A pixel arrangement structure includes a plurality of pixel groups that are periodically arranged. Each pixel group includes four pixels, a first pixel (310) and a second pixel (320) are arranged in a same row, a third pixel (330) and a fourth pixel (340) are arranged in adjacent another row, the first pixel (310) and the third pixel (330) are arranged in a same column, and the second pixel (320) and the fourth pixel (340) are arranged in adjacent another column. An arrangement of sub-pixels in the first pixel (310) is different from an arrangement of sub-pixels in the second pixel (320), an arrangement of sub-pixels in the third pixel (330) is same as the arrangement of the sub-pixels in the second pixel (320), and an arrangement of sub-pixels in the fourth pixel (340) is same as the arrangement of the sub-pixels in the first pixel (310). The pixel arrangement structure allows the opening area of the metal mask for manufacturing the pixel arrangement structure to be larger, and therefore the aperture ratio is increased and the brightness, service life and image definition of the AMOLED product are improved. An organic light emitting device, a display device and a mask are also provided.

In the mobile phone and flat panel display technology, active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) panels gradually become the mainstream of the next generation display due to the advantages of self-illumination, fresh colors, low power consumption, wide viewing angles and so on.
The self-illumination principle of AMOLED comprises: an indium tin oxide (ITO) semiconductor electrode and a metal electrode that are made on a back plate are respectively used as the anode and the cathode of the device, and the organic semiconductor material and the light-emitting material are deposited on the substrate. Driven by a certain voltage, electrons and holes are respectively injected from the cathode and the anode into the electron transport layer and the hole transport layer, and the electrons and holes respectively migrate to the light emitting layer through the electron transport layer and the hole transport layer and combine in the light emitting layer to form excitons and excite the light-emitting molecules to emit visible light through radiant relaxation.
At present, the requirements on the resolution and brightness of mobile phones or flat panels increasingly become high, but the production of organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays with high quality and high resolution still faces many challenges. As for AMOLEDs with high resolution, one technology that restricts their development is fine metal mask (FMM), and the manufacture of the metal mask for vapor deposition is more and more difficult with the resolution being increased. At the same time, due to the increase of the resolution, the distance between the emitting areas of sub-pixels is demanded to be smaller and smaller, and the color mixing phenomenon of the screen that is made through vapor deposition is more and more serious. Especially for the three sub-pixels for red (R), green (G), and blue (B) that are in the traditional stripe arrangement, the length of the opening area of the FMM corresponding to each sub-pixel is long, the linearity is difficult to be controlled and the color mixing is easily caused. Although the traditional slot RGB arrangement does not lead to a long opening and an unmanageable linearity, in the manufacture process of the opening area of the FMM, a certain metal material must be reserved between the opening areas of each Slot as a connecting bridge (called as Rib), resulting in a reduced opening area of the sub-pixel FMM, thus affecting the aperture ratio of the OLED display device. With a low aperture ratio, brightness and service life cannot meet the requirements. As a result, the yield of AMOLED products is low, limiting the mass production of AMOLED panels with high resolution.

Pixel arrangement structure, organic light emitting device, display device and mask

ORDOS YUANSHENG OPTOELECTRONICS CO., LTD.


A method of synchronising the reference clock of a first wireless device with a master reference clock of a second wireless device via a wireless network. The method involves transmitting, from the second wireless device to the first wireless device, a dedicated synchronisation frame via a dedicated synchronisation channel; receiving the dedicated synchronisation frame at the first wireless device; and synchronising the reference clock of the first wireless device with the master reference clock of the second wireless device based on the received dedicated synchronisation frame.

Wireless network devices typically need to be synchronized with each other in order to avoid a large timing offset which can impact the correct reception of wireless data. Accordingly, it is known to derive the timing for the network communication protocol from a local master clock.
In a wireless network device, e.g. magnetic induction (MI)-based, the local master clock can be the RC oscillator of the (MI) physical layer, the master clock of an audio interface or an external crystal oscillator. An on-chip local oscillator of the device's protocol processor is then locked to this master clock, and used to determine the timing network communication. Typically, the RC oscillator of the MI physical layer is used as the device local master clock in order to limit power consumption and to spare the required physical space (in other words, no external crystal oscillator is required).
The RC oscillator of an MI physical layer (used as device local master clock) can deviate up to 1% from its nominal value due to factors such as power supply voltage variations and local on-chip temperature changes. Hence, the oscillator frequency of the different network devices typically needs to be synchronized in order to avoid large timing offset which impact the correct reception of wireless frames.
Wireless frames are typically divided into specific and standardized sections. By way of example, a wireless frame typically has a MAC header, payload and Frame Check Sequence (FCS). Wireless frames may be organized in a larger structure, which can be identified as a superframe. A superframe may be divided in a number of timeslots and a wireless frame may occupy one or more timeslots in such a superframe. A superframe may also contain a beacon frame to indicate the start of the superframe.
The conventional method used to keep network devices in sync is to frequently send beacon frames. However, frequent beacon frame transmission consumes bandwidth which reduces the protocol streaming efficiency. Furthermore, if only the beacon frame is used for time synchronization, a frequency deviation of e.g. 0.5% will cause a full timeslot miss-alignment at the end of a typical superframe having 256 timeslots.


Ionic compositions comprise an active ingredient absorbed within a network of internal pores defined by a plurality of polymeric particles. The particles are preferably crosslinked polymeric beads having a diameter in the range from about 5 to 100 microns and a surface charge density from about 0.1 to 10 meq/qm hydrogen ion capacity. The active ingredients are released from the ionic polymer beads over time when orally administered, applied to a keratinic material, typically human skin or hair or otherwise delivered to a target environment. The use of a cationic charge promotes adhesion of the beads to the keratinic material.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the preparation of topical and oral compositions. More particularly, it relates to the preparation of ionic polymer delivery systems which prolong the activity of various topically active ingredients by increasing the substantivity on keratinic materials, such as hair and skin, and to orally delivered polymers which release active substances via ion-exchange.
The adherent properties of topically-applied substances on hair and skin affects both initial adsorption and retention, particularly on subsequent exposure to water. The combined characteristics of adsorption and retention constitute the property referred to as "substantivity," which can be defined as the ability of a substance to be adsorbed onto keratin and to resist removal by water rinse-off.
An ideal topical substance would have adsorptive affinity for keratinic materials, retain activity for long periods of time, resist being washed away by perspiration and other contact with water, and be free of adverse interactions with other ingredients of which incorporation is desirous. No topical substance has yet been discovered which adequately satisfies all of these objectives.
Some of the most popular topically active preparations available in the market today include, for example, fragrance substances; cosmetic substances, such as lipsticks, make-up and foundation powders; insect repellents; anti-bacterials; acne treatment formulations; hair treatment formulations, such as conditioners and hair growth promoting agents; and skin protection formulations, such as age-prevention agents; and ultraviolet absorbing substances (sunscreens). These ingredients, substances, or formulations may be used alone, or in combination with each other, and may be applied in pure form or diluted in a suitable solvent or carrier.
A frequently observed problem with such topically active substances is the rapid loss of activity after application to the skin. Under usual conditions of heavy perspiration and/or contact with water, concentration of the above substances in their respective topical compositions is either diluted, thereby reducing effectiveness, or washed away, thereby losing all effectiveness. One way to extend activity is by increasing the concentrations of the active ingredient in their respective formulations. However, as concentrations are increased, so too are the risks of toxic and allergic reactions to the user. These reactions often occur with the higher concentrations, even if exposure to the product is relatively short.
A second drawback, unrelated to the safety of administration of such compositions, is the increased expense of using such compositions which are so easily washed away. For instance, to maintain an adequate level of protection from the sun, a sunbather would have to reapply sunscreen each time after entering the water and frequently after perspiring.
It would therefore be highly desirable to provide an approach for increasing the adsorptive affinity of topically active compositions to keratinic materials, and for prolonging the activity of such compositions, while simultaneously reducing the likelihood of toxic and/or allergic reaction to the user.
Compositions and methods for the release of an active substance, such as a drug, from a reservoir over time are known, and numerous specific approaches exist to achieve such controlled release. Two widely practiced approaches are of particular interest to the present invention. In the first such approach, drugs or other active substances are encapsulated or coated with a material which dissolves or degrades in response to a change in environmental conditions. For example, pH-response coatings (referred to as enteric coatings) may be provided on drugs to protect the drug in the low pH environment of the stomach but dissolve when the pH rises as the drug passes to the intestines. Such coatings include cellulose acetate, phthalate-polyvinyl acetate phthalate, hydroxypropylcellulose phthalate, methyl cellulose phthalate, and the like. Although these coatings are very effective in protecting drugs in the stomach, they do not generally provide a controlled release rate once the drug reaches the intestines.
A less widely employed delivery approach utilizes porous polymeric particles for absorbing and releasing drugs and other active substances at a controlled release rate. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,692,462, discussed below. In such systems, the diffusion rate of the drug or other active substance through the pores determines the release rate. The diffusion rate, of course, depends on pore size, drug viscosity, temperature, and the like. In the case of drug delivery, drugs absorbed in porous polymeric particles are usually combined in an adhesive or other matrix material as part of a transdermal drug delivery system. In another example, drugs have been adsorbed onto porous resin beads which are then coated with a membrane diffusion barrier, e.g., ethylcellulose, in order to effect sustained release. See, European Patent Application 171 528, discussed below.
One difficulty with these systems is that a coating or blocking agent must be introduced in order to achieve a desired release rate for particular active substances. The physical characteristics of drugs and other active substances may vary widely, including changes in viscosity, charge characteristics, molecular weight, and the like and the release rate in any delivery system may vary widely depending on the nature of the substance which is being delivered. This problem is particularly evident when employing porous particle delivery systems where modification of the pore characteristics can be achieved only within certain limitations. Synthetic resin-based ion exchangers are conventionally produced by post-polymerization modification of preformed, cross-linked beads. For example, anion exchange resins are made from cross-linked polystyrene by halogen-alkylation and subsequent amination. Cation exchange resins can be made by either carboxylation or sulfonylation of the preformed, cross-linked beads. Such ion exchange resins are typically discolored, have capacities for the exchange of ion less than 2 meq/gm, and regeneration can be a lengthy process. Naturally occurring ion exchangers, such as cellulose-based or dextran gels which are made by introducing functional groups onto the cross-linked natural polymers, have gel structures which are not mechanically strong enough to prevent the gel matrix from shrinking or collapsing as the active ingredient is removed. The natural polymer-based materials are unstable in the presence of oxidants or strong acids, at elevated temperatures (e.g., 120.degree. C. for 30 minutes), and because of their biological origins, they will support bacterial and microbial growth.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide improved compositions and methods for the delivery of drugs and other active substances. It would be particularly desirable if the compositions could be readily modified to achieve a desired release rate for active substances having a wide range of physical and chemical characteristics. It would be further desirable if the compositions could be modified to control the release rate of such diverse active substances under a variety of different external conditions, such as pH, temperature, ionic strength, and the like. It would also be desirable if compositions could be readily modified to allow absorption of bile salts in a controlled and predictable manner.

