In an apparatus at a spinning room machine, especially a carding machine, cleaner or the like, for drawing a clothing onto a roller using a roller drive unit, which apparatus comprises a drive motor arranged to be in drive connection with the roller drive unit or with at least one roller of the machine, the drive motor co-operates with a rotary speed adjustment device. In order to allow, by simple means, automatic matching of the actual value of the speed of rotation to a prespecified value of the speed of rotation, the drive motor co-operates with a closed-loop rotary speed control device which is incorporated into the control and regulation device of the spinning room machine.

The invention relates to an apparatus at a spinning room machine, especially a card, carding machine, cleaner or the like, for drawing a clothing onto a roller.
In the area of the textile industry, especially in the case of cards and carding machines, there are a large number of rollers which have to be provided with clothings. Usually, those clothings are initially drawn on when the machines are being manufactured, that is to say when the rollers are in the uninstalled state. However, the clothings are wearing parts, which routinely have to be replaced after a certain period of operation. The replacement is usually carried out at the user's premises and with the rollers in the installed state. Very complicated equipment is required for the purpose. Amongst other things, the rollers have to be driven in a very specific manner for the clothing process, for which a separate, rotary speed-controlled motor having a complicated holding means is used. In addition, the fact that the apparatus has to be mobile means that often considerable shortcomings with respect to, inter alia, convenience, have to be accepted.
In a known apparatus, there is provided a drive system for cards provided with carding flats, or carding machines, having at least one speed-of-rotation-controlled three-phase-current motor, with which there is associated an open-loop speed-of-rotation control device. Each three-phase-current motor can be controlled using a frequency converter by way of a D/A transducer. In the procedure for drawing on the all-steel clothing, one of the three-phase-current motors, the speed of rotation of which is subject to open-loop control, is arranged to be brought into drive connection mechanically with the licker-in, cylinder or doffer. Feedback of the actual value of the speed of rotation is not provided. In that apparatus, it is disadvantageous that a prespecified speed of rotation cannot be kept constant in the event of changes in the load. There is no automatic matching of the actual value of the speed of rotation to the prespecified value of the speed of rotation. In addition, the known apparatus is complicated.
It is an aim of the invention to provide an apparatus of the kind described at the beginning that avoids the mentioned disadvantages and, especially, that allows automatic matching of the actual value of the speed of rotation to a prespecified value of the speed of rotation and which is simple in terms of equipment.
The invention provides a spinning room machine having an arrangement for applying clothing to a roller, having:
a roller requiring clothing;
a drive motor for a working roller of the machine; and
a control and regulation system for at least a part of the machine, including a closed-loop control device; wherein said drive motor is in driving connection with said roller requiring clothing and the closed-loop control device is arranged to control said drive motor for drawing clothing onto said roller requiring clothing.
In accordance with the invention, a control and regulation device of the spinning room machine is used for closed-loop control of the actual value of the speed of rotation. By that means, automatic matching of the actual speed of rotation to a prespecified actual speed of rotation is advantageously brought about by way of the internal closed-loop control device of the machine. At the same time, the actual speed of rotation is kept constant at the prespecified actual speed of rotation by the closed-loop control device even in the event of changes or variations in the load to which the roller drive unit and/or the roller is subjected.
The closed-loop rotary speed control device may be incorporated into the electronic machine control and regulation device. The closed-loop rotary speed control device may be incorporated into the electronic motor control and regulation devices. For operation of the closed-loop rotary speed control device, the operating device of the spinning room machine may be used. The display device of the spinning room machine may be used to display information about the drawing-on process. For drawing-on, an optimum drive motor torque may be generated. The optimum torque can if desired be modifiable during drawing-on. The optimum torque may if desired be arranged to be constant during drawing-on. By way of the display device, the operator may receive instructions, observations, information and the like before, during and after drawing-on. For driving a roller to be clothed, there may be used a drive motor of the carding machine which is provided for driving another roller during production. The other roller may be a roller of the carding machine. The other roller may be a roller of a device located upstream, for example of the card feeder. The other roller may be a roller of a device located downstream, for example of the can coiler or the carding machine drawing mechanism. The doffer motor may be usable for driving the cylinder during the clothing process. The intake motor may be usable for driving the cylinder during the clothing process. A motor of a delivery device may be usable for driving the cylinder during the clothing process. A doffer motor may be so arranged that it can drive the doffer during the clothing process. The cylinder motor may be so arranged that it can drive the cylinder during the clothing process. The requisite functions for drawing-on of the clothings, especially the drive for the roller being clothed, may expediently be capable of being accomplished by means of the control of the machine, for example, cleaning or carding machine.
During the drawing-on process, the drive for the roller being clothed may expediently generate a torque which is dependent on position and/or a speed of rotation which is dependent on position. In the control and regulation apparatus there may be provided a specific program for the clothing process which is started up when required. The program for the clothing process may be arranged to be capable of generating particular torques and/or speeds of rotation necessary for an optimum clothing result. The arrangement may be such that generation is accomplished irrespective of the drawing-on position in question. In the clothing process, for the drive motor in question a set of parameters optimising the function of the motor may be loadable into the corresponding drive control.
A braking device may be provided which comprises an adjustment device for adjusting the braking action. The braking device may comprise a control and/or regulation device by means of which the braking action can be automatically matched to the pretensioning for winding-on. The roller drive unit may be incorporated into the open-loop and/or closed-loop control circuit of the control and/or regulation unit and the roller drive unit can be subjected to open-loop and/or closed-loop control for automatic matching to the predetermined pretensioning for winding-on.
The invention also provides an apparatus at a spinning room machine, especially a card, carding machine, cleaner or the like, for drawing a clothing onto a roller using a roller drive unit, which apparatus comprises a drive motor arranged to be in drive connection with the roller drive unit or with at least one roller of the machine and in which apparatus the drive motor co-operates with a speed-of-rotation adjustment device, characterised in that the drive motor co-operates with a closed-loop speed-of-rotation control device which is incorporated into the control and regulation system of the spinning room machine.
Furthermore, the invention provides a method of clothing a roller of a textile machine, comprising drawing clothing onto the roller to be clothed by rotating the roller to be clothed, and controlling the rotary speed of the roller to be clothed by means of a closed-loop control device that in use of the textile machine is operable to control the rotary speed of a fibre-processing roller.
With reference to FIG. 1, a carding machine K, for example a carding machine of the kind known as TC 03 made by Trutzschler GmbH & Co. KG of Monchengladbach, Germany, has a feed roller 1, feed table 2, lickers—in 3a, 3b, 3c, cylinder 4, doffer 5, stripper roller 6, nip rollers 7, 8, web-guiding element 10, draw-off rollers 11, 12, revolving card top 13 having card-top-deflecting rollers 13a, 13b and card top bars 14, can 15 and can coiler 16. Curved arrows denote the directions of rotation of the rollers. Reference letter M denotes the centre (axis) of the cylinder 4. Reference numeral 4a denotes the clothing and reference numeral 4b denotes the direction of rotation of the cylinder 4. Reference letter C denotes the direction of rotation of the revolving card top 13 at the carding location and reference letter B denotes the direction in which the card top bars 14 are moved on the reverse side. Reference numeral 17 denotes a clearer roller for the stripper roller 6 and reference numeral 18 denotes a card feeder.
FIG. 2a shows, by way of example, a drive arrangement. Various drive motors and transmission elements together form the drive solution for the TC 03 carding machine. The cylinder 4 and lickers—in 3 are driven by associated three-phase-current motors. Special, maintenance-free belts ensure a long service life. A separate drive subject to closed-loop control is provided for removal of the fibre web in the case of the TC 03. Consequently, it is possible for the ideal degree of drafting to be selected for any speed. Even during starting-up and slowing-down, the degree of drafting that is correct for the speed at any given moment is always set by the control. This means that the slivers in the can are more uniform, from the first metre to the last. The motors for the draw-in roller 1, doffer 5 and web removal are associated servo drives. There are no high-maintenance gear mechanisms, for example in the doffer drive. The motors do not have brushes and consequently are completely maintenance-free. They are distinguished by very good dynamic properties and, consequently, by a speed-of-rotation characteristic that is independent of the load. As a result, the short-wave evenness (Uster value) of the carded slivers is improved. A servo drive is additionally used in the case of optimal separate arrangement of the can coiler and can changer (see FIG. 2b).
FIG. 2c shows an electric drive motor 21 wherein the speed of rotation is subject to closed-loop control, for example an AC servo motor, and FIG. 2d shows an electric drive motor 22 wherein the speed of rotation is not subject to closed-loop control, for example a non-controlled AC motor (AC=alternating current).
In accordance with FIG. 2a, the following rollers are driven by a motor 21 wherein the speed of rotation is subject to closed-loop control: the intake roller 36 of the card feeder 18, by motor 23; the feed roller 1 of the carding machine K, by motor 25; the doffer 5, stripper roller 6 and nip rollers 7, 8, by motor 28; draw-off rollers 11, 12, by motor 29; rear card-top-deflecting roller 13a and clearer roller 19, by motor 30; intake and middle roller pairs of the carding machine drawing mechanism 38, by motor 33; delivery roller pair of the carding machine drawing mechanism 38, by motor 34; and can turntable, by motor 35. The following rollers are driven by a motor wherein the speed of rotation is not subject to closed-loop control: opener roller 37 of the card feeder 18, by motor 24; lickers—in 3a, 3b, 3c, by motor 26; cylinder 4, by motor 27; scraper roller 20, by motor 31; and clearer roller 17, by motor 32.
In accordance with FIG. 3, the cylinder 4 is driven by a motor 39, the speed of rotation of which is subject to closed-loop control, and the doffer 5 is driven by the motor 28, the speed of rotation of which is subject to closed-loop control. On the shaft of the motor 39 there is arranged a belt wheel 40 and on the shaft of the cylinder 4 there is arranged a belt wheel 41, around which belt wheels there is looped an endless belt 42 as drive means. The outside of the belt 42 is in engagement with a guide roller 43 and a tensioning roller 44. On the shaft of the motor 28 there is arranged a belt wheel 45 and on the shaft of the doffer 5 there is arranged a belt wheel 46, around which belt wheels there is looped an endless belt 47 as drive means. The controlled motor 39, by way of an electronic motor control and regulation device 505, and the controlled motor 28, by way of an electronic motor control and regulation device 503, are in electronic communication (see FIG. 5) with an electronic machine control and regulation device 51.
In accordance with FIGS. 4a, 4b, the motor 28, whose speed of rotation is subject to closed-loop control, is associated with the doffer 5. When the carding machine is in production, the motor 28 drives the doffer 5 by way of the belt 47 (see FIG. 4a). The belt 47 loops around the belt wheels 45 and 46. When the cylinder 4 is being clothed, the motor 28 drives the cylinder 4 by way of another belt 53 (see FIG. 4b). The belt 53 loops around the belt wheels 45 and 41. The belt wheel 41 forms a, or forms a part of a, roller drive unit for the cylinder 4.
By that means, a motor already present in the machine and provided with a closed-loop rotary speed control is used for driving the rollers during the clothing process at the customer's premises. That motor can be, in accordance with FIG. 3, a motor (39 or 28) which is in any case present for operation of the roller 4 or 5 in question during production. However, it is also possible, in accordance with FIGS. 4a, 4b, for the doffer motor 28, which is, as standard, provided with a high-precision closed-loop speed-of-rotation control, to be used for clothing the cylinder 4. All that is required is for the drive belts 42 and 43 between the doffer motor 28 and doffer 5 and between the cylinder motor 39 and cylinder 4 to be removed and for a belt 53 or similar to be attached between the doffer motor 28 and cylinder 4 (FIG. 4b). The mechanical design of the machine is such that a drive transfer of that kind is possible and appropriate belt wheels of the correct size and type are already present. By that means it is possible very simply, rapidly and using only minimum outlay to achieve the drive for clothing the rollers.
In accordance with FIG. 5, a plurality of motor control and regulation devices 501, 502, 503, 504, for example servo axis controls, are provided. A drive motor, for example a motor 25, 26, 28, 29, is connected to each servo axis control 501, 502, 503, 504, respectively. The servo axis controls 501, 502, 503, 504 are connected to the electronic machine control and regulation device 51, for example of the kind known as TMS 2 made by Trtitzschler GmbH & Co. KG.
Reference numeral 52 denotes an operating and display unit, which is connected to the machine control and regulation device 51.
In accordance with FIG. 6, the dependence of the torque (N) and speed of rotation in revolutions per minute (u/mm.) of the drive motor, for example motor 28, during clothing of a roller, for example the cylinder 4, on the drawing-on position of the clothing wire 56 (see FIG. 7), seen across the width a of the roller, is shown.
The drawing-on apparatus shown in FIG. 7 basically comprises a holding station 54 for a supply coil 55 on which a card clothing 56 in the form of sawtooth wire is wound flat, a braking device 57 and a roller 4. The roller 4 is driven in the clockwise direction B by means of a motor 28 and a transmission device 53. The motor 28 has a control and regulation device 503, by means of which the speed of the roller 4 and also the direction of rotation can be controlled. The braking device 57 comprises a control and regulation device 58, which ensures a particular braking action. The control and regulation device 503 and the control and regulation device 58 are in operative connection with one another. In a further embodiment, they can also be used in the form of a unit for controlling both the braking device 57 and also the motor 28.
The carding clothing 56 in the form of sawtooth wire is wound off from the supply coil 55 arranged on a mounting block 59 and is then passed through the braking device 57 and wound onto the outer periphery of the roller 4. After the winding-on process, the carding clothing 56 then extends around the outer periphery of the roller 4 on a helical course.
The braking device 57, in co-operation with the roller 4 and in that case, especially, the roller drive, the motor 28, is intended to exert pre-tensioning in the region 60 of the carding clothing 56. That pre-tensioning ensures that the carding clothing 56 is uniformly and lastingly wound on or drawn on.
The closed-loop speed-of-rotation control device is an integral part of the control and regulation system 51; 501 to 505. For the invention, use is made especially of the closed-loop speed-of-rotation control function of the motor control and regulation devices 501 to 505.
Commercially available closed-loop speed-of-rotation control devices can be used. Closed-loop servo control devices specifically matched to the machine can also be used. The closed-loop servo control devices can be controlled directly by digital signals by way of a bus system, for example CANbus. Feedback of the actual value of the speed of rotation is used in the process.
Although the foregoing invention has been described in detail by way of illustration and example for purposes of understanding, it will be obvious that changes and modifications may be practised within the scope of the appended claims.

