A system and method for translating performance characteristics of a system from one system condition to another system condition includes sensing, at a current system condition, a first system performance parameter and a second system performance parameter. The first and second system performance parameters correspond to a measured performance characteristic value of the system. A first reference performance datum associated with the first and second system performance parameters at the current system condition, and a second reference performance datum associated with the first and second system performance parameters at a selected reference system condition are both retrieved from a memory. A difference between the first and second reference performance data is calculated to generate a translation value. The measured performance characteristic value of the system is then translated an amount equal to the data translation value, whereby a corrected performance characteristic value at the selected reference system condition is generated.

Many systems are subject to some type of performance assessment upon system start-up and initialization to determine the capability of the system to perform various functions without exceeding a limit. For example, multi-spool gas turbine engines used in aerospace applications are often subject to a daily pre-flight power assurance test before beginning a mission. The purpose of the daily power assurance test is to verify the engine(s) can meet the minimum power requirements needed for its mission without exceeding the power turbine inlet temperature limit. Historically, daily engine power assurance tests have been conducted while the aircraft is at a relatively low altitude, and after steady-state engine conditions have been substantially achieved.
To address several drawbacks associated with the daily engine power assurance tests, the instant inventors, together with others, developed a performance analysis system and method. This system and method, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,068,997 (the '997 patent), uses an automated on-board algorithm that estimates engine performance margin continuously in-flight without having to perform the daily engine power assurance test. Engine performance margin is typically expressed as turbine exit temperature margin or power margin at the rating point condition of the engine. In order to provide a consistent and convenient method of assessing engine health throughout a flight, engine performance characteristics from the full range of flight conditions need to be accurately translated to the rating point condition. Engine manufacturers often specify the rating point condition as sea-level static and atmospheric conditions because the calculations required for translating to such a condition is typically much less complicated than other conditions.
For single-spool gas turbine engines, the flight condition translation process can be accomplished fairly accurately by applying flight condition correction factors on various engine parameters used in the performance analysis. For example, as disclosed in the '997 patent, theta correction (θ-correction) and delta correction (δ-correction) may be applied to compensate for variations in inlet temperature and pressure. However, this flight condition translation process does not work well for multiple-spool gas turbine engines that include variable geometry devices, such as compressor guide vanes or other variable geometry devices, to optimize engine performance based on flight conditions. This is because the gas turbine engine will have a different geometric configuration at each flight condition, based upon the settings of the guide vanes and/or other variable geometry devices. Typical flight condition correction factors work quite accurately for fixed-geometry engines, but not for variable-geometry engines.
Hence, there is a need for a system and method that can accurately and efficiently translate engine performance characteristics of a variable-geometry gas turbine engine from various flight conditions to the rating point condition as the flight condition changes throughout a flight. The present invention addresses at least this need.

System and method for continuous performance analysis of systems that exhibit variable performance characteristics at different operating conditions


A compression garment for compressing a portion of a body of a patient includes a tubular body. The body includes an outer layer and an inner layer secured to the outer layer. The inner layer at least partially bounds a channel adapted to receive a portion of a body of a patient. The inner layer includes a backing having a plurality of pressure projections extending therefrom. A layer of compressible cushioning material is disposed between the outer layer and the inner layer. Compression straps are disposed on the body for selectively constricting the body.

1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to compression garments and related methods or treating lymphedema and other forms of edema.
2. The Relevant Technology
Lymphedema is a chronic lifetime debilitation which is characterized by swelling in the arms and/or legs. This swelling is caused by the accumulation of lymphatic fluid in the extremities. Lymphedema is typically caused by either congenital-disruption of the normal lymphatic drainage system or by damage to the lymphatic drainage system. For example, lymphedema is often caused by the removal of lymph nodes which is due to the treatment of cancers such as breast cancer and lymphatic cancer.
Treating lymphedema and other forms of edema typically consists of a decongestive therapy wherein the unwanted fluid is initially drained from the extremity. Maintenance therapy is then used to prevent repeated accumulation of such fluid. Various forms of compression garments which apply an external compressive force to the patient's arms and/or legs have been used in the decongestive and maintenance therapies. While compression garments have met with some success, conventional compression garments have several shortcomings. For example, most approaches to the decongestive and maintenance therapies require a completely separate type of compression garment. Accordingly, such therapies have increased costs to the patient.
Furthermore, many compression garments are made of a thick foam material which is bulky and awkward to use, difficult to clean, and uncomfortable to wear in that it has poor breathability. Such bulky compression garments can also be emotionally uncomfortable in public in that they are highly conspicuous. Inflatable compression garments also suffer from lack of breathability and increased complexity. An additional problem with many compression garments is their poor ability to drain the unwanted fluid from the extremity.

Compression garments and related methods


A five valve per cylinder twin overhead cam internal combustion engine wherein the valve placement is such that the cam shafts may be located so as to directly operate the valves and still provide threaded fastener attachments that can be tightened when the cam shaft is in place. The placement of the valves and the size of their actuating tappets is such to maintain optimum strength and durability while maintaining a compact construction.

This invention relates to an improved cylinder head and more particularly to a cylinder head for a multiple valve internal combustion engine.
In internal combustion engines, it has been recognized that the breathing ability and performance of an engine can be significantly improved by utilizing multiple valves. For this reason, four valve per cylinder engines are commonly used. Such engines have two intake and two exhaust valves for each cylinder. Although the use of these engines was previously limited to high performance racing engines, many conventional passenger car engines now employ four valves per cylinder.
By utilizing more valves per cylinder rather than individual large valves, the effective flow area can be maintained while the inertia of the individual components reduced. This permits operation of the engine at higher speeds and the obtaining of higher power output.
It has also been recognized that further improvements in performance can be obtained by utilizing five valves per cylinder. Such five valve engines normally employ three intake valves and two exhaust valves per cylinder. However, the addition of the further intake valve give rise to problems which are not attendant with four valve per cylinder engines and which must be addressed.
With four valve per cylinder engines, the valves can be symmetrically positioned and all of the intake valves and all of the exhaust valves are operated by a respective cam shaft. Because of the symmetric positioning, the cylinder head fasteners can be assessable even when the camshafts are in place. In addition, relatively large tappet bodies may be employed for operating the valves without necessitating comprises in the cylinder head configuration to accommodate the various components.
Where, however, three intake valves per cylinder are employed the positioning of the valves is important. That is, it is relatively easy to add a third intake valve to the engine but doing so results in larger cylinder head surfaces forming the combustion chamber, large volumes, greater quenching and lower compression ratios.
Therefore, it has been proposed to position the three intake valves in such a manner that there is provided a center intake valve and a pair of side intake valves. The axes of reciprocation of the side intake valves lie in a common plane while that of the center intake valve is disposed at an angle to this plane. Conventionally and in order to obtain high compression ratios and low surface areas, it has been the practice to have the angle of the plane and the angle of reciprocation of the center intake valve at relatively shallow acute angles to a plane containing the cylinder bore axis. These acute angles also all lie on the same side of this plane. By appropriately positioning the valves, their valve stem axes may be disposed so that they all can be operated by a common intake camshaft through thimble tappets.
Although this result is obtainable, it generally results in the positioning of the intake camshaft in such a location that it overlies or obscure the axis and heads of the cylinder head fasteners. Obviously, this presents some difficulties from a service standpoint.
Also, when three intake valves are utilized and they are all actuated by thimble tappets, then the thimble tappets must be relatively small in diameter to avoid interference. This can increase unit stress and wear.
It is, therefore, a principal object to this invention to provide an improved cylinder head arrangement for internal combustion engine employing multiply and at least three intake valves per cylinder.
It is a further object to this invention to provide a cylinder head assembly for such a multiple valve engine wherein the valves are positioned in such a way so as to maintain low surface areas and high compression ratios.
It is a further object to this invention to provide a cylinder head arrangement for such an engine wherein the camshafts may be positioned so that only two camshafts are required for operating all five valves and so that the camshafts are positioned so that they do not obscure the cylinder head fasteners.
It is a still further object to this invention to provide a multi-valve cylinder head arrangement wherein the diameters of the respective valve actuating tappets may be maintained as large as possible without interference between them.

