The invention provides an optical recording disk, with which the worsening of jitter can be prevented effectively even when fingerprints become adhered onto a laser light incidence surface. An optical recording disk 10 comprises a substrate 2, a recording layer 5, formed on the substrate, a light transmitting layer 7, formed on the recording layer, and a hard coat layer 8, formed on the light transmitting layer, and is characterized in that, when an operation of adhering an artificial fingerprint solution onto the optical recording disk's light incidence surface, onto which laser light is made incident, is performed and then an operation of wiping off the artificial fingerprint solution that has been adhered onto the light incidence surface is repeated five times, jitter becomes no more than 1.15 times that prior to the adhesion of the artificial fingerprint solution.

This invention concerns an optical recording disk, and to be more detailed, concerns an optical recording medium, with which the worsening of jitter can be prevented effectively even when fingerprints become adhered onto an incidence surface for laser light.
Optical recording disks, as represented by CDs and DVDs, have been used widely as recording media for recording digital data, and in recent years, optical recording disks of the next generation, which are greater in capacity and have higher data transferring rates, are being developed actively.
In developing a next-generation optical disk with greater capacity and higher data transferring rate, the beam spot diameter of a laser light used for the recording and reproduction of data must inevitably be made extremely small.
In order to make the beam spot diameter of a laser light small, the numerical aperture (NA) of an objective lens for converging the laser light must be made large and the wavelength λ of the laser light must be made short, and the use of an objective lens with a numerical aperture (NA) of 0.85 to converge a laser light with wavelength λ in the blue light range (wavelength of 380 to 450 nm) for recording data into a next-generation optical recording disk and reproducing data from the optical recording disk has been proposed.
However, when the numerical aperture (NA) of the objective lens for converging the laser light is made high, the tolerable angular error of the tilting of the optical axis of the laser light with respect to the optical recording medium, that is, the tilt margin T becomes extremely narrow. The tilt margin T decreases as the NA of the objective lens increases and increases as the thickness d of a light transmitting layer decreases. It is thus effective to make the thickness d of the light transmitting layer small in order to prevent the tilt margin T from becoming small.
Thus for a next-generation optical recording disk, the widening of the tilt margin by thinning of the light transmitting layer to approximately 100 μm has been proposed.
However, when the thickness of the light transmitting layer, through which laser light is transmitted, is thinned to approximately 100 μm, the area of the laser light beam spot on the top surface of the light transmitting layer becomes small. Error will thus tend to occur readily during the reading of data in cases where a laser light incidence surface of the light transmitting layer is flawed or has debris or fingerprints adhered thereon.
It has thus been proposed that a next-generation optical recording disk, which is arranged for illumination of laser light through a light transmitting layer and is premised on use in households, be used in a state in which it is housed in a cartridge.
However, that a next-generation optical recording disk cannot be used unless it is housed in a cartridge, despite CDs and DVDs being used in a so-called bare disk form in which the disk is not housed in a cartridge, is extremely inconvenient for users, and if it becomes essential for next-generation optical recording disks to be housed in cartridges, the next-generation optical recording disks will also become high in cost.
A next-generation optical recording disk, having a hard coat layer that is hard formed on the top surface of the light transmitting layer and can be used in the bare disk form, has thus been proposed.
Such an optical recording disk, having a hard coat layer that is hard formed on the top surface of the light transmitting layer, has the merit of not having to be housed in a cartridge and enabling use in the same manner as a CD or a DVD.
However on the other hand, since an optical recording disk, having a hard coat layer that is hard formed on the top surface of the light transmitting layer, is premised on use in the bare disk form, fingerprints tend to become adhered onto the surface of the hard coat layer, and when a fingerprint becomes adhered, the jitter during reading of data becomes large and error tends to occur readily.


A vehicle speed memory unit stores a vehicle speed at a prior predetermined time, the vehicle speed being calculated from an interval of the vehicle speed pulse. A first rapid deceleration detecting section compares an elapsed time from a time the vehicle speed pulse signal is inputted, measured by an elapsed time measuring unit, with a pulse interval corresponding to a predetermined deceleration relative to a vehicle speed stored by the vehicle speed memory unit, or a second rapid deceleration detecting section calculates an undetermined vehicle speed from the elapsed time measured by the elapsed time measuring unit, and calculates a deceleration from the undetermined vehicle speed and the vehicle speed at the prior predetermined time, and compares the calculated deceleration with a predetermined deceleration threshold value. Thus, rapid vehicle deceleration can immediately be determined at the present time without waiting for the determination of the vehicle speed after input of the next pulse signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle rapid deceleration detection device that detects rapid deceleration of a vehicle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the prior art, a device that detects rapid vehicle deceleration is disclosed for example in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 11-247988. This device uses pulse signals outputted from a rotation sensor for detecting a vehicle speed. In the device, a pulse interval detected on a present occasion is compared with a pulse interval detected at a predetermined prior time, and it is determined that the vehicle is rapidly decelerating when the pulse interval detected on the present occasion is larger than the pulse interval at the predetermined prior time by a predetermined threshold value or more.
However, in the rapid deceleration detection device of the prior art using pulse interval, in the low vehicle speed region, the determination of pulse interval was delayed due to the extension of the pulse interval outputted from the rotation sensor, so the rapid deceleration determination was also delayed.
In particular, when the aforesaid rapid deceleration determination is used as a determining condition for engaging or disengaging the lockup clutch of an automatic transmission, the rapid deceleration determination is more delayed, the higher is the rapid deceleration, due to the extension of the pulse interval, so the lockup clutch could not be disengaged before vehicle stop or locking of wheel tires.
Also, if prevention of engine stalling is desired, it may be realized by setting the engaging region of the lockup clutch on the high side, but this will lead to a deterioration of fuel consumption.

Vehicle rapid deceleration detection device


A method for testing cleaning effect of a compound or compositions is disclosed. The method comprises:    (a) Preparing a liquid sample of less than 10 ml comprising the test compound,    (b) applying liquid sample to a stained surface,    (c) applying mechanical stress to the stained surface by contacting it with a body present in the liquid sample,    (d) evaluating the cleaning effect of applying solution and mechanical stress on the stained surface.

It has been the object for researchers in the detergent industry to continuously search for new ingredients for use in cleaning compositions, which improves the cleaning effects of these compositions. In the field of surface cleaning, such as textiles of fabrics most people believe, that the flow of a liquid cleaning solution also called the washing liquor against and/or through a surface is sufficient for achieving a good cleaning process and accordingly that such conditions are suitable when the cleaning effect of new cleaning ingredients and/or compositions are evaluated to identify improvements.
Various artificial methods has over time been developed to provide tools for simulating a cleaning process and for testing cleaning effects. However using artificial methods often results in the finding of promising cleaning ingredients or compositions, which despite the predictions from the artificial methods does not provide the expected improvement when applied to real cleaning processes. Accordingly, in order to test and make reliable predictions on the cleaning effect of new ingredients or compositions, the skilled person has had adopt full scale cleaning processes and real surfaces, such as cleaning fabrics in a washing machine to provide useful results.
WO 99/34011 describes a method for assaying wash performance of new enzymes and/or detergent formulations.
The published Danish patent application PA 1997 00507 describes an assay for analyzing cellulolytic detergent enzymes.

Automated mechanical stress assay for screening cleaning ingredients


Airway devices are provided for introducing an endoscope into a patient's gastrointestinal system that include a tubular proximal portion sized for placement in an oral cavity and including a passage for receiving an endoscope therethrough, and a curved distal portion. The distal portion may have a “C” shaped wall defining a channel extending from the passage to a distal tip of the distal portion. The proximal portion may include a flange for placement adjacent the patient's teeth when the airway device is inserted into the oral cavity, and the airway device may include sampling and fluid delivery lumens including ports on the face of the flange. The sampling lumen may include an inlet port within the passage, and the fluid delivery lumen may include an outlet port communicating with the channel such that the outlet port is offset distally relative to the inlet port.

There are many medical procedures where a patient's body is accessed through their oral cavity, e.g., during procedures involving access into the gastrointestinal ("GI") system, airways, or other body cavities (e.g., a NOTES procedure) of the patient. For example, an endoscope or gastroscope may be introduced into a patient's oral cavity, and through the pharyngeal region, e.g., through the pharynx and into the esophagus, to observe and/or perform procedures involving organs within the GI system. One of the risks of such procedures is that the patient may accidentally bite down on the endoscope, which may risk damaging the endoscope and/or injuring the patient.
To reduce such risks, bite blocks may be provided, which are relatively short sleeves configured to be placed through the mouth into the oral cavity. The bite blocks may be sized to hold the mouth open and include a passage for introducing an endoscope therethrough into the oral cavity. The bite blocks may include a flange on one end that may be placed against or adjacent the patient's teeth to prevent the bite block from passing entirely into the oral cavity.
Thus, the bite block may protect the endoscope from damage, e.g., if the patient accidentally bites down during a procedure. Bite blocks, however, still require introducing an endoscope from the oral cavity into the patient's oropharynx, esophagus, and the like, which may require substantial manipulation by the physician or other user to navigate from the oral cavity to the desired location.
In addition or alternatively, a flexible or rigid airway tube may be introduced through a bite block and/or directly into the patient's oral cavity, e.g., into the pharynx or other desired location. An endoscope may then be introduced through the airway tube to access the patient's GI system. Such airway tubes, however, may present substantial frictional resistance to advancement of an endoscope, particularly if the airway tube includes sharp bends or buckles at natural bends in the patient's anatomy.
In addition, bite blocks do not provide a convenient way to monitor the patient's breathing and/or introducing fluids into the oral cavity. For example, generally, a nasal cannula may be used in combination with a bite block or otherwise to deliver oxygen to the patient, as needed during an endoscopic procedure. Such a cannula, however, may not deliver oxygen easily through restrictive tissues, such as the nasal sinuses or the oropharynx, e.g., if soft tissues, such as the tongue, soft palate, and the like, collapse due to sedation. Thus, oxygen delivered via a nasal cannula may not adequately reach the patient's lungs.
Accordingly, devices that facilitate access into the oral cavity, e.g., to introduce endoscopes, and/or otherwise perform medical procedures via the oral cavity, would be useful.

