The present invention belongs to the technical field of fluid machinery, and proposes a rotating guide vane module for hydraulic working condition adjustment and a method of assembling in a turbopump. The rotating guide vane module comprises a rotating guide vane back cover plate, a rotating guide vane front cover plate, a rotating guide vane drive gear, and rotating guide vanes. Each rotating guide vane is an integrally-formed independent component and comprises a rotating guide vane back seat, a blade, a rotating guide vane front seat, and a shaft. When the rotating guide vane module for hydraulic working condition adjustment of the present invention is used for adjusting the hydraulic working condition, a center gear rotates to drive the rotating guide vane drive gear, and then the rotating guide vanes rotate to change their opening degrees.

A pump and a turbine or a turbine-pump all-in-one machine (a turbopump for short) is an essential device for supercharging the medium or recovering the energy in the industry. However, the structure of the existing device has a certain limitation to working condition adjustment. Generally, the usage of different working conditions needs different models and specifications of the devices.
The turbopump combines the pump and the energy recovery device and is usually applied to the reverse osmosis seawater desalination system. However, the system needs different seawater desalination recovery rates. So, there are higher working condition adjustment requirements to the pump and the energy recovery device. The main recovery rate adjustment manner comprises a bypass adjustment manner (as shown in FIG. 1) and a needle valve adjustment manner (as shown in FIG. 2) in the prior art. In these two adjustment manners, the working condition adjustment is achieved by reducing the flow path of the high-pressure medium, causing that the structure of the device is more complex and the energy recovery rate cannot be guaranteed. The optimal manner is to use movable guide vanes to conduct the working condition adjustment. However, various structures of the movable guide vane cannot match with the structure of the pump or the energy recovery device. Furthermore, the currently issued patents only disclose their forms, but not clarify their specific application manners to the pump device.

Rotating guide vane module for hydraulic working condition adjustment and method of assembling in turbopump

Institute of Seawater Desalination and Multipurpose Utilization, MNR (Tianjin)

Tianjin Blue Cross Membrane Technology Co. Ltd.


Switch cells consist of an array of power switches and passive components which can replace the main switches in many power topologies, allowing reduced switching loss without altering the power topology directly. The switch cell topology discussed herein utilizes a saturable resonant inductor to reduce the size and power loss of the cell. Additionally, the cell transfers energy stored in the inductor into a capacitor for efficient energy storage during the cell's conduction region. This energy is then transferred back to the system when the cell turns off, thus reducing the total switching energy.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to improvements in switch cells. More particularly, the invention relates to improvements particularly suited for providing debris protection of the vehicle mirror while also displaying decorative elements such as athletic team emblems or colors on vehicle side view mirrors. In particular, the present invention relates specifically to a flexible body suitable for installation over a vehicle mirror.
2. Description of the Known Art
As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, switch cells are known in various forms. Soft-switched cells are an attractive means of reducing switching loss in power converters since the energy recovery method only needs to be developed once and the cell can then be reused on many types of power topologies. Some cell topologies can even absorb energy from the power topology's circuit elements such as the winding capacitance of a power transformer. In these cases, the cell may require slight tuning for each topology to achieve optimal energy recovery. Quasi-resonant switch cells offer simple circuit topologies and control; however, they exhibit high nonlinearity, their characteristics vary widely with changing loads, and they cannot be used with pulse width modulation (PWM). Snubbers can also decrease switching loss by reducing the amount of overlap between the power switch voltage and current. Snubbers are less efficient than quasi resonant cells because they only achieve pseudo soft switching i.e., overlapping is not completely eliminated. Many cell topologies, allow inductive energy to circulate within the cell which dissipates the stored energy in the semiconductor devices over time. The topology presented herein aims to mitigate some of these issues.
Articles disclosing information relevant to switch cells include: REFERENCES:    [1] Cho, J. G.; Cho, G. H.; "Cyclic quasi-resonant converters: a new group of resonant converters suitable for high performance DC/DC and AC/AC conversion applications," Proceedings of the IECON '90, pp. 956-963 vol. 2, 27-30 Nov. 1990.    [2] S. Ben-Yaakov and G. Ivensky, "Passive lossless snubbers for high frequency PWM converters," IEEE Applied Power Electronics conference, APEC-99, Dallas, 1999.    [3] M. L. Martins, J. L. Russi, and H. L. Hey, "Novel synthesis methodology for resonant transition PWM converters," 8th Brazilian Power Electronics Conference, COBEP 2005.    [4] Yu-Ming Chang; Jia-You Lee; Wen-Inne Tsai; York-Yih Sun; "An H-soft-switched cell for single-switch nonisolated DC-to-DC converters," Proceedings of the IECON '93, pp. 1077-1082 vol. 2, 15-19 Nov. 1993.
Each of these articles is hereby expressly incorporated by reference in their entirety.
From these prior references it may be seen that these prior art patents are very limited in their teaching and utilization, and an improved switch cell is needed to overcome these limitations.


In an exhaust gas purification device, a No. 1 cylinder of the engine is operated at a rich air-fuel ratio and other cylinders (No. 2 to No. 4) are operated at a lean air-fuel ratio. The exhaust gases from the No. 1 and No. 2 cylinders are mixed with each other to form a rich air-fuel ratio exhaust gas mixture. Further, since the air-fuel ratio of the No. 2 cylinder is lean, the exhaust gas from the No. 2 cylinder contains a relatively large amount of NO.sub.x. This rich air-fuel ratio exhaust gas mixture which contains a relatively large amount of NO.sub.X is supplied to a three-way catalyst. At the three-way catalyst, part of the NO.sub.X in the exhaust gas mixture is converted to NH.sub.3. The exhaust gas mixture flowing out from the three-way catalyst and the lean exhaust gas from the No. 3 and No. 4 flow into a common exhaust gas passage where they mix with each other to form a lean exhaust gas containing NH.sub.3 from the three-way catalyst and NO.sub.X from the No. 3 and No. 4 cylinders. This lean exhaust gas flows into a denitrating catalyst disposed on the common exhaust gas passage in which NO.sub.X in the exhaust gas is reduced by the NH.sub.3.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an exhaust gas purification device for an internal combustion engine. More specifically, the invention relates to a device which is capable of removing NO.sub.X components in the exhaust gas from a lean burn engine at a high efficiency.
2. Description of the Related Art
An exhaust gas purification device utilizing a three-way reducing and oxidizing catalyst (hereinafter referred to as a "three-way catalyst") is commonly used for removing HC, CO and NO.sub.X components from the exhaust gas of an internal combustion engine (in this specification, the term NO.sub.X means a nitrogen oxide such as NO, NO.sub.2, N.sub.2 O and N.sub.2 O.sub.4 in general). The three-way catalyst is capable of oxidizing HC and CO components, and reducing NO.sub.X components in the exhaust gas, when the air-fuel ratio of the exhaust gas is the stoichiometric air-fuel ratio. Namely, the three-way catalyst is capable of removing these harmful components from exhaust gas simultaneously when the air-fuel ratio of the exhaust gas is the stoichiometric air-fuel ratio.
However, the ability of the three-way catalyst for reducing NO.sub.X components becomes lower as the air-fuel ratio of the exhaust gas becomes lean (i.e., as the air-fuel ratio becomes higher than the stoichiometric air-fuel ratio). Therefore, it is difficult to remove NO.sub.X components in the exhaust gas from a lean burn engine which is operated at, as a whole, a lean air-fuel ratio using a three-way catalyst.
To solve this problem, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 4-365920 discloses an exhaust gas purification device utilizing a denitrating reaction.
When the air-fuel ratio of the exhaust gas is lower than the stoichiometric air-fuel ratio (i.e., when the air-fuel ratio of the exhaust gas is rich), the three-way catalyst converts a portion of NO.sub.X in the exhaust gas to NH.sub.3 while reducing most of NO.sub.X in the exhaust gas and converting it into N.sub.2. The device in the '920 publication produces NH.sub.3 from NO.sub.X in the exhaust gas using a three-way catalyst, and reacts the produced NH.sub.3 with the NO.sub.X components in the exhaust gas to reduce NO.sub.X to N.sub.2 and H.sub.2 O by a denitrating reactions.
In the '920 publication, a multiple-cylinder internal combustion engine is used, and a group of cylinders of the engine are operated at a rich air-fuel ratio while other cylinders are operated at a lean air-fuel ratio. Further, a three-way catalyst having a high capability for converting NO.sub.X to NH.sub.3 is disposed in an exhaust gas passage connected to the rich air-fuel ratio cylinders. After it flows through the three-way catalyst, the exhaust gas from the rich air-fuel ratio cylinders mixes with the exhaust gas from the lean air-fuel ratio cylinders. Since, when the exhaust gas from the rich air-fuel ratio cylinders flows through the three-way catalyst, a portion of NO.sub.X components in the exhaust gas is converted to an NH.sub.3 component, the exhaust gas downstream of the three-way catalyst contains a relatively large amount of NH.sub.3. On the other hand, the exhaust gas from the lean air-fuel ratio cylinders contains a relatively large amount of NO.sub.X. Therefore, by mixing the exhaust gas from the three-way catalyst and the exhaust gas from the lean air-fuel ratio cylinders, NH.sub.3 in the exhaust gas from the three-way catalyst reacts with the NO.sub.X components in the exhaust gas from the lean air-fuel ratio cylinder, and NH.sub.3 and NO.sub.X components produce N.sub.2 and H.sub.2 O by a denitrating reaction. Thus, according to the device in the '920 publication, the NO.sub.X components are removed from the exhaust gas.
In the device in the '920 publication, it is required that the amount of NH.sub.3 produced by the three-way catalyst is sufficient for reducing all the amount of NO.sub.X in the exhaust gas from the lean air-fuel ratio cylinders. For example, the greatest part of NO.sub.X in the exhaust gas discharged from the engine is composed of NO (nitrogen monoxide) and NO.sub.2 (nitrogen dioxide) components. These NO and NO.sub.2 components react with NH.sub.3 and produce N.sub.2 and H.sub.2 O by the following denitrating reaction. EQU 4NH.sub.3 +4NO+O.sub.2 .fwdarw.4N.sub.2 +6H.sub.2 O EQU 8NH.sub.3 +6NO.sub.2 .fwdarw.7N.sub.2 +12H.sub.2 O
Therefore, in the device in the '920 publication, an amount of NH.sub.3 which equals to a total of the number of moles of NO and 4/3 times the number of moles of NO.sub.2 is required to remove all of NO.sub.X component in the exhaust gas from the lean air-fuel ratio cylinders. When the exhaust gas contains other NO.sub.X components such as N.sub.2 O.sub.4, N.sub.2 O components, the amount of NH.sub.3 stoichiometrical to the amount of these components is required in addition to the above noted amount on NH.sub.3.
However, the amount of NO.sub.X produced in the cylinders of the engine becomes the maximum when the cylinders are operated at a lean air-fuel ratio (for example, at an air-fuel ratio about 16), and decreases rapidly when the cylinders are operated at a rich air-fuel ratio. Since the device in the '920 publication converts NO.sub.X in the exhaust gas of the rich air-fuel ratio cylinder to produce NH.sub.3, the amount of NH.sub.3 obtained is limited by the amount of NO.sub.X produced in the rich air-fuel ratio cylinders. Therefore, in the device of the '920 publication, the amount of NH.sub.3 produced by the three-way catalyst is not sufficient to reduce all the amount of NO.sub.X in the exhaust gas from the lean air-fuel ratio cylinders, and a part of NO.sub.X in the exhaust gas from the lean air-fuel ratio cylinder is released to the atmosphere without being reduced.

