A method quickly resuming a downlink service in a hard handover in a cellular mobile communication system. To provide the fast downlink service to an MS during a hard handover from an OBS to an NBS, the NBS receives handover user information from the OBS, and generates an MS temporary ID using the handover user information to identify the MS. If user data is generated for the MS before a connection is established for traffic transmission between the MS and the NBS, the NBS transmits the user data to the MS on an HCCH using the MS temporary ID.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a cellular mobile communication system, and in particular, to a method for quickly resuming a downlink service in a hard handover.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, a cellular communication system divides its service area into smaller service areas, i.e., cells covered by base stations (BSs). A mobile switching center (MSC) controls these BSs such that mobile stations (MSs) can continue ongoing calls, when moving from one cell to another. The cellular communication system uses FDMA (Frequency Division Multiplexing Access), CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), etc., to enable a BS to wirelessly communicate with a plurality of MSs.
In a CDMA communication system, radio channels are identified by orthogonal spreading codes in order to share the same frequency and the same time. One of the features of the CDMA communication system is a soft handover for simultaneously connecting an MS in an overlap area between cells to channels of at least two BSs, to guarantee stable communication.
Compared to the CDMA characterized by spreading of data prior to transmission, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), which has recently attracted much interest, inverse-fast-Fourier-transforms (IFFT) data and inserts a guard interval to the IFFT data prior to transmission. As a result, OFDM offers a benefit of transmitting a wideband signal while using relatively simple hardware compared to the CDMA. An OFDM communication system simultaneously delivers modulated symbols at narrowband frequencies called sub-carriers. Because these sub-carriers use very narrow frequency bands, it is considered that they are flat-fading on the whole.
However, the OFDM communication system does not support a soft handover for simultaneously connecting two channels because neighbor cells use different sub-carriers to prevent interference between them. Therefore, an MS is disconnected from a channel of an old cell and connected to a channel of a new cell, although it usually happens too fast for a user to recognize during voice communication. This operation is called a hard handover. Here, the channels use different sub-carriers. The most important thing in performing the hard handover is to prevent a time delay required for the MS to receive a service from the new BS from affecting the service.
In the hard handover, the new BS assigns channels to the MS for transmission/reception of traffic and control information. An ongoing call is interrupted during the channel assignment. To enable both uplink and downlink services for the MS in the hard handover, the MS must access the new BS and get a new local ID, a traffic channel, and a control channel assigned from the new BS. However, a long time delay can be created by the possible collision between the MS and another MS during the access to the BS. During the hard handover, a time delay of tens of milliseconds occurs. In the case of real-time traffic sensitive to delay such as moving pictures, this time delay significantly degrades quality of service.

Method of providing a fast downlink service in a hard handover in a cellular communication system

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)


A suction nozzle for a vacuum cleaner includes a suction chamber; an outlet duct; an underside for engaging a surface to be cleaned; a main suction opening in the underside, which opens into the suction chamber; an auxiliary suction path which opens into the suction chamber; and a bleed path in fluid communication with the outlet duct. The suction nozzle further includes a valve mechanism arranged to open and close the auxiliary suction path and the bleed path, the valve mechanism being movable between a first configuration in which the auxiliary suction path is closed and the bleed path is open, a second configuration in which the auxiliary suction path is open and the bleed path is closed, and a third configuration in which both the auxiliary suction path and the bleed path are closed.

One way of characterizing the cleaning performance of a vacuum cleaner is by reference to its so-called 'pick-up' performance: the ability of the vacuum cleaner to pick up dirt and debris from a floor surface. A desirable pick-up performance often includes the ability to pick up both fine dirt as well as so-called 'large debris' such as, for example, certain pet snacks, breakfast cereals, grains of rice etc.
Some suction nozzles are provided with a 'large debris path', in addition to the main suction opening, which is designed to allow large debris to be drawn into the suction nozzle with reduced clogging or 'snowploughing'. However, air entering the suction nozzle through the large debris path means that the suction at the main suction opening is reduced. Pickup performance outside of large debris pickup may therefore be reduced. Some suction nozzle designs allow the large debris path to be closed when not needed, in order to mitigate this effect. However, the low pressure inside the suction nozzle with the large debris path closed can cause the suction nozzle to 'limpet'—sucking itself down onto a floor surface and therefore being difficult to manoeuvre. This effect could be combatted by including a 'bleed' path. This provides an additional route for air to be sucked into the suction nozzle, increasing the pressure within the suction nozzle and thereby reducing the chance that it will limpet. However, the provision of an additional route for air into the suction nozzle would further reduce suction at the main suction opening and thus potentially reduce overall performance.


Disclosed are various embodiments for a shopping cart component of an electronic commerce application. The shopping cart may be shared by one or more users of the electronic commerce application. In this respect, the shopping cart represents the aggregate purchase of items on behalf of multiple users of the electronic commerce application. Each user with access to the shopping cart may add to or remove items from the shopping cart or purchase some or all of the items within the shopping cart. Further, each user may share the shopping cart with other users of the electronic commerce application. Discounts or other promotional or marketing credits or benefits may also be added to and shared by all users with access to the shopping cart.

Online or electronic merchants have traditionally supplied customers with electronic shopping carts allowing individual customers to purchase multiple items. These electronic shopping carts are often linked to individual users or individual user accounts. Users may add items they wish to purchase their shopping cart, purchase items in their shopping cart, and save their shopping cart in order to purchase items at a later time.

Shared aggregated e-commerce shopping cart


A rule invocation mechanism in an inductive learning engine employing symbolic rules for characterizing a sequence of time-related events. The rules to be tested as hypotheses against new events in the sequence are ranked according to their information content or "quality" value. The efficiency of the rule-to-event pattern matching process for characterizing the new events is increased by not testing a hypothesis if a much better hypothesis already exists. Those hypotheses that characterize events in the sequence are tagged to the event.

