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This invention relates to an apparatus for providing a stream of fresh air to an enclosed space, and more particularly, to an apparatus for providing a stream of cooled or heated fresh air to an enclosed space.
Air to air heat exchangers are becoming increasingly important to reduce the cost of cooling or heating air supply fed to an enclosed se such as a building. Such heat exchangers are required to handle relatively high air-flow rates (often in the range of 500 to 5000 liters per second) and to transfer heat with relatively high thermal efficiency between the two mutually-isolated air flow circuits of the heat exchanger. Fresh air is supplied to the enclosed space through one of these circuits while simultaneously stale air is withdrawn from the space and is conveyed through the other circuit.
It is customary to maintain a slight positive pressure in the enclosed space to prevent ambient air at a different temperature to that desired, entering the enclosed space when an access door is temporarily opened. However the rate of air flow through the two circuits is conventionally of much the same order to achieve total air replacement, as it only requires a slightly greater flow of the air into the confined space to maintain the slight increase in air pressure within it.
It is an object of the present invention to o e or ameliorate at least one of the disadvantages of the prior art or to provide a useful alternative
The present invention provides an apparatus for supplying a stream of fresh air to an enclosed space whilst simultaneously withdrawing a stream of stale air from the space said apparatus having a heat exchanger with mutually isolated primary and secondary air flow circuits and adapted to provide heat transfer between said primary and secondary air flow circuits, with one of the circuits connected to receive a steam of fresh and the other circuit connected to receive a stream of stale air at a different temperature from that of the fresh air stream; the apparatus further including a refrigeration circuit having two separate hear exchange units which are respectively arranged at the air outlets of the two air flow circuits.
Advantageously, the present invention provides for an improvement in the thermal efficiency of an air flow heat exchanger having isolated and primary and secondary circuits between which good heat-transfer characteristics occur and forming part of apparatus for providing a stream of fresh to an enclosed at a desired temperature
The invention is especially, although not exclusively, useful in conjunction with a reverse cycle refrigeration unit and/or direct/indirect gas-fired heating as is disclosed in my co-pending International Patent Application No. PCTJ/AU998/00559 entitled xe2x80x9cDirect/Indirect Gas Heating of Airxe2x80x9d.
The refrigeration circuit is preferably of a closed come on circuit type. The invention may be used for cooling a steam of fresh air supplied to the space, in which case the hear exchange unit of the refrigeration circuit at the air outlet acts as a coding evaporator and, the second heat exchange unit of the refrigeration circuit acts as a hot condenser which is cooled by the stream of stale leaving the heat exchanger. The invention is also uscable with a reverse-cycle compression refrigeration circuit, in which case the two heat exchange units are each capable of act either as a cooling evaporator or as a hot condenser.
An advantage of the invention is that when the apparatus is operating in a cooling mode so as to provide a stream of cooled fresh air to an enclosed space The thermal efficiency of he closed compression refrigeration circuit is substantially improved as the rate of removal of heat from the hot condenser of tie refrigeration circuit by the stale air strum is greatly increased.
When the apparatus is required to pride tie space with a stream of cool fresh air, the heat-absorbing capacity of the stale air stream is suitably enhanced by cooling and increasing its humidity before it enters the heat exchanger. This may be achieved by means of water sprays. However the preferred way of cooling the stale air stream and increasing its humidity is by passing the stale air stream through a water moistened evaporative cooling pad, such as a CELdek(trademark). A CELdek(trademark) cooling pad provides a multi-channel structure having a large number of air-flow channels extending between its opposite faces. Water is pressed over its surfaces exposed to the stale air stream, typically under the effect of gravity. The air stream absorbs moisture vapor from the cooling pad which in turn is cooled by the absorption of the latent heat of vaporization from the water down through it. The cooling of the pad in this manner cools the stale air stream flowing through it before it enters the heat exchanger and the fresh air streamer is cooled to a lower temperature in the heat exchanger as a consequence.
An apparatus for supplying cooled to an enclosed space is described in detail in my co-pending International Patent Application No PCT/AU95/00315, WO 95/33960 hereby inserted by way of reference.
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1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to an adapter for mounting a pressure-sensing transmitter in a vertical orientation, and more particularly to such an adapter that is suitable for use in either gas or liquid pressure sensing applications.
2. Background Art
Multi-valve manifolds have been used to mount pressure sensing transmitters such as Rosemount.RTM. Coplanar.TM. style pressure transmitters. Such multi-valve manifolds are adapted for specific use in either a gas or in a liquid process application. Threaded plugs are typically installed in test ports on the top of the valve, and the valve is constructed in such a manner that prevents it from being reversed end for end, thus requiring separate configurations for liquid service and gas service applications. Additionally, it is difficult to drain condensate from the pressure cavities of the manifold and transmitter in order to avoid calibration errors. Also, since pressure sensing transmitters are now generally mounted directly to a multi-valve manifold in a field environment, it is difficult to accurately tighten the mounting bolts to assure that the high torque requirements specified by the transmitter manufacturer are met.
The present invention is directed to overcoming the problems set forth above. It is desirable to have a simple adapter that can be directly mounted to a standard horizontal mount blocking manifold, which thereby places the transmitter sensing foils in a vertical plane. As the result of the transmitter sensing foils being disposed in a vertical plane, condensate or deposits on the foils will not affect measurement accuracy, and the foil face can be either fully vented or fully immersed in the pressure media. This is impossible with horizontally positioned foils. It is also desirable to have an adapter that is reversible end for end (top for bottom) so that the pressure transmitter can be used in either liquid or gas service applications. It is also desirable to have a full drain and vent adapter for pressure sensing transmitters that has a foil cavity design in the adapter that allows full drain or vent even if the adapter is misaligned vertically by up to 15%. Furthermore, it is desirable to have such a full drain and vent adapter for mounting pressure-sensing transmitters that allows factory or shop torquing of the transmitter head to the manufacturer's specified high torque values, and additionally protects the sensing foils during shipping, handling, and installation of the pre-assembled unit at a field site.
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A windshield is held in place on the automobile by adhering an interior portion of the windshield to a surface of the automobile. Typically the windshield opening of the automobile includes an edge or lip that is adapted to receive the windshield. An adhesive, such as a urethane adhesive, is used to secure the windshield to the lip or edge of windshield opening. To improve the bonding between the windshield and the adhesive, a primer is coated around the interior portion of the windshield that will contact the adhesive. To reduce the gap between the windshield and the body of the automobile, the perimeter of the windshield is typically surrounded by a molding. The molding is typically flexible allowing the molding to form around the perimeter of the windshield and compensate for variations in the windshield size relative to the automobile opening. In some instances, the molding may help to prevent wind and water from entering the interior cabin of the automobile. After the installation of the windshield in the automobile and after a passage of time, visible flaws are prone to appear around the perimeter of the windshield near the installed molding.
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Ladders and scaffolding are used for many tasks, including enabling someone to work on an elevated object. Ladders are also frequently utilized to enable a person to paint an area such as the higher portions of a wall or such as a ceiling. During such work, the person performing the work often requires the availability of various tools such as hammers, screwdrivers, pliers, electronic devices, such as screw guns, and even supplies like paint, screws, and fasteners, etc. For example, when a painter is painting an elevated area, it may be desired to hold the supply of paint adjacent the top of the ladder, such as a can or bucket of paint or a pan filled with paint.
The typical stepladder has two front legs which support the step members and two rear legs which lean to support the front legs and thus the step members. The front legs are typically rigidly fastened to a top step, while the rear legs are pivotally attached to that same top step. This permits the stepladder to be folded for storage. Such stepladders generally have a small, pivotally attached ladder shelf which, when the ladder is in use, extends horizontally from the rear legs, generally at a height at or just below the first step down from the top of the ladder. The ladder shelf can be pivoted to lie flat against the rear legs when the ladder is folded for storage. The pivotal attachment often results in the shelf being somewhat unstable. In addition, such shelves are generally small, with only limited surface area for holding tools. Often, also, such shelves consist of two boards fastened to cross-arms and having a gap between them. Further, such a shelf is generally made of light materials and can support only moderate weight. As a result of all this, tools or other items are likely to drop from the shelf, making it necessary for the person on the ladder to get down to retrieve the dropped items.
Similarly, workers will often use scaffolding structures for various phases of construction and building repair and will typically stand on a lower platform of the scaffolding while work is being done on a particular portion of the building, the scaffolding then being movable from place to place to continue construction operations. Typical scaffolds are formed of elongated tubular or angle members which are either bolted or welded together at their ends. Very little attention is typically given by scaffold manufacturers to accessories which will assist a worker in holding weighty objects during completion of the work task at hand.
Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.
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In recent years, the layer-type semiconductor memory devices (e.g., BiCS: Bit Cost Scalable Flash Memory) in which groups of memory cells are arranged in layers, have been developed.
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Headlamps are popular for many activities that take place in low light situations. Some examples include hiking in the early morning or at night, as well as fishing, hunting, and a variety of other activities that may take place at night or in the early morning. In numerous situations, a user may desire an adjustable headlamp for lighting areas in a hands-free manner. It is desirable that the direction of the light be adjustable as well.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to semiconductor memory systems and in particular to a memory system of the type having a single controller and multiple memory devices communicating with the controller by way of a flexible bus structure that permits the system to accommodate a wide number and variety of memory devices.
2. Description of Related Art
Semiconductor memories having increased storage capacity have been developed. A typical memory system may include a single memory controller implemented on a single integrated circuit together with one or more memory devices, each of which is implemented on a single integrated circuit, having an array of memory cells. The memory controller and memory devices are typically connected by way of a bus so that the controller can issue memory read, program and erase commands to a selected one of the memory devices.
In order to increase the storage capacity of a memory system, it is possible that a large number of separate integrated circuit memory devices may be utilized in the system. However, a typical memory system bus includes an address bus, a data bus and various control pins such as Chip Enable (CE), Output Enable (OE), Write Enable (WE) and the like. This type of configuration increases the pin count of the integrated circuit memory devices and power requirements. Further, the use of separate control pins for each integrated circuit memory device increased the complexity of the system bussing.
A memory system of the type having a memory controller and a plurality of separate memory devices which share the same flexible bus structure would be highly desirous. Ideally, such a system would allow the same architecture for different storage capacities and would permit both forward and backward flexibility so that so that several generations of the separate memory devices can operate at the same time with the same controller. Further, the system would allow memory devices to be used having a reduced pin count so as to reduce complexity, manufacturing costs and increase reliability.
The present invention provides the above-noted advantages as will be recognized by those skilled in the art upon a reading of the following Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiment together with the drawings.
FIG. 1 depicts a simplified conventional memory system which includes a host device 20, an address decoder 22 and memory devices 24A and 24B. The host device 22 may be a microprocessor and the memory devices 24A and 24B may be separate memory integrated circuits. An address bus 26 is used to provide addresses to an address decoder 22 and to the memory devices 24A and 24B. The address decoder 22 has two outputs connected to enable inputs of the memory devices 24A and 24B. Typically, the most significant bit(s) of the address are provided on the bus 26 to the decoder 22, with the remaining address bits being provided to each of the memory devices.
When memory is to be accessed, the processor 20 causes the address decoder 22 to decode the most significant bit(s) of the memory address placed on an address bus 26. The decoder 22 will select one of the two memory devices 24A and 24B by generating either signal Sel 0 or Sel 1. The selected memory device will respond to the address presented to it on the address bus and the deselected memory device, which is disabled, will not respond. Although not shown, a data bus is used to transfer data between the memory devices and the processor 20, with only the selected device outputting data to the data bus during memory read operations.
The approach depicted in FIG. 1 is sometimes referred to as radial device selection where each memory device has a separate select input. This approach works well when relatively few memory devices are employed and where access speed, particularly random access speed, is important. However, if a large number of memory devices are used so that large amounts of data can be stored, the requirement of separate select lines for each memory device results in large memory boards and a relatively large pin count for the control logic circuitry. Thus, unless access speed is critical and a large number of memory devices are used, the radial device selection approach of FIG. 1 is not ideal.
FIG. 2 shows an alternative prior art device selection technique, sometimes referred to as serial selection. Again, a host device 28 is used which is connected to several memory devices 30A, 30B and 30C by way of a system bus 32. The memory devices 30A, 30B and 30C are usually implemented as separate integrated circuits. The system bus 32 includes memory address and memory data and various control signals so that each of the memory devices 30A, 30B 30C receives the same addresses, data and other signals. Each memory device is preassigned a unique address so that only one device will be accessed by the host device 28 during a memory operation. Typically, the memory devices 30A, 30B and 30C are assigned addresses by way of jumper or switch settings represented by elements 34A, 34B and 34C.
The FIG. 2 approach requires that dedicated pins be provided on each of the integrated circuit memory devices 30A, 30B and 30C to receive the jumper wires or switches for assigning the addresses. These pins increase the pin count for the integrated circuits thereby increasing the cost of the packaging for the devices and increasing the likelihood that there will be mechanical problems and manufacturing errors through soldering and the like. These extra pins are also subject to defects and increase the possibility of damage to the integrated circuits as a result of electrostatic discharge.
A memory system comprising a memory controller and a plurality of memory devices coupled to a common system bus is disclosed. The memory controller is configured to issue device select instructions, memory program instructions and memory read instructions over the system bus. The device select instructions include a device select command and a device select address.
The memory devices are each switchable between a device-enabled state where memory read operations can be carried out on the memory device and a device-disabled state where memory read operations cannot be carried out. Each of the memory devices further includes an array of memory cells and a memory operation manager coupled to the system bus and to the array. The memory operation manager, which is configured to carry out the memory read and memory program operations, includes an address comparator configured to compare a local address for the memory device to an address received from the memory controller on the system bus and a command decoder configured to detect commands received from the memory controller on the system bus. The memory operation manager is further configured to switch the memory device to the device-enabled state when command decoder and address comparator indicate that one of the device select commands has been detected on the system bus together with an address on the system bus which matches the local address.
Preferably, the memory controller is configured to issue a device deselect command on the system bus together with a device deselect address on the system bus. In that event, the memory operation manager is further configured to switch the memory device to the device-disabled state when the command decoder and address comparator indicate that one of the device deselect commands has been detected on the system bus together with the device deselect address on the system bus which matches the local address.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a receiving antenna apparatus that receives a radio signal transmitted from a capsule endoscope inside of a subject.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in the field of an endoscope, a capsule endoscope with a built-in imaging function and a radio communication function, which are provided in a capsule-shaped casing formed to a size that can be introduced into the gut of a subject such as a patient, is known. The capsule endoscope is first swallowed from the mouth of the subject and then it moves in the inside of the subject such as the gut by peristaltic movement and the like. Then, it sequentially captures images of the inside of the subject to generate image data, and sequentially transmits the image data.
The image data thus transmitted from the capsule endoscope by wireless transmission is received by a receiving apparatus through a receiving antenna provided outside the subject. The receiving apparatus stores the image data received through the receiving antenna in a built-in memory.
The subject can freely act during a period until the capsule endoscope is excreted after the capsule endoscope is swallowed, by carrying the receiving apparatus that has a radio communication function and a memory function. After the examination, a practitioner such as a doctor puts the image data accumulated in the memory of the receiving apparatus in an image display apparatus so that images of the inside of the subject which correspond to the images obtained by the capsule endoscope, that is, the internal organs' images are displayed on a display of the image display apparatus. The practitioner observes the images of the internal organs and the like displayed on the display, and diagnoses the subject.
In receiving the radio signal transmitted from the capsule endoscope, a typical receiving apparatus has a plurality of receiving antennas arranged in a dispersed manner outside the subject, selects one antenna with the strongest received strength, and receives the radio signal by the selected antenna. For example, there is a known receiving apparatus in which reception switching among a plurality of antennas placed outside a subject is performed and which detects the position of a capsule endoscope in the subject that is the source of a radio signal based on the field strength received by each antenna (See Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 2003-000608).
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NFC is a technique increasingly used mainly in Asian areas in the fields of traffic systems, accounting, and certification, for example. This technique has been approved as an international standard. The specification for the NFC, which is also referred to below as the NFC specification, has compatibility, i.e., so-called upward compatibility, for example, with various other specifications, such as Type A, Type B, FeliCa (registered trademark), and IS015693 specifications. In other words, when a reader-writer or a card is compatible with the NFC specification, it is also compatible with all of those specifications.
In the NFC, as an example, a reader-writer subjects data to an amplitude shift keying (ASK) modulation and then transmits this data to a card. In turn, the card subjects data to a load modulation and then transmits this data to the reader-writer. PTLs 1 and 2 disclose examples of a communication device that is able to conduct communication using a load modulation, specifically, a passive load modulation.
On the other hand, some electronic circuits use phase locked loop (PLL) circuits, as disclosed in PTL 3, for example.
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The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Nemesia plant, botanically known as Nemesia hybrid and referred to by the name ‘Inuprasp’.
The new Nemesia is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventors in Gensingen, Germany. The objective of the program is to create new strong Nemesia cultivars with numerous flowers and unique flower colors.
The new Nemesia originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventors of an unnamed Nemesia fructicans selection, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with an unnamed Nemesia strumosa selection, not patented during the summer of 2001. The cultivar Inuprasp was discovered and selected by the Inventors as a flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Gensingen, Germany during the summer of 2002.
Asexual reproduction of the new Nemesia by terminal cuttings in a controlled environment in Gensingen, Germany since June, 2002, has shown that the unique features of this new Nemesia are stable and are reproduced true to type in successive generations.
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In the past, various techniques have been developed for the purpose of sterilizing or decontaminating biological sludges and wastes. The most common process is the process of mixing lime with the sludge. The reaction of lime with the water in the sludge serves to elevate the temperature of the sludge for a maximum of 100.degree. C.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,781,842 and 4,902,431, issued to Nicholson, teach a process to decontaminate wastewater sludge to a level that meets or exceeds U.S. EPA process standards. The process mixes sludge with an alkaline material sufficient to raise the pH of the end product to 12 or higher for at least one day. This process will raise the temperature to 50.degree. C., but, will not sterilize the sludge, nor does it eliminate the pathogenic microorganisms.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,306,978, issued to Wurtz, relates to a process of lime stabilization of wastewater treatment plant: sludge. This patent discloses the dewatering of the sludge and intimately mixing calcium oxide to raise the temperature so as to produce a stabilized sludge particle.
None of these prior art inventions are capable of achieving temperatures, when mixed the sludge, of greater than 100.degree. C. None of these prior art techniques allow for the shorter drying times as required by 40 C.F.R. Subchapter 0, Part 503.32 a.311.A-D. The shorter drying times, as required by this Subchapter, are in accordance with the following formula: EQU D=131,700,000/(1.times.10**0.14t) (1)
where D=time in days t=temperature in degrees Celsius
Importantly, it is important to be able to treat biological sludge so as to kill off the eggs of parasites. Presently, a parasite known as helminth infects many people throughout the world. This is a parasite which crosses the blood/brain barrier so that the parasite can actually reside in the brain. Treatment has occurred in the past by simply chlorinating water so as to kill the living parasite. Unfortunately, tests have shown that the mere chlorination of water does not kill the egg of the parasite. If the egg of the parasite is delivered to a human host, then the egg can actually hatch within the human body and seriously infect the human host. Presently, there is approximately a thirty-six month life expectancy for those that are infected with the helminth parasite.
This is particularly a problem associated with municipal biological sludge. In certain areas of the world, the biological sludge of waste treatment processes is distributed in farming areas for use as a fertilizer on the field. If the municipal sludge contains the eggs of this parasite, then these eggs will reside within the field so as to ultimately be found on foods grown in the fertilized field. Furthermore, any water runoff from the field will tend to move the eggs from the field into a river or stream. In certain areas of the world, river or stream water is used for consumption and for bathing. As such, the eggs of the parasite can be delivered to such persons. Additionally, farm animals can often contact the parasite by consuming the water from the streams or by consuming food in the fields. It is possible for humans to become infected from the parasite by way of the eating of the meat of the animal. As such, it is very important to develop a process for the treatment of a biological sludge which effectively kills the eggs of the helminth parasite.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,635,069, issued on Jun. 3, 1997 to the present inventors, describes a process for treating a waste sludge of biological solids. This process is intended to decontaminate wastewater sludge to a level that meets or exceeds U.S. EPA standards. This process mixes sludge, under pressure, with calcium oxide and with sulfamic acid sufficient to raise the temperature to achieve pathogen destruction. Although the process is efficient with regard to pathogen destruction, it does not address process and economic advantages of adding or producing, during the process, ammonia, ammonium hydroxide or ammonium bicarbonate in a concentration of 200 ppm to 30,000 ppm. Furthermore, the product of the process of U.S. Pat. No. 5,635,069 has a relatively high pH. As such, the product of the process is not desirable for use as farm fertilizers until the pH is sufficiently lowered to a range of between 8.5 and 9.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a process for reducing biological waste sludge pathogen, bacteria, virus and parasite concentrations to below harmful levels.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a process that converts the biological waste sludge into a sellable and useable end product.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a process that eliminates or reduces waste incineration and landfilling of waste sludges.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a process that eliminates the odors resulting from lime stabilization.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a process that facilitates the dewatering of the biological sludge.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a process that recycles waste heat.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a process for treating waste sludges that is cost: effective, easy to use, and easy to install.
These and other objects and advantages of the present: invention will become apparent from a reading of the attached specification and appended claims.
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1. Field of the Invention
The field of invention relates to laundry basket apparatus, and more particularly pertains to a new and improved multiple laundry basket apparatus wherein the same is mounted for vertical orientation and ease of removal of contents from each basket.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Laundry basket apparatus is arranged in a vertical orientation as set forth in the instant invention to provide compactness and storage of various categories of laundry garments. The prior art has typically utilized multiple baskets arranged in a horizontal array to mount laundry components therewithin as exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 3,995,924 to Jones wherein various baskets are arranged within a central compartment in a horizontal array.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,585,283 to Redmond, et al. sets forth a multiple bag laundry hamper, wherein the hamper utilizes a framework to mount a horizontal array of basket members.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,736,454 to McConnell sets forth a compartmented clothes hamper providing various pie-shaped baskets contained therewithin.
As such, it may be appreciated that there continues to be a need for a new and improved multiple laundry basket apparatus as set forth by the instant invention which addresses both the problems of ease of use as well as effectiveness in construction and in this respect, the present invention substantially fulfills this need.
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{
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With the continuous development of communication technologies, mobile terminals (for example, mobile phones) have become the most frequently used Internet accessing terminals in daily life. As different from computers, mobile terminals have a very good portability and hence are likely taken and used by others, which causes the leakage of the privacy of the owner users of the mobile terminals. Therefore, the protection on the privacy of browsing behaviors during web page browsing, for example, the protection on the input history, browsing traces, cookies and files downloaded by the mobile terminal user, becomes indispensable for the owner user of the mobile terminal.
In the prior art, the protection on the privacy of the browsing behaviors of the mobile terminal owner is generally realized via two methods, in one of which, web page browsing is performed in a traceless browsing mode in which the browser of the mobile terminal will not keep any web page browsing record or input history; and in the other one of which, browsing is performed in an incognito mode in which the browser of the mobile terminal will not keep any web page browsing record, input history or cookies, but save bookmarks and the like that are generated in a privacy mode. However, neither of the above two methods can distinguish between browsing users, that is, no matter a browsing user is the owner user or a non-owner user of the mobile terminal, the traceless browsing mode or the incognito mode may be employed for web page browsing. Thus, if a non-owner user uses a mobile terminal to browse a web page in the traceless browsing mode or the incognito mode, the owner user of the mobile terminal cannot look up the browsing record of the non-owner user, and hence cannot judge whether the non-owner user does something harmful, resulting in low security.
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Plug-type closure for bottles, composed unitarily of synthetic resin material, have been provided heretofore as a substitute for conventional bottle closures composed of cork. These plug-type closures are themselves frequently referred to as "corks" and can comprise an outer circular-cross sectional relatively thin-walled outer member, e.g. a hollow cylinder, connected at its bottom by an end wall to a cylindrical core member disposed centrally of the plug.
The core can be provided with a preformed corkscrew-shaped cavity into which a corkscrew can be driven to facilitate withdrawal of the plug from the neck and mouth of the bottle. Radial webs can be formed unitarily with the core and the hollow cylinder to bridge them in angularly equally spaced relationship.
These synthetic-resin or plastic corks can be used to close wine bottles at the end of the bottling process and can be of the type described in French Pat. No. 1 106 988.
In this arrangement the internal cavity is formed as a cylindrical bore in the wall of which a groove of helical configuration is provided of screwthread configuration, i.e. constant pitch, constant radius and constant depth by turning methods, e.g. of the type well known in the production of female screwthreads in the metal.
Such expensive fabrication techniques must be used because for practical reasons, the complex-shaped internal cavity cannot be fabricated during injection molding of the plug. If injection molding techniques are used, the plug cannot be removed from the core-forming member of the mold or can only be removed by expensive or complex manipulations.
Furthermore, when efforts are made to use conventional corkscrews or like tools to withdraw the cork from the neck and mouth of the bottle, the shape of the corkscrew is frequently not compatible with the shape of the cavity or groove and the cork-pulling stress can be applied nonuniformly so that the corkscrew frequently pulls free and/or the cork is damaged.
Another bottle cork of the plastic type is described in French Pat. No. 1 127 460. Here the webs lie tangentially at the corkscrew-receiving member so that the disadvantages enumerated above with respect to handling and fabrication are present as well.
Still another plastic cork is described in German patent document No. DE-OS No. 16 07 901. In this construction in place of a helical groove, the cavity is formed with a multiplicity of semi-circular disks which are spaced apart in accordance with the pitch of the turns of the corkscrew so that diagonal disk edges can project between the turns and enable the cork to be withdrawn from the bottle.
Difficulties have been encountered with this system since the corkscrew does not engage the disks with sufficient precision to avoid damage upon the execution of a pull on the corkscrew. Furthermore the same problem creates difficulties in the threading of the corkscrew into the cork. In the fabrication of such a cork, moreover, it is frequently necessary to assemble the plug from two parts which are individually injection molded and then joined together. This fabrication technique is obviously expensive.
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1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to systems and methods for processing data, and more particularly to a system and a method for extracting feature data of dynamic objects.
2. Description of Related Art
Feature data extraction is very important for object detection. With good feature data extraction method, objects can be easily and accurately detected by small sets of information. For example, Gabor filter can be used for detection of edge of objects in figure, hence, it can be used to distinguish different objects in figure. However, most feature data extraction methods are static-information-based. That is, these methods only use static spatial information for feature data extraction. For dynamic objects, like flames, since they are time-varying, they cannot be easily detected by feature data extracted from static spatial information.
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Gas turbine engines, such as those used to power modern commercial aircraft, include a compressor for pressurizing a supply of air, a combustor for burning a hydrocarbon fuel in the presence of the pressurized air, and a turbine for extracting energy from the resultant combustion gases. In aircraft engine applications, the compressor, combustor and turbine are disposed about a central engine axis with the compressor disposed axially upstream of the combustor and the turbine disposed axially downstream of the combustor.
Combustion of the hydrocarbon fuel in air in gas turbine engines inevitably produces emissions, such as oxides of nitrogen (NOx), carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons, which are delivered into the atmosphere in the exhaust gases from the gas turbine engine. It is generally accepted that oxides of nitrogen are produced at high flame temperatures. One approach to lower NOx emissions is to lower flame temperature by operating the combustor under fuel lean conditions. However, during operation of the combustor under fuel lean conditions, combustion instability and flame-out may occur if the fuel and air mixture becomes too fuel lean. Additionally, during operation of the combustor under fuel lean conditions, the lower flame temperatures could result in incomplete combustion and a consequent increase in carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons emissions.
Another approach to lower the emissions of oxides of nitrogen, carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons from a gas turbine engine is through staged combustion. One arrangement for implementing staged combustion in a gas turbine engine is to provide a plurality of fuel injection nozzles and associated air swirler assemblies, of which only a selected portion are operated at engine idle and under low power demands and all of which are operated at engine cruise and under high power demands.
In general, it is desirable to rapidly mix the fuel and the air in an attempt to provide uniform fuel lean conditions and eliminate as many local pockets as possible of combustion under near stoichiometric fuel/air conditions to avoid pockets of high flame temperature conducive to NOx formation, or of combustion under fuel rich conditions to avoid carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon resulting from incomplete combustion. Various designs of swirler assemblies have been developed for use in associated fuel injection nozzles in an attempt to provide rapid fuel and air mixing. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,966,937 discloses a fuel injector and a two-pass air swirler disposed about the fuel injector, the air swirler having an inner swirled air passage and an outer swirled air passage. The fuel is injected through the end of the fuel injector into the swirling airflow generated by the inner air swirler. U.S. Pat. No. 5,603,211 discloses a fuel injector and a three-pass air swirler disposed about the fuel injector, the air swirler having an inner swirled air passage, an intermediate swirled air passage and an outer swirled air passage. Again, the fuel is injected through the end of the fuel injector into the swirling airflow generated by the inner air swirler.
There is a desire for an efficient, low-emission, and stable combustor for use in gas turbine engines for powering supersonic cruise vehicles. It is contemplated that combustors in gas turbine engines for powering supersonic cruise vehicles will operate with pre-vaporized, that is gaseous, jet fuel. While the aforementioned air swirlers have performed well in mixing liquid jet fuel and air in conventional gas turbine engines on commercial subsonic aircraft, there is a desire for an air swirler assembly that provides rapid and efficient mixing of gaseous jet fuel with air.
