A dental X-ray aiming device adapted to place an X-ray film packet having sharp edges at a proper position in the oral cavity of a patient. The device includes a packet holder that serves to shield the sharp edges of the packet to avoid direct contact with tissue within the oral cavity and the resultant discomfort, pain or trauma. The holder is formed by a rectangular frame of resilient plastic material within which the packet is socketed, and a bite block joined to the front of the frame which, when clenched between the teeth of the patient, then places the held film packet behind a tooth region to be examined. The device also includes a distance-calibrated guide rod which is detachably coupled to the bite block, and a sighting ring adapted to receive the nose cone of an X-ray unit, the ring being slidable along the rod to a desired position thereon, whereby an X-ray beam is projected from the nose cone in accurate relationship to the film packet.

1. Field of Invention:
This invention relates generally to dental X-ray aiming devices adapted to place an X-ray film packet having sharp edges in the oral cavity of a patient at a proper position therein before the packet is exposed to X-rays, and in particular to a device of the type which includes a holder for the film packet that serves to shield the sharp edges thereof so as to avoid direct contact with tissue within the oral cavity and the resultant discomfort, pain or trauma.
2. Status of Prior Art:
Dental X-ray technology affords useful information regarding the structural integrity of the teeth and its supporting tissue. Commonly used for the purpose of producing a radiograph of a tooth region is a film packet in which a chip of X-ray film is disposed within a rectangular plastic carrier that is permeable to X-rays but not to light rays, so that the film housed therein is exposed only when subjected to X-rays.
In practice, the film packet is placed in a patient's oral cavity behind a tooth region to be X-rayed and is then exposed to radiation passing through the region onto the emplaced film packet. In order to minimize distortion of the radiograph, a "paralleling" technique is used in which the film packet is maintained in parallel relation to the long axis of the teeth.
To this end, use is made of a dental X-ray aiming device that includes a film holder having integral therewith a bite block that projects from the rear of the holder and is clenched between the teeth of the patient. The film packet, which is held in the holder behind the tooth region to be X-rayed, is then substantially parallel with the long axis of the teeth.
Detachably coupled to the bite block of the film holder is a guide rod on which is slidable a sighting ring through which is projected an X-ray beam that is directed toward the film packet held behind the tooth region of interest. One such dental X-ray aiming device is disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,965,885, to Fuhrmann. In this device, the film packet is inserted in a holder formed by a plate whose upper edge is U-shaped and a lower clamp that acts to ensure a better hold and exact positioning of the film packet. A similar dental X-ray aiming device is disclosed in the Updegrave U.S. Pat. No. 3,473,026.
In a typical film packet, the flat, rectangular plastic film carrier which envelops the X-ray film chip is heat-sealed around its perimeter to provide thin, flexible edges so that the packet is bendable. These edges are relatively sharp; hence when the film packet is placed within the oral cavity of a patient, its edges then engage soft tissue and may cause discomfort, intensive pain, or even trauma when pressed into the tissue by a dental operator seeking to properly place the film packet so as to obtain a good radiograph.
Even greater difficulty is experienced with children or adults having small mouths, as well as with those adults who exhibit sensitive bony projections inside the mandible and the hard palate. Yet if the film packet is shifted within the oral cavity to a more comfortable position, then the film packet may not be properly placed. Or if the patient will only bite gently on the bite block until the film packet meets resistance by soft tissue, then the film packet will not be firmly held in place, and the quality of the resultant radiograph may be adversely affected.
In order to overcome this problem, the U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,626,216 and 4,805,201, to Strong-Grainger, provide a soft, foam plastic padding for a dental X-ray film packet. The soft padding is either incorporated into the structure of the film packet or takes the form of a separate pad for attachment to a standard film packet.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,008, to Jackson, discloses a frame-like, foam plastic cushion for a dental film packet. In the U.S. Pat. No. 4,847,884, to Dove, a holder is provided in the form of a soft cylinder having a slot therein to receive one edge of the film packet.
Also of background interest are the following patents:
Van Aken--U.S. Pat. No. 4,707,847 PA1 McAuslan--U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,084 PA1 Updegrave--U.S. Pat. No. 3,003,062


A rail vehicle includes an electrical signal line loop for activating the brakes. There is provision for a safety loop, which is redundant with respect to the signal line loop and is electrically independent of the rest of the vehicle control system, to be present.

A rail vehicle is known from EP 0 844 157 B1. The signal line loop is necessary here in order to enable a rail vehicle, which is not equipped with a compressed air brake system and is designed, in terms of its origin, as a tram, to operate on long distance rail routes according to the rules of EBO and UIC.
A compressed air brake system is defined by the fact that braking is triggered by a drop in pressure in an air line which leads through a train. This ensures that braking is always carried out when a defect occurs.
So that a corresponding principle which fulfills the requirements of EBO/UIC can also be implemented, for example, in tram trains, the signal line loop is provided in the trains. The signal line loop is a double line from the end of the train to the start of the train and back again and is therefore composed of a signal generating section and a signal distributing section. Control contacts are connected in series in the signal generating section.
The brakes and the electrical actuation devices, which may be, for example, brake control devices or emergency brake valves, are connected to the signal distributing section. The signal line loop operates according to the quiescent current principle, the brakes being activated if the flow of current in the signal line loop is interrupted. For example, a brake release key is additionally used to short circuit the signal distributing section to the reference potential of the supply voltage of the signal line loop.
Current is usually fed in at the end of the train and signal generating and signal distributing sections are usually connected at the front end of the train where the occupied driver's cab is located.
In contrast, the compressed air brake system does not have the usual dependencies. The feeding point (compressed air supply), control (generation of the drop in pressure) and triggering (for example brake valves) can be connected to the air line in any desired sequence and independently of the start of the train and the end of the train.
When a breakdown occurs, the defective rail vehicle has to be towed away. When there is a compressed air brake system, which is customary in longer-distance rail trains, all that is necessary is to connect the air lines of the defective rail vehicle (broken down vehicle) and the towing rail vehicle (recovery vehicle) to one another in order to ensure that the brakes function throughout. However, if a signal line loop is present, problems occur with the braking.
Specifically, as a result of damage to the electrical circuit which has not yet been detected, the braking capability during the towing operation could be disrupted or even prevented. For example, a connection of the signal line loop to the supply potential, which is caused by a defect, could cause the quiescent current principle to be disabled. For this reason, in the past the signal line loops of the towing rail vehicle and of the towed, defective rail vehicle have generally not been connected to one another. Since it was not possible to brake the towed vehicle, the towing operation was possible only if the operational environment and the applicable regulations permit an exception so that rapid clearing of a section of line which is necessary for operational reasons was possible.
Even if the signal line loop is operationally capable in the broken down vehicle, the continuous signal line loop cannot be formed and the brakes in the broken down vehicle cannot be activated if the recovery vehicle is to push the broken down vehicle. This is due to the customary circuit topology in which the signal line loop in the driver's cab of the broken down vehicle has a connection between the signal generating section and the signal distributing section and as a result the signal line loop cannot be extended forwards without additional switching devices, and thus not without special modes of operation.

Rail vehicle having an electrical signal line loop


Well centre assembly for an offshore drilling rig and associated method. There is described a well centre assembly 10 for an offshore drilling rig. The well centre assembly 10 comprises a diverter assembly 16 and a movement control system 18. The movement control system 18 is operable between the diverter assembly 16 and a supporting structure 12 of the rig. In use, the movement control system 18 controls or permits relative movement between the diverter assembly 16 and the supporting structure 12. A connector such as a riser 34 connected to the diverter assembly 16 during deployment, while deployed or during retrieval of the riser 34 may experience external forces such as from tidal, wind and/or wave movement at a water surface 50, which may cause the positioning and/or orientation of the riser 34 to vary. The movement control system 18 may control the movement of the diverter assembly 16 so as to compensate for movement of the riser 34.

An offshore drilling rig can be used for carrying out downhole operations such as downhole drilling operations. A downhole tool such as a drill can be deployed from an offshore drilling rig via a riser, which provides a connection between the offshore drilling rig and a wellhead located on a seabed, or the like. The riser can also receive drilling mud and other material from the wellhead and transfer the mud and other material to the surface for storage or processing.
The riser may be as short as several to several hundred metres for shallower waters and up to several thousand metres for deeper waters. In either case, the riser or the offshore drilling rig the riser is connected to can experience forces, such as caused by currents, tides, waves, wind, and the like, which can cause the riser to move or change orientation relative to the offshore drilling rig and/or the wellhead.
The connection between riser and the offshore drilling rig can be affected by the movement of the riser, which may result in loading, stress, and the like being placed on components such as the offshore drilling rig, the riser and/or the wellhead. Movement of the riser may therefore increase the likelihood of damage occurring to any of these components or to downhole tools deployed via these components. To reduce the likelihood of damage occurring, the riser may include a flexible component to permit flexing of at least part of the riser.

