An additive compound comprising a non-borated and/or borated reaction product, in which the reaction product is obtained by reacting a linear or branched, saturated or unsaturated monovalent aliphatic acid having 8 to 22 carbon atoms, urea, and polyalkylenepolyamine, when employed in a lubricating oil composition is favorably employable as an automatic transmission fluid of internal combustion engines.

Automatic transmissions in automobiles comprise a torque converter, a wet multi-plate clutch, a gear mechanism, and a mechanism controlling these elements. The torque transmission capacity is automatically set according to the speed of automobile and the degree of load. Modern automatic transmissions further comprise a lockup clutch mounted to the torque converter, so as to improve fuel economy. The use of the lockup clutch enables engine torque to be transmitted to the automatic transmission according to driving conditions in addition to the driving force transmitted through a lubricating oil. However, since the torque variation produced by the operation of the lockup clutch sometimes disturbs passengers due to shudder, the lockup clutch is generally set to operate only under high speed driving conditions giving less torque variation.
Under low speed driving conditions as when an automobile starts, loss of driving force transmission is caused between the engine output revolution and the transmission input revolution. Therefore, enough improvement of fuel economy is not attained. Accordingly, automatic transmissions adopt a slip control system by which the lockup mechanism can operate under the low speed driving conditions and the transmission loss can be reduced. However, when the clutch is subjected to control by the slip control system, abnormal vibration of the body of automobile (i.e., shudder) takes place on the friction surface of the lockup clutch. At low road speeds vehicle operation is rough and engine vibration is transmitted through the drive train. Rough operation and engine vibration are not acceptable to drivers.
Shudder occurs when the sliding rate (V) in the lockup clutch increases and the coefficient of friction (μ) decreases. Thus, it is desirable to employ a lubricating oil (automatic transmission fluid) which shows a favorable μ-V character, i.e., the friction coefficient increases when the sliding rate increases, and keeps the favorable μ-V character for a prolonged period of time, i.e., prolonged shudder inhibition performance.
JASO (Japanese Automobile Standard Organization) M349:2001 describes a standard oil T-III which shows standard shudder inhibition performance and transmissive torque capacity. However, there is given no information with respect to formulation of the T-III standard oil.
Prolonged shudder inhibition can be attained by incorporating a friction modifier (generally, friction decreasing agent). However, if too much friction modifier is incorporated into a lubricating oil, the friction coefficient of the wet clutch extremely decreases and hence enough transmissive torque capacity cannot be obtained.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,948,523 discloses a lubricating composition, preferably essentially free of zinc dihydrocarbyldithiophosphate compounds, and optionally free of chlorine containing silver lubricity agents, comprising a major proportion of an oil of lubricating viscosity and a minor amount of a silver protective agent comprising the reaction product of a C5 to C60 carboxylic acid and at least one amine selected from the group consisting of (1) guanidine, urea, and thiourea compounds; (2) C1 to C20 hydrocarbyl or hydroxy-substituted hydrocarbyl mono-amines, alkylene diamines, and (3) polyalkylene polyamines; and N-alkyl glycine.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,539 discloses certain hydrocarbon soluble or dispersible amide reaction products (Component-1), and mixtures, and/or acid amine salts of Component-1 and certain acid/esters (Component-2), which are useful as friction modifying additives for oleaginous compositions such as lubricating oils, including power transmitting fluids, particularly automatic transmission fluids (ATF), and to the oleaginous compositions in which they are contained.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,916,852 discloses lubricating fluids which include an additive combination comprising a compound having the general formula R—NH2 with oil-soluble phosphorus compounds, an ashless dispersant, and, optionally, other amine containing friction modifiers provide lubricating fluids which exhibit excellent break-in characteristics that are capable of preventing green shudder in automatic transmissions.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,303,547 discloses lubricant formulations containing the reaction product of at least one C5 to C60 carboxylic acid and at least one amine selected from the group consisting of guanidine, aminoguanidine, urea, thiourea and salts thereof is useful as a gear oil additive. The lubricant formulations exhibit excellent low and high temperature rheology and are particularly suited for use in automotive and industrial gear applications. Lubricants of the present invention exhibit improved performance properties, such as increased axle efficiencies and lower axle temperatures, improved limited slip performance, reduced chatter, improved frictional durability and/or improved power divider performance compared to lubricant formulations that do not contain said reaction products.
Japanese Patent Publication No. 2001-247532 discloses fatty acid amide compounds used for surface lubricant, vehicle component and thermal recording materials, has three or more amide groups in a molecule having the formula R1CONH(CH2)m((NCOR2)(CH2)n)lNHCOR3, where R1-R3 is a C12 to C50 alkyl or alkenyl group, m and n=1-3, and l=1-4.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0072478A1 discloses a lubricating oil and one or more succinimide-modified compounds having long-lasting anti-shudder property, enhanced transmission torque capacity for a wet clutches and/or wet brakes, and an excellent shifting property for automatic transmissions and continuously variable transmissions.
Japanese Patent No. 3330245 discloses lubricating oil compositions for slide guide surfaces containing nitrogen-containing compounds of polyamines and amides in mineral and/or synthetic oil.

Lubricating oil composition for automatic transmissions


[Problem] To provide: a roll-bonded body which is able to be suppressed in waviness in the surface; and a method for producing this roll-bonded body. [Solution] A roll-bonded body according to the present invention is obtained by bonding a first metal layer and a second metal layer with each other by means of rolling, and is characterized in that the surface of the first metal layer has an arithmetic average waviness (Wa1) 0.01-0.96 and a maximum waviness height (Wz1) of 0.2-5.0 μm.

Metallic materials represented by various steel materials are preferably used as press-formed parts for mobile electronic apparatuses such as smart phones. As such a metallic material, there are known, in addition to metallic materials including a single kind of metal, roll-bonded bodies (appropriately referred to also as metal laminates or clad materials) in which two or more kinds of metal plates or metal foils (whether they are plates or foils is according to the difference in thickness and, therefore, these will be hereinafter collectively treated as "plates") are laminated by rolling.
In a case where these metallic materials are used for mobile electronic apparatuses, excellent external appearance property and brilliance property are demanded.
For example, PTL 1 discloses a ceramic which has a mirror surface having periodic waviness at a predetermined pitch, for obtaining an electronic apparatus case having scratch resistance and serving as a glossy surface and for decorativeness.
On the other hand, in a case where the press-formed part for mobile electronic apparatuses is used for an outermost housing or the like, the ceramic disclosed in PTL 1 is poor in heat radiation property or brilliance property and cannot obtain metallic luster.
On the other hand, for example, PTL 2 discloses a metal laminate which is excellent in heat radiation property and has good formability and the like.

Roll-bonded body and method for producing same


An apparatus for treating molten aluminum or zinc having a housing providing a chamber for containing a molten metal. The chamber including an inlet opening and an outlet passage. A rotatable impeller disposed within the chamber for drawing molten metal in through the inlet and expelling molten metal through the outlet passage. A convergent nozzle being positioned in the outlet passage. A gas injection conduit having an inlet in fluid communication with a source of purifying gas and an outlet in proximity to the chamber, and positioned upstream of the nozzle.

In the non-ferrous metals industry, scrap recycling has become a way of economic life. In fact, long before environmental concerns and conservation began to drive scrap recycling efforts, recycling of aluminum, copper, zinc, lead and tin has occupied a firm nitch in the marketplace.
In the aluminum recycling industry in particular, refining processes are complicated greatly by the potency of aluminum to oxidize quite readily. Consequently, refining by oxidating reactions alone, common for other non-ferrous metals, is not feasible. Similarly, aluminum has exceptionally strong alloying characteristics with a variety of other metals, therefore, a broad range of metallic impurities must often be removed during processing. Along these lines, the removal of magnesium has become a particular focus within the industry. The ability to remove magnesium from molten aluminum is made possible by a favorable chemical reaction between manganese and chlorine as described herein below.
Although the molten aluminum must be treated, the ultimate goal in the aluminum cast house is to maintain and/or continuously improve product quality while pushing the production rate upward. Some of the key factors which are monitored to meet product quality requirements include metallurgical composition (alkali impurities), inclusion levels, and gas content.
In the production scheme, the charging process occurring in the melting furnace, takes up a large majority of the overall time. The focus of this invention is to provide an improved gas injection pump that allows a decrease the overall production time. Gas injection pumps of the type depicted in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,052,199 and 4,169,584, herein incorporated by reference, are the focus of this invention. In fact, the gas injection pumps described in these patents are significantly improved by the use of the present inventive discharge outlet.
As generally outlined above, the secondary production of aluminum alloys often requires the use of a reactive gas to lower magnesium content and/or an inert gas to remove inclusions and hydrogen. Moreover, in order to achieve a desired final magnesium specification for the materials being processed, magnesium removal must occur during the melt refining process. In many operations today, gas injection pumps are considered the most effective tool for this task.
Typically, chlorine is utilized in the treatment of molten aluminum containing undesirable magnesium levels. More particularly, degassing of the molten aluminum with chlorine has the following result: ##EQU1##
As can be seen, the reaction of the molten aluminum with chlorine ultimately results in the formation of magnesium chloride which collects as a dross on the surface of the molten aluminum in the furnace and can be skimmed away.
Generally, those skilled in the art determine the effectiveness of reactivity by assessing the amount of chlorine which can be introduced into the molten aluminum per unit time. In this context, the maximum amount of chlorine solubilized in the molten aluminum per unit time is readily determinable because aluminum chloride gas which is not reactively scavenged by the magnesium evolves to the surface and decomposes to hydrogen chloride which is visible as a white vapor when in contact with moist air. Under extremely poor reaction conditions, chlorine itself may not be scavenged by the aluminum and can also be directly emitted from the bath. Given the potential for environmental damage and the hazardous nature of chlorine and hydrogen chloride gases, such results are highly undesirable.
Accordingly, commercial gas injection pumps are operated at a level to prevent such emissions. Prior to the present invention, the primary mechanism for increasing the quantity of chlorine reacted and the corresponding rate at which the magnesium level is reduced, was to operate the pump at higher speeds. Of course, this proves very stressful on the dynamic components of the pump.