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1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a document disposal management system, a document disposal management device, a document disposal management method and a recoding medium storing a document disposal management program.
2. Related Art
It is a common practice in system environment, for example, established in offices or the like by network connection among client PCs, printers, multifunctional devices, and document management servers, to hold and manage operation history of various operations including printing of electronic documents on a recording medium (paper), scanning and copying of documents printed on paper, and transfer of documents for the purpose of enhancing the security of the documents.
Nowadays, in particular, from the viewpoint of information security focusing on the e-document bill and ISO15489, there has arisen a demand for an even higher level of history management on when and who performed what operation to which document.
Document operations managed in such document operation history management naturally includes disposal of documents.
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Passive ranging systems such as the United States' Global Positioning System (GPS) and the Russian Global Navigation System (GLONASS) allow a user to precisely determine latitude, longitude, elevation, and time of day. Ranging system receivers typically accomplish this by decoding several precisely-timed signals transmitted by a group of special satellites.
For example, within the GPS system, each signal transmitted by a satellite is modulated with low frequency (typically 50 Hz) digital data which indicates the satellite's position and time of day, normalized to Greenwich Mean Time. Each satellite signal is further modulated with a unique, high frequency pseudorandom noise (PRN) code, which provide a mechanism to precisely determine the line of sight signal transmission time from each satellite.
The GPS system satellite constellation has been placed in geostationary orbit such that at least four satellites are within a direct line of sight at any given position on the earth. A typical PRN receiver thus receives a composite signal consisting of several signals transmitted by the satellites, as well as any noise and interfering signals. A decoder or channel circuit may then recover one of the transmitted signals by correlating (multiplying) the composite signal with a locally generated reference version of the PRN code signal assigned to the particular satellite of interest. If the locally generated PRN reference signal is properly timed, the digital data from that particular satellite may then be properly detected.
The signals received from different satellites are also automatically separated by the multiplying process, because the signals transmitted by different satellites use unique PRN codes having low or zero cross-correlation power. The three dimensional position of the receiver and its velocity may then be resolved by using the PRN code phase information to precisely determine the transmission time from at least four satellites, and by detecting each satellite's ephemeris and time of day data.
In order to correctly determine the offset of the PRN reference signal, its relative time delay is typically varied relative to the incoming signal until a maximum power level in the resulting correlation signal is determined. At the time offset corresponding to this point of maximum received power, the local reference signal is considered to be in synchronism with the incoming signal, and the range measurement may then be made. A so-called delay lock loop (DLL) tracking system which correlates early, punctual, and late versions of the locally generated PRN code signal against the received composite signal thus performs these operations to maintain PRN code lock in each channel.
Because of this need to precisely determine the exact propagation time, a number of problems face the designers of PRN receivers. One problem concerns accurate phase and frequency tracking of the received signals; another problem concerns the correction of relative divergence between the received signals and the local PRN code signal generators in the presence of ionospheric distortion.
In addition, because GPS systems depend upon direct line of sight for communication propagation, any multipath fading can further distort received signal timing estimates. In the ideal system, only one signal, the signal taking the direct or shortest path, is present. However, since the transmitter uses an omnidirectional (wide angle) antenna for maximum coverage, and since it is so far away from the receiver, the presence of surrounding reflecting objects such as buildings and natural surface formations means that there are typically multiple paths for the signal to take. Such a multipath signal takes a slightly different and longer router and thus arrives at the receiver at a different time.
The exact number of multipath signals present at any given moment is a function of the satellite and antenna positions relative to any and all reflecting objects. Therefore, in the typical situation, there may be none, or there may be many multipath signals. Since the multipath signals travel a longer distance they will always be received at some time after the direct path signal and will inevitably suffer a loss in power due to the reflection(s). This time delay equals the difference in length between the direct path and the reflected path divided by the propagation velocity.
The effect of the presence of multipath on the process of acquiring code lock is that there will always be some correlation with the multipath signals as well as with the desired, direct path signal.
The typical way of dealing with this is to design the PRN autocorrelation functions such that even a small offset from zero in time will yield a near zero value in the estimate of the autocorrelation function. In reality, however, the autocorrelation power decreases linearly as the time offset increases, in either the position or negative directions The multipath correlation power only reaches zero when the PRN code offset is greater than plus or minus one chip. Since the carrier sampling rate is usually much higher than the PRN code chipping rate, partial correlations will occur at sub-chip offsets.
Thus, in the presence of multipath distortion, most GPS receivers suffer a degradation in accuracy and an increase in processing time. This is especially true in high accuracy differential GPS applications, where pseudorange multipath will result in errors creeping into the differential corrections, causing large position biases.
Unlike other error sources, multipath is typically uncorrelated between antenna locations. Thus, the base and remote receivers experience different multipath interference and as a result, simple differencing between them will not cancel the errors due to multipath distortion. Also, modelling multipath for each antenna location is difficult and impractical.
A common method of reducing multipath is to carefully choose the design of the antenna and careful site selection. Unfortunately, it is often not possible to change either of these parameters. For example, if the antenna is to be mounted on an airplane fuselage, it will not be easily moved or replaced, and its shape is recessively restricted due to aerodynamic considerations.
What is needed is a way to reduce the tracking errors present in PRN ranging receivers, especially those of the lower-frequency C/A code type, in the presence of multipath fading, without degrading the signal acquisition capability of the receiver, or increasing errors due to Doppler shift, sudden receiver motion, or other noise sources. The desired method of reducing multipath distortion would be transparent to user, and operate within the GPS receiver itself, as opposed to requiring a special antenna or receiver siting.
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In manufacturing of a semiconductor device, a photolithography process is generally used for forming an ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) film or an electrode pattern on a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer and an LCD glass substrate. Such a photolithography process coats a substrate with photoresist (hereinafter simply referred to as “resist”) to form a resist film, exposes the resist film so as to transfer thereto a predetermined circuit pattern, and develops the resist film, so that a desired pattern is formed in the resist film.
The above steps are generally performed by a coating and developing system, which includes various types of process units such as a resist coating unit that coats a substrate with a resist liquid, a baking unit that performs a heating treatment to a substrate that has been subjected to a resist coating step and a substrate that has been subjected to an exposure step, and a development unit that develops an exposed substrate by supplying thereto a developer, wherein every type of process unit numbers plural.
In recent years, there are growing needs of further miniaturization of a device pattern. As one of the solutions for achieving miniaturization, a so-called, multi-patterning technique that performs the lithography process two or more times has been studied. In addition to the multiple lithography processes, the multi-pattering technique requires an etching process for microfabrication of a resist.
There have been conventionally known systems in which a substrate is transferred to a plurality of processing apparatuses for the lithography process and an etching apparatus so that the substrate is subjected to the lithography processes and the etching processes. Some of such systems are configured to repeatedly perform the lithography process (see, claims and FIG. 1 of JP7-66265A, for example).
In the system disclosed in JP7-66265A, since the lithography process can be repeatedly performed, multiple patterns can be formed on a substrate. However, in such a system, since the process schedule for each process unit is determined with placing the top priority on throughput, the relationship between the process unit used for the first lithography process and the process unit used for the second lithography process is not managed. Thus, there may be a problem in that, due to the individual difference among the process units, misalignment or pattern dimension difference between the pattern formed by the first lithography process and the pattern formed by the second lithography process may occur, resulting in insufficient accuracy of the finally obtained pattern.
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The Internet and other digital communications networks continue to have significant effects on every aspect of personal and professional life. Network communications are becoming increasingly ubiquitous due to the reduced cost and increased capability of portable computing devices, as well as the increasing prevalence and capability of mobile telephony and other wireless communications technologies. Additionally, more and more devices, including set top boxes, television receivers, video game players, placeshifting devices, media players and the like, are becoming enabled for network communications.
While modern technologies allow increased mobility and improved access to data and services, a tradeoff often exists between network access and security. Although many homes and businesses have access to broadband network connectivity, for example, most of these network connections are protected by a firewall or the like to prevent unwanted intrusions. Firewalls and other structures, while effectively preserving the security of a home or other network, can have the undesired effect of preventing access to desired services or other features that are located on the opposite side of the firewall. For example, if a network service wishes to provide programming, data or instructions to a client that is located behind a firewall, such communications are often blocked to prevent security breaches. Configuring the firewall to allow access from the network service may be difficult for many users, and may also create undesirable security gaps that could be exploited by others. If a customer service representative, for example, needs to gain access to a device located behind a firewall to assist the user in configuring or using the device, such a connection may be very difficult to establish using conventional techniques.
In addition to preventing unwanted access to a secure network, then, firewalls and other security mechanisms may prevent legitimate and desired access to remotely-located content or services, particularly if the security mechanism is incorrectly or incompletely configured by the user. Challenges can therefore arise in effectively establishing connections between clients and services for media streaming, media recording, placeshifting, gaming and/or other applications.
As a result, it is now desirable to create systems and methods for reliably and conveniently transmitting messages from services to clients over a network. These and other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background section.
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Electronic image data of images is widely used so as to store the images, and there has been know various techniques for editing those image data. For example, JP-A-2009-199357 discloses a technique which edits an electronic document using a scanned document. Specifically, the scanned document is generated by reading, with a scanner, an original of a plurality of pages including an original of two pages same as or similar to two consecutive pages in an electronic document. An image processing apparatus analyzes the scanned document to specify two consecutive pages in the electronic document. The image processing apparatus executes processing for replacing the two specified pages in the electronic document with similar pages in the scanned document or executes processing for adding a new page in the scanned document between the two specified pages in the electronic document. As a result, the user can edit the electronic document using the original.
However, in this technique, it is assumed to use an original of two pages same as or similar to two consecutive pages in an electronic document. Therefore, image data could not be flexibly edited.
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Most prior detectors of infrared imagers have pixels whose lateral spatial extent is defined by etching mesa structures whose sidewalls extend through the light absorbing layer. An example of a widely used dual-band detector structure is shown in FIGS. 1a-b. In this structure, the light absorbing regions for the two wavelength bands are stacked directly above each other and both of these light-absorbing layers are located completely within the same mesa as described by G. Destefanis, et al., “Bi-color and dual-band HgCdTe infrared focal plane arrays at DEFIR,” Proceedings SPIE Vol. 6206, 2006, p. 62060R, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Each pixel consists of two back-to-back photodiodes, with those diodes having, for example, N-on-P configurations. Each pixel has one independent contact and also has a contact that is common to the other pixels of the array. In general, the light-absorbing layer that absorbs the shorter-wavelength light is located closer to the incident light, which is the layer located closer to the substrate in the case shown in the figure. The two photodiodes of a pixel are electrically contacted and biased through the single contact located on the top of the mesa and through the array-common contact located on the substrate side of the structure. By switching the bias voltage for a pixel from a positive value to a negative value, it is possible to extract the photo-detected signal from one or the other P/N junction photodiode of a back-to-back pair.
The bias switched pixels can detect only one band at a time. Thus, the images for the two bands can be spatially offset from each other if the platform carrying the imager is moving rapidly compared to the switching speed for the band selection. Likewise, if an object being imaged is moving rapidly, the images formed for the two bands may indicate different spatial locations for that object. A dual-band imager that can provide outputs at both bands simultaneously is desirable for avoiding such image and/or object shifts.
FIG. 3 shows the cross-section structure and the material energy-band structure of another prior dual-band detector that has two outputs for each pixel as described by M. B. Reine, et al., “Simultaneous MW/LW dual-band MOVPE HgCdTe 64×64 FPAs,” Proceedings SPIE Volume 3379 (April 1998), pp. 200-212, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. For this detector, the light-absorbing regions for the two wavelength bands are located within the same etched mesa and are aligned directly over each other. This detector is fabricated from a four-layer P-n-N-P structure, with an additional potential barrier for holes located at the n-N interface. In this structure, the longer-wavelength signal is obtained from one of the contacts for each pixel. However, the shorter-wavelength signal is obtained from the array common output. The other pixel-specific output provides the electron currents for both the longer wavelength and the shorter wavelength bands. Thus, a more complicated ROIC input circuit is needed to separate the signal currents for the two bands. There is a need for a compact dual-band detector that can simultaneously provide two outputs per pixel with those two outputs directly being the photo-currents for the two wavelength bands.
FIGS. 4a-c show the cross-section structure and the material energy-band structure of a prior detector that has aligned absorber regions for the two wavelength bands and also that can provide the photo-currents for those two wavelength bands at each detector pixel. This detector actually contains three mesas (as illustrated in FIGS. 4a-b) whose sidewalls extend completely through the longer-wavelength absorber layer of the structure as described in K. Kosai, et al., “Integrated LPE-grown structure for simultaneous detection of infrared radiation in two bands,” U.S. Pat. No. 5,559,336, issued 24 Sep. 1996, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. These mesas enable the outputs of each pixel to be presented via three coplanar solder bumps to a readout circuit. One output is coupled to the collector layer that collects the photo-generated electrons from the longer-wavelength absorber layer. Another output is electrically connected to a contact made to the shorter wavelength absorber layer. These two outputs provide the photo-currents for the two bands. A third output is electrically connected to a contact made to the longer-wavelength absorber layer and its output is the combined photo-currents for the two bands. This detector has an N+-P-P+-N layer structure and its electronic band structure may be like the one shown in FIG. 4c as described by K. Kosai and G. R. Chapman, “Dual-band infrared radiation detector optimized for fabrication in compositionally graded HgCdTe,” U.S. Pat. No. 5,457,331, issued 10 Oct. 1995, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. This band structure, which has a wide bandgap barrier to block the flow of electrons between the two light-absorbing layers, facilitates extraction of the electrons generated by absorption of the shorter-wavelength light through the second output and the extraction of the electrons generated by absorption of the longer-wavelength light through the first output. The holes generated by absorption of both the shorter-wavelength and the longer-wavelength light are extracted through the third output. A weakness of this prior detector is that with its three large mesas and thick absorber layers, the size of a pixel is likely 50 μm or larger. Thus, there remains a need to achieve a photo-detector array with simultaneous dual-band output that has sufficiently small pixel pitch to enable large-format imagers. Also, there is no provision for achieving a contact common to multiple pixels that can output a current due to both light-absorbing regions. That contact whose output is a current due to both light-absorbing regions would need to be made to the longer-wavelength light-absorbing layer, but the mesas form completely separated regions of the longer-wavelength absorber for each pixel and thus a contact common to multiple pixels cannot be made with this prior approach.
FIGS. 2a-b show the cross-sectional structure of a prior art dual-band detector in which each diode detector of a given pixel has a separate electrical contact, thereby allowing true simultaneous detection of light in the two wavelength bands, as described by P. Tribolet, et al., “Advanced HgCdTe technologies and dual-band developments,” Proceedings SPIE Volume 6940, paper 69402P, (2008) which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. For this prior structure, the lateral spatial extent of each pixel is defined not by an etched mesa but rather by a pair of PN junctions formed as a result of ion implantation. This known structure comprises a layer having wider bandgap material (the NIR barrier) located between the two light-absorbing layers that prevents electrical short-circuiting between the two diodes. This barrier blocks both the electrons and the holes. In this structure, the longer-wavelength absorbing layer (the LWIR or band-2 absorber) and the shorter-wavelength absorbing layer (the MWIR or band-1 absorber) are laterally contiguous and extend over multiple pixels. A deep via hole is etched through portions of the LWIR absorber layer in order to permit electrical contacts to be made to the PN junction for the MWIR absorber layer. In order to make contact for the return path of both diodes, the array also has other electrical contacts, located at the edge of the array, that abut both the shorter-wavelength absorbing layer and the longer-wavelength absorbing layer as shown in FIG. 2a. One weakness of this detector is that in each pixel of this detector, the detecting regions for the two bands are defined by the locations of the PN junctions for its two absorber layers. Since those two PN junctions are slightly offset from each other, as illustrated in FIG. 2b, the detections regions for the two bands also are offset from each other. This approach can achieve a pixel pitch as small as 20 μm, albeit with a small, fixed offset between the pixels for the two bands. This offset results in an undesirable spatial offset in the images produced for the two wavelength bands.
The prior dual-band detector arrays have generally been operated and tested at a device temperature of 77K. At this temperature, the dark-current noise is determined primarily by the thermal generation processes in the carrier-depleted junctions of the device. There is a need to achieve detectors that can operate at higher temperatures, such as 130-150K or even approaching 200K, and still have background limited noise performance. At these higher device temperatures, the thermal generation of carriers in the light-absorbing regions, especially for the longer-wavelength band, also can contribute to or even can dominate the dark-current noise. As a result, there is a need to reduce the volume of the longer-wavelength absorber material as well as reduce the depleted junction regions and still achieve high quantum efficiency for conversion from incident photons to output electrical carriers.
FIG. 5 shows a single band detector (albeit having very wide bandwidth) that can achieve high quantum efficiency with a reduced volume of its light-absorbing material. This detector contains multiple pyramid shaped features formed in each pixel, with those pyramids located on the side of the detector facing the incident light as described by D. Yap, et al., “Wide bandwidth infrared detector and imager,” U.S. Pat. No. 7,928,389, issued 19 Apr. 2011, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The pyramids are etched into a moderately thin light absorbing layer, with the overall thickness of that light-absorbing layer being roughly equal to the longest wavelength of the light to be absorbed. The pyramids are etched only partly through the light-absorbing layer so that there remains a physically continuous base region of the light-absorbing layer to permit the majority carriers to be conducted to electrical contacts formed at the edges of the detector array. This detector also contains mesas etched through the heavily doped collector or extractor layer of the P/N diode. The mesas are not etched into the main light-absorbing layer and the mesas face away from the incident light. The pixel-specific electrical contact for a given pixel is formed onto these collector mesas. The spatial extent of a given pixel is defined by the electrical contact made to these mesas. There can be more than one mesa for each pixel and there are multiple pyramids in each pixel.
For this detector, the light is incident from the side containing the pyramids rather than from the substrate side of the detector. Thus, the detector in FIG. 5 is unlike the prior detectors illustrated in FIGS. 1-4. Furthermore, the pyramid-shaped regions of the light-absorbing layer do not specifically define the extent of a pixel but rather they extend throughout the light-facing surface of the array. Instead, the pixel is defined by the extent of the electrical contacts made to the one or more collector mesas comprising a pixel and the electrical interconnection of those contacts. The electrical contact made to the light-absorbing layer of this structure is the common contact of the detector array.
FIG. 6 shows another single band detector (likewise having very wide bandwidth) that has only a thin layer of light-absorbing material. This detector contains multiple pyramid shaped features formed in each pixel, with those pyramids being transparent to the wavelengths of light to be absorbed as described by D. Yap and R. D. Rajavel, in U.S. application Ser. No. 13/372,366 “Wideband detector structures,” Filed on Feb. 13, 2012, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Those pyramids are located on the side of the detector facing the incident light. The pyramids are located above the thin and laterally continuous light absorbing layer. Although the thickness of the light-absorbing layer is much less than the 1/e absorption length for that material, it is possible to achieve quantum efficiency well above 80% over the entire wide bandwidth sensed by this detector. Deep dips in the absorption spectrum, at which wavelengths the absorption is greatly reduced, are avoided by forming multi-stepped mesas of the collector regions and/or oxide spacers of various thickness that separate the light-absorbing layer from a metal reflector at the backside of the device.
FIG. 7 shows a dual-band detector that has a reduced volume of the light-absorbing material for the longer-wavelength band as described in U.S. application Ser. No. 13/37036,403 “Infrared Detector,” Filed on Feb. 28, 2011, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Light is incident from the substrate side of that device, which is illustrated in FIG. 7. For that detector, the growth substrate is preferably thinned but does not need to be removed completely. Pyramids are formed in the thinned substrate and they serve to improve the coupling of light into the light absorbing regions. The light absorbing regions for the longer-wavelength band are laterally separated from each other and are surrounded by voids that may be filled with a transparent, low-refractive-index material. A metal reflector at the backside of the detector acts in combination with these trapezoidal shaped light-absorbing regions to achieve efficient trapping and absorption of the light. The light-absorbing region for the shorter-wavelength band is a laterally contiguous layer. This prior detector has a single electrical output per pixel as well as an array common output. Thus, the dual-band operation is achieved by switching the bias voltage applied to a detector pixel.
Most of the prior dual-band detectors have a separate PN diode for detecting the light of each band, with a wide bandgap barrier that electrically isolates these two PN diodes by blocking the flow of both electrons and holes (as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4). Such back-to-back PN diode configurations result in devices that require much larger area. The dual-band detector shown in FIG. 7, and also the prior detector shown in FIG. 3, has a barrier between the two light-absorbing regions for the two bands, with that barrier blocking one electrical carrier but not the other carrier. These prior detectors essentially have one electrical output that provides the signal for one band and a second electrical output that provides a combined signal for both bands. This configuration requires a more complicated front-end circuit for the read out.
In view of the limitation in prior art, a need exists for improved detectors.
In the following description, like reference numbers are used to identify like elements. Furthermore, the drawings are intended to illustrate major features of exemplary embodiments in a diagrammatic manner. The drawings are not intended to depict every feature of every implementation nor relative dimensions of the depicted elements, and are not drawn to scale.
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In the present disclosure, where a document, an act and/or an item of knowledge is referred to and/or discussed, whether directly and/or indirectly, then this reference and/or discussion is not an admission that the document, the act and/or the item of knowledge and/or any combination thereof was at the priority date, publicly available, known to the public, part of common general knowledge and/or otherwise constitutes prior art under the applicable statutory provisions and/or is known to be relevant to an attempt to solve any problem with which the present disclosure is concerned.
During construction, many framing techniques are used. One of such techniques includes manual assembly of multiple framing components into a single framing element. However, such assembly is inefficient for various reasons. For example, manual assembly involves excessive material, which is costly. Similarly, manual assembly wastes man-hours, which are also costly. Resultantly, better approaches are desired.
While certain aspects of conventional technologies have been discussed to facilitate the present disclosure, no technical aspects are disclaimed. The claims may encompass at least one of the conventional technical aspects discussed herein.
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Drilling technology may involve various techniques and processes depending upon the material being drilled, accuracy requirements, size of the hole being drilled etc. Existing micro drilling techniques may be utilized to form various types of holes, including micro-holes. Known techniques include conventional mechanical drilling, micro-electrical discharge machining (micro-EDM), laser, photo-etching, ultrasonic and micro-electrical chemical machining (micro-ECM), etc.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a white organic light emitting device and, more particularly, to a white organic light emitting device which includes first and second emissive layers each having a blue emissive layer to improve the light emission efficiency.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image display devices that are thinner, lighter and more portable and that employ organic light emitting displays (OLED), have attracted much attention. The OLED has the advantage that it can be manufactured paper-thin, with a light emitting element using a thin emissive layer between electrodes.
The OLED includes an anode transmitting light, a cathode reflecting light, and an emissive layer having a plurality of organic layers stacked between the anode and the cathode. When a voltage is applied between the cathode and the anode, light generated from the organic emissive layer is emitted through the anode, or transferred to the cathode opposite to the anode and reflected back to the anode and then emitted through the anode.
The organic emissive layer in a white organic light emitting device has a basic structure in which red (R), green (G) and blue (B) emissive layers are stacked. When the stacked R, G and B emissive layers emit light simultaneously, it is possible to obtain well-balanced white light emission. However, it is difficult to manufacture a white organic light emitting device having high efficiency and R, G and B properly balanced.
One approach to solving the problem of efficiency in the stacked structure involves the use of an intermediate, charge-injecting layer inserted between emissive layers so as to increase the quantum efficiency and light emission efficiency. However, the fabrication process is complicated.
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This invention relates generally to binoculars and more particularly to a quick focus binocular device wherein the individual ocular lenses are adjustable independently of one another.
Conventional binoculars are focused by means of a knob or wheel which effects adjustment of both of the ocular lenses in unison until the image is properly in focus. One of the ocular lenses has an individual eyepiece focus ring or the like which is then turned to compensate for any dioptric differences between the user's eyes. Focusing of conventional binoculars thus entails initial focusing of the two ocular lenses together followed by a final adjustment of the focus ring, a procedure that is difficult and time consuming as well as lacking in accuracy. Often, the initial focusing step properly focuses the lens which does not have the individual focus ring. In this case, any attempt to adjust the focus ring will be unsuccessful and the procedure must be repeated from the start if proper overall focusing is to be achieved. As can be easily appreciated, the inaccuracy and the frequent need to repeat the focusing procedure a number of times results in considerable inconvenience and frustration to the user of the instrument.
It is therefore apparent that a need exists for a binocular device wherein both eye pieces can be quickly and conveniently focused with precision. It is the primary goal of the present invention to meet that need.
More specifically it is an object of the invention to provide a binocular device which has individual control of the adjustment of each ocular lens independently of the other ocular lens. Since focusing of each lens is carried out separately and independently of the other lens, each lens can be quickly and accurately adjusted to the eye, and there is no need to separately compensate for any dioptric differences between the eyes. An individual focus ring for one the eye pieces is thus unnecessary and the expense of the focus ring is eliminated.
Another object of the invention is to provide a binocular device of the character described wherein adjustment of the ocular lenses can be effected quickly and conveniently. The adjustments are made with the fingers which are applied to rocker bars while the device is held in the hands in the normal fashion. Thus, the telescope held by the user's right hand is adjusted with the fingers of the right hand and the telescope held by the left hand is adjusted with the fingers of the left hand.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a device of the character described in which pivotal motion of the rocker bars is translated into precise adjustment of the ocular lenses.
An additional object of the invention is to provide a binocular device of the character described which is constructed simply, economically, and ruggedly.
Other and further objects of the invention, together with the features of novelty appurtenant thereto, will appear in the course of the following description of the drawings.
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Microdevices are manufactured by depositing and working several layers of materials on a single substrate to produce a large number of individual devices. For example, layers of photoresist, conductive materials, and dielectric materials are deposited, patterned, developed, etched, planarized, and so forth to form features in and/or on a substrate. The features are arranged to form integrated circuits, micro-fluidic systems, and other structures.
Wet chemical processes are commonly used to form features on microfeature workpieces. Wet chemical processes are generally performed in wet chemical processing tools that have a plurality of individual processing chambers for cleaning, etching, electrochemically depositing materials, or performing combinations of these processes. In some cases, the processing chambers include a vessel configured to electrolytically apply material to the workpiece and/or remove material from the workpiece. The workpiece is partially immersed in a bath that includes an electrolyte in fluid communication with an electrode. When material is to be added to the workpiece, electrical potentials of opposite polarities are applied to the electrode (which functions as an anode) and the workpiece (which functions as a cathode). When material is to be removed from the workpiece, the polarities are reversed so that the electrode operates as a cathode and the workpiece operates as an anode.
During electrolytic processing, a diffusion layer develops at the surface of the workpiece in contact with the electrolytic liquid. The concentration of the material applied to or removed from the workpiece varies over the thickness of the diffusion layer. In many cases, it is desirable to reduce the thickness of the diffusion layer so as to allow an increase in the speed with which material is added to or removed from the workpiece. In other cases, it is desirable to otherwise control the material transfer at the surface of the workpiece, for example to control the composition of an alloy deposited on the surface, or to more uniformly deposit materials in surface recesses having different aspect ratios.
One approach to reducing the diffusion layer thickness is to increase the flow velocity of the electrolyte at the surface of the workpiece. For example, some vessels include paddles that translate or rotate immediately adjacent to the workpiece to create a high speed, agitated flow at the surface of the workpiece. In other arrangements, fluid jets are directed at the workpiece to agitate the flow at the workpiece surface.
The foregoing arrangements suffer from several drawbacks. For example, the electrode may not apply or remove material from the workpiece in a spatially uniform manner, causing some areas of the workpiece to gain or lose material at a greater rate than others. Existing devices are also not configured to transfer material to and/or from different types of workpieces without requiring lengthy, unproductive time intervals between processing periods, during which the devices must be reconfigured (for example, by moving the electrodes and/or a shield to adjust the electric field within the electrolyte). Another drawback is that the paddles can disturb the uniformity of the electric field created by the electrode, which further affects the uniformity with which material is applied to or removed from the workpiece. Still another drawback with the foregoing arrangements is that the vessel may also include a magnet positioned proximate to the workpiece to control the orientation of material applied to the workpiece. When the electrode is removed from the vessel for servicing or replacement, it has been difficult to do so without interfering with and/or damaging the magnet.
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This invention relates to a photo- or heat-curable resin composition suitable for insulating a printed wiring board and to a multilayer printed wiring board containing an insulating resin layer formed from said photo- or heat-curable resin composition.
In recent years, the on-going miniaturization of electronic instruments has led to the development of a multi-level system for printed wiring in order to attain a higher degree of integration of electronic devices and the so-called build-up process which is put into practice by forming an insulating layer and a conductive layer alternately and laminating them together has come into frequent use. And here, high reliability is demanded for the resin materials to be used for insulation. Moreover, it is often the case that a printed wiring board is covered with an insulating layer to protect the surface or the mounted chips.
In the use of insulating materials based on organic resins in multilayer printed wiring boards, however, the organic resins differ greatly in the thermal expansion coefficient from the active parts such as semiconductor devices and the passive parts such as capacitative elements and resistors and, still more, from substrates such as sintered alumina materials, epoxy resins on glass cloth formed by impregnating glass cloth woven from glass fibers with epoxy resins, and silicon wafers; in case a large thermal stress results from the difference in the thermal expansion coefficient between the organic resins and other components, the stress causes cracking and splitting apart of semiconductor devices, capacitative elements, and conductive wirings and the affected devices cease to function normally.