Apparatus at a spinning room machine for drawing a clothing onto a roller


The invention relates to an endoscope having a bendable guide element, by means of which a tool can be securely guided and simultaneously steered outward into a broad operating area at the head of the endoscope.

The use of endoscopes is well known in medical technology. Endoscopes, essentially configured along a longitudinal direction, are introduced into the human body in order to conduct operations there. Colonoscopes are endoscopes that are used in the intestinal area. The endoscopes in this case, according to the state of the art, have appropriate illuminating and photographic elements in order to be able to report on and monitor sites in the body that are to be treated. Furthermore these known endoscopes have canals, which can be used for irrigating or for inserting tools. Particularly in simple endoscopes, the canals extend to the distal end of the endoscope, which usually is designated as the head. There the canals emerge, preferably on the front side, that is, in the endoscope's longitudinal direction, so that a tool, in particular, that is inserted in the longitudinal direction through a working canal can be pushed out of the head on the front side.
A working canal, through which a tool can be pushed, provides an appropriate guide for the tool in order to be able, with a certain control, to push it out of the head and to insert it there. The disadvantage of this type of endoscopes known in the art is that, as a result of the controlled guidance, only a limited area beyond the front side of the endoscope head can be reached by the tool. It is difficult in particular to move the tool into an area lying to the sides of the longitudinal axis. At a certain distance from a site that is to be worked on (for instance a polyp on the inner wall of the intestine), this site can be surveyed by the "forward looking" optical unit. However, the tool either cannot be moved at all, or can be moved only imprecisely, from the longitudinal direction of the endoscope to the intestinal wall. The area covered by the lens and the area to be worked on are often not identical. The area of application is thereby restricted.
It is therefore the object of the invention to create an endoscope with which various tools can be inserted well in variable spaces simultaneously.
This object is fulfilled through an endoscope according to Claim 1.