The present invention relates to the field of computer-assisted information and knowledge processing known as "artificial intelligence," and more particularly to a symbolic rule invocation mechanism for an inductive learning engine applicable to domains that use time-based representations such as security auditing.
"Artificial intelligence" is directed to the development of processes and systems using digital computers to mimic the performance of human intelligent behavior. An important goal of artificial intelligence is to give computers the ability to learn from experience, which is one of the most prominent traits of intelligent behavior. This ability enables computers to learn complex concepts that may be difficult for humans to articulate and also to adapt to changing environments. Furthermore, the ability of a computer to learn relieves humans from the tedious task of spoon-feeding computers with the knowledge needed to perform particular functions.
Most current knowledge-based systems use "deductive" inference techniques to acquire knowledge. In these techniques, general principles (or rules in the case of rule-based systems) are acquired from experts and stored in a knowledge base. Knowledge acquired in this manner is generally heuristic, that is, it represents facts and empirical associations, or patterns, that experts in the particular domain have developed through their own experience.
Deductive knowledge-based systems are necessarily limited by the quantity, variety, and accuracy of the knowledge they contain. Thus, a deductive knowledge-based system typically can be used only in connection with circumstances within the domain of the knowledge that system contains. If the system encounters circumstances which are unexpected and outside of that domain, the system will not be able to provide assistance. Furthermore, heuristic knowledge of this type is often of limited utility because it is difficult to verify and update.
Therefore, it is desirable for computers to acquire knowledge directly rather than, or in addition to, acquiring knowledge from experts. One way to acquire knowledge directly is to use "inductive" inference techniques to infer knowledge in a particular domain from examples in the domain. An inductive learning system generates generalized descriptions or patterns (or rules in the case of rule-based systems) from the information provided as domain examples. The examples may be data collected from actual operation in the domain, or from simulation models.
A specific problem in knowledge acquisition is the incremental acquisition of time-based symbolic patterns (or rules) from observations of time-based processes. Observations of time-based processes may take the form of "events" which depict the state of the process at a particular moment in terms of a set of attributes. An "episode" consists of a sequence of events occurring in time.
The goal of inductive learning as applied to time-based processes is to discover patterns (represented in the form of symbolic rules) which can be used to characterize processes or for prediction of subsequent events. Thus, each rule may describe a sequential pattern that predicts the next possible events with reasonable accuracy.
An example of a simplified rule characterizing a sequential pattern is as follows: EQU e.sub.1 -e.sub.2 -e.sub.3 .fwdarw. (e.sub.4 =95%; e.sub.5 =5%)
This rule indicates that if event e.sub.1 is followed by event e.sub.2, and event e.sub.2 is followed by event e.sub.3, then there is a 95% chance based on the previous observations that event e.sub.4 will follow, and a 5% chance that event e.sub.5 will follow.
the following is a simplified example which demonstrates the process of generating a set of hypotheses (i.e., patterns represented in the form of symbolic rules) from a sequence of events. Assuming that rules are to be discovered from the following episode where each letter represents an event in the episode: ##STR1## the following hypotheses may be generated: EQU h.sub.1 : A-B.fwdarw. (C=100%) EQU H.sub.2 : C.fwdarw. (S=50%; A=50%) EQU h.sub.3 : S.fwdarw. (T=100%) EQU h.sub.4 : T.fwdarw. (A=50%; S=50%)
The hypotheses h.sub.1, h.sub.2, h.sub.3, and h.sub.4 may be viewed as alternative explanations that uncover what is happening in the process.
In incremental inductive learning, the rules are maintained and modified dynamically as new events occur. The capability to learn incrementally is important because it makes use of the knowledge acquired from previous events. Otherwise, the learning process is very inefficient because it must learn a concept from scratch each time a new event or episode occurs.
Hypotheses should be generated or modified so that eventually only high quality rules are left in the rule base. A high quality rule or hypothesis has, among others, the following properties: (1) high level of confidence, and (2) high accuracy in prediction.
A high level of confidence is achieved by rules that cover as many data points as possible. Thus, the more times a rule is tested against new data points or events in the sequence and is proved to be valid, the higher the confidence level. Such rules represent patterns that are highly repetitive.
Accuracy in prediction is expressed in the form of "entropy," which measures the degree of randomness in the prediction when a rule is matched against known data points. The entropy of a rul is defined as follows: ##EQU1## where P.sub.i is the probability that event i will occur under the conditions specified in the rule.
FIG. 1 shows how a "good" pattern in terms of quality is found by minimizing the entropy value and maximizing the coverage. The "good" pattern covers or explains one type of data point represented by a "-" and therefore has a very low entropy. It also has maximum coverage because it explains all of the "-" data points. The "bad" pattern, on the other hand, has a higher degree of randomness in its prediction and therefore a high entropy. Since it covers nearly equal numbers of "-" and "+" data points, its usefulness in prediction is limited.
By definition, a rule with a skewed probability distribution in its right hand side (i.e., its set of possible outcomes) has a low entropy. Thus, rule r.sub.1 in the following example, with a skewed probability distribution, has a much lower entropy than rule r.sub.2 : EQU r.sub.1 : e.sub.4 -e.sub.2 .fwdarw. (e.sub.3 =95%; e.sub.4 =2%; e.sub.5 =3%) EQU r.sub.2 : e.sub.6 =e.sub.7 .fwdarw. (e.sub.8 =30%; e.sub.9 =30%; e.sub.10 =40%)
Theoretically, the lowering of entropy amounts to the gaining of information, because from a set of possible outcomes having a low entropy, one can learn that one outcome is more likely. Thus, the whole process of incremental inductive learning can be viewed as an attempt to extract as much information as possible from the seemingly random data.
FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of a system for incremental inductive learning. Newly occurring events are input to an inductive learning engine 10. The inductive learning engine is embodied in a computer program operating on a digital computer. The rule base 12 contains symbolic rules of the form such as in the examples above and is stored in the memory of the digital computer. The inductive leaning engine maintains and dynamically modifies the rules in the rule base in response to the new events.
The inductive learning engine may also use certain background knowledge 14 applicable to the particular domain to evaluate and modify the rules in the rule base. The background knowledge may contain, for example, constructive induction rules that generate new attributes not present in the initial data. Background knowledge may also include models of the domain, which may aid the inductive learning engine in generating plausible hypotheses.
As inductive learning engine of the type shown in FIG. 2 is described in K. Chen, "An Inductive Engine for the Acquisition of Temporal Knowledge," Doctoral Thesis, Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois (1988), which is hereby incorporated by reference.
One of the functions performed by the inductive learning engine is determining which rules in the rule base 12 are affected by the new events and also have the greatest possibility of being further improved by the new events. This is known as "rule invocation."
Previously, it has been proposed to invoke all of the rules in the rule base to determine which rules best characterize the sequence of events including the new events. For a large rule base, however, exhaustive rule invocation is impractical, especially for real-time applications. Rule invocation involves pattern-matching between rules and events which is an expensive process in terms of computer resources.
Alternatively, a subset of the rules in the rule base may be invoked based on predetermined criteria, such as, for example, selecting only a certain number of the "best" rules in terms of quality. Even this technique has disadvantages, however, because the expensive rule-to-event pattern-matching must still be performed for all of the rules in the subset. In order to maintain the quality of the rule base, the number of rules in the subset must generally be sufficiently large that real-time processing is still difficult or impossible.

Rule invocation mechanism for inductive learning engine


Systems and methods are disclosed for supporting multi-point transmission. In one embodiment, a system for downlink multi-point transmission are disclosed, comprising: a first base station in radio frequency proximity to a user device and with a established control connection with the user device; a second base station also in radio frequency proximity to the user device; and a coordinating node coupled to the first and the second base station for coordinating transmissions to the first and the second base station to the user device, the coordinating node configured to: select the second base station based on selection criteria, the selection criteria including latency of each base station and perceived signal strength of each base station at the user device; and send scheduling instructions to each of the first and the second base stations to transmit data to the user device.

Wireless networks, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks that use eNodeB base stations, provide wireless access to user devices. In a typical scenario, a user device that is close to a base station gets stronger signal and consequently better service with lower latency and/or higher data rates, while a user device that is far from a base station gets weaker signal and worse service. The user device that is further away from the base station is sometimes referred to as a cell edge user device. When a user device is farther from a base station, that user device is also more likely to be closer to other base stations, and thus susceptible to interference from the other base stations, further reducing quality of service. Techniques variously described as coordinated multi-point transmission (CoMP) are currently being developed to provide better service to devices at the cell edge.
If a wireless terminal, such as a user equipment (UE), is connected to two or more eNodeBs or other base stations at the same time, both eNodeBs may be used to transmit or receive from the wireless terminal at the same time. This is called coordinated multi-point transmission (CoMP).

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Low-latency inter-eNodeB coordinated multi-point transmission


A purification method of carbon fluorides by removing non-bonding fluorine from carbon fluorides. The removing treatment is carried out by contacting gases with the non-bonding fluorine. Such gases are HCl, SO.sub.2, NO.sub.2, H.sub.2, steam and a mixed gas thereof.

The present invention relates to a method for purifying carbon fluorides, particularly to a method for removing a non-bonding fluorine which are remaining in carbon fluorides or regulating an amount thereof.
Hitherto, carbon fluorides are widely used as active materials for batteries by utilizing their electrochemical properties, or as solid lubricants by utilizing their excellent lubricity, or also as water and oil repellents. The carbon fluorides are prepared by reacting carbon materials such as natural or artificial graphites with fluorine gas. It is known that the carbon fluorides can have two chemical structures, i.e. (CF).sub.n and (C.sub.2 F).sub.n, depending with starting materials or preparation conditions. Also, it is known that unreacted fluorine which does not bond to a carbon atom is present in the resulting carbon fluorides and, that the unreacted fluorine gives various affects.
For example, when carbon fluorides containing a large amount of this non-bonding fluoride are used as active materials for batteries, the non-bonding fluorine causes a Li surface of collector to corrode and increases an internal resistance, which results in lowering of battery characteristics. In addition, an initial discharge voltage sometimes rises to which is a high voltage, e.g. 7.0 V, to give damage to IC circuits and the like.
Accordingly, it is said that the non-bonding fluorine in carbon fluorides should be removed therefrom. As used for active materials for batteries, however, too small amount of the non-bonding fluorine is not desirable, because a discharge voltage, particularly an initial discharge voltage becomes lowered. Therefore, a purification method by which an amount of the non-bonding fluorine in carbon fluorides can be controlled is desired, but prior purification methods are not necessarily satisfactory.
For example, Japanese Tokkyo Kokoku No. 36790/1981 discloses a treating method with mixed solutions of alcohols and strong acids or strong alkalis. The treating method has problems that strong reagents such as strong acids or strong alkalis are used, that post steps such as water linsing, filtration and drying are required after the treatment, and that an amount of the remaining non-bonding fluorine is difficult to control.
Japanese Tokkyo Kokoku No. 13930/1988 discloses a treating method with ammonia gas. The method, however, has a high danger due to the use of combustible ammonia gas. Moreover, NH.sub.4 F produced by the reaction happens to be contained in the treated carbon fluorides as a contaminant. In order to remove NH.sub.4 F, a post treatment in which NH.sub.4 F is sublimated is required. As mentioned above, this method has problems to be improved.
The present invention relates to a safe and easy purification method by which a delicate control can be achieved.


An unmanned aerial vehicle includes a fuselage, a power device connected to the fuselage, and a control device disposed at the fuselage and electrically connected with the power device. The control device is configured to control the power device to switch an operating mode of the power device to cause the unmanned aerial vehicle to fly in air or navigate on a water surface.

A pilotless aircraft is called "unmanned aerial vehicle", and is an unmanned aircraft manipulated by using a radio remote control apparatus and a self-contained program control device. Amphibian unmanned aerial vehicles are usually mainly used in aerial flight, and can perform a short navigation in the water when executing a task over water areas such as a sea surface. However, the existing unmanned aerial vehicles can only be used as flight toys. They can neither navigate on water, nor achieve an amphibian function either. Therefore, the pleasure from using the existing unmanned aerial vehicles is limited.

