The present invention provides an improved nozzle assembly for use with a thermal spray apparatus for applying a coating to a workpiece. The nozzle assembly including a housing supporting a nozzle defining a gas conduit having an inlet and an outlet at opposing ends of the housing. The inlet for receiving a carrier medium from a thermal spray apparatus. The housing and the nozzle cooperating to define a material feed opening such that the material feed opening intersects the gas conduit proximate the outlet end of the nozzle. The material feed opening being angularly disposed relative to the gas conduit and intersecting the gas conduit proximate the outlet end of the nozzle such that coating material injected into the gas conduit through the material feed opening is heat-softened and propelled towards a workpiece to be coated by the carrier medium flowing outwardly from the nozzle.

In general, thermal spraying techniques and apparatus for coating metallic substrates are well known in the art. Thermal spray processes normally include the generation of a jet of high temperature carrier medium and the injection of a coating material into the carrier medium. The coating materials are usually powders which become heat-softened or melted by the carrier medium and propelled thereby at high velocities against the surface of a substrate to be coated.
Plasma flame spray apparatus typically include a plasma generator coupled to a nozzle. A plasma stream generated by the plasma generator is passed through the nozzle and towards a workpiece. A coating material is injected into the nozzle and the plasma stream and heat-softened or melted by the plasma stream and propelled thereby towards a workpiece applying the coating material thereto.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,256,779 to Sokol et al. (hereinafter referred to as "Sokol") discloses a plasma spray method and apparatus which is known in the industry as the Gator-Gard System manufactured by Sermatech International, Inc. of Limerick, Pennsylvania. Generally, the Gator-Gard System includes a plasma generator coupled with a nozzle for providing a plasma stream having improved characteristics. Upon entering the nozzle, a plasma stream is passed through a plasma cooling zone defined by a plasma cooling passageway, to a plasma accelerating zone defined by a narrowed passageway that expands into a plasma/particle confining zone. The narrowed passageway is cooled and the powder material to be applied to a substrate is introduced into the plasma stream along the cooled narrow passageway. Thereafter the particles and the plasma stream are discharged from the apparatus.
Similarly, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,858,469 to Sahoo et al. (hereinafter "Sahoo"), a modified thermal spray apparatus and method is disclosed. Generally, Sahoo discloses that plasma spray coatings of increased hardness can be applied to a workpiece by extending the distance at which the apparatus can spray the plasma/particle stream towards the workpiece. In the Sahoo apparatus, this is achieved by lengthening the passageway which defines the plasma/particle confining zone of the nozzle of the thermal spray apparatus. Additionally, Sahoo discloses that improved coatings can be obtained by increasing the ratio of the length to the diameter of the passageway defining the confinement zone.
One known problem associated with the plasma/particle confinement zones present in the nozzles of both of the Sokol and Sahoo apparatuses is that the particles of coating materials passing through these confinement zones can become cooled too much prior to exiting the nozzle. This can cause the particles of coating material to become clumped together resulting in imperfections in the applied coatings.
Further, the confinement zone present in the above-identified prior art nozzles necessitates a nozzle portion downstream of the material feed tube. This increases the minimum distance between the outlet of the nozzle and a workpiece during use of the nozzle in a coating process.
Another disadvantage of the above-identified prior art nozzle assemblies is that the nozzle assemblies do not include means for cooling the workpiece prior to applying a coating material.
Further, the above-identified prior art nozzles do not include means for enveloping the plasma stream exiting the nozzle with pressurized air for reducing contamination of the plasma stream discharged from the nozzle.
Based on the foregoing, it is the general object of the present invention to provide a nozzle assembly for use with known thermal spray apparatus that improves upon, or overcomes the problems and drawbacks associated with prior art nozzles.

Nozzle for use with thermal spray apparatus


An image recording device includes a conveying roller which extends in an axial direction, and a guide member which extends in the axial direction and is configured to guide a recording medium toward the conveying roller. The guide member includes a first end portion, a second end portion, and a middle portion positioned between the first end portion and the second end portion in the axial direction. The device also includes a supporting member which extends in the axial direction and is separated from the conveying roller by a predetermined distance. Moreover, the first end portion and the second end portion are in a fixed position with respect to the conveying roller, and the middle portion is in a fixed position with respect to the supporting member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present application relates generally to an image recording device which records an image on a recording medium conveyed by a roller. In particular, the present invention is directed towards an image recording device comprising a guide member which guides a recording medium to the roller.
2. Description of Related Art
A known image recording device, a printer, such as the image recording device disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2005-247544, includes a conveying device which conveys a recording medium along a U-shaped conveying path. In the known image recording device, sheets of recording medium are stacked on a sheet cassette and are conveyed upward along a guide member, which defines the U-shaped conveying path, to an inkjet type recording unit.
The guide member guides a sheet to a conveying roller which performs sheet registration by correcting the skew of the sheet and positioning a lead edge of the sheet. Accurately positioning the sheet at the conveying roller is important for ensuring sheet registration and for preventing sheet jamming. Therefore, the guide member includes C-shaped hooks at both ends thereof, and the hooks are fitted around a shaft of the conveying roller. This improves the accuracy of fixing the position of the guide member with respect to the conveying roller.
The conveying roller is cylindrical and has a circular cross-section having a constant diameter when cut at any position thereof in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction. The conveying roller extends over the sheet width, and the guide member is fitted around the both ends of the conveying roller which do not contact the sheet to be conveyed. Nevertheless, when the guide member has a relatively large width corresponding to the width of a sheet to be conveyed, and the guide member comprises a synthetic resin, the guide member is likely to bend in the width direction during operation. Consequently, during operation, the middle portion of the guide member does not maintain a fixed position with respect to the conveying roller. When the guide member conveys a sheet, the bending of the guide member may cause the position at which the middle portion of the sheet contacts the conveying roller to vary, thereby resulting in faulty sheet registration or sheet jamming.


A twist-forming process and a coining process for a crank shaft are carried out by using one twist-forming press including a twist forming section and a coining section, and a stopper height adjusting means for determining the crank pin arrangement and for finely adjusting the twist angles is integrally incorporated into the twist-forming press.

The present invention relates to a twist-forming press for twisting a half-finished forged crank shaft or the like by applying a downward Pressing force on a portion of the shaft.
Heretofore, when a half-finished forged crank shaft or the like is to be twist-formed, there are provided a special-purpose twist-forming press (twister) and a special-purpose coining press. The shaft is first subjected to a twisting process, and then, to a coining (correcting) process.
When a half-finished, crank shaft having a plurality of crank pins is to be twist-formed, the twist angle is required to be so determined that the crank pins are arranged around the center of the crank shaft at predetermined angular intervals. When a crank shaft having a different crank pin arrangement is to be formed by using the same twist-forming press (twister), the twist angle of the twister is required to be changed according to the pin arrangement, for example, among angles of 30.degree., 45.degree., 60.degree. and so on. Further, a fine adjustment of the twist angle is required due to the abration of dies of retainers used for twisting. In the past, the above-mentioned change of the twist angle was carried out by manually exchanging a stopper provided to determine the rotary angle of the retainer, and the above-mentioned fine adjustment of the twist angle was carried out by inserting shims between a twist plate and a roller mounted on the retainer.
As mentioned above, a twist-forming of a crank shaft requires two presses separated from each other, and as a result. There are required a special-purpose work convey means between these two presses and a work attitude correcting means including various detectors at the work inlet area for the coining press. As a consequence, the apparatus for twist-forming becomes complex and of a large size, and includes problems with respect to its operability, maintainability, installation space and installation cost. In addition, there is a disadvantage that the automation of the production process, in which a transfer feeder is used for improving the productivity, and the quality control of the product both become difficult. Further, as mentioned above, in twist-forming of pin portions of a crank shaft, the twist angle of the twister is required to be changed according to the pin arrangement, for example, among angles of 30.degree., 45.degree., 60.degree. and so on, and a fine adjustment of the stroke of the twist plate is required due to the abration of dies or retainers used for twisting. In the past, these change and fine adjustments were carried out by manually exchanging a stopper provided on a lower bolster (merely replacing with a stopper having a different height) and by manually adjusting shims on the stopper and shims between the twist plate and the roller on the retainer. As a result, there are several inconveniences that the operability is deteriorated, adjustment requires a long time, and the actually adjusted amounts can not be simply confirmed from the outside.

