Fire resistant door, glazing, and mullion frames include intumescent material at least partially embedded in the frame adjacent the door or glazing. Trim materials are positioned over the intumescent material to prevent tampering with and damage to the intumescent material while improving the aesthetic appearance of the frame. The jamb trim has a thickness that allows heat to be transmitted to the intumescent material in the event of a fire so that the intumescent material will expand and fill a clearance space between the frame and the door or glazing. The expanded intumescent material retards the passage of heat and, by sealing the clearance space, inhibits the transmission of smoke, flames and gases from one side of the door or glazing to the other. After expanding, the intumescent material will char and solidify, which may provide an added benefit of structural support for the door or glazing.

This disclosure relates to fire resistant door frames, relite frames, sidelite frames, transom frames, borrowed light frames, and mullions, and to such structures that withstand positive-pressure fire testing necessary for enhanced fire code ratings.
In the construction of buildings and, more particularly, the construction of institutional and commercial buildings, it is common and sometimes necessary to include interior room and space walls with door openings and interior windows called "lights" or glazing. The openings for doors and glazing are usually first roughly framed in with wall studs. Door frames and glazing frame assemblies are then attached to the studs and the assemblies are finished with wallboard, doors, and glazing.
In many commercial building interiors, wooden interior doors and door frames are preferred over metal doors and frames because exposed wood surfaces enhance the aesthetics of the interior spaces. Wood framing and mullions (including light-to-light mullions and door-to-light mullions) are also commonly used for interior glass panels including relites, sidelites (a.k.a. sidelights), borrowed lights, transom lights, vision lights, and any other light-transmitting panel installed in a wall or door (collectively, "glazed openings"). To reduce costs, wood assemblies for doors and door frames are often constructed with a shaved wood veneer adhered to the exterior of a manufactured fiber core material, such as medium density fiberboard ("MDF"). High-quality wood assemblies use similar core materials, but with a solid wood facing or trim that is precision-cut, not shaved. Typically, solid wood facing is slightly thicker than veneer, making it more durable, stronger, and longer lasting than veneer assemblies. However, solid wood surfaces typically provide more fuel for a fire than veneer, which reduces fire resistance of the assembly.
Modern fire codes and architectural practices require doors and door frames to be constructed in accordance with designs that have undergone fire testing performed by accredited testing facilities in accordance with established standard test procedures. One widely recognized test procedure is a 45-minute positive-pressure test performed by Intertek Testing Services (ITS/Warnock Hersey) of Boxborough, Mass., USA for rating in accordance with the following standards: NFPA 252, CAN4-S104, UBC 7-2 1997, ISO 3008, and BS476 Part 22. Positive-pressure testing requires doors, door frames, glazed openings, and their frames and mullions to be tested as an assembly. The interior side of the assembly (facing toward the door when opened) is subjected to a furnace flame with positive pressure applied to the burn zone at a predetermined height from the bottom of the door. The tests permit only a limited amount of smoke to escape around the door and glazed openings.
In an attempt to meet positive-pressure testing requirements, known prior-art designs have included intumescent materials in the doors and door frames. When exposed to heat generated in a fire, intumescent materials quickly foam and expand, then char and solidify to provide a strong, fire-resistant seal that also inhibits the penetration of smoke around doors. Intumescent materials typically activate at temperatures in excess of 400° F., but may activate at higher or lower temperatures depending on the type of intumescent material used.
One known door frame design calls for workers at the construction site to apply adhesive-backed strips of graphite intumescent material against a door jamb surface called the rabbet (where the frame is stepped to receive the door). Such designs are subject to failure due to improper installation, tampering, and damage to the exposed intumescent material. Moreover, the only frames of this type known to comply with 45-minute positive-pressure testing are hollow metal frames.
Another known use of intumescent material is a door sold by VT Industries of Holstein, Iowa, USA that includes an intumescent strip embedded between a core of the door and a wood veneer along an edge of the door. However, to comply with 45-minute positive pressure testing, the VT Industries doors must be installed in a door frame that has been tested as an assembly with the VT Industries door. The only frames known to comply with 45-minute positive-pressure testing when used with the VT Industries door are metal frames to which intumescent material has been applied against the rabbet surface, as described above. Thus a need exists for a door frame assembly that complies with 45-minute positive-pressure test standards, which is more aesthetically pleasing and which does not expose the intumescent material to tampering and damage.
The present inventors have also recognized a need for an improved fire resistant sidelight frame. Summit Door, Inc., St. Paul, Minn., USA sells frames for sidelight openings that have successfully undergone 45-minute positive-pressure tests. This sidelite frame design uses intumescent strips inlaid against its top (header), bottom (sill), and sides (jambs) and between the glass panel and wooden stops that are fastened to the frame on both sides of the glass panel. This design requires the glass to be installed in the frame using metal glazing clips before the wooden stops are installed. The metal glazing clips are apparently necessary to provide support for the glass panel in the event of a fire. The metal glazing clips provide structural support for the glass panel, but add to the material cost as well as the time and cost involved in installing it. Thus there remains a need for aesthetically pleasing wood frames and mullions for glazed openings that will pass a 45-minute positive-pressure test without the need for expensive metal glazing clips.

Fire-resistant frame assemblies for building


A device and method for annealing a wafer. The preferred embodiment includes applying a basic thermal budget to a weakened zone of a wafer, substantially evenly over the weakened zone. The basic thermal budget is insufficient to detach a detachment layer from a remainder of the wafer at the weakened zone. An additional thermal budget is applied locally in an initiation region of the weakened zone to initiate the detachment of the detachment layer at the weakened zone.

Wafers are known to be made of a semiconductor material, such as silicon. The SMART-CUT® process, for instance, is known for annealing and detaching a layer from such a wafer at a zone of weakness, is an example of a process implementing such stages. The surface of layers produced are desired to satisfy very strict specifications. It is common to find roughness specifications that must not exceed 5 Angstroms in terms of rms (root mean square).
Measurements of roughness are generally taken with an AFM (Atomic Force Microscope). With this type of device, the roughness is measured on surfaces scanned by the tip of the AFM, ranging from 1×1 μm2 to 10×10 μm2, and less commonly to 50×50 μm2 or even 100×100 μm2.
It is also possible to measure the surface roughness by other methods, such as via a "haze". This method notably has the advantage of quickly characterising the harmony of the roughness over a whole surface. The haze, which is measured in ppm, comes from a process using the optical reflective properties of the surface to be characterized, and corresponds to an optical "background noise" diffused by the surface due to its micro-roughness.
It is also to be noted that if the layers are to have certain roughness values, they should also have a harmonious roughness over their whole surface.
The processes known in the art that allow the detachment of a layer from a wafer of semiconductor material following an annealing do not always result in layer surface roughness that falls within the aforementioned specifications. There is thus a need to improve the controlling of the roughness of detached layers following an annealing.

Annealing process and device of semiconductor wafer

S.O.I.Tec Silicon on Insulator Technologies S.A.


The black powder to be treated is injected into the bottom portion of a heated dense fluidized bed, said bed having effective depth enabling the carbon the particles of silica to be oxidized into carbon dioxide as the particles go through the dense fluidized bed while being entrained by the fluidization air. The whitened powder is then recovered by filtering the gases leaving said dense fluidized bed. The invention is particularly applicable to the cosmetics industry for producing make-up that uses silica powder.