A camera back comprising a light emitting device for recording information on a filmstrip in conjunction with picture-taking, and a film support for ensuring the shape of the filmstrip when information is recorded on the filmstrip, is characterized in that the film support has a plurality of parallel curved film ribs integral with the camera back for shaping the filmstrip in a curve, a recording opening is formed in the camera back adjacent one of the curved film ribs, and the light emitting device has a flat light emitting face positioned over the recording opening at an acute angle with respect to the one film rib.

It is generally known for a camera back to include a light emitting device for recording information on a filmstrip in conjunction with picture-taking, and a film support for ensuring the shape of the filmstrip when information is recorded on the filmstrip. As shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,361,388 issued Nov. 30, 1982 and 5,517,266 issued May 14, 1996, a flat resiliently suspended film pressure or a flat fixedly suspended film guide plate has recording openings through which information from a light emitting device is recorded on a filmstrip in conjunction with picture-taking.
Economy of space is a consideration in designing the camera back.


There is provided a liquid discharging apparatus including: an integrated circuit device; a transistor which generates an amplification modulation signal amplified from a modulation signal pulse-modulated from a source signal based on an amplification control signal; a low pass filter which demodulates the amplification modulation signal and generates a driving signal; and a piezoelectric element which is displaced as the driving signal is applied, in which the integrated circuit device includes a modulation portion which generates the modulation signal; a gate driver which generates the amplification control signal based on the modulation signal; and a charge pump circuit which supplies power to the gate driver, and is included in a package which has a first side and a second side that are adjacent to each other in a plan view, in which the package includes a plurality of package terminals, which are electrically connected to the charge pump circuit.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid discharging apparatus, a head unit, a capacitive load driving circuit, and an integrated circuit device.
2. Related Art
In a liquid discharging apparatus, such as an ink jet printer, which discharges ink and prints an image or a document, an apparatus which uses a piezoelectric element (for example, a piezo element) has been known. The piezoelectric elements are provided corresponding to each of a plurality of nozzles in a head unit, and each of the piezoelectric elements is driven in accordance with driving signals. Accordingly, a predetermined amount of ink (liquid) is discharged from the nozzle at a predetermined timing, and a dot is formed. Since the piezoelectric element is a capacitive load, such as a capacitor, in terms of electricity, it is necessary to supply sufficient amount of current in order to operate the piezoelectric elements of each nozzle.
For this reason, in the above-described liquid discharging apparatus, the piezoelectric elements are driven as a driving signal which is amplified by an amplifying circuit is supplied to a head unit (ink jet head). An example of the amplifying circuit includes a type which performs current amplification with respect to a source signal before the amplification by using a class-AB amplifier, but since energy efficiency is not excellent, in recent years, a type in which a class-D amplifier is used has been suggested (refer to JP-A-2010-114711).
There is a case where a charge pump circuit which is a boosting circuit is included in an ink jet class-D amplifier IC. One or more boosting capacitors are necessary in the charge pump circuit. In many cases, the boosting capacitor is connected to the outside of the IC due to the influence of the size or the like. In addition, since two terminals of the boosting capacitor are connected to an adjacent terminal of the IC, in a case where a plurality of capacitors are necessary, when the capacitors are disposed being adjacent to each other simply by using a plurality of terminals which protrude from one side of a package, the disposition between the capacitors is interfered with and the wiring length becomes long. Accordingly, there is a possibility that a problem, such as an increase in a circuit area or deterioration of discharge accuracy due to the influence of noise on the charge pump, is generated.

Liquid discharging apparatus, head unit, capacitive load driving circuit, and integrated circuit device


A plate lockup device position detecting apparatus for a printing press includes first and second limit switches, and a series circuit. The first limit switch is provided in a gap of a plate cylinder and detects that a leading-side plate lockup device, a position of which is adjustable at least in one of vertical and horizontal directions of a plate, is restored to its origin position. The second limit switch is provided in the gap and detects that a trailing-side plate lockup device, a position of which is adjustable at least in one of the vertical and horizontal directions of the plate, is restored to its origin position. The series circuit detects that the plate lockup devices are restored to their origin positions from a logical product of the detection outputs from the first and second limit switches.

The present invention relates to a plate lockup device position detecting apparatus for a printing press, e.g., a sheet printing press, which detects whether or not plate lockup devices are restored to their origin positions.
Conventionally, in a printing press, e.g., a sheet printing press, the leading and trailing ends of a plate are set in leading- and trailing-side plate lockup devices provided to a plate cylinder, and the plate cylinder is moved by using a plate registration remote controller, thereby adjusting plate registration. For example, a plate registering device, as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 64-42135, having motors and screw mechanisms in the horizontal and vertical directions of a plate is operated by remote control using a plate registration remote controller, thereby adjusting the position of the plate set in the plate lockup devices.
In this adjustment, when, e.g., the position of the plate cannot be sufficiently adjusted with the adjustment width of the plate registration remote controller, the plate lockup devices are sometimes manually moved in the horizontal or vertical direction of the plate. When the plate lockup devices are moved in this manner, both the leading- and trailing-side plate lockup devices must be manually restored to their origin positions before the plate is exchanged for a new one. Especially, when an automatic plate exchange apparatus enabling automatic plate exchange is used, if the operator forgets to restore the plate lockup devices to their origin positions, exchange and registration errors may be caused.
Conventionally, however, no means is available for detecting whether or not the plate lockup devices are restored to the origin positions, and if the plate lockup devices are forgotten to be restored to their origin positions, troubles as described above sometimes occur.

Plate lockup device position detecting apparatus for printing press


The present invention provides a flexible power interface control system and a method of the same capable of flexibly changing the LDD setting for complying with different controlling states or different write strategies. The different controlling states or write strategies may be used for different disk types or different writing modes. The flexible LDD setting in accordance with the present invention is contributing to improve the recording performance and stability of an optical disk drive for complying with various disk types or different writing modes.

In various optical disk drives, such as CD-RW, DVD+R\RW, DVD−R\RW or DVD-RAM etc., a laser diode drive (LDD) provides a driving current to a laser diode (LD) for generating a laser power, thereby the laser diode can read or write the disk in the optical disk drive.
There are two types of power interfaces applied in the LDD for controlling the reading or writing powers of the laser diode, one type is a transistor-transistor logic (TTL) interface, another is a low voltage differential signaling (LVDS) interface. The TTL interface is often used in the situations requiring just a lower response rate, such as a stable reading power control in CD-RW or DVD-RW devices. The LVDS interface is often used in the situations requiring a higher response rate, such as a writing power control in DVD+R 16× speed, DVD-RAM 5× speed or DVD-RAM 16× speed devices etc.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional power control of DVD+/−R/RW in a single-pulse mode. When writing data in the DVD+/−R/RW disk, the signal pulse power control signal as shown in FIG. 1 is commonly adopted. In the single-pulse mode of DVD+/−R/RW, a cooling pulse is always generated for forming a perfect pit. However, the common LDD uses the TTL interface to implement reading power control no matter in reading or writing data. As shown in the FIG. 1, the TTL will be also set to generate a cooling pulse. Due to the slow response rate, the cooling pulse is not as sharp as required. Therefore, the cooling pulse can not be precisely controlled. Alternatively, if the LDD use the LVDS to implement the read power control for reading or writing data, the radio frequency (RF) signal read from the disk may be easily induced noises due to the higher response rate of the LVDS interface The noises accompanied with the RF signal will increase a variation of signal to noise ratio (S/N ratio) during data transmission in the optical disk drive. The S/N ratio variation will degrade the recording performance of the optical disk drive.
Furthermore, the present DVD drive is required to support at least three DVD formats, i.e. DVD+R/RW, DVD−R/RW and DVD-RAM. The different write strategies are applied for writing different disk types or writing the same disk under different writing speeds in order to obtain an optimal writing performance. The conventional power control systems or methods cannot provide a flexible LDD setting for complying with different write strategies. Therefore, a novel flexible power control system and method are provided to resolve the above problems.