Cylinder head for tappet arrangement for multi-valve engine


A stage apparatus includes a stationary support plate; an X-direction moving member supported on the stationary support plate by an X-direction guide device; and a Y-direction moving member supported on the X-direction moving member by a Y-direction guide device. The X-direction guide device has an X-direction elongated hole extending in the X-direction and formed in one of the X-direction moving member and the stationary support plate, and an X-direction engagement projection provided on the other of the X-direction moving member and the stationary support plate and is engaged in the X-direction elongated hole. The Y-direction guide device has a Y-direction elongated hole extending in the Y-direction and formed in one of the X-direction and Y-direction moving members, and a Y-direction engagement projection which is provided on the other of the X-direction and Y-direction moving members and is engaged in the Y-direction elongated hole.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stage apparatus which linearly moves a stage plate in two orthogonal directions, and a camera shake correction apparatus using the stage apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A known stage apparatus in which a stage plate is linearly moved in two orthogonal directions in a plane is described, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent No. 2003-57707.
In such a stage apparatus, a stationary support plate, an X-direction moving plate and Y-direction moving plate, parallel with the stationary support plate are provided. The X-direction moving plate is movable only in a specific X-direction, parallel with the stationary support plate relative to the support plate. The Y-direction moving plate is movable only in the Y-direction, parallel with the support plate and perpendicular to the X-direction, relative to the X-direction moving plate.
The stationary support plate and the X-direction moving plate are each provided with two X-direction mounting pieces (first X-direction mounting piece and second X-direction mounting piece). Corresponding first and second X-direction mounting pieces are laid one on top of the other, and thereafter, X-direction mounting pins extending in the X-direction are inserted in the first and second X-direction mounting pieces (which are laid one on top of the other) to mount the X-direction moving plate to the stationary support plate so as to be moveable in the X-direction with respect to the stationary support plate.
The X-direction moving plate and the Y-direction moving plate are each provided with two Y-direction mounting pieces (first Y-direction mounting piece and second Y-direction mounting piece). Corresponding first and second Y-direction mounting pieces are laid one on top of the other, and thereafter, Y-direction mounting pins extending in the Y-direction are inserted in the first and second Y-direction mounting pieces (which are laid one on top of the other) to mount the Y-direction moving plate to the X-direction moving plate so as to be moveable in the Y-direction with respect to the stationary support plate.
When a linear moving force in the X-direction is exerted on the X-direction moving plate by an actuator, the X-direction moving plate and the Y-direction moving plate are linearly moved in the X-direction along the X-direction mounting pins relative to the stationary support plate. When a linear moving force in the Y-direction is exerted on the Y-direction moving plate by the actuator, the Y-direction moving plate is linearly moved in the Y-direction along the Y-direction mounting pins relative to the X-direction moving plate.
However, the above-described stage apparatus of the prior art is constructed out of a large number of components, thus leading to a complicated structure and the assembling operation is troublesome.

Stage apparatus and camera shake correction apparatus using the stage apparatus


A flexible rapid deployable system that may be used create an isolated space within a medical transport vehicle for use when transporting infected or contaminated patients, including a flexible tent-like liner that creates a room inside the vehicle where both the patient and medical personnel can be isolated and that isolates contaminants within and a filtration system capable of producing the required air flow to maintain a negative pressurized isolated environment, sized to effectively accomplish this for the isolated cubic space.

Currently available mobile personal isolation systems only isolate the patient on a stretcher, bed or exam table. These systems only allow access to the patient via integrated gloves and thus makes taking care of the patient difficult. This is especially the case when life support equipment needs to be used or other invasive procedures need to be performed. In hospitals, patients are placed in Isolation Rooms. This is a specially equipped room that is negative pressurized with the use of medical hepa filtration systems that scrub and evacuate the air. When an infected or contaminated patients requires transport and medical care, a medic will accompany the patient in personal protective gear. The transport vehicle, however, will become contaminated possibly posing a serious health risk to others and requiring extensive decontamination of the vehicle.


An encoder system includes an internal counter (PTS or presentation time stamp counter). The counter provides information which enables the encoder system to resynchronize itself in the event synchronization with the video input stream is lost. Preferably, the counter is implemented in software. The encoder system also include a comparator (preferably implemented in software). The comparator is able to determine if particular regions of the input video stream have been captured at an expected time according to the internal counter within a predetermined error window by comparing the actual capture time with the expected capture time. In general, if the encoder system is synchronized with the incoming video stream, each successive blanking or active region will be captured at its expected time according to the internal counter within a predetermined error window. In this event, the timing of the various modules of the encoder system (e.g., preprocessing, spatial encoding, etc.) is based on the actual timing of the capture of a particular region according to the internal counter. In the event synchronization is lost between the video input stream and the encoder system, the encoder system resynchronizes itself with the video stream. Further, encoding of previous successively captured regions is based on the expected capture time (rather than the actual capture time) until a predetermined number (e.g., four) of regions are captured at the expected time within the error window.

MPEG-2 is now the most widely accepted standard for the transmission and/or storage of compressed digital video signals. More particularly, the MPEG-2 standard specifies a syntax (i.e., bitstream format) for a compressed digital video stream and a semantic (decoder algorithm) for decoding the MPEG-2 bitstream. The MPEG-2standard leaves to the individual user the design of an encoder system which encodes an uncompressed digital video stream to generate a compressed MPEG-2 bitstream.
The video signal which is input into an MPEG-2 encoding system comprises a sequence of frames. The frames may be progressive or interlaced. An interlaced frame picture comprises odd and even field pictures.
FIG. 1 schematically illustrates the format of one type of video stream which is inputted into a video encoder system. More specifically, FIG. 1 illustrates the CCIR 656 (or D1) format. Each frame comprises four successive regions, namely (1) odd blanking region, (2) odd active region, (3) even blanking region, and (4) even active region. The blanking regions contain lines in the vertical blanking interval and the active regions contain lines in the active video interval of the CCIR 656 or D1 formats. The number of pixels per line will vary depending on specific encoding features.
In general, an MPEG-2 encoder system includes a preprocessor and an encoder. The preprocessor performs a variety of functions to place the sequence of video frames into a format in which the frames can be compressed by the encoder. For example, in the case where the video source is a telecine machine which outputs 30 interlaced frames per second, the preprocessor converts the signal into 24 frames per second for compression in the encoder by detecting and eliminating duplicate fields produced by the telecine machine. In addition, the preprocessor may spatially scale each picture of the source video so that it has a format which meets the parameter ranges specified by the encoder.
The video encoder is preferably an encoder which utilizes a video compression algorithm to provide an MPEG-2 compatible bit stream. The MPEG-2 bit stream has six layers of syntax. There are a sequence layer (random access unit, context), Group of Pictures layer (random access unit, video coding), picture layer (primary coding layer), slice layer (resychronization unit), macroblock layer (motion compensation unit), and block layer (DCT unit). A group of pictures (GOP) is a set of frames which starts with an I-picture and includes a certain number of P and B pictures. The number of pictures in a GOP may be fixed. A slice is a group of consecutive 16.times.16 macroblocks.
The first step in a real time encoder system is capturing an incoming digital video stream. The capturing of the incoming digital video stream constitutes an important link between the encoder system and the outside environment. In general, the video stream is the main point upon which all of the encoding system's modules are synchronized. As the incoming video stream is not immune to noise and other types of corruption, in the event of a bad video stream, the encoder system must be able to continue its function and more importantly resynchronize its internal modules with the video stream once the video stream has regained coherency.
A corrupt video signal can be divided into two main categories: the first category is one where the video signal's synchronization points are still detectable, but are not coming at the expected times. This abnormality is mostly due to the presence of noise on the input signal, or the incoherency of the video source itself.
The second major problem category is when the video signal is completely lost, where the encoder has lost its reference to the video stream and must operate without a major synchronization point. This case normally occurs when the video source is disconnected from the encoder system. It may also occur in some video storage formats where during the rewind of video the synchronization signals become unavailable. In both cases of corrupt video streams, however, the encoding system must be able to continue its functionality, and be able to resynchronize itself to the video once the input video stream has stabilized.
It is an object of the invention to provide a synchronization method for a video encoding system which enables the encoding system to resynchronize itself to a video input stream once the video input stream has stabilized following a corruption event.