Ionic beads useful for controlled release and adsorption


An impulse generator including first and second differentiators coupled in parallel to each other, for generating impulses by differentiating a clock signal, and first and second switches for transiting on and off the first and second differentiators respectively to selectively output the impulses generated by the first and second differentiators, and varying polarity of the impulses by changing a direction of a current flowing through load. Accordingly, the negative and positive impulses are selectively output according to the circuit state, reliability of the impulses is improved, and power consumption is reduced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an impulse generator, and more particularly, to an impulse generator capable of selectively outputting one of negative and positive impulses, so as to improve reliability of the impulses and reduce power consumption.
2. Description of the Related Art
Related art ultra wide band (UWB) communication technology is a considerable next-generation wireless transmission technology achieving 100 Mbps of data transmission speed, which is much higher than the 54 Mbps transmission speed of the IEEE 802.11a standard, and consuming power below 100 mW, which is better than the low power property of the Bluetooth standard. The related art UWB communication technology uses a few GHz of frequency bandwidth, and obtains 500 Mbps to 1 Gbps of data transmission speed by the bandwidth.
The related art UWB communication technology does not use a carrier wave in data transmission and reception, but instead loads data on pulses. Each of the pulses used in data transmission and reception is comprised of 1 ns (nanosecond) to a few hundreds of ps (picoseconds) of ultrashort waves.
To generate the pulses, a related art UWB communication system uses an impulse generator as shown in FIGS. 1, 2A and 2B.
FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram illustrating one example of the impulse generator of the related art UWB communication system. The related art impulse generator generates impulses by instantaneous discharge using a transistor that is a semiconductor switching element. A capacitor CB is connected to the base of the transistor, and a DC supply source, a resistor Re and a capacitor CC are connected to the collector of the transistor. The capacitor CB connected to the base has relatively large capacity, and the capacitor CC connected to the collector has relatively small capacity.
When a square wave is input to the base of the transistor of the impulse generator, the transistor is transited to its on position, and current flows from the collector to the emitter. If a high voltage is applied to the resistor Re of the collector by the DC supply source, when the transistor is turned on, the voltage sharply falls. The impulse is instantaneously generated in the emitter by the voltage sharply falling in the collector. On the other hand, the width of the impulse varies according to the properties of the switching element used.
FIG. 2A is a circuit diagram illustrating another example of the impulse generator of the related art UWB communication system, and FIG. 2B is a graph showing flow of voltage and current input to the related art impulse generator of FIG. 2A.
As shown in FIG. 2A, the impulse generator includes a step recovery diode (SRD) and a pair of Schottky diodes D1 and D2. When the voltage flows forward, the SRD stores energy according to Kirchhoff's Law, and when the voltage flows backward, the SRD is maintained for a predetermined time by the energy, and then suddenly drops off. The pair of Schottky diodes D1 and D2 reduce the forward turn-on voltage to 0.2 to 0.3 V by using Schottky barriers, thereby minimizing power loss and achieving high speed operation.
In the impulse generator, when the forward voltage is supplied to the SRD and the backward voltage is supplied to the SRD, the SRD is maintained in the on position for a predetermined time and then suddenly drops off. When the voltage is sharply varied in the SRD, the Schottky diodes D1 and D2 directly discharge the supplied voltage. Therefore, the output voltage becomes zero. The impulses are generated by the output voltage that is directly discharged from the Schottky diodes D1 and D2.
FIG. 2B is a graph showing variations of the voltage and current of the related art SRD and generation of the impulse by variations of the voltage from the power supply source of the impulse generator. When the forward voltage is supplied from the power supply source Vin to the SRD and the backward voltage is supplied to the SRD, the current applied to the SRD flows in the backward direction for a predetermined time TD, and then suddenly flows in the forward direction. Here, TD represents the time for which the SRD maintains the on state due to the energy stored in the SRD and the capacitor, and TS represents the time required to change the backward direction to the forward direction, which is the time required to discharge the voltage from the Schottky diodes.
However, the impulse generators of FIGS. 1 and 2A only generate positive impulses due to the circuit properties. In addition, the impulse generators need power for the entire operation time, due to the properties of the transistor or the SRD, which increases power consumption.
FIG. 3A is a circuit diagram illustrating yet another example of the related art impulse generator, and FIG. 3B is a graph showing an input voltage, a current and an impulse input in the operation of the related art impulse generator. The impulse generator includes an SRD, and a transmission line branched between the SRD and the output terminal, and having its end shorted. Normally, the current is reflected in the transmission line. In the case of a radio frequency, if the end of the transmission is shorted, the Ringing phenomenon reflecting the current occurs.
When an input voltage VS is supplied to the impulse generator, the forward current iSR flows through the transmission line, and the backward current iSF is generated by reflecting the forward current iSR. Since the backward current iSF is generated by reflecting the forward current iSR, the backward current iSF has a predetermined width of a phase difference from the forward current iSR. Because of the phase difference, when the forward current iSR and the backward current iSF interfere with each other, the forward current iSR and the backward current iSF are not completely extinguished with respect to each other, but generate impulses. When the input voltage VS rectified in a pulse shape through the SRD is transited to its off position, a negative impulse is generated, and when the input voltage VS is transited to its on position, a positive impulse is generated. In addition, the forward current iSR is not completely extinguished. Thus, unnecessary pulses are generated between the negative and positive impulses.
Since the related art impulse generator generates the negative and positive impulses, the related art impulse generator cannot selectively use one of the negative and positive impulses. Furthermore, unnecessary pulses are generated between the negative and positive impulses due to the Ringing phenomenon, which reduces the reliability of the impulses.
It is thus necessary to design the impulse generator which can selectively use one of the negative and positive impulses, obtain reliability of the impulses and reduce power consumption.

Impulse generator for outputting negative and positive impulses


Methods for accurately and conveniently calculating the temperature of gaseous hydrogen during vehicle fueling are disclosed. The metered amount of hydrogen added to the on-board storage tank, the ambient conditions, The pressure measured at the dispenser, and a correlation to account for heat transfer are the inputs to the methods of the present invention. These inputs eliminate the need for obtaining temperature and pressure information from the vehicle which is out of the control of the dispenser and/or energy provider. In addition, the use of the equation of the present invention does not require the fill rate to be limited and the corresponding fill time to be extended.

Hydrogen is utilized in a wide variety of industries ranging from aerospace to food production to oil and gas production and refining. Hydrogen is used in these industries as a propellant, an atmosphere, a carrier gas, a diluents gas, a fuel component for combustion reactions, a fuel for fuel cells, as well as a reducing agent in numerous chemical reactions and processes. In addition, hydrogen is being considered as an alternative fuel for power generation because it is renewable, abundant, efficient, and unlike other alternatives, produces zero emissions. While there is wide-spread consumption of hydrogen and great potential for even more, a disadvantage which inhibits further increases in hydrogen consumption is the absence of a hydrogen infrastructure to provide widespread generation, storage and distribution.
One way to overcome this difficulty is through the operation of hydrogen energy stations. At hydrogen energy stations, hydrogen generators. such as reformers or electrolyzers, are used to convert hydrocarbons or water to a hydrogen rich gas stream. The hydrogen rich gas stream can be purified to a high purity product. The gaseous hydrogen is then stored in stationary storage vessels at the hydrogen energy stations to provide inventory to fuel vehicles.
During vehicle fueling, the gaseous hydrogen is transferred from a stationary storage vessel to a vehicle's on-board storage tank. The current state of the art in hydrogen filling is to use cascade fill technology up to 350 Bar. This filling process causes an increase in pressure of the on-board storage tank of the vehicle and results in an increase in temperature due to the heat of compression of the hydrogen in the on-board storage tank. Temperatures in excess of 120° C. are possible. However, the on-board storage tanks that are used, such as Type III tanks with an aluminum liner and a composite cover, are limited to 85° C.
Current methods for controlling the fill process to prevent an over temperature of the on-board storage tank are to limit the fill rate or to monitor the temperature of the on-board storage tank and stop or reduce the flow if a high temperature is reached. First, limiting the fill rate results in long fill times. For example, the fill time can take up to twenty minutes. Second, monitoring the temperature of the on-board storage tank requires the connection of a temperature sensor in the on-board storage tank to the dispenser. For vehicles at a dispenser, calibration of the temperature sensor is critical to the safe filling of the vehicle during this "communications fill." The on-board temperature sensor calibration is the responsibility of the vehicle owner rather than the dispenser and/or energy provider.
The present invention addresses the need to monitor the temperature of the on-board storage tank during vehicle filling by providing a method for calculating hydrogen temperature during vehicle fueling.