Flexible power interface control system and method of optical disk drive


A lubricating oil supply system for an infinitely variable transmission wherein the infinitely variable transmission has a transmission shaft provided with a lubricating oil path and is rotatably mounted through the wall section of a casing. The infinitely variable transmission is housed in a transmission case partly defined by the wall section. An input rotary member is provided that is relatively unrotatably connected to the transmission shaft on the outside of the transmission case. An oil pump is provided for supplying lubricating oil to the lubricating oil path. The oil pump is located in the casing. In this infinitely variable transmission, the oil passage from the oil pump to the lubricated portion of the infinitely variable transmission is simplified in structure and the oil passage is substantially reduced in length, thereby enabling a decrease in the length of the transmission shaft. The oil pump which is driven by the transmission shaft is located on the wall section.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to improvements in a lubricating oil supply system for an infinitely variable transmission in which an infinitely variable transmission has a transmission shaft rotatably mounted through a wall section attached on the casing, provided with a lubricating oil path, and housed in a transmission case formed in the casing partly defined by the wall section. An input rotary member is relatively unrotatably coupled with the transmission shaft outside of the transmission case. And an oil pump for supplying the lubricating oil to the lubricating oil path is located in the casing.
2. Description of Background Art
This type of lubricating oil supply system has already been known as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. Hei 11-79054 and Hei 11-270641 for example.
In the case of the lubricating oil supply system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 11-79054, the oil pump is driven by a crankshaft which is located apart from the transmission shaft of the infinitely variable transmission. The oil passage from the oil pump to the lubricated area of the infinitely variable transmission, therefore, increases in length. In addition, the oil supply passage becomes complicated in structure.
In the meantime, in the lubricating oil supply system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 11-270641, an oil pump is mounted on the same axis as the transmission so as to be driven by the transmission shaft, whereby the structure of the oil passage is simplified. However, in the lubricating oil supply system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 11-270641, the oil pump is located outside of an input gear fastened on the transmission shaft on the outside of the transmission case which is partly defined by the wall section of the casing. The oil passage from the oil pump to the lubricated area of the infinitely variable transmission is shorter than that in the lubricating system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 11-79054, but is not substantially decreased in length. In addition, the transmission shaft projects largely out of the wall section, resulting in upsizing of the whole body of power train inclusive of the infinitely variable transmission.
In view of the above-described disadvantages inherent to prior art lubricating oil supply systems, the present invention has as its object the provision of a lubricating oil supply system for an infinitely variable transmission which enables simplification of the structure of an oil passage provided between an oil pump and a lubricated area of the infinitely variable transmission.
To accomplish the above-identified object, the present invention includes an infinitely variable transmission that has a transmission shaft rotatably mounted through a wall section attached on the casing, and provided with a lubricating oil path, and housed in a transmission case formed in the casing partly defined by the wall section. An input rotary member is relatively unrotatably coupled with the transmission shaft outside of the transmission case. And an oil pump for supplying the lubricating oil to the lubricating oil path is located in the casing. In this lubricating oil supply system the oil pump driven by the transmission shaft is located on the wall section.
According to the lubricating oil supply system of the above-described constitution, the oil pump is driven by the transmission shaft mounted through the wall section located axially inside of the input rotary member, and therefore it is possible to simplify the structure of the oil passage formed from the oil pump to the lubricating oil path in the transmission shaft. Furthermore, as the oil pump is mounted adjacent to the infinitely variable transmission, the oil passage from the oil pump to the lubricated area of the infinitely variable transmission can be substantially simplified and besides the transmission shaft can be decreased in length by connecting the input rotary member to the end of the transmission shaft.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, the infinitely variable transmission has the transmission shaft, a driving rotary member relatively unrotatably coupled with the transmission shaft, a driven rotary member relatively rotatably supported on the transmission shaft, a carrier movable along the axis of the transmission shaft, a support shaft having its axis along the conic generating line on the center of the axis of the transmission shaft and supported on the carrier, and a shifting rotary member having a conical first friction transfer surface in contact with the driving rotary member and a conical second friction transfer surface in friction contact with the driven rotary member and rotatably supported on the support shaft; the transmission shaft being provided, at an area corresponding to the infinitely variable transmission, with a plurality of oil feed holes communicating with the lubricating oil path at the inner end and open in the outside surface of the transmission shaft at the outer end. It is, therefore, possible to effectively apply the present invention to the infinitely variable transmission which steplessly changes the gear ratio by moving the carrier in the direction of axis of the transmission shaft.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, the oil pump has rotors connected to the transmission shaft in a pump housing formed of the wall section and a cover connected to the wall section; a filter protruding into an oil sump in the casing is mounted on the lower part of the wall section; and an inlet oil path for connection between the filter and the oil pump and a discharge oil path for leading the lubricating oil discharged from the oil pump are provided in the wall section. According to this constitution, it is possible to form an oil passage of compact and simple construction extending from the oil sump to the oil pump. The power transmitting device including the infinitely variable transmission, therefore, will not be upsized by the formation of the oil passage.
Furthermore, according to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is formed a ring-shaped oil path between the wall section and the transmission shaft, surrounding the transmission shaft and communicating with the discharge oil path; the transmission shaft is provided with a connecting hole between the lubricating oil path in the transmission shaft and the ring-shaped oil path. According to this constitution, it is possible to perform lubrication between the wall section and the transmission shaft while shortening and simplifying the oil passage between the oil pump and the lubricating oil path.
Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.

Lubricating oil supply system for infinitely variable transmission


Methods and apparatuses implement a thermal memory effect for a solid state power controller. A solid state power controller trip apparatus with thermal memory according to one embodiment comprises: a trip module including a first capacitor (156) and a counter (174), wherein the first capacitor (156) charges multiple times, when an over current event occurs, and the counter (174) accumulates a count related to the charging of the first capacitor (156) for the multiple times, to detect a trip condition; and a discharging module connected to the trip module, the discharging module including a resistor (166) and a second capacitor (158), wherein an electrical parameter associated with the count decays with time using the resistor (166) and the second capacitor (158).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electric power distribution systems, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for incorporating thermal memory effects into a Solid State Power Controller (SSPC), to achieve coordination between a fuse and the SSPC.
2. Description of the Related Art
Solid State Power Controllers (SSPCs) are poised to become important components in electric power distribution systems for commercial aircraft applications. Advantages of SSPC technology include: light weight and small size of SSPC devices, reduced maintenance requirements, and increased reliability. Hence, the SSPC technology represents an attractive alternative to conventional distribution systems including electro-mechanical relays and circuit breakers.
However, the possibility of fail-short events for the SSPCs presents serious safety considerations. These safety considerations are a critical element in the certification of the SSPC technology for commercial aircraft. In order to meet the safety and reliability requirements enforced by certification authorities, an additional protection mechanism is often associated with the SSPC. The interaction between the SSPC and the additional protection mechanism has added further complexity to the use of SSPC technology in commercial aircraft.
One known method that incorporates a thermal memory into an SSPC is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,723,915 titled "Solid State Power Controller", by T. R. Maher et al. With the technique described in this patent, a thermal memory feature is used with an SSPC, to mimic the performance characteristics of traditional circuit breakers. This technique, however, does not address the safety concern of the fail-short mode of the MOSFET in the SSPC. Moreover, the circuit implementation of this technique requires resistance values that are not recommended for aerospace applications, and capacitance values that can cause high leakage and high variations in trip timing.
Another known method that associates an additional protection mechanism with an SSPC is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,287,078 titled "Safety Fuse Apparatus for Solid State Power Controllers", by E. K. Larson. With the technique described in this patent, a U-shaped, metal alloy based safety device is associated with an SSPC. The safety device has performance characteristics that conform to selected SSPC time-current curves, to avoid interference with normal operation of the SSPC. The use of this new U-shaped metal alloy based safety device, however, can compromise the optimization of wire selection and faces problems with the certification of the SSPC technology for commercial aircraft, due to lack of field experience.
Disclosed embodiments of this application address these and other issues by implementing SSPC trip mechanisms with thermal memory effect, to coordinate between an SSPC trip curve and the characteristics of an additional protection mechanism, such as a fuse. Embodiments of the present invention divide a thermal memory effect into an initial thermal memory and a thermal memory due to over current, to achieve practical, semi-digital circuit implementations of the thermal memory effect. In one embodiment, a capacitor is charged multiple times during an over current condition, to produce a count that represents the temperature in a wire subjected to the over current. Temperature variation in the wire during the over current condition is represented with a discharge capacitor, a resistor, and a voltage associated to the trip count.