Exhaust gas purification device for an internal combustion engine


An apparatus for conveying test tubes including a recruiting device and a positioning device having first and second lanes including two spaced, parallel walls forming an opening between the walls, and motorized belts located above a top edge of the walls, the first lane being narrower than the second lane. Further, test tubes having a diameter smaller than a width of the first lane extend between the walls of the first lane so that the test tube has a vertical orientation and is supported by a cap engaging a top edge of the walls of the first lane, and test tubes having a diameter larger than a width of the first lane rest on the top edge of the walls of the first lane in a horizontal orientation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for loading biological material containers in a conveying system.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The Laboratory Medicine progress noticed during the last twenty years led analysis laboratories to promote the use of machines directed to automate the laboratory tests, thus obtaining several advantages such as an acceleration of tests and a greater safety for the laboratory operators who are less and less involved in directly handling potentially infected biological materials to be analysed, since they simply have to manage the machines.

Apparatus for loading biological material containers in a conveying system


The present invention relates to a toner for developing a digital-image, comprising particles having rounded surfaces and having the following size distribution: EQU log Y!=-0.16 X+k (2.4.ltoreq.k.ltoreq.2.7) EQU 5.0.ltoreq.X.ltoreq.11.7 .mu.m!. wherein X! represents an average particle size by volume size and Y! represents % by number of particles of not more than 5 .mu.m.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a toner for developing electrostatic latent image and, more particularly, to an electrostatic latent-image developing toner for use with a digital-system electrophotographic apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Analog-system electrophotographic apparatuses, including copying machines, have been in general use such that light from the light source is illuminated onto an original so that the light reflected from the original is directed to the photoconductor to form an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductor. Also, an image-forming apparatus of digital-system in which a toner-containing developer is supplied to an electrostatic latent image produced in dot unit (digital writing) has been in practical use, including digital copying machines and electrophotographic facsimile units in which image formation is made on the basis of image information read by a printer or image reader as used as an output at a computer terminal.
In the image-forming apparatus of digital-system, an electrostatic latent image is formed on the photoconductor in a unit of dot by digital writing by irradiation of light-beam or light-shutter array, and the latent image is subjected to normal or reversal development; then the resulting toner image is transferred onto a recording medium, such as recording paper, then fixed, whereby a recorded image is produced. Therefore, the toner used in such digital system is required to have good dot-reproducibility. In order to meet such requirement, the toner must have good charging stability. That is, it is necessary that the toner should have stable charging properties such that it is not liable to any substantial variation in the quantity of applied charge due to environmental factors, such as changes in humidity and temperature.
Toner, as in a two-component developing system for example, is triboelectrified by contact with a carrier; and in a single-component developing system, toner is triboelectrified by contact with charge giving members, such as blade and sleeve. However, when any toner component deposits on carrier or charge giving members in the course of repetitive development, the triboelectric function of the carrier or charge giving members in relation to the toner will be lowered and, as a result, the amount of charge applied to the toner will be diminished. In order to enhance the charging stability of the toner, therefore, it is necessary that the toner should have good spent resistance in relation to the carrier and charge giving members.

Toner for developing electrostatic latent image with specific particle-size distribution


An implant material includes: a base material 10; and a carbonaceous film 20 provided on a surface of the base material 10. The carbonaceous film 20 includes carbon atoms, oxygen atoms, and nitrogen atoms in a surface thereof, and the carbon atoms are bonded to the oxygen atoms to form carboxyl carbon and carbon having a single bond with oxygen. In the surface of the carbonaceous film 20, a content of nitrogen atoms is greater than or equal to 8.0 at. %, a content of carbon having a single bond with oxygen is greater than or equal to 5.4%, and a content of carboxyl carbon is less than or equal to 3.1%.

Implants, such as artificial tooth roots, artificial hip joints, artificial knee joints, and bone connecting materials, which are implanted in living bodies have become more and more important in aging society. As base materials for the implants, titanium and titanium alloys are employed for their high affinity for living bodies, high corrosion resistance, and high mechanical strength. Titanium and titanium alloys, however, are not bonded to living bone tissues, and thus, are not integrated with living bones. If titanium and titanium alloys are implanted in living bodies for a long period, loosening and/or shear can occur. To bond an implant to living bone tissues, there has been an attempt to coat the surface of a base material for an implant with a material having affinity for living bodies.
Hydroxyapatite is most generally used for coating of implants. However, hydroxyapatite has poor adhesion to base materials such as titanium. Accordingly, implants coated with hydroxyapatite have low stability and low durability.
There has also been an attempt to use a diamond-like carbon film (a DLC film) as a coating of an implant (see, for example, Patent Document 1). The DLC film has high adhesion to a base material such as titanium, and thus, can form a stable coating.


In an asynchronous circuit (i.e. a circuit without a clock coupled to all parts of the circuit) synchronization is provided by a network of synchronization circuits. Handshake connections exist between pairs of synchronization circuits. These connections comprise a single conductor on which a first synchronization circuit realizes a first potential transition which serves as an attention signal for a second synchronization circuit. The second synchronization circuit applies the attention signal to other synchronization circuits by forming similar attention signals on one or more further conductors. After acknowledgement of said attention signals, the synchronization circuit acknowledges the original attention signal by returning the potential on the conductor to its level prior to the original attention signal.