Oral airway devices and methods for making and using them


A method of manufacturing a reclosable package having a hooded slider-operated zipper, comprising the following steps: (a) interlocking profiled closure members of first and second flanged zipper strips; (b) inserting a slider on the zipper strips; (c) folding zipper flanges of the first and second flanged zipper strips so that respective portions of the zipper flanges confront each other at a position above the profiled closure members; (d) joining the mutually confronting portions of the zipper flanges to each other to form a hood over the profiled closure members; (e) guiding first and second portions of web material into mutual confrontation; (f) guiding the mutually interlocked first and second zipper strips to positions whereat a portion of one zipper flange confronts the first portion of web material and a portion of the other zipper flange confronts the second portion of web material; and (g) joining respective portions of the zipper flanges to the first and second portions of web material respectively. The resulting assembly is then cross-sealed, filled with product, cross-sealed again, and then cut along the second cross seal to sever a filled package from the work in process.

The present invention relates to reclosable bags having hooded slider-operated zippers. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods and apparatus for making hooded slider-operated zippered bags on form-fill-seal (FFS) machines.
Reclosable bags are finding ever-growing acceptance as primary packaging, particularly as packaging for foodstuffs such as cereal, fresh fruit and vegetables, cold cuts, snacks and the like. Such bags provide the consumer with the ability to readily store, in a closed, if not sealed, package any unused portion of the packaged product even after the package is initially opened.
Reclosable bags comprise a receptacle having a mouth with a plastic zipper for opening and closing. In recent years, many zippers have been designed to operate with a slider mounted thereon. As the slider is moved in an opening direction, the slider causes the zipper sections it passes over to open. Conversely, as the slider is moved in a closing direction, the slider causes the zipper sections it passes over to close. Typically, a zipper for a reclosable bag includes a pair of interlockable profiled closure strips that are joined at opposite ends of the bag mouth. The profiles of interlockable plastic zipper strips can take on various configurations, e.g. interlocking rib and groove elements having so-called male and female profiles, interlocking alternating hook-shaped closure elements, etc. Reclosable bags having slider-operated zippers are generally more desirable to consumers than bags having zippers without sliders because the slider eliminates the need for the consumer to align the interlockable zipper profiles before causing those profiles to engage.
Various additions to reclosable bags have been made to provide tamper-evident seals or indicators that will reveal when the bag has been opened or otherwise tampered with prior to purchase by the consumer. It is known to provide a reclosable package construction that is designed to undergo some permanent change in the package appearance when the package is opened for the first time. For example, it is known to provide a reclosable package with a tamper-evident, non-reclosable peel seal that gives a positive indication of having been broken when a package is first opened. It is also known to shroud the zipper (with or without slider) inside an enclosed header on the top of the bag. Another type of tamper-evident feature is the provision of a membrane on the product side of the zipper that partitions the interior volume in an airtight manner.
In the formation of reclosable plastic bags when the bags are used for foodstuffs and like material, it is advantageous to have the bags supplied with a tamper-evident seal which not only protects the contents from the ingress of foreign materials and contamination, but also shows if inadvertent or intentional opening has occurred prior to the bag and its contents being in the possession of the buyer. Such a protective seal, if formed externally of the reclosable seal rather than internally, can additionally protect the reclosable zipper elements from dust and dirt and other contaminants with a permanent protective seal located outwardly of the reclosable seal. Moisture and other foreign elements cannot enter the bag and the purchaser can see that he is obtaining a previously unopened and unused bag where the contents are fully protected. This conveys a feeling of safety and comfort to the purchaser who may be concerned about someone criminally obtaining access to the bag and placing dangerous contaminants into the contents.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,212,857 discloses a reclosable package having a slider-zipper assembly wherein long zipper flanges are wrapped around the zipper profiles and joined to each other above the zipper profiles, thereby forming a tamper-evident hood. This patent also discloses that such reclosable packages can be manufactured on a VFFS machine having longitudinal seal bars adjacent the fill tube for joining the zipper flanges to the walls of the package.
There is a continuing need for improved methods of manufacturing reclosable bags having hooded slider-operated zippers.

Methods of manufacturing hooded slider-operated zippered bags


An incline sleeper for an infant has a base and a resilient insert adapted to fit in the base within a peripheral lip. The resilient insert and the base cooperate to support a top surface of the resilient insert at an angle with respect to a lower surface of the base. The top surface of the resilient insert includes an infant-receiving depression that is adapted to receive and support the infant in a supine and angled position.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to sleepers for infants, and more particularly to an incline sleeper that enables an infant to sleep in a supine, inclined position.
2. Description of Related Art
The following art defines the present state of this field:
Webb et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,566,413, teaches an infant restraint that includes a planar foam padding that is adapted to be mounted in a rectangular plastic bin. The planar foam padding includes a depression shaped to receive an infant. The Webb reference does not teach a device that holds the infant at an incline, and does not teach a plurality of padded inserts that have infant-receiving depressions that vary in size, to accommodate the infant as he grows.
Other references, including Fuller et al., U.S. Pat. No. D259,458, and Tingley et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,551,109, teach a support pad or pillow that includes an upper surface that has a slight incline for supporting an infant's head above his or her feet.
The above-described references are hereby incorporated by reference in full.
The prior art teaches a pillow, alone, that has a top surface that is slightly inclined. The prior art also teaches a plastic support tray for holding a flat pillow. However, the prior art does not teach an incline sleeper that includes a plastic support tray and a pillow that together support an infant in a supine position on a top surface that is inclined about 15 degrees. The prior art also does not teach an incline sleeper that includes a plurality of resilient inserts that enable the incline sleeper to be adapted to the infant as the infant grows.
The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages as described in the following summary.


A system and process for delivering fluids into subsurface contaminated soil and ground water to enhance in situ microbial degradation of contaminants. The system consists of a high pressure/low volume slurry pump driven by an internal combustion engine. Pressure and volume are variable to suit site-specific subsurface soil conditions (e.g. texture, intrinsic permeabilities, etc.). The high pressure fluid liquifies the soil in front of the probe tip allowing the probe to be easily advanced by hand into the subsurface while the low volume prevents driving the contaminants. Microorganisms, soluble and insoluble nutrients, surfactants and chemical peroxygens and also gases can be delivered into the subsurface with this system. After delivery of the fluids, the probe is withdrawn by hand.

Treating underground pollution of soil and water that is caused by leaked hydrocarbons or chemicals is a vexing problem. Underground tanks containing oils, benzene, gasoline and the like, have often leaked their contents slowly into the surrounding soils over decades. The pollutant has seeped slowly through and saturated different geologic strata that do not permit easy or quick flow. As a result, the removal of the pollution from such soils is difficult, time consuming and cost prohibited. A simple pumping out of ground water and treating it may temporarily lower the detected level of pollution, but over a period of time, additional contaminant leaches out of the contaminated soils and the level detected in the underground water goes back up. Leaching and water treatment out of the ground is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,401,569. It has been suggested that the soil be, in effect, mined, removed, treated and then, perhaps, returned. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,415,777; 5,286,140; 5,172,709 and 4,849,360. These are expensive processes that involve a great deal of disturbance to the site and effectively remove the site from any economic use during the process.
It has also been suggested that fluids containing bioremediation agents be injected into the soil and water in situ. See for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,133,625 and 5,304,704.
Although in situ bioremediation is becoming increasingly popular, the technical difficulties involved in delivering microbes, nutrients and oxygen to all the contaminated media have restricted its effectiveness. In the past, amendment fluids have been delivered through injection wells or infiltration trenches allowing natural migration to deliver the fluids throughout the contaminated media. While these techniques may be effective at high permeability sites, the results of in situ bioremediation at low permeability sites has typically been discouraging and ineffective.
Finally, combinations of these techniques with features such as steam injection and a multitude of wells (borrowed from oil field extraction) have been proposed. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,279,740.
While these prior art techniques and systems have advantages in some circumstances, they all suffer from economic drawbacks or time drawbacks. That is, they are either quite expensive to carry out and disruptive of the site or they take a very long time to be effective especially when the pollutant is contaminated in difficult geologic soil conditions. There thus exists a need for an economical system that does not disrupt the site but which can deal with difficult and different underground soils in situ and still achieve substantial results in a reasonable period of time.