The electrical furnaces used in the preparation of silicon are arc furnaces provided with graphite electrodes. Because of the very high temperatures and the flows of hot air inside such furnaces, a certain proportion of silicon escapes with the flue gases and oxidizes into silica fumes.
These fumes of silica, i.e. of SiO.sub.2, have very small grain size (in the order of a few .mu.m) and they are always black in color. This color is due essentially to the silica particles capturing carbon that comes from wear of the graphite electrodes.
The black color of these silica fumes makes them unsuitable for high value applications, in particular in the cosmetic industry, even though the existence of very fine grains urges people skilled in the art to seek an application that would make use of the advantages inherent in having silica powder supplied directly in the form of very fine grains.
There is therefore a need to whiten silica fumes so as to be able to make them more valuable.
However, the person skilled in the art encounters great difficulties with traditional incineration methods that are available, such as methods that make use of a rotating furnace or of a high-speed calcinator (also known as a "flash calcinator").
If a conventionally designed rotating furnace is used in the form of a rotating cylinder whose axis is at a small angle relative to the horizontal, with a flame being disposed at the inlet to or the outlet from the cylinder, it is observed that the substance injected into the cylinder to be turned over therein sticks together and reagglomerates into clusters of larger size, thus loosing its fineness.
This is explained by the fact that the two parameters of temperature and of contact time do not make it possible simultaneously to whiten the powder and to maintain the very fine grain size thereof. Since the contact time is de facto very short, either the temperature is selected to be quite low so as to avoid the particles sticking together, in which case the resulting powder is fairly gray in color, or else the temperature is raised in order to achieve satisfactory whitening, in which case the sintering temperature of the powder is exceeded and the resulting product is in the form of agglomerated lumps.
It would certainly be possible to provide an additional treatment system for reducing such agglomerated lumps to particles of a more acceptable grain size, but under such circumstances the method would be more expensive and in any event the geometry of the particles would be spoiled (crushed particles would be very rough and such lack of roundness would make them unsuitable for applications in which a very "smooth" powder is required, e.g. in the cosmetics industry as an ingredient in foundation make-up and face powder).
In addition, if a conventionally-designed flash calcinator is used which is in the form of a very tall narrow vertical cylinder with hot air being injected into the bottom thereof at high speed, although each grain of powder is individually supported to form an "entrained bed" and is subjected to a temperature that can be held below the sintering temperature (to avoid the particles sticking together), the powder remains in contact with high temperature air for too short a length of time (less than one second), such that the powder collected downstream from the calcinator is gray in this case also.
It would certainly be possible to increase the contact time by using a calcinator that is taller than the conventional height of existing calcinators (which is generally about 12 to 15 meters (m)), but that would lead to an enormous installation since it would have to be at least fifty meters tall.
Conventional methods thus do not make it possible to whiten silica fumes satisfactorily while retaining their very small grain size.
It should also be observed that the person skilled in the art would, a priori, avoid using any fluidized bed technique using hot gas with the powder to be treated since the grain size of the power is very much smaller than the limit of so-called "fluidizable" powders (generally 30 .mu.m to 50 .mu.m). Under such circumstances the grains subjected to inter-particle forces and to the force of gravity can no longer be supported by a fluidization flow and it is not possible to prevent the powder blowing away.
An object of the invention is to solve this problem by providing a method of treatment and apparatus for implementing the method that enable silica fumes to be whitened while preserving the fine grain size, which has not been possible with conventional methods, as explained above.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method and apparatus for implementing the method suitable for use under financial conditions that are reasonable, without requiring a treatment installation of exorbitant size, and with the treatment process being suitable for automatic control.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method and apparatus for implementing the method making use of means having a structure that remains simple and reliable, thereby making it easy to connect the treatment installation to the rest of the factory, with the feed of silica fumes and the collection of the finished product being automated.

Method of treating silica fumes for whitening purposes

Electricite De France (Service National)


Hard phase particles including Co alloy particles, carbide alloy particles, and silicide particles are dispersed substantially uniformly throughout a matrix composed of Cu self-fluxing alloy of a cladded portion. The cladded portion contains 6 to 15% by weight of Co, 3 to 8% by weight of one of Cr and Mo, 0.3 to 1% by weight of W, 0.5 to 1.8% by weight of Fe, 8 to 15% by weight of Ni, 0.08 to 0.2% by weight of C, 1.5 to 4% by weight of Si, 0.5 to 0.8% by weight of Al, and 0.1 to 0.3% by weight of P, and inevitable impurities and Cu as a balance. The hard phase particles have an average particle diameter of 8 to 20 μm and a particle size distribution width of 0.1 to 100 μm, and to occupy 10 to 20% in an arbitrary cross section of the cladded portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a particle dispersion copper alloy in which particles are dispersed in a matrix composed of a copper alloy, and a method for producing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
The combustion gas is produced in accordance with the reciprocating motion of a piston in a cylinder bore in an internal combustion engine of an automobile. A discharge port is provided for the internal combustion engine in order to discharge the combustion gas. The discharge port is opened/closed by a valve.
A valve seat is provided for the discharge port in order to seal the combustion gas. The valve, which makes the forward/backward movement in accordance with the opening/closing operation of the discharge port, makes sliding contact with the valve seat. Therefore, it is desired that the valve seat is excellent in the abrasion resistance.
A seat made of Fe-based sintered material or a seat made of copper-based self-fluxing alloy has been hitherto adopted as the valve seat. Such a valve seat is arranged for the cylinder bore as follows. In the case of the seat made of Fe-based sintered material, an annular member is manufactured, and forcibly introduced under the pressure. On the other hand, in the case of the seat made of copper-based self-fluxing alloy, cladding (or padding) is carried out in the vicinity of an opening of the cylinder bore.
In recent years, environmental protection has been highly concerned. Therefore, further clean gas discharge from the internal combustion engine and reduced fuel consumption ratio have been attempted. In accordance with such attempt, the ratio of fuel to the air is decreased when fuel is combusted in the internal combustion engine. In other words, the fuel becomes thinned. However, when the combustion method as described above is carried out, the known seats made of Fe-based sintered material or copper-based self-fluxing alloy are undesirably worn in a relatively short period of time.
In order to improve abrasion resistance of the seat made of the copper-based self-fluxing alloy, for example, it is preferable to disperse hard particles in the copper-based self-fluxing alloy. From this viewpoint, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-105177 suggests that a silicide having a three-dimensional Laves structure is dispersed as hard particles in a copper-based self-fluxing alloy.
In the case of this technique, the average particle diameter of the hard particles ranges over 50 to 200 μm. In the case of the particle-dispersed copper alloy containing the coarse particles as the hard particles as described above, the surface roughness is excessively increased. Frictional heat may undesirably be increased when the valve makes sliding contact.
On the other hand, Japanese Patent No. 3373076 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-194462 disclose the fact that a silicide is crystallized or deposited from a component which constitutes a copper alloy, and provided as hard particles. However, in this case, because the hard particles may not be dispersed uniformly, it is difficult to uniformize abrasion resistance throughout the seat.

Particle dispersion copper alloy and method for producing the same


Apparatus and methods for ventral only ablation of the tongue, for use in treating sleep apnea and related breathing disorders. An RF ablation probe or wand is inserted in ventral surface of a patient's tongue in a superior plane along a longitudinal (i.e., anterior to posterior) axis of the tongue, to a predetermined depth. The wand is withdrawn, RF energy is applied, creating a lesion predominantly in the interior of the tongue in an anterior to posterior plane, thereby resulting in less scarring but appreciable movement of the posterior tongue base away from the posterior pharyngeal wall. Also disclosed is a tongue retractor device used for measuring the depth of wand insertion, lifting the tongue to expose the ventral surface of the tongue for the procedure, and providing a stop surface to inhibit further wand insertion.

