The present invention provides an encapment process for rapidly stabilizing and substantially reducing the volume of moisture bearing radioactive and mixed hazardous waste materials. The present process effectively utilizes polyacrylate encapsulating material in combination with equipment or systems which deliver the encapsulates to the waste material being processed. The polyacrylates may be dispersed from a pressurized vessel to stop leaks and spills, added to solid waste material to produce waste material which has no free standing liquids, or added to liquid waste material and dried to significantly reduce the volume of the waste material and produce a waste product having no free standing liquids.

The present invention relates to a method for the entrapment and minimization of hazardous moisture bearing waste material, and more specifically, to a method for entrapping the hazardous components of moisture bearing low-level radioactive and mixed waste material and substantially reducing the volume of hazardous aqueous radioactive and mixed waste material.
Various types of sorbent material are used for spill control and in the packaging of liquids, sludges, and other moisture-bearing low-level radioactive and mixed waste material. Mixed waste material is defined as waste containing both radioactive and hazardous components as defined by the Atomic Energy Act (ATEA) and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Low level waste is generally defined as waste that contains radioactivity and is not classified as high-level waste, transuranic waste ("TRU"), or spent nuclear fuel. The choice of acceptable sorbent material depends upon the characteristics and the manner of disposing of the waste material. Sorbents, such as loose clay chips, mineral silica, vermiculite, and diatomaceous earth have been used in the industry for a long time. Although relatively inexpensive, some mineral type sorbents absorb only 10 to 15 percent by weight. Many mineral sorbents are very heavy and considerably increase the volume of solid waste which must be stored or buried at designated sites that are rapidly being filled by the ever increasing volume of waste material generated each year. Other sorbents, such as vermiculite, are highly absorbent but much more compressible, making it unsuitable when compression loads must be considered. Moreover, the use of mineral sorbents is labor intensive and often creates dust problems which enhance the risk associated with handling hazardous waste materials. Cellulose and wood based sorbents, such as cotton fiber, sawdust, wood pulp, corn cob centers and other biodegradable materials, are very combustible and are suitable where the primary means of disposal is incineration. However, biodegradable sorbents may be banned from hazardous based landfills because of the potential release of dangerous chemicals to the environment.
One of the most promising materials available today for aqueous based moisture bearing wastes are the polymer sorbents known as polyacrylates. Polyacrylate sorbents are non-biodegradable, lightweight, low volume, and are incinerable. Polyacrylates are generally available in granulated or powder forms which are activated by the water in the waste material. The polyacrylates chemically bind the liquids to the polymer molecules to form new molecules as a matrix which can hold the liquid in a very stable gel-like matrix at significantly higher pressures. Polyacrylates have a very high liquid to sorbent ratio, often up to a 200 to 1 ratio. Some polyacrylates react with remarkable speed to encapsulate and retain the hazardous component of the waste material within the matrix. However, until now, no effective devices or systems have been developed which offer the benefits of polyacrylate sorbents for wide-spread use in hazardous waste clean-up and disposal operations, and particularly for radioactive waste entrapment and minimization.
In view of the foregoing, a need exists for a device and system for delivering polyacrylate sorbent material to hazardous waste spills and leaks so that the waste is contained quickly and safely. A further need exists for a system of treating contaminated soil and other moisture bearing waste material which significantly reduces the moisture content and provides a solid waste material having no free standing liquids. A need also exists for a system which stabilizes large volumes of aqueous radioactive waste material and substantially reduces the volume of the waste material to be buried or stored at waste disposal sites.

Method for entrapping and minimizing moisture bearing low-level radioactive and mixed waste material


A method and a terminal for playing an audio file in a multi-terminal cooperative manner include obtaining, by a source terminal, an audio signal frame, the audio signal frame includes a left channel signal and a right channel signal, obtaining, by the source terminal, a central channel signal and a surround channel signal based on the left channel signal and the right channel signal, obtaining, by the source terminal, a current location of a virtual sound source corresponding to the central channel signal, and generating, based on the current location and the central channel signal, a sound channel signal corresponding to the terminal in at least two sound channel signals, superposing, by the source terminal, the sound channel signal on the surround channel signal, to obtain a to-be-played sound channel signal corresponding to the terminal, and playing, by the source terminal, the to-be-played sound channel signal.

With rapid development of electronic technologies, terminals such as a personal computer, a smartphone, and a personal digital assistant (PDA) are favored by a large quantity of users due to powerful functions of the terminals, and application of the terminals is increasingly extensive.
Currently, most terminals have an audio playback function. To ensure a playback effect of an audio file or increase playback volume of an audio file, a same audio file may be cooperatively played using a plurality of terminals. In this case, different terminals may play different sub-channel files, to achieve an objective of improving a play effect of an audio file. The foregoing different terminals may also play the entire audio file, to achieve an effect of increasing play volume of the audio file. Usually, one terminal is selected from the plurality of terminals that perform the cooperative play operation as a source terminal, and another terminal different from the source terminal is used as a sink terminal. The source terminal sends a preset sub-channel file to each sink terminal based on pre-configured information, and after determining that transmission of the sub-channel file is completed in each terminal, controls the foregoing cooperative play process of the plurality of terminals.
However, in other approaches, because a preset sub-channel file is played in a mobile phone, a sound surround effect brought to a user is not strong.

Method and terminal for playing audio file in multi-terminal cooperative manner


A vacuum cleaner that includes a first dirt-separation stage, a second dirt-separation stage, and a vacuum motor for moving air through the first dirt-separation stage and the second dirt-separation stage. The vacuum motor has a centrifugal impeller driven by an electric motor. The first dirt-separation stage is then located upstream of the impeller, the second dirt-separation stage is located downstream of the impeller, and the second dirt-separation stage has a plurality of cyclonic separators that are arranged around the vacuum motor.

A vacuum cleaner typically comprises a vacuum motor that pulls dirt-laden air through one or more dirt-separation stages. As the air is drawn through the vacuum cleaner, there is a pressure drop across each dirt-separation stage. Consequently, the suction power generated at the inlet of the vacuum cleaner is significantly less than the suction power generated by the unrestricted vacuum motor. The suction power at the inlet may be increased by employing a more powerful vacuum motor. However, this inevitably increases the cost, size, weight and/or power consumption of the vacuum cleaner.