Underground contamination in situ treatment system


A desalination system in the form of a submerged gas evaporator that includes a vessel, a gas delivery tube partially disposed within the vessel to deliver a gas into the vessel and a fluid inlet that provides a fluid to the vessel at a rate sufficient to maintain a controlled constant level of fluid within the vessel. A weir is disposed within the vessel adjacent the gas delivery tube to form a first fluid circulation path between a first weir end and a wall of the vessel and a second fluid circulation path between a second weir end and an upper end of the vessel. During operation, gas introduced through the tube mixes with the fluid and the combined gas and fluid flow at a high rate with a high degree of turbulence along the first and second circulation paths defined around the weir, thereby promoting vigorous mixing and intimate contact between the gas and the fluid. This turbulent flow develops a significant amount of interfacial surface area between the gas and the fluid resulting in a reduction of the required residence time of the gas within the fluid to achieve thermal equilibrium which leads to a more efficient and complete evaporation. Additionally, vapor exiting the submerged gas evaporator is condensed in a condensing unit thus precipitating vapor into a liquid for removal.

Desalination systems are systems that remove salt or other dissolved solids from water, most often to produce potable water. Currently, several methods of desalination are employed by commercial desalination systems. The most popular methods of commercial desalination are reverse osmosis and flash vaporization. Both of these methods have large energy requirements and certain components that wear out frequently. For example, reverse osmosis systems force water through membranes and these membranes become clogged and torn, thus necessitating frequent replacement. Similarly, flash vaporization systems have corrosion and erosion problems due to the spraying of hot brine within these systems. The energy requirements for a reverse osmosis system may be approximately 6 kWh of electricity per cubic meter, of water, while a flash vaporization system may require as much as 200 kWh per cubic meter of water. Due to the high energy inputs and frequent maintenance, desalination of water on a large scale basis has been relatively expensive, often more expensive than finding alternate sources of groundwater.
Submerged gas evaporator systems in which gas is dispersed into a continuous liquid phase, referred to generally herein as submerged gas evaporators, are well known types of devices used to perform evaporation processes with respect to various constituents. U.S. Pat. No. 5,342,482, the entire specification of which is hereby incorporated by reference, discloses a common type of submerged combustion gas evaporator, in which combustion gas is generated and delivered though an inlet pipe to a dispersal unit submerged within the liquid to be evaporated. The dispersal unit includes a number of spaced-apart gas delivery pipes extending radially outward from the inlet pipe, each of the gas delivery pipes having small holes spaced apart at various locations on the surface of the gas delivery pipe to disperse the combustion gas as small bubbles as uniformly as practical across the cross-sectional area of the liquid held within the processing vessel. According to current understanding within the prior art, this design provides desirable intimate contact between the liquid and the combustion gas over a large interfacial surface area while also promoting thorough agitation of the liquid within the processing vessel.
Because submerged gas evaporators disperse gas into a continuous liquid phase, these devices provide a significant advantage when compared to conventional evaporators when contact between a liquid stream and a gas stream is desirable. In fact, submerged gas evaporators are especially advantageous when the desired result is to highly concentrate a liquid stream by means of evaporation.
However, during the evaporation process, dissolved solids within the continuous liquid phase become more concentrated often leading to the formation of precipitates that are difficult to handle. These precipitates may include substances that form deposits on the solid surfaces of heat exchangers within flash vaporization systems or on the membranes of reverse osmosis systems, and substances that tend to form large crystals or agglomerates that can block passages within processing equipment, such as the gas exit holes in the system described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,342,482. Generally speaking, feed streams that cause deposits to form on surfaces and create blockages within process equipment are called fouling fluids.
Deposits of precipitated solids create chemical fouling or buildup on fill or packing within conventional desalination systems that increases available surface area and also create stagnant flow areas that leads to biological fouling of these surfaces by promoting growth of bacteria and algae. Biological growth leads to the formation of slime within a desalination system that further reduces desalination efficiency and can also foul heat exchangers within equipment which employs the circulating liquid from the desalination system as an evaporative medium
These common problems adversely affect the efficiency and costs of conventional desalination systems in that they necessitate frequent cleaning cycles and/or the addition of chemical control agents to the evaporative fluid to avoid loss of efficiency and to avoid sudden failures within the evaporation equipment.
Additionally, most evaporation systems that rely on intimate contact between gases and liquids are prone to problems related to carryover of entrained liquid droplets that form as the vapor phase disengages from the liquid phase. For this reason, most evaporator systems that require intimate contact of gas with liquid include one or more devices to minimize entrainment of liquid droplets and/or to capture entrained liquid droplets while allowing for separation of the entrained liquid droplets from the exhaust gas flowing out of the evaporation zone. Droplets within the vapor are particularly troublesome if the process is applied to produce potable water in that the entrained droplets contain the salts, minerals and other contaminants that were in the feed liquid.
Unlike conventional evaporators where heat and mass are transferred from the liquid phase as it flows over the extended surface of the heat exchangers, heat and mass transfer within submerged gas processors take place at the interface of a discontinuous gas phase dispersed within a continuous liquid phase and there are no solid surfaces upon which deposits can accumulate.
Submerged gas evaporators also tend to mitigate the formation of large crystals because dispersing the gas beneath the liquid surface promotes vigorous agitation within the evaporation vessel, which is a less desirable environment for crystal growth than a more quiescent zone. Further, active mixing within an evaporation vessel tends to maintain precipitated solids in suspension and thereby mitigates blockages that are related to settling and/or agglomeration of suspended solids.
However, mitigation of crystal growth and settlement is dependent on the degree of mixing achieved within a particular submerged gas evaporator, and not all submerged gas evaporator designs provide adequate mixing to prevent large crystal growth and related blockages. Therefore, while the dynamic renewable heat transfer surface area feature of submerged gas evaporators eliminates the potential for fouling liquids to coat extended surfaces, conventional submerged gas evaporators are still subject to potential blockages and carryover of entrained liquid within the exhaust gas flowing away from the evaporation zone.


Guard bands which reduce or eliminate force and sensitivity associated with proof mass motion normal to the substrate as a result of voltage transients is disclosed. The guard bands are biased to reduce the coupling ratio to zero and thereby enable starting and improved performance. Various configurations of guard bands may be employed including distinct inner and outer guard bands, distinct inner guard bands only, extended sense electrodes below inner sensing combs with no outer guards, distinct outer guard bands with extended sense electrodes, and sense electrodes extended beneath both drive and sensing combs.

The basic theories of operation and construction of tuning fork gyroscopes are now fairly well known. Such gyroscopes include a substrate, silicon proof masses with comb electrodes, position sensitive pick-offs, sense electrodes, and inner and outer drives with comb electrodes. The proof masses are suspended above the substrate by a support flexure which permits movement of the proof masses relative to the sense electrode, the drive electrodes and the substrate.
The substrate, which is commonly constructed from glass, has a high electrical resistivity which is partially responsible for voltage transients which can adversely effect gyroscope performance. In particular, coupling between comb electrodes is sensitive to such voltage transients. Additionally, the transients impart undesirable vertical (Z-axis) forces normal to the proof masses and pick-off sensitivity. This vertical force and pick-off sensitivity can (a) degrade tuning fork gyroscope performance and (b) prevent the tuning fork gyroscope motor self-oscillator loop from starting.
It is known in the art to attempt to alleviate these problems by shortening the comb electrodes of both the drives and proof masses. However, this technique has at least one potential drawback. Shortening the comb electrodes limits maximum drive amplitude because the combs disengage so that the drive force becomes small. As such, the performance of the tuning fork gyroscope may be adversely affected.

Guard bands which control out-of-plane sensitivities in tuning fork gyroscopes and other sensors

The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc.


Disclosed is a method and corresponding system for dynamically activating a relay in a radio access network (RAN) that includes a plurality of base stations. Each base station may radiate to define one or more respective wireless coverage areas, and each coverage area may operate on one or more carrier frequencies. The RAN may be arranged to receive, from a user equipment device (UE) that is being served by a base station of the RAN on a first carrier frequency, a report indicating threshold low wireless performance on the first carrier frequency. In response to the report indicating threshold low wireless performance, the RAN may be arranged to then activate a relay that functions to communicate with the base station over a relay backhaul interface, and communicate with the UE on a second carrier frequency that is different from the first carrier frequency.

