A control apparatus for an internal combustion engine that is capable of switching between compression ignition combustion and spark ignition combustion is provided. The control apparatus is configured to perform fuel cut. The spark ignition combustion is performed over a time period after the fuel cut. The compression ignition combustion is permitted when the time period elapses. Fuel cut decreases the temperature within the combustion chamber. According to the invention, if fuel cut is performed, the temperature within the combustion chamber is raised by the spark ignition combustion. Since the compression ignition combustion is permitted after the temperature within the combustion chamber rises, engine misfire and an increase of NOx emission are prevented. The time period is preferably determined based on the temperature within the combustion chamber immediately before the fuel cut is performed.

The present invention relates to an internal combustion engine capable of switching between spark ignition combustion and compression ignition combustion, and in particular relates to control for such an internal combustion engine after fuel-cut.
A compression ignition type of internal combustion engine has advantage that fuel efficiency is high because high compression ratio is achieved. Such an engine has further advantage that the amount of NOx emission is low because the combustion temperature is low.
In order to cause the compression self-ignition, the temperature of gas within a combustion chamber needs to be raised beyond a predetermined temperature. Heating of intake air or internal EGR is typically performed so as to raise the temperature within the combustion chamber.
The temperature within the combustion chamber may not reach the predetermined temperature, for example, when the engine load is low. If the temperature within the combustion chamber is lower than the predetermined temperature, engine misfire may occur even when the piston reaches the top dead center (TDC). In order to prevent such engine misfire, the engine combustion is switched to spark ignition when the temperature within the combustion chamber is low, as described in the Japanese Patent Application Unexamined Publication (Kokai) No. 2000-87749.
Fuel cut, which temporarily cuts fuel supply to the engine, may be performed in response to deceleration of the vehicle. Such fuel cut decreases the temperature within the combustion chamber and the temperature of exhaust gas used for internal EGR. If the engine combustion is switched to compression ignition after the fuel-cut, the temperature within the combustion chamber may not reach a temperature required for the compression self-ignition. Even if operating conditions of the engine are within a range where the compression ignition combustion is allowed, engine misfire may occur because the temperature within the combustion chamber is low.
Thus, there is a need for technique that prohibits the compression ignition combustion if the temperature within the combustion chamber immediately after fuel-cut does not reach a predetermined value that is required for the compression self-ignition.

Control apparatus for an internal combustion engine


Display article support systems and methods of using, interchangeable support clips, support elements and display boards for support of display articles such as dolls for display, transport and/or play are disclosed. A kit includes a variety of the interchangeable support clips and support elements included in a package.

Positioning dolls and other types of play figures in an upright position for display, transport, and play may pose difficulties for various reasons. For example, dolls used for play, e.g. BARBIE® and BRATZ® dolls, are often not manufactured with legs capable of supporting the doll in a freestanding position. To display a doll in a freestanding upright position, manual support or positioning against a vertical surface may be necessary. A collector of dolls may, for example, have several dolls positioned against the back wall of a bookshelf. Nonetheless, display of dolls in this manner may not be aesthetically pleasing to many collectors. In addition, even freestanding dolls require a horizontal surface to stand upright, and sufficient horizontal display space may be unavailable for many users or collectors of dolls. Further problems may arise when transporting dolls from place to place. Traditionally, dolls may be handheld or placed in a bag for carrying, but transporting dolls in these ways may interfere with upright display of a doll or tie up a users hands.
Known display stands which place dolls in an upright position are often coupled to a doll's legs. Sometimes these stands have a base that partially fixes one or more legs of the doll for upright positioning. Although useful for their intended purpose, display stands of this type have several limitations. Like freestanding dolls, such stands require adequate horizontal display space for use. Many stands are made from metallic based materials, which are capable of scratching support surfaces. In addition, these types of display stands are often not suited for easy transport. Stands can add significant weight and bulk to bags used to carry dolls. Moreover, from a child's perspective, stands may also interfere with positioning of dolls and distract from the overall play experience.
Considering the limitations of display stands and other products proposed for positioning of dolls and play figures, there is a clear need for improved display article support systems, kits, devices and methods of mounting display articles. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages, as described in the following summary.


A method for producing an expanded metal, the method including producing a sheet of the expanded sheet metal by introducing openings through one expansion blade wherein all the openings are configured as diamond shaped loops without a material loss and defined by a loop width, a loop length and a loop shape; and forming the diamond shaped loops respectively by four linear bars that are defined by a bar width and a bar thickness wherein two of the four linear bars are respectively connected at four nodes; arranging plural of the diamond shaped loops in columns adjacent to one another and in rows adjacent to one another; and forming first columns of first diamond shaped loops different from second columns of diamond shaped second loops in a loop width or in a loop length respectively measured from a node center to a node center.

Dimensional changes of the expanded sheet metal relative to its non-expanded base material can lead to strong deformations of the expanded sheet metal if the dimensional changes are not introduced uniformly. This impairs further processing of the expanded metal if tight tolerances are exceeded. If certain tolerances are exceeded finishing is required. If additional tolerances are exceeded scrap may be produced depending on the application of the expanded metal. Possible uneven dimensional changes are caused in particular by different degrees of wear of teeth of the expansion blade. Expanded metal is used in many applications. It is used for covering facades of buildings and for fence construction, for visual shielding purposes and it is also used in the fabrication of automobiles.
Requirements regarding the quality of the expanded metal are particularly high in the fabrication of automobiles since the expanded metal is typically used as an interior covering material in the vehicles. Expanded metal is used for example for covering speakers. However, in some applications it is also used in large areas in order to cover ventilation openings of defroster nozzles for the wind screens or other car windows.

Expanding metal with loops in different shapes


A quick clamping system has a clamping device for releasable clamping engagement in a clamping direction with a selected support member oriented vertically or horizontally. A support portion on the clamping device projects outwardly from the support member, and has three orthogonally oriented mounting bores projecting inwardly from spaced regions on the outer surface of the support portion such that one of the bores will be upright whatever the orientation of the support member. A carrier for supporting one or more objects, such as medical equipment, has a pin member for selective engagement in the upright mounting bore.

The present invention relates generally to a clamping system for mounting objects on a suitable support which may be a pole, table top, or any other stable support member, and is particularly concerned with a clamping system suitable for mounting medical equipment and the like in a readily accessible fashion.
In the medical field, a large number of instruments and other items are commonly needed for patient monitoring and treatment, both in hospitals and outpatient clinics, as well as for home treatment purposes. The necessary medical equipment must be suitably supported adjacent the patient while in a hospital bed, while the patient is being transported to and from different locations in a hospital or clinic such as an operating room, treatment or diagnostic facility, and while undergoing treatment, for example. Instruments and other items commonly in use adjacent patients include IV bottles and IV pumps, heart monitors, and other treatment and monitoring devices.
IV bottles are normally hung from suitable hangers at the top of telescoping IV pole stands. Medical equipment such as IV pumps may then be clamped to the pole either permanently or temporarily. However, this can make the IV pole unstable since such instruments are typically quite heavy. Also, the heavy pump must be supported with one hand in the proper position while the clamp is secured to the pole, which is relatively difficult and inconvenient for medical personnel. The instrument must be unclamped and moved to a new location repeatedly both when the patient is moved and at the end of a treatment, and also if the instrument malfunctions. Current clamping systems do not allow instruments to be moved from place to place easily.
When a large number of instruments are required for treatment and monitoring purposes, a single IV pole will not provide sufficient support area or stability. However, since the instruments are relatively fragile and it is important that they operate continuously, it is undesirable simply to place them on a table top where they could be knocked off. Current clamping systems are normally designed for securing to one type of support surface in a fixed orientation, which is also not always convenient.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,832,299 of Gorton et al., for example, a clamp fixture for supporting a medical instrument on a variety of different support structures is described. However, the instrument must be held while the clamp mechanism is engaged, and the mechanism is relatively difficult and complex to use.


A system configured to perform software load verification. The system includes a memory, a network interface, and a processor. The memory is configured to store first data indicating expected load events. The network interface is configured to receive load verification data and a cryptographic signature from a software update target device. The load verification data is descriptive of particular load events related to loading software at the software update target device. The processor is configured to authenticate that the load verification data is received from the software update target device based on the cryptographic signature. The processor is also configured to, responsive to authenticating that the load verification data is received from the software update target device, performing a comparison of the particular load events and the expected load events. The processor is further configured to perform a response action based on results of the comparison.

Software vendors often release updated versions of existing software in order to support new features or to fix issues in the software. In some networked environments, a provider device sends software (e.g., updates) via the network to other devices. Prior to distributing the software to the devices, the provider device verifies the software (e.g., by scanning or debugging the software). After receiving the software from the provider device via the network, the devices load the software (e.g., to perform a software update).
In some cases, a software update is performed "offline." For example, a computer system may receive the software and may load the software to perform the software update without notification to the provider device. In some circumstances, because a device is "offline," the provider device may be unaware of the particular configuration of the device or version of the software at the device. The provider device, based on an outdated configuration of the device, could send software (or other data) to the device that is incompatible with an updated configuration of the device. In this case, the provider device is unable to verify whether the software that was sent to the device has been installed correctly at the device.