Unmanned aerial vehicle, control system and method thereof, and unmanned aerial vehicle landing control method


A rear suspension cross member mounting structure includes a rear floor side member with a 4WD rear cross member mounting hole and a 2WD rear cross member mounting hole, and a reinforcement bracket with a slot corresponding to both the 4WD rear cross member mounting hole and the 2WD rear cross member mounting hole. The structure may further include a bolt, passing through the reinforcement bracket and the rear floor side member to attach the rear cross member to the structure. The bolt may pass sequentially through the reinforcement bracket, the rear floor side member, and the rear cross member, and then engage with a nut provided below the rear cross member.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mounting structure of a rear suspension cross member of a vehicle.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Typically, one rear floor side member is attached to each side a rear floor panel of a vehicle body. In order to improve strength of the vehicle body and to enable mounting of a rear suspension, a rear suspension cross member is attached to the left and right rear floor side members.
For several vehicle models, both two wheel drive (2WD) and four wheel drive (4WD) versions are manufactured. In this case, different types of rear suspension cross members should be applied to the same vehicle body type depending on the type of drive train.
For a 4WD vehicle, two rear suspension cross members are employed with wide spacing therebetween. A pipe nut is applied to a rear floor panel of the rear suspension side member. Each 4WD rear suspension cross member is attached to the rear floor side member by a bolt that penetrates the cross member from its bottom and is engaged with the pipe nut.
For a 2WD vehicle, a single rear suspension cross member is employed. In this case also, a pipe nut is applied to the rear floor panel of the rear suspension side member. The 2WD rear suspension cross member is attached to the rear floor side member by two bolts that penetrate the cross member from its bottom and are engaged with the pipe nut.
In order to manufacture both 2WD and 4WD vehicles with a single vehicle body structure (i.e. to utilize the same rear suspension side member for either case), four bolt holes are provided on the rear suspension side member.
The cross-sectional shape of the rear suspension side member varies along its length. Therefore, the pipe nut is produced in as many as four different shapes so as to correspond to the four different positions of the bolt holes.
This means that an excessive number of parts are employed in order to manufacture both 2WD and 4WD vehicles with the same vehicle body structure.
Therefore, if a rear suspension cross member mounting structure can be improved such that the number of parts may be reduced while the manufacturing of both the 2WD and 4WD vehicles becomes easier, simplification of the assembly process and reduction of manufacturing cost can be achieved. Also, this may reduce human errors in the assembly process, e.g., assembling a 4WD part to a 2WD vehicle.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Mounting structure of a rear suspension cross member of a vehicle


A mixing valve has a cylindrical body member with inlet and outlet passages in spaced relation to one another. A control stem is movably positioned within the body member which defines a mixing chamber. A split expandable sleeve in the chamber is movable by the control stem to provide for regulation of outlet fluid temperature through mixing. Overall volume control is achieved by longitudinal movement of the control stem and dual valving action.

(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to fluid control devices of the type utilizing a single control means for both fluid volume and mixing as normally found in valves of this type.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Prior structures of this type have utilized a variety of control means. See for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,016,382; 2,975,806; 3,282,295 and 3,726,317.
In U.S. Pat. No. 1,016,382 a rotatable plug having a pair of slots engaged with a pair of ports within an outside body member to control volume and temperature of a fluid is shown.
Applicant's device has a split cylindrical mixing sleeve and a separate volume flow control.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,975,806 discloses a valve having a tubular valve element and stem with a series of O-ring gaskets for sealing the same.
Applicant's invention has a split cylindrical sleeve that acts as a compression seal as well as a mixing device.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,282,295 a mixing valve is shown having O-rings to form a seal around a split cylinder acting as a mixing means.
Applicant discloses a control stem and split cylindrical sleeve having walls of varying thicknesses to assure a seal with the cylindrical body member, without the need of O-ring seals around the inlet and outlet ports.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,726,317 shows a bottom outlet grommit mixing valve with an apertured control stem and a number of O-rings to assure a fluid seal between the inlets and control valve stem.
Applicant's invention utilizes a split cylindrical sleeve of a flexible nature and movable control stem for a fluid tight seal around the inlet and dual control flow by longitudinal movement of the control stem.


This invention relates to a method of controlling a water-based, acrylic, artists' paint composition comprising an alkali and alcohol soluble polymer and a substituted amine using an alcohol solution.

Many artists use acrylic paints which air dry as water leaves the paint. As water evaporates or is absorbed by the substrate to which the paint is applied, acrylic polymer particles coalesce into a continuous adhesive film. Within a relatively short period of time, approximately 10 to 15 minutes, a skin forms over the outer surface of the paint film. At this stage the paint film is said to be "dry to the touch". The thicker films continue to dry over time, the length of time varying with the thickness of the film. For very thin films this may be a few minutes while films half a centimetre in thickness or more may take quite some time longer.
Once the acrylic particles coalesce, the film can no longer be worked. The artist is not able to change and adapt what is taking place on the canvas using traditional techniques. Although the dry film could be painted over, the "wet in wet" painting techniques are severely curtailed. The term "wet in wet" is used by persons skilled in the art to refer to painting techniques by which the artist creatively works and develops the wet paint on the substrate, adding, blending and altering the appearance over time to achieve the desired artistic result.
Temperature, humidity and air flow are environmental factors that influence the drying times of acrylic paint compositions. The time taken for a paint film to skin over can be extended somewhat by reducing air-flow, lowering temperature and increasing humidity. Manipulating such environmental factors may not always be possible or practical. Low temperatures (below about 9° C.) may interfere with coalescence of the polymer particles resulting in paint film cracking, becoming powdery or failing to adhere to the substrate. Optimum humidity may be difficult to determine and maintain.
The nature of the substrate also influences the drying time of acrylic paint compositions. An absorbent substrate will draw moisture out of the paint composition and speed drying time. Sealing the substrate to reduce absorbency or selecting a non-absorbent substrate such as metal or masonite will reduce the moisture lost through the substrate. Using a moist substrate can also reduce moisture lost through the substrate and increase humidity in the environment of the paint. By soaking the back of a canvas with water or attaching wet rags or sponges to the back of a canvas, for example, the rate of drying of the paint film can be reduced. This technique has limitations and the water may also wash impurities out of the canvas into the paint film causing discoloration.
Humectants, such as glycerin or propylene glycol may be used as paint additives to extend the time taken for a paint film to skin over. As paint additives however, humectants tend to linger in the paint film. They can remain tacky and adversely affect outer coat adhesion. Most importantly they do not prevent fast drying of thin films of paint.
The present inventor has previously found that a water based, acrylic, air dried, artists' paint composition with improved "open time" properties can be obtained by including an alkali soluble polymer and specific substituted amines into a conventional acrylic artists paint composition. The "open time" of the resulting composition could be extended provided the artist continually applied water to the paint composition. The extended "open time" provided the artist with a longer time to use the "wet in wet" painting technique. This is described in WO 2007/009161, the contents of which are incorporated herein.
However, the artist loses the opportunity to paint "wet in wet" once the paint composition has dried. The need for the artist to be vigilant in observing the wetness of the paint composition and continuously apply water to the paint composition while working "wet in wet" is time consuming, inhibitive to the artists creativity and clumsy. Further, this technique is not useful for an artist painting on a large scale where sections of the painting dry earlier than others as the artist is required to be watchful of the wetness of the paint composition over a number of different areas of the painting at any one time over a very large area. Accordingly, the inventor has recognised the need for an improvement in accessing, extending and/or controlling the "open-time" of an artists paint composition.
Any discussion of documents, acts, materials, devices, articles or the like which has been included in the present specification is not to be taken as an admission that any or all of these matters form part of the prior art base or were common general knowledge in the field relevant to the present invention as it existed before the priority date of each claim of this application.

Method of controlling a paint composition


An improved actuator assembly including an eccentric leadscrew actuator assembly with a housing having a stator and a plurality of coils is provided. A rotor is arranged radially inwardly from the stator and includes a first threading on a radially inner surface. A shaft is arranged in a fixed axial position and radially inwardly from the rotor, and includes a second threading on a radially outer surface that engages the first threading of the rotor. A bearing assembly is fixed to the rotor, and the bearing assembly supports an eccentric ring connected to the rotor. The rotor rotates eccentrically around the shaft based on energization of the plurality of coils of the stator. The rotor is axially displaceable by rotation thereof via rolling engagement of the first threading of the rotor and the second threading of the shaft along an axially extending tangent line.

Leadscrew actuators are used in a variety of applications where a load is required to be selectively displaced in a linear manner, including clutch actuator assemblies. One type of known actuator assembly includes a stator arranged within a housing and a rotor arranged concentrically between the stator and a threaded shaft or screw. The stator includes a plurality of coils that are energized to cause the rotational motion of the rotor. The rotor includes threading that mates with the threaded shaft or screw, and the rotor travels axially along the threaded shaft or screw to engage an actuation element, such as a clutch assembly actuator flange. There is an increased demand to minimize the space requirements for actuator assemblies and reduce production costs while simultaneously increasing performance, i.e. providing a higher efficiency and drive ratio. One known type of actuator assembly includes a planetary gear and ball screw. These known types of actuator assemblies provide improved performance but are expensive due to their complex transmission ratio components.
It would be desirable to provide an actuator assembly including a configuration that provides a high efficiency and includes a simplified construction that minimizes costs.


