Here is disclosed a water-insoluble pyrogen adsorbent composed of a polymer possessing amide groups optionally modified, said polymer being, e.g., a poly amino acid, a nylon, on a polyacrylamide.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a water-insoluble pyrogen adsorbent which is effective in purging medicines, tonics, etc. of pyrogens, i.e., substances which, on entering living bodies in consequence of intravenous administration, e.g., by injection of medicines, tonics, and the like, produce fever.
2. Discussion of the Background
In the production of medicines and the like, for intravenous administration, the technique of purging medicines and the like, of pyrogens has a profound significance.
The term "pyrogens" as used herein refers to those which are classified under exotoxins which are excreted by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, Staphylococcus aureus, and the like, and endotoxins which are components of cellular walls of such gram-negative bacteria such as Escherichia coli, etc. Of these pyrogens, it is generally those of the latter class, i.e., the endotoxins occurring in the gram-negative bacteria that pose a problem. They have been identified as originating in lipid A, a glycolipid constituting itself the active center in the liposaccharide (LPS), i.e., the composite of lipid with polysaccharide.
It is thought that when a medicine entraining a pyrogen therewith happens to be intravenously administered, e.g., by injection, the pyrogen produces fever by acting on heat centers such as the hypothalamus. The fever may be very serious and at times may bring about death from shock. A manufacturer engaging in the production of a medicine for injection, therefore, is under the obligation to conduct a test with rabbits and confirm safety of the medicine by establishing that the medicine does not entrain any pyrogen with it.
In the existing methods available for the removal of such pyrogens from medicines, and the like, the method which effects the removal by adsorption with carbon powder or ion-exchange resin, the method which attains the removal by decomposing the pyrogen with an acid or an alkali, and the method which accomplishes the removal in a selective manner by the use of an ultra-membrane filter, for example, are renowned. A case of successful application of the composite having an imidazole-containing compound such as histamine or a nucleic acid base bonded to a dextran type gel carrier to the adsorptive removal of pyrogens has been reported in literature [Minobe et al: Journal of Chromatography, 262, 193-198 (1983)]. With respect to the conventional methods of the removal of pyrogens from medicines during their production, however, there remains many technical problems to be solved. The medicines themselves to be subjected to the treatment are not stable and the amounts of pyrogens to be removed are extremely small as compared with the amounts of medicines under treatment. With these and other drawbacks as contributory factors, the methods mentioned above have many technical problems yet to be solved for the purpose of effective application to the removal of pyrogens in the production of medicines on a commercial scale. The desirability of developing an effective and expeditious method capable of eliminating all of these problems has been finding growing recognition.
In the circumstances, it has been found that a novel pyrogen adsorbent characterized by using poly amino acid beads as a carrier and having an imidazole derivative deposited fast on the carrier excels in affinity for pyrogens and enjoys advantages in pyrogen adsorption treatment owing to the rigidity of the carrier (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) HEI 1-127,039 (1989)). The preparation of the pyrogen adsorbent, however, necessitates a process of several steps of reactions and inevitably entails more or less operational intricacies. Moreover, the pyrogen adsorbent has a limited capacity for the incorporation of the imidazole derivative as a ligand and, consequently, a limited capacity for the adsorption of pyrogens.

Pyrogen adsorbent containing amide groups


The invention relates to a process for the display on a screen on board an aircraft of flying aid symbols. On the basis of information supplied by an inertial system and ground beacons processed by an on board computer, the process consists of displaying on an on board screen (EV) symbols more particularly representing the wings of the aircraft (A1, A2), the model of the aircraft (CP), its speed (V), the tendency to acceleration and deceleration (AD1, AD2), a flight path prediction (PT), the artificial horizon (H), the roll angle (.phi.), the sideslip (AL) and the total energy (ET1, ET2). It also consists of displaying the flight path to be followed in perspective (P1, P2, S3, S4, S5) and in projection (S'1 to S'5) on the plane of the runway. Any flight path segment during passage, as well as the segment following the latter are displayed in parallelepipedic form (P1, P2) in perspective. A final segment preceding the touchdown point of the wheels on the runway is displayed in the form of a pyramid (P3) in perspective. A display also takes place of the runway (P) and a grid (M1, M2, PE1, PE2) superimposed on said runway, in perspective.

The present invention relates to a process for displaying flying or piloting aid symbols on a screen on board an aircraft. The invention more specifically applies to the display of symbols assisting a pilot to act on the flight controls in such a way that the aircraft follows a predetermined flight path on approaching a runway and on landing. This flight path is formed by successive segments comprising runway approach segments and a final segment, covered just prior to landing, up to the touchdown point of the wheels on the runway.

Process for displaying flying aid symbols on a screen on board an aircraft

Aerospatiale Societe Nationale Industrielle


Novel tools and techniques are described for mitigating data loss during failover in a VPLS multi-homed network. In one aspect, a primary link might be established between a lowest numbered provider edge (“PE”) router in the service provider network and a lowest numbered physical site at customer premises outside the service provider network. A stability site might be established within the service provider network, communicatively coupled to at least the lowest numbered PE router via a primary virtual circuit. The stability site might be designated as the lowest numbered virtual site, which might have a site ID number lower than the lowest numbered physical site. In response to the primary link failing or becoming broken, one or more backup virtual circuits might be established between a plurality of ingress PE routers and a plurality of egress PE routers in the service provider network, without destroying the primary virtual circuit.

In a virtual private local area network ("LAN) service ("VPLS") multihoming network where many POPs are connected though VC (Virtual circuits) and many virtual LANs ("VLANs") are present, there is a flaw in RFC 4761, which does not account for network outages on both failure and restoration stages. VPLS Multihoming is typically used for redundancy. The switches which provide access to the many VLANS are connected to two provider edge ("PE") routers. In the same point of presence ("POP"), one of the PE routers will act as a primary whereas the other will be backup. Virtual Circuits ("VC") interconnect POPS at a layer 2 level using VPLS. The VC is setup between primary PEs only. Note that by default, the VC will identify the Primary as PE associated with the lowest site ID within the same POP.
If a primary link breaks between one of the lowest numbered site pair connecting two POPS within the service provider VPLS network, a new VC must be established based on the next lowest numbered site pair until the broken primary link has been repaired. This results in a substantial loss of traffic. When the link is repaired, the VC will automatically switch back the initial lowest numbered sire pair, and that will result in another loss of traffic. Note that restoration of a service is expected not to result in loss of service especially to the "non-affected" site IDs, which is not the case here.
Because of the need to establish the new LSI interface due to outage or restoration of the same outage, data loss may occur due to one or both of "convergence time data loss" and/or "back door MAC learning data loss."


A jumper chip component of the present invention includes a connection conductor formed of a conductive layer over an upper face and opposite side faces of an insulating substrate, and a conductive material formed of a conductive layer between plates of the insulating substrate and on a side face at the corner of the insulating substrate so as not to be electrically connected to the connection conductor. Since the conductive material formed between the plates of the insulating substrate opposes the connection conductor formed on the upper face of the insulating substrate, the connection conductor formed on the upper face of the insulating substrate and a second conductive pattern disposed under the insulating substrate are shielded from each other by the conductive material, and good isolation is possible.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a jumper chip component suitable for use in a high-frequency device, such as a satellite receiving converter, and to a mounting structure therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional jumper structure will be described with reference to FIG. 12. A circuit board 51 on which various electrical components (not shown) are mounted is provided with a pair of first conductive patterns 52a and 52b spaced from each other, and a second conductive pattern 53 extending between the pair of first conductive patterns 52a and 52b.
A jumper wire 54 made of a conductive wire is soldered to the first conductive patterns 52a and 52b at both ends while crossing over the second conductive pattern 53.
Since the conventional jumper structure adopts the jumper wire 54, automation of mounting operation is difficult, and productivity is low.
When the jumper wire 54 is mounted on the circuit board 51, the jumper wire 54 and the second conductive pattern 53 crossing each other oppose and interfere with each other, which worsens isolation.

Jumper chip component and mounting structure therefor


An electrical connector includes a generally U-shaped connector housing, which has two parallel side walls. Each of the side walls is formed with an integral projection, which engages a notch in a circuit board that is inserted into the connector. Two unitary reinforcing members are secured to the side walls, respectively. Each of the unitary reinforcing members has an elongated abutment plate overlying a respective one of the side walls to reinforce the side walls, two contact portions and a stop element, which is located between the contact portions. When inserted into or disengaged from the connector, the circuit board slides over the projections of the side walls, thereby permitting flexing of the side walls and movement of the stop element relative to the contact portions. Upon contact of the stop element with either of the contact portions, the side walls cannot continue to flex. Accordingly, excessive flexure and breakage of the side walls can be prevented.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electrical connector, more particularly to a generally U-shaped electrical connector which has reinforced side walls that can be prevented from excessive flexure and breakage.
2. Description of the Related Art
A generally U-shaped electrical connector has a generally U-shaped connector housing into which a circuit board can be inserted. The generally U-shaped connector housing has two parallel side walls, each of which is formed with an integral board-retaining projection. The circuit board has two opposite sides with two opposed notches for engaging the projections to retain the circuit board on the connector. As shown in FIG. 1, each of the side walls 10 has a pin hole 100 into which a pin 11 is inserted. To engage the projections 12 of the side walls 10 within the notches 130 in the circuit board 13, the circuit board 13 slides over inclined surfaces 120 of the projections 12 to push the outer end portions 101 of the side walls 10 outwardly away from each other. To disengage the projections 12 from the notches 130 in the circuit board 13, bent outer end sections 110 of the pins 11 are pulled outwardly, thereby permitting disengagement of the circuit board 13 from the connector. As such, the side walls 10 and the pins 11 may flex excessively and break.

