A hydraulic auto-tensioner includes a sleeve; a rod vertically movable relative to the sleeve; a spring seat fixed to the portion of the rod protruding beyond the sleeve; a return spring configured to bias the spring seat upwardly; oil passages through which a pressure chamber communicate with a reservoir chamber; a check valve mounted to the oil passages; a tubular plunger vertically movably mounted between the outer periphery of the rod and the inner periphery of the sleeve; a first leakage gap defined between the inner periphery of the tubular plunger and the outer periphery of the rod; an upper stopper configured to restrict the upwardly movable range of the tubular plunger; and a pressure regulating spring disposed above the tubular plunger so as to surround the outer periphery of the rod.

In order to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide, an increasing number of today's vehicles have an idle-stopping function, i.e., the function of stopping the engine when the vehicle stops, and restarting the engine to move the vehicle again. Among such vehicles, vehicles equipped with an integrated starter generator (ISG) are especially gathering attention, because the ISG is capable of quietly restarting the engine, and also capable of regenerative braking.
An ISG is one of the automobile engine accessories, and functions as a generator to generate electricity from the driving force of a crankshaft while the engine is running in a steady operation, and as an electric motor (starter) to forcibly rotate the crankshaft, kept at a standstill, to start the engine.
FIGS. 5 and 6 exemplify a belt transmission device for a vehicle equipped with an ISG. This belt transmission device includes a crank pulley 51 mounted to a crankshaft 50; an ISG pulley 54 mounted to the rotary shaft 53 of the ISG 52; an engine accessory pulley 57 mounted to the rotary shaft 56 of an engine accessory 55 such as a water pump; a belt 58 trained around these pulleys 51, 54 and 57; and a tension adjusting device 60 for keeping the tension of the belt 58 in an appropriate range.
The tension adjusting device 60 includes a tension pulley 61 kept in contact with the belt 58 on the downstream side of the crank pulley 51 and on the upstream side of the ISG pulley 54; a pulley arm 62 supporting the tension pulley 61; and a hydraulic auto-tensioner A configured to bias the pulley arm 62 in the direction in which the tension pulley 61 is pressed against the belt 58. One end of the hydraulic auto-tensioner A is coupled to the pulley arm 62, and the other end of the hydraulic auto-tensioner A is coupled to an engine block 59. The pulley arm 62 is supported to be pivotable about a fulcrum shaft 63 fixed to the engine block 59.
As illustrated in FIG. 5, while the engine is running in a steady operation, the crankshaft 50 rotates as a driving shaft such that the rotation of the crankshaft 50 is transmitted through the belt 58 to the pulleys 54 and 57, thereby rotating the rotary shaft 53 of the ISG 52, and the rotary shaft 56 of the engine accessory 55. At this time, the portion of the belt 58 where the tension adjusting device 60 is located is being pushed out from the driving pulley (crank pulley 51), and thus becomes the loose side of the belt 58.
On the other hand, as illustrated in FIG. 6, when restarting the engine after the idle stop, the rotary shaft 53 of the ISG 52 rotates as a driving shaft such that the rotation of the rotary shaft 53 is transmitted through the belt 58 to the pulley 51, thereby rotating the crankshaft 50. At this time, the portion of the belt 58 where the tension adjusting device 60 is located is being pulled by the driving pulley (ISG pulley 54), and thus becomes the tension side of the belt 58.
Since, as described above, a belt transmission device equipped with an ISG is configured such that the crank pulley 51 functions as a driving pulley while the engine is running in a steady operation, and the ISG pulley 54 functions as a driving pulley when the engine is started by driving the ISG, the portion of the belt 58 with which the tension pulley 61 of the tension adjusting device 60 is in contact becomes the loose side of the belt 58 while the engine is running in a steady operation, and becomes the tension side of the belt 58 when the engine is started by driving the ISG.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-275757 (JP '757) discloses a hydraulic auto-tensioner used to maintain the tension of a belt for driving engine accessories, and including a vertically extending sleeve; a rod vertically movably inserted in the sleeve; a spring seat fixed to the top end of the rod; and a return spring configured to bias the spring seat upwardly. The return spring moves the rod, relative to the sleeve, to the position at which the tension of the belt are equal in strength to the biasing force of the return spring, thereby applying initial tension to the belt.
The hydraulic auto-tensioner of JP '757 further includes, as a mechanism for generating a damping load, a pressure chamber defined inside of the sleeve such that the volume of the pressure chamber increases as the rod moves upwardly relative to the sleeve, and such that the volume of the pressure chamber decreases as the rod moves downwardly relative to the sleeve; a reservoir chamber defined outside of the sleeve; oil stored in the pressure chamber and the reservoir chamber; oil passages through which the lower portion of the pressure chamber communicates with the lower portion of the reservoir chamber; a check valve allowing oil to flow, through the oil passages, only from the reservoir chamber to the pressure chamber; and a leakage gap defined between the inner periphery of the sleeve and the outer periphery of the rod.
When the tension of the belt decreases, the rod moves upwardly relative to the sleeve, thereby absorbing the looseness of the belt. At this time, since the pressure in the pressure chamber falls below the pressure in the reservoir chamber, and thus the check valve opens, oil flows from the reservoir chamber to the pressure chamber through the oil passages, thereby enabling the rod to move in a smooth manner.
On the other hand, when the tension of the belt increases, the rod moves downwardly relative to the sleeve, thereby absorbing the tension of the belt. At this time, since the pressure in the pressure chamber increases, and thus the check valve closes, no oil flows in the oil passages, and oil in the pressure chamber flows out through the leakage gap, which is defined between the inner periphery of the sleeve and the outer periphery of the rod, so that a damping load is generated due to the viscous resistance of the oil flowing in the leakage gap.
If the above-described conventional hydraulic auto-tensioner of JP '757 is used in the belt transmission device in FIGS. 5 and 6, which is a device for a vehicle equipped with an ISG, it is difficult to obtain an optimum damping load both while the engine is running in a steady operation, and when the engine is started by driving the ISG.
Namely, in a belt transmission device for a vehicle equipped with an ISG, as described above, the portion of the belt which becomes the loose side of the belt while the engine is running in a steady operation becomes the tension side of the belt when the engine is started by driving the ISG.
Therefore, if the magnitude of the damping load generated in the hydraulic auto-tensioner is set to be suitable for the steady operation of the engine, when the engine is started by driving the ISG, the hydraulic auto-tensioner will be excessively pushed and contracted, thereby generating slippage between the pulleys and the belt. This might cause the belt to squeal and/or shorten its service life, and also might make it impossible to start the engine in the worst case.
On the other hand, if the magnitude of the damping load generated in the hydraulic auto-tensioner is set to be suitable for when the engine is started by driving the ISG, the tension of the belt will be unnecessarily large while the engine is running in a steady operation. This will cause large energy loss due to the friction between the belt and the pulleys, thus increasing the fuel consumption of the engine.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a hydraulic auto-tensioner used in a belt transmission device for a vehicle equipped with an ISG that is capable of keeping the tension of the belt low while the engine is running in a steady operation, and effectively preventing the slippage of the belt when the engine is started by driving the ISG.