Systems and methods of software load verification


According to certain embodiments, a method in a network node (100A) for determining spectrum utilization for a plurality of numerologies transmitted within an allocated bandwidth includes selecting one or more of the plurality of numerologies. For each of the one or more selected numerologies, a spectrum utilization is determined. The spectrum utilization is based on the spectrum utilization that would be achieved if the selected numerology was transmitted across the allocated bandwidth. A physical resource block (PRB) allocation is calculated based on the allocated bandwidth and the spectrum utilization.

3GPP is currently developing a new Radio Access Technology (RAT), known as new radio (NR), that will be the basis of 5G and be submitted to IMT-2020. NR aims to fulfil a number of goals, including improving spectral efficiency, reducing latency, and enabling new use cases for IMT (International Mobile Telecommunications) technology.
In particular, NR is expected to enable a wider range of use cases than predecessor cellular radio technologies. Potential use cases include MRR (Mobile Broadband), Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC). Machine Type Communication (MTC), Device-to-Device (D2D), Vehicle-to-Vehicle & Vehicle-to-Infrastructure Communication (V2V & V2X).
The NR air interface will be based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). When developing an OFDM waveform specification, two interrelated and key parameters are the subcarrier spacing in the frequency domain and the symbol length. As illustrated in FIG. 1, for F-UTRA the subcarrier spacing is fixed at 15 kHz and the symbol length (minus cyclic prefix) at 66.7 μsec, see for example 3GPP TS 36.201 V14.1.0 (201743-23) For NR, there will not just be one possibility for subcarrier spacing, but a plurality. The subcarrier spacing possibilities will be based on 15*2n kHz, where n may be 1, 2, 3 . . . or potentially 0.5 or 0.25. See 3GPP TR 38.804 V14.0.0 (2017-03-24).
There are several reasons for allowing multiple possibilities for subcarrier spacing. First, NR is expected to operate in a diverse range of spectrum, ranging from spectrum at less than 1 GHz up to several tens of GHz. The needed subcarrier spacing depends upon phase noise experienced in the transmitter and receiver, and the amount of phase noise depends on the frequency range. Thus, different subcarrier spacings are needed for different parts of the frequency range. A second reason for allowing for different possibilities for subcarrier spacing is that the symbol length is directly related to the subcarrier spacing. The wider the subcarrier spacing, the shorter the symbol length. FIG. 2 illustrates example NR subcarrier spacing and symbol duration possibilities.
For some applications, such as URLLC, latency is critical and, thus, a larger subcarrier spacing—and the associated shorter sub-frame length—are necessary. For other applications, such as MBB, spectral efficiency is critical and the subcarrier spacing needs to be set to minimize phase noise and the overhead from the cyclic prefix (CP), which leads to wider sub-frame spacing.
There is a potential for using wider sub-carrier spacing for some types of physical channels such as, for example, for transmission of broadcast and synchronization compared to subcarrier spacing used for data. If a base station or UE is transmitting or receiving different types of service, it may be that different subcarrier spacings are appropriate for each service. To enable optimized multi-service transmission, 3GPP is considering including in the 5G specifications the possibility of transmitting two different numerologies within the same frequency allocation for either the base station, the UE, or both. The decision as to how much of the carrier to allocate to each numerology may be made by the base station and changed frequently. FIG. 3 illustrates an example of transmitting different numerologies.
In order to achieve the goal of increasing spectral efficiency, 3GPP has agreed to increase the spectral utilization for NR. For previous RATs such as UTRA or E-UTRA, the so-called spectral utilization has been fixed at 90%. This means that if a bandwidth of X is allocated for transmissions, only 90% of X is used for transmissions. The remaining 10% of the spectrum is unused. As illustrated by FIG. 4A, 5% of the spectrum is typically left unused on either side of the bandwidth.
As illustrated by FIG. 4B, the restriction of spectral utilization to 90% leaves space available in the frequency domain for the roll-off of a filtering or windowing technique that avoid interference from one carrier to the next carrier. In this way, bandwidth allocations for different operators will not cause interference to one another.
For NR, it has been recognized that in many cases, the amount of unused bandwidth needed for filtering/windowing of the unwanted emissions can be lower than 5% on either side of the carrier. This enables greater than 90% of the bandwidth to be used for transmitting user data, while filtering or windowing techniques can still be used to ensure that unwanted emissions outside of the edge of the allocated bandwidth meet unwanted emissions limits. It is not the case, however, that a generic spectrum utilization percentage can be allocated to NR in the same manner as E-UTRA or UTRA. This is because the amount of space in the frequency domain needed for filtering/windowing of the signal depends on that size of the allocated bandwidth and also on the subcarrier spacing used for transmission.

Method for determining spectrum utilization


A torsional vibration damper has a rotational axis and an annular housing having inner and outer members. The housing has an annular channel in which an inertia member is received. The channel has axially extending walls and is closed by an annular cover plate to retain the inertia member The inner edge of the cover plate is received in a rabbet in the inner channel wall and is joined to the wall by means of a weld. The inner and outer members are connected by an annular weld at a central hub. The weld may extend between two radial extremes which are separated by a distance substantially greater than the thickness of weld. The damper is easier to manufacture and assemble and has greater structural integrity.

Torsional vibration dampers are used to limit the torsional vibrations that occur in a crankshaft of an internal combustion engine. Such dampers generally comprise an annular inertia member disposed within an annular chamber in a housing. A space between a wall of the chamber and the inertia member is filled with viscous damping fluid and the resistance to shear of the fluid between the chamber wall and the inertia member provides a damping effect.
One method of manufacturing this type of damper utilizes a sheet metal fabrication construction. The housing of such dampers generally comprises a two part construction. Typically each part comprises a central radial flange by which the damper is attached to the crankshaft and an outer region which is shaped to form the chamber. The parts are connected together such that the radial flanges are substantially coterminous and overlie one another and the outer regions combine to define the chamber.
One known torsional damper comprises a three component housing. The first two components are assembled to form a common radial flange as described above, and an outer region in the form of an annular channel. The annular inertia member is received in the channel and a third component in the form of a cover plate is fitted to cover the channel and seal the inertia member therein. The channel has an annular reservoir in which the viscous damping fluid is retained. Such an arrangement is simpler to manufacture than a two-component housing and is particularly advantageous in that the first component forming an outer wall of the channel can be made to a standard size whereas the second component can be made to various sizes to accommodate different sized annular inertia members for different damping criteria.
The cover plate is simply placed on the top edge of the walls of the channel and is fixed thereto at the junction between the walls and the cover plate by means of an electron beam weld or the like. When the damper is operational, the joints between the channel walls and the cover plate are subject to a relatively large amount of stress. In order to counteract this it has been known to increase the structural integrity by adding a large annular fillet weld in a corner of the channel at the flange where the first and second components meet. The use of a large fillet weld, however, can create distortion in the shape of the housing as a result of the significant heat produced in the welding process. Moreover, the fillet weld has to be machined to form the annular reservoir for the viscous damping fluid resulting in an increase in the manufacturing time and complexity.
It is an object of the present invention to obviate or mitigate the aforesaid disadvantages.


A mobile device may include a location determination device, a mobile application, a plurality of wireless communication devices, and a user interface for the mobile application. The mobile device may be coupled, via wireless connections, with a wearable device to capture identification information of the object and a remote portal to determine whether a data warehouse coupled with the portal stores a predetermined type of data associating the identification information and the mobile device. If so, the mobile device may generate an alert on the mobile device and prompt the user to accept an operation related to the object. If the user accepts the operation, the mobile application may monitor the location of the mobile device and initiate the operation based on the location of the mobile device.