Generally U-shaped electrical connector with reinforced side walls


A mask insert to provide conformal support for the reflective seal of an oxygen mask comprising a formed rim made of a resiliently deformable material which is held in place beneath the reflective seal by a supporting framework which conforms to the contours of the interior surface of the mask. The formed rim applies constant pressure on the face-engaging surface of the reflective seal, adjusting for variations in the user's facial structure, thereby eliminating leaks.

Oxygen mask comfort is an important issue for many aircrew, life support technicians, and oxygen equipment designers. Extended wear of masks under certain flight conditions continues to be necessary. An oronasal mask used for delivery of gases must be suitable for continuous wear for eight hours, and seal effectively to the face, preventing excessive inboard or outboard leakage of gas. The standard aircrew oxygen mask is equipped with two main structural components which determine the quality of fit for an individual--an external hard-shell and a silicone rubber face piece which forms the seal around the individual's nose and mouth. The hard-shell supports the internal face piece and provides structural support for inhalation and exhalation valves, the supply hose, microphone, and the mask suspension system. The face piece conforms to the hard-shell and incorporates the reflective edge seal which is pressed firmly against the face when positive pressure is delivered to the mask. If the seal is not maintained and mask pressure is lost, the anti-G (acceleration) protection (PBG) and high altitude protection (PBA) provided by positive pressure breathing is also lost, placing aircrew at risk for loss of consciousness.
For positive pressure to be maintained in the lung, a mask must create a near perfect seal around the mouth and nose. Pressures as high as 60 mm Hg are generated by the U.S. Air Force's PEG system, known as the Combined Advance Technology Enhanced Design G Ensemble (COMBAT EDGE). Other PEG and PBA systems use breathing pressures as high as 70 mm Hg. In addition, maintaining the seal as mask weight increases during +Gz is another challenge, particularly during PEG. Mask function during high acceleration forces may be a problem for aircrew who are normally able to achieve a comfortable fit at +1 Gz. The mask must function during exposures of up to +9 Gz, remain in place on the face, maintain a good seal to the skin and not interfere significantly with breathing.
With the advent of PEG and PBA positive pressure, the function and comfort of a mask are inversely related. Nearly any individual can be fitted with a standard off-the-shelf mask size if the absence of a leak is the only criterion for a good fit. For some persons, however, the discomfort due to mask tensioning pressure required to achieve an airtight seal is intolerable. For many individuals, mask discomfort may range somewhere between intolerable and bearable and aircrew performance may suffer.
For these persons the silicon rubber reflective seal fails to maintain a mask seal. Downward slippage on the face causes the seal to be forced outward and away from the face. This condition is partially correctable through additional mask tensioning and hard shell trimming. Increased strap tension, however, usually results in increased discomfort or even pain. The degree of leakage and discomfort of a properly fitted mask is dependent on the individual's facial structure. A proper aircrew oxygen mask fit is often difficult to achieve since each individual's face shape is unique, while only three or four standard mask sizes exist. The existing equipment is not designed to compensate for all variations in facial structure. Sizing systems for oxygen masks are based upon 1950's aircrew anthropometry and are only designed to fit approximately 95% of the target male population. Fitting has become increasingly difficult as females and aircrew of greater ethnic diversity assume combat aircraft roles. Increasing the number of available off-the-shelf sizes is not a cost efficient method of increasing the population coverage of mask fit.
The need therefore exists for a means of customizing standard masks to improve the seal while maintaining a comfortable fit. Applicants' invention is directed towards the solution of this problem by providing a conformal mask insert which supports the mask reflective seal from the inside of the mask cavity, pressing the reflective seal against the user's face at all points. U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,061 describes a supplemental rubber seal which augments the existing mask seal by providing additional sealing surface; however, this supplemental seal does not control the shape of, nor provide additional support to, the existing mask seal. Applicant's invention supports the backside of the existing mask seal and controls the shape of the sealing surface by providing constant pressure across the backside of the seal. Applicant's insert increases the surface contact area of the seal, evenly distributing seal pressure over a broad area of the user's face. A good seal is more easily achieved with the insert, requiring less strap tension. Therefore, comfort is improved over the existing equipment which relies upon increased strap tension to achieve an adequate seal. Applicant's invention provides the solution for those individuals who are unable to achieve a non-leaking comfortable fit with standard mask sizes.
The insert may allow a means of customizing the mask, quickly and reversibly, to benefit a relatively large proportion of the user population. The strong, flexible insert is easily but securely inserted into and removed from the mask cavity without any disassembly of existing mask components. Since the insert is relatively inexpensive and not permanently fixed to the mask, it can be used on an as-needed basis, easily removed for cleaning and maintenance and replaced periodically, if necessary. Additional benefits of the insert may include decreased mask cavity dead space (by approximately 50 ml) and perhaps improved acoustics within the mask cavity. The insert may also alleviate problems with pressure on the nose bridge for certain individuals. The mask with insert is fitted, tested, and used in the same manner as a mask without an insert as prescribed in existing technical publications.
The mask insert concept may benefit any mask design which creates an airtight seal by means of a reflective seal. Modification of the shape of the insert would allow it to be placed into any reflective seal oxygen mask design, thereby improving the comfort and function of masks for commercial and general aviation aircrew, chemical protection respirators used in industry, firefighters respirators, or any face masks which employ a reflective seal to maintain an airtight fit.
These, and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent as the detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof proceeds.

Insert to provide conformal support for the reflective seal of an oxygen mask

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force


Techniques are described for efficiently estimating and compensating for the effects of a communication channel in a multi-carrier wireless communication system. The techniques exploit the fact that the transmitted symbols are drawn from a finite-alphabet to efficiently estimate the propagation channel for multi-carrier communication systems, such systems using OFDM modulation. A transmitter transmits data through a communication channel according to the modulation format. A receiver includes a demodulator to demodulate the data and an estimator to estimate the channel based on the demodulated data. The channel estimator applies a power-law operation to the demodulated data to identify the channel. The techniques can be used in both blind and semi-blind modes of channel estimation.

In multi-carrier wireless communication systems, such as mobile phone networks, wireless local area networks and satellite communications, transmitters and receivers communicate through wireless propagation "channels." The transmitted waveforms are reflected by scatterers present in the wireless media, and arrive at the receiver via many different paths. The multi-path wireless channel causes interference between the transmitted data symbols, referred to as inter-symbol interference (ISI).
In order to recover the transmitted sequence, the receiver estimates and compensates for the channel effects induced by the wireless communication channel. The channel is characterized either in the time-domain via its impulse response (the channel output when the input is an impulse), or in the frequency domain via its frequency response (the channel output when the input is a complex exponential with certain frequency). Techniques for estimating the channel's impulse or frequency response are generally referred to as data-aided, blind, or, semi-blind. In data-aided techniques, the transmitter sends a training sequence that is known by the receiver. The receiver can then estimate the impulse response of the channel by comparing the received data, i.e., the output of the channel, with the training sequence. In blind and semi-blind techniques, the receiver applies advanced signal processing algorithms to estimate the channel effects without exact knowledge of the transmitted data.

Channel estimation for wireless OFDM systems


The present application relates to a film mask comprising: a transparent substrate; a darkened light-shielding pattern layer provided on the transparent substrate; and groove portions provided in a region where the darkened light-shielding pattern layer is not provided, a method for manufacturing the same, a method for forming a pattern by using the same, and a pattern manufactured by using the same.