The invention relates to a circuit, comprising a network of channels and synchronization circuits for coordinating the timing of operations of asynchronously operating sub-circuits which are connected to a periphery of the network, each channel being coupled between an own pair of synchronization circuits which are arranged to execute successive handshakes together, in each handshake a first and a second synchronization circuit of the own pair successively sending one another, via the channel, an attention signal and an acknowledge signal, at least one synchronization circuit in said circuit being coupled between a first and a second one of the channels and being arranged to start a handshake on the second channel upon reception of the attention signal on the first channel, and to generate an acknowledge signal on the first channel in response to the completion of said handshake, all synchronization circuits in said network being connected to one another by the channels, either directly or via other synchronization circuits, so that the handshakes can propagate to the sub-circuits through the network.
An asynchronously operating circuit of this kind is known from the article "Asynchronous Circuits for Low Power: A DCC Error Corrector", by K. van Berkel, R. Burgess, J. Kessels, M. Roncken, F. Schalij and A. Peeters in IEEE design and test of computers Vol. 11 (1994), No. 2, pp. 22 to 32 (see also "A Fully Asynchronous Low-Power Error Corrector for the DCC Player" by the same authors in IEEE Journal of solid state circuits, December 1994, Vol. 29 No. 12, pp. 1429-1439).
The network forms part of an asynchronous signal processing circuit. The network provides coordination of the timing of the operations of various sub-circuits of the signal processing circuit. For example, registers are coupled to a part of the synchronization circuits. The network then ensures that the contents of the registers are not replaced before they have been taken over by other circuits.
The coordination of the timing means that a second sub-circuit may commence a second operation only after a first sub-circuit has completed a first operation. The first sub-circuit itself may commence a further operation only after the second sub-circuit has completed the second operation. In an asynchronous circuit this is achieved by exchanging a handshake between the first and the second sub-circuit. This handshake involves an attention signal which is applied to the second sub-circuit by the first sub-circuit when the first operation is ready. The handshake also involves an acknowledge signal which is applied to the first sub-circuit by the second sub-circuit after completion of the second operation. It is only after it has received the acknowledge signal that the first sub-circuit may apply a new attention signal to the second sub-circuit.
Completion of the first operation will often be a condition for the start of operations in a plurality of sub-circuits. The start of the second operation may also be dependent on the completion of operations in a plurality of sub-circuits.
In that case the timing is coordinated by means of the network. The synchronization circuits ensure the completion of a handshake from one sub-circuit with several sub-circuits or the reception of handshakes from different sub-circuits. For example, there are synchronization circuits which generate a new attention signal in each of two channels in response to an attention signal and which, after reception of an acknowledge signal, generate an acknowledgement of the original attention signal in each of these channels. The handshakes in two channels can also be forcibly coordinated in succession by such synchronization circuits.
The channels via which the handshakes are exchanged utilize four-phase signaling in conformity with said publication. To this end, two conductors are used per channel. The attention signal commences with a potential level transition on a first conductor. The acknowledge signal commences with a potential level transition on a second conductor. After this transition, the potential on the first conductor returns to its original level so as to signify that the acknowledge signal has been received. Finally, the potential on the second conductor returns to its original level so as to signify that a new attention signal may be issued.
The four-phase handshake requires a minimum time: each of the four potential transitions involved requires some time. This minimum time is a critical property of the circuit, notably because the minimum times accumulate in a network of synchronization units in which the handshake must propagate to and fro through the network. Furthermore, two conductors are required so that, for example a handshake between different integrated circuits requires each time two IC pins per channel.
From Japanese published Patent Application No. 62-95654 a pair of latches is known which is connected via a number of conductors for data and via a control conductor. The latches indicate the fact that the data on the conductors for data is valid and the fact that the data has been latched (so that it can be removed from the connection) by way of mutually opposed transitions in a potential level on the control conductor.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,142,632 discloses a circuit with a number of clocked control modules which exchange instructions and execution messages under the control of semaphores. Each semaphore is activated and de-activated by mutually opposed transitions in the potential level on a conductor.
It is inter alia an object of the invention to reduce the minimum time required for a handshake. It is another object of the invention to limit the number of conductors per channel.

Timing circuit using handshake connections


An apparatus having a circuit is disclosed. The circuit may be configured to (i) generate a sequence of hash values in a table from a stream of data values with repetitive values, (ii) find two consecutive ones of the hash values in the sequence that have a common value and (iii) create a shortened hash chain by generating a pointer in the table at an intermediate location that corresponds to a second of the two consecutive hash values. The pointer generally points forward in the table to an end location that corresponds to a last of the data values in a run of the data values.

A Lempel-Ziv compression technique searches for recurring data patterns in a stream of bytes. However, performing the matching at all bytes of the stream is slow. A conventional approach to improve the compression throughput uses chains of hash values. Hash chains help the compression technique process sequences with the same hash value to find potential matches. A symbol run present in the stream generates a long hash chain that slows the compression.
Referring to FIG. 1, a diagram of a portion of a conventional hash chain 10 is shown. The diagram illustrates a portion of the normal hash chain 10 relative to sequential locations 0-C. Each location 1-4, 8 and 9 contains a given hash value (white). Locations 0, 5-7 and A-C contain different hash values (shaded). The normal hash chain 10 is created by setting pointers in each given hash value locations 1-4, 8 and 9 to a nearest previous given hash value location. Therefore, long byte runs create long hash chains having many pointers for the compression technique to consider.
It would be desirable to implement a method to shorten hash chains in Lempel-Ziv compression of data with repetitive symbols.

Method to shorten hash chains in Lempel-Ziv compression of data with repetitive symbols


A method of making a magnetic head which includes first and second pole tip layers separated by a nonmagnetic gap layer includes making the pole tips of a high magnetic moment material. The right side walls of the first and second pole tips are vertically aligned with each other. Similarly, the left side walls of the first and second pole tips are vertically aligned with one another. The side fringing flux from one pole tip to another is substantially reduced resulting in a magnetic head capable of writing data tracks with well defined boundaries. The possibility of the pole tips operating in magnetic saturation is reduced because the pole tips, formed of high magnetic moment material, is capable of accommodating high coercive force. The magnetic head can be fabricated as an inverted head or a non-inverted head capable of writing on magnetic media with high coercivity and at a high data transfer rate.

A typical inductive thin film magnetic head comprises a first magnetic pole layer and a second magnetic pole layer with an electrical coil between the two pole layers. The two pole layers contact each other at one end at a back closure to form a continuous magnetic path, with a narrow transducing gap at the other end. The portions of the first and second poles separated by the transducing gap are designated respectively as the first and second pole tips. In order to write data with narrow track widths and high linear recording densities, it is necessary to provide a magnetic head with narrow pole tips. However, there are technical problems associated with fabricating a magnetic head with narrow pole tips. A key problem confronted during manufacture is the alignment of the two pole tips. Various methods have been suggested to solve this problem.
The magnetic head described above is called an inductive head. The inductive head can be combined with a data reading transducer to form a merged head.
FIG. 1 shows a prior art approach in which a magnetic head 2 is fabricated with a first pole tip 4 wider in lateral dimension than a second pole tip 6. The wider first pole tip 4 tolerates a certain degree of misalignment during the deposition of the second pole tip 6. In the magnetic head 2, the width TW of the second pole tip 6 is intended to define the track width of the magnetic head 2. However, the problem with this approach is that due to the larger width of the first pole tip 4, magnetic flux fringing beyond the width of the second pole tip 6 is unavoidable. The fringing flux, such as flux lines F emanating from the second pole 6 to the first pole 4 as shown in FIG. 1A, would result in registering a data track 8 with a width W having ambiguous track boundaries, which seriously limit the track-to-track separations on the recording medium 10.
Modern day storage products are now built with ever decreasing physical sizes and increasing storage capacities. Magnetic heads are fabricated on microscopically confined areas. To increase the sensitivity of the magnetic head, the number of coil windings can be increased. However, any increase in coil windings is restricted by the confined areas. Furthermore, the higher the number of coil windings, the higher is the resultant inductance attached to the magnetic head. A magnetic head with high inductance is sluggish in response to data writing current and incapable of operating at high frequency ranges.
Another approach to increase the writing sensitivity of the magnetic head is to increase the magnitude of the writing current. Higher writing current generates higher Joule heat which increases the burden of the magnetic heat formed in a confined space in respect to the heat dissipation. However, an overriding issue is the premature magnetic saturation encountered by the magnetic yokes in response to higher writing current.
FIG. 2 shows the hysteresis curve 12 of a magnetic material such as Permalloy (NiFe) which includes a high permeability slope of the curve 12 and low coercivity H.sub.c. Because of these characteristics, Permalloy is commonly used as the material for the magnetic yokes or tips of magnetic head. FIG. 2A is a fragmentary view of the conventional magnetic head 2 at the tip portion. When the writing current I passing through the coil 14 increases, the magnetic flux induced by the inductive coil 14 also increases. The magnetic flux which exerts coercive force on the magnetic yoke layers 16 and 18 also increases. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, when the coercivity exceeds 5 Oersteds, the magnetic yoke layers are fully saturated at 200 nanowebers and can no longer be responsive to any increase in writing current. Normally, magnetic saturation happens at the areas with the smallest physical dimensions. For instance, when magnetic saturation occurs, it first takes place at the first and second tip layers 4 and 6 and then slowly progresses to the areas with larger physical bulk, such as the yoke bodies 16 and 18. With pole tips built smaller for the purpose of writing narrow data tracks, the problem of magnetic saturation is further exacerbated.
Magnetic heads with pole tips having vertically aligned sidewalls have been proposed. U.S. Pat. No. 5,452,164, Cole et al., entitled "The Thin Film Magnetic Write Head", issued Sep. 19, 1995 discloses a magnetic head in which the vertically aligned sidewalls of the first and second pole tips are made possible by the process of ion milling through an overlying mask as a template. However, the magnetic head of Cole et at. does not address the magnetic saturation problem.
The problem of obscure data track boundaries written by a magnetic head and the problem of preventing the magnetic head from operating in premature saturation, when the head is built with a smaller physical size, need to be addressed. The problems are more intensified as storage products are now built with further reduced sizes and increased storage capacities. Data tracks written with ambiguous track boundaries seriously undermine track-to-track separations which in turn compromise the overall storage capacity of storage devices. A prematurely saturated magnetic head is incapable of operating at high frequency and is inept in performing high rate data transfer onto media with high areal densities. Accordingly, there has been a need to provide magnetic heads capable of writing data tracks with well defined track boundaries, yet made available at reasonable manufacturing costs.

