.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an arrangement in connection with a conductor track, the conductor track comprising a connection groove extending in the longitudinal direction of the track for connecting devices to the conductor track by means of an adapter, current conductors mounted in the connection groove in the longitudinal direction thereof for supplying power by means of the adapter to the devices connected to the conductor track, and a separate signal conductor mounted on the track for supplying a bus signal by means of the adapter to the devices connected to the conductor track.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventional conductor track systems are currently used quite commonly in various rooms for connecting lighting devices, appliances and other similar devices to a power supply.
In prior art solutions it has not been possible to have device-specific control by a wired control circuit except by means of power current conductors of the track. In this case, the use of the power current conductors for supplying power is limited as regards the above-mentioned power current conductors. To build a control circuit by the use of a control cable is difficult or almost impossible in such a case.

Arrangement in connection with a conductor track


A hydraulic system controller is disclosed. The hydraulic system controller may determine a maximum active circuit pressure of a set of active hydraulic circuits of the hydraulic system, wherein the hydraulic system includes a hydraulic pump to cause fluid to flow throughout the set of active hydraulic circuits; determine a circuit pressure of a hydraulic circuit of the hydraulic system; determine, based on a hydraulic flow command for the hydraulic circuit and the circuit pressure, a desired circuit delta-pressure for the hydraulic circuit; determine, based on the desired circuit delta-pressure and a pressure difference between the maximum active circuit pressure and the circuit pressure, a circuit valve setting for a circuit valve of the hydraulic circuit; and cause a control device to set a position of the circuit valve according to the circuit valve setting.

Work machines or construction machines, such as excavators or other similar types of vehicles, may be used to perform one or more worksite operations (e.g., material transfer, digging, scraping, dozing, and/or the like). Typically, such machines include a hydraulic system to perform the worksite operations to control movement of the machines and/or a component of the machines. For example, a hydraulic system may be used to control an implement of a machine. More specifically, a hydraulic system of an excavator may be used to control movement of the excavator, rotation of a body of the excavator (e.g., for a swing operation), and/or movement of an implement of the excavator that includes a boom, stick, bucket, and/or the like.
In many instances, the hydraulic system includes a plurality of hydraulic pumps and/or hydraulic circuits that individually include a plurality of circuit valves. More specifically, a hydraulic circuit, in previous techniques, may include a main spool valve that permits or denies flow through the individual circuits and a flow control valve to hydromechanically control the flow of fluid throughout the hydraulic system based on a sensed pressure of the hydraulic circuit and a hydraulic flow command, which may be based on an operator input to the hydraulic system. Accordingly, in such cases, hydraulic flow balance among the individual hydraulic circuits is achieved via hydromechanical control of one or more of a plurality of valves within the individual hydraulic circuits.
One approach for a construction machine control is disclosed in Chinese Patent No. CN105008623 that issued to Akinori et al. on Jul. 14, 2017 ("the '623 patent"). In particular, the '623 patent describes a work equipment control that controls a control valve, a pilot hydraulic line opening, and includes a pressure sensor.
While the '623 patent describes detecting a pilot pressure adjusted by the control valve, in the '623 patent, after a pressure adjustment has been provided by a first control valve of the supplied hydraulic oil to the directional control valve, a spool is moved to one side in an axial direction; and after a pressure adjustment has been provided by a second control valve of the supplied hydraulic oil to the directional control valve, the spool is moved to another side in the axial direction.

Electrical control of a hydraulic system


An external mirror assembly for vehicles, which can be fastened to a fixture on the bodywork side and which exhibits a mirror casing in which a mirror glass is securable to a holding part. The mirror casing, following the fitting of the holding part to the vehicle, can be pushed over the holding part and can be detachably secured in an end position.

The invention relates to an external mirror for vehicles.
From German Patent Document DOS 32 48 759, a kit for vehicle external mirrors is known, comprising a mirror casing which receives a holding part for a mirror glass and also the mirror glass. The mirror casing is hinge-secured by means of a pin and two articulated arms, to a supporting part, which is fastened in turn to the body panel of the vehicle. When this mirror casing is fastened by means of the supporting part to the body panel, the vehicle mirror is already fully made up from the mirror casing, the mirror glass and the holding part. A replacement of one of these parts generally, for time reasons, results in a replacement of the entire vehicle mirror.
For the different models of a motor vehicle, auto companies and customer service outlets often have to store numerous different variations of an external mirror which differ in the mechanics or only, indeed, in the color of the mirror casing. In the case of external mirrors which are already fully assembled, the number of different mechanical embodiments is multiplied by the number of possible mirror casing colors. The high number of possible combinations gives rise to equally high storage costs.
An object of the invention is to reduce the storage costs for an external mirror which fits onto a variety of vehicles and to facilitate its repair.
The object is achieved according to preferred embodiments of the invention by providing an arrangement including:
a holding part attachable to a fixture on a vehicle bodywork part, PA1 a separate mirror casing surrounding the holding part, and PA1 a mirror glass securable to the holding part, PA1 wherein the mirror casing can be pushed over the holding part and can be detachably secured in an end position following the fitting of the holding part supporting the mirror glass to the vehicle.
As a result of the retrospective fitting of the mirror casing to the holding part which is already secured on the vehicle and which bears the mirror glass and the aggregate parts for the pivoting of the mirror glass, there is no need for every external mirror in every possible combination of mirror mechanism and mirror casing color to be stocked. For each vehicle, the desired mirror mechanics are fitted to the holding part and then to the vehicle and a mirror casing suitable for this vehicle is then detachably fixed thereto. If a fault subsequently occurs in the mirror mechanics or following breakage of the mirror glass, the mirror casing can be pulled off and access is gained to the mirror mechanics. Following repair, the same mirror casing can be re-used.
If according to certain preferred embodiments, a cover plate, pointing in the same direction as the body panel, is formed onto or fastened to the holding part, which cover plate fills the cross-section of that end opening of the mirror casing pointing at the body panel, then the mirror casing, after it has been pushed onto the holding part and fixed in place, is also closed off on this side and offers no insight into the interior of the mirror casing in the case of an external mirror which can be swung to one side. Moreover, the mechanics of the external mirror are protected from this side against spraywater.
The mirror casing can easily be detachably secured, in certain preferred embodiments, by at least one leaf spring to the holding part or to some other suitable structural part of the vehicle. This can be a leaf spring which lies with a bent surface pre-tensioned between a surface of a structural part and a surface of the mirror casing or, indeed, a leaf spring which is displaceably mounted upon the cover plate on the holding part and which, in the locking position, projects into a catch in the mirror casing. This leaf spring, which is displaceable along the cover plate, can be actuated from the cavity of the mirror casing through an opening in the cover plate, as a result of which the catch-locking of the mirror casing to the fitted external mirror can be disabled. The displacement of the leaf spring from its locking position can be achieved by the leaf spring partially covering the opening in the cover plate and, for example through the rotation of a screwdriver inserted therein, being able to be pushed out of this covering position and out of the catches on the mirror casing. In the case of a mirror glass which is pivotable in the mirror housing, it is advantageous, in order to prevent it being operated improperly, for the opening in the cover plate to become visible only when the pivotable mirror glass is in a pivotable end position when the external mirror is fitted.
Around the fixture on the vehicle, a sealing strip can be fastened, which surrounds the hinge joint between the fastening to the body panel and the cover plate and protects it from damage. In addition, a sealing strip of this type can be colored differently from the mirror casing, so that any slight color difference which occurs between the mirror casing and the vehicle color is not so obvious.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.