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
To provide cellular wireless communication service, a wireless service provider or "wireless carrier" typically operates a radio access network (RAN) that includes a number of base stations that radiate to define wireless coverage areas, such as cells and cell sectors, in which user equipment devices (UEs) (also known as wireless communication devices (WCDs)) such as cell phones, tablet computers, tracking devices, embedded wireless modules, and other wirelessly equipped communication devices, can operate. In turn, each base station may be coupled with network infrastructure that provides connectivity with one or more transport networks, such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and/or the Internet for instance. With this arrangement, a UE within coverage of the RAN may engage in air interface communication with a base station and may thereby communicate via the base station with various remote network entities or with other UEs served by the base station.
In general, a RAN may operate in accordance with a particular air interface protocol or "radio access technology," with communications from the base stations to UEs defining a downlink or forward link and communications from the UEs to the base stations defining an uplink or reverse link. Examples of existing air interface protocols include, without limitation, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA (e.g., Long Term Evolution (LTE) or Wireless Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX)), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) (e.g., 1xRTT and 1xEV-DO), and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), among others. Each protocol may define its own procedures for registration of UEs, initiation of communications, handoff between coverage areas, and functions related to air interface communication.
In accordance with the air interface protocol, each coverage area may operate on one or more carrier frequencies or blocks of frequencies (e.g., frequency bands, such as 698-960 MHz, 1610-2025 MHz, etc.) and may define a number of air interface channels for carrying information between the base station and UEs. These channels may be defined in various ways, such as through frequency division multiplexing, time division multiplexing, and/or code-division multiplexing, for instance. By way of example, each coverage area may define a pilot channel, reference channel, or other resource on which the base station may broadcast a pilot signal, reference signal, or the like that UEs may detect as an indication of coverage and may measure to evaluate coverage strength. As another example, each coverage area may define one or more uplink control channels or other resources on which UEs may transmit control messages to the base station. And each coverage area may define one or more downlink control channels or other resources on which the base station may transmit control messages or other information to UEs. Each coverage area may then define one or more traffic channels or other resource for carrying communication traffic such as voice data and other data between the base station and UEs.
When a UE first powers on or enters into coverage of the RAN and seeks to connect to a coverage area of the RAN, the UE may scan the pilot or reference signals of the RAN's coverage areas in an effort to determine a signal strength of each respective pilot or reference signal. The UE may then identify, for example, a coverage area with a strongest pilot or reference signal (e.g., having the highest signal-to-noise ratio) and may register with that coverage area by transmitting a registration request or attach request to a base station providing that signal and serving that coverage area. This registration process may serve to notify the RAN of the UE's presence in a particular coverage area and to facilitate network authentication of the UE. Once registered in that coverage area, the UE may then be served by the RAN in that coverage area in an "idle" mode in which the UE regularly scans for page messages and other overhead information from the RAN. Further, the UE may engage in additional signaling with the RAN in order to be served by the RAN in an "active" or "connected" mode in which the UE may then engage in bearer communication.
While a UE is served by a RAN in the idle or active/connected mode, the UE may also continue to scan the airwaves to help ensure that the UE continues to operate with the most optimal coverage. For instance, while operating on a particular carrier frequency in the UE's serving coverage area, the UE may continue to monitor the pilot signal or reference signals of that coverage area as well as the pilot signal or reference signals of adjacent coverage areas, and may at some point transmit to the serving base station or RAN a report indicating the strength of the monitored signals. For example, in an LTE system, the UE may transmit a radio measurement report to the RAN. After the RAN receives the report, the RAN may then use the report to provide the UE with preferable coverage. For instance, if the report indicates threshold low signal strength on the particular carrier frequency, the RAN may direct the UE to scan for coverage on one or more other carrier frequencies, such as another carrier frequency in the UE's serving coverage area or a carrier frequency in an adjacent coverage area. The RAN may then direct the UE to hand off to a given carrier frequency of the one or more other carrier frequencies so as to operate on the given carrier frequency.
In practice, the base stations of the RAN may not always provide seamless coverage throughout a region. As such, some network arrangements may include one or more wireless relays that extend the range of a base station's coverage area so as to partially or completely fill gaps in coverage and help improve service quality. A relay may be configured with a wireless backhaul interface for communicating with a base station in much the same way a UE does, and a wireless access interface for communicating with and serving one or more UEs in much the same way that a base station does. Further, the relay may include control logic for actively bridging the backhaul communications with the access communications. The relay may thus receive and recover downlink communications from the base station and transmit those communications to the UEs, and receive and recover uplink communications from UEs and transmit those communications to the base station. Advantageously, a relay like this can have a relatively small form factor, with antenna height lower than the base station and with reduced transmit power requirements.

Method and system for dynamically activating a relay


A system for non-destructively imaging surfaces through a coating, in accordance with the present invention, includes a near-infrared (NIR) light source for illuminating a coated surface. A detector is positioned in an operative relationship with the NIR light source to receive light backscattered from the coated surface and from the coating. A gating device is positioned in an operative relationship with the detector to selectively permit light to pass to the detector to measure optical characteristics of the backscattered light such that determinations of a state of a surface below the coating is determined based on the optical characteristics of the backscattered light. Methods for performing the non-destructive imaging of the present invention are also disclosed.

1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to spectroscopy, and more particularly, to systems and methods for detecting or determining characteristics of materials under paints or coatings by employing early light spectroscopy.
2. Description of the Related Art
Paint or other coatings are typically applied to surfaces to protect the surfaces against corrosion or other damage. In some instances corrosion, cracking or other damage begins under the paint or coating and is undetectable by visual inspection. Inspections may be carried out by one or more of the following non-destructive imaging (NDI) techniques.
Ultrasonic (pulse echo or through transmission) methods can monitor larger defects of, for example, aircraft structures for a whole-field but are not preferred for detection of early or surface deterioration. The techniques are particularly conducive to rapid imaging of a surface and include magneto-optic eddy current imaging, active thermograph, optically aided visual inspection, and spectral imaging.
Magneto-optic imaging (MOI) can image corrosion and cracks over a small area the size of the magneto-optic crystal plate used in a hand-held scanner. However, MOI""s sensitivity to top-surface corrosion depends on the degree to which the eddy currents are altered and gives rise to anomalies in the induced magnetic field at the surface. It has not been shown conclusively that the MOI technique can detect incipient corrosion that has not yet produced a significant increase in macroscopic surface roughness.
Active Thermography (AT) is an increasingly important technique for detecting subsurface flaws such as delamination, debonding, and second-surface corrosion. AT has a lower sensitivity to incipient corrosion under paint; however, because (1) the initial stages of corrosion do not significantly increase the thermal impedance of the surface compared to a layer of paint alone, and (2) the detailed resolution of incipient corrosion effects at the top surface requires a very high speed infrared camera to resolve surface transients which may appear only in the few milliseconds after the initial flash lamp illumination. Such equipment is prohibitively expensive for use on a wide scale. However, for significant surface corrosion, AT and MOI have the potential to image significant surface corrosion damage and distinguish it from subsurface effects by employing commercially available instrumentation.
Visual Inspection (VI) is used to determine the extent of corrosion damage on a skin of a surface and around fasteners, for example, after the paint or coating has been stripped. As a nondestructive technique for painted aircraft, visual techniques are not amenable to detection of chemical changes or micro-roughness at the paint/metal interface, unless significant corrosion products penetrate through the thickness of the paint. Specialized primers and paints, which incorporate taggants, are still in the research stage and not in general use.
Spectral Imaging (SI) techniques use a compact multi-spectral imaging sensor. This method is based on the partial transparency of many aircraft paints to specific bands of infrared radiation. Using this method, it is possible to detect changes in the chemistry of the metal surface or the primer by analyzing the amplitude of reflected and emitted radiation at specific wavelengths. The layered depth information cannot be deduced from a simple SI approach, however.
Therefore, a need exists for a system and method for inspecting surfaces through a coating, such as paint. A further need exists for such a system and method, which improves upon existing techniques and does not suffer from the disadvantages as described above.
The present invention includes near infrared (NIR) optical imaging systems and methods to non-destructively image (NDI) deteriorations or defects in painted metals and artwork beneath painted surfaces are disclosed. Back-scattered light is used to determine its suitability to monitor corrosion and cracking in metal beneath paints, up to a thickness of about 500 xcexcm. NIR light, in the paint transmission zoning spanning from 800 nm to 10,000 nm can be used to assess the quality of metallic structures below the paint level for incipient and advanced stages of corrosion and cracking. NIR light scattered from paint, corrosion, air voids, and metal can be spatially imaged in micrometers sliced sub-surface layers. Art work below a painted overcoat can be imaged and detected. Spectral, temporal, spatial, nonlinear optical, and polarization gates are employed to distinguish phantoms in turbid media, such as painted corroded metal and cracked specimens: such as painted surfaces from airplanes, submarines, ships, automobiles, and bridges.
In a layered paint-metal medium, the paint acts as a highly scattered pigmented medium where high scattering occurs. Transmission windows exist in NIR region. The metal acting as flat mirror reflects the scattered light. When corrosion or cracking is present, the smooth metal becomes microscopic irregular, which adds scattering and time delay of the probing light.
A system for non-destructively imaging surfaces through a coating, in accordance with the present invention, includes a near-infrared (NIR) light source for illuminating a coated surface. A detector is positioned in an operative relationship with the NIR light source to receive light backscattered from the coated surface and from the coating. A gating device is positioned in an operative relationship with the detector to selectively permit light to pass to the detector to measure optical characteristics of the backscattered light such that determinations of a state of a surface below the coating is determined based on the optical characteristics of the backscattered light.
A method, in accordance with the present invention, for non-destructively imaging surfaces covered by a coating includes the steps of irradiating a coated surface with near-infrared light to provide backscattered light from the coating and the coated surface, gating the backscattered light to selectively permit early light to pass to a detector, and measuring optical characteristics of the early light received by the detector to image the coated surface below the coating to determine if damage exists on the coated surface.

Sub-surface imaging under paints and coatings using early light spectroscopy


This document relates to hardware protection of differential privacy techniques. One example obtains multiple instances of encrypted telemetry data within a secure enclave and processes the encrypted telemetry data to obtain multiple instances of unencrypted telemetry data. The example also processes, within the secure enclave, the multiple instances of unencrypted telemetry data to obtain a perturbed aggregate. The example also releases the perturbed aggregate from the secure enclave.

Some types of equipment collect telemetry data and communicate the telemetry data for further processing. Various organizations are interested in analyzing the telemetry data, because the telemetry data can reveal broader trends in how the equipment is being used. However, often the telemetry data is owned by various users who do not necessarily trust the organization that would like to perform the analysis. One broad approach is to allow organizations to learn aggregate statistical information about the telemetry data (e.g., an average, median, etc.) without giving those organizations the raw telemetry data. However, knowledge of the aggregate statistics can still allow untrusted entities to derive the telemetry data submitted by specific users, which is a significant privacy concern. As a consequence, users may be reluctant to share their telemetry data with other entities.