Method of making a magnetic head with aligned pole tips and pole layers formed of high magnetic moment material


Various methods, computer storage media, and systems for implementing hierarchical data integrity verification, in distributed computing systems, are provided. A data manager operates to perform hierarchical data integrity verification operations on message-digests that are associated based on a linear property of a non-cryptographic function, such that a data integrity of source data is verifiable based on the message-digests combined based on an exclusive-or (XOR) operator. The data manager accesses data fragments that are erasure coded fragments and a parity fragment generated from the data fragments, which correspond to source data. The data manager generates and stores the data-fragment message-digests, data-parity message-digests, and parity-fragment message-digests in corresponding data fragment zones and parity fragment zones. The data manager executes two different types of hierarchical data integrity verification operations, to verify the data integrity of the source data, the operations include: local data integrity verification operations, and global data integrity verification operations.

Users often rely on applications and services to perform computing tasks. Distributed computing systems (e.g., cloud computing platforms) are computing architectures that support network access to a shared pool of configurable computing and storage resources. A distributed computing system can support building, deploying, and managing applications and services. Users and enterprises are moving away from traditional computing infrastructures to run their applications and services on distributed computing systems. As such, distributed computing system providers are faced with the challenge of supporting the increasing number of users and enterprises sharing the same distributed computing system resources.
By way of example, distributed computing systems may use fault-tolerant storage techniques for proficient and dependable storage of data. In particular, erasure coding techniques may be employed to reduce storage overhead. Erasure coding may be implemented across storage nodes (e.g., disks, servers and racks). Erasure coding can provide efficient recovery of missing data based on local protection groups that define local dependencies between code data fragments and parity fragments. Local protection groups can be implemented with varying complexities and structures to support different fault tolerance properties of erasure coded data when recovering missing data.
With the ever-increasing use of distributed computing systems, improvements in computing operations for managing distributed data and, in particular, distributed data integrity verification in distributed computing systems, can provide more provide more efficient processing of distributed data and efficiency in storage and retrieval of distributed data.

Hierarchical data integrity verification of erasure coded data in a distributed computing system


Incident light that passes through the optical aperture is controlled by pivoting the light control unit (130) alternately to a first stationary position of being retracted from the optical aperture (102 and 122), and a second stationary position of overlapping with the optical aperture by moving the light control unit by the drive unit (132 and 150), and when the light control unit is at the first stationary position, the light control unit is capable of sticking out of the first substrate and the second substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light control apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, with improved high-quality performance of a portable equipment having an image pickup function, and a small-size optical apparatus such as a micro video scope, with regard to optical elements such as a lens, an aperture, and an optical filter, there has been an increasing requirement of an application of optical elements such and an adjustable focus lens, a variable aperture, a variable optical filter, as well as other optical elements, instead of a fixed focus lens and a fixed aperture stop. Moreover, further small-sizing (slimming) of such optical elements has been sought.
For instance, in a blade driving apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 2010-96872, an adjustment of amount of light is carried out by forming a plurality of optical apertures in one blade. In this blade driving apparatus, since there is no need to use a plurality of blades, small-sizing is possible.


A method and apparatus for selecting a favored transmission slot for communicating non-voice data in conjunction with a voice-data communication. The slot, reflecting a favored power level and transmission rate for transmitting the non-voice data on a supplemental channel, is selected based upon the transmission power levels for voice-data transmitted by a base station to a remote station on a fundamental channel. The favored transmission slot is selected without the remote station messaging information to the base station concerning frequency channel or interference information for the supplemental channel.

1. Field
The present invention relates to wireless communications. More particularly, the invention concerns a method and apparatus for predicting power control requirements for a supplemental channel used in conjunction with a fundamental channel.
2. Description of the Related Art
Traditionally, wireless communication systems were required to support a variety of services. One such communication system is a code division multiple access (CDMA) system which conforms to the "TIA/EIA/IS-95 Mobile Station-Base Station Compatibility Standard for Dual-Mode Wideband Spread Spectrum Cellular System," hereinafter referred to as IS-95. The use of CDMA techniques in a multiple access communication system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,307, entitled "SPREAD SPECTRUM MULTIPLE ACCESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM USING SATELLITE OR TERRESTRIAL REPEATERS," and U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,459, entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATING WAVEFORMS IN A CDMA CELLULAR TELEPHONE SYSTEM," both assigned to the assignee of the present invention, and co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/382,438, entitled "METHOD AND APPARATUS USING A MULTI-CARRIER FORWARD LINK IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM," each of which is incorporated by reference herein.
More recently, wireless systems such as the CDMA systems mentioned above have offered hybrid services, such as providing both wireless voice and data communications. To coordinate the implementation of such services, the International Telecommunications Union requested the submission of proposed standards for providing high-rate data and high-quality speech services over wireless communication channels.
In a CDMA system, a user communicates with the network through one or more base stations. For example, a user on a remote station (RS) may communicate with a land-based data source, such as the Internet, by transmitting data to a base station (BS) via a wireless link. This link between the RS and the BS is commonly referred to as the "reverse link." The BS receives the data and routes it through a base station controller (BSC) to the land-based data network. When data is transmitted from the BS to the RS, it is transmitted on the "forward link." In CDMA IS-95 systems, the forward link (FL) and the reverse link (RL) are allocated to separate frequencies.
The remote station communicates with at least one base station during a communication. However, CDMA RSs are also capable of communicating with multiple BSs simultaneously, such as during soft handoff. Soft handoff is a process of establishing a new forward and reverse link with a new base station before breaking the old links with the previous base station. Soft handoff minimizes the probability of dropped calls, that is, where a call is inadvertently disconnected from the system. A method and apparatus for providing communications between an RS and more than one BS during the soft handoff process is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,267,261, entitled "MOBILE ASSISTED SOFT HANDOFF IN A CDMA CELLULAR TELEPHONE SYSTEM," assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated by reference herein.
Given the growing demand for wireless data applications, the need for very efficient voice and data wireless communication systems has become increasingly significant. One method for transmitting data in code channel frames of fixed size is described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,504,773, entitled "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THE FORMATTING OF DATA FOR TRANSMISSION," assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated by reference herein. In accordance with the IS-95 standard, non-voice data or voice data is partitioned into code channel frames that are 20 msec wide with data rates as high as 14.4 Kbps.
A significant difference between voice services and data services is the fact that voice services have stringent fixed delay requirements. Typically, the overall one-way delay of voice services must be less than 100 msec. In contrast, selectively planned data service delays, even above 100 msec, can be used to optimize the efficiency of the communication system. For example, error correction coding techniques that require relatively long delays can be used with data service transmissions.
Some parameters that measure the quality and effectiveness of data transmissions are the transmission delay required for transferring a data packet, and the average throughput rate of the system. As explained above, a transmission delay does not have the same impact in data or "non-voice" communication as it does for a voice or "voice-data" communication. Still, delays cannot be ignored because they are an important metric for measuring the quality of the data communication system. The average throughput rate is reflective of the efficiency of the data transmission capability of the communication system.
Further, in a wireless communication system, capacity is maximized when the transmission energy for a signal is kept to a minimum value while satisfying the quality performance requirements for the signal. That is, the quality of transmitted voice-data or non-voice data cannot be significantly degraded when received. One measure of the quality of a received signal is the carrier-to-interference ratio (C/I) at the receiver. Thus, it is desirable to provide a transmission power control system that maintains a constant C/I at a receiver. Such a system is described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,109, entitled "Method and Apparatus for Controlling Transmission Power in a CDMA Cellular Telephone System," assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated by reference herein.
It is well known that in cellular systems the C/I of any given user is a function of the location of the RS within a coverage area. In order to maintain a given level of service, TDMA and FDMA systems resort to frequency reuse techniques, i.e. not all frequency channels and/or time slots are used in each base station. In a CDMA system, the same frequency channel allocation is reused in every cell of the system, thereby improving the overall efficiency. The C/I associated with an RS determines the information rate that can be supported on the forward link from the base station to the user's RS. An exemplary system for transmitting high rate digital data in a wireless communication system is disclosed in co-pending U.S. Pat. No. 6,574,211, issued Jan. 3, 2003, entitled "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR HIGHER RATE PACKET DATA TRANSMISSION," assigned to the assignee of the present application and incorporated by reference herein.
Because the C/I associated with a RS determines the information rate that can be supported on the forward link, it is useful to know transmission information for each frequency channel used and historic C/I information. This information is commonly collected at the RS and messaged to the BS. But this messaging uses valuable system resources. What is needed is an invention that would eliminate such messaging requirements. Preferably, the BS transmission power levels on a first channel would be used to predict favorable slots for transmitting additional data on a second channel.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for predicting favored supplemental channel transmission slots using transmission power measurements of a fundamental channel


This invention relates generally to billiards, and more specifically, to systems and methods for providing a billiards stroke training device. In one embodiment, the invention includes a harness, a sleeve, a guide, the guide being coupled to the sleeve; and a post, the post being coupled to the harness, the post being configurable to limit motion of the guide, wherein the harness is configurable to being worn on an upper torso of a billiards player, wherein the sleeve is configurable to being worn on an arm of the billiards player, and wherein motion of the arm of the billiards player is limited to that provided for by the guide.