Vacuum cleaner with motor between separation stages


A method of making a polycrystalline diamond cutter element includes forming a blend, comprising a first particle size of polycrystalline diamond particles and a second particle size of polycrystalline diamond particles; forming a suspension of nanocrystalline diamond particles suspended in a solvent; and mixing the blend into the suspension to form a polycrystalline diamond mixture comprising nanocrystalline diamond coated polycrystalline diamond particles. The mixture is sintered with a substrate at high temperature and high pressure to form the polycrystalline diamond cutter element.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to earth-boring drill bits used to drill a borehole for the ultimate recovery of oil, gas, or minerals. More particularly, the invention relates to diamond coated cutter elements for drill bits and methods for making such cutter elements. Still more particularly, the invention relates to cutter elements comprised of nanocrystalline diamond coated micron or sub-micron diamond particles that promote sintering by enhancing solution and re-precipitation to form a greater number of diamond-to-diamond bonds per unit area.
2. Background of the Invention
The cost of drilling a borehole for recovery of hydrocarbons is very high, and is proportional to the length of time it takes to drill to the desired depth and location. The time required to drill the well, in turn, is greatly affected by the number of times the drill bit must be changed before reaching the targeted formation. This is the case because each time the bit is changed, the entire string of drill pipe, which may be miles long, must be retrieved from the borehole, section by section. Once the drill string has been retrieved and the new bit installed, the bit must be lowered to the bottom of the borehole on the drill string, which again must be constructed section by section. As is thus obvious, this process, known as a "trip" of the drill string, requires considerable time, effort and expense. Accordingly, it is desirable to employ drill bits which will drill faster and longer, and which are usable over a wider range of formation hardness.
An earth-boring drill bit is typically mounted on the lower end of a drill string and is rotated by rotating the drill string at the surface or by actuation of downhole motors or turbines, or by both methods. With weight applied to the drill string, the rotating drill bit engages the earthen formation and proceeds to form a borehole along a predetermined path toward a target zone. The borehole thus created will have a diameter generally equal to the diameter or "gage" of the drill bit. The length of time that such a drill bit may be employed before it must be changed depends upon a variety of factors. These factors include the bit's rate of penetration ("ROP"), as well as its durability or ability to maintain a high or acceptable ROP.
Many different types of drill bits and cutting structures for bits have been developed. Two predominant types of drill bits are roller cone bits and fixed cutter bits, also known as rotary drag bits. A common fixed cutter bit has a plurality of blades angularly spaced about the bit face. The blades generally project radially outward along the bit body and form flow channels therebetween. Cutter elements are typically mounted on the blades. Durability of a drill is in part dependent upon the cutter elements' abrasion resistance, toughness and ability to resist thermal degradation.
The cutter elements disposed on a fixed cutter bit are typically formed of extremely hard materials and include a layer of polycrystalline diamond ("PD") material. In the typical fixed cutter bit, each cutter element comprises an elongate and generally cylindrical support member which is received and secured in a pocket formed in the surface of one of the several blades. In addition, each cutter element typically has a hard cutting layer of polycrystalline diamond or other super-abrasive material such as cubic boron nitride, thermally stable diamond, chemically modified or doped diamond, polycrystalline cubic boron nitride, or ultra-hard tungsten carbide (meaning a tungsten carbide material having a wear-resistance that is greater than the wear-resistance of the material forming the substrate) as well as mixtures or combinations of these materials. The cutting layer is exposed on one end of its support member, which is typically formed of tungsten carbide. For convenience, as used herein, reference to "PDC bit" or "PDC cutter element" refers to a fixed cutter bit or cutting element employing a hard cutting layer that contains polycrystalline diamond (PDC refers to Polycrystalline Diamond Compact). The hard cutting layer is also commonly referred to as a diamond layer or table.
The manufacture of polycrystalline diamond may use high pressure and high temperature. Initially, pressure is increased causing the diamond crystals to be pushed against each other with increasing force. These particles move relative to each other and often fragment, increasing the powder apparent density. A coarse powder displays a higher degree of crushing than a finer one, as the average number of contact points per unit volume is much higher for fine powders, and therefore fine powders display a lower contact stress and lower probability for fragmentation.
Secondly, during manufacturing, when the compacted powder is under full pressure, the temperature is raised. The diamond powder is typically packed against a WC—Co substrate, often the origin of the catalyst metal (Co) that induces sintering. In other instances, the catalyst metal may be directly mixed with the diamond powder prior to sintering. When the catalyst metal (e.g., cobalt) reaches its melting point, it is forced into the open porosities or (interstities) left within the layer of compacted powder. Sintering takes place through carbon dissolution and precipitation and reduction of internal energy, whereby the cobalt acts as a catalyst to facilitate the intergrowth process between the diamond particles or grains, which results in bonds between adjacent diamond grains, and formation of grain boundaries.
Densification is determined by the pressure and by the contact area relative to the cross-sectional area of the particles. The reaction speed is proportional to the temperature and to the average effective pressure, which is the actual contact pressure between particles. The sintering process is therefore faster if both the contact pressure and the temperature are increased. Smaller grain size and better packing result in lower contact pressure; therefore sintering PDC of very small particle size may utilize higher pressures and temperatures.
Typically, the smaller the size of the diamond crystals sintered together, the higher the wear abrasion resistance, but the lower the impact strength or toughness of the resulting PDC. With larger diamond particle sizes, a lower abrasion resistance is observed, but an increased toughness is achieved. Diamond compacts have limited heat resistance and thus experience high thermal wear. At atmospheric pressure, a diamond's surface turns to graphite at about 900° C. In a vacuum or in inert gas, diamond does not graphitize easily, even at about 1,400° C. However during use, conventional PDC cutters experience a decline in cutting performance around 750° C., a temperature that the cutting edge can easily reach due to frictional heating that occurs in hard, abrasive rock.
Flash temperatures which are extremely high localized temperatures at the microscopic level, can be much higher, exceeding the melting temperature of cobalt (1,495° C.). The presence of cobalt is believed to be the reason that PDC converts to graphite at a lower temperature than simple diamond.
When temperatures increase, graphitization of the diamond in the presence of cobalt becomes a dominant effect. Diamond wear is then due to an allotropic transformation into graphite or amorphous carbon under the influence of localized frictional heating. This transformation is accelerated in the presence of cobalt through a combination of mechanical and chemical effects. For example, the shear resistance of the cobalt drops rapidly, and the grains are not strongly held, leading to additional damage to the surface. It is also known that the real area of contact depends on the velocity with which plastic strains are propagated in the metal binder. The shearing occurs so rapidly that full plastic yielding under the normal load is not possible.
In addition, there is a significant difference between the thermal expansion coefficients of cobalt and diamond. During heating, cobalt expands at a higher rate than diamond. The amount of thermal stress in the diamond table increases, and the structure breaks down. The cobalt between the diamond crystals expands and breaks the diamond-to-diamond bonds, allowing for chipping and cracking of the diamond grains from the PD table.
PDC cutters can be categorized by their abrasion resistance, impact resistance and thermal stability, and it is difficult to achieve all three properties maximized in one cutter variant. In general, a cutter that is highly abrasion resistant is characterized by fine diamond particle/grain size, and a cutter that is highly impact resistant is characterized by a coarse particle/grain size.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for a fixed cutter bit with a cutting structure capable of enhancing bit ROP, and bit durability. Such cutting structures would be particularly well-received if they included PD material with enhanced bonding between diamond grains to provide improved resistance to mechanical failure and thermal properties. As such, embodiments disclosed herein address the requirement for improved thermal stability in PDC cutting elements, and further embodiments provide PDC cutting elements with characteristics to impart high abrasive resistance and high impact strength as compared to certain conventional cutters known in the art.

Preparation of nanocrystalline diamond coated diamond particles and applications thereof


A floating drum turbine is used for generating the electrical energy from the kinetic energy of a water stream (sea wave or river flow) that provides the mechanical energy needed to rotate an electrical generator for generating the electricity. The drum turbine is installed on a buoyant skid anchored to the seabed by some chains/ropes to keep it in a fixed position and direction along the water stream. The turbine is coupled to an electrical generator with a power transmission system, and generates the electricity that is transferred to the coast using a cable system floated on the water surface.

The field of this invention is about the floating water turbines for generating the electricity using the kinetic energy of a water stream (sea wave or river flow). The known technology of the water turbines includes a floating water turbine having some vanes/blades rotated by a water stream that converts the kinetic energy of the water stream into the electrical energy.
The inventor is aware of the following patents related to the similar water turbines:
U.S. Pat. No. 672,085 (1901), issued to Tingley,
U.S. Pat. No. 1,830,985 (1931), issued to Dreier,
U.S. Pat. No. 4,849,647 (1989), issued to McKenzie,
U.S. Pat. No. 5,946,909 (1999), issued to Szpur,
U.S. Pat. No. 0,026,762 (2013), issued to Rajadhyaksha,
U.S. Pat. No. 0,210,211 (2014), issued to Swamidass,
The Tingley's U.S. Pat. No. 672,085, a wave motor capable of responding to the motion of waves and constructed to utilize wave-power in the production of continuous rotary motion.
The Dreier's U.S. Pat. No. 1,830,985, a floating water wheel capable of being turned by the water current, and being capable of operating at various angles in the water. It is possible to join some unit water wheels, where an increase in power is desired.
The McKenzie's U.S. Pat. No. 4,849,647, a floating water turbine for taking the kinetic energy from the linear current flow and converting it into the mechanical energy and subsequently into electrical energy. The turbine is constructed of a buoyant material to support itself on top of the water, thereby eliminating any drag from the apparatus.
The Szpur's U.S. Pat. No. 5,946,909, a series of floating turbine rotors each having a tubular hub with outwardly projecting blades, and the rotors are connected in general axial alignment by a flexible driven shaft. The shaft includes tubular floating connector shafts and flexible couplings, and each rotor is connected to drive the shaft through a one-way ratchet clutch. One or more lines of the connected floating rotors are anchored within the moving water of a river or in the waves flowing into a seashore, and the rotors drive each flexible shaft which drives an electric generator.
The Rajadhyaksha's U.S. Pat. No. 0,026,762, a hydrokinetic water turbine system, including two turbine assemblies each having a frame structure, a horizontally disposed shaft supported by the frame structure, and a rotor secured to the shaft. The rotor has a plurality of spaced-apart blades so that the flowing stream of water revolves the rotor. The two turbine assemblies are secured side by side with shafts coaxial and the rotors rotating in opposite directions. The shafts can drive electric generators located out of the water or under the water.
The Swamidass' s U.S. Pat. No. 0,210,211, the water turbines on the surface of moving water that can capture hydrokinetic energy from waves, currents and other flows. This invention uses a novel system to keep the horizontal-axis water turbines and vertical-axis water turbines operating on the surface of water by mounting them on bridge columns, seawalls, oil rigs, piers and similar structures to capture energy from the moving water next to said structures.