Virtual reality is a computer technology that provides a computer generate virtual, three-dimensional environment in which users may interact with virtual objects and/or communicate with each other. Virtual realities may provide various sensory experiences, such as sight, touch, hearing, and/or smell.
Augmented reality is a related computer technology that projects computer generated virtual environment onto a view of the real physical environment as perceived directly or indirectly by users such that the reality of the physical world appears to be augmented by the virtual content generated by computers. The virtual content can be provided in the form of sensory input such as sound, video, graphics, text, etc.
Virtual reality and augmented reality have many applications. For example, U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2013/0166408, entitled "Virtual Reality System Including Smart Objects," discloses a virtual reality simulation of a shopping environment, in which smart objects representing store shelves may be used to examine user attention to promotional materials associated with a shelf, such as a coupon dispenser.
For example, U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2014/0172640, entitled "Augmented Reality Shopping Game," discloses an augmented reality program to keep kids in certain parts of a retail store and away from exits and to send alerts to adult and store personnel if a child gets close to a restricted area.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,825,081, entitled "Personal Augmented Reality Advertising," discloses an augmented reality that detects proximity between a participant's mobile device and a viewer's mobile device and a match between the biometric data of the participant and an image captured from a sensor of the viewer's mobile device. In response, the captured image and an advertisement presented with the captured image are presented in the viewer's mobile device.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,493,636, entitled "Method and Apparatus for Providing Electronic Coupons", discloses a system that has coupon modes configured to alert a viewer when coupon information is available for an item by superimposing over the broadcast of a television program marks indicating the availability of coupon data.
U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2014/0006129, entitled "Systems and Methods for Mobile and Online Payment Systems for Purchases Related to Mobile and Online Promotions or Offers Provided using Impressions Tracking and Analysis, Location Information, 2d and 3D Mapping, Mobile Mapping, Social Media, and User Behavior and Information for Generating Mobile and Internet Posted Promotions or Offers for, and/or Sales of, Products and/or Services in a Social Network, Online or via a Mobile Device," discloses coupon alerts, where a video or audio alert or text message is provided in connection with a mobile, wireless and internet posted, location based, customized promotions or offers or daily deal coupons or daily deal coupons aggregation for products or services, daily deal coupons, daily deal coupons aggregation which are displayed in connection with a social network, website or online or mobile commerce.
The entire disclosures of the above discussed patent documents are hereby incorporated herein by reference.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Virtual reality and augmented reality systems and methods to generate mobile alerts


An apparatus for push-ups is provided that includes a base comprised of one or more sockets, a pin, friction material supporting at least one rotatable handle with a hand support and friction cap having one or more resistance bands with eye hooks capable of being connected to a harness eye hook mounted on the front of a harness worn by an athlete to perform resistance push-ups without the need of a spotter.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention described herein generally relates to an exercise device for push-ups. In particular, a device that allows an athlete to do weight bearing push-ups by using resistance for the weight load so that the athlete is able to do weight bearing exercises while alone without the need for a spotter.
2. Description of the Related Art
A push-up is a common calisthenics exercise performed in a horizontal position by raising and lowering the body using the arms. Push-ups exercise the muscles in the chest, shoulders, triceps, back, abs and even the legs. Push-ups are a basic exercise used in civilian athletic training or physical education classes and commonly used in military training.
A common push up is performed by (1.) getting on the floor and positioning your hands slightly wider than your shoulders. (2.) Next, rise up onto your toes so you are balanced on your hands and toes. (3.) Keep your body in a straight line from head to toe without sagging in the middle or arching your back. (4.) Your feet can be close together or a bit wider depending upon what is most comfortable for you. (5.) Before you begin any movement, contract your abs and tighten your core by pulling your belly button toward your spine. (6.) Keep a tight core throughout the entire push up. (7.) Inhale as you slowly bend your elbows and lower yourself until your elbows are at a 90 degree angle. (8.) Exhale as you begin pushing back up to the start position. (9.) Do not lock out the elbows; keep them slightly bent. (10.) Repeat for as many repetitions as your workout routine requires.
Many variations to the common push up, described above, can be performed. One such variation is for the athlete to add weight to the back. In this instance the athlete is increasing the work of the exercise by lifting more than just body weight during the push-up.
One such example is the placing of a weight plate, from a barbell, on the athletes back. Weight plates are readily available in most gymnasiums and work out training facilities. In this instance it is necessary to have a spotter available for the athlete to safely perform the push-ups. A spotter is a person needed to steady the weight on the athletes back to prevent a shifting of the weight load causing the athlete an injury.
Often times an athlete would like to perform push-ups, with a weight load, and is unable to do so because of the absence of a spotter. Accordingly there is a need for an exercise device for push-ups that overcomes some or all of the limitations of the absence of a spotter and allows an athlete to perform push-ups while working out alone.


A new garden type Chrysanthemum plant named ‘CIFZ0077’ particularly distinguished by its medium size plant with round mound plant habit, a medium to large size decorative flower (2.0 inch), bronze flower color and a natural season response late September.

The present invention comprises a new Chrysanthemum, botanically known as Chrysanthemum x morifolium, and hereinafter referred to by the variety name 'CIFZ0077'.
'CIFZ0077' is a product of a planned breeding program. The new cultivar has a medium size plant with round mound plant habit, a medium to large size decorative flower (2.0 inch), bronze flower color and a natural season response late September.
'CIFZ0077' originated from a mutation of X-ray treated cuttings in October 2014 in Gilroy, Calif. 'CIFZ0077' was selected from the resulting plants on Mar. 3, 2015 in Gilroy, Calif.
The female parent was the variety 'Yowanda', U.S. Plant Pat. No. 20,210.
TABLE 1A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE FEMALE PARENT AND 'CIFZ0077':TraitCIFZ0077'Yowanda'Natural response:Couple days fasterCouple days slowerBlackcloth response:SimilarSimilarFlower size:SimilarSimilarFlower color:BronzeLavenderFlower type:SimilarSimilarPlant size:SimilarSimilarPlant habit:SimilarSimilarPlant strength:SofterSturdier
As the new variety is the result of mutation breeding, there is not a male parent.
The first act of asexual reproduction of 'CIFZ0077' was accomplished when vegetative cuttings were propagated from the initial selection in April 2015 in Gilroy, Calif.


The invention relates to a device for a radio communications system, the device including: a processing unit; a memory unit; and a transceiver including a transmitter provided with a power amplifier; wherein said device is configurable to: send a request to a base station of said communications system for permission of transmission of one or more data symbols, the one or more data symbols being amplified with the power amplifier in an overdrive regime; receive a grant for such transmission; amplify the one or more data symbols with the power amplifier of the transmitter in the overdrive regime; and transmit the one or more data symbols to the base station.

One of the key upcoming service trends for communications systems, particularly cellular communications systems, such as e.g. fourth generation, 4G, or fifth generation, 5G, systems, is mission critical communication (MCC). Such kind of services (e.g. for industrial automation or remote controlling of objects) require a very high reliability and typically also low latencies. In conjunction with mobility support, this high reliability requires a good coverage.
Also, these trends and the resulting requirements are not limited to cellular communications systems, but also applicable to e.g. peer-to-peer communications systems, systems supporting ad-hoc communications, and the like.
Coverage limitations in conventional systems typically occur in the uplink, e.g. during data transmissions from a device to a base station. Conventional systems try to exploit various sources of diversity to address this issue. Time diversity (e.g., by using HARQ, hybrid-ARQ (automated repeat request)) is often not possible because of latency constraints. Frequency diversity depends on the nature of the radio channel. Spatial diversity depends on the number of available antennas and the decorrelation of their radio channels.
US 2013/044621 A1 discloses self-interference handling in a wireless communication terminal.

Method and apparatus for performing permissable amplifying of one or more data symbols using an overdrive regime


A paraelectric transmission line layer and a ferroelectric transmission line layer are laminated through a ground conductor, and plural phase shifters, which are connected via through holes that pass through the ground conductor, are disposed on both of the transmission line layers at some positions on a feeding line that branches off from the input terminal between all antenna terminals and an input terminal to which a high-frequency power is applied. In addition, loss elements each having the same transmission loss amount as the phase shifter, or the phase shifters are disposed so that transmission loss amounts from all of the antenna terminals to the input terminal are equalized. Accordingly, an antenna control unit which can be manufactured in fewer manufacturing processes and has a pointed beam and a large beam tilt amount, and a phased-array antenna that employs such an antenna control unit are provided.