A refrigerant pipe unit for a room air-conditioner includes two refrigerant pipes laid through a piping hole in the building wall and interconnecting an indoor unit and an outdoor unit of the room air-conditioner for circulation of a refrigerant through the room air-conditioner. A stop valve is attached to at least one end of each of the refrigerant pipes for blocking flow of the refrigerant between the indoor unit and the outdoor unit. A maximum size of the stop valve which is measured in a radial direction about the central axis of each refrigerant pipe is designed such that the stop valve attached to the end of each refrigerant pipe can pass through the piping hole while the other refrigerant pipe is present inside the piping hole. Thus, the air-conditioner can be disassembled while the refrigerant is kept sealed within the indoor unit, the outdoor unit and the refrigerant pipe unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerant pipe unit interconnecting an indoor unit and an outdoor unit of a room air-conditioner for circulation of a refrigerant through the room air-conditioner.
2. Description of the Related Art
Room air-conditioners functioning to keep the temperature of the air in rooms at about 18 to 25.degree. C. throughout the year are widely used.
As diagrammatically shown in FIG. 18, the conventional room air-conditioner 200 generally comprises an indoor unit 201, an outdoor unit 202, and two refrigerant pipes 203, 204 interconnecting the indoor and outdoor units 201, 202 for circulation of a refrigerant through the room air-conditioner. In the outdoor unit 202, a compressor 205 compresses the vaporous refrigerant to a higher pressure and passes it to an outdoor heat exchanger 206 where the vaporous refrigerant is condensed, giving off heat Q1 to the atmosphere. The liquid refrigerant is fed through to the refrigerant pipe 203 to an expansion valve 207 in the indoor unit 201. The expansion valve 201 expands the liquid refrigerant to a lower pressure and passes it to an indoor heat exchanger 208 where the liquid refrigerant is evaporated, absorbing heat Q2 from the surroundings. Thus, the temperature inside the room goes down. The vaporous refrigerant returns through the refrigerant pipe 204 to the compressor 205. The foregoing circulation of the refrigerant makes the room air-conditioner 200 serve as a cooling system.
Reversing the refrigerant circulating direction makes the room air-conditioner serve as a heat pump heating system, in which the refrigerant absorbs heat from the atmosphere at the outdoor heat exchanger and subsequently gives off this heat to the inside of the room at the indoor heat exchanger.
As generally known, the refrigerant pipes 203, 204 are laid through a piping hole 212 formed in a wall 211 of the building. After the piping work completes a clearance between the refrigerant pipes 203, 204 and the piping hole 212 is closed by a putty or a like sealing material 213 to protect the building against weather.
From the sealing point of view, the piping hole 212 in the building wall 211 is preferably as small as possible. But, a larger piping hole is convenient for the piping work. Heretofore, three diameters (65 mm, 75 mm and 85 mm) have been standardized for the piping hole 212. These standard piping diameters are selected depending on the capacity or power of a room air-conditioner in which the refrigerant pipes 203, 204 are used. For example, a 65-mm-diameter piping hole is chosen for home-use room air-conditioners, and an 85-mm-diameter piping hole is chosen for business-use room air-conditioners.
The present inventor has proposed a conventional room air-conditioner disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. HEI 10-89815, entitled "Heat Exchanger and Method of Replenishing Refrigerant to the Same". The proposed room air-conditioner includes four valves provided at respective refrigerant inlets and outlets of indoor and outdoor units. When the air-conditioner is to be disassembled for moving or transportation, these four valves are closed, and after that the indoor unit, the refrigerant pipes and the outdoor unit are separated. A great part of the refrigerant is trapped inside the indoor and outdoor units. But, a small part of the refrigerant is emitted to the atmosphere when the refrigerant pipes are detached from the indoor and outdoor units. When the room air-conditioner is re-assembled at a new installation site, the refrigerant pipes are attached to the indoor and outdoor units. While all the valves are kept in the fully closed state, the refrigerant pipes are evacuated, then replenished with the refrigerant. Subsequently, all the valves are opened, thus placing the room air-conditioner in the operable condition.
Because the great part of the refrigerant, which is trapped within the indoor and outdoor units, can be used again, environmental contamination caused by emission of the refrigerant is reduced to the minimum.
However, as a demand for environmental preservation of the earth has increased year by year, emission of the refrigerant from the refrigerant pipes 203, 204 may also be rendered impermissible even though the emission quantity is small.
In addition, a prolonged use of the room air-conditioner may cause leakage of the refrigerant to the atmosphere, requiring replenishment of the refrigerant. This leakage also causes environmental disruption.
In recent years, a mixture of plural sorts of alternate Freon (a trademark for fluorocarbons) has been used as a refrigerant for room air-conditioners. Use of this type of refrigerant makes the replenishment substantially impossible because identification of leaked constituents is substantially impossible. Accordingly, when leakage of the refrigerant occurs, the alternate Freon mixture left in the room air-conditioner is fully removed, then a new alternate Freon mixture is filled in the room air-conditioner.
Under these circumstances, a technique which is capable of sealing the refrigerant inside the refrigerant pipes is required. The standard piping holes are sized to allow passage of two refrigerant pipes, but they do not allow passage of any conventional valve provided at an end of each refrigerant pipe.
In many cases, the refrigerant pipes are connected by the so-called flared type joining system. In this joining system, an end of a deoxidized copper pipe is inserted in a flare nut, then flared like a bell. The flared pipe end is subsequently forced against a chamfered front end of a nipple by tightly fastening the flared nut to the nipple. Because of the metal-to-metal contact, a joint formed between the refrigerant pipe and the nipple is liable to gradually allow leakage of the refrigerant due to a working error or vibrations. Additionally, since the diameter of the refrigerant pipes specified by Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS) is 8A or 10A (corresponding to a nominal diameter of 8 mm or 10 mm), a screwed pipe fitting is used for joining such small diameter pipes. The screwed pipe fitting is compact but it is insufficient to provide a reliable seal against leakage because the refrigerant can flow along threaded grooves. The screwed pipe fitting is susceptible to cracking at the bottom of the threaded grooves.

Refrigerant pipe unit for room air-conditioner


A polarizer includes a substrate, and a first metal layer and a second metal layer disposed on the substrate. The first metal layer includes a plurality of protrusions of a wire grid pattern. Each protrusion has a first width and adjacent protrusions are spaced apart by a second width. The second metal layer is disposed on each of the protrusions of the first metal layer, and includes molybdenum (Mo) and/or titanium (Ti).

1. Field
Exemplary embodiments of the invention relate to a polarizer, a display panel having the polarizer, and a method of manufacturing the polarizer.
More particularly, exemplary embodiments of the invention relate to a wire grid polarizer for a liquid crystal display apparatus, a display panel having the wire grid polarizer, and a method of manufacturing the wire grid polarizer.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display apparatus having light weight and small size has been manufactured. A cathode ray tube ("CRT") display apparatus has been used due to a performance and a competitive price. However the CRT display apparatus has a weakness with a size or portability thereof. Therefore, the liquid crystal display apparatus has been highly regarded due to a small size, light weight and low-power-consumption thereof.
The liquid crystal display apparatus applies a voltage to a specific molecular arrangement of an optical material therein, such as liquid crystal, and is configured to change the molecular arrangement of the liquid crystal. The liquid crystal display apparatus displays an image using changes of optical property (for example, birefringence, rotatory polarization, dichroism and light scattering) of a liquid crystal cell according to the changes of the molecular arrangement of the liquid crystal.
The liquid crystal display apparatus includes a polarizing plate to control an array of the molecular arrangement of the liquid crystal. A typical polarizing plate passes polarized light which is parallel with a transmission axis, and absorbs polarized light which is perpendicular to the transmission axis. The typical polarizing plate absorbs some of the light from a light source of the liquid crystal display apparatus. Thus, light efficiency of the liquid crystal display apparatus may be undesirably decreased.

Polarizer, display panel having the same and method of manufacturing the same


Star polymers of soft segment forming monomers are useful in forming surgical devices. The star polymers can be encapped with isocyanate, mixed with a filler and/or cross-linked. The polymer compositions are useful, for example, as fiber coatings, surgical adhesives or bone putty, or tissue growth substrate.

1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates generally to bioabsorbable polymer compositions. Specifically, this disclosure relates to highly branched or star polymers derived from monomers known to form absorbable polymers. The bioabsorbable polymer compositions are particularly useful in the manufacture of absorbable surgical devices such as sutures, staples clips, anastomosis rings, bone plates and screws, matrices for the sustained and/or controlled release of pharmaceutically active ingredients, etc., fabricated at least in part therefrom.
2. Background of Related Art
Polymers and copolymers of, and surgical devices made from, lactide and/or glycolide and/or related compounds are well-known. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,668,162, 2,683,136, 2,703,316, 2,758,987, 3,225,766, 3,268,486, 3,268,477, 3,297,033, 3,422,181, 3,442,871, 3,463,158, 3,468,853, 3,531,561, 3,565,869, 3,597,449, 3,620,218, 3,626,948, 3,636,956, 3,736,646, 3,739,773, 3,772,420, 3,773,919, 3,781,349, 3,784,585, 3,792,010, 3,797,499, 3,839,297, 3,846,382, 3,867,190, 3,875,937, 3,878,284, 3,896,802, 3,902,497, 3,937,223, 3,982,543, 4,033,938, 4,045,418, 4,057,537, 4,060,089, 4,137,921, 4,157,437, 4,243,775, 4,246,904, 4,273,920, 4,275,813, 4,279,249, 4,300,565, and 4,744,365, U.K. Pat. or Appln. Nos. 779,291, 1,332,505, 1,414,600, and 2,102,827, D. K. Gilding et al., "Biodegradable polymers for use in surgery-polyglycolic/poly (lactic acid) homo- and copolymers: 1, "Polymer, Volume 20, pages 1459-1464 (1979), and D. F. Williams (ed.), Biocompatibility of Clinical Implant Materials, Volume II, chapter 9: "Biodegradable Polymers" (1981).
In addition, other patents disclose surgical devices prepared from copolymers of lactide or glycolide and other monomers including caprolactone or trimethylene carbonate have been prepared. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,605,730 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,700,704 disclose copolymers of epsilon-caprolactone and glycolide useful in making surgical articles and particularly surgical sutures having low Young's modulus. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,256 relates to the utilization of high molecular weight caprolactone polymers as coating for surgical sutures, while U.S. Pat. No. 4,429,090, discloses surgical articles manufactured from triblock copolymers prepared from copolymerizing glycolide with trimethylene carbonate.
Polymers, copolymers and surgical devices made from epsilon-caprolactone and/or related compounds have also been described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,169,945, 3,912,692, 3,942,532, 4,605,730, 4,624,256, 4,643,734, 4,700,704, 4,788,979, 4,791,929, 4,994,074, 5,076,807, 5,080,665, 5,085,629 and 5,100,433.
Polymers derived in whole or in part from dioxanone are known. Homopolymers of p-dioxanone are described, e.g., in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,063,967; 3,063,968; 3,391,126; 3,645,941; 4,052,988; 4,440,789; and, 4,591,630. Copolymers containing units derived from p-dioxanone and one or more other monomers that are copolymerizable therewith are described, e.g., in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,243,775; 4,300,565; 4,559,945; 4,591,630; 4,643,191; 4,549,921; 4,653,497; 4,791,929; 4,838,267; 5,007,923; 5,047,048; 4,076,807; 5,080,665; and 5,100,433 and European Patent Application Nos. 501,844 and 460,428. Most of the known dioxanone-derived homopolymers and copolymers are indicated to be useful for the fabrication of medical and surgical devices such as those previously mentioned.
The properties of the bioabsorbable polymers may differ considerably depending on the nature and amounts of the comonomers, if any, employed and/or the polymerization procedures used in preparing the polymers. Aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,838,267 discloses block copolymers derived from p-dioxanone and glycolide that exhibit a high order of initial strength and compliance but lose their strength rapidly after implantation in the body. Sutures made from the copolymers are said to be particularly useful in surgical procedures, such as plastic surgery or repair of facial wounds, where it is desirable for the suture to lose its strength rapidly.