Method for calculating hydrogen temperature during vehicle fueling


Provided is a peptide which is capable of repressing transcription in a plant and which can be used in the CRES-T (a simple and widely applicable means for repressing gene transcription). Also provided is a gene encoding the peptide.

The antisense method and the ribozyme method are conventionally known as means of repressing expression of organisms' genes. These techniques have been studied so as to be applied to, e.g., repression of expression of disease-causing genes (such as oncogenes) or improvement of plants. The antisense method employs antisense DNA or RNA that is complementary to a specific site of a target gene, transcription of which is to be repressed, or mRNA to which the target gene has been transcribed. The prepared antisense DNA or RNA, however, cannot be used to repress expression of genes other than the target gene. Thus, for other genes, it is necessary to all the way prepare antisense DNA or RNA in accordance with sequences of the respective genes. In the case of the ribozyme method, in order to cleave target DNA or mRNA with a ribozyme, the ribozyme must be designed (i) to have a sequence complementary to the target DNA or mRNA so as to bind thereto and (ii) to cleave the target DNA or mRNA at a predetermined position. Even if the ribozyme is designed to cleave the target gene, the following problem may occur: For example, in a case where such the ribozyme is linked to a promoter (e.g., the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter) and a transcription terminator sequence in order to construct a vector for introduction and the resulting vector is actually introduced to a plant cell, an excessive sequence is added to a transcribed ribozyme, which may result in loss of ribozyme activity. In addition, in these conventional techniques, identification of the target gene and determination of its nucleotide sequence are always indispensable. This has been a big problem, particularly when these techniques are used for improvement in plant traits. The reason for this is that most studies on plants have been conducted with use of model plants, and there is little finding on gene sequences of practical plants which are used as food, fuels, building materials, etc., and therefore it is very difficult to design appropriate antisense DNA or RNA or an appropriate ribozyme. Moreover, it is well known that the practical plants have big differences in their gene sequences between the types, or even between the individuals. In view of this, it is almost impossible to design appropriate antisense DNA or an appropriate ribozyme for each type of the practical plants. In addition to the above-described methods, as a technique for repressing expression of a target gene, there is a method for disrupting a target gene itself by a gene knock-out method, which disrupts an endogenous gene by a chemical treatment, radiation, or introduction of a foreign gene. However, this method is difficult to apply to, e.g., amphidiploid plants, which inherently have a large number of gene sets, since it is difficult to disrupt all of the genes of the amphidiploid plants by this method. Examples of polyploid plants encompass soybean and wheat, each of which is an important crop as food and animal feeding stuff. In plants, genes often redundantly exist for an important function. Thus, also in cases of general diploid plants, it is difficult to disrupt all genes by the gene knock-out method.
In order to address these problems, the present inventors have developed CRES-T (chimeric repressor silencing technology), which is a completely different approach from the above conventional techniques (see Patent Literatures 1 through 8 and Non-Patent Literatures 1 through 3). The CRES-T is a technique that uses a transcriptional repression domain (dominant repressor) isolated from a plant. Namely, according to the CRES-T, such the transcriptional repression domain is bound to the carboxyl terminus of a transcriptional activator so as to impart strong transcriptional repression activity to the transcriptional activator, and then a chimeric gene including nucleic acid molecules encoding the transcriptional repression domain and the transcriptional activator is expressed in a plant, so that transcription of a target gene is strongly repressed. Further, such the chimeric gene, to which the transcriptional repression domain has fused, represses not only the transcriptional activator but also functions of all other transcriptional activators that function redundantly with respect to the same gene. Therefore, plants produced by the CRES-T exhibit traits resulting from complete repression of expression of the target gene. Thus, the CRES-T is very useful not only for transformation of the practical plants but also for unravelment of basic functions of genes. Furthermore, the CRES-T can repress functions of a related gene whose sequence and functions are analogous to those of the target gene. Therefore, unlike the conventional antisense method and ribozyme method, the CRES-T does not need to design DNA or RNA according to a nucleotide sequence of each target gene. Thus, the CRES-T can be carried out in a simple manner, and is widely applicable.
The transcriptional repression domain consists of a motif (L/F)DLN(L/F)(X)P (SEQ ID NO. 73), where X represents any amino acid residue. At first, the transcriptional repression domain was isolated from Arabidopsis thaliana, and therefore the studies were conducted mainly on Arabidopsis thaliana. Afterward, the same motif as above was identified in transcriptional repressors of a wide variety of plants, examples of which include Nicotiana tabacum and monocotyledons such as Oryza sativa. So far, it has been demonstrated that, by converting a transcription factor functioning in the secondary metabolism biosynthesis system into a chimeric transcriptional repressor, it is possible to actively regulate the secondary metabolism biosynthesis. Further, the following experimental result has been obtained: By converting a transcription factor that regulates formation of floral organs into a chimeric transcriptional repressor and causing the chimeric transcriptional repressor to express in plants, male sterility and complete sterility were successfully induced with a high probability not only in Arabidopsis thaliana but also in Oryza sativa. These results show that the CRES-T is also applicable to Oryza sativa, which is a monocotyledon. Thus, the CRES-T attracts attention as a revolutionary technology that can be applied to a wide variety of general plants.
However, not only for plants but also for overall living organisms, the motif (L/F)DLN(L/F)(X)P (SEQ ID NO. 73) is the only conserved motif which has been found so far to be the transcriptional repression domain. After the finding of the motif (L/F)DLN(L/F)(X)P (SEQ ID NO. 73), the present inventors found that the motif "DLELRL" (SEQ ID NO. 74) is included in publicly-known SUP gene as a transcriptional repression function domain. However, no other transcribed gene has been found that includes the motif "DLELRL" (SEQ ID NO. 74), and therefore it cannot be said that this motif is a conserved motif. On this account, it has been demanded to find a conserved motif of a transcriptional repression domain like the motif (L/F)DLN(L/F)(X)P (SEQ ID NO. 73), i.e., a conserved motif that is applicable to general plants and conserved in natural transcriptional repressors.
[Patent Literature 1]    Japanese Patent No. 3829200
[Patent Literature 2]    Japanese Patent No. 3995211
[Patent Literature 3]    Japanese Patent Application Publication, Tokukai, No. 2001-269177 A
[Patent Literature 4]    Japanese Patent Application Publication, Tokukai, No. 2001-269178 A
[Patent Literature 5]    Japanese Patent Application Publication, Tokukai, No. 2001-292776 A
[Patent Literature 6]    Japanese Patent Application Publication, Tokukai, No. 2001-292777 A
[Patent Literature 7]    Japanese Patent Application Publication, Tokukai, No. 2001-269176 A
[Patent Literature 8]    Japanese Patent Application Publication, Tokukai, No. 2001-269179 A
[Non-Patent Literature 1]    The Plant Cell, 2001 13, 1959-1968
[Non-Patent Literature 2]    Plant Biotechnology J 2006. 4. 325-332
[Non-Patent Literature 3]    Plant Journal 2003 34:733-739.

Transcriptional repressor peptides and genes for the same

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY


One disclosed embodiment is a power conversion circuit including a power conversion bridge between a bus voltage and ground, including a switched node for supplying current to an output circuit. A driver section is configured to drive the power conversion bridge that includes a first section and a second section, the first section being between a negative supply voltage and ground, and the second section being between the switched node and a derived voltage below the switched node, the derived voltage being derived from the negative voltage. In one embodiment, the power conversion bridge includes a high side III-nitride switch and a low side III-nitride switch connected with the high side III-nitride switch to from a half-bridge. In one embodiment, the high side and low side III-nitride switches are depletion mode devices.