Now, a practice of incorporating fillers in resin insulating materials is known from old and the incorporation of fillers in the resin components constituting the resin insulating layers of multilayer wiring boards is also known. In JP 09-148748 (1997)A1, for example, a filler is used for roughening the surface of a resin insulator in order to improve the adhesion of resin insulator to wiring; however, the filler here is used not only for the object different from that of this invention but also at a high rate of incorporation on the order of 5-50% by weight and the practice as described here cannot manifest a sufficient effect in the thermal shock test which is a typical reliability test.
On the other hand, JP 10-242650 (1998)A1 has an object of reducing cracking in the thermal shock test and attempts to realize this by reducing the thermal expansion coefficient of an insulating material by adding a filler. In this case again, the content of the filler is high on the order of 10-95% by weight and fine patterns are difficult to obtain when the resin insulating layer is processed.
Wet plating and dry plating are known in the manufacture of multilayer printed wiring boards by a process such as the build-up process; the former requires the uneven condition in practice which makes its use difficult in a high frequency region and the latter is gaining favor.
Accordingly, an object of this invention is to provide a photo- or heat-curable resin composition which cures into a film of high reliability as tested by the thermal shock test which is a typical test for reliability of substrates as a resin composition for forming a resin insulating layer in a wiring board. Another object of this invention is to provide a resin composition which can be processed to yield fine patterns. A further object of this invention is to provide a cured resin which is heat- and solvent-resistant and suitable for use as an interlayer insulating layer in a multilayer printed wiring board.
The present inventors have conducted extensive studies to solve the aforementioned problems, found that incorporating in a resin a fine filler with its particle diameter controlled in the specified range contributes to produce an effect of preventing the formation of minute cracks when the resin is used as an insulating layer in a wiring board, and completed this invention.
This invention relates to a photo- or heat-curable resin composition which is intended for forming an insulating layer in a multilayer printed wiring board and comprises 0.1-5 parts by weight of an inorganic filler with its average particle diameter controlled in the range 5 nm-0.5 xcexcm per 100 parts by weight of the resin-forming component.
Moreover, this invention relates to the aforementioned photo- or heat-curable resin composition comprising (A) 100 parts by weight of a photopolymerizable unsaturated compound represented by the following general formula (1)
wherein R is a hydrogen atom or a methyl group, A is a group represented by the formula (2)
(wherein R1 and R2 are hydrogen , an alkyl group with 1-5 carbon atoms, or a halogen) and X is xe2x80x94COxe2x80x94, xe2x80x94SO2xe2x80x94,xe2x80x94C(CF3)2xe2x80x94,xe2x80x94Si(CH3)2xe2x80x94, xe2x80x94CH2xe2x80x94,xe2x80x94C(CH3)2xe2x80x94,xe2x80x94Oxe2x80x94, xe2x80x94Sxe2x80x94,
or a single bond, Y and Z are respectively the residue of a polycarboxylic acid or its acid anhydride, and m and n are the number of structural units at a molar ratio (m/n) 0/100-100/0,
(B) 0-50 parts by weight of a compound containing an epoxy group, and
(C) 0-10 parts by weight of a photopolymerization initiator or sensitizer.
Still more, this invention relates to the aforementioned photo- or heat-curable resin composition comprising silica sol as an inorganic filler. Furthermore, this invention relates to a multilayer printed wiring board comprising a cured product of the aforementioned photo- or heat-curable resin composition as an insulating layer.
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Traditionally, there are two types of flight recorders installed in an aircraft: a flight data recorder (FDR) and a cockpit voice recorder (CVR). The CVR records audio information using one or more microphones located onboard the aircraft (e.g., on pilot headsets or other locations in the cockpit). The recorded cockpit audio provides insight into operation of the aircraft for subsequent investigation and analysis. However, in practice, there are situations where the FDR and/or the CVR cannot be readily located (e.g., in remote areas, open ocean, or when locator beacons become separated from the recorders). While it is technically possible to transmit flight data and/or audio data from the aircraft to ground locations continuously in real-time, the relatively high cost (e.g., memory and/or bandwidth requirements) for transmitting and/or storing the audio and flight data for all of the flight hours across an entire fleet of operating aircraft effectively makes such approaches economically infeasible for aircraft operators, even when data compression techniques are employed.
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Taiwanese Utility Model Patent No. M365850 discloses a conventional driving device for a hub assembly of a bicycle. The driving device includes a stationary ring that is mounted fixedly in the hub assembly, a ratchet ring, and a pawl seat. The ratchet ring is removably engaged with the stationary ring, and has an inner ring surface that is formed with a plurality of angularly spaced-apart ratchet grooves. The ratchet grooves are uniform but asymmetrical.
The pawl seat is connected to a sprocket in a manner that the pawl seat and the sprocket are molded as one piece. The pawl seat has an outer surrounding surface, and a retaining unit formed in the outer surrounding surface.
The retaining unit has a plurality of angularly spaced-apart retaining grooves. Each of the retaining grooves has a central section that has an opening, and first and second retaining sections that are connected respectively to circumferentially opposite ends of the central section. For each of the retaining grooves, the first retaining section is engaged with a pawl member that has a claw end extending through the opening, and the second retaining section retains a resilient member for biasing the claw end of the pawl member to engage a corresponding one of the ratchet grooves of the ratchet ring such that the ratchet ring is rotatable only in a single direction.
In order to enable the ratchet ring to rotate in the opposite direction instead, the ratchet ring has to be removed from, and then reengaged with the stationary ring at a flipped orientation, and the pawl member and the resilient member in each of retaining grooves have to switch places to engage with the flipped ratchet ring properly. The need to disassemble and reassemble the driving device for the purpose of changing rotational direction is rather cumbersome.
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In the age of multimedia which integrally handles audio, video and other information, existing information media, i.e., newspapers, magazines, televisions, radios, telephones and other means through which information is conveyed to people, have recently come to be included in the scope of multimedia. Generally, multimedia refers to something that is represented by associating not only characters, but also graphics, voices, and especially pictures and the like together, but in order to include the aforementioned existing information media in the scope of multimedia, it appears as a prerequisite to represent such information in digital form.
However, when calculating the amount of information contained in each of the aforementioned information media as the amount of digital information, while the amount of information per character is 1˜2 bytes, the amount of information to be required for voice is 64 Kbits or over per second (telephone quality), and 100 Mbits or over per second for moving pictures (current television reception quality), and it is not realistic for the aforementioned information media to handle such an enormous amount of information as it is in digital form. For example, although video phones are already in actual use via Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) which offers a transmission speed of 64 Kbps/s˜1.5 Mbps/s, it is not practical to transmit video shot by television cameras directly through ISDN.
Against this backdrop, information compression techniques have become required, and moving picture compression techniques compliant with H.261 and H.263 standards internationally standardized by ITU-T (International Telecommunication Union-Telecommunication Standardization Sector) are employed for video phones, for example (See, for example, Information technology—Coding of audio-visual objects—Part 2: video (ISO/IEC 14496-2), pp. 146-148, 1999. 12. 1). Moreover, according to information compression techniques compliant with the MPEG-1 standard, it is possible to store picture information in an ordinary music CD (compact disc) together with sound information.
Here, MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) is an international standard on compression of moving picture signals, and MPEG-1 is a standard for compressing television signal information approximately into one hundredth so that moving picture signals can be transmitted at a rate of 1.5 Mbps. Furthermore, since transmission speed within the scope of the MPEG-1 standard is limited primarily to about 1.5 Mbps, MPEG-2, which was standardized with a view to satisfy requirements for further improved picture quality, allows data transmission of moving picture signals at a rate of 2˜15 Mbps. Furthermore, MPEG-4 which achieves a higher compression ratio than that of MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, allows coding, decoding and operation in an object unit, and realizes a new function required for the multimedia age, has been standardized by the working group (ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11) which has been engaged in the standardization of MPEG-1 and MPEG-2. MPEG-4 was initially aimed at standardization of a coding method for a low bit rate, but now it is extended to standardization of a more versatile coding method for moving pictures further including interlace images and higher bit rates.
In the above-mentioned moving picture coding, the amount of information is compressed by exploiting redundancies in the spatial and temporal directions. Here, inter picture prediction coding is used as a method of using the temporal redundancies. In the inter picture prediction coding, a picture is coded using a temporarily forward or backward picture as a reference picture. The motion (a motion vector) of the current picture to be coded from the reference picture is estimated, and the difference between the picture obtained by the motion compensation and the current picture is calculated. Then, the spatial redundancies are eliminated from this difference, so as to compress the information amount of the moving picture.
In a moving picture coding method in compliance with MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.263, H.26L or the like, a picture which is not inter picture prediction coded, namely, which is intra picture coded, is called an I-picture. Here, a picture means a single coding unit including both a frame and a field. Also, a picture which is inter picture prediction coded with reference to one picture is called a P-picture, and a picture which is inter picture prediction coded with reference to two previously processed pictures is called a B-picture.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a predictive relation between pictures in the above-mentioned moving picture coding method.
In FIG. 1, a vertical line indicates one picture, with a picture type (I, P or B) indicated at the lower right thereof. Also, FIG. 1 indicates that a picture pointed by an arrow is inter picture prediction coded using a picture located at the other end of the arrowhead as a reference picture. For example, a B-picture which is the second from the left is coded using the first I-picture and the fourth P-picture as reference pictures.
In the moving picture coding method in compliance with MPEG-4, H.26L or the like, a coding mode called direct mode can be selected for coding a B-picture.
An inter picture prediction coding method in direct mode will be explained with reference to FIG. 2.
FIG. 2 is an illustration for explaining the inter picture prediction coding method in direct mode.
It is now assumed that a block C in a picture B3 is coded in direct mode. In this case, a motion vector MVp of a block X in a reference picture (a picture P4 that is a backward reference picture, in this case) which has been coded immediately before the picture B3 is exploited, where the block X is co-located with the block C. The motion vector MVp is a motion vector which was used when the block X was coded, and refers to a picture P1. The block C is bi-directionally predicted from the reference pictures, namely, the picture P1 and the picture P4, using motion vectors parallel to the motion vector MVp. The motion vectors used for coding the block C are, in this case, a motion vector MVFc for the picture P1 and a motion vector MVBc for the picture P4.
In the moving picture coding method in compliance with MPEG-4, H.26L or the like, a difference between a predictive value obtained from motion vectors of neighboring blocks and a motion vector of a current block to be coded is coded for coding the motion vector. In the following description, a “predictive value” indicates a predictive value of a motion vector. Since motion vectors of neighboring blocks have similar direction and motion in many cases, the amount of coding the motion vector can be reduced by coding the difference from the predictive value obtained from the motion vectors of the neighboring blocks.
Here, a motion vector coding method in MPEG-4 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 3A-3D.
FIGS. 3A-D are illustrations for explaining a method for coding a motion vector MV of a current block A to be coded in MPEG-4.
In FIGS. 3A˜3D, blocks indicated by a thick line are macroblocks of 16×16 pixels, and there exist 4 blocks of 8×8 pixels in each macroblock. Here, it is assumed that a motion vector is obtained at a level of a block of 8×8 pixels.
As shown in FIG. 3A, as for a current block A located at the upper left in a macroblock, a difference between a predictive value and a motion vector MV of the current block A is coded, where the predictive value is calculated from a motion vector MVb of a neighboring block B to the left of the current block A, a motion vector MVc of a neighboring block C just above the current block A and a motion vector MVd of a neighboring block D above and to the right of the current block A.
Similarly, as shown in FIG. 3B, as for a current block A located at the upper right in a macroblock, a difference between a predictive value and a motion vector MV of the current block A is coded, where the predictive value is calculated from a motion vector MVb of a neighboring block B to the left of the current block A, a motion vector MVc of a neighboring block C just above the current block A and a motion vector MVd of a neighboring block D above and to the right of the current block A.
As shown in FIG. 3C, as for a current block A located at the lower left in a macroblock, a difference between a predictive value and a motion vector MV of the current block A is coded, where the predictive value is calculated from a motion vector MVb of a neighboring block B to the left of the current block A, a motion vector MVc of a neighboring block C just above the current block A and a motion vector MVd of a neighboring block D above and to the right of the current block A.
As shown in FIG. 3D, as for a current block A located at the lower right in a macroblock, a difference between a predictive value and a motion vector MV of the current block A is coded, where the predictive value is calculated from a motion vector MVb of a neighboring block B to the left of the current block A, a motion vector MVc of a neighboring block C above and to the left of the current block A and a motion vector MVd of a neighboring block D just above the current block A. Here, the predictive value is calculated using the medians obtained from the horizontal and vertical components of these three motion vectors MVb, MVc and MVd respectively.
Next, a motion vector coding method in H.26L which has been developed for standardization will be explained with reference to FIG. 4.
FIG. 4 is an illustration for explaining a method for coding a motion vector MV of a current block A in H.26L.
A current block A is a block of 4×4 pixels, 8×8 pixels or 16×16 pixels, and a motion vector of this current block A is coded using a motion vector of a neighboring block B including a pixel b located to the left of the current block A, a motion vector of a neighboring block C including a pixel c located just above the current block A and a motion vector of a neighboring block D including a pixel d located above and to the right of the current block A. Note that the sizes of the neighboring blocks B, C and D are not limited to those as shown in FIG. 4 by dotted lines.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the procedure of coding the motion vector MV of the current block A using the motion vectors of the neighboring blocks as mentioned above.
First, the neighboring block which refers to the picture that the current block A refers to is specified out of the neighboring blocks B, C and D (Step S502), and the number of specified neighboring blocks is determined (Step S504).
When the number of the neighboring blocks determined in Step S504 is 1, the motion vector of that neighboring block which refers to the same picture is considered to be a predictive value of the motion vector MV of the current block A (Step S506).
When the number of the neighboring blocks determined in Step S505 is another value other than 1, the motion vector of the neighboring block which refers to another picture other than the picture that the current block A refers to, out of the neighboring blocks B, C and D, is considered to be 0 (Step S507). And the median of the motion vectors of the neighboring blocks B, C and D is considered to be a predictive value of the motion vector of the current block A (Step S508).
Using the predictive value derived in Step S506 or Step S508 in this manner, the difference between the predictive value and the motion vector MV of the current block A is calculated and the difference is coded (Step S510).
As described above, in the motion vector coding methods in compliance with MPEG-4 and H.26L, motion vectors of neighboring blocks are exploited when coding a motion vector of a current block to be coded.
However, there are cases where motion vectors of neighboring blocks are not coded. For example, they are cases where a neighboring block is intra picture coded, a B-picture is coded in direct mode, and a P-picture is coded in skip mode. In these cases, the neighboring blocks are coded using the motion vectors of other blocks except when they are intra picture coded, namely, the neighboring blocks are coded using their own motion vectors based on the result of motion estimation.
So, according to the above-mentioned traditional motion vector coding method, a motion vector of a current block is coded as follows: When there exists one neighboring block, out of three neighboring blocks, which has no motion vector based on the above result of motion estimation and has been coded using motion vectors of other blocks, the motion vector of that neighboring block is considered to be 0. When there exist two such neighboring blocks, the motion vector of the remaining one neighboring block is used as a predictive value. And when there exist three neighboring blocks, the motion vector is coded considering a predictive value to be 0.
However, in direct mode or skip mode, motion compensation is actually performed as is the case where a motion vector of a neighboring block itself is used based on the estimation result, although the motion vector information is not coded. As a result, in the above traditional method, if a neighboring block is coded in direct mode or skip mode, the motion vector of the neighboring block is not used as a candidate for a predictive value. So, there is a problem of causing an inaccurate predictive value of a motion vector when coding the motion vector, and thus causing lower coding efficiency.
The present invention is conceived to solve this problem, and the object thereof is to provide a motion vector coding method and a motion vector decoding method for obtaining a more accurate predictive value for higher coding efficiency.
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The field of the invention relates generally to device management, and more specifically, to a system and method for using machine readable code to commission one or more device applications.
Passwords that require long sequences of numbers and letters are typically used in applications that require high security. In addition, product model numbers, installation codes, and application setup often require users to manually enter long sequences of number/letters and/or information. A length of these sequences and/or an amount of information needed to be entered is related to the level of security (e.g., longer sequences and more information are typically associated with higher levels of security); however, long sequences/information can be difficult to manually enter without error. While some errors can be eliminated by redesigning processes to reduce a number of human-performed steps and create a more efficient workflow once processes have been optimized, further error reductions can only be achieved by “reassigning” tasks to automated instruments which are known to perform these tasks more reliably than humans. However, some tasks cannot be “reassigned” by conventional automated systems as the reassignment is either impractical or does not currently exist.
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This invention relates to projection television and more particularly to an improved envelope for a projection television tube, to a projection television tube incorporating the envelope and to a process for forming the envelope.
Projection television is a well established technique. However, because of the high cost involved in manufacturing the projection television tubes used, projection television has generally been limited to expensive, complicated, large screen units which are both difficult to install and expensive to maintain in satisfactory alignment. Thus the complexity and cost of the presently available projection television tubes have critically curtailed the development and acceptance of projection television systems for home entertainment, a use which could represent a very high-volume market.
Projection television systems for color projection commonly include three tubes each having a different color (conveniently referred to as red, green and blue) projecting pictures which are superimposed in registry on a common view screen. Typically, the most efficient of such tubes incorporate the optics of a Schmidt-type projection system and comprise a target illuminated in a single color by a suitable specific phosphor as an electron beam raster, a spherical reflector directing the light around the periphery of the target and a correction lens for any spherical aberration.
Within these tubes, certain dimensions are critical, a fact which has heretofore given rise to the high cost of constructing the projection tube envelopes to achieve a high level of reliability and reproducibility of optical characteristics. In particular, it is essential to locate and maintain the spacing between the mirror surface and the target surface at a predetermined value within about .+-.0.001 to 0.002 inch (about 0.025 to 0.050 mm). Projection tubes of the prior art have therefore been constructed to incorporate expensive and complicated means both to position the target during envelope and tube manufacture and to adjust its location both during manufacture and installation. A relatively early approach to achieving a partial solution to this problem was to incorporate the mirror within the tube envelope by forming it on that internal envelope surface opposing the target surface. This, however, still necessitated maintaining the critical dimensions of more than one envelope component as well as the precise relative positioning of the components. (See for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,467,462 and 2,637,829.) As this art has progressed in its development, more and more complex mechanisms have been incorporated into the tubing envelope and associated with it to achieve and maintain the required mirror/target alignment and critical distance.
Thus, it is obvious that it would be highly desirable to provide an envelope for a projection television tube which is relatively simple in construction but which is capable of achieving during construction and maintaining during use the required precise spatial distance and optical alignment between mirror and target surfaces.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus capable of performing continuous shooting and more particularly to a high-speed continuous shooting technique for an imaging apparatus including an imaging element with a large number of pixels.
2. Related Art
In recent years, a significant increase in the number of pixels in digital cameras has been made, including small size digital cameras, which have come to the market to include an imaging element with ten to twelve million pixels. Accordingly, even when printing on a sheet of a size of about A3 size, a printing result that is sufficient for viewing can be obtained.
On the other hand, the increase in the number of pixels in the digital camera causes the time required to read out image signals from an imaging element to be longer. This problem becomes prominent particularly in a so-called continuous shooting mode in which continuous shooting is performed on a subject in motion to obtain the best shot. That is, since using an imaging element with a large number of pixels it takes time to read out image signals from the imaging element, it becomes difficult to perform high-speed continuous shooting, increasing the possibility of missing the best shot.
To solve the above-described problem, a digital still camera described in JP-A-2003-219267 is proposed. The digital still camera described in JP-A-2003-219267 thins horizontal lines when reading out image signals from an imaging element, achieving fast readout. This enables high-speed continuous shooting in a digital still camera using an imaging element with a large number of pixels.
However, since the digital still camera described in JP-A-2003-219267 thins horizontal lines when reading out image signals from the imaging element, there is a problem that the image quality of a shot image is degraded.
The present invention is directed to solve the above-described problems and an object of the present invention is therefore to provide an imaging apparatus can suppress degradation in the image quality of a shot image in high-speed continuous shooting.
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In a conventional multicarrier transmission system, transceivers communicate over a communication channel using multicarrier modulation or Discrete Multiltone Modulation (DMT). Carriers or subchannels spaced within a usable frequency band of the communication channel are modulated at a symbol transmission rate of the system. In ADSL (Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line) systems, the symbol rate is approximately 4 kHz. Every 250 microseconds, the transmitting transceiver allocates a new set of bits for transmission to the subchannels so that the bit error rates of the subchannels are substantially equal at the receiving transceiver. Consequently, for a given symbol period the numbers of bits may vary from subchannel to subchannel.
ITU (International Telecommunication Union) standards G.992.1 and G.992.2 specify parameters that characterize the operation of ADSL DMT transceivers. Examples of parameters, to name but a few, include the data rate (b/s) for the correction between the transceivers, the number of subchannels in the upstream and downstream directions, and the number of bits allocated to each subchannel. In general, such parameters remain fixed after the initial configuration and installation of the transceiver. Some parameters depend on the data rate of the connection and may change when the ADSL connection is at a high or low data rate. Some parameters may change when channel, conditions change. However, after the type of application is determined, i.e., voice, data, video, etc., the parameters are optimized and fixed for that application.
For splitterless operation, described in the ITU G.922.2 standard, ADSL transceivers store “channel profiles,” which include a subset of parameters that are used when conditions of the communication channel change (e.g., a telephone goes off the hook). When the channel conditions change because of an event that the ADSL transceiver does not control (e.g., a telephone connected to the same wire as the ADSL transceiver goes off hook), the ADSL transceiver most identify the new channel condition, retrain some of the receiver functions (e.g., equalizers, echo cancellers, etc.), and switch to the channel profile that is used for the new channel condition. This process, defined as a “Fast Retrain” procedure in ITU G.922.2, takes approximately 1-2 seconds. These channel profiles, however, depend solely on the channel condition and sot on the application(s) executing on the ADSL connection.
As technological advances increase the data rate throughput for multicarrier transmission systems, ADSL transceivers are becoming capable of supporting multiple applications. To support multiple applications, it is necessary that the ADSL transceiver be able to quickly and efficiently adapt the transmission parameters as the number and type of active applications change over time. For example, if the ADSL transceiver is accessing data over the Internet when a voice telephone call that is being transported over the ADSL connection becomes active, the ADSL transceiver mast be able to modify the transmission parameters to accommodate both active applications. As other voice telephone calls and different applications (e.g., video on demand, video conferencing) become activated and deactivated over the ADSL connection, the ADSL transceiver most also be able to support the various transmission requirements of the various combinations of concurrently active applications. For example, video signals have higher reliability but lesser transmission delay requirements than voice and data signals. For some transmission systems, it has been necessary, to find a compromise between high reliability and transmission delay.
Thus, these remains a need for a system and method that can support the various transmission requirements of multiple active applications as the number and type of active applications change over time.
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To illustrate the typical architecture of a mobile network, FIG. 1 shows the structure of the known GSM mobile communications system (Global System for Mobile Communications), using abbreviations known from the context of the GSM system. The system comprises several open interfaces. The transactions relating to crossing of interfaces have been defined in the standards, in which context the operations to be carried out between the interfaces have also been largely defined. The network subsystem (NSS) of the GSM system comprises a mobile services switching centre (MSC) through whose system interface the mobile network is connected to other networks, such as a public switched telephone network (PSTN), an integrated services digital network (ISDN), other mobile networks (Public Land Mobile Networks PLMN), and packet switched public data networks (PSPDN) and circuit switched public data networks (CSPDN). The network subsystem is connected across the A interface to a base station subsystem (BSS) comprising base station controllers (BSC), each controlling the base transceiver stations (BTS) connected to them. The interface between the base station controller and the base stations connected thereto is the Abis interface. The base stations, on the other hand, are in radio communication with mobile stations across the radio interface.
The GSM network is adapted to other networks by means of the interworking function (IWF) of the mobile services switching centre. On the other hand, the mobile services switching centre is connected to the base station controllers with PCM trunk lines crossing the A interface. The tasks of the mobile services switching centre include call control, control of the base station system, handling of charging and statistical data, and signalling in the direction of the A interface and the system interface.
The tasks of the base station controller include, inter alia, the selection of the radio channel between the controller and a mobile station MS. For selecting the channel, the base station controller must have information on the radio channels and the interference levels on the idle channels. The base station controller performs mapping from the radio channel onto the PCM time slot of the link between the base station and the base station controller (i.e., onto a channel of the link). The establishment of the connection will be described in closer detail in the following.
The base station controller BSC schematically shown in FIG. 2 comprises trunk interfaces 21 and 22 through which the BSC is connected to the mobile services switching centre across the A interface on the one hand and to the base stations across the Abis interface on the other hand. The transcoder and rate adaptation unit TRAU forms part of the base station system and may be incorporated into the base station controller or the mobile services switching centre. For this reason, the unit is shown in broken line in FIG. 2. The transcoders convert speech from a digital format to another, for example convert the 64 kbit/s PCM signals arriving from the mobile services switching centre across the A interface into 13 kbit/s coded speech signals to be conveyed to the base station, and vice versa. Data rate adaptation is performed between the speed 64 kbit/s and the speed 3.6, 6, or 12 kbit/s. In a data application, the data does not pass through the transcoder.
The base station controller configures, allocates and controls the downlink circuits. It also controls the switching circuits of the base station via a PCM signalling link, thus enabling effective utilization of PCM time slots. In other words, a branching unit at a base station, which is controlled by the base station controller, connects the transmitter/receivers to PCM links. Said branching unit transfers the content of a PCM time slot to the transmitter (or forwards it to the other base stations if the base stations are chained) and adds the content of the receive time slot to the PCM time slot in the reverse transmission direction. Hence, the base station controller establishes and releases the connections for the mobile station. Multiplexing of the connections from the base stations to the PCM link(s) crossing the A interface, like the reverse operation, is carried out in switching matrix 23.
The layer 1 physical interface between the base station BTS and the base station controller BSC is in this example a 2048 kbit/s PCM line, i.e. comprises 32 64 kbit/s time slots (=2048 kbit/s). The base stations are fully under the control of the base station controller. The base stations mainly comprise transmitter/receivers providing a radio interface towards the mobile station. Four full-rate traffic channels arriving via the radio interface can be multiplexed into one 64 kbit/s PCM channel between the base station controller and the base station, and hence the speed of one speech/data channel over this link is 16 kbit/s. Hence, one 64 kbit/s PCM link may transfer four speech/data connections.
FIG. 1 also shows the transfer rates used in the GSM system. The mobile station MS transmits speech data across the radio interface on the radio channel for example at the standard rate 13 kbit/s. The base station receives the data of the traffic channel and switches it to the 64 kbit/s time slot of the PCM link. Three other traffic channels of the same carrier are also located in the same time slot (i.e., channel), and hence the transfer rate per connection is 16 kbit/s, as stated previously. The transcoder/rate adaptation unit TRAU converts the encoded digital information to the rate 64 kbit/s, and at this rate the data is transferred to the mobile services switching centre. If the transcoder/rate adaptation unit is incorporated into the mobile services switching centre, maximum advantage is gained from compressed speech in data transmission.
The implementation of transmission between the base stations and base station controllers forms an essential part of the costs of the mobile network. With a growing number of network users and an increasing number and density of base stations, the significance of efficient and economic transmission solutions is emphasized even more. For signalling, this means among other things that it must be possible to perform the requisite signalling between the base station and its controller rapidly and reliably.
Present-day mobile networks as a rule have fixed two-way signalling channels between each base station and base station controller. The use of fixed channels presupposes that the transmission channels and the associated signalling channels are planned in advance and programmed in the network elements of the transmission network. Information on which time slot is used by the base station for signalling is programmed in the base station in the start-up phase. Also the cross-connects possibly provided in the transmission network must have the corresponding switching information.
Such a solution has the drawback of needing considerable planning and maintenance for the signalling channels. Since the channels must be routed through the entire network, it is difficult to take into use new base stations on account of the required definitions relating to the entire network. Furthermore, a complex network management system is required for maintenance.
Another drawback related to signalling in the known mobile networks is the fact that base station-specific, permanently allocated signalling channels require extra capacity, since they are reserved irrespective of signalling needs. This drawback is accentuated particularly in small-capacity base stations the proportion of which in mobile networks is significantly on the increase.
When network capacity has been increased, the coverage areas of individual base stations have been reduced, whereby the traffic fluctuations at an individual base station have increased. While this being the case the radio path is no longer necessarily concentrative, it is worth-while to perform concentration in the data transfer between the base station and the base station controller. This affords considerable economic savings, as the number of transmission links and of connection ports at the base station controller may be smaller than heretofore. When the transmission between the base stations and the base station controller is concentrative, totally novel solutions are needed, however.
For signalling, this means in addition to the above-mentioned rapidity and reliability that signalling must not occupy unnecessary capacity from other traffic. Also, it is desirable that the implementation of the signalling channels would not require laborious pre-planning of the kind described above and that network changes, such as adding or removal of base stations, could be performed as easily as possible.
In addition to the above facts, it is desirable that the signalling would use 64 kbit/s channels or multiples thereof, since in that case the transmission equipment need not be capable of switching parts of time slots. A signalling channel having a minimum capacity of 64 kbit/s in practice results in a solution in which the base stations use a common signalling channel.
In the known common channel solutions, the crucial point is the allocation of a channel. Generally known access principles of common transmission media include the master-slave principle, contention principle, and transmission notice principle. The following will describe briefly what the implementation of these principles to a mobile network would mean.