Bioabsorbable branched polymer containing units derived from dioxanone and medical/surgical devices manufactured therefrom


An apparatus and method are provided for accurately predicting the outcome of branch instructions prior to their execution by a pipeline microprocessor. The apparatus has a static branch predictor, a mandatory signal, and a biased prediction correlator. The static branch predictor provides a predicted outcome for a branch instruction, and determines if the branch instruction is a biased outcome conditional branch instruction. The mandatory signal is coupled to the static branch predictor and indicates whether or not the branch instruction is the biased outcome conditional branch instruction, thereby indicating whether or not the predicted outcome takes precedence over a dynamic branch prediction for the branch instruction. The biased prediction correlator is coupled to the static branch predictor and the mandatory signal. The biased prediction correlator receives the predicted outcome, the mandatory signal, and the dynamic branch prediction. The biased prediction correlator favors the dynamic branch prediction over the predicted outcome. If the mandatory signal indicates that the branch instruction is a biased outcome conditional branch instruction, however, then the biased prediction correlator favors the predicted outcome over the dynamic branch prediction.

This invention relates in general to the field of instruction execution in computers, and more particularly to an apparatus and method for predicting the outcome of branch instructions in a pipeline microprocessor.
An application program for execution on a microprocessor consists of a structured series of macro instructions that are stored in sequential locations in memory. A current instruction pointer within the microprocessor points to the address of the instruction currently being executed and a next instruction pointer within the microprocessor points to the address of the next instruction for execution. During each clock cycle, the length of the current instruction is added to the contents of the current instruction pointer to form a pointer to a next sequential instruction in memory. The pointer to the next sequential instruction is provided to logic that updates the next instruction pointer. If the logic determines that the next sequential instruction is indeed required for execution, then the next instruction pointer is updated with the pointer to the next sequential instruction in memory. Thus, macro instructions are fetched from memory in sequence for execution by the microprocessor.
Obviously, because a microprocessor is designed to execute instructions from memory in the sequence that they are stored, it follows that a program configured to execute macro instructions sequentially from memory is one which will run efficiently on the microprocessor. For this reason, most application programs are designed to minimize the number of instances where macro instructions are executed out of sequence. These out-of-sequence instances are known as jumps, or branches.
A program branch presents a problem because most conventional microprocessors do not simply execute one instruction at a time. Rather, a present day microprocessor consists of a number of pipeline stages, each stage performing a specific function. Instructions, inputs, and results from one stage to the next are passed in synchronization with a pipeline clock. Hence, several instructions may be executing in different stages of the microprocessor pipeline within the same clock cycle. As a result, when logic within a given stage determines that a program branch is to occur, then previous stages of the pipeline, that is, stages that are executing instructions following in sequence, must be cast out to begin execution of sequential macro instructions beginning with the instruction directed by the branch, or the branch target instruction. This casting out of previous pipeline stages is known as flushing and refilling the pipeline.
A conditional branch is a branch that may or may not occur, depending upon an evaluation of some specified condition. And, this evaluation is typically performed in later stages of the microprocessor pipeline. To preclude wasting many clock cycles associated with flushing and refilling the pipeline, present day microprocessors also provide logic in an early pipeline stage that predicts whether a conditional branch will occur or not. If it is predicted that a conditional branch will occur, then only those instructions prior to the early pipeline stage must be flushed, including those in the instruction buffer. Even so, this is a drastic improvement; correctly predicted branches are executed in roughly two clock cycles. But an incorrect prediction takes many more cycles to execute than if no branch prediction mechanism had been provided in the first place. The accuracy of branch predictions in a pipeline processor therefore significantly impacts the processor""s performance, for better or worse.
Yet, present day branch prediction techniques chiefly predict the outcome of a given conditional branch instruction in an application program based upon outcomes obtained when the conditional branch instruction was previously executed within the same instance of the application program. Historical branch prediction, or dynamic branch prediction, is effective because conditional branch instructions tend to exhibit repetitive outcome patterns when executed within an application program.
The historical outcome data is stored in a branch history table that is accessed using the address of a conditional branch instructionxe2x80x94a unique identifier for the instruction. A corresponding entry in the branch history table contains the historical outcome data associated with the conditional branch instruction. A dynamic prediction of the outcome of the conditional branch instruction is made based upon the contents of the corresponding entry in the branch history table.
Yet, because most present day microprocessors have address ranges on the order of gigabytes, it is not practical for a branch history table to be as large as the microprocessor""s address range. Because of this, smaller branch history tables are provided, on the order of kilobytes, and only low order bits of a conditional branch instruction""s address are used as an index into the table. But this presents another problem: because low order address bits are used to index the branch history table, two or more conditional branch instructions can index the same entry. This is known as aliasing. As such, the outcome of a more recently executed conditional branch instruction will replace the outcome of a formerly executed conditional branch instruction that is aliased to the same table entry. If the former conditional branch instruction is encountered again, its historical outcome information is unavailable to be used for a dynamic prediction.
Because dynamic predictions are sometimes not available, an alternative prediction is made for the outcome of a conditional branch instruction, usually based solely upon some static attribute of the instruction, such as the relative direction of a branch target instruction as compared to the address of the conditional branch instruction. This alternative prediction is called a static prediction because it is not based upon a changing execution environment within an application program. The static branch prediction is most often used as a fallback in lieu of a dynamic prediction. Hence, when a dynamic prediction is unavailable, the static prediction is used.
The present inventors have observed that the outcomes of some conditional branch instructions, when observed on pipeline microprocessor executing today""s predominant desktop computer application programs, exhibit a bias toward one outcome or the other, totally as a function of static indicators such as the type of conditional test performed, regardless of historical outcome data associated with the instructions. These instructions are called biased outcome conditional branch instructions. And, it has also been observed that the entries in a branch history table associated with other conditional branch instructions that exhibit no such bias, are at times negatively impacted as a result of updates occurring from biased outcome instructions which are aliased to the same entries.
Thus, the accuracy of branch predictions is degraded on the whole in a microprocessor that allows the outcomes of biased conditional branch instructions to impact the historical outcome data for conditional branch instructions that do not exhibit a static bias.
Therefore, what is needed is an apparatus for predicting the outcomes of branch instructions that is more accurate than has heretofore been provided.
In addition, what is needed is a branch prediction mechanism in a microprocessor that favorably utilizes static indicators of a conditional branch instruction to predict its outcome.
Furthermore, what is needed is an apparatus in a microprocessor for predicting branches that eliminates the effects of outcomes of biased outcome conditional branch instructions on data regarding historical outcomes for unbiased outcome conditional branch instructions.
Moreover, what is needed is a method in a microprocessor for mandating that the microprocessor use a static branch prediction over a dynamic prediction and for precluding the outcome of a conditional branch instruction whose static prediction was mandated from influencing outcome data in a branch history table.
To address the above-detailed deficiencies, it is an object of the present invention to provide a static branch prediction apparatus that provides accurate branch predictions for biased outcome conditional branch instructions and unbiased outcome conditional branch instructions.
In an additional aspect, it is a feature of the present invention to provide an apparatus in a microprocessor for performing branch prediction. The apparatus has a static branch predictor, a mandatory signal, and a biased prediction correlator. The static branch predictor provides a predicted outcome for a branch instruction, and determines is the branch instruction is a biased outcome conditional branch instruction. The mandatory signal is coupled to the static branch predictor and indicates whether or not the branch instruction is the biased outcome conditional branch instruction, thereby indicating whether or not the predicted outcome takes precedence over a dynamic branch prediction for the branch instruction. The biased prediction correlator is coupled to the static branch predictor and the mandatory signal. The biased prediction correlator receives the predicted outcome, the mandatory signal, and the dynamic branch prediction. The biased prediction correlator favors the dynamic branch prediction over the predicted outcome. If the mandatory signal indicates that the branch instruction is a biased outcome conditional branch instruction, however, then the biased prediction correlator favors the predicted outcome over the dynamic branch prediction.
An advantage of the present invention is that more accurate branch predictions are generated in a microprocessor than have heretofore been achieved.
Another advantage of the present invention is that execution speed of an application program is improved because unnecessary pipeline flushes due to incorrect branch predictions are reduced.
A further advantage of the present invention is that space in a branch history table is not required for entries pertaining to biased outcome conditional branch instructions.
Yet another advantage of the present invention is that a method is provided to reduce the confusion created in a branch history table by intermixing outcome results of biased outcome conditional branch instructions with that of unbiased conditional branch instructions.
Another advantage of the present invention is that execution speed of an application program is improved because unnecessary pipeline flushes due to incorrect branch predictions are reduced.
A further object of the invention is to provide an apparatus in a microprocessor for predicting branches that eliminates the effects of outcomes of biased outcome conditional branch instructions on historical outcome data associated with unbiased outcome conditional branch instructions.
In a further aspect, it is a feature of the present invention to provide a branch prediction apparatus. The branch prediction apparatus includes a static branch predictor and a prediction correlator. The static branch predictor provides a static branch prediction for a biased outcome branch instruction. The static branch predictor has a static prediction output and a precedence output. The static prediction output indicates whether a first speculative branch to a first target address is to be taken or not taken. The precedence output indicates that the static branch prediction is to take precedence over a dynamic branch prediction. The prediction correlator is coupled to the static branch predictor and a branch history table. The prediction correlator directs a next instruction pointer to indicate a next sequential instruction address, the first target address, or a second target address.
A further advantage of the present invention is that space in a branch history table is not required for entries pertaining to biased outcome conditional branch instructions.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide is a method in a microprocessor for mandating that the microprocessor use a static branch prediction over a dynamic prediction and for precluding the outcome of a conditional branch instruction whose static prediction was mandated from influencing outcome data in a branch history table.
In yet another aspect, it is a feature of the present invention to provide a method for performing branch prediction in a microprocessor. The method includes providing a static branch prediction for a branch instruction, directing the microprocessor to fetch instructions in accordance with the static branch prediction in lieu of a dynamic branch prediction provided by a branch history table, resolving the outcome of the branch instruction, and precluding update of an entry in the branch history table corresponding to the branch instruction.
Yet another advantage of the present invention is that a method is provided to reduce the confusion created in a branch history table by intermixing outcome results of biased outcome conditional branch instructions with that of unbiased conditional branch instructions.