SSPC technology incorporated with thermal memory effects to achieve the fuse curve coordination


Methods and systems for delivering and deploying a prosthetic heart valve include a deployment mechanism coupled to the prosthetic heart valve, the deployment mechanism having a longitudinal shaft that when rotated in a first direction, expands the prosthetic heart valve from a contracted state to an expanded state, and optionally, when rotated in a second direction opposite the first direction, re-contracts the prosthetic valve from the expanded state. Embodiments of the deployment mechanism include a pinion gear that engages a gear track on the prosthetic heart valve.

Prosthetic heart valves are used to replace damaged or diseased heart valves. In vertebrate animals, the heart is a hollow muscular organ having four pumping chambers: the left and right atria and the left and right ventricles, each provided with its own one-way valve. The natural heart valves are identified as the aortic, mitral (or bicuspid), tricuspid and pulmonary valves. Prosthetic heart valves can be used to replace any of these naturally occurring valves.
Where replacement of a heart valve is indicated, the dysfunctional valve is typically cut out and replaced with either a mechanical valve or a tissue valve. Tissue valves are often preferred over mechanical valves because they typically do not require long-term treatment with anticoagulants. The most common tissue valves are constructed with whole porcine (pig) valves, or with separate leaflets cut from bovine (cow) pericardium. Although so-called stentless valves, comprising a section of porcine aorta along with the valve, are available, the most widely used valves include some form of stent or synthetic leaflet support. Typically, a wireform having alternating arcuate cusps and upstanding commissures supports the leaflets within the valve, in combination with an annular stent and a sewing ring. The alternating cusps and commissures mimic the natural contour of leaflet attachment.
A conventional heart valve replacement surgery involves accessing the heart in the patient's thoracic cavity through a longitudinal incision in the chest. For example, a median sternotomy requires cutting through the sternum and forcing the two opposing halves of the rib cage to be spread apart, allowing access to the thoracic cavity and heart within. The patient is then placed on cardiopulmonary bypass which involves stopping the heart to permit access to the internal chambers. Such open heart surgery is particularly invasive and involves a lengthy and difficult recovery period.
Recently, a great amount of research has been done to reduce the trauma and risk associated with conventional open heart valve replacement surgery. In particular, the field of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) has exploded since the early to mid-1990's, with devices now being available to enable valve replacements without opening the chest cavity. MIS heart valve replacement surgery still typically requires bypass, but the excision of the native valve and implantation of the prosthetic valve are accomplished via elongated tubes (catheters or cannulas), with the help of endoscopes and other such visualization techniques. Some examples of recent MIS heart valves are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,411,552 to Anderson, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,980,570 to Simpson, U.S. Pat. No. 5,984,959 to Robertson, et al., PCT Publication No. 00/047139 to Garrison, et al., and PCT Publication No. WO 99/334142 to Vesely.
The typical MIS valve of the prior art includes a directly radially expanding stent that is initially compressed for delivery through a cannula, and is then expanded at the site of implantation after removing the constraint of the cannula. The expansion is accomplished using an internal balloon catheter around which the stent is compressed.
Despite various delivery systems for conventional MIS valves, there remains a need for a delivery system that more reliably controls the expansion of new MIS valves.

Methods and apparatuses for deploying minimally-invasive heart valves


A method and apparatus for denoising digital images or videos, which is an extension of the spatial varying filter (SVF) by using a past filtered pixel, instead of the current pixel itself as the input for producing an output for the current pixel. Based on this concept, a number of denoising filters are provided, including Auto-regressive Spatial Varying Filter (ARSVF), Modified Auto-regressive Spatial Varying Filter (MARSVF), Auto-Regressive Spatiotemporal Varying Filter (ARSTVF) which is an extension of Spatiotemporal Varying Filter (STVF), Auto-regressive Motion Compensated Spatiotemporal Varying Filter (ARMCSTVF) which is extension of Motion Compensated Spatiotemporal Varying Filter (MCSTVF), and Selective Auto-regressive Motion Compensated Spatiotemporal Varying Filter (SARMCSTVF).

With the advance of computer and network technologies, digital images and videos have become commonplace in people's personal and professional life. Photographs taken with digital cameras and exchanged through email or cellular phones, video conferencing, digital TV broadcasting, pay-per-view Internet services, to name just a few, are getting more popular everyday. With their popularity, comes the attention to technologies for improving image and video's quality and reducing their size for easy transmission and exchange. Denoising is such a technology, which is a process taken to remove noise from digital images and videos and to enhance their compressibility.
Noise usually exists in uncompressed images and videos, which are unwanted or undesirable elements or artifacts. Noise can come from a variety of sources, for example, shot noise which originates in the electronic hardware, thermal noise, channel noise, etc. The existence of noise not only degrades the visual quality of video, it also decreases the performance of video coding and reduces the medium files' compressibility. It increases the entropy of the video such that more bits are needed to code the images and videos and also decreases the accuracy of motion estimation that further increases the bit rate. To increase the coding efficiency and compressibility, video denoising is necessary before encoding the video. The purpose of video denoising is to estimate the true image signals as accurately as possible. Many methods have been developed for image denoising such as low pass filtering, Wiener filtering, Kalman filtering or Spatial Varying filtering, most of which exploit the spatio-redundancy of the image to suppress noise. However, these filters are not optimized, especially for video denoising as the temporal redundancy of the video is not exploited. Some spatio-temporal filters are proposed for denoising where motion compensation is usually applied in order to exploit the temporal redundancy of moving objects. However, the computational complexity of these methods is too great for real time processing. Spatial Varying Filter (SVF) was proposed, which has relatively low computational demand and yet good edge preserving capability. SVF computes filter weights by the difference between current pixel and unfiltered neighboring pixels. Because SVF is a Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filter, the filter size is limited due to computational complexity. This constraint limits the noise suppression capability of the SVF technique as the order of the filter cannot be too large.
Some references are briefly commented in the following for purpose of providing background information.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,731,821 discloses an adaptive low pass filter to remove noise in digital video signals. The amount of low pass filtering depends on a local gradient measurement. The image is first filtered by a general low pass filter and then the filtered image is subtracted from the original image to give the residue image. The residue image is weighted according to local gradient measurement and added back to the filtered image to give the final image. However, the weighing of the neighboring pixels used in the low pass filter is not adaptive.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,665,448 discloses a filter which performs selective sharpening and smoothing of image data. The sharpening filter is derived from the selective smoothing filter. Unsharp masking is performed to enhance the edges. The purpose of the filter, however, is to enhance the visual quality of the image with enhanced edges which, in general, increase the bit rate.
U.S. Patent Application No. 20050036704 teaches a method of splitting an image into the foreground region and the background region and applying different anisotropic diffusion filters on each region. But, in general, a video scene is more complex than just two regions.
U.S. Patent Application No. 20050036558 teaches a method where pixel values between successive frames are filtered if the difference in the pixel values between successive frames is within threshold range, which is determined adaptively frame by frame. The use of fixed threshold within a frame nonetheless limits the performance of the filter.
U.S. Patent Application No. 20020172431 discloses a method for improving the appearance of the image while at the same time enhancing the compressibility of the image. It improves compressibility by selectively filtering the smooth regions and enhances the edges by applying an edge enhancement filter selected based on an edge analysis. However, the method only uses a limited set of filters.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,633,683 discloses a method to improve a well-known "least mean square method" by locally segmenting the pixels to the homogeneous region and edge region and estimating the local mean and variance using the data only from the homogeneous region. This method, however, requires the knowledge of noise variance to give good performance and it is for handling Gaussian noise.

Auto-regressive method and filter for denoising images and videos

Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute Co., Ltd.