Hardware protection for differential privacy


A method for making the core of a door of autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC). A billet of AAC is provided from which slabs are cut to the approximate dimensions of the door core. A reinforcing band is secured about the perimeter of a slab. The thickness of the slab is then sized for the door core as by sanding. The door is finished by applying skins to the core surfaces and trim to the reinforcing band.

It is known to manufacture special purpose doors, as fire doors, with a core of light weight concrete. Such doors have typically been manufactured by casting a core from raw materials and, after the core has cured, finishing the doors as with surface and edge coverings. Casting and curing are time consuming and require a large facility to accommodate raw materials and the cast cores while they cure. The lightweight concretes which have been used in the cores of doors have not provided an optimum combination of fire protection and core density.

Composite door, door core and method of manufacture


A waste water purification plant purifies water by means of plants and a waste water purification process. The waste water purification plant has at least one plant container, a feed unit, an evacuation unit and plants. Waste water to be purified can be supplied to the purification plant by the feed unit. Purified waste water can be discharged from the purification plant by the evacuation unit. The plants are arranged in the plant container without a substrate. A plant container preferably has at least two plant basins. At least one other container can be provided. At least part of the plant container is arranged on the roof of a building. Plants of at least two different plant species are provided in the plant container. Depending on the type of waste water for example industrial and/or sanitary waste water the waste water to be purified may be purified in a predeterminable sequence by the plants of the different plant species. This purification plant makes it possible to purify industrial and/or sanitary waste water, i.e. it is applicable to industries and/or private homes. In particular, the waste water purified by the purification plant should possess a high degree of purity, for example that of drinking water.

Various production-related wastewaters arise in many industrial concerns. Normally, wastewater is purified in sewage treatment plants by industrial processes. The so-called nature-like methods have already been used as an alternative to traditional sewage plants for some time now for the purification of small streams or small amounts of wastewater. When using nature-like methods the self-cleaning mechanisms of nature of utilized and moreover, new wet biotopes and green areas are created. In addition, such natural methods bring considerable cost savings.
Natural treatment systems, such as plant (vegetation)-based sewage treatment systems, are already being used in many places. A plant-based sewage treatment system is based on biological symbiosis between specially grown water plants and microorganisms, for example, bacteria, fungi and algae.
Current plant-based sewage treatment systems are mainly operated by private households and communes and are mostly used where connection to a central wastewater purification system is too costly. In these systems the plants are planted on earth, gravel or sand (i.e., in substrate). However, usually the plant-based wastewater purification facilities require relatively large areas, which are mostly not available, especially in industrial concerns. Purely for exemplary purposes reference is made to DE 196 30 831 C2, from which a sewage treatment system is known.
It is therefore desirable to provide a vegetation plant-based sewage treatment system and a method for purifying wastewater which overcomes the problems described above.

Wastewater purification plant by means of plants


An interconnect structure and a method of forming an interconnect structure are disclosed. The interconnect structure includes a low-k (LK) dielectric layer over a substrate; a first conductive feature in the LK dielectric layer, wherein the first conductive feature has a first sidewall, a second sidewall facing the first sidewall, and a first bottom surface contacting the LK dielectric layer; a first dielectric feature along an upper portion of the first sidewall, wherein a length of the first dielectric feature is at least 10 percent less than a length of the first sidewall; and a second dielectric feature along an upper portion of the second sidewall. The interconnect structure may also include a second conductive feature adjacent to the first conductive feature in the LK dielectric layer.

The fabrication of integrated chips can be broadly separated into two main sections, front-end-of-the-line (FEOL) fabrication and back-end-of-the-line (BEOL) fabrication. FEOL fabrication includes the formation of devices (e.g., transistors, capacitors, resistors, etc.) within a semiconductor substrate. BEOL fabrication includes the formation of one or more metal interconnect layers comprised within one or more insulating dielectric layers disposed above the semiconductor substrate. The metal interconnect layers of the BEOL electrically connect individual devices of the FEOL to external pins of an integrated chip.
As the size of a semiconductor device size decreases, low dielectric constant (LK) materials and extra-low k (ELK) materials that have dielectric constants less than that of silicon dioxide have begun to be implemented in some designs as insulating materials between interconnects. However, a layer comprising LK materials or ELK materials may be damaged by a patterning process such as an etch process if it takes a long time to form a desired pattern. Accordingly, a need has developed in the art for an improved method of forming an interconnect structure for an integrated chip.

Interconnect structure and method of forming the same

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


A decoder receives (501) a bitstream comprising an encoded mono signal and stereo data. A time scale processor (503) generates a time scaled mono signal. A time-to frequency processor generates frequency sample blocks of the time scaled signal, the block length being fixed and independent of the time scaling. A parametric stereo decoder (509) generates a stereo signal for the frequency sample blocks and these are converted to the time domain by a frequency-to-time processor (511). A synchronization processor (515) synchronizes the stereo data with the time scaled signal by determining a time association between a parameter value and a frequency sample block. The parameter value and time association is used to determine synchronized stereo parameter values for that and other frequency sample blocks. The invention is particularly suitable for low complexity generation of time scaled stereo signals from MPEG-4 encoded signals.