When a general film mask-based roll-to-roll photolithography technology fails to secure adhesive force with a substrate to be patterned, the reduction in resolution of a pattern and the deviation for each position occur. In order to overcome the deviation in patterning for each position, a lamination process is introduced to maximally adhere a film mask in a UV exposed region to a substrate during the pattern process. However, the lamination process has a disadvantage in that it is difficult to maintain an exact tolerance due to characteristics such as a machining tolerance of a nip roll for lamination, generally a tolerance of 3/100 mm or more, and deformation resulting from pressure. In order to overcome the disadvantage, a patterning technology using a dry film resist (hereinafter, referred to as DFR) has been recently attempted, and for the technology, a process comprising warming a dry film resist in a film state at room temperature to near about 100° C., laminating the dry film resist on a substrate, laminating a film mask again, and then performing a UV exposure is carried out. However, the dry film resist has difficulties in implementing a high-resolution pattern due to a disadvantage in that it is difficult to overcome a resolution problem of the DFR during an actual patterning along with a disadvantage in that it is difficult to adjust the thickness of the film to a desired thickness. FIG. 1 illustrates problems with an ability to implement a pattern and an attaching force according to resolution during a patterning by using the DFR. Specifically, there is a problem with the attaching force of an isolated pattern with 15 μm or less when the DFR is used, and there is a problem with an ability to implement a pattern in a region range of 10 μm.
Further, generally, during a roll-to-roll exposure using a film mask, a lamination by means of A Roll and B Roll illustrated in FIG. 2 is introduced, and at this time, the step and uniformity of a patterned photosensitive resin during UV exposure are determined by the uniformity of gap between A Roll and B roll and the straightness of B Roll. At this time, a hard steel roll is typically applied to one of A Roll and B roll, the other roll is determined by characteristics of the resin and other process characteristics, and for example, an RTV Si roll is usually used. At this time, several mechanical defects which may occur during the contact of a roll and a roll are illustrated in FIG. 3. FIG. 3 illustrates an example in which mechanical defects occur when the axes of a rubber roll and a steel roll are brought into contact with each other with being twisted.
In addition, defects illustrated in FIG. 4 may occur according to a material and a shape of a rubber roll. Specifically, unlike an ideal contact shape in FIG. 4(A), as the position at which a load is applied is generally disposed at the edge of the roll, a deformation in which the middle part is lifted occurs as illustrated in FIG. 4(B), or a phenomenon in which the center part becomes thick occurs. In order to solve the problem, there has been conducted an mechanical reinforcement for overcoming the problem by using a crown roll as illustrated in FIG. 4(C) or polishing the edge of the roll. However, although the mechanical reinforcement is conducted, there is a process limitation in which high pressure needs to be applied during the lamination in order to maintain a uniform gap between the film mask and the substrate, which are previously mentioned, and there is a disadvantage in that the thickness of the resin cannot be increased to a desired height for this reason.
Furthermore, it is highly likely that a residual film in a lower region occurs according to whether a deviation between an upper critical dimension (CD) and a lower CD and an exposure amount are adjusted by diffusion characteristics of light during the exposure of a photosensitive resin with a basically formed pattern. The residual film may be particularly more easily generated in the case of a line pattern than in the case of an isolated dot pattern, and the generation of the residual film causes problems such as deterioration in quality of a product and haze. FIG. 5 illustrates a shape of a line pattern and a shape of a residual film which occur when a general roll-to-roll exposure process is applied to a patterning process of a negative-type photosensitive resin composition (an upper portion line width of 14.1 μm, a lower portion line width of 22.9 μm).

Film mask, method for manufacturing same, and method for forming pattern using film mask and pattern formed thereby


In accordance with one embodiment, a serial sensing scheme may be utilized to sense the information stored on a multilevel cell. The more significant bit of the information in the cell may sense initially. The more significant bit information may be used to determine which of at least two reference levels to utilize to determine a less significant bit of the cell.

This invention relates generally to serially sensing the output of multilevel flash memories.
Data is read from a nonvolatile memory by comparing a voltage or current generated from the stored data with a reference voltage or current. In the case of a multilevel cell, the process of reading data involves comparing the voltage or current generated from the data to a series of references in order to determine the position of the generated voltage relative to the references.
Conventionally, the sensing scheme for reading data from multilevel cells involves using one sense amplifier for each reference level. This approach may be called parallel sensing. In contrast, in serial sensing, a single sense amplifier may be utilized to sense the multilevel cell. This has the advantage of reducing the amount of silicon area used for sensing circuitry by a factor of N where N is the number of reference voltages. In addition, the serial sense scheme matches the load on the cell dependent voltage or current with the load on the references. In contrast, in the parallel sense scheme, the cell dependent voltage or current has N sense amplifier loads while each reference has only one sense amplifier load. This mismatch can create offsets in the amplification that may necessitate additional circuitry or may call for greater differential margin.
In view of the advantages of serial sensing, there is a need for better ways to implement serial sensing in multilevel memory cells.

Serially sensing the output of multilevel cell arrays


In a mobile communication system, each mobile terminal as well as the base station are provided with a registration memory for storing abbreviated dialing data which comprises at least one pair of an abbreviated number and an identification number corresponding to the abbreviated number. The abbreviated dialing data is stored into the registration memory of a first mobile terminal by the user operating a keypads The stored abbreviated dialing data is transferred from the first mobile terminal to the base station. When a second mobile terminal requests the abbreviated dialing data stored in the base station, the base station transmits the abbreviated dialing data to the second mobile terminal. In this manner, the abbreviated dialing data is transferred from a mobile terminal to the base station and then from the base station to another mobile terminal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a digital mobile communication system comprising base stations and mobile terminals, and in particular to a method and system for registering abbreviated numbers into base stations and mobile terminals.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, an abbreviated dialing function is provided to enhance the usefulness of a telephone system. So with a digital cordless telephone system known as a personal handy phone system (PHS), there are proposed several systems having the abbreviated dialing function. For example, a confirmation system of the abbreviated numbers is disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 5-48732. In this system, abbreviated numbers are previously stored in a base Station and are transferred from the base station to a mobile telephone terminal by request so that the user can confirm those abbreviated numbers by means of speech or characters.
However, in the conventional cordless telephone system, a mobile telephone terminal can use the abbreviated dialing function within only the radio zone of a certain base station storing the abbreviated numbers. In other words, the mobile telephone terminal cannot use the abbreviated dialing function when it is located within the radio zone of another base station which does not store the same abbreviated numbers. This causes the digital cordless telephone system to reduce in usefulness.

Method and system for registering abbreviated dialing numbers


A drive circuit 22 controls voltages applied to a substrate 1, selection gates SG0 and SG1, a local bit line LB2, and a control gate CGn. By respectively applying a negative voltage to the control gate CGn, a positive voltage to the selection gate SG0, a voltage lower than the voltage applied to the selection gate SG0 to the selection gate SG1, and a positive voltage to the local bit line LB2, the drive circuit 22 controls so that electrons are selectively drawn out of a floating gate FG3 to the local bit line LB2 by F-N tunneling during writing operation. Sufficient operation margin is obtained even when memory cells are miniaturized.

As a conventional nonvolatile semiconductor memory device, a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device shown in FIGS. 10 to 12 is known (refer to Patent Document 1; Related Art 1). The nonvolatile semiconductor memory device relating to Related Art 1 comprises a first diffusion region 107, a selection gate 103, a second diffusion region (121 in FIG. 10), a floating gate 106, and a control gate 111 in a memory cell array (refer to FIGS. 10 and 11).
The first diffusion regions 107 extend in one direction on the surface of a substrate 101, and are provided in parallel and apart from each other. The first diffusion region 107 is used as a local bit line (LB). The selection gates (SG) 103 are disposed in regions between the neighboring first diffusion regions 107 on the substrate 101 intervened with an insulating film 102, and extend in the same direction as the first diffusion region 107. The second diffusion regions (121 in FIG. 10) are disposed on the surface of the substrate 101 outside the cell region and underneath the selection gates 103, and extend in a direction crossing the selection gates 103 outside the cell region on both sides. The second diffusion region (121 in FIG. 10) is used as a common source (CS). Floating gates 106 (FG) are storage nodes and disposed in regions between the first diffusion regions 107 and the selection gates 103 intervened with the insulating film 102, and they are arranged insularly, when viewed from a direction normal to the plane. The control gates 111 (CG) are provided over the floating gates 106 and the selection gates 103 intervened with an insulating film 108, disposed in parallel and apart from each other, and extend in a direction crossing the selection gates 103. The control gates 111 are used as word lines.
A first unit cell is constituted by one of the first diffusion regions 107 (LB) disposed on both sides of the selection gate 103, a floating gate 106, a control gate 111, and a selection gate 103, and a second unit cell is constituted by the other of the first diffusion regions 107, a floating gate 106, a control gate 111, and a selection gate 103. Each of the first diffusion regions 107 is shared by a plurality of neighboring unit cells. In this nonvolatile semiconductor memory device, an inversion layer 120 is created within the cell region on the surface of the substrate 101 below the selection gate 103 when a positive voltage is applied to the selection gate 103.
Voltages applied to the first diffusion region 107, the selection gate 103, the second diffusion region 121, the control gate 111, and the substrate 101 (a well 101a) are controlled by a drive circuit 122, a part of peripheral circuits of the semiconductor memory device.
The selection gates 103 are provided in a pair of selection gates SG0 and SG1 in an erase block 123 (refer to FIG. 12). Viewed perpendicularly to the plane, SG0 and SG1 are respectively formed into a comb shape, and the comb teeth of SG0 are disposed in the spaces between the comb teeth of SG1 at a predetermined interval. SG0 and SG1 are electrically connected to all unit cells in the erase block 123. The erase block 123 is constituted by a plurality of unit cells, and a block is constituted by those unit cells where electrons are simultaneously drawn out of the floating gates 106 when an erase operation is performed (the erase operation will be described later). A plurality of the erase blocks 123 exist in one semiconductor memory device.
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese Patent Kokai Publication No. JP-P2005-51227A


A coplanar antenna including a conductive plane, wherein the length of the conductive plane along a first dimension is less than one-quarter of a wavelength of a resonant frequency; an insulating region within the conductive plane, wherein the insulating region is of a shape that outlines a conductive peninsula, wherein: the conductive peninsula is coupled to the conductive plane, the conductive peninsula is substantially coplanar to a major portion of the conductive plane, the conductive peninsula is operable to be electrically coupled to an electric feed circuit, and the conductive peninsula is operable to electrically couple a tunable inductance to the conductive plane after receiving a current from the electric feed circuit.

Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is coplanar antennas.
Description Of Related Art
Personal, wearable technology continues to evolve, and the technologies underlying these wearable devices also continue to evolve. Some existing technologies incorporate antennas that require the use of an insulating radome over the antenna in order to both protect the underlying antenna from static discharge and to protect the electrical properties of the antenna itself.


The present invention employs the natural hydrophilic properties of a macromolecular film such as a hydrogel and in combination with localized photo-ablation of monolayers created with the hydrogel using multi-photon laser excitation, provides a stampless, versatile method of micropattern fabrication.

In the last decade, several laboratories have investigated extracellular matrix (ECM) protein interactions using self-assembled monolayer (SAM) micro-patterning techniques based on soft lithography, where silicone "stamps" containing micron-sized patterns are generated to "ink" ECM proteins onto two dimensional surfaces, controlling the spatial distribution of cell-ECM attachments, while blocking non-adhesive regions with hydrophilic alkyl thiol groups. However, these techniques utilize thiolated gold coverslips to conjugate ECM proteins. Gold, being an electron dense metal, can dramatically quench fluorescent proteins, thereby reducing the ability to observe labeled proteins using living cells without causing phototoxicity. The current invention is based, in part, on the discovery of improved techniques for micropattern fabrication that do not rely on "stamps".

Micropatterning of biological molecules using laser ablation

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services


The present invention relates to the use of a composition comprising at least one cell membrane fraction or parts thereof, for the reduction of lipolytic activity and/or to retard fat digestion, suppress appetite, body weight and/or lower blood lipids. The invention also relates to the use of said hydrophobic peptide in a pharmaceutical as well as a food composition and methods of treating a mammal with said composition.

Overweight and obesity has become an increasing world-wide problem. Obesity leads to a concomitant increase in several diseases such as diabetes, arteriosclerosis, hypertension as well as certain cancer forms. High-fat diet, either alone or added with sucrose, is one of the most important factors causing obesity, since these diets easily promote overeating. It is therefore of great importance to optimize the control of appetite for dietary fat to reduce obesity. Satiety for fat is mainly driven from the intestine, as demonstrated through the infusion of fat into the intestine, which reduces food intake (Greenberg D. and Smith, G. P., Psychosomatic medicine 58: 559-569, 1996). The reason for the suppression of food intake under these conditions is the release of various satiety peptides in the intestine by the contact of fat with the intestinal mucosa. Since fatty acids, the products of dietary fat, are absorbed immediately after their production, a reduced rate of fat digestion would theoretically optimize the satiety for fat.
The key enzyme during intestinal fat digestion is pancreatic lipase. The use of lipase inhibitor (Xenical) as a drug against obesity is well established (Sjöstrom L. et al, Lancet 352: 167-172, 1998). The lipase inhibitor not only reduces body weight but also improves insulin resistance. Such findings hence provide strong evidence for a role of intestinal fat digestion on satiety for fat and insulin sensitivity. The drawback with this lipase inhibitor is that it inhibits all types of lipases and produces steatorrea due to a strongly impaired fat digestion. It is therefore of utmost importance to develop a natural compound that retards fat digestion in a milder way without causing steatorrea as side effect. We have found a natural compound of high nutritive value that retards fat digestion, suppresses appetite by increasing satiety hormones and decreases serum triglyceride levels.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Use of plant cell membrane treatment of obesity


Apparatus and methods for high-frequency low-pass filtering are disclosed. A first resistor is operatively coupled between a first node and a second node. A second resistor is operatively coupled between the second node and a third node. An amplifier circuit has a first input operatively coupled to the third node and a first output operatively coupled to a fourth node. The first output is configured to provide a first output signal. A first complex impedance network is operatively coupled between the fourth node and the third node. A first feedback path is operatively coupled between the fourth node and the second node. The first feedback path is configured to invert at least a portion of the first output signal. The first feedback path is further configured to provide a first feedback capacitance at the second node.

1. Field
Embodiments of the invention relate to electronic systems, and more particularly, to analog active low-pass filter circuits.
2. Description of the Related Technology
Noise and other undesirable signals may be introduced to a signal chain. Undesirable signals can negatively affect the quality of a signal and degrade system performance. Various signal processing techniques can be used to lessen the negative effects of undesirable signals. One example of such a signal processing technique is frequency-discriminatory filtering. For example, a low-pass filter can attenuate undesirable signals by attenuating frequencies above a cutoff frequency, while passing frequencies below the cutoff frequency. The cutoff frequency can be selected based on the frequency spectrum of the desirable signals and/or undesirable signals.
Filters can be implemented as passive filter circuits or active filter circuits. A passive filter does not include active components (such as operational amplifiers) and/or does not depend upon an external power supply. An active filter includes one or more active components in the circuit structure and/or depends upon an external power supply.


A digital adaptive predistorter look up table (DAPD-LUT) technique dynamically adapts a look up table (LUT) an LUT spacing for linearizing a power amplifier (PA). It optimizes the LUT spacing for the PA without prior knowledge of system state information. A size-N LUT divides a whole unsaturated PA input amplitude range into N bins, each predistorted by an entry of the LUT. The LUT is indexed by an input amplitude of a modulated signal via an index mapper to implement an unconditionally non-uniform LUT spacing. A spacing adaptor online interactively adapts the LUT spacing. The adapted LUT spacing balances the inter-modulation distortion (IMD) power at the PA output corresponding to each bin, so that the total IMD power at the PA output is minimized. This dynamically-optimum technique is practical, robust, and with low complexity.

Power efficiency of a power amplifier is a crucial issue in wireless communication systems. A stand-alone class-A PA suffers the problem of low power efficiency. On the other hand, a stand-alone power efficient PA, like class-AB or class-B amplifier, is usually highly nonlinear. When a non-constant-envelope modulated signal goes through a nonlinear PA, inter-modulation distortion (IMD) will emerges. This not only distorts the modulated signal but also causes the power spectrum of the modulated signal to overflow to the adjacent channels. As a result, both self-interference and mutual-interference among neighboring channels seriously degrade the communication quality. In order to maintain power efficiency and suppress IMD, it is a common practice to adopt a nonlinear PA with high power efficiency.
There exist a few schemes for PA linearization, such as the feed-forward scheme, the feedback scheme, and the predistortion scheme. Each is with either analog approaches or digital approaches. Generally speaking, the feed-forward schemes are costly and the feedback schemes are limited to only narrow band applications. All the analog approaches are inflexible. Therefore, in terms of cost effectiveness, the digital predistortion schemes are superior to the others.
Shown in FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the linearization of a digital predistorter (PD). The digital PD 101 predistorts a modulated input signal vm to invert the nonlinear distortion introduced by a PA 107. In particular, a digital adaptive PD (DAPD) employing a gain-based look up table 101a is very attractive for its flexibility in algorithm adaptation and its high accuracy in nonlinear compensation. As shown in FIG. 1, the complex baseband modulated input signal vm carrying the payload data is fed to the cascade of the PD 101 and a radio frequency (RF) link. The PD 101 distorts the modulated input signal vm to produce a predistorted signal vd. The RF link takes over the predistorted signal vd, to generate the transmission signal va, through a digital-to-analog (D/A) converter 103 for transformation, a quadature modulator 105 for frequency up-conversion, and the PA 107 for power amplification.
Because the characteristics of a PA may vary with temperature and may be affected by aging, an adaptive algorithm is required in a DAPD-LUT scheme to update the LUT entry values. In addition, the linearization accuracy of a DAPD-LUT scheme in terms of IMD will improve 6 dB if one doubles the number of LUT entries. However, the more LUT entries one adopts, the lower LUT convergence speed it will suffer.
Several gain-based LUT techniques are either analyzed or implemented. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a conventional gain-based DAPD-LUT technique that the indexing of the N-size LUT entries is uniformly spaced, wherein the normalized unsaturated input amplitude range of a PA is [0, 1] and an LUT entry's spacing di equals to 1/N. However, in the uplink or downlink of a wireless network, most transmitted signals do not occupy the input amplitude range of the entire PA. Some LUT entries will never be selected. Therefore, a non-uniform LUT spacing technique is highly desired to avoid wasting LUT entries.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a conventional gain-based DAPD-LUT technique with an optimum non-uniform LUT spacing, wherein the LUT is indexed by the input amplitude rm of input modulated signal via a mapper S(rm) to implement a non-uniform LUT spacing di, which is referred to as the conditionally-optimum spacing technique. The technique assumes knowledge of the conditions on the input signal backoff (IBO), the PA characteristics, and the probability density function (PDF) of the modulated input signal. When any of the assumed knowledge varies with time, the optimum LUT spacing needs to be recalculated. Unfortunately, the computational complexity of recalculating the LUT spacing in such a conditionally optimum technique is pretty high.
Since the conditionally optimum technique is optimum only under a specific set of conditions, any condition mismatch could cause significant performance degradation. However, some of conditions are difficult to accurately obtain, e.g. the PA characteristics, and some of conditions can be fast time-varying, e.g. the IBO. In addition, the computational complexity of the conditionally optimum technique thwarts any attempt to online optimize the LUT spacing for a different set of conditions. Therefore, an unconditionally optimized technique is practically useful.
FIG. 4 is another conventional gain-based DAPD-LUT technique with a non-uniform LUT spacing, which is referred to as the piecewise-uniform spacing technique. In the piecewise uniform spacing technique, the whole unsaturated PA input amplitude range is first artificially divided into several segments, such as 4 segments S1-S4, according to the nonlinearity of the PA characteristic curve. Each of those nonlinear segments will be assigned more LUT entries than each of those linear segments to combat the PA nonlinear distortion. Although it is still uniform spacing within each segment, this technique as a whole enjoys the advantage of non-uniform LUT spacing. The piecewise-uniform spacing technique also requires prior knowledge of the PA characteristic so as to divide the PA input amplitude range into segments of different linearities. The piecewise-uniform spacing technique focuses on the subject of PA characteristics and ignores how input signal statistics may influence the IMD performance of a PA linearization technique.
Because of the aforementioned problems, it is imperative to provide a technique to dynamically calculate an unconditionally-optimum LUT spacing which minimizes the overall average IMD power.