The liquid ejection apparatus has: a head having a nozzle group including a plurality of nozzles which are aligned in a first direction and performs ejection of resist liquid onto a wiring substrate; a scanning device which causes the head and the wiring substrate to move relatively in the first direction; an ejection control device which controls the ejection of the resist liquid from the head; and a scanning control device which controls the scanning device in such a manner that the head and the wiring substrate are relatively moved only once in the first direction, through a region of the wiring substrate which corresponds to one relative movement in the first direction of the wiring substrate and the scanning device, wherein the ejection control device controls the ejection of the resist liquid from the head to cause the resist liquid to be ejected onto a same position of the wiring substrate sequentially, at prescribed time intervals, from different nozzles of the nozzle group, to deposit the resist liquid ejected onto the same position of the wiring substrate sequentially from the different nozzles of the nozzle group, in such a manner that a resist pattern having a prescribed thickness and a prescribed pattern is formed on the wiring substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid ejection apparatus and a resist pattern forming method, and more particularly, to resist patterning technology used when forming a wiring pattern on a printed wiring substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
Photolithography is generally used as a method of manufacturing a print substrate. In photolithography, a resist layer is formed by using dry film resist or liquid resist on copper-clad laminate constituted by an insulating layer and a copper cladding layer made of copper foil, the resist layer is exposed in a pattern by being irradiated with ultraviolet light through a photo mask, and then development is carried out, thereby achieving patterning of a resist pattern. Thereupon, the copper foil which is not covered by the resist is removed by etching, thus obtaining a desired conductor pattern. The foregoing description relates to a subtractive type of photolithography technique, but in semi-additive or additive photolithography techniques, in a similar fashion, a photo resist is patterned in order to serve as a plating mask.
When forming fine circuits by means of subtractive lithography, there is narrowing of the image lines caused by side etching of the metal conductive layer, and the like, and hence this method is not necessarily advantageous for creating fine circuits. An additive method, on the other hand, is beneficial for creating fine circuits, but since all of the metal conductive layers are formed by electroless plating, then the manufacturing costs are high. A semi-additive method involves a large number of steps, but it is excellent for use in manufacturing fine circuits since it enables the use of electroplating, which allows high-speed operation. In the photolithography method described above, the manufacture of the photo mask takes time, and a developing step is required in the resist patterning process, which means that both time and costs become an issue. Furthermore, there is a problem of the disposal of waste solution from the developing step.
In response to this, a method has been proposed in which a pattern of resist material is created directly by means of an inkjet type system. In other words, a desired resist pattern is recorded directly onto a copper-clad laminate comprising an insulation layer and copper foil, using a resist liquid ejected from a liquid-jet head, and a resist layer having the desired pattern is then formed by curing the patterned resist liquid.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 9-8436 describes a method of manufacturing a printed circuit board by means of an inkjet type method, in which: the thickness of a resist film is specified; the film thickness is predicted; nozzle control data is created to control the nozzle in such a manner that the film thickness becomes a desired value; and the resist application step is controlled in such a manner that resist is applied separately to each circuit substrate in accordance with the nozzle control data. The operation of predicting the thickness of the resist film comprises the steps of storing data on the relationship between the nozzle shape and the film thickness, calculating the film thickness created by each spraying action for a designated resist pattern shape, from the stored relationship data, and calculating the number of application actions required to form the specified film thickness, from the film thickness per action, in such a manner that the resist film assumes the desired film thickness.
However, the resist layer must have a prescribed thickness, but in a liquid-jet system, it is generally difficult to form a thick film and therefore superimposed deposition (laminated patterning) is required. In a method which acquires a prescribed film thickness by means of superimposed deposition, there is a possibility that processing time is lengthened in accordance with the number of laminating actions and therefore it is difficult to improve the productivity. Furthermore, there are limitations on the superimposition accuracy which can be achieved by mechanical scanning, and there is a possibility that it is difficult to achieve suitable accuracy in the superimposition of the laminated layers.
The invention described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 9-8436 makes no concrete disclosure with respect to the control of ink ejection and ink fixing when superimposing resist ink, and since landing interference occurs between mutually adjacent dots and positional divergence occurs when the resist inks are superimposed together, then it does not seem probable that a resist film of high accuracy could be obtained. Furthermore, in the invention described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 9-8436, time is required for the processing of each laminating action, and therefore it is difficult to improve the productivity.

Liquid ejection apparatus and resist pattern forming method


A method of manufacturing a fuel rail for use in a fuel delivery system, such as for an engine in a vehicle, includes the initial hydroforming step to deform a central portion of a workpiece to have one or more outwardly extending node portions, followed by a subsequent hydroforming step to deform one or more end portions of the workpiece to have additional outwardly extending node portions. To do this, a pair of pressure feed pistons are disposed within the interior of the workpiece and have head portions that sealingly engage the inner surface of the workpiece so as to define a pressure chamber therein. Pressurized fluid is introduced into the pressure chamber so as to deform a portion thereof into conformance with the portion of the die cavity located within the pressure chamber. Then, the pressure feed pistons are moved to re-define the pressure chamber within the workpiece. Pressurized fluid is again introduced into the enlarged pressure chamber so as to deform other portions of the workpiece. The deformed workpiece is lastly subjected to conventional machining and/or metal working operations to provide a final fuel rail.

This invention relates in general to fuel rails for use in the fuel delivery systems of engines. In particular, this invention relates to an improved method of manufacturing such a fuel rail using hydroforming techniques.
Most engines, such as internal combustion engines and diesel engines that are used in vehicles and other devices, are equipped with a system for delivering fuel from a source or reservoir to a plurality of combustion chambers provided within the engine. In most modern vehicular engines, this fuel delivery system is a fuel injection system, wherein fuel is supplied under pressure to and selectively injected within each of the combustion chambers of the engine for subsequent combustion.
To accomplish this, a typical fuel injection system includes one or more fluid conduits (typically referred to as fuel rails) that transmit the fuel from the source to each of the combustion chambers of the engine. Each of the fuel rails is typically embodied as a hollow tube including an open end, a closed end, and a plurality of nodes located between the open and closed ends that extend outwardly from the hollow tube. The open end of the fuel rail is adapted to communicate with the source of the fuel. The hollow tube is shaped such that each of the nodes is positioned directly adjacent to an inlet of an associated one of the combustion chambers of the engine. Each of the nodes usually terminates in a hollow cylindrical cup portion that is adapted to receive a fuel injector therein. The fuel injectors are typically embodied as solenoid controlled valves that are selectively opened and closed by an electronic controller for the engine. When opened, the fuel injectors permit the pressurized fuel to flow from the fuel rail into the associated combustion chamber. When closed, the fuel injectors prevent fuel from flowing from the fuel rail into the associated combustion chamber. By carefully controlling the opening and closing of the fuel injectors, precisely determined amounts of the pressurized fuel can be injected from the fuel rail into each of the combustion chambers at precisely determined intervals.
Typically, the fuel rails are formed from a rigid material, such as plastic or metallic material. Plastic material fuel rails can be formed by injection molding and other well known processes. However, the majority of fuel rails are manufactured from metallic materials. Typically, a metallic fuel rail is manufactured by initially providing a tubular body portion that is bent or otherwise deformed to a desired shape. Then, a plurality of openings are formed through the hollow body portion at the locations where it is desired to provide the above-mentioned nodes. A hollow node portion (typically having the cup portion already formed therein) is next positioned adjacent to each of the openings and secured thereto, such as by brazing.
Although the above-described method for manufacturing the fuel rail has been performed successfully for many years, several drawbacks have been noted. One of such drawbacks is that it is relatively difficult to insure that the node portions of the fuel rail are precisely located relative to the body portion. This is because of several reasons. First, a relatively complicated fixture must be provided to precisely support the body portion and each of the node portions until they are secured together. Second, because the brazing process involves the application of relatively high temperature heat, dimensional stability in the precise positioning of the nodes is difficult to control. Thus, it would be desirable to provide an improved method of manufacturing a fuel rail that avoids these drawbacks.
This invention relates to an improved method of manufacturing a fuel rail for use in a fuel delivery system for an engine, such as is commonly used in a vehicle. A hydroforming apparatus includes first and second die sections having one or more retractable mandrels provided in respective bores. A workpiece is disposed within a die cavity defined by the first and second die sections, and end cylinders are moved into engagement with the opposite ends thereof. A pair of pressure feed pistons are disposed within the interior of the workpiece. The pressure feed pistons include respective head portions that sealingly engage the inner surface of the workpiece to define a pressure chamber within a central portion thereof. One of the mandrels is retracted position within its bore such that the inner surface thereof is disposed outwardly from the surface of the recess formed in the second die section. Either during or after such retracting movement, pressurized fluid from the source is introduced into the pressure chamber defined between the head portions of the pressure feed pistons. As a result, the portion of the workpiece that is exposed to such pressurized fluid is deformed outwardly into conformance with the portion of the die cavity located within the pressure chamber, including the portion of the bore that is exposed when the mandrel is moved to the retracted position. Accordingly, an outwardly extending node blank is formed on the workpiece. Thereafter, the pressure feed pistons are moved outwardly apart from one another to respective second positions that re-define the pressure chamber within the workpiece in a somewhat larger manner. Thus, the head portions of the pressure feed pistons are located outside of other bores formed through the second die section. The other mandrels are moved to their retracted positions within their respective bores, and pressurized fluid from the source is again introduced into the enlarged pressure chamber defined between the head portions of the pressure feed pistons. As a result, the other portions of the workpiece are deformed to form additional outwardly extending node blanks on the workpiece. To complete the manufacturing process, the deformed workpiece is removed from the hydroforming apparatus and subjected to conventional machining and/or metal working operations to provide a finished fuel rail.
Various objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment, when read in light of the accompanying drawings.