A portable diffused lighting system is disclosed. The lighting system includes a collapsible containment and a light source. The containment includes a perimeter wall, a first end, and a light diffuser, with the first end including the light diffuser, with the containment being disposable in a collapsed configuration and at least one expanded configuration, and with a maximum expanded configuration for the containment providing a maximum spacing of no more than about 4 inches between the light source and the light diffuser. The light source projects within an interior of the collapsible containment, and diffused light is output from the containment through the light diffuser. The lighting system may include a connector for detachably mounting the lighting system to a computer display panel. The lighting system may also include a boom stand, and the noted connector may also detachably mount the containment to the boom stand.

The onset of the Covid-19 epidemic forced millions of people to be quarantined to their homes. Daily business began to be increasingly conducted in homes using various video conferencing platforms. Despite the benefits of these video conferencing platforms, video conference calls require environmental conditions to be ideal, such as ambient noise levels, ambient lighting, camera positioning, and the like.


A handheld electronic device may include a portable housing and a shielding container within the portable housing. The shielding container may include a shielding frame and a shielding lid carried thereby. A printed circuit board may be within the shielding container. The shielding frame may include a planar base with at least one opening therein, a pair of opposing side walls integrally formed with the base and extending upwardly therefrom, and a pair of opposing end walls integrally formed with the base and extending upwardly therefrom. Also, the shielding frame may include at least one intermediate partition wall integrally formed with the base and extending upwardly therefrom to define a plurality of container compartments. The partition wall may also extend only partway between the opposing side walls to define at least one partition end gap therewith.

Cellular communication systems continue to grow in popularity and have become an integral part of both personal and business communications. Cellular telephones allow users to place and receive phone calls most anywhere they travel. Moreover, as cellular telephone technology has increased, so too has the functionality of cellular devices. For example, many cellular devices now incorporate Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) features such as calendars, address books, task lists, calculators, memo and writing programs, etc. These multi-function devices usually allow users to wirelessly send and receive electronic mail (email) messages and access the internet via a cellular network and/or a wireless local area network (WLAN), for example.
As the functionality of cellular communications devices continues to increase, so too does the demand for smaller devices that are easier and more convenient for users to carry. As any circuit board and electronic components thereon are reduced in size and placed closer together, including antenna and microphone components, various electronic components can pick up energy and create interference within the system. For example, an internal surface mounted microphone could pick up energy directly from a power amplifier or from the radiated energy emitted by an antenna. This unwanted reception of energy from respective power amplifiers and antennae may be particularly problematic in a packet burst transmission as part of a Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) system, including the 450 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 1900 MHz frequency bands.
Other interfering signals can be generated when the liquid crystal display (LCD) in some mobile wireless communications devices radiates radio frequency (RF) interfering energy and degrades receiver sensitivity. This may be problematic where the interfering energy is generated by the microprocessor or central processing unit (CPU) of a wireless mobile communications device and fed into the LCD lines, along with interfering energy generated by the LCD itself. Other problems may occur when the interfering radio frequency (RF) energy is coupled to the mobile wireless communications device causing audio break through tests to fail for both the uplink and downlink. Even the keyboard circuits can create unwanted interference problems. For example, the radio frequency receiver sensitivity is often degraded by the electromagnetic interference (EMI) of digital harmonics from the microprocessor or CPU via the keyboard because of the resulting loop formed by any keyboard circuits. In some instances, strong RF energy, for example, such as the transmitted power from the radio via the antenna interferes with or couples to the microprocessor or CPU input/output (I/O) lines of a mobile wireless communications device through the keyboard Key-In and Key-Out lines and causes a reset of the microprocessor or CPU.
A shielding container can protect components on a printed circuit board (PCB), preferably for a cellular phone, against interference from other components due to electric fields. A shielding container covers a number of electronic components on a printed circuit board, and thereby protects these components from disturbing other electronic components on the printed circuit board. The use of shielding containers is well known because GSM phones have printed circuit boards equipped with different components that may disturb each other if they are not shielded from each other.
A first type of shielding container includes one entire box shaped piece soldered onto the printed circuit board. This type of shielding container does not permit access to components covered by the shielding container, which makes it very difficult to repair or inspect any of the components covered or shielded by the shielding container. An alternative is having holes or apertures to let the heat in to solder the components at the same time as the shielding container.
A second type of shielding container includes two pieces, one frame and one lid. The lid is snapped onto the frame and can be removed from the frame, which is soldered onto the printed circuit board, to enable repairing or inspection of the components shielded by the shielding can. The second type may be attached to the printed circuit board in different ways. One way is to solder the frame onto the printed circuit board first and then attach the lid to the frame. Another way is to snap the lid onto the frame and solder the assembly onto the printed circuit board, but then there is a need for holes or apertures in the lid to let in the heat during soldering. Otherwise the components covered or shielded by the shielding container will not be properly soldered since the heat cannot reach the components. It is preferable to solder the frame with the lid attached to save work operations. However, according to the prior art there may be problems getting a good solder joint, when using a pre-joined shielding container.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,895,884 to Davidson is directed to a shielding device with a push fit lid. The shielding device is formed from two unitary pieces, one of which is a generally planar member taking the form of a lid and the other piece takes the form of a side wall member which is adapted for mounting to a substrate surface on which is mounted circuit elements. The two pieces together combine to create the shielding device for inhibiting the passage of electromagnetic radiation to and/or from a group of circuit elements. The lid may have flanges for connection onto the side wall member and the side wall member may have intersecting dividing walls disposed internally thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,600,663 to Koleda is directed to a shielding can for a printed circuit which includes a frame with side walls and a lid with increased flexibility from slits on the sides of the lid. These slits enable a flexible contraction, when soldering the shielding can onto the printed circuit board.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,137,051 to Bundza is directed to an electromagnetic interference and compatibility (FMS/EMC) shielding enclosure for a printed circuit board (PCB) or other electronic components that has a conductive plastic top housing portion and a conductive bottom housing portion. The top housing portion has projecting fingers integral therewith. The bottom housing portion has an inner surface with walls projecting therefrom for substantially encompassing the PCB. When the enclosure is assembled, the PCB is located between the top housing portion and the bottom housing portion, the fingers from the top housing portion surround at least a major portion of the PCB and the fingers physically contact the bottom housing portion or are sufficiently close for capacitive coupling.
There is still a need for a handheld electronic device including a multi-compartment shielding container with inter-compartment shielding and sufficient stiffness to be used for printed circuit boards within the electronic device.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Handheld electronic device including multi-compartment shielding container and associated methods


A device is provided which allows multidimensional information signals concerning coordinates, directions and the like of an object to be input to a CPU exactly as intended by an operator on a non-contact basis, and without restrictions on the place where it is used. Angular velocity detectors (4), (5), and (6) are provided on the X-axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis, orthogonal to each other of an operation unit which is shaped to be easily gripped by an operator or to be mounted on an articulation, shoulder, or head. The operation unit (1) is rotated and moved and, when the operator wishes to input information, push-buttons (2) and (3) provided on the operation unit (1) are turned on/off to command the start or stop of the counting of the output of the angular velocity detectors (4), (5), and (6). In response to the command, the angular velocity signals of the axes are converted into information to be input to the CPU through V/F converters, pulse conversion circuits, gate circuits, and counter circuits. The motion of an operator can be commanded as the operator intends in arbitrary space, thereby facilitating the movement of a robot arm and the rotation and movement on a display screen of a three-dimensional CAD system or graphic system. In addition, a person who has a handicap in his or her hand or leg can operate and issue commands.

Ordinarily, a track ball, a joy stick, a mouse or the like have been widely used as devices for inputting coordinates or directions for a computer.
However, in the case of a conventional mouse, as a ball in the mouse is rolled and the quantity of the displacement is mechanically detected, it requires a certain range of smooth surface to be operated.
Although a conventional joy stick does not occupy much space, its movable portion has a limited range, which makes it difficult to use for performing minute input operations.
A conventional track ball does not have the problems as described above but it is difficult to operate the buttons on the track ball and the track ball itself simultaneously.
Further, though these devices are intrinsically two-dimensional dimensional input devices, there are conventional devices which have been modified into three-dimensional input devices (refer to unexamined Japanese published patent application No. 62-40619 for a track ball which represents such a case). However, since these three-dimensional devices are obtained by modifying intrinsically two-dimensional devices, they require the operator to perform unnatural operations that are different from what the operator intends.
As a device for three-dimensional input operations on a non-contact basis, for example, unexamined Japanese published patent application No. 1-96720 discloses a coordinate input device utilizing an acceleration sensor. When this device is manually put in a translation motion, it detects the motion from the acceleration. It does not provide information regarding rotation and is apt to generate operational errors, and it is expensive because it performs complicated operations wherein the acceleration must be integrated twice to be converted into position coordinates.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a non-contact multidimensional information input device which solves the above-mentioned problems and allows input to be made in a way that the operator intends with high accuracy at low cost and without restrictions on the place in which it is used.