The present invention describes thin film transistors in which the active channel layer is a thin film of a polycyclic aromatic compound, such as, pentacene, prepared by solution processing a soluble precursor of the polycyclic aromatic compound on a substrate followed by heating to a moderate temperature to convert the precursor back to the polycyclic aromatic compound. The soluble precursors of the polycyclic aromatic compounds are organic solvent-soluble Diels-Alder adducts of polycyclic aromatic compounds, such as, oligothiophene, perylene, benzo[ghi]perylene, coronene and a polyacene with a variety of dienophiles that contain at least one heteroatom. The Diels-Alder adducts can be converted back to pentacene by retro-Diels-Alder reaction at moderate (60-250° C.) temperatures both in bulk, in solution or as thin-films.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to the application of a solution processed polycyclic aromatic compound precursors as an organic semiconducting material in thin film transistors. More particularly, present invention relates to a pentacene precursor that is a hetro Diels-Alder adduct of pentacene with heterodienophiles having at least one heteroatom selected from N, O, or sulfur. These adducts are highly soluble in common organic solvents and can be easily converted back to pentacene in solid state by heating at moderate temperatures.
2. Background of the Invention
Thin-film transistors (TFT) and other electronic devices using organic semiconductors are emerging as alternatives to established methods using amorphous silicon (α-Si:H) as the semiconductor.
Amorphous silicon (α-Si:H) is typically used in thin film field-effect transistors in many applications including liquid crystal displays. In the past decade significant efforts have been directed towards development of organic semiconductors to replace amophous silicon in low-end applications. The organic materials provide the ability to produce these devices bypassing the expensive steps associated with silicon processing.
Other advantages of organic semiconductors include low temperature processing combined with ease of deposition of thin films of these materials over large areas. These processing characteristics enable the fabrication of organic thin film transistors (OTFT) on plastic substrates, which offer light weight, mechanical flexibility and ruggedness.
A variety of organic materials have been designed, synthesized and characterized as p-type semiconductors (majority carriers are holes). Organic thin film transistor (TFT) devices have been made using such materials. Among them, thiophene oligomers have been proposed as semiconducting materials in Garnier et al., "Structural basis for high carrier mobility in conjugated oligomers" Synth. Met., Vol., 45, p. 163 (1991). Benzodithiophene dimers are proposed as organic semiconductor materials in Liquindanum, J. et al., "Benzodithiophene rings as semiconducting building blocks" Adv. Mat., Vol. 9, p. 36 (1997).
Pentacene, which is a member of polyacene, is one of the most widely studied organic semiconductor and is proposed as semiconducting material for TFT devices in Dimitrakopoulos et al., "Molecular Beam Deposited Thin film of Pentacene for Organic Field-effect Transistor Applications," J. Appl. Phys., 1996, 80, pages 2501-2508, Jackson et al., "Pentacene Organic Thin-film Transistors for Circuit and Display Applications", IEEE Trans. Electron Devices 1999, 46, pages 1259-1263, Dimitrakopoulos et al., "Fabrication of Thin Film Field Effect Transistor Comprsing an Organic Semiconductor and Chemical Solution Deposited Metal Oxide Gate Dielectric," U.S. Pat. No. 5,946,551 and Dimitrakopoulos et al., "Low Temperature Thin Film Transistor Fabrication," U.S. Pat. No. 6,207,472 B1.
Pentacene has shown the highest field effect mobility (greater than 1 cm2 V−1 sec−1) and high on/off ratio (greater than 107) among organic semiconductors. The fact that the mobility is comparable, to amorphous silicon (α-Si:H) indicates that pentacene may be applied in large-area microelectronic applications such as TFT backplanes for active matrix displays and low end and low cost integrated circuits. However, for an organic semiconductor technology to be a viable low cost alternative to amorphous silicon, it must be soluble in organic solvents to be suitable for application on large areas by inexpensive methods, such as, stamping, screen printing and spin-coating.
Pentacene is virtually insoluble in organic solvents. Presently, pentacene thin films are deposited by costly high vacuum techniques for application in TFT and other electronic devices. Although there has been one example in the literature to form pentacene films through a soluble precursor of pentacene (see Muellen et al., "A soluble pentacene precursor: Synthesis, solid state conversion to pentacene and application in a field-effect transistor," Adv. Mat., Vol. 11, 1999, pages 480-483), the lengthy synthetic approach to the pentacene precursor with very low overall yield makes that approach impractical and commercially unattractive.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to prepare thin films of a polycyclic aromatic compound, such as, pentacene, by solid state conversion of thin films of an organic solvent soluble precursor thereof to the polycyclic aromatic compound.
It is another object of the present invention to prepare thin films of an organic solvent soluble precursor of a polycyclic aromatic compound by applying a solution of the precursor in an organic solvent onto a substrate and thereafter removing the solvent.
It is still another object of the present invention to use soluble precursors of a polycyclic aromatic compound, which is a Diels-Alder adduct of the polycyclic aromatic compound with a hetero dienophile, such as, dialkyl azodicarboxylate, acyl nitroso compound, N-sulfinyl amide, thioxocarboxylate and malonate.
It is yet another object of the present invention to use a thin film of a polycyclic aromatic compound, such as, pentacene, in a thin film transistor in which the polycyclic aromatic compound film acts as a p-type semiconductor channel.
It is further another object of the present invention to provide films of a polycyclic aromatic compound, such as, pentacene, for the fabrication of TFT devices that are prepared by a low to moderate temperature conversion of a precursor thereof to the polycyclic aromatic compound at about 80° C. to about 250° C. in a retro-Diels-Alder reaction.
None of the above references describes precursors of polycyclic aromatic compounds that are: (1) Diels-Alder adducts of a polycyclic aromatic compound, such as, pentacene, with a dienophile; (2) highly soluble in common organic solvents; and (3) used to prepare a thin film transistor in which the polycyclic aromatic compound film acts as a p-type semiconductor channel.
The present invention provides highly soluble precursors of polycyclic aromatic compounds, such as, pentacene, which are synthesized in one step via the Diels-Alder reaction of polycyclic aromatic compound with a variety of dienophiles having at least one heteroatom in the dienophile moiety and are used in the fabrication of TFT devices.

Thin film transistors using solution processed pentacene precursor as organic semiconductor

International Business Machines Corporation


An automatic transfer switch (ATS) system and method of operating an ATS system to switch between first and second powers received from respective first and second power supplies, are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes sensing a first phase associated with the first power and a second phase associated with the second power, and determining whether the first and second phases have failed to become synchronized within a first time period. The method further includes providing a control signal at a second output port when it is determined that the first and second phases have failed to become synchronized within the time period, determining that the first and second phases have become synchronized in response to the control signal, and switching between the first and second powers once it is determined that the first and second phases have become synchronized.

Automatic Transfer Switch (ATS) systems are widely used to control the delivery of power from two different power sources to a load in a variety of situations, both commercial and residential. For example, a private residence normally receives its electrical power from a utility company. For various reasons, however (e.g., location in a region prone to severe weather), the homeowner can desire a backup source of electrical power, so that comfort or at least habitability of the residence can be maintained during periods in which utility power is unavailable.
Typically, a gasoline, diesel, propane or natural gas internal combustion engine-powered electrical generator, capable of generating three-phase power, is installed in or near the residence, and arranged to be connected to one or more of the electrical circuits in the residence in order to provide the desired backup power. However, one cannot simply leave the backup generator permanently connected, in parallel with the utility power, to the residential electrical circuits. Nor can one simply power up a backup generator and connect it to the residential electrical circuits, without first disconnecting the residential circuits from the power lines coming in from the utility.
To effect the proper switching of the residential electrical circuits or other load from the utility to the backup generator (and eventually back again to the utility), transfer switch systems can be employed. While manual transfer switch systems are available, ATS systems have become popular insofar as an ATS system is able to automatically switch from one power source (e.g., the utility) to another power source (e.g., the backup generator) whenever the system detects that the one power source is not properly providing power, without the intervention of a human operator.
In order for an ATS system to switch between providing power to a load from one AC power source and providing power to the load from a second AC power source, the two AC power sources must be in phase. Conventional ATS systems rely upon the fact that a generator almost never has exactly the same frequency of operation as the utility (which is exactly at 60 Hz). Consequently, it is almost always the case that, if the ATS system waits for a short period of time, the power signals of the two power sources will come into phase with one another for an instant, at which the ATS system can switch between the two power sources.
However, modern generators increasingly operate at frequencies that are almost identical to the exact (60 Hz) frequency of the utilities. Consequently, it may no longer be practical for an ATS system to wait until the generator power signal happens to come into phase with the utility power signal, since this may take an excessively long time. Consequently, conventional ATS systems employed in conjunction with such modern generators may be incapable of providing desired switching between such generators and other power sources in a satisfactory manner.
Therefore it would be advantageous if a new ATS system could be developed that allowed for proper switching between a modern generator and another power source such as a utility in a reasonable amount of time, despite the ability of the modern generator to operate at a frequency nearly identical to that of the utility. It would additionally be advantageous if such a new ATS system was not significantly more complicated in its design than conventional ATS systems and was not significantly more expensive to built or implement than conventional ATS systems.