Flexible endoscope with longitudinal axial channels


A method for constructing a mobility model for use in optimizing mobility management in a wireless communication system is disclosed, which comprises steps of collecting a plurality of network traffic statistic data of a plurality of desired items, wherein the desired items are related to the behavior of a plurality of subscribers of the wireless communication system; constructing the mobility model according to the network traffic statistic data, wherein the mobility model is for modeling the mobility behavior of the subscribers; and optimizing mobility management according to the mobility model.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to a system for use in optimizing mobility management in a wireless communication system and the method thereof, and more particularly to a system for constructing a mobility model for use in optimizing mobility management in a wireless communication system and the method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to satisfy the convenience, efficiency requirement of the modern people, wireless communication systems have been developed rapidly. All kinds of wireless communication devices, such as cell phones or mobile stations, are widely used in the world.
FIG. 1 shows the rough architecture of a sample wireless communication network. Using a cellular system as an example, the geographical coverage area of the wireless communication system is partitioned into cells, served by base stations. Each mobile station of an individual subscriber is connected to the wireless network via the base stations. The coverage of cells differs greatly according to various factors, such as the power of the base station, the geographical features (e.g. mountains, valleys, rivers) within the cells, the area (e.g. city, suburb) of the cells, the architecture (e.g. tall buildings, railroad, highway) within the cells, etc. One or more cells are respectively combined to a location area (LA), also known as Paging Area, Routing Area, or Registration Area in some systems. Basically, a location area is a region in which subscribers can move arbitrarily without requiring a location area update, which incurs central database update (e.g. in a Home Location Register or Visitor Location Register) of the location area information that is utilized for describing the current location area of subscribers. The size of a location area is defined to cover the demands raised by traffic density and flow, population density and subscriber mobility, etc.
Mobility management enables the wireless network to find the locations of mobile stations so as to deliver incoming calls, messages, or packets to mobile stations. Mobility management includes location update, paging, and other operations, such as handover, that are related to the location or mobility of subscribers. Since subscribers are free to move within the service area of the system, the system can only maintain the approximate location of each subscriber. When a connection needs to be established for a particular subscriber, the system has to determine the subscriber's exact location, to the accuracy of a cell, within the location area. When a subscriber leaves the border of the specific location area, the mobile station must register its new location area through signaling the location area information to the system. This procedure is called updating (location area update), or location registration. The updating procedure is for informing the system about the current location area of the subscriber. Besides location area update, there are also other types of location update that will be described later in this specification. When the system tries to deliver a phone call or message to a subscriber by first finding the location of the specific subscriber, the system can search among the cells within the current location area of the mobile station. This procedure is called paging. The paging procedure is for determining the exact location, to the accuracy of a cell, of the subscriber.
Because there are many tradeoffs and high complexity involved, the parameters involved in mobility management are difficult to define in an optimal manner. For example, how to define the scope, including size and the border cells, of location areas so as to decrease the overall cost of the wireless communication system is an important issues for optimizing mobility management. Since a location area is composed of cells, the size and the border of each location area can be defined by deciding which cells are collected into the location area. If the size of the location area is too small, mobile stations cross the location area frequently. As a result, the mobile stations perform location area update frequently and the location accuracy is to a smaller region, the system can thus have lower paging load. However, the system must waste its resources by performing frequent location area update, and the mobile station must waste its power transmitting the location area update signal. On the other hand, if the size of the location area is too large, mobile stations cross the border of the location areas rarely and do not perform location area update frequently. However, a large coverage area has to be paged when a call or a message arrives, which waste resource of the system. In addition, the border of the location area is also an important factor in defining the scope of the location area. If the border of the location area is set parallel to and close to major highways, or in heavy traffic regions where population and mobility behavior of the subscribers are high, the subscribers may result in much location area update. Furthermore, the subscribers may cross the border of a specific location area back and forth, thereby causing much location area update, if the border of the location area is not properly set. As a result, the system wastes its resources by processing frequent location area update procedure, and the mobile stations waste power transmitting the location area update signal.
Various conventional mobility models, such as fluid flow model, gravity mode, random walk model, etc, are presented as a basis for studying issues resulted from subscribers' behavior. For further discussion, please refer to "Location Management for Next-Generation Personal Communications Networks" (pp. 18˜pp. 24, IEEE Network, September/October 2000) incorporated herein by reference. Those conventional mobility models are more used for studying issues resulted from subscribers' behavior, than optimizing mobility management for a live wireless communication system. They lack enough precision and accuracy to practically optimize mobility management due to the following reasons.
First, each of these conventional models is based on certain intuitions and assumptions and might not correctly model realistic use of a live system. Taking the fluid flow model as an example, the fluid flow model is used for simulating the aggregate mobility behavior of the fluid in the flow or any other systems which the aggregate mobility behavior of the components in the system is like the fluid in the flow. It is obvious that the feature of the fluid flow is different from the subscribers of the wireless communication system in a crowded city. Therefore, the fitness of applying fluid flow model to model the aggregate mobility behavior of the subscribers in a crowded city is questionable. In the same manner, the fitness of other conventional mobility models is questionable for widespread use in optimizing mobility management in a live wireless communication system, since the real model is usually different from a hypothetical one.
Second, since the subscribers' mobility behavior in a wireless communication system is complicated, some of the conventional mobility models are oversimplified that they only specifically put stress on certain factors and significantly simplify the complexity of the mobility behavior of the subscribers. Therefore, those conventional mobility models lack enough accuracy to reflect the real mobility behavior of subscribers for optimization mobility management.
Third, since data of real wireless communication systems are difficult to acquire, most of the conventional mobility models are proposed or built upon simulated data, not a plurality of data obtained from real wireless communication systems. Due to the above-described reasons, the reliance and the accuracy of the simulation result of those mobility models are questionable if they are applied to optimizing mobility management.
In the present time, there is no optimal method or algorithm which is proven to be able to minimize the overall cost of mobility management based on realistic mobility model of subscribers. From time to time, mobility management parameters need to be redefined. For example, from time to time the scope of location area needs to be redefined, such as splitting it into two new location areas when equipment of the old location area reaches its paging capacity. In practice, mobility management parameters are defined according to the subjective experience and rough judgment of the wireless operators. It is obvious that this kind of methods have difficulty minimizing the overall cost of mobility management. Although there are optimization algorithms that can be used, as will be introduced and incorporated later in this specification, without a realistic mobility model their practicability and accuracy are highly limited. The conventional approaches either has difficulty to find the optimal strategy out of numerous possible configurations, or do not concisely take into account the mobility characteristics of the entire system. This results in extra or unbalanced resource consumption, and leads operators to more capital expenditure on hardware expansion as mobility management traffic grows.

System for constructing a mobility model for use in mobility management in a wireless communication system and method thereof


A wiring substrate of the present invention includes a short ring (SR) formed along a periphery of the substrate, an independent line pattern (e.g., a gate terminal) that is coplanar with and independent of SR, a continuous line pattern (e.g., a storage capacitor stem) that is located closest to the independent line pattern and is coplanar and continuous with SR, and an insulating film covering the independent line pattern and the continuous line pattern. The insulating film includes a first through hole reaching the independent line pattern and a second through hole reaching the continuous line pattern.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wiring substrate and a method for manufacturing the same. The wiring substrate of the present invention can be used in a liquid crystal display device, an organic or inorganic EL (electroluminescent) display device, a plasma display device, an electrochromic display device, or the like.
2. Description of the Background Art
On a TFT (thin film transistor) substrate used in a liquid crystal display device, or the like, a ring-shaped conductor pattern called "short ring" (hereinafter referred to as "SR") is provided along the periphery of the substrate in order to prevent an electrostatic discharge (hereinafter referred to as "ESD") damage while manufacturing the TFT substrate. Gate bus lines, storage capacitor lines, source bus lines, dummy lines, etc., are connected to SR. SR is typically removed in the scribing step or the beveling step after assembling the panel (see, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 8-234227).
FIG. 17 is a plan view schematically illustrating a TFT substrate being manufactured, after depositing a conductive film from which source bus lines are to be formed (hereinafter referred to also as "source film") across the entire surface of the substrate. FIG. 18 is a cross-sectional view taken along line D-D′ of FIG. 17. A plurality of gate bus lines GL extending in the row direction, a plurality of storage capacitor lines Cs extending parallel to the gate bus lines GL, and gate terminals GT for electrically connecting the gate bus lines GL with the IC chip are formed on the substrate. In a case where the routing of the lines is difficult because of spatial limitations, a storage capacitor stem CsT connecting together a plurality of storage capacitor lines Cs may need to be provided between the gate bus lines GL and the gate terminals GT, as illustrated in FIG. 17, for example. Thus, there are gate metal lines connected to SR (e.g., the storage capacitor stem CsT, the gate bus lines GL and the dummy lines), and gate metal islands not connected to SR (e.g., COG (chip on glass) gate terminals and COG source terminals).
Moreover, a terminal VT for supplying a power supply voltage to the IC chip and other lines (not shown) for inputting driving signals to the IC chip are formed in an IC chip attachment area AA. A gate insulating film GI and a source film SF are successively deposited on these line patterns.
The gate insulating film GI includes a through hole GO near one end of each of the gate bus lines GL and the gate terminals GT. The charge that has been accumulated on the gate metal islands due to triboelectric charging, or the like, in the manufacturing process up to the deposition of the source film SF flows to the lines connected to SR via the through holes GO upon deposition of the source film SF. Thus, as the charge accumulated on the gate metal islands is released to SR, the lines on the substrate are all brought to an equipotential state. Note that the gate insulating film GI also includes the through holes GO in regions where the gate terminals GT overlap with the IC chip attachment area AA.
The deposited source film SF is then patterned to form source bus lines SL and connection patterns CP for connecting the gate bus lines GL with the gate terminals GT. FIG. 19 is a plan view schematically illustrating the TFT substrate after patterning the source film SF.
However, ESD occurs in a case where the distance between the through hole GO of a gate metal island and a gate metal line is shorter than the distance between the through hole GO of the gate island and the through hole GO of the gate metal line, e.g., in a case where the distance "a" between the through hole GO of the gate terminal GT and the storage capacitor stem CsT is shorter than the distance "b" between the through hole GO of the gate terminal GT and the through hole GO of the gate bus line GL. FIG. 20 is a cross-sectional view illustrating an occurrence of ESD. On the instant the source film SF is deposited, before the entire surface of the substrate is brought to an equipotential state, the potential difference (charge) created between the gate island and the gate metal line due to triboelectric charging, or the like, passes to a gate metal line portion that is closest to the gate island, thereby causing ESD.
FIG. 21 is a plan view illustrating the location where ESD occurs. In a case where ESD occurs in an area where a connection pattern CP for connecting the gate bus line GL with the gate terminal GT is formed, as illustrated in FIG. 21, a leak occurs between the gate bus line GL and the storage capacitor line Cs, thereby making the product defective.

Wiring substrate and method for manufacturing the same


Disclosed herein are apparatus, methods and computer program products providing sub-channel re-assignment performed by a relay node in a wireless communications system. In the apparatus, methods and computer program products, a relay receives an input signal made up of a plurality of sub-channels. The relay de-multiplexes the sub-channels into a plurality of signal streams, and reassigns at least one of the signal streams to a new sub-channel on the output side, the new sub-channel on the output side different from the sub-channel originally containing the signal stream on the input side. In one embodiment of the invention, the wireless communications system is an OFDM system and the sub-channels correspond to OFDM sub-carriers. In another embodiment of the invention, during sub-channel reassignment input sub-channels are matched to output sub-channels sharing a pre-determined criterion.