The present invention relates to an integrated circuit for power conversion, and more specifically to an integrated circuit for power conversion that uses III-nitride power semiconductor switches in the power conversion stage as well as the driver stage thereof.
III-nitride heterojunction power semiconductor switches are known. For example, Khan et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,987, discloses one type of depletion mode III-nitride HEMT, while Beach, U.S. Pat. Pub. 2006/0060871 discloses examples of several types of enhancement mode III-nitride HEMTS.
III-nitride switches are particularly desirable for power applications because of the relatively higher band gap of the III-nitride material, the relatively low resistivity of the switch during conduction, and high frequency switching abilities.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an integrated circuit for power conversion in which the switches in the power stage as well as the switches in the driver stage are III-nitride switches.
An integrated circuit according to the present invention includes a power conversion bridge between a bus voltage and ground, and including a switched node for supplying current to an output circuit, and a driver stage that includes a first section and a second section, the first section being between a negative supply voltage and ground, and the second section being between the switched node and a derived voltage below the switched node derived from the negative supply voltage.
In one embodiment, the power conversion bridge includes a high side III-nitride switch and a low side III-nitride switch series connected with the high side III-nitride switch to form a half-bridge. In the preferred embodiment, the first and the second III-nitride switches are depletion mode devices. Moreover, in the preferred embodiment, the first section and the second section each includes a driver bridge comprised of two series connected III-nitride switches in a half-bridge arrangement having an output thereof coupled to a respective gate of one of the high side III-nitride switch and the III-nitride low side switch. In one embodiment, the series connected III-nitride switches in each the first section and the second section are enhancement mode devices. In another embodiment, the series connected III-nitride switches in each the first section and the second section are depletion mode devices.
Disclosed herein is also a novel level shifting scheme for level shifting a PWM signal before it is supplied to the drive stage.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the invention which refers to the accompanying drawings.

Integrated III-nitride power converter circuit


An improved alkaline earth metal stearate composition is disclosed and is prepared by reacting a fatty acid component including stearic acid and palmitic acid with an alkali hydroxide to form an alkaline soap. An aqueous metal salt solution is then added to the soap, and pH adjusted to less than about pH 8 to form the improved alkaline earth metal stearate. The improved alkaline earth metal stearate provides a substantially pure amount of the dihydrate form of the stearate.

This invention relates to the industrial manufacture of alkaline earth metal stearate compositions useful as industrial lubricants for uses including metal forming and tablet formulation of pharmaceutical preparations. More particularly, this invention relates to a process for preparing magnesium stearate lubricant exhibiting improved properties in lubrication and dissolution of pharmaceutical preparations in tablet form.
Numerous patents disclose the utility of stearates as lubricants or powder flow enhancers. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,437,000, 5,032,632, 5,952,004, 5,447,729, 4,800,082, 4,777,080 and U.S. Published Application 2002/0052411 provide typical disclosures of such utility.
The use of magnesium stearate as a pharmaceutical tableting lubricant is well known in the art. According to USP/NF (2004), magnesium stearate is described as a substance containing at least 40% stearic acid, 90% as the sum of stearic acid and palmitic acid, and not more than 6.0% water. Magnesium stearate commonly used in pharmaceutical applications is a mixture of magnesium stearate and magnesium palmitate, since sources used to derive magnesium stearate include tallow, palm oil, and soybean oil, all of which are glyceryl esters of C16 and C18 fatty acids. Moreover, the state of magnesium stearate may be amorphous, or exhibit any of the following crystalline forms—anhydrous, monohydrate, dihydrate, and trihydrate. The USP/NF description of the composition and attributes of magnesium stearate does not account for functionality differences of the various crystalline forms. Further, the water content of up to 6.0% allows for products containing many possible combinations of hydrated forms to meet the requirements in the compendial monograph.
Pharmaceutical manufacturers and researchers have found that of the three polymorphic hydrates (mono-, di- and tri-), the dihydrate form is preferred as it provides superior lubricating properties. It is also known that the content of water and the resulting crystal forms contribute to functionality of magnesium stearate. Magnesium stearate compositions that contain some dihydrate are perceived to have advantages in the formulation and manufacture of solid dosage forms. It has been reported that improvements in disintegration, dissolution, crush strength and extrusion force are related specifically to the presence of dihydrate as opposed to other hydrated forms of magnesium stearate. Dihydrate has been reported to have the best anti-caking properties.
However, the prior art has failed to describe a method to manufacture the dihydrate from a mixed fatty acid composition that typifies commercial sources in terms of its stearic acid/palmitic acid content, nor a method for preparing it. There is no description in the prior art to suggest that commercial fatty acids have the correct composition to obtain pure dihydrate, or even significant amounts of dihydrate. The lack of consistency in commercial fatty acid compositions make controlling the content of dihydrate in the finished product challenging. The dihydrate is not an intermediate substance in the formation of the trihydrate from the anhydrous form when it was exposed to high humidity, and is only crystallized from solution under certain circumstances.
Further, currently available magnesium stearate compositions have the potential to adversely affect pharmacological activity by providing a water repellant barrier to dissolution of drugs, and can have a major influence on bioavailability, particularly of sustained release drugs.
In order for the pharmaceutical industry to gauge the potential benefits of the dihydrate form for the purpose of creating new formulations based on these findings, pure or at least well-defined compositions containing dihydrate material must ultimately become commercially available.
Commercially available magnesium stearate is actually a mixture of magnesium stearate and palmitate, and the hydration and degree of crystallinity vary significantly depending upon the manufacturing process, as well as from batch to batch depending on the starting materials. While high-purity forms of magnesium stearate dihydrate or magnesium palmitate dihydrate have been prepared and characterized in the laboratory, there are no commercially viable methods available for the preparation of the preferred dihydrate form.
Improvements and efficiencies in the industrial preparation of stearate salts have been the subject of considerable research. As the number and use of medications, particularly in tablet form, expands, so to does the demand for ingredients employed in pharmaceutical tablet formation as well as in industrial operations. One such industrial application is metalworking that has also increased demand for reasonable priced lubricants of the stearate class, as is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,832.
Another attempt to gain efficiency and an improved product is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,175,322. This patent discloses a continuous process for manufacturing alkaline earth metal stearate soaps by the double decomposition method wherein a stream of an alkaline earth metal soap and an inorganic metal salt is dropped on a moving impeller of a mixer thereby instantaneously mixing the reactant together followed by rapid discharge from the reactor of the newly formed stearate salt. This process is purported to provide a product free of unreacted starting materials and unwanted by-products. An improved double decomposition reaction was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,434,277 wherein it is disclosed that such reactions do not provide high purity products because of the presence of unreacted starting materials present in the product. The solution to this problem according to this disclosure is to provide alternated basification-acidification of the reaction mixture. The effectiveness of the alternate treatment of the reaction mixture was shown by DSC analysis of the product indicating the disappearance of stearic acid starting material after alternative treatment. None of the prior disclosures mention the relevance of stearic acid/palmitic acid composition impacting hydration nor any means to control hydration of precipitated stearates in aqueous media.
A publication entitled "The Magnesium Stearate Problem" originally presented as a paper in 1992 and then published in Manufacturing Chemist, December 1993 discloses a study of the variations in lubricant properties of products from various industrial batches of stearate that has been observed in the industry. The observed variations were reported by K. J. Steffens and J. Koglin in an attempt to determine the unexplained cause of performance variation of industrial production batches of stearate salt that seemed identical based on the manufacturers reported attributes. Significant variations were observed among the commercial sources with respect to lubrication and tablet properties.
The writers classified commercial grades of magnesium stearate into six types distinguished by differences in their hydration and crystallinity. It was determined that crystalline magnesium stearate containing "predominately dihydrate form" was clearly superior when used as lubricant in a model formulation. Unfortunately, no method of manufacturing the pure dihydrate phase has been described in the literature, with the exception of synthesis from relatively pure stearic acid, which is cost prohibitive.
It is therefore desirable to provide an alkaline earth metal stearate composition and related method of production that result in consistent production of the dihydrate form of the alkaline earth metal stearate.


A universal portable minidisk drive system adopts the (1) universal head (2) laser pin (3) timing/coordinate clock track to have the long-time, continue-playing for all the different disk media such as optic disk, magnetic disk or magnetopic disk. The universal head enables the universal disk to read/write all the different disk that the portable computer only needs to have one kind of disk drive. The laser pin pushes the track density to the extreme limit that the minidisk can store a large amount data. The timing/coordinate clock track introduces the (track, sector) coordinate system to the disk that the access/recover time is reduced. The disk drive can play continuously in the vibrant environment.