Billiards refers to a family of games that are played on a billiard table using a plurality of balls and a cue. Eight-ball is one of the most common billiard games and is played using a single cue ball and fifteen object balls on a table having six pockets. Of the fifteen object balls there is a single black eight ball, seven solid-colored balls, and seven striped balls. To begin the game, the object balls are placed in triangular arrangement on one end of the table and the cue ball is placed on the opposing end (aka "the kitchen"). The game generally progresses with at least two players taking alternating turns using the cue to strike the cue ball against the object balls in an effort to pocket certain object balls. The game concludes when one player pockets all the commonly colored balls and the eight ball before another player pockets all the oppositely colored balls and the eight ball.
There are many other billiard games in addition to eight-ball including nine-ball, straight pool, and one-pocket. Although the rules may be different between them, the ability to use a cue to accurately and precisely strike a cue ball as desired is a common skill required in every billiard game. Accordingly, there have been many inventions conceived to help individuals develop this skill. For instance, there are a number of inventions directed towards improving aiming and sighting skills of a player including Roe (U.S. Pat. No. 4,120,494); Mazzoli (U.S. Pat. No. 5,520,581); Boatwright (U.S. Pat. No. 6,761,643); Evers (U.S. Pat. No. 7,118,486); Keating (U.S. Pat. No. 7,147,566); Reeves (U.S. Pat. Pub. 2003/0232658); Black (U.S. Pat. Pub. 2006/0166752); Keating (U.S. Pat. Pub. 2005/0101395); Kuo (U.S. Pat. Pub. 2004/0005932); Scoutten (U.S. Pat. No. 3,947,026); Nicholson (U.S. Pat. No. 3,993,305); Cianflone (U.S. Pat. Pub. 2005/0064946); and Simpson (U.S. Pat. No. 5,716,283). Further, there are inventions directed towards improving cue contact with a cue ball including Legacie (U.S. Pat. No. 6,267,686) and Schluter (U.S. Pat. No. 6,132,319). There are yet other inventions directed towards training a player to form a proper bridge for supporting the cue including Josenhans (U.S. Pat No. 4,053,153) and Davis (U.S. Pat. Pub. 2007/0079421).
Indeed, aiming, sighting, cue contact, and proper bridging are each important in billiards. However, proper cue stroke technique, including arm positioning, alignment, and motion, forms the foundation for each of the above and ultimately drives the ability to accurately and precisely use a cue to strike a cue ball as desired. Despite its importance, however, the art has thus far neglected assisting players to develop a proper cue stroke, thereby facilitating poor technique and making billiards more difficult than necessary to learn. Therefore, although desirable results have been achieved there exists much room for improvement. What is needed then are systems and methods for providing a billiards stroke training device.


A thin film transistor (TFT) array substrate and an organic light-emitting diode display employing the same are disclosed. In one aspect, the substrate includes at least one TFT, the TFT including a substrate and a semiconductor pattern comprising a source region, a channel region, and a drain region. The TFT also includes a gate insulating layer covering the semiconductor pattern, a side gate electrode electrically insulated from the semiconductor pattern and formed over at least one side of the channel region, and a top gate electrode formed over the gate insulating layer so as to partially overlap the semiconductor pattern, the side gate electrode and the top gate electrode electrically connected to each other.

Field
The described technology generally relates to a thin film transistor array substrate and an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display employing the same.
Description of the Related Technology
Thin film transistor array substrates include thin film transistors, storage capacitors, wirings which connect the thin film transistors and the storage capacitors, and the like. Thin film transistor array substrates can be employed in various display apparatuses.
OLED displays have a matrix of OLED pixels, each one including a hole injection electrode, an electron injection electrode, and an organic emission layer formed between the hole injection electrode and the electron injection electrode. Also, an OLED display is self-emissive, light being generated as excitons which are formed as holes injected from the hole injection electrode and electrons injected from the electron injection electrode are combined in the organic emission layer fall from an excited state into a ground state.
OLED displays do not need a light source. Thus, OLED displays can be driven at a low voltage and configured to be slim and light. Furthermore, they are undergoing development as a next-generation display device because of high-quality properties such as wide viewing angles, high contrast, and fast response rate.

Thin film transistor array substrate and organic light-emitting diode display employing the same


In a voice packet communication system, a voice packet loss concealment device compensates for the deterioration of voice quality due to voice packet loss. In the device, a detecting section detects a loss of a voice packet and outputting information; an estimating section estimates the voice characteristics of the lost segment using a pre-loss voice packet received before the lost segment or a post-loss voice packet received after the lost segment; a pitch signal generating section generates a pitch signal having the voice characteristics; and a lost packet generating section outputs the pitch signal generated by the pitch signal generating section, with the voice characteristics estimated by the estimating section, which allows abnormal noise and feeling of mute, subjective deterioration of naturalness and continuity to be improved, and the voice packet loss concealment to be further improved.

In general, it is often the case that transmission rate is used as a criterion for evaluating the quality of access networks. Classifying networks based on transmission band knows band assurance type and best effort type ones. In a band assurance type network, a network operator always assures users of a constant transmission band regardless of the number of users, while in a best effort type network not always assure users of a constant transmission band.
In recent years due to the explosive growth of the Internet, VoIP (Voice over IP) communication system, in which voice packets containing packetized voice data are transmitted via an IP (Internet Protocol) network, has been introduced. Here, since IP network is a best effort type one, the transmission band of voice packets transmitted from a transmitting terminal to a receiving terminal is not assured and there may occur a transmission delay fluctuation due to, for example, congestion in transmission channel. That is, voice packets transmitted regularly from the transmitting terminal may arrive at the receiving terminal irregularly.
Meanwhile, the receiving terminal accumulates received voice packets sequentially into a receive-packet buffer (receive buffer), and then a voice reproducing device provided in the receiving terminal receives data for one voice packet to reproduce the voice. An example of data for one voice packet is N (representing a natural number) samples of PCM (Pulse Coded Modulation) data.
Also, it is necessary for the receiving terminal to receive voice packets completely to maintain high voice quality. Therefore, voice packet delay may cause the loss or lack of a voice packet to be received, resulting in the deterioration of voice quality. Thus, in general, receive-packet buffers of receiving terminals are adapted to absorb voice packet transmission delay fluctuation.
FIG. 12 is an illustrative view of voice packet transmission delay fluctuation. A receive-packet buffer 50 shown in FIG. 12 receives voice packets that arrive on an irregular interval and accumulates each voice packet at the point, and then outputs the accumulated voice packets to a voice reproducing device 51 regularly or on a constant interval. Then, the voice reproducing device 51 reads out voice packets regularly to reproduce the voice. Thus, voice packets that arrive at the receiving terminal irregularly are accumulated into the receive-packet buffer 50 temporarily, which allows transmission delay fluctuation to be absorbed to compensate for the impact due to transmission delay.
However, an excessive increase in the capacity of the receive-packet buffer 50 for absorbing transmission delay causes an increase in the accumulation time in the receive-packet buffer 50 and thereby call delay, resulting in a trouble in the interactive conversation. Therefore, the capacity of the receive-packet buffer 50 has a limitation. Also, voice packets having a transmission delay more than the capacity of the receive-packet buffer 50 are too late for readout. Consequently, the voice reproducing device 51 reproduces voice with some voice packets being lost, resulting in the deterioration of voice quality.
In addition to transmission delay fluctuation, there may also occur a voice packet loss in an IP network.
Both FIGS. 13(a) and 13(b) are illustrative views of a voice packet loss concealment method. Partial loss in a voice packet stream as shown in FIG. 13(a) causes the deterioration of voice quality such as voice interruption. Thus, the receiving terminal inserts a voice packet for concealing the loss (hereinafter referred to as "loss concealment packet") into a lost segment (packet loss segment) shown in FIG. 13(b), and thereby suppresses the deterioration of voice quality. That is, the receiving terminal replaces a packet that is meant to be received originally with a loss concealment packet, and the voice reproducing device 51 reproduces the voice using the loss concealment packet.
As one of the voice packet loss concealment method above, ITU-T (International Telecommunication Union) recommendation G.711 Appendix I (hereinafter referred to as "publicly known document 1") has been known. In the packet loss concealment method described in the publicly known document 1 is used pitch cycle, i.e., one of the physical characteristics of voice.
Pitch cycle represents the vibration cycle of vocal cords, which corresponds to the interval between "peaks" (or "troughs") of the repeating unit of a repeating waveform as shown, for example, in FIG. 10(a). As known well, voiced sounds such as vowels are produced by the vibration of vocal cords, and the vibration of vocal cords has a constant cycle. For this reason, the waveform of voiced sounds appears at a substantially constant cycle repeatedly. Further, the vibration cycle of vocal cords fluctuates slightly, which is observed as a pitch cycle fluctuation (pitch fluctuation).
The voice packet loss concealment method described in the publicly known document 1 above comprises the following steps (X1) to (X3):
(X1) extracting a pitch pattern using a voice signal obtained from a normal voice packet that is received immediately before a lost voice packet, and then replacing the portion corresponding to the lost voice packet with the extracted pitch pattern repeatedly to generate a loss concealment signal;
(X2) at the connection with a normal voice immediately after the lost voice packet, applying a weighting addition to the loss concealment signal and the normal signal; and
(X3) in the case of a consecutive voice packet loss, attenuating the loss concealment signal gradually.
However, the method as described in (X1), in which the extracted pitch pattern is simply repeated at a pitch cycle, cannot follow the pitch cycle fluctuation that is originally contained in the voice, causing a phase shift. Also in the case as described in (X2) where the weighting addition is applied at the connection with the normal voice, there may occur an abnormal noise due to pitch mismatch at the connection with the normal voice. Further, in the case as described in (X3) where voice packet loss occurs consecutively, there occurs a feeling of mute auditorily due to gradual attenuation of the loss concealment signal.
An example of a method for solving the phase shift, abnormal noise and feeling of mute above is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-228896 (hereinafter referred to as "publicly known document 2"). An alternative replacement method for lost voice packet disclosed in the publicly known document 2 comprises the following steps (Y1) to (Y3)
(Y1) estimating the pitch cycle fluctuation and the signal power fluctuation using voice data received normally immediately before a loss;
(Y2) Generating a loss concealment signal with the pitch cycle fluctuation and the power fluctuation estimated based on a pitch pattern that is extracted from the signal immediately before the lost voice packet being added thereto; and
(Y3) at the connection with a normal voice immediately after the lost voice packet, applying a weighting addition to the loss concealment signal and the normal signal.
The alternative replacement method for lost voice packet described in the publicly known document 2 generates the loss concealment signal in consideration of the pitch fluctuation and the signal power fluctuation and thereby allows the problems of the publicly known document 1 to be solved, the method also being adapted to estimate the pitch fluctuation and the signal power fluctuation of the lost segment using a preceding voice packet before the lost voice packet.
FIG. 14 is an illustrative view of a voice packet estimation method using preceding voice packets. Among segments (packet segments) 1 to 5 shown in FIG. 14, a receiving terminal receives voice packets normally in the segments 1 to 4. Here, in the case of a voice packet loss in the segment 5, the receiving terminal generates a loss concealment packet using the voice packets in the segments 1 to 4. To be concrete, the receiving terminal estimates the pitch fluctuation and the signal power fluctuation of a loss concealment packet to be inserted into the segment 5 to generate the loss concealment packet, and then inserts the generated loss concealment packet into the segment 5. Therefore, this estimation method utilizes the assumption (presumption) that the last (preceding) fluctuation distribution will be continued as it is.
The estimation method above allows a certain level of accurate estimation when the voice fluctuates gradually in the voice packet lost segments 1 to 5. However, when there are many lost segments or a long segment, or the voice changes drastically in a lost segment corresponding to the start point or end point of a voice, it is impossible to make an accurate voice packet estimation, and the problems of the publicly known document 1 cannot be improved sufficiently.
Meanwhile, a method for interpolating a lost segment with a voice packet is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-59391 (hereinafter referred to as "publicly known document 3"). In the method as described in the publicly known document 3, when two or more temporary packets from a transmitting terminal are extracted in a predetermined combination with being separated by a predetermined interval and received by a voice packet receiving terminal as voice packets via an asynchronous digital communication network, each temporary packet contained in a lost packet can easily be reproduced by interpolating the previous and next temporary packets stored temporarily.
However, the interpolation method as described in the publicly known document 3 requires both transmitting and receiving terminals, resulting in an increase in cost.
Accordingly, the prior arts fail to improve the voice quality even in the case of a drastic voice change, and that with a relatively low cost.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems and is intended to provide a voice packet loss concealment device, a voice packet loss concealment method, a receiving terminal, and a voice communication system, which allows abnormal noise due to pitch cycle mismatch and feeling of mute due to signal power attenuation to be suppressed, subjective deterioration of naturalness and continuity due to voice packet loss to be improved, and the voice packet loss concealment performance in, for example, the rise part of a voice to be further improved.