Apparatus and method of dynamically adapting the LUT spacing for linearizing a power amplifier

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A low cost drive transmission system provided with one-way clutch having a simple assembly and not requiring precision parts. A drive shaft 31 and a shaft 45 are connected via a link cam 30. A main cam 34 is formed on the drive shaft 31 and the link cam 30 is moved in a thrust movement along the free shaft 45 by the cam effects of the guide surfaces 50a, 50b, 53a, 53b between the link cam 30 and the main cam 34. The link cam 30 engages with an engagement pin 50 formed on the shaft 45, thus transmitting the driving of the drive shaft 31 side. Conversely, when the shaft 45 rotates faster in the advancement direction than the rotational velocity transmitted from the drive shaft 31, a thrust movement along the free shaft 45 in the opposite direction is exerted on the link cam 30 as a result of actions opposite to the above and the engagement with the engagement pin 50 is broken. Thus, the transmission of the driving of the shaft 45 from the drive shaft 31 disappears and no braking action is exerted on the drive shaft 31.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a drive transmission system provided with a one-way clutch which rotates by being driven like a separation roller that moves the cut paper of a facsimile device for example, and idles when rotated in an advancement direction faster than the rotational velocity.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, on a document supply system of a facsimile device, a document is set in the tray, sent in the direction of an image sensor and scanning is carried out. Accordingly, the following occurs in sequential order. As shown in FIG. 11, the separation roller 71 is driven and a bottom-most document G is sent downstream. When the document G is initially transported along the movement pathway, a passage sensor 72 detects the leading edge of the paper. The document G being moved along the movement pathway then arrives at the conveyance roller 74. The rotational velocity of the conveyance roller 74 is set slightly faster than that of the separation roller 71 and as a result of difference in velocity, the document G is pulled downstream by the conveyance roller 74. As a result, a difference in the conveyance speed between the first document and the next document delivered by the separation roller 71 is generated, thus forming a gap between the documents G. As a result of this, the passage sensor 72 is able to detect the trailing edge of the document G currently being transported and accordingly, the size and number of pages of the scanned document may be detected. Thus, in order to allow the pulling of the document G when pulled by the conveyance roller 74, a one-way clutch system is provided wherein the separation roller 71 idles with respect to the rotation in the advancement direction.
On conventional systems as shown in FIGS. 12A and 12B, a clutch spring 77 is attached to a metal shaft 75 attached to the separation roller 71. This clutch spring 77 is fitted into the drive gear 78 so that it moves freely. When the drive force of the gear 78 is transmitted to the shaft 75, the clutch spring 77 is reduced in diameter and contacts the outer periphery 78a of the cylindrical base of the gear 78. Thus, driving is transmitted to the shaft 75 via the clutch spring 77. Conversely, if the separation roller 71 is allowed to rotate freely in an advancement direction, the clutch spring 77 expands and does not come into contact with the outer periphery 78a of the cylindrical base of the gear 78. In short, when the separation roller 71 is rotated in the advancement direction, the shaft 75 freely rotates without driving being transmitted to the shaft 75.
Furthermore, there are also conventional driving systems not having one-way clutch systems as shown in FIGS. 13A and 13B. This involves the arrangement of a first engagement peg 80 on one part of the outer periphery of a resinous shaft 79 attached to the separation roller 71 and the arrangement of a second engagement peg 82 on one part of the outer periphery of the drive side gear shaft 81. When the driving is transmitted from the gear shaft 81 to the shaft 79, the second engagement peg 82 contacts the first engagement peg 80 from behind and both pegs engage together. Then driving is transmitted by the second engagement peg 82 pushing the first engagement peg 80 when the gear shaft 81 rotates. Conversely, when the rotation of the shaft 79 is faster than the rotation of the gear shaft 81 due to the document G being pulled by the conveyance roller 74, as the separation roller 71 starts freely rotating in the advancement direction, the first engagement peg 80 separates from the second engagement peg 82. Then, if the separation roller 71 (shaft 79) makes approximately one revolution ahead of the gear shaft 81, the first engagement peg 80 engages with the second engagement peg 82. When the document G is ejected from the conveyance roller 74, the separation roller 71 stops. At that time, even if the gear shaft 81 rotates, the separation roller 71 stays in a stopped state until the second engagement peg 82 has once again engaged with the first engagement peg 80 by rotating 360 degrees. Then the document G delivery operation is repeated with the second engagement peg 82 once again in contact with the first engagement peg 80 from behind.
However, the following problems exist with the drive transmission systems as described above.
(1) On the system shown in FIGS. 12A and 12B: PA1 (2) On the system shown in FIGS. 13A and 13B;
a. Clutch spring 77 is used as the necessary part of the one-way clutch system but this part has comparatively high costs, PA2 b. As contact is made with the outer periphery 78a of the cylindrical base of the gear 78 due to slight changes in diameter, a high degree of precision is required for the dimensions of the part, PA2 c. Time is required for the contact operation of the clutch spring 77, PA2 d. Abrasion of the outer periphery 78a of the gear 78 occurs over the passage of time as the clutch spring 77 transmits the driving by friction, PA2 e. As the drive transmission is carried out by friction, leakage of machine oil would cause free rotation resulting in unreliable transmission leading to instability in the operations, and PA2 f. Permeation of water causes rusting, etc.
When the rotation of the shaft 79 is faster than the rotation of the gear shaft 81, if the separation roller 71 (shaft 79) makes one rotation ahead of the gear shaft 81, the first engagement peg 80 of the shaft 79 engages with the second engagement peg 82 of the gear shaft 81. In short, because this is not a one-way clutch system, a load from the gear shaft 81 (being a braking action) is normally exerted on the separation roller 71 (shaft 79) when driving in the advancement direction is applied from the conveyance roller 74. Accordingly, the drive transmission force is wastefully expended and heating due to overload may also arise.


A chain and sprocket system includes a plurality of chains and sprockets. The system includes a central shaft, two chains, and two identical sprockets. Although the two sprockets have identical size, shape, and features, they can be assembled onto the central shaft in different orientations. These orientations are achieved by rotating one sprocket with respect to the other. Assembling one sprocket onto the shaft in a different orientation from a second sprocket results in a system where the outer sprocket teeth of one sprocket are phased with respect to the outer sprocket teeth of the other sprocket. In this way, a phased chain and sprocket assembly is composed of identical sprockets, which eases manufacture and assembly.

The present invention relates generally to power transmission chains, and more particularly, to a power transmission chain system in which the chains are phased or offset by a portion of a pitch length or a portion of a sprocket tooth. The phasing of the chain and sprocket system modifies the noise characteristics of the system.
Power transmission chains are widely used in the automotive industry in automobile transmission systems as well as in engine timing drives. Engine timing systems conventionally include at least one driving sprocket located on the crankshaft and at least one driven sprocket located on a camshaft. Rotation of the crankshaft causes rotation of the camshaft through a chain and sprocket system. In automotive transmission systems, power transmission chains are used, for example, between a torque converter and the input to an automatic transmission. Power transmission chains are also used in transfer cases for four-wheel drive vehicles.
Noise is associated with chain drives. Noise is generated by a variety of sources, including the impact sound generated by the collision of the chain and the sprocket at the onset of meshing, and the chordal action of the chains and sprockets.
As to the impact sound generated, loudness is affected by, among other things, the impact velocity between the chain and the sprocket, and the mass of chain links contacting the sprocket at a particular moment or time increment. The meshing impact sound is generally a periodic sound in chain drives because the impact sound is repeated with a frequency generally equal to that of the frequency of the chain meshing with the sprocket. The frequency is related to the number of teeth on the sprocket and the speed of the sprocket. The impact can therefore produce sound having objectionable pure sonic tones.
Chordal action occurs as the chain link enters the sprocket from the free chain. The meshing of the chain and sprocket at the chain mesh frequency can cause a movement of the free chain or span (the part of the chain between the sprockets) in a direction perpendicular to the chain travel but in the same plane as the chain and sprockets. This vibratory movement can also produce an objectionable pure sonic tone at the frequency of the chain mesh frequency or a derivative thereof.
Many efforts have been made to decrease the noise level and pitch frequency distribution in chain drives so as to minimize the objectionable effects of the pure sonic tones. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,427,580, which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses the phasing of sprockets so as to modify the impact generated noise spectrum as well as the chordal action noise spectrum. The present invention utilizes the concepts taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,427,580, in a sprocket system.
The phased chain system of the present invention includes phasing of two sprockets with respect to one another along a driving or driven shaft. Phasing of sprockets can reduce the number of chain link teeth (or mass of chain) impacting the sprockets along the shaft during a given time increment. Similarly, phasing the sprockets can alter or phase the chordal action or articulation of the chains and sprockets, and the resulting impact and chordal action generated noise.
Prior art chain drives have provided for the phasing of sprockets. However, in these chain drives, the two sprockets are machined on a single hub along the shaft. Such a system requires a complicated manufacturing process to machine two sprockets on a single hub.
Other prior art phased systems have used a pair of sprockets that are bolted together or riveted together to maintain the sprockets in the phased or offset positions. Such a system requires the manufacturing step of placement of the two sprockets in the offset position and then riveting or bolting in position.
In contrast, in its preferred embodiment, the present invention utilizes an sprocket assembly formed of separate, but identical pieces. Each of the sprockets have projections or grooves, such as splines or keyways, which are fitted to corresponding splines or keyways on a central shaft. Each sprocket can be assembled on the central shaft in at least two orientations, where each orientation results in a different alignment of the outer sprocket teeth. By positioning of one sprocket in one orientation, and other sprockets in other orientations, the phased or offset relationship can be attained. The sprocket assembly of the present invention provides advantages in the manufacture of sprockets and assembly.