Floating drum turbine for electricity generation


A disk drive has a disk format that includes servo fields and interspersed data fields. The disk drive includes a timing generator for generating timing signals to synchronize and control operation of read/write and servo positioning circuits. The disk drive also includes a writable program store that stores a plurality of timing signal commands for generating timing signals in conformance with the format of a disk. A processor loads the writable program store with the timing signal commands and the processor further enables readout of those commands from the writable program store. An execution register receives the timing signal commands and generates timing signals in response, the timing signals controlling synchronization and operation of the read/write circuits. As the writable program store is reprogrammable, at will, substantial flexibility is achieved in the creation of such timing signals.

Present day disk drives employ a number of servo control techniques for controlling transducer positioning. Larger form-factor disk drives employ a dedicated servo surface on one disk platter to enable the generation of signals for servo control of head position. In such larger disk drives, this is a practical technique for servo generation since those drives contain multiple platters, yielding many surfaces. The dedication of one surface to servo signals subjects the disk drive to a "servo overhead" which is tolerable. For instance, in an eight platter drive, the "servo overhead", using a dedicated servo surface is only 6.25%.
Smaller form-factor disk drives (e.g. 31/2" or smaller) generally contain one or two disks. In such a drive, if one surface of a disk is dedicated to servo information, the overhead can be as high as 50% which is unacceptable. To minimize the servo overhead in these smaller disk drives, servo information has been embedded into the data tracks and is distributed throughout the track. Since the servo and data fields are thereby contiguous, differentiation between them becomes critical to proper operation of the disk drive.
Before a disk drive can be operated to store data, the disks must be formatted. Such formatting involves the partitioning of each recording surface into a plurality of pie-shaped sectors, each sector including a single servo burst. Since each disk track has a different linear velocity from every other track on the disk, signals written at a constant frequency do not exhibit a constant data density from track to track. For instance, a servo burst written at a constant frequency in a sector of an inner track will occupy less linear distance on the inner track than a constant frequency servo burst written on a more radially distant outer track. Nevertheless, servo bursts are written using constant frequency signals across the tracks. In such a case, radially aligned servo bursts occupy different linear distances in their respective tracks, but radially aligned servo bursts occupy an identical time window in each track (the angular velocity of each track is identical). Thus, a timing signal generated to window a servo burst and various signal segments therein can be made the same for each track irrespective of the radial distance of the track from a disk's spindle axis.
If constant frequency recording is used for data, as it is for servo bursts, the density of data in outer tracks is much less than for data in inner tracks and the resultant storage efficiency of the disk drive suffers. Many hard-disk disk drives therefore employ a method of recording termed "constant density" recording. More specifically, data is written in each track (or in a zone of tracks) so that the signal density is nearly constant across all tracks and more specifically from recording zone to recording zone. As a result, the frequency of recording of such data in greater radius tracks is higher than the frequency of recording in the more radially-inner tracks. Notwithstanding that data in larger radius tracks is recorded at a lesser density than data in smaller radius tracks, servo bursts are still recorded at a constant frequency. This fact enables timing control generators (used in constant density recording disk drives) to generate a single set of timing windows for all servo signals, irrespective of which track is being accessed.
In prior art disk drives, servo synchronization and timing-window generation circuitry has generally been of the hard-wired variety. If, during development, or for subsequent engineering change purposes, the formats of the servo or data fields were changed, a new timing generator was constructed and substituted for the outdated version. Such redesign and substitution required a long lead time and was expensive.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a disk drive with a servo timing generator that is readily alterable to accommodate changed track formats.
It is another object of this invention to provide a disk drive servo timing generator that is programmably alterable.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a programmable servo timing generator that may be reconfigured either statically or on-the-fly.


To improve feature selection accuracy during a visual search, interest points within a query image are two-way matched to features in an affine transformed image or otherwise transformed version of the query image. A user device implements a method for selecting local descriptors in the visual search. The method includes: detecting a first set of interest points for the original image; computing an affine transform matrix; computing a new image as a transformation of the original image using the affine transform matrix; detecting a second set of interest points from the and new image; performing a two-way matching between the first set of interest points and the second set of interest points; sorting matching pairs according to a specified self-matching score (SMS); assigning an infinite value to SMS of unmatched interest points from the original image; selecting the interest points based on SMS. Significant performance gains reduce false positive matches.

Mobile query-by-capture applications (or "apps") are growing in popularity. Snap Tell is a music, book, video or video game shopping app that allows searching for price comparisons based on a captured image of the desired product. Vuforia is a platform for app development including vision-based image recognition. Google and Baidu likewise offer visual search capabilities.
Among the technical challenges posed by such functionality is efficient image indexing and visual search query processing. In particular, processing visual search requests transmitted over wireless communications systems necessitates consideration of bandwidth usage by the request process.
There is, therefore, a need in the art for efficient visual search request processing.

Robust keypoint feature selection for visual search with self matching score


Disclosed is a charge-controlling semiconductor integrated circuit including: a current-controlling MOS transistor; a current detection circuit including a 1/N size current-detecting MOS transistor; and a gate voltage control circuit, wherein the current detection circuit includes an operational amplifier circuit, a bias condition of the current-detecting MOS transistor becomes same as the current-controlling MOS transistor based on an operational amplifier circuit output, voltage drops in lines from drain electrode to a corresponding input point of the operational amplifier circuit become the same by a parasitic resistance, and when the output of the operational amplifier circuit is applied to a control terminal of the bias condition controlling transistor, the drain voltages become the same potential, and the line from the drain electrode of the current-detecting MOS transistor to the input point is formed to be redundantly arranged inside the chip so that a parasitic resistance becomes a predetermined value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power-controlling semiconductor integrated circuit which includes a current detection circuit and controls a power depending on detected current, and relates to, for example, an effective technique when being used in a charge-controlling IC (semiconductor integrated circuit) mounting a charge-controlling circuit.
2. Description of Related Art
A charging apparatus for a secondary battery uses an IC having a charge-controlling circuit to control a charging current with a charge-controlling transistor composed of a MOSFET (insulated gate field effect transistor; hereinafter referred to as MOS transistor) provided between an input terminal to which a direct voltage from an AD adapter is input and an output terminal to which the secondary battery is connected.
Conventionally, in such charge-controlling IC, current flowing through a current-controlling transistor is detected during a preliminary charge or rapid charge so that charging current is controlled to be constant. As a method for detecting charging current in such constant current mode, there has been known a method where a current-detecting sense resistance is connected in series with a current-controlling transistor so that current is detected based on a voltage drop amount in the resistance This method can detect current with a relatively-high degree of accuracy, but since current flowing through the sense resistance is large, there is a problem that a power loss in the sense resistance is large so that power efficiency lowers.
Consequently, there has been proposed a method where a transistor of smaller size than a current-controlling transistor is connected in parallel with the current-controlling transistor, a gate voltage same as that of the current-controlling transistor is applied to the smaller transistor to generate current which is scaled down to charging current in a current mirror to flow the generated current through the sense resistance so that current is detected based on a voltage drop amount in the resistance This method has an advantage that power efficiency is improved because the current flowing through the sense resistance is small, but there is a problem that since a bias condition of the current-detecting transistor is different from that of the current-controlling transistor due to load variation or the like, it is impossible to flow accurately scaled-down current, and a detection accuracy lowers.
On the other hand, there has been proposed an invention to improve current detection accuracy in driving/controlling of a power transistor by providing a current-detecting transistor current-mirror-connected to the power transistor, and a bias-controlling transistor connected in series with the current-detecting transistor, by providing a difference amplifier whose inputs are drain voltages of the power transistor and the current-detecting transistor, and whose output terminal is connected to a gate terminal of the bias-controlling transistor, so that a bias condition of the current-detecting transistor becomes same as that of an outputting transistor by an imaginary short function of the difference amplifier (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-259902).
The inventors of the present application have been tried to apply a current detection technique of current mirror system using an operation amplifier to the charge-controlling circuit. As a result, it becomes clear that though current detection with a relatively-high degree of accuracy can be performed when one of a plurality of cells is used for current detection in driving/controlling of a multi-cell type power MOSFET, there is a problem that in the case of a charge-controlling semiconductor integrated that the inventers intend to apply, where the current-controlling transistor and the control circuit thereof are formed on one semiconductor chip, variation in manufacturing processes misaligns a size ratio of the current-controlling transistor and the current-detecting transistor and a desired value so that current detection accuracy lowers.