Voice packet loss concealment device, voice packet loss concealment method, receiving terminal, and voice communication system


The present invention relates to a solid electrolytic capacitor and a production method thereof.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a solid electrolytic capacitor and a production method thereof, and more particularly, to a solid electrolytic capacitor with improved capacitance and a production method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a solid electrolytic capacitor is one of electronic components used for the purpose of cutting off a DC current and passing an AC current in addition to accumulating electricity and a tantalum capacitor is representatively produced as the solid electrolytic capacitor.
The tantalum capacitor is used for general industrial equipment and application circuits having a low rated voltage range, and particularly, it is mainly used to reduce noise of circuits or portable communication devices having defective frequency characteristics.
Such capacitor is basically manufactured by inserting a lead wire in a center portion of a tantalum element or a portion except the center portion or bending the inserted lead wire outside the tantalum element. A method of leading an anode terminal by spot-welding an anode (+) lead wire and an anode (+) lead frame and leading an electrode terminal by forming anode and cathode leads after mold packaging is mainly used as a method of assembling the lead frame with the tantalum element.
Further, there may be structural constraints on the expansion of the volume of the tantalum element, which determines capacitance, due to the structure in which the anode terminal and the cathode terminal are exposed through both side surfaces of the capacitor and an impedance (ESR) value may increase due to the increase in the length of the lead frame connected to the anode terminal and the cathode terminal.

Solid electrolytic capacitor and production method thereof

Abstract: A solid electrolytic capacitor of the present invention includes: a capacitor element having an anode wire inserted in one side surface thereof; a cathode terminal disposed on one side under the capacitor element to be electrically connected to the capacitor element; an anode terminal disposed on the other side under the capacitor element and having a bending portion integrally formed to be inclined to the capacitor element for electrical connection with the anode wire; and a molding portion surrounding the outside of the capacitor element and formed to expose lower surfaces of the cathode terminal and the anode terminal.


Technologies are generally described to form a waveguide in a polymer multilayer comprising a first and second polymer layer. The waveguide may be formed by directing light beams toward the polymer multilayer to form first and second cladding regions in the polymer multilayer, where the first and second cladding regions comprise a mixture of the first and second polymer layers. The first and second cladding regions may define a third cladding region and a waveguide core therebetween, where the third cladding region comprises a portion of the second polymer layer, and the waveguide core comprises a portion of the first polymer layer. In some examples, the polymer multilayer may be formed on a substrate such that the waveguide is formed on the substrate. Additionally, the waveguide may be formed temporarily to test components of an optoelectronic system and then erased by heating the polymer multilayer to destroy the waveguide core, or the waveguide may be formed as a default optical interconnection configuration that may be changed to alter the functional mode of the backplane in the manner of a jumper setting.

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Waveguides are increasingly being used as high capacity interconnects between one or more optical and/or electrical components of optoelectronic systems, such as printed circuit boards (PCBs). Integration of the waveguides may create challenges in component alignment during assembly, and verification and test after assembly of the PCBs. For example, a technology used to fabricate the high capacity interconnects may need to provide similar design-for-test capabilities as PCBs, which incorporate on-board test points and probe ports to enable verification and testing, in order for optical interconnection technology to be successfully integrated with high-volume PCBs.
An obstacle to implementing such test points and probe ports may be that a presence of a test point or port in a waveguide may impact a functioning of the PCB, even when the test point or port is not being used. Accordingly, current techniques to form waveguides could use improvements and/or alternative or additional solutions in order to form a waveguide that may provide testing, and verification capabilities during assembly by means of selective routing that may be reconfigured after assembly to permit different operation modes of the optoelectronic system. This functional capability is the optical waveguide equivalent to an electronic jumper on a circuit board.

Direct writable and erasable waveguides in optoelectronic systems


To provide a speech synthesis apparatus which can prevent user confusion and deterioration of the quality of synthesized speech resulting from incompleteness of the sentences to be read out, and thus can read out speech which is easily understandable to the user. The speech synthesis apparatus includes: an incomplete part-of-sentence detection unit which detects incomplete parts-of-sentences which become linguistically incomplete because of the presence of a missing character string and which complements the detected incomplete parts-of-sentences having a missing character string, with reference to the e-mail texts which have been received by and accumulated in a mail box; a speech synthesis unit which generates synthesized speech based on the complemented e-mail texts; an incomplete part-of-sentence obscuring unit which obscures the acoustic clarity of the synthesized speech corresponding to the incomplete parts-of-sentences detected by the incomplete part-of-sentence detection unit; and a speaker device which plays back and outputs the generated synthesized speech.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a speech synthesis apparatus which synthesizes speech corresponding to a text and outputs the synthesized speech, and in particular, to a speech synthesis apparatus for naturally reading out even incomplete sentences.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a speech synthesis apparatus which generates synthesized speech corresponding to a desired text and outputs the synthesized speech has been provided. As an application field, there is a use of enabling a user to listen to synthesized speech corresponding to the contents of e-mail instead of reading the e-mail itself which is written in text format.
However, a text of e-mail includes symbols such as citation symbols in the citation section and the signature section unlike texts of a novel and a newspaper article, and such symbols cannot be read out in a usual manner. Therefore, there is a need to modify these symbols appropriately so as to make them readable. Patent References 1 and 2 are example techniques for this purpose.
Patent Reference 1: Japanese Patent Publication No. 9-179719 (pages 7 to 8 of the description).
Patent Reference 2: Japanese Patent Publication No. 2003-85099 (pages 22 to 24 of the description).
The method of Patent Reference 1 makes it possible to circumvent the difficulty in reading out the citation text by, for example, eliminating a citation symbol which does not need to be read out and reading out only the citation text, or eliminating the whole citation section.
In addition, the method of Patent Reference 2 makes it possible to process the citation section in a more appropriate manner, more specifically, to collate a citation text with the character strings included in the accumulated texts of already-read e-mail and delete the citation section only in the case where the citation text is included in the texts of already-read e-mail.