Collaborative relays may be used as "new network elements" or as "transparent network elements". When used as new network elements it is likely that signaling concepts and/or resource allocation concepts need to be at least partially redefined. In contrast, transparent relay nodes may be (ideally) placed in the wireless network so that they increase the network capacity in such a way that (ideally) the network (or terminals) is unaware of their existence.
One transparent solution may utilize in-band relaying, where at least in part the same frequency is used at the relay input and relay output at essentially the same time. In this case the relay nodes may be added to a wireless system without the need to redesign the base station (transmitter) or the terminals. In such a system the loop interference in amplify and forward relays may be controlled by reducing the relay transmit energy, as perceived at the relay node input. This may be accomplished by separating the receive antennas and transmit antennas from each other (physically or via beamforming). This type of relaying approach is currently being used in DVB-H (test) networks. In addition to DVB-H, this concept is applicable as an add-on feature to prevailing wireless systems, such as WCDMA, or in various OFDM-based systems.
Two-hop solutions have been discussed by A. Wittneben, I. Hammerstroem, and M. Kuhn, "Joint Cooperative Diversity and Scheduling in Low Mobility Wireless Networks," IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference, Globecom 2004, November 2004; I. Hammerstroem, M. Kuhn, and A. Wittneben, "Channel Adaptive Scheduling for Cooperative Relay Networks," IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference, VTCFall 2004, Los Angeles, September 2004 and I. Hammerstroem, M. Kuhn, and A. Wittneben, "Cooperative Diversity by Relay Phase Rotations in Block Fading Environments," Signal Processing Advances in Wireless Communications, SPAWC 2004, pp. 5, July 2004. In these publications different time slots are used at the relay for reception and transmission.
Of more interest to the teachings of this invention are relay or mesh networks that are under investigation for wireless Local Area Network (LAN) systems and WiMax systems and, in particular, for fourth generation (4G) wireless communications systems. In these cases relays are used to increase system capacity or range without the need to invest a large number of antennas in each individual transmitter unit.
However, a problem exists that is related to the control of sub-channels at relay nodes in wireless networks. For example, if the relay is configured to retransmit a multi-carrier or OFDM input signal, and the channel nulls in relay input and output are all at different subcarriers, the channel power at the destination is zero for each subcarrier.
Typically, channel assignment is not done at the relay nodes. In particular, channel assignment where the assignment depends on either the input or output channels is proposed here.

Apparatus, method and computer program product providing sub-channel assignment for relay node


A superscalar microprocessor implements a microcode instruction unit with sequence control fields appended to each microcode line. The sequence control fields indicate whether a subsequent line contains a branch instruction, whether a subsequent line is the last line in a microcode sequence, and other sequence control information. The sequence control information is accessed one cycle before the microcode line. This allows the next address to be calculated in parallel with the accessing of the microcode instruction line. By generating the next address in parallel with accessing the microcode line, the time delay from accessing one microcode line to accessing the next microcode line is reduced. The sequence control field additionally indicates how many microcode instructions are in the last line of the microcode sequence. If the last microcode line of the microcode sequence contains less instructions than the number of issue positions available, fastpath, or directly decodable instructions, can be issued with the final microcode line.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of microprocessors and, more particularly, to microcode instruction mechanisms within microprocessors.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
Superscalar microprocessors achieve high performance by executing multiple instructions per clock cycle and by choosing the shortest possible clock cycle consistent with the design. As used herein, the term "clock cycle" refers to an interval of time accorded to various stages of an instruction processing pipeline within the microprocessor. Storage devices (e.g. registers and arrays) capture their values according to the clock cycle. For example, a storage device may capture a value according to a rising or falling edge of a clock signal defining the clock cycle. The storage device then stores the value until the subsequent rising or falling edge of the clock signal, respectively. The term "instruction processing pipeline" is used herein to refer to the logic circuits employed to process instructions in a pipelined fashion. Although the pipeline may be divided into any number of stages at which portions of instruction processing are performed, instruction processing generally comprises fetching the instruction, decoding the instruction, executing the instruction, and storing the execution results in the destination identified by the instruction.
Microprocessor designers often design their products in accordance with the x86 microprocessor architecture in order to take advantage of its widespread acceptance in the computer industry. Because the x86 microprocessor architecture is pervasive, many computer programs are written in accordance with the architecture. X86 compatible microprocessors may execute these computer programs, thereby becoming more attractive to computer system designers who desire x86-capable computer systems. Such computer systems are often well received within the industry due to the wide range of available computer programs.
The x86 microprocessor architecture specifies a variable length instruction set (i.e. an instruction set in which various instructions employ differing numbers of bytes to specify that instruction). For example, the 80386 and later versions of x86 microprocessors employ between 1 and 15 bytes to specify a particular instruction. Instructions have an opcode, which may be 1-2 bytes, and additional bytes may be added to specify addressing modes, operands, and additional details regarding the instruction to be executed. Certain instructions within the x86 instruction set are quite complex, specifying multiple operations to be performed. For example, the PUSHA instruction specifies that each of the x86 registers be pushed onto a stack defined by the value in the ESP register. The corresponding operations are a store operation for each register, and decrements of the ESP register between each store operation to generate the address for the next store operation.
Often, complex instructions are classified as microcode instructions. Microcode instructions are transmitted to a microcode unit within the microprocessor, which decodes the complex microcode instruction and produces two or more simpler instructions for execution by the microprocessor. The simpler instructions corresponding to the microcode instruction are typically stored in a read-only memory (ROM) within the microcode unit. The microcode unit determines an address within the ROM at which the simpler instructions are stored, and transfers the instructions out of the ROM beginning at that address. Multiple clock cycles may be used to transfer the entire set of instructions within the ROM that correspond to the microcode instruction. Different instructions may differing numbers of simpler instructions to effectuate their corresponding functions. Additionally, the number of simpler instructions corresponding to a particular microcode instruction may vary according to the addressing mode of the instruction, the operand values, and/or the options included with the instruction. The microcode unit issues the simpler instructions into the instruction processing pipeline of the microprocessor. The simpler instructions are thereafter executed in a similar fashion to other instructions. It is noted that the simpler instructions may be instructions defined within the instruction set, or may be custom instructions defined for the particular microprocessor.
Conversely, less complex instructions are decoded by hardware decode units within the microprocessor, without intervention by the microcode unit. The terms "directly-decoded instruction" and "fastpath instruction" will be used herein to refer to instructions which are decoded and executed by the microprocessor without the aid of a microcode unit. As opposed to microcode instructions which are reduced to simpler instructions which may be handled by the microprocessor, directly-decoded instructions are decoded and executed via hardware decode and functional units included within the microprocessor.
Unfortunately, translating microcode instructions into an arbitrary number of simpler instructions creates numerous problems. Because the microcode instructions may contain branch instructions, the next address of the microcode instruction is generated after a microcode instruction is read. In high frequency microprocessors, the time to read a microcode instruction, and generate the address of the next microcode instruction may exceed the period of a clock cycle. This can create stalls in instruction dispatch and thereby reduce the throughput of the microprocessor. Additionally, if multiple microcode instructions are stored in one microcode line, the last microcode line may not contain as many microcode instructions as functional units. In this situation, functional units are not utilized in the last clock cycle, and processor throughput is reduced.

Apparatus and method for detecting microbranches early


The present disclosure relates to a rack for telecommunications equipment. The rack includes a frame defining a bay opening sized and shaped for receiving a plurality of jack modules. The rack also includes a first set of cable management brackets that define a first vertical channel arranged and configured for receiving and vertically managing a plurality of cross-connect cables. Each of the cable management brackets includes a pivot portion that is pivotally movable relative to the frame. The pivot portions are pivotally movable between first positions in which the pivot portions extend partially across a front of the bay opening, and second positions in which the pivot portions are generally offset from the front of the bay opening. The present disclosure also relates to a rack for telecommunications equipment that includes rear cable management structure that defines a plurality of vertical channels along a back side of the rack. The present disclosure further relates to a telecommunications jack module including an array of jacks arranged in top and bottom horizontal rows. The jack module also includes an array of cross-connect locations positioned beneath the bottom horizontal row of jacks. The array of cross-connect locations is electrically connected to both the top and bottom rows of jacks.

A digital cross-connect system (DSX) provides a location for interconnecting two digital transmission paths. The apparatus for a DSX is located in one or more frames, racks or bays, usually in a telephone central office. The DSX apparatus also provides jack access to the transmissions paths. DSX jacks are well known and commonly include a plurality of bores or ports sized for receiving tip-and-ring plugs. In the case of tip-and-ring plugs, a plurality of spring contacts are provided within the ports for contacting the tip-and-ring plugs. The jacks are typically electrically connected to digital transmission lines, and are also electrically connected to a plurality of wire termination members used to cross-connect the jacks. By inserting plugs within the ports of the jacks, signals transmitted through the jacks can be interrupted or monitored.
The number of jacks or cross-connect points that are located at a bay of a given size is referred to as the density of the bay. As the cross-connect density increases, the management of telecommunication wires or cables in the bay becomes increasingly complex. For high density DSX bays, wire management is critical. Ease of access to individual jacks or jack modules is also important.