Systems such as "Active phased-array antenna and antenna control unit" described in Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2000-236207 (hereinafter, referred to as Prior Art 1) have been suggested as examples of conventional phased-array antennas that employ a ferroelectric as a phase shifter.
Hereinafter, a conventional phased-array antenna will be described with reference to FIGS. 9 and 10.
Initially, operating principles of a conventional phase shifter are described with reference to FIGS. 9(a) and 9(b). FIGS. 9(a) and 9(b) are diagrams illustrating a phase shifter 700 that is suggested in the conventional phased-array antenna. FIG. 9(a) is a diagram illustrating a construction of the phase shifter 700, and FIG. 9(b) is a diagram showing permittivity changing characteristics of a ferroelectric material.
This phase shifter 700 includes a microstrip hybrid coupler 703 that employs a paraelectric material 701 as a base material, and a microstrip stub 704 that employs a ferroelectric material 702 as a base material and is formed adjacent to the microstrip hybrid coupler 703. This phase shifter 700 is constituted such that a phase shift amount of a high-frequency power that passes through the microstrip hybrid coupler 703 varies according to a DC control voltage which is applied to the microstrip stub 704.
In other words, the base material of the phase shifter 700 is composed of the paraelectric material 701 and the ferroelectric material 702. A rectangular loop-shaped conductor layer 703a is disposed on the paraelectric base material 701, and this loop-shaped conductor layer 703a and the paraelectric base material 701 form the microstrip hybrid coupler 703.
Further, two linear conductor layers 704a1 and 704a2 are disposed on the ferroelectric base material 702 so as to be located on extension lines of two opposed linear parts 703a1 and 703a2 of the rectangular loop-shaped conductor layer 703a and linked to one of the ends of the two linear parts 703a1 and 703a2, respectively. These two linear conductor layers 704a1 and 704a2 and the ferroelectric base material 702 form the microstrip stub 704.
Further, conductor layers 715a and 720a are disposed on the paraelectric base material 701 so as to be located on extension lines of the two linear parts 703a1 and 703a2 and linked to the other ends of the two linear parts 703a1 and 703a2, respectively.
This conductor layer 715a and the paraelectric base material 701 form an input line 715, and the conductor layer 720a and the paraelectric base material 701 form an output line 720.
Here, the one end and the other end of the linear part 703a1 on the loop-shaped conductor layer 703a are ports 2 and 1 of the microstrip hybrid coupler 703, respectively. On the other hand, the one end and the other end of the linear parts 703a2 of the loop-shaped conductor layer 703a are ports 3 and 4 of the microstrip hybrid coupler 703, respectively.
In the phase shifter 700 having the above-mentioned construction, when the DC control voltage is applied to the microstrip stub 704, the phase shift amount of the high-frequency power that passes therethrough varies.
Hereinafter, a detailed explanation of the phase shifter 700 will be given. In the phase shifter 700 having such a construction in which one reflection element (microstrip stub 704) is connected to the adjacent two ports (ports 2 and 3) of the properly-designed microstrip hybrid coupler 703, a high-frequency power that enters from the input port (port 1) is not outputted from the input port 1, but the high-frequency power upon which a power reflected from the reflection element has been reflected is outputted only from the output port (port 4). In the reflection from the microstrip stub 704 as the reflection element, a bias field 705 that is produced by the control voltage is in the same direction as that of a field produced by the high-frequency power that passes through the microstrip stub 704, as shown in FIG. 9(a). Therefore, as shown in FIG. 9(b), when the control voltage is changed, an effective permittivity of the microstrip stub 704 with respect to the high-frequency power varies adaptively. Accordingly, the equivalent electrical length of the microstrip stub 704 for the high-frequency power varies, and the phase on the microstrip stub 704 is changed.
In the case of common ferroelectric base materials, the bias voltage 705 that is required to change the effective permittivity of the microstrip stub 704 is in a rage of several kilovolts/millimeter to a dozen kilovolts/millimeter. Accordingly, a high frequency is not produced by the effective permittivity that is affected by a field formed by the high-frequency power which passes through the microstrip stub 704.
Next, a construction of the conventional phased-array antenna and its operating principles will be described with reference to FIGS. 10(a) and 10(b).
FIG. 10(a) is a diagram illustrating a construction of the conventional phased-array antenna 830, and FIG. 10(b) is a diagram showing directivities of the conventional phased-array antenna 830 in a case where a beam tilt voltage is applied and a case where the beam tilt voltage is not applied.
The conventional phased-array antenna 830 comprises plural antenna elements 806a-806d which are placed in a row at regular intervals on a dielectric base material, an antenna control unit 800, and a beam tilt voltage 820. The antenna control unit 800 comprises a feeding terminal 808 to which a high-frequency power is applied (hereinafter, referred to as an input terminal), a high frequency blocking element 809, and plural phase shifters 807a1-807a4.
In this conventional phased-array antenna 830, the antenna element 806a is connected to the input terminal 808, the antenna element 806b is connected to the input terminal 808 through one phase shifter 807a1, the antenna element 806c is connected to the input terminal 808 through two phase shifters 807a3 and 807a4, and the antenna element 806d is connected to the input terminal 808 through three phase shifters 807a2, 807a3, and 807a4, by means of a feeding line (hereinafter, referred to as a transmission line), respectively. The beam tilt voltage 820 is connected to the input terminal 808 through the high frequency blocking element 809.
It is assumed here that each construction of the phase shifters 807a1-807a4 is the same as that described with reference to FIG. 9, and the phase shifters 807a1-807a4 have the same characteristics.
In the phased-array antenna 830 having the above construction, the number of phase shifters 807 which are located between one of the antenna elements 806a-806d and the input terminal 808 is one larger than the number of phase shifters 807 which are located between the adjacent antenna element 806 and the input terminal 808, respectively, and further, all of the phase shifters 807 have the same characteristics. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 10(b), the control of the antenna's directivity (beam tilt) is performed by one beam tilt voltage 820.
The control of the antenna directivity will be described in more detail. For example, assuming that each of the phase shifters 807a1-807a4 delays the phase of the high-frequency power that passes through each phase shifter by a phase shift amount Φ and the adjacent phase shifters 807 are spaced by a distance d, respectively, the high-frequency power that has entered the antenna element 806a is supplied to the input terminal 808 with no phase change, as shown in FIG. 10(a). In contrast to this, the high-frequency power that has entered the antenna element 806b is supplied to the input terminal 808, with its phase being delayed by the phase shifter 807a1 by a phase shift amount Φ. The high-frequency power that has entered the antenna element 806c is supplied to the input terminal 808, with its phase being delayed by the phase shifters 807a3 and 807a4, by a phase shift amount 2Φ. Further, the high-frequency power that has entered the antenna element 806d is supplied to the input terminal 808, with its phase being delayed by the phase shifters 807a2, 807a3, and 807a4, by a phase shift amount 3Φ.
In other words, a direction of the maximum sensitivity for radio waves received by the antenna elements 806a-806d is a direction D that forms a predetermined angle Θ(Θ=cos−1(Φ/d)) with respect to the direction of the row of the antenna elements 806a-806d. It is assumed here that reference numerals w1 to w3 in FIG. 10(a) denote planes of the received waves in the same phase, respectively.
However, in the conventional phased-array antenna 803 having the above-mentioned construction, the numbers of phase shifters 807 which are located between the respective antenna elements 806 and the input terminal 808 are different, and further, there are transmission losses in the respective phase shifters 807. Therefore, the effects of combining powers from the respective antenna elements 806a-806d are decreased, so that the shape of the beam that is shown in FIG. 10(b) is deformed, whereby it is difficult to obtain a pointed beam (large directivity gain). In addition, the amount of beam tilt is reduced, and as a result, the control of the antenna's directivity is deteriorated.
Further, as described with reference to FIG. 9(a), each of the phase shifters 807 that are used for the conventional phased-array antenna 830 is formed in one piece, by allocating areas on the same plane to the ferroelectric base material 702 and the paraelectric base material 701 which constitute the phase shifter 700, respectively. Therefore, a distributed capacitance Cn per unit length of the line for the microstrip hybrid coupler 703 and a distributed capacitance Cf per unit length of the line for the microstrip stub 704 are greatly different from each other. Accordingly, high-frequency power reflection is produced at the connection between the microstrip hybrid coupler 703 and the microstrip stub 704, whereby the power from the microstrip hybrid coupler 703 does not enter the microstrip stub 704 so efficiently, and consequently, the sufficient phase shift amount cannot be obtained.
Hereinafter, a detailed explanation will be given. For, example, the line impedance Z is generally expressed by the distributed inductance L per unit length of the line and the distributed capacitance C per unit length of the line as Z^2 (the square of Z)=L/C. Further, when it is assumed that all fields exist only within the base material, and all of the fields are approximated to be linear and perpendicular to the ground conductor, the distributed capacitance C per unit length of the line is expressed by the line width W, the base material thickness H, and the base material permittivity ε, as C=εW/H. When the distributed capacitance Cn per unit length of the line for the microstrip hybrid coupler 703 and the distributed capacitance Cf per unit length of the line for the microstrip stub 704 are compared with each other by utilizing the above-mentioned expressions, assuming that the permittivity of the paraelectric base material 701 as the base material of the microstrip hybrid coupler 703 is εn and the permittivity of the ferroelectric base material 702 as the base material of the microstrip stub 704 is εf, the relationship εn<<εf is generally established. Further, since the line widths W of the microstrip hybrid coupler 703 and the microstrip stub 704, and the distances H of the respective conductors are the same, the distributed capacitance Cn per unit length of the line for the microstrip hybrid coupler 703 (=εnW/H) and the distributed capacitance Cf per unit length of the line for the microstrip stub 704 (=εfW/H) are greatly different. Consequently, as mentioned above, the power from the microstrip hybrid coupler 703 does not enter the microstrip stub 704 so efficiently, and thus, the sufficient phase shift amount cannot be obtained.
To overcome this problem, the method in which a magnetic material is provided in proximity of the microstrip stub 704 to increase the distributed inductance L per unit length of the line for the microstrip stub 704, thereby enhancing the line impedance Z, is disclosed in the above-mentioned Prior Art 1, and its construction is also suggested therein.
However, when the magnetic material is provided in proximity of the microstrip stub 704 of the phase shifter 700 to suppress the reduction in the matching degree of the line impedance Z between both the line sections 703 and 704, so as to obtain a larger phase shift amount, as in the above-mentioned Prior Art 1, there arises an additional problem in that more processes are needed when the phase shifter 700 is produced by firing. As a result, the manufacturing cost of the phase shifter is adversely increased.
The present invention is made to solve the above-mentioned problems. Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an antenna control unit that can be manufactured in fewer manufacturing processes (low cost), and has a pointed beam (large directivity gain) and a large amount of beam tilt, and a phased-array antenna that employs such an antenna control unit.