Twist-forming press for crank shaft or the like


In order to obtain such a liquid crystal thin film having optical anisotropy that suffers less change in optical characteristics thereof under heating to 200° C., the following polymerizable liquid crystal composition is provided as a raw material therefor. The composition contains Compound (1) and at least one of Compound (2) and Compound (3), with a proportion of Compound (1) being from 50 to 99% by weight, a proportion of Compound (2) being from 0 to 50% by weight, and a proportion of Compound (3) being from 0 to 50% by weight:

In recent years, it has been proposed that a polarizing plate, a phase retardation film and the like utilizing a liquid crystal having a polymerizable group are applied to an optical device. The optical device is obtained in such a manner that a polymerizable liquid crystal having optical anisotropy is polymerized in a liquid crystal state, followed by fixing the state. Accordingly, polymers having various types of optical anisotropy can be obtained by fixing the alignment state of the liquid crystal skeleton to such an alignment state as homogeneous alignment, hybrid alignment, homeotropic alignment and twisted alignment. In the following description, expressing the aforementioned alignment states may be referred to as "having homogeneous alignment", "having hybrid alignment", "having homeotropic alignment" or "having twisted alignment".
A polymer having homogeneous alignment can be used by combining with a half wavelength plate, a quarter wavelength plate or a film having other optical functionality. A polymer having hybrid alignment can be applied, for example, to a viewing angle compensation plate in a TN (twisted nematic) mode. A polymer having homeotropic alignment can be combined, for example, with a film having other optical functionality to improve the viewing angle characteristics of a polarizing plate. A film of the polymer having homeotropic alignment has an optical axis in the nZ direction and has a refractive index in the optical axis larger than the refractive index in the direction perpendicular thereto, and therefore, the film is classified to a positive C-plate in terms of optical indicatrix. The positive C-plate can be applied to improvement in optical compensation of a mode of a horizontally aligned liquid crystal display, i.e., a so-called IPS (in-plane switching) mode, for example, improvement in viewing angle characteristics of a polarizing plate.
In all the aforementioned uses, a liquid crystal thin film having optical anisotropy may be provided inside a liquid crystal cell or outside a liquid crystal cell. In the system having a liquid crystal provided outside a liquid crystal cell, the polymerizable liquid crystal composition may be applied on a film of TAC (triacetyl cellulose) or a polymer of a norbornene compound as a substrate in some cases.
In the case where a liquid crystal thin film having optical anisotropy is provided to a liquid crystal cell by polymerizing a polymerizable liquid crystal composition, the polymerizable liquid crystal composition is demanded to have the following characteristics. As the characteristics before polymerization, it is demanded to have a stable nematic phase at room temperature, exhibit uniform alignment property, and to attain easily various demanded alignment states. As the characteristics after polymerization, it is demanded to have good adhesion property to the substrate, and have suitable characteristic values thereof showing the optical anisotropy (such as retardation) and transparency corresponding to optical design. Furthermore, it is also demanded to have weather resistance (such as heat resistance, humidity resistance and light resistance) to prevent the characteristics from deterioration. In the case where the liquid crystal thin film is provided inside a liquid crystal cell, in particular, an overcoating layer, a transparent electrode and an alignment layer for a driving liquid crystal are provided on the liquid crystal thin film formed on the substrate, and therefore, the liquid crystal thin film is demanded to have such heat resistance that withstands the processing temperatures of the film forming processes and the heat history thereof to prevent the adhesion property of the liquid crystal thin film to the layers, the characteristic values thereof showing the optical anisotropy, the thickness thereof, and the transparency thereof from being changed beyond the tolerance levels.
As a polymerizable liquid crystal composition attaining the aforementioned demands, a polymerizable liquid crystal composition that contains an acrylate derivative having a 9-monoalkylfluorene skeleton has been proposed (as described in JP-A-2004-204190). However, the acrylate derivative having a 9-monoalkylfluorene skeleton has a chemically unstable structure, and various problems occur particularly in production of a liquid crystal display device having a liquid crystal thin film provided inside a liquid crystal cell. Namely, the characteristic values showing the optical anisotropy are changed, the thickness is significantly decreased, and the thin film is colored (yellow discoloration) to deteriorate transparency, and improvements thereof have been demanded accordingly.

Polymerizable liquid crystal composition and optically anisotropic thin film

Abstract: wherein R is alkyl; each of W1 and W2 is independently hydrogen, chlorine, fluorine or —CH3; each of W3 and W4 is independently hydrogen, chlorine, fluorine, —CH3 or —CF3; W5 is alkyl having, alkoxy, chlorine, fluorine, —CN or —OCF3; X is a single bond, —CH═CH— or —CH2CH2—; Z is a single bond, —COO—, —OCO— or —CH2CH2—; and q is an integer of from 1 to 20.


A method for optical measuring of the solid substance content in a fluid uses periodical flushing of an optical sensor (1) with a combination of pressurized air and water in the form of a jet. The jet exerts a very powerful cleaning effect without causing scratches on measuring surfaces of glass or similar materials. The invention also relates to a system for performing such flushing in connection with measuring.

For many years, attempts have been made to develop optical methods for measuring particles, i.e. sludge, in fluids. Within this context, fouling or contamination of a sampler or tester is a serious problem that risks making the measurement result entirely or partly useless after a certain operating time. The development of optical testers has therefore included different alternative methods of cleaning the tester, such as the use of wind-screen wipers on the glass surface transmitting the optical radiation, water flushing to keep the surface clean and the use of a brush for mechanical or manual cleaning. No existing testers have worked satisfactorily, but there has been clogging and in the case of mechanical cleaning scratches have often developed on the measuring surface, which has lead to unreliable measurement results.
The testers have throughout been positioned down in a tank containing sludge or in a line containing sludge, which has made the tester difficult to reach for inspection and attendance, for instance by mechanical cleaning.
As a consequence, this measuring technique has not been working properly and it has not been possible to measure sludge content in a reliable manner.

Measuring method and system and use of the method and system


A pinball machine which can be electrically linked to other pinball machines to allow the machines to communicate. Features on the pinball machines are synchronized to make gameplay more attractive to players. Cooperative or competitive gameplay can be provided between the pinball machines, but achievement of goals on the two machines is synchronized to maintain similar gameplay on both machines at any particular time.

The invention relates, generally, to pinball machines, and more particularly to an improved play feature for such games which is designed to foster and maintain player interest therein.
A typical pinball game includes an inclined playfield which supports a rolling ball, a pair of flippers, a vertical backbox containing the game electronics and a variety of play features. The person who plays the game has control of flippers mounted on the playfield which, when activated by the player at the appropriate time, propel the pinball across the playfield. A typical object of pinball games is for the player to direct pinballs at selected play features or targets to score points. When a ball passes into an out hole, the ball is no longer accessible and another ball is propelled onto the playfield. The duration of the game is normally determined by the length of time that a certain predetermined number of balls can be kept in play.
As will be appreciated, the success of a manufacturer's line of pinball games depends on its ability to attract players to its games. To attract players, it is necessary to provide new, exciting and challenging play features that test the player's skill in addition to entertaining the player.
Two or more players can be accommodated on a single playfield by playing in rotation, play passing from person to person each time a ball escapes from play. In multi-player situations there is clearly a drawback in that only one of the players is able to actively play the game at any one time.
In the field of video arcade games, particularly motor racing simulations, it is well known for two or more units to be linked together in such a way that two or more people can play in the same game simultaneously, whereby symbols representing all players are represented on the screens of other players, allowing the players to interact as if, for example, in a real race. Thus multiple player games are created with the advantages that players are not kept waiting to actively play the game, and that more enjoyment is generated by the direct competition.
The concept of linking two machines to allow several players to participate in a single game environment could not be applied directly to pinball machines, as ball movement on two machines clearly cannot be synchronized due to its chaotic nature.


An image reading apparatus includes a reading unit configured to read an original document to generate image data, a first file generation unit configured to generate a first file based on first image data that is generated by reading a first original document using the reading unit, a second file generation unit configured to generate a second file based on second image data that is generated by reading a second original document using the reading unit, and an attaching unit configured to attach the second file to the first file, wherein the reading unit reads the second original document after reading the first original document.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image reading apparatus configured to read an original document to produce electronic data and convert the electronic data into a file.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic data such as image data is converted into a file using a certain file format when saved. Among various file formats, file formats which allow one file to include another file in an attached form are known. Such file formats include, for example, Portable Document Format (PDF) and Microsoft® Office (registered trademark) application file formats. Such attachment is made by using a personal computer having installed therein applications compatible with the file formats described above. Attaching a certain file to another file allows users to combine a plurality of files into one file in the file operation to operate the file. Users are also allowed to implement the functions available for only an attached file on a file having the attached file. For example, the PDF encryption function can be implemented on a file to be attached to a PDF file.
The process for generating a file can be performed using not only a personal computer but also an image reading apparatus configured to optically read an original document. For example, as described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-306294, an image processing apparatus that attaches a file generated by reading an original document to an electronic mail when transmitting the electronic mail is known.
In the related art, the operation of attaching a file to another file is performed using a personal computer. However, an image reading apparatus that generates a file by reading an original document image does not generally attach another file generated by reading another original document by itself to the generated file. Furthermore, no consideration is given as to what processing procedure to use to efficiently generate a file.
The present invention provides an image reading apparatus configured to efficiently perform a process of generating a file by reading an image on an original document and attaching a file generated by reading another original document to the generated file.