Cable management rack for telecommunication cross-connect systems


A container is combined with a base having insect combating features, i.e. for trapping and/or poisoning of insects, preferably but not necessarily combined with insect attracting elements. In particular, the container may be a waste basket, and the targeted insects may be bed bugs, and/or roaches, and/or ants. The assembly has a container portion and a base portion. The interior of the base portion is accessible by insects via one or more small gaps or openings, and contains the trapping and/or poisoning elements, which may include a replaceable glue strip or the like. Preferably, the assembly is also be provided with insect attracting means, which may include chemical attractants, carbon dioxide generation, and/or heat. In some embodiments, separate areas may be provided to combat different insects.

This invention relates to waste baskets or other containers, combined with insect combating means such as trapping and/or poisoning, preferably also with insect attracting means. In preferred embodiments, the invention relates to waste baskets, and is targeted specifically to bed bugs and/or roaches and/or ants.
For convenience, the invention will be described primarily with reference to "waste baskets" and "bed bugs", but it should be understood that the invention could be adapted to containers other than waste baskets, and to certain insects other than bed bugs, especially other crawling insects such as roaches, for example.
It should also be understood that "trapping" does not necessarily mean complete eradication. In some applications, the invention may be used simply to detect the presence of bed bugs, by trapping one or more bed bugs. This may then indicate the presence of a larger problem, requiring more aggressive solutions such as steam or chemical treatment.
Populations of insects such as bed bugs have resurged in recent years, particularly throughout parts of North America, Europe, and Australia. The increase of international travel in recent decades has contributed to the resurgence of these insects. There are many aspects of bed bugs that make it difficult to eradicate them once they have established a presence in a location. They are most commonly found in rooms where people sleep, and they generally hide nearest the bed or nearby furniture, baseboards, etc. Their flattened bodies allow them to conceal themselves in cracks and crevices around the room and within furniture. There is a serious need for efficient detection, trapping and monitoring tools to combat these insects.
The invention is intended for use primarily in homes, hotel rooms, offices and other settings where it may be especially desirable to disguise function as a bed bug trap. In a hotel room, for example, the hotel obviously might prefer that a guest not realize that there is a bed bug trap, in case that signals to the guest that there is a bed bug problem in the hotel. Similarly, in a home or office, disguising the trapping function may be desirable for the same reason.
Hotels are some of the most likely places for bed bugs or roaches to proliferate, due to the transient hotel guests, and coming and going of their suitcases and possessions. It is extremely important for anyone with a bed bug or roach problem, but for hotels in particular, to be able to detect the presence of them, and preferably to trap them as well, before the problem spreads from room to room. At the same time, as stated above, it is also extremely important to avoid the stigma of an insect infestation, or even of the possibility of an infestation. It is therefore desirable to have an insect trap which serves another function in parallel, i.e. with no indication that it is in fact an insect trap. It is therefore particularly advantageous to combine the insect trap with a waste basket, because a hotel room guest expects to see a waste basket, and is not likely to detect that the waste basket also acts as an insect trap.
Prior art such as U.S. Pat. No. 1,276,770, JP52-142870, JP 51-109179 and JP 4-127704 disclose garbage cans, which combine a trap at the bottom to passively trap animals like rats and roaches that are attracted by food garbage. Some garbage cans also combine various bait stations for dispensing poisoned bait to kill pests that are attracted to the garbage can, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,470,622, and WO2007108821A.

Waste baskets or the like, with insect traps

BUG ELIMINATION AND PREVENTION CORPORATION


Fitting systems and assemblies are detailed. The assemblies are designed principally (although not necessarily exclusively) for use with aircraft seats and supply positive adjustable positioning of a seat or other object, typically actuated with a single turn (or less) of a single tool.

Aircraft and certain other vessels configured for transporting passengers typically include elongated tracks bolted or otherwise connected to their floors. These tracks conventionally contain channels formed by a lower, generally horizontal wall and spaced side walls extending upward therefrom. Integral with the side walls may be inwardly-extending flanges spaced from, but generally parallel with, the lower wall. Formed periodically in the flanges may be crescent-shaped cut-outs, creating generally circular receptacles spaced longitudinally within the elongated track.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,979 to Bales, et al., whose contents are incorporated herein in their entirety by this reference, illustrates and discusses examples of such elongated tracks. Also disclosed in the Bales patent are fittings for these tracks. The fittings include fingers adapted to slide along the lower walls of the tracks. Rear boss portions formed with the fingers include plungers biased toward the lower surfaces of the tracks and adapted to be received by the receptacles.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,727 to Lee, whose contents also are incorporated herein in their entirety by reference, addresses additional fittings for elongated tracks. According to the Lee patent, fittings with bell-shaped bases may be teamed with abutting "buttons" having inwardly-flared areas to prevent the fittings from moving longitudinally within the tracks. Washers and lock nuts also may be used to retain the positions of the fittings for later attachment of an object.
Yet another anchoring fitting for an aircraft seat is detailed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,260,813 to Whitcomb. The fitting slides along the channeled tracks of the aircraft, with a separate locking pin remote from the fitting employed to fix the position of the seat. The contents of the Whitcomb patent too are incorporated herein in their entirety by reference.

Fitting systems adapted especially for fixing seat positions


A method for electronically resolving a discrepancy arising in a clinical data management system is provided. The discrepancy is converted, using a conversion map, from a back-end format, used to store a clinical value corresponding to the discrepancy, into a front-end format that is compatible with a front-end study definition. The discrepancy is then transferred, while in the front-end format, to a front-end site where the clinical value associated with the discrepancy was first entered. A discrepancy response is received from the front-end site. When the discrepancy response resolves the discrepancy, the discrepancy response is stored in the clinical data management system, thereby resolving the discrepancy.