A data conversion apparatus is provided as a data transmitting apparatus in a data communication system which achieves pseudo interactive communications by using one-way communications between the data transmitting apparatus and a plurality of data receiving apparatuses. The data conversion apparatus converts documents stored inside into images to be displayed on the screen, such as a TV screen. In doing so, if the document includes character strings or image information as link destination information which specifies another document as a link destination, the data conversion apparatus adds a supplementary design into the image of the link destination information for the viewer to recognize such information.

(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a data conversion apparatus used for TV broadcasting systems, and more specifically to a data conversion apparatus for converting HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) documents into information of a format suitable for the TV broadcasting systems.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, the Internet has become a very popular system for obtaining or exchanging information. A great number of users view information stored in each site called home page on the WWW (World Wide Web). In doing so, users make interactive operations on the home pages using a keyboard or a mouse. In particular, users can move a pointer using a keyboard or mouse to select "hot spots," which results in a jump to another screen. One example of such interactive operation techniques is Netscape Navigator developed by Netscape Communications Corporation.
Conventional interactive operation techniques have been created on the assumption that a pointing device, such as a keyboard or mouse, which are peripheral devices of computers, is used to input instructions, not a remote controller of a TV set. That means, it is difficult to use such remote controllers for the interactive operations required on the home pages on the WWW in the Internet.

Data conversion apparatus for data communication system

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


fHBP is a protein in Neisseria meningitidis. Three families of fHBP are known. To increase the ability of a fHBP protein to elicit antibodies that are cross-reactive between the families, fHBP is selected or engineered to have a sequence which can elicit broad-spectrum bactericidal anti-meningococcal antibodies after administration to a host animal.

Neisseria meningitidis is a Gram-negative encapsulated bacterium which colonises the upper respiratory tract of approximately 10% of human population. Although polysaccharide and conjugate vaccines are available against serogroups A, C, W135 and Y, this approach cannot be applied to serogroup B because the capsular polysaccharide is a polymer of polysialic acid, which is a self antigen in humans. To develop a vaccine against serogroup B, surface-exposed proteins contained in outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) have been used. These vaccines elicit serum bactericidal antibody responses and protect against disease, but they fail to induce cross-strain protection [1]. Some workers are therefore focusing on specific meningococcal antigens for use in vaccines [2].
One such antigen is the meningococcal factor H binding protein (fHBP), also known as protein '741' [SEQ IDs 2535 & 2536 in ref. 3; SEQ ID 1 herein], 'NMB1870', 'GNA1870' [refs. 4-6, following ref. 2], T2086′, 'LP2086' or 'ORF2086' [7-9]. This lipoprotein is expressed across all meningococcal serogroups and has been found in multiple meningococcal strains. fHBP sequences have been grouped into three families [4] (referred to herein as families I, II & III), and it has been found that serum raised against a given family is bactericidal within the same family, but is not active against strains which express one of the other two families i.e. there is intra-family cross-protection, but not inter-family cross-protection.
To achieve cross-strain protection using fHBP, therefore, more than one family is used. To avoid the need to express and purify separate proteins, it has been proposed to express different families as hybrid proteins [10-12], including two or three of the families in a single polypeptide chain. References 13 and 14 describe various mutagenesis-based approaches for modifying fHBP sequences to increase their coverage across families I, II and III.
It is an object of the invention to provide further and improved approaches for overcoming the family specificity of protection afforded by fHBP, and to use these approaches for providing immunity against meningococcal disease and/or infection, particularly for serogroup B.