In recent years, the distribution and storage of A/V content in digital form has increased substantially. Accordingly, a large number of coding standards and protocols have been developed.
Audio coding and compression techniques provide for very efficient audio encoding which allows audio files of relatively low data size and high quality to be conveniently distributed through data networks including for example the Internet.
An example of a coding standard is the Motion Picture Expert Group-4 (MPEG-4) coding standard which provides decoder specifications for both video and audio coding. Further details of the MPEG-4 coding standard may be found in "Coding of Audio-Visual Objects", MPEG-4: ISO/IEC 14496.
A technique which may be applied to audio signals to alter the play back speed and duration of an audio signal without altering its perceived pitch is known as time scaling or tempo scaling. There are a number of interesting applications for time scaling, including for example audio/video synchronization, language learning, tools for people with impaired hearing, answering machines, spoken books, etc.
In general, time scaling is applied as a post-processing technique. Therefore, for conventional waveform coded material, an additional amount of complexity is introduced, as both regular decoding and complex time scaling processing must be performed. Furthermore, time scale processing typically introduces artefacts into the decoded signal and therefore degrades the quality of the time scaled signal. In order to achieve an acceptable quality it is necessary to use very complex time scaling algorithms resulting in increased computational requirements.
An advantage of parametric audio coding in comparison to waveform coding is that the parametric representation of an audio signal facilitates effects processing like e.g. time and/or pitch scaling processing at relatively low complexity. An example of parametric audio coding may be found in "Advances in Parametric Coding for High-Quality Audio" by Erik Schuijers, Werner Oomen, Bert den Brinker and Jeroen Breebaart, Preprint 5852, 114th AES Convention, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 22-25 Mar. 2003.
This parametric coding scheme is currently under standardization and currently described in MPEG-4 Extension 2, "Coding of Moving Pictures and Audio, Parametric coding for High Quality Audio", ISO/IEC 14496-3:2001/FPDAM2, JTC1/SC29/WG11 and to be formally standardized in ISO/IEC 14496-3:2001/AMD2. For convenience, the term MPEG-4 extension 2 will be used in this specification. In accordance with MPEG-4 Extension 2 a stereo audio signal may be represented by the following parameter data:
Transient parameter data which represents the non-stationary part of the audio signal.
Sinusoid parameter data which represents the tonal part of the audio signal.
Noise parameter data representing the non-tonal (or stochastic) part of an audio signal.
Stereo imaging data.
MPEG-4 Extension 2 provides for stereo signals to be encoded by a Parametric Stereo (PS) algorithm. In PS, stereo audio encoding is achieved by coding a stereo audio signal as a mono signal and a small amount of stereo imaging parameters. The resulting mono signal can then be encoded by a (parametric) mono encoder. At the decoder, the mono encoded channel is expanded into stereo channels by applying the stereo imaging parameters to the decoded mono signal. The stereo parameters consist of Inter-channel Intensity Differences (IID), Inter-channel Time or Phase differences (ITD or IPD) and Inter-Channel Coherence (ICC) (or Inter-channel Cross-Correlations).
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of an MPEG-4 Extension 2 parametric stereo decoder in accordance with prior art.
The decoder 100 comprises a receiver 101 which receives an incoming, MPEG-4 Extension 2 bitstream and de-multiplexes this. The receiver 101 is coupled to decoding unit 103 to which transient, sinusoid and noise parameter data is fed. In response, the decoding unit 103 generates a mono signal.
The decoding unit 103 is coupled to a stereo processor 105 which is further coupled to the receiver 101. The stereo processor 105 receives the mono signal from the decoding unit 103 and the stereo imaging data from the receiver 101 and in response generates a stereo signal in accordance with the MPEG-4 Extension 2 parametric stereo decoding algorithm.
Parametric audio coding permits a relatively low complexity time scaling to be performed in the decoder. FIG. 2 illustrates an example of an MPEG-4 Ext. 2 time and/or pitch scaling parametric stereo decoder 200 in accordance with prior art. The decoder 200 is identical to the decoder 100 of FIG. 1 except that it further comprises a time/pitch scale unit 201. Corresponding blocks of the decoder 200 and decoder 100 have the same reference signs in FIGS. 1 and 2.
The time/pitch scale unit 201 is coupled between the receiver 100 and the decoding unit 103. The time/pitch scale unit 201 is operable to modify the parameter data before these are used to generate the decoded signal. Thus the parameters may be modified to achieve a desired tempo and pitch.
FIG. 3 illustrates a parametric stereo decoder 300 in accordance with prior art. The parametric stereo decoder 300 receives the time domain mono signal from the decoding unit 103 and in response generates a de-correlated signal in a decorrelator 301. The mono signal is further fed to a first domain transform processor 303 which generates a frequency domain representation of the mono signal. Similarly, the de-correlated signal is fed to a second domain transform processor 305 which generates a frequency domain representation of the de-correlated signal.
The first and second domain transform processors 303, 305 are coupled to a parametric stereo decoder unit 307 wherein the signals are processed to generate left and right frequency domain channels. Specifically, the stereo imaging parameters of MPEG-4 Ext. 2 are time varying frequency dependent parameters. Accordingly, the frequency domain samples are modified by:
scaling (representing the Inter-channel Intensity Difference parameters),
rotation (representing the Inter-channel Phase Difference parameters) and
mixing (representing the Inter-channel Coherence parameters).
As a result, the frequency domain representations for the left and right signals are generated.
The parametric stereo decoder unit 307 is coupled to a first inverse transform processor 309 and a second inverse transform processor 311 which are fed the frequency domain left and right channels respectively and in response generates the time domain left and right channels.
Conventionally, the time domain to frequency domain transforms are performed by (analysis) windowing followed by a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and the frequency domain to time domain transforms are performed by an inverse Fast Fourier Transform (iFFT) followed by (synthesis) windowing and subsequent overlap and add combining data from successive blocks.
It will be appreciated that when applying time scaling, it is essential that a suitable synchronization is maintained between the time scaled mono signal (and the de-correlated signal) and the stereo image parameters in order to ensure that the appropriate stereo image parameters are applied to the right samples in the parametric stereo decoder unit 307.
Conventionally, the synchronization is achieved by adjusting the window sizes applied in both time-to-frequency and frequency-to-time transform. For example, if the time scaling of the mono signal is such that the tempo is increased, fewer time domain samples need to be generated between consecutive stereo parameter values. As a result, shorter analysis and synthesis windows are applied in (inverse) domain transform processors 303, 305, 309 and 311. However, in view of computational complexity, the (inverse) transform length is preferably kept constant. Hence, zero padding of the analysis and synthesis windows up to the pre-determined transform length is applied.
In the conventional approach, the stereo parameters are taken directly from the bitstream and used for the processing by the parametric stereo decoder unit 307. Accordingly, the stereo parameters and block processing of the parametric stereo decoder unit 307 may be considered to be synchronized with the original non-time scaled signal. In order to compensate for this, the block times of the FFT and iFFTs are modified accordingly by use of windowing techniques. This approach allows a very flexible and accurate time scaling with high granularity.
The complexity associated with windowing and FFTs is very high, especially in terms of memory requirements. In order to reduce complexity of the parametric stereo decoding tools, it is desirable to replace the time-to-frequency and frequency-to-time transform in the parametric stereo decoder by down-sampled complex-exponential modulated filter banks. The complex-valued sub-band domain samples are generated by convolution (filtering) of the input signal with a complex-exponential modulated proto-type filter. By application of decomposition techniques the number of multiplications and additions required for performing this filtering is minimized. Further description of down-sampled complex-exponential modulated filter banks may be found in "Bandwidth extension of audio Signals by Spectral Band replication" by P. Ekstrand, Proc. 1st IEEE Benelux Workshop on Model Base Processing and Coding of Audio (MPCA-2002), Leuven, Belgium, Nov. 15, 2002.
In contrary to the flexibility of the analysis/synthesis windowing in the FFT-based approach, usage of the complex modulated filter banks results in a fixed block based conversion and processing. In case of a typical 64-bands complex-modulated filter bank, for effectively each 64 input sample block, 64 complex-valued sub-band domain samples are generated as illustrated in FIG. 4. (It should be noted that the lower three bands are divided further in frequency for increased frequency resolution required for the stereo reconstruction). The time interval associated with each of these blocks is fixed. However, as the time intervals for the time scaled signals are constant, the length of corresponding time intervals of the non-time scaled signal varies depending on the time scaling applied. For example, for an increased tempo, 64 samples of the time scaled mono signal will correspond to more than 64 samples of the originally encoded non-time scaled time signal. As the stereo imaging parameter values of the bitstream are inherently synchronized with the originally encoded non-time scaled time signal and as the time to frequency domain transforms cannot compensate for the time scaling, the stereo imaging parameters will generally not be synchronized with the frequency domain samples in the stereo decoding unit.
Hence, an improved system for time scaling would be advantageous and in particular a system allowing for increased flexibility, lower complexity, performance and/or signal quality would be advantageous. In particular, an improved system for time scaling of an MPEG-4 stereo signal having reduced complexity and/or improved synchronization would be an advantage.

Method and apparatus for time scaling of a signal


This disclosure provides a printing method and system including two or more integrated image marking engines, wherein the printing system is operated with less than the total number of image marking engines to generate the maximum specified prints per minute associated with the printing system. According to one exemplary embodiment, each image marking engine is controlled to be inactive in a round-robin manner to maintain substantially equal running time on each image marking engine or a substantially equal number of printed sheets on each marking engine.

The present disclosure relates to printing systems which include two or more integrated printing apparatuses and/or image marking engines ("IME").
One example of an integrated printing system is disclosed in U.S. patent application number US 2006/0221159 which provides two or more IMEs which are integrated by means of a media highway. The media highway integrates the IMEs to provide transportation of a marking substrate to each IME for image marking. Notably, IMEs may be integrated horizontally, vertically, or horizontally and vertically.
Conventionally, the number of marking engines integrated within a specific printing system is chosen to satisfy a desired print rate. For example, a printing system designed to produce a maximum page rate of 100 ppm could include 4 IMEs, each capable of 25 ppm. Alternatively, the printing system could include 5 IMEs, each capable of 20 ppm.
One disadvantage associated with these conventional integrated printing systems is they only provide partial productivity when one or more of the IMEs is unable to operate for technical or service related issues.
For example, for a 4 IME system with an advertised productivity of 100 ppm (i.e. each IME producing 25 ppm), a maximum productivity of 75 ppm is attainable with 1 IME out of service. This variance in productivity from the advertised or specified throughput of the printing system may contribute to user dissatisfaction.
This disclosure provides a method and system to maintain a specified or advertised printing system throughput, while providing for the removal/disablement of one or more IMEs from the system.

Printing system and method including active and inactive image marking engines


Executable code, placed into a plurality of computing resources forming a distributed ledger, (e.g., “smart contracts”) are provided to enable communicating between parties without requiring trust or an intermediary, such as a broker or escrow service. Data may be deposited in a secure data storage for access by a party who satisfies the condition of the smart contract. A resource holding the deposited data then activates a link upon receiving an access token, as produced as a result of satisfying the smart contract. The distributed ledger is then updated to enable other parties to see a description of the data and the terms.

Selectively providing access to restricted data is a core feature of many computer systems and networks. Data held by one party may have value to other parties. The value may be determined, at least in part, by the scarcity of the data to other parties. Once provided to one third-party, the value and usability of the data to any other third-party may be changed. Data custodians may have incentives to provide such data to as many third-parties as possible, however, third-parties are often suspicious that the data has already been provided to at least one other third-party. As a result, custodians are often unable to fully monetize their data as third-parties are unwilling to provide full value for data they know or suspect has been, or will be, made available to other parties.

Regulating communication comprising access to protected data


The invention relates to a built-in antenna module for a wireless communication terminal. The module includes at least one radiator. The module also includes a base having an inner space, disposed on a board of a terminal body, and having the radiator on an outer surface thereof to enable electric connection between an end of the radiator and the board of the terminal body. The module further includes an operator disposed in the inner space of the base for indicating an incoming call when power is supplied. The invention efficiently utilizes a limited space in the terminal body with enhanced capabilities of the antenna.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an antenna installed inside a wireless communication terminal, and more particularly, a built-in antenna module for a wireless communication terminal, in which an operator for generating sounds or vibrations indicating an incoming call is housed in a component, thereby efficiently utilizing a limited space in a miniaturized wireless communication terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a wireless communication terminal refers to a portable communication device capable of transmitting and receiving voices and texts and image data through wireless communication. The examples include a personal communication service (PCS) terminal, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a smart phone, a next-generation mobile communication (IMT-2000) terminal, a wireless LAN terminal and the like.
The wireless communication terminal adopts a helical antenna or a dipole antenna to enhance its transmission and reception sensitivity. These are external antennas, which thus are extended out of the wireless terminal.
The external antennas have an advantage of non-directional radiation characteristics. But as they are extended to the outside, they are much likely to be damaged by external force, inconvenient for carrying around, and may be a hindrance to attractive exterior design of the terminal.
To overcome such a problem, plate-shaped built-in antennas such as a micro-strip patch antenna or inverted F-type antenna are adopted in the wireless communication terminal recently since they can be installed in the terminal without being extended outward.
FIG. 1 is an assembly diagram in which a built-in antenna and an actuator are provided in a wireless communication terminal according to the prior art. As shown, an antenna module 2 is hooked detachably onto a board 1 of a terminal body (not shown).
The antenna module 2 includes a buttress 3 having a plurality of fastening legs 3a corresponding to fastening grooves 1a formed on the board 1, a conductor 4 shaped like a metal plate on an upper surface of the buttress 3, and a feeder 5 extended from the conductor 4 to be inserted into a contact hole 1b.
Installation of such an antenna module 2 in a terminal body allows more attractive exterior of the terminal with greater portability. In a miniaturized terminal, however, in order to retain or enhance the current transmission and reception efficiency and frequency reception capabilities, the size of the installation area of the antenna prior to miniaturization needs to be maintained or increased.
However, with the limited space in the miniaturized terminal body, it is difficult to maintain or increase the installation area of the antenna.
Furthermore, a part of the board 1 needs to be preserved for disposing an actuator such as a vibration motor 12 for generating vibrations or a speaker 11 for generating sounds indicating an incoming call. Thus, in case of disposing the antenna module 2 coplanar with the actuator 10, there is a limitation in increasing the space for the antenna module to enhance the capabilities of the antenna.