Method of hydroforming a fuel rail for a vehicular fuel delivery system


Apparatus for and method of rapidly bringing a controlled space to a desired temperature. The technique is particularly applicable to the maintenance of controlled temperature spaces for the transportation of perishable cargo, such as in refrigeration trucks. Immediately following completion of the loading process, it is desirable to bring the internal temperature of the controlled space to the proper operating point as quickly as possible to retard spoilage. However, it is necessary to avoid unacceptable overshoot to prevent damage to the cargo by freezing. The disclosed system employs multiple sensors and a control algorithm to permit pull down to occur as rapidly as possible without unacceptable overshoot.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to temperature control systems, and more particularly, relates to systems to initiate temperature control of a refrigerated space.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known in the art to control the temperature of a space used to store or transport perishable materials such as foodstuffs. In controlling temperature in such a space, it is most difficult when the space is used to transport the perishable materials, such as with refrigeration trucks.
Much of the difficulty arises because of the change in thermal loading caused by large changes in the ambient with respect to time of day, geographical location, and weather conditions. A particular problem results from the initial loading of the refrigeration truck. It is desirable to pull down the temperature as quickly as possible to provide maximum retardation of spoilage. However, care must be exercised not to over shoot the target temperature anywhere within the refrigerated space, thereby freezing some or all of the cargo.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,715,190 discusses a rudimentary temperature control system. An advanced microprocessor based temperature control system is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,663,725, issued to Truckenbrod et. al., and incorporated herein by reference. The Truckenbrod et. al., system employs temperature sensors for the return and discharge of air. A fault recovery algorithm permits the system to switch between sensors as appropriate. U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,060, issued to Zinsmeyer, also discusses a microprocessor based temperature control system.
Techniques for control of the refrigeration process are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,742,689 and 4,934,155, issued to Lowes. These Lowes references show control of temperature through the use of hot gas bypass of the compressor in an attempt to maintain a more constant compressor speed.
A highly sophisticated system for temperature control is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,918,932 issued to Gustafson et. al., and incorporated herein by reference. This system uses an integrated average of the outputs of a discharge sensor and a return sensor to control the refrigeration apparatus. The algorithm of this system treats the initial pull down of the temperature following cargo loading in the same manner as the steady state.


A kit that can be assembled to make a moving toy comprises a container having at least one wall portion movable between a closed position closing an opening in the container and an open position allowing access to the inside of the container through the opening. A shaft supported for rotation relative to the container has a first portion disposed within the container. A plurality of mechanical parts are selectively locatable on the first portion of the shaft to be supported for rotation with the shaft relative to the container. A plurality of design parts are provided for location outside the container. The kit includes structure for connecting at least one of the mechanical parts on the shaft to at least one of the design parts thereby to transfer rotational force from the shaft to the design parts to move the design parts relative to the container.

The present invention relates to an automaton designing kit, that is, a kit from which one can design and assemble a plurality of different mechanical moving toys.
The present invention is a kit that can be assembled to make a moving toy. The kit comprises a container having at least one wall portion movable between a closed position closing an opening in the container and an open position allowing access to the inside of the container through the opening. A shaft is supported for rotation relative to the container and has a first portion disposed within the container. A plurality of mechanical parts are selectively locatable on the first portion of the shaft to be supported for rotation with the shaft relative to the container. A plurality of design parts are provided for location outside the container. The kit includes structure for connecting at least one of the mechanical parts on the shaft to at least one of the design parts thereby to transfer rotational force from the shaft to the design parts to move the design parts relative to the container. The plurality of design parts includes a plurality of different design parts that can be assembled separately into a plurality of different toy structures each of which is adapted to be movable upon rotation of the shaft. The first portion of the shaft comprises an outer shaft part and an inner shaft part received within the outer shaft part, the outer shaft part supporting the plurality of mechanical parts, the outer shaft part rotating with the inner shaft part upon rotation of the inner shaft part.


A system whereby a receiving module, in a mixed network of hardware and software-emulated modules, requires an Interrupt before it can use a Get Message OP to access a message from a message queue and which also provides a Fast Empty of messages in a message queue by eliminating the need for an Interrupt before each succeeding message access.

Present day computer networks today involve the interconnection of many types of digital modules which are required to communicate with each other both as a sender and a receiver.
A typical example of a complex network is shown in FIG. 2 where a system bus 10 connects a series of digital modules such as an A Series Central Processor (Unisys) Module 12, a Main Memory 14, a Processor Unit 18 such as an Intel (P6) Pentium or Pentium Pro. The system bus 10 is connected to system bus bridge units 22 and 24 which connect to other networks. Thus, bus 10b connects the system bus 10 to the I/O bus 20. The I/O bus 20 is here called a PCI bus. The PCI bus 20 connects another series of digital modules shown as an Input/Output Module 28, (IOM 2), an Auxiliary Message Arbitration Unit AMA 30, and another bridge unit 32 designated as PCI-EISA Bridge. The bridge unit 32 connects to a standard EISA bus 32e which connects to other EISA peripheral units designated 36.
In FIG. 2, the Input/Output Module, IOM 28, includes a group of digital modules designated as the Task Control Unit, TCU 42, Input/Output Unit IOU, 44, and Channel Manager Unit, CMU 46.
In the digital network shown in FIG. 2, it is necessary that a suitable protocol and proper control of message transfers be arranged for optimum operation of the system.
Present technology has made it possible to interconnect many digital modules such as processors, memories and Input/Output units in order to build powerful and effective computer systems. The performance of such multi-digital network systems depends on many factors such as the control of message flow, the scheduling and the interconnection methods used between the various digital modules, and also the implementation of fault free communication between modules.
One of the significant problems in message passing is the orderly and efficient transfer of messages from one digital module to another, and also the feature of message preservation when delivery of a message is not possible. Certain problematic conditions occur in networks which utilize both hardware modules and software modules. Basically, hardware modules when running uninterrupted work fast in handling and processing the data that is passed through them. On the other hand, software modules operating on a time-shared operating system are not completely dedicated to one type of operation, but are involved with task switching into different programs from time to time and thus, one earlier program may be delayed because the software is running on a second program and has not yet returned to the first program.
Thus, systems which used software solutions to try to handle the orderly transmission of messages ran into considerable difficulties. Some of these software solutions involved link lists in memory and assigned a number in memory to each message so that the messages would be accessed sequentially according to the number of the message. Then when that numbered message was used, the number was incremented and placed back in memory.
On these types of solutions using software, the queuing solution and the incrementing number solution leads to difficulties when you have multiple senders. Then it is necessary to make arrangements to see that the various sending modules are coordinated and not in conflict with each other. If a link list is built, it is not possible then to have two senders putting something into the list at the same time where they could interfere with each other.
Likewise, if there were two senders looking at a particular message number, the system would have to do something to prevent the senders from getting the same value of the number for their messages. Since there is a finite time from when the first sender gets the number, until he increments it and stores it back, then if the second sender asks for a number during that interval, the second sender is going to get the same number as the first sender and they both will put their messages in the same slot number. Thus, one sender will wipe out the message of the other sender.
It would be possible to prevent some of the software problems by having locking operations in memory, but again the problem with locking operations occurs when one software module obtains the lock which prevents other modules from doing anything until that module uses the lock, then the platform operating system takes the processor for some period of time causing every other sender to wait until a sender gets the processor back in order to do what is necessary to release the lock.
The present system provides a module which operates in a dedicated fashion as hardware to handle the message transmission control operations and the hardware responds rapidly and quickly since it does not have any need for a locking operation, because it is atomic, and because it guarantees that the two senders will not get the same number value. Thus, there is a fast certain and definite chronological system for message transfers that is done rapidly through hardware control modules, while at the same time it still can handle and be responsive to software modules operating in the system, thus allowing a mixture of hardware and software modules without the software modules slowing down the system.
General Overview:
One of the major features of the present system involves message order preservation, chronological sequences of message delivery and priorities whereby local messages, that is to say, messages from one processor to another, (where both processors are executing on the same computer system) are given higher priority than messages flowing from one computer system to another computer system.
The presently described system involves an Auxiliary Message Arbitrator Unit 30, AMA, which uses main system memory 14 to hold messages and utilizes an internal AMA board to provide the algorithmic control factors required. There is no need for any additional software tasks so that messages can flow between the sending and receiving units in a very direct and rapid fashion without any task switching overhead for software programs.
The Auxiliary Message Arbitrator 30 (FIG. 1A) of the present system can be used effectively in a classical network where there is one computer system consisting of multiple processors, all using one common memory subsystem. Quite contrarily, other prior art systems required specialized router node controllers and transposer modules for each node that was involved in sending and receiving messages.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,269 to Calvignac involved a mechanism for transferring messages between source and destination users through a shared memory. This patent involved a shared memory and control apparatus and provides data buffering and queuing of messages in transit between a sender and receiver. The messages are "chained" together to preserve their chronological order by small blocks of memory, each of which is associated with one buffer. The buffer control blocks also contain information about the buffer which they control. This system requires a control function that enqueues and dequeues messages in response to external requests. The present system described herein does not require the insertion of control information for messages, while additionally it also provides for notifying receivers of the presence of the message destined for the receiver.
The present Auxiliary Message Arbitrator System (AMA) provides a mechanism that allows a specific computer system to maintain a chronological ordering of messages that are being sent from a sending module to a receiving module. Usage is made of "tokens".
In the present system, a "token" is an 8-bit value that represents a physical slot (FIG. 1D) inside a message queue (dedicated to each module) which resides in the system memory 14. The available tokens reside in a Token RAM 58 (FIG. 1B) and each module is provided with up to 256 tokens which can indicate the 256 message slots for each dedicated message queue in the system memory 14 (FIG. 1D).
The present Auxiliary Message Arbitrator system allocates message queue slots to the senders and also notifies receivers which message in a queue is the next one to be examined.
In earlier systems, which used Unisys Corporation computer and network architecture, message passing was done between processors each of which had inbound message queues. Furthermore, these systems had "send-message" OP codes on their system busses and in their message address spaces. Messages were passed directly from sender to receiver with no memory queue accesses involved in the transfer.
The presently described network involves a platform which will simulate a personal computer PC-type of environment. The system has a system bus (System bus in FIG. 2) coupled to a I/O bus 20 (PCI BUS, FIG. 2). In this type of environment, there is no arrangement for "send message operations" or message address space to be utilized. Further, in the "lowest levels" of the system network configuration, there will not be any hard Input/Output Modules (IOMs) or Central Processing Modules (CPMs). The IOM and the CPM processors will be implemented in P6 code. Other configurations will actually have hardware IOMs and/or CPMs.
Thus as an example in FIG. 2, the CPM2, (16), and IOM 3, (17) are software emulated modules while CPM 1, (12), and IOM 2, (28), are hardware modules. The hardware modules are custom built for the system and are designed with inbound message queues, except that the system requires that all modules handle message queuing and de-queuing the same way. The system bus 10 (P6 bus) and the PCI BUS (I/O bus 20) only have memory access types of commands and the messages will be sent by means of those commands. The Intel P6 processor boards will be modules which are off-the-shelf, so there cannot be any inbound message queue on these boards. Further, all of the modules in the network must follow the same message protocol so that in this situation, the hardware modules cannot take advantage of inbound message queues.
In the present system network, a protocol has been developed for passing messages with memory access commands through the common system memory 14. The memory locations, called "slots," that the messages are passed to, are represented by "tokens" which are 8-bit data values that indicate which particular slot may be used for a particular message queue. Each receiving module in the system has at least one message queue dedicated to it.
When a system module must send a message, it first gets a token from a Token RAM 58 and then uses the Token to calculate the system memory address of where the message is located in system memory 14. The sending module then fills in the message at the designated slot of the message queue in system memory 14 and returns the token to the Token RAM when the message has been passed. The receiving module then gets "interrupted" to inform it that a message is residing in its dedicated message queue at a specific slot. The receiving module then gets the token which points to the slot of the message queue where, in system memory, the message resides. The message in system memory is then read out by the receiver, the token is returned to the Token RAM 58 and this frees up that particular message passing slot in system memory 14.
This particular protocol is facilitated by the Auxiliary Message Arbitrator 30 (AMA). This unit maintains these tokens and executes the message access commands in addition to initiating hard and soft Interrupts for hard and soft modules. It also supports the system timers. Physically, the AMA 30 resides in a PCI bus expansion slot.
In the present system a Get Message operation by a receiving module, must normally be preceded by an Interrupt to the message receiving module. However, when multiple messages are stacked in a message queue, a "Fast Empty" sequence can be initiated by the Auxiliary Message Arbitrator to enable the sending module to directly access each message in sequence on a series of Get Message operations without needing to use the intervening Interrupts between each Get Message operation, thus saving the time normally required for the intervening Interrupt cycles.