Charge-controlling semiconductor integrated circuit


A system for changing a removable sleeve on a printing roller in a flexographic printing press is disclosed. Axially fixed bearing assemblies are installed on the mandrel of the printing roll, and positioned in a split bearing block. In changing the printing sleeve, at least one bearing block is opened to release the bearing assemblies as the mandrel is raised and fitted with a removable axial extension. The axial extension is then braced to support the roll in a raised position. The printing sleeve can then be axially extracted onto the extension, clearing the printing roller and the frame of the printing press. A second brace is then applied intermediate the printing roller and the extracted printing sleeve. Withdrawal of the first brace allows the printing sleeve to be entirely removed while the partially dismounted printing roller is stabilized by the second brace. A replacement printing sleeve is then placed over the axial extension, and the process reversed.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a printing press of the type having a removable printing sleeve on a printing roll. Such presses are typically used for flexographic printing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Demountable printing sleeves are now common in the art of flexographic printing, and a variety of techniques for fitting and demounting such sleeves on printing rolls are known. A typical modern printing sleeve is disclosed in Julian, U.S. Pat. No. 4,144,812.
While the art of moving a printing sleeve on and off a printing roll is well developed, the need to manipulate the printing roll itself during the exchange continues to present a serious bottleneck in the operation of flexographic printing presses. In most printing presses the entire printing roll has to be removed from the printing machine, and then replaced after the printing sleeve is changed. This is tedious, labor intensive, and results in a high level of unproductive time for the printing press.
In Hollis, U.S. Pat. No. 4,119,032, it is shown that a printing sleeve can be removed from a printing roll while the roll remains substantially in its working position. In the Hollis apparatus, the printing roll rides in a bearing block assembly, the entire assembly being axially removable from the mandrel of the roll. During the interval when the roll is deprived of the bearing block's support, it is maintained in position by a counterpoise that bears downward on the opposite end of the roll mandrel. Once the bearing block is removed, the printing sleeve can be slid off the roll and replaced.
Removal of bearings from the shaft of a printing rolls is difficult, particularly if the bearing is press-fitted onto the shaft. The use of set screws to prevent the bearing block from axially sliding on the shaft is likely to score the shaft, which can make subsequent removal of the bearing even more difficult. The scoring can shorten the useful life of the printing roll, and necessitate expensive re-milling in order to restore it to operating condition. Alternatively the bearing could be freely slidable on the shaft. The latter approach is used in the above noted Hollis patent; however it requires complex adjustable axial restraints to maintain the bearing in proper alignment during operation.

Method and apparatus for changing a printing sleeve


The present invention provides methods for screening for substances which inhibit the oligomerization of NEMO and/or IKK-related complexes and/or signaling pathways based on the interference with NEMO oligomerization.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention provides methods for screening for substances which inhibit the oligomerization of NEMO and/or IKK-related complexes and/or signaling pathways based on the interference with NEMO oligomerization.
2. Description of the Background
NF-κB plays a prominent role in the inducible expression of genes involved in processes like immune and inflammatory responses, cell growth and death, oncogenesis (Hayden, M. S. and Ghosh, S. (2004) Genes Dev, 18, 2195-2224). In resting cells, NF-κB is sequestered in the cytoplasm through interaction with inhibitory proteins known as IκBs (Baldwin, A. S., Jr. (1996) Annu Rev Immunol, 14, 649-683). Stimuli transducing through the TNF, Toll-like, IL-1, B and T cell receptors as well as the HTLV-1 Tax protein promote IκB phosphorylation by IκB kinases (IKK), ubiquitination and degradation. This allows NF-κB to translocate into the nucleus where it activates gene transcription (Karin, M. and Ben-Neriah, Y. (2000) Annu Rev Immunol, 18, 621-663). IKK activation proceeds from outside the cell to the cytoplasm, but it can also occur from the nucleus to the cytoplasm (Wu et al (2006a) Nat Cell Biol). The NF-κB signaling cascade can be triggered through a <<classical>> or an <<alternative>> pathway (Bonizzi, G. and Karin, M. (2004) Trends Immunol, 25, 280-288). Unlike most proinflammatory stimuli which lead to transient increase in IKK activity, the oncoprotein Tax leads to a persistent activation of IKKs through both pathways (Sun, S. C. and Yamaoka, S. (2005) Oncogene, 24, 5952-5964).
In the classical pathway, IKK activity is associated with a multiprotein complex composed of two serine/threonine kinases, IKKα and IKKβ (Zandi et al (1997) Cell, 91, 243-252) and a non catalytic protein, NEMO (NF-κB essential modulator) (Yamaoka, S et al (1998) Cell, 93, 1231-1240). Cells lacking NEMO are unable to assemble the IKK complex and exhibit severe defects in NF-κB activation. The mechanism by which the IKK complex is activated remains unclear: trans-autophosphorylation (Tanget al (2003) J Biol Chem, 278, 37297-37305) as well as kinases such as MEKK3 (Yang et al (2001) Nat Immunol, 2, 620-624) or TAK1 (Takaesu et al (2003) J Mol Biol, 326, 105-115) have been implicated. Recently, the first genetic evidence that TAK1 was essential for TNFα and IL-1 NF-κB activation (Sato et al (2005) Nat Immunol, 6, 1087-1095) was published. Besides, converging evidence suggests that NEMO oligomerization also plays a crucial role in the IKK complex activation (Inohara et al., (2000) J Biol Chem 275, 27823-27831; Poyet et al (2000) J Biol Chem, 275, 37966-37977). The subunit composition and stoichiometry of the IKK complex is still debated although many reports suggest an association between the IKKα/IKKβ heterodimer and NEMO.