In implementing the master-slave solution, one of the network elements (base station controller) serves as a master element and interrogates each slave element (base station) in turn if it has anything to transmit. When detecting a slave network element requesting a transmission turn, the master network element allocates a common channel for the use of this slave network element.
When operating on the contention principle, a base station requesting a transmission turn starts its transmission on the common channel, disregarding the other base stations. If the common channel is not currently busy, this transmission request will get through the channel to the base station controller, which starts an exchange of information with the base station. If the base station controller detects a collision or the base station does not receive a response within a predetermined time, the base station repeats its transmission.
In using the transmission notice principle, the base station controller polls the base stations jointly at given intervals as to whether they have anything to transmit. Base stations requesting transmission register, whereafter the base station controller grants them a permission to transmit in turn. Also in this method, collisions of transmission requests and recovery from these must be prepared for.
In implementing the above-described known common channel solutions, the drawback would reside particularly in the slow passage of transmission requests from the base stations. In the master-slave solution, the waiting time is directly increased as the number of base stations increases. In the contention principle, the passage of the transmission request is uncertain and successive collisions may occur, especially at network peak loads. The same problems also apply to a network employing the transmission notice principle.
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(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a porous ceramic material and a process for the preparation thereof. More particularly, it relates to a porous ceramic material having a multiplicity of pores having a specific size and a multiplicity of capillary void paths having a specific size and connecting the pores to the exterior space of the porous ceramic material, which is valuable as a material for regeneration of bone and other medical purposes and also an electronic material or a genetic engineering material, and processes for the preparation thereof. It also relates to a method of remedying a defect of bone of a human or animal.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
A calcium phosphate compound such as hydroxyapatite or a solid solution thereof has a good compatibility with a living body and is valuable as a medical material such as an osteogenetic material, for example, a substitute or prosthesis for a bone or dental root. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 56-54841 discloses a filler for a bone defect or antrum, which comprises a calcium phosphate compound powder of the apatite type crystal structure.
Furthermore, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 56-166843 discloses a filler for a bone defect or antrum, which is composed of a porous body of a calcium phosphate compound. In pores contained in this porous body of the calcium phosphate compound, the maximum pore is 3.00 mm and the minimum pore is 0.05 mm. These pores have such a shape and size that bone-forming components of a living body can easily intrude into these pores. This porous body has a substantially continuous three-dimensional network structure.
These conventional calcium phosphate compounds have problems in that deformation is caused with the lapse of time after a surgical treatment such as filling or prosthesis or hardening is promoted in the soft contact tissue near the filled or embedded portion, whereupon the resulting abnormal tissue must be excised. When remedying of a defect of the hard tissue of a living body caused by excision a bone tumor, bone resorption with age or external damage of a bone, it is most preferred that natural healing be promoted. Substitution or prosthesis by an artificial product is not always preferred. When such an artificial article is filled in a living body or included in a living body by prosthesis, it is most preferred that the artificial product be consumed in the living body in due course and the natural living tissue be regenerated instead to repair the defect. In this case, it is important that the speed of substitution of the artificial article by the living tissue (namely, the turnover speed) should be appropriate. If the turnover speed is excessively high, trouble such as inflammation is caused in the treated portion, resulting in complications, for example, development of cancer. In the case where the turnover speed is low and the artificial article is present in a living body for a long time, deformation of the bone tissue or other living tissues in the treated portion or hardening of the soft tissue near the treated portion is caused, whereupon excision becomes necessary in some cases.
In order to cope with the foregoing problems, it is important that a filler or prosthetic material inserted in a living body satisfy the requirements for induction and substitution of the living body tissue at a cell level. More specifically, it is important to appropriately promote the activation of an osteolytic cell (osterolysis) and an osteoblast to the living body tissue, control intrusion and development of an osteoclast and a collagen fiber promoting hardening of the soft tissue, and also control hardening of the bone tissue and not to inhibit intrusion of erythrocytes and body fluid and development of capillary blood vessels.
In order to satisfy these requirements, it is important that a filler or prosthetic material to be inserted into a living body have good compatibility with the living body, especially good bioresponsibility, should provide a residence propagation space suitable for the activation of desired cells, and should prevent intrusion of undesirable cells and hardening of the bone tissue by abnormal development of a collagen fiber.
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1. Technical Field
The present specification discloses a power converter. In particular, the present specification discloses a power converter including heat sinks to cool a series connection of two switching elements and these switching elements.
2. Description of Related Art
Most of power converters such as bi-directional DC-DC converters and inverters include series connections each of which includes two switching elements. For example, a three-phase AC inverter is provided with a circuit including three sets of series connections connected in parallel, each set including two switching elements. Examples of switching elements may typically include transistors, such as insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs), and metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs).
Noise is generated due to ON-OFF operation of switching elements. Voltage fluctuations due to the ON-OFF operation become greater at a middle point of a series connection than at a high-potential terminal and a low-potential terminal thereof. Noise generated due to voltage conversion at the middle point of the series connection may influence other devices.
Common-mode noise is derived from noise generated due to voltage fluctuations at the middle point, propagating through a ground terminal of a system including a power converter, and then returning to the switching elements; and if a propagation path of the common-mode noise is long, the common-mode noise becomes radiation noise, and influences other devices. For convenience of explanation, hereinafter, the expression “common-mode noise” is used for representing noise generated due to voltage fluctuations at the middle point of the series connection, and propagating via the ground.
In the meantime, since switching elements of power converters give off a great deal of heat, many power converters include heat sinks. Conductive plates connected to switching elements have excellent thermal conductivity, and thus the heat sink may be disposed to face conductive plates with an isolating layer interposed therebetween. A material having high thermal conductivity such as copper is used for a heat sink, and such a material is often an electrically conductive material. Hence, the heat sink and the conductive plates disposed with an isolating layer interposed therebetween compose capacitors. Such capacitors are called stray capacitances. By connecting the electric conductive heat sink to the ground terminal, common-mode noise can propagate through a casing of the power converter and the above stray capacitances to return to the switching elements. As a result, the path of the common-mode noise becomes smaller, to thus reduce radiation noise.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2008-294216 further discloses a technique of reducing the common-mode noise. The technique is as follows. Three conductive plates (copper patterns) face a heat sink (a cooling plate) made of copper with an isolating plate interposed therebetween. The heat sink is connected to a ground terminal. A high-potential terminal of a series connection of two switching elements is connected to a first conductive plate, and a low-potential terminal of the series connection is connected to a second conductive plate. A middle point of the series connection is connected to a third conductive plate. The isolating layer has a larger thickness only at a position corresponding to the third conductive plate. Hence, a stray capacitance between the third conductive plate and the heat sink, that is, a stray capacitance between the middle point and the ground becomes smaller. As a result, the common-mode noise transmitted to the ground terminal is suppressed.
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The invention relates to a heating and/or cooling system for a motor vehicle.
A heating system of this type is already known from DE 100 05 490 A1 of the applicant. In the case of the known heating system, the heat exchanger surrounds a combustion chamber of the burner and is attached to a coolant circuit of the combustion engine via a circulating pump so that before starting the combustion engine, in the case of low ambient temperatures, its coolant is heated by the burner and then can be supplied to the combustion engine and/or the heating heat exchanger of a heating system of the motor vehicle in order to preheat the combustion engine and/or as auxiliary heating to heat the vehicle passenger compartment or windows of the motor vehicle.
During the operation of the circulating pump, the hot combustion gases generated in the burner are cooled significantly by the heat exchange with the coolant of the combustion engine before they leave the combustion chamber and directed into the area of an exhaust gas manifold in the exhaust gas path of the combustion engine. In particular, when the motor vehicle has stood at low ambient temperatures for a longer period of time, the combustion gases cool down further at the cold exhaust gas manifold before they reach the catalytic converter. As a result, only a little heat is supplied to the catalytic converter so that it only heats up slowly. However, in order to maintain future exhaust gas limit values, quicker heating of the catalytic converter is required.
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The use of catheters in medical procedures has become routine for the treatment of a multitude of ailments. Catheters have a variety of shapes and sizes, but generally include an elongated body that can be from several inches to several feet long, and a distal end which may be shaped as required to carry out the specific procedure for which the catheter is designed. The diameter of a catheter is typically much smaller than its length, such that the device has a generally cable-like appearance and structural properties. Catheters are often constructed with one or more lumens therein, which in general extend through most or all of the length of the catheter. These lumens may be employed to serve various functions at the catheter distal end including irrigation, providing suction, introducing medical instruments thereto, etc. The distal end may have a complex curvature, adapted to specific geometry of a target area in the body to facilitate reaching the target location or to facilitate carrying out the procedure.
When catheters are shipped, the packaging used is designed to carry out multiple functions. Since the catheter is hollow, the packaging has to protect the catheter from being crushed, and also from kinks which may be caused by bending the catheter's tubular body over too small a diameter. In particular, distal ends of catheters must be sufficiently protected from deformation, that the degree of care which must be exercised to ensure that the catheter arrives in condition for use is not excessive. The packaging often includes a tubular portion which contains the catheter's tubular body, while protecting it from bending and crushing. In many cases the tubular portion of the packaging is coiled to form a hoop, so that the elongated portion of the catheter may be packaged in a relatively small area. Coiling the protective hoop which contains the catheter simplifies the handling of the packaged catheter, since it is easier to process a package that is substantially round or square than it is to process a long, thin package shaped like a cable or tube.
Difficulties may also arise when removing the catheter from its protective package—particularly when the package is coiled in a hoop to make better use of the space available. Adhesion between the outer surface of the catheter and the inner surface of the protective tubular body may create a large amount of friction between the two surfaces, such that it is difficult to slide the catheter out of its protective packaging. In particular, when the catheter is not straight but has portions that are curved along specified shapes, separating the packaging from the device without damaging the catheter can be especially challenging. One solution is to hydrate the catheter, for example by injecting a water based solution or some other lubricant between the catheter and the packaging. However, this step may be complicated, since it is difficult to provide the fluid uniformly along the length of the entire catheter.
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The invention relates more particularly to a circuit breaker having a blast cylinder and a second chamber in which an additional pair of contacts is capable of generating a secondary arc during circuit breaker opening, with the secondary arc being used to provide energy for the opening operation.
Such a circuit breaker is described, for example, in published French patent No. 2 610 763.
A problem that needs to be solved in this type of circuit breaker is that the pressure in the blast cylinder is low when interrupting small currents (low operating energy) and that the pressure is high when interrupting large currents without there being a corresponding increase in the available operating energy.
This problem has been partially solved in published German application No. 23 49 263.
In this document, provision is made to maintain the pressure in the blast cylinder at a low value by providing the blast piston with closable openings.
The circuit breaker described in the above-mentioned document nevertheless suffers from drawbacks. In the prior art circuit breaker the maximum separation distance between the secondary contacts is as long as the separation distance between the arcing contacts causing the secondary arc to be drawn out lengthwise, thereby giving rise to arcs being struck on the walls of the chamber containing the secondary contacts.
This type of arcing impedes good current interruption and increases the rate of the circuit breaker wear.
A first object of the invention is to provide a circuit breaker in which the secondary arc does not strike further arcs.
In the prior art circuit breaker, no steps are taken to prevent an arc being struck when the circuit breaker is closed. However, such arcing increases the operating energy required and gives rise to additional circuit breaker wear.
Another object of the invention is to provide a circuit breaker in which no arc is struck during circuit breaker closing.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and an information processing program, and more particularly, to a openable/closeable information processing apparatus and an information processing program for displaying an image on a display screen of the information processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, an information processing apparatus displays images by a so-called slide show function and the like. For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-184108 discloses a digital camera which displays a plurality of taken images by a slide show function. In the case of reproducing a plurality of images by the slide show, the user can input a reproducing time for each image and the like. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2006-230340 discloses a camera with a switch by which frame-by-frame advance and return are performed for changing a taken image to be displayed. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 11-331739 discloses a technique to change a taken image to be displayed by automatically reproducing a plurality of images in a predetermined order.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 11-41339 discloses a method for displaying an image of a person who a phone call is being made to as a method for displaying an image in a mobile phone. In the mobile phone, when making a phone call using a telephone book function, an image of a person who the phone call is being made to is displayed together with the telephone number and the name of the person.
As described above, an image to be displayed in the conventional arts is changed at predetermined time intervals or by a switch operation of the user, thereby lacking interest for the user.
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The present invention relates to alignment of antenna polarization axes and, in particular, it concerns alignment of antenna polarization axes of a dual polarized end-user terminal.
Geostationary satellite transponders are in common orbit 23,000 miles above the earth. The satellites share common latitude on the equator and are spaced apart longitudinally in an orbital arc, called the Clark belt, sometimes by less than one degree. When communicating with these satellites care must be taken not to illuminate more than one satellite with up-link radio frequency energy and, conversely, not to receive interfering signals from adjacent satellites located along the Clark belt. A satellite communicates using various frequencies to maximize the communication capacity of the satellite. Moreover, a satellite also typically communicates in two polarization axes, being orthogonal to each other, to maximize the capacity of each available frequency. Regulatory authorities, such as the FCC and ETSI require that the end-user terminal be aligned very accurately with the satellite. The regulations require that other satellites and also a non-designated polarization axis of the designated satellite will not receive even a component of the transmitted signal from the end-user terminal that exceeds a very low threshold. Therefore it is essential for the azimuth, elevation and polarization alignment of the end-user terminal to be aligned accurately. As is known in the art, azimuth and elevation alignment can be performed by adjusting the antenna direction of the end-user terminal to maximize the received signal from the designated satellite. This is known as the signal strength pointing method. Similar adjustment for polarization alignment does not yield satisfactory results and another method must be employed. The current method for polarization adjustment includes the installer sending a linearly polarized test signal from the end-user terminal to the satellite. The test signal is received by the satellite. A component of the test signal is received in one polarization axis of the satellite and another component of the test signal is received in the other polarization axis of the satellite. The magnitude of the components in each axis is received by the satellite control center. The installer telephones the control center for the results and then adjusts the antenna polarization. Another test signal is sent to the satellite and the process continues until the antenna polarization is aligned with the satellite. This process is very difficult, time consuming and not accurate. Moreover, the designated frequency in both polarization axes of the satellite cannot be used for normal communications during this alignment process. There is therefore a need for a system and method of aligning antenna polarization axes of a dual polarized end-user terminal.
The present invention is a system and method of aligning antenna polarization axes of a dual polarized end-user terminal.
According to the teachings of the present invention there is provided, a method for aligning antenna polarization axes of a dual polarized end-user terminal having an antenna, the antenna being aligned with a satellite in relation to azimuth and elevation, the end-user terminal being configured to produce a first output corresponding to a first component of a received signal parallel to a first polarization axis of the antenna and a second output corresponding to a second component of the received signal parallel to a second polarization axis of the antenna, the first polarization axis being orthogonal to the second polarization axis, the method comprising the steps of: (a) receiving a linearly polarized signal having a frequency wherein for the frequency and during a time period when the signal is being transmitted, the satellite is not transmitting signals with a linear polarization that is orthogonal to the linearly polarized signal; (b) autocorrelating the first output and the second output to produce a measurement of autocorrelation; and (c) adjusting the antenna polarization axes to minimize the measurement of autocorrelation.
According to a further feature of the present invention, the step of autocorrelating is performed by inputting the first output and the second output into an electronic mixer to produce the measurement of autocorrelation.
According to a further feature of the present invention, there is also provided the step of reducing proportionately frequencies of the first output and the second output.
According to a further feature of the present invention, there is also provided the step of tuning the first output and the second output to the frequency.
According to a further feature of the present invention, there is also provided the step of filtering the first output using a first band pass filter and the second output using a second band pass filter.
According to a further feature of the present invention, the step of autocorrelating is performed by inputting the first output and the second output into an electronic mixer and inputting the output of the electronic mixer into a low-pass filter to produce the measurement of autocorrelation.
According to a further feature of the present invention, there is also provided after the step of autocorrelating, the step of displaying the measurement of autocorrelation.
According to a further feature of the present invention, the step of adjusting is performed by actuating an alignment actuator configured to adjust the antenna polarization axes to minimize the measurement of autocorrelation.
According to the teachings of the present invention there is also provided, a system for aligning antenna polarization axes of a dual polarized end-user terminal having an antenna, the antenna being aligned with a satellite in relation to azimuth and elevation, the end-user terminal being configured to produce a first output corresponding to a first component of a received signal parallel to a first polarization axis of the antenna and a second output corresponding to a second component of the received signal parallel to a second polarization axis of the antenna, the first polarization axis being orthogonal to the second polarization axis, the system comprising: (a) a first connection configured for connection to the end-user terminal for receiving the first output; (b) a second connection configured for connection to the end-user terminal for receiving the second output; and (c) an autocorrelation apparatus having a first input and a second input; wherein the first connection is connected to the first input and the second connection is connected to the second input.
According to a further feature of the present invention, the autocorrelation apparatus includes an electronic mixer having a first input that is connected to the first connection and a second input that is connected to the second connection.
According to a further feature of the present invention: (a) the autocorrelation apparatus further includes a low-pass filter having an input; and (b) the electronic mixer has an output that is connected to the input of the low-pass filter.
According to a further feature of the present invention: (a) the low-pass filter has an output; and (b) the input of the display is connected to the output of the low-pass filter.
According to a further feature of the present invention: (a) the autocorrelation apparatus further includes a dual polarized block down-converter having a first input that is connected to the first connection and a second input that is connected to the second connection; and (b) the dual polarized block down-converter is interposed between the first connection, the second connection and the electronic mixer.
According to a further feature of the present invention, there is also provided: (a) a first down-converter that is interposed between the first connection and the electronic mixer; and (b) a second down-converter that is interposed between the second connection and the electronic mixer.
According to a further feature of the present invention, the autocorrelation apparatus includes: (a) a first tuner that is interposed between the first connection and the electronic mixer; and (b) a second tuner that is interposed between the second connection and the electronic mixer.
According to a further feature of the present invention, the autocorrelation apparatus includes: (a) a first band pass that is interposed between the first connection and the electronic mixer; and (b) a second band pass filter that is interposed between the second connection and the electronic mixer.
According to a further feature of the present invention, there is also provided an alignment control system and an alignment actuator wherein the alignment control system is configured to control the alignment actuator to adjust the antenna polarization axes in response to an output of the autocorrelation apparatus.
According to the teachings of the present invention there is also provided, a system for aligning antenna polarization axes comprising: (a) a dual polarized end-user terminal having an antenna and the antenna having an associated first polarization axis and a second polarization axis, wherein: (i) the first polarization axis is orthogonal to the second polarization axis; and (ii) the end-user terminal is configured to produce a first output corresponding to a first component of a received signal parallel to the first polarization axis and a second output corresponding to a second component of the received signal parallel to a second polarization axis; (b) a first connection configured for connection to the end-user terminal for receiving the first output; (c) a second connection configured for connection to the end-user terminal for receiving the second output; and (d) an autocorrelation apparatus having a first input and a second input; wherein the first connection is connected to the first input and the second connection is connected to the second input.
According to a further feature of the present invention, the autocorrelation apparatus includes an electronic mixer having a first input that is connected to the first connection and a second input that is connected to the second connection.
According to a further feature of the present invention: (a) the autocorrelation apparatus further includes a low-pass filter having an input; and (b) the electronic mixer has an output that is connected to the input of the low-pass filter.
According to a further feature of the present invention, there is also provided a display having an input and wherein: (a) the low-pass filter has an output; and (b) the input of the display is connected to the output of the low-pass filter.
According to a further feature of the present invention, there is also provided an alignment control system and an alignment actuator wherein the alignment control system is configured to control the alignment actuator to adjust the antenna polarization axes in response to an output of the autocorrelation apparatus.
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This invention is an improvement over end connectors of the type which are adapted to receive blades from two plugs on one side of its housing and the blades from a single plug on the opposite side of its housing, and in which the housing is either molded in one piece or consists of two halves which are connected together by adhesive or fasteners such as screws or rivets. In the type in which the entire housing is molded in a single operation, it is necessary to count the contact members and the wire leads together and place them as a unit in the mold, which is either unduly time consuming or requires a relatively expensive and complicated loading mechanism. On the other hand, those end connectors in which the housing components are secured together with adhesive or fastening elements not only require insertion of the conductor elements and wire leads, but also require application of adhesive or fasteners.
As previously indicated, in some end connectors the assembly operation requires that the leads for the extension cord be connected to the conductor elements before the housing components are secured toether. In others, the connection to the extension cord leads has been made by use of barbs on the conductor elements which pierce the insulation of the cord when the housing components are secured together. However, full advantage has not been taken of the use of this latter type of connection for ease and speed of assembly of the end connector.
The present invention aims to provide an improved end connector of unusually simple and economical construction with a minimum of parts which can be quickly assembled without use of auxiliary fastening devices and without need to strip insulation from the wire leads of the extension cord to assemble and attach the end connector.
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a new fuel control valve construction and to a method of making the same as well as to new parts for such a fuel control valve construction or the like and to methods of making such parts.
2. Prior Art Statement
It is known to provide a fuel control valve construction comprising a housing means having an inlet means adapted to be interconnected to a fuel source and a main outlet means adapted to be interconnected to a main burner means, the housing means having a pilot outlet means adapted to be interconnected to a pilot burner means for the main burner means, the housing means having a pilot valve seat and a main valve seat for interconnecting the inlet means respectively with the pilot outlet means and the main outlet means, the housing means having a movable pilot valve member for opening and closing the pilot valve seat and a movable main valve member for opening and closing the main valve seat. For example, see the U.S. patent to Kelly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,549,571.
It is also known to provide a combination comprising a supporting means, electrically operated coil means carried by the supporting means, and two movable plunger means carried by the supporting means and being operatively associated with the coil means to be moved to certain positions thereof when the coil means is energized. For example, see the aforementioned patent to Kelly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,549,571.
It is also known to provide a fuel control valve construction comprising a housing means having an inlet means adapted to be interconnected to a fuel source and a main outlet means adapted to be interconnected to a main burner means, the housing means having a pilot outlet means adapted to be interconnected to a pilot burner means for the main burner means, the housing means having a pilot valve seat and a main valve seat for interconnecting the inlet means respectively with the pilot outlet means and the main outlet means, the housing means having a movable pilot valve member for opening and closing the pilot valve seat and a movable main valve member for opening and closing the main valve seat, the housing means having a manually operable actuator means for controlling the operating positions of the valve members, the actuator means having an "off" position wherein both of the valve members are in a closed condition thereof and an "on" position wherein both of the valve members are in an open condition thereof, the actuator means having a "pilot" position wherein the pilot valve member is in an open condition thereof and the main valve member is in a closed condition thereof.
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The present invention relates to pyrazoloacridone derivatives having anti-tumor activity.
Pyrazoloacridone derivatives having an anti-tumor activity are disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 76878/90 (EP-A-0347749).
The object of the present invention is to provide novel pyrazoloacridone derivatives in which the 7- and 10- positions are hydroxy, and are useful as an anti-tumor agent.
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1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a method of crystallizing a silicon film, a thin film transistor, and a fabricating method for a thin film transistor. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for crystallizing a silicon film using laser energy, a thin film transistor, and a fabricating method for a thin film transistor using laser energy.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Silicon can be crystallized by using laser energy to melt amorphous silicon and extracting silicon crystals by cooling down or solidifying the fused silicon. In this case, monocrystalline silicon is formed if the growing direction of silicon is uniform relative to the growth of grains. Otherwise, polycrystalline silicon is formed when a plurality of crystals grow randomly and simultaneously.
When an active layer of a thin film transistor (hereinafter abbreviated TFT) is formed by crystallizing an amorphous silicon layer, TFT characteristics are improved by reducing the number of grain boundaries (which hinders the transportation of carriers) by increasing the size of the respective silicon grains.
Moreover, a reduced number of grain boundaries improves the interfacial characteristics between the silicon and the gate insulating layers since the grain boundaries cause deterioration in the interface between the silicon and the gate insulating layers.
FIG. 1A to FIG. 1D are cross-sectional views illustrating crystallization of an amorphous silicon film according to a related art.
Referring to FIG. 1A, a buffer oxide layer 10 and an amorphous silicon film 11 are successively deposited on an insulating substrate 100.
Referring to FIG. 1B, the substrate 100 is supplied with laser energy by irradiating with a laser beam. In this case, the laser beam has sufficient energy to melt down the entire amorphous silicon film 11 except predetermined solid silicon regions 12 of the amorphous silicon film. The reference numeral xe2x80x9813xe2x80x99 denotes a liquid silicon region which is fused by being exposed to the laser beam.
Referring to FIG. 1C, the liquid silicon region 13 is cooled down to encourage the growth of silicon grains when the supply of the laser energy is stopped.
First, the silicon regions 12 remaining in the liquid silicon 13 become seeds of silicon grains for silicon crystallization.
Then, silicon grains 14-1, 14-2, and 14-3 which grow from the silicon regions 12 stop when they collide with one another. In accordance with the location of each seed, silicon crystallization occurs simultaneously in various spots of the silicon film, thereby forming a polycrystalline silicon film 14.
Referring to FIG. 1D, a gate insulating layer 16 and a gate electrode 17 are formed on an active layer 15 by patterning the crystallized silicon film by photolithography.
A TFT is fabricated by forming a source region 15S and a drain region 15D by doping the exposed parts of the active layer 15 by a known method.
Unfortunately, protruding silicon regions (caused by the collision of silicon grains grown during crystallization) are generated on the surface of the active layer 15.
The grain boundaries protruding out of the surface of the active layer 15 deteriorates step coverage of the gate insulating layer as well as the interfacial contact characteristics between the active layer and gate insulating layer, thereby negatively affecting the TFT characteristics.
Moreover, the plurality of grain boundaries existing inside the active layer lowers the transporting speed of carriers, thereby reducing current mobility in the TFT.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a method of crystallizing a silicon film, a thin film transistor, and a fabricating method for thin film transistor that substantially obviate one or more of the problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
The present invention therefore improves the characteristics of a silicon film by means of lengthening the time that the silicon is in a liquid state during the crystallization of liquid silicon in order to increase the silicon grain size.
Additional features and advantages of the invention are set forth in the description which follows and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, the present invention includes forming a buffer layer on a substrate and forming an amorphous silicon film on the buffer layer. The amorphous silicon film includes a first region having a first dimension and second regions connected to respective ends of the first region and having respective second dimensions larger than the first width. The buffer layer under the amorphous silicon film is partially etched using the amorphous silicon as a reference mask. The buffer layer under the first region is removed to form a space, and a central part of the second regions contact the remaining buffer layer at respective locations. The amorphous silicon film is then crystallized.
Another embodiment of the present invention comprises forming a buffer layer on a substrate and forming an amorphous silicon film on the buffer layer. The amorphous silicon film includes a first region having a first dimension and second regions connected to respective ends of the first region and having a second dimension greater than the first dimension. The buffer layer is partially etched by an amount between the first and second dimensions by using the amorphous silicon as a reference mask. Therefore, the buffer layer under the first region is removed to form a space and a central part of each second region contacts the remaining buffer layer. The amorphous silicon film is then crystallized. An active layer supported by the remaining buffer layer is formed by patterning the crystallized silicon film by . A gate insulating layer is formed covering the substrate including the active layer. A gate electrode is formed on the gate insulting layer over the active layer. A source region and a drain region is formed in the active layer by carrying out impurity doping using the gate electrode as a mask.
In a further embodiment of the present invention, a thin film transistor includes a substrate, a buffer layer having a protruding part and formed on the substrate, and an active layer supported by the protruding part and including a channel region, a source region, and a drain region. The channel region is defined in a portion which is not supported by the protruding part of the buffer layer and the source and drain regions are defined at both ends of the channel region. A gate insulating layer is formed on the active layer, and a gate electrode is formed on the gate insulating layer over the active layer.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.
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Cancer is a serious disease that afflicts one in four people. In the last fifty years, there have been significant improvements in the early detection of cancer, as well as the development of a number of therapies to treat cancer. Therapies include surgery to remove primary tumors, and sublethal radiation and chemotherapy to treat disseminated disease. While these treatments have resulted in apparent cures for many patients, the treatments can be quite debilitating and are still often ineffective at preventing death from this disease.
Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related death in men. Approximately 180,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer each year and 40,000 succumb to the disease each year. Prostate tumor cells have a low proliferation rate and do not respond to standard chemotherapies, which are most toxic to the most rapidly dividing cells in the body. Instead, prostate cancer can be treated surgically, with radiation therapy or hormonal therapy. Surgery and radiation therapy can lead to undesirable side effects, such as incontinence and impotence. The disease can often be successfully managed with hormonal therapy, which starves the tumor cells for required growth factors. However, eventually all tumors treated in this way become androgen-independent and there is no effective treatment beyond that point.
Treatment of cancer with active immunotherapy has shown promise in many preclinical models, and in a few clinical trials as an alternative or adjunct to surgery, radiation or chemotherapy. The goal of active immunotherapy is to create a therapeutic immune response against tumor-specific antigens, which then targets tumor cells for destruction. However, most tumor antigens are self-antigens, to which the patient is tolerant. Indeed, central and peripheral tolerance mechanisms are expected to hamper the generation of effective immunity against tumors that express self-antigens.