Before a new drug may be sold in many countries of the world, regulatory approval must be granted. One of the most expensive and difficult aspects of obtaining this regulatory approval is the presentation of statistically significant data from clinical trials. Typically, clinical trials used to support a new drug application are divided into three or more phases, the most prominent of which are phases I, II, and III.
Phase I studies are primarily concerned with assessing the safety of a drug. Phase I testing in humans is typically done in about 20 to 100 healthy volunteers. A phase I clinical study is designed to determine what happens to the drug in the patient. That is, how it is absorbed, metabolized, and excreted. In addition, by measuring the side effects of the drug at various dosage levels, a phase I study provides information on optimal drug dosage.
While a phase I study is directed to drug safety, a phase II clinical trial is directed to drug efficacy. A phase II study occurs after successful completion of a phase I study. A phase II clinical study may last from several months to two years, and involve up to several hundred patients at numerous clinical sites throughout the world. Most phase II studies are randomized trials. One group of patients receives the experimental drug while a control group receives a placebo. Often phase II studies are "blinded" in the sense that neither the patients nor the researchers know who is getting the experimental drug. In this manner, the phase II study can provide a pharmaceutical company and a regulatory body, such as the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the United States or the European Commission (EC) of the European Union, comparative information about the efficacy of the new drug. If the phase II study is successful, a phase III study may be authorized.
Typically, in a phase III study, the new drug is tested in several hundred to several thousand patients at hundreds of clinical sites throughout the world. This large-scale testing provides the pharmaceutical company and the regulatory agency with a more thorough understanding of the drug's effectiveness, benefits, and the range of possible adverse reactions. Most phase III studies are randomized and blinded trials. Phase III studies typically last several years. Once a phase III study is successfully completed, a pharmaceutical company can request regulatory approval for marketing the new drug.
The resources needed to support a complex multi-site phase II or phase III clinical are staggering. Trained professionals must administer the new drug under the exact requirements of the protocols of the clinical study and intricate patient records must be maintained. The clinical trial protocol may require numerous patient visits over an extended period of time. Any error in the patient record could result in patient data disqualification.
Because of the complexity of the protocols used in clinical trials, the amount of information that must be tracked requires the capabilities of a back-end clinical data management system (CDMS). Representative back-end clinical data management systems include Clintrial 4.3, (Clinsoft Corporation, Lexington, Mass., www.clinsoft.net), and Oracle Clinical (O/C), Oracle Inc., Redwood Shores, Calif., www.oracle.com). These back-end clinical data management systems typically provide sophisticated tools such as, a batch validation engine, a batch data loader, a randomization system, a thesaurus management system, and a lab reference range system. However, because a clinical trial may be conducted at hundreds of sites throughout the world, it is impracticable to place a back-end CDMS at each clinical site. The problem of routing clinical data into a back-end CDMS: has therefore been addressed by a number of different approaches in the art.
A traditional approach to routing clinical data to a back-end CDMS is to gather clinical data at each site using paper-based forms designed in accordance with the specifications of a clinical trial. At a later date, the paper-based forms are manually entered twice into a computer. This double-entry is requested in order to compare the two data sets in order to check for data entry errors. While this approach is functional, it is unsatisfactory. Electronic data entry based on the paper-based forms is often done at a site that is remote from the clinical setting, making it difficult to consult the clinician if there is a problem with the content of the paper-based forms. Because of the exact requirements of the clinical trial protocol, such unresolved errors typically result in patient disqualification. Another problem with paper-based forms is that the information is essentially processed twice, first, when the data is entered on the paper-based form and, second, when the electronic data entry is done based on the content of the paper-base forms. This effectively doubles the chance of error in the data entry process. Yet another problem with paper based forms is that there is considerable delay before the clinical data is available is review because a sponsor needs to wait until the clinical data is entered into the back-end database before electronic analysis may be run on the clinical data.
To address the problems with traditional approaches to clinical data entry into a legacy CDMS, an entire industry of Remote Data Entry (RDE) products has developed. Representative vendors in this industry include InferMed, Ltd., London UK, (www.infermed.com), Phase Forward Inc., Waltham, Mass., (www.phaseforward.com), CB Technology, Philadelphia, Pa., (www.cbtech.com), DataTRAK Cleveland, Ohio, (www.datatraknet.com), and Araccel, Stockholm, Sweden, (www.araccel.com), and TEAMworks, Hannover, Germany (www.teamworks.de). These RDE products are also termed front-end data acquisition products. RDE products provide capabilities for making electronic clinical data entry forms that are used on a client computer, such as a laptop, at the clinical site. Data collected using an RDE product are sent electronically to a centralized back-end CDMS where statistical analysis is performed on the clinical data to ascertain drug efficacy and/or safety.
RDE products are advantageous because they prevent discrepancies during data entry. An RDE product provides electronic case report forms (eCRFs) to the data entrant for entry of clinical data. The eCRF is capable of containing data validation checks that show a warning in the case when incorrect or "out of the programmed range" entries are received. The data entrant can then correct the problem with the data entry immediately. In addition the eCRF provides "protocol guidance." For example, pregnancy test questions are only displayed to the data entrant when the patient has indicated that she is female.
While RDE products represent an advance over the paper-based form approach, they are unsatisfactory. RDE products require a custom study definition to be prepared for each clinical trial. For example, MACRO from InferMed, Ltd., London UK, requires that a macro study definition be prepared for each clinical trial monitored by MACRO. The macro study definition is a collection of metatables that describe the patient data collected at a clinical site. The macro study definition may also include the format of the electronic forms used to acquire the clinical data as well as other pertinent data acquisition components.
In the art, a clinical definition must be set up for the back-end CDMS. The back-end clinical definition is a data structure that is used to track all the patients in a clinical study. The back-end clinical definition is designed in accordance with the specifications of the particular back-end CDMS used to support a particular clinical study. The problem with the RDE custom study definitions and the back-end clinical definitions becomes apparent when one tries to interface the RDE custom study definition to the back-end clinical definition. Because there are no industry standards for RDE study definitions and back-end clinical definitions, significant custom programming is needed for each clinical study, in order to allow an RDE system to electronically feed data to a back-end CDMS.
A third approach to addressing the problem of clinical data entry is to provide a web page interface to a back-end CDMS. An example of a product that uses this approach is Oracle Clinical Remote Data Capture v4i, Oracle Inc., Redwood Shores, Calif. In this approach, each clinical site includes a client computer with a standard web browser. The web browser is used to load into the client computer a data entry form from a remote web server. Clinical data are then entered into the data entry form. Advantageously, the data entered into the web-based data entry form may be electronically entered directly into the back-end CDMS. While the third approach eliminates the need to interface a front-end study definition with a back-end clinical definition, this approach is still unsatisfactory. First, the client computer must be connected to the back-end CDMS by a long-distance network throughout data entry. This requirement limits how the web page interface may be constructed and deployed. Another disadvantage to using a long-distance network throughout data entry are the issues of network latency, network bandwidth limitations, and server load that are inevitably raised. These issues conspire to make data entry a frustrating experience. In fact, it is widely appreciated that data entry using a web page driven by a remote server requires tremendous patience. For example, consider the amount of patience required to enter personal data at an Internet web site, such as www.amazon.com, in order to register at the site. Clinical data entry using a web page system, such as Oracle Clinical Remote Data Capture v4i, is comparable to registering hundreds to thousands of people at a site such as www.amazaon.com or www.gap.com on a periodic basis over an extended period of time.
Yet another disadvantage of using a web page interface to a back-end CDMS is that back-end CDMS interfaces are designed for data-entry clerks. Therefore, they lack support for the tools necessary to ensure that clinical trial protocol is followed. Such tools include protocol violation alerts, enforced eligibility, and protocol recommendations regarding dosing or test procedures. Furthermore, direct data entry into a back-end CDMS using a web-page introduces questionable practices. Back-end CDMS interfaces are designed to facilitate data entry by data-entry clerks. As such, many of the fields in the data entry forms have defaulted answers. While the use of defaulted answers is appropriate for routine data-entry, it is not appropriate for forms that are considered source documents. A source document represents the form that records actual clinical observations. In order to ensure that all clinical observations mandated by a clinical protocol are actually made, the source form should not have defaulted answers.
In view of these difficulties, what is needed in the art is a system and method for collecting clinical data without the many drawbacks found in preexisting systems and methods.
Discussion or citation of a reference herein will not be construed as an admission that such reference is prior art to the present invention.

System and method for resolving a discrepancy in a clinical data management system


A method of lubricating conveyor tracks or belts is herein described wherein the lubricant composition contains a polyalkylene glycol polymer, a fatty acid, and an anionic surfactant; also described is a lubricant composition with reduced sensitivity to low pHs. The composition may also comprise additional functional ingredients and be composed of ingredients that can be safely administered to humans and mammals.

In many industries, including, for example, the food and beverage processing industry, containers and other articles are transported from one location to another location by conveyors such as belt conveyors. In many such conveyor systems, a lubricating composition is used on the conveyor. One of the reasons that a lubricating composition is used is to facilitate movement and reduce the damage to the container resulting from mechanical impact between the containers and the rubbing action among the containers and between the containers and the belt. For example, occasionally in such systems, the containers are stopped on the conveyor due to a back up on the conveyor. While the containers are stopped, the belt is often still moved continuously. To facilitate the smooth transportation of the containers, a lubricating composition can be applied onto the surface of the conveyor belt and/or the containers.
There can be numerous challenges in providing lubricating compositions for use on conveyors. One example of a potential challenge is the variety of materials the lubricant may contact. For example, conveyors can be made of plastic, metal, or other materials, and the articles and containers being transported can likewise be made of a broad variety of materials, for example plastic, metal, glass, cardboard, paper, and the like. It is desirable that a lubricant be useful in more than just one application with one type of container and/or conveyor material.
Another potential challenge is the detrimental effects a lubricant may cause on the conveyors or on the articles and/or containers being conveyed. For instance, in some applications, the containers, or portions of the conveyors are made of thermoplastic materials. In such applications, it is desirable that the lubricating composition used be thermoplastic compatible. For example, in some applications that use fatty acids to make fatty acid soaps for use in lubricants, a high level of alkali neutralizing agent is required in order to neutralize the fatty acid in an aqueous composition. The use of higher amounts of alkali neutralizing agent, such as hydroxides and certain amines, in fatty acid soap containing lubricants, significantly increases the alkalinity of the lubricants. The increased level of alkalinity contributes to and promotes stress cracking in some thermoplastic containers, for example PET containers. The increased level of alkalinity can also contribute to and promote removal of some printed materials, such as printed codes on containers. Therefore, it is desirable that a lubricant not cause detrimental effects on the conveyors or the articles or containers.
There is also a desire for a lubricant with decreased pH sensitivity. Fatty acid based lubricants typically display decreased lubricity at low pH. This phenomenon is especially a problem in the beverage processing industry. For example, many beverages including colas, lemonades, and iced teas, have a low pH as a result of being acidic. Those commercial beverages having a pH slightly above 3 include COCA-COLA®, PEPSI-COLA®, ORANGE SLICE®, MOUNTAIN DEW®, SPRITE®, and MELLOW YELLOW®. Some are even more acidic with a pH below 3 such as MINUTE MAID LEMONADE®, MINUTE MAID ORANGE SODA®, FRUIT WORKS PINK LEMONADE®, and BRISK LEMON ICED TEA®. When acidic beverages are moved along a conveyor, they can spill and come into contact with the lubricant on the conveyor and lower the pH of the lubricant. This decrease in pH may decrease the lubricity of the lubricant. Thus it is desirable that a lubricant have decreased pH sensitivity especially in the presence of acidic beverages.
It is also desirable that conveyor lubricants that can potentially come into direct, indirect, or incidental contact with food and beverages for human consumption be composed of food additives or ingredients that can safely be consumed by humans or mammals. When a container for food or beverage is moved along a conveyor, the container touches the lubricant. The lubricant may not be rinsed off of the container before the container reaches the consumer. Consequently, there may be lubricant residue present on the container when the food or beverage is consumed. It is advantageous to have a lubricant that can safely be consumed by humans or mammals.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Lubricant composition having a fatty acid, a polyalkylene glycol polymer, and an anionic surfactant, wherein the lubricant is for a conveyor system


A method and apparatus for controlling the steering of a vehicle that is tracked or that has non-steerable wheels, by applying a steering command signal to a differential control system for controlling the wheels or the tracks of the vehicle, which steering command signal is obtained on the basis of a steering instruction given by an operator or a driver of the vehicle, as modified by a correction effect obtained from a signal representative of the instantaneous angular velocity in yaw of the vehicle as provided by a rate gyro sensor and as amplified by a gain k that varies as a function of the stable or unstable behavior of the vehicle in steering. The invention makes it possible to ensure that the vehicle remains stable while steering by avoiding uncontrolled skids or oversteer.