Built-in antenna module of wireless communication terminal


Inhibition of dendritic cell function in solid organ grafts or allogeneic bone marrow transplants prior to or during engraftment by blocking SH2-containing inositol phosphatase (SHIP) expression or function is taught as a method of abrogating immune rejection and thereby increasing the efficacy of engraftment of an allogeneic bone marrow transplant or solid organ allograft or xenograft. Also disclosed is a transgenic mouse having the genotype SHIP−/− which exhibits enhanced survival following mismatched allogeneic marrow grafts.

Activation of phosphatidylinositol 3′-kinase (PI 3-kinase) by growth factors and oncogenes has been implicated as a critical step in mitogenic signaling, cellular transformation and in the prevention of cell death (apoptosis), as described in Cantley et al, Cell 64:281-302 (1991), Kapeller and Cantley. Bioessays 16:565-76 (1994), and Stephens et al, Biochim BiophysActa 1179:27-75 (1993). PI 3-kinase consists of 85 kDa and 110 kDa subunits which associate with receptor tyrosine kinases, other receptors and intracellular signaling molecules in response to survival signals, treatment with growth factors or in normal or transformed cells. Blockade of PI 3-kinase function either by mutagenesis or with pharmacological inhibitors prevents mitogenic signaling and can enhance apoptosis by blocking the activation of Akt/Protein Kinase B. Further, two products of PI 3-kinase, PtdIns(3,4,5)P3 (PIP3) and PtdIns(3,4)P2, increase in cells treated with mitogenic stimuli, as shown by Hawkins, et al. Nature 358:157-910, (1992) and Klippel et al, Molecular and Cellular Biology 16:41174127 (1996). The products of PI 3-kinase are presumed to act as second messengers, as regulators of protein-protein interactions, or recruit other kinases that phosphorylate downstream effectors of PI3K signaling.
Thus, engagement of receptors on the surface of mammalian cells results in the activation of phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate kinase (PI-3 kinase) and phosphorylation of inositol phospholipids on the cytoplasmic side of the membrane. The generation of phosphatidyl inositol (3,4,5) triphosphate (PIP3) by PI-3 kinase contributes to the activation of signaling pathways that drive cell proliferation and/or prevent apoptosis. Removal of the phosphate group from the D5 position of phosphoinositides by the hematopoietic-specific SH2-containing Inositol Polyphosphatase (SHIP) has been identified as an important negative feedback mechanism influencing cell activation and survival in the mammalian hematolymphoid compartment.
SHIP was originally identified based on its ability to bind Shc, Grb2, the FcγRIIB receptor, and by a gene-trapping approach. Through the use of in vitro assays, it was demonstrated that SHIP can remove the 5′-phosphate of PIP3 and inositol 1,3,4,5-tetrakisphosphate (IP4) suggesting that SHIP may counteract the activity of PI-3 kinase or prevent the sustained influx of Ca2+ into the cell. The tyrosine phosphorylation and membrane recruitment of SHIP in response to receptor stimulation has been demonstrated in a variety of transformed hematolymphoid cell lines. Following activation of hematopoietic cells, SHIP is recruited to the membrane for better access to key substrates. In addition, mounting genetic evidence indicates that SHIP plays an important role in vivo as a negative regulator of cell activation in B lymphoid cells, myeloid cells, and mast cells. For example, one study demonstrated that SHIP−/− mice, although viable and fertile, failed to thrive, displaying only a 40% survival rate by 14 weeks of age. Mortality was associated with extensive consolidation of the lungs resulting from infiltration of myeloid cells. Increased numbers of granulocytes-macrophage progenitors were observed in both the bone marrow and spleen. Helgason, CD et al. (1998) "Targeted disruption of SHIP leads to hemopoietic perturbations, lung pathology, and a shortened life span." Genes Dev. 12(11):1610-20. In another study, SHIP−/− mast cells were found to be more prone to mast cell degranulation than SHIP−/+ or +/+ cells. Huber, M. et al (1998) "The src homology 2-containing inositol phosphatase (SHIP) is the gatekeeper of mast cell degranulation." Proc. Natl. Acad Sci USA 95(19):11330-5. In a third study, SHIP−/− mice exhibited chronic hyperplasia of myeloid cells which resulted in splenomegaly, lymphadenopathy, and myeloid infiltration of vital organs. Further, neutrophils and bone marrow-derived mast cells from these mice were less susceptible to programmed cell death induced by various apoptotic stimuli or by growth factor withdrawal. Liu, Q. et al. (1999) "SHIP is a negative regulator of growth factor receptor-mediated PKB/Akt activation any myeloid cell survival." Genes Dev. 13(7):789-91; Liu, Q. et al. (1998) "The inositol polyphoshate 5-phosphatase SHIP is a crucial negative regulator of B cell antigen receptor signalling." J Exp Med 188(7):1333-42.
Together, these results demonstrate that SHIP is an important regulator of cellular responses in mature cells of certain hematopoietic lineages. The above studies were conducted with knockout mice using the traditional approach of neomycin replacement of exon I of the SHIP gene.
Inositol polyphosphate 5-phosphatases were the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 6,090,621 to Kavanaugh et al. "Signaling inositol polyphosphate 5-phosphatases (SIPS)"; PCT WO9710252A1 to Rohrschneider, L. R. "DNA encoding an SH2-inositol phosphatase, a SHC binding protein"; and PCT WO9712039A2 to Krystal, G. "SH2 containing inositol phosphatase."
None of the aforementioned studies have identified a role for SHIP in NK (natural killer) cell function, nor have these studies identified a role for NK cells in graft-versus-hosts disease (GVHD). It would be advantageous for reasons disclosed and described below, to control the activity of SHIP. Methods for controlling SHIP activity, and the benefits and treatments that the instant invention provides in improving bone marrow and solid organ transplants, potentially abrogating marrow graft and solid organ rejection, together with means for screening for substances that modulate-SHIP activity, and more, are contained herein as will become apparent to one of skill in the art upon reading the following disclosure.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Control of NK cell function and survival by modulation of SHIP activity


A sonographic imaging device involves an at least one movable panel, coupled to an upper surface, wherein movement of the panel will alter the overall size of the opening, a tub positioned beneath the opening and defining a volume such that a body part of a human subject can freely protrude through the opening into the volume defined by the tub, at least one robotic arm having a terminal end, wherein the terminal end is position-able to multiple locations within the volume defined by the tub, and at least one high frequency ultrasound transducer located near the terminal end. A related method of acquiring sonographic images of internal tissue of a human subject is also described.

Medical imaging systems are important tools in the diagnosis of medical conditions. However, in many cases ultrasound sonography is not usually employed for screening for various reasons including the skill required to perform the imaging, the requirement that a radiologist review a large number of images, the training and skill required to account for tissue distortions introduced by the constraining apparatus of the imaging system, and cost. This is particularly true for sonography as used for breast cancer screening.
Thus, there remains a need for a medical imaging system that can positively address at least some of these issues and thereby improve an important medical diagnostic tool.

Ultrasound sonographic imaging system and method


Provided is a display device including a controller and a display. The controller may perform tone mapping for adjusting luminance of input image data, and the display may display an image according to an output image data, in which luminance is adjusted by the tone mapping. The controller may generate a base mapping curve from the input image data, analyze depth map information of the input image data, generate a mapping curve, to which the depth map information is reflected, from the base mapping curve, and perform the tone mapping using the mapping curve.

The present disclosure relates to a display device and a driving method thereof. The present disclosure relates to a display device, in which an effect of dynamic tone mapping is enhanced, and a driving method thereof.
A digital image is generally composed of three channels of RGB, and in general, a standard dynamic range (SDR) image may express brightness in the range of 0-255 (8 bits) for each channel. However, in SDR images, the range of brightness that may be expressed in each channel is narrow, so dark parts are not properly expressed or bright parts are often not properly expressed. For example, in the case of an image in which a difference in brightness between a dark part and a bright part is significant, such as a photograph taken in backlight, the contrast balance is biased to one side. Accordingly, a large difference may occur between a scene viewed with the naked eye and an SDR image obtained by photographing the scene. In contrast to these SDR images, images expressed in 16 bits or 32 bits for each channel are called high dynamic range (HDR) images. The HDR images have the advantage of being able to be expressed more realistically since the HDR images may be expressed in a wider brightness.
However, since a general display device cannot express 16-bit or 32-bit gradation, a 16-bit or 32-bit HDR image needs to be converted into a digital image having a limited dynamic range. Tone mapping is used in the process of converting an HDR image into an SDR image or LDR (Low Dynamic Range) image and may refer to a technique of compressing a brightness of an HDR image to a brightness of an SDR image or an LDR image while improving a contrast ratio.
The display device may separate an object and a background from an image, improve visibility and a three-dimensional effect of an object by adjusting the luminance of the object area or the background area.
However, when simple luminance adjustment is performed on the object area, or simple luminance adjustment is performed on the background area, burial occurs in the low gradation area, or saturation occurs in the high gradation area depending on the surrounding environment or image genre. There is a limitation in that the visibility and three-dimensional effect of the object are deteriorated.