A power conversion architecture includes one control capable of simultaneous operation with multiple power conversion circuits. The function of the controlling mechanism includes an output signal proportional to one or more inputs to the controlling mechanism for the purpose of maintaining a destination level at a substantially constant value. The function of each power conversion path is to transfer power from a source to a destination in an amount dictated by the controlling mechanism. The function of the parallel power conversion architecture is to proportionally distribute the power transfer between all power conversion paths.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a power supply circuit and in particular to a power converting circuit with multiple current paths.
2. Description of the Related Art
A power converter supplies a fixed output voltage to a destination or load regardless of the current drawn by the destination or load. An input or source supplied to the power converter may vary in the voltage or current supplied.
A sample of a known power converter 10 is shown in FIG. 1 in which the power conversion path between the source and the destination includes a power conversion path circuit 12 and a switching regulator 14. The source voltage Vs is input to the power conversion circuit 12 and to the switching regulator 14. The switching regulator 14 also receives a reference voltage 16 as well as feed back from the output destination voltage Vd through a voltage divider 18 and 20. From these inputs, the switching regulator 14 forms an output pulse at 22 which has a duty cycle that is proportional to the difference between the source voltage Vs and the destination voltage Vd. The output pulse controls the time for connection of the source voltage to the destination voltage versus the time for connection of a storage capacitor in the power conversion circuit to the destination voltage. The connection between the source and destination is controlled by a switch having a low impedance at its control input which receives the duty cycle pulse output of the switching regulator. Since the low input impedance of the power conversion circuit draws a substantial amount of current, the switching regulator of the known circuit has a large transistor at the duty cycle pulse output to supply this current.
The destination or load may draw a substantial amount of current. When a single converter embodiment is unable to deliver a sufficient output current to the destination, it would be desirable to provide multiple current paths in the power converter so as to lessen the current load through each path. The multiple paths are achieved with parallel multiple converters 10, as shown in FIG. 2a, such that all converters 10 are connected to the same source voltage Vs to equally transfer power to and maintain the same destination voltage Vd. The converters 10 are each stand alone converters. In the ideal situation, the ability to transfer power equally results in each converter 10 delivering an equal amount of output current to the destination Vd. If equal amounts of current are not delivered from each converter 10, one converter will dissipate substantially more power than the others.
In practice, the parallel converter embodiments of FIG. 2a always fail due to finite differences in the switching regulators 14 controlling the transfer of energy within each converter 10. Differences in the reference voltage 16 presented to each switching regulator 14 along with voltage offsets at various points of amplification within the switching regulator make it impossible for all converters 10 to maintain the same destination voltage. As a result, current sharing is less than optimum and a single converter attempts to deliver all the current to the destination while the other converters deliver negligible amounts.
Many circuit additions have been developed over the years in an effort to make the paralleling method described above work. The most common of these additions is to eliminate the direct connection of the destination voltage Vd outputs of the converters 10 to one another. Instead, a small resistance 24 as shown in FIG. 2b isolates the destination voltage of each converter 10 from the other. This additional isolation resistance 24 results in two very undesirable effects. The first effect reduces the efficiency of the converter and the second effect is that the destination voltage is no longer directly maintained by any of the converter components 10. This last effect results in a destination voltage that varies with output current.


The pipeline analog-to-digital converter has a number of subsequent comparator stages (2) where the thresholds of the comparator stages are adjusted in accordance with the digital conversion results from previous stages (18, 28, 38) so as to implement a non-linear conversion scale. In particular, the pipeline analog-to-digital converter consists of a number of comparator stages (2), which operate in accordance with a common clock signal. The comparator stages are connected in series in such a way that a residue signal from a previous stage is used as input signal of a subsequent stage for comparison during the next clock period of the clock signal. At least some of said comparator stages have, according to the invention, a threshold generator (25, 35, 45) for adjusting the threshold value of the respective comparator (22, 32, 42) in accordance with comparison results of previous comparator stages (18, 28, 38).

The present invention relates to the field of electronics and more particularly to an analog-to-digital converter as it may be used in telecommunications applications such as receivers for long-haul optical signal transmission.
Digital optical signals traversing an optical fiber link are subject to distortion and noise which may produce bit errors at the receiver side. At higher transmission rates or longer span lengths, error correction may thus be performed at the receiver side to reduce the error rate of distorted signals. A known method of error correction, the Maximum Likelihood Sequence Estimation (MLSE) reducing errors caused by inter-symbol interference (ISI), uses a Viterbi decoder. Viterbi decoders require analog to digital conversion of received optical signal after signal detection in a photodiode.
Most analog to digital converters (ADC) follow a linear scale, i.e. the scale for a given bit resolution is subdivided in equidistant steps per bit. A linear ADC is also the best choice for correcting a noisy input signal with a signal independent noise characteristic like additive white Gaussian noise. Optical noise, however, is signal dependent and therefore the optimum characteristic of the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is no more linear. It would thus be preferable to use a ADC that follows a non-linear scale in Viterbi decoders for optical applications.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,417,965 discloses an optical amplifier control system that uses a non-linear analog-to-digital converter with a logarithmic scale but does not show an implementation of such an ADC.
It would be possible to implement a parallel ADC with a non-linear characteristic, because the thresholds of the comparators in the parallel ADC would be individually adjustable and could thus be adjusted according to a non-linear scale. The complexity of parallel ADC, however, grows with the square of the bit resolution n of the ADC (i.e., with 2n−1). The complexity of a ADC with a resolution of 4 bit or more is therefore too high to allow a cost effective implementation. Moreover, parallel ADCs have a relatively high input capacity so that they are not well suited for high-frequency applications of 2 GHz or above.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide an analog-to-digital converter that follows a non-linear scale and that has a lower complexity and allows operation at frequencies of 2 GHz and more.


A system and method for collecting bone marrow includes a trocar component having an upper handle and an elongate shaft depending from the handle, the shaft having a sharp cutting edge at a lower tip thereof. An introducer component includes a lower handle having an inlet formed therethrough and an introducer cannula communicably connected to the inlet and depending from the lower handle. The introducer cannula has an open distal end. The harvesting component includes a support hub having an aspiration port and a harvesting cannula communicably connected to the aspiration port and depending from the support hub. The trocar and introducer components are introduced into the bone marrow and the trocar component is replaced by the harvesting component. The introducer cannula is withdrawn and interengaged with the support hub of the harvesting component and the assembly is manipulated to drive a blunt end of the harvesting component through the bone marrow without causing undue damage to the bone marrow and constituent cells. Bone marrow is aspirated through fenestrated openings in the side wall of the harvesting cannula.

Progenitor stem cells are conventionally used to promote bone and tissue healing and in other medical therapies and treatments. Such stem cells are commonly derived from bone marrow aspirate, which is obtained using various available surgical instruments. Typically, a sharp tipped trocar is used to pierce and penetrate the trabecular or "spongy" bone of the patient. Liquid bone marrow is then aspirated through the trocar or other sharp edged cannula and further processed to obtain the needed stem cells.
Conventional bone marrow aspirating tools tend to produce aspirate samples having a less than optimal sample quality and stem cell concentration. Grinding the sharp cutting edge employed by the trocar through the bone marrow can cause considerable cell damage and resultant sample degradation. Many of the impacted red blood cells contained in the bone marrow undergo hemolysis and are ruptured or destroyed. This, in turn, causes the attached red blood cells to release free hemoglobin molecules, which are oxidative and very destructive of tissue. The disruption of the bone marrow that accompanies the use of conventional trocars also produces clotting and tissue activation, which can significantly reduce the therapeutic effectiveness of the aspirate sample. Traditional open tip aspirating cannulas having a sharp or thin bottom edge can cause similar adverse effects when penetrating the trabecular bone to collect bone marrow aspirate.