Static branch prediction mechanism for conditional branch instructions


In the development of development systems, efforts are being made to design software systems which are as modular as possible for controlling the switching system. Efforts are also being made to achieve this aim for the call processing system for controlling connections in a switching system. The basic structure of the call processing system has a signaling interface system and a call control system, both of which are limited to logic connection control and submit autonomous connection requests to a resource control system which carries out the physical connection control. The call processing system furthermore has a coordination system for coordinating the autonomous connection requests with respect to the resource control system.

In the development of development systems, efforts are being made to design software systems which are as modular as possible for controlling the switching system. This is being done primarily with respect to improved decoupling of the individual functions of a switching system and thus a simpler subsequent modification capability as well as improved reusability of the switching software in further developments.
Switching application software which is divided into a plurality of components is known from the article "Object Oriented Software Technologies Applied to Switching Architectures and Software Development Processes" by E. C. Arnold et al from the "International Switching Symposium 1990, Volume 2, June 1990, Stockholm SE, pages 97-106". The components in this case represent logic and physical system entities. For example, the component "call" represents the system entity "call". The component "call" in this case controls the system entity "call" both at the logic level and at the physical level (with the exception of the local physical connection control which is carried out by the local components of the "fabric" type).

Call processing system for controlling connections in a communications system


The present invention provides a system and method of reducing image intensity variations during imaging acquisitions that utilize large encoding gradient pulses that are played out immediately before a center of k-space is sampled. The present invention includes an acquisition and sampling that implements a predetermined delay in sampling prior to sampling the center of k-space. The delay in sampling the center of k-space following sampling of a peripheral region of k-space maintains the steady state of the MR signal and reduces the image intensity variation caused by eddy current and gradient hysteresis. As such, the intensity variations throughout k-space may be reduced substantially and brought closer to the intrinsic noise level of the data acquisition.

The present invention relates generally to MR imaging and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus of reducing image intensity variation during MR acquisition of volumetric data during passage of an intravascular contrast agent. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus of reducing intensity variations in a reconstructed image that result from relatively large gradients being applied across an imaging volume.
When a substance such as human tissue is subjected to a uniform magnetic field (polarizing field B0), the individual magnetic moments of the spins in the tissue attempt to align with this polarizing field, but precess about it in random order at their characteristic Larmor frequency. If the substance, or tissue, is subjected to a magnetic field (excitation field B1) which is in the x-y plane and which is near the Larmor frequency, the net aligned moment, or "longitudinal magnetization", MZ, may be rotated, or "tipped", into the x-y plane to produce a net transverse magnetic moment Mt. A signal is emitted by the excited spins after the excitation signal B1 is terminated and this signal may be received and processed to form an image.
When utilizing these signals to produce images, magnetic field gradients (Gx, Gy and Gz) are employed. Typically, the region to be imaged is scanned by a sequence of measurement cycles in which these gradients vary according to the particular localization method being used. The resulting set of received NMR signals are digitized and processed to reconstruct the image using one of many well known reconstruction techniques.
Time Resolved Imaging of Contrast Kinetics using Elliptical Centric View Ordering (ECTRICKS) is an imaging technique for MR angiography that combines variable rate k-space sampling and view sharing to acquire 3D volumetric data rapidly during the passage of a contrast agent through the vasculature of a patient. One advantage of ECTRICKS imaging is that arterial-venous separation as well as artifact suppression is improved in time resolved MR angiography and, in particular, angiographic images in carotid arteries and peripheral vessels. ECTRICKS imaging has recently been applied to monitor contrast uptake in cancer tissues, for example, in the breast. In this regard, it has been shown that analysis of the contrast uptake using compartment-based pharmacokinetic models may differentiate between cancerous tissues and healthy tissues. Further, the contrast uptake may also be analyzed to ascertain and differentiate between different types of cancers. While ECTRICKS provides improved temporal resolution when compared to multi-phase 3D fast gradient echo acquisition, eddy current and gradient driver hysteresis associated with large amplitude gradients used to acquire data for peripheral regions of k-space causes intensity variations.
Referring to FIG. 4, an ECTRICKS acquisition for a number of imaging frames 77 is shown wherein the MR signal for the center of k-space is sampled more frequently than for outer or peripheral regions of k-space. For example, k-space data 76 may be partitioned into four, but equivalently sized regions A-D. The regions are divided by elliptical contour lines that represent the distance to the center of k-space. Since most of the signal comes from the center of k-space, i.e. region-A, this region is sampled more frequently than peripheral regions B, C, and D. During image reconstruction, linear interpolation is typically implemented to synthesize missing regions at any given point in time. For example, to reconstruct volumetric images of time frame 13, the A-region at frame 13 is used, the linear interpolation (B′) of B-regions at frames 12 and 18 is used for the missing B-region data, the linear interpolation (C′) of C-regions at frames 8 and 14 is used for the missing C-region data, and the linear interpolation (D′) of D-regions at frames 10 and 16 is used for the missing D-region data. It should be noted that it is customary for contrast enhanced MR angiography to acquire a non-contrast mask volume (frames 1-4) to enable complex subtraction during reconstruction thereby allowing for background subtracted vessel-only images 78 to be generated.
To acquire encoded data for the outer or peripheral regions of k-space (regions B-D in FIG. 4), phase/slice encoding gradient pulses of larger amplitudes are used relative to that used to acquire data for the center of k-space (region A). To generate the larger amplitude gradients, a larger amount of current is used during the acquisition of the outer regions compared to the current used for the inner regions. For example, a much larger current is used during acquisition of the D-region compared to that used for acquisition of the A-region. These relatively large amounts of current induce eddy currents that cause distortion when the MR signal is sampled for filling the center of k-space. As a result, complex effects appear on the image that include ghosting and image intensity changes.
As noted above, these image intensity variations may be caused by eddy current and gradient driver hysteresis associated with gradient pulses with large amplitudes used to acquire data for peripheral regions of k-space. With ECTRICKS acquisition the center of k-space is collected or sampled immediately after each sampling of a non-center of k-space region, as illustrated in FIG. 4. The intensity variations in the center of k-space can be upwards of approximately 15 percent which is detrimental to analysis based on temporal intensity changes such as contrast uptake curve analysis. That is, the variation, which is a systematic variation, appears as part of the overall noise and thus introduces error in any index parameter that a model based approach would try to extract. Additionally, because of the complexity of the variation, it is difficult to alleviate this error using only post-processing techniques.
It would therefore be desirable to have a system and method capable of reducing image intensity variations during imaging acquisitions that employ large encoding gradients immediately prior to sampling of a center of k-space.

Method and apparatus to reduce image intensity variation during MR data acquisition


A filling apparatus for cylindrical containers densely fills the containers with, for example, granularly-shaped fill material by causing a container to be set into a shaking rotation by rotationally oscillating a container retainer.