In order to display an image on a liquid crystal display at a constant image quality independently of a change of the length of the period for applying voltages with the same polarity to the liquid crystal, the length of one cycle of a horizontal synchronizing signal inputted to an LCD unit from an information processor is counted and the amplitude of data voltage and the center of the amplitude are corrected so that the amplitude of the data voltage to be applied to the liquid crystal increases and a correction value for the center of the amplitude increases as the length of the period for applying data voltages with the same polarity to the liquid crystal decreases in accordance with the length of one cycle of the horizontal synchronizing signal and whether to perform gate overlap scan. Thereby, the absolute values (V) of inter-electrode voltages after the TFT is turned off are equalized independently of the polarity of data voltage to be applied to the liquid crystal both for a relatively long period and for a relatively short period.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display driving method and a liquid crystal display driving apparatus, particularly to a driving method for driving a liquid crystal display provided with a display cell including a switching element, a pair of transparent electrodes arranged so as to face each other at a predetermined interval, and liquid crystal set between the pair of transparent electrodes and a driving apparatus to which the driving method can be applied.
2. Related Art
A liquid crystal display (LCD) has been known so far as a display unit for displaying an image such as a character or diagram among information processing units including a personal computer. In particular, an active matrix driven LCD constituted by arranging switching elements such as thin-film transistors (TFTs) like a matrix is able to securely control the density of picture elements and suited to display a quickly-moving dynamic image or a color image. Therefore, the LCD is considered to be prospective as a display unit to be substituted for a CRT. In the case of a TFT-type LCD, a plurality of sets of a TFT and a transparent electrode connected each other are formed like a matrix on one of a pair of transparent electrodes arranged so as to face each other and moreover, a plurality of gate lines for turning on a TFT for each string and a plurality of data lines for applying a voltage to liquid crystal through the turned-on TFT are arranged on it. Furthermore, a common electrode is formed on the whole surface of the other transparent electrode and the liquid crystal is sealed between the pair of transparent electrodes.
A TFT-type LCD driving circuit displays an image or the like on liquid crystal by applying a voltage to the gate lines to turn on TFTs for each string in order and applying a voltage (data voltage) with a level corresponding to the gradation of each picture element corresponding to a turned-on TFT string to the liquid crystal through each data line. When the TFTs are turned on, the light transmittance of the liquid crystal changes correspondingly to the level of the data voltage and electric charges are accumulated between electrodes. After the TFTs are turned off, the liquid crystal keeps the changed light transmittance by the accumulated electric charges. The service life of liquid crystal is shortened by continuously applying voltages with the same polarity to the liquid crystal. Therefore, the service life of the liquid crystal is lengthened by reversing the polarity of the data voltage every line or every frame to drive the liquid crystal according to the fact that the light transmittances of liquid crystal are equalized for applied voltages with the same absolute value even if the polarities of the voltage are different from each other.
As for a switching element of an TFT or the like, a parasitic capacitance C is present between a gate and a source as shown by a broken line in FIG. 11 and the potential of an electrode connected to the TFT is decreased by .DELTA.V due to the parasitic capacitance C when the TFT is turned off. Therefore, the absolute value of the inter-electrode voltage after the TFT is turned off decreases by .DELTA.V when the data voltage with the positive polarity (polarity for the TFT side to become positive) to the liquid crystal as shown in FIG. 12(A) and increases by .DELTA.V when the data voltage with the negative polarity (polarity for the TFT side to become negative). Resultingly, the absolute value of the inter-electrode voltage fluctuates. Therefore, the position (center) of 0 V of the amplitude of the data voltage is corrected by .DELTA.V and the inter-electrode voltage after the TFT is turned off is made constant independently of the polarity of the data voltage to prevent a screen from seizing due to flicker or deterioration of the liquid crystal.
Improvement of the so-called compatibility has strongly been requested for an LCD in recent years so that the LCD can be connected to various information processors and makes it possible to display an image in accordance with signals outputted from various information processors like a CRT. When an information processor displays an image on a display unit, image data signals for expressing the gradation of each picture element of an image to be displayed and timing signals such as a horizontal synchronizing signal and a vertical synchronizing signal for specifying display timing are outputted from the information processor. However, a horizontal scanning period (cycle of the horizontal synchronizing signal) or the like specified by the timing signals is not constant but it depends on the type of the information processor. An LCD driving circuit measures the timing of a gate-voltage applying time (on-time of a TFT) in accordance with the horizontal scanning period shown by an inputted timing signal. Therefore, when the horizontal scanning period changes, the on-time of the TFT changes and thus, a problem occurs.
That is, an TFT has a small electric-charge mobility (particularly, an a-Si TFT). Therefore, when the TFT is turned on, the current (charging current) flowing to an electrode from a data line through the TFT is relatively small and also, the change rate of an inter-electrode voltage is low. Moreover, the level of the charging current depends on the level of the gate voltage, source voltage, or drain voltage (data voltage) when turning on the TFT.
In general, a gate-on time is constant. Therefore, because the potential between a gate and a source gradually lowers in accordance with the movement of electric charges to liquid crystal when charging a data-side electrode to a positive polarity (see <1> in FIG. 11), the inclination of a change of the inter-electrode voltage (particularly, the inclination .alpha.1 at the end of charging: see FIG. 12) is small and the number of electric charges to be charged in a cell within a gate-on time decreases. However, when charging the data-side electrode to a negative polarity (see <2> in FIG. 11), the potential between the gate and the source gradually rises in accordance with the movement of electric charges to the liquid crystal. Therefore, the inclination of the change of the inter-electrode voltage (particularly, the inclination .alpha.2 at the end of charging: see FIG. 12) increases (.vertline..alpha.1.vertline.<.vertline..alpha.2.vertline.) and the number of electric charges to be charged in the cell increases.
As described above, the change rate of the inter-electrode voltage is relatively small and the change rate is fluctuated due to the polarity of the data voltage. Therefore, for example, when the horizontal scanning period specified by a timing signal inputted from an information processor is shortened (the on-time of an TFT is shortened), the absolute value of the inter-electrode voltage decreases as a whole independently of the polarity of the data voltage because the TFT is turned off before the inter-electrode voltage changes sufficiently as shown in FIG. 12(B). Moreover, because the change rate of the inter-electrode voltage is low when applying the data voltage with the positive polarity, the absolute value (V.sub.NE) of the inter-electrode voltage further decreases. Therefore, the absolute value of the inter-electrode voltage changes correspondingly to the polarity of the data voltage and flicker, seizing of screen, or change of contrast occurs.
Moreover, when the horizontal scanning period is short compared to the change rate of the inter-electrode voltage, the so-called gate overlap scan (also known as double on pulse) may be performed in which data voltages with the same polarity are repeatedly applied to liquid crystal. The gate overlap scan is performed in order to simultaneously turn on each TFT of a display cell string after two lines to which data voltages with the same polarity are applied in driving a line when driving display cell strings connected to the same gate line by reversing the polarity of the data voltage to be applied to the strings every line and previously charge the display cell string after two lines. Thereby, the data voltage is applied to each display cell string half by half for two cycles of the horizontal scanning period in one-time screen scan. Therefore, it is possible to change the inter-electrode voltage to a voltage corresponding to the data voltage even when the change rate of the inter-electrode voltage is low.
By performing the above gate overlap scan, the period in which the data voltage is applied to each display cell increases twofold. When selectively performing the above gate overlap scan in accordance with the horizontal scanning period or the like in order to properly display an image by connecting an LCD to various information processors, the absolute value of the inter-electrode voltage fluctuates the same as the horizontal scanning period changes, and flicker, deterioration of liquid crystal, or change of contrast occurs even in accordance with whether to execute the gate overlap scan.

Correction of LCD drive voltage in dependence upon LCD switching element turn on time between polarity changes

International Business Machines Corporation


A system and method of providing virtualized connectivity in a cloud services environment. A service provider network defines at least a first virtual private network and a second virtual private network for a respective first customer network and a second customer network. The service provider network includes at least one physical connection with a cloud services provider network where the at least one physical connection includes a first private virtual connection between the first virtual private network and the cloud services provider and a second private virtual connection between the second virtual private network and the cloud services provider.