Automatic transfer switch system with synchronization control


A device for centrically charging tanks (9) with a spin chamber (1, 10) connected to an inlet (20) and to a vertical downpipe (2, 12) ending seamlessly in a trumpet-shaped mouth (3, 18). Rotary flow charges circular settlement tanks and sand sorters and sedimentation tanks in such a way that the Coanda effect is activated at the trumpet-shaped mouth (3, 18) and in turn causes the rotary outflow of fluid from the vertical pipe (2, 12) to be diverted into the horizontal plane or vertically upwards as well as a radially symmetrical flow in the tank (9). There is a guiding pipe (14, 16) in the downpipe (2, 12) with preferably circular apertures around its periphery and which is open to the atmosphere at the top.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device for the central feeding of tanks such as circular grit traps, grit classifiers or settling tanks of circular construction.
The subject of the invention is also a process for feeding such circular grit traps and grit classifiers and settling tanks of circular construction. Finally, the subject of the invention is also the use of the process and of the device for feeding circular grit traps and grit classifiers and settling tanks of round construction in sewage treatment plants.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For reasons of operational reliability, it is usually necessary, in the case of many waste-water and sludge treatment units of the sewage treatment plant, to separate the grits and other mineral substances, which have been entrained in the waste water, from the putrescible, organic substances. The conventional devices for degritting the waste water are, depending on construction type and operation, designated as deep, shallow, circular and aerated grit traps. In the case of the prior-art circular grit traps and grit classifiers of circular construction, the waste water is fed tangentially to a circular hopper-bottomed tank. After flowing through a centering angle of over 180.degree., the waste water passes into the outflow. The great disadvantage with conventional circular grit traps and grit classifiers of circular construction, however, is that, owing to the tangential introduction, the tank volume (region through which flow occurs effectively) provided is not utilized to the optimum degree and the hydraulic efficiency thereof is thus only approximately 50%.
The operating principle of conventional circular grit traps is based on the fact that, in curves, the bed load moves inside the curve. The forced circular motion causes, owing to the centrifugal force in the circular grit trap, a rise in the water level from the rotational axis outwards. Under the influence of the superatmospheric pressure in the edge zone, a circular motion, which is directed towards the center at the bottom, is thus superimposed in the throughflow. This results in a helical flow through the tank. Owing to the radial transverse flow, which is particularly strong at the bottom as a result of the reduced tangential velocity of the waste water there, the grit which has sunk to the bottom is conveyed into the hopper-shaped collecting chamber, in the axis of which there is arranged at least one cylindrical pump pit with mammoth pumps.

Device for the central feeding of tanks such as circular grit traps, grit classifiers or settling tanks of circular construction


Through-holes 14 are formed in an armature core 11, and engaging portions 21 are formed in an commutator unit 15 at positions corresponding to the through-holes 14. Positioning pins 23 are inserted into the through-holes 14 and the engaging portion 21 to exactly position the armature core 11 to the commutator unit 15. The coil terminals are soldered to risers 18 in a state that the under side of the risers 18 are supported by the tips 35 of legs 36 standing erect on a support tool 34, inserted through the open slots 33.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rotor used for a small motor, and more particularly to a method for assembling a rotor in a DC motor with a brush, which has a 4-6 (four magnet poles and six salient poles of the armature core) structure.
2. Related Art
Referring to FIG. 8, there is illustrated a rotor 100 of a small motor with a brush which has a 2-3 (2 magnetic poles -3 salient poles) structure. In the rotor 100, an commutator unit 120 is provided with a armature core 101 and three commutator pieces 103 separated by slits 104. The armature core 101 has three salient poles 102 radially extended therefrom. Coils (not shown) of different phases are wound around the salient poles 102. The commutator unit 120 is tightly coupled to a shaft 107. In this type of the motor, an exactness of the timing of switching the current feeding to the coils of the phases depends largely on an accuracy of the alignment of the center line P1 of each salient pole 102 with the center line of the corresponding slit 104. Therefore, a misalignment of those center lines degrades the switching timing exactness, and causes cogging and an increase of torque ripple.
In a conventional measure taken for securing an exact alignment of the center lines, positioning protrusions 106 formed on an commutator holder 105 are fit into recesses 109 formed near a shaft hole 108 of the armature core 101.
In the DC motor of the 2-3 structure, the conventional measure secure secures an alignment accuracy to some degree. However, the following problem is inevitably created. The recesses 109 are excessively close to the center of the shaft hole 108. As seen from FIG. 9 showing the positioning protrusions 106 of the commutator holder 105 and the recesses 109 of the shaft hole 108, minute dimensional errors arising from dimensional inaccuracy of each part and of the part-to-part are enlarged in the radial direction. Therefore, it is impossible to expect the alignment accuracy as designed, in practical use.
In the DC motor of the 4-6 structure or higher grade structure (the number of salient poles is larger), the slits 104 and the commutator pieces 103 are increased in number. Therefore, an angle of each curved commutator piece 103 is halved, and as a result, the contact area of each commutator piece 103 with the commutator holder 105 is reduced. As a result, the commutator pieces 103 is easily tiltable, and more strict requirements are put on the assembling accuracy of the commutator unit 120 and position accuracy of the salient poles 102 of the armature core 101 to the commutator unit 120. In the DC motor of the 2-3 structure, a tolerable alignment (deviation angle) of the center line P1 of the salient pole 102 to the center line P2 of the slit 104 is 3.degree. or smaller. In the DC motor of the 4-6 structure, it is 1.5.degree. or smaller. Therefore, some adjustment is essential in manufacturing stage.
The terminals of the coils 110 wound on the salient poles 102 of the armature core 101 are connected to the armature risers 111, and soldering is applied thereto by a soldering iron. In the soldering process, pressing force and heat by and from the soldering iron possibly deform (denoted as H) of the risers 111 and the commutator holder 105, and degrade the roundness of the commutator pieces 103. When the DC motor of the 2-3 structure is compared with the DC motor of the 4-6 structure, a larger number of solderings must be applied to the risers 111 in the latter motor, and much heat stays there since the soldering points are more densely located. The thermal deformation H is more intensive.

Kabushiki Kaisha Sankyo Seiki Seisakusho


A storage portion includes a first support portion and a second support portion that support a container. The storage portion is configured to change between a first state and a second state due to the second support portion being raised or lowered. An inert gas supply apparatus includes a connection portion at a height at which the connection portion is connected to the container in the first state and the connection portion is located away from and below the container in the second state. A transport moving body includes a third support portion supporting the container and a protrusion/retraction driving portion that causes the third support portion to protrude and retract. The third support portion is inserted into a transfer space when moved so as to protrude or retract by the protrusion/retraction driving portion. Movement path of the third support portion overlaps with the connection portion in a vertical direction view.

An example of the above-described container transport facility is disclosed in JP 2012-044033A (Patent Document 1). With the container transport facility disclosed in Patent Document 1, a storage portion that stores a container is included on the lateral side of a movement route on which the transport moving body moves, and the inert gas supply apparatus supplies the inert gas to the container stored in the storage portion. Thus, with the container transport facility disclosed in Patent Document 1, by including the inert gas supply apparatus, the inert gas can be supplied to the interior of the container using the period of storing the container in the storage portion.
To give additional description, the transport moving body includes a transport support portion by which the upper portion of the container is supported in a hanging manner, and an elevation driving portion that raises and lowers the transport support portion. The storage portion includes a storage support portion that supports the lower surface portion of the container from below, and a slide driving portion that causes the storage support portion to move in a sliding manner in the horizontal direction.
Also, the storage support portion supports the connection portion of the inert gas supply apparatus, and the bottom surface portion of the container includes a connected portion. In the state in which the bottom surface portion of the container is supported from below by the storage support portion, the connection portion of the inert gas supply apparatus is connected to the connected portion of the container, and thus the inert gas can be supplied to the interior of the container.
Also, in the state in which the transport moving body is stopped at a transport stopping position set on the lateral side of the storage portion, the storage portion causes the storage support portion to protrude using the slide driving portion, whereafter the transport moving body raises and lowers the transport support portion using the elevation driving portion, and thereafter the storage portion retracts the storage support portion using the slide driving portion so as to store the container in the storage portion or take the container from the storage portion.


A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes forming a field stop zone by irradiating a portion of a semiconductor body with a laser beam through a first surface of the semiconductor body. The portion has an oxygen concentration in a range of 5×1016 cm−3 and 5×1017 cm−3. Then the semiconductor body is irradiated with protons through the first surface and annealed in a temperature range of 300° C. to 550° C.

In semiconductor devices such as semiconductor diodes, insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) or insulated gate field effect transistors (IGFETs) a low doping concentration of a base material such as a wafer before front end of line (FEOL) processing serves for realizing a DC voltage blocking requirement of the semiconductor device. A low doping concentration of the base material has the effect that the space charge zone propagates very far, which has to be compensated for by means of an increase in chip thickness of the semiconductor device if the intention is to ensure that the space charge zone does not reach a rear-side contact region.
In order to keep down the chip thicknesses, it has been proposed to introduce a field stop zone, that is to say a zone of increased doping with respect to the doping of the base material, in the semiconductor volume of the semiconductor device, which zone may be configured in stepped fashion, for example. The field stop zone allows for absorption of voltage or decrease of the electric field strength over a lateral distance that is smaller compared to the base material.
When manufacturing a field stop zone, a trade-off between a variety of characteristics such as low device leakage currents, cost-effectiveness and process compatibility with respect to temperature budget requirements.
It is desirable to provide an improved method of manufacturing a semiconductor device comprising a field stop zone.

Method of manufacturing a semiconductor device comprising field stop zone


A system is provided for mounting a connecting device to a substrate. A connector housing is located at one side of the substrate, and a threaded fastening nut is engaged on the housing. A threaded fastener is engaged with the opposite side of the substrate and extends therethrough for tightening the nut toward the substrate in response to rotating the fastener. An assembly tool holds the fastening nut against rotation as the fastener is rotated. The tool includes a first portion for engaging at least a part of the housing to properly position the tool. A second portion of the tool engages the fastening nut to prevent rotation thereof. The second portion of the tool is aligned with the fastening nut automatically in response to engaging the first portion with the housing.