Offshore drilling rig assembly and method


Digital data is recorded on a magnetic tape by rotary heads. The magnetic tape has a PCM data recording area on which PCM data of a plurality of programs is recorded and sub-code recording areas on which sub-code data is recorded. On the sub-code recording areas of each program, character code data representing the title of the associated program and the like is recorded. On the sub-code recording area of the first program, pack data of a TOC mode is recorded. The pack data of the TOC mode includes character code data, and this character code data includes information recorded on the sub-code recording areas corresponding to all programs. By reproducing the pack data of the TOC mode by the rotary heads, character code data of all programs can be recognized.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital data record/play-back system for recording/playing back character data together with digital data.
2. Description of the Related Art
The recent developments of audio equipment are remarkable. A typical example is a compact disk player for playing back data on a disk on which an audio signal is digitized and recorded.
In the field of tape recorders, studies on a digital tape recorder (DAT) system (disclosed in, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,523,237 to S. FUKUDA et al.) for recording/playing data on/from a magnetic tape have been made.
According to the DAT system, an analog audio signal is recorded in the form of a PCM signal on a DAT tape. The PCM signal is played back in the form of an analog audio signal. The DAT system can record and play back PCM signals with higher fidelity than a conventional analog recording system.
In order to best understand the present invention, general DAT standards will be described below.
A DAT (digital audio tape recorder) conference was established in 1981 to achieve DAT design standardization. DATs are classified into a stationary head type DAT (S-DAT) and rotary head type DAT (R-DAT). The R-DAT is considerately used as commercial equipment since it can employ known 1/2-inch VTR techniques. Both the S- and R-DATs have a 48-kH sampling frequency and 16-bit quantitization. A DAT tape has a width of 3.81 mm, and a tape cassette for R-DAT is 73.times.54.times.10.5 mm.sup.3. An R-DAT head drum has a diameter of 30 mm, a speed of 2,000 rpm, and a tape winding angle of 90 degrees. One track (one record of one head, a 23, 501-mm tape portion of 7.5-ms period) is divided into 196 blocks. PCM data including parity data constitutes 128 blocks. One block consists of 288 bits.
When a standard tape cassette is used, the R-DAT can perform 2-hour continuous record/playback operation. Therefore, when a plurality of musical pieces (one musical piece has a length of about 3 minutes) are recorded using this R-DAT, a very large number of musical pieces (i.e., 40) can be recorded. It is very difficult to search a musical piece to be played back from the tape recording such a large number of musical pieces. For this reason, in the DAT standards, a program number can be recorded for each musical piece (program), and a desired program number can be input to easily search the corresponding musical piece. However, in the method using the program number, a user must know a correspondence between musical pieces recorded on the tape and program numbers. For this purpose, program numbers and titles of musical pieces are written on a label of a tape cassette. Thus, a user finds a program number corresponding to a desired musical piece in accordance with the content of this label and can input the program number. However, if a user loses this label, he can hardly know a correspondence between program numbers and titles.
A technique to solve the above problem is disclosed in U.S. Pat No. 4,833,549 invented by I. Yoshimoto et al. In this technique, character code data is recorded into a sub-code recording area of each program, and in a playback mode, this character code data is played back and the character data corresponding to it is displayed.
To know the character data of all of the programs by the technique, considerably much time must be taken. The reason for this is that since the character code data is stored in the sub-code recording area of each program, the character code data is not played back and the character data is not displayed until the area of the DAT tape, in which the program is recorded, reaches the rotary heads.
For this reason, there is the need for the development of a new technique capable of quickly knowing the character data of all of the programs that are recorded on the DAT tape in the format in compliance with the R-DAT standards.

Digital audio tape recorder for recording character data with digital data


A connection for fuel cell assemblies is disclosed. The connection includes compliant members connected to individual fuel cells and a rigid member connected to the compliant members. Adjacent bundles or modules of fuel cells are connected together by mechanically joining their rigid members. The compliant/rigid connection permits construction of generator fuel cell stacks from basic modular groups of cells of any desired size. The connections can be made prior to installation of the fuel cells in a generator, thereby eliminating the need for in-situ completion of the connections. In addition to allowing pre-fabrication, the compliant/rigid connections also simplify removal and replacement of sections of a generator fuel cell stack.

Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) generators comprise fuel cells which are electro-mechanically connected together. The individual solid oxide fuel cells are high temperature, electro-chemical devices fabricated primarily from oxide ceramics. Each fuel cell typically contains an oxygen ion conducting solid electrolyte, such as yttria stabilized zirconia. The electrolyte is usually a thin dense film which separates two porous electrodes comprising a cathode and an anode. The cathode, which is maintained in an oxidizing atmosphere during operation of the fuel cell, is usually an oxide that is doped to obtain high electrical conductivity, such as lanthanum manganite doped with strontium. The anode, which is maintained in a reducing atmosphere during operation, is usually a cement such as nickel-zirconia. Each fuel cell usually includes an interconnection comprising a dense, electrically conductive oxide material which is stable in both reducing and oxidizing environments, such as doped lanthanum chromite. The interconnections permit the anodes and cathodes of adjacent cells to be electrically connected in series. These connections are typically made using an electrically conductive, compliant material such as nickel felt.
Prior art solid oxide fuel connections are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,431,715, to Isenberg, 4,490,444 to Isenberg, 4,748,091, to Isenberg, 4,791,035 to Reichner, 4,833,045, to Pollack et al., 4,876,163 to Reichner, 5,258,240 to Di Croce et al., 5,273,828, to Draper et al., each of which are incorporated by reference herein.
Conventional SOFC generator designs for units on the order of 20 or 25 kWe have included multiple fuel cells grouped into bundles, with bundle-to-bundle connections made by in-situ sintering of nickel felts. The bundle-to-bundle connection is accomplished in the early stages of actual operation when external pressure, provided by compressed insulation material, forces the individual pre-sintered cell bundles together to permit high-temperature bundle-to-bundle felt sintering. This method of bundle-to-bundle attachment occurs within cell bundle rows and also between cell bundle rows by row connect assemblies to form a serpentine layout of the generators. However, due to the increased size and overall layout of larger SOFC generators on the order of 100 kWe, transferring of force from the periphery to the central regions of the generator cell stack is more difficult. The conventional in-situ bundle-to-bundle connection method therefore makes it difficult to assure consistent and adequate felt contact pressure and cell positioning for larger cell stacks.
An alternative to in-situ sintering is to pre-sinter the cell bundle rows in a large, high-temperature furnace at temperatures of about 1050.degree. C. However, due to the large size of the generator stacks, even furnace sintering proves to be very difficult in producing reliable felt bonding and cell positioning.
An additional drawback associated with conventional cell bundle sintered connections is the difficulty of cell removal and replacement. Suitable techniques have not yet been developed to practically or economically remove and replace cells for generator maintenance or repair.
The present invention has been developed in view of the foregoing and other deficiencies of the prior art.


The subject invention provides a lighting system with a light source, a plurality of spokes to house the light source and a structural hub adapted to connect to the plurality of spokes. A method of using the lighting system includes connecting the plurality of spokes to the hub, emitting light from the light source housed within the plurality of spokes and connecting the hub to an electrical connection housing.

This invention relates generally to lighting and, more particularly, to a hub based lighting system and method for horticulture environments. In general, lighting and lighting fixtures are available in a wide variety of styles, shapes, colors and intensities. Such characteristics vary depending on the purpose of the lighting. For horticulture environments, particularly greenhouse environments, certain characteristics prove more beneficial and desirable for growing various crops and plants with artificial lighting. Horticulture environments generally desire lighting with high power densities, an optical footprint, and the ability for air and other gases to circulate freely about the lighting fixtures. Such characteristics are often difficult to achieve with the prior art as light fixtures with high power densities are often large and therefore block the free circulation of air. However, conventional shapes and large-sized fixtures are commonly needed to achieve the desired intensities and optical illumination for such growing environments.


The present invention aims to provide a bis(phosphine) boronium salt to be used as a building block or the like for producing a diphosphine compound effective mainly for various kinds of transition metal-catalyzed reactions and further to provide a preferable production method of the bis(phosphine) boronium salt and a bis(phosphine) boronium salt to be produced by the production method.

It is reported that a phosphine ligand having a sterically complicated structure is useful for various transition metal-catalyzed reactions such as cross-coupling and investigations on synthesis of phosphine compounds have been addressed as a most important issue at home and abroad (for example, Patent Documents 1 to 3) and have drawn attention as an important approach to develop a highly practical catalytic organic transformation process.
Patent Document 1: JP 2001-253889 A
Patent Document 2: JP 2003-292498 A
Patent Document 3: JP 2003-313194 A

Bis(phosphine) boronium salt, production method of bis(phosphine) boronium salt, and bis(phosphine) boronium salt produced by the production method

Abstract: The present invention provides a bis(phosphine) boronium salt having the structure defined by the following formula (1).