Identification of substances that inhibit NEMO oligomerization


A plywood comprising plys of Paulowina wood combined with plys of other hardwoods. The resulting Paulowina based plywood panels are lightweight, approximately 40% lighter than ordinary plywood. This reduction in weight when used for construction of Recreational vehicles (RV's), Campers, Tractor-trailer box sides, Ocean Shipping boxes, Crates, and Steamer trunks will reduce associated fuel consumption by reducing the overall weight of the cargo, and can lower employee related injury. The resulting Paulowina based plywood panels will reduce work place injury (lower back pain, herniated disks, hernia, etc.) resulting in lower healthcare premiums for both employees and employers. The shipping industry that supply cargo shipping boxes also demand that a lightweight construction material be used for goods that are sent by air cargo, land cargo, rail, and sea cargo in order to conserve energy and the Paulowina based plywood panels are well suited for these applications.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to light-weight plywood constructions, more particularly the present invention relates to Paulowina based plywood constructions.
2. Background Information
Plywood is a wood product manufactured out of many sheets of veneer, or plies, pressed together and glued, with their grains typically going in opposite directions. Plywood tends to be extremely strong, though often not very attractive. Plywood is treated in many different ways depending upon its intended application. Plywood, due to the manner which it is constructed, also tends to resist cracking, bending, warping, and shrinkage, depending upon its thickness. Plywood is also referred to as an engineered wood, although it is made from a composite of wooden materials, and various forms of it have been made for thousands of years. Plywood structures have also been referenced as laminated veneer lumber or LVL in some of the literature.
The plies that form plywood are generally cut on a rotary lathe, which cuts a continuous roll of wood while a log, called a peeler, is turned against it. Rotary lathing is rapid and makes efficient use of the wood while turning out veneers highly suitable for plywood. Some lathes are designed to expose more interesting parts of the wood grain, although they may be more wasteful of the wood. Rotary lathed veneers tend to be dull in appearance, although perfectly functional. After the veneers are cut, they are overlaid with layers of glue and pressed together until dry to form a flat, even, tight piece of plywood. Plywood is sturdier than regular sheets or panels of wood, because the veneers are laid with their grains opposing, which also causes the wood product to resist warping because the grains pull each other tight.
Plywood comes in a number of forms, including softwood plywood, which is made from pine, fir, or spruce. For example, commercial plywood has been made from rotary-peeled Douglas-fir veneers and from Southern yellow pine veneers. Softwood plywood is usually pale in color and is used in construction applications.
As a point of reference, many people are familiar with the concepts of hardwood and softwood. However, few people know why woods are split into these two categories, and make the assumption that hardwoods are hard, while softwood is soft. This distinction is incorrect: balsa wood, for example, is classified as a hardwood despite the fact that it is very soft and light.
Softwood and hardwood are actually distinguished botanically, not by their end use or appearance. In general, hardwood comes from a deciduous tree which loses its leaves annually, and softwood comes from a conifer, which usually remains evergreen. Hardwoods tend to be slower growing, and are therefore usually more dense, but not always.
Hardwoods is a very extensive listing and a non-exclusive list includes Alder, Applewood, Ash, Aspen, Balsa, Basswood, Beech, Birch, Blackbean, Blackwood, Bocote, Boxwood, Brazilwood, Bubing a, Buckeye, Butternut, Carapa, Catalpa, Cherry, Chestnut, Coachwood, Cocobolo, Corkwood, Cottonwood, Dogwood, Ebony, Elm, Eucalyptus, Greenheart, Grenadilla, Gum, Hickory, Hornbeam, Hophornbeam, Ipe, Iroke, Ironwood, Brazilian Rosewood, Jatoba, lacewood, Laurel, Limba, Lignum Vitae, Locust, Mahogany, Maple, Meranti, Merawan, Mpingo, Oak, Obeche, Okoume, Paulownia Pear, Poplar, Ramin, Redcedar, Rosewood, Sal, Sapale Sandalwood, Sassafras, Satinwood, Silver Wattle, Snakewood, Sourwood, Spanish Cedar, Sycamore, Teak, Walnut, Willow and Yellow Poplar. More exotic hardwoods also exist. Many of these are available as commercial hardwoods.
Softwood usually grows in huge tracts of trees which may spread for miles, while hardwoods tend to be found mixed with a variety of other species. Some examples of softwood include pine, redwood, fir, cedar, and larch.
Returning to the topic of plywood, mahogany or birch are used to create an extremely strong type of plywood known as aircraft plywood, because it was utilized in the construction of aircraft through the Second World War.
If plywood is destined for indoor use, it is conventionally made with urea-formaldehyde glue, which dries quickly and is inexpensive. For plywood intended for use in outdoor applications or wet environments, a more expensive water resistant glue is used to prevent the plies from coming apart, or delaminating, and compromising the strength of the plywood.
Plies typically range in thickness depending upon the plywood panels they are used in, from 1/10 inch (approximately ⅕ centimeter) to ⅙ inch (almost ⅕ centimeters). Standard plywood sizes consist of four foot by eight foot (1.2 by 2.4 meter) sheets in three, five, or seven plies. The end user can cut, reshape, or sand these sheets to needed specifications.
Most plywood is made using the same species of wood. However, U.S. Pat. No. 5,040,582 discloses a multi species laminated veneer lumber (a specialty plywood used for lumber manufacture), as well as laminated veneer lumber made from the combination of hardwoods and softwoods. This teaching notes the difference in shrinkage and expansion between the different wood species, particularly between high and low density wood species. This reference teaches that the species sequence from face to core must be identical or very similar on either side of the center ply when an odd number of plies are used or on either side of the center line when an even number of plies are used.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,234,747 teaches a symmetrical lay-up of, from top to bottom, multiple plies of a low density, 6% to 15% moisture content spruce, multiple plies of a high density, less than 5% moisture content Douglas fir, and multiple plies of a low density, 6% to 15% moisture content spruce.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,261,947 discloses a plywood laminate having dimensional stability and resistance to warping and de-lamination is formed from a plurality of higher quality plies and a plurality of lower quality plies. The higher quality plies may be of hardwood and the lower quality plies may be of softwood or lower quality hardwoods, or the higher quality plies may have a veneer grade of better than ANSI/HPVA HP-1-2000 veneer grade C and the lower quality plies may have a veneer grade of no greater than ANSI/HPVA HP-1-2000 veneer grade C.
U.S. Patent Publication 2007-0125446 teaches a method of producing a fireproof plywood from perennial grasses, such as Arundo donax Ligneous, various bamboo strains, or a blend thereof, by first weaving the stalks of these plants into a mat and then layering these mats and binding each layer with any one of several commercial resins mixed with potash for the purpose of enhancing the final product's fire retardant quality.
U.S. Patent Publication 2007-0125446 teaches a plywood composed of several layers of carbon fabrics and veneers which are symmetrically placed within the plywood, where a hot-melt adhesive is used to adhere the adjacent layers. Further, a suitably high temperature and high pressure are provided at the same time to melt the hot-melt adhesive and make the carbon fabrics and veneers adhere tightly. This plywood composed by carbon fabrics and veneers has a higher toughness and thinner thickness compared with conventional plywood.
The increase in energy, e.g., gasoline prices, has brought a demand from the producers and manufacturers of Recreational vehicles, campers, shipping container, boats, trucking companies, kitchens, cabinet makers and any other industry that needs to reduce the shipping budget by reducing their overall gasoline or fuel consumption. Further, the kitchen/bathroom cabinetry industry is also in need of a lightweight construction material to be used for such products as items as cabinets, bay/bow windows, speaker boxes, coffins, furniture, and bookshelves. These industries have relied heavily on plywood constructions. There remains a need in the art to for a light-weight plywood for such applications.


Each node (130) of a SONET bidirectional line switch ring (BLSR) (120) generates a squelch table. Squelch table generation does not require a separate computer connected to the node. Each node also generates a payload table indicating a type of a synchronous transport signals (STS) on each link (140) in the ring. The payload table allows each node to quickly determine the STS type on the protection channels when a ring switch occurs.

The present invention relates to networks, and more particularly to generation of data used for network operation.
In some networks, network nodes store data which they use for proper operation. One example is squelch tables used in SONET rings. See Bellcore Generic Requirements document GR-1230-CORE (Issue 4, December 1998) incorporated herein by reference. In SONET, data between adjacent nodes are transmitted in modules called STS's (synchronous transport signals). Each STS is transmitted on a link at regular time intervals (for example, 125 microseconds). If a failure occurs, an STS may have to be squelched to prevent misconnection. To accomplish squelching, a node in a SONET ring stores a squelch table. For each STS handled by the node, the squelch table specifies a node on which the STS is dropped, and a node on which the STS is added. If an STS contains sub-STS structures such as virtual tributaries (VT's), the squelch table specifies, for each VT handled by the node, a node on which the VT is dropped and a node on which the VT is added.
Manual generation of squelch tables is a cumbersome and error-prone task. Therefore, squelch tables have been generated automatically. A separate computer, (for example, a UNIX station) can be connected to a node. The node requests data from other nodes regarding the STS's added and dropped on the other nodes, and provides these data to the computer. The computer constructs a squelch table for each node on the ring. The computer sends the squelch tables to the node to which the computer is connected. This node distributes the squelch tables to the other nodes on the ring.
It is desirable to facilitate generation of data used for network operation, and make the data generation more robust.
When failure occurs in a SONET ring, traffic can be switched from a "working" channel to a "protection" channel (a redundant channel) and transmitted in the opposite direction on the ring. When a SONET node receives traffic on the protection channel, the node may have to determine the format of the traffic to process the traffic correctly. For example, the node may have to extract the payload and re-transmit the payload further down the ring. The position of the payload in the SONET frame is defined by the frame's overhead pointers. The pointers' position in the frame depends on the type of the STS (e.g., a SONET OC48 link can carry an STS of type STS-48C or four byte-interleaved STS's of type STS-12C; the pointers' position will be different in each of these cases). Therefore, the node has to know the STS type.
Determining the STS type on the protection channel must be done quickly to avoid data loss or corruption. Quickly determining the STS type is a burden on the node's circuitry.
It is desirable to provide techniques that would allow a network node to quickly and easily determine STS types on protection channels.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Generation of synchronous transport signal data used for network protection operation


A sealing rubber closure is provided for use with a syringe/container specified by ISO (the International Organization of Standardization) and having a Luer nozzle to be inserted into a Luer-nozzle-receiving part of the sealing rubber closure. The Luer-nozzle-receiving part is configured, on a side of an inner end portion thereof, in an untapered cylindrical form to assure tight-fitted insertion of a free end portion of the Luer nozzle and, on a side of a Luer-nozzle-receiving opening thereof, in a tapered, substantially cylindrical form to assure tight-fitted insertion of a basal end portion of the Luer nozzle. A plastic film is laminated on the sealing rubber closure at least in an area of the Luer-nozzle-receiving part, where a free end of the Luer nozzle is to be maintained in contact with the sealing rubber closure.