Image reading apparatus and control method therefor


A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored therein, which when executed by a computer cause the computer to provide a user with a first game. The instructions further cause the computer to display one or more pieces, each of the one or more pieces being movable in a predetermined direction according to a touch operation by the user. The instructions further cause the computer to retrieve, when a purpose of the first game is achieved, a game content as a reward given to the user, the game content being usable in a second game different from the first game to progress the second game.

Various types of slide puzzles in which plural puzzle pieces are arranged horizontally and vertically and the puzzle pieces freely move horizontally and vertically using a space obtained by removing one of the puzzle pieces to complete a predetermined pattern have been proposed. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-000236 discloses a slide puzzle in which codes indicating content information are read from a pattern that appears after completion of the puzzle using a mobile phone with a camera to enable provision of the content information.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-154793 discloses a jigsaw puzzle input device of a touch panel screen capable of providing an enjoyable and a creative jigsaw puzzle with a simple operation and enhancing communication with other persons. Furthermore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-109915 discloses a service in which an image is divided into plural images to be distributed to plural mobile image display terminals and the images are exchanged between the terminals to create a composite image.
On the other hand, as electronic devices such as a smart-phone or a tablet terminal have become widespread, games for the electronic devices in addition to games for home video game machines have been actively developed. A structure called a "GACHA (vending machine toy)" has become widespread as a structure that gives a character which is usable in a predetermined game to a user. When the user uses the "GACHA," the character is given to the user as a result of a random event that depends only on chance.
The "content information" disclosed in JP '236 is no more than a uniform resource locator (URL) of a web page that provides predetermined content to a user and, thus, the slide puzzle disclosed in JP '236 cannot provide a character which is usable in other services such as a game. Thus, in such a slide puzzle, it is difficult to maintain high motivation of the user to solve the puzzle. This is similarly applied to the related art techniques disclosed in JP '793 and JP '915.
On the other hand, since the "GACHA" is no more than a structure in which a character is given to a user as a result of a random event that depends only on chance, the user does not easily get a feeling of accomplishment of acquiring the character. Accordingly, the user does not easily have affection for the character and, consequently, does not easily feel enthusiasm for a game in which the character is usable.
It could therefore be helpful to provide a recording medium storing a game program and the like capable of providing a slide puzzle capable of maintaining high motivation of a user with excellent amusement.

Computer-readable recording medium that stores game program, method of controlling information processing apparatus, and information processing apparatus for slide puzzles


A folding bicycle trailer includes a body portion having a passenger-receiving area, axle mounts, tongue mounts, and canopy mounts. The body portion is a unitary, one-piece monocoque structure, with the mounts being integrally formed therewith. An axle member is secured to the axle mount and carries wheel supports on each end thereof. The wheel supports are shiftable between an operable, extended position and a folded, storage position. A wheel is carried on each wheel support for free rotation relative thereto. An elongate tongue is carried on the tongue mount and extends forward from the body portion. A canopy frame, including fore and aft canopy members, is mounted on the body portion and is shiftable between a collapsible condition and a raised condition.

Bicycles are becoming a more popular form of transportation in the United States, emulating the popularity of such human-powered transportation in other parts of the world. A frequent scenario, however, is that bicycle trips involve small children who are not readily carried on a bicycle, and who are too small to ride either a separate cycle or a trailing cycle. To this end, a variety of bicycle trailers have been developed, whose primary purpose is for carrying children, however, the trailers also serve as utility trailers for carrying cargo, camping equipment, the family pets, etc.
One of the most successful collapsible bicycle trailers is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,020,814, to George et al, granted Jun. 4, 1991, for "Collapsible Bicycle Trailer." While this particular bicycle trailer has met with great commercial success, it is somewhat labor intensive to manufacture and requires the removal of the wheels for compact transport and storage.
Berner et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,259,634 discloses a convertible infant stroller and trailer which also includes a metal tubular frame and which, to be completely collapsed, requires the removal of the wheels therefrom.
Bell, U.S. Pat. No. 5,454,577, and Britton, U.S. Pat. No. 5,474,316, both disclose trailers with tubular metal frames which require the removal of the wheels for the collapsing of the trailer. Britton, U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,746 discloses a trailer which incorporates a pan structure to form a solid bottom to the trailer, which pan structure which fits over a conventional tubular frame.
The aforementioned bicycle trailers, while suitable for their intended purposes, all involve many parts and removal of the wheels for transport and storage.


The invention relates to the use of specific aminosilyl monomers in the manufacture of elastomeric polymers, especially rubber. The invention specifically relates to a process for preparing an elastomeric polymer, involving the copolymerization of the aminosilyl monomers, the elastomeric polymer thus obtained or obtainable, non-vulcanized and vulcanized polymer compositions comprising the elastomeric polymer, and articles comprising one or more components formed from the vulcanized polymer composition.

Vinylsilane monomers, in particular aminovinylsilanes, are conventionally used as modifying agents, especially backbone-modifying agents, in elastomeric polymers (rubber). That is, the (backbone) modification allows a modified reaction and interaction of the polymer with fillers in a rubber vulcanizate as used in tires. Yet, secondary amines released from amine-containing aminovinylsilanes may potentially result in the formation of nitrosamines, which, when exuding from rubber products such as tires, have carcinogenic potential. Insofar, TRGS-552 ("Technische Regeln fuer Gefahrstoffe", Technical Rules for Hazardous Substances) applies.
DE 32 43 141 describes specific vulcanization accelerators which are based on and derived from inter alia secondary amines such that the vulcanization accelerators, when used in the manufacture of rubber products, do not generate carcinogenic nitrosamines.
Aminovinylsilanes are used in the rubber field as modifying monomers in the polymerization of diene monomers such as butadiene, optionally together with aromatic vinyl monomers such as styrene, to produce rubber which can favorably be used in the manufacture of fuel-efficient rubbers. One approach for obtaining fuel-efficient tires lies in the production of tire formulations having reduced hysteresis loss. The hysteresis loss of a cross-linked elastomeric polymer composition is related to its tan δ value at 60° C. (see ISO 4664-1:2005; Rubber, Vulcanized or thermoplastic; Determination of dynamic properties—part 1: General guidance). In general, vulcanized elastomeric polymer compositions having relatively low tan δ values at 60° C. are preferred for having lower hysteresis loss. In the final tire product, this translates into lower rolling resistance and better fuel economy. In contrast, lower tan δ values at 0° C. correspond to a deteriorated wet grip of the tire product, and it is generally accepted that a lower rolling resistance tire can be obtained at the expense of deteriorated wet grip. For example, if, in a random solution styrene-butadiene rubber (random SSBR), the polystyrene unit concentration is reduced with respect to the total polybutadiene unit concentration, the SSBR glass transition temperature is reduced and, as a result, both tan δ at 60° C. and tan δ at 0° C. are reduced, corresponding to improved rolling resistance and deteriorated wet grip performance of the tire. Accordingly, when assessing the rubber vulcanizate performance correctly, both tan δ at 60° C. and tan δ at 0° C. should be monitored along with the tire heat build-up.
WO2015/055252 describes vinylsilane compounds which are useful as modifying monomers in the polymerization of conjugated diene monomers to produce elastomeric polymers, which can be used in rubber articles such as tires.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,299,167 relates to a conjugated diene polymer obtained by polymerizing a conjugated diene monomer and a vinylaminosilane in the presence of an alkali metal catalyst.
WO 2012/091753 relates to silane-functionalized polymers and rubber vulcanizates prepared therefrom. The authors describe the use of certain alkenylaminosilanes for use in the initiation of anionic polymerizations.
The present invention aims the provision of a process for preparing an elastomeric polymer, and to the corresponding elastomeric polymer and associated products, wherein no or no volatile emissions of carcinogenic nitrosamines are generated in the manufacture and processing of the elastomeric polymer (especially during rubber compounding). The present invention further aims at the provision of elastomeric polymers which exhibit improved storage stability, in terms of Mooney viscosity (CML1-4), while having no or reduced emissions of carcinogenic nitrosamines during manufacture and processing. Finally, the present invention aims at the provision of such elastomeric polymers which exhibit the same or improved balance of processing and rolling resistance characteristics, while having no or reduced emissions of carcinogenic nitrosamines during manufacture and processing.

Use of specific aminosilyl monomers in the manufacture of rubber


An assembly for controlling the flow of a gas to a gas burner. The assembly including a rotational regulating valve and an electromagnetic safety valve. The regulating valve is rotational between a first angular position corresponding to a closed position and a second angular position corresponding to an open position. The safety valve includes a valve member that translates axially between a first axial position corresponding to a closed position and a second axial position corresponding to an open position. An operating shaft is operably coupled to the rotational regulating valve and to the electromagnetic safety valve and is rotatable between angular positions corresponding to the closed and open positions of the rotational regulating valve and is axially translatable between axial positions corresponding to the closed and open positions of the valve member of electromagnetic safety valve, axial translation of the operating shaft is not permitted when the angular position of the operating shaft corresponds to an open position of the rotational regulating valve.