Vehicles that have tracks or non-steerable wheels are fitted with means for applying differential control to their tracks or their wheels, thereby enabling them to steer by increasing the speed or the driving torque of the outer track or wheels while braking the inner track or wheels, it being possible to maintain the speed of the vehicle while it is turning by recovering the braking energy from the inner track or wheels. The differential speed of the tracks or the wheels may be directly controlled, either continuously or discontinuously, thereby making it possible to improve control over the steering of the vehicle.
However, such known means do not enable control of the vehicle to be conserved over the entire range of possible turns extending all the way to the beginning of skidding or of oversteer, in particular at high speed. This drawback which puts a limit on the displacement performance of vehicles that are tracked or that have non-steerable wheels, is made worse by the fact that reducing the acceleration of the vehicle or braking the vehicle accentuates its oversteer sharply.
An object of the invention is to increase the ability of a vehicle that is tracked or that has non-steerable wheels to be steered under control, and to improve its stability while steering, in particular when getting close to the beginning of oversteer.
As a corollary, another object of the invention is to increase the displacement performance of a vehicle of this type, and in particular of an armored vehicle for military use.

Method and apparatus for controlling the steering of a vehicle that is tracked or that has non-steerable wheels


The present invention relates to a lifting jack with safety and release system for lifting an object, comprising: a main body; a driving system; a support system, hingedly mounted on the main body and undergoing a raising and a lowering movement, as driven and released by the driving system; a safety system, further comprising a ratchet, mounted on the main body, a pawl, which during the raising movement engages with the ratchet for blocking any unintended lowering of the support system, and a lever with a rear end and with a front end below the pawl, for disengaging the pawl from the ratchet by lowering its rear end; and a release system, further comprising a catch, hingedly mounted on the main body, having a nose for engaging with the rear end of the lever, and a spring, pulling the catch towards the rear end of the lever; wherein, for lowering the support system, the rear end of the lever is pressed down manually and then held by the nose of the catch, such that the pawl stays disengaged from the ratchet automatically, while the support system is lowered.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lifting jack with safety and release system, particularly to a lifting jack with safety and release system for safe and convenient lowering of a lifted object.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional hydraulic lifting jack has no safety system, due to restricted space and for simplicity. When the hydraulic cylinder breaks or leaks, the lifted object will suddenly or at least slowly come down unnoticed, posing a danger for the unaware user.
Therefore U.S. Pat. No. 5,618,029 discloses a lifting jack safety system, wherein a safety pawl is attached to the support arm or link arm on the top of the lifting jack, engaging with an asymmetrically saw-toothed ratchet. When the lifting jack is raised, the pawl glides over the teeth of the ratchets. At the same time, it is blocked from moving back, preventing the lifting jack from lowering. To lower the lifting jack intentionally, the pawl is turned away and thus no longer blocked by the ratchet. This safety system prevents unwanted lowering of the lifting jack. However, when the lifting jack is lowered, the pawl has to be constantly kept away from the ratchet, which makes it uncomfortable to use.

Lifting jack with safety and release system


An optical communication system, a transmitter, a receiver, and methods of operating the same are provided. In particular, a transmitter is disclosed as being configured to encode optical signals in accordance with a multi-level coding scheme. The receiver is configured to provide skew correction to the optical signals received from the transmitter by dividing a received signal into separate level-specific components and sampling each of the components with distinct sampling blocks.

Data transmissions in enterprise optical communication systems have not relied on overly-complicated encoding and/or decoding schemes because the technology has been more than sufficient to support desired data transmission rates. However, as computing devices become faster and the need for increased data transmission rates is realized, the physical limits of optical devices will become a limiting factor. Accordingly, optical communication systems will begin heading toward the use of more complicated encoding and decoding schemes.
Pulse-Amplitude Modulation (PAM) is a form of signal modulation where the message information is encoded in the amplitude of a series of signal pulses. It is pulse modulation scheme in which the amplitudes of a train of carrier pulses are varied according to the sample value of the message signal. Demodulation of a PAM-encoded signal is performed by detecting the amplitude level of the carrier at every symbol period.
In a PAM4-based optical link, two Non-Return-to-Zero (NRZ)-coded two-level signals are combined together in a PAM4 encoder to create a single PAM four-level signal. The advantage of this encoding scheme is that the 4-level code utilizes the same baud, or symbol rate, of either of the two NRZ codes while containing twice the information of either. This is an attractive solution when the components of the link are baud rate limited, as is often the case for very high-speed fiber links. FIG. 1A depicts eye diagrams of the individual NRZ signals and FIG. 1B depicts the combined PAM4 signal. As seen in the comparison of FIGS. 1A and 1B, the PAM4 signal is capable of carrying twice the information of two individual NRZ signals in the same baud period.

Multi-level decoder with skew correction

Avago Technologies General IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.


Disclosed is a contactless connector, a signal processing method and a storage medium. The contactless connector can be in communication connection to a plug matched with the contactless connector. The plug is provided with a second magnetic core and a second coil, and the second coil is spirally arranged at the periphery of the second magnetic core and forms a secondary coil with the second magnetic core. The contactless connector includes: at least two plug interfaces, each of the plug interfaces including a first magnetic core; and a first coil, spirally arranged at an inner periphery of the first magnetic core of each of the plug interfaces and forming a main coil with the first magnetic core. When the contactless connector and a plurality of plugs are connected through at least two plug interfaces, the main coil and the secondary coil are electromagnetically coupled to realize communication connection between the contactless connector and the plurality of plugs. According to the present application, it can be achieved that the wiring difficulty between devices may be reduced while the service life of the connector is ensured.

With the development of science and technology, the wired communication technology is widely applied in various fields. For example, in the field of the automatic control technology, data communication between devices usually adopts the wired communication technology. Generally, one device may be connected to a plurality of devices through different interfaces. For example, when the device A communicates with the plurality of devices, the usual way is that each device is connected to the device A through one connector.
In this way, when there are more devices communicating with the device A, the wiring difficulties and the maintenance costs will be increased, and the plugging and unplugging times of the connector for performing wired transmission on signals are limited, that is, the service life is limited; and if the connector is plugged and unplugged for many times, the error rate of the connector during signal transmission will be increased. Furthermore, in some special environments, such as the seabed, deserts or mines, when the master device on the ground communicates with multiple slave devices underground, the wired communication connector and the plug connecting port have high sealing requirements, for example, high waterproof and dustproof properties are required, so that it is more necessary to avoid plugging and unplugging action on the connector to ensure the sealing property and the communication accuracy of the connector.
Although there are some wireless communication connectors in the prior art, communication between the plug and the socket is realized usually on the basis of wireless transmission modules such as RF, infrared and the like. These wireless communication connectors are generally suitable for application scenarios with better environments. When under water or in obstructed complex terrain, due to factors such as difficulty in receiving optical signals by the connector or the plug, large environmental interference and the like, the transmission distance of the wireless communication connectors is limited, the signal transmission is unstable, and the communication requirements between devices in special environments cannot be met.

Contactless connector, signal processing method and storage medium

INSTITUTE OF GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES


An automatic bulk vending machine is described including specific details as to various aspects of accurate volumetric dispensing, the separation of small broken pieces or fines from the dispensed product, and the easy and sanitary loading of such a machine. Further details as to how to provide a highly flexible selection process are provided. An automatic bulk vending machine according to the present invention may include a touch-screen for providing a visually entertaining and instructive display to guide a customer through the product selection process. Products to be selected may be stored in bins and volumetrically dispensed by a dispenser to a blending and holding pan. From this pan, they are then directed through a dispenser tube including a fines separator and collector to a dispensing cup. Bulk refill containers are also disclosed. Unlike an ordinary vending machine, the customer can choose the blend of product to be purchased. Unlike manual bulk vending, the automatic bulk vending machine is automatic and sanitary.

Automatic vending through the use of vending machines is well known. Such machines include candy and snack machines which dispense candy bars, bagged candies, chips and the like in packaged portions for a price determined by the operator of the vending machine. In actual operation, a customer might insert coins or currency equalling or exceeding the price of the desired item and then press a selection button or buttons to select the item. The vending machine dispenses the item and returns the customer's change, if any is owed.
Such machines are highly advantageous, but suffer from a number of drawbacks. For example, loading such machines can be tedious and time consuming as a full vending machine may store hundreds or even thousands of individual items. Further, the potential working volume of most typical vending machines is not very efficiently used as a substantial portion of that volume consists of unutilized air space.
Additionally, a customer of a typical vending machine is limited to selecting a portion or multiple portions defined by someone else. If a customer wants less or more of a product, or a different mix of product, he or she is presently limited to the predetermined portions in the predetermined mix stocked in the machine. Alternatively, if a customer has a given amount of money, unless that amount matches the price of the item, it is not presently an option to buy as much product as one has money. If the customer has less than the minimum item cost, no product can be purchased. In each of the above situations, customer satisfaction is not maximized. In several of the above cases, sales are not maximized. From the above, it can be seen that additional flexibility and selectivity can be highly desirable both to the operator and the customer.
One relatively new type of vending machine attempts to provide additional customer flexibility and selectivity in the context of vending greeting cards. One such machine is the Creata-Card computer kiosk built by American Greetings Industries, Inc. This kiosk allows a customer to choose graphics, write messages and print them on blank cards. Hallmark Cards Inc. apparently has a similar product called Touch-Screen Greetings. Although such machines employ touch screens with animated displays, they do not appear to shed much light on the automatic bulk vending of consumable items such as candy and other snacks suited to bulk vending.
Manual bulk vending is also well known. By way of example, candy stores, grocery stores and movie theaters often have bulk containers of candy and other items that can be selected and bagged, or otherwise put in containers, by customers. The manually selected items are then priced and sold based upon the weight of the item taken. Such systems are not automatic and are susceptible to concerns with respect to maintaining proper sanitary control of the items sold, as the maintenance of sanitary conditions depends on the customers following the rules. Of course, this does not always happen.