Cloud computing generally involves network-based virtualization of computing resources that are shared over a public network such as the Internet. Some example paradigms of cloud computing include Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (laas), whereby computing applications/software, computing platforms, and computing infrastructures, respectively, are provided as a service to an end user from one or more computing resources that are remotely located across a network (i.e., in the cloud).
For example, a cloud services provider may make a service, platform or infrastructure from one or more data centers available to one or more customers over the Internet. Due to the scalability and flexibility that public networks offer, conventional cloud computing architectures utilize public networks (e.g., the Internet) as the medium for providing and sharing virtualized computing resources (e.g., SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, etc.). Many customers, however, do not want to use a public network to access the cloud services, due in part to the insecurity of public networks, so a private circuit or line is purchased to provide private access to the cloud services. Cloud providers, in turn, are often challenged with provisioning and managing all of the private physical connections to its data centers and services requested by customers.
Although more secure than public networks, private networks do not provide a scalable and efficient virtualization environment for implementing cloud computing. As such, there is a need for both a secure and scalable networking environment in which to implement a cloud computing architecture. It is with these issues in mind, among others, that various aspects of the present disclosure were conceived and developed.

Virtualized connectivity in a cloud services environment


Methods and systems are provided for adjusting a fuel injection split between a direct injection and a port injection based on engine vacuum demand. When more intake manifold vacuum is required, relatively more direct injection is used to take advantage of the associated throttling for generating vacuum. The vacuum may then be used for canister purging, crankcase ventilation, or actuating an engine vacuum consumption device.

Engines may be configured with direct fuel injectors that inject fuel directly into a combustion chamber (direct injection), and/or with port fuel injectors that inject fuel into an intake port (port fuel injection). The combined use of port injection and direct injection of a fuel allows the various benefits of each type of injection to be leveraged. For example, with port fuel injectors, the fuel is typically sprayed into the intake valves and ports. The injected fuel evaporates primarily due to contact with hot metal surfaces and/or due to backflow of hot exhaust gases during valve overlap. In contrast, with direct fuel injectors, fuel is sprayed directly into the combustion chamber and the injected fuel evaporates primarily due to smaller droplet size and thorough mixing. In addition, since there is little impingement of fuel onto metal surfaces, direct fuel injection results in more evaporative cooling of the aircharge.
Engine control systems may vary a ratio of fuel injected via port injection and direct injection based on operating conditions. In one approach, as shown by Glugla in U.S. Pat. No. 8,037,874, a larger proportion of fuel is provided to a cylinder via direct injection in response to an indication of knock. Therein, at high loads, when the engine is knock-limited, the increased evaporative cooling of the direct injection and denser aircharge at wide open throttle conditions results in improved volumetric efficiency, leading to higher torque and power at the high load conditions. In addition, the cylinder charge cooling mitigates knock. In contrast, at part-load conditions, direct injection results in a small but measurable penalty in pumping work. This is because the increased evaporative cooling from direct fuel injection results in a denser aircharge which requires the engine to be throttled more to provide a desired torque output. To reduce this penalty, engine control systems may use a higher proportion of port injection at low-load and mid-load conditions.
The inventors herein have recognized that there may be conditions where it may be advantageous to pay the penalty in pumping work so as to use the pumping work for vacuum generation. Specifically, during mid-load conditions, if additional vacuum is required, such as for purging a fuel vapor canister, for crankcase ventilation, or for actuation of an engine vacuum consumer (e.g., a brake booster), the extra pumping work and extra throttling associated with direct injection of a fuel may be used to lower intake manifold pressure. The extra vacuum generated via the throttling may then be used to meet the vacuum demand.
In one example, the above advantages can be achieved by a method of operating an engine comprising, in response to engine vacuum generation being lower than an engine vacuum demand, increasing a proportion of fuel injected into a cylinder via direct injection while correspondingly decreasing a proportion of the fuel injected into the cylinder via port injection. In this way, the increased throttling and pumping work associated with direct injection of a fuel at low-to-mid engine loads can be advantageously used to generate more vacuum at the engine.
In one example, an engine may be configured with both direct injection and port fuel injection of a fuel to the engine cylinders. An initial fuel injection amount, including a proportion of fuel to be injected into the cylinder via the direct injector relative to the port fuel injector, may be determined based on engine operating conditions, such as engine speed-load conditions. For example, during part-loads (e.g., low-to-mid engine loads), the initial fuel injection amount may include a higher proportion of port injection and a lower proportion of direct injection to improve engine pumping efficiency. In response to an increased vacuum demand during these conditions, such as for purging a fuel vapor canister, for crankcase ventilation, or for actuating a brake booster, the initial fuel injection amount may be adjusted. Specifically, the fuel injection amount may be shifted to include a higher proportion of direct injection and a correspondingly lower proportion of port injection of the given fuel. By increasing direct injection, a pumping work required to meet the torque demand is increased, leading to adjustment of an air intake throttle. The increased throttling lowers intake manifold pressure and increases vacuum generation. The increased vacuum allows the engine vacuum demand to be better met.
In this way, fuel injection to an engine cylinder may be adjusted based on an engine vacuum demand. Specifically, a shift from increased port injection of a fuel to increased direct injection of the fuel can be used to take advantage of the increased pumping work, and decreased manifold pressure level, associated with the direct injection. This allows the interaction of the inefficiencies of a direct injection system with engine vacuum generation to be leveraged to meet engine torque demand and vacuum demand. Overall, the pumping efficiency provided by port fuel injection is traded for the vacuum generation efficiency provided by direct fuel injection.
It should be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure.


A wireless communication control device, including: a detection control unit configured to give an instruction to perform radio wave detection to at least one of a plurality of wireless communication devices that perform wireless communication with directivity; and a communication control unit configured to control communication of the wireless communication device on the basis of first information specifying a direction in which a radio wave is detected by the wireless communication device. A wireless communication device, including: a detection processing unit configured to execute a radio wave detection process with directivity on the basis of an instruction to perform radio wave detection; a providing unit configured to provide first information specifying a direction in which a radio wave is detected to a communication control unit; and a communication unit configured to perform wireless communication in a range of a direction related to directivity based on an external instruction.