Gas burners comprising a safety valve connected to a main gas inlet which opens or closes, allowing or preventing the passage of said gas, and a thermocouple associated with said safety valve are known. The safety valve is usually closed and needs to be energized to keep it open. The current necessary for energizing the safety valve comes from the thermocouple which generates an electric current that keeps said valve open when it detects a flame. However, while turning the burner on it is necessary to open the safety valve mechanically and keep it open until the flame of the burner lights and the thermocouple generates the electric current necessary to keep the safety valve open.
Gas burners comprising an auxiliary feed circuit providing the safety valve with the energy necessary to keep the safety valve open until the thermocouple is capable of keeping the safety valve open itself are known.
In this sense, EP1739351 A1 discloses a gas burner comprising an electromagnetic safety valve, a thermocouple for energizing the safety valve when there is a flame in the burner, an auxiliary feed circuit for temporarily energizing the safety valve when the burner is activated, and an operating shaft associated with a respective control whereby the rotation of which regulates gas flow. The safety valve is opened by means of an axial movement of the operating shaft.


To prepare a polyester polyol in which a lactone is ring-opening addition polymerized with the compound represented by formula (I).

Many processes for modifying the characteristics of the polymers comprising introducing polar groups, e.g., anionic groups (such as a sulfonic acid group and a carboxylic acid group) and cationic groups (such as a quaternary ammonium group) as constitutional units of polymers, have been known.
Polyurethane resins have excellent flexibilities or mechanical properties and have been widely used for various applications. In the introduction of a polar group into a polyurethane resin, a diol component having a polar group is usually employed as a raw material. In the introduction of a cationic group, a variety of diol components having quaternary ammonium groups are known. On the other hand, in the introduction of an anionic group into a polyurethane resin, a diol component having a sulfonic acid group or a carboxylic acid group (and a salt thereof) is used.
In the polyurethane resin, particularly, regarding an aqueous solution or an aqueous dispersion of polyurethane resin, processes for producing an aqueous solution or an aqueous dispersion of polyurethane resin has been proposed, for example, a process comprising dispersing a polyurethane resin in water by using a surfactant (a dispersing agent) and a process comprising using a hydrophilic polyol (such as a polyethylene glycol) as a polyol component to give a self-dispersed urethane resin. From the viewpoints of the performances or the water resistance of the resin, introducing a hydrophilic group such as an anionic group or a cationic group into a polyurethane resin is advantageous to a process for producing an aqueous solution or an aqueous dispersion of polyurethane resin.
In the introduction of a polar group such as a hydrophilic group into a urethane resin, using a raw material monomer or oligomer having such a polar group in synthesis of a polymer has been generally known. The introduction of a polar group into a polyurethane resin usually employs a diol component having a polar group [e.g., a sulfonic acid group or a carboxylic acid group (and a salt thereof)] as a raw material.
Regarding the introduction of a polar group into a polyurethane resin, an introduction of a carboxyl group into a polyurethane resin is disclosed. For example, a process for producing a water-soluble polyurethane resin disclosed in Japanese Examined Patent Application Publication No. 15874/1978 (JP-53-15874B, Patent Document 1) comprises allowing a polyisocyanate or a urethane prepolymer having an isocyanate group at a terminal thereof to react with a polyhydroxy compound obtained by a reaction of a polycarboxylic acid anhydride with diethanolamine or hydroxylamine and having at least one carboxyl group and allowing the reaction product to react with an organic amine, ammonia or an inorganic base. However, in this process, the introduction of a carboxyl group into a hard segment of the polyurethane in the chain extension increases the aggregation of the polyurethane, and a sufficient water-solubility or water dispersibility is not obtained. Moreover, a high-boiling polar solvent (e.g., dimethylformamide) has a higher compatibility with a polyurethane than a low-boiling polar solvent and is used for the reaction in the production of the polyurethane. The high-boiling polar solvent is difficult to remove after hydrophilization of the polyurethane and consequently remains in the aqueous resin. In addition, a carboxyl group is a weak anion and has an insufficient effect on the modification of the polymer.
Further, an introduction of a carboxylate group and/or a sulfonate group is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 69882/1988 (JP-63-69882A, Patent Document 2). The process comprises using a diol component or a diaminosulfonic acid such as sodium N-(2-aminoethyl)-2-aminoethanesulfonate or sodium dimethylolpropionate as a chain extender in a urethane synthesis to introduce a carboxylate group and/or a sulfonate group. However, even in this introduction, a sulfonic acid (a salt thereof) group is introduced into a hard segment of the polyurethane, which increases the aggregation and cannot give the sufficient water-solubility or water dispersibility.
Furthermore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 354742/2001 (JP-2001-354742A, Patent Document 3) suggests an aqueous solution and an aqueous dispersion of an aqueous polyurethane resin containing a salt of N,N-bis(2-hydroxyethyl)-2-aminoethanesulfonic acid quaternary ammonium through a urethane bond in a molecular chain thereof. However, in particular, a diol component having a high content of a sulfonate group, e.g., N,N-bis(2-hydroxyethyl)-2-aminoethanesulfonic acid salt, is hardly soluble or insoluble in a low-boiling organic solvent used in a production of the polyurethane and difficult to use. Accordingly, a composition or molecular weight of an oligomer is limited and a molecular design of a polyurethane resin is prevented. Incidentally, a combination use of the low-boiling organic solvent and a high-boiling polar solvent (such as dimethylformamide or N-methylpyrrolidone) as a reaction solvent in the reaction makes it difficult to remove the high-boiling solvent used in the reaction after hydrophilization, and the high-boiling organic solvent consequently remains in the aqueous resin.
In addition, the following introductions of a sulfonic acid group have been known: a process comprises once dissolving a N,N-bis(2-hydroxyethyl)-2-aminoethanesulfonic acid tetraethylammonium salt in N,N-dimethylacetamide, and allowing the salt to react with an isocyanate to introduce a sulfonic acid group into a polyurethane resin [Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 48858/2001 (JP-2001-48858A, Patent Document 4)] and a process comprises transesterifying sodium 5-sulfodimethyl isophthalate by using a solvent (e.g., ethyleneglycol, dimethylacetoamide, and manganese acetate), removing methanol, and allowing the reaction product to react with an isocyanate to introduce a sulfonic acid group into a polyurethane resin [Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 15500/2005 (JP-2005-15500A, Patent Document 5)]. However, in these processes, the content ratio of the sulfonic acid group is inevitably decreased and the compositions or molecular weights of oligomers are restricted, which prevents the molecular design of a polyurethane resin.
[Patent Document 1] JP-53-15874B (Claims, and page 3, the fifth column, lines 24 to 27)
[Patent Document 2] JP-63-69882A (Claims, and page 5, lower right column, line 11 to page 6, upper left column, line 3)
[Patent Document 3] JP-2001-354742A (Claim 1, Examples)
[Patent Document 4] JP-2001-48858A (Claim 1, Examples)
[Patent Document 5] JP-2005-15500A (Claim 4, Examples)

Abstract: (wherein each of A1 and A2 represents an alkylene group having not less than 2 carbon atoms, A3 represents an alkylene group, X represents a cationic component, and each of n and m represents an integer of not less than 1.)

Abstract: The polyester polyol has a high hydrophilic group and high solubility in a solvent (particularly, a low-boiling organic solvent used in the production of a polyurethane) and can design an aqueous polyurethane desirably and produce the aqueous polyurethane.