Provided is a process for forming a contact for a compound semiconductor device without electrically shorting the device. In one embodiment, a highly doped compound semiconductor material is electrically connected to a compound semiconductor material of the same conductivity type through an opening in a compound semiconductor material of the opposite conductivity type. Another embodiment discloses a transistor including multiple compound semiconductor layers where a highly doped compound semiconductor material is electrically connected to a compound semiconductor layer of the same conductivity type through an opening in a compound semiconductor layer of the opposite conductivity type. Embodiments further include metal contacts electrically connected to the highly doped compound semiconductor material. A substantially planar semiconductor device is disclosed. In embodiments, the compound semiconductor material may be silicon carbide.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods of making semiconductor devices and in particular to methods of providing ohmic contacts to compound semiconductor layers utilized in semiconductor devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
The fabrication and operation of basic transistor devices is well known. New technologies have developed needs for higher speed and power transistors capable of withstanding extreme operating conditions such as high temperatures, current, and radiation. Silicon carbide devices have the potential to fulfill these needs but have yet to achieve commercial success. One obstacle to using silicon carbide in electronic devices is the difficulty in providing electrical contacts to the device.
Electrical contacts to silicon carbide may be formed by reacting a contact metal with silicon carbide. One such method involves melting an alloy on the surface of silicon carbide. When the alloy melts, it dissolves and reacts with a small portion of the silicon carbide to form a contact. A second method of creating a contact involves laminating the surface of the silicon carbide with a contact metal. When annealed, this metal reacts with the silicon carbide to form an ohmic contact. The first method results in a contact that is too large for use in miniature devices. Annealing temperatures in the second method would be destructive to insulating layers. Both methods are incompatible with semiconductor devices having thin silicon carbide layers because of problems with metal spiking.
In order to prevent metal spiking, barrier layers between the contact metal and silicon carbide may be used. In one method a portion of doped silicon carbide is bombarded with ions to produce a heavily doped barrier region to which contact is made. Alternatively, a silicide barrier layer may be formed during annealing. Both of these methods are impractical for forming contacts to thin silicon carbide layers. Ion bombardment is not feasible for thin silicon carbide layers because the highly doped region is likely to extend through the entire layer and into an underlying layer. Similarly, the formation of a silicide barrier layer may electrically short a thin silicon carbide layer to an underlying layer because the reaction can consume the entire thickness of the thin silicon carbide layer and a portion of the underlying layer.

Contact method for thin silicon carbide epitaxial layer and semiconductor devices formed by those methods


A communications system, including at least one tag and a plurality of beacons. The tags are configured to detect beacon advertisement messages, initiate a connection with at least one of the plurality of and transmit a Constant Tone (CT) to the at least one of the plurality of beacons. The tag is further configured to determine a location thereof based on the sampled CT from both the beacon and the tag and then report the location via the one of the beacons and/or an access point. Phase ranging mitigation techniques which include hop duplication, hop interpolation and ADC DC offset correction are employed so as to provide more accurate ranging values even in the case where there are many other devices in local proximity and which are competing for use of the same RF channels as those used by the tags and beacons.

There are many different applications which require the physical location of objects to be determined and/or tracked over time. Examples include asset tracking solutions such as those deployed in hospitals, warehouses, manufacturing facilities and construction locations. Other solutions involve the tracking of people such as in assisted living facilities or various work environments where knowing the physical location of people over time and/or at the current moment is an important characteristic of overall performance.
These applications, often referred to as "Real Time Location Systems" or "RTLS", are used in any number of scenarios in which the location of one or more physical objects are tracked over time. Typically, the objects being tracked are "tagged" with small wireless capable tags that are attached to the object(s) being tracked. These tags are ideally low cost and transmit using a low power protocol such as Bluetooth or Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).
Object tracking applications are typically implemented using a user interface which shows the location of the tags in real time in graphical form or via some other reporting format. Location of the tags as they move around may be accomplished via various ranging techniques in which the distance between the tag and one or more system components (herein generically referred to as a "beacon") is determined. The RTLS generally requires that multiple beacons are used in the location determination. These locations are collectively used to calculate a real time geographical position for the tag and thus a position for the object(s) being tracked as a result of being attached to or otherwise in the immediate physical vicinity of the tag.
In some RTLS systems, one or more beacons "advertise" their presence via periodic wireless transmissions and when a location determination is required, a predetermined handshaking process occurs between the tag and the beacons after which ranges are determined and a location calculation is made. Alternatively, other RTLS systems function such that the tag instead advertises its presence to the beacon and initiates the handshaking protocol when a location determination is required.
As one might imagine, accurate location determination for objects in these RTLS systems is directly dependent on the accuracy of the ranging values calculated between the tags and each of the beacons. In some systems, a minimum of four (4) beacon-tag ranges is preferred in order to establish a confident geographic coordinate for the tag. If even one of the ranges calculated diverges even minimally from the actual value, the location estimation for the tag can be unusably inaccurate. By way of example, in a hospital environment, while it may not be a requirement to know exactly where in the room a specific piece of equipment is located, at least knowing which room the equipment is in would typically be a minimum requirement. If ranging error is significant enough, the wrong room for a piece of equipment could be reported.
Ranging errors can be caused by a number of factors including environmental conditions such as noise, multi-path channel effects, clock synchronization and sampling artifacts. Time synchronization and frequency accuracy, or lack thereof, as between the tag and the beacons, can significantly affect ranging accuracy because of the high rate of radio wave propagation. As a result, even small timing errors can cause very significant ranging errors.
Even with the above, perhaps the most significant source of ranging errors results from interference due to the collision of transmissions on the same frequencies. In many cases, an RTLS deployment in an industrial, office or even residential environment will necessarily have to co-exist with other RF systems which transmit on the same frequencies as are used by the RTLS system. For example, the multitude of devices operating on WiFi networks will often interfere with the beacon-tag transmissions since both often operate, at least to some degree, in the same unlicensed spectrum.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide one or more RTLS systems and related operating characteristics that address and overcome the aforementioned impediments and disadvantages now associated with the conventional RTLS systems. More specifically, it would be desirable to provide such functionality in connection with various application environments such as in the cases where RTLS is deployed to provide any or all of the following: proximity sensing, alert systems, jobsite and warehouse asset monitoring, tracking assets to be inventoried and for which location must be determined, as well as many others.
In particular, it would be desirable to provide more accurate ranging capabilities in these RTLS systems through various techniques and systems as disclosed herein and in which known impediments to ranging accuracy can be largely overcome such as through the mitigation of channel interference particularly in deployments where many RF devices are competing for the use of the same scarce spectrum resources.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Apparatus and method for mitigating interference when phase ranging among beacons and tags


A hitch is provided including a tongue, an insert, and a base. The tongue includes a C-shaped section having an internal spherical raceway and opposing walls, each extending from an opposite arm of the C-shaped section. The insert includes a spherical segment received within the internal spherical raceway and having a draw pin hole, and a projection extending rearward between the opposite arms of the C-shaped section and having a socket recess. The base being pivotally connected to the tongue through the opposing walls. The base includes a ball located in front of the pivotal connection, the ball being received within the socket recess of the insert, and a back end being adapted for connection to a towing implement.

Implement hitches are commonly used to connect a towed implement to a tractor or tow vehicle. A hitch can be secured to the implement and connected to a draw bar on a tow vehicle via a draw pin. The hitch should provide sufficient articulation to allow movement of the towed implement as it is towed. If the hitch is not able to provide enough range of motion between the tow vehicle and implement, damage may occur to the vehicle, draw bar, hitch and/or implement.
Various hitch designs exist that provide various degrees of articulation. However, hitches capable of high articulation are often complex and expensive, while simple hitches provide limited range of motion or suffer other issues such as excessive backlash.
Accordingly, an additional, alternative and/or improved articulating hitch is desirable.