Antenna control unit and phased-array antenna

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


The present invention provides for a wireless communication method and relaxed system and wireless terminal devices arranged for communication between first (304, 404) and second (306, 408) wireless terminal devices by way of direct communication, for example by way of a D2D link, in a network environment, the method and system and, as appropriate, devices, being arranged to provide for the delivery of link-quality parameter information from at least one of the two terminal devices to the network for communications interaction by the network with communication between for the two terminals in direct communication.

It is currently provided that two wireless terminals, examples of which according to several modem communications standards are referred to as a number of User Equipment (UE) can communicate with one another directly by means of D2D communication, and which of course is provided in addition to normal network connectivity. It has been suggested that valuable services could be provided by Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) wireless communication systems based on UEs being in proximity to each other. Such services could include Public Safety services and non-Public-Safety services that potentially would be of interest to operators and users.
For example, 3GPP technical report RP-122009, by Huawei and HiSilicon is entitled "Evaluation requirements for D2D", 3GPP publication FS_ProSc, TR 22.803, and SP-120456-MoU between TETRA & Critical Communications Association (TCCA) & the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council), and S1-121247 (TCCA).
Also, 3GPP publication R1-130133 (ZTE-"Evaluation methodology for D2D discovery") proposes that D2D-based proximity services (D2D ProSe) could be realized within or without 3GPP Long-term Evolution (LTE) network coverage, and in both cases detection signals would be used by UEs tor D2D proximity direct discovery without position information.
There is currently a need for improvements relating to three technical aspects of D2D communications: discovery; D2D communication and signalling (including PHY and MAC layers, control layer and protocol design); and mitigation of (be effects of noise and interference. Discussions below are concerned mainly with the fast two of these technical aspects.
The physical environment in which wireless communication terminals are located changes over time. This can be due to changes in position, interference from other base stations or other terminals, power of received signals, distance between terminals, multipath attenuation etc. Also, D2D communication may affect cellular communication by interference of a signal used in the direct (D2D) communication link with signal(s) used in the cellular communication; and/or a D2D communication link may affect other D2D communication links by interference of a signal used in the direct (D2D) communication link with signal(s) used in such other D2D communication links.
Currently, the direct link (D2D link) between two terminals is established and maintained by means of signals transmitted between the two terminals and control of the quality of (be direct link between the terminals is disadvantageously limited.
The present invention seeks to provide for wireless communications methods and related communications systems and terminal devices having advantages over known such methods, systems and terminals.

Direct communication between mobile radio communication devices


The invention relates to a toy construction system comprising building elements of a first type having a pair of opposed walls that define a space between said opposed walls, wherein the space has, at the free edges of the opposed walls, an open end and two opposed open sides, and wherein those sides of the walls that face towards the space are provided with protrusions, and building elements of a second type having a coupling head that may, by snap-fit with the protrusions, be received and releasably secured in the space between the walls on a building element of the first type. The toy construction system is characterised in that the protrusions are situated at the free edges of the walls.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a toy construction system comprising two types of building elements. Building elements of the first type have a pair of opposed walls that define a space, wherein the space has, at free edges of the opposed walls, an open end and an open side, and wherein the walls have, on the sides facing the space, protruding ribs. Building elements of the second type have a coupling head that may, by a snap-fit effect with protruding ribs, be received and releasably secured in the space between the walls on a building element of the first type.
In such toy construction system, toy building elements of the one type can be structural elements, whereas building elements of the other of said types can be connectors for connecting two or more structural elements. The connectors may have relatively small dimensions whereas the structural elements have relatively large dimensions. The structural elements may be straight or arched bars of different lengths, or they may define or expand large or small surfaces that are used for imparting its structure to the construction built. Such toy construction system allows for easy and expedient building of large constructions.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 5,061,219 teaches a toy construction system of the type described herein, where a first building element has a pair of opposed, parallel arms or walls that define a space that will, by snap-fit engagement, receive and secure a coupling head on one end of another, bar-shaped building element. In the sides that face towards the space each of the walls is provided with protruding ribs of which two ribs extend longitudinally to said arms, and a single rib extends transversally to the arms. The transversal ribs are arranged at a distance from the free ends of the arms and thereby they divide the space between said arms into an inner coupling chamber and an outer coupling chamber. Assembly and separation can only be accomplished along one definite direction whereas, in practice, assembly and separation are impossible along a direction transversally to said one direction, since the transversal ribs prevent this. This is due to the fact that, measured from the inner end portions of the arms to the transversal ribs, the lever arms are very short, and if said arms are to be able to open sufficiently for the coupling head to be able to pass the transversal ribs, i.e. from the internal coupling chamber to the external coupling chamber or vice versa, unrealistically much force is to be applied with the ensuing risk of the arms breaking.


The present invention relates to the insert for the drum of a device for producing shaped pads from fibrous material. These inserts are attached to a disk of the drum and are designed in accordance with the shape and size of the pads to be produced. To simplify the retrofittability of the device or the drum for the production of pads of another size or shape and the number of drum inserts which must be kept in stock, it is provided that the drum insert consists of a base body, which, in turn, consists of a supporting sheet having several openings and several laminar sheets disposed in the direction of rotation of the drum and at right angles thereto. A forming insert is also provided at the outer side of the drum insert, which consists of a sieve and a sieve frame receiving it and that forming webs are provided in the drum insert which are located vertically above the laminar sheets extending transversely to the direction of rotation of the drum, whose shape is adapted to the shape of the sieve and thus to the shape of the pads to be produced in such fashion that the sieve retains its shape, even if it is loaded by the negative pressure.

The aforementioned shaped pads may be sanitary towels for ladies, disposable diapers, incontinence products for adults or similar products. A device for their production is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,966, which uses a drum, which, in turn, is substantially designed as a rotatably mounted disk, to which drum inserts are successively fastened in the circumferential direction. These drum inserts form a cylindrical drum together with the disk. The drum inserts are components having the shape of segments of a circle, at whose outer circumference a forming recess is designed as a forming nest, whose bottom is of a sieve-shaped design, in order to be able to suck fibrous material into the forming nests by means of a negative pressure created in the interior of the drum. The shaped pads formed in this fashion are at first covered with a foil on one side. During further processing, the fiber pads become surrounded with a foil on all sides in the course of completion of the shaped pads. These drum inserts are milled out from a solid body, the sieve openings forming the bottom of the forming nests being designed as a plurality of bores. This construction of the drum inserts makes their production very expensive. Moreover, these inserts can only be used for the production of one size and one shape of shaped pads. A set of correspondingly, differently designed drum inserts must be manufactured and used for every other size and shape. The retrofitting of the drum in the case of the exchange of a set of specific inserts against another set of specific inserts is very time consuming and labor consuming, since this retrofitting must be carried out by hand and the drum inserts are very heavy.

Drum insert for a device for producing shaped pads of fibrous material surrounded on all sides by foils


In the present invention, a light-emitting element operating at low driving voltage, consuming low power, emitting light with good color purity and manufactured in high yields can be obtained. A light-emitting element is disclosed with a configuration composed of a first layer containing a light-emitting material, a second layer, a third layer are formed sequentially over an anode to be interposed between the anode and a cathode in such a way that the third layer is formed to be in contact with the cathode. The second layer is made from n-type semiconductor, a mixture including that, or a mixture of an organic compound having a carrier transporting property and a material having a high electron donor property. The third layer is made from p-type semiconductor, a mixture including that, or a mixture of an organic compound having a carrier transporting property and a material having a high electron acceptor property.