One way to solve the problem of how to break tolerance against a given self-antigen is to use a closely related gene or protein from a different species as an immunogen. This type of immunization is also known as xenogeneic immunization and its potency lies in either the random creation of heteroclitic epitopes in the xenogeneic sequences with enhanced binding capacity to MHC class I antigens and/or the presence of strong helper epitopes within the xenogeneic sequence. For example, injection of plasmid DNA encoding a xenogeneic differentiation antigen is a powerful means to induce antibody and T-cell responses to otherwise poorly immunogenic self-antigens. This xenogeneic approach has been shown to work for a variety of cancer models using mouse or rat sequences by inducing active immunity to several different types of genes, including angiogenesis genes (Liu et al., Blood 102:1815-23, 2003), membrane glycoproteins (Wolchok et al., Cancer Immun. 1, 9-18 (2001); Sioud and Sorensen D., Eur. J. Immunol. 33, 38-45 (2003)), and integrins (Lou et al., Immunol. Invest. 31, 51-69 (2002)).
Prostate tumors and some breast malignancies express prostate specific antigen (PSA), also known as kallikrein 3 (KLK3), on their surface. PSA is well known as a serum marker for prostate cancer; increasing serum levels of PSA typically correlate well with the severity of the disease. It is unclear if PSA has a role in the etiology of prostate cancer; various reports have indicated that PSA could either enhance or inhibit tumorigenicity. Several cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes for PSA have been described for the HLA A2 and A3 haplotypes; identification of these epitopes support the possibility of generating therapeutic in vivo CTL by vaccination.
In fact, use of DNA encoding human and mouse prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) has been tested in phase I clinical trials in patients with recurrent prostate cancer. See Wolchok et al., Semin. Oncol. 30, 659-66 (2003). These authors have also shown in pre-clinical studies that use of xenogeneic DNA (e.g., injection of human PSMA DNA into mice) is an absolute requirement to overcome immunologic tolerance. However, a need still exists to improve current vaccine strategies by treating human disease with a more closely related PSA antigen to stimulate anti-PSA immunity by xenogeneic immunization.
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The present invention relates to a cigarette packing machine.
Known cigarette packing machines, such as the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,707,219, comprise a conveyor for step feeding a number of forming and conveying pockets along a path extending parallel to a number of hopper outlets. At each stop of the conveyor, a reciprocating pusher extracts one or more layers of cigarettes from each outlet of the hopper into a respective pocket arrested in front of the hopper; which operation may be repeated at successive stops of the conveyor until a complete group of cigarettes defining the content of a packet is formed inside each pocket.
At a transfer station, the complete groups are extracted successively from the conveyor pockets onto a step-operated or continuous wrapping unit.
Though perfectly functional, group-forming units of the type described above have the drawback of being unable to operate at relatively high speed, on account of intermittent operation of the conveyor, and the difficulty posed in connecting the unit to a continuous wrapping unit. Moreover, such forming units also have a relatively high noise level.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a cigarette packing machine designed to eliminate the aforementioned drawbacks, and which, in particular, is straightforward mechanically.
According to the present invention, there is provided a cigarette packing machine comprising a conveyor having at least one pocket for forming and conveying a respective group of cigarettes; the machine being characterized in that said conveyor comprises a fixed guide; at least one carriage running along said guide and supporting said pocket; and a linear electric motor having a stator or primary located along at least a portion of the guide, and a cursor or secondary carried by said carriage.
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A semiconductor device like that shown in FIG. 1 has been proposed as a memory using a TFT whose active layer is made of amorphous oxide. The semiconductor device includes a first transistor 20 and a second transistor 21. The first transistor is formed over a substrate containing a semiconductor material. The second transistor includes an oxide semiconductor film. In addition, Patent Document 1 discloses a ROM circuit using a TFT whose active layer is made of amorphous oxide.
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An intercooler that cools supercharged intake air is known, which performs heat exchange between the supercharged air supplied to an engine by a supercharger and two types of cooling water having temperatures different from each other (see, for example, Patent Literature 1). In the intercooler disclosed in Patent Document 1, the hot cooling water makes a U-turn on the upstream side in the flow direction of the supercharged intake air, and the cold cooling water makes a U-turn on the downstream side in the flow direction of the supercharged intake air. In the hot cooling water flow path and the cold cooling water flow path, inner fins for promoting heat exchange between the cooling water and the supercharged intake air are provided.
According to the configuration as above, the cold cooling water can be warmed quickly with heat of the hot cooling water at engine start-up. Further, because the supercharged intake air can be pre-cooled with the hot cooling water before the supercharged intake air is cooled with the cold cooling water, cooling performance of a supercharged intake air cooling system can be improved.
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1. Field
The aspects of the disclosed embodiments relate to a new way of recovering energy from the potential energy of water in a body of water. Particularly, the aspects of the disclosed embodiments relate to a method of generating hydroenergy, a hydroenergy generating plant, a use of the hydroenergy generating plant and a method of storing potential energy of water.
2. Brief Description of Related Developments
As a general rule, it is hard to store large amounts of electricity. Therefore energy is normally consumed at the same time it is produced. However, the demand for electricity varies over time. Typically there is lower demand for electricity during night time than day time. Common sources of alternative energy such as, for example, solar energy and wind energy, produce energy depending on the weather conditions and can be unpredictable and difficult to control. On the other hand, some production facilities such as nuclear power stations produce a mainly constant amount of energy practically all the time. Developing efficient ways of levelling peaks in electricity demand and storing electricity are therefore integral parts of development of energy systems of today.
Often, consumers are enticed to use more electricity at the low demand hours and less during peak hours in order to level the demand for electricity. For example many electricity companies are offering lower electricity prices for households during the night time than during the day time. There are hourly based electricity markets, e.g. the SPOT market in Nordic countries, with different electricity prices per hour depending on the supply and demand of the electricity. However, systems exist that attempt to vary electricity output or to store electricity in order to meet the varying demand.
In a hydroelectric power plant, water is led through turbines connected to electric generators to produce electricity. A common system of storing electricity is a hydro-pumped storage facility in which a hydroelectric power plant is connected to a water storage installation at a higher elevation. Electricity is stored as potential energy by pumping water to a higher elevation reservoir, such as a lake or a dam in a river, during low consumption of electricity. Thus, pumps are run with low-cost off-peak electric power. The water from the higher elevation reservoir is then used in the hydroelectric power plant at a lower elevation during high demand of electricity. The system increases revenue by selling more electricity during periods of peak demand, when electricity prices are highest. This process, also called pumped storage hydroelectricity, is the most common form of grid energy storage used today.
There are numerous examples of pumped storage hydroelectricity systems. One example of such a system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,443,707.
The most advantageous and mostly used places for hydro-pumped storage facilities have traditionally been mountainous regions and already dammed rivers. Naturally, a vast demand for energy storage is present in other locations, as well. Although production of hydroelectricity can be considered as virtually non-polluting and renewable, building of new facilities is often considered as a great stress to nature. Also fluctuations in the water level in reservoirs normally have negative effects to the ecosystem.
Additionally, prior art such as WO2007/0009192 of Hastings et al. discloses a power generation system using array of water-containing vessels immersed in a large body of water to a substantial depth with the lower end of the vessel spaced above the water bed. A problem with such a system is control of buoyancy. As the vessel is emptied, there is significant force applied by the pressure of water to raise the vessel above the surface of the water.
It would be advantageous to efficiently handle both high and low demand and supply periods of electricity.
It would be advantageous to obtain a reliable, cost efficient and easy way of storing energy.
It would be advantageous to provide cost effective energy storing possibilities to new regions.
It would be advantageous to obtain an energy storage technology that improves the manageability, controllability, predictability and flexibility of supply and demand of electricity.
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Oil and gas wells produce crude oil, natural gas and/or byproducts from subterranean petroleum reservoirs. Petroleum reservoirs, such as those containing oil and gas, typically include finite-dimensional, discontinuous, inhomogeneous, anisotropic, non-elastic (DIANE) rock formations. Such formations, in their natural state (prior to any fracture treatment), are characterized by natural fractures and faults of various sizes, shapes and orientations.
During a fracture treatment, fluids are pumped under high pressure into a rock formation through a well bore to further fracture the formations and increase permeability and production from the formation. The fracture growth is affected by the interaction between propagating hydraulic fracture and natural fracture. When net pressure of the fluid in an induced hydraulic fracture exceeds a critical net pressure (equal to the difference between the maximum and minimum horizontal stress), leakoff through natural fractures occurs. This leads to dilation of natural fractures and subsequently formation of complex fracture networks. Thus complex-fracture patterns can include networks of fractures that extend to the well bore, along multiple azimuths, in multiple different planes and directions, along discontinuities in rock, and in multiple regions of a reservoir.
Hydraulic fracturing treatment often is implemented as part of well completion in shale oil/gas field development. The fracturing treatment can be implemented, e.g., in a horizontal well and in multiple stages. Post fracturing, in addition to induced hydraulic fractures, the dilated natural fractures can provide additional pathways for hydrocarbon migration and hence production. Enhancing the fracture-formation area through complex fracture networks can improve fracturing treatment in shale reservoirs.
Several fracture monitoring tools such as microseismics, pressure analysis, and tracers are available to characterize the distribution of fractures and post-frac conductivity. Good data acquisition and interpretation can improve reliability of fracture diagnostics techniques.
Like reference numbers and designations in the various drawings indicate like elements.
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The present invention relates to a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus, and more particularly to a RF (radio-frequency) coil for detecting nuclear magnetic resonance images of two or more kinds of nuclides.
MRI apparatuses are diagnostic imaging apparatuses for medical use, which induce magnetic resonance of atomic nuclei in arbitrary sections crossing a subject and obtain tomograms of the sections from generated magnetic resonance signals. As the magnetic resonance signals, those of hydrogen nuclei (1H) are generally used.
MRS (magnetic resonance spectroscopy) and MRSI (magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging), which are types of magnetic resonance imaging methods, are used as methods for measuring metabolic conditions in the living bodies. Here, MRS is a method of measuring frequency distribution of magnetic resonance signals emitted by a substance, and MRSI is a method of imaging on the basis of certain specific frequency components of magnetic resonance signals having frequency distribution. In these imaging methods, in addition to the imaging based on magnetic resonance signals of hydrogen nuclei (1H), magnetic resonance signals of atomic nuclei other than those of hydrogen such as those of fluorine (19F), phosphorus (31P), sodium (23Na) and carbon (13C) are also imaged. In order to simultaneously obtain images from magnetic resonance signals of two kinds of different atomic nuclei, the RF coil for irradiating a RF magnetic field for exciting the atomic nuclei and detecting the magnetic resonance signals is required to be tuned to the frequencies of the magnetic resonance signals of the two kinds of atomic nuclei (magnetic resonance frequencies). Such a coil is called double-tuned RF coil.
As conventional double-tuned RF coils, there are those comprising a trap circuit having a capacitor and an inductor connected in parallel and inserted into a loop of a coil, as shown in FIG. 20 (see, for example, Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication (Kokai) No. 6-242202 and M. D. Schnall et al., “A New Double-Tuned Probe for Concurrent 1H and 31P NMR”, Journal of Magnetic Resonance, USA, 1985, 65, pp. 122-129). These double-tuned RF coils are intended to be tuned to two kinds of frequencies of magnetic resonance signals which are significantly differ from each other, for example, those of 1H and 31P, and they are not intended to be used for a case where frequencies to which they are tuned are close to each other. In order to realize double-tuning in these double-tuned RF coils to two kinds of frequencies close to each other, the inductor and capacitor used for the trap circuit must have an inductance of 10 nH or lower and a capacitance of several hundreds pF or higher, respectively. Since it is difficult to manufacture inductors having a small inductance, and such inductors also scarcely allow adjustable range, they are impractical. Furthermore, in capacitors having a large capacitance, it becomes impossible to ignore RF loss of the devices themselves at a frequency of 1 MHz or higher, and there is caused degradation of the receiving sensitivity and transmission efficiency of the RF coils.
As double-tuned RF coils used for a case where two kinds of magnetic resonance frequencies are close to each other, there are double-tuned saddle-type RF coils in which two saddle-type RF coils that resonate at each frequency are perpendicularly disposed (refer to FIG. 21.) and double-tuned RF coils in which capacitor of a birdcage RF coil is partially changed so that the coil should resonate at each frequency (see, for example, Peter M. Joseph et al., “A Technique for Double Resonant Operation of Birdcage Imaging Coils”, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 1989, 8, pp. 286-294).
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Lithium secondary batteries have high energy density and good cycle performance. Accordingly, recently, these have been rapidly used as small-sized batteries for a power supply for portable devices or the like. On the other hand, development for large-sized batteries for the electric power industry, automobiles and the like has been demanded. These large-sized lithium secondary batteries need to comprise an electrode active material having long-term reliability and high input and output properties. Particularly, for the negative electrode active material, lithium titanate having high security, long life, and excellent rate property has been expected, and a variety of lithium titanate has been proposed for the electrode active material. For example, a lithium titanate is known which is granulated into spherical secondary particles to improve packing properties, and thereby to improve battery properties (Patent Documents 1 and 2). Such lithium titanate secondary particles are produced by granulating with drying a titanium compound and a lithium compound, and firing the granulated product. Further, in order to improve the discharge capacity of the lithium titanate secondary particles, a process in which a slurry comprising crystalline titanium oxide, a titanic acid compound, and a lithium compound is granulated with drying, and then the granulated product is heated and fired employs a process such as a process of preparing the slurry by adding a crystalline titanium oxide and a titanic acid compound to a solution of a lithium compound preheated to 50° C. or more (Patent Document 3), or a process of preparing the slurry at a temperature of less than 45° C. (Patent Document 4). On the other hand, a technique is known in which lithium titanate is crushed and fired again to form pores having an average pore size in the range of 50 to 500 Å on the surface of the particle of lithium titanate, thereby improving high current properties and cycle performance (Patent Document 5).
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Such a microphone comprises a transducer element which is arranged in a housing. In order to achieve sufficient recording quality in such a microphone, a large back volume is essential as a large back volume increases the sensitivity of the transducer element. Moreover, a large back volume improves the signal-to-noise ratio.
DE 10 2004 011 148 B3 discloses a microphone wherein a microphone chip is encapsulated by a lid and a sound sealing. However, in this microphone, a strong mechanical coupling between the lid and the microphone chip is unavoidable which influences the functionality of the microphone chip and which results in a temperature-dependent behaviour of the microphone.
A different encapsulation of a MEMS microphone is known from US 2011/0274299 A1. However, this encapsulation has the disadvantage that the microphone only comprises a small back volume which results in a deterioration of the signal-to-noise ratio.
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Broadcast radio frequency signals, such as television signals, travel through the air at great speed. The delay between the time a broadcast signal leaves a transmitter and arrives at a receiver is referred to as a propagation delay. Broadcast signals are also reflected by solid surfaces in much the same way that light is reflected. These reflections create multipath distortion or "ghosting". There is a direct or main path between a transmitter and a receiver which is characterized by a given propagation delay and one or more indirect paths, consisting of reflected signals, that have proportionately longer propagation delays. The receiver therefore receives two or more nearly identical signals (the ghost is weaker) that are displaced in time. Ghost signals generally detract significantly from the video display.
A solution to multipath television signals, by way of ghost cancellation or ghost minimization has long been a challenge to the television industry. The cancellation systems that have been proposed typically involve the use of adaptive equalizers that generate a signal from the main signal which can be used to cancel the ghost. Adaptive equalizers require a large number of real multipliers (between 250 and 500) to provide adequate ghost reduction performance in the receiver. At this level of complexity, the cost of ghost signal reducing equipment is prohibitive. Another recently proposed system samples the video signal and the sample is then pseudo-randomly scrambled for transmission. An inverse scrambling operation is performed in the receiver. While this can theoretically yield an increase in ghost performance, the system is quite sensitive to inter symbol interference which produces pseudo random noise that is added to the main image.
The system of the invention utilizes a time dispersal filter that has a variable dispersion factor or coefficient which may be changed to vary the degree of time dispersion of the input signal. In its preferred implementation, the system of the invention utilizes a "hybrid" video signal that has been processed in accordance with copending application Ser. No. 238,956 to remove low frequencies, generally under 200 KHz, which are digitally coded and transmitted as data in the vertical blanking interval of the signal. Thus the processed video signal consists primarily of "edges" with "voids" in the frequency spectrum due to low frequency component removal.
In application Ser. No. 266,740 a technique for time dispersing a timing or clock signal to minimize ghosting and noise in that clock signal is disclosed. The clock signal is processed by a dispersal filter in the transmitter and reconstituted by complementary processing in a dispersal filter of opposite characteristic, i.e. an inverse dispersal filter, in the receiver. Any ghost of the signal is not so processed in the transmitter and is dispersed by the inverse dispersal filter in the receiver. In application Ser. No. 298,081, a signal is processed by a dispersal filter of one sense and the receiver is provided with a dispersal filter that can have its sense changed by operation of a suitable switch. The receiver responds to the transmitted signal and establishes the sense of its dispersal filter to complement that of the transmitter filter. Consequently it is able to receive the transmitted signal. The arrangement is useful for minimizing co-channel interference.
In the system of the invention, the dispersal filter has a variable dispersal characteristic that is varied on a regular basis in response to an algorithm (or reading of a ROM). A dispersal filter in the receiver has its dispersal characteristic varied in a complementary fashion to develop the original signal. The time dispersal characteristic is continually being varied, and multipath signals will be "out-of-step" when processed by the receiver dispersal filter. The result is that multipath or ghost signals are further dispersed in the receiver. Only the main image signal will be reconstituted. The further dispersal of ghost signals will reduce their visual effect to background noise, which is far less objectionable to a viewer than one or more ghost signal images.
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The present invention relates to a transmission device of a four-wheel drive vehicle. Particularly, the present invention relates to the transmission device, in which an engine driving force is transmitted from an input shaft to a hollow counter shaft while a rotational speed is changed. The engine driving force is further transmitted to an output shaft of either one of front and rear wheels inserted in a hollow portion of the counter shaft. At that time, the engine driving force is also transmitted to an output shaft of the other one of the front and rear wheels.
Conventionally, in the case of a manual transmission vehicle for space-saving, there is generally known a structure as follows. Namely, the engine driving force is transmitted from the input shaft to the hollow counter shaft while a rotational speed is changed, and the engine driving force is transmitted from the counter shaft to the output shaft of the front (rear) wheel and to the output shaft of the rear (front) wheel disposed on the same rotation axis as the input shaft.
For example, Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. Hei. 7-167257 discloses a transmission device of a four-wheel drive vehicle that comprises an input shaft, a hollow counter shaft, a front wheel side output shaft, a drive gear and a driven gear. The input shaft receives the engine driving force. The hollow counter shaft is disposed in parallel to this input shaft to transmit the engine driving force for changing a rotational speed to a predetermined one. The output shaft of the front wheel is inserted in a hollow portion of the counter shaft to transmit the driving force to a final reduction gear of a front wheel. The drive gear is coaxially coupled to an end of the output shaft through a center differential device and a viscous coupling. The driven gear engages with the drive gear to change a rotation axis to the same rotation axis as the input shaft and to change the rotating shaft to the output shaft of the rear wheel
However, in the foregoing structure of the prior art, the center differential device and the viscous coupling are positioned on the same rotation axis as the counter shaft, that is, at a lower portion in a transmission case, and there is a problem that gears stir oil to produce useless resistance, and fuel efficiency is deteriorated.
Besides, in an automatic transmission vehicle, a main speed change is performed on the same shaft as the input shaft of the engine driving force. Such a transfer device of the four-wheel drive vehicle, as a center differential device or a viscous coupling is also disposed on the same shaft as the input shaft of the engine driving force. However, in the prior art, since the center differential and the viscous coupling are disposed on the same rotating axis as the counter shaft, it has been difficult to use the power distribution devices of the four-wheel drive vehicle for the automatic transmission vehicle and the respective mechanisms in common.
Further, when such an existing transfer mechanism as a hydraulic coupling for distributing the power between the front wheel and the rear wheel is adopted, an extensive change of layout is necessary for disposing at the same rotating axis as the counter shaft, and there is a problem that it requires a long development term.
The invention has been made in view of the above circumstances. An object is to provide a transmission device of a four-wheel drive vehicle in which the improvement of fuel efficiency caused by the lowering of stir resistance of oil can be easily realized with space saving. Further, it is also an object of the invention that a power distribution device of an automatic transmission can be used in common. Moreover, it is also an object of the present invention to easily adopt various existing transfer mechanisms and shorten a development term.
The above-mentioned object can be achieved by, according to a first aspect of the present invention, a transmission device of a four-wheel drive vehicle, comprising:
an input shaft connected to an engine for transmitting a driving force;
a hollow counter shaft extended in parallel to the input shaft;
shift gear trains provided between the input shaft and the hollow counter shaft;
a first output shaft disposed in a hollow portion of the counter shaft, for transmitting the driving force to a final reduction gear of one of front and rear wheels;
a first drive gear disposed at an end portion of the counter shaft;
a first driven gear engaging with the first drive gear and rotating about a rotating axis of the input shaft;
a second drive gear rotated integrally with the first driven gear about the rotating axis of the input shaft;
a second driven gear disposed at a base end side of the first output shaft and engaging with the second drive gear; and
a second output shaft coupled with the second drive gear through a variable mechanism to transmit the driving force to a final reduction gear of the other one of the front and rear wheels.
The above-mentioned object can be achieved by, according to a second aspect of the present invention, a transmission device of a four-wheel drive vehicle, comprising:
an input shaft connected to an engine for transmitting a driving force;
a hollow counter shaft extended in parallel to the input shaft;
shift gear trains provided between the input shaft and the hollow counter shaft;
a first output shaft disposed in a hollow portion of the counter shaft, for transmitting the driving force to a final reduction gear of one of front and rear wheels;
a first drive gear disposed at an end portion of the counter shaft;
a first driven gear engaging with the first drive gear and rotating about a rotating axis of the input shaft;
a second drive gear rotated about the rotating axis of the input shaft and coupled with the first driven gear through a variable mechanism;
a second driven gear disposed at a base end side of the first output shaft and engaging with the second drive gear; and
a second output shaft rotated about the rotating axis of the input shaft and coupled with the first driven gear to transmit the driving force to a final reduction gear of the other one of the front and rear wheels.
Further, in these transmission device of a four-wheel drive vehicle according to the first and second aspects of the invention, it is preferable that the first output shaft transmits the driving force to the final reduction gear of the front wheel, and the second output shaft transmits the driving force to the final reduction gear of the rear wheel.
Further, in the above-mentioned structure according to the first and second aspects of the invention, it is advantageous to further comprises:
a partition wall for shutting off infiltration of an oil between a first space at a first side having the input shaft and a second space at a second side having the first drive gear.
Moreover, in the above-mentioned structure according to the first and second aspects of the invention, it is also advantageous that the variable mechanism is a viscous-coupling or a hydraulic multiple disk clutch.
In addition, in the above-mentioned structure according to the first and second aspects of the invention, it is also preferable to further comprises:
an engine-driven oil pump for generating a hydraulic pressure to operate the hydraulic multiple disk clutch.
Further, in the above-mentioned structure according to the first and second aspects of the invention, it is further preferable that the engine-driven oil pump is disposed at the partition wall.
That is, in the transmission device of the four-wheel drive vehicle according to the first aspect of the invention, the engine driving force is first transmitted to the input shaft, and is transmitted from the input shaft to the hollow counter shaft disposed under and in parallel to that while the speed is changed to the predetermined one. Next, the driving force is transmitted from the first drive gear disposed at the end portion of the counter shaft to the first driven gear for shifting the rotating axis of the counter shaft to the rotating axis of the input shaft. Then, the driving force is transmitted to the first output shaft inserted in the hollow portion of the counter shaft that transmits the driving force to the final reduction gear of either one of front and rear wheels through the second drive gear having the rotating shaft disposed integrally with the first driven gear and the second driven gear disposed at the base end side of the first output shaft. Besides, the driving force is transmitted from the rotating shaft of the second drive gear through the torque transmission capacity variable means to the second output shaft for transmitting the driving force to a final reduction gear of the other of front and rear wheels. In this way, by adding the pair of gears, the variable means is disposed above the input shaft for the space-saving, so that the improvement of fuel efficiency caused by the lowering of the stirring resistance of the lubrication oil can be realized. Besides, since the variable means is disposed above the input shaft, it becomes possible to use the automatic transmission of the power distribution device in common, and further, various existing transfer mechanisms can be easily adopted, and a development period can be shortened.
With the transmission device of the four-wheel drive vehicle according to the second aspect of the invention, the engine driving force is first transmitted to the input shaft, and is transmitted from the input shaft to the hollow counter shaft disposed in parallel to that while the rotational speed is changed to the predetermined one. Next, the driving force is transmitted from the first drive gear disposed at the end portion of the counter shaft to the first driven gear for shifting the rotating axis of the counter shaft to the rotating axis of the input shaft. Then, the driving force is transmitted to the second output shaft coupled with the rotating axis of the first driven gear, and is transmitted to the final reduction gear of the other of the front and rear wheels. Besides, the driving force is transmitted from the first driven gear through the variable means to the second drive gear coupled on the same rotating axis, and the second driven gear is rotated by the rotation of the second drive gear, and the first output shaft inserted in the hollow portion of the counter shaft is rotated, so that the driving force is transmitted to the final reduction gear of the either one of front and rear wheels. In this way, by adding the pair of the gears, the variable means is disposed above the input shaft for the space-saving, so that the improvement of fuel efficiency caused by the lowering of stir resistance of oil can be realized. Besides, since the variable means is disposed above the input shaft, it becomes possible to use the automatic transmission of the power distribution device in common, and further, various existing transfer mechanisms can be easily adopted, and a development period can be shortened.
In the above-mentioned transmission device of the four-wheel drive vehicle, when the partition wall is provided for shutting off the infiltration of the oil between the space at the side having the input shaft and the space at the side having the first drive gear, the oil in the space at the side having the input shaft and the oil in the space at the side having the first drive gear can be made different from each other. Accordingly, it becomes possible to easily adopt an optimum oil especially for the torque transmission capacity variable mechanism.
In the above-mentioned transmission device of the four-wheel drive vehicle, in the case where the variable means is the hydraulic multiple disk clutch, when the engine-driven oil pump body for generating the hydraulic pressure for operating the hydraulic multiple disk clutch is provided at the partition wall, the structure of an oil seal becomes simple.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a decorative panel and a vehicle interior/exterior components for a vehicle, the decorative panel being available for use in the vehicle interior/exterior components for the vehicle, such as a console box, an instrument panel, a glove box, a door trim that are included in a vehicle such as an automobile.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a variety of decorative panels are mounted to interior components for the vehicle such as a console box, an instrument panel, a glove box, and a door trim that are included in a vehicle such as an automobile, or alternatively, an exterior components for the vehicle such as a backdoor garnish that is installed immediately above a licensed plate, the backdoor garnish incorporating an illumination for licensed plate and being used as a grip for opening or closing.
As the related art, there exist interior components for the vehicle that is made of: a foamed resin base material that is light in weight, and that has shape memory properties; a resin rib that is laminated and integrated on a back face of the foamed resin base material; and a decoration material that is laminated and integrated on a top face of the foamed resin base material, wherein a longitudinal wall portion is set at least at a part of an outer circumference of a product of the foamed resin base material, at the time of molding of the foamed resin base material a groove portion is formed at a longitudinal wall portion in the foamed resin base material by means of a die face shape of a mold die, and the groove portion is processed to be cut as a product terminal (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-119404, for example).
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-119404 that is the related art discloses terminal processing of a door trim, the door trim being mainly mounted to a glass or a door panel. In the case of an upper part of the door trim, a resin welt or the like is applied along a slit-shaped opening that appears and disappears at the time of up and down movement of a door glass (that is formed in a very flat shape). A terminal is formed in an involved manner, and the shape that is proximal to the terminal serves as a smooth continuous face.
However, in the related art described above, it is not easy to carry out a cutting work for a circumferential face that is not constant in decorative panel, and that is not a smooth continuous face; and therefore, there can occur a problem that production costs will increase in the case where such a cutting work needs to be manually carried out, and facility costs or maintenance costs will increase in the case where such a cutting work needs to be robotically carried out.
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(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air temperature conditioning control apparatus for controlling environmental conditions within a supermarket or such commercial store having large refrigeration requirements, and more specifically to the control of latent loads occurring in such stores and imposed upon open refrigerated display fixtures. The fixtures have open refrigerated display zones separated from the conditioned room space by one or more planes (curtains) of refrigerated air, which is substantially lower in temperature than the conditioned room space and which absorb energy from the room air adjacent these planes causing the room air to be cooled. The apparatus of the invention comprises an air handling housing having a return air chamber and a make-up air chamber isolated from the return air chamber. Each of the chambers has an outlet connected to a mixing compartment for mixing the conditioned air from the chambers at their outlets. Air moving means is connected to the mixing compartment for displacing the conditioned air, via convection ducts, back into the space. Each of the chambers further has an inlet, a filter section and a cooling section. The inlet of the return air chamber is supplied primarily with air cooled by the refrigerated display fixtures. The space is maintained at a substantially constant temperature throughout and is substantially unaffected by air cooled by the refrigerated fixtures. In other words, the refrigerating effect of the display fixtures upon the room air being returned to the air handling package constitutes the primary air tempering or cooling means in the entire system, but the refrigerated fixtures have no direct effect upon the room space in which they are located.