An apparatus for performing anastomosis between a graft vessel and a target vessel may include a connector holder having spaced-apart arms, and a member connected to the connector holder, where the member is insertable through an opening in a wall of the target vessel at least partially into the lumen of the target vessel. One or more connectors, such as staples, may be deployed from each arm to connect the graft vessel to the target vessel. One or more connectors may be deformable against the member.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an anastomosis system, and more particularly, the invention relates to an anastomosis system for controlling a tissue site during an anastomosis procedure.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Vascular anastomosis is a procedure by which two hollow tissue structures are surgically joined together. Vascular anastomosis is performed during treatment of a variety of conditions including coronary artery disease, diseases of the great and peripheral vessels, organ transplantation, and trauma. In coronary artery disease (CAD) an occlusion or stenosis in a coronary artery interferes with blood flow to the heart muscle. Treatment of CAD involves the grafting of a vessel in the form of a prosthesis or harvested artery or vein to reroute blood flow around the occlusion and restore adequate blood flow to the heart muscle. This treatment is known as coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG).
In the conventional CABG, a large incision is made in the chest and the sternum is sawed in half to allow access to the heart. In addition, a heart lung machine is used to circulate the patient's blood so that the heart can be stopped and the anastomosis can be performed. In order to minimize the trauma to the patient induced by conventional CABG, less invasive techniques have been developed in which the surgery is performed through small incisions in the patients chest with the aid of visualizing scopes. Less invasive CABG can be performed on a beating or stopped heart and thus may avoid the need for cardiopulmonary bypass.
In both conventional and less invasive CABG procedures, the surgeon has to suture one end of the graft vessel to the coronary artery and the other end of the graft vessel to a blood supplying vein or artery, such as the aorta. The suturing process is a time consuming and difficult procedure requiring a high level of surgical skill. In order to perform the suturing of the graft to a target vessel such as the coronary artery or the blood supplying artery the surgeon generally has an assistant hold the edges of the incision in the target vessel while the surgeon takes small stitches as close as possible to the edges of the incision. This suturing requires a high degree of precision and is quite time consuming. In addition, during conventional CABG procedures blood flow at the anastomosis site is stopped during suturing. This prevents bleeding from the incision site but also prevents blood from reaching a portion of the heart muscle served by the vessel.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a vascular anastomosis system which allows the tissue at the anastomosis site to be controlled during suturing or other connection of the graft and target vessels. It would also be desirable to provide a vascular anastomosis system which allows the connection of a graft vessel to a target vessel prior to making an incision in the target vessel which allows blood flow between the target vessel and the graft vessel.


The present invention provides a digital computer memory cache organization for efficient data logging, log-based copy and rollback, high-performance I/O, network switching and multi-cache consistency maintenance. The cache organization implements efficient selective cache write-back, mapping and transferring of data. Write or store operations to cache lines tagged as logged are written through to a log block builder associated with the cache. Non-logged store operations are handled local to the cache, as in a writeback cache. The log block builder combines write operations into data blocks and transfers the data blocks to a log splitter. A log splitter demultiplexes the logged data into separate streams based on address.