An aluminum alloy wire rod has a composition consisting of 0.10-1.00 mass % Mg; 0.10-1.00 mass % Si; 0.01-1.40 mass % Fe; 0.000-0.100 mass % Ti; 0.000-0.030 mass % B; 0.00-1.00 mass % Cu; 0.00-0.50 mass % Ag; 0.00-0.50 mass % Au; 0.00-1.00 mass % Mn; 0.00-1.00 mass % Cr; 0.00-0.50 mass % Zr; 0.00-0.50 mass % Hf; 0.00-0.50 mass % V; 0.00-0.50 mass % Sc; 0.00-0.50 mass % Co; 0.00-0.50 mass % Ni; and the balance being Al and incidental impurities, wherein at least one of Ti, B, Cu, Ag, Au, Mn, Cr, Zr, Hf, V, Sc, Co and Ni is contained in the composition or none of Ti, B, Cu, Ag, Au, Mn, Cr, Zr, Hf, V, Sc, Co and Ni is contained in the composition. A precipitate free zone exists inside a crystal grain, and the precipitate free zone has a width of less than or equal to 100 nm.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an aluminum alloy wire rod used as a conductor of an electric wiring structure, an aluminum alloy stranded wire, a coated wire, a wire harness, and a method of manufacturing an aluminum alloy wire, and particularly relates to an aluminum alloy wire rod that has an improved impact resistance and bending fatigue resistance while ensuring strength, elongation and conductivity equivalent to the related art products, even when used as an extra fine wire having a wire diameter of less than or equal to 0.5 mm.
2. Background
In the related art, a so-called wire harness has been used as an electric wiring structure for transportation vehicles such as automobiles, trains, and aircrafts, or an electric wiring structure for industrial robots. The wire harness is a member including electric wires each having a conductor made of copper or copper alloy and fitted with terminals (connectors) made of copper or copper alloy (e.g., brass). With recent rapid advancements in performances and functions of automobiles, various electrical devices and control devices installed in vehicles tend to increase in number and electric wiring structures used for devices also tends to increase in number. On the other hand, for environmental friendliness, lightweighting of transportation vehicles is strongly desired for improving fuel efficiency of transportation vehicles such as automobiles.
As one of the measures for achieving lightweighting of transportation vehicles, there have been, for example, continuous efforts in the studies of using aluminum or aluminum alloys as a conductor of an electric wiring structure, which is more lightweight, instead of conventionally used copper or copper alloys. Since aluminum has a specific gravity of about one-third of a specific gravity of copper and has a conductivity of about two-thirds of a conductivity of copper (in a case where pure copper is a standard for 100% IACS, pure aluminum has approximately 66% IACS), an aluminum conductor wire rod needs to have a cross sectional area of approximately 1.5 times greater than that of a copper conductor wire rod to allow the same electric current as the electric current flowing through the copper conductor wire rod to flow through the pure aluminum conductor wire rod. Even an aluminum conductor wire rod having an increased cross section as described above is used, using an aluminum conductor wire rod is advantageous from the viewpoint of lightweighting, since an aluminum conductor wire rod has a mass of about half the mass of a pure copper conductor wire rod. Note that, "% IACS" represents a conductivity when a resistivity 1.7241×10−8 Ωm of International Annealed Copper Standard is taken as 100% IACS.
However, it is known that pure aluminum wire rods, typically an aluminum alloy wire rod for transmission lines (JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard) A1060 and A1070), is generally poor in its durability to tension, resistance to impact, and bending characteristics. Therefore, for example, it cannot withstand a load abruptly applied by an operator or an industrial device while being installed to a car body, a tension at a crimp portion of a connecting portion between an electric wire and a terminal, and a cyclic stress loaded at a bending portion such as a door portion. On the other hand, an alloyed material containing various additive elements added thereto is capable of achieving an increased tensile strength, but a conductivity may decrease due to a solution phenomenon of the additive elements into aluminum, and because of excessive intermetallic compounds formed in aluminum, a wire break due to the intermetallic compounds may occur during wire drawing. Therefore, it is essential to limit or select additive elements to provide sufficient elongation characteristics to prevent a wire break, and it is further necessary to improve impact resistance and bending characteristics while ensuring a conductivity and a tensile strength equivalent to those of the related art.
For example, aluminum alloy wire rods containing Mg and Si are known as high strength aluminum alloy wire rods. A typical example of this aluminum alloy wire rod is a 6xxx series aluminum alloy (Al—Mg—Si based alloy) wire rod. Generally, the strength of the 6xxx series aluminum alloy wire rod can be increased by applying a solution treatment and an aging treatment. However, when manufacturing an extra fine wire such as a wire having a wire size of less than or equal to 0.5 mm using a 6xxx series aluminum alloy wire rod, although the strength can be increased by applying a solution heat treatment and an ageing treatment, the elongation tends to be insufficient.
For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2012-229485 discloses a conventional 6xxx series aluminum alloy wire used for an electric wiring structure of the transportation vehicle. An aluminum alloy wire disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2012-229485 is an extra fine wire that can provide an aluminum alloy wire having a high strength and a high conductivity, as well as an improved elongation. Also, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2012-229485 discloses that sufficient elongation results in improved bending characteristics. However, for example, it is neither disclosed nor suggested to use an aluminum alloy wire as a wire harness attached to a door portion, and there is no disclosure or suggestion about impact resistance or bending fatigue resistance under a severe operating environment in which a fatigue fracture is likely to occur due to repeated bending stresses exerted by opening and closing of the door.
The present disclosure is related to providing an aluminum alloy wire rod used as a wire rod of an electric wiring structure, an aluminum alloy stranded wire, a coated wire, a wire harness, and a method of manufacturing an aluminum alloy wire rod that has an improved impact resistance and bending fatigue resistance while ensuring strength, elongation and conductivity equivalent to those of a product of the related art (aluminum alloy wire disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2012-229485), even when it is a prerequisite to use an aluminum alloy containing Mg and Si and by making a microstructure appropriate, and particularly when used as an extra fine wire having a strand diameter of less than or equal to 0.5 mm.
The present inventors have observed a microstructure of the aluminum alloy wire of the related art containing Mg and Si, and found that a zone free of precipitates consisting of a compound of, for example, Mg, Si, Fe, Ti, B, Cu, Ag, Au, Mn, Cr, Zr, Hf, V, Sc, Co and Ni, which are alloy elements added into aluminum, is formed at a portion of a grain that is inside the grain and located in the vicinity of a grain boundary. Such region is a so-called precipitate free zone (PFZ: Precipitate Free Zone). Then, the present inventors have carried out assiduous studies under the assumption that such PFZ has a composition substantially equivalent to that of a pure aluminum and thus has a property equivalent to that of a pure aluminum, resulting in a decrease in a tensile strength, elongation, impact resistance and bending fatigue resistance.
The present inventors have prepared various types of aluminum alloy wires with various widths of precipitate free zone (PFZ) formed at a portion of a grain that is inside the grain and located in the vicinity of the grain boundary by controlling a component composition and a manufacturing process, and carried out a comparison. As a result, it was found that, in a case where the width of the precipitate free zone (PFZ) is made narrow to a certain extent, an improved impact resistance and bending fatigue resistance can be achieved while ensuring strength, elongation and conductivity equivalent to those of a product of the related art (aluminum alloy wire disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2012-229485).
Further, the present inventors have found that since a portion which is a precipitate free zone (PFZ) has a soft and easily deformable structure, and a portion where precipitates exist (precipitate zone) has a structure which is comparatively rigid and difficult to deform, a grain boundary strength and an elongation decrease. Accordingly, the present inventors have also found that reducing the width of the precipitate free zone (PFZ) is preferable in improving tensile strength and elongation (uniform elongation), and contrived the present disclosure.
Note that when an aluminum alloy wire rod is non-uniformly deformed, a local elongation occurs and a cross section area of the aluminum alloy wire becomes locally small, and as a result, a conductor resistance increases and there is a risk that an electric wire may give off smoke due to joule heat emitted by the aluminum alloy wire itself. This tendency becomes particularly noticeable when such an aluminum alloy wire is used as an extra fine wire having a strand diameter of less than or equal to 0.5 mm, since a contribution ratio of the PFZ width to the cross sectional area becomes higher.
Further, in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-105473, which was also filed by the present applicant and which is an unexamined application laid open to public, the applicant has already proposed an aluminum alloy sheet having an improved bending workability and draw-molding by reducing the width of PFZ. However, in the technique disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-105473, it is not considered to suppress the aforementioned non-uniform deformation which tends to occur when forming an aluminum alloy wire from an aluminum alloy wire rod by wire drawing and it is also not considered to improve impact resistance and bending fatigue resistance which are properties necessary for an aluminum alloy wire used under a severe operating environment in which a fatigue fracture is likely to occur due to repeated bending stress applied due to opening and closing of a door.

Aluminum alloy wire rod, aluminum alloy stranded wire, coated wire, wire harness and manufacturing method of aluminum alloy wire rod