Method and apparatus for automatic bulk vending


A method for detecting a frame edge in a servo stripe on a length of magnetic tape. The method includes converting an analog signal to a digital signal and detecting a change in digital signal frequency at a frame edge. A detection signal is generated in response to the detected frequency change.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of dynamic magnetic information storage or retrieval. More particularly, the invention relates to the field of automatic control of a recorder mechanism. In still greater particularity, the invention relates to track centering using a servo pattern. By way of further characterization, but not by way of limitation thereto, the invention is a method for detecting a frame edge by generating a digital signal in response to a change in signal frequency.
2. Description of the Related Art
Magnetic tape recording has been utilized for many years to record voice and data information. For information storage and retrieval, magnetic tape has proven especially reliable, cost efficient and easy to use. In an effort to make magnetic tape even more useful and cost effective, there have been attempts to store more information per given width and length of tape. This has generally been accomplished by including more data tracks on a given width of tape. While allowing more data to be stored, this increase in the number of data tracks results in those tracks being more densely packed onto the tape. As the data tracks are more closely spaced, precise positioning of the tape with respect to the tape head becomes more critical as errors may be more easily introduced into the reading or writing of data. The tape-tape head positioning may be affected by variations in the tape or tape head, tape movement caused by air flow, temperature, humidity, tape shrinkage, and other factors, especially at the outside edges of the tape.
In order to increase data track accuracy, servo stripes have been employed to provide a reference point to maintain correct positioning of the tape with respect to the tape head. One or more servo stripes may be used depending upon the number of data tracks which are placed upon the tape. The sensed signal from the servo stripe is fed to a control system which moves the head and keeps the servo signal at nominal magnitude. The nominal signal occurs when the servo read gap is located in a certain position relative to the servo stripe. Referring to FIG. 1, a one-half inch wide length of magnetic tape 11 may contain up to 288 or more data tracks on multiple data bands 12. With such a large number of data tracks it may be desirable to include up to five or more servo bands 13 to improve data read and write function performance. Servo bands 13 may utilize various patterns or frequency regions to allow precise tape to tape head positioning thus allowing a data read head to more accurately read data from data bands 12.
Referring to FIG. 2, a portion of a conventional servo stripe 13 is shown having two frames 14 and 15. A first frequency signal 16 is written across the width of servo stripe 13. An erase frequency is written over first frequency signal 16 in a predetermined pattern such as five rectangles 17 in each of frames 14 and 15. The five rectangles 17 in each frame result in nine horizontal interfaces 18 between frequency signal 16 and erase patterns 17 as the tenth edge 19 along the bottom is ignored. A dashed line 21 illustrates the alignment of a read gap 22 in a tape read head 23.
Referring to FIG. 2, if the alignment of read gap 22 with servo pattern 13 is as shown, dotted line 21 passes along one of edges 18 and through the center of gap 22. If the servo pattern on the tape is passed right to left over gap 22, then read gap 22 will alternate between reading frequency 16 across the full width 24 of gap 22 in areas 25 and frequency 16 across one half of read gap 22 and an erase frequency from patterns 17 across the other half of width 24 in areas 26.
FIG. 3 shows the read frequency signals from one frame 14 or 15 as read by head gap 22 in FIG. 2. The amplitude of the signal is larger in areas 25 where frequency area 16 passes over the full width 24 of head gap 22. The amplitude of the signal is about half as large in area 26 when one half of width 24 reads frequency area 16 and the other half reads erase patterns 17. The servo control system in a tape drive uses the ratio of the full signal amplitude in field 25 to the half signal amplitude in field 26 to stay on track. For the on track position shown by dotted line 21 in FIG. 2 the ratio will be exactly one-half because one half of read gap width 24 is over area 16 and one-half is over erase pattern 17.
Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, if tape 11 and hence servo stripe 13 move down with respect to tape head 23, then, in field 26, more of area 16 and less of pattern 17 will be over head gap 22. Referring to FIG. 3, if more of area 16 is read, then the signal in field 26 will increase and this will be sensed by the controller. Conversely, if tape 11 and thus servo stripe 13 move up in FIGS. 1 and 2, then head gap 22 will see less of area 16 and more of pattern 17 across width 24. Thus, the signal in area 26 of FIG. 3 will decrease in amplitude proportionately to this movement. In this way the tape controller can sense the position of the tape 11 with respect to the read gap 22 and move head 23 to keep the head gap 22 aligned with the servo stripe along line 21. This alignment ensures precise reading of a data track in data bands 12 by the data read head (not shown). While this system can result in more precise positioning of the tape head 23 with respect to tape 11, a difficulty can arise in that the controller must be able to determine in which field, 25 or 26, it is in at the time the signal is read. That is, there must be synchronization between the time the signal in field 25 is sampled and the time the signal in field 26 is sampled.
Referring again to FIG. 3, the change in signal amplitude in moving to or from field 25 to or from field 26 could be used to determine in which field/area on the servo stripe read gap 22 is located. That is, if the signal drops to about one-half amplitude, it can be assumed that gap 22 is sensing movement of the servo pattern on the tape from field 25 into field 26. Conversely, if the signal amplitude approximately doubles, it can be assumed that gap 22 is sensing tape movement to field 25 from field 26. However, this method is prone to error for a number of reasons. If head gap 22 is aligned such that it passes between erase patterns 17, only signal 16 will be read and there will be no amplitude change in the signal from areas 25 to areas 26 or vice versa. In effect the control system which positions the head with respect to the tape is lost. The system controller does not know whether gap 22 is in region 25 or 26. Another possible source of error is noise. Because the signals are analog and contain a significant amount of noise, it may be difficult to determine the change in amplitude as gap 22 senses movement from field 25 to field 26 and vice versa. It would be desirable to have a system in which the servo control circuitry could reliably determine in which region read gap 22 is then located.

Servo frame edge detection for tape servo pattern with synchronization field


Provided is a glass composition for glass fiber having a low dielectric constant and a low dielectric loss tangent, suppressing occurrence of phase separation, and reducing viscosity at high temperatures. The glass composition for glass fiber includes: SiO2 in the range of 52.0 to 59.5% by mass; B2O3 in the range of 17.5 to 25.5% by mass; Al2O3 in the range of 9.0 to 14.0% by mass; SrO in the range of 0.5 to 6.0% by mass; MgO in the range of 1.0 to 5.0% by mass; and CaO in the range of 1.0 to 5.0% by mass, and includes F2 and Cl2 in the range of 0.1 to 2.5% by mass in total, with respect to the total amount.

Glass fiber is manufactured by melting a glass raw material prepared so as to be a glass composition for glass fiber having a desired composition in a melting furnace to form molten glass (a melt of the glass composition for glass fiber); discharging the molten glass from a container (bushing) having a nozzle plate on which tens to thousands of nozzle tips are formed; and cooling the discharged molten glass while stretching by winding at a high speed to solidify it into fiber (hereinafter, this operation is sometimes referred to as "spinning"). The above bushing is formed from a noble metal such as platinum.
Conventionally, glass fiber has been widely used in various applications to improve the strength of resin molded products, and the resin molded products have been increasingly used for a housing or a part of electronic devices such as a server, a smartphone, and a laptop computer, and the like.
In general, glass absorbs energy from alternating current as heat, and thus has a problem that the above resin molded product generates heat when the resin molded product is used for a housing or a part of the electronic devices.
The dielectric loss energy absorbed by glass is proportional to the dielectric constant and the dielectric loss tangent determined by the component and structure of the glass, and is represented by the following formula (1):W=kfv2×ε tan δ  (1)
wherein W is a dielectric loss energy, k is a constant, f is a frequency, v2 is a potential gradient, ε is a dielectric constant, and tan δ is a dielectric loss tangent. From formula (1), it is found that the dielectric loss is larger and heat generation of the above resin molded product is larger as the dielectric constant and the dielectric loss tangent are larger and as the frequency is higher.
Conventionally, as a glass composition for glass fiber, the E glass composition (composition including SiO2 in the range of 52.0 to 56.0% by mass; Al2O3 in the range of 12.0 to 16.0% by mass; MgO and CaO in the range of 20.0 to 25.0% by mass in total; and B2O3 in the range of 5.0 to 10.0% by mass, with respect to the total amount of the glass fiber) has been most commonly used. On the other hand, known is a glass composition for glass fiber capable of forming glass fiber having a lower dielectric constant and a lower dielectric loss tangent than glass fiber (E glass fiber) formed from E glass composition by increasing the content of SiO2 or by increasing the content of B2O3 as compared to the E glass composition, or the like, in order to reduce the above dielectric loss energy (refer to Patent Literature 1 and Patent Literature 2).

Glass composition for glass fiber, glass fiber, and glass fiber-reinforced resin composition using same