Fiber optic connectors of a wide variety of designs have been employed to terminate optical cables and to facilitate connection of the cables to other cables or other optical fiber transmission devices. A typical fiber optic connector includes a ferrule which mounts and centers an optical fiber or fibers within the connector. The ferrule may be fabricated of such material as ceramic. A ferrule holder or other housing component of the connector embraces the ferrule and may be fabricated of such material as molded plastic. A spring may be disposed within the housing or ferrule holder such that the ferrule is yieldably biased forwardly for engaging another fiber-mounting ferrule of a mating connection device.
A pair of fiber optic connectors or a connector and another optical fiber transmission device often are mated in an adapter which centers the fibers to provide low insertion losses. The adapter couples the connectors together so that their encapsulated fibers connect end-to-end. The adapter may be an in-line component, or the adapter can be designed for mounting in an opening in a panel, backplane, circuit board or other substrate.
Various problems continue to be encountered in designing fiber optic connector assemblies or other connector assemblies, including applications involving backplanes, motherboards, daughterboards and like substrates, panels or the like. Such problems include properly mounting a connector assembly on a substrate. For instance, a connector assembly, an adapter or other connecting device may be mounted through an aperture from a back side of a substrate or panel. Screw-type fasteners are inserted through holes in the substrate from the front side thereof for engaging threaded fastening nuts on the back side of the substrate. Means must be provided to prevent rotation of the fastening nut as the fastening screws are tightened. However, with the screws being inserted through holes from a front side of the substrate, and the fastening nuts being located on a back side of the substrate, this is extremely difficult and even impossible in some applications, particularly in the field. The present invention is directed to solving these problems by a unique system and/or tool for facilitating mounting a connecting device to a substrate by means of rotatable or threaded fasteners.

System and tool for mounting a connecting device to a substrate


A projector comprises a light source device 413 in which a light source cooling air flow channel X for introducing a cooling air to an internal light source lamp 411 is formed and an internal housing 47 for housing an optical element unit 600, which subjects the light beam emitted from this light source device 413 to an optical processing. The internal housing 47 is formed with a pair of optical element cooling opening portions 471A, 472A, which are oppositely arranged by mutually pinching the optical element unit 600 in order to allow a cooling air to pass through according to the arrangement of the optical element unit 600. Further, the underside of the internal housing 47 is provided with a fan 54, in which a suction port 54A is directed to the opening portion 471A and an exhaust port 54B is connected to the light source cooling air flow channel X. Since an air flows along an arrow marked channel, the optical element unit 600 and the light source lamp 411 can be sufficiently cooled.

Hitherto, at conferences, academic conferences, exhibitions and the like, projectors have been in heavy usage.
As such projectors, for example, those constitutions and the like comprising an optical system, which modulates a light beam emitted from a light source and magnifies and projects it so as to form a projection image according to image information by using various optical parts, and an exterior case housing this optical system are known. Further, such an optical system is constituted by comprising an illumination optical system for subjecting the light beam emitted from a light source device including a light source lamp to an optical processing and an optical part housing for housing optical elements which constitute this illumination optical system.
In a polarizing conversion element which is one of such optical elements, the light beam emitted from the light source lamp is separated into two linear polarized lights of horizontal and vertical directions by a polarization beam splitter (PBS), and from among these polarized lights, the linear polarized light of the horizontal direction is converted into the linear polarized light of the vertical direction by a phase film. In this way, the light beam emitted from the light source device becomes the linear polarized light of a predetermined direction, thereby increasing a use efficiency of the light beam.
Such a polarizing conversion element is fabricated by gluing and connecting the polarization beam splitter and the phase film made of resin by an adhesive. For this reason, when an excessive heat is applied to the polarizing conversion element for a long period of time, the phase film made of resin is deformed or relative positions of the polarization beam splitter and the phase film are changed due to the hardening of the adhesive, thereby making it hard to perform a correct optical processing.
On the other hand, the light source device generates a high heat by emission of the light source lamp, and causes illumination optical elements such as the neighboring polarizing conversion element and the like to be heated. In view of these points, it becomes an important subject for study how effectively the polarizing conversion element and the light source device should be cooled.
Hence, to cool the optical system including the polarizing conversion element and the light source device, a cooling structure has been adopted, in which suction and exhaustion ports are formed in the exterior case which houses the optical system, and at the same time a fan is arranged in the interior thereof.
However, in the case of such a cooling structure, even though the whole optical system in the interior of the exterior case can be thoroughly cooled, there has been a problem in that the polarizing conversion element and the light source device which particularly require a cooling are not always sufficiently cooled.
Note that such a problem was not limited to the polarizing conversion element alone, but also occurred on other optical elements including a lens array and the like.
An object of the present invention is to provide a projector, which can sufficiently cool the optical elements and the light source device.


Method and apparatus for storing, retrieving, and processing customer-oriented data sets in which relatively large sets of customers and their transactions or the like may be quickly and efficiently analyzed. A multi-dimensional access structure is utilized in which each cell representing one dimension element or a combination of dimension elements may include a list of customers who have made purchases or other transactions associated with that cell. Each customer record in a list may summarize predetermined information pertaining to that customer's behavior in the cell. Such records may be sorted by customer number to enable efficient combining of multiple lists. In applications wherein the number of such cells is prohibitively large, only a portion of these cells may actually include materialized lists. Additionally, a user-specified subset of the cells may be efficiently populated from input data, and lists which are not materialized may be materialized on demand from other lists in an efficient manner.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for storing, retrieving, and processing customer behavior data, account information and the like from a multi-dimensional viewpoint.
Two types of systems for handling data representative of customers, accounts or the like may be utilized, that is, On-Line Analytic Processing ("OLAP") systems (both proprietary and relational database versions) and systems specifically designed for database marketing.
OLAP systems can be viewed as an extension of a spreadsheet paradigm in which a spreadsheet is a two-dimensional view of a data set. For example, product identification (ID) may be arranged on one axis, time on the other axis, and sales as the entry in the data cells. Multi-dimensional database systems may generalize such arrangement to allow more than two dimensions. For instance, in the previous example, in addition to product ID and time, geographical location may also be arranged as a third dimension.
There are a number of products which may present users with a multi-dimensional view of their data. Such products may fall into two groups or systems: those that actually store the data using multi-dimensional data structures (arrays and generalizations of arrays) and those that store the data in a relational database system. The former class of system may be referred to as "MOLAP" (for Multi-Dimensional OLAP), while the latter may be referred to as "ROLAP" (for Relational OLAP). Both systems may answer queries about the contents of cells in a logical multi-dimensional space, which is similar to asking for the contents of a given cell in a spreadsheet. Additionally, they may enable questions to be addressed regarding columns and rows by mathematical computation of columns and rows. For example, it may be desirous to obtain sales by product over all time periods, or sales of all products on a particular date. Further, in both systems, each cell may store a single number or a small set of numbers.
In these systems, the use of "hierarchies" for dimensions may be employed. As an example, consider the "time" dimension. In such dimension, days may be the lowest level in the hierarchy, followed by weeks as the second level of the hierarchy, followed by months as the third hierarchial level, and a fiscal year as the highest hierarchical level of the time dimension. As another example, consider geography. Here, stores may form the first hierarchical level, followed by districts, regions, and countries. Such use of hierarchies for dimensions may facilitate the ease of use of the system, as the data is organized in a logical, user-oriented manner. Additionally, such hierarchies may provide structural information to the system itself that can be used to answer queries efficiently. For example, if the sales of a given product by month are known, the sales of the product for a given year may be computed by summing the sales over the corresponding 12 months. Without the use of hierarchical information, it would be necessary to revert to the lowest level of detailed data to compute the sales for a year which, as is to be appreciated, may be considerably slower.
While the use of OLAP systems may be acceptable for certain types of applications (as, for example, in analyzing the financial performance of a business), they may not be acceptable for use with other applications such as those involving customer-oriented data sets. For example, in customer-oriented data sets, information pertaining to individual customers should be retained. If such individual customer information is omitted, it may be very difficult, if not impossible, to analyze the data set at a unit of individual customers. As a result, database marketing and other applications may not be effectively performed or may even be impossible to perform. To store individual customer information in current systems normally requires that "customer" is one of the dimensions. However, as is to be appreciated, for any reasonably sized data set, such "customer" dimension may be extremely large.
Multi-dimensional database systems typically assume that dimension sizes will be reasonable. As such, "extremely large" dimensions may present a serous problem. More specifically, in current multi-dimensional database systems, a dimension size of several tens or hundreds of elements may be typical, and a dimension with 10,000 elements may be considered very large. By contrast, the customer dimension of a medium sized retailer or financial institution can easily reach 10,000,000 or more elements. If one uses a multi-dimensional database system on such a data set, several problems may arise. First, since the techniques used for good performance in these multi-dimensional systems (heavy pre-summarization and sophisticated indexing) are not effective, the performance may degrade such that interactive use is very difficult or impossible. Second, the query paradigm may not fit with the analyst's goals. This mismatch arises because a standard way of displaying a multi-dimensional query result (a table or graph) may be of limited value when one of the axes has a million or more elements.
Due to the above-described limitations, current multi-dimensional database systems may handle customer-oriented data sets having a relatively large customer dimension in one of two techniques. In a first technique, individual customer information may be omitted, whereupon, such system is really a merchandise sales analysis tool rather than a customer analysis tool. In a second technique, the large number of customers (which may be 10,000,000+ customers) is statically segmented or arranged into a small number of groups, and all future analysis is based on those segments rather than on the individual customers comprising the segments. Thus, both of these techniques may lose or obliterate individual customer information which is a substantial portion of the economically critical information that true customer-centered data sets may contain. For this reason, a typical multi-dimensional database tool may not be effectively utilized for customer-oriented data processing.
Relational database systems, on the other hand, may store and process relatively large data sets. However, the models embodied in relational database systems are typically very simple and generic. For instance, all data may be represented in two-dimensional tables. Further, such models may be insufficient for many business intelligence applications. At best, a relational model of a relational database system may be used as a lower-level substrate upon which to build more sophisticated and useful model. (Relational multi-dimensional data analysis tools are examples.)
Therefore, neither relational database systems nor multi-dimensional OLAP tools may be effectively used for customer-oriented data analysis. In an attempt to handle such analysis, a special purpose system tailored explicitly to process a large list of records may be used. Such system may be used in database marketing applications. There is no multi-dimensional paradigm in these systems; typically the data is represented in a very primitive structure, usually a so-called flat-file or a flat file and a collection of so-called inverted files based upon that flat file. (A "flat-file" is a file of records without any extra structure imposed thereon. That is, a flat file may have no index structures to speed access to records within the file. On the other hand, an inverted file is an auxiliary file based off of a main file but sorted on another attribute. For example, consider a situation wherein a base file has customer ID, store ID, and purchase amount which are sorted in order of increasing customer ID number. In such situation, an associated inverted file may be defined and populated that again has customer ID, store ID, and purchase amount, but which are sorted by store ID. This inverted file may facilitate queries such as "find all purchases in store 27", since the records for purchases in store 27 will be co-located in the inverted file.)
Unlike multi-dimensional database systems, the above-mentioned special system may somewhat enable operations involving large detailed lists of customer behavior. However, these systems also have a number of serious defects or disadvantages.
One disadvantage is that, unlike multi-dimensional database systems, the model embodied by these special purpose or "list processing" systems may not be rich or complete enough to allow a large class of optimizations that improve performance, nor may it not be rich enough to facilitate a structured analysis of a data set. As such, a collection of ad-hoc queries and result sets may be provided, with no clear relationship among them, no opportunities for system-based optimal re-use of information, and no opportunities for judicious pre-computation as a run-time query accelerator. That is, in most if not all decision support applications, query-time performance may be improved by computing answers to common queries or sub-parts of sub-queries in advance or ahead of time. However, determining which pre-computed results may be used to assist in answering which queries may be difficult unless a formal structure to the system is provided which facilitates such process.
Another disadvantage is that these models or tools may not provide a multi-dimensional view of data and/or may not be integratable or usable with multi-dimensional data analysis tools which are becoming the choice for business data set analysis.