As examples of a photoelectronic device using an organic semiconductor material as a functional organic material, a light-emitting element, solar battery, and the like can be nominated. These are devices utilizing an electrical property (carrier transporting property) or an optical property (light absorption or light-emitting property) of the organic semiconductor material. Among others, a light-emitting element has achieved remarkable development.
A light-emitting element comprises a pair of electrodes (anode and cathode) and a layer containing a light-emitting material interposed between the pair of electrodes. The emission mechanism is as follows. Upon applying voltage through the pair of electrodes, holes injected from the anode and electrons injected from the cathode are recombined with each other at an emission center within the layer containing a light-emitting material to lead the formation of molecular excitons, and the molecular excitons return to the ground state while radiating energy as light. There are two excited states possible from the light-emitting material, a singlet state and a triplet state. It is considered that light emission can be obtained through both the singlet state and the triplet state.
Lately, the reduction of driving voltage is successful (see Unexamined Patent Publication No. 10-270171) by forming an electron injecting layer made from an organic compound doped with metal having a low work function (metal having an electron donor property) such as an alkali metal, an alkaline earth metal, or a rare earth metal to lower an energy barrier in injecting electrons from a cathode to an organic compound. According to this technique, driving voltage can be reduced despite of using stabilized metal such as Al for forming the cathode.
By using the application of the technique, the control of an emission spectrum of a light-emitting element is successful (see Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-102175). In the Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-102175, an electron injecting layer made from an organic compound doped with metal having electron donor property for the organic compound is provided. The Unexamined Patent Publication has disclosed that the thickness of the electron injecting layer is increased to vary the optical path between a cathode and a light-emitting layer, so that an emission spectrum emitted to outside can be controlled due to the effect of interference of light.
According to the Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-102175, the increase of driving voltage is small by adopting the foregoing electron injecting layer despite of increasing the thickness of the electron injecting layer in order to control an emission spectrum. However, in fact, unless a peculiar organic compound serving as a ligand such as bathocuproin (BCP) is used, driving voltage is drastically increased.
Therefore, the technique with respect to an electron injecting layer disclosed in the Unexamined Patent Publications Nos. 10-270171 and 2001-102175 has a problem that even if the thickness of the electron injecting layer is increased to improve a manufacturing yield, or to control an emission spectrum so that color purity is improved, power consumption is increased unless an organic compound serving as a ligand is selected to use.
A principle of operation of a light-emitting element disclosed in the Unexamined Patent Publications Nos. 10-270171 and 2001-102175 is explained hereinafter with reference to FIG. 2.
FIG. 2 illustrates a basic configuration of the conventional light-emitting element using an electron injecting layer as disclosed in the Unexamined Patent Publications Nos. 10-270171 and 2001-102175.
In the conventional light-emitting element (FIG. 2), holes injected from an anode 201 and electrons injected from a cathode 204 are recombined upon being applied with forward bias to emit light within a layer containing a light-emitting material 202. In this instance, an electron injecting layer 203 is made from an organic compound doped with metal having a high electron donor property for the organic compound (alkali metal or alkali earth metal).
The electron injecting layer 203 serves for flowing electrons to inject them to the layer containing a light-emitting material 202. However, since electron mobility of an organic compound is two orders of magnitude less than hole mobility of that, driving voltage is increased if the electron injecting layer is formed to have a thickness comparable in a wavelength of visible light (on the order of submicron) in order, for example, to control an emission spectrum.

SEMICONDUCTOR ENERGY LABORATORY CO., LTD.


A tethering system for a remote-controlled device includes a tether line having a first end adapted to be connected to a ground support and a second end adapted to be connected to the remote-controlled device. The system further includes an anchor-point disposed between the first and second ends of the tether line, the anchor point having an eyelet for securing the tether line and allowing the tether line to slide through the eyelet during use. The anchor-point and eyelet enable the tether line to flex or bend and the remote-controlled device to maneuver one or more of over or around the target area without interfering with any nearby obstructions.

After an accident or loss, property owners typically file claims with their insurance companies. In response to these claims, insurance agents or representatives investigate the claims to determine the extent of damage and/or loss, ultimately providing their clients with appropriate compensation.
Often, the claim investigations can be time-consuming, difficult and even dangerous for the insurance agents or representatives. For example, to investigate a claim for damage to a homeowner's roof, an insurance representative may have to climb onto the roof and perform inspections while on the roof. When climbing on the roof and attempting to maneuver around the roof for the inspection, the insurance representative runs a risk of injury, especially in difficult weather conditions, where the roof may be slippery because of rain, snow, and/or ice and winds may be severe.
Even if the insurance representative inspects without getting injured, performing the investigation may still be time-consuming. For example, in situations where the insurance company has received a large number of claims in a short time period, e.g., when a town is affected by a hurricane, tornado, or other natural disaster, the representative may not have time to perform timely claim investigations of all the received claims. If claim investigations are not performed quickly, property owners may not receive recovery for their losses for long periods of time. Additionally, long time delays when performing claim investigations can lead to inaccurate investigation results, e.g., the delay may lead to increased opportunity for fraud and/or may make it more difficult to ascertain the extent of damage at the time of the accident or loss.
To address such issues, insurance representatives are increasingly using remote-controlled devices to survey, film and/or take pictures of damaged property, such as on a roof or other difficult to inspect area, without having to walk onto the roof or other area. However, current Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations may limit and/or prevent the use of such devices in the air for commercial purposes. More specifically, while remote devices have limited range and altitude, there is a small potential for interference with national airspace and potential mid-air collisions during operation, especially if the remote devices are operating around or near an airport. As a result, tethers are being used with commercially used remote-controlled devices to avoid conflicts with current FAA regulations.
Controlling such tethered devices, however, presents its own set of problems. For example, tree limbs, electrical wires, and other obstacles are often between the target area where the device is needed, such as a roof, and the origin of a tether line. This is a particular challenge when the tethered device is operating on or above a house or other building where the line can get caught in tree limbs and electrical wires.
Untethered devices have a different challenge. While untethered devices can avoid tree limbs and other obstacles that may interfere with a tether line, without a physical tether line, untethered devices run the risk of straying onto a neighbor's property or worse, such as into some irretrievable location like a river or wooded area.

Tethering system and method for remote device

STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY


A linear motion guide system is disclosed in which a clearance between a slider and a guide rail is closed truly to clear foreign matter away from entering inside the system through any end of the slider traveling on the guide rail. Thus, the linear motion guide system is befitting to severe working environment where much foreign matter occurs. A highly-tight sealing unit is comprised of a cassette constituted with a front panel and an enclosure, sealing plates stowed into the cassette, lubrication plates each interposed between any two adjacent sealing plates, and a rear panel to close an open edge of the enclosure. The sealing plates are each composed of an intermediate spongy medium flanked by skin layers and impregnated with lubricant. The lubrication plates have pores filled with lubricant.

The linear motion guide systems incorporated in a diversity of machines including machine tools and so on are increasingly used in recent years in a way laying their guide rails bare to the working atmosphere from the view point of increasing ample spaces to be reserved for workplace during manufacturing process and for installation of required equipments, making the guide systems themselves compact or slim in construction, cost savings on installations, and so on. Thus, many of modern linear motion guide systems are customized to have no dustproof means including a telescopic cover, bellows, and so on.
There are known linear motion guide systems with sealing means, which are disclosed in, for example the commonly assigned Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H09-042284. With the prior linear motion guide system, the sealing means are mounted on forward and aft ends of a slider. The sealing means are each comprised of a cassette of roughly U-shape in transverse section, two sheets of seals installed inside the cassette, an intermediate medium held between the seals to supply lubricant, and a scraper plate secured on the outward end of the outside one of the seals. Two sheets of seals are each made substantially U-shaped in transverse section and composed of a metal core and rubber baked on the metal core to provide lips. The interference of the seals with the guide rail is selected at 0.5 mm, which is somewhat larger than usual to make the dust proof performance better.
Nevertheless, the sealing means for the linear motion guide system constructed as stated earlier, because of rubber-made construction, may encounter large frictional resistance and, therefore, lubricant is indispensable to sustain durability of the sealing performance. Thus, the problem faced in the linear motion guide system recited earlier is that the control of lubricant is very tough.
A linear bearing guide system capable of wiping dusts off to keep sealing performance is known in, for example Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H11-351252. This prior linear bearing guide system has a self-lubricating guide member, which is composed of a lip seal of usual rubber and foamed urethane rubber component secured on the outward surface of a reinforcing plate and impregnated with lubricant. The guide member is protected against lubrication failure to help maintain the durability against frictional resistance. The linear bearing guide system constructed as stated earlier, although but befitting to continuous application of lubricant to the lip seal, has a question of lacking in sealing performance.
A dustproof construction in the linear motion guide systems is known in, for example Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-227115, which is constructed to allow a slider moving smoothly in and out along a guide track with less frictional resistance. The prior dustproof construction is comprised of a lubricant reservoir component and a scraper component. The lubricant reservoir component includes three sheets of resilient members made of polyurethane foam having open cells or pores and impregnated with lubricant, and spacer members of metallic plates each interposed between any two adjacent resilient members to form recesses. The scraper component is mounted on the slider in a way spaced away from the guide track with leaving a slight clearance between them. The polyurethane form with open pores is prepared to have physical properties of tensile strength of about 30˜50 kg/cm3, percent elongation of about 300˜500% and repulsion elasticity of about 30˜60%. The polyurethane foam is impregnated with lubricant of 30˜50% by weight. With the dustproof construction as recited just earlier, nevertheless, the foamed resilient members comes to absorb coolants and so on, so that foreign matter such as any liquids builds up gradually in the resilient members. Thus, this poses a problem that the resilient members are insufficient to dislodge the foreign matter or contaminants from the linear motion guide system.
Another linear guide bearing unit is disclosed in, for example Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-337407, which is constructed to keep foreign matter or contaminants against entering inside the slider to prevent premature wear and breakage. The prior linear guide bearing unit is mounted on forward and aft ends of the slider and composed of the combination of many lubricant applicators, protectors, thin resinous sealing members, side seals of steel plate baked with rubber, and felt sealing members containing grease therein. With the linear guide bearing unit having a plurality of sealing members stacked one on the other as stated earlier, however, large axial space would be needed for installation of many sealing members.