The pipeline of a microprocessor is partitioned near its mid point such that a first portion of the functionality of the microprocessor is implemented on a first integrated circuit chip and a second portion of the microprocessor functionality is implemented on a second integrated circuit chip. In one implementation, the first integrated circuit chip includes an instruction cache, an instruction alignment unit, and a plurality of decode units for implementing fetch, alignment and decode stages, respectively, of the processor pipeline. Instructions are selected from the instruction cache by the instruction alignment unit and are provided to a respective decode unit. A compression unit may compress the information output by the decode units to prepare conveyance of the information from the first integrated chip to the second integrated circuit chip. The second integrated circuit chip contains circuitry to implement execute and write-back stages of the processor pipeline. This circuitry may include a plurality of execution units coupled to receive output signals from the decoders of the first integrated circuit chip, corresponding reservation stations, a load/store unit and a data cache. A decompression unit may be coupled to receive the compressed information from the compression unit of the first integrated circuit chip to decompress the information prior to providing it to the reservation stations and/or execution units.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of microprocessors and, more particularly, to pipeline partitioning techniques employed within microprocessors and to multi-chip microprocessor modules.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
Microprocessors are a key component in computer systems. Generally, the microprocessor is the master in a computer system, controlling other components according to a sequence of instructions provided by a user. The sequence of instructions is referred to as a program. Because the microprocessor is the master, many times the performance of the computer system is characterized by the performance of the microprocessor. As a result, microprocessor manufacturers have made dedicated efforts to increase the performance of their microprocessors.
One common performance improvement technique implemented in both scalar and superscalar microprocessors is "pipelining". Pipelining involves dividing a complex function that needs to be performed upon an object into a collection of sequential, independent tasks. Each of the independent tasks can then be assigned to a location where that task would be performed upon any object moved to that location. A "pipeline" is defined as the collection of locations and the tasks performed at those locations. A "pipeline stage" can then be defined as a location within the pipeline. By implementing the independent tasks in separate locations, the complex function may be performed on multiple objects simultaneously. No single performance of the complex function occurs more quickly, but the aggregate amount of time necessary to perform the task on multiple objects decreases.
Objects enter a pipeline and flow through the pipeline stages. When an object is moved out of a pipeline stage, another object may move into that pipeline stage. In order for a pipeline to function, it is necessary that objects move from pipeline stage to pipeline stage simultaneously, so that at no time is a given pipeline stage expected to retain a previous object and accept a new object. Additionally, no object is permitted to leave a pipeline stage until that pipeline stage has completed performing its task on the object. The two above mentioned requirements lead to the assignment of a fixed time interval to a pipeline. As each time interval expires, the objects within the pipeline move to the next pipeline stage. Therefore, the time interval for a particular pipeline is required to be at least as large as the largest amount of time required to execute a given independent task. In a microprocessor, the time interval is defined by a clock signal which opens and closes registers that define the pipeline stages and other storage locations within the processor. A "register" is a storage device that is directed by a clock to accept new values at regular intervals. A certain type of register known as a single phase register opens when the clock signal makes a transition, and closes a short time later. During the time that the register is "open", it accepts a new value. During the time that the register is "closed" it retains the value that it accepted when it was last opened. Accepting a new value into a register is referred to as "sampling" a value. The time interval in a microprocessor is referred to as a "clock cycle".
The simultaneous movement of objects between pipeline stages is referred to as "advancing" the pipeline. Sometimes, a pipeline is defined having situations where the pipeline cannot advance in some time intervals. Such a situation may exist, for example, when two pipeline stages share a resource that is occasionally used by one stage or the other. In cases where the resource is needed by both pipeline stages, then one stage will use the resource in a time interval, the pipeline is not advanced at the end of the time interval, and then the other stage uses the resource. At the end of the second time interval, the pipeline advances. Not advancing the pipeline at the end of a time interval is referred to as "stalling" the pipeline. Pipeline stages are connected in the order that the associated tasks are performed. A pipeline stage that receives an object before that object passes to a second pipeline stage is said to be "upstream" of that second pipeline stage. A pipeline stage that receives an object after a second pipeline stage has received the object is said to be "downstream" from that second pipeline stage.
A problem occurs when pipeline stages cannot be assigned independent tasks that require similar time intervals. The time interval must be set equal to or greater than the largest amount of time required to perform any of the independent tasks implemented in the pipeline. Therefore, the stages requiring less than the time interval to complete their task idle for the remainder of the time interval. In some cases, the set of pipeline tasks actually requires more time to execute than the complex function would require if implemented in a single step. Among the reasons why the complex function can be faster than the pipelined implementation of the complex function are that idle times exist for stages that complete their tasks in less time than the allotted time interval, and that a finite amount of time is required to advance the pipeline. Therefore, each added stage increases the amount of time required to complete the complex task on a single object. In some cases, a task associated with a pipeline stage can be further divided into tasks that can be implemented in separate stages. Such a division is desirable in cases where the task to be divided is the task that determines the necessary time interval, and the remaining tasks in the pipeline require significantly less time to complete. In other cases, however, a task cannot be naturally divided.
A particularly important application of pipelining in microprocessors is the processing of instructions. In order to process an instruction, a complex set of functions must be performed: the instruction must be retrieved from memory ("fetching"); the operations required by the instruction must be determined ("decoding"); the instruction must be transferred to an execution unit ("dispatching"); the operations required by the instruction must be performed ("executing"); and the results of the operations must be recorded ("writeback"). If these functions are performed separately in a non-pipelined fashion for each instruction in a program, the time required to process all the instructions in the program would be large. However, if the tasks are divided into stages in which each stage requires a similar amount of time to perform its assigned task, then the processing of instructions may overlap each other.
Another important consideration with respect to the design of a microprocessor relates to the size of the semiconductor die upon which the microprocessor is fabricated. With every generation of typical microprocessor families, the die size and number of transistors has increased tremendously. The increased number of transistors is required to implement the ever-increasing functionality supported by the typical microprocessor, as well as to implement the integration of other subsystems which are closely coupled to the microprocessor.
Unfortunately, increases in die sizes can result in difficulties in fabrication and in lower yields in manufacturing. To mitigate these problems, one approach has accordingly involved separating the functionality of a microprocessor system into smaller chips for incorporation within a multi-chip module. Specifically, in this approach a secondary cache is implemented on a chip separate from the main processor, and smaller primary caches (i.e., small data and instruction caches) are incorporated on the main processor chip upon which the decode and execution circuitry are also fabricated. By separating the functionality in this manner, a relatively large secondary cache is made possible, thereby enhancing performance.
Since in the above-described partitioning scheme the smaller primary caches are incorporated on the same die as the main processor circuitry (including the decode and execute circuitry), the overall sizes of these caches must be kept relatively small to allow for a reasonable overall die size. Similarly, the capabilities and functionality associated with the other processor circuitry on the main processor die must also be limited to keep the die within a reasonable size. Thus, while significant enhancements to the overall performance of a processor could be obtained by providing enhancements to the circuitry associated with the main processor die, in many instances such enhancements are not exploited due to die size limitations. In addition, although the size of the die containing the secondary L2 cache could be increased since the die space needed to implement the L2 cache itself is typically somewhat smaller than the practical limitations associated with a maximum die size, such additional die space can typically not be used to implement functionality of the main processor chip due the large number of required interconnections which would be required between the chips.

Multi-chip superscalar microprocessor module


A disk cartridge and a disk device for receiving the disk cartridge to enable recording and/or reproducing of information from or on a disk housed within the disk cartridge. The disk cartridge includes a disk in which information is recorded and/or reproduced, a case for housing the disk which case has opposite faces including a window in a respective face for exposing a part of the disk therethrough. A shutter is mounted with respect to the case so as to open or close a window of a respective face of the case with the shutter being movable in opposite directions with respect to the window from a position in which the window is closed to a position in which the window is open. The disk cartridge may include an openable part of the case for enabling the disk to be taken in and out of the case through the openable part thereof and a discrimination arrangement for enabling discrimination of different types of disk cartridges from one another. The disk cartridge may be arranged to enable exchange of disks of a same or different format including CD (compact disk), DVD (digital video disk) and PD (phase change disk) and the discrimination arrangement enables prevention of a disk cartridge of one different type from being erroneously inserted into a disk device receiving apparatus which is not compatible for the different type of disk cartridge.

A compact disk (hereinafter, referred to as "CD") system, which has been standardized in the so-called "red book", the so-called "yellow book" or the like and in which information is recorded in a disk having a diameter of 120 mm, and which is used mainly for music information has been widely adopted. This system has an almost sufficient capacity for handling music information, but when recording video information as in a CD-ROM, its capacity becomes insufficient for an increased amount of information, thus resulting in insufficient recording time or degraded image quality. Attempts to deal with this problem includes, for example, a digital video disk (hereinafter referred to as "DVD") system and the like.
In the aforementioned CD system, the disk is mainly used on only one side or face for exclusive reproduction. Also, the disk is often handled in a bare state, and a tray loading system, in which the disk is mounted on a drawer-shaped tray coming out from a disk device, is mainly used because of its good operability. On the other hand, however, a disk cartridge, which is called a CD caddy, as described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 63-153376 and in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 63-47472, capable of taking a disk out and in, is used, and a front loading system for inserting this disk cartridge into the device is also utilized.
In addition, in the aforementioned DVD system, the disk is used on both sides or faces for recording and/or reproduction. The disk tends to be housed in an exclusive cartridge primarily for protection from the standpoint of securing the reliability resulting from higher density recording.
Further, in contrast to the CD system, which is mainly used for exclusive reproduction, there has also been announced a PD (Phase-change Disk) system capable of rewriting, as described in Optical Disk System for Multimedia National Technical Report, Vol. 4, No. 6, December 1994, pgs. 129-136. In this PD system, the disk is used on one side for recording and/or reproduction. Also, the disk is housed in an exclusive cartridge from the standpoint of securing the reliability resulting from rewriting.
Disks for use with each system of the aforementioned CD, DVD and PD all have a diameter of 120 mm, and cartridges for each system described above are of nearly the same shape, having the same dimensions.
The problem to be solved by the present invention is to increase the capacity of the CD system or a disk system having nearly the same dimensions as the CD system, and the concept and technical problems for the disk cartridge and disk device using the same to deal with the problem are described below.
1) In order to take measures against scratching, dust and dirt resulting from higher density recording, a state in which a disk has been placed in a cartridge is supposed to be a standard. Even in the CD system, there is present a case called a "CD caddy" which is about 135 mm long, about 125 mm wide and about 8 mm thick, but this CD caddy is not used currently. Rather, the so-called tray loading system is mainly used.
2) Allowing both faces of the disk to be recorded. The CD is for one side recording and the capacity can be doubled by simple calculation.
3) Making a disk which is CD compatible and reproducible In a disk device using a new disk cartridge, its sales point is to make the existing CD compatible and reproducible. Accordingly, it is an indispensable condition to enable taking a disk in and out and having a disk for CD system within. However, the CD caddy is for one-side recording, and a clamper of the disk is attached on the side of the caddy case. The clamper is constructed to be on the side of the disk device because the new disk cartridge is of a both-face recording system. Thus, if the CD caddy is mounted to a disk device for the new disk cartridge, two clampers will interfere with each other. Therefore, it is necessary to prevent the CD caddy from being mounted to the disk device of the new disk cartridge.
4) Supply of the disk and disk cartridge at a low price. In order to reduce the price for general family usage, the disk cartridge including the disk device is required to be constructed at low cost.
Further, when increasing the capacity as described above, the mixed existence of three similar disk cartridges poses the following problems.
5) Discrimination of disk cartridges for each system
6) Prevention of erroneous insertion
7) The system of mounting the cartridge to the device is made applicable to both the front loading system and the tray loading system.