In recent years, wireless local area networks (LANs) represented by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 have been spreading widely. Further, wireless LAN compatible products (hereinafter also referred to as wireless communication devices) have been increasing as well. On the other hand, wireless communication resources available for communication are limited. In this regard, extending available wireless communication resources has been considered. For example, extending a frequency band used for communication has been considered.
Here, as a frequency of a radio wave is higher, the directivity of the radio wave is higher. Specifically as the frequency of the radio wave is higher, straightness of the radio wave is higher. As a result, radio waves are propagated only in a specific direction, and on a radio wave reception side, a radio wave is received only in the specific direction. Therefore, in order to detect a radio wave on the radio wave receiver side, it is necessary to scan transmission paths in all directions, to detect a direction in which the radio wave arrives in advance, or to fix a transmission path.
As a technique for scanning transmission paths in all directions, there is a technique of scanning transmission paths in all directions by physically moving no antenna having directivity. For example, each transmission path in each direction is scanned by causing the antenna to rotate physically. Accordingly, it is possible to detect a radio wave coming in a specific direction.
Further, as a technique for detecting a direction in which a radio wave comes in advance, there is a training procedure in beam forming. For example, in an IEEE 802.11ad standard, a training signal is exchanged between wireless communication devices for each sector before communication is started, and a reception result of the training signal is fed back. Further, a beam direction, that is, a transmission direction of a radio wave, is decided on the basis of the feedback. Accordingly, it is possible to detect a radio wave coming in a specific direction without scanning the transmission paths in all directions one by one.
Further, as an example of the technology for fixing the transmission path, there is a technique disclosed in Patent Literature 1. In the technique disclosed in Patent Literature 1, antennas 1 and 2 are installed in a vehicle, a communication range of the antenna 1 is fixed to a front direction of the vehicle, and a communication range of the antenna 2 is fixed to a rear direction of the vehicle. Accordingly, it is possible to detect a radio wave coming in a specific direction without scanning the transmission path and without executing the training procedure.

Wireless communication control device, wireless communication device and wireless communication system


A combined thin film magnetic head includes a first yoke magnetic head and a second type MR head a front gap is provided at a front end of the first yoke type MR head, and a second yoke type MR head is provided behind the first yoke type MR head. Consequently, the first yoke type MR head and the second yoke type MR head can be formed on the same substrate through the same process steps, and the number of manufacturing steps can be significantly reduced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a combined thin film magnetic head used in a VTR or a DAT and, more specifically to a structure of a combined thin film magnetic head in which two or more thin film magnetic heads having overlapping track positions can be fabricated on the same substrate by the same manufacturing process.
2. Description of the Background Art
Recently, a DCC (Digital Compact Cassette) system formed of a stationary head type recorder and reproducer has come to be known as an audio recorder and reproducer for digital signals, which has broad compatibility with a compact cassette used for recording analog signals and is capable of recording and reproducing with tone quality as high as that of a compact disk.
The DCC system includes three different magnetic heads, which are (1), a multichannel head for analog reproduction, (2) a multichannel head for digital reproduction, and (3) a multichannel head for digital recording, as disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2-232802.
The multichannel head for analog reproduction has 4 channels, the multichannel head for digital reproduction has 18 channels and the multichannel head for digital recording has 18 channels in order to cope with the automatic reversing mechanism.
An inductive thin film magnetic head is used as the multichannel head for digital recording. Magneto-resistive thin film magnetic heads (hereinafter referred to as MR heads) are used as the multichannel head for analog reproduction and the multichannel head for digital reproduction.
Referring to FIGS. 12 and 13 there is illustrated the structure of the MR head, on a substrate 51 formed of, for example, ferrite or alumina ceramics, a lower yoke 52 of highly permeable magnetic thin film such as Ni--Fe, FeAlSi, Co--Zr is formed. On the upper surface of lower yoke 52, interlayer insulating layers 54a and 54b having approximately trapezoidal cross sections are formed. A biasing lead 54 is arranged between interlayer insulating layers 54a and 54b.
A magneto-resistive element 55 is positioned at the top of the interlayer insulating layers 54a and 54b. Sensing current leads 57a and 57b are connected to magneto-resistive element 55.
An interlayer insulating layer 55a, which is a thin film, is formed on the top surface of magneto-resistive element 55 along the continuous surface of interlayer insulating layers 54a and 54b and of lower yoke 52. Upper yokes 58 and 59 of highly permeable magnetic thin films are formed on the top surface of the interlayer insulating layer 55a, providing a gap 53b above the magneto-resistive element 55.
At a front end which is brought into contact with and slides along a magnetic recording medium, upper yoke 58 and lower yoke 52 opposing each other with interlayer insulating layer 55a interposed therebetween as a gap layer, constitute a front gap 53 for picking up magnetic flux of the magnetic recording medium.
The operation of the MR head having the above described structure is as follows. Namely, variation of the magnetic flux of the magnetic recording medium from front gap 53 is guided to magneto-resistive element 55 at gap 53, and the variation of resistance because of magneto-resistive effect at magneto-resistive element 55 derived from the variation of the magnetic flux is taken by means of leads 57a and 57b.
When MR elements are used as the digital reproducing head and the analog reproducing head for the DCC system, the heads have track width and gap length very much different from each other as shown in Table
TABLE 1 ______________________________________ reproducing head recording head digital analog ______________________________________ track number 18 18 4 track pitch 195 .mu.m 195 .mu.m 900 .mu.m track width 185 .mu.m 70 .mu.m 600 .mu.m length 0.5 .mu.m 0.4 .mu.m 1.8 .mu.m recording 1-5 .mu.m 1-5 .mu.m 5-500 .mu.m wave length ______________________________________
Therefore, it was impossible to use one head both as the digital reproducing head and an analog reproducing head.
In view of the foregoing, in one example of the conventional head configuration, a digital recording head 60, a digital reproducing head 62 and an analog reproducing head 64 are separately formed on separate head substrates, respectively, and the three head chips are combined with the track positions of the three head chips aligned, as shown in FIG. 14.
In this example, digital recording head 60, digital reproducing head 62 and analog reproducing head 64 are positioned in this order from the left, and the upper half a of each track and the lower half b of each track constitute head tracks corresponding to movement of the tape in the directions A and B in the figure, respectively.
Digital recording head 60 includes 18 recording head tracks 61. Digital reproducing head 62 includes 18 reproducing head tracks 63, and analog reproducing head 64 includes 4 reproducing head tracks 65.
A second example of the conventional head configuration is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 3-250411. The content of this article will be described in the following.
Referring to FIG. 15, this example has a 2-chip configuration in which a digital recording head 67 is formed on one head chip 66, and a digital reproducing head 70 and an analog reproducing head 69 are formed on the same substrate of the other head chip 68.
The structure of the combined reproducing head 100 of this 2-chip configuration is formed in the following manner. Referring to FIG. 16, first, a yoke type MR head 100a for analog reproduction is formed on a substrate 71, a passivation layer 78 is formed thicker than the roughness of the yoke type MR head 100a for analog reproduction, and the roughness on the top surface is made flat by cutting or grinding. Thereafter, a yoke type MR head 100b for digital reproduction is further formed on the flattened passivation layer 78, and then a passivation layer 85 is further formed thereon. Thus, two reproducing heads are stacked on the same substrate.
However, the first example of the conventional head configuration has the following problem. As the density of magnetic recording has come to be higher and higher and the wavelength for recording becomes shorter and shorter recently, it becomes very important to minimize the spacing loss between the magnetic tape medium and the head. However, it is very difficult to minimize the spaces between the three heads and the magnetic tape surface in the first example of the prior art.
In addition, it is also very difficult to assemble the three head chips with the mutual track positions aligned with high precision. Since the cost of the head is proportional to the number of chips, the smaller number of chips is preferred in view of cost.
In other words, a head having two chips at most is desired as the head for the DCC system.
The second example of the prior art has two chips, and therefore it solves the above mentioned problem-of the chip number. However, the process for forming reproducing heads by thin films on the substrate takes at least twice as many steps for separately forming the digital reproducing head and the analog reproducing head. In addition, the total thickness of the thin films laminated on the substrate becomes is at least twice as thick. This increases the number of possible defects derived from increased strain of the substrate, and the thin film peeling between layers and entrance of dust. Consequently, production yields in the wafer process and in the assembly process are considerably decreased compared with the heads formed separately on the semiconductor substrates.