(b) Description of Prior Art
It is a well known fact that environmental control in a supermarket is affected by forces and conditions that do not normally occur in any other commercial, industrial or residential structure. These are the forces and conditions imposed on the space by the refrigeration equipment inherent in any modern supermarket. For example, a 25,000 square foot supermarket may have open display refrigeration fixtures requiring a refrigeration capacity of as much as 50 tons (600,000 BTU/HR) with a range of evaporator temperatures from -35.degree. F. to +25.degree. F. This inexorable cooling force exists without regard to the needs of the conditioned space. As a result, unless special emphasis is given to design of the environmental control apparatus and system, the conditioned space experiences a wide variety of undesirable conditions such as cold aisles, over cooling in areas of heavy display case concentrations, under cooling (warm spots) in areas where there are no display fixtures, extreme stratification of air (the temperature gradient between floor and ceiling may be as much as 35.degree. F.), and control of the environment's latent heat loads is near impossible. The specific moisture content of the air in the conditioned space is usually a function of outside air conditions, but relative humidity varies considerably because of variations in air temperature throughout the space.
Refrigeration compressors in a supermarket account for approximately 44% of the total supermarket energy consumption at design conditions. Increases in dry bulb temperature above design conditions have no affect on the compressor load and its energy usage as long as the wet bulb in the conditioned space remains constant. Conversely, with constant dry bulb temperatures, variations in wet bulb temperature (and therefore relative humidity) have a dramatic affect on the compressor's load, and therefore the energy consumed. Increases in the wet bulb temperature result in load and energy increases, while decreases in wet bulb temperature result in decreases in load and energy consumption.
The refrigeration effect induced by the display fixtures upon the environment must therefore be controlled. This, however, must influence the design of the building, the calculation of environmental loads, both cooling and heating, and design of the apparatus. In the example of the 600,000 BTU/HR refrigeration load, approximately 75% or 450,000 BTU/HR could represent a direct refrigerating effect by the display fixtures upon the conditioned space. This massive refrigerating effect is a potential source of cooling that can be credited against the space environmental cooling loads providing steps are taken in design of the system, and apparatus to absorb, treat and redistribute this refrigerating effect. Thus, absorption and use of this refrigerating effect produces conditions which dictate very special design considerations in the requirements of the air cooling and conditioning apparatus.
The refrigerating effect of the supermarket display fixtures has an unusual affect upon the environment's latent heat loads. There are, basically, two components of latent load which must be considered; the internal latent load derived from sources within the conditioned space such as people and appliances (coffee urns, steam tables, etc.), and ventilation latent load which is a function of the fresh make-up air supplied to the conditioned space from the outside or ambient environment. The latent component of the refrigerating effect from the display fixtures acts directly upon the internal latent load. This is to say that that portion of the internal latent heat load equal to the latent component of the refrigerating effect is directly absorbed by the display fixture cooling coils. This, again, produces an unusual condition which must be taken into consideration in design of the conditioning apparatus. Since the internal latent load is acted upon directly by the display fixtures, the ventilation latent load is left as a dominant latent load and in the interest of energy efficiency, this too dictates the need for special consideration in the design of the conditioning apparatus.
Recovery of the heat rejection from the supermarket's refrigeration systems is likewise important, both to the control of environmental conditions and to the control of energy input. Heat reclaimer systems, per se, are well known in the industry and in practice have been applied to the recirculated supply air stream, downstream of the air conditioning cooling coil in the apparatus where waste heat from the refrigeration systems can be employed as a reheat medium for humidity control, when required, as well as a heat source for store heating during periods when heating, as opposed to air conditioning, is required for environmental control.
In this position in the conventional conditioning control apparatus, the heat reclaim coil is exposed to extreme variations in entering air temperature resulting from the mixing of outside make-up air with return air from the conditioned space. This, together with extreme variations in display fixture loads, which occur with normal changes in atmospheric conditions, create serious operational problems in the refrigeration systems whereby the condensing temperatures of the refrigeration systems are reduced below satisfactory operating levels or massive quantities of refrigerant are required for condensing temperature/pressure control in the systems.
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Field of the Invention
This disclosure relates to an image processing apparatus, image processing method, and image processing system.
Description of the Related Art
One important technique of image processing techniques is image segmentation. Image segmentation is a process of distinguishing a region of interest existing in an image from other regions. Many segmentation methods have been proposed, and a new segmentation method called a Graph-Cut method is recently attracting attention (U.S. Pat. No. 6,973,212). In this Graph-Cut method described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,973,212, an energy function is defined by a linear sum obtained by weighting two energy terms called a data term and smoothing term by a constant. A graph is formed in accordance with this energy function definition, and the formed graph is cut by using a minimum-cut/maximum-flow algorithm. Then, a region of interest in an image is acquired based on the cut graph.
Extraction of a plurality of regions of interest will be explained below. Generally, different regions of interest have different shapes and different dimensions. For example, when extracting a region of a pulmonary nodule from a chest CT image obtained by an X-ray CT apparatus, the shape and dimension of a pulmonary nodule change from one subject to another and from one portion to another in a pulmonary area. That is, even when the types (for example, pulmonary nodules) of regions of interest are the same, different regions of interest naturally have different shapes and different dimensions.
When regions of interest existing in an image have different shapes and different dimensions, the ratios of the regions of interest in the image and the ranges (the circumferential lengths of the regions of interest in a two-dimensional image, and the surface areas in a three-dimensional image) of boundaries between the regions of interest and peripheral regions are different. In the energy function of the Graph-Cut method, the value of the data term generally changes in proportion to the dimension of a region of interest. On the other hand, the value of the smoothing term generally changes in proportion to the square of the dimension of a region of interest. Also, even when the dimension of a region of interest remains the same, if the shape of the region of interest changes, the value of the smoothing term changes. In regions of interest different in shape and dimension, therefore, the ratio of the data term value to the smoothing term value changes.
When using a predetermined constant as a coefficient by which the data term or smoothing term is multiplied as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,973,212, the ratio of the influence from the data term to the influence from the smoothing term largely changes from one region of interest to another. Accordingly, it may be impossible to properly extract a region of interest having a shape and dimension different from those when the constant is determined (that is, as expected when the constant is determined).
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2013-156094 has disclosed a technique of extracting a region of interest having a desired dimension by the Graph-Cut method by designating an expected value of the dimension of the region by an operator. In this disclosed technique, however, an operator must designate an expected value of the dimension of each region of interest, and this increases the load on the operator.
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Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication device/method using a communication protocol including a transport layer. The TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) represents the communication protocol including a transport layer. An example of a conventional TCP/IP network system of the conventional art is shown in FIG. 1.
In the network system, as shown in FIG. 1, a network 610 and a different network 620 are connected to each other through an IP router 150 so that terminals 131 and 132 belonging to the network 610 and terminals 141, 142 and 143 belonging to the network 620 may communicate with each other. The IP router 150 receives an IP datagram from the interface of an IP address a.a.a.1 or a.a.b.1, refers to a routing table by using a destination IP address of the IP header of the IP datagram as a key, and outputs the IP datagram to a proper interface. For example, the IP datagram, as transmitted from the terminal 131 of an IP address a.a.a.2 to the terminal 141 of an IP address a.a.b.2, is received by the a.a.a.1 interface of the IP router 150 and is outputted to the a.a.b.1 interface to reach the terminal 141.
Noting that a number of downloads are performed of data from a server terminal to client terminals in many multimedia services utilizing networks, there has been recently developed an asymmetric access network in which a bandwidth of inputs to client terminals is extremely wider than that of outputs from client terminals.
In this network having the asymmetric transmission speed, however, the throughput of the TCP in the direction from the server to the clients may be lowered, because the recommended TCP implementation method has an algorithm "at least one ACK (Acknowledgment) is returned for two TCP segments". This algorithm determines the effective bandwidth from the server to the clients in the following manner.
The time period for the ACK to be transmitted is the division of the bandwidth (Vup) in the direction from the clients to the server by the ACK size (Sack). For this time period, the data of 2.times.TCP maximum segment size (mss) can be transmitted. The bandwidth (Vdown) in the direction from the server to the clients is expressed by Vup.times. (2.times.mss)/Sack and cannot be exceeded. Thus, the throughput in the direction from the server to the clients has this upper limit.
If, therefore, the algorithm that one ACK is returned for two TCP segments is changed to return one ACK for N-number (N>2) of TCP segments thereby to reduce the number of ACKs, the throughput may be improved, but this breaks the recommended TCP implementation method. Moreover, it is difficult to change the TCP implementation for all terminals.
More generally, the TCP segment is called the transport layer protocol data unit, and the IP datagram is called the network layer protocol data unit.
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In view of the potentially hazardous nature of many agricultural chemicals such as insecticides, it is desirable to minimize the potential exposure of personnel to such chemicals. European Patent Application No. 0 685 155 discloses a valve device for connecting a container filled with flowable material to an applicator device for dispensing the flowable material. The valve device has a housing connected in use to the outlet of a container of flowable material and a valve member connected to the inlet of a hopper forming part of the applicator device. Relative movement between the housing and the valve member then enables the flowable material to pass from the container to the hopper.
Although valve devices of this type serve to minimize exposure of personnel to the flowable material in question, such devices have hitherto only been used in applications in which the applicator device is mounted to a tractor. However, in many areas of the world, particularly in third world countries, tractor mounted applicator devices are unsuitable. For example, tractors may be unavailable for economic reasons, or unusable for reasons of uneven terrain, or the particular agricultural activity involved, such as on banana plantations where the random growth of banana plants prevents the arrangement of the plants in rows between which a tractor can pass.
In such cases, it is generally the practice to dispense agricultural chemicals from a portable backpack applicator. Such applicators generally have a refillable reservoir for flowable material which is filled from a (usually larger) container or bag of flowable material. However, in many third world countries, there is the potential hazard of the empty container being re-used in an unsuitable manner, such as the storage of drinking water or, especially in the case of bags, the hazard of disposal by incineration with the accompanying environmental hazards.
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The present invention relates to arrangements for adjusting the axial play between a journalled shaft and a surrounding bearing casing, and is more particularly concerned with the use of a cylindrical roller bearing of the type having a separate abutment ring at the inner bearing ring for providing an intentional compensation of axial plays between the journalled shaft and the surrounding bearing casing.
The journaling of shafts which are subject to simultaneous radial and axial loads has in the past normally been effected by the use of conical roller bearings, with two such bearings oriented opposite to one another being employed in heavy-duty situations. By way of example, in axial piston machines in which a machine shaft is connected to a drive disk the shaft is often journalled in two mutually opposite conical roller bearings.
It is well known that in many journaling arrangements, not limited to axial piston machines, it is difficult to "build away" manufacturing tolerances without those tolerances superimposing themselves on one another so as to require a bearing play adjustment or compensation at the time of final assembly of the journal. Such adjustments become particularly difficult in cases such as the axial piston machines to which reference has been made above where there is a rotary inner ring load which is applied to the conical roller bearings, since the inner rings of such conical roller bearings must then be mounted with a press fit on the shaft. In such an arrangement precise axial play adjustments of the shaft require the use of expensive and complicated fixtures and dial indicators, making the adjustment very time consuming and expensive particularly in mass production situations. If only a small number of such journals must be manufactured, a skilled worker can gradually learn to tighten the two conical roller bearings against one another by means of an abutment nut that is threaded onto the shaft, or by means of shims or the like, so as to achieve just enough rolling resistance of the conical roller bearings. Adjustments of this type are dependent upon the skill of the worker, however, and cannot be employed by comparatively unskilled workers in the course of maintenance of the journalled shaft, or when bearings are replaced by users of the machine. There has long been a need, therefore, to provide an effective solution of this journaling problem.
The present invention provides such a solution by permitting the adjustment of clearance or play to be carried our manually in a fast and simple operation without requiring use of the expensive and complicated fixtures and dial indicators which have been considered necessary heretofore.
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The “GestiC©” integrated circuit, also known as MGC3130 manufactured by the assignee of this application, is a highly sensitive capacitive sensing technology that can be used for three-dimensional touch-less gesture detection and tracking using a quasi-static alternating electric near field, for example around 100-200 kHz. Such a system usually uses a transmitting electrode receiving an alternating signal such as a sinusoidal or square wave signal to generate the electric field. A plurality of receiving electrodes are arranged, for example, above the transmitting electrode in a frame like fashion, and from received signals a three-dimensional position of an object can be reconstructed within an integrated circuit device through signal processing.
Human interface devices (HID) that use such an integrated circuit device require sensor electrodes that are often formed in layers of conductive material, e.g. stripes of copper of a printed circuit board layer (PCB). These electrodes are electrically connected to a detection unit in the integrated circuit. For a detection system a conventional electrode arrangement can be formed on a multi-layer printed circuit board, wherein the bottom layer is often in its entirety or a significant portion of it used as a transmitter and smaller receiving electrodes and compensation electrodes can be formed on the top layer. More than two layers can be provided to build an electrode which also may increase the manufacturing cost for such electrode arrangements.
The gesture detection unit's measurement value, among others, depends on the position of a target object (finger/hand) in the sensor electrode's vicinity which influences the capacitive coupling between electrode and target, yielding a target measurement signal depending on the distortion of the alternating electric field. The gestures are performed above a detection area without touching any area of the respective device. In addition, touch detection may also be required for performing/initiating certain functions of the device.
Flatness of the industrial design and manufacturing costs are driving projective capacitive touch displays in consumer and other industries. Today, an increasing number of touch panels in consumer display applications are single-layer electrode designs, which are easier to manufacturer, achieve higher yields, are thinner and of significant lower cost. Furthermore single layer designs may offer better optical characteristics (higher transparency). Today's two layer GestIC© electrode design is a barrier accessing such early mass volume markets with 3D hand position tracking and gesture recognition.
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1. Field
A quantum dot complex having a polymeric outer layer, a photosensitive composition including the same, and a quantum dot-polymer composite pattern produced therefrom are disclosed.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display (hereinafter, LCD) is a display in which the polarized light passed through a liquid crystal layer passes through an absorptive color filter to express a color. LCD has drawbacks such as a narrow viewing angle and a low brightness due to a low ratio of light transmittance of the absorptive color filter. It is expected that replacing the absorptive color filter with a photoluminescent type color filter may increase the viewing angle and enhance the brightness of the display.
Quantum dots (QDs), which are dispersed in a polymer host matrix to have a form of a composite, are applicable in the various display devices. Quantum dots (hereinafter, also referred to as semiconductor nanocrystal) may be used as a light conversion layer in a light emitting diode (LED) or the like by dispersing in a host matrix of an inorganic material or a polymer. When a quantum dot is synthesized as a colloidal solution, the uniform particle size may be relatively easily controlled. When a quantum dot has a size of less than or equal to about 10 nanometers, the quantum confinement effects, in which the bandgap is increased with the decrease in a QD size, become significant, and thus the energy density is enhanced. The theoretical quantum efficiency (QY) of the quantum dot may be 100% and the quantum dot may emit light having high color purity (e.g., full width at half maximum (FWHM) of less than or equal to about 40 nanometers). This makes it possible to enhance a luminous efficiency and to improve a color gamut ratio. The quantum dot-polymer composite pattern may be applied to various devices, for example, the color filter for a liquid crystal display, in order to develop a high quality photoluminescent type LCD. Therefore, it is desirable to develop new techniques of patterning the quantum dot-polymer composite.
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Communication links are in use for a variety of purposes and may take many forms. One popular type of communication link is a shared communication link, through which a plurality of data sources communicate. Shared links have limited bandwidth and, therefore, there are cases where it is desirable to control the amount of data transmitted by one or more of the data sources over the shared communication link.
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I. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to signal processing apparatus, and more particularly to apparatus for removing noise signal components from noisy analog electrocardiograph (ECG) signals derived from body contacting electrodes without significantly distorting the ECG signal itself
II. Discussion of the Prior Art
Patients having an implanted cardiac rhythm management device, such as a pacemaker or a pacemaker/defibrillator, are periodically monitored using a telemetry link to read out information from the implanted device to an external programmer. Real-time telemetry of measured data is available in most modern pacer systems, including an assessment of battery voltage, current and impedance as well as lead impedance. These are useful measures in diagnosing and anticipating problems with a pacer system. Telemetry of event counters and histograms may be especially useful in evaluating the percentage of time that a patient spends in a particular rhythm or at a particular rate. In this fashion, electrograms having paced events, sensed events and marker channel data can be read out using a telemetry wand positioned over the implanted device.
It is also quite common to affix surface electrodes to the patient to obtain ECG surface data for presentation on a display screen or strip chart recorder for comparison purposes. The analog output signals from the surface electrodes are often contaminated by ambient noise, such as 60 Hz noise from lighting and other AC power sources. Muscle and motion artifacts may also be a source of noise contamination to the ECG signal resulting from cardiac depolarization or repolarization.
It is common practice to utilize filtering techniques in an attempt to isolate the ECG signal itself from whatever noise may be superimposed thereon. However, to date, insufficient attention has been paid to the differences between devices for addressing bradycardia and those for addressing tachycardia. While pacemakers for treating bradycardia deal mostly with conductance problems of the heart, anti-tachy devices deal with the problems in the heart tissue. The surface ECG data for brady devices exhibits a lower heart rate and wider QRS complexes and PR intervals, whereas the ECG data for anti-tachy devices has higher heart rates, shorter QRS complexes and some high frequency oscillations. Thus, a higher quality low-pass filter is required for stripping noise components from ECG signals of anti-tachy devices to address the high frequency components of the ECG signal. It is a principal object of this invention to provide an improved, low-pass filter capable of removing noise signal components from higher frequency ECG signals obtained from tachycardia patients without distorting the ECG signal itself.
A low-pass filter in accordance with the present invention comprises a plurality of digital filter stages, each with a different cut-off frequency, and connected in tandem between a signal source and a signal output point. Each of the filter stages includes a time delay buffer operative to receive digital data representing sampled values of an analog input signal for at least temporarily storing said sampled values for predetermined time intervals. Responsive to the digital data representing sampled values contained in the time delay buffer is a means for developing an average over time noise signal component that falls within a predetermined frequency band. Each of the plural stages also includes a means for selectively subtracting the average over time noise signal component from a sampled value resident in the time delay buffer to thereby effectively remove the noise component from the stored sampled value.
The average over time noise signal component is preferably derived using a high-pass filter adapted to receive the digital data representing the sampled values stored in the time delay buffer and having a dynamic noise level calculator operative to receive filtered data from the high-pass filter and averaging the filtered data over time.
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A marked increase in prevalence of multi-drug resistance in disease-causing Gram-positive (G+ve) (Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus spp. and Streptococcus pneumoniae) and Gram negative (G−ve) pathogens (Escherichia Enterobacter spp., Salmonella spp., Acinetobacter baumannii, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) has coincided with an unprecedented global decline in investment in new anti-infective drugs. There are few currently registered alternatives for multidrug resistant (MDR) bacterial infections, forcing clinicians to consider older generation drugs such as colistin with narrow spectrum and considerable potential for toxic side-effects. In addition, there are fewer novel classes of antiinfective therapeutics moving through the drug development pipeline.
Since the year 2000, a period of almost 15 years, only 5 novel mode of action (MOA) antibacterial agents have been approved by the US FDA—linezolid (an oxazolidinone) in 2000, daptomycin (a lipopeptide) in 2003, retapamulin (a pleuromutilin) in 2007, fidaxomicin (a macrolide tiacumicin) in 2011, and bedaquiline (a diarylquinoline) in 2012. Notably, none of these agents has significant activity against gram negative bacteria. No novel MOA antibacterial agents were approved in 2013 and to date in 2014 only tedizolid and dalbavancin, both analogs of existing classes, have been recommended for approval in the US. While there are more than 300 anti-infective medicines in various stages of development, the large majority of these medicines are previously approved antibacterial compounds or their derivatives that are undergoing studies for new indications.
Furthermore, the prevalence of multidrug-resistance in animal-specific pathogens together with greater regulation of the registration and usage of antimicrobials in animals, has caused veterinarians to become increasingly reliant on the traditional classes of antimicrobial agents. The risk of transfer of MDR zoonotic organisms from animals to humans has also led to calls for further restrictions on the usage of some recently registered antibacterial drugs such as the fluoroquinolones and the third and fourth generation cephalosporins.
Epidemiology of Antibacterial Resistance Development in Pathogens of Humans and Animals
Much of the evolution in resistance development is driven by changes in the epidemiology of key MDR organisms. Once only restricted to human hospitals and aged care facilities, methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains are now being isolated from the community in alarming proportions. Furthermore, community-acquired MRSA strains are more likely to carry the Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) toxin, a virulence factor linked to skin and soft tissue lesions as well as a rapid, fulminating, necrotizing pneumonia with significant associated mortality. Recently MRSA strains have become host-adapted in several key animal species including livestock, horses and companion animals and regular cases of human-to-animal and animal-to-human transfer are being documented. This has important consequences for strain transmission and public health. A recent survey of 751 Australian veterinarians for MRSA nasal carriage found that a remarkable 21.4% of equine veterinarians were MRSA-positive compared to 4.9% of small animal veterinarians and 0.9% of veterinarians with little animal contact. These ecological shifts of MRSA together with the emergence of resistance to new drugs developed specifically for MRSA such as linezolid confirm that new MRSA anti-infectives are urgently needed. Furthermore, hospitals that use vancomycin for treating MRSA then have to contend with outbreaks of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) infections in their patients, once again with limited alternative antimicrobial choices.
The global emergence and spread within the community of highly virulent MDR Gram-negative (G−ve) bacteria such as E. coli O25b:ST131 confirms that bacterial pathogens can simultaneously evolve both virulence and resistance determinants. Echoing recent MRSA epidemiology, E. coli O25b:ST131, a major cause of urinary tract and bloodstream infections in humans, has now been isolated from extraintestinal infections in companion animals, and poultry. The increasing significance of E. coli O25b:ST131 and other MDR Enterobacteriaceae with combined resistance to fluoroquinolones and extended spectrum beta-lactams and carbapenems is another worrying trend, especially considering there have been few recent breakthroughs in the development of G−ve spectrum anti-infectives apart from incremental advances in the carbapenem family.
The World Health Organisation has identified antibiotic resistance as one of the three major future threats to global health. A recent report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that “in the United States, more than two million people are sickened every year with antibiotic-resistant infections, with at least 23,000 dying as a result.” The extra medical costs, in the USA alone, associated with treating and managing a single case of antibiotic-resistant infection are estimated to be between US$18,588 and US$29,069 per year resulting in an overall direct cost to the US health system of over US$20 billion annually. In addition, the cost to US households in terms of lost productivity is estimated at over US$35 billion per annum. Twenty five thousand patients in the European Union (EU) still die annually from infection with MDR bacteria despite many EU countries having world's best practice hospital surveillance and infection control strategies. The EU costs from health care expenses and lost productivity associated with MDR infections are estimated to be at least 1.5 billion per year.
There is an unmet clinical need for antibacterial agents with novel mechanisms of action to supplement and replace currently available antibacterial agents, the efficacy of which is increasingly undermined by antibacterial resistance mechanisms. There remains a need for alternative antibacterials in the treatment of infection by multi-resistant bacteria. However, as reported by the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, few new drugs are being developed that offer promising results over existing treatments (Infectious Diseases Society of America 2010, Clinical Infectious Diseases, 50(8):1081-1083).
It is an object of the present invention to overcome at least one of the failings of the prior art.
The discussion of the background art set out above is intended to facilitate an understanding of the present invention only. The discussion is not an acknowledgement or admission that any of the material referred to is or was part of the common general knowledge as at the priority date of the application.
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The present invention relates to an image forming system that is constituted by an image forming apparatus and a plurality of paper sheet processing apparatuses, which are coupled to each other in the system.
Various kinds of peripheral apparatuses are optionally coupled to the image forming apparatus, such as an electro-photographic image forming apparatus, so as to form a versatile image forming system.
This kind of image forming system is utilized not only as a utility in an office or a copy center, but also in the field of the POD (Print On Demand).
Conventionally, a single post processing apparatus, in which various kinds of processors, such as a stapler, a puncher, etc., are integrated, is generally combined with the image forming apparatus as the peripheral apparatus of the image forming apparatus employing the electro-photographic imaging method.
According as the functional demands for the peripheral apparatus have been diversified, however, it becomes difficult to integrate various kinds of functional structures into a single apparatus. As a result, a trend for forming and using the image forming system in which a plurality of peripheral apparatuses are concatenated with each other has emerged recently.
For instance, Patent Document 1 (Tokkai 2004-161466, Japanese Non-Examined Patent Publication) sets forth an image forming system in which a post processing apparatus having a folding function is coupled to the image forming apparatus, and further another post processing apparatus having an end stitching (plane stitching), a center folding and a saddle stitching functions is coupled.
Further, Patent Document 2 (Tokkai 2005-254362, Japanese Non-Examined Patent Publication) sets forth an image forming system in which an interface module is installed between the image forming apparatus and an post processing apparatus having a punching and a saddle stitching functions, so that the interface module can supply an additional paper sheet, other than the paper sheets conveyed from the image forming apparatus.
As described in Patent Documents 1 and 2 (Tokkai 2004-161466 and Tokkai 2005-254362 Japanese Non-Examined Patent Publication), in the configuration in which a plurality of post processing apparatuses are concatenated to the image forming apparatus, the conveyance path in the paper sheet processing apparatus to be disposed at an intermediate position (hereinafter, referred to as an relay conveyance apparatus) is designed to be as shorter as possible, in order to suppress the occurrence probability of the apparatus stopping accident due to the conveyance malfunction as a whole by reducing the conveyance malfunction in the relay conveyance apparatus, in order to improve the efficiency of the apparatus as a whole by increasing the processing velocity in the image forming mode in which the relay conveyance apparatus is deactivated, etc. In addition, even if the relay conveyance apparatus is designed to conduct a kind of paper sheet processing, a relatively simple processing structure is installed into the relay conveyance apparatus.
According to the reasons mentioned in the above, the relay conveyance apparatus tends to be designed in such a manner that the horizontal width of the relay conveyance apparatus is as shorter as possible when viewing it from the front of the image forming system.
In Patent Documents 1 and 2 (Tokkai 2004-161466 and Tokkai 2005-254362 Japanese Non-Examined Patent Publication), the post processing apparatus PZ and the interface module 4, both serving as the relay conveyance apparatus, are also designed in such a manner that the horizontal width of each of them is shorter than that of the image forming apparatus or the other post processing apparatus to be disposed at the both sides of them.
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In automotive blower motor installations, several discrete blower speeds are customarily achieved through the use of various resistor elements connected in series with the blower motor via a multi-position speed control switch. In such installations, the resistor elements may be formed in an array on a support structure disposed in the inlet or discharge air path of the blower to dissipate heat generated by the passage of motor current through the resistor elements. The resistor elements may be discrete (wire-wound, for example) or printed in an array on a substrate in the manner of a printed circuit board.
The motor current path is protected by a fuse, and the conventional practice is to design the resistor element assembly to withstand worst case conditions for which the fuse may not provide adequate protection. These conditions include, for example, certain electrical short conditions, stalled blower motor and blocked blower air flow. Alternately, individual fuse or other thermal-responsive elements may be incorporated directly into the resistor array, or the resistor elements may be comprised of PTC materials which increase in resistivity with increasing temperature.
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Meeting future system performance needs requires input/output (I/O) bandwidth that can scale with processing and application demands. Alongside these increasing performance demands, the enterprise server and communication markets require improved reliability, security and quality of service guarantees. Fortunately, technology advances and high speed point-to-point interconnects are enabling system designers to break away from the bandwidth limitations of multiple drop, parallel buses. To this end, system designers have discovered a high-performance, third generation I/O (3GIO) interconnect that will serve as a general purpose I/O interconnect for a wide variety of future computing and communications platforms.
3GIO comprehends the many I/O requirements presented across the spectrum of computing and communications platforms and rolls them into a common scalable and extensible I/O industry specification. One implementation of 3GIO is the PCI Express specification. The PCI Express basic physical layer includes a differential transmit pair and a differential receiver pair. As such, dual simplex data on these point-to-point connection referred to herein as a “point-to-point link,” is self-clocked and its bandwidth increases linearly with interconnect (link) width and frequency. In addition, PCI Express also provides a message space within its bus protocol that is used to implement legacy side band signals. As a result, a further reduction of signal pins produces a very low pin count connection for components and adapters.
PCI Express (PCIe) provides backward compatibility for conventional PCI, which is based on a multi-drop parallel bus implementation. To provide backward compatibility with conventional PCI, PCIe retains the device concept of conventional PCI. As described herein, the device concept of conventional PCI requires that a device provide a one-to-one correspondence with a piece of silicon or I/O card that plugs into a slot of a computer system. Hence, PCIe retains the device concept of conventional PCI, which requires a one-to-one correspondence between devices and I/O cards, thereby limiting an I/O card to include a single internal device. Unfortunately, this limitation can create a nuisance for non-legacy software, which may be able to handle a single card, which implements multiple logical devices.
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The invention relates to a pelvic and scapular bone plate implant and a surgical method for implanting such a pelvic and scapular bone plate implant.
Surgical methods are known for reconstructing a patient's anatomy after a bone fracture. These procedures rely on the surgeon's use of metallic plates or meshes which are screwed to a fractured bone in order to reset comminuted areas of the fractured bone. These plates may carry the load of the comminuted area of the bone. Due to the rigidity of the plate, the fractured bone can heal in the proper position, because motion is minimized. These strong plates must usually be contoured to the surface shape of the bone. An example for a fixation plate is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,454,876 which discloses a pelvic fixation plate and method of implanting the same. Also see the Matta Pelvic System sold by Stryker® Corporation. However, with the plates from the state of the art, especially with plates for larger surfaces, it can be very challenging to bend the plate correctly with respect to the anatomical region. A pressure on an inside shape can be achieved by contouring the plate beyond the bending extent required for the plate to touch the bone surface in that area, but it is very difficult for a surgeon to adjust the slope and this can lead to a suboptimal fit along the outer edges.