Disk cartridge and disk device using the same


One or more medical devices are configured to connect to a predetermined temporary provisioning network of a healthcare organization, the temporary provisioning network being different than a healthcare network of the healthcare organization. After the devices are received by the healthcare organization, and powered up for the first time, device identifiers corresponding to the medical devices are received at a server remote from the healthcare organization, from the temporary provisioning network, together with an indication that the medical devices are requesting access to a management server within a healthcare network of the healthcare organization. On determining that the medical devices are predetermined to receive access to the management server, a provisioning service configures, through the temporary provisioning network, the medical devices to access and communicate with the management server, and informs the management server that the medical devices have been configured to access and communicate with the management server.

Medical devices such as infusion devices purchased for use in healthcare organizations typically require manual configuration to connect to the healthcare network of the healthcare organization. Typically, an operator configures and installs necessary security certificates and updates for compliant use on the healthcare network. This process is often difficult and time consuming to set up each medical device.
With the ever-growing need for new advanced medical devices, the need to automatically connect additional medical devices to healthcare networks has increased. Efficient provisioning methods to connect multiple medical devices to healthcare networks are desired.

Automatic network provisioning of a medical device


According to one embodiment, the voltage divider circuit divides the output voltage, and generates a feedback voltage. The output voltage switching transistor has one end connected to a feedback voltage side, and operates based on an output voltage switching signal. The first condenser has one end connected to the one end of the output voltage switching transistor, and the other end connected to a control terminal of the output voltage switching transistor.

A constant-voltage power supply apparatus, such as a series regulator, a DC-DC converter, a switching regulator, or the like, divides an output voltage by resistors to generate a feedback voltage, and compares the feedback voltage with a reference voltage to output a constant output voltage. A power supply apparatus generating a plurality of output voltages includes voltage divider resistors dividing an output voltage, and switches a value of a portion of the voltage divider resistors by a transistor to output a different-level output voltage.
In the power supply apparatus, a voltage variation such as an overshoot or an undershoot occurs in an output voltage switching operation. Therefore, in comparison with a target voltage for switching, an output voltage may become an overvoltage, or may be primarily lower than a predetermined value.

Power supply apparatus which suprresses output voltage variation


A system to be installed within a room for detecting indoor condition data such as the interior area of the room and the number and position of occupants therein comprises an LED array for emitting a spotlight to form a multiplicity of light spots one by one successively as dispersed on the interior surface of the room at approximately equal spacings. The spotlight is projected from the array on the interior surface and concentrated on a one-dimensional PSD upon reflection. The indoor condition data is calculated by using triangulation for the optical system and output currents of the PSD as input signals.

For use in rooms of varying areas, conventional common air conditioners are prepared as classified according to the maximum operating capacity into different types corresponding to several categories into which the room areas are classified. For installation in an actual room, an air conditioner of particular type is selected which corresponds to the category in which the area of that room belongs. Thus, air conditioners of the same type are selected for rooms of different areas if the room areas are within a category.
However, these conventional air conditioners are controlled in the same way despite the difference in room area if the room areas are within the same category, so that the indoor spaces are not always air-conditioned comfortably, for example, owing to an excessive or insufficient amount of air flow. Further even if the room area is in match with the operating capacity, the indoor conditions vary depending on the number or position of occupants, whereas the air conditioner is not controlled in accordance with such variations.
As disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication HEI 2-10045, therefore, a system has been proposed which comprises a CCD or like solid image pickup device and an ultrasonic sensor for detecting indoor conditions to automatically air-condition the indoor space according to the detected result.
With this conventional system, indoor image data is fed to a memory from the CCD in advance, and when persons have entered the room, the number of occupants of the room is detected from the difference between the image data then obtained and the stored image data. The distance to the occupants is detected from signals from the ultrasonic sensor. The operating capacity or amount of air flow is controlled in accordance with the indoor conditions detected.
The conventional system requires not only a complex peripheral circuit for the image processing of output of the CCD but also a circuit for causing the ultrasonic sensor to scan the entire interior of the room. The arrangement for detecting the indoor conditions is therefore extremely complex to entail the problem of making the overall system large-sized. Moreover, the measurement of distances by the ultrasonic sensor involves great errors.
On the other hand, a system has been proposed for measuring the distances to articles by resorting to scanning with a light beam and the principle of triangulation as disclosed in Unexamamined Japanese Patent Publication HEI 2-276908. This measuring system has a light detecting surface comprising a PN junction face and employs a position sensitive light detector for outputting a signal corresponding to the position of a spotlight incident on the light detecting surface. The system gives measurements with higher accuracy than the ultrasonic sensor which affords distance measurements. The measuring system nevertheless has the problem of being unable to measure the interior area of rooms or the number of occupants and needing a scanning circuit.

System for detecting indoor conditions and air conditioner incorporating same


An electric grill shutter control device includes: a control portion that performs an energization of a motor that drives a movable member that configures the electric grill shutter; a detection portion that detects a rotational speed of the motor; a determination portion that determines whether locking of the movable member is occurred based on whether the energization is performed and the rotational speed; and an identification portion that obtains a rotation amount of the motor in a period around the locking from the rotational speed in a case where the locking occurs and identifying a cause of the locking according to the rotation amount and the energization.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric grill shutter control device which is preferably applied to an automobile such as a passenger vehicle, a truck, or a bus.
2. Description of Related Art
An electric grill shutter that controls an opening amount is installed in a front grill of a vehicle in order to appropriately guide cooling air to a cooling fin of an engine. Such an electric grill shutter performs selection of an open position or a close position of a movable member that is capable of opening and closing.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2011-105219 (JP 2011-105219 A), for example, it is suggested that in positional control of the movable member, current is continually applied according to a currently effective action condition until a different action condition is satisfied after an opening action or a closing action is performed, and a correction is made in a case where an actual position of the movable member does not correspond with a position where the movable member should be according to the action condition.
However, the electric grill shutter control device in JP 2011-105219 A may not be able to identify a cause of malfunction because a required opening amount cannot be obtained after the opening action of the movable member is performed. This may occur in a case where the grill shutter is pushed back in a close direction due to a disturbance factor such as jamming by a foreign object, for example. As a result, the unidentified cause leads to unnecessary part replacement at a dealer or the like, for example.