a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rubber-made sealing closure (which may also be called a "rubber cap" or "rubber closure") adapted to be fitted on a liquid-medicine-injecting port (Luer nozzle) of a syringe/container with a medicament contained therein so that a solid or liquid injectable preparation contained as the medicament in the syringe/container can be sealed in place to maintain its quality over an extended period of time. The sealing closure has a plastic film laminated thereon at least at an area of an inner wall thereof, where the sealing closure is to be brought into or maintained in contact with the solid or liquid injectable preparation.
b) Description of the Related Art
For medicament containers, especially containers for injectable preparations, strict sealing performance is specified and required as their function in the Pharmacopoeia, to say nothing of the quality of the container material. Accordingly, rubber-made sealing closures in the form of single pieces of rubber without any plastic film laminated thereon have been used because they are considered to be the best in sealing performance.
On the other hand, rubber-made caps which are used with syringes as medical devices are different from sealing rubber closures employed with general containers for injectable preparations such as vials in that the sealing rubber closures normally remain in contact with liquid medicines (the Pharmacopoeia specifies certain quality standards required for the sealing rubber closures).
It is indicated that, when new drugs of these days are brought into direct contact with a rubber material, their active ingredients undergo modifications, thereby making it difficult to maintain their stability over an extended period of time.
Sealing rubber closures for syringe/containers with medicaments filled and sealed therein in advance (which will hereinafter be called "prefilled syringes" on the authority of ISO 11040-1 and the like) are mostly made of a rubber material alone.
An injectable liquid preparation, which has been formulated in a form filled and sealed in a prefilled syringe, always remains in contact with a sealing rubber closure as opposed to an active ingredient in a medicinal preparation contained in a vial (a vessel of small capacity), so that the active ingredient in the injectable liquid preparation in the prefilled syringe tends to receive greater chemical influence from the rubber closure. From the standpoint of protection of the active ingredient from contamination, the conditions under which the active ingredient is placed are severe.
Concerning prefilled syringes themselves, a variety of proposals have been made to date for example, in JP kokai 7-313598 (syringe-shaped container), JP kokai 8-280800 (prefilled syringe for two-part injectable preparation), JP kokai 8-317975 (prefilled syringe and a stopper assembly therefor), and EP 07 09 105A (prefilled syringe and production process of the same). These publications all disclose the structures and function of prefilled syringes, but make no mention whatsoever about the quality and function of sealing rubber closures employed for the sealing of the prefilled syringes.
In connection with rubber closures, on the other hand, the present assignee disclosed in JP kokai 62-139668 (laminated plug for syringe) various examples of rubber-made sliding plugs (plungers) for prefilled syringes, said plugs being laminated at surfaces thereof with tetrafluoroethylene-ethylene copolymer films, and one example of a rubber plug for a front end portion of a syringe (see FIG. 9 in the kokai publication; FIG. 2A in this application). The rubber plug for the front end portion of the syringe, which is disclosed by way of example in the kokai publication, is indicated to be kept out of contact with a liquid medicine owing to the laminated film. Its Luer-nozzle-receiving part (a part in which a liquid-medicine-injecting port is inserted) is however configured in a substantially cylindrical, tapered form (i.e., the diameter on a side of an inner end portion is smaller than the diameter on a side of a Luer-nozzle-receiving opening). Accordingly, the Luer nozzle tends to fall out and sealing performance is hardly available, although the Luer-nozzle-receiving part is formed with an average outer diameter smaller than that of the associated Luer nozzle.
With a view-to overcoming this problem, the present inventors attempted to close a free end aperture of the Luer nozzle by forming the Luer-nozzle-receiving part of the rubber closure into an untapered cylindrical form (the diameter of which was smaller than the maximum diameter of the Luer nozzle) as shown in FIG. 2B and then forming a small bead on an inner end wall of the Luer-nozzle-receiving part as depicted in FIG. 2C. However, the insertion of the Luer nozzle was not smoothly performed and, when the Luer nozzle was inserted, wrinkles were developed in the laminated film, thereby failing to obtain satisfactory sealing performance.
As has been described above, the conventionally proposed sealing rubber closures in which the front ends of syringes are to be inserted have fluorinated resin films laminated on inner walls thereof, so that the rubber closures are maintained out of direct contact with their corresponding liquid medicines. Since a fluorinated resin has high stiffness and can be hardly deformed, it must inherently apply high fastening force to the Luer nozzle inserted in the rubber closure. However, the inner wall of the rubber closure is formed in a substantially cylindrical form which has substantially the same taper as the Luer nozzle, and the fluorinated resin has small frictional resistance with other materials. Especially in the case of a plastic-made syringe, the inserted Luer nozzle therefore tends to slide. Compared with a rubber closure not laminated with a fluorinated resin film, the rubber closure with the fluorinated resin film laminated thereon is inferior in sealing performance. Therefore, the rubber closure with the fluorinated resin film laminated thereon is not suited for practical use and requires improvements in sealing performance. If the Luer-nozzle-receiving part of the rubber closure is configured in an untapered cylindrical form, on the other hand, the Luer nozzle cannot be inserted smoothly, and wrinkles are hence formed in the laminated film, thereby failing to obtain satisfactory sealing performance.

Sealing rubber closure for syringe/container


A method for communication between first and second coordinator-based wireless networks connected through a backbone network is provided. The method includes receiving a frame indicating data transmission containing information needed for remote channel time allocation (CTA) from a repeater connecting the second coordinator-based wireless network with the backbone network, sending a remote CTA frame in order for the repeater to request CTA from the coordinator within the second coordinator-based wireless network, and receiving a data frame originated from the first coordinator-based wireless network and then provided by the repeater during assigned channel time.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wireless network communications, and more particularly, to a method for communication in a coordinator-based wireless network environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the advancement in communication and network technologies, a wired network environment using wired media such as coaxial or optical cables is evolving into a wireless one using wireless signals in various frequency bands. In line with the transition from wired to wireless technology, a computing device that contains a wireless interface module, enables mobility, and performs specific functions by processing various information ("a wireless network device") is being developed and wireless technologies that enable effective communication between wireless devices on a wireless network are emerging.
There are two major architectures of wireless networks: infrastructure and ad-hoc networks.
The infrastructure network contains an access point (AP) as shown in FIG. 1, whereas the ad-hoc network requires no AP for communication as shown in FIG. 2.
In an infrastructure mode, an AP not only has connectivity to the wired network but also provides communication among wireless network devices within a wireless network. Thus, all data traffic in the infrastructure network is relayed through the AP.
In an ad-hoc mode, wireless network devices within a single wireless network can directly communicate with one another without using an AP.
Such wireless networks can be further classified into two types based on the presence of a coordinator. In one type of network, which is called a "coordinator-based wireless network", a randomly selected wireless device acts as a coordinator that assigns channel time to other wireless devices within the same wireless network for data transmission, and then the other wireless devices are allowed to transmit data only at the assigned time. As compared to the coordinator-based wireless network, the other type of network allows all network devices to transmit data at any time desired without using a coordinator.
The coordinator-based wireless network is a single independent coordinator-centered network. When there are multiple coordinator-based wireless networks within a certain area, each network has a unique ID to distinguish itself from others.
Thus, while wireless devices can transmit/receive data to/from other network devices during channel time assigned by the coordinator on a coordinator-based network where they belong, they are not allowed to communicate with wireless devices belonging to another coordinator-based network.
For example, as shown in FIG. 3, in a home network system containing three coordinator-based wireless networks 310, 320, and 330, it is assumed that wireless network-1 310, wireless network-2 320, and wireless network-3 330 are built in a first-floor living room, a second-floor schoolroom, and a first-floor bedroom, respectively.
If a user desires to watch movies stored on a media server 315 in the living room using a portable moving picture player 325 in the schoolroom, then the user cannot watch movies since there is no way to communicate between the wireless network-1 310 and the wireless network-2 320. Accordingly, to see the movies, the user has to go downstairs to the living room.
This problem may arise due to restriction on range of radio waves, absence of information on another coordinator-based wireless network, and channel time allocation.
To achieve data transmission and reception between wireless network devices belonging to different coordinator-based wireless networks, a novel network topology needs to be configured. In particular, there is a need for a method for requesting channel time allocation (CTA) in a coordinator-based wireless network to which a wireless network device that receives data belongs. In Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs), which are a representative example of a coordinator-based wireless network and comply with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.15.3 standard, only a wireless network device that desires to transmit data is allowed to request CTA. That is, no network devices that receive or relay data are able to request CTA since they are unaware of information needed for CTA. The IEEE 802.15.3 proposes standards for a PHY layer corresponding to Physical Layer and a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer making up a Data-Link Layer among the seven layers of the Open System Interconnection (OSI) network model developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for wireless networks.
Thus, in coordinator-based wireless networks such as WPANs, there is a need for a method that allows a wireless network device receiving data to request channel time allocation (CTA).

Method for communication in coordinator-based wireless network and method for communication between coordinator-based wireless networks connected through backbone network


A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for ensuring forward progress of instructions in a pipeline of a processor. Instructions are received in the pipeline. Instruction flushes are counted in the pipeline to determine a flush count. A single step mode in the pipeline is entered in response to the flush count exceeding a threshold. The single step mode instructions are issued in serial such that an instruction is not issued for execution until a prior instruction has completed execution.