The quadrilateral surface of the pelvis is often affected by high impact pelvic fractures, because the femoral head is driven from the acetabulum through the quadrilateral surface towards the inner pelvis. This results in a comminuted fracture of the quadrilateral surface. Especially since the center of this wall between inner pelvis and acetabulum is very thin and has to be buttressed in order to re-establish the acetabular surface. However, under consideration of the above difficulties encountered when forming the known plates, there is potential for improvement in plates for buttressing contoured large-area bones.
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To diagnose the excitation processes of the brain, typically stimulation techniques like continuous excitation, is multiple single excitations and periodic excitations or stimulations have been used. For continuous stimulation, for example, continuous sound or visual patterns are considered. Individual excitations result for example in so-called acoustic or visually evoked potentials. As periodic excitation, a stimulation with flickering light can be used, for example, to diagnose a photosensitive epilepsy. Based for example on excitation responses of the brain or the sense organs as measured by means of electrodes and the psychophysical findings (for example the number of recognized patterns or heard sounds) conclusions can be drawn as to the functioning of the sensory system explored.
In biofeedback training, optical or acoustic feedback effects are therapeutically used to bring about in the patient a voluntary control of some action of the patient's bodily function, especially the sympathetic nervous system, in a desired manner. The feedback signals enable, therefore, a self-control and increase the influence upon the bodily function which pertains by the patient. Applications of biofeedback training for example include applications in functional heart conditions and neuromuscular stress states. With previous diagnostic methods, the dependency between excitation responses and the particular activity were not explored in detail. Only a relatively few parameters of cerebral activity were investigated. With the standard process it is not possible to match the stimulation to the specific rhythmic brain activity of individual patients so as to be able to detect significantly more functional and response ranges. It is especially not possible to investigate the effect of targeted manipulations in rhythmic cerebral brain activity in different frequency regions (for example their amplitude damping) and different brain areas on information processing.
It is a prerequisite of biofeedback training that the patient voluntarily and willingly desires the improved bodily function and participates therein. With most of the organ systems of the body and for many brain functions this is not the case however or is not the case to a sufficient degree. Difficulties are encountered when the patient has a cerebral disorder, for example, is a neglected patient following a brain infarct or has some other illness or medical condition following an illness which interferes with understanding or recognition and which disables a voluntary effect even on simple bodily functions, makes them more difficult or even impossible. Thus neglect patients whose body parts no longer respond can be scarcely responsive to biofeedback training at least with respect to the body parts which are nonresponsive.
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The present invention relates generally to the field of apparatus for fiber optic communication, and more particularly, to a multi-channel fiber optic rotary joint using an optical expander/condenser to achieve a compact beam structure.
A typical multiply channel fiber optic rotary joint consists of rotatable fiber collimator array, a de-rotating mechanism, and the fixed fiber collimator array all of which rotate about a common axis. The de-rotating mechanism allows the light signals applied to any one or all of a number of inputs to be reproduced at a corresponding number of outputs of the fiber optic rotary joint in a continuous manner. The de-rotating mechanism normally consists of an optical de-rotating mechanics such as a Dove prism, Delta prism, Schmidt-Pechan prism, Abbe-Konig prism, K-mirror, or GRIN lens to name a few and a passive mechanical system which rotates the optical de-rotating mechanism.
The determining factor for the size of these multi-channel fiber optic rotary joints is the size of the de-rotating mechanism which is a function of the number of beams that can be passed through the de-rotating mechanism simultaneously. The number of beams was traditionally limited by the physical size of the collimators and collimator arrays. Therefore, even in the most tightly packed beam structure would have a relatively low number of beams per square millimeter because the amount of space occupied by the collimators and collimator arrays is vastly larger than the beam size resulting in a relatively long distance between neighboring beams.
Optical expanders and optical condenser are extensively used to achieve magnification or demagnification. They are essentially telescopes or magnifying glasses which achieve their magnification or demagnification through the use of refractors.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a touch sensing device, a touch sensing circuit, a data driving circuit, and a display device driving method.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, various user interfaces (UIs) can be implemented by touch sensors provided on display panels having touch functions. Display panels including touch sensors are input/output means capable of both touch-based input functions and information output functions.
Display panels having capacitive touch functions are advantageous in that, compared with existing resistive touch panels, they have better durability and sharpness and capable of multi-touch recognition and proximity touch recognition, thereby being applicable to various applications.
A display panel having a capacitive touch function has a substrate, which includes touch sensors, attached onto the display panel, or the touch sensors are embedded in the display panel (in-cell type); as a result, the display panel is electrically coupled with display elements.
Research has recently been conducted such that display panels having touch functions can recognize touches not only in a contact touch mode such as a finger mode, but also in a non-contact touch mode such as a hover mode or a proximity touch mode. As used herein, the contact touch mode refers to a function for enabling recognition of direct touches made by a pointer with regard to display panels. The non-contact touch mode means that recognition of a proximity touch or a hovering touch, with regard to display panels, is made possible: in the case of the proximity touch, the pointer does not directly touch the display panel, but is in close proximity therewith and, in the case of the hovering touch, the pointer hovers over the touch panel.
Touch functions in the hover mode, among them, with regard to a display panel including touch sensors of the in-cell type have not yet been implemented.
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Recently an oxyfuel combustor has been reviewed as one of techniques for treating carbon dioxide (CO2) which is said to be one of factors for global warming, and attention has been attracted to, for example, a coal-fired boiler for oxyfuel combustion of pulverized coal. In such coal-fired boiler, oxygen is used as an oxidizing agent in lieu of air to produce exhaust gas mainly composed of carbon dioxide (CO2) and such exhaust gas with high CO2 concentration is compressed and cooled into liquefied carbon dioxide. It has been reviewed that such liquefied carbon dioxide is transported by carrying means such as a vessel or a vehicle to a destination for storage thereof in the ground or alternatively the liquefied carbon dioxide increased in pressure is transported through a pipeline to a destination for storage thereof in the ground.
The exhaust gas from the coal-fired boiler upon such oxyfuel combustion of coal contains, in addition to carbon dioxide (CO2), impurities derived from coal feedstock such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx), hydrargyrum (Hg), hydrogen chloride (HCl) and dust.
Among the above-mentioned impurities, sulfur oxides (SOx) may be contacted with and dissolved in water into sulfuric acid (H2SO4) and hydrogen chloride (HCl) may be dissolved in water into hydrochloric acid, so that such water-soluble sulfur oxide and hydrogen chloride as well as dust may be separated through contact with water by means of water splay or the like.
Among the nitrogen oxides (NOx) as the above-mentioned impurities, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) may be contacted with and dissolved in water into nitric acid (HNO3) to become separated. However, the exhaust gas from the coal-fired boiler has less oxygen (O2) so that nitrogen (N2) exists substantially in the form of nitrogen monoxide (NO) which is water-insoluble and thus is unremovable by water spraying or the like.
Among the above-mentioned sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid and nitric acid, specifically sulfuric acid is known to corrode instruments in the exhaust gas treatment device; and hydrargyrum, which is trace metal as mentioned in the above, is known to hurt low-temperatured aluminum members constituting a heat exchanger arranged for a carbon dioxide liquefier. Thus, it is preferable to remove these impurities in the exhaust gas at early stages. There is also a problem that admixture of the impurities into the exhaust gas lowers a purity degree of the carbon dioxide, which makes troublesome the liquefaction of the carbon dioxide through compression and cooling and thus requires larger-sized equipment for liquefaction. Thus, in a system such as a coal-fired boiler for oxyfuel combustion where exhaust gas mainly composed of carbon dioxide is produced and the carbon dioxide is disposed, it is extremely important to remove impurities in the exhaust gas.
Thus, it has been conducted, for example, in the coal-fired boiler for oxyfuel combustion that a spray-column-type, packed-column-type or other wet desulfurizer used in a conventional air-fired boiler or the like is provided to remove sulfur oxides which are especially problematic in corrosion. Moreover, nitrogen and nitrogen oxides derived from coal feedstock are produced in the exhaust gas from the coal-fired boiler for oxyfuel combustion or the like, so that it has been conducted that a catalyst-type or other denitrator is arranged upstream of the desulfurizer to remove the nitrogen and nitrogen oxides.
It is known in the wet desulfurizer provided as mentioned in the above that sulfur oxides and hydrogen chloride as well as dust are removed and that nitrogen oxides are partly removed and hydrargyrum, which is inherently low in content, is slightly removed. It has been also conceived that if hydrargyrum in the exhaust gas is still high in concentration even after the above-mentioned exhaust gas treatment is conducted, a hydrargyrum-removing column is arranged to remove the hydrargyrum by adsorbent or the like.
As mentioned in the above, the exhaust gas mainly composed of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the coal-fired boiler for oxyfuel combustion usually undergoes compression by a plurality of compressors, cooling by aftercoolers respectively downstream of the compressors and eventual liquefaction into liquefied carbon dioxide. However, in this case, there is a problem that the compressors may be corroded by sulfuric acid (H2SO4) resulting from sulfur oxides (SOx) included in the exhaust gas. Thus, it is a very important task to prevent the compressors, which are extremely expensive, form being corroded.
Patent Literature 1 discloses an exhaust gas treatment system comprising a duct with a dust collector and a wet desulfurizer to which exhaust gas is guided from a boiler which in turn burns fuel with mixed combustion gas of oxygen-rich gas with circulated exhaust gas, an exhaust gas recirculation duct for guidance of part of the exhaust gas downstream of the dust collector to the boiler and CO2 separation means for compression of the exhaust gas downstream of the desulfurizer to separate carbon dioxide. Water separated in the compression of the exhaust gas by the CO2 separation means is supplied to absorbing liquid circulatorily used in the desulfurizer.
Patent Literature 2 discloses a gas treatment installation in which a gas flow including non-absorbing gas such as a hydrocarbon gas or nitrogen is treated by co-current contactors arranged in series.
Patent Literature 3 discloses a gas treatment apparatus in which raw air is compressed and introduced into a catalyst column where an infinitesimal quantity of carbon monoxide and hydrogen are converted into carbon dioxide and water. Catalyst-reacted temperature-increased air is cooled and introduced into an adsorption column where carbon dioxide, water and other impurities are adsorption-removed to obtain high-purity product air, a remaining part being introduced into and cooled by a primary heat exchanger substantially down to a liquefaction temperature. The cooled remaining part is introduced into a simple rectification column and is subjected to liquefaction rectification to thereby obtain high-purity nitrogen and oxygen-enriched liquefied air.
Patent Literature 4 discloses an exhaust gas treatment apparatus comprising a dust remover for removal of dusts in exhaust gas, an absorbing column arranged downstream of the dust remover for absorptive removal of SOx, HCl and the like, an undercooling mist eliminator arranged downstream of the absorbing column for removal of dusts in an agglomerated bloating manner and a catalyst device for decomposition of harmful matters in the exhaust gas.
Patent Literature 5 discloses a flue gas treatment system for control of pH of an absorbent slurry comprising means for dosing of an alkaline agent into the absorbent slurry, a pH detector of the slurry, means for detection of an operational state of a gas-gas heater, means for detection of an operational state of a dust collector and means for controlling of the dosage of the alkaline agent on the basis of signals from the pH detector, the gas-gas heater and the means for detection of the operational state of the dust collector.
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As a general rule, a motor vehicle suspension system provides a suspension strut supporting an axle and a vehicle wheel. A suspension thrust bearing is disposed in an upper portion of the suspension strut, opposite to the wheel and the ground, and between a suspension spring and an upper support block attached to the body of the vehicle.
The suspension thrust bearing includes at least one rolling bearing.
The suspension thrust bearing enables transmission of axial forces between the spring and the body of the vehicle and, in the meantime, allows relative angular movement between the spring, which is mobile in rotation, and the fixed support block attached to the body.
To this end, the spring is supported by a spring seat provided on the suspension thrust bearing. More precisely, the suspension thrust bearing provides a lower support surface resting on ending coils of the spring. The spring support surface provides a radial surface to support axial force. The spring support surface may also provide a tubular axial surface to support radial deformations and to ensure the spring centering.
It is known to provide a damping device axially and radially disposed between the spring and the spring support surface of the suspension thrust bearing. As shown in these documents, the damping device is attached to the lower surface of the suspension thrust bearing. Damping device is made from a resilient material, such as rubber, thermoplastic elastomer (TPE), in particular thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), melt processible elastomer (MPE) or elastomer cellular foam.
The damping device can be a separate component assembled in place by hand as part of the spring support surface. Alternatively, the damping device can be directly molded onto the spring support surface. Nevertheless, shocks and vibrations exerted by the spring during the use of vehicle can disassembled the damping device from the suspension thrust bearing.
The document US 2010/0014792 A1 proposes annular grooves supported by the spring seat, the damping device comprising a corresponding shape fitted within the grooves. However, the damping device and the spring seat may relatively rotate one to the other. The damping device material is softer than the spring seat and then it could be worn.
The document EP 2 152 531 B1 discloses longitudinal grooves blocking the rotation of the damping device. Furthermore, the longitudinal grooves provide flaring side walls so as to prevent radial movement of the damping device. However, such grooves have a relative complex design.
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A well-known generic metal elastomer element for a metal elastomer bearing (DE 19 55 308 C3) consists of an inner cylindrical metal component to form a connection with a first component to be supported and two outer sheet metal shells that lie opposite to each other and partially overlap the inner cylindrical metal component, whereas a bonded elastomer body is mounted between the inner metal component and the two sheet metal shells. By applying a radial preload in the elastomer body, the metal elastomer element can be pressed into a pivot eye joint at a second mounted component.
In the manufactured state, the known metal elastomer element features a distance between the respective opposite longitudinal edges of the sheet metal shells, as well as a wedge-shaped longitudinal slot in the elastomer material in this area. In the mounted state, while pressed into the pivot eye joint, these longitudinal slots are closed and the edges of the longitudinal sheet metal shells lie against each other, resulting in a completely circular cylindrical elastomer annular body as well as a circulatory sheet metal sleeve. In the mounted state this would result in torsional spring characteristics that rise approximately linear above the operationally tolerable torsion angle. Moreover, because of the fact that in the mounted state the elastomer body forms a permanently closed circle, which is progressively increasing at larger torsion angles, the metal elastomer element is relatively hard.
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The embodiments discussed herein are directed to an A/D converter.
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{
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1. Statement of the Technical Field
The inventive arrangements relate to wireless networks. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for high speed protocol header processing at an intermediate and/or destination node of a packet-based communications network.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been a growing demand for improved communication applications provided by packet-based communications networks. The phrase “packet-based communications network” as used herein refers to an internet protocol (IP) based communications network and a transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP) based communications network. As a result the growing demand, a header processing approach has been employed to improve the abilities of the packet-based communications networks. The header processing approach includes the transmission of packets including signaling protocol data and/or application data between nodes of the packet-based communications networks. The application data can include voice data, video data, or the like. The nodes can be selected as a computer system, a routing device, a sensor, a battery powered wireless communications device, or any other device having a TCP/IP based packet interface.
To enable the transmission of packets between a set of nodes, the application data is encapsulated between one or more protocol stack layer headers and a frame check sequence (FCS). The phrase “frame check sequence” as used herein refers to extra checksum characters added to a packet or a frame in a communication protocol for error detection and correction. In this regard, it should be understood that a checksum is a form of a redundancy check. A checksum protects the integrity of data by detecting errors in the data that are sent through space or time.
For example, the application data is encapsulated between an application layer header (or protocol header) and the frame check sequence (FCS). The application layer header is encapsulated between a transport layer protocol header and the application data. The transport layer protocol header is encapsulated between a network layer protocol header and the application layer header. The network layer protocol header is encapsulated between a logic link control (LLC) layer protocol header and the transport layer protocol header. The logic link control (LLC) layer protocol header is encapsulated between a media access control (MAC) layer protocol header and the network layer protocol header. The media access control (MAC) layer protocol header is encapsulated between a physical layer protocol header and the logic link control (LLC) protocol header. The physical layer protocol header is encapsulated between a preamble and the media access control (MAC) layer protocol header. As should be understood, the encapsulation framework depends on the network's protocol model, such as an open system interconnection model or a Department of Defense protocol model. The protocol headers are comprised of fields to be processed at intermediate and/or destination nodes. Some protocol headers have long fields that require a comparison among several values. As such, a packet transmission often experiences relatively long delays due to protocol header processing at intermediate and/or destination nodes.
Many solutions have been proposed for decreasing the protocol header processing time at intermediate and/or destination nodes of a packet-based communications networks. One such solution employs a sequential processing approach. The sequential processing approach involves receiving an encoded packet at a node, decoding the received encoded packet, and processing protocol headers of the decoded packet in a sequential manner. In this regard, it should be noted that the sequential processing approach is dependent on methods to advance the protocol header processing from one protocol header to a next protocol header. This solution is based on either specialized processors configured for processing a particular protocol header and/or a general purpose central processing unit (CPU).
More specifically, the sequential processing approach includes the following steps: (1) receive a packet at an intermediate and/or a destination node; (2) decode the received packet at a physical layer processor; (3) process a preamble and a physical layer protocol header of the decoded packet at the physical layer processor; (4) sequentially write a media access control (MAC) layer protocol header, a logic link control (LLC) layer protocol header, a network layer protocol header, a transport layer protocol header, an application layer header, and an application data to a packet buffer memory for storage; (5) access the packet buffer memory and retrieve the media access control (MAC) layer protocol header therefrom; (6) process the media access control (MAC) layer protocol header at a media access control (MAC) layer processor; (7) access the packet buffer memory and retrieve the logic link control (LLC) layer protocol header therefrom; (8) process the logic link control (LLC) layer protocol header at a logic link control (LLC) layer processor; (9) access the packet buffer memory and retrieve the network layer protocol header therefrom; (10) process the network layer protocol header at a network layer processor; (11) access the packet buffer memory and retrieve the transport layer protocol header therefrom; (12) process the transport layer protocol header at a transport layer processor; (13) access the packet buffer memory and retrieve the application layer header therefrom; and (14) process the application layer header at an application layer processor. Despite the advantages of the sequential processing approach, it suffers from certain drawbacks. For example, the majority of protocol header processing tasks are implemented in software as generic packet processing methods.
Another such solution employs fixed function applications specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Despite the advantages of such fixed function devices, they suffer from certain drawbacks. For example, the fixed function devices cannot handle updating processing header fields. Further, the fixed function devices always defer protocol header processing to a general purpose processor. The general purpose processor cannot operate at a desired speed for a battery powered wireless communications device. The general purpose processor also cannot accommodate changes in timing needs due to high speed, very high bandwidth data traffic.
In view of the forgoing, there is a need for a solution to reduce protocol header processing time in a packet-based communications networks. This solution also needs to be configured to update header fields. The solution further needs to be configured to process protocol headers at a desired speed for a battery powered wireless communications device. In this regard, it should be understood that a battery powered wireless communications device can be a node in a high speed wireless communications system. As such, the battery powered wireless communications device can concurrently act as an intermediate node and a destination node. As such, the roles of the battery powered wireless communications device can alternate and vary based on time or traffic conditions.
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Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a light emitting device and the manufacturing method thereof, in particular to a chip-scale packaging light emitting device including a light emitting diode (LED) semiconductor die which generates electromagnetic radiation while it is in operation.
Description of the Related Art
LEDs are widely used in various applications including traffic lights, backlight units, general lightings, portable devices, automotive lighting and so forth. Generally, an LED semiconductor die is disposed inside a package structure, such as a lead frame, to form a packaged LED device. It may further be disposed and covered by photoluminescent materials, such as phosphors, to form a phosphor-converted white LED device.
An LED device is usually attached to a substrate by a bonding process such as reflow soldering, eutectic bonding, or the like, wherein electric energy can be transmitted through bonding pads of an application substrate so that the LED device generates electromagnetic radiation during operation.
Recent development of a chip-scale packaging (CSP) LED device has attracted more and more attention due to its promising advantages. As a typical example, a white-light CSP LED device is generally composed of a blue-light LED semiconductor die and a packaging structure covering the LED semiconductor die in a compact chip-scale size. In comparison with a plastic leaded chip carrier (PLCC) LED device, a CSP light emitting device shows the following advantages: (1) The material cost is considerably less by eliminating the use of a bonding wire and a lead frame. (2) The thermal resistance between a LED semiconductor die and a mounting substrate, typically a printed circuit board (PCB), is further reduced without using a lead frame in between. Therefore the LED operation temperature is lowered while under the same driving current. In other words, less electrical energy can be consumed to obtain more optical power for a CSP LED device. (3) A lower operation temperature provides a higher LED semiconductor quantum efficiency for a CSP LED device. (4) A much smaller form factor of the light source provides more design flexibility for module-level LED fixtures. (5) A CSP LED device having a small light emitting area more resembles a point source and thus makes the design of secondary optics easier. A compact CSP LED device can be designed to generate small-Etendue light with higher optical intensity that is specified for some projected light applications, such as automobile headlights.
Since a CSP LED device, mainly comprising an LED semiconductor die and a packaging structure covering the LED semiconductor die, does not have gold wires and a surface mount lead frame, it is directly attached onto an application substrate, such as a PCB, so that the electrodes of a flip-chip semiconductor die inside the CSP LED device can be electrically connected to bonding pads of an application substrate. The electrodes of the flip-chip LED semiconductor die serve another important function to transfer and dissipate heat generated during operation of the CSP LED device to the application substrate as well. Because an LED semiconductor die is made of inorganic material and a packaging structure is mostly composed of organic resin material covering the LED semiconductor die, the organic packaging structure can have considerably larger thermal expansion than the inorganic LED semiconductor die during a high temperature reflow soldering or an eutectic bonding process. Especially, the packaging structure can expand more in the vertical direction than the LED semiconductor die; in other words, the packaging structure expands more against an underlying bonding substrate so that it “lifts” the electrodes of the inside LED semiconductor die off the underlying bonding substrate, resulting in a void gap between the electrodes of the LED semiconductor die and the bonding pads of the application substrate during a high temperature soldering/bonding process. Consequently, a CSP LED device fails to be properly bonded onto the substrate, resulting in electrical connection failure. Other failure modes may include higher electrical contact resistance resulting in higher LED power consumption, or higher thermal resistance resulting in poor heat dissipation, all due to poor welding of the electrodes of the semiconductor die to the bonding pads of the substrate. Accordingly, the overall efficiency and reliability of a CSP LED device attached to an application substrate are reduced.
In order to improve the aforementioned problem, a possible solution is to place a thick solder bump, such as a gold-tin bump, underneath electrodes of a CSP LED device so that a bottom surface of a packaging structure of the CSP LED device is elevated to a higher position to form a marginal gap between the bottom surface of the packaging structure and an underneath application substrate. This marginal gap is preserved for thermal expansion of the packaging structure during a subsequent soldering/bonding process Thus, even though the packaging structure of the CSP LED device can still be thermally expanded unavoidably in the vertical direction during soldering, it does not touch the application substrate to force the electrodes of the LED semiconductor die being lifted off from the application substrate. However, adding a thick soldering bump can significantly increase the material cost to fabricate a CSP LED device and reduce the manufacturing yield of a bonding process during application due to misalignment.
In view of this, providing a solution to solve the aforementioned deficiencies is needed to facilitate practical applications using CSP LED devices.
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In U.S. Pat. No. 3,998,834 there are described a number of N-phenyl-N-(4-piperidinyl)amides having analgesic properties. The compounds of this invention differ from the foregoing essentially by the nature of the (4,5-dihydro-4-R-5-oxo-1H-tetrazol-1-yl)alkyl or (4,5-dihydro-4-R-5-thioxo-1H-tetrazol-1-yl)alkyl group present in the 1-position of the piperidine nucleus.
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Lumber processing is highly automated and in certain processing stations, the boards need to be precisely spaced apart on the conveyor when entering a station. To achieve this spaced relationship, the boards are commonly transferred from a conveyor where the boards are in close or abutting relationship onto a second conveyor having lugs that determine the desired spacing. A transfer mechanism controls the transfer from one conveyor onto the other to assure the relationship desired.
A typical transfer mechanism employs an intermediate pick off wheel and a stop member. The board movement is stopped on the first conveyor (although the conveyor typically continues to slide under the boards) and each leading board in turn is picked off the first conveyor by the pick off wheel and carried over onto the next conveyor in timed sequence.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,980,234 and 6,431,345 both describes a transfer mechanism that lifts the forward bottom edge of a board over a stop in order to transfer the board from a first conveyor to a second conveyor.
It is generally a requirement to stop the feeding of lumber without stopping the lugged conveyor. This can be accomplished by having moveable stops hold back the layer of boards so as to not engage the pickoff wheel or feed mechanism. Alternately, the feed wheel can be stopped with a mechanical clutch arrangement. The clutch must be of a type to engage or disengage at a fixed rotary position relative to the rotation so as to maintain the timing of the feed to the lugs. The first means has problems operating at high speeds because the time available to activate the moveable stops becomes too short or limited. The second means has a problem with the fixed or even finite multiple fixed engagement/disengagement positions not being adequate to allow for a wide speed variation of the lugged conveyor.
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This invention relates to ignition devices for engines of the kind in which a fuel-air mixture is introduced into a combustion chamber where it is compressed, ignited, expanded and exhausted in a repetitive cycle. It is applicable to Otto cycle engines, including two and four cycle piston engines, free piston engines, and rotary engines, such as Wankel engines. The invention is particularly concerned with ignition cell devices of the kind which are capable of performing the ignition function in a running engine without the use of an externally-supplied, timed electrical spark, which has been the type of ignition system most widely used heretofore.
Despite their nearly universal employment, electrical ignition systems for internal combustion engines have well-recognized disadvantages. One of these is the cost of the ignition equipment itself. Another is the necessity for maintenance of the parts of the electrical system. Such a system normally includes a number of small moving parts that wear more rapidly than the more massive moving parts of the engine itself, and electric components which deteriorate through exposure to heat, moisture, engine oil and oil residue.
Electrical spark ignition systems broadcast in commonly used radio frequencies, and special steps must be taken to shield them or otherwise prevent this radio interference.
Another disadvantage is that the added parts involved in an electrical ignition system decrease the reliability and longevity of the engine operation. For critical applications, such as in aircraft engines, it has become mandatory to use a dual electrical system with complete duplication of parts and equipment, in order to gain some assurance of reliability.
One common source of electrical ignition system unreliablity in the fouling of spark plugs caused by lubricating oil being forced past seals (e.g. piston rings) into the combustion chamber and incompletely burning there to leave a deposit on the spark plug electrodes. Organometallic deposits derived from fuel additives are another source of spark plug fouling.
The problem of electrical ignition system reliability is much more severe in an engine equipped with a catalytic exhaust gas converter, as is presently contemplated for general adoption to reduce air pollution, then it is in an engine not so equipped. Failure of a single spark plug in a multi-cylinder engine will ordinarily not cause an engine stoppage, but it will result in the pumping of a large quantity of unburned fuel (mixed with air) through the cylinder having the failed plug into the catalyst chamber. There the mixture will burn, and this burning of a larger-than-planned-for quantity of fuel in a converter designed to handle relatively minute amounts of unburned fuel per unit time will quickly cause the catalyst to overheat, break down, form a powder, and blow out the exhaust pipe. In less than five minutes an entire expensive catalyst charge can be destroyed in this manner.
Other disadvantages are inherent in electrical ignition systems. The timing of such systems, even when performed through solid state electronic circuits, is essentially mechanical, that is, the time of initiation of a spark at a spark plug is determined by the position of the mechanical parts of the engine and the combustion chamber conditions which ought to exist with the mechanical parts in that position, rather than being determined by the precombustion conditions actually existing in the engine. Wear or maladjustment in the mechanical timing system causes mistiming of the spark. In addition, experience has shown that spark timing should be varied with engine speed, and this, too, is accomplished mechanically, with a similar liability to mistiming through wear or maladjustment.
Another disadvantage is that a spark plug, no matter how it is designed, results in initiation of the burning of the fuel in the combustion chamber at a very localized point, a fact having numerous undesirable implications, including incomplete combustion, the need for intense care in the design of the combustion chamber space, and cooling problems. One undesirable effect attributable to the very localized commencement of ignition inherent in a spark system is cycle-to-cycle variation in the performance of a single cylinder, reflected in its p-v diagram.
Ignition cells or cavities associated with combustion chambers in internal combustion engines have been proposed in the past. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,996,056 to Vierling, U.S. Pat. No. 2,279,709 to Kite and U.S. Pat. No. 3,481,317 to Hughes and DePalma. However, such devices have not come into widespread use because of existing limitations. While it has been possible to provide an ignition cell or cavity which functions well in a given engine at constant speed and load, it has not thus far been possible to make cells which perform well over a wide range of engine and load conditions. Nor has it been possible to generalize the design parameters or criteria of such cells so that in the present state of the art the provision of a cell for a given engine is almost entirely a matter of "cut and try".
Another limitation of existing ignition cells is that they will not start an engine, inasmuch as they do not become functional until heated up by heat from the combustion chamber of the engine. The before-mentioned patent to Vierling proposed to overcome this limitation by resistive electrical heating (externally supplied) of the walls of ignition cells. Absent this expedient, in the present state of the art, ignition cells do not permit elimination of the conventional electrical ignition system of an engine, since it is needed at least for starting of the engine and warm-up.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to computing systems, and more particularly to a computing system for a data processing apparatus that is designed to be flexible when modifying a formula used for computation during data processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional data processing apparatus, computations using various formulas are made when carrying out data processing. The formulas used for the computations are not fixed, and normally, the formulas are successively modified depending on the nature of the data processing. For this reason, the data processing apparatus must be designed so that various formulas can be computed when carrying out the data processing and so that the data processing apparatus can adjust to perform flexibly in response to modifications of the formulas.