Interrupt handling system for message transfers in network having mixed hardware and software emulated modules


The invention relates to a method for quantitatively determining a gas component of a gas flow and an apparatus therefor. The apparatus includes a testing conduit having a throttle through which the gas flow flows. A sample conduit leading to the gas inlet of a gas sensor branches away from the testing conduit upstream of the throttle. The apparatus further includes a pressure sensor connected to the sample conduit, a valve connected to a gas outlet of the gas sensor and a control unit. The method of the invention is improved in that a defined quantity of gas can be supplied to the sensor without a pump being required. An improvement is achieved in that the control unit is so configured that: in a first step, the valve is opened; the gas volume is determined in a second step by computing the time integral of the signal of the pressure sensor; and, in a third step, the valve is closed after the throughflow of a pregiven gas volume or after a pregiven time duration has elapsed.

An apparatus for quantitatively determining a component of a gas flow is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,736,619. This apparatus is a breath alcohol measuring device wherein the breath is blown through a conduit into the ambient with the conduit having a restriction or throttle formed therein. A sample conduit branches off from the testing conduit upstream of the throttle and leads to an alcohol sensor. A pressure sensor is connected to the sample conduit for measuring the pressure at the throttle. The signal of the pressure sensor is integrated over time by a control unit during the time that the breath is blown into the testing tube. In this way, the air volume flowing through the testing tube into the ambient is determined. A sample-taking pump is actuated by the control unit only after so much air has flown that alveolar air is present in the testing conduit. The sample-taking pump pumps a specific quantity of air from the testing conduit through the sample conduit into the alcohol sensor. The alcohol content of the breath sample is then determined.
It is a disadvantage of this known apparatus that a sample-taking pump is necessary which, with its mechanical parts, causes the pump to be subject to failure and increases the cost of the apparatus. Furthermore, high requirements as to precision cannot be expected with a low-cost pump.

Method for quantitatively determining a component of a gas flow and apparatus therefor


The invention disclosed relates to a process for the extraction of sweet compounds from Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni, by column extraction, followed by purification by filtration. The extraction is at temperatures in the range of 0 to 25.degree. C. Preferably, a pre-treatment step of microfiltration is used to clarify the extract. Purification is by ultrafiltration followed by nanofiltration. The filtration conditions are controlled to optimize the recovery of the sweet compounds.

This invention relates to a process for separating and recovering sweet compounds from plant materials of Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni by aqueous extraction and membrane separation.
The sweet compounds in Stevia have been identified by Kinghom and Soejarto, 1985, as including stevioside, rebaudioside A(RA), rebaudioside B(RB), rebaudioside C(RC), ducloside A and ducloside B.

Extraction of sweet compounds from Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni


An image sensor includes a color sensor chip configured to generate a color image by sensing visible light in incident light; a light transfer layer disposed under the color sensor chip, and including an infrared light pass filter which filters infrared light from light having passed through the color sensor chip; and a depth sensor chip disposed under the light transfer layer, and configured to generate a depth image by sensing the infrared light.

An image sensor is a device which captures an image by using the property of a semiconductor that reacts to light. With the recent development of the computer industry and communication industry, the demand for high-performance image sensing devices, for example, smartphones, digital cameras, game consoles, Internet of Things, robots, surveillance cameras, medical micro cameras, etc., has been increasing.
Image sensors may be generally classified into CCD (charge coupled device) image sensors and CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) image sensors. CCD image sensors have less noise and better image quality than CMOS image sensors. However, CMOS image sensors have a simpler and more convenient driving schemes, and thus may be preferred in some applications. Also, CMOS image sensors may integrate a signal processing circuit in a single chip, making it easy to miniaturize CMOS image sensors for implementation in a product, with the added benefits of consuming very low power. CMOS image sensors can be fabricated using CMOS fabrication technology, which results in low manufacturing costs. CMOS image sensing devices have been widely used due to their suitability for implementation in a mobile device.
Methods for measuring a depth by using an image sensor have been developed through many studies, and the demand increases in various fields including security, medical devices, automobiles, video game consoles, VR/AR and mobile devices. To measure a depth, various techniques including triangulation, time-of-flight and interferometry can be used. Among these methods, the time-of-flight method becomes popular because of its wide range of utilization, high processing speed and cost advantages.
When a depth sensor is additionally mounted to an electronic device to improve the security of the electronic device or the performance of functions of various applications, the addition of the depth sensor may require an extra space in the electronic device and may cause design limitations and cost increases.


According to one embodiment, the present technique provides a phantom for testing imaging device. The exemplary phantom includes a first portion having groups of vessels, which are filled with a radiographically opaque substance (i.e., a contrast agent). The each group of vessels may extend from a central region of the first portion to the periphery of the central portion. The phantom may also include a second portion having a testing region. By way of example, the testing region may comprise a series of rings, each ring being configured to attenuate X-ray radiation differently. Adventurously, each ring may comprise materials configured to emulate different types and amounts of human tissue. For example, the exemplary phantom may include a ring, which emulates bone tissue, and a second ring, which emulates soft tissue. Moreover, each ring may be configured to emulate different amounts of tissue. That is to say, the certain rings in the phantom may include a first amount of a first material configured to emulate one kind of human tissue and a second amount of a second material configured to emulate a second kind of human tissue.