1. Field of the Invention
The present application relates generally to information handling and more particularly to a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for detecting a lack of forward process in an instruction stream and serializing micro-operation execution.
2. Description of the Related Art
Data processing systems are used by increasing numbers of businesses and individuals each year. These data processing systems help users to efficiently process data and information. To a large extent, the efficiency of the data processing system relies on processing instructions as fast as possible. The escalating complexity of microprocessors and the real-time interaction of multiple instructions make it difficult to guarantee that an instruction stream makes forward progress in all situations. Forward progress indicates that instructions are generally moving forward and are being executed. Forward progress may be quantified by a user specified threshold such as cycles, flushes, passage of time, or other system indicators.
Guaranteeing instruction stream progress is especially difficult when multiple threads are present. Difficulties also arise when parts of the architected instruction set must be translated to microcode routines, and the microcode routines are not re-entrant. A microcode routine or a microcode program implements a central processing unit instruction set. Just as a single high level language statement is compiled to a series of machine instructions, each machine instruction is in turn implemented by a series of micro-instructions or micro-operations, sometimes called microcode. On most computers the microcode is not produced by a compiler, but exists in a special high speed memory. Microcode routines are often used to correct bugs in the instruction set, to implement new machine instructions, or more commonly to maintain compatibility with previous microprocessors. Often, when an instruction set architecture is maintained over several generations of microprocessors, instructions that were efficiently implemented in hardware in a previous generation may not map efficiently on newer generation microprocessors that take advantage of superscalar or superpipelining techniques. Microcode may also allow one computer microarchitecture to emulate another, usually more-complex architecture. A microcode routine that is not re-entrant means that if a microcode instruction in the routine is flushed, the routine must be restarted from the beginning.
In some cases, because of dependencies, errors, conflicts, or other glitches, a microcode routine may be flushed multiple times before the microcode routine is completed. Each time the microcode routine is flushed, processing resources have been wasted and the process must be restarted anew. In other cases, the microcode routine may become permanently stalled in the instruction stream stalling the progress of the instruction stream and consuming processing resources.

Method to detect a stalled instruction stream and serialize micro-operation execution

International Business Machines Corporation


A projection lens system for projecting an image from a cathode ray tube (CRT) onto a screen is provided which includes in order from the image end: a first lens unit (U1), a second positive lens unit (U2) which may include a color correcting doublet, a corrector lens unit (CR), and a third negative lens unit (U3) which is associated with the CRT during use. The first lens unit preferably has a hybrid construction and includes: a first lens element (L1) composed of glass and having spherical surfaces, a second lens element (L2) composed of plastic and having at least one aspherical surface, and a third lens element (L3) also composed of plastic and having at least one aspherical surface. L1 has substantially more optical power than either L2 or L3, e.g., .vertline.f.sub.L2 .vertline./f.sub.L1 and .vertline.f.sub.L3 .vertline./f.sub.L1 are each above 1.3. In this way, the lens system is easily fabricated and is relatively insensitive to changes in temperature of the lens elements. The lens system is applicable to both rear and front projection televisions.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to projection lens systems for use in projection televisions and, in particular, to color-corrected projection lens systems which employ both glass and plastic lens elements, i.e., lens systems of the hybrid type.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Projection lens systems for CRT projection televisions have undergone continuing development during the past fifteen years or so. As a result, many of today's CRT projection televisions are equipped with fast lens systems which provide wide semi-fields of view.
When the field of view does not exceed a half-angle of about 25.degree., the lens system may consist of just three components and still provide a sufficiently high level of image quality. A typical configuration has a weak aspherical element on the image side of the lens system, followed by a strong positive power element, followed in turn by a strong negative element in close proximity to the CRT. See, for example, Betensky, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,300,817, 4,348,081, and 4,526,442.
For this configuration, the aspherical first element provides correction primarily for aperture dependent aberrations including spherical aberration, the positive element provides most of the optical power of the system, the relative position of the aperture stop provides correction for astigmatism and lateral color, and the negative element close to the CRT provides correction for field dependent aberrations including the field curvature of the lens.
More generally, lens systems of this type can include more than three elements with the elements being arranged in three lens units, i.e., a "first" or "A" lens unit located on the image side of the lens system of weak power, a "second" or "B" lens unit following the first lens unit of strong positive power, and a "third" or "C" lens unit following the second lens unit of strong negative power.
When the focal length of the lens system is shortened to make the projection television more compact in the case of rear projection televisions or to make the magnification larger in the case of front projection televisions, the field coverage of the lens system must be increased. When the half-angle of view is increased to about 28.degree., a three element form generally cannot provide an appropriately high level of optical performance.
To address this problem, a fourth element or more generally a fourth unit (hereinafter referred to as the "corrector" or "CR" unit) has been added between the strong positive and the strong negative units of the three unit configuration, i.e., between the B and C units. See Betensky, U.S. Pat. No. 4,697,892, and Moskovich, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,682,862, 4,755,028, and 4,776,681. This additional unit usually does not have much optical power; however, it must have an aspherical surface to correct for aperture dependent off-axis aberrations like sagittal oblique spherical and coma.
Color images for projection televisions are normally obtained by combining images from three color CRTs, i.e., a red CRT, a green CRT, and a blue CRT. The phosphors used in commercially available CRTs do not emit light at a single wavelength. In particular, green phosphors have significant sidebands in blue an red. Similar polychromaticity exists for red and blue phosphors, but to a lesser extent.
For many consumer applications, lens systems uncorrected for color can be used, notwithstanding the color spread of the CRTs. For more demanding applications, however, such as high definition television, data displays, or systems which operate at a high magnification, color correction is needed to avoid visible color fringing and/or a loss of image contrast.
A color-corrected projection lens is disclosed in Kreitzer, U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,139. This lens system employs the A, B, C, and CR units discussed above and achieves longitudinal color correction by means of, inter alia, a color-correcting doublet which is included in the B unit. Although lens systems constructed in accordance with this patent have worked well in practice, these systems can be susceptible to focus shifts with changes in temperature as a result of the use of plastic lens elements having not insignificant optical powers in the A unit. Also, the A unit plastic elements have had relatively non-uniform thicknesses making them relatively difficult to fabricate using injection molding techniques. Moreover, strong aspherical plastic elements in the A unit have high tolerance sensitivity.
The use of a plastic element having a relatively constant thickness to form a CR unit is discussed in the Moskovich '862 patent referred to above (see column 13, line 67, to column 14, line 28). The lens systems described in the examples of this patent are not color corrected. Also, the A units of those examples employ plastic elements having not insignificant optical powers, i.e., the A units may be subject to relatively large changes in their power as a result of changes in temperature.