Sprocket assembly for a phased chain system


An operating system startup control method includes the steps of continuing an operation of a program loader for a specific processor among program loaders for the other processors that are started up by turning on of the power supply to the plural processors, while terminating the program loaders for the other processors; starting up an OS bridge that manages a hardware resource shared by the plural processor, using the program loader and starting up an operating system corresponding to the specific processor and another operating system corresponding to the other processors, using the OS bridge that is started up.

Conventionally, techniques for operating plural processors in parallel are known (see, e.g., Patent Document 1). Patent Document 1 discloses that a primary processor that manages a system as a whole reads an operating system (OS) in a primary system disc at the time of startup. In response to an operation request from the primary processor, master processors for managing individual groups are started up in parallel. Each of the master processors for the individual groups that has been started up reads an OS in a group system disc and starts up a secondary processor in the group. In this way, the individual group master processors and secondary processors are started up in parallel.
As another technology for operating plural OS's in parallel, a virtual machine system is known. In this virtual machine system, real hardware (physical resources), such as processors and memory, are virtualized and plural hardware environments (virtual machines) are generated. In each of such virtual machines, an individual OS can be run.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 10-116262

Operating system startup control method and information processing apparatus


A method and apparatus for welding power includes an input rectifier, a pre-regulator, a convertor, an auxiliary voltage circuit and a controller. The pre-regulator is connected to receive a rectified voltage and provides a dc bus. The convertor converts the bus to a welding output. The auxiliary voltage circuit is connected across the welding output, in parallel with the converter. The controller shuts the converter down in the event an open circuit condition exists at the output, thus providing a safer open circuit voltage.

Power sources typically convert a power input to a necessary or desirable power output tailored for a specific application. In welding applications, power sources typically receive a high voltage, alternating current, (VAC) signal and provide a high current welding output signal. Around the world, utility power sources (sinusoidal line voltages) may be 200/208 V, 230/240 V, 380/415 V, 460/480 V, 500 V and 575 V. These sources may be either single-phase or three-phase and either 50 or 60 Hz. Welding power sources receive such inputs and produce an approximately 10-75 volt, DC or AC high current welding output.
There are many types of welding power sources that provide power suitable for welding. Some prior art welding sources are resonant converter power sources that deliver a sinusoidal output. Other welding power sources provide a squarewave output. Yet another type of welding power source is an inverter-type power source.
Converter-type power sources are particularly well suited for welding applications. Converter-type power sources can provide an ac square wave or a dc output. Converter power sources also provide a relatively high frequency stage, which provides a fast response in the welding output to changes in the control signals.
There are several well known types of converter power sources that are suitable for welding. These include boost power sources, buck power sources, and boost-buck power sources. Traditionally, welding power sources were designed for a specific power input. In other words, the power source cannot provide essentially the same output over the various input voltages. More recently, welding power sources have been designed to receive any voltage over a range of voltages, without requiring relinking of the power supply. One prior art welding power supply that can accept a range of input voltages is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,601,741, issued Feb. 11, 1997 to Thommes, and owned by the assignee of the present invention, and is hereby incorporated by reference.
Many prior art welding power supplies include several stages to process the input power into welding power. Typical stages include an input circuit, a pre-regulator, a convertor and an output circuit that includes an inductor. The input circuit receives the line power, rectifies it, and transmits that power to the pre-regulator. The pre-regulator produces a dc bus suitable for conversion. The dc bus is provided to the convertor of one type or another, which provides the welding output. The output inductor helps provide a stable arc.
International safety requirements for welding machines often require the open-circuit/output voltage to not exceed 113 volts. However, welding power supplies used for stick welding typically should be able to provide at least a 65-75 volt output under load. When a forward converter is used the peak secondary voltage must be about twice the output voltage (i.e. 130-150 volts) because the pulse width may be 50% at most. This creates the potential for unacceptably high open circuit voltages. Prior art systems attempted to meet safety standards by providing a very narrow pulse width. However, even a narrow pulse could provide and unsatisfactorily high voltage when there is no load. Moreover, the narrow pulse may cause difficulty when trying to initiate a stick welding process.
The problem with high OCV is exacerbated because small capacitors are connected to the output terminals and chassis ground for suppression of high frequency interference from TIG arc starters. These capacitors will tend to be charged to the peak voltage applied to the secondary and hold this voltage.
Some prior art power supplies have a pre-load resistor that pre-loads the inverter, so that the capacitors don't charge to the peak. This resistor can present a sizable load, and a significant amount of wasted power, because of the relatively high voltage at the secondary. Also, the ripple voltage on the output may exceed the limits allowed, even with a pre-load resistor. Other prior art power supplies use an open circuit voltage regulator which electronically regulate the output to a lower limit using an error amplifier and voltage feedback. The error amplifier reduce the pulse width of the inverter and/or forces pulses to be skipped to bring the output voltage down. However, this makes the error amplifier sluggish because of the high gain of the power circuit at no load. Additionally the average output voltage may have to be reduced to a lower level to keep the peak ripple within limits. The lower level average output and/or sluggish error amplifier tend to cause difficulty with arc initiation, because the main inverter take a significant amount of time to "come alive" and to provide arc current.
Prior art pre-regulator stages typically include switches used to control the power. The losses in switches can be significant in a welding power supply, particularly when they are hard switched. The power loss in a switch at any time is the voltage across the switch multiplied by the current through the switch. Hard switching turn-on losses occur when a switch turns on, with a resulting increase in current through the switch, and it takes a finite time for the voltage across the switch to drop to zero. Soft switching attempts to avoid turn-on losses by providing an auxiliary or snubber circuit with an inductor in series with the switch that limits the current until the transition to on has been completed, and the voltage across the switch is zero. This is referred to as zero-current transition (ZCT) switching.
Similarly, hard switching turn-off losses also occur when a switch turns off, with a resultant rise in voltage across the switch, and it takes a finite time for the current through the switch to drop to zero. Soft switching attempts to avoid turn-off losses by providing an auxiliary or snubber circuit with a capacitor across the switch that limits the voltage across the switch until the transition to off has been completed, and the current through the switch is zero. This is referred to as zero-voltage transition (ZVT) switching. Soft switching has not been adequately employed in welding power supplies because the circuits require expensive additional switches and/or have losses in the circuitry that help create the zero current/voltage transitions.
When it is not practical or cost effective to use a true ZCT and ZCT circuit, an approximation may be used. For example, slow voltage/current transitions (SVT and SCT) as used herein, describe transitions where the voltage or current rise is slowed (rather than held to zero), while the switch turns off or on.
A typical prior art welding power supply 100 with a pre-regulator 104 is shown in FIG. 1. An input line voltage 101 is provided to a rectifier 102 (typically comprised of a diode bridge and at least one capacitor). Pre-regulator 104 is a hard-switched boost converter in the preferred embodiment, which includes a switch 106 and an inductor 107. A diode 108 allows a capacitor 109 to charge up by current flowing in inductor 107 when the switch 106 is turned off. The current waveform in inductor 107 is a rectified sinusoid with high frequency modulation (ripple).
The amount of ripple may be reduced by increasing the frequency at which switch 106 is switched. However, as the frequency of which a prior art hard switched boost converter is switched is increased to reduce ripple, the switching losses can become intolerable.
Another drawback of prior art power supplies is a poor power factor. Inductor 107 is part of the load seen by line voltage source 102, and thus the load is inductive in nature. Generally, a greater power factor allows a greater power output for a given power input. Also, it is generally necessary to have more power output to weld with stick electrodes having greater diameter. Thus, a higher power factor will allow a given welding power supply to be used with greater diameter sticks, and obtain the same performance obtained using smaller diameter sticks.

Auxiliary open circuit voltage power supply


A system including a third-party server and a live-view server is disclosed. The live-view server receives, from the third-party server, a request for a live view of each location, structure, or point of interest; identifies at least one vehicle positioned at each location, structure, or point of interest; obtains each requested live view from a live-view camera of the at least one identified vehicle; and transmits, to the third-party server, a dynamic hyperlink associated with each requested live view. The third-party server receives, from a request device, a request for a live view of a specific location, structure, or point of interest; identifies at least one live view, from a live-view database, associated with the specific location, structure, or point of interest; and serves to the request device, via the dynamic hyperlink, the at least one live view.