Combined thin film magnetic head formed over a substrate trench


When printing is performed by dividing a thermal printer head into segmented blocks, the number of dots to be printed in one line is changed, depending on the case, high-speed printing with a small division number of the segmented blocks, or low-speed printing with a large division number of the segmented blocks. When the division number of the segmented blocks is large and printing is performed at a low speed, paper feeding within one line is performed by multiple pitches to prevent the paper sheet from halting in one line, and energization is performed for each pitch to prevent occurrence of gaps between dots and between lines, by increasing the number of dots to be printed in one line. In the multiple pitches in one line, the ratio of energization amount to be fed in each pitch is changed to reduce a difference in density among pitches in one line. Accordingly, when printing is performed by using segmented blocks of the thermal printer head, even though the division number of the segmented blocks is large and printing is performed at a low speed, printing without generating a gap between dots is possible.

The thermal printer is a device for carrying out a print operation by driving multiple heating elements that constitute a thermal head in the form of a line. A maximum number of dots that can be driven simultaneously among all the heating elements arranged in the form of a line are subjected to a time-sharing drive.
A reason why such time-sharing drive is employed is as the following; if all the heating elements are driven simultaneously, power consumption is increased and the voltage applied on each of the heating elements is lowered. Lowering of the voltage that is applied on each of the heating elements may cause a deterioration of print density and uneven print quality.
In view of the problem above, the maximum number of dots that can be driven simultaneously is preset, and the heating elements arranged in one line is segmented and driven in units of some heating elements, the number of which corresponds to the maximum number of dots being preset as described above. By way of example, if the maximum number of dots that can be simultaneously driven is preset as 64 dots among the thermal head in which 256 dots of heating elements are arranged in one line, the one line is divided by four (4=256/64), and four times of driving are performed using 64 dots as a unit, so as to drive all of the dots within one line.
FIG. 18 illustrates the drive of the thermal head using the segmented blocks. Here, the thermal head 200 is made up of the heating elements 201 being connected with one another, the total number of which is N. If it is assumed that the number of the heating elements that is allowed to be energized simultaneously is n, under to the constraint of power supply capacity, the heating elements 201, the total number of which is N, are segmented into the blocks, each including n heating elements 201, according to the relationship between the total number N and the simultaneous-energization possible number n, and then, power feeding is performed for each of the segmented blocks. FIG. 18 illustrates the case where the number of the segmented blocks is assumed as eight.
FIG. 18A illustrates a drive state when the total number of dots to be energized in one line is less than the simultaneous-energization possible number n. If the number of dots to be energized is small, it is possible to energize one line at one time, thereby shortening a print cycle and raising a print speed. FIG. 18B illustrates a drive state when the total number of dots to be energized in one line is more than the simultaneous-energization possible number n. If the number of dots to be energized is large, it is not possible to energize one line at one time due to the constraint of the power supply capacity, and therefore, the energization is performed for each of the segmented blocks. Accordingly, the print cycle becomes longer and the print speed is lowered.
A larger maximum number of dots possible for the simultaneous drive may achieve a higher print speed. However, as described above, if the number of dots of the heating elements that are simultaneously driven is increased, the voltage drop may be enlarged by that much, an output voltage of the power supply becomes equal to or lower than a voltage level that guarantees proper operation, and a proper print operation is not guaranteed.
The voltage drop depends on inner electrical resistance of the power supply, resistance of the head, resistance of the other parts, and the like, and those resistance values are variable depending on production tolerance and electrical property. Therefore, conventionally, the factors above are considered, and the maximum number of dots possible for the simultaneous drive is preset assuming that the voltage of the power outlet terminal is under the worst condition being anticipated.
The heating elements within one line are segmented into blocks and energization is performed in units of the segmented block, whereby it is possible to resolve the constraints of power supply capacity. However, there is a problem that the configuration above may result in proportionately lowered print speed. As a method for resolving such lowering of the print speed, it is known that the cycle is set to be variable according to the number of segmented blocks.
However, it has been pointed out that if the speed is set to be variable, a printed dot length is also made variable, thereby causing another problem that a difference occurs in the length of printing.
FIG. 19A and FIG. 19B illustrate fluctuations of the print length, due to the variable print speed. In FIG. 19B, the dot length is represented by the product (v·t) of a speed v for transporting a print sheet and a pulse width t for feeding power into the heating element. A difference in the transport speed may cause a difference between the dot length Lf (=vf·t) when the print sheet is transported at a high transport speed vf, and the dot length Ls (vs·t) when the print sheet is transported at a low transport speed vs. As shown in FIG. 19B, this difference in the dot length L appears in the form of gap d between the lines.
In order to solve the problem above, there is suggested a drive method in which the print speed is made variable according to the division number when segmented into blocks, as well as the energization pulse width for energizing the heating element is made variable according to the print speed (see Patent document 1).
FIG. 19C and FIG. 19D illustrate the drive method in which the energization pulse width for energizing the heating element is made variable according to the print speed. Here, the energization pulse width is assumed as t when the print speed is high, and when the print speed is low, the energization pulse width is assumed as t′, which is set to be longer than t. By setting the energization pulse width to be variable, the dot length Ls in the case of the low transport speed vs is adjusted to vs·t′, which agrees with the dot length Lf in the case of the high transport speed vf, thereby resolving the difference in dot length L that is caused by the speed difference.    Patent document 1: Japanese Examined Patent Application Publication No. 8-25291    Patent document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 6-191080