Sleep Apnea is a sleep disturbance (disorder) characterized by abnormal pauses in breathing or instances of abnormally low breathing, during sleep. An "apnea", or basically a pause in breathing can typically last from a few seconds to minutes, and may occur many times over a period of an hour. In one form of sleep apnea, commonly known as the Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), a patient's normal breathing is interrupted by a physical block. As a result, not enough air reaches a patient's lungs, resulting in decreased airflow to the lungs, and consequently, snoring. Common symptoms of OSA include loud snoring, restless sleep, and consequently, fatigue and sleepiness during the daytime. Further, a patient suffering from obstructive sleep apnea can also suffer a stroke. Even further, patients suffering from sleep apnea can have memory loss due to reduced flow of oxygen to the brain caused by the decreased airflow to the lungs.
Conventionally, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is one treatment for obstructive sleep apnea. CPAP treatments usually involve a patient wearing a mask or a similar device that fits over a patient's nose, or covering both the nose and the mouth of a patient. Usually, a tube connects the mask to a motor that blows air into the mask through the tube. The air pressure can be adjusted based on the needs and comfort level of the patient being treated. Generally it is the doctor's responsibility to decide what pressure setting is appropriate for the patient. There are many available masks with many variations. But, many patients have difficulty in tolerating forced air. Thus, claustrophobia and feelings of suffocation and/or panic attacks are also frequent complaints for patients who are treated using CPAP. Masks can also create sores, acne ulcers or annoying skin eruptions. Dry eyes from leaky masks can also be one annoying condition.
Other methods of treatment of sleep apnea include nasal valves, surgeries (e.g., to remove and tighten tissue around the airway to the lungs), and dental devices. Such surgeries can involve tongue repositioning, procedures concerning the patient's sinuses and valves, and various palatal techniques. However, surgeries can cause morbidity—pain and swallowing difficulties (i.e., patients have to be on soft diet for long periods of time). Patients who have undergone surgeries can also have difficulties in taste and speech. Also, conventional electrosurgical procedures cause deep thermal penetration because of the high temperatures (usually, 400 degrees Celsius to 600 degrees Celsius) used in the procedure. In many cases, even after performing surgeries, symptoms of sleep apnea can relapse after some time. Moreover, surgical procedures, if at all, can be performed on adults who are able to undergo surgical procedures.
In one traditional method of treating sleep apnea, RF ablation (RFA) devices are used to create lesions (typically four or more) at the base of the patient's tongue. Usually, such a method involves the doctor taking extra precaution so that the patient's lingual artery and hypoglossal and lingual nerves are avoided. The concept behind RFA involves dissociating soft tissue using bipolar radiofrequency energy. The devices comprise electrolytes in a conductive medium. A precisely focused plasma field (RF field) is created by exciting electrolytes in the conductive medium. As a result, energized particles or ions in the plasma field get sufficient energy to break organic molecular bonds within soft tissue at relatively low temperatures (usually, 40° C. to 70° C.).
Traditional methods involving RF ablation devices for treating sleep apnea can be painful and can also result in undesirable health complications of a patient. Examples of such complications include hematoma, dysphagia, dysarthria, deformity, aspiration, and other undesirable complications. Consequently, patients treated using traditional RF ablation methods have to be hospitalized and intubated, thereby increasing medical costs and exposing patients to health risks.
Therefore, there is a long-felt but unresolved need for an improved medical device and associated tools and methods or procedures that treat sleep apnea without causing swelling or hematoma of a patient's tongue. Further, the improved procedure should cause significantly less pain to a patient, should preferably not involve intubation or hospitalization of any kind. Even further, the procedure should result in reduced morbidity arising from changes in swallowing. Also, the procedure should minimize the risk of relapse of the symptoms of sleep apnea.

Apparatus and method for ventral only ablation of the tongue


An objective lens comprising, respectively from the object: a first element of a positive lens, at the object end thereof, having a convex surface; a second element of a positive meniscus lens, at the object end thereof, having a convex surface; a third element of a negative lens, at the image end thereof, having a concave surface; a fourth element of a single lens or a cemented lens, at the object end thereof, having a convex surface, wherein the cemented lens includes two or three lenses; a fifth element of a negative lens, at the object end thereof, having a concave surface; and a sixth element of a positive lens, at the object end thereof, having a convex surface. The objective lens satisfies the following three conditional equations, assuming that "f" designates the focal distance of the entire lens system: EQU 0.44f<R II<0.65f (1) EQU 0.63f<R IV<1.00f (2) EQU 0.55f<S III+D IV<0.70f (3). where R II is the curvature radius of the object-end surface of the second lens element; R IV, the curvature radius of the object-end surface of the fourth lens element; S III, a distance between the third and the fourth lens elements; and D IV, the thickness of the fourth lens element.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an objective lens with a large aperture ratio, and more particularly to an objective lens, with a large aperture ratio, for use in a compact noctovision, or a night viewing device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An objective lens has hitherto been used in a noctovision which produces an image intensified by several thousands to tens of thousands of times as bright as the original object image acquired under the light of stars, that is, 0.01 to 0.02 lux by collecting weak light with an objective lens and amplifying the image with an image intensifier (a photoelectric amplifier tube). Examples of such an objective lens includes U.S. Pat. No. 4,076,390 wherein an objective has a visual angle of about 40.degree..
The objective lens, used in such a noctovision, is required to have a small F-number, and produce a bright image. In the case of this lens, it is also necessary to appropriately correct the chromatic aberration of an image over a wide range of wavelengths, because the sensitivity characteristics of an Image Intensifier Tube extends over the range from a visible ray to a near infrared ray. Moreover, there is a demand for an objective lens which possesses a negative distortional aberration for correcting a positive distortional aberration of an eyepiece. However, the aforementioned existing objective lens cannot meet such a demand because of its large F-number and capacity which is inadequate to produce a large negative distortional aberration.
In practice, with respect to the eyepiece used in combination with the noctovision, an objective lens with a positive distortional aberration is, in many occasions, employed as an eyepiece because the correction of a distortional aberration is difficult at the eyepiece side. Therefore, there has been adopted a technique in which a distortional aberration is corrected at large by canceling a positive distortional aberration of the eyepiece by the use of an objective lens possessing a negative distortional aberration of about -4% to -9%. In order to produce such a large negative distortional aberration, the lens should be provided with, at the front end thereof, a surface having a strong negative power, or, at the rear end thereof, a surface having a strong positive power. The structure with such a simple power arrangement renders the lens bulky, liable to a coma aberration and an astigmatism, and difficult to effect the balanced correction of these aberrations.


Methods and apparatuses are provided for use in multi-pass printing, which, through the selective ordering of the application of inks to a print media, promote increased dot gain when desired and decreased dot gain when desired. For example, an adaptable print mode method is provided to select between a dark dot gain print mode and an object definition print mode. The dark dot gain print mode causes at least one dark color ink to be selectively applied to a dry portion of a print media. Thereafter, at least one light color ink is selectively applied to the portion of the print media while it is still wet from the application of the dark color ink(s). Conversely, the object definition print mode is configured to cause at least one light color ink to be selectively applied to a dry portion of the print media, and thereafter at least one dark color ink is selectively applied to the portion of the print media while it is still wet from the application of the light color ink(s).

Color printing devices, such as, for example, ink-jet printers operate by applying small drops of ink to a print media (e.g., paper), thereby forming dots. Different colored dots are combined to form various desired colors for pixels that are being printed. By way of example, certain ink-jet printers utilize six different colors of ink, namely, dark Cyan (C), light cyan (c), dark Magenta (M), light magenta (m), yellow (Y), and black (K). Some ink-jet printers use fewer color inks, e.g., just four C, M, Y and K ink, while still others may use more than six color inks.
The inks are typically supplied by ink pens having several nozzles, which can be selectively controlled to eject drops of ink onto the print media. The ink pens are typically arranged in a print pen carriage that is moveably controlled by a transport mechanism such that a swath of color can be applied to a portion of the print media by selectively controlling the ink pens moving in relation to the print media.
Certain printing devices are configured to print bi-directionally. This means, for example, that swaths may be printed as the carriage of pens moves across the print media from a right hand side to a left hand side and then back across the paper from the left hand side to the right hand side. This bi-directional movement is then continued on down the print media, as needed to print the desired content.
Some bi-directional printing devices are configured to perform multi-pass printing, wherein several overlapping swaths are applied to an area of the print media in a sequential and selective manner. As such, a combination of inks in the form of layered dots may be employed to render colors in the resulting print.
One common use for such multi-pass printing processes is in the printing of photographic-like quality images. By way of example, certain conventional ink-jet printers can be configured to perform up to eight or more passes over an area of the print media during which a plurality of dots may be formed to represent each pixel in content being printed. To increase the visual quality of the resulting print, especially when the content includes images and graphics, special photographic quality inks and/or special photographic print media may be used.
Improvements have been made over the past few years in the inks and print media that are available today. Many of these improvements have been directed towards either improving or conversely compromising the dot gain of all of the color inks in an ink set. The dot gain (e.g., how much an ink drop grows compared to the initially wetted area) can be either improved or compromised by either changing the properties of the inks and/or the properties of the print media. One might seek to improve or increase the dot gain to support the printing of images, wherein more diffused dots tend to provide for a more photographic-like image quality. Conversely, one might seek to compromise or reduce the dot gain to improve the visibility and/or definition of an edge or object definition, for example, as might be advantageous in printing text and other lines.
Consequently, printing devices, processes, inks and/or media have tended to focus on only one of these printing goals. This is not always accomplished without some complication being introduced. One particular complication can be seen in the use of more aggressive, high dot gain inks (e.g., inks having highly penetrating solvents and surfactants), which may damage parts of the printing device and/or make the printer more difficult to service as the ink almost inevitably comes in contact with other materials in the printing device.
For these and other reasons, it would be beneficial to have methods and apparatuses that support both of these above-mentioned seemingly juxtaposed printing goals without necessarily requiring more improvements to either the inks and/or print media.