Method and apparatus for storing, retrieving, and processing multi-dimensional customer-oriented data sets


A pneumatic agricultural tire 20,200 for an industrial type tractor or like vehicle has a plurality of central lugs 50 and a plurality of shoulder lugs 40. The plurality of central lugs 50 are arranged in a circumferentially continuous row 60 and extend across the equatorial plane (EP). Each central lug 50 is similar in shape and orientation relative to each circumferentially adjacent central lug 50. Each central lug 50 has a leading end 51 and a trailing end 53. The leading ends 51 of each lug 50 is located on an opposite of the equatorial plane relative to the trailing end 53 of the same central lug 50. The plurality of shoulder lugs 40 are divided into first and second rows 44,46 and project radially outwardly from the inner tread 34 and extend from the lateral tread edges 33A,33B toward the equatorial plane of the tire 20,200. The shoulder lugs 40 have an axially inner end 41 being axially spaced from a leading end 51 and a trailing end 53 of the axially adjacent central lugs 53. The shoulder lugs 40 are similar in shape and have an overall lug length L.sub.L of greater than 30% of the tread width. The space between the axially inner end 41 of the shoulder lugs 40 and the ends 51,53 of the central lugs 50 create two distinct circumferentially continuous channels 70 within the tread 32. The invention has a tire 20 having a directional tread 32 and a tire 200 having a nondirectional tread 32.

Farm tire designs for industrial service are classified as R4 service. Overall R4 service is quite severe and typically involves high loads at a large degree of roading. The vehicles to which the tires are mounted typically are exposed to large amounts of debris, hard packed soil conditions and high load service conditions.
Often times the vehicle has a back hoe bucket or a front skid loader attached to the vehicle. The tires must traverse gravel and broken concrete and hard packed dirt normally. Occasionally the work site can get rain soaked requiring good traction in wet soil conditions.
These tires are generally relatively small and typically have a nominal rim diameter of 28" (71 cm) or less. They generally have a nonskid depth at the centerline of the tire at approximately 1" (2.54 cm). A typical tire may be a 19.5LR24 tire. This tire when produced in a radial construction will have a carcass with 3 to 4 plies of synthetic cord reinforcement. The cords generally are nylon or polyester. The carcass will further include four belts of high flex polyester, nylon or aramid. Historically, these tires have been all fabric reinforced in order to provide better ride and handling.
The most relevant prior art is Japanese Publication No. 57167802, the tire of this invention travels well on both good and soft roads. Its tread pattern consists of three regions with almost the same width. At the two side regions, lugs are arranged alternately on the tire circumference to form arrowhead pattern. They are at an acute angle to the tire equator. At the central region, independent long blocks are laid across the tire equator. Each block is placed on a line extended from the longitudinal centerline of one lug located on one of the side regions. The adjacent blocks face each other and overlap for a certain range but separated by a groove along the equator.
Another prior art document, U.S. Pat. No. 4,659,976), discloses a tire for use on a military vehicle, the tire has traction elements separated by straight grooves.
Yet another prior art, (German Patent No. DE 27 51 295 A1), discloses a farm tire having elongated lugs 6 spaced from the center of the tread and in at least one embodiment, the lugs 6 are separated by square blocks 9.
There has been a continual tradeoff in attempting to increase the aggressive offroad and tractor performance of these tires while maintaining the treadwear durability and ride requirements. The invention disclosed in this patent application teaches a novel tread that is both comfortable riding, long wearing while also achieving superior offroad traction.


A thermal switch is described which has a pair of axial leads, one of which is electrically insulated from the conductive outer housing and the other of which is in contact with the housing. An electrically-conductive temperature-sensing pellet which is made of solder, or other conductive material, is formed into a donut shape and rests on the bottom of the housing. A donut shaped insulator rests on top of the sensing pellet to protect the pellet from excessive force on it. A ring-shaped sliding contact is placed on top of a ceramic insulator and is bowed outwardly between the ceramic insulator and a conductive disc, which is in contact with the head of the insulated lead, so as to contact the conductive outer wall of the housing. When the temperature-sensing pellet melts, the solder flows allowing the contact to relax to its undeformed state and a spring that surrounds the insulated lead then forces the contact away from the head of the insulated lead. The solder repellent grease preferably surrounds the insulated lead so as to minimize the possibility of melted solder contacting this lead.

Although there are a number of different types of thermal cut-off switches, many of them are overly complex and utilize more parts than are commercially feasible for many applications. The construction of a simple, inexpensive, but effective thermal cut-off device using a minimum number of parts, therefore, continues to be a challenge. One attempt at providing a simplified thermal cut-off switch design utilizing a minimum number of parts is shown in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. 15922/72, which was filed under the name of Murata Manufacturing Company Limited. In this type of device, a hollow structure having a normally elongated oblong shape with a continuous circumference is connected directly to the insulated lead.
When the pellet is inserted into the device and the oblong contact is forced against the pellet, it is bowed outwardly until it contacts the outer metallic housing of the device. The Murata device, however, can be difficult to manufacture due to the small size of the parts and because of the necessity of either providing either a hole in the contact through which the head of the insulated lead may pass, or of some other means of permanently securing the hollow contact to the head of the insulated lead which will not be affected by high temperatures. The contact of the Murata device engages the thermal pellet at essentially a single point, thereby subjecting the pellet to a high stress which tends to destroy the integrity of the pellet of organic chemical material and to reduce the reliability of the device because of premature opening of the switch.
Another design which utilizes a bowed hollow contact member with a continuous circumference or perimeter is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,167,724, issued Sept. 11, 1979, in the name of James R. McCaughna. The McCaughna device differs from the Japanese Murata device in that the hollow contact structure of this switch has a general rectangular shape and it is not permanently secured to the head of the insulated lead. Instead, the insulator through which the insulated lead passes has a reduced diameter portion which is encircled by a coiled spring which tends to force the contact member toward the thermally-sensitive pellet. The McCaughna thermal cut-off switch, has a flat contact area which engages the thermal pellet; and thus, there is a good force distribution on the thermal pellet in the McCaughna switch.
The present invention is described by reference to a thermal switch in which a McCaughna-type of electrical contact is employed. However, the McCaughna device contemplated the use of non-conductive thermal sensing pellets made of organic chemical material. Such pellets are ideal for certain temperature ranges. The organic chemical material does impose temperature range limitation upon the switch, however, and these materials are relatively expensive. In order to provide a switch with a reduced cost and an extended temperature range, the switch of the present invention employs a pellet of electrically-conductive solder material, the composition of which depends upon the temperature range desired. For example, conventional tin-lead solder mixtures of silver-solder mixtures may be employed. The design features of the present invention are directed to making the use of such materials possible in thermal sensing switches.