A processor capable of processing data of a structure having a first information field and a second information field includes conservation means for conserving the information of the predetermined second information field of the input data. Thus, in executing a logical operation or a shift operation, the step of separating the first data fields and second data fields from the data to-be-processed and the step of affixing the predetermined second field to the result of the operation are dispensed with, thereby to achieve a high-speed operation for the data of the structure having the first information field and the second information field.

The present invention relates to a data processor which includes operation means, such as an arithmetic and logic operation unit or a shift operation unit, capable of processing data of a structure having a first information field and a second information field. By way of example, it relates to a technique which is effective when applied to the operations of abstract data each having a data field, and a tag field for expressing the type or attribute of data contained in the data field.
Abstract data in which the attribute or data type of data such as the integer type or the floating point type is expressed by a tag field is, for example, one of a data structure having a data field and the tag field within one word. An arithmetical or logical operation or a shift operation for such abstract data needs to be executed, in effect, for the information of the data fields, and the operated result is set as the information of the data field pairing with the tag field expressing the attribute thereof.
Heretofore, an arithmetic and logic operation unit or a barrel shifter has been constructed so as to execute an arithmetical or logical operation or a shift operation for the respective bits of data received as inputs. Accordingly, in a case where only partial fields contained in data to-be-processed are subjected to a substantial operation because of the property of the data structure thereof, as in the abstract data, there must be adopted a procedure wherein data fields and tag fields are separated from the data to-be-processed, the information items of the separated data fields are subjected to a predetermined operation, and a predetermined tag field is affixed to the operated result. Incidentally, an example of a literature in which a data processor is described is "LSI Handbook," p. 536, published by the Ohm-Sha, Ltd. on Nov. 30, 1984.

System for selectively masking operand portions for processing thereof

301, Koganeinishi-Pahkuhoumuzu, 3-13-15, Nukuiminami-cho


A domino logic circuit includes an n-channel clock transistor coupled between a dynamic output node and a high voltage connection, the gate of the clock transistor further coupled to receive an inverse clock signal. A first inverter has an input connected to the dynamic output node. A second inverter with an input connected to the dynamic output node comprises a static CMOS circuit stage, the output of which is the output of the domino logic circuit. A p-channel level keeper transistor is connected between the dynamic output node and the high voltage connection, and the gate of the level keeper transistor is connected to the output of the first inverter. A pull-down circuit is connected between the dynamic output node and a low-voltage connection. A pull-up circuit is connected between the static CMOS circuit output and the high voltage connection. An output predischarge transistor is connected between the output of the static CMOS circuit and the low voltage connection, and is coupled to and controlled by a clock signal at its gate.

The invention relates generally to semiconductor logic devices, and more specifically to domino logic circuitry having a novel NMOS output pull-up.
Semiconductor operational frequencies are ever increasing, requiring circuitry and processes that support these faster clock rates. Domino circuits have been used in such circuits to speed processing, due to the way in which a domino logic circuit handles data. A typical domino logic circuit receives data on a first transition of a clock, and couples a logically derived signal to external circuitry on a next transition of the clock.
A conventional domino circuit includes dynamic circuitry coupled to static gate circuitry. The dynamic circuitry pre-charges an input of the static circuitry when a clock signal is low, and couples an input data signal to the static circuitry when the clock signal is high. The dynamic circuitry often is n-type metal oxide semiconductor (NMOS) pull-down circuitry, that is operable to pull down the level of a relatively weakly held pre-charged circuit node. The node is then latched in static CMOS circuitry to provide a stable output until the next logical cycle.
But, the speed of such logic is limited by the time it takes to pre-charge the dynamic circuit node that provides the data signal to the static CMOS latch and the output, and by the time it takes to pull down the weakly-held precharged node voltage to provide a low signal level to the static CMOS latch circuitry and to change the state of the output
One solution to such problems is to reduce the physical size of the circuit elements and reduce the supply and threshold voltages within the circuit, resulting in physically smaller devices able to change state over a smaller voltage range more quickly. But, the reduced threshold voltages and smaller geometry result in high subthreshold and leakage current in the transistors. Also, the low threshold voltages coupled with faster signal edges and greater noise coupling due to smaller geometry contribute to increasingly substantial noise problems. A higher threshold voltage may be used to compensate for higher noise, but a circuit providing a lower threshold voltage with faster operation is desirable.
For these reasons and others that will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding this specification, a need exists for a domino logic circuit that retains a low threshold voltage while providing an adequate noise margin.

Domino logic with low-threshold NMOS pull-up


A process for applying chemicals, such as an alkaline peroxide pretreatment (1) to lignocellulosic material before chemical refining and at the primary refiner (3). The preferred embodiment comprises (i) preconditioning at temperatures below 95° C., especially below 80° C., (ii) limiting the time and/or temperature in the refiner, (iii) reaction quench to maintain temperatures below 80° C., and (iv) subsequent high consistency bleaching (4).

Applying alkaline peroxide chemicals as part of refiner mechanical pulping may be traced back as early as 1962. Since then, there have been a number of different process ideas developed to apply the chemicals before or during early stages of refiner pulping. In recent years, an extensive and systematic investigation has been reported on how different chemical treatments in refiner mechanical pulping affect pulp property development and the process consumption. For hardwoods, it was observed that alkaline peroxide pretreatment in general gives better optical properties, better bleachability and higher pulp yield at similar strength properties when compared to other conventional chemical pretreatment, such as alkaline sulfite and cold caustic soda processes. When compared to a peroxide post-bleaching process, applying alkaline peroxide before refining has a tendency to give a higher bulk at a given tensile strength for some hardwood species, such as North American aspen.
In a very broad sense, alkaline peroxide refiner mechanical pulping is a type of pulping process where hydrogen peroxide and alkali in various forms, together with various amounts of different peroxide stabilizers, are applied to the lignocellulosic materials before or during defiberization and fibrillation in a refiner. In the early stage of development of this type of pulping process, there were two basic concepts. One was to apply alkaline peroxide treatment on chips, to allow the bleaching reactions to complete or to approach completion before refining. The other basic concept was to apply all the alkaline peroxide at the refiner, either with no pretreatment or with stabilizers or other alkaline pretreatment prior to the alkaline peroxide application at the refiner.

Four stage alkaline peroxide mechanical pulpings


A gaming device, method, and computer program product customize an electronic game using features of an image file, such as may be created by a digital camera or similar device. A gaming device comprises a processor capable of receiving an image file, extracting at least one feature from the received image file, and modifying the electronic game based on the extracted feature. The processor may modify the electronic game by adding a game object corresponding to the extracted feature. Alternatively, the processor may modify the electronic game by modifying a game object based on the extracted feature. The image file may be created by the gaming device or may be received from an external device. The extracted feature may be selected from the group comprising shape, size, location, orientation, color, and contrast. The processor may be further capable of preprocessing the image file.