Multi-pass color print mode methods and apparatuses

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A first computer of a plurality of computers in a server computer system may be associated with a first user on an exclusive basis. An administrator of the server computer system may utilize an administrative user interface in order to specify the association. Associating the first computer with the first user on the exclusive basis may prevent users other than the first user from using the first computer. In response to receiving a request from the first user to connect to the server computer system, the system may operate to determine that the first computer is associated with the first user on the exclusive basis and may assign the first computer to the first user. Once the first computer has been assigned to the first user, the first user can begin using the first computer. In some embodiments the first computer may be a physical computer. In other embodiments the first computer may be a virtual machine.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a server computer system that provides centralized computing resources to a plurality of users. More particularly, the invention relates a system and method for associating virtual machines on a server computer with particular users on an exclusive basis.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many commercial businesses and enterprises make extensive use of personal computers (PCs) in their daily operations. Typically, each user of a PC in the enterprise has a networked PC at his/her desk or work area. As the number of networked computer systems utilized in an enterprise increases, the management of resources in the network may become increasingly complex and expensive. Some of the manageability issues involved in maintaining a large number of networked computer systems may include ease of installation and deployment, the topology and physical logistics of the network, asset management, scalability (the cost and effort involved in increasing the number of units), troubleshooting network or unit problems, support costs, software tracking and management, as well as the simple issue of physical space, be it floor space or room on the desktop, as well as security issues regarding physical assets, information protection, software control, and computer virus issues.
Many of these issues may be addressed by centralizing the locations of computing resources. For example, each individual user may connect through a network to a server computer system and use computing resources provided by the server computer system.
Some server computer systems are capable of leveraging the physical hardware resources available through virtualization. Virtualization provides the ability for multiple virtual machines to run together on the same physical server computer. For example, each virtual machine may execute its own operating system and may appear to a user of the virtual machine to be the same as an independent physical computer. The software layer that executes on the physical server computer and manages the various virtual machines is called a hypervisor or virtual machine host software. The hypervisor can run on bare hardware (called a Type 1 or native VM) or under control of an operating system (called a Type 2 or hosted VM).

Associating virtual machines on a server computer with particular users on an exclusive basis


A block polyphase filter is constructed of a set of filter blocks having different filter functions, and being arranged for parallel processing of portions of an input sequence of signals. Signals of the input sequence are divided among the blocks by a demultiplexer for processing at a clock frequency lower than a clock frequency of the input signal sequence. The filter blocks are arranged in groups, wherein output signals of the blocks in any one group are summed to produce an output signal of the filtered group. Output signals of all of the filter groups are multiplexed to provide an output signal sequence wherein the repetition frequency of the signals may be higher, lower, or equal to the repetition frequency of the input signal sequence depending upon the ratio of the number of filter groups to the number of filter blocks in the set of filter blocks.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to realization of a filter for high speed signal processing in a communication system and, more particularly, to a parallel filter realization suitable for implementation in a field programmable gate array for software defined radios.
2. Brief Description of Related Developments
Communication systems are widely used in many situations including communication between persons, as in cellular telephony, and between various forms of equipment, such as between a satellite and a ground station. Various data formats and protocols have evolved to facilitate communication in differing situations. Communication may involve multiple access technologies such as CDMA (code division multiple access), TDMA (time division multiple access), FDMA (frequency division multiple access), modulation technologies such as PSK (phase shift keying), QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation), and FEC (forward error correction) such as Reed Solomon coding, convolutional encoding, and turbo coding, by way of example.
In high-speed communication systems, digital circuitry, particularly with digital programmable devices, is employed advantageously for processing the signals in high-speed communication systems. Digital circuitry (application specific integrated circuits (ASICs)) has been capable of achieving the required speed. Currently, the industry is a pursuing the use of programmable digital devices, which have not been able to achieve the desired speeds with currently available technology. Accordingly, there is concern that the digital circuitry should be able to function with sufficient speed to handle the high data rates associated with high-speed communication systems.
Industry today, for both commercial and military applications, is requiring modem hardware that is reconfigurable (programmable) by use of software. By way of example, it would be desirable that a telephone operating in the United States would have the capability to operate in Europe upon a reconfiguration of the software. The technology is known in the industry as software-defined radios, and requires that the hardware be programmable. Digital programmable signal-processing devices such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and digital signal processors (DSPs) are employed in the programmable wireless communications technology. These devices provide great flexibility and programmability, but their use, in the prior art, is at the expense of reduced processing speed, as compared to an ASIC by way of example.
To attain increased hardware flexibility, it is necessary to increase the rate of signal processing. By way of example, an increased rate of signal processing would allow for the transmission and the reception of multiple frequency channels, as in a frequency-division multiplex system, and would allow for digital frequency hopping in frequency-hopping spread spectrum systems, thereby eliminating the need for expensive and bulky synthesizers. A higher signal-processing rates allow for increased signal-transmission rates. It is noted that presently available A/D (analog-to-digital) and D/A (digital-to-analog) converters can operate at rates higher than 1000 million samples per second. In contrast, presently available digital signal processing is accomplished at a much slower rate in a digital signal-processing device such as the FPGA. The most common digital signal processing operation is FIR (finite impulse response) filtering, which appears in modulators and demodulators in the form of various processing functions such as decimation, interpolation, pulse shaping, matched filtering, and equalization, by way of example. Known realizations (implementations) of FIR filters result in filters operable only at reduced signal-processing speed when constructed in FPGAs and DSPs due to the speed limitations of these devices.
Generally, in a communication system, incoming signals are received by a demodulation section of a modem, while outgoing signals are transmitted by a modulation section of the modem. By way of example in the construction of a demodulation section of a modem employing digital signal processing, an analog-to-digital converter is employed to convert the incoming analog signal to a digitally formatted signal prior to the implementation of the digital signal processing. The digital signal processing involves various forms of filtering, by way of example, and is accomplished generally by use of computational type circuitry such as FPGAs and DSPs. It is well known that circuitry employed for conversion from analog signal format to digital signal format is able to operate at a sample rate which is significantly faster than the rate for computational circuitry such as the FPGAs and the DSPs. Therefore, at the present time, the limitation on the digital processing speed of a communication channel is the nature of the construction of a digital filter that has been implemented by an FPGA or a DSP. While an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) may be employed to accomplish a filter function at a higher sample rate than an FPGA or a DSP, the ASIC is designed for a specific signal format or modulation, while the FPGA or the DSP have the advantage of being programmable to be adapted readily for a variety of signal formats and modulations. Thus, the digital signal processing circuitry presently available in FPGAs and DSPs introduce a disadvantageous limitation on the maximum sample rate for digital signal processing, such as the filtering of a signal, in a modulation or a demodulation section of a modem.

Parallel filter realization for wideband programmable digital radios


A method and system for simultaneous mitigation of optical impairment from both equalizer-phase noise interaction (EPNI) and fiber nonlinear effects (FNE) is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method is directed to simultaneous mitigation of optical impairment from both equalizer-phase noise interaction (EPNI) and fiber nonlinear effects (FNE) using a fast-adaptive multi-tap digital filter.

The popularity of multimedia communications services over packet data networks, such as the Internet, continues to grow. Consequently, the demand for higher capacity in core data transport networks continues to grow. For service providers, core data transport networks are typically optical networks based on fiber optic technology. To meet the ever-growing capacity demand, 100 G/s per channel data rate operating at 2 bit/s/Hz spectral efficiency (SE) by using quadrature phase shift keying in the pulse-density (PDM-QPSK) modulation and digital signal processing (DSP) enabled coherent detection has been commercially deployed in the existing core networks. Also, research for the next generation of transport systems operating at even higher data rate (likely at 400 Gb/s or above) and higher SE by using more spectrally efficient high-order modulation formats (such as the well known quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM)) is underway. However, recent experimental results have revealed that it is extremely challenging to achieve long-reach transmission using high-order modulation formats because they are more vulnerable to various transmission impairments such as fiber nonlinear effects, laser phase noise, and amplifier noise.
To address the challenge caused by fiber nonlinear effects, several digital nonlinear compensation methods have been proposed, including the digital backward-propagation (DBP) based methods and a Volterra-based nonlinear equalization method. However, the implementation complexity of these digital methods is prohibitively high, making it almost impossible for them to be realized for any practical high-speed transmission systems. Several mid-link phase-conjugation based methods have also been proposed. However, these methods generally work well only for point-to-point submarine systems or specially designed super-channel systems. For typical terrestrial optical networks where reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs) are used to route optical wavelengths and different wavelength channels usually end up at different locations, there is still no feasible solution to mitigate fiber nonlinear effects for high-speed coherent optical transmission systems.
To reduce the impact of laser phase noise on system performance, several single-tap phase rotation filter (with fast adaptive rate) based phase recovery methods have been proposed. However, these methods only work well for systems without using long-memory equalizer at the receiver, i.e. the short-reach system or long-reach system using inline optical dispersion compensation. Because the use of inline optical dispersion compensation not only increases the complexity of the inline optical amplifier design, but also significantly reduces fiber nonlinear tolerance, purely electrical/digital dispersion compensation is usually required in a high-speed coherent optical transmission system. For such a communication system, a linear digital filter/equalizer with very long memory length has to be introduced at the receiver to compensate for the accumulated dispersion from the transmission fiber.