This invention concerns apparatus for filling cylindrical containers with materials having fixed shapes, such as granular or tablet-shaped fill material, whereby the containers stand in retainers while fill material, that is conveyed by a conveyor, falls thereinto in doses.
It is known to fill containers in an uncomplicated manner by pouring the fill materials into the containers. Depending on need, filling aids, such as funnels, make this filling process easier. The fill material spreads out randomly in the containers during the filling so that bridge formations can arise such that one container could receive various quantities of fill material.
By use of a conveyor, with appropriate equipment, one can convey the fill material to the container in doses, or dosed amounts. Oscillating, or reciprocating, conveyors with linear or circular conveying stretches are particularly well suited for this. The thusly apportioned and conveyed fill material can spread out better in the container, but a uniform, dense filling is not guaranteed.
In this regard, the amount of fill material can be critical, as in the case of a activating charge for an inflatable sack. Inflatable sacks are installed in motor vehicles for protecting passengers thereof. When there is an accident with a motor vehicle a reaction is initiated in the activation charge so as to effect a sudden filling of the sack, which is folded together, by a gas. The activating charge comprises a container filled with tablets. A fill amount of the container determines the amount of gas, with a fill density and a tablet-shape influencing the course of the reaction as a function of time. The container is sized such that when it is densely filled it contains a particular amount of tablets. The filled condition of the container must be maintained during use of the motor vehicle. Upon a subsequent loosening of the tablets caused by shaking of the motor vehicle, the tablets rub against one another and pulverize. The course of the reaction as a function of time is thereby unfavorably influenced.
A uniform and/or densely filled condition, as is necessary for such applications, cannot be obtained, without further measures, by known apparatus. This can particularly not be guaranteed when inconvenient shapes or objects in the interior of the container, such as bothersome surfaces, hinder the filling process.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an apparatus of the type described in the introductory paragraph above that densely fills containers in an uncomplicated manner with granulate, tablets, and the like, even if bothersome surfaces in the container hinder distribution of the fill material.

Filling apparatus for cylindrical containers


Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with order fulfillment using overage tolerance to verify amounts of variable quantity items are described. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving, in a device, a customer order for an item. The customer order indicates at least an ordered amount of the item. The example method may also include determining a unit type of the item. The unit type defines whether the item is measured in discrete unitary quantities or is measured in variable quantities. The method may also include verifying that a picked amount of the item for the customer order is within an overage tolerance of the ordered amount when the unit type indicates variable quantities. The overage tolerance is an upper bound over the ordered amount that is permissible to satisfy the customer order.

Fulfilling electronic direct-to-consumer orders may include processing orders for many different types of items. The types of items may include groceries (e.g., produce, grains, etc.), electronics, clothing and so on. In general, the items are sold in discrete units and quantities. When a customer places an order, the order is for a specified quantity of a product (e.g., one telephone, two large shirts, a dozen cans of soda and so on).
However, not all items conform well to being sold as discrete units. For example, an order for one bunch of grapes or one bunch of bananas may vary drastically in actual weight. Because these items are generally valued according to weight, selling these items as discrete units can cause difficulties with selecting and valuing items appropriately. Additionally, selling these items by weight or another unit of measure can cause difficulties with imprecision in measuring an exact ordered amount. For example, produce, grains and more generally any item that is valued according to a non-discrete quantity may cause difficulties when fulfilling orders for these items electronically. This is because these items are sold according to a varying quantity of measurement and are not discrete items that are easily divisible or otherwise measurable to an ordered amount.

Method, medium, and system for overage tolerance for variable quantity items


A radio access network comprises a base station controller and a plurality of radio base stations. The radio base stations connect to the base station controller in a daisy chain configuration via a shared communication link. At least one radio base station in the chain includes a priority queue for scheduling packets to be transmitted via the shared communication link to an adjacent radio base station. The priority queue schedules packets for transmission over the shared communication link based on the location of the terminating radio base station for each packet so that packets traversing more hops are given priority over packets traversing fewer hops.

The present invention relates generally to wireless communication networks comprising a plurality of radio base stations for communicating with mobile terminals, and, more particularly, to a method of balancing backhaul delays for a series of radio base stations connected in a daisy chain to a base station controller.
In a mobile communication network, the service area is divided into a plurality of cells, each of which is served by a radio base station. Each base station comprises radio resources for communicating with local terminals within the cells served by that base station. A number of radio base stations can be connected to a single base station controller, typically via leased T1 or E1 lines. A common network topology used to connect multiple radio base stations to a single base station controller is a star topology. In the star topology, each radio base station connects to the base station controller via a dedicated line. The star topology is an efficient topology for routing data packets between a base station controller and multiple radio base stations. A disadvantage of the star topology is that it requires a dedicated line between the base station controller and each radio base station, which increases the cost of operating the network.
In order to save leased line costs, some network operators use a daisy chain topology to connect multiple radio base stations to a single base station controller. In a daisy chain topology, the radio base stations are connected in series with the base station controller. The first radio base station in the series connects directly to the base station controller. Each subsequent radio base station connects to the previous radio base station. Thus, more than one radio base station can share a single leased line to the base station controller. Instead of connecting directly to the base station controller which may be far away, a radio base station may instead connect to a neighboring radio base station which is much closer. Using a daisy chain topology can result in a significant reduction of leased line costs to the network operator. However, the daisy chain topology is not without its disadvantages.
One disadvantage of the daisy chain topology is that the transmission delays between the base station controller and the radio base stations may be significantly increased, particularly for the radio base stations toward the far end of the daisy chain. A number of factors may contribute to transmission delays, including packet queuing delays and processing delays in each radio base station in the daisy chain. Thus, each hop along the daily chain adds additional delay to packets being delivered. The amount of the transmission delay is directly related to the number of hops that the data packet traverses to reach the intended radio base station. Radio base stations at the far end of the daisy chain will experience longer delays than will radio base stations closer to the base station controller. For some applications, particularly ones that can tolerate large latency periods, these delays will not be critical. Other applications, such as voice or streaming applications, are more sensitive to transmission delays. In these applications, longer delays mean a lower quality of service.

Method of balancing backhaul delays for a series of daisy chained radio base stations


An information recording/reproducing method and apparatus is for carrying out at least one of recording and reproducing information through a probe electrode or through a plurality of probe electrodes on an information recording medium. A probe electrode is disposed on an elastic member. A relative position is so adjusted between the recording medium and the probe electrode that a repulsive force between them is comparative to an elastic force of the elastic member. In case of plural probe electrodes, they are displaced to keep an equal spacing between the recording medium and the respective probe electrodes so that they may have either a zero average or a minimized square sum of displacement. A spacer layer will do for setting a spacing between a probe electrode and the recording medium.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for recording and/or reproducing information in a high density and with a large capacity using a probe electrode, and to an information recording carrier suitable for use in the method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recent applications of memory elements and memory systems are diverse to computers and associate instruments, video disks, digital audio disks, etc., forming a core of electronics industries. Conventionally leading memories were magnetic memories and semiconductor memories. There have been, however, appearing optical memory elements using inexpensive, high density recording medium with recent progress of laser technology. It is highly desired to embody a memory device or method with a large capacity, but in a small volume for future development of computer utility at home and of information industry directed to images.
Meanwhile, a scanning tunnel microscope as referred to as STM has recently been developed which can directly observe an electronic structure of surface atoms of a conductor (G. Binn et al., Helvetica Physica Acta., 55. 726 (1982)). The STM allows one to observe a single crystal and an amorphous substance in a real space with a high resolving power. The STM uses such a principle that a tunnel current flows when a metal probe approaches a conductive material up to a distance of about 1 nm with application of voltage between them. The tunnel current is very sensitive to a change in distance between them. Then, manipulating the probe to maintain the tunnel current constant, one can obtain an image of surface of real space. The observation with the STM has been limited to conductive materials, but has already been started applying to an analysis of structure of a thin insulating film formed on a surface of conductive material. Further, since the STM uses a micro current for detection, it is advantageous in observation without any damage on a material to be observed and with a low power. Also, the STM can be operated in air or in solution as well as in ultra high vacuum, and therefore is applicable to various materials, with an expectation to broaden its applications.
Another application of the STM is an Atomic Force Microscope as referred to as AFM (G. Binnig et al., Phys Rev. Lett., 56, 930 (1985)). The AFM also allows one to obtain information about unevenness of surface as does the STM. Since the AFM can measure an insulating specimen on an order of an atom, further development is expected in future.
Recently, there have been proposed apparatuses applying the principles of the STM and AFM such as a recording apparatus for writing information with high resolving power and reproducing apparatus for reading out the recorded information with high resolving power. In the apparatus applying the STM and AFM technology, since it is necessary to control a distance between the probe electrode and the recording medium up to about 1 nm, the technology for controlling the distance with precision is required.
In the prior art to apply the principle of the STM and AFM, it was required to provide complicated control circuit and mechanism for controlling the distance between the probe electrode and the surface of the recording medium with order of nm. Further, in case of providing a plurality of probe electrodes for the sake of improvement of the recording and reproducing processing, preferable technology for controlling the distance between each electrode and the surface of the recording medium was required.

Information recording/reproducing method for recording and/or reproducing information on information recording carrier by use of probe electrode


A mattress sheet includes a top sheet portion having a first end, a second end opposite the first end, a pair of opposing sides defining a mattress sheet width there between, a first end sheet split extending into the top sheet portion from the first end to define first end sheet split edges and two separate first end sections and a second end sheet split extending into the top sheet portion from the second end to define second end sheet split edges and two separate second end sections. A fabric border has a top edge running along the first end, the first end sheet split edges, the opposing sides, the second end and the second end sheet split edges and a bottom edge opposite the top edge. A fabric extension extends from the fabric border a distance less than about the mattress sheet width.