This invention relates generally to the organization of digital computing apparatus and more specifically the recording or logging of memory updates in support of auditing, recovery, device output, networking and multiple cache consistency maintenance.
Data Logging
Data logging or logging is the recording of data values generated by, and concurrent to, the execution of some generating process. Logging is used in database management systems to record updates to the database to facilitate recovery in the case of a system crash or media failure. It is also used to record the previous value of a record before an update so that the change can be undone. Logging is used in computer simulation to provide a record of the activity of the simulated system for subsequent processing and analysis, as an aid to debugging the system, and to implement rollback in so-called optimistic simulation where it may be necessary to undo actions that have progressed too far ahead in virtual time. Also, logging is used to record actions performed by a system so that these actions can be monitored and reviewed as part of security auditing.
Logging has been implemented in two well-established ways. First, the program can be modified either manually by a programmer or by an language processor to generate a write operation to a log buffer area for every data write operation occurring in the program. This approach is commonly used with database management systems, program debugging, and simulation systems. FIG. 1 shows this organization. An application process 101 performs a data write operation to the program data area 103. In conjunction with this data write operation, the application process 101 also performs a log data write to the log buffer area 105 consisting of the datum and possibly the address of the data write operation.
In the second approach, the memory mapping hardware can be set to write-protect the area of memory to be logged, normally with the aid of the operating system. Subsequently, a write operation to this area of memory causes a trap to a trap handler software routine which determines the address and datum being written, transfers that information to the log buffer, completes the write operation, and allows the program to continue execution. Mechanisms to implement this approach are provided in commercial operating systems such as the ATT Unix system by the mmap, mprotect, and signal facilities.
Basic Cache Design
Computer system designers have recognized the advantages of employing a fast cycle time cache memory unit or cache intermediate between the longer cycle time main memory and the processing unit or units. Caches are structured as a plurality of fixed-sized lines, the unit of transfer between the cache and main memory, with an associative table or directory, with a status control word or tag per line, indicating the validity of the line, read and write permissions, its associated main memory address, and possibly other information. Additional directory information has been used to ensure consistency between the cache information and main memory and possibly other caches in the system. The cache control module manages the contents of the cache memory unit and the cache directory in response to memory references by its associated processor(s) and bus or network interconnect. Each cache line holds one memory block, a portion of memory of size equal to the size of the cache line, and starting on an address that is a multiple of this size. A processor is coupled to a cache so that memory references are handled by the cache, rather than requiring the memory references to be communicated to the main memory system.
FIG. 2 shows this basic cache structure. A processor 202 refers to an address as part of a read or write operation by signaling the address and the operation over bus interconnect 203 to cache memory unit 204, in particular cache controller 206. Cache controller 206 looks up the address in cache directory 208 to locate the corresponding status control word 210. If the corresponding status control word 210 is present in cache directory 208, referred to as a cache hit, this status control word 210 indicates the corresponding cache line 216 in the cache line memory 212 containing the referenced datum. If the operation is a write operation, the datum to be written is transmitted over from processor 202 over data busses 214 and 203 into cache line 216. The datum value may or may not be propagated over bus 218 to the memory system (not shown), depending on whether that cache line is handled as write-through or write-back, as described in the next section.
If the corresponding status control word 210 is not present in cache directory 208, referred to as a cache miss, the cache control module 206 selects a cache line 216 to hold this memory block, writes the data currently contained in this line back to memory if it has been modified since the last such writeback, loads the required data from memory into this line, sets the corresponding status control word 210 to reflect the new contents of the cache, and allows the processor 202 to continue, completing the operation as for a cache hit described above.
Multi-level cache structures have also been used. The first level or L1 cache is directly connected to the processor to handle each memory access. The first level cache is connected to a second level cache (L2), rather than being connected to main memory. When a memory reference misses in the L1 cache, the L1 cache controller sends a request for the referenced block of memory to the L2 cache. If the L2 cache contains the referenced memory block, the L2 cache returns this data to the L1 cache, the same as the case of a cache hit described above. Otherwise, the reference is a miss at the L2 cache, and is handled the same as described for the cache miss case above. In particular, the L2 cache controller requests the data from the next lower level of cache or memory to which it is connected. Multi-level caching has been described in several published reports; One recent report is: ParaDiGM: A Highly Scalable Shared Memory Multi-Computer Architecture" by Cheriton et al. in IEEE Computer, February 1991.
Cache Writing Methods
Write operations modify the state of the cache, potentially making it inconsistent with the copy of the corresponding location in main memory. Two common approaches are used to ensure that main memory is eventually updated by writes to a cache line. In the first approach, the write-through approach, any write operation to the cache causes the cache to immediately write this same value into the memory system. Thus, memory is always current and the cache serves only to handle read operations in place of the memory system.
In the second approach, the write-back approach, write operations only immediately update the contents of the associated cache line, not main memory. The status control word for the cache line is then set to indicate that the cache line has been modified. When a cache line is to be invalidated (because it is to be used for a different portion of memory), or any other need arises to make the main memory consistent with the cache, the data in the cache line is then written back to the memory block associated with this cache line.
Caches may provide fixed or selectable address range or set of address ranges which are non-cached. When a processor writes to a non-cached portion of memory, the write operation is passed through immediately to the main memory system and does not affect the state of the cache. Read operations to addresses within the designated non-cached ranges are handled similarly, bypassing the cache and retrieving the requested data from the memory system.
Non-cached regions of memory are frequently used to access I/O devices such as network interfaces, graphical frame buffers, and various storage device interfaces. The non-cached behavior ensures that all writes are immediately transferred to the device. It also ensure that read operations return the current state of status registers and other device states that may change without the processor modifying this state, an example being a device completion flag. Non-cached access is also used on occasion to handle large areas of memory that are written but not read immediately, such as a log buffer. This approach avoids using a large number of cache lines to hold this data, frequently forcing the cache to discard other data that it is accessing, causing a significant performance penalty.
Caches and processors may provide an explicit mechanism for forcing modified cache lines to be written back or flushed to main memory. Explicit flushing can be used in place of non-cached access in some cases. The cache lines are written and then the modified data is flushed back to the memory to update the device or memory, converging to the situation achieved with a non-cached memory approach. However, this approach is frequently infeasible because the cache may write back a memory block at any time to make space for other memory blocks being referenced by the processor activity, so explicit cache flushing is not guaranteed to cause write back in the required order of data transfer.
Finally, caches may provide write buffers that accept the data to be written, either by the processor directly on a non-cached or write-through operation, or as part of a cache line writeback, normally allowing the processor or cache to proceed before the data has been transferred to the memory system. Write buffers are an established mechanism for minimizing the delay on the cache and processor operation imposed by writing data to the memory system. Write buffers have been used directly as part of the processor to absorb write data, as part of write-through caches and as part of write-back caches to absorb cache line write data.
Memory Copy and Rollback Support
An operating system facility known as copy-on-write (and also as deferred copy) provides a functionality with some relevance to logging. With a copy-on-write facility, a virtual memory source segment is logically copied to a destination segment by mapping the first segment to the destination segment, using virtual memory mapping hardware. The actual copy only occurs on a page basis at the point that a process first attempts to write to a page in the destination segment. At that time, the source page corresponding to the referenced page is copied to the destination segment before the write completes, modifying the destination segment. Subsequent read and write operations within this page go directly to the page in the destination segment. Thus, the copy-on-write facility "logs" modifications to the source segment but on the granularity of a page. That is, the modified page and its modifications are recorded in the destination segment area. This mechanism for logging and copying suffers from the major disadvantage of the page being an excessively large unit. A scheme was proposed by Cheriton et al. (The VMP Multiprocessor: Initial Experience, Refinements and Performance Evaluation, Int. Symposium on Computer Architecture, 1988) that provided this facility at the cache line level. However, that proposal relied on software-controlled virtually addressed caches, not a common computer system architecture.
An application-level variant of this copy-on-write mechanism has been used to implement checkpointing and rollback, or resetting to the checkpoint. (See Li et al., Concurrent real-time checkpoint for parallel programs, 2nd ACM SIGPLAN Symp. on Principles and Practice of Parallel Programming, March 1990 as well as S. Feldman and C.Brown, IGOR: A system for Program Debugging via Reversible Execution, ACM SIGPLAN Notices, January 1989.) In this scheme, a checkpoint consists of copying the modified pages, identified by the virtual memory mechanism, to a separate memory area or to secondary storage, and rollback consists of restoring the address space to the state in a previous checkpoint. In particular, the memory mapping unit is only used to trap to software on a write operation, at which point a full page copy is performed. Checkpoints are created by a conventional copy of each modified page and rollback is performed by copying back all pages modified since the last checkpoint, thereby incurring a significant copying cost.
Device I/O and Network Switching Techniques
Conventional device output is performed by operating system calls that copy the data from the application memory area to the device. In some cases, the device interface is accessed as a portion of the memory address space, allowing the processor to copy the application data directly into the device interface. In other cases, the application data are copied to a system memory area from which the data are then transferred by the hardware device controller using direct memory access (DMA). The former scheme normally requires that the processor access the device memory area as uncached memory and transfer the data one word at a time over the memory bus. The latter normally requires an extra copy of the data over the memory bus, once to transfer to the system area and a second transfer as part of the DMA operation. These copy operations impose a significant performance overhead when used with high-performance output devices.
Device input is conventionally performed by transferring the data to a system memory area and then copying the data to the application memory area as part of a system call requesting the data, thus incurring two copies of the data. The copy from the device to system memory is required because the data cannot be stored in the limited memory on the device interface, in the case of so-called programmed I/O (considering that the application may not have yet requested the data), or because the device is using DMA to transfer to memory and the system cannot easily direct the DMA into the application memory (because of paging complications or the application has not allocated the memory yet). Again, the extra copies impose a performance overhead when used with high-performance input devices.
Some device interfaces allow the device to be mapped into the application address space and accessed directly, a graphics framebuffer being a familiar example. However, it is difficult to implement safe shared access to a device using mapping because the device memory area cannot generally be divided into page units such that the pages mapped into one application only contain data for that application. This is particularly true for network input, where the interface cannot conventionally determine which application is to receive the arriving data without substantial software intervention.
Network switching can be viewed as a special case of device I/O in which the device input is directed to the output of another device, namely the network output port. There is a broad range of literature and products in network switching. Basically, an addressed data unit or packet is received over a communication link and the receiving computer or switching device determines the output link on which to transmit this packet, and proceeds to transmit this packet on this output link. There are several basic approaches to effecting this switching.
First, using a switch with a computer processor, the processor is notified of packet arrival, examines the packet and possibly other routing information to determine the output line for the packet, and copies the packet from its input location to a transmission buffer for the output line, instigating the transmission of the data packet on the output line. With this approach, the switching and packet movement from input to output is accomplished by the processor operation according to software instructions. This scheme entails essentially device input and device output as described above, but perhaps eliminating the step of copying to and from a separate application memory area.
Second, specialized hardware can be provided that connects the input line to the output line, either statically by prior setup as with circuit switching or dynamically in response to parsing of the packet. The ATT Batcher-Banyon switching fabric is one example of a mechanism desired to be realized as such specialized hardware.
Finally, the input line device can write the input packet over a switching bus, with some designating address, such that one or more output devices recognize said address and copy the data so transmitted out on their associated transmission line. The ATT Bell Laboratories Datakit networking technology is an example of a specialized network using this approach of short bus switching, which, in the case of this particular example, uses circuit switching and one word packets.
In summary, this prior art principally achieves a software implementation of switching or a implementation in specialized hardware. No prior art shows how to support network switching by an extension of general-purpose computer system structures, as provided herein.
Cache Consistency Techniques
Cache consistency problems arises because, with caching, there is potentially a separate copy of the data in both the cache and main memory. A mechanism is normally needed to ensure that the processor(s) and I/O devices read and update these multiple copies in a consistent fashion so that read operations return the latest data, and write operations take effect in basically the order they were issued. There may also be multiple caches to support multiple processors and multiple levels of access to memory, further complicating the consistency problem.
There are two basic established approaches to consistency. In the first approach, the cache uses the write-through cache operation described above. When the processor writes a datum to the cache, the datum is transferred through immediately to the memory system, notifying other caches holding a copy of this datum, either explicitly or implicitly (by the other caches observing this write operation on a shared bus) of the update. Other caches holding a copy of this datum either update the copy of this datum in their cache with the written datum value or else invalidate the cache line in their cache containing the copy of this datum, thereby forcing a subsequent read access to this address to retrieve the updated datum value from the next level of memory, either main memory or a lower-level cache.
The write-through cache imposes an excessive write traffic load on the memory bus and memory store and requires a high-speed so-called bus snooping mechanism to update other caches in response to these write operations. As a refinement, IBM U.S. Pat. No. 4,442,487 describes an arrangement wherein a cache is made selectively write-through by incorporating a shared bit per status control word in the cache directory that is set when the bus snooping mechanism observes another cache loading the same memory block or when it is notified on a cache line load that the memory block is already present in another cache. This approach reduces the write traffic with small caches but has been observed to incur excessive write traffic with larger cache lines because a significant amount of data is resident in multiple caches after a period of execution time.
In the second approach, the so-called write-back or copyback approach, ownership information is maintained about cache lines, either by each cache or by the memory system. When a processor writes a datum to an address, the cache first checks that it has exclusive ownership of the associated cache line before allowing the write operation to proceed. If it does have exclusive ownership, the operation proceeds as above. If the processor does not have exclusive ownership, the write operation and the processor are suspended, the cache requests exclusive ownership of the cache line from the memory system, loading the cache line if not present in the cache, and then allows the write operation and the processor to proceed once the line is present and its holds exclusive ownership. A cache may be requested to relinquish ownership of a cache line or may relinquish ownership when replacing a cache line as part of loading a second cache line. In both cases, a cache line that is modified is written back in its entirety to main memory (and/or other caches in the system) before the cache releases its exclusive ownership of the memory block. When a processor reads a datum from an address, the cache first checks that it has ownership of the corresponding cache line, thereby ensuring it has the more recent data in the cache line. If it does have ownership, the operation proceeds as above. If it does not have ownership of the cache line, the read operation and the processor are suspended, the cache requests ownership of the cache line from the memory system, loading the cache line if not present in the cache, and then allowing the read operation and the processor to proceed once the line is present and it is holding ownership. A read operation can either use the same exclusive ownership required for write operations or an additional shared ownership mode which allows multiple processors and caches to read the data concurrently. The latter scheme effectively implements the well-known readers/writers algorithm used in operating systems to maintain consistency of data structures. Additional cache directory information, such as ownership and "modified" flags are added to the cache status control words in the cache directory to implement these protocols.
Write-back caches are recognized to handle infrequently shared data with less bus traffic than write-through caches but produce excessive read and write traffic when there are higher degrees of write sharing. This traffic is required to maintain consistency of the copies in the various caches and memory. The Motorola MC 68040 microprocessor provides a cache directory flag that selects either write back or write-through behavior on a page by page basis.
To reduce the overhead of consistency maintenance, such as the delay in acquiring exclusive ownership of a memory block, various research reports have proposed using various "relaxed" forms of consistency mechanisms, in which a strictly sequential ownership regime is not enforced or required. For example, a computer system may only ensure that ownership transfer has been fully synchronized at the point that locks are acquired or locks are released, so called release consistency developed by the DASH Project at Stanford University. Even more extreme, a cache can ignore the ownership protocol altogether and simply reread cached data from memory periodically to bring it up to date, with no coordination to other caches.
In general, the prior art in logging, caching, network switching and cache consistency has addressed the narrow aspects of their problem domains, and failed to provide a uniform mechanism that is applicable to the broader range of high-performance logging, device output and cache consistency.