Method and system for optical impairments mitigation for high-speed optical communication systems


A liquid crystal display according to the present inventive concept includes: a substrate; a gate line and a data line crossing each other formed on the substrate; a thin film transistor connected to the gate line and the data line; a pixel electrode connected to the thin film transistor and having a slit at a center; a liquid crystal layer filling a plurality of microcavities positioned on the pixel electrode; a common electrode positioned on the liquid crystal layer; and a roof layer formed on the common electrode and having an oblique portion formed to be inclined at both outer sides of the microcavities.

(a) Field
The present inventive concept relates to a liquid crystal display and a manufacturing method thereof. More particularly, the present inventive concept relates to a display device with improved transmittance and a manufacturing method thereof.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display (hereinafter referred to as an LCD) is one of the most widely used flat panel displays. The LCD includes two display panels provided with electric field generating electrodes, such as pixel electrodes and a common electrode, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the two display panels. In the LCD, voltages are applied to the electric field generating electrode to generate an electric field in the liquid crystal layer. Due to the generated electric field, liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer are aligned and polarization of incident light is controlled, thereby displaying images.
The two display panels forming the liquid crystal display may be a thin film transistor array panel and an opposing display panel. In the thin film transistor array panel, a gate line transmitting a gate signal and a data line transmitting a data signal are formed to be crossed, and a thin film transistor connected to the gate line and the data line and a pixel electrode connected to the thin film transistor may be formed. The opposing display panel may include a light blocking member, a color filter, a common electrode, etc. If necessary, the light blocking member, the color filter, and the common electrode may be formed in the thin film transistor array panel.
However, in the conventional liquid crystal display, two substrates are inevitably required, and the constituent elements are respectively formed on the two substrates such that the display device is heavy, the cost is high, and the processing time is long.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the inventive concept and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art.

Liquid crystal display device and manufacturing method thereof


A fluid flow resistance assembly includes a fluid pathway. A width of the fluid pathway orthogonal to a flow of fluid through the fluid pathway varies along its length. Positioning of one or more ports at different locations over the fluid pathway at different locations controls a flow rate of fluid.

Conventional flow regulation devices have been developed to restrict a flow of fluid. One common example is set forth in issued U.S. Pat. No. 3,900,184, entitled, "Roller Clamp for Tubing." This type of device relies on use of common infusion tubing to deliver fluid. In general, as a roller is moved from one end of a housing to the other, a tube within the housing is compressed to restrict the flow of fluid to a target recipient.
One type of deficiency associated with the roller clamp technology is that it is only able to make very coarse flow adjustments based on movement of the roller clamp. Another deficiency associated with roller clamp technology is that the flow rate setting is prone to drifting. This is due to the elasticity of tubing relaxing over time, resulting in an increase in a size of a passageway and respective flow rate of delivering fluid. This creates potentially dangerous situation if undetected.
As a result of the need for higher precision in-line fluid flow control, more precise flow control technology has been developed. For example, both issued U.S. Pat. No. 6,916,010 and issued U.S. Pat. No. 3,877,428 describe devices for controlling a flow rate of fluid. These devices provide substantial improvements over conventional pinch valves with roller clamps. However, they do not provide accurate and repeatable flow needed for modern infusion applications.


A health care reclining chair is disclosed which includes a rigid chair frame assembly. An improved deep recline swing linkage assembly is disclosed which permits the seat back of the chair to be fully reclined into a substantially flat position relative to the seat and operably suspends the seat assembly for reclining motion within the chair frame assembly. A mobile base assembly is interdisposed between the chair frame assembly and the floor to permit the reclining chair to be used for transportation of a seated occupant. Furthermore, a tilting mechanism is operably coupled between the mobile base assembly and the chair frame assembly for permitting tilting movement of the chair frame relative to the base assembly. The health care reclining chair of the present invention may further be adapted to include a leg rest assembly positionable between a retracted position and an extended position for providing further comfort. In this manner, the seat assembly provides a substantially flat occupant-supporting surface which is generally parallel to the floor surface to define a bed-like surface which may be further oriented to place a head rest portion of the seat back slightly below a foot rest portion of the leg rest assembly for placing an occupant in a trendelenburg position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a reclining chair and, more specifically, to a reclining chair for use in a health care environment having a reinforced chair frame structure and leg rest assembly which is capable of placing a seated occupant into a substantially flat layout position.
2. Description of Related Art
Reclining chairs are widely used in a variety of residential and commercial applications and as such are adapted to provide reclining movement between the seat and seat back assemblies, tilting movement of the chair frame assembly relative to the base assembly, rocking or gliding movement of the chair frame assembly relative to the base frame assembly and extension and retraction of a leg rest assembly. These chairs are capable of placing the seated occupant in an infinite number of seated positions ranging from an upright position to a reclined position.
In this regard, various swing link mechanisms have been utilized for suspending a seat assembly including a seat and seat back within a chair frame for permitting the reclining motion heretofore described. For example, U.S. application Ser. No. 08/319,672 entitled "Recliner Chair Seat Assembly and Method of Upholstering" filed on Oct. 12, 1994 discloses a metal seat assembly having a rear swing linkage and front slide assembly to move the seat assembly between an upright position and a reclined position. However, the range of motion between the metal seat frame and the seat back of this reclining chair is limited to between approximately 95.degree. in the upright position and approximately 150.degree. in the fully reclined position. When adapting a reclining chair for use in the health care environment, it would be desirable to provide a swing link mechanism which is capable of reclining the seat back relative to the seat frame in the range from approximately 95.degree. to approximately 180.degree., thereby defining a substantially flat occupant-supporting surface.
Likewise, when adapting a reclining chair for use in the health care environment, additional concerns arise regarding the functions and operations of such a reclining chair. For example, in this environment, a chair frame may experience a variety of extreme loading conditions on the side frames, chair arms and seat back when elderly or disabled patients sit down or get up from the reclining chair. Similarly, the reclining mechanisms, tilting mechanisms and leg rest assembly may be loaded in extreme conditions by doctors or visitors leaning or sitting on the chair when it is situated in any of its various positions. Thus, it would be desirable to provide a reclining chair capable of withstanding these adverse loading situations.
Furthermore, when adapting a reclining chair for use in the health care environment, the reclining chair may be utilized as a means of transportation for the seated occupant. Typically, this has been accomplished by adapting a stationary base with a set of wheels such that the reclining chair is mobilized. This modification works adequately when moving the chair from location to location without a seated occupant. However, when the reclining chair is mobilized with a seated occupant therein, the seated occupant's feet may impede the forward mobility of the chair when in the upright position. In this situation, extending the leg rest does not provide an acceptable solution to this problem since it makes directional control of the reclining chair difficult, as well as places the seated occupant, who may be dressed in a hospital gown, in a potentially revealing position. Thus, it is also desirable to provide a mobile base which permits the reclining chair to be transported in a relatively effortless manner, locked into a immobile state, and which further supports the feet of an occupant seated in an upright position during movement of the reclining chair.
As previously mentioned, reclining chairs known in the art have been adapted with a tilt linkage mechanism for tilting the chair frame relative to the base assembly. Typically, these mechanisms are operably coupled to the leg rest assembly and/or the seat assembly such that the chair frame is tilted concomitantly with the reclining motion of the seat back or the extension of the leg rest. However, when adapting a reclining chair for use in the health care environment, it would be desirable to provide a chair frame assembly which may be tilted independent of other motion of the chair to place the seated occupant in an non-reclined, but rearwardly tilted position. Likewise, it would be desirable to place an occupant seated in a reclined position with the leg rest fully extended such that they are lying in a substantially flat position, and further positionable to place their head slightly below their body and legs to increase the flow of blood to the brain for treatment of hypertension or shock conditions.