The present technique relates to apparatus and methods for testing imaging devices. More particularly, the present technique relates to a phantom for testing imaging devices.
Medical imaging devices, such as X-ray systems, are omnipresent in modem medical facilities. Through the use of medical imaging devices, medical professionals, such as physicians, can produce detailed images of internal tissues, anatomies and organs of patients, thereby mitigating the need for invasive exploratory procedures and providing valuable tools for identifying and diagnosing disease and for verifying wellness.
Digital X-ray systems are becoming increasingly widespread for producing digital data that may be reconstructed into useful radiographic images. In traditional digital X-ray systems, a uniform beam of X-ray radiation is directed towards an object. As the beam passes through the object, materials of differing X-ray absorption and dispersion attenuate portions of the beam. Upon exiting the object, the attenuated X-ray beam impacts a detector, which measures the attenuation via photodiodes and transistors arranged in a matrix defining discrete picture elements or pixels of image data. By measuring this attenuation, the system may produce a radiographic image or projection of the object based upon the image data collected and processed. Advantageously, by analyzing the radiographic image, the physician may diagnose conditions of the patient.
Of particular note, digital subtraction angiography (DSA) procedures typically employ digital X-ray systems. To perform a DSA procedure, a medical professional may intravenously inject a contrast agent (e.g., a radiographically opaque substance, such as barium or iodine) into the patient to enhance the attenuation of the vasculature of the patient and provide desired contrast in the reconstructed X-ray image. That is, the medical professional may take a first image of the patient, without the contrast agent. This first image is generally known as a mask image. The medical professional may then intravenously inject the contrast agent into the patient. A second image of the patient is then taken. During typical DSA procedures, the patient must remain quite still to avoid artifacts and to improve the comparability of the resulting images. By subtracting the first image from the second image, primarily regions in which the newly injected contrast agent resides will remain visible in a difference or subtraction image. That is, the common elements of the two images are removed, leaving the newly injected contrast agent in the second image. Because the contrast agent flows within the circulatory system of the patient, the arteries and veins through which the contrast agent flows are highlighted.
Typically, the quality of the image produced by a digital X-ray system is defined by its contrast ability and by its resolution ability. In the medical industry, contrast ability refers to the extent to which the various different kinds of tissue within the body are displayed with respect to one another. That is, the discernability of one kind of tissue from another. Resolution, however, refers to the ability of the imaging device to reveal fine detail. That is, resolution typically refers to the ability to distinguish between small, closely spaced elements within the patient. By improving the contrast and resolution of a produced image, a physician, for example, may better diagnose a patient, because of the detail of the information provided by the image. Moreover, by gauging the abilities of the X-ray system, a physician may be able to determine whether the image is of sufficient detail to support a certain diagnosis. Higher resolution and contrast also aid in image enhancement processing on the collected image data in which features are filtered and otherwise clarified for analysis and viewing.
To improve the image produced and/or to gauge the capabilities of the imaging device, imaging devices are typically tested and/or calibrated. In certain instances, these testing and calibration procedures may employ phantoms. A phantom is generally an object of known physical characteristics that is placed in the system during test imaging sequences to determine how the system performs in one or more ways. Phantoms are typically used to measure system responses, adjust imaging parameters, qualify systems, calibrate systems, and so forth. The dimensions and composition of a phantom from which a test image is produced are known prior to the production of a test image. Thus, the test image of the phantom is compared with the known parameters of the phantom itself to reveal the accuracy and/or limitations of the imaging device. Accordingly, the imaging device may be recalibrated for maximum performance. Phantoms are typically designed based upon the physics of the particular type or modality of imaging system to be tested, and may be specifically designed for a particular type of image to be produced.
Typical phantoms, however, present a number of concerns. For example, traditional phantoms used to test for DSA procedures are relatively unwieldy items. That is, the technician may not be able to easily move such traditional phantoms from location to location. Moreover, traditional phantoms may not emulate human tissue ideally. For example, a traditional DSA phantom may be a substantially homogenous block of a clear plastic material. Accordingly, such construction may not accurately represent the diversity of tissue within the body. Moreover, in imaging procedures, such as DSA, inadvertent movement of the phantom may negatively impact the produced test image or images, i.e., the images used to generate the subtraction image.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved technique for testing and gauging performance of imaging devices. Particularly, there is a need for a technique that reduces the difficultly and expense of servicing, repairing, calibrating and qualifying imaging devices, particularly those used for DSA imaging.

Universal digital subtraction phantom and analysis system and method


A tampon wetness detection system which includes (a) a housing having a distal end and a proximal end, the proximal end being shaped and dimensioned for insertion into a distal end of an absorbent body insertable into a vagina, the proximal end of the housing being fluid permeable; (b) a radio frequency identification device being implemented in the housing, the radio frequency identification device including a transmitter; (c) a conductive wetness sensor being in the proximal end of the housing and in electrical communication with the radio frequency identification device, such that when the conductive wetness sensor senses wetness the radio frequency identification device is operable; and (d) a remote reporting device including a receiver for receiving a radio signal concerning the wetness of the absorbent body from the radio frequency identification device and further including a reporting mechanism for reporting a user of the wetness of the absorbent body.

The present invention relates to tampons, and more particularly to a tampon wetness detection system signaling a remote reporting device of the wetness of the tampon.
Present-day users of tampons have to use a destructive test in order to ascertain whether a tampon has residual absorbent capacity remaining. That is, the tampon must be removed to see if it is full, and even if it is not full, the tampon usually is not reinserted. Generally a user removes a tampon before it has reached its capacity in order to prevent an accident wherein the capacity of the tampon is exceeded and the excess menses flows unimpeded from the vagina to soil the user's clothing.
In tampons as presently known a determinative criteria frequently used for removing a tampon is time elapsed since insertion. The time elapsed criteria for changing tampons is not satisfactory for several reasons, e.g., the menstrual flow rate varies throughout the menstruating period and much adsorbent capacity of tampons is wasted due to the tendency to change before an accident occurs.
The flow variation throughout the period causes problems as to how long to wear a tampon because a user cannot establish a definite time period for which the absorbent capacity within a tampon is sufficient. Therefore, she is in a quandary as to how long to wear specific tampons during days of heavy flow as contrasted to days of light flow.
A correlation between tampon performance during light flow versus heavy flow is difficult for the user to make. Thus, since the user would rather be safe than sorry, she frequently removes a tampon before the absorbent capacity of the tampon has been reached and wastes much of the product she had purchased.
The prior tampon art tried to make tampons bigger and more absorbent so that a user would not have to change as often. But the user would still waste a portion of the absorbent capacity she had purchased in that she still was not willing to have an accident.
Therefore, bigger tampons provided a longer wearing time but did not approach the problem of fully using the absorbent capacity within a tampon without soiling her clothing. In rare cases, should a user forget to remove a tampon a life threatening infection may develop.
These problems associated with the use of tampons were recognized and solutions proposed.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,794,024 to Kokx discloses an indicator in contact with the absorbent body of a catamenial device. The indicator "reads" the wetness of the absorbent body and translates the wetness into a signal which can be sensed without removing, the catamenial device. Change in temperature (heat generation or consumption by dissolving material) or color formation are used as indicators.
However, both these approaches suffer limitations. The amount of heat generated or consumed depends upon the reaction rate. If it is slow, heat dissipation will prevent sensing the signal. Color indication, on the other hand, requires an intimate inspection by the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,361,627 to Levesque discloses a method and apparatus for measuring the capillary attraction developed at a surface of an absorbent body intended to be used in a sanitary article such as a sanitary napkin, a diaper, a urinary pad, an adult brief, a tampon or a wound dressing, among others. The apparatus comprises a probe of fritted glass providing an array of capillary passageways in fluid communication with the interior of a closed cell completely filled with liquid. A pressure sensor mounted to the closed cell observes the liquid pressure therein. When the probe is placed in contact with the absorbent body, the capillary attraction exerted on liquid in the probe capillaries by the porous network of the absorbent body is transmitted through the liquid medium in the cell to the pressure sensor. The pressure data thus obtained reflects the state of dryness of the absorbent body surface. The capillary attraction measurement is made with no appreciable transfer of liquid toward the absorbent body to avoid altering its condition.
While the invention by Levesque is suitable of measuring the capillary attraction developed at the surface of externally used absorbent bodies, it is not at all applicable for a vaginaly inserted tampon. Furthermore, a wetness test using the disclosed device requires intimacy.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,468,236 to Everhart discloses a disposable feminine care product which includes a chemically reactive means having an end point adapted to provide a visual indication of the presence of a substance in mammalian bodily excrement. However, a wetness test using the disclosed device requires intimacy.
Similar solutions which include visual indication of the wetness of the tampon are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,192,311 to Felfoldi; and 5,217,444 to Schoenfeld.
Visual indications of wet diapers are disclosed in 3,952,746 to Summers; 4,231,370 to Mroz; 4,287, 153 to Towsend; 4,327,731 to Powell; 4,507,121 to Leung; 4,705,513 to Sheldon et al.; 4,738,674 to Todd et al.; and 5,197,958 to Howell.
Conductivity based indication of wet diapers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,266,928 and 5,469.145 to Johnson; 4,205,672 to Dvorak; 4,484,573 to Yoo; 4,704,108 to Okada: 4,796,014 to Chia; and 5,568,128 to Nair. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,356,818 to Macias et al.; 4,653,491 and 4,754,264 to Okada et al. disclose remote wetness informing device using an oscillator and receiver.
There is thus a widely recognized need for, and it would be highly advantageous to have, a tampon wetness detection system devoid of the above limitations.