Adjustable or articulating beds provide selectable adjustment of the lower or foot portion and upper or head portion of a mattress from a traditional flat or horizontal position. Therefore, the head or foot of a user can be elevated as desired, for example, for comfort, to provide relief from snoring or to facilitate reading. The upper and lower portions are adjustable independent of each other. Adjustment is provided by an articulating foundation that is mounted on a frame and that supports a mattress.
While a twin-sized adjustable bed is arranged for a single user, larger beds such as full-sized, queen-sized and king-sized adjustable beds are arranged to fit two users, one on either side of the bed. The adjustable beds for these larger bed sizes can be configured to provide separate upper and lower portion adjustment for each side of the bed. Separate adjustment, however, would not work with a single mattress. Two separate twin mattresses could be used for king-sized bed frames. However, the use of two separate mattresses may not be comfortable, and separate mattresses are not an option for queen-sized and full-sized adjustable beds.
A solution that has been proposed is the use of a single mattress that provides for separate movement of the head and foot sections of either side of the mattress using a split down the middle of the mattress from either end. These splits do not pass completely along the length of the mattress and do not overlap, leaving a central portion of the mattress that does not contain a split and that extends the entire width of the mattress. This defines an "H" shape or butterfly shape in the mattress.
Conventional bedding products such as fitted and flat sheets and mattress protectors are configured to work with conventional rectangular mattresses. These convention products do not accommodate mattresses that have split head and foot portions. Therefore, improved mattress sheets and mattress protectors are desired that work with split mattresses and that provide for relative movement between the separate split portions of the mattress.


Compound of the formula ##STR1## and pharmaceutically acceptable non-toxic acid addition salts thereof, in which L and D define the chirality;. R.sub.1 is hydrogen or C.sub.1 --C.sub.3 primary alkyl; PA1 R.sub.2 is C.sub.1 --C.sub.4 primary or secondary alkyl, allyl, cyclopropylmethyl, C.sub.1 --C.sub.2 hydroxyalkyl, or --(CH.sub.2).sub.m --U--CH.sub.3 in which U is --S-- or >S--O and m is 1 or 2; PA1 R.sub.3 is hydrogen, C.sub.1 --C.sub.4 primary or secondary alkyl, cyclopropylmethyl, or allyl; PA1 X is hydrogen, halo, hydroxy, C.sub.1 --C.sub.3 alkoxy, nitro, C.sub.1 --C.sub.3 alkyl, or trifluoromethyl; and PA1 Z is --CH.sub.2 OR.sub.4, ##STR2## in which R.sub.4 is hydrogen or C.sub.1 --C.sub.3 alkyl and R.sub.5 is C.sub.1 --C.sub.3 alkyl; are useful analgesic agents.

This invention relates to a novel class of compounds which exhibit analgesic activity.
Recently, endogenous substances having morphine-like properties have been extracted from mammalian brain or csf. These substances, named enkephalin, have been identified by Huges et al., Nature, 258, 577 (1975) as pentapeptides having the following sequences: EQU H-Tyr-Gly-Gly-Phe-Met-OH EQU H-Tyr-Gly-Gly-Phe-Leu-OH.
These compounds are referred to as methionine-enkephalin and leucine-enkephalin, respectively.
Although methionine and leucine enkephalin have been shown to exhibit analgesic activity in mice upon administration intracerebroventricularly [Buscher et al., Nature, 261, 423 (1976)], they are practically devoid of any useful analgesic activity when administered parenterally.
Therefore, since the discovery of the enkephalins, much effort has been devoted to preparing analogs of the enkephalins in the hope of finding compounds having enhanced activity and practical utility due to their bioavailability by parenteral or oral administration.
Dutta et al., Life Sciences 21, pp. 559-562 (1977) report certain structure modifications which, they suggest, tend to enhance potency. They suggest activity can be enhanced by any or all of the following:
(a) substitution of Gly in position 2 by certain D- or .alpha.-aza-amino acids;
(b) conversion of the terminal carboxyl to the methyl ester or the amide;
(c) modification of the Phe in the 4-position by .alpha.-aza substitution, N-methylation, or hydrogenation of the aromatic ring.
In addition, Roemer et al., Nature 268, pp. 547-549 (1977), suggest modification of the Met.sup.5 to its corresponding carbinol and oxidation of the Met sulfur to the sulfoxide as useful modifications.
Another structural modification of significance is that reported in Belgian Patent No. 859,026. This publication suggests enhancement of activity and bioavailability of enkephalin analogs by insertion of a D-amino acid residue in position 2, conversion of the terminal carboxyl to an amide, and N-alkylation of the amino acid residue in position 5.
A class of analogs of enkephalin having a high level of analgesic activity has now been discovered. These analogs are pentapeptides having the residue of a phenylglycyl or a ring-substituted phenylglycyl in their 5-position.
The literature recognizes other pentapeptide enkephalin analogs having an aromatic amino acid residue in the 5-position. For example, Ling et al., "Structure-Activity Relationships of Enkephalin and Endorphin Analogs", Peptides: Proceedings of the Fifth American Peptide Symposium, John Wiley and Sons, New York (1977), pp. 96-99, discloses Tyr-D-Ala-Gly-Phe-D-Phe-OH. This compound, however, exhibits limited analgesic potential whereas those of this invention, in which the group in the 5-position is a phenylglycyl moiety, have a startlingly high degree of analgesic activity.


A light converter apparatus can receive a first light beam originated from a first Li-Fi device with a first wavelength. The first light beam may have data encoded therein. The light converter apparatus can receive the first light beam and convert the first wavelength to a second wavelength, and transmit a second light beam with the second wavelength to a second Li-Fi device.

Growing demand for media content means there is a growing need for bandwidth not just to, but within, a customer premises. For example, for playback of high resolution video on wireless devices, needed bandwidth, e.g., via existing radio-based technologies such as LTE (long term evolution) wireless communications, and Wi-Fi communications, i.e., according to IEEE 802.11, is often not available. Another technology for supporting high bandwidth media transmissions is Li-Fi, i.e., Light Fidelity, communications. Using the visible light spectrum, Li-Fi technology can transmit data thousands of times faster than existing radio spectrum based technologies. However, Li-Fi requires that devices receiving a data transmission be in a line-of-sight of a Li-Fi transmitter, i.e., photo detectors of a Li-Fi receiver have to be able to actually "see" the transmitted light in order to capture the data. Additionally, Li-Fi devices may use visible light to transmit data which may cause distraction or discomfort for a user of a Li-Fi device in a dark area.