An article of manufacture and method of forming a borided material. An electrochemical cell is used to process a substrate to deposit a plurality of borided layers on the substrate. The plurality of layers are co-deposited such that a refractory metal boride layer is disposed on a substrate and a rare earth metal boride conforming layer is disposed on the refractory metal boride layer.

Most mechanical components used in a variety of rolling, rotating, or sliding bearing applications, as well as those that are used in metal-cutting and -forming operations, rely strongly on high hardness and low friction surface properties of base metals for high performance and durability during actual uses. There are numerous surface treatment methods that are currently used to enhance the near-surface properties of engineering components. Some of these methods (such as nitriding, carburizing, carbonitriding, boriding) are thermo-chemical in nature and based on thermal diffusion of carbon, nitrogen, and boron atoms into the near surface regions of these components at high temperatures. It typically takes about 8 to 10 hours to achieve case depths of 50 to 100 micrometers in the cases of nitriding and carburizing processes; and as for boriding, the case depths are much shallower (typically 10 to 15 micrometer for the same processing time). Despite its ability to produce much harder surface layers than carburizing and nitriding, boriding is not used as extensively as the other surface treatment techniques mentioned.
There are several other surface treatment methods based on the uses of laser beams such as laser shot-peening, -glazing, -cladding, as well as ion and electron beam processes such as ion-beam deposition, electron-beam cladding, and hardening that can also be used to achieve superior surface mechanical and tribological properties. Besides these methods, there are plasma-based physical and chemical vapor deposition techniques that can also produce very hard surface coatings (such as TiN, TiC, etc.) on mechanical components for improved mechanical and tribological properties. Unfortunately, all of these methods require very long processing times and consume large amounts of energy.
Among the many thermal diffusion-based surface treatment processes mentioned above, nitriding and carburizing are used very extensively by industry to achieve greater mechanical and tribological properties on all kinds of steel components. In the case of boriding though, progress has been rather slow and at the moment, this technique has very limited uses. Just like nitriding and carburizing, boriding is a surface hardening process in which boron atoms diffuse into the near surface region of a work piece and react with the metallic constituents to form hard borides. A deep diffusion layer also exists beneath the boride layers. At present, there are several kinds of boriding methods available (such as salt-bath boriding, fluidized bed boriding, pack boriding, paste boriding, gas-phase and plasma boriding) for the production of borided surface layers. These methods are based on the uses of a variety of boron-rich solid, liquid, or gaseous media. Fluidized bed-, pack-, and paste-boriding methods use solid boron containing powders (such as B4C, amorphous boron, ferro-boron, etc.) and other compounds during the boriding process, while plasma boriding uses gaseous boron compounds in a plasma environment.
All of the boriding methods mentioned above involve a high processing temperature (typically ranging from 700 to 1000° C.). These boriding methods are most appropriate for the treatment of ferrous alloys, but nonferrous and cermet-based materials can also be treated. For example, salt-bath boriding of steel substrates can be done in a complex salt bath typically consisting of 60 to 70 wt % borax, 10 to 15 wt % boric acid, and 10-20 wt % ferro-silicon or -boron at temperatures ranging from 800 to 1000° C. 5 to 7 h of boriding of a low carbon steel substrate in such a salt-bath may result in 7 to 10 micrometer thick borided surface layers.
During boriding of steel and other metallic and alloy surfaces, boron atoms diffuse into the material and form various types of metal borides. In the case of ferrous alloys, most prominent borides are: Fe2B and FeB. Some of the boron atoms may dissolve in the structure interstitially without triggering any chemical reaction that can lead to boride formation. Iron borides (i.e., Fe2B and FeB) are chemically very stable and mechanically hard and hence can substantially increase the resistant of base alloys to corrosion, adhesive, erosive, or abrasive wear. Process conditions (such as duration of boriding, ambient temperature, type of substrate material and boriding media) may affect the chemistry and thickness of the borided surface layers. Due to the much harder nature of borided layers, boriding has the potential to replace some of the other surface treatment methods like carburizing, nitriding and nitrocarburizing.
Boride layers may achieve hardness values of more than 20 GPa depending on the chemical nature of the base materials. TiB2 that forms on the surface of borided titanium substrates may achieve hardness values as high as 30 GPa; while the hardness of boride layers forming on steel or iron-based alloys may vary between 14 GPa to 18 GPa. Such high hardness values provided by the boride layers are retained up to 650° C. Since there is no discrete or sharp interface between the boride layer and base material, adhesion strengths of boride layers to base metals are excellent. With the traditional methods mentioned above, boride layer thicknesses of up to 20 micrometer can be achieved after long periods of boriding time at much elevated temperatures. In addition to their excellent resistance to abrasive and adhesive wear, the boride layers can also resist oxidation and corrosion even at fairly elevated temperatures and in highly acidic or saline aqueous media.
Materials that are most suitable for boriding include all types of ferrous metals and alloys like low- and high-carbon steels, low- and high-alloy steels, tool steel, stainless steels, carburized, nitrided, and carbonitrided steels, and cast irons. Non ferrous metals and their alloys like titanium, tantalum, zirconium, tungsten, niobium, molybdenum, magnesium, most nickel-based and cobalt-based superalloys, cobalt-chrome alloys, tungsten and sintered carbides and/or cements can also be borided.
Because of their very impressive mechanical, tribological, chemical and corrosion properties, borided surface layers can be used in a large variety of industrial applications. In metal-forming dies, they can be used to protect the critical surface finish or profiles of all kinds of dies (such as punching dies, drawing dies, bending dies, hot forming, and injection moulding dies, forging dies, extrusion dies, embossing dies, deep drawing and impact extrusion dies). They can also be used in insertion pins, rods, plungers, bushings, botts, nozzles, pipe bending devices, guide rings, sleeves, mandrels, swirl elements, clamping, chucks, guide box, metal casting inserts, orifices, springs, balls, rollers, discs, valve components and fittings, plugs, chain components, etc. They will be extremely well-suited for stainless steel and other metallic-based mechanical shaft seals used in pumping all kinds of fluids in chemical industries. In the automotive or transportation fields, they can prevent seizure, galling and scuffing-related failures under severe operating conditions, and eliminate oxidative and corrosive degradation of a large variety of engine components. They can also be used in a variety of gear drives (such as bevel gears, screw and wheel gears, helical gear wheels), including gears, bearings, tappets, valves and valve guides, power train components, piston pins, rings and liners, and other mechanical components in all classes of moving mechanical systems that experience heavy loading, high speeds, erosive, corrosive, and oxidative media and elevated temperatures. Other potential applications include cold and hot forging tools, extrusion tools, press tools, glass industry tools, invasive and implantable medical devices such as hip and knee joints made out of titanium, zirconium, cobolt-chrome, and other specialty metals and their alloys. Because of the very high boron content of their near surfaces, borided surfaces can also provide an excellent substrate for the deposition of diamond and diamondlike carbon films on metallic substrates. In most cases, diamond is very difficult to deposit on steel substrates; but after the boriding process such surfaces could be very ideal for the nucleation and growth of crystalline diamond and amorphous diamondlike carbon films.
Despite their abilities to produce much harder surface layers and superior components over other methods, boriding methods mentioned above are not used very extensively by industry at the moment. There are substantial problems that hinder their wider uses. Some of these problems include: high-cost, very long processing time, toxic emissions/byproducts, and poor surface condition or finish after the boriding process. For all of these reasons, it would be very desirable to develop a new and improved boriding method that is very fast, cheap, safe, and applicable to a wide range of materials.