Thermal switch with electrically conductive thermal sensing pellet


An internal combustion engine comprising at least one pair of opposed, reciprocating pistons forming a combustion chamber therebetween a crankshaft driven by the pistons via respective drive linkages. The outer piston furthest from the crankshaft comprises a skirt extending from its perimeter towards the crankshaft to form a cylinder within which the other, inner piston reciprocates.

WO2008/149061 (Cox Powertrain) describes a 2-cylinder 2-stroke direct injection internal combustion engine. The two cylinders are horizontally opposed and in each cylinder there are opposed, reciprocating pistons that form a combustion chamber between them. The pistons drive a central crankshaft between the two cylinders. The inner piston (i.e. the piston closer to the crankshaft) in each cylinder drives the crankshaft through a pair of parallel scotch yoke mechanisms. The outer piston in each cylinder drives the crankshaft through a third scotch yoke, nested between the two scotch yoke mechanisms of the inner piston, via a drive rod that passes through the centre of the inner piston. The drive rod has a hollow tubular form and fuel is injected into the combustion chamber by a fuel injector housed within the drive rod. The wall of the drive rod has a series of circumferentially spaced apertures through which the fuel is projected laterally outwardly into the combustion chamber.
WO2012/160378 (Cox Powertrain) describes a development of the configuration of the engine described in WO2008/149061. In the engine described in this document, the outer piston of each pair of opposed pistons drives the crankshaft through a drive linkage that is external to the cylinder in which the pistons reciprocate. This avoids the need for any drive rods passing through the combustion chamber and inner piston and also means that a fuel injector can be located centrally with respect to the piston (or close to the centre of the piston) without obstruction.


A sterilizing apparatus for liquid, preferably water, in which the liquid passes through a sterilizing chamber only when the apparatus has sufficient sterilizing capability. The apparatus is provided within ultraviolet-light source, a heat sensing means, and a light intensity sensing means, the latter two means being connected to a valve controlling the flow of liquid through the apparatus. A filter is also provided through which the liquid passes before it reaches the light source.

Sterilizing apparatus, for example for the purification of water, are known in which purification is achieved by means of one or more ultraviolet radiation sources mounted in a large cylinder which are surrounded by cylindrical protecting tubes. The water to be purified is circulated through the large cylinder and between the protecting tubes. This known apparatus, for instance, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,456,107, 3,462,597, 3,562,520 and 3,566,105, respectively.
It is extremely important that sterilizing apparatus of the type described work in a satisfactory manner, i.e. with sufficient capacity of purification. However, should for some reason this capacity decrease so that the quality of the discharged water cannot be guaranteed, the apparatus must automatically be switched off, so that water in which bacteria killing is unsatisfactory must not be allowed to pass through the unit.
Furthermore, it is very important that the liquid which is to be exposed to ultraviolet light is clear and free from suspended particles, because the transmission ability of the ultraviolet light decreases considerably if the liquid is cloudy. Therefore, the apparatus also comprises a filter having a readily exchangeable filter cartridge through which the liquid passes before reaching the chamber in which it is exposed to ultraviolet light.
Some disadvantages of the apparatus as shown and described in the above U.S. patents are that they are expensive because they include complicated sensor systems for detecting the intensity and the wave length of the ultraviolet light, as well as complicated cleaning systems for the glass in the apparatus which is irradiated by the ultraviolet light, and becomes soiled and dirty because of insufficient cleaning of incoming water or other type of liquid.
This invention relates to a sterilizing apparatus for liquid, preferably water, and having a light source emitting ultraviolet radiation. The light source is arranged to emit radiation through a chamber through which a liquid passes to be sterilized, with the liquid, prior to flowing through the chamber, passing through a filter.
An object of the present invention is to provide a sterilizing apparatus which is controlled by simple components and is safe and reliable in operation, easy to install, and can be manufactured at a price which permits widespread use in countries having water supply problems.

Control arrangement for fluid sterilizing apparatus


In an aircraft having a central maintenance computer, an ACMS system and a communications unit allowing communications with a ground station, a maintenance aid device comprises a processing unit configured to: store a trigger condition dependent on at least one aircraft maintenance data item and/or at least one aircraft flight data item; acquire first data emanating from the central maintenance computer and/or second data emanating from the ACMS system; verify whether the trigger condition is met, on the basis of the first data and/or of the second data; and if the trigger condition is met, send the communications unit, a dataset comprising maintenance data emanating from the central maintenance computer and aircraft flight data emanating from the ACMS system.

The technology herein relates to the field of aircraft maintenance, and more particularly to the transmission of data between an aircraft and a ground station in order to facilitate aircraft maintenance operations.
Aircraft, particularly modern transport airplanes, generally comprise a Central Maintenance Computer, generally referred to as a CMC, or a Central Maintenance System (CMS). The central maintenance computer is connected to a set of further computers carried onboard an aircraft and relating to various systems of the aircraft, such as, flight control systems, systems for controlling and monitoring the engines, managing the fuel, etc. The central maintenance computer receives from the other onboard computers data relating to failures of the systems, generally by means of signals of the Built-In-Test-Equipment (BITE) type. The central maintenance computer thus centralizes a set of maintenance data relating to the status of various aircraft systems, particularly relating to potential failures of the systems. The maintenance data centralized by the central maintenance computer thus correspond to maintenance data coming from the various aforementioned systems, without there being any need for the central maintenance computer to interpret this maintenance data in order to discover the status of the systems.
During a flight of the aircraft, the central maintenance computer records the maintenance data relating to the aircraft systems and produces a maintenance report. The maintenance report comprises at least a significant proportion of the data relating to the status of the aircraft systems. The central maintenance computer records the maintenance report at the end of the flight (generally referred to as a post flight report). The post flight maintenance report is generally used by a maintenance operator to determine what maintenance operations to carry out on the aircraft. During the maintenance operations, the maintenance operator can also consult the current status of the aircraft systems, particularly potential failures thereof, via a screen interfaced with the central maintenance computer. During the flight of the aircraft, a subset of the maintenance report in the process of being recorded may also be sent to a ground station, for example a maintenance center of the airline operating the aircraft. The subset is generally sent by means of a communication of the ACARS (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System) type. The sending of the subset is performed cyclically, at a predetermined time interval that may be dependent on the model of aircraft, usually every 15 minutes. The data to be sent is limited to the subset of the maintenance report so as to limit the volume of data that has to be transmitted from the aircraft to the ground station, given the high cost of communications of the ACARS type. The subset corresponds to a predetermined selection of data from among the data recorded in the maintenance report. The subset will be referred to as a current maintenance report in the remainder of this description.
An aircraft also generally comprises an Aircraft Condition Monitoring System (ACMS). The ACMS system monitors the flight data of the aircraft. The aircraft flight data may correspond to data from sensors or other equipment of the aircraft, for example the current performance of the aircraft, aircraft speed data, data relating to the operation of the aircraft engines (temperature, etc.), etc. An ACMS system is configured to produce reports corresponding to a predetermined set of aircraft data. These reports are generally referred to as ACMS reports or Aircraft Integrated Data System (AIDS) reports. These reports may be defined by the constructor of the aircraft or by the airline operating the aircraft, by means of dedicated programming installed by an operator operating onboard the aircraft. The ACMS system may also be configured to send these reports to a ground station, generally by means of a communication of the ACARS type. In particular, these reports may be produced by the ACMS system and sent to the ground station when a condition regarding the predetermined set of aircraft data is satisfied, for example in the event of an anomaly with values of some of the data.
However, in the event of an aircraft system has a fault, such reports reveal only the consequences that the aircraft flight data has a fault, but do not always contain data that allows directly identifying the origin of the fault. On the basis of an ACMS report, a ground station operator may generally at most suspect a certain number of aircraft systems, but may not have any certainty as to which of these systems is actually faulty. In order to identify a faulty system, the operator generally consults the last current maintenance report(s) sent by the Central Maintenance Computer (CMC) to the ground station. However, as discussed previously, the current maintenance reports sent by the central maintenance computer contain only a subset of the data from the maintenance report. As a result, they may fail to contain the information that would have been useful for the operator in understanding the origin of a fault. In addition, given that the current maintenance reports sent by the central maintenance computer are sent cyclically, in particular every 15 minutes, the data contained in a current maintenance report sent by the central maintenance computer are not synchronized with the data contained in the report sent by the ACMS system. Because these various data correspond to different moments in time, it may be difficult for the operator to correlate them in order to identify the origin of a fault. In addition, as already discussed, the usual interval between two successive transmissions of current maintenance reports by the central maintenance computer to the ground station is relatively long, such as 15 minutes. As a result, the data contained in such a report may be obsolete by the time a report from the ACMS system is received by the ground station. In addition, even if the data contained in the next report allow identifying the origin of the fault, the fact that the maintenance operator has to wait for the next report may induce a significant delay into the analysis of the data by this maintenance operator.

Device, system and method to assist with aircraft maintenance