A vehicle simulator is disclosed in which a first motion platform is driven in translation and rotation from a datum position. A simulator user station is positioned on the first motion platform, the user station defining a predetermined eyepoint position and a predetermined field of view from the eyepoint position relative to the user station. A display surface is mounted on a second motion platform so as to lie within the field of view, and the second motion platform is driven to maintain a predetermined positional relationship between the eyepoint position and the display surface. An image is projected to be viewed from the eyepoint position via the display surface. The display surface is substantially spherical and the second motion platform is driven, in response to translations of the eyepoint position, so that the location of the eyepoint position relative to the center of the spherical display surface is substantially constant and, in response to rotations of the first motion platform about the eyepoint position, so that the second motion platform is maintained substantially stationary. The display surface extends to a perimeter that is outside the predetermined field of view for any possible rotations of the first motion system about the eyepoint position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle simulator.
Vehicle simulators are widely used in training or entertainment applications. One major area of use is in the training of aircraft pilots.
2. Related Art
In a typical aircraft flight simulator, a trainee pilot sits in a mock cockpit and views an image visible to him through the cockpit windows. Often the mock cockpit is supported on a motion platform so that the physical effects of vehicle motion can be simulated to supplement the simulation of aircraft motion represented by the visual image. Typically the mock cockpit is supported on a rigid platform that is itself supported on six hydraulic jacks. The hydraulic jacks are connected between three pivots on the underside of the platform and three pivots on a support base beneath the platform. Thus each platform pivot is connected to two jacks which are in turn connected to respective ones of a pair of the support base pivots. This conventional jack system provides six degrees of freedom and is the industry standard for motion platform support systems.
A variety of visual systems have been proposed for use in vehicle simulators. Generally such visual systems can be divided into two types, that is uncollimated and collimated.
In uncollimated systems, an image to be viewed by the simulator user is projected on to a screen or dome placed in front of the mock cockpit. The screen surface is typically between three and six meters from the simulator user's eyepoint and thus such systems are not ideally suited to portray images representing distant objects. Uncollimated systems are however often used where very wide fields of view are required as it is difficult to project images showing very wide fields of view using collimated systems. Uncollimated systems are also sometimes favoured for simulating vertical take off aircraft where it is necessary to train pilots in very low altitude manoeuvres. In such circumstances the short distance between the screen and the user's eyepoint is not a major disadvantage.
In collimated systems, the user is presented with an image which appears to be at infinity. In one type of widely used collimated system, the windows of the mock cockpit are covered by a television monitor arrangement incorporating beam splitters such that rays of light from the television monitor are reflected in a partially reflective mirror to a concave mirror and from the concave mirror back through the partially reflective mirror to the users eyepoint, Such arrangements present an appropriate image only to a user in one position and are therefore not ideal for multi-occupancy cockpit simulations as required for example for wide-bodied jets, They are used for such applications however despite the fact that two users sitting side by side only receive an appropriate image through the immediately adjacent front and side windows. A user looking towards a side or front window on the opposite side of the cockpit sees either a very distorted image or no image at all.
Collimated wider angle visual systems are known in which the cross-cockpit image problem referred above is avoided, In such systems an image is projected onto a back projection screen placed above the mock cockpit and viewed via a concave mirror placed front of the mock cockpit. The mirror is typically two or three meters away from the front of the mock cockpit but nevertheless presents an image which appears to be at infinity, Such systems now represent the majority of commercial aircraft flight simulation system but are not ideal for military aircraft simulation as the field of view in military aircraft is typically many times greater than that in civil aircraft.
The limited field of view problem referred to above can of course be overcome by increasing the size of the dome/mirror which represents the surface directly visible to the user, If the mock cockpit is stationary this is relatively easy to achieve but if the mock cockpit is mounted on a motion system the size and weight of the dome or mirror becomes a major problem as it to must be mounted on the motion system to maintain the essential geometry of the visual system.
The industry standard motion platform system referred to above typically comprises a platform mounted on six hydraulic actuators or jacks each having a stroke of about 1.5 m. Typical industry standard motion performances are set out in the following table:
______________________________________ ACCEL- DISPLACEMENT VELOCITY ERATION ______________________________________ Vertical +85.1 cm +61 cm/sec +8 m/sec.sup.2 -95.3 cm Longitudinal +102.9 cm +61 cm/sec +6.1/sec.sup.2 -150.8 cm Lateral .+-.105.4 cm .+-.61 cm/sec .+-.6.1 m/sec.sup.2 Pitch .+-.25.2.degree. .+-.20.degree./sec .+-.120.degree./sec.sup.2 Roll .+-.27.5 .+-.20.degree./sec .+-.120.degree./sec.sup.2 Yaw .+-.32.5.degree. .+-.20.degree./sec .+-.120.degree./sec.sup.2 ______________________________________
The positive and negative translational displacements in the vertical, longitudinal and lateral directions represent translational movement from a datum position to which the motion platform moves when powered up. The rotational displacements about the pitch, roll and yaw axes are also relative to axes passing thereof this datum rotation. Typically the motion platform weighs from 9000 to 12000 kg (20000 to 26000 lbs) and given the position of the motion centroid defined by the arrangement of the actuators the following typical inertia figures can be expected:
______________________________________ Roll Inertia 43000 Kg m.sup.2 (32000 slug ft.sup.2) Pitch Inertia 52000 Kg m.sup.2 (38000 slug ft.sup.2) Yaw Inertia 35000 Kg m.sup.2 (26000 slug ft.sup.2). ______________________________________
The above figures apply for motion platforms supporting visual systems capable of presenting a wide angle image subtending a field of view of for example 40.degree. vertically and 140.degree. horizontally. In a wide bodied jet simulator, a field of view of these dimensions requires a mirror which defines part of the surface of a sphere, the vertical distance between the upper and lower edges of the mirror being typically of the order of 2 m and the horizontal distance between the side edges of the mirror being typically of the order of 5 m. Doubling the vertical field of view without any increase in the horizontal field of view obviously doubles the surface area of the mirror and the structure necessary to maintain dimensional stability for the mirror is necessarily massive. Such a structure could theoretically be built but only at the expense of substantially increasing the motion platform inertia. As a consequence, when very large fields of view are required, the traditional approach has been to dispense with the obvious advantages of a full motion system and rely instead upon a stationary mock cockpit located within a stationary display incorporating for example a dome. The mock cockpit can be mounted on a vibration platform or a g-seat can be used to deliver some displacement cues to the user but the resulting system is far less realistic than could be achieved using a full motion system.
A proposal has been made to overcome the problems inherent in the provision of large field of view visual systems on a motion platform by mounting the mock cockpit on a first motion platform and a display screen in the form of a dome on a second motion platform. This proposal was the subject of a disclosure in a paper entitled "Satisfactory Visual and Motion Cueing for Helicopters/VSTOL Simulation", by S. Sexton, R. Burbidge and Dr. M. Roberts of Rediffusion Simulation Limited. That paper was presented to the Royal Aeronautical Society in May 1990. In the disclosed system the mock cockpit is mounted on a conventional six degrees of freedom motion system supported on an inclined surface and a dome is mounted on an identical second conventional motion system mounted on a facing inclined surface. The advantage of this arrangement is firstly that the dome can extend beneath the mock cockpit so as to simulation of images relevant to helicopter landing procedures and secondly that the mechanical loading on the mock cockpit motion system is reduced by the transferral of the dome structure to the second motion system. In the disclosed system, the dome is substantially hemispherical and is disposed such that the motion system supporting the dome must be rotated about the eyepoint of a user in the mock cockpit in response to pitching motions of the mock cockpit about the users eyepoint if the lower edge of the hemisphere is to remain out of the field of view of the user. Thus a relatively small rotation of the mock cockpit about the users eyepoint can result in a requirement for the motion system supporting the dome to rotate the dome about the eyepoint so that the edges of the dome traverse substantial distances. For example, if the eyepoint to dome distance is of the order of 5 m an 18.degree. rotation about the eyepoint requires a displacement of the edge of the hemisphere by more than 1 m. Clearly such displacements cannot be achieved sufficiently rapidly using standard motion system components given the large size of the display system components. Thus although the system described in the above paper has been put forward as a speculative solution to the problems associated with providing an integrated large field of view visual and motion system it has never been implemented. Alternative speculative solutions put forward in the same paper include the provision of secondary wide angle collimated displays independently mounted from a motion system, the provision of a very large static dome extending around the motion platform, and the mounting of a mock cockpit within a conventional motion platform supportive system so that the mock cockpit can be tilted relative to that motion platform.

Vehicle simulator and method for controlling a vehicle simulator


A flow sensor which includes a support structure including a base having a plurality of spaced mesas on a surface thereof is provided. A low thermal conductivity, dielectric diaphragm spanning the mesas is supported along its length thereby and forms an electrical and thermal insulation barrier over the support structure and the mesas. At least one flow sensing element is superposed on the diaphragm so that the flow sensing element is substantially electrically and thermally isolated from the support structure. A method for fabricating the flow sensor is also provided.

The present invention relates generally to air velocity or flow sensors. More specifically, the present invention relates to a structurally improved thermal anemometer-type mass air flow sensor and method for making same.
Air velocity sensors that are commercially available are commonly of the single hot wire or thermistor type and are typically mounted on the end of a long probe for insertion into an air stream. The temperature drop and the associated change in electrical resistance caused by the cooling effect of the air stream is a measure of the airflow velocity. Disadvantages of such an apparatus are for example the limited durability of the device in an automotive environment and an erroneous reading due to deposits of impurities, commonly found in the air flow of an engine, on the hot element.
As a result of these problems, many attempts in the art have been made to produce a flow sensor which utilizes silicon and its semiconductor properties, or a pyroelectric material. These attempts improved the state of the art in some respects, yet remained deficient with respect to many of the characteristics desired in a modern flow sensor. As is known, a very fine platinum or tungsten wire may be supported in the free stream and maintained at a temperature above the air intake temperature of an automobile engine by electronic sensing and feedback circuits. Any change in the air flow alters the cooling effect of the air on the heated wire. An electronic circuit can sense this change in heat transfer rate and change the heating current so as to maintain the temperature of the wire at a set value.
McCarthy, U.S. Pat. No. 4,594,889 (commonly assigned), provides a method of fabricating a mass air flow sensor on a planar silicon substrate. A pair of spaced openings are formed through the silicon substrate so that a relatively elongated, thin wire-like silicon region remains between the openings. After a silicon dioxide coating is formed on this silicon substrate, an elongated metal coating is applied to the silicon dioxide on the wire-like silicon region. The device fabricated thereby may be used as a low cost, high speed sensing element, such as a mass air flow sensor for measuring air flow in an electronic engine control system. However, the McCarthy flow sensor incorporates an elongated, thin silicon member which is susceptible to breakage upon impact of particles moving with the fluid to be measured, such as dust particles travelling with the air flow in the intake of an automobile engine control system.
Similarly, Bohrer et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,825,693, disclose a semiconductor device which can be used as a flow sensor. The semiconductor body has a "bridge-type" support diaphragm upon which heating and sensing elements are deposited. The "bridge-type" diaphragm is suspended over a depression formed by the etching of a silicon substrate. The "bridge-type" diaphragm is relatively long and thin and is connected to the semiconductor body at one or more edges of the depression. The "bridge-type" diaphragm consists of metal sensing and heating elements disposed between two dielectric layers such as silicon nitride or silicon oxide. Such heating and sensing elements are entirely located on the bridge portion of the "bridge-type" diaphragm and are thus similarly suspended over the depression. However, no supports are provided under the "bridge-type" diaphragm between the edges of the depression. Since the sensing and heating elements are located superposed on the "bridge-type" diaphragm, their sole means of support derives from the diaphragm-edge attachment. Thus, while this structure results in minimized conductive heat losses to the semiconductor body via its minimum contact therewith, those minimum contacts also result in a relatively fragile structure that is easily susceptible to breakage.
In yet another attempt in the art, Gruner, U.S. Pat. No. 4,498,337, discloses a flow sensor having a flat, metal support base or carrier, such as titanium, which supports thin film resistors or sensing elements Interposed between the metal support base and resistors is an electrically insulating layer such as glass. So as to minimize conductive heat loss through the support base to the structure surrounding the center, portions of the sensor edges which are in contact with the surrounding structure are removed. Although Gruner's use of a metal support base may provide the flow sensor with some degree of mechanical strength, the Gruner flow sensor does not appear to have achieved the combination of high mechanical strength and low conductive heat loss as is desired More specifically, while Gruner uses a continuous flat sheet to support the electrical insulating layer and sensing/heating elements, there remains a need for not only an electrical insulating layer, but also a thermal insulating layer so as to preclude any conductive heat loss from the sensing/heating elements. Thus, there remains a need for a flow sensor which achieves a better combination of increased mechanical strength and minimized conductive heat loss.
Air flow sensors must be inexpensive, yet possess a very fast response and be accurate and rugged. These requirements are often conflicting, as evidenced by certain air flow sensors which typically comprise bulky rugged sensing elements resulting in poor response time characteristics because of increased resistivity attributed to the bulky components of larger sensing elements. Conversely, fast responding air flow sensors are typically expensive and have smaller and thus more fragile sensing elements. Moreover, state-of-the-art thermal air flow sensors must be fully inserted into the fluid flow region and, consequently are subject to destruction and/or deterioration by impacting dust, lint, or other debris in the fluid stream. However, if fragile sensing elements of air flow sensors are strengthened by increasing the width thereof, an increase in conductive heat loss from the sensing elements to the support structure is experienced.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for an improved thermal anemometer-type mass air flow sensor having structural improvements which render the flow sensor less susceptible to breakage upon impact by particles moving with the fluid to be measured. Furthermore, there remains a need for such a flow sensor which includes these structural improvements without significant increase in conductive heat loss attributed to the materials supporting the sensing/heating elements of the flow sensor. There also remains a need in the art for a method of making the aforementioned flow sensor so that it can readily be mass produced.