Field of the Invention
Portable computer is the main tool in the information age. The space, weight and anti-vibration of the portable disk drive are the key issues in the portable computer design. However, in today design, the CD player, magnetic disk drive, floppy disk drive, optical disk drive are the separate designs. It is impossible to incorporate all the four kinds of disk drives in a portable computer. In the portable environment, the space is limited to one mini-disk. The mini-disk needs to have the ultra high density to store a large amount of data. We need to design a new approaches to push for the extreme limit of the ultra high density.
Furthermore, the portable computer is operated in the highly vibrant environments such as joggling, running, etc. The portable computer needs to continue playing without the interrupt due to the failure of the tracking of the head. For the above reasons, a completely revolutional new invention of disk drive is invented. We use the coordinate/clock track to reduce the access time and increase the high density. We use the universal head to reduce four different disk drives to be one single disk drive. We use the laser pin to decouple the tracking problem to be two sub-problems to have the capability to track the head directly push the extreme high density for the mini-portable disk. The concept of the trainee actuator follows and traces the trainer actuator with the guidance of the laser pin is a complete new concept. In our patent, we apply the angular amplification of the laser beam to the diffracted grating for the trainee actuator and use the laser guiding pin to guide the trainee actuator. The trainee actuator rotates to follow the guidance of the laser guiding pin.
As shown in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,268,801, the Hazel's patent uses a mirror attaching to the rotational axle of the trainee actuator. It will takes a lot effort to align the mirror on the trainee actuator accurately. Furthermore, his patent has the "angular amplification factor" of the laser light. However, the deflected light passing through the window at an angle. It will induce the track density uniformity errors which are not endurable in the portable mini-disk. It will reduce the track density a lot. Under the same set up of the servo system, even a small deviation angle of the mirror will cause the disk to lose a lot tracks or to start to write on the track which is outside the valid region. The horizontal swing of the setup table (mechanical translator 42) is so large. The mechanical translator mechanism will be worn out pretty soon. It is impossible to get the accurate alignment. The measurement facilities are at the far end to swing back and forth to search the tiny weak laser light. For the swinging long table, the small mechanical vibration will disturb the optical setup a lot.
As shown in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,268,801 Hazel At Al's principle is based on sensing the angle of the reflection laser beam. His principle, sensing the angle of the reflection beam, force him to place his position interpreter in the surface being parallel to the rotating axis of the actuator. This is not desirable location because it is not similar or near the location of the magnetic heads. Because the angle of the reflection beam is always parallel to the rotating axis of the actuator, hence his technique is inoperative in the most preferred situation in which the plane containing the position interpreter (the mirror for Hazel's principle) is perpendicular to rotating axis of the actuator. Moreover, Hazel at al's technique must use the arc transparent window which is too expensive to be use in the magnetic disk drive.
In the U.S. Pat. No. 5,325,349, the Taniguchi's patent uses an diffraction grating mounted on the actuator of the disk drive having the fixed laser source. Taniguchi's technique is well known by those skilled in the art to use moving diffraction grating and a fixed laser source to determine the position of the subject of interest. To meet the form factor of the magnetic disk drive industry, an angular actuator must be utilized. The angular diffraction grating is a diffraction grating with a plurality of lands and grooves being intercepted at one point and the linear diffraction grating is a diffraction grating with a plurality of lands and grooves being parallel. Hence Taniguchi must use an angular diffraction grating in his patent because the laser source of his design is fixed. To utilize the angular diffraction grating, one must align the virtual rotating point (as shown in FIG. 3 in Taniguchi's patent) of the angular diffraction grating with the rotating axis (as shown in FIG. 2 in Taniguchi's patent) of the magnetic disk drive actuator. This virtual rotating point is not physically real. It is an imaginary interception point of all the extended lands and grooves of the angular diffraction grating. Hence it is require the complex tool and highly skillful technician to assembly the angular diffraction grating. Beside those problems above, as he stated in his patent specifications, Taniguchi At Al must degrade the position resolution to trade off for the use of a smaller angular diffraction grating. Moreover, Taniguchi At Al's technique is the laser source fixed (not moveable); therefore the technique must sense different lands and grooves of the angular diffraction grating to cover the whole angle of rotation. None of angular diffraction grating is perfect and hence there are mismatched lands and grooves. Beside of these differences of lands and grooves there is distortion of the angular diffraction grating. It is impossible to manufacture the high volume magnetic disk drive with the utility of an angular diffraction grating in every magnetic disk drive.
In Taniguchi's patent, there is no "angular amplification factor" of the laser beam. Even the laser light is raised up to have the longer laser light flying path, the accuracy of the track position doesn't improve at all. On the contrary, the accuracy of the track position is decreased.
Increasing the laser light flying path, only there is the angular change of the laser beam, the resolution of the track density can be increased. The actuator is followed the sinusoidal curve to find the track position. At the track position, the sinusoidal curve has the differential to be zero and follow the variance to be the cosine. In other words, it is not sensitive for the variance of the track position. To get high accuracy of the track, we need to increase the sensitivity of the diffraction grating. Both of their patents use the external reflective means attaching to the magnetic disk actuator arm. It has the reproduction problem in the mass production line. However, it is noted that the Hazel's patent cannot apply to the Taniguchi's patent. The Hazel's patent has only the angular amplification concept; the Taniguchi's patent has only the diffraction grating concept. For the Taniguchi's patent, it is no use to increase the flight path. Taniguchi's patent has no angular amplification factor at all. It is impossible to combine the patent having no angular amplification with the patent having the angular amplification factor. In Taniguchi's patent, for the laser beam having no angular change, increasing the laser traveling path, the larger the beam spot is and the lower the resolution of track density is.
Without our new concept of the trainee actuator tracing the laser guiding pin to divide and conquer the problem, the angular amplification of the laser beam cannot cooperate with the diffraction grating. Using the new concept, trainee actuator tracing trainer actuator with optical pin, the problem is divided to be angular amplification and the exact tracking problems.
As shown in FIG. 4B, the prior arts of their patents do not know how to use the divide conquer methodology. Both of them try to locate the actuator track position directly. Their patent have no servo arm concept and exact tracking concept. So they cannot divide and conquer the problem. It is noted that Taniguchi's patent doesn't have the servo writer trainer actuator concept.
As shown in FIG. 4C, our patent combines the trainer actuator concept with laser pin concept, using the divide and conquer methodology, our solution is a two-steps solution. The trainer actuator is to divide the track problem to be the first sub-problem: track position of the servo actuator; and the second sub-problem: the tracking problem of the trainee actuator. We first set the track position of trainer actuator with high accuracy, then we set the actuator to follow the servo arm exactly. The track position sub-problem of the trainer actuator is solved with the combination of angular amplification and the reflective diffraction. The trainee actuator tracking sub-problem is solved with the laser pin.
For the angular amplification of the laser beam, instead of swinging the "translator setup table" as the Hazel's patent does, in our patent, we swing the laser beam to have the "angular amplification". The translator setup table for Hazel's table has the limit of the table length. Our patent has no limit on the length of the laser path.
Because magnetic disk drive industry is very competitive, the most important fact is to maintain the minimum cost. To achieve this objective, to put the expensive component (the angular diffraction grating) on the equipment (servo writer system) of the manufacture, not on the final product (the magnetic disk drive). The customer will not buy it. Furthermore, it causes the alignment problem and the reproduction problem.
Furthermore, for the ultra density disk drive, "as it is" is the most robust design principle for the portable mini-disk drive. Otherwise, the track position works can not repeat at all. The minor deviation in the alignment of the human installed the mirror or diffraction grating in Hazel's or Taniguchi's patents will cause the deviation of several hundred track errors in the ultra high density disk. In other words, the different disks have the several hundreds tracks mismatch in the track position process. This mismatch result cannot be endured. So, both the Hazel's patent and the Taniguchi's patent are not workable patent.
In the high tech field, minor violation of the fundamental principle will cause the design not working. Both the Hazel's patent and Taniguchi's patent violate the fundamental of magnetic disk drive principle, as it is. They added the extra components to the disk drive. So their disk drive doesn't work in the mass production. It is impossible to re-produce the same alignment and track position result for the different disk. Our patent follows the fundamental principle of "as it is". Our disk drive system not only works but also save a lot cost of the disk drive. For the portable mini-disk drive, it should not add any additional component in the servo writing process.
The Taniguchi's patent needs to install the high cost angular diffraction grating on the actuator. With the same setup, the Hazel's patent has to install the mirror with high accuracy to have the trainee actuator to locate at the proper track region. Otherwise, the Hazel's patent has to re-calibrate the setup for each disk drive to locate the actuator in the correct track region. This work cannot be repeated exactly for each disk drive that each disk drive has the different track region. This cannot be accepted for the mass production. Basically, the Hazel's patent is useless at all. The same reason is applied to the Taniguchi's patent. It is impossible to install the diffraction grating on the actuator exactly at the same position. However, the track region is defined by the position of the diffraction grating. So, no two disk will have the same track reason. For the ultra high density, such kind a manual error of alignment causes hundred tracks difference. Such kind a result cannot be accepted.
Comparing with the Taniguchi's and Hazel's patents, our invention is the only useful and practical system. For our patent, the position device such as diffraction grating is mounted on the servo writer system instead of the disk drive system. The trainee actuator has both the head and the rotational axle to be aligned with the virtual head and rotational axle trainer actuator respectfully. For the same servo writer, all the disk drive have the same track regions. It is easily to calibrate the different servo with the same standard. So, all the disk drive of our patent have exactly the same track region definition. It is pretty easy to standardize the universal disk in the mass production.
As bit density (bits per inch) increases, the read and write channel must reliably record and retrieve serial data. To retrieve the recorded data, the control unit must have two signal lines: a data signal and a sampling clock. Conventional read channel receives only one data signal from a subject magnetic head. They must extract the sampling clock signal by means of a phase lock loop. The read channel of conventional magnetic disk drive can not utilize a crystal system clock as a reference because of the following factors:
a) The static and dynamic speed variation of spindle motor; PA1 b) The eccentricity generated during fastening disks to the shaft of the magnetic disk drive spindle motor (This eccentricity creates variation in the relative linear velocity between the magnetic heads and disks); PA1 c) The run-out of Spindle motor.
The synchronization of all of the previously designed magnetic disk drives using the crystal system clocks is not optional. The closed loop speed control system in the prior art utilize back electromotive-force or Hall-effect sensors to regulate the velocity of the spindle motor. Hall-effect sensors are very fragile. They can be destroyed during the component assembly of the spindle motor. Furthermore, there are very few pulses per revolution generated by these sensors. Hence, the resolution is too coarse to have precise synchronization between the spindle motor and a crystal reference system clock. These systems also require a component actively trimming process to obtain a good average speed (not an instantaneous speed). The component actively trimming process is very expensive and it is labor intensive.
Conventional read channels (both analog and digital read channels) lose their synchronization when encountering a media defect or a drop out. They require more intelligent circuits to detect a media defect and to inhibit phase detector output. Currently, the conventional read channels cannot match the increasing rate of bit density. The speed of the spindle motor in the magnetic disk drive must therefore be decreased. This low spindle motor speed increases the access time of the magnetic disk drive.
It is very expensive to design and fabricate the high capacity and performance magnetic disk drive using the conventional designs. It requires high precision components to compensate for the weak interconnection of the head disk assembly subsystems. Therefore, both a high track density and a high bit density demand a new concept of design and manufacture.
Unlike the previously designed magnetic disk drives, the universal disk drive subsystems of this invention are strongly interrelated. A chief aspect of the intimate interconnection is a precise synchronization between the spindle motor and the crystal system clock. The read and write channels and the read back servo position signals can take advantage of this precise synchronization for improving performance and reliability.