A nanoparticle which includes a multi-armed core and surface decoration which is attached to the core is prepared. A multi-armed core is provided by any of a number of possible routes, exemplary preferred routes being living anionic polymerization that is initiated by a reactive, functionalized anionic initiator and ∈-caprolactone polymerization of a bis-MPA dendrimer. The multi-armed core is preferably functionalized on some or all arms. A coupling reaction is then employed to bond surface decoration to one or more arms of the multi-armed core. The surface decoration is a small molecule or oligomer with a degree of polymerization less than 50, a preferred decoration being a PEG oligomer with degree of polymerization between 2 and 24. The nanoparticles (particle size ≦10 nm) are employed as sacrificial templating porogens to form porous dielectrics. The porogens are mixed with matrix precursors (e.g., methyl silsesquioxane resin), the matrix vitrifies, and the porogens are removed via burnout. Greater porosity reduces the dielectric constant k of the resulting dielectrics. The porous dielectrics are incorporated into integrated circuits as lower k alternatives to silicon dioxide.

There is considerable interest in materials with low dielectric constants for use in integrated circuit manufacturing. Integrated circuits consist primarily of transistors and other devices interconnected by wires. The wires are separated from other wires and from the integrated circuit substrate by dielectric films which must be deposited onto the integrated circuit during its manufacturing process. The common dielectric material used in integrated circuits was for decades silicon dioxide, whose dielectric constant k lies between 3.9 and 4.2. Generally speaking the capacitance of wires to ground and to other wires in an integrated circuit will be proportional to the dielectric constant of the dielectric material which separates them. The time for a signal to propagate over a wire in an integrated circuit is related to the product RC, R being the resistance of the wire and C its capacitance to ground. Thus, a reduction of the dielectric constant, leading to a reduction in C, would speed signal propagation and so would tend to make integrated circuits faster. A reduction in dielectric constant would also reduce the power required for signal propagation, which is also approximately proportional to C. Because of this, it is desirable to manufacture integrated circuits which use a dielectric with a significantly lower dielectric constant than silicon dioxide.
To achieve a modest improvement in dielectric constant, silicon dioxide has been replaced in some cases by fluorinated silicon dioxide, resulting in k=3.6-3.8. Lower k alternatives are planned for the 90 nm generation of integrated circuit processes. The dielectric in many such processes will be a carbon-doped oxide (CDO) deposited by CVD deposition of silicon-containing precursors. Carbon-doped oxides will deliver dielectric constants ranging from 2.9-3.1 depending on the precursor and process.
Among the techniques which have been studied for obtaining materials with a lower dielectric constant for use in integrated circuit fabrication is the formation of porous materials. The pores are filled with air and thus reduce the dielectric constant of the overall material, given that the dielectric constant of air is about 1.01.
Generally speaking, porosity in a thin film can be introduced by a variety of means, for example by introducing free volume, by packing shape persistent objects, by using porous matrix particles, or by the introduction of sacrificial pore generators (porogens).
Porogen materials which have been studied include isolated small molecules (cyclodextrins, calixarenes), self-assembled supramolecular structures (e.g., surfactants forming micelles), or polymeric materials. See in this regard W. Volksen et al., "Porous Organosilicates for On-Chip Applications: Dielectric Generational Extendibity by the Introduction of Porosity," in Low Dielectric Constant Materials for IC Applications, P. S. Ho, J. Leu, W. W. Lee eds., chapter 6 (Springer-Verlag 2002); J. L. Hedrick et al., Adv. Mater. 1998, 10(13), 993; J. L. Hedrick et al., Chem. Eur. J. 2002, 8(15), 3309; J.-H. Yim et al., Adv. Funct. Mater. 2003, 13, 382 (discussing cyclodextrins); P. J. Bruinsma et al., Proc. Mater. Res. Soc. 1997, 443, 105; C. J. Brinker et al., Adv. Mater. 1999, 11(7), 579; D. Zhao et al., Science 1998, 279, 548; D. Zhao et al., Adv. Mater. 1998, 10(16), 1380.
Porogens would generally be used in the following manner. Precursors to a suitable dielectric matrix would be mixed in particular proportions with the porogen. The matrix precursors would then be processed to form the matrix, commonly undergoing some sort of vitrification. Once the matrix is formed, the porogens would be eliminated, typically by heating (burnout), leaving voids. Matrices for the manufacture of dielectrics can be, for example, inorganic thermosets, silsesquioxanes, organic silicas, or organic thermosetting resins, such as SiLK (Dow Chemical Company).
Polymeric materials can give rise to pores in a matrix in at least two ways. One way involves nucleation and growth (N&G) with kinetically arrested domain formation. For this route, the polymer must be initially miscible in the matrix polymer but becomes immiscible during the vitrification of the matrix resin, resulting in the formation of small domains of isolated pore-generating polymer. With appropriate processing, the growth of these nanodomains is arrested by the vitrifying matrix and pore sizes remain small when the polymer is removed via burnout. Porogens in an N&G approach can be simple linear homo and block copolymers if the incorporated functionality interacts strongly with that of the resin precursor. Where there is a weaker interaction, the porogens are preferably multi-armed stars to improve resin compatibility. The ultimate size of the pores depends on porogen structure, molecular weight and loading level, the nature of the matrix resin prepolymer, and the processing conditions. In general, the number of variables in play makes N&G procedures difficult to control.
A second approach to the formation of pores utilizes templating porogens to direct the vitrification of the matrix around the porogen. Templating porogens often lead to more regular structures and are, in general, simpler to control.
A type of templating process which has been studied involves dynamic self-assembly of the porogen into regular structures within the matrix which template the vitrification of organosilicate monomers. An example of this type of process would be the formation of mesoporous silica formed using monomeric or polymeric surfactants.
Alternately, vitrification may be templated with polymers which are either true nanoparticles because they are crosslinked, or which show particle-like behavior. In these cases, the particles are not strictly speaking miscible with the matrix resin, but they are compatibilized with that resin in order to prevent them from experiencing macroscopic aggregation. Crosslinked particles produced by microemulsion polymerization constitute examples of this approach which have been experimented on in both organosilicates and organic polymers. See in this regard M. Antonietti et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 1998, 27, 1743; D. Mecerreyes et al., Adv. Mater. 2001, 13(3), 204; U.S. Pat. No. 6,391,932 to R. H. Gore et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,420,441 to C. S. Allen; U.S. Pat. No. 6,271,273 to Y. You et al.; WO 00/31183 to K. J. Bruza et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,653,358 to K. J. Bruza et al. When employing crosslinked particles as templates, judicious control of the functionality by controlling the sequence of monomer addition and reaction conditions is employed in order to produce adequately small particles with functionality which is compatible with the matrix material. Highly crosslinked particles often have a significant char yield which effects the intrinsic efficiency of pore generation.