Playing electronic games is a popular pastime, and continues to grow in popularity as more devices, particularly mobile devices, are created to facilitate gaming. Many mobile devices, such as mobile (e.g., cellular) telephones and personal digital assistants (PDAs), are capable of executing gaming applications. Additionally, dedicated mobile gaming devices have been created. These mobile gaming devices allow users to participate in electronic games away from the user's personal computer. When the mobile gaming devices are connected via a wireless network, the user is able to participate in multi-player electronic games away from the user's personal computer and wired network connection.
For purposes of this application, the term "gaming device" will be used to refer to all devices capable of executing gaming applications, whether the device is a personal computer, a cellular telephone, a PDA, a gaming console, a dedicated mobile gaming device, or any other type of device, whether multi-player or single player, whether connected to a network or not, and if connected to a network, whether the network is the Internet, a cellular telephone network, or any other type of network, and whether the communication with the network is wired or wireless.
Users of gaming devices often spend a great deal of time playing the electronic games. The users may become very familiar with a particular electronic game, such that the user can anticipate the action of the game before an event occurs in the game. Such familiarity may cause the user to become bored with a game. One method of preventing such boredom is to frequently acquire new games to play. There are several problems with this solution. New games may have to be purchased and it may be expensive to purchase many new games. Adding new games to a gaming device requires that the gaming device have available memory to store the game. The new games may need to be downloaded from a network, such as the Internet. Depending on the bandwidth of the network connection to which the gaming device is connected, it may take a long time to download a new game. A game developer or third party may create and sell additional game levels or extension packs that may be used to modify an existing game. These additional game levels and extension packs may also be expensive to purchase. Finally, while the user may be bored with a certain game, the user may also enjoy that particular game and may not desire to learn a new game.
Another method of preventing such boredom is to customize a game. Games, whether single- or multi-player and regardless of the game genre, usually come with a set of features such as game maps and/or scenarios. Some games include the ability to create new and customized features which may then be incorporated into future game play. These new or extension maps and/or scenarios are often developed and distributed by the developer of the game or by the users (players) of the game. Games played using mobile gaming devices have often been used for spending some idle time, while games played on personal computers and game consoles (collectively termed fixed games) often involve extensive and complicated development of game characters and/or achievement of a ranking in a gaming community. As a result, users of such fixed games may be more likely to develop extension maps and scenarios and share the developed features with other users. Conversely, the effort by members of the gaming community to create game maps and scenarios may not happen for the mobile games on the same scale as with fixed games.
Furthermore, the development of maps and scenarios usually require special development tools, and may be time consuming. While the maps and scenarios in games executing on mobile gaming devices might be simpler than for fixed games, the development in the mobile terminal itself is often quite difficult because of the hardware and software limitations of such a mobile device.
As such, there is a need for a gaming device, method, and computer program product for quickly and easily customizing electronic games, thereby enabling users of such games to add new features that may restore the user's interest in a familiar game.

Device, method, and computer program product for customizing game functionality using images


The present invention relates to herbicidally active compositions, which comprise 3-[5-(difluoromethoxy)-1-methyl-3-(trifluoromethyl)pyrazol-4-ylmethylsulfonyl]-4,5-dihydro-5,5-dimethyl-1,2-oxazole [common name pyroxasulfone] and at least one herbicide B and at least one herbicide B which is selected from group consisting of synthetic auxins and auxin transport inhibitors.

In crop protection, it is desirable in principle to increase the specificity and the reliability of the action of active compounds. In particular, it is desirable for the crop protection product to control the harmful plants effectively and, at the same time, to be tolerated by the useful plants in question.
Pyroxasulfone has been described in EP-A 1364946 and US 2005/0256004.
Although pyroxasulfone is a highly effective pre-emergence herbicide, its activity at low application rates is not always satisfactory. Moreover, pyroxasulfone is known to have only poor post-emergence activity (Y. Yamaji et al., "Application timing and field performance of KIH-485", Conference Abstract I-1-ii-12B of 11. IUPAC International Congress of Pesticide Chemistry, 2006 Kobe, Japan). Apart from that, its compatibility with certain dicotyledonous crop plants such as cotton, sunflower, soybean, brassica crops such as canola and oilseed rape and some graminaceous plants such as rice, wheat, rye and barley is not always satisfactory, i.e. in addition to the harmful plants, the crop plants are also damaged to an extent which is not acceptable. Though it is in principle possible to spare crop plants by lowering the application rates, the extent of the control of harmful plants is naturally also reduced.
It is known that combined application of certain different herbicides with specific action might result in an enhanced activity of a herbicide component in comparison with a simple additive action. Such an enhanced activity is also termed a synergism or synergistic activity. As a consequence, it is possible to reduce the application rates of herbicidally active compounds required for controlling the harmful plants.
WO 2005/104848 describes compositions containing a herbicidal 3-sulfonylisoxazoline compound such as pyroxasulfone and a herbicide-antagonistically active amount of a safener. Similar compositions are known from WO 2007/006509.
US 2005/256004, for example, discloses that in a pre-emergence treatment, joint application of certain herbicidal 3-sulfonylisoxazoline compounds such as pyroxasulfone with atrazine or cyanazine results in an increased overall herbicide action against certain monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous annual broadleaf weeds (lambsquarter, green foxtail, velvetleaf) in comparison with a simple expected additive action.
WO 2006/097322 discloses a herbicidal composition comprising pyroxasulfone and a second herbicide selected from tembotrione, topramezone and 4-hydroxy-3-[[2-[(2-methoxyethoxy)methyl]-6-(trifluoromethyl-3-pyridinyl]carbonyl]bicyclo[3.2.1]oct-3-ene-2-one.
WO 2006/097509 discloses a herbicidal composition comprising a herbicidal 3-sulfonylisoxazoline compound such as pyroxasulfone and a phenyluracil compound.
Unfortunately, it is usually not possible to predict synergistic activity for combinations of known herbicides, even if the compounds show a close structural similarity to known synergistic combinations.

Herbicidal compositions comprising pyroxasulfone VII

Abstract: The invention furthermore relates to a method for controlling undesirable vegetation, which comprises applying an herbicidal composition according to the present invention to the undesirable plants. Application can be done before, during and/or after, preferably during and/or after, the emergence of the undesirable plants. The herbicide A and the at least one herbicide B can be applied simultaneously or in succession.


Vertical cracks Vm in the thickness direction of a mother glass substrate 10 are sequentially formed along lines to be scribed and broken, and thus main scribe lines MS are formed along the lines to be scribed and broken of the mother glass substrate 10. Then, subordinate scribe lines SS are formed along the main scribe lines MS which have been formed, at a predetermined distance from the main scribe lines MS. Thus, the mother glass substrate 10 is broken along the main scribe lines MS. In this manner, the substrate can be scribed and broken efficiently without requiring a complicated device or the like.

Display panel substrates of liquid crystal display apparatuses or the like are usually produced using glass substrates, which are brittle material substrates. A liquid crystal display apparatus is produced by assembling a pair of glass substrates with an appropriate gap interposed therebetween and then enclosing a liquid crystal material in the gap.
For producing such a display panel substrate, an assembled mother substrate produced by assembling a pair of mother glass substrates is scribed and broken. Thus, a plurality of display panel substrates are produced from the assembled mother substrate. A substrate scribing and breaking method used for scribing and breaking an assembled mother substrate is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. H6-48755 (patent document 1).
FIGS. 15A through 15D show steps of scribing and breaking a mother substrate described above. In the following description, for the sake of simplicity, among a pair of mother glass substrates facing each other which are assembled together to produce an assembled mother glass substrate, one mother glass substrate will be referred to as the "A side glass substrate" and the other will be referred to as the "B side glass substrate".
(1) First, as shown in FIG. 15A, an assembled mother substrate 901 is placed on a first scribing device with an A side glass substrate of the assembled mother substrate 901 as an upper substrate. Using a cutter wheel 902, a scribe line Sa is formed in the A side glass substrate.
(2) Next, the assembled mother substrate 901 with the scribe line Sa formed in the A side glass substrate is inverted, and the assembled mother substrate 901 is transported to a first breaking device. In the first breaking device, as shown in FIG. 15B, the assembled mother substrate 901 is placed on a mat 904. A break bar 903 is pressed on the B side glass substrate of the assembled mother substrate 901 along the scribe line Sa formed in the A side glass substrate. By this operation, a vertical crack extends upward from the scribe line Sa in the A side glass substrate which is placed as a lower substrate, and the A side glass substrate is broken along the scribe line Sa.
(3) Next, the assembled mother substrate 901 with the A side glass substrate being broken is transported to a second scribing device without inverting the assembled mother substrate 901. In the second scribing device, as shown in FIG. 15C, a surface of the B side glass substrate of the assembled mother substrate 901 is scribed using the cutter wheel 902, and thus a scribe line Sb is formed parallel to the scribe line Sa. The scribe line Sb formed in the B side glass substrate is often formed offset in the horizontal direction from the scribe line Sa formed in the A side glass substrate. The reason is that the assembled mother substrate 901 has a plurality of display panel areas and an electrode terminal portion needs to be formed on a peripheral portion of one of the glass substrates of the display panel substrate.
(4) Then, the assembled mother substrate 901 is inverted to put the A side glass substrate as the upper substrate, and is transported to a second breaking device. In the second breaking device, as shown in FIG. 15D, the assembled mother substrate 901 is placed on the mat 904. A break bar 903 is pressed on the A side glass substrate, at a portion corresponding to the scribe line Sb formed in the B side glass substrate, along the scribe line Sb. By this operation, the B side glass substrate as the lower substrate is broken along the scribe line Sb.
By performing the above steps (1) through (4), the assembled mother substrate 901 is scribed and broken at a desired position.
The above-described substrate scribing and breaking method requires an inversion step for inverting the assembled mother substrate in order to scribe and break one of the mother glass substrates of the assembled mother substrate, and a breaking step of breaking the one mother glass substrate by extending a vertical crack formed by scribing the one mother glass substrate. There is a problem that a substrate scribing and breaking device for performing these steps requires a complicated structure and a large area for installment.
The above-described substrate scribing and breaking method also has a problem that a demand for reducing the production cost of display panels cannot be fully met.
A method used in a conventional breaking step, i.e., a method of pressing a rear surface of a substrate along a scribe line to scribe and break the substrate, has a problem that an edge of a broken surface of the substrate is, for example, easily chiseled off.
The present invention, for solving these problems, has an objective of providing a method for scribing and breaking a substrate efficiently without requiring a complicated device.