Universal portable minidisk drive system


An improved footwear closure system and composite liner are provided. The composite liner includes a first component that conforms closely to the upper in the area of the heel, toe and side portions of the upper, and a second, stretchable component that extends across and underneath the area between the split of the upper. The second, stretchable component may form an enlarged fold aligned generally with the centerline of the split of the upper. Both components of the composite liner are preferably constructed from a water-repellant or water-proof, breathable material. The composite liner cooperates with an improved closure system having two complementary strips mounted between the split of the upper and underlying the fasteners. When the closure system is drawn tight, any excess portion of stretchable component is collected between and outside the complementary strips, leaving a smooth surface on the inside of the upper in the area of the split and adjacent the instep.

Footwear closure systems typically use a lacing or similar fastener system to fasten the shoe around the foot. In the simplest form of a lacing system, the upper is split down its middle bisecting the area above the instep, and eyelets or hooks or fasteners are located along either side of the split (eyestays). A lace is passed through the eyelets and crisscrossed across the split from the bottom of the split nearer the toe to the top of the split nearer the ankle. By pulling on the free ends of the lace, the split portions of the upper are drawn toward one another and the shoe is tightened around the foot. A tongue is generally provided underneath the split of the upper to provide a fully enclosed environment for the foot, and the eyestays pull together over the top of the tongue or any material lying between the eyestays. The tongue is frequently padded to protect the wearers' feet from the discomfort of the pressure of the laces.
Specialty outdoor and waterproof footwear construction typically incorporates a central tongue that lies underneath the laces when the closure system is drawn tight, with gussets connecting the sides of the tongue to each side of the upper in the area of the split. The gussets provide a continuous surface between the upper and the tongue, preventing liquids or debris from getting inside the shoe or boot. The gussets are also configured to provide an opening large enough to permit entry of the foot when the closure system is open. In this situation, the gusset is widest near the exposed end of the tongue nearest the ankle. When the closure system is tightened, the gusset material folds against the foot in the area on each side of the tongue generally next to or underneath the eyestays.
Waterproof footwear conventionally has a waterproof fabric liner provided in the interior of the footwear, contacting the foot. Waterproof and breathable fabrics are commonly provided in a simple construction involving a sock-like configuration shaped to fit within a shoe upper and attached to the top and bottom portions of the upper. The liner construction commonly follows the pattern of the boot or shoe upper in the region of the closure system, the liner having gussets matching the gussets in the area of the footwear closure to provide an opening for insertion of the foot. This construction allows the liner to form a continuous barrier to water from outside the shoe, thereby keeping the wearer's feet dry. The liner may have an integral, sock-like configuration with a lower portion generally following the configuration of the insole, or the liner may be attached to a separate component, such as a water impermeable plate or liner, that extends for the length of the interior of the footwear and is shaped to match the insole.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,599,810, for example, discloses an inner liner constructed of a material that is impervious to water but previous to perspiration vapors. The liner has a sock-like configuration, with fold portions similar to fold portions at the front of the shoe to allow the wearer to insert and remove his foot. The liner may be secured to the upper only in an area proximate the top opening.
When the closure system of this type is drawn tight, the gussets and liner between the eyestays fold or bunch as a result of the accumulation of material in the reduced distance between the eyestays. If the material is folded against the foot, the additional pressure caused by the accumulation of folded material under the tightened laces can be uncomfortable. Since the instep at the top of the foot is an especially sensitive part of the foot, where many blood vessels and tendons are near the surface, any points of pressure on the instep can cause discomfort. Additionally, since the upper must flex in the region of the instep to accommodate the hinge action of the ankle and foot, the potential to cause pain from the folded gusset and liner material is high.
In an effort to reduce the amount of folded material beneath the eyestays and next to the foot, some footwear designs limit the amount of excess fabric in the area of the instep. This compensation has the effect of reducing the size of the opening for insertion of the foot when the closure system is open. Outdoor footwear having a sock-like stretch booty constructed, for example, from Neoprene, is an example of this type of design. In this design, the stretch booty is attached to the inner surface of the-upper and underlies the closure system. In some designs, the stretch booty is not attached to the upper at the top of the footwear. When the closure system is drawn tight, there is little bunching of the stretch booty. Footwear having a stretch booty design is generally comfortable, but it can be difficult to insert and remove the foot, as a result of the relatively small opening for insertion of the foot. If the opening is large enough to comfortably accommodate insertion of the foot, the footwear is generally prone to having debris enter the interior of the boot at the top of the booty.
Waterproof footwear is highly desirable. U.S. Pat. No. 4,599,810 is one example of a water impervious liner. Another system for providing a waterproof environment inside footwear involves using a separate, waterproof sock or liner that is worn between the foot and the footwear. Such waterproof liners are versatile because a single pair may be used with a variety of footwear. Partially stretchable waterproof socks have been developed in an effort to reduce the amount of excess fabric and provide a sock that conforms closely to the foot. Nonetheless, the separate waterproof liners, even those made partially or wholly of stretchable fabric, still tend to bunch when the footwear closure system is drawn tight. A liner that is integral with the footwear generally provides a better fit, less excess fabric and greater comfort.
There thus remains a need in the art for footwear having a construction that permits easy entry and removal of a foot, and is comfortable in the area of the instep when the closure system is closed. Such footwear having a waterproof, breathable liner is especially desirable. The present invention is directed to footwear of this type.

Footwear and composite liner for use in such footwear


An nth root transformation is used for generating near Gaussian metrics from non-Gaussian metrics for input into a conventional turbo decoder that is based on the assumption that the input sequence to the decoder has a Gaussian distribution. The nth root transformation transforms channel non-Gaussian statistics to near Gaussian statistics for use with conventional turbo decoding for improved noncoherent communications over a non-Gaussian channel, such as a fading channel. For a differential coherent PSK waveform, where the channel statistics of a demodulator are non-Gaussian, for example, in the presence of fading, the nth root transformation is used to transform the non-Gaussian statistics to near Gaussian statistics for generating near Gaussian metrics, for improved PSK communications.

Turbo decoding in a receiving communication system is based on the concept of maximum a posteriori probability of bit decisions made on blocks of channel symbols communicated over a communication channel from a turbo encoding transmitting communication system. Conventional turbo-decoding algorithms are based on the assumption that the input sequence to the turbo decoder has been disturbed by a noise process that has a Gaussian distribution. Conventional turbo-decoding algorithms are optimized for Gaussian channels for reducing the bit-error-rate (BER). Conventional turbo decoders are equipped with a decoder reference for providing a mean and a standard deviation as an estimate of the assumed Gaussian channel statistics. However, when the actual channel statistics of the input sequence to the decoder varies significantly from the Gaussian distribution assumption, the turbo decoder performance will degrade. Hence, the conventional turbo-decoding algorithm incorrectly assumes a Gaussian channel in all cases. A coherently demodulated signal will preserve channel statistics in a turbo decoding system. When the channel is non-Gaussian, the conventional turbo-decoding algorithm suffers degraded performance with a reduced BER. Often, the input sequences to the turbo decoder exhibits non-Gaussian statistics, such that, there will be a mismatch between likelihood values assumed by the decoder and the actual likelihood values presented by non-Gaussian channels. This mismatch produces degradation when using decoding from metrics generated from noncoherently demodulated signals, such as with differentially coherent phase shift keying (DPSK) signals. The performance degradation will also occur from channel disturbances with channel memory, such as from fading, regardless of the demodulation method. Hence, the turbo decoding performance suffers with a reduced BER in the presence of a mismatch between the assumed Gaussian channel without fading and a non-Gaussian channel, such as, a Gaussian channel with fading. For DPSK signaling, the output statistics of a differentially coherent demodulator is non-Gaussian. When a metric sequence from a differentially coherent demodulator is fed directly into a conventional turbo decoder, particularly under a fading environment, the mismatch between decoder algorithm assumptions and actual input statistics can result in significant decoder performance degradation.
Referring to prior art FIG. 2, a prior art non-Gaussian M1 histogram of the random variable rk that may be a detected signal in a fading environment is compared to an M1 decoder reference histogram having a Gaussian distribution. The M1 decoder reference is conditioned on the hypothesis that a decoder input value of a +1 data bit was transmitted. The +1 data bit has a mean input value equal to one. The M1 non-Gaussian probability histogram has a normalized height to the M1 decoder reference Gaussian histogram. The M1 histograms are measured at an average received Eb/N0, such as 10 dB. Channel side information of the M1 decoder reference, typically expressed in the form of average bit signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), is provided to the turbo decoder as a reference for characterizing the noise variance of the assumed Gaussian statistics at the input to the decoder. Under some channel conditions, the BER performance can be improved by applying a fixed bias to the channel side information of the M1 decoder reference obtained from the average SNR. The mismatch between the M1 decoder reference Gaussian histogram and the M1 non-Gaussian histogram reduces turbo decoding performance. As the mismatch grows, the BER increases.
Although optimum decoder performance for a non-Gaussian channel can be achieved by modifying the decoder reference based on the actual input statistics to the turbo decoder for various respective channel statistics, such modifications would only be effective for channel statistics having a Gaussian distribution. To correctly match non-Gaussian channel statistics, the turbo decoder algorithm would need to be modified to match metric processing to the non-Gaussian distribution. Such a redevelopment would only be effective during predetermined fading and predetermined noncoherent demodulation methods, and may not be suitable for a steady state Gaussian channel or other non-Gaussian channels. These and other disadvantages are solved or reduced using the invention.