Linear motion guide system with highly-tight sealing units


Systems and methods for faster acquisition and processing of OCT image data are presented. In one embodiment of the present invention, an OCT system is operated in two different acquisition modes of different axial resolutions to allow for efficient collection of OCT Angiography data while also collecting high resolution OCT data. In another embodiment, a reduced subset of a collected data set is used for OCT Angiography data analysis. In another embodiment, a sweep of a swept-source laser is split into different spectral components covering different transverse locations on the sample. A further aspect includes the ability to process all or a portion of collected OCT data with one motion contrast technique before or while a second set is processed using a different motion contrast technique.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a noninvasive, noncontact imaging modality that uses coherence gating to obtain high-resolution cross-sectional images of tissue microstructure. In Fourier domain OCT (FD-OCT), the interferometric signal between light from a reference and the back-scattered light from a sample point is recorded in the frequency domain rather than the time domain. After a wavelength calibration, a one-dimensional Fourier transform is taken to obtain an A-line spatial distribution of the object scattering potential. The spectral information discrimination in FD-OCT can be accomplished by using a dispersive spectrometer in the detection arm in the case of spectral-domain OCT (SD-OCT) or rapidly tuning a swept laser source in the case of swept-source OCT (SS-OCT).
The axial or depth resolution of the FD-OCT system is determined by the actual spectral width recorded and used for reconstruction. The axial range over which an OCT image is taken (imaging depth, scan depth or imaging range) is determined by the sampling interval or resolution of the optical frequencies recorded by the OCT system. Specifically, in SD-OCT, the spectrometer disperses different wavelengths to the detector elements. The resolution of the optical frequencies and therefore the imaging depth depends on the width of the portion of the spectrum that is measured by a single detector element or pixel.
In some SS-OCT implementations, the swept-source tunes or sweeps the wavelength of the source over time. In this case, the resolution of the optical frequencies depends on a spectral separation of the measuring light at adjacent points in time. The spectral resolution of the measurements will increase with sampling density unless it is limited by the instantaneous linewidth of the laser. For most of the swept-sources, OCT signals acquired with adjacent points separated by uniform (constant) time intervals result in a non-uniform sample distribution in k (wave vector) space. Normally, these optical frequencies are further numerically re-sampled (or interpolated) to get equally k-spaced samples before the Fourier transform is actually taken. This will digitally affect the actual imaging depth in the OCT reconstruction as the imaging depth is now determined by the resolution in wave-numbers (K). In other implementations, Fabry-Pérot interferometers (FPI or etalon) (see for example Zhang et al "Swept laser source at 1 um for Fourier domain optical coherence tomography," Applied Physics Letters 89, 073901 2006) and Mach-Zehnder interferometers (see for example Xi et al "Generic real-time uniform k-space sampling method for high-speed swept-source optical coherence tomography," Optics Express 18(9):9511 2010) can be used to generate external clock signals with uniform k-spacing. In this case, the digitizer (or data acquisition system) of the SS-OCT system is running in an "external clock" mode, whereby it takes the external k-clock signals for point by point sampling.
There are several types of OCT measurements which require particularly dense spatial sampling, but may tolerate relatively low axial resolution. Such measurements include but are not limited to, OCT Angiography methods (e.g. Doppler OCT, phase contrast, phase variance, speckle variance, power of Doppler shift, normalized vector difference, ultrahigh sensitive optical microangiography (UHS-OMAG)), photoreceptor imaging, wide-field anterior segment scans, wide field overview scans. For example, OCT Angiography or OCT photoreceptor images are often displayed as 2D projection images. While a high transverse sampling is required to reduce phase noise in the case of OCT Angiography, or support a high lateral resolution in the case of photoreceptor imaging, the axial resolution is less relevant, because the processed data is only displayed in projected or enface 2D images. OCT Angiography methods typically require an over sampling of about 4-12 samples per transverse position. This increases the acquisition time by the same factor. This is problematic as increased acquisition time directly affects image quality as well as patient comfort. It is desirable to collect data over as large a field of view as possible which also involves acquisition time, patient comfort and motion considerations.
One of the approaches to solve this problem is to use very high speed OCT systems (See for example Klein et al. "The effect of micro-saccades on the image quality of ultrawide-field multimegahertz OCT data," SPIE Photonices West 2012, Paper #8209-13 (2012) or Blatter et al. "Ultrahigh-speed non-invasive widefield angiography," J. Biomed. Opt. 17, 070505, 2012 hereby incorporated by reference), however, such systems can be very complex and costly. Also, the high speed systems would require faster detection electronics and would result in large numbers of data sets that could further slowdown the analysis of the data. Additional approaches to overcome the problems include the use of tracking, and montaging of multiple data sets.

Systems and methods for faster optical coherence tomography acquisition and processing


Portions of a top compound semiconductor layer are recessed employing a gate electrode as an etch mask to form a source trench and a drain trench. A low temperature epitaxy process is employed to deposit a semiconductor material including at least one elemental semiconductor material in the source trench and the drain trench. Metallization is performed on physically exposed surfaces of the elemental semiconductor material portions in the source trench and the drain trench by depositing a metal and inducing interaction with the metal and the at least one elemental semiconductor material. A metal semiconductor alloy of the metal and the at least one elemental semiconductor material can be performed at a temperature lower than 600° C. to provide a high electron mobility transistor with a well-defined device profile and reliable metallization contacts.

The present application relates to a semiconductor structure, and particularly to high electron mobility transistors (HEMT's) including self-aligned embedded elemental semiconductor contact structures and methods of manufacturing the same.
Most metallization schemes for high electron mobility transistors require a high annealing temperature above 900° C. to form low resistance Ohmic contact to a compound semiconductor material such as AlGaN. However, the integrity of a gate electrode for a high electron mobility transistor is compromised above 600° C. due to the reaction with aluminum in an Ohmic metallization scheme. Reducing the temperature of the metallization process as known in the art always results in formation of inferior quality contacts. Further, the quality of contacts to the compound semiconductor material layer is highly variable due to process variations and temperature dependence of the metallization process.

Elemental semiconductor material contact for high electron mobility transistor


A structure of a balancing fan is disclosed. The fan comprises a hub and a rotation balancing unit. The hub comprises a top portion and a ring portion disposed around the top portion. A plurality of blades extends from the hub. The rotation balancing unit is disposed among the outer side of the top portion and the inner side of the ring portion and comprises a guiding portion and at least one movable weight member. The movable weight member is positioned on the inner side of the guiding portion such that the movable weight member can move along the guiding portion when the hub rotates to provide the dynamic-balance effect and thereby stabilize the rotation of the fan.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention generally relates to a structure of a balancing fan, and more particularly to a structure of a fan capable of dynamically balancing rotation of the fan.
2. Description of Related Art
Referring to FIG. 1, the rotation of the fan 21 is not stable due to the manufacturing process, for example, formation of different sizes of the blades 22 and the differential thickness of the hub. These factors directly affect the rotation of the fan 21. Thus, not only the operation noise is increased but also the rotation efficiency is limited. This may even cause damage to the fan itself.
To overcome the above defects, some proposed a hub equipped with a ring side and a top side. The ring side has an upper flange and a lower flange, a lower side and an inner side. The ring side has a plurality of holes aligned correspondingly, and an axle is jointed to the top side. A plurality of blades is disposed around the outer side of the ring side. At least one weight block is securely positioned in the corresponding hole. Thus, the non-uniform weight distribution caused by the different sizes of the blades 22 may be overcome. The weight block is securely positioned in the hole of the lighter part to balance the whole weight of the fan for stabilizing the rotation of the fan.
However, the above conventional fan has the holes on the ring side correspondingly, the blades of the fan may have different sizes and the holes may not be positioned corresponding to the lighter blades, and therefore a weight block may be required to be disposed on the lighter side of the fan. Thus, the overall weight of the fan may be over-weighted or insufficient. The user may have to redo the weighing work for effectively using the weight block to overcome the problems due to non-uniform weight distribution, and thus this scheme is substantially unpractical.
Accordingly, in the view of the foregoing, how to balance and stabilize the rotation of the fan is an important issue for manufacturers in the field.