A method and apparatus are provided for transmitting and receiving an uplink Sounding Reference Signal (SRS). The method includes receiving index information for a sounding reference signal (SRS); determining an SRS offset, based on the index information; and transmitting the SRS, based on the SRS offset. If the index information includes an integer from 0 to 9, the SRS is transmitted twice in a period of 5 ms, and the SRS offset indicated by the index information is based on a predetermined table

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication system, especially to a method for transmitting SRS in an LTE communication system and an apparatus using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
3GPP (The 3rd Generation Partner Project) standardization organization is working out a next generation of wireless communication standard which is named LTE (Long Term Evolution). In a physical layer interface, the new standard adopts OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) technology, which is different from conventional CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) technology. OFDMA is used in downlink and SCFDMA (Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access) is used in uplink. The technology used in the new standard is effective to resist multi-path propagation, with the adoption of frequency domain equalization reducing complexity of the conventional time domain equalization, and is more suitable to bandwidth high-speed data transmission.
From a point of view of air-interface, the LTE standard techniques can be divided into two categories: a TDD (Time Division Duplex) system and an FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) system. The LTE system supports variable bandwidths. And typical bandwidths include 1.4 MHz, 3 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz, 15 MHz and 20 MHz, which can meet demands of different scenarios.
FIG. 1 illustrates a physical layer frame structure for a LTE FDD system in which a length of radio frame (101) is 10 ms, consisting of ten equally sized radio sub-frames (102) of 1 ms length. Each radio sub-frame consists of two equally sized timeslots (103) of 0.5 ms length.
FIG. 2 illustrates a PHY layer frame structure for LTE TDD system. As shown in FIG. 2, a length of radio frame (201) is 10 ms, consisting of ten equally sized radio sub-frames (204) of length 1 ms. Each five continuous radio sub-frames consists a half-frame (202) of length 5 ms. Different from the LTE-FDD system, a second (211) and seventh (212) radio sub-frame in LTE-TDD radio frame are two special sub-frames. A length of the special sub-frame is 1 ms, consisting of three special slots, indicating DwPTS (205 or 208), GP (206 or 209) and UpPTS (207 or 210) respectively. The lengths of the three special slots are variable and are defined by system, and the total length is 1 ms. The length of UpPTS can be 0, 1 or 2 SCFDMA symbols. If the length of UpPTS is 2, UpPTS is used to transmit the uplink Short RACH or Uplink SRS signal or both the Short RACH and SRS signal. If the length of UpPTS is 1, UpPTS is used to transmit the uplink SRS signal. The other eight sub-frames except the special two are respectively consist of two slots (203) of length 0.5 ms.
In the LTE system, according to network scheduling, UE (User Equipment) sends an SRS (Sounding Reference Signal) to eNodeB (evolved NodeB). The SRS signal is used to: according to an analysis result of the SRS signal, eNodeB estimates a quality of channel which is used for transmitting SRS from UE to eNodeB and scheduling data according to frequency selective characteristics; eNodeB performs timing tracking for UE by analyzing the SRS signal and performs a close-loop power control. According to a current standardizing process, main conclusions for SRS transmission in LTE FDD system include: eNodeB broadcasts the SRS in a designated cell as needed and SRS is transmitted in some sub-frame in a designated cell periodically. A period is selected from {2, 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160, 320} ms. After the UE receives the SRS in the designated cell, the ODFM symbol resource occupied by the SRS is not used when transmitting uplink data. In order to perform the transmission of SRS, UE should receive a user-designated SRS signal transmitted from the network. The signal informs the user of the OFDM symbol resource used to transmit SRS. Currently, there is no description for transmitting the SRS of designated UE in a PHY layer specification which is accomplished in LTE.
Nowadays, a basic idea in the standard for the user-designated SRS signaling is that the signaling includes three parts: Duration, Period and Offset in which, the duration can use 1 bit to indicate that just one snapshot or infinite. The period value is selected from {2, 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160, 320} ms. In LTE FDD, the offset is a time between twice transmission time of each OFDM symbol of SRS from the beginning of the SRS period, and the basic unit is 1 ms. In LTE TDD, definition of offset is different from that in LTE FDD. Since in LTE TDD, SRS can be transmitted in UpPTS or the other uplink sub-frame, the uplink sub-frame may be discontinuous and UpPTS occupy two OFDM symbols at most, the offset is defined as an interval between an OFDM symbol position used to transmit SRS and an OFDM symbol position used to transmit SRS until the period of SRS transmission starts. For example, if the SRS symbol position at the period beginning is defined as 0, a symbol position used to transmit SRS is 3 means that the interval between the two symbols is 3, there is at most 2 OFDM symbol positions can be used to transmit SRS.
The manner of transmitting SRS in LTE TDD is mainly the same as that in LTE FDD. However the system structure of LTE TDD is different from of that in LTE FDD. Difference is that in LTE TDD, a half-frame of length 5 ms has both uplink sub-frame and downlink sub-frame, a number of uplink sub-frames and downlink sub-frames is configured by the network. In some configuration, a half-frame of length 5 ms at least has one uplink sub-frame (exclude UpPTS). According to a principle that only one SRS is transmitted in one uplink sub-frame, there is only one SRS transmission in every 5 ms, and the system can't achieve the SRS transmission with a 2 ms period. Therefore, the performance of SRS transmission by UE is deteriorated in a fast Time-varying channel.
Based on the difference between the LTE TDD and LTE FDD, the current configuration of the 2 ms transmission period for SRS in the LTE FDD cannot be used in the LTE TDD system.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for transmitting SRS in LTE TDD system

Abstract: IndexOffset00, 110, 221, 230, 350, 461, 472, 382, 49 3, 4.


In an illusion apparatus for self viewing, a specific element (usually a dark region) of a display is positioned on or about the line connecting the viewer and the center of curvature of a partially reflective partially transparent, convex mirror. The specific element thus appears in a relatively constant relationship to the viewer's image even as the viewer changes position in relation to the mirror and display.

The Optical Blob is related to my previous inventions, Illusion Apparatus, U.S. Pat. No. 4,971,312 and "Training Video Method and Display, U.S. Pat. No. 5,681,223"both incorporated herein by reference.
The Illusion Apparatus patent describes a diorama or display image comprising a darkened area. The image of a viewer of the diorama or display is inserted into the darkened area.
The co-pending patent discloses a means to provide a higher quality composite image. The co-pending patent also discloses a preferred method, using electronics, to move a darkened area about the display in response to the motion of the viewer.
It is also possible to move the darkened area about the display in response to signals from the previously disclosed switch mat or by other means such as a difference key or the infra-red key described in the co-pending patent. Where the display is not an electronic display, a dark mask or dark object may be moved about the display by motors in response to position signals as mentioned above or by purely mechanical linkage to the viewer.
The above methods may be expensive and/or inconvenient. It is the primary purpose of the present invention to move a darkened area, or blob, about the display, in response to the motion of the viewer, by purely optical means. In each embodiment, the viewer perceives his or her image in relation to a specific part (usually a dark region) of the display which, without moving parts, matches the position of the viewer's image.


In accordance with a method and system for facilitating redemption of monetary value gaming tickets, such as issued by a gaming device upon cash-out, a ticket is presented, such as to a redemption kiosk. If the ticket is validated and has a monetary value which includes a fractional currency value, then the player is presented a wagering game based upon a wager comprising at least the fractional currency value of the ticket. If the outcome of the game is losing, then the player is paid a first whole currency value comprising the monetary value less the wager and when an outcome of the wagering game is winning, then the player is paid a second whole currency value which is greater than the monetary value (such as by including a winning amount), or the first whole currency value plus separate winnings, such as in the form of an award ticket.

Historically, wagering gaming machines such as rotating reel slot machines were configured to accept coins and/or currency as a wager and were configured to dispense coins and/or currency as winnings. However, most gaming systems are now "cashless", in that the gaming machines are configured to dispense tickets or vouchers which represent monetary value, instead of coins and/or currency.
For example, when a player desires to cash out funds belonging to them that are associated with the gaming machine (such as funds which the player provided to the gaming machine, less amounts wagered, plus amounts won), the gaming machine issues a ticket or voucher. The ticket or voucher represents the monetary cash-out value. The player can redeem the ticket at a central cashier station (which may be automated) or at a cashier's cage or window (typically manned by a live cashier). When the voucher or ticket is redeemed, its value is confirmed and then currency and/or coins in the amount of the voucher are dispensed to the player.
Such a "cashless" system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,048,269. One advantage to these systems is that the gaming machines no longer need to be equipped with bill and coin storage and dispensing devices, simplifying the machines and their cost. Another advantage is that casinos no longer need to continuously service the machines to keep them full of currency and coins so that they can pay out winnings. For example, in the past, casinos had to constantly run change carts around the casino floor to keep the gaming machines filled with coins and/or currency to ensure that the gaming machines could pay out winnings.
However, there are other problems are associated with cashless gaming systems. One problem is that in order to convert their ticket to money, players must still redeem their tickets for actual monies. This requires players to travel to a cashier station or cashier cage. Players often find this extra step (as compared to getting paid directly by the gaming machine in currency and/or coins) cumbersome and, particularly relative to tickets that have a small value, some players may not even redeem them. These tickets are referred to as "orphaned" tickets by the casinos. At any time, a casino may have thousands of orphaned tickets in their accounting system. These orphaned tickets create a problem for the casino because they must still be tracked and stored and represent an outstanding liability to the casino because they might be redeemed at a point far into the future.
In addition, players may seek to redeem thousands of tickets per day. Thus, a casino must still stock the cashier stations and cashier cages with large amounts of currency and coins. For example, a casino may need to replenish the coins in an automated cashier station many times per day. Despite the fact that cashless gaming systems have been in operation for nearly 20 years, no solution has been found to this problem.
A method and system which addresses these and other problems associated with cashless gaming systems, and particularly the redemption of cashless gaming vouchers, is desired.