Hunting rifles must be sighted-in for accuracy at long range and such a procedure is complicated by the scarcity of long range firing ranges. The invention simplifies the sighting-in procedure on short rifle ranges and provides for the sighting-in of rifles equipped with telescopic sights. This is accomplished by the use of a sighting-in target having a cross comprised of equal length horizontal and vertical lines intersecting at their mid-points. The lines are provided at the ends thereof with markings in the form of solid-colored circles circumscribed by concentric rings.

A hunting rifle must be sighted-in for a selected range to enable accurate firing at long distances. Hunters require their firearms be sighted-in for a range of 200 to 300 yards, which presents a problem. There are very few such long ranges available for this purpose, thus hunters must sight-in on shorter ranges and make compensation. The standard range is usually only 100 yards long. The present invention overcomes this problem by providing a target which enables the accurate long-range sighting-in of rifles equipped with telescopic sights, on a much shorter firing range. The traditional bull's-eye target was originally designed for use with open sight and peep sight rifles. This target is unsuitable for sight-in a rifle with a telescopic sight because it requires the rifleman to align the cross-wires with an arc of one of the concentric circles of the target. That procedure is awkward and imprecise. The present invention overcomes these limitations of the prior art.


A culture medium without or with a low level of protein for culturing a transformed animal cell capable of continuously producing a protein prepared by using a genetic engineering technique, which contains a nonionic surfactant and cyclodextrin, and a method for producing a protein which comprises culturing a transformed animal cell capable of producing the desired protein prepared by using a genetic engineering technique in the culture medium.

Nowadays, a recombinant engineering technique has been used for producing a variety of physiologically active substances as a recombinant protein in many kinds of host cells including an animal cell and a procaryotic cell such as E. coli. The animal cell is selected as a host cell in case that the protein produced after translation must be subjected to a modification procedure such as glycosilation or a construction of a hyperstructure so that the protein exhibits a physiological activity. However, in order to obtain a large amount of the physiologically active substance which is secreted in a culture supernatant of animal cell, several problems must be overcome. One is of the culture medium for culturing an animal cell capable of continuously producing a desired protein. Another is of the production efficiency of the desired protein in a culture medium in the production thereof by an animal cell.
In case of an animal cell culture, a culture medium must contain serum such as fetal calf serum (FCS). However, the serum including FCS is extremely expensive and besides it may possibly be contaminated with mycoplasma, virus and the like, and hence, it must be assayed for proving no contamination before use. In addition, it has not been easy to purify the desired substance from a culture supernatant since serum contains a variety of heterologous pertinacious substances. In this point of view, a serum-free culture medium has been developed including those supplemented with a protein whose property is well known such as insulin, transferrin, serum albumin and the like [D. Bames, G. H. Sato, Cell, 22 p649 (1980)].
However, it is more preferable not to use any protein. For such a purpose, it is also proposed to replace these proteins by other chemical compounds.
As an alternative of transferrin, an iron chelating agent such as ethylenediamine tetraacetate-iron complex or iron gluconate has been developed [Japanese Patent First Publication (Kokai) NO. 141584/1988; The 8th symposium of the industrial basal technology for the next generation, preliminary report in biotechnology]. As an alternative of serum albumin, a clathrate compound of .alpha.-cyclodextrin with an unsaturated fatty acid or a fat-soluble vitamin is known [Japanese Patent Second Publication (KoKoKu) No. 018465/1981]. It is also reported that an animal cell can be cultured without serum by adding a microemulsion of PLURONIC F-68 and a fat-soluble factor to a culture medium (PCT WO90/03429). However, the above-mentioned culture media without or with low level of protein are directed to merely cell growth and sometimes are not suitably applicable to the production of a recombinant protein. Therefore, there is a need for developing a culture medium which is capable of enhancing the production efficiency of recombinant protein.
As for the production efficiency of culture, in case of human coagulation Factor VIII, it is known that the Factor VIII is present in a starting plasma at a concentration of about 200 ng/ml but when a coagulation Factor VIII-producing cell prepared by the genetic engineering technique is cultured in a usual manner, only about 20 ng/ml of the product can be obtained from the culture supernatant [Pavirani, A. et al., Biotechnology 5, p. 389-392 (1987)]. Such a low level of production in case of the genetic engineering technique is assumed to be mostly due to a large molecular weight of the desired protein (about 300 KDa) and thereby difficulty of secretion of said protein from the host cell to the culture supernatant [Kaufman, R. J. et al., Mol. Cell Biol. 9, p1233-1242 (1989)].
As mentioned above, in case of culture of the Factor VIII-producing cell prepared by the genetic engineering technique, the production efficiency of the desired coagulation Factor VIII in the culture supernatant is quite low by the conventional culturing procedure. In this respect, for enhancing the production efficiency of the recombinant coagulation Factor VIII, an increase of cell density, an increase of stability of the produced protein and an enhancement of expression efficiency must be attained.
The present inventors have been investigated a culture medium which is effective for a large scale production of the recombinant coagulation Factor VIII protein by an animal cell. The present inventors have already found that the production efficiency of the recombinant protein with very low stability such as the coagulation Factor VIII can be improved by adding 1% serum albumin to the culture medium (Japanese Patent Application No. 157570/1988). This is assumed to be due to an effect of the serum albumin to stabilize the produced protein. However, the addition of pertinacious substance such as serum albumin makes it quite difficult to purify the desired production. Besides, since serum albumin is precious and expensive, it is substantially hard to use serum albumin as a culture component in large scale production.
In order to overcome the above-mentioned problem, a number of methods have recently been reported to enhance the production efficiency of the desired protein by adding a kind of additives to a cell culture system. Such known methods include, for example, a method in which the production efficiency of the desired protein is enhanced by adding an alkane acid (the most preferable is butyric acid) or a salt thereof to a culture system of protein-producing cell [Japanese Patent First Publication (Kohyo) No. 503273/1988] and a method in which butyric acid or a salt thereof is added to a beads culture system of protein-producing cell to enhance the production efficiency (PCT WO89/06686). There have also been reported a method for culturing an interferon-producing cell in which a cell capable of intrinsically producing interferon is cultured in a culture medium containing a straight chain alkane acid having 2 to 5 carbon atoms, preferably butyric acid, or a salt thereof prior to induction of interferon production (USP 4,216,203) and a method for enhancing an interferon production which comprises adding glucocorticoid, butyric acid or dimethylsulfoxide to a culture medium [Japanese Patent First Publication (Kokai) No. 74093/1982] and the like.
The above-mentioned conventional methods are directed to enhancement of the production efficiency by adding a straight chain alkane acid, most preferably butyric acid, to a culture system for production of useful protein and in fact the production efficiency of protein is enhanced by these methods through addition of such additives. However, in case of a certain combination of a desired protein and a producing cell, the production efficiency is quite low even when the alkane acid is added to a culture medium and a single addition of butyric acid is even more insufficient. A typical example of such insufficiency is the production of coagulation Factor VIII by utilizing the genetic engineering technique.
Actually, it is reported that, when a recombinant animal cell capable of producing the coagulation Factor VIII prepared by using the genetic engineering technique is cultured to produce a desired protein, the addition of a butyrate (in this case, sodium butyrate) to the culture medium increases an amount of said coagulation Factor VIII produced in the culture supernatant by about 1.3 to 2.5 times as compared to the culture medium with no addition of the butyrate [Dorner, A. J. et al., J. Biol. Chem. 254, p20602-20607 (1989)]. However, the enhancement of production efficiency is still insufficient even by the addition of the butyrate in case of a production system having originally low production efficiency such as the production system of the coagulation Factor VIII, and still more enhancement of the production efficiency is required for the production of coagulation Factor VIII on industrial scale.

Culture medium for production of recombinant protein

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