Materials which are not highly crosslinked may exhibit particle-like behavior and be suitable as porogens. In particular, soft colloids can also display particle-like behavior in polymeric matrices without the need for extensive crosslinking. See in this regard E. F. Connor et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2003, 42(32), 3785; R. D. Miller et al. in Polymers for Microelectronics and Nanoelectronics, Q. Lin, R. A. Pearson, J. C. Hedrick eds. (ACS Symposium Ser. No. 874, American Chemical Soc. 2004). It is a feature of this approach that a single porogen particle results in a single pore, so there is no need to achieve control of aggregation or precipitation dynamics of porogen particles. In this approach it is important that the porogens remain dispersed during matrix formation and do not aggregate.
In this approach, particles used as porogens are preferably unimolecular polymeric amphiphiles with a core which is highly incompatible with the matrix resin through the whole vitrification process and an outer corona which is compatible with that resin. With an amphiphile of this type, even though the core collapses into a dense ball, the amphiphilic particles may tend to remain dispersed because of the interaction of the corona with the matrix resin. In this situation, the ultimate size of the pore could either be that of the collapsed core alone, if the corona stays miscible throughout vitrification, or that of the entire particle assuming that the corona also collapses and becomes immiscible as the matrix vitrifies. U.S. Pat. No. 6,399,666 describes the use of certain unimolecular polymeric amphiphiles as porogens in organosilicate matrix materials.
The amphiphilic particles of U.S. Pat. No. 6,399,666 were produced using tandem polymerization procedures. Other references relevant to successive tandem polymerization include R. D. Miller et al. in Polymers for Microelectronics and Nanoelectronics, Q. Lin, R. A. Pearson, J. C. Hedrick eds. (ACS Symposium Ser. No. 874, American Chemical Soc. 2004); J. L. Hedrick et al., Macromolecules 1998, 31, 8691; S. Angot et al., Macromolecules 1998, 31, 7218; and J. Ueda et al., Macromolecules 1998, 31, 6762.
There are some drawbacks to the use of tandem polymerization techniques to produce amphiphilic porogens. First, to make tandem polymerization highly efficient one should achieve good control of molecular weights and polydispersities for two consecutive polymerizations. This is potentially difficult to achieve. Such control is particularly needed where the intent is to use the resulting particles in a templating process where one particle produces one pore and the porosity size distribution mirrors the molecular weight distribution of the particles. Second, the latent initiator sites for the second polymerization must be carried unchanged through the first polymerization and must remain available for transformation into the active initiator for the second polymerization. Typically, some of these sites are lost during the first polymerization and are therefore unavailable for the second. Third, the scale up of any process involving two consecutive polymerizations is difficult because it requires two yield-reducing polymer purification steps to separate the desired product from homopolymer and other contaminants. When carried out on a large scale, this may require multiple solvent precipitations from large volumes of solvent. Fourth, successive tandem polymerization is most appropriate for applications that require particle sizes in the 25-75 nm range. Difficulty is experienced in achieving lower particle sizes, perhaps on account of the difficulty of controlling a polymerization to generate many arms, each with very low degrees of polymerization, particularly when using core-out procedures. In addition, it is common to use atom transfer radical polymerization procedures (ATRP) to produce the corona using polar monomers such as substituted acrylates and methacrylates. (For background on the use of ATRP see T. E. Patton et al., Adv. Mater. 1998, 10(12), 901.) Although polar coronas can be produced with ATRP, this polarity is introduced by the monomer side chains (PEG, hydroxyethyl, etc.) while the backbone remains relatively hydrophobic, diluting the effect of the polar side chain. The result is that the degree of polymerization of each arm in the corona must be increased make the strongly hydrophobic core compatible in polar matrix media.
For these reasons, there is a need for alternative synthetic routes for producing unimolecular porogens which overcome the drawbacks of tandem polymerization and other available techniques.

Surface-decorated polymeric amphiphile porogens for the templation of a nanoporous materials

International Business Machines Corporation


The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for performing adjustment to optimize the voltage for each distribution network in a power distribution system. The apparatus for adjusting a voltage in the power distribution system adjusts the voltage by switching a switch that lies on a path in the power distribution system. The apparatus determines a switch that is to become a switching target from among switches lying on the path, obtains a voltage optimization value of the determined switching target switch, selects a switch having the minimum voltage optimization value by changing the switching target switch to another switch in order to obtain the voltage optimization value, and adjusts the voltage through switching of the selected switch.

In a situation in which factors in the variation of voltage, such as distributed power sources and an electric vehicle charging station, are associated with a power distribution line, there is a need for an apparatus for controlling variation in voltage in a power distribution system.
Apparatuses for controlling variations in voltage in a power distribution system may include, for example, a tap switching device when a load is applied, and a capacitor bank. These apparatuses are problematic in that it is difficult to solve a voltage problem in an overall power distribution line because voltage can be controlled only on a bank basis.
In order to solve the problem, a device, such as a line voltage control device, is installed in the middle of a power distribution line. However, it is difficult to apply such a line voltage control device to a current system within a short period because the line voltage control device is expensive.
Furthermore, in methods for solving a voltage problem in a power distribution line, circulation current that may occur upon the switching of a switch is not taken into account, and an operation in conjunction with a tap switching device is not performed when a load is applied.

Apparatus and method for adjusting a voltage in a power distribution system