Speech synthesis system for naturally reading incomplete sentences

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A wheeled gate support is described herein. The wheeled gate support includes a front wheel in-line with a rear wheel, one or more side frames, and a post. The one or more side frames assemble to opposing sides of the wheels. The post has a bottom portion and a top portion. The bottom portion assembles to the one or more side frames to form a pivot point and the top portion is configured to assemble to one or more gate rails of a gate. The wheels can therefore pivot about the pivot point while rolling along the ground to assist a user with opening and closing a gate along rough or bumpy terrain. A wheeled gate support kit is also provided.

Gates are hinged barriers used for a variety of purposes. Gates can vary by size, construction materials, configuration, and operation. One particular type of gate is a swing gate, which is designed to swing open and close about a fixed post. These gates may have vertical or horizontals rails, poles, or slats, and at least one hinge mechanism to permit the gate to open and close. Swing gates are routinely used outdoors as entry barriers between plots of land and animal corrals on farms. In general, these swing gates are supported like a cantilever, with one end fixed to a post while the other end is free to rotate about the post. In some configurations, the free end of the swing gate may have a foot that rests against the ground to support the gate. In order to open or close the gate, a person needs to lift the foot off the ground and swing the gate open or closed. This can be quite cumbersome for long and/or heavy gates, and the foot may not always clear rough or bumpy terrain while opening or closing the gate throughout its range of motion. In other configurations, the free end may hover above the ground. However, gravity and other downward forces can cause the free end to lean towards the ground over time, eventually touching the ground surface or causing damage to the hinges.
Thus there exists a need in the art for a wheeled gate support to support the free end of a gate and assist in opening and closing a gate over rough or bumpy terrain.


An aircraft bypass turbofan engine subassembly for ground deceleration (e.g., thrust reversal). A fan nacelle has a through passageway connecting its inner exterior surface and outer exterior surface. A passageway end is located on the inner exterior surface aft of the aft-most row of fan rotor blades. A row of pivotable fan outlet guide vanes is located radially between the fan and core nacelles and longitudinally aft of the flow splitter and the passageway end. Apparatus is provided to pivot the vanes to block passage of bypass air and to open the passageway for ground deceleration.

The present invention relates generally to a type of gas turbine engine known as an aircraft bypass turbofan engine, and more particularly to an engine subassembly which provides ground deceleration (such as thrust reversing) for the aircraft.
A gas turbine engine includes a core engine having a high pressure compressor to compress the air flow entering the core engine, a combustor in which a mixture of fuel and the compressed air is burned to generate a propulsive gas flow, and a high pressure turbine which is rotated by the propulsive gas flow and which is connected by a larger diameter shaft to drive the high pressure compressor. A typical aircraft bypass turbofan engine adds a low pressure turbine (located aft of the high pressure turbine) which is connected by a smaller diameter coaxial shaft to drive a front fan (located forward of the high pressure compressor) which is surrounded by a fan nacelle and which may also drive a low pressure compressor (located between the front fan and the high pressure compressor). The low pressure compressor sometimes is called a booster compressor or simply a booster. A flow splitter, located between the fan and the first (usually the low pressure) compressor, separates the air which exits the fan-into a core engine airflow and a surrounding bypass airflow. The bypass airflow from the fan exits the fan nozzle (also called the fan bypass nozzle or the fan exhaust nozzle) to provide most of the engine thrust (in the case of a high bypass engine) for the aircraft. Some of the engine thrust comes from the core engine airflow after it flows through the low and high pressure compressors to the combustor and is expanded through the high and low pressure turbines and accelerated out of the core nozzle (also called the core exhaust nozzle). A core nacelle surrounds the low and high pressure compressors and turbines and the intervening combustor.
Aircraft bypass turbofan engines typically employ thrust reversers for ground deceleration. The term "deceleration" means a negative acceleration such as, but not limited to, slowing down a forward-moving aircraft on the runway or backing an aircraft away from the airport departure gate. Prior art thrust reversers are located in the fan bypass duct (the area radially between the fan and core nacelles and longitudinally between the flow splitter and the fan nozzle). Known designs include cascade and door type thrust reversers. Both designs employ relatively heavy blocker doors with robust actuation systems to block the flow of bypass air from exiting the fan nozzle. A heavy engine is not an efficient engine. What is needed is a lighter turbofan engine subassembly to provide ground deceleration during aircraft landings and to back the aircraft away from the airport departure gate.

Aircraft bypass turbofan engine thrust reverser


A malfunction of a thermostat in a coolant circulating path is detected from an engine side coolant temperature in consideration of the following behavior of the coolant temperature. When an open-malfunction occurs, the coolant temperature becomes different considerably from that in the normal time in the temperature range in which the thermostat is to be normally closed. When a closure-malfunction occurs, the coolant temperature becomes different considerably from that during the normal time in the temperature range in which the thermostat is to be normally opened. Alternatively, the malfunction may be detected from a difference between the engine side coolant temperature and a radiator side coolant temperature.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thermostat malfunction detecting system of an engine cooling system for detecting whether a thermostat for controlling the temperature of coolant of an engine is in malfunction or not.
2. Related Art
Generally, a thermostat which opens/closes in correspondence to the temperature of a coolant (cooling water) is provided in a coolant circulating path for circulating the coolant between a water jacket within an engine and a radiator in the water-cooled type engine. It is closed from the start of the engine until when the warm-up operation is completed to halt the circulation of the coolant to raise the temperature of the coolant quickly to the required temperature range and to improve the fuel consumption and to reduce noxious exhaust emission. The thermostat automatically opens when the temperature of the coolant on the engine side exceeds the required temperature range to circulate the low temperature coolant on the radiator side to the engine side to lower or maintain the temperature of the coolant on the engine side to the required temperature range.
As modes of malfunction of the thermostat, there are an open-malfunction during which the thermostat is kept opened and a closure-malfunction during which it is kept closed. When the open-malfunction occurs, the cold coolant within the radiator is circulated to the engine from the beginning of start even during the cold start time during which the engine is started while it is cold, so that the temperature of the coolant on the engine side is hampered from rising after the start, thus retarding the warm-up of the engine and increasing the fuel consumption and noxious exhaust emission. When the closure-malfunction occurs, the cold coolant on the radiator side is not circulated even when the temperature of the coolant on the engine side exceeds the required temperature range, so that there is a possibility that the temperature of the coolant on the engine side keeps rising, causing an over-heat of the engine in the end.
As modes of malfunction of the thermostat, there are an open-malfunction during which the thermostat is kept opened and a closure-malfunction during which it is kept closed. When the open-malfunction occurs, the cold coolant within the radiator is circulated to the engine from the beginning of start even during the cold start time during which the engine is started while it is cold, so that the temperature of the coolant on the engine side is hampered from rising after the start, thus retarding the warm-up of the engine and increasing the fuel consumption and noxious exhaust noxious exhaust noxious exhaust emission. When the closure-malfunction occurs, the cold coolant on the radiator side is not circulated even when the temperature of the coolant on the engine side exceeds the required temperature range, so that there is a possibility that the temperature of the coolant on the engine side keeps rising, causing an over-heat of the engine in the end.
Thus, there has been a possibility that even when the thermostat has the open-malfunction, a driver continues to drive a vehicle without knowing it for a long period of time and continues to drive the vehicle until engine overheats when it has the closure-malfunction.
It is noted that there has been a technology of providing coolant temperature sensors at the inlet and outlet of the radiator, respectively, to evaluate the heat radiating performance of the radiator based on the temperature of coolant at the inlet and outlet of the radiator to detect the deterioration of the radiator as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei. 4-19329. However, because the thermostat opens/closes automatically in correspondence to the temperature of the coolant on the engine side, the malfunction of the thermostat cannot be detected even if the coolant temperature on the radiator side which is not related to the opening/closing operation of the thermostat is detected at the two spots as disclosed. Still more, the cost becomes high because two temperature sensors have to be provided anew on the radiator side.

Thermostat malfunction detecting system for engine cooling system


A micro-optical switching device, an image display apparatus including the micro-optical switching device, and a method of manufacturing the micro-optical switching device are provided. The micro-optical switching device includes a substrate; a first electrode disposed on the substrate and including a first opening array, wherein the first opening array includes a plurality of openings; and a second electrode disposed spaced apart from the first electrode and including a second opening array including a plurality of openings, wherein the plurality of openings of the second opening array do not overlap with the plurality of openings of the first opening array.

1. Field
Apparatuses and methods consistent with exemplary embodiments relate to micro-optical switching devices, image display apparatuses including the micro-optical switching devices, and methods of manufacturing the micro-optical switching devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Display apparatuses have been developed from cathode ray tube (CRT) methods that use an existing CRT in flat display apparatuses, such as liquid crystal display (LCD) apparatuses, plasma display panel (PDP) apparatuses, and the like. Display apparatuses that use CRT methods display an image by making electron beams collide with fluorescent materials. As the sizes of display apparatuses that use CRT methods increase, their widths increase greatly, and thus it is not easy to manufacture large display apparatuses. In order to solve this problem, a plurality of flat display apparatuses have been developed.
Although the amount of power consumption of a display panel with respect to the total amount of power consumption of a flat display apparatus increases continuously, the luminescent efficiency of the display panel is very low. In particular, as the sizes of pixels decrease, the luminescent efficiency of the display panel is rapidly lowered.
Thus, micro-optical switching devices for use in display apparatuses with improved luminescent efficiency and simplified manufacturing processes have to be developed.