A pad printer is used to apply multiple patterned layers of alternating materials to form capacitors and resistors within or on ceramic packages. Fast drying resistive, conductive and dielectric inks are used to form very thin (from about 5 to 20 micron) patterned layers for integrated resistors and capacitors. The integrated capacitors may be interconnected in various configuration by patterning clearance holes into the conductive layers which allows the pass-through of electrical connections.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronics components and, in particular, to a process for producing integrated electronic capacitors and resistors.
2. Description of Related Art
Common parallel plate capacitors have two spaced parallel conducting plates separated by a dielectric. The capacitance is a function of the area of the plates and the thickness of the dielectric between the plates. This relationship is defined by the equation C=.epsilon.A/d where C is capacitance, .epsilon. is the permittivity of the dielectric, A is the area and d is the plate separation or dielectric thickness. As a function of the equation, and without changing the dielectric, the capacitance can be increased by increasing the area of the plates or by decreasing the dielectric thickness.
Microelectronic components and packages are small in area and technology is driving them to be smaller and smaller; therefore, increasing the size of the plates is not a favorable option when seeking to increase the capacitance of a package or component. Decreasing the thickness of the dielectric between the plates is a favorable way to increase the capacitance while decreasing the size of the package. Also, the capacitance can be increased by configuring multiple capacitors in parallel.
Ceramic capacitors are produced for component packages by processes which include layering alternating thin conductors which form electrodes, and unfired ceramics slayers called greensheets (nominally 0.2 mm to 0.28 mm thick) which form the dielectrics. Processes such as metal mask extrusion printing, silk screen printing and tape casting are used to produce the capacitors. Typically, as illustrated in the exploded view of FIG. 1a, conductive layers 16 are formed adjacent to greensheet layers 14 and an additional greensheet 15 of the same area as greensheet 14 forms the dielectric layer between the conductive layers. Alternately, multiple capacitors may be layered within the package. The capacitors formed by these methods are thick, and the dielectric layer 15 resides on the entire surface of the greensheet layers 14.
Other processes which are directed at manufacturing multilayer capacitors include U.S. Pat. No. 3,235,939, U.S. Pat. No. 4,347,650 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,586,972 which disclose methods of making discrete capacitors which can not be integrated into a ceramic package.
A capacitor component with multiple parallel capacitors can be formed to attain increased capacitance. The capacitance of parallel capacitors adds such that the total capacitance of multiple capacitors is the sum of the capacitance of each individual capacitor. Thus, capacitors in a component can be stacked and interconnected in order to increase the total capacitance of a component. The interconnection of the capacitors is important in the resulting component. Available interconnections methods do not provide interconnection flexibility of the components. FIG. 1b is a cross-sectional view of a discrete surface mount multilayer capacitor. The ceramic greensheets 44 form dielectrics, and electrodes 40 terminate at end terminals 42. The termination is not flexible and all of the capacitors of the discrete component are connected in parallel. Patternable electrodes would allow the termination flexibility necessary for interconnecting capacitors in packages in various configurations. However the aforementioned methods do not produce patterned electrode layers.
Metal mask extrusion printing and silk screen printing can produce patterned layers of conductive or dielectric materials of thicknesses from 0.6 to 2.5 mils on greensheets. Tape casting can produce greensheets as thin as 2 to 3 mils. The tape cast layers require patterned metallization deposition and require repeated handling of the flexible greensheets which introduces distortion to the greensheets. Metallization printing also causes greensheet distortion due to the interaction of the ink solvent and the greensheet organic binder. In addition, multiple oven dryings are required causing further distortion damage to the greensheets.
One approach to the patterning problem is U.S. Pat. No. 3,235,939 which discloses capacitors made from tape casted ceramic with a metallic material applied thereon. The tape cast ceramic is thick. A hole is formed in the ceramic by drilling or punching and the capacitor is fired prior to the introduction of a central solder conductor into the hole. The result is a thick discrete capacitor component with all of the stacked multiple capacitors connected in connected in parallel. Thus, the method does not provide interconnection flexibility.
Another aspect of multiple printings of thick layers of dielectric and conductors in a patterned area is the unwanted distortion that is created on the exterior surfaces of the electronic package. An area of great thickness inside the package will create a bump or bulge on the surface due to uneven unfired densities. This can cause problems with attachment of surface mount components such as integrated circuits, resistors, pins, etc. The multiple layers deposited inside the electronic package should be as thin as possible in order to maximize the surface planarity. In addition to having very thin dielectric layers to maximize the capacitance it is imperative that the dielectric layer be pinhole free so as to prevent the metallization above and below the dielectric from shorting together.
The formation of an integrated resistor is also desirable, singularly or in combination with other resistors and capacitors. Thin resistive layers of, for example, a cermet, which is a mixture of ceramic and metal, can not be formed thinly enough by the above mentioned processes to be integrated into a package.
Bearing in mind the problems and deficiencies of the prior art, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a process for making integrated capacitors whereby the capacitors can be created within or on the ceramic package.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a process, for applying layers to a substrate, which has rapid drying time and which does not require oven drying.
It is another object of the present invention to provide thin pinhole free layers.
A further object of the invention is to provide a process for applying layers to a substrate minimizing distortion of the substrate.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide thin patternable layers with interconnection flexibility.
Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification.

Integrated electronic components having conductive filled through holes

International Business Machines Corporation


A diesel unit injector of the END type is provided with a sac whose center of volume is located below the center of radius of the sac bottom. The bottom-most parts of the annular cavity which is above the seat for the nozzle valve are shaped to provide compensatory structural reinforcement.

EMD-type unit injectors are characterized by a nozzle valve body which terminates in a nozzle tip and houses a nozzle valve. The seat for the nozzle valve is formed at or near the nozzle tip and communicates with a small spray hole feed chamber or "sac," just below the seat and within the tip. The lower end of the nozzle valve projects into the sac in both open and closed positions of the valve, projecting somewhat further into the sac in closed position. The sac typically has a cylindrical sidewall and a hemispherical bottom wall. The fuel is distributed through the sac under high pressure to spray holes which are several times longer than their diameter. The spray holes lead from the sac through the wall of the injector tip and into the engine chamber where the fuel is atomized.
As pointed out in U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,924 of common assignee, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference as if fully repeated herein, the diesel engine industry has been under pressure to reduce noxious emissions. However, achievement of acceptably low rates of noxious emissions is by no means the only concern of the industry. In particular, the industry is also under continuing pressure to improve fuel efficiency. Although the diesel engine is the most efficient internal combustion engine used in motive power, there is continuing economic pressure to further reduce fuel costs, and continuing political pressure from conservationists to reduce the rate of consumption of fossil fuels. These pressures are particularly felt in respect of EMD-type locomotive fuel injectors, a type already widely used and whose use can be widely supported by existing networks of rebuilders as well as original equipment manufacturers.
Therefore, achievement of lower emissions is not enough; improvement in fuel efficiency is also of central importance. Cost of manufacture and reliability of operation must also be taken into account.
The present invention accomplishes these combined objectives, relating to fuel efficiency, emissions reduction, cost, and reliability in a particularly effective manner. The present invention maintains emissions in EMD-type injectors at the lowest levels previously accomplished (or lower), while at the same time improving fuel efficiency, all at no increase in manufacturing costs and no reduction in reliability of operation.
The present invention involves configuring the sac so that its center of volume is located below the center of radius of the sac bottom. This is believed to be a departure from all prior art EMD-type injectors (in which the center of the sac volume has been above the center of radius of the sac bottom). While the reasons for the improved performance of the invention are not fully understood, it is believed that this change in configuration from the prior art results in a more laminar (less turbulent) distributive flow of the fuel through the sac to the spray holes when the nozzle valve is opened by lifting it from its conical valve seat to allow the highly pressurized fuel to flow into the sac. It is believed that the less turbulent flow of fuel into the body sac and especially at the entrance of the nozzle orifices in the sac, provides increased penetration of the fuel spray into the combustion chamber thereby improving the distribution of fuel throughout the combustion chamber for a "more complete" burning of the fuel.
Whatever the complete explanation of the improvement in the spray formation, flow conditions are changed so as to improve fuel efficiency as well as reduce noxious emissions below the best known to have been previously achieved with EMD-type injectors.
In the design of diesel injectors of the type to which the invention relates, maintaining the integrity of the durability characteristics of the nozzle is a primary consideration because performance improvement at the expense of reliability is unacceptable. In this connection, any modifications in sac configuration must be accomplished without any compromise in structural strength of the structure at the nozzle tip. The present invention also contemplates modifications of the nozzle body shape to maintain the required structural strength despite the configuring of the sac so that its center of volume is below the center of radius of the sac bottom.
These improvements will be more fully understood from the following detailed description of the invention.

Injector nozzle with improved engine combustion efficiency


A data encoder and method successively analyzes successively smaller blocks of a specified data array. Data blocks are analyzed in a predefined order, and corresponding entries identifying data blocks containing at least one non-zero value are stored in that same order in a list of blocks. Whenever a data block is processed, if the data block is entirely filled with zero data it is so identified in the output data and no further processing of the subblock is required. Otherwise, if the size of the data block is greater than a predefined minimum block size (e.g., 2.times.2), the block is divided into smaller data blocks and those smaller data blocks are put on the list of blocks for further processing. Finally, if the size of a data block that is being processed is the predefined minimum block size, values representing all the data items in that data block are written into the output data. Information identifying the number of bits required to encode the maximum data value in each data block is written into the output data in the same order that the blocks are analyzed, thereby enabling a decoder procedure to determine the number of data bits used to encode each data value stored in the output data. A data decoder and method retraces the encoded data so as to reverse the process performed by the encoding method. The encoder and decoder can be implemented in either hardwired logic or computer software.

Sparsely populated data sets are utilized in numerous technical fields. The present invention was developed for efficiently encoding image data that has been transformed by successive applications of wavelet transforms, but is equally applicable to other types of sparsely populated data sets. Image data that has been transformed by successive applications of wavelet transforms tends to have large portions occupied by zero and near-zero values, especially if the data is subjected to a data quantization step prior to encoding.
The primary goals of the present invention are to provide an encoding methodology that (A) efficiently locates subarrays that are entirely occupied by zero data and encoding such subarrays with as few data bits as possible, (B) determines the maximum number of data bits required to encode subarrays that include at least some non-zero data, and (C) encodes non-zero data with the minimum number of data bits required to losslessly store such data.
Other goals of the present invention are to provide an encoding methodology that is computationally very efficient, and one that is suitable for implementation in hardware (i.e., electronic circuitry).