Hybrid, color-corrected, projection TV lens system


A GE-PON (Gigabit Ethernet Passive Optical Network) system and media access control method for the same are disclosed. In the GE-PON system, by employing MAC attributes of the gigabit Ethernet frames, an OLT (Optical Line Termination) transmits a downstream window containing both a control frame having timeslot position and size information in association with at least two ONUs and Ethernet frames to an ODN (Optical Distribution Network). The OLT analyzes contents of RAUs in an upstream window transmitted from the ONUs in a TDMA method and received from the ODN, and permits timeslot position and size corresponding to each of the ONUs. A plurality of ONUs, connected to the ODN, have their respective timeslot position and size allocated in response to their respective information contained in the control frame of the downstream window. RAU frames are transmitted having queue information and Ethernet frames associated with the allocated timeslots. As a result, by the above MAC structure of the GE-PON system, the OLT can be quickly intercommunicated with a plurality of ONUs.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a PON (Passive Optical Network) system, and more particularly to a GE-PON (Gigabit Ethernet frame Passive Optical Network) system and a MAC (Media Access Control) method for the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
PON systems typically are configured to have a passive distributor or a WDM (Wave Division Multiplexing) element deployed between a subscriber access node, such as a FTTH (Fiber To The Home) or FTTC (Fiber To The Curb), and a NT (Network Termination) node. In this type of configuration, all the nodes are distributed in a bus or tree structure, thereby forming an overall topology. A typical PON system, known as an ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode)-PON, is well known in the art, and its MAC technique are described in detail in the ITU-T (International Telecommunication Union-T) G.983.1.
The MAC protocols used in the conventional ATM PON system are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,978,374 issued on Nov. 2, 1999, entitled "PROTOCOL FOR DATA COMMUNICATION OVER A POINT-TO-MULTIPOINT PASSIVE OPTICAL NETWORK", and in Korean Patent Laid-open No. 1999-70901 published on Sep. 15, 1999, entitled "METHOD FOR IMPLEMENTING ASYNCHRONOUS PASSIVE OPTICAL NETWORK MEDIA ACCESS CONTROL PROTOCOL", which are incorporated herein by reference. Briefly, the MAC of the ATM-PON system will hereinafter be described.
FIGS. 1a˜1b illustrate a block diagram of the ATM-PON system recommended by ITU-T G.983. The ATM-PON system shown in FIG. 1a or 1b is located on a tree structure route and has one OLT (Optical Line Termination) 10, which plays an important role in providing each subscriber associated with the access network with information. The OLT 10 has a tree topology and is connected to an ODN (Optical Distribution Network) 12. The ODN 12 distributes downstream data frames received from the OLT 10 as shown in FIG. 1a, or multiplexes upstream data frames, then transmits them to the OLT 10 as shown in FIG. 1b. The ODN 12 is connected to at least two ONUs (Optical Network Units) 14i (where, i=a, b and c; and a, b and c represent a natural number). The ONUs 14i are configured to receive the downstream data frames from the ODN 12 and transmit them to a plurality of users 16i (where, i=a, b and c; and a, b and c represent a natural number), as shown in FIG. 1a. The ONUs 14i use the output data from the users 16i as upstream data frames and transmit the upstream data frames to the ODN 12, as shown in FIG. 1b. Note that in FIGS. 1a˜1b, the numerals 16i (i.e., 16a to 16c) denote users and may also represent an NT (Network Termination) or a variety of access network terminating units usable in a PON.
The conventional ATM-PON system shown in FIGS. 1a˜1b performs upstream transmission or downstream transmission in the form of data frames each of which has a predetermined number of mutually changed ATM cells. Each ATM cell has a size of 53 bytes. In the tree-shaped PON structure shown in FIGS. 1a˜1b, the OLT 10 properly inserts downstream cells to be distributed into each of the ONUs 14i into downstream frames. In case of upstream transmissions, the OLT 10 gains access to the data transmitted from the ONUs 14i according to a TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) protocol. In this case, the ODN 12 connected between the OLT 10 and the ONUs 14i functions as a passive component. The OLT 10 prevents data in the ODN 12 from colliding with one another by means of a virtual distance correction using a ranging algorithm. Further, in the case where the OLT 10 transmits downstream data to the ONUs 14i, an encryption key and an OAM (Operation, Administration and Maintenance) message are interchanged between the OLT 10 and the ONUs 14i in such a way that data confidentiality between the OLT 10 and the ONUs 14i can be ensured. To this end, the upstream/downstream frames have a dedicated ATM cell used for a message interchange at predetermined intervals or have a corresponding data field in a general ATM cell.
As described above, the ATM-PON system configures upstream/downstream frames based on a predetermined-sized ATM cell and performs a MAC protocol using a TDMA in the upstream transmission due to a point-to-multipoint tree structure. As a result, the band allocation algorithm of ONUs becomes complicated.
In the meantime, following the current trend of rapidly growing Internet technology, the demand for higher bandwidths is increasing. Therefore, many manufacturers have developed a PON system using a gigabit Ethernet instead of an ATM technique in order to accommodate the end-to-end transmission. The gigabit Ethernet has a relatively low production cost and wider bandwidth, whereas the ATM technique has a very high production cost and a limited bandwidth, and requires the Internet protocol packet segmentation.
A representative example known as a GE-PON system, using an Ethernet frame instead of the ATM in a PON structure of an access network, is made available by Alloptics Company. The GE-PON system manufactured by the Alloptics allocates a timeslot of a fixed size of 2 ms to each ONU. In this manner, the GE-PON system of Alloptics simplifies a band allocation algorithm because timeslots allocated to each ONU is fixed to a predetermined size. This GE-PON system, however, has drawbacks in that the bandwidths are wasted when there is no upstream/downstream data.
Thus, there is a need in the art for improved GE-PON systems that overcome this shortcoming of the prior art.

Gigabit ethernet passive optical network system and media access control method for the same


A semiconductor device includes first and second assembled bodies (12A, 12B). The first assembled body is provided with a first semiconductor chip, a high voltage bus bar (21) connected to one surface of the first semiconductor chip, a first metal wiring board (24-1) connected to the other surface of the first semiconductor chip with a bonding wire, and a third metal wiring board (24-3) connected to the first metal wiring board. The second assembled body is provided with a second semiconductor chip, a low voltage bus bar (23) connected to one surface of the second semiconductor chip with a bonding wire, a second metal wiring board (24-2) connected to the other surface of the second semiconductor chip, and a fourth metal wiring board (24-4) connected by being returned from an end portion of the second metal wiring board and arranged in parallel to the second metal wiring board. The first assembled body and the second assembled body are arranged in a stacked structure wherein the assembled bodies are being separated. Inductance of a main circuit is reduced by the semiconductor module structure.

Inverter devices are used to drive the driving motors of electric automobiles and other electric vehicles. These inverter devices include an electrical circuit in which switching elements are connected using a bridge-circuit configuration. Inverter devices turn the switching elements of the bridge circuit on and off as appropriate and execute the switching of current made to flow to the driving motor. Power transistors, IGBT, FET, and the like are widely used as the switching elements that constitute the bridge circuit. These inverter devices are usually configured in a modular structure in which a plurality of switching elements is housed in one package.
The operation of the driving motor of an electric vehicle is characterized in that a large current flows to the switching elements that constitute the bridge circuit, and a surge voltage is generated from the on/off operation. The length of the wiring that constitutes the electric current pathway is therefore made as short as possible when the plurality of switching elements is mounted inside one package in the inverter device, whereby resistance in the wiring is minimized, and the value of the inductance that is an electrical characteristic of alternating current is reduced.
A well-known example of a conventional semiconductor device having a modular structure similar to the aforedescribed inverter device is the semiconductor device described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-26251. The semiconductor device described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-26251 has three electric terminals: a high-voltage external electric terminal, a low-voltage external electric terminal, and an output external electric terminal. These three electric terminals all have a rectangular plate shape as the planar shape and are positioned in an overlaid state with gaps in between so as to be positioned in parallel. The output external electric terminal is positioned between the high-voltage external electric terminal and the low-voltage external electric terminal. The structure is such that semiconductor chips (switching elements or the like) are sandwiched between two adjacent electrical terminals from among the three electrical terminals. The high-voltage external electric terminal and the low-voltage external electric terminal are formed to extend towards the same end, and the output external electric terminal between these terminals is formed to extend towards the other end on the opposite side.
The connection between the semiconductor chips and the electrical terminals in the semiconductor device described in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2002-26251 bridges a short distance, and therefore voltage drops resulting from internal wiring are reduced. This semiconductor device is also characterized in that the direction of current flowing to the high-voltage external electric terminal and the direction of current flowing to the low-voltage external electric terminal are opposite, and therefore the orientations of the magnetic fields generated by those currents are opposite, and inductance can be reduced.
The inverter device of a three-phase motor is provided with a high-side (high-voltage) semiconductor chip and a low-side (low-voltage) semiconductor chip for each of the U, V, and W phases and contains a total of six semiconductor chips. This inverter device is provided with a semiconductor module in which two semiconductor chips, high-side and low-side, are packaged for each phase. The high-side semiconductor chip and the low-side semiconductor chip of this semiconductor module will not short circuit during use in controlling a motor, and therefore current will not flow to the high-voltage electrical terminal and the low-voltage electrical terminal at the same time. In other words, the bridge circuit either contains an electric current pathway from the high-voltage electrical terminal through a semiconductor chip to the output electrical terminal, or an electric current pathway from the output electrical terminal through a semiconductor chip to the low-voltage electrical terminal. A problem is therefore presented in that reducing inductance is difficult when the configuration of the semiconductor device described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-26251 is applied to controlling a motor using the inverter device of a three-phase motor.
The control substrate (the substrate on which the gate driver is mounted) for controlling the semiconductor chips must be positioned externally with respect to the module in the modular structures of the prior art. The length of control wiring to the control substrate from a control electrode leading from a gate electrode has therefore tended to increase. Problems have therefore been presented in that the wiring inductance increases, and anti-noise performance deteriorates. The control substrate, which is a separate unit from the module, also requires fastening members, a case, and the like, and problems have been presented in that the overall size of the semiconductor device increases.
The ability to reduce the inductance of the main circuit, improve the anti-noise properties of the driving signal, and make the modular structure smaller and more compact in the structure of a semiconductor module in which a plurality of semiconductor chips is mounted in one package has therefore been needed in the aforedescribed semiconductor device.