Micro-optical switching device, image display apparatus including micro-optical switching device, and method of manufacturing micro-optical switching device


A safety valve or a compressed gas cylinder is formed by a tubular assembly projecting into the access port of the cylinder and axially controlling a control valve and elongated stem axially connected with the control valve projects into the passageway formed by the tubular valve assembly to maintain a valve off seat. In the event the control valve is damaged or broken off and the stem removed the safety valve is biased closed with its seat by pressure drop across the position of the valve seat with minimal loss of gas.

This invention relates to a safety valve for a compressed gas cylinder, in which an access valve is axially located at one end of the cylinder.
1. Field of the Invention
The access or control valve on a compressed gas cylinder such as an oxygen tank is in open position when in use, and if the tank inadvertently gets knocked over, the valve extending axially from the end of the tank my be deflected or broken off at the point where it joins the tank, thus creating a hazard by the high pressure gas exiting the tank.
This invention provides a valve axially connected with a compressed gas control valve and disposed in a cylinder which automatically closes in the event of an accident rupturing or breaking the outwardly projecting control valve.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 3,930,517 issued Jan. 6, 1976 to Gagala for Safety Valve and U.S. Pat. No. 5,144,973 issued Sep. 8, 1992 to Green et al. for Safety Valve For Compressed Gas Cylinders. Each of these patents disclose a primary valve for accessing compressed gas in a cylinder and a secondary valve located within the cylinder and axially connected with the primary valve in which the normally open secondary valve is spring biased closed to contain the gas in the event the primary valve is deflected or broken off of the cylinder.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,159,167 issued Dec. 1, 1964 to Mueller et al. for Service Tee Installation Including Excessive-Flow Safety Valve and U.S. Pat. No. 4,762,140 issued Aug. 9, 1988 to Davis for Snap-Off Plug Valve are considered good examples of the further state-of-the-art. Both of these patents disclose a tubular member for releasing fluid from a source in which the tubular member contains a normally open valve in the tubular member biased closed by fluid pressure in the source in response to rupture of the tubular member at a circumferential fracture line which would otherwise exhaust the fluid to the atmosphere.
This invention is believed distinctive over the above patents by providing a compressed gas primary control valve having an axially connected probe projecting into a compressed gas cylinder to maintain a safety valve, axially depending from the primary valve, in open position and releases the safety valve to close in the event the primary valve is ruptured or broken off of the cylinder.


The present invention relates generally to a method for detecting an aberrant cell, and more particularly an aberrant epithelial cell, in a subject or in a biological sample from said subject and agents useful for same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of deleting an aberrant mammary epithelial cell. The presence of the aberrant cell or group of aberrant cells provides an indication of a particular disease or condition or a propensity for development of a disease or condition.

Bibliographic details of the publications referred to by both author and numerically in this specification are collected at the end of the description.
The reference to any prior art in this specification is not, and should not be taken as, an acknowledgment or any form of suggestion that that prior art forms part of the common general knowledge in Australia.
The LIM domain defines a conserved cysteine-rich structure comprising two tandemly repeated zinc fingers and is found in a large group of diverse proteins (reviewed in 1, 2). This motif, originally identified in LIM-homeodomain transcription factors, may either occur alone (as one or more copies) or in association with heterologous domains such as a protein kinase or homeobox domain. Targeted gene disruption has established that. LIM domain-containing proteins have critical functions in cell-fate specification and differentiation (3).
The LMO family consists of four members (designated LM01-4), each of which comprises two tandem LIM domains. LM02 is essential for embryonic hematopoiesis and is thought to function at the level of the pluripotent stem cell (11). Little is known about the function of LM03, discovered on the basis of sequence homology. The most recently described member, LM04, was isolated by virtue of its interaction with Ldb1/NL1/CLIM and in an expression screen with autologous serum (12-15). Ldb1 is a multifunctional adaptor protein that interacts with LMO proteins and other nuclear LIM-containing factors (16-19). The LM04 gene is widely expressed in both embryonic and adult tissues (12, 13, 15). Like the other members of this family, it is presumed that LM04 is a transcriptional cofactor that primarily functions as a docking site for other factors. LM04 may also contribute an activation or repression domain to influence transcriptional activity.
In work leading up to the present invention the inventors have determined that LM04 plays a role in mammary development and in breast oncogenesis. The LM04 gene is developmentally regulated in mammary epithelium and LM04 together with Ldb1 have been found to act as negative regulators of mammary epithelial differentiation. Significantly, overexpression of the LM04 gene was found in greater than 50% of primary breast cancers, indicating that this protein contributes to the pathogenesis of breast cancer.

Method of diagnosis and treatment and agents useful for same

The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research


A method for determining the sequence of at least a portion of a single-stranded nucleic acid molecule by base-specifically labeling the exposed bases of the nucleic acid molecule using heavy element-substituted nucleotide bases which form Watson-Crick type base-pairs with the exposed bases of the nucleic acid molecule and then imaging the labeled single-stranded nucleic acid molecule using electron microscopy, e.g., transmission electron microscopy (TEM), or some other method that permits discrimination of the heavy element substituted nucleotide bases is described. The image is analyzed to determine the base sequence of at least a portion of the nucleic acid molecule.

There are a variety of methods for sequencing nucleic acid molecules. Historically, the most common methods have been based on chemical (Maxam and Gilbert sequencing) or enzymatic (Sanger dideoxy sequencing and exonuclease-based sequencing) reactions that create specific truncated nucleic acid molecules that are then separated by electrophoretic techniques in order to determine their relative length. More recently, potentially higher throughput techniques, including pyro-sequencing and hybridization-based sequencing methods, have been developed. It has also been proposed that scanning tunneling microscopy could be used to directly visualize the sequence of a nucleic acid molecule.


An electronic circuit connected in series with one or more brake condition sensors having a first transistor and a second transistor connected to intermittently power an indicator lamp upon initial power-up to confirm circuit operational status and subsequently to activate the indicator lamp if the brake condition sensors are acceptable and to deactivate the indicator lamp if any one of the brake condition sensors is unacceptable.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic circuit for indication of the operational status of a vehicle brake system. More specifically, the present invention relates to an electronic circuit for indication of the operational status of a vehicle brake system where an indicator lamp first is transiently activated to indicate circuit functionality and is then deactivated and remains deactivated once a brake fault has occurred.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Prior art brake wear and adjustment systems connect each sensor to a condition electronics module to generate a signal to the driver or mechanic that brake service is required. Many systems have been developed in the past to provide a signal to a vehicle operator to warn that brake lining wear or actuator travel has progressed a predetermined amount. However, these systems have been generally unsatisfactory due to their complexity and/or unreliability.
Examples of these prior art systems can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,594,721; 3,716,831; 3,735,343; 3,755,774; 3,869,695 and 3,902,157 the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference, which disclose electronic signaling systems for the detection and notification of abnormal brake wear. One disadvantage with many of these systems is the parallel wiring configuration which results in a large number of conductors that must be used to connect the sensors with the electronic monitoring unit. Another disadvantage is that some prior art systems do not indicate when brake, service is required if a short to ground fault occurs in the detection circuit.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,456,236 discloses a brake shoe wear indicator system where the wear sensors are connected in series to a relay which, when deenergized, closes contacts to light a bulb in a trouble alarm circuit. This concept lacks the reliability required of a brake condition alarm system because it indicates a working brake system when the light is burned out or there exists an open circuit to the bulb. Another problem with many of the prior art brake wear systems is that an electrical current is carried through the wheel bearings which can cause premature failure of the bearing(s). A system that eliminates or reduces electrical current that must be carried through a bearing would be desirable.

Single lamp brake status indicator system


A system and method for commanding a keyboard application based on a gesture received at a displayed keyboard is described. In some examples, the system receives a gesture, such as a shape-based or key-based gesture, identifies a command associated with the received gesture, and performs a function (e.g. changes mode of the keyboard, hides the keyboard, and so on), based on the identified command.

The origin of the modern keyboard as the primary method for inputting text from a human to a machine dates back to early typewriters in the 19th century. As computers developed, it was a natural evolution to adapt the typewriter keyboard for use as the primary method for inputting text. For a skilled typist, the keyboard has remained the fastest way possible to input text into a computer or other data processing device.
With ongoing efforts to make computers smaller and more portable, the physical keyboard has become one of the most significant limiting factors in just how small a computing device can become: the physical size of the human finger is not something computer designers can change. As a result, computing devices for certain portable applications, such as mobile devices and tablet computers, have been designed without a physical keyboard, and instead use a touch-screen or virtual keyboard as a primary interface between a device and a human user.
Despite being implemented via a touch-screen, a virtual keyboard is often utilized merely as a mechanism in which to receive text input from a user. That is, although many innovations have delivered keyboards that are useful for modern devices, a typical virtual keyboard still functions like its predecessors, by only functioning to receive text entry from a user. This is similar to what a physical keyboard or early typewriters enable a user to do on a device, receive text input from a user.
Therefore, the need exists for a system that overcomes the above problems, as well as one that provides additional benefits. Overall, the examples herein of some prior or related systems and their associated limitations are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of existing or prior systems will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon reading the following Detailed Description.

Systems and methods for using entered text to access and process contextual information