The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University


A helicopter is provided and includes an air frame formed to accommodate a pilot, flight control elements disposed on the airframe to generate lift and thrust in accordance with control commands issued by the pilot and a current control mode, a sensor disposed on the airframe to sense helicopter proximity to terrain and obstacles and a flight computer configured to change the current control mode based on sensed helicopter proximity to the terrain and the obstacles.

The subject matter disclosed herein relates to terrain adaptive flight control and, more particularly, to terrain adaptive flight control where a type of control mode is changed based on proximity to terrain or obstacles.
In aircraft flight control systems, controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) occurs when an aircraft, such as a helicopter, impacts terrain or an obstacle in its flight path even though the aircraft is operating normally. This type of incident is common and, in fact, CFIT is a leading cause in helicopter crashes. Occurrence of CFIT is especially a problem when flying in instrument flight rules (IFR) conditions or at night where the pilot wears night vision goggles. Currently, terrain avoidance systems only cue the pilot as to ground proximity.


An overload prevention device has a first rotational member for driving engagement with an input shaft of an auger transmission of a snow removing machine, a second rotational member engaging the first rotational member for rotation therewith over a predetermined torque range and for rotation relative thereto when a predetermined torque is exceeded, and a movable member mounted adjacent to the first rotational member for undergoing movement to restrict a rotating angle of the second rotational member. A detector outputs a detection signal each time the detector detects movement of the movable member in a direction away from the first rotational member when protuberances of the movable member engage protrusions of the first rotational member responsive to relative rotation between the first and second rotational members. A control unit stops operation of the engine when the detector outputs the detection signal a preselected number of times within a preselected time period.

Snow-removers which clear snow by transmitting power from an engine to an auger and rotating the auger have been known (e.g., JP-UM-B-51-34111).
Such a snow-remover is comprised of a drive pulley attached to an output shaft of an engine, a belt trained around the drive pulley and a driven pulley, a rotating transmission shaft extending forward from the driven pulley, a rotating auger shaft connected to the front end of the rotating transmission shaft by way of a gear case, and an auger attached to the rotating auger shaft.
For example, during snow-removing work, it sometimes happens that the auger bites into a lump of ice or a stone or the like and the rotation of the auger is stopped, causing an excessive load to act on the power train from the engine to the auger. It is desirable for this kind of excessive load to be eliminated.
However, when an overload is detected, for example if the engine is stopped by instantaneous overloads occurring at times such as when the auger hits a curbstone or the like, or if the engine is stopped by noise from a detector for detecting overloads, optimal overload prevention cannot be achieved. That is, it is desirable for instantaneous overloading occurring when the auger hits a curbstone or the like and erroneous overloading caused by detector noise to be distinguished from continuous overloading caused by the auger biting into snow or debris. That is, in a snow-remover, an overload prevention device which can surely determine that overloading has occurred, and deal with this overloading, is desirable.

Overload prevention device for a snow removing machine


A display unit may be a cooler merchandiser for displaying products, such as food and beverages. The cooler merchandiser may have a housing that contains a display portion for displaying one or more products and a cooling portion that may be configured to cool the products in the display portion. A frame may be attached to the housing and may extend along at least a portion of the perimeter of a surface of the housing. A removable insert may slide into the frame so that it is positioned adjacent to a surface of the housing. The removable insert may include a cardboard material and the housing may include a rigid styrene material. The removable insert may display a graphics that may be customized. An opening may be provided in the housing to provide access to the display portion and a thermo-protective barrier may be provided to cover the opening.

Oftentimes, perishable food and beverage items require a controlled storage environment. Consequently, many storage units have been developed that contain a mechanism that controls the environment of an enclosed space, such as a refrigerator. Most of these units have some kind of access portal, like a door, or slidable window that provides access to the enclosed, interior space of the storage unit for retrieving products (such as food and beverage products) from the cooling unit. However, these storage units are often made of a heavy material, such as metal, and may be difficult to move and repair. Most of the units are not portable due to their weight and size. Further, the exterior surface of the display units is not easily repaired or changed and the appearance of the unit is not easily updated or remodeled.
Portable cooler merchandiser units have been developed that reduce the weight of the cooling units and create an environment in which the environment of the interior space can be controlled. A manufacturer and/or merchant may wish to sell food and beverage products at a store. A cooler capable of storing the food and beverage products may be positioned at the point of sale to attract consumers.
For example, a manufacturer might want to sell perishable food products at a store, such as a grocery store, a convenience store, or any other typical point of sale. This type of sale often targets consumers by displaying advertising, logos, or any other appealing presentation on the products or on the cooler merchandiser that stores and displays the products. Advertising has become crucial for selling products and reaching consumers, such as the food and beverage products that are described above. Most products are associated with a manufacturer or company by a logo or other graphics associated with the container, product, or service during the sales process. Many sellers choose to directly apply a graphics or logo to the product itself or to the container from which the product is sold.
Some of the cooling units described above may be imprinted with the graphics, logos, or other advertising indicia to attract consumers to the products at a point of sale. The graphics, logos, and other advertising indicia are typically affixed in a permanent fashion to the cooling unit. In many configurations, the graphics, logos, and other advertising is permanently applied to the housing structure of the cooling unit and may only be replaced by replacing the entire or a large portion of the housing. Most advertising strategies frequently change and replacing the housing to reflect the current advertising is inefficient, burdensome, and expensive.
Although many cooler merchandisers exist in the art, there is room for improvement. A cooler merchandiser that is lightweight and easily transportable would be a welcomed advancement in the art. Additionally, a cooler merchandiser having a housing displaying a graphics that may be inexpensively and efficiently changed would also be a welcomed advancement in the art.

Cooler merchandiser with customizable graphics


A liquid filter heat exchanger unit has a heat exchanger having an inlet through which a liquid is supplied to the heat exchanger and a drain through which the liquid exits after having passed through the heat exchanger. The unit also has a liquid filter with a filter housing and a filter element exchangeably arranged in a receiving chamber, wherein the liquid is supplied through the drain of the heat exchanger to an unfiltered side of the filter element. A bypass connects an inlet passage for supplying the liquid to be filtered to the receiving chamber in the filter housing. A switching member opens and closes the bypass. The switching member is formed by the filter element such that the bypass is closed when the filter element is inserted in the filter housing and is opened when the filter element is removed from the filter housing.

The invention concerns a liquid filter heat exchanger unit, in particular for motor vehicles, wherein liquid is supplied to the heat exchanger by an inlet, which liquid, that after passing through the heat exchanger can be supplied through a drain of the heat exchanger to the unfiltered side of the filter element, which filter element is received in an exchangeable way in a filter housing of the liquid filter, comprising a bypass in the filter housing that connects an inlet passage for supplying the liquid to be filtered to the chamber receiving the filter element in the filter housing, wherein the bypass can be opened and closed by a switching member.
In the publication DE 102 45 005 A1 such a liquid filter heat exchanger unit is disclosed which is employed for oil cooling and oil filtering of the oil required for engine cooling. This liquid filter heat exchanger unit comprises a liquid filter with a hollow cylindrical filter element arranged in a filter housing through which the oil flows radially as well as a heat exchanger that is flanged onto the filter housing and in which the oil is cooled. The unfiltered and heated raw oil flows through an inlet passage that is provided within the filter housing first into the heat exchanger, is cooled therein, and flows out of it through an outlet opening to the unfiltered side of the filter element into a receiving chamber housing the filter element in the filter housing. The filter element is flown through radially from the exterior to the interior, subsequently the filtered raw oil flows from the filter interior axially through a drain passage out of the liquid filter heat exchanger unit and is reintroduced into the oil circulation in the engine block of the internal combustion engine.
In order to prevent clogging, in particular after a cold start, of the heat exchanger as a result of increased viscosity of the oil caused by low temperatures, a bypass branches off the inlet passage in the filter element and is connected immediately with the receiving chamber in the area of the unfiltered side of the filter element. This bypass in regular operation in which the raw oil has already reached operating temperature is closed off by a switching member embodied as a bi-metal element or a bypass valve in order to prevent direct flow of heated raw oil to the unfiltered side of the filter element by bypassing the exchanger and to guide the oil through the heat exchanger. At low temperatures however the switching member is automatically opened so that the bypass is open and the unfiltered oil can flow directly to the unfiltered side of the filter element. In this way, the heat exchanger is circumvented and an excessive pressure buildup in the lubricant circulation is prevented.
When, independent of the current temperature, the oil is to be drained from the liquid filter heat exchanger unit, for example, in order to perform an oil change, it must be ensured that only a residual volume of oil as small as possible remains within the filter or the heat exchanger.
It is an object of the invention to configure a liquid filter heat exchanger unit with constructively simple measures in such a way that a drainage as much as possible of liquid from the heat exchanger is enabled independent of the temperature.