Turbo decoding system using nth root metrics for non-Gaussian communication channels


The invention relates to a method and apparatus for efficient storing and retrieval of captured data packets. The packets are parsed to extract flow defining parameters such as source and destination addresses, the extracted addresses are hashed and the address hash numbers are reversibly combined, for example concatenated in a pre-defined order of their values to obtain a single hash index for a flow. The packets are then saved in a packet store in accordance and/or association with their hash index. The packets may be efficiently retrieved based on the two addresses or on a single network address.

Modern computer networks operate by sending small blocks of bytes generically called "packets". Common Ethernet packets can range in size from 64 bytes up to several thousand bytes, but other link layer protocols may have different size restrictions. Packets are sent by computer programs and/or hardware devices connected to the network to communicate with other computer programs and/or hardware devices. A computer programs and/or hardware device that communicates with others on the network may be referred to herein as a "node". Each node has a unique address within the network. The ISO 7 layer model defines a framework for encoding network packets using multiple protocol layers. In order for two nodes at the Data Link layer to communicate on a computer network, it is common for each node to have a unique address on a link or segment. The node may also have an address that is unique to the entire network, which may be defined at the Network Layer. Packets sent across the network usually have a source and destination address at one or more protocol layers. The source address is the address of the node that is originating the communication and the destination address is the address of the node that the packet is to be sent to. It is common to refer to a pair of 'source address, destination address' may be referred to as a "connection" or "flow". A flow may also include additional information such as a 'protocol' identifier and/or port numbers.
A typical data packet may include one or more headers associated with one or more protocols of the data link Layer, or Layer 2 of the OSI model, followed by one or more headers associated with one or more protocols of the Network Layer, or Layer 3 of the OSI model, and one or more headers associated with one or more protocols of the Transport Layer, or Layer 4 of the OSI model. By way of example, an Ethernet packet may include an Ethernet, or MAC header, followed by an IP header, followed by TCP or UDP header. However, a plurality of other network protocols, including proprietary protocols of various network equipment vendors, can also be included in the protocol stack of a particular packet, adding their own headers. There are numerous protocols that have been developed, and many of them are quite complex. Therefore the network troubleshooting industry develops, markets, and sells devices that can help network engineers troubleshoot network and/or protocol functions and errors. One approach to this is to store all the network packets at a specific node in the network, and then to later data mine the store of packets to provide a user with a specifically requested flow. Then the user can examine a specific flow in detail using packet analysis tools without having to deal with massive amounts of extraneous and irrelevant data.
Currently, the state of the art in data mining typically requires that, after all the packets at the node have been stored, and after the user requests a specific flow, that all of the stored packets must be searched for the packets that belong to the specific flow. This is because the current state of the art simply stores all packets in the order that the packets were originally received at the node. We found it to be inefficient for two reasons. First, there is no a priori way for the user to verify the existence of a specific flow that may be of interest to the user. Instead, the information store must be searched to determine the existence of the flow, which can take hours. Secondly, assuming that the flow does exist in the store of packets, each packet in the store must be individually evaluated to determine if they belong to the flow of interest. This also can take many hours.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for storing data packets in a network storage that overcome at least some of the disadvantages and limitations of the prior art and enable efficient flow-based and/or address-based packet retrieval.

Hashing of network packet flows for efficient searching


The present application is generally directed to implantable systems, devices and related methods pertaining to spinal surgery. In particular, the present application discloses a frame and spacer system for inserting into a disc space. The frame and spacer system is of low profile. The frame can receive different fixation devices, including threaded and non-threaded fixation devices.

Spinal fusion procedures are performed on patients to treat back pain caused by degenerated discs. During spinal fusion procedures, a surgeon restores a disc space back to its original height before inserting an interbody fusion device. Graft material can be deposited within the interbody fusion device to promote fusion and bone growth. There is thus a need for improved systems and devices for promoting fusion of the spine.

Implantable systems, devices and related methods


A method for making strong discrete fibers by flash spinning a polymer solution through a spinneret. A gaseous fluid is injected in parallel into the core of the polymer solution prior to passage through the spinneret. The high shear forces the gaseous fluid exerts on the polymer solution cause highly oriented, strong discrete fibers to be produced upon flashing through the spinneret rather than continuous fibers.

In the current commercial process used for making polyethylene film-fibril sheets (e.g., Tyvek.RTM. spunbonded polyolefin sheets commercially available from E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. of Wilmington, Del.), continuous fibers having a desired strength, fineness and surface area are produced by flash spinning a solution of high density polyethylene (HDPE) in a trichlorofluoromethane ("Freon 11" or "F-11") spin agent. The importance of using a spinneret and tunnel configuration on imparting key properties, such as tenacity and elongation to break, to the flash spun, continuous fibers is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,081,519 (Blades et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 3,227,794 (Anderson et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,352,650 (Marshall). In particular, Marshall discusses the optimization of tunnel configuration for increasing the fiber tenacity (e.g., from 4.2 to 5.2 grams per denier) of flash spun, continuous fibers, while eliminating certain defects caused by high throughput conditions under non-optimum tunnel configurations. In general, fiber tenacity can be increased by as much as 1.3 to 1.7 times by using a tunnel at the spinneret exit. However, although these prior art methods work well for making continuous fibers, there is no mention of how to make strong discrete (i.e., discontinuous) fibers using flash spinning equipment.
In the past, various methods have been suggested for making discrete fibers using a secondary fluid. However, none of these methods produce discrete fibers having acceptable strength for such things as paper and cement reinforcment applications. The major use of these prior art discrete fibers has been as a fusing component in cellulosic pulp. Due to this use, no effort has been made to orient the polymer matrix during flash spinning and to fragment the matrix at the appropriate moment. Examples of these prior art methods include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,025,593; 4,600,545; 4,189,455; and 4,642,262.
Clearly, what is needed is a method for making strong discrete fibers that does not have the problems and deficiencies inherent in the prior art. In particular, it is an object of the present invention to produce strong discrete fibers of a desired quality (e.g., strength, average length, fineness and surface area) using standard flash spinning equipment. Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reference to the drawings and the detailed description of the invention which hereinafter follow.