Method for dividing substrate and method for manufacturing substrate using such method


The present invention relates to a balanced circuit arrangement and methods for linearizing and calibrating such a circuit arrangement, wherein linearization is obtained by introducing a load imbalance between the output branches of the balanced circuit arrangement. Thus, a controllable extraneous imbalance is created between the output loads of the balanced circuit arrangement to thereby obtain a linearization by means of even-order non-linearity.

In radio reception, the linearity of the receiver is an essential requirement. The linearity performance of a receiver, in general, is usually dominated by the downconversion mixer circuits. Such mixer circuits are used to translate or convert received high frequency signals down to a lower or intermediate frequency (IF). This conversion is achieved by mixing the received signals with a locally generated oscillator signal. By choosing the local oscillator signal to be a constant amount away from a selected or wanted signal in a first frequency band, the selected or wanted signal always appears at the same frequency in the intermediate frequency band. Thereby, selection of the selected or wanted signal may be facilitated by a fixed-tuned IF filter.
In homodyne or direct conversion receivers, the chosen intermediate frequency band is DC or zero frequency. The local oscillator then has a zero frequency separation from the selected or wanted signal. Any modulation on the selected or wanted signal that causes spectral components both above and below the nominal signal frequency becomes folded at the mixer output, as a component below the signal frequency or above the signal frequency will appear at the intermediate frequency above the nominal of zero. To allow for resolution of such folded components, two mixers are provided in a direct conversion receiver using local oscillator signals that are phase offset by 90 degrees. The components above and below the nominal signal frequency then appear folded as a sum signal at one mixer output and a difference signal at the other mixer output where they may be separated if desired. Such direct conversion receiver operations are described in more detail in document U.S. Pat. No. 5,241,702.
However, due to non-linearities, spurious responses will be generated in the direct conversion receiver, the worst being modulation-frequency interference at the receiver's mixer output caused by a strong amplitude-modulated signal of another transceiver. This will appear even if the frequency of the interfering signal considerably deviates from the receiving frequency. These interferences are mainly caused by the second-order distortion component which contains a variable-level DC component proportional to the amplitude of the interference-causing signal. The variable amplitude signal produces at the mixer output a signal which comprises a variable DC component and the frequency of which is identical with the variation of the amplitude. The spurious frequencies may corrupt the radio reception by blocking the following signal processing stages or deteriorating the detection of the desired signal which is overwhelmed by distortion.
The spurious frequencies can be categorized to exist due to the odd- and even-order non-linearities. The even-order mixing results are suppressed by using balanced or double-balanced mixer topologies. Ideally, the even-order spurious frequencies are cancelled in balanced and double-balanced constructions. However, in practice, the canceling is imperfect. The reason is the imperfect balance due to the mismatch of respective components in the differential branches, i.e. manufacturing tolerances.
In radio receivers utilizing a direct conversion architecture or a significantly low IF, the spurious signals cannot be removed by selecting an optimal IF. Due to the existence of the even-order distortions and imbalance in the circuitry, a variable DC component proportional to the signal level and amplitude modulation depth of the interfering signal occurs. Moreover, envelope distortions are detected, the amplitude of which is also proportional to the amplitude modulation depth of the interfering signal, and the frequency of which equals to the variation of the amplitude. Thus, not only a DC offset but also a low frequency disturbance may be generated to corrupt the desired reception band. This is a particular concern in down-conversion mixers of direct conversion receivers.
Several solutions for reducing distortions in radio receivers with low IF have been proposed. Document U.S. Pat. No. 5,749,051 suggests compensating unwanted terms caused by second-order intermodulation by feeding instantaneous power measurements to a signal processing unit along with the complex baseband signals. The signal processing unit then determines a complex compensation coefficient by correlating the power signal with the complex baseband signals. The complex compensation co-efficient is then employed to subtract a weighted amount of the power signal from the complex baseband signal in order to cancel the unwanted second-order intermodulation distortion terms. Furthermore, document EP 0 951 138 discloses a method for attenuating spurious signals in mixer circuits by setting variable-level bias voltages and/or currents to transistors in the mixer circuits. Additionally, document GB 2 346 777 suggests switching a DC offset correction in or out of the circuitry according to the received signal strength or signal-to-noise ratio.
Furthermore, the use of a dynamic matching procedure is described by E. Bautista et al., "Improved Mixer IIP2 through Dynamic Matching", in the Digest of ISSCC 2000, pp. 376-377. According to this procedure, any undesirable second-order intermodulation distortion product generated in the mixer circuit is modulated to a frequency where it can easily be filtered off. This can be achieved by applying a periodic signal to input switches of the mixer circuit in order to modulate the received input signal. If the periodic signal is replaced by a pseudo-random signal, the undesirable second-order intermodulation distortion products can be spread over a wide range of frequencies to achieve a desired second-order input intercept point (IIP2) performance.
The second-order distortion phenomena itself and its undesired products, i.e. DC offset and envelope distortions, have not been thoroughly investigated so far. Due to lack of proper analysis of this topic, most of the solutions have been focused on the removal of the DC offset. However, even if the DC offset at the output of the mixer circuit is reduced to zero, the circuit may still be in an imbalanced condition, due to the fact that the envelope distortion itself causes a DC term which is related to other DC offsets in a complex manner.

Balanced circuit arrangement and method for linearizing such an arrangement


A winch attachment for vehicles for aiding in freeing a vehicle that is stuck. The device includes eight tow forks adapted for coupling with a pair of opposed tires of a vehicle, four of the tow forks for each tire. Each of the tow forks have a generally L-shaped configuration. Inner ends of the tow forks have socket adapters disposed thereon for engaging lug nuts of the tires. Outer ends of the tow forks have an elongated slot formed therethrough. The elongated slots of each of the four tow forks are in alignment with one another for receiving a bolt therethrough. The bolt is engaged by a wingnut. A pair of long straps are securable to one of the tow forks of the opposed tires of the vehicle. Outer ends of the long straps have an aperture therethrough. A pair of anchor bars are received through the apertures of the long straps for securement within a recipient surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to winches and more particularly pertains to a new winch attachment for vehicles for aiding in freeing a vehicle that is stuck.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of winches is known in the prior art. More specifically, winches heretofore devised and utilized are known to consist basically of familiar, expected and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
Known prior art winches include U.S. Pat. No. 5,115,994 to Hershberger; U.S. Pat. No. 3,917,228 to Blum; U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,466 to Peterson; U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,745 to Swayze et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,742,971 to Wallace et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. Des. 356,538 to Botterman.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not disclose a new winch attachment for vehicles. The inventive device includes eight tow forks adapted for coupling with a pair of opposed tires of a vehicle, four of the tow forks for each tire. Each of the tow forks have a generally L-shaped configuration. Inner ends of the tow forks have socket adapters disposed thereon for engaging lug nuts of the tires. Outer ends of the tow forks have an elongated slot formed therethrough. The elongated slots of each of the four tow forks are in alignment with one another for receiving a bolt therethrough. The bolt is engaged by a wingnut. A pair of long straps are securable to one of the tow forks of the opposed tires of the vehicle. Outer ends of the long straps have an aperture therethrough. A pair of anchor bars are received through the apertures of the long straps for securement within a recipient surface.
In these respects, the winch attachment for vehicles according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of aiding in freeing a vehicle that is stuck.