A unit cell alignment apparatus that includes a base member, on the upper surface of which unit cells constituting an electrode assembly are stacked parallel thereto, a first guide member located at one side of the base member, the first guide member being disposed so as to be perpendicular to the upper surface of the base member, a second guide member located at the base member, the second guide member being disposed so as to be perpendicular to the upper surface of the base member while being at right angles to the first guide member, and an inclination adjustment member configured to adjust the inclination of the base member.

Secondary batteries, which are capable of being charged and discharged, have attracted considerable attention as power sources for transportation means requiring high output and large capacity, including an electric vehicle (EV), a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), and a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (Plug-In HEV), which have been proposed as alternatives to existing gasoline and diesel vehicles. The use of a lithium secondary battery has been rapidly increasing, since the capacity of the lithium secondary battery is greater than the capacity of a nickel-cadmium battery or a nickel-hydride battery, which is mainly used as a power source for electronic equipment, and the energy density per unit weight of the lithium secondary battery is high.
Such a lithium secondary battery mainly uses a lithium-based oxide and a carbon material as a positive electrode active material and a negative electrode active material, respectively. The lithium secondary battery includes an electrode assembly, in which a positive electrode plate, to which the positive electrode active material is applied, and a negative electrode plate, to which the negative electrode active material is applied, are disposed in the state in which a separator is disposed therebetween, and a sheathing member, in which the electrode assembly is received together with an electrolytic solution in a sealed state.
Based on the shape of a battery case, the lithium secondary battery may be classified as a can-shaped secondary battery, in which the electrode assembly is mounted in a metal can, or a pouch-shaped battery, in which the electrode assembly is mounted in a pouch made of an aluminum laminate sheet. The can-shaped secondary battery may be classified as a cylindrical battery or a prismatic battery.
The electrode assembly may be classified as a jelly-roll type electrode assembly, in which a positive electrode plate and a negative electrode plate are wound in the state in which a separator is interposed therebetween, or a stacked type electrode assembly, in which unit cells, each of which includes a positive electrode plate, a negative electrode plate, and a separator interposed therebetween, are sequentially stacked. The stacked type electrode assembly is mainly used for a pouch-shaped battery, and the jelly-roll type electrode assembly is mainly used for a can-shaped secondary battery. The stacked type electrode assembly, which is configured to have a structure in which a plurality of unit cells is sequentially stacked, has come to be widely used, since the energy density per unit weight of the stacked type electrode assembly is high and the stacked type electrode assembly makes it easy to obtain a prismatic shape.
In the stacked type electrode assembly, two or more unit cells, each of which includes a positive electrode plate, a negative electrode plate, and a separator interposed between the positive electrode plate and the negative electrode plate, are stacked. In order to manufacture an electrode assembly manufactured by stacking the unit cells so as to meet a uniform standard, the unit cells must be stacked in an aligned state. In addition, an electrode assembly manufactured in the state in which unit cells are not properly aligned with each other has disadvantages in that the connection of electrode tabs between the unit cells is difficult and in that space is inefficiently used and thus energy density is low.
Patent Document 1 discloses a unit cell stacking jig including a vibration-generating unit configured to vibrate the unit cell stacking jig. In the unit cell stacking jig of Patent Document 1, unit cells are immediately aligned with each other as soon as the unit cells are properly inserted into the jig. In the case in which the unit cells are partially inserted into only a portion of the jig, the full insertion of the unit cells into the jig may be guided through the vibration-generating unit.
However, there is a limitation in ability to align the major axes and the minor axes of the unit cells using only vibration. Also, in an actual process, the unit cells are supplied through a conveyor belt, and drop toward the jig, whereby the unit cells are loaded into an alignment apparatus. In the case in which the unit cells drop to a region at which positional correction through vibration is difficult, however, the unit cells are not aligned with each other. Consequently, the apparatus of Patent Document 1 has little availability unless a separate sophisticated conveyor belt is provided.
Patent Document 2 discloses an apparatus for manufacturing an electrode assembly configured to have a structure in which a plurality of unit cells is wound together with a separation film in the state in which the unit cells are arranged on the separation film, wherein the apparatus is constructed to align the unit cells with each other using the rotation of a web-alignment roller. However, the above construction is applicable only to a structure in which unit cells are wound together with a separation film, but is difficult to apply to a laminated/stacked type electrode assembly.
Patent Document 3 discloses an alignment apparatus including a base unit provided with an air spray port configured to spray air toward a basic unit body or an auxiliary unit body. However, it is necessary to spray an amount of air sufficient to raise the basic unit body upwards from the surface of the base unit against the weight of the basic unit body, and it is difficult to achieve effective alignment merely by raising the basic unit body upwards.
Also, in Patent Document 3, fuel cells to be vertically aligned on a base member of the present invention are stacked, and therefore application to a general stacking apparatus, which is disposed horizontally, is difficult.
As described above, technology capable of efficiently solving problems with dropping, stacking, and alignment of unit cells, currently performed in many unit cell stacking processes, has not yet been proposed.

Unit cell alignment apparatus having tiltable and rotatable base member


The present invention relates to a device 1 for allowing the use in a aircraft A of at least one radio communication apparatus (R), such as mobile telephones. According to the invention, the radio communication apparatus (R) includes a first connection switch (MC1) between an information processing unit (2) and a transmit unit (3), and a connection switch (MC2) between the processing unit (2) and a receiving unit (5), and the device (1) includes a transmitter (8) transmitting waves (OE) out of the aircraft (A), a receiver (10) detecting waves outside the aircraft (A), and paths L1 and L2 respectively linked to the transmitter (8) and to the first connection switch (MC1) and to the receiver (10) and to the second connection switch (MC2).

The present invention relates to a device for allowing the use in an aircraft of at least one personal means of radio communication, as well as to a means of radio communication designed for this purpose.
More precisely, the present invention applies to a personal means of radio communication which comprises in particular:
a unit for processing digitized information; PA1 a means of transmission transmitting, in the form of electromagnetic waves, digitized information received from said processing unit; and PA1 a means of reception detecting, in the form of electromagnetic waves, digitized information which is sent to said processing unit. PA1 either geostationary satellites; PA1 or installations provided on the ground and intended for air transport. PA1 the means of communication which use ground installations have only limited geographical coverage. Furthermore, since several communication systems of different types exist, various appropriate items of equipment are necessary on the aircraft to obtain a satisfactory field of communication; and PA1 the means of communication which use geostationary satellites do not have worldwide coverage (for example, the polar regions are not covered) and the limited number of channels available reduces the communication capacities. PA1 said means of radio communication furthermore includes; PA1 said device includes: PA1 said transmitter and said receiver are integrated into a transmit and receive beacon; and/or PA1 said first and second means of sending form part of one and the same connection cable. Thus, the simple act of attaching this connection cable to the mobile telephone or the portable terminal disables the radioelectric part of the latter and prevents any untimely and dangerous electromagnetic transmission, inside the aircraft.
Although the present invention is more especially appropriate for a mobile telephone, it can also be applied to other means of radio communication, such as for example portable computer terminals. In a known manner, such portable terminals make it possible to effect a computerized information communication, by virtue of their connection to computerized information networks with the aid of built-in radio modems.
It is known that mobile telephones, which have increased greatly in number in a short time, by virtue of low cost of acquisition and affordable price of communication, are barred from use on board aircraft, especially civil transport planes, for safety reasons. This bar is in fact necessary so as to avoid any electromagnetic interference with the on-board electronic systems of the aircraft, which is liable to be very damaging, in particular during aircraft takeoff and landing.
Also, when the passengers of a transport plane wish to communicate with their usual interlocutors, they must use the communication systems provided as the case may be for this purpose on the plane.
Thus, as regards for example telephone communications, special handsets with which planes are generally equipped are often made available to passengers, to allow them to call the subscribers of the terrestrial telephone network.
The radio means of communication implemented for this purpose use:
Furthermore, special installations have to be set up on the ground, so as to co-operate with these radio means of communication, and in particular so as to send the telephone communications to the persons called.
The aforesaid solutions are not satisfactory since they use complex and costly installations, which are intended as a priority for air transport, this entailing an extremely high communication cost.
Furthermore, these solutions have the following drawbacks:

Device for allowing the use in an aircraft of radio communication means

Societe National Industrielle et Aerospatiale


A copy machine 1 is provided with: a main body device includes a main body ejection portion that ejects a target material on which an image is formed; and a post-processing device that performs predetermined post-processing on the target material that is fed to a post-processing unit inlet. The post-processing device is provided with a transformation unit that transforms a voltage of power supplied from a main power supply unit inside the main body device to a voltage required for driving of the post-processing device.