Method for making strong discrete fibers


A method of coding parallel data for transmission while maintaining baud rate includes the steps of providing a plurality of uncoded data blocks having a predetermined baud rate, demultiplexing the data blocks to sequentially distribute the data blocks to encoders, encoding the data blocks at the predetermined baud rate, and serializing the coded data blocks for serially transmitting data at the predetermined baud rate. A system for coding parallel data for serial transmission while maintaining baud rate is included wherein the predetermined baud rate is maintained by providing an adequate number transmission links rather than increasing baud rate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to transmission codes and, more particularly, to a system and method for transforming uncoded parallel interfaces into coded format while maintaining a baud-rate of the parallel interface.
2. Description of Related Art
It is standard practice to connect chips located close together with a number of parallel lines accompanied by a clock line and other control lines. If these links extend across card or box boundaries, the raw data is usually coded for DC-balance and run-length limitation to facilitate AC-coupling, fiber-optic receiver design and clock recovery. Also, the reduced content of low frequency spectral components in the coded signals results in lower signal distortion than is normally incurred on transmission lines. The remaining, unavoidable distortion can be more readily compensated for coded signals by a variety of known techniques, such as, for example, digital predistortion according to U.S. Pat. No. 3,980,826, to Widmer, entitled, xe2x80x98Means of Predistorting Digital Signalsxe2x80x99 which is incorporated herein by reference. However, these advantages can only be obtained by a reduced information content per bit transmitted because some bit patterns are not permissible. Typically, it takes more bits to transmit a given amount of information in coded form. This deficiency is usually compensated by a higher transmission rate. For information transfers at lower rates, coded data from parallel lines is typically multiplexed into a single high speed line, e.g. data from eight parallel lines operated at a 100 MHz rate is coded into ten bits, serialized and transmitted at 1 Gbaud, ten times the parallel rate, on a single serial line. Now, if the parallel rate reaches 2 GHz, this technique becomes difficult to implement. Conventional systems are practical for lower transmission rates. For example, a twenty line parallel input operated at a 400 MHz rate, may be encoded with a 4B/5B code, and transmitted on twenty lines operated at a rate of 500 Mbaud.
For high performance levels, the known approaches are not acceptable. As an example, for ten parallel lines to be operated at a higher rate, say 2 Gbaud, coding is necessary across card boundaries and may be helpful for transmission lines extending over tens of inches entirely on a card and causing noticeable signal deterioration. Links of up to a few meters distance use small gauge copper cables, and the longer links use fiber-optic technology to connect between a transmitter and a receiver. An increased transmission rate at 2.5 Gbaud would reduce the maximum range of both the low cost copper technology and the moderate-cost multimode fiber technology. Further, the increased transmission rate requires the addition of unwieldy extra clock systems to the transmitter and receiver and increases the performance requirements for the circuit technology.
Therefore, a need exists for a system and method for transmitting parallel data at higher transmission rates. A further need exists for a system which preserves a data rate from the uncoded parallel interface to a coded parallel interface by providing extra bandwidth with additional lines for the required code redundancy.
A method of coding parallel data for transmission while maintaining baud rate in accordance with the present invention includes the steps of providing a plurality of uncoded data blocks having a predetermined baud rate, demultiplexing the data blocks to sequentially distribute the data blocks to encoders, encoding the data blocks at the demultiplexed rate and serializing the coded data blocks for serially transmitting data at the predetermined baud rate.
In other methods, the step of demultiplexing may include the steps of providing a control signal with data from the data blocks to registers and dividing the data blocks in the registers into two groups and sending one group and the control signal to each encoder. The step of demultiplexing may also include the steps of providing a clock signal to synchronize the registers and sequencing the registers to provide a patterned data stream for transmitting the data blocks. The step of encoding may include the step of encoding each data block by providing a pair of encoders. The step of transforming the uncoded data blocks from a 10 line uncoded input format at an input to a 12 line coded transmission at an output for transmitting the coded data blocks is preferably included. The step of transmitting coded data blocks on a plurality of transmission links is also included.
In still other methods, the step of adjusting transmission delay by a dynamically adjustable delay in each transmission link may be included. The step of retiming coded data blocks on each link with a dedicated adjustable clock, and the step of eliminating skew among the links by providing a second retiming of data transferred on the links at a rate less than the predetermined baud rate with a clock system shared by all links may be included. The steps of receiving transmitted coded data blocks from the transmission lines at a receiver end is preferably included. The step of checking disparity to determine errors in the data blocks at the receiver end may be included. The step of encoding may further include the steps of outputting data blocks from each encoder to a disparity register and inputting disparity data from each disparity register to the encoder associated the disparity register to create a running disparity check of the data blocks. Further steps may include such as deserializing the serially transmitted coded data blocks at a receiver end to provide parallel coded data blocks, decoding the data blocks at a deserialized rate, the deserialized rate being lower than the predetermined baud rate and multiplexing the decoded data blocks to provide parallel data blocks at the predetermined baud rate. Each uncoded data block may include 10 bits and the predetermined baud rate may be greater than or equal to about 2 Gbaud.
A system for coding parallel data for transmission while maintaining baud rate includes a data input for inputting a plurality of data blocks having a predetermined baud rate. A demultiplexer is coupled to the data input for sequentially distributing the data blocks, and a plurality of encoders is coupled to outputs of the demultiplexer for encoding the data blocks distributed by the demultiplexer at a demultiplexed rate, the demultiplexed rate being lower than the predetermined baud rate. A plurality of serializers is included, each coupled to one of the encoders, for serializing coded data blocks output from the encoder at the predetermined baud rate, wherein the predetermined baud rate is maintained by providing an adequate number transmission links. Disparity control means is coupled to each encoder for maintaining an average of equal numbers of coded bits with a value of one or zero.
In alternate embodiments of the system, the demultiplexer may include registers for dividing the data blocks in the registers into two groups and sending one group and a control signal to one of two encoders associated with each register. The demultiplexer may further include a clock for providing clock signals to synchronize the registers to provide a patterned data stream for transmitting the coded data blocks. The encoders are preferably 5B/6B encoders. A plurality of transmission links may be included, coupled to the serializers for transmitting serial data-to a receiver. A plurality of deserializers to deserialize the serially transmitted encoded data blocks at a receiver end, a plurality of decoders for decoding the data blocks at a deserialized rate which is lower than the predetermined baud rate and a multiplexer for sequencing the decoded data blocks to provide parallel data blocks at the predetermined baud rate may all be included. A pair of coded data blocks may be concentrated on a transmission link such that the data blocks generate a singular synchronizing comma sequence. A transmission delay adjusting device may be included for sampling and retiming the coded data blocks on transmission lines or links. The predetermined baud rate is preferably greater than or equal to about 2 Gbaud. The input data blocks may include 10 bits each.
Another system for providing uniform data transmissions between electronic devices while maintaining baud rate includes a data input for inputting a plurality of 10-bit data blocks having a predetermined baud rate. A demultiplexer is coupled to the data input for sequentially distributing the data blocks among outputs of the demultiplexer. A pair of 5B/6B encoders are coupled to each of the outputs of the demultiplexer for encoding the data blocks distributed by the demultiplexer at a rate lower than the predetermined baud rate. A serializer is coupled to each of the encoders, for serializing coded data blocks output from the encoder at the predetermined baud rate. A transmission line is coupled to each serializer for transferring data to a receiver. Disparity checking means includes for determining errors in the received data blocks, the disparity checking means including a register being coupled to each decoder, and a timing means is included for sequencing data blocks to the encoders in accordance with the predetermined baud rate.
In alternate embodiments, the demultiplexer may include registers for dividing the data blocks in the registers into two groups and sending one group and a control signal to one of two encoders associated with each register. The timing means may include a clock for providing clock signals to synchronize registers provided in the demultiplexer to provide a patterned data stream for transmitting the data blocks. A deserializer may be coupled to each transmission line on a receiver end to deserialize serially transmitted encoded data blocks at the receiver end to provide parallel coded data blocks. A decoder may be coupled to the deserializers for decoding the encoded data blocks at a rate lower than the predetermined baud rate. A multiplexer for sequencing the data blocks may provide parallel data blocks at the predetermined baud rate. A transmission delay adjusting device may be included for sampling and retiming transmission rates for the serially transmitted data on the transmission lines. The predetermined baud rate may be greater than or equal to about 2 Gbaud. Transmitted data blocks may be conditioned by digital or analog preemphasis to reduce distortion.

Transformation of parallel interface into coded format with preservation of baud-rate

International Business Machines Corporation


A rocket launching system employing ignition apparatus that is used with a small rocket to launch the rocket from a gun. The rocket is equipped with acoustic (pressure) and optical (thermal) sensors that detect a pressure pulse and light flash of a primer charge used to fire the gun. The simultaneous detection of the pressure pulse and the light flash by the sensors generates output signals that are used to complete an electrical circuit in an electronic ignition circuit that activates an igniter that ignites a rocket motor.

The present invention relates generally to rocket ignition systems, and more particularly, to a rocket launching system employing a thermal-acoustic rocket ignition system that may be used to launch a rocket from a gun or howitzer.
For many practical reasons, including safe arming practices and a preferred use of electrical fire control circuits, it is desirable to use electrical ignition for small rockets. However, army gunners fire howitzers by pulling a lanyard to activate a mechanical firing pin that fires a percussion primer charge. It is not practical to run connecting wires through breech mechanisms of howitzers, which would typically be required to electrically ignite a rocket.
Currently, military field artillery personnel find targets and assess damage using a forward observer. The forward observer is typically a soldier or small team of soldiers who are placed on the ground in enemy territory to observe potential targets. Using radio, the forward observer reports potential targets and map coordinates to a friendly artillery fire direction center. Disadvantages of using a forward observer include the extreme danger to personnel and the difficulty of getting a forward observer to a critical area in a timely fashion.
Alternatively, a manned aircraft or unmanned aerial vehicle may be used to spot targets for artillery fire. One disadvantage of aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles is that they are not controlled by the field artillery personnel and may not be available when needed for artillery operations. Aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles are also noisy, are usually low flying, and are easily detected by hostile forces. Flying an aircraft into hostile territory puts the pilot and other aircraft personnel at high risk. Also, both aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles are relatively expensive to operate.
The assignee of the present invention has developed an artillery round in the form of an unmanned rocket that houses optical sensors that may be used to observe a battlefield, for example. This artillery round is designed to be carried by field artillery personnel as part of a normal ordnance load. This artillery round will therefore be available to field artillery personnel wherever ammunition is available. This artillery round is a small, silent, unmanned vehicle that glides over hostile target areas, cannot be heard and is difficult to see. The artillery round has a very low cost compared with aircraft and larger engine-powered unmanned aerial vehicles, and puts no personnel at risk.
However, there is a need for a simple means of launching the artillery round (or unmanned rocket) from field-deployed devices. The present invention is intended to meet this need. Accordingly, it is an objective of the present invention to provide for a rocket launching system employing a thermal-acoustic rocket ignition system that may be used to launch a rocket from a gun or howitzer.

Rocket launching system employing thermal-acoustic detection for rocket ignition