A storage device stores data on a disk. A storage device can be a electromagnetic or optical storage device. The storage device utilizes a motion control circuit having a digital signal processor and central processing unit integrated on a single substrate. The central processing unit and digital signal processor cooperate to affect motion control operations for the storage device. The motion control circuit partitions complex and non-complex mathematical instructions between the digital signal processor and the general purpose central processing unit.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to processors for voice band telecommunications and more particularly to digital processors which have the capability of processing code excited linear predictive algorithms.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Recently, cellular telephone systems have become more practical and popular. Their popularity has increased to the point where service availability will soon be unable to meet demand. It has therefore been proposed to implement a digital cellular network which incorporates predictive speech signal coding for reducing the bandwidth of transmitted speech thereby enhancing system performance and enabling time division multiplexing which significantly increases user availability.
The Telecommunication Industries Association has adopted a standard, Digital Cellular Standard IS-54, which implements a vector sum excited linear predictive (VSELP) vocoder algorithm for use in the United States. This algorithm is computationally intensive, requiring on the order of 6.45.times.10.sup.6 arithmetic operations per second and 15.6 million instructions per second (MIPS).
Other areas of the world are also moving toward digital cellular systems. Japan has recently adopted a VSELP algorithm similar to the United States, and Europe is moving toward a CELP algorithm referred to as Group Special Mobile (GSM).
Currently, digital signal processors (DSPs) such as the DSP65000 family manufactured by Motorola, Inc. are available for implementing digital algorithms such as digital filters, fast fourier transforms, correlation functions, etc. Such processors have special features such as modulo addressing, hardware DO loops, 24-bit by 24-bit hardware multipliers, etc. to facilitate the large number of high precision arithmetic operations required in digital signal processing. DSPs are ideally suited for executing the VSELP and similar algorithms except that current models have too low a clock rate. The DSP65000 family, for example has a nominal clock rate of 20.48 MHz giving an execution rate of 10.24 MIPS. This can be increased to 27 MHz for an execution rate of 13.5 MIPS. To accommodate the 15.6 MIPS needed for IS-54, the clock rate would have to be increase to about 32 MHz. Such an increase would require redesign of the DSP.

Storage device utilizing a motion control circuit having an integrated digital signal processing and central processing unit


A drum-type shear for cutting high-speed strip, especially hot strip, includes a blade that is movable radially into and out of a rotating blade drum from which it is extendable into a strip-cutting position at a desired cutting time. In order to provide reliable and accurate cross-cutting of even broad and thick strips using nevertheless simple structural means, a linearly translatable push-pull rod that extends axially in the blade drum has wedge surfaces that abut with corresponding wedge surfaces of the blade or blade holder for extending and retracting the cutting blade. The push-pull rod rotates with the blade drum and is connected to a stationary linear drive via a thrust bearing for transmitting axial rod-translating forces to the push-pull rod as the rod rotates with the drum.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to drum-type shears for cutting high-speed strip, especially hot strip slabs, and more particularly to a drum-type shear having a blade that is carried in a rotatable blade drum and is selectively movable out of the blade drum and into a cutting position at a desired cutting time.
2. Description of the Related Art
Drum-type shears which can be used to crop and divide strip material, especially hot strip slabs, are known. Such shears operate as high-speed shears, i.e. the drums accelerate from a standing start to rotate at the passage speed of the rolled strip or slab material in approximately 0.9 drum rotations, cut the rolled material and then decelerate. At strip bandwidths of greater than about 1300 mm and strip speeds of approximately 3 m/sec, a limit is reached above which the enormous energy required for driving these shears can no longer be generated. In order to accelerate and decelerate the flywheel moments of the rotating masses, approximately 2000 kw of power must be provided in a short time period. When secondarily controlled hydraulic motors are used, the corresponding pump capacity for this power must also be made available. Even if a cut occurs only once every 10 minutes and acceleration/deceleration is needed then for only 0.5 seconds each time, the expense of the additional equipment required to accelerate and decelerate the cutting shears is extremely large.
As a rule, high-speed shears are adequate for conventional production processing of single slabs of material with rolled material speeds of up to about 3 m/sec, because it is not necessary to cut at the coiling speed when rolling out single slabs.
In various new production processes, however, the operations of strip casting and forming are linked, so that strip is produced and cut in a continuous series of process steps. As a consequence, slabs weighing 20 tons are no longer rolled individually into coils, as was done in the past. Instead, an almost continuous strand is produced, formed and cross-cut in front of the coiling device. Strip speeds of 4 to 10 m/sec and above are thereby achieved, requiring corresponding outputs from the shears located in front or upstream of the coiler.
So-called two-drum shears for cutting high-speed rolled material are well known as such. In two-drum shears, the rolled material to be cut passes between two separate blade drums which rotate at a peripheral speed corresponding to the passage speed of the rolled material. The blades or blade holders holding the blades are mounted in the blade drums in a radially movable fashion and are moved radially outward from the drum for cutting of the material. Unlike the aforementioned high-speed shears, two-drum shears do not need to be accelerated in a very short time to the passage speed of the rolled material; rather, the blade drums can be initially brought up to speed and then maintained at an undisturbed high speed, after which the blades may be used to cut the material at the desired time.
When the passage speed of the rolled material is extremely high, it has also been proposed--as in DE-AS 12 81 794--to advance the blades from within the two-drum shears into the cutting position by means of a shock or pressure-wave piston.
The primary problems with known two-drum shears for cutting of high-speed rolled material are related to the mechanical guidance of the blades or blade holders and to the hydraulic action of the pistons that activate the blades. Often, the mechanical system and hydraulic system are not able to absorb the high cutting forces of 110 to 300 tons that typically occur during cutting, especially in the case of thicker rolled material, so that the use of two-drum shears is limited to thinner rolled material or narrow strips or wire.
There is accordingly a need for a high-speed drum-type shear that can crop and divide strip material at strip speeds of 10 m/sec and above. There is also a need for a high-speed drum-type shear that can accelerate and decelerate at speeds corresponding to the strip speed without requiring additional and expensive equipment. There is further a need for a high-speed drum-type shear having a mechanical system for deploying the cutting blade and that is capable of withstanding cutting forces of up to 300 tons.

Apparatus for cutting a high-speed strip


A device for opening shellfish which includes a base and a reconfigurable handle pivotably connected to the base. The device also includes multiple blades operatively associated with the reconfigurable handle such that each of the blades may be selectively positioned in an operative orientation to open shellfish.

Bivalve shellfish such as oysters or clams must be opened prior to preparation or consumption. The process of opening a shellfish is known as "shucking". Traditionally, oysters and clams are shucked with a knife or other tool having a sharp and curved blade. Often shellfish such as oysters are held in one hand while the shucking knife is manipulated with the other hand. Such use exposes the person opening an oyster or clam to serious potential injury if and when the shucking knife slips.
Various types and sizes of shellfish are opened in preparation for human consumption. Some of these shellfish, such as oysters, are quite large with very tough and rugged shells; other shellfish, such as certain types of clams, are smaller with thinner, more delicate shells. A shucking tool with a single type of blade is thus unlikely to be suitably sized and configured for opening various types of shellfish.
The present invention is directed toward overcoming one or more of the problems discussed above.


An apparatus on a textile machine for cleaning fiber material has a first roller for conveying a travelling fiber web, and second and third rollers which have respective nips with one another and with the first roller on rotation of the three rollers. The second roller is arranged downstream of the third roller and co-operates with the first roller so that fiber is detached, the fiber is transferred to the nip with the third roller and conveyed by the third roller to the nip with the first roller. The rollers have clothing with tips which are inclined in the direction of rotation. To improve the cleaning the front angle α of the tips of the second roller is about from 10° to 50° and the clothing gaps may be large to obtain a higher filling volume for fibers.

The invention relates to an apparatus on a textile machine, for example a flat card, roller card or the like, for cleaning fibre material, for example of cotton.
There is described in WO 01/92614 (also published as EP 1 290 252 B) a carding machine comprising a high-speed first or main roller, which is so adapted that it supports or conveys a travelling fibre web, associated second and third rollers, which have respective nips with one another and with the first roller on rotation of the three rollers, and drive means for rotation of the rollers, which drive means are so arranged that the second roller is rotated in a direction of rotation that is the same as that of the first roller and opposite to that of the third roller, wherein the second roller is arranged downstream of the third roller and so co-operates with the first roller that a fibre mat is opened and detached, the fibre mat is transferred to the nip with the third roller and is conveyed by the third roller to the nip with the first roller, where it is transferred back to the first roller, the rollers having a clothing with needles or teeth which are inclined at an acute angle (front angle) in the direction of rotation, and in the region of the transition of the fibres from the first roller to the second roller the needles or teeth of the rollers in question being inclined in different directions and the speed of the second roller being low in comparison with the speed of the first roller.
In that known apparatus (EP 1 290 252 B1), the second roller (inverter) has on its cylindrical surface a wire clothing comprising needles or teeth that are inclined at an angle of less than 90° to the surface in question. As a result, the fibres are intended to be held so that they can be drawn through the nip with the first roller. The wire clothing has fine teeth, so that the fibres are able to penetrate only unsatisfactorily into the bottom of the clothing.

Apparatus on a textile machine for cleaning fibre material, for example of cotton, comprising a high-speed first or main roller