1. Field of the Disclosure
The present Disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus and a post-processing device.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, an image forming apparatus is known that includes a post-processing device in addition to an image forming main body device.
Such an image forming apparatus is configured by connecting a post-processing unit as a (optional) post-processing device to the image forming main body device.
In addition, depending on a position of the paper ejection portion formed in the image forming main body device, the image forming apparatus may have a relay unit that connects between the paper ejection portion and the post-processing unit (Related Art 1).
However, in Related Art 1, the relay unit and the post-processing unit are supplied with power from the image forming main body device.
In this case, the image forming main body device must have a power supply unit for supplying power to a driving unit such as motor included in the relay unit and the post-processing unit.
Here, since the relay unit and the post-processing unit are optional, these are not necessarily connected to the image forming main body device.
As a result, if the power processing unit for supplying power to optional devices is disposed in the image forming main body device, the price of the image forming main body device may be unnecessarily high.

Image forming apparatus and post-processing device


Methods, systems, and computer-readable storage media for receiving, by a current database system, a query plan file representative of a captured query plan from a source database system, receiving, by the current database system, a set of definitions including one or more definitions, each definition in the set of definitions corresponding to an object that is implicated by the query plan, the object being included in a set of objects, and determining, by the current database system, that each definition in the set of definitions is identical to a respective definition of a corresponding object within the current database system, and in response: executing the captured query plan in the current database system to provide a query result.

Enterprises leverage database systems to store and access data, and, often, significant amounts of data. Some database systems store thousands to millions of records that are frequently accessed. For example, transactions can be repeatedly executed to access and/or manipulate data stored within a database system. In some examples, transactions include queries that are issued to the database system by clients (e.g., users, applications). Queries can be received as query statements written in a query language (e.g., structured query language (SQL)).
Processing of queries in database systems generally includes a query processor that parses a received query statement (e.g., SQL statement) to create a query plan (also referred to as a query execution plan (QEP)). The query plan is executed by an execution engine to provide a query result. In some examples, before execution, an optimizer optimizes the query plan to enhance performance of the query plan when executed. Performance can be described in terms of time (i.e., time required to execute the query plan) and burden on technical resources (i.e., processing power and/or memory expended to execute the query plan).
There is a drive to optimize overall performance of database systems. Optimization can improve execution time of transactions, as well as reduce the load on technical resources (e.g., processors, memory) during execution of transactions. In some instances, performance of a database system can regress and analysis is performed in an effort to determine a source of the regression. To this end, a test database system can be used in an effort to recreate one or more transactions of a production database system (e.g., a production database system that is experiencing the regression). A resolution determined using the test database system, however, needs to be accurately implemented within the production database system to resolve the regression.

Query plan migration in database systems


The present invention relates to high speed communications, in particular, to an interface device between a transmitting device and a receiving device of a transmission system, wherein the transmitting device is capable of automatic compensation of cross-talk timing errors in the interface device, for a group of signals, by using information stored in a storage attached to that interface device. Preferably, the data stored in said storage comprises data on interconnections between said first and second plurality of terminals and data on crosstalk timing errors in said transmission lines relating to a specific data pattern, for each of said stored interconnection.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to high speed communications, in particular, to an interface device between a transmitting device and a receiving device of a transmission system, wherein the transmitting device is capable of automatic compensation of cross-talk effects in the interface device by using information stored in an integrated circuit attached to that interface device. .
The present invention is particularly applicable to interfaces to logic and memory devices, to test equipment for testing semiconductor devices and to high speed communications.
2. Background of the Invention
It shall be appreciated that the invention can be applied to a wide variety of fields, though examples and background information, without limitation to the scope of the invention, represent automated semiconductor testing. Test equipment is typically used to determine whether a device under test ("DUT") follows a set of timing specifications. Accordingly, timing accuracy plays a vital role in the design of test equipment because a discrepancy in the timing accuracy can result in an incorrect classification of a DUT.
A typical test equipment comprises a tester and a device interface board (DIB) connected thereto. A test socket adapted to receive a DUT is mounted on the interface board. A plurality of transmission lines such as coaxial cables or strip lines are provided which join contacts of the test socket and junctions of the interface board with the testing device. The tester and the interface board are interconnected by urging pin electrodes provided on one of them against planar electrodes provided on the other, by pressing planar electrodes provided on both of them against each other, or by engaging connectors provided on both of them with each other. A device to be tested is mounted on the test socket.
A signal generator in the tester generates a test signal of logical levels at specified timings, based on a pattern and a timing signal. The test signal is converted by a driver in the tester into a signal voltage of a predetermined level such as the ECL or TTL level, which is supplied from the tester to pins of the DUT via the transmission lines of the interface board. Then, the resulting DUT output response signals are provided via the transmission lines to the tester, wherein they are compared by a comparator with a reference voltage for the decision of their logical level. Each logical signal based on the decision is compared by a logical comparator with an expected value pattern contained in the data pattern, and the output from the logical comparator is used to determine whether the DUT is good or bad.
In this instance, it is necessary that the timing for sending out the test signal and the timing for fetching the DUT output response signal in the tester be determined taking into account not only the relative delay times between respective circuits in the tester corresponding to the pins of the DUT or delays in the transmission lines but also crosstalk or crosstalk artifacts times of the transmission lines of the interface board which are connected to the pins of the DUT.
The following methods have been proposed to adjust the test signal send-out timing and the DUT output response signal acquisition timing.
According to one of these methods, the transmission lines are made equal in length to make the above-mentioned delay times in the interface board constant, and in the tester, the above-said timing is corrected using data on the constant time. This method suffers from differences between the physical length—all wires are normally the same actual length, and the electrical length for a given pattern. According to another method, the actual lengths of the transmission lines and the delay times are measured, the measured data are stored in a memory provided in the tester and the above-said timing is adjusted using the data read out of the memory. This method tries to adjust delay times by measuring the electrical length of isolated traces. In practice, the electrical length is influenced heavily by crosstalk, so the electrical length during measurement is not an accurate representation of the electrical length in service.
According to still another method, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,225,775, the DUT connection board is equipped with a nonvolatile storage for storing data on the delay times in the transmission line on the connection board corresponding to each terminal of the device under test, and the tester main body unit is so constructed as to adjust the test signal send-out timing and the device output response signal acquisition timing based on the data read out of the storage. Storing the actual topography and topography dependent parameters in a serial presence detect (SPD) memory and adjusting a control signal accordingly is known also from U.S. Pat. No. 6,321,282. This suffers the same problems as previously mentioned, i.e. the electrical length during isolated test differs from that in service due to the neglect of the crosstalk coefficients.
According to U.S. Pat. No. 5,225,775, a calibration procedure is performed by selecting one of a plurality of transmission lines on the connection board and measuring a time required for a signal to pass via this connection board, while all the other transmission lines are silent. Thus, cross-talk from adjacent lines is not taken into account.
As the speeds at which electronic devices operate have increased dramatically and it is not uncommon for these memory devices to run at frequencies at or greater than 100 MHz, the above mentioned methods fails to provide an adequate accuracy of timings. To test at such high frequencies, tester systems include a clock running at or above the maximum frequency at which devices can be tested. As clock frequencies increase, factors such as transmission line crosstalk or crosstalk artifacts such as uneven transmission line performance become significant. To compensate for such variations, some tester systems, such as production-oriented automatic test equipment (ATE) testers, use very high frequency (some as high as 1 GHz) to provide very fine resolutions. However, in these systems crosstalk in signal paths can influence greatly the accuracy of calibration.
Still one more problem arises when the number of testing signals required to test a semiconductor device increases and it becomes more and more complicated technically to compensate timing errors for individual signals in each separate transmission line.
The similar problems arise in high speed communications where it is required to reduce artifacts introduced into a communication channel from the limited and non-linear characteristics of the channel, such as by reflections not being absorbed efficiently or cross-talk between the transmission lines.

Interface device with stored data on transmission lines characteristics