System and method for nested split coding of sparse data sets


The present invention provides a method, apparatus, and system to conserve resources, particularly rain water, by providing for water storage within building walls and other structural components. The building water storage allows reuse of water at that location that in the past has generally flowed to storm drains as runoff. Besides allowing reuse, another advantageous effect is that the structure may become a well insulated unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to storing water inside buildings. More particularly, the invention relates to creating and using a water holding capacity inside building walls, columns, and other structural components.
2. Description of the Related Art
Protection, in the form of a constructed environment from the elements, is a basic requirement for all living organisms. As our communities have grown, modern construction methods fail to accurately incorporate the use of natural elements into our architecture.
With water quality declining from synthetic chemical use and potable chemicalization, rain water harvesting has become a useful tool to store water for potable and non-potable use. Due to the weight of water contained in a single or multiple stand alone vessels, structural cisterns are not practical for large scale rainwater reuse, such as in a high-rise building. Additionally, space of a single or multiple stand alone vessels is an issue in some of the single family buildings, such as zero lot line homes.
Therefore, there remains a need for an improved storage of water inside a structural component of a building and subsequent reuse therefrom.

Method and system for storing water inside buildings


A global positioning System receiver and a correlating circuit thereof are disclosed. They sequentially and in parallel generate the portion of bits of the C/A code representing the satellite, sequentially and in parallel generate the portion of bits of the corrected frequency code of Doppler effect, and sequentially outputs the portion of bits of the C/A code and the corrected frequency code therefrom for multiplying the data and the IF data and for adding the multiplications therefrom for generating the total addition values.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication apparatus, and more particularly to a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver and a correlating circuit thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the rapid advancement of technology, electronic devices are being widely used in our daily life. As to a global positioning System (GPS) receiver, it becomes more and more available to use to public. For example, the navigation system installed in cars can help the drivers identify the location and direction thereof that can substantially prevent the car from being lost.
FIG. 1 is a schematic drawing of a signal frame transmitted from a satellite. The A serial represents that the satellite transmits a frame for each 30 seconds which includes 5 sub-frames and each sub-frame with 6 seconds. The B serial represents that the frame data includes the 50 bits/sec navigation data. It means that the transmission time for each bit of the navigation data is 20 ms. Prior to transmission of the navigation data and the C/A code for identifying the satellite of the C serial are performed through exclusive or logic operation for generating the D serial data. The frequency of the C/A code is 1.023 MHz which transmits 1023 bits C/A code per ms. The length of the C/A code is 1023 bits. During the transmission the data are carried by a 1575.42 MHz carrying wave for performing bi-phase shift key (BPSK) by the output from the operation of the navigation data and the C/A code as shown E serial. The modulated signals are then transmitted.
For a GPS receiver, a RF front end serves for receiving the modulated signals for the IF data, and a correlating circuit serves for searching the C/A code for identifying the satellite whose data can be received. To date, 24 satellites are orbited on six orbits. Generally, three or four satellites are sufficient to identify the location. The more the satellites are, the more precise the location will be. In addition, because of the Doppler effect, the correlating circuit refers a corrected frequency code when searching the C/A code. If the IF data received by the correlating circuit is the IF data, and the C/A code for searching the satellite is Code, and the corrected frequency code is Doppler, the correlating circuit can determine the maximum for identifying the C/A code offset and Doppler corrected frequency of the satellite whose data can be received can be expressed by the following equation:
                              ∑          0          Nms                                  IF          *          Doppler          *          Code                                    (        1        )
The "*" represents a multiple operation, such as exclusive or logic operation, or a multiple of a single bit. "N ms" means the time period of receiving the data, which is adjustable. When the time period increases, the S/N ratio also increases which means the noise does not seriously affect. Following is a C/A code searching example, wherein the length of the C/A code is 7 bits. (Generally, the length of the C/A code is 1023 bits.)
Referring to FIG. 2, a schematic drawing of a circuit generating the 7-bit C/A code is shown. The circuit comprises a 3-bit shift register 210 and a multiplier 220. The input of the multiplier 220 is a two-bit output of the shift register 210; the output of the multiplier 220 is inputted into the shift register 210 responding to the output of the two bits. Therefore, the circuit, therefore, generates a 7-bit cycle C/A code, i.e. 1110010.
In order to search the 7-bit C/A code and determine the offset of the IF data, the correlating circuit of the GPS receiver uses the 7-bit C/A code, i.e., 1110010, and the other codes with different offset, such as 0111001, 1011100, 0101110, 0010111, 1100101, etc, to perform multiplication and addition with the IF data. The multiplication is, for example, the exclusive or logic operation shown in formula (1). If the C/A code has two-bit offset, the codes with different offset are, for example, 1110010, 0101110, 1011100, 0101110, 1001011, 1100101, etc. After the exclusive or logic operation and the addition operation, only "1011100" has a value "0"; the others have a value "4". If "4" is deemed as the zero point of the coordinate, "0" becomes "−4" in the coordinate. After the square and radical operation, it generates the maximum "4" which can be detected by a peak detector.
Referring to FIG. 3, a waveform of a searching result of a correlating circuit is shown. In addition to the offset of the C/A code, the correlating circuit also searches the Doppler corrected frequency. The offset of the C/A code and the Doppler corrected frequency with the maximum are tracked by the satellite for acquiring the correct offset of the C/A code and the Doppler corrected frequency.
FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram of a prior art correlating circuit. The correlating circuit includes a C/A code register 405, a Doppler corrected frequency code register 410, an I memory 415, a Q memory 420, a Doppler multiplier 425, a C/A code multiplier 430, an I analogic adder 435, a Q analogic adder 440, an I A/D converter 445, a Q A/D converter 450, a square and radical calculator 445, an integrator 460 and a peak detector 465.
The C/A code register 405 serves for storing the C/A codes to be searched. The Doppler corrected frequency code register 410 serves for storing the Doppler corrected frequency code to be searched. The I memory 415 stores the IF data received by the RF front end. The Q memory 420 stores the IF data with 90° phase shift. The I memory 415 and the Q memory 420 can store the IF data for about 20 ms for the multiplication of formula (1). The data are being processed by the Doppler multiplier 425 and the C/A code multiplier 430 for generating the multiplication of each bit. After the process of the I analogic adder 435 and the Q analogic adder 440, the addition of the multiplication of each bit is acquired. After the process of the I A/D converter 445 and the Q A/D converter 450, the digital data are acquired.
Then, after the process of the square and radical calculator 445, the absolute values of the digital data are generated. By the integration of the integrator 460, the value is then stored in the non-coherent memory 470. It can reduce the noise influence. The longer the integration time, the higher the S/N ratio. It means the noise influence is reduced. The integrated value can be detected by the peak detector 465 for acquiring correct offset of the C/A code and the Doppler corrected frequency.
The prior art correlating circuit is also disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,896,304 and 6,009,118. The correlating circuit uses analogic adders for generating the addition of the multiplication of each bit and the total addition of the multiplication of the 1023-bit C/A code. When the process is changed, the A/D converters should be redesigned. Therefore, the process portability is degraded.
Additionally, although the correlating circuit disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,383,046 can improve the process portability, it processes the C/A code bits sequentially and then in parallel and does not have the buffer of the IF data. Therefore, it cannot perform the operation in parallel.

Global positioning system receiver and correlating circuit thereof


This invention provides novel fungal strains altered in IPC synthase production, and a method for screening for inhibitors of fungal IPC synthase using whole cells.

This invention relates to the analytical arts and to recombinant DNA technology. In particular the invention pertains to the construction and purification of novel strains of yeast and other fungi that are useful in whole-cell screens for inhibitors of inositolphosphoryl ceramide synthase (IPC Synthase).
The incidence of life-threatening fungal infections is increasing at an alarming rate. With the exception of Staphylococci infections, the fungus C. albicans represents the fastest growing area of concern in hospital acquired infections. About 90% of nosocomial fungal infections are caused by species of Candida with the remaining 10% being attributable to Aspergillus, Cryptococcus, and Pneumocystis. While effective antifungal compounds have been developed for Candida there is growing concern that the rise in fungal infections may portend a trend toward escalating resistance and virulence in the future. This is problematic because anti-Candida compounds rarely possess clinically significant activity against other fungal species.
Inositolphosphoryl ceramides are sphingolipids found in a number of fungi including but not limited to S. cerevisiae, S. pombe, C. albicans, A. fumigatus, and H. capsulatum. A step of sphingolipid biosynthesis that is unique to fungi and plants is catalyzed by the enzyme IPC synthase. The IPC synthase step, which covalently links inositol phosphate and ceramide, is essential for viability in S. cerevisiae. Although some elements of sphingolipid biosynthesis in fungi are shared with mammalian systems, the pathways diverge after formation of ceramide. Thus, the formation of inositolphosphoryl ceramide is unique to fungi and plants, making IPC synthase a good molecular target for antifungal chemotherapy.
While IPC synthase presents a rational target for anti-fungal therapy, presently there are no clinically useful compounds that act at this step. Thus, there is a need for new compounds that inhibit IPC synthase.

Screen for inhibitors of fungal IPC synthase