The present disclosure generally relates to systems and/or methods for serving live camera views to requesting devices.
Service providers providing maps (e.g., STREET VIEW® of Google Maps℠ and Google Earth℠, and/or the like) and navigation systems (e.g., Garmin™, TOMTOM®, vehicle-installed navigation systems, and/or the like) do not provide images that reflect recent and continuously ongoing changes to a particular location. For example, Google STREET VIEW® only displays a still image of a particular location in response to a user request. Notably, that still image is often outdated and fails to reflect a true representation of a current view at that particular location. This is often frustrating for a user wishing to view live conditions at a particular location, a particular structure, or a particular point of interest.

Live view collection and transmission system


A drill may have a cutting tip and a holder located on a rear end portion side of the cutting tip. The cutting tip has two cutting edges located away from each other at a front end portion, two flutes respectively extending from the first cutting edge and the second cutting edge toward the rear end portion, two side surfaces respectively extending from the first flute and the second flute toward a front side in a rotation direction, and two constraining surfaces respectively extending from the first side surface and the second side surface in a tilt direction with respect to the rotation direction. The first side surface and the second side surface are asymmetric with respect to a central axis, and the first constraining surface and the second constraining surface are point symmetric with respect to the central axis in a front end view.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-306170 discloses an indexable tool tip having a pair of torque receiving surfaces and a pair of clamp receiving surfaces. The torque receiving surfaces respectively intersect a rear end surface and a front end surface of a tip body and an outer peripheral surface of the tip body, and are oriented rearward in a rotation direction of a drill. The clamp receiving surfaces are respectively adjacent to the torque receiving surfaces. These clamp receiving surfaces and these torque receiving surfaces are respectively disposed in point symmetry with respect to an axis when viewed from the front end surface.
However, each of these surfaces is disposed point-symmetrically with respect to the axis in the indexable tool tip. When attaching the tip body to a drill body, it is difficult to determine an attachment direction by the pair of clamp receiving surfaces or the like, and there has been a risk that the tip body is attached to the drill body in a wrong direction.
Hence, there is a need for a drill having both excellent drilling performance and easy attachment performance, as well as a method of producing a machined product using the drill.
An object of the present invention is to provide the drill having both excellent drilling performance and easy attachment performance, and provide a method of producing a machined product using the drill.

Drill and method of producing machined product using the same


An mounting apparatus for a vehicle cargo box is disclosed which provides for attachment of a tonneau cover to cover the cargo box and which provides for attachment of additional accessories to the cargo box above the tonneau cover. The apparatus includes mounting rails for the tonneau cover which are substantially covered by the cover and mounting brackets which are coupled to the rails and extend outward and above the rails for attaching additional accessories to the cargo box above the tonneau cover.

The present invention relates to an accessory mounting apparatus for a truck bed and in particular to an apparatus for mounting both a tonneau cover to a pick-up truck cargo box and for mounting one or more additional accessories to the cargo box above the tonneau cover.
A tonneau cover is often mounted over the cargo box of certain vehicles such as a pick-up truck to protect the interior of the cargo box and its contents. Tonneau covers are typically mounted to the cargo box by first installing a tonneau rail at the top of each of the cargo box walls. The rails include features for attaching the tonneau cover to the rails in such a manner that the rails are substantially covered by the tonneau cover, leaving the truck and tonneau cover with a neat appearance.
In many instances, however, it is desired to mount additional functional or cosmetic accessories to the cargo box above the tonneau cover. These accessories include such items such as a rear cab spoiler immediately behind the truck cab, a wing at the rear of the cargo box, side rails along the cargo box side walls, a bicycle or ski rack, etc. However, because the tonneau cover overlies the top of the pick-up box walls and the tonneau cover attaching rails, it is difficult or impossible to attach these additional accessories.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for mounting to a truck cargo box both a tonneau cover as well as additional accessories above the tonneau cover.
It is a feature of the mounting apparatus of the present invention to provide mounting brackets attached to the tonneau cover rails which extend outward, beneath the tonneau cover, and upwardly therefrom. The brackets provide an attachment point above the cover for the mounting of additional accessories. The mounting brackets include a lower horizontal wall disposed between the bottom wall of the rails and the top surface of the cargo box walls. This horizontal wall portion of the mounting bracket is preferably interfit with the tonneau cover rail so as to couple the mounting brackets to the rails.
In one embodiment of the mounting apparatus, separate clamps are used to clamp the tonneau cover rails to the cargo box. In another embodiment, the clamps are integrally formed with the mounting brackets as a single piece which is attached to the cargo box. The tonneau cover rails are then mounted to the brackets by the interfit connection between the brackets and the rails.
Further objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following description and the appended claims when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.


A hard tonneau cover having one or more sections is constructed of a framework of extruded rails with one or more section panels held by molded plastic trim strips installed on perimeter rails included in the framework. The cover is mounted above the cargo box of a pick-up truck by a plurality of striker-latch assemblies on one side of the cargo box, and hinge assemblies on the other side, each having components mounted to the cargo box side walls with universal clamp brackets. The panels are constructed of reinforced corrugated plastic which is covered by a color integrated film. A simplified connector plate is used to connect abutting ends of the rails in the fiamework. A peripheral seal extends down from the perimeter rails in which it is mounted to engage the top of the cargo box side walls and tailgate. Water drainage paths including drainage channels in the rails are provided to eliminate water from the panel surfaces.

This invention concerns hard cover tonneaus for the cargo box of pick-up trucks. In such tonneau covers, one or more panel sections are mounted on the side walls of the cargo box, and are hinged to allow raising of one end or side of the cover sections which may also be disconnected from the cargo box for removal. Such covers have typically been specifically been designed for a particular cargo bed configuration, and have involved heavy panels of fiber glass reinforced molded resins.
Such hard covers are typically fit over plastic protection covers on the cargo box, and hinged to be raised for access to the cargo area, with gas struts used to support the weight of the opened cover.
The heavy weight of these tonneau covers has been an increasing disadvantage as this reduces fuel economy and truck net payload capacity.
The proliferation of pick-up truck cargo box configurations has led to increased costs due to the need for a greater number of custom designed covers.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,082,806 suggests a construction using a tubular frame and thin panels fixed to the frame, allowing easy modification to fit various cargo bed sizes.
However, such an approach requires painting of the aluminum frame. The cover panel affixed to the frame is subject to buckling due to temperature induced expansion and is difficult to replace if damaged.
It would be desirable to be able to match the quality of cover finish to vehicle finish, but this has heretofore not been possible due to the difficulty in obtaining a distortion free cover surface acceptable to the automobile manufacturers.
Another difficulty has to do with the service wear on the components and the mating sheet metal surfaces due to the severe deflections of the cargo box during driving of the truck, particularly over rough roads and long periods of time. Such wear occurs in the striker bars and hinges, and also where a cover seal scrubs against the cargo box painted sheet metal.
Another problem is found in draining water from the cover to prevent leakage into the cargo box. While attempts have been made to seal all the joints, some seepage still occurs, and any bonding of a cover panel needed to create a seal will create thermally induced distortions as mentioned above.
Installation and removal of the tonneau cover is often time consuming due to the need to accurately align the cover with the cargo box and the need for installing or removing numerous cover mounting components and fasteners.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a hard tonneau cover for a pick-up truck cargo box which is light weight and low in cost to manufacture, but which has a high quality appearance compatible with the factory finish of the truck body.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a tonneau cover which can be readily sized and configured to be matched to a great variety of cargo box sizes and configurations, and having an easily adjustable mounting system so that the cover may be readily installed in the proper position on the cargo box.
It is a further object to provide a hard tonneau cover which can withstand extended service in the field while maintaining proper function of the components, and a good appearance while avoiding excessive wear of the truck body finish.
Yet another object is to provide a hard tonneau cover which incorporates a water drainage system which directs water off the cover to prevent any water from penetrating into the cargo box, and which channels any seepage along a path formed in the cover components away from the cargo area.


The present invention relates to a process for production, shipment, and treatment of a NH4F(HF)x feedstock for local production of fluorine and NF3 for semiconductor chamber cleaning without the need for storage of large quantities of dangerous feeds and intermediate products.