Method and system for facilitating monetary value gaming ticket redemption


A semiconductor device (10) includes a metallic base plate (22) provided with an upper surface (22a) and a lower surface (22b), a plurality of insulating substrates (24) provided on the upper surface (22a), and a plurality of semiconductor elements (26) and (28) mounted side by side on the respective insulating substrates (24). Annular grooves (50) and (52) for storing insulating grease are provided on the lower surface (22b) of the base plate (22). A surface (40a) of a cooling fin (40) is superimposed on the lower surface (22b) with insulating grease (42) interposed therebetween and insides of the annular grooves (50) and (52) are filled with the insulating grease (42).

Conventionally, as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-168772, semiconductor devices are known which are each provided with a groove portion or the like for preventing grease from spreading between a base plate and a cooling fin. Generally, thermal conductive grease is applied to a lower surface of a base plate of a power module, and the base plate and the cooling fin are fixed by screws via the grease. When fixed by screws, these parts are pressurized so that the cooling fin and the grease conform to each other, and further clamped and fixed by screws, and therefore the grease spreads in a surface direction of the base plate during fixing. According to the above-described prior art, a grease diffusion preventing portion is provided on at least one of opposing surfaces of the base plate and the cooling fin to avoid the grease from infiltrating into screw holes and this grease diffusion preventing portion can be a groove portion or a protruding portion.


Methods and systems are provided for a cooling module assembly for a vehicle. In one example, the cooling module assembly includes a first set of fins configured to flow a first fluid through a first sinusoidal, continuous inner passage, and a second set of fins configured to flow a second fluid through a second sinusoidal, continuous inner passage. The second set of fins shares a common plane with the first set of fins and together forms a semi-circular structure.

A continual demand for improvements to fuel economy and reduction of emissions has driven the automotive market to prioritize production of lightweight and compact vehicles. While strides have been made in reducing fuel consumption and release of undesirable combustion products, packaging of vehicle components within smaller compartment allowances presents a new set of challenges for automotive manufacturers. In particular, a geometry of a vehicle's front end may be dependent on a volume occupied by bulky and heavy components including a cooling system, radiators, active grille shutters (AGS), an air conditioning system, auxiliary coolers, and supporting hardware such as brackets and bolsters.
Engine cooling systems typically comprise at least one radiator and one condenser, the radiator coupled to a vehicle front end and configured to flow to an engine block coolant and the condenser also coupled to the vehicle front end and configured to flow refrigerant to an air conditioning evaporator. The radiator and condenser may have planar, rectangular structures, arranged perpendicular to air flow (e.g., ram-air) in the vehicle front end and stacked along a horizontal direction to allow for simpler packaging. Both the radiator and the condenser may rely on liquid-to-air heat exchange to cool the engine block and an interior of the vehicle, respectively. Transfer of heat from the refrigerant and the coolant to air may be enhanced by using a cooling fan to increase air flow across surfaces of the radiator and the condenser. However, certain regions of the rectangular radiator and condenser, such as the corners, may not be within a sweep of the cooling fan, and may therefore lose heat at a reduced rate.
Furthermore, a positioning of the radiator behind the condenser in the path of ram air results in heating of air by the condenser before the air comes into contact with the radiator. In some examples, auxiliary coolers, such as a charge air cooler, an oil cooler, a transmission fluid cooler, etc., may be positioned between the condenser and the radiator, further reducing a temperature differential between the air flowing to the radiator and the radiator coolant channels and diminishing a cooling capacity of the radiator. To compensate for inefficient heat exchange at the radiator, the radiator size may be increased to augment an available surface area of the radiator for cross-flow heat exchange, further compounding difficulties associated with installing both the enlarged radiator and the condenser within a restricted space.
Attempts to address inefficient cooling resulting from a geometry and positioning of the cooling module assembly includes configuring a heat exchanger to have a circular geometry. One example approach is shown by Kawahira in U.S. Pat. No. 4,510,991. Therein, a heat exchanger, such as a radiator or condenser, may have a plurality of concentrically arranged, circular flat pipes, the pipes adapted with passages for coolant flow therethrough. The concentric, circular flat pipes are co-axially arranged and equidistant apart, each of the circular flat pipes adapted with coolant inlets. Corrugated fins are disposed in the spaces between the circular flat pipes. Alternatively, a single flat pipe may be spirally wound to form a similarly circular heat exchanger with corrugated fins interposed between adjacent portions of the flat pipe. The flat pipe has a single coolant inlet to deliver coolant to the heat exchanger. The circular structure removes inefficiently cooled corners of the heat exchanger are thus removed and an amount of space occupied by a cooling fan may be further reduced by inserting a rotary shaft or motor of the fan into a central aperture of the circular heat exchanger.
However, the inventors herein have recognized potential issues with such systems. As one example, while the circular geometry eliminates regions unaffected by the cooling fan, a positioning of the condenser in front of the radiator nonetheless warms air flowing to the radiator. In addition, the concentric or spiraling geometry of the flat pipe(s) of the circular heat exchanger may not have sufficient surface area in contact with ram air to extract enough heat from the coolant or refrigerant to maintain a cooling capacity of the radiator or cabin air conditioning system, respectively. As a result, an engine temperature may rise above a target operating range unless a larger fan is used.
In one example, the issues described above may be addressed by a method for an integrated cooling system, including an upper and a lower support bracket, and a passage assembly including a first continuous passage coupled to the upper bracket as a first meander line having a first radius, the first passage circulating a first fluid; and a second continuous passage coupled to the upper bracket as a second meander line having a second radius, larger than the first radius, the second passage circulating a second fluid, wherein the first passage is co-planar with the second passage. In this way, both the condenser and radiator receive increased cooling from contact with ram-air while maintaining effective heat exchange across all regions of the cooling module assembly.
As one example, the radiator, formed from a first set of passages, and the condenser, formed from a second set of passages, may together provide a semi-circular cooling module assembly with the radiator and condenser sharing a common plane. The cooling module assembly may receive ram air across the plane of the cooling module assembly, in a direction perpendicular to the plane, allowing the radiator to be cooled by air that has not previously extracted heat from the condenser. By configuring the cooling module assembly with the condenser circumferentially surrounding the radiator, an amount of space occupied by the cooling pack in a vehicle's front end may be reduced.
It should be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure.


A wireless communication device for sending quantization quality feedback is described. The wireless communication device includes a receiver that receives a signal. The wireless communication device also includes channel estimation circuitry coupled to the receiver. The channel estimation circuitry generates a channel estimate based on the signal. The wireless communication device also includes feedback determination circuitry coupled to the channel estimation circuitry. The feedback determination circuitry generates quantization quality feedback based on the channel estimate. The wireless communication device also includes a transmitter coupled to the feedback determination circuitry. The transmitter transmits the quantization quality feedback.

Communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as data, voice, video and so on. These systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting simultaneous communication of multiple communication devices (e.g., wireless communication devices, access terminals, etc.) with one or more other communication devices (e.g., base stations, access points, etc.). Some communication devices (e.g., access terminals, laptop computers, smart phones, media players, gaming devices, etc.) may wirelessly communicate with other communication devices.
In the last several decades, the use of wireless communication devices has become common. In particular, advances in electronic technology have reduced the cost of increasingly complex and useful wireless communication devices. Cost reduction and consumer demand have proliferated the use of wireless communication devices such that they are practically ubiquitous in modern society. As the use of wireless communication devices has expanded, so has the demand for new and improved features of wireless communication devices.
Improving communications performance poses many challenges. For example, communications performance may depend on channel feedback. However, it may be difficult to improve channel feedback with a limited amount of overhead signaling. As can be observed from this discussion, systems and methods that improve channel feedback may be beneficial.

Devices for sending and receiving quantization quality feedback