Systems and methods of the invention can equalize the pressure between an interior cavity and an environment exterior to the interior cavity, while providing for acoustic isolation between the two environments so that acoustic energy propagating through one environment does not cause acoustic vibrations in the other environment. In one application, these pressure compensation systems are employed to equalize the pressure on either side of a moving coil projector, thereby reducing the deleterious effect that a pressure differential across the moving coil projector can have on the operation of the moving coil projector and reducing the likelihood that propagating acoustic energy can result in phase cancellation that reduces the acoustic performance of the moving coil projector.

The invention relates to systems and methods for maintaining an active element at a selected bias point, and more particularly, to systems and methods that passively compensate moving coil transducers to compensate for pressure fluctuations.
A moving coil transducer for underwater applications is similar to a loudspeaker in that it is designed with a very soft suspension system to provide a low natural resonant frequency. Because of this soft, structurally compliant suspension system, a pressure compensation system is required to keep the forces acting on the moving radiating piston in static equilibrium. By equalizing the interior pressure to the exterior pressure, the radiating piston will maintain its neutral position. It is essential that a neutral position for the radiating piston be maintained because of mechanical limitations associated with alignment of the radiating piston with the magnetic driver. Large excursions from a neutral position will cause the piston to exceed the boundary of the applied magnetic field with an associated reduction in output power and an increase in distortion. A typical maximum pressure imbalance of only .15 psi acting on the radiating piston is allowed for these types of transducers. Pressure equalization must be maintained as the exterior hydrostatic pressure is both increased and decreased.
Until now, these types of transducers have used pressurized gas in back of the radiating piston to equalize the interior transducer pressure to the exterior hydrostatic pressure acting on the front of the radiating piston. For applications at shallow depths, this can be accomplished easily by using a gas filled bladder. As the hydrostatic pressure increases, the bladder compresses under the hydrostatic load. The compressed bladder decreases the interior volume of gas. As the volume of gas decreases, the pressure increases. Pressure equilibrium is obtained when the bladder has compressed sufficiently such that the interior pressure is equal to the exterior pressure. This method is called a xe2x80x9cPassive Gas Compensation System.xe2x80x9d It is not practical for applications at deeper depths because the size of the bladder becomes prohibitively large.
Traditionally, for deeper depths, this type of transducer has employed a different method of gas compensation which injects high pressure gas into the interior of the transducer. This method of gas compensation is referred to as an xe2x80x9cActive Gas Compensation System.xe2x80x9d This type of compensation system is very complex because it requires a method to sense the interior and exterior pressures and control the addition of high pressure gas to the interior of the transducer and the exhaust of this gas from the transducer. This method of gas compensation also requires that high pressure gas be carried as part of the transducer system. High pressure gas containment and associated plumbing is a safety hazard. In addition, because the gas is exhausted and not recovered, the mission life for this type of system is very limited. This is particulary troublesome for systems such as the Mk30 Mod 2 Target Undersea Vehicle (TUV) system that has only a small allocated volume for transducer components. Consequently, this type of gas compensation system would greatly limit the mission life of the Mk30 Mod 2 TUV system. The vehicle would have to be brought to the surface frequently and the high pressure gas replenished. Another disadvantage of this type of system is that, although the gas provides pressure equalization for the radiating piston, the compliance of the gas decreases as the inverse square of the absolute pressure of the gas. Hence, as the system changes operating depth, the compliance of the suspension systems changes and the resonant frequency of the system will change. As the transducer is lowered to greater depths, the resonant frequency will increase considerably as the compliance of the gas behind the piston decreases. The hazards of handling high pressure gas containment systems, the requirements for replenishment of the gas supply, and the changing performance of the transducer make the Active Gas Compensation System a very unattractive, unreliable compensation system.
The systems and methods described herein can equalize the pressure between an interior cavity and an environment exterior to the interior cavity, while providing for acoustic isolation between the two environments so that acoustic energy propagating through one environment does not cause acoustic vibrations in the other environment. In one application, these pressure compensation systems are employed to equalize the pressure on either side of a moving coil projector, thereby reducing the deleterious effect that a pressure differential across the moving coil projector can have on the operation of the moving coil projector and reducing the likelihood that propagating acoustic energy can result in phase cancellation that reduces the acoustic performance of the moving coil projector.
In one embodiment, the systems include pressure compensation devices for use with a transducer assembly that has a moving coil and a diaphragm. The pressure compensation device can include a housing having an interior cavity capable of being filled with fluid and dimensioned for receiving and enclosing the moving coil of the transducer assembly. A resilient bladder can be disposed within the housing and can have a first portion in communication with an operating environment and a second portion in communication with a fluid reservoir maintained within the housing. An acoustic filter can couple to the fluid reservoir and attenuate acoustic energy propagating at selected frequencies within the fluid reservoir, and a fluid passage can extend between the fluid reservoir and the interior cavity, whereby a pressure change in the operating environment acts on the resilient bladder and is communicated through the fluid reservoir and the fluid passage to adjust the pressure within the interior cavity.
In a further embodiment, the apparatus can include a compressible body disposed within the interior cavity. The compressible body can compress or expand in response to the movement of the projector within the cavity. The compressible body can be a slotted cylinder, a spring assembly, such as a belleville spring assembly or any other device capable of performing as a spring. In one embodiment the compressible body is an air filled compliant disk assembly capable of being compressed in response to a change in pressure within the interior cavity. The compliant disk assembly can also comprise a plurality of bladders filled with a compressible gas capable of being compressed in response to a change in pressure within the interior cavity.
In one embodiment, the filter can comprise a conduit coupled between the fluid reservoir and the interior cavity and having an interior passage for forming the fluid passage extending therebetween, and being dimensioned for resisting transmission of acoustic energy at selected frequencies between the interior cavity and the exterior environment.
The fluid passage can include a conduit coupled between the fluid reservoir and the interior cavity and dimensioned to allow fluid to pass at a rate selected as a function of the rate of pressure change of the operating environment.
The housing can comprise a body having a mass selected to resist vibration at selected frequencies, as well as a support rim for mounting to the transducer assembly.
The housing can also include a mounting rim for allowing the housing to be removeably and replaceably mounted to a surface.
In another aspect, the systems described herein include a modular moving coil transducer having pressure compensation for adjusting to pressure changes in an operating environment. The transducer can include a transducer assembly having a moving coil and a diaphragm, a housing having a fluid-filled interior cavity enclosing the moving coil to the transducer assembly, and having a resilient bladder disposed between the operating environment and a fluid reservoir maintained within the housing and being capable of deforming in response to a pressure change in the operating environment, a filter coupled to the fluid reservoir and capable of attenuating acoustic energy propagating at selected frequencies within the fluid reservoir, and a fluid passage extending between the fluid reservoir and the interior cavity, whereby a pressure change in the operating environment acts on the resilient bladder for being communicated through the fluid reservoir and the fluid passage to adjust the pressure within the interior cavity.
The transducer can also include a compressible body disposed within the interior cavity, as well as a complaint disk assembly capable of being compressed in response to a change in pressure within the interior cavity. The filter can comprise a conduit coupled between the fluid reservoir and the interior cavity and having an interior passage for forming the fluid passage, and being dimensioned for resisting transmission of acoustic energy at selected frequencies between the fluid reservoir and the interior cavity. The fluid passage includes a conduit coupled between the fluid reservoir and the interior cavity and dimensioned to allow fluid to pass at a rate selected as a function of the rate of pressure change of the operating environment.
The systems can also include target underwater vehicles capable of ascending and descending to different depths within a fluid environment, comprising a submersible body having a sidewall with a port for receiving a transducer assembly, and a modular transducer assembly mounted within the port, and having a moving coil projector including a moving coil and a diaphragm, a housing having a fluid-filled interior cavity enclosing the moving coil, and having a resilient bladder disposed between the fluid environment and a fluid reservoir maintained within the housing, a filter coupled to the fluid reservoir and capable of attenuating acoustic energy propagating at selected frequencies within the fluid reservoir, and a fluid passage extending between the fluid reservoir and the fluid-filed interior cavity, whereby a pressure change arising from a change in depth within the fluid environment acts on the resilient bladder to communicate the pressure change through the fluid reservoir and the fluid passage to adjust the pressure within the interior cavity.
Other objects of the invention will, in part, be obvious, and, in part, be shown from the following description of the systems and methods shown herein.

Systems and methods for passively compensating transducers