Semiconductor products are generally produced via batch processing steps that use gases to deposit or selectively etch semiconductor layers on substrates within a vacuum chamber. Most of the chemical by-products and unused reagents from these deposition and etch processes are exhausted from the chamber by a vacuum pump. However, some residue unavoidably deposits on the chamber walls and must be removed periodically in order to maintain product quality. Usually this residue is removed with gas mixtures containing some fluorine-containing cleaning gas, such as NF3, SF6, C2F6, or CF4, which is usually diluted with argon or helium.
Unfortunately, SF6, NF3, C2F6, and CF4 have very high global warming potentials, i.e. respectively about 23,900, 10,090, 9,200, 6,500 times CO2 on a weight average basis over a 100 year time-frame, respectively. While some fluorine containing cleaning gases have much lower global warming potentials, F2 and ClF3 for example, these cleaning gases are very toxic, highly reactive, and difficult to handle safely. These problems are exacerbated by the more recent trend to use semiconductor production techniques for the production of larger and larger flat panel displays that require a significant increase in the quantity of chamber cleaning gas. In particular, there is a significant increase in the associated environmental and safety issues. Moreover, because flat panel displays have much lower product prices per unit area than computer central processing or memory module units, non-productive cleaning time and the cleaning gas cost represent an increasing share of the total flat panel display cost. Therefore, there is a need in the art to ameliorate environmental concerns while maintaining safety and process efficiency.
NF3 is the most common chamber cleaning gas and is typically produced by the reaction of fluorine with a NH4F(HF)x salt, such as by the following reaction:3F2+NH4F(HF)x→NF3+(4+x)HF.The reaction may be carried out in an electrolytic cell (as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,235,474) or in a separate reactor (as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,091,081). Alternatively, NF3 production from urea and fluorine has been proposed (as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,821,496) using the following key step:2CO(NH2)2+3F2→NF3+NH2CONHCONH2+3HF.
All these ammonia-based NF3 production processes use half of the fluorine feed to produce NF3 and the other half to produce HF. Therefore, the direct use of fluorine as a chamber cleaning gas would be much more efficient than NF3.
Although F2 is a more efficient and theoretically lower cost chamber cleaning gas than NF3, elemental fluorine has generally not been used because of cylinder shipping and handling safety concerns. On-site fluorine production, via electrolysis of hydrogen fluoride (as described in US Published patent application 2003/0098038), has been suggested as an approach to eliminate the fluorine cylinder handling problems, as well as to decrease global warming emissions, and increase the fluorine use efficiency. However, on-site fluorine production faces two significant challenges.
First, the quantity of the fluorine product that can be safely stored is severely limited by fluorine's high reactivity and toxicity. As a result, significant fluorine plant excess capacity is required to meet the highly variable cleaning gas flow rate requirements of a typical semiconductor production facility. In addition, the fluorine plant must be designed to minimize the probability that a fluorine plant outage and a disruption in semiconductor production. The risk of an outage and the very high opportunity cost for semiconductor plant outages economically justifies a separate back-up cleaning gas supply capability, usually NF3. Therefore, the commercial need for a highly reliable chamber cleaning gas feed system and the highly toxic and reactive nature of fluorine generally requires an oversized and more expensive fluorine production facility as well as a back-up NF3 supply system. In such a case, the theoretical cost savings can not be realized.
Second, the hydrogen fluoride feed necessary for fluorine production is also highly toxic and volatile. Therefore, the large hydrogen fluorine feed inventories required, especially for flat panel display plants, pose a significant health risk that must be mitigated. For this reason, large-scale fluorine production facilities are usually located in relatively sparsely populated areas with a large buffer land area around the production facility. However, large-area display production facilities are often located in areas with high population densities and land prices. Therefore, there remains a need for a flexible fluorine and nitrogen trifluoride production and supply capability that avoids large inventories of toxic and volatile feeds and products.

Method and apparatus for local fluorine and nitrogen trifluoride production


An image forming apparatus including an image forming unit that forms an image on a recording material, a rotating member that heats the image on the recording material by a nip portion thereof, an executing unit capable of executing a processing of rotating the rotating member at standby, a measuring unit that measures a standby time period, and a changing unit that changes a time interval of executing the processing in accordance with the standby time period.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus using an electrophotography system, particularly relates to an image forming apparatus of a copier, a printer, a facsimile or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an image forming apparatus adopting an electrostatic recording system or an electrophotography recording system, a copier, a printer, a facsimile apparatus or the like has been known. As an image forming apparatus of this kind, there is widely used a so-called roller type fixing apparatus for fixing a toner image onto a sheet by a pair of rollers brought into press contact with each other. According to the roller type fixing type apparatus, by bringing a fixing roller and a pressing roller of silicone rubber or the like into press contact with each other, a nip in a planar shape is formed at a contact face of the two rollers and fixing is executed by applying pressure and heat to the sheet at the nip portion.
At the nip portion, a rubber structure of the two rollers is always subjected to compressive strain. Therefore, when a stationary state of the fixing roller is continued for a long period of time, bonding of the rubber structure may be destructed by exceeding a plastic limit and the strain may not be recovered to nullify. Such a state is referred to as a compression set (compressive permanent set). The rubber roller causing the compression set is bent and therefore, the rubber roller cannot form an image or carry the sheet correctly in the fixing apparatus, and jamming, color shift, sheet skewing or the like is brought about. Hence, there has been proposed a method of preventing the compression set by shifting the nip position by rotating the rollers at constant time intervals in a standby mode in which the fixing roller is stationary (Japanese Patent Unexamined publication No. HEI 4-74708).
Meanwhile, in recent years, as is seen also in international standards of energy star and the like, reduction and the efficient formation of power consumption of a power consuming apparatus has strongly been promoted. Also an image forming apparatus is not exceptional and there has been devised an apparatus of adopting a measure of reducing power consumption of shifting from a standby mode to an energy saving mode of reducing power consumption when the image forming apparatus is not operated for a constant period of time in a standby mode in order to reduce power consumption at standby.
For example, when the above-described nip position change control executed at constant time intervals is adopted in such an energy saving mode, since an initial temperature of the fixing roller in shifting to the energy saving mode is not taken into consideration, there is a case in which a frequency of executing nip position change operation becomes excessively large or a case in which the frequency becomes excessively small. That is, there is a possibility that the nip position change operation is not carried out efficiently and properly.

Image forming apparatus with heating members having standby mode and low power mode


A touch screen input device includes a display screen adapted for receiving a touch input from a user; mechanism for sampling the touch screen input at any one of a plurality of sampling rates; mechanism for storing a predetermined sampling rate for each application or for each function; and mechanism for setting the sampling rate of the sampling mechanism to the sampling rate stored for a given application or a given function whenever that given application is being executed or that given function is being performed, respectively. In an alternative embodiment, the rate of change of the touch screen input sample points is measured and the sampling rate increased or decreased when the rate of change of the sample points increases or decreases, respectively.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to devices which can receive user input through a display screen and, more specifically, to a method and a system for controlling the rate of sampling of such user input so as to reduce power consumption and improve processing efficiency in such devices.
2. Related Prior Art
Portable computers are used today in a variety of applications and environments. Many users prefer the convenience of a "laptop" or "hand-held" portable computer to a "desktop" computer or workstation. Some portable computers are general purpose computers which are designed to support the traditional home or office environment, while others may be specifically designed for a particular application, such as tracking production volumes in a factory or inventory levels in a warehouse. As with computers in general, the capabilities (i.e., built-in memory and processing power and speed) of portable computers continue to increase with the passage of time and, as a result, it is likely that the use of portable computers will become even more widespread in the foreseeable future.
Many types or brands of commercially available portable computers allow the user to enter data by interacting with the display screen in a manner generally referred to as "touch screen input." Examples of portable computers that use touch screen input include the so-called "personal digital assistant" (PDA) devices such as the Apple Newton, Motorola Envoy and U.S. Robotics Pilot products. The form and content of touch screen input may vary depending on the choice of software or hardware. For example, in some applications the user may be prompted to select a particular action or menu command by pressing or placing his finger against a corresponding "radio button" that appears on the screen. In other applications, the user may be able to use an input "pen" to write or draw on the screen. In all of these applications, a sampling circuit is used to detect sample and translate the touch screen input into digital signals for appropriate processing by the computer.
In general, the touch screen input sampling circuit is designed to detect and periodically sample the points at which the user's finger or pen impacts the screen and to convert each sample point into a digital value which is delivered to the microprocessor for appropriate processing. The sample points may be detected through a variety of known techniques corresponding to the different types of currently available touch screen technologies (e.g., resistive, capacitive, force vector, guided acoustic wave, surface acoustic wave, scanning infrared or strain gauge). For example, in many conventional sampling circuits the sample points are detected by pressure sensors connected to the display screen. More recently, electromagnetic sensors have been used for this purpose. Regardless of the detection method and depending on the particular application, the microprocessor may store the input values (data) for subsequent processing (e.g., when the user is entering a drawing) or immediately execute one or more functions corresponding to these values (e.g., where the user has pushed a button representing a certain command).
It is well known in the art that in order to improve the quality or reliability of the touch screen input data, the sampling rate (sampling frequency) must be increased in the sampling circuit. However, it is also recognized that a faster sampling rate leads to greater power consumption in the sampling circuit and to lower overall performance for the microprocessor as more processing cycles are devoted to handling touch screen input data as opposed to other required or desirable tasks. Thus, in some prior art portable computers a high sampling rate was used at the expense of higher power consumption and lower processor performance, while in other prior art computers, a low sampling rate was used at the expense of lower quality or insufficient data. In still other cases, a combination of both approaches was used in which the computer initially would be placed in a "sleep mode" (low sampling rate and low power consumption) and then switched to "active mode" (high sampling rate and high power consumption) once a touch screen input was detected. However, this combined approach fails to solve the problem of minimizing power consumption during active mode.
As portable computers frequently run on battery power and as battery life is limited by power consumption, it is desirable that the power consumption of the touch screen input sampling circuit be reduced to the extent possible. However, it is also desirable that the touch screen input data be as reliable as possible, which may require a higher sampling rate resulting in higher power consumption as well as lower processor performance. A primary object of the present invention is to dynamically achieve the desired tradeoff between a higher sampling rate, on the one hand, and higher power consumption and lower processor performance, on the other hand.