In the conventional data processing apparatus, formulas required for the data processing are inserted within a data processing program and the required formulas are computed depending on the execution of the data processing program. Similarly, when carrying out a computation such as obtaining a total of a group of variables listed in a table, a formula for obtaining the total is inserted in the data processing program and the computation is carried out by executing the data processing program.
However, according to the conventional data processing apparatus, it is necessary to modify the data processing program itself when modifying the formula. The modification of the data processing program is not a large burden on the programmer when only a slight modification is made to the formula. But when a large modification to the formula is required, there is a large burden on the programmer. Therefore, there is the problem that modification of the formula greatly deteriorates the program development efficiency.
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In an optical module of an optical communication transceiver, an optical receptacle is used as a component for optically connecting an optical fiber connector to an optical element such as a light receiving element, a light emitting element, etc. (e.g., referring to Patent Document 1). Also, in optical communication, there are cases where multiple optical fiber connectors are connected to each other via an adapter without using an optical receptacle.
While the basic characteristic of the optical receptacle is to optically connect the optical element to the optical fiber connector as described above, among the characteristics, loss generally called the Wiggle loss is one important characteristic in which a transverse load applied to an optical fiber connector inserted into an optical receptacle causes shifting between the central axes of the fiber stub inside the optical receptacle and the plug ferrule inside the optical fiber connector.
Also, when the plug ferrule is initially inserted into the optical module including the optical receptacle, normally, cleaning of the end surfaces of the optical receptacle and the plug ferrule that are to be connected to each other is performed to avoid loss when connecting and avoid external appearance problems due to scratches made in the fiber.
Although a method for blowing off the foreign matter by air blowing and a method for wiping the foreign matter of the end surface using a cloth-like member such as that of Patent Document 2 are generally known as cleaning methods of the end surface of the optical receptacle to be connected to the plug ferrule, it is difficult to remove the foreign matter completely from the end surface because the end surface is at a position secluded from the tip portion of the optical receptacle; and the foreign matter is merely moved to the outer circumferential portion where there is little optical effect when connecting the plug ferrule.
Therefore, conventional optical receptacles have the problem of loss occurring when connecting due to the foreign matter at the outer circumferential portion of the fiber stub inside the optical receptacle moving to the central portion of the fiber stub in the process of repeatedly inserting and removing the plug ferrule. This problem occurs even in the case where multiple optical fiber connectors are connected to each other via an adapter. In other words, in the process of repeatedly inserting and removing one plug ferrule into and from the adapter, there is a problem of loss occurring due to the foreign matter at the outer circumferential portion of one other plug ferrule inside the adapter moving to the central portion when connecting the one plug ferrule and the one other plug ferrule.
In the case where the optical receptacle is used, to solve the problem recited above, a structure may be considered in which a stepped part is provided in the tip portion of the fiber stub to prevent the foreign matter at the outer circumferential portion moving to the central portion of the fiber stub in the process of repeatedly inserting and removing the plug ferrule into and from the optical receptacle (e.g., referring to Patent Document 3).
However, although the effects described above are obtained by the structure recited in Patent Document 3, there is a problem of the Wiggle loss described above undesirably increasing due to shortening of the length where the sleeve inside the optical receptacle holds the fiber stub.
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Optical fiber for communication purposes is well known. Optical fiber is commonly wound in a coil or skein which can he rapidly paid out, for example, behind a missile which is controlled by signals conducted by the fiber from a remote controller to adjust the flight path of the missile.
The state of the art payout system for optical fiber guided missile systems employs precision helically wound, center fed skeins of fiber. This reel-less configuration is mechanically simple, with no rotating inertial mass, which could lead to fiber breakage during missile deployment due to tensile stress. However, a major weakness of this construction is its intrinsic lack of mechanical integrity and tendency to spontaneously unravel. Hence this "twine ball" payout approach requires a containment system which can be adjusted to withstand a wide range of conditions during use. For example, it must maintain the necessary precision wound construction during the vibration "g" loading and under environmental extremes expected during a mission such as extremes of temperature and humidity, yet be not so rigidly constrained as to cause undue tensile stress on the fiber during payout.
Organic low tack adhesives are known for this purpose. The prior art has involved impregnating wound skeins with such low tack materials. The problem with this technique is the difficulty of achieving impregnation uniformity throughout the multiple layers of the skein. U.S. Pat. No. 4,950,049 to Darsey et al. addresses this problem by first pre-coating the fiber strand with a uniform layer of adhesive, and then winding. The adhesive is a thermally activated organic adhesive. The process sequence first applies the adhesive to the fiber in a zero tack state, then precision winding, and then thermally activating the adhesive system to tackiness. This achieves a bound precision wound skein, free of the microbending and built-in stresses inevitable in directly winding sticky fiber. However, with this approach, aging degradation and tackiness drift with temperature and humidity are still major problems upsetting the fine tuning required for reliable payout. Moreover, by their very nature, low tack adhesives are also likely to be low modulus materials with a thickness on the order of the fiber diameter (about 125 microns) so that, during storage, the twined fibers have a tendency to take a deformation set at bearing contact points, farther disrupting skein payout evenness.
Winding processes are also well known for such prior art arrangements. Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 5,179,613 to Cronk describes a typical process for forming a self-supporting coil of optical fiber which has convolutions adhered together by a thermoplastic adhesive.
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Conventional dental operatories generally include an articulating dental chair for supporting a patient in a variety of positions to facilitate the performance of dental procedures and operations. For example, dental chairs are generally adapted to be raised and lowered relative to a floor surface, and to be moved between a first orientation where a seat back is inclined relative to a seat base to support the patient in a seated position, and a second orientation where the seat back is reclined to support the patient in a generally supine position.
The dental operatory may also include a dental delivery unit adapted to support various instruments and tools used during the performance of dental procedures. The delivery unit is typically provided with water and pressurized air for operating the instruments, and may include a tray for supporting instruments or other articles used by the practitioner. The delivery unit may be supported on a movable arm that facilitates positioning the unit and instruments adjacent the dental chair for convenient access by the practitioner during the performance of a procedure, then moved away to permit the patient to exit the dental chair when the procedure is complete.
Conventional dental operatories may further include a cuspidor provided adjacent the dental chair to permit patients to expel the contents of their mouths during or at the conclusion of the dental procedure, an adjustably positionable light to illuminate the treatment area, and various other devices useful for the performance of dental procedures. Such devices may be supported on cabinetry or other structure positioned adjacent the dental chair for convenient access by the patient or the dental practitioner.
Conventional adjustable position lights are typically coupled via an elbow joint to a support structure that extends over a patient. The elbow joint allows the light to rotate around the longitudinal axis of a post extending from the light assembly. The elbow joint must be strong enough to support the weight of the light, and maneuverable to facilitate illumination of various locations on the patient's body. Further, the elbow joint needs to allow for easy manipulation of the light while also limiting rotational movement so that the light is held in a desired position. To accomplish these functions, conventional joints supporting lights have been fitted with an elongated bearing in the shape of a sleeve having a slit along its longitudinal axis. The elongated bearing is positioned between the inner surfaces of the elbow joint and the post extending from the light into the elbow joint. Pressure applied to the sleeve by an outer covering of the joint increases the frictional force applied to the post and restricts the rotation of the post in the joint. A known drawback with elbow joints having this construction is that the sleeve, typically made of brass, functioning as both a bearing and a brake, tends to wear out relatively quickly as the metal fatigues and the slit in the sleeve begins to spread. A further drawback is that the frictional force applied to the post is difficult to adjust, thereby making the maintenance of the elbow joint, and correspondingly the light, difficult and time consuming.
There is a need for articulating joints for supporting dental or medical lights that overcomes these and other drawbacks of prior joints.
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The diagnostic connector on automobiles permits service personnel to quickly diagnose problems related to the operation of on-board sensors and microcomputers. There is a need, however, for the capability to diagnose individual cylinder performance, that is, to identify misfiring or otherwise under performing cylinders. Such information, in the form of compression pressure and power output values for each cylinder, can be obtained from engine speed variations caused by the compression and power strokes of each cylinder.
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,539,841 to Schroeder et al, entitled "Method of Determining Engine Cylinder Compression Pressure and Power Output", teaches how for a given engine, at a predetermined engine speed and load, the peak compression pressure and the cylinder power output can be closely estimated from instantaneous engine speed at properly selected crank angles. As taught in the patent, however, the method requires a fairly high resolution encoder to generate acceptable instantaneous speed data (e.g., the speed should be measured over a crank angle smaller than about 4.degree.). In practice it means a separate speed sensor has to be used to collect speed data from the ring gear.
It is strongly preferred to obtain the necessary information without a separate speed sensor. Low resolution sensors are commonly used on engines for ignition timing and are capable of delivering a speed sample each 60.degree. or 30.degree., for example.
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1. Field Of The Invention
This invention relates to computer systems and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus by which a computer processor handles nested faults.
2. History Of The Prior Art
A computer processor continually encounters circumstances in which it must halt the processing of a particular sequence of instructions to attend to some occurrence not usually encountered in the sequence. These occurrences are variously referred to as errors, exceptions, faults, and other terms which are often defined differently by different parties and under different circumstances. In general, such occurrences all require the processor to halt the sequence of instructions it is presently processing and take some action outside of the execution of the interrupted sequence.
As one example, an error in executing a particular sequence may require that the processor stop the execution, discard the results generated to that point, and move back to an earlier point in the sequence to begin reexecution. On the other hand, an interrupt may be generated by a modem signaling that data is arriving from circuitry external to the computer that is executing the sequence. Such an interrupt may require the processor to stop execution of the sequence, receive the externally provided data, and then return to executing the sequence at the point at which it was stopped. There are many other situations in which a processor must halt its processing in order to attend to matters outside of the execution of an executing sequence, and all are subject to a number of the some of the same difficulties. Because there are many different situations, in this specification, the use of each of the terms fault, exception, error, and the like is intended to encompass all of these terms except where otherwise stated or made obvious from the text.
In prior art processors, the typical method of handling exceptions is to interrupt the sequence of instructions being executed, save enough information about the sequence and its execution up to its interruption to be able to return to the sequence and continue its execution, then transfer control of the processor to a software sequence of instructions for handling the exception (usually referred to as an exception handler), execute the exception handler to handle whatever needs be done to take care of the exception, retrieve the information about the interrupted sequence and its execution up to its interruption, and recommence execution of the interrupted sequence of instructions. Of course, in many situations, the exception will be such that the interrupted sequence cannot or should not continue so that the processor will be directed to some other sequence of instructions by the handler.
An exception or fault handler is typically a sequence of instructions stored by the computer which have been devised to carry out the processes necessary to service the particular interruption. For example, if a page fault occurs signaling that the data necessary for execution of a sequence of instructions is not in system memory, then the fault handler software to which the processor is referred is adapted to find the necessary information in long term memory and return a copy to system memory so that execution of the sequence may continue. If an interrupt signals that a modem is receiving external data which must be transferred to the computer essentially without interruption, then the fault handler software is adapted to see that all of the external data is received and stored without interference from the interrupted sequence of instructions.
Because such fault handlers are adapted to handle significantly different problems, they vary significantly from one to the next. However, since fault handlers are sequences of instructions which must be executed, these sequences are themselves subject to interruption by faults, exceptions, and the like. Consequently, it is possible to have what are typically referred to as nested faults, situations in which a fault handler is executing and itself is interrupted for some reason. Because such situations can occur, it is necessary to provide for their occurrence.
A primary difficulty is handling nested faults arises in saving sufficient information (state) so that the processor will be able to return after handling each of the levels of faults to the proper place in execution so that it may continue execution of the last interrupted sequence of instructions whether that sequence be typical code or fault handling code. Presuming that a nested fault occurs while servicing a first level fault, it is necessary that the processor before handling the nested fault save both state sufficient to return to the first level fault once the nested fault has been handled and state sufficient to return from the first level fault to the proper place in execution of the last interrupted sequence of instructions.
Prior art fault handling processes have typically accomplished this in one of two ways. According to a first method, the processor hardware is designed to save sufficient state to return from any level of nested fault the processor might possibly encounter and restart any faulting sequence. To do this, the processor responds to any fault at any level by storing sufficient state for whatever level of fault may later occur. Fault handling hardware is quite complicated. The need to save state for a number of levels of faults has further complicated and slowed the process of fault handling.
A second prior art resolution of the problem has been to provide hardware which does not save state on each fault and restore state on any return from fault. Such hardware is able to handle first level faults since the instruction at which the fault occurred is retained, by the processor but is not capable of handling nested faults by itself. To handle nested faults, such hardware is utilized with software fault handlers which include code for saving and restoring state necessary to handle any level of fault which might occur. This second method simplifies hardware fault handlers since only state necessary to return from a first level fault need be saved. However, the method requires much more complicated software fault handlers written to provide the extra steps necessary to handle or eliminate nested faults. These extra steps may be those necessary for saving and restoring state necessary to handle any level of fault which might occur. Alternatively, these extra steps may be steps necessary to preclude a nested fault from occurring. For example, steps to eliminate a nested page fault might reorder the instruction sequence so that the missing page is in memory before the attempt to access memory occurs. Should a nested fault occur, then the fault handler treats the fault as fatal and directs the processor to utilize the steps provided by this additional system software to eliminate the nested fault.
It is desirable to provide circuitry and processes by which a processor may accomplish fault handling more expeditiously than by any of these prior art techniques.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to enhance the operation of a microprocessor by providing improved methods and circuitry for accomplishing fault handling.
This and other objects of the present invention are realized by apparatus and a method for determining whether a fault is a first level fault, responding to a determination of a first level fault by saving a first amount of state sufficient to handle a first level fault, and responding to a determination of a nested fault by saving an additional amount of state before handling the fault.
These and other objects and features of the invention will be better understood by reference to the detailed description which follows taken together with the drawings in which like elements are referred to by like designations throughout the several views.
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Aircraft noise pollution is a significant environmental problem for communities near airports. Jet engine exhaust accounts for a majority of the noise produced by engine-powered aircraft during takeoff. Because it occurs at a relatively low frequency, jet engine exhaust noise is unfortunately not effectively damped by the atmosphere alone. The prior art includes several attempts at reducing jet engine exhaust noise. Such attempts are directed at altering the flow characteristics of the engine exhaust which can be comprised of several components.
Bypass turbofan engines typically produce two exhaust stream components. A first component stream is referred to as the primary exhaust flow and is discharged from a core exhaust nozzle after passing through a core engine. A second component stream passes through an annular fan duct which surrounds the core engine. The second component stream, referred to as the fan exhaust flow, exits a fan nozzle collectively defined by an aft edge of the fan nozzle and the fan duct inner wall which surrounds the core engine. The fan exhaust stream and the primary exhaust stream collectively form the thrust that is generated by the engine.
In bypass turbofan engines, the primary exhaust flow throat area at the exhaust nozzle and the fan exhaust flow throat area at the fan nozzle are preferably optimized for specific engine operating condition. For example, during takeoff, a relatively high level of thrust is required of the engines as compared to lower levels of thrust that are required during cruise flight. Increasing the quantity or mass of airflow through the fan duct having a fixed throat area at the fan nozzle results in an increase in the velocity of the airflow. An increase in the nozzle exit velocity results in an increase in the amount of noise that is generated by the nozzle.
For example, if the fan nozzle throat area is configured for duct mass airflow at cruise conditions, then the increased mass of airflow associated with higher thrust levels will result in a higher velocity of the airflow through the fan nozzle. Nozzle exit velocities that are higher than the optimal velocity for a given nozzle exit area result in a generally higher level of exhaust noise. Noise generated by the fan nozzle exhaust may be reduced by decreasing the velocity of airflow through the fan nozzle. Increasing the fan nozzle exit or throat area results in a reduction in the velocity of the exhaust as it exits the fan duct and therefore reduces the level of noise.
Included in the prior art are several approaches to increasing the fan nozzle exit area (i.e., throat area) such as during takeoff in order to reduce exhaust noise. One approach includes linearly translating the fan nozzle in an aft direction parallel to a longitudinal axis of the engine in order to increase the fan nozzle exit area and thereby reduce the velocity of the exhaust. Although effective in reducing exhaust noise, the aft-translating approach presents several deficiencies which detract from its overall utility. For example, in some prior art engines, the aft-translating approach results in the creation of a slot or opening which allows air to exhaust through the cowl wall. Unfortunately, the opening in the cowl wall adds additional cross-sectional area rather than enlarging the exhaust nozzle throat.
Furthermore, the creation of the opening results in leakage through the engine nacelle with an associated loss of engine thrust. Additionally, the aft-translating approach requires the use of swiping seals which present a maintenance risk. An additional drawback associated with the aft-translating approach is that an overlap is created between the duct wall and the fan nozzle resulting in a reduction in the surface area of acoustic treatment in the fan duct. Such acoustic treatment may include sound-absorbing material such as honeycomb placed along the fan duct inner wall to absorb some of the exhaust noise.
Even further, the aft-translating sleeve must be capable of moving a relatively large distance between stowed and deployed positions in order to provide optimum noise-reduction/engine thrust capability at takeoff in the deployed position and optimal engine efficiency at cruise in the stowed position. For wing-mounted engines, the presence of trailing edge control surfaces such as wing flaps may present clearance problems between the translating sleeve and the control surface considering the amount of travel of the translating sleeve.
Another approach to increasing the fan nozzle exit area as a means to reduce noise generated during high thrust events such as during takeoff is through the use of expanding flaps or petals which form the nozzle exit external surface. More typically applied to primary exhaust nozzles of military aircraft, the flaps or petals may be pivoted outwardly to enlarge the throat area of the nozzle and thereby reduce the exhaust velocity. The flaps or petals may also be biased to one side or the other in order to provide thrust vectoring for increased maneuverability of the aircraft. As may be appreciated, the implementation of a flap or petal scheme for changing nozzle exit area is structurally and functionally complex and presents weight, maintenance and cost issues.
An additional consideration in a variable area fan nozzle for reducing exhaust noise is that a movable fan nozzle must be compatible with thrust reversers commonly employed on modern jet engines. As is known in the art, thrust reversers on jet engines may reduce landing distance of an aircraft in normal (e.g., dry) runway conditions or increase safety in slowing the aircraft in slick (e.g., wet) runway conditions. Thrust reversers operate by reorienting the normally aftwardly directed flow of exhaust gasses into a forward direction in order to provide braking thrust to the aircraft. The reorienting of the engine exhaust gasses is facilitated by spoiling, deflecting and/or turning the flow stream of the primary exhaust and/or the fan exhaust.
For turbofan engines, thrust reversers may include the use of cascades, pivoting doors or by reversing the pitch of the fan blades. In cascade-type thrust reverser, the turbofan engine may include an outer translating sleeve which is configured to move axially aft to uncover deflecting vanes mounted in the nacelle cowl. Simultaneous with the aft movement of the translating sleeve, blocker doors in the fan duct are closed in order to redirect the fan flow outwardly through the deflecting vanes and into a forward direction to provide thrust-reversing force. Due to the widespread implementation of thrust reversal capability on many aircraft, a variable area fan nozzle must be compatible with thrust reverser systems commonly employed on modern jet engines
As can be seen, there exists a need in the art for a variable area fan nozzle which is effective in increasing the nozzle exit area of a gas turbine engine in order to reduce noise at takeoff by reducing exhaust velocity. In addition, there exists a need in the art for a variable area fan nozzle which can achieve an increase in nozzle area but which requires a minimal amount of travel to avoid interfering with various components such as trailing edge control surfaces. Also, there exists a need in the art for a variable area fan nozzle which is compatible with thrust reversers commonly employed on gas turbine engines. Finally, there exists a need in the art for a variable area fan nozzle which is simple in construction and requiring minimal maintenance.
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1. Field of the Invention
The subject invention relates to a method for controlling a robot such that a tool attached to the robot may follow a Cartesian path without excessive joint speed while encountering a singularity.
2. Description of the Related Art
An industrial robot can be viewed as a chain of stiff links, or arms. Referring to FIGS. 2A, 3, and 6, a robot is shown having varying numbers of axes. FIG. 2A show a robot 20 having a base 22, a first arm 23 connected to the base 22 and rotatable about a first axis A1, and a second arm 24 connected to the first arm 23 and being rotatable about a second axis A2, a third link 25 connected to the second arm and being rotatable about a third axis A3. This robot 20 is commonly referred to as a three-axis robot. The robot 20 in FIGS. 3 and 6 has the base 22, the first arm or link 23 connected to the base 22 that is rotatable about a first axis A1, the second arm or link 24 connected to the first arm 23 that is rotatable about a second axis A2, the third arm or link 25 connected to the second arm 24 that is rotatable about a third axis A3, a fourth arm or link 26 connected to the third arm 25 rotatable about a fourth axis A4, a fifth arm or link 27 connected to the fourth arm 26 rotatable about a fifth axis A5, a sixth arm or link 28 connected to the fifth arm 27 rotatable about a sixth axis A6 and a tool 29 solidly attached to the sixth arm 28.
In general, two links are joined to each other such that they are rotatable in relation to each other around a rotary axis. Each rotary axis is provided with a position transducer which measures the angle of rotation θi, where “i” stands for the axis number. The configuration of the robot is described by the angles of rotation of the axes. Normally, an industrial robot has five or six rotary axes, but may have as few as three axes, as described above. The final link in the chain includes the tool which, depending on the field of application, may be, a gripper, a glue gun, a sprayer, spot welding equipment, and the like. The position of the tool is defined by a tool center point (TCP). The axes of the robot may also be referred to as joints between the links.
Motion of the robot is created by providing a drive signal to a motor coupled to the joint to effect movement of the robot about the axis of rotation. Many applications require the control of the tool on specific trajectories in Cartesian space. One of the most common trajectories of the tool is a path in a straight line. This path is indicated as 30 in FIGS. 2A, 3, and 6. In order to move the robot tool along the path 30, the line is divided into a large number of positions and the robot joint angles are calculated at each position which specifies the location and orientation requirement on the path. Thus, by commanding the joint positions of the robot at a large number of points on the straight line, the desired motion of the robot tool is generated.
Presently, there are two methods of implementing a desired motion: a programmed motion method or a continuous controlled motion method from a teach pendant, i.e., a linear jog method, in which the destination position is continuously updated “on the fly” or in real-time to control the trajectory. In the programmed motion method, the trajectory of the tool is specified within the program. In the continuous controlled motion (jogging) method, the trajectory is generated in real-time.
The process of transforming a position in Cartesian space to joint angles is commonly called the inverse kinematics. The converse is the forward kinematics which, given a set of joint angles, defines a unique tool position. The forward and inverse kinematics are the key transformations in processing robot motions through computer control.
The inverse kinematics for the robot is not usually unique. For a given location and orientation of the tool in Cartesian space, there is more than one way of configuring the robot arms to place the tool at the desired position. The forward kinematics is always unique, since for a given set of joint angles, the tool can only be at one location and orientation in space.
A common articulated robot geometry has six degrees of freedom. The joint angles starting from the base of the robot are commonly termed the base rotation A1, shoulder rotation A2, elbow rotation A3, wrist roll A4, wrist pitch A5, and wrist yaw A6. The complexity of determining the six joint angles of the six degrees of freedom for a given location component and orientation component directly depends on the robot geometry. Some robot geometries yield a closed form inverse kinematics. In a closed form inverse kinematics, the joint angles are calculated by solving simultaneous equations, which do not require iterations or checks for convergence. Alternatively, some robot geometries do not yield a closed form solution, and iterative methods are generally employed to solve the inverse kinematics by iterating until the solution converges. In either case, when a singular configuration is encountered, the inverse kinematics solution typically degenerates into an infinite number of joint solutions. Consequently, when controlling a robot along a Cartesian path that passes through a singularity, a finite Cartesian speed typically demands an infinite joint speed. This is a longstanding issue in robotics, that is, when the robot approaches a singularity, considerable reconfigurations of certain joint axes are required and these axes also attain very high axis speeds. These reconfigurations may cause the robot to deteriorate over time. Also, any supply lines (electrical, paint, etc.) connected to the tool may tangle or even break as the reconfigurations occur.
For the robot to be able to follow a rectilinear path which passes through a singular point, two problems have to be solved. For one thing, the robot must detect that it approaches a singularity and it must be guided through the singularity such that the rectilinear path is followed. For the reasons described above, the passage through the singularity must not entail the considerable reconfigurations of the axes.
One method of detecting that the robot approaches a singularity, and of passing through the singularity without unnecessary reconfigurations of certain of the robot axes is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,590,034. The method comprises factorizing the Jacobian matrix of the robot, which is converting the matrix into a product of several factors, wherein each of the factors may be inverted in a simple manner. The Jacobian matrix is factorized in such a way that one of the factors becomes a diagonal matrix. A diagonal matrix is inverted by inverting the diagonal elements. If any of the diagonal elements is smaller than a preset value, this is an indication that the robot is approaching a singularity. On the basis of the diagonal elements which are smaller than this value, it is determined which axes run the risk of attaining high axis velocities and these axes are locked. When the axes are locked this means that the robot movement can only take place in certain directions. A major disadvantage of this solution is that the robot cannot follow a given path through the singularity since the tool does not retain its position through the singularity. Furthermore, the method requires processors with large capacity to factor the matrices and has to deal with numerical stability of the algorithm involved.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,680,519 discloses another method of passing through singularity along a Cartesian path without unnecessary major reconfigurations of certain robot axes. The main object of this patent is to present an iterative method of solving the inverse kinematics of robots with offset wrist where closed form solution does not exist. However, this iterative method breaks down at or near robot singularities. Hence as a side objective, this patent present a different method of solving the inverse kinematics when the robot is at/near singularity, which requires that the wrist joint angles joint angles 4, 5 and 6) be given along with the Cartesian location as input. In moving through the singularity region, for each interpolation point, it needs to know the wrist joint angles and the Cartesian location. The resultant smooth robot motion is achieved in the expense of giving up the Cartesian orientation control along the path as it moves through the singularity region. Furthermore, this patent addresses only the wrist singularity and does not address other singularities.
One common approach to identify the singularities of a given robot structure, is to compute its Jacobian matrix as described below. The conditions that cause the determinant of this Jacobian matrix to be zero are the singularity conditions for this robot.
The Jacobian matrix relates the joint speed to the Cartesian speed of the robot [ v _ ω _ ] = J θ . _
Hence for a given Cartesian path with a certain program Cartesian speeds, its joint speeds are given by θ . _ = J - 1 [ v _ ω _ ]
So when the determinant of the Jacobian matrix is equal to 0, i.e. det(J)=0, the inverse of J does not exists and a singularity is reached. At such conditions, the joint speed for certain axes are infinite.
For purpose of describing the most common types of singularities encountered in industrial robots, let us consider a 6 axes robot with an inline wrist, as shown in FIG. 1., where the wrist axes (aces 4, 5 and 6) intersect at point called the wrist center point (WCP). For the purpose of exposing the singularity conditions of this robot, the Jacobian matrix of this robot for relating frame 6 velocities to the joint speeds, expressed in frame 3 coordinate frame, can be derived as. 3 J = [ 0 l 12 l 13 0 0 0 l 21 0 0 0 0 0 0 l 32 l 33 0 0 0 - s 3 0 0 1 0 c 5 0 0 1 0 c 4 s 4 s 5 c 3 0 0 0 s 4 - c 4 s 5 ] wherel21=d1+d2s2+d31c3+d32s3l1232 d2c2c3+d2s2s3l3232 d2c2s3−d2s2c3l13=c3(−d31s3+d32c3)+s3(d31c3+d32s3)l33=s3(−d31s3+d32c3)−c3(d31c3+d32s3)Denoting 3 J = [ A 0 B C ] det(J)=det(3J)=det(A)·det(C) and det(A)=l21(l13l32−l12l33) det(C)=−s5 where det( ) indicates the determinant of a matrix
Note that J is singular when the determinant of matrix A is equal to zero and the determinant of matrix C is equal to zero. All together, there are three distinct conditions in which J is singular giving rise to three distinct singularities. A first type of singularity occurs in the wrist when det(C)=0, that is when sin(θ5)=0, where the fourth axis A4 and the sixth axis A6 are aligned, as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7. This is by far the most common type of singularity encountered in the industry. This is commonly referred to as a wrist singularity. A second type of singularity occurs when the distance of a wrist center point (WCP) from the first axis A1 is zero, that is when l21=0, causing det(A) to be 0. In other words, when the WCP is on the line passing through the first axis A1. This type of singularity occurs only when the first axis A1, the second axis A2, and the third axis A3 have sufficient motion ranges, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. This is commonly referred to as an overhead singularity. A third type of singularity occurs when the second axis A2 and the third axis A3, are inline, that is when (l13l32−l12l33)=0, causing det(A) to be 0. This type of singularity occurs when the angle between the link axes is 180 degrees, then the second axis A2 and the third axis A3 are fully stretched out, or when the angle between the link axes is zero degree, as shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B. This is commonly referred to as an inline singularity.
For a given Cartesian location and orientation, there are in general eight possible sets of joint angles to reach the position. These correspond to three possible independent configuration sets: a first configuration set having an up configuration and a down configuration, which are related to the second axis A2 and the third axis A3, a second configuration set having a flip configuration and a no-flip configuration, which are related to the wrist axes A4, A5, A6 and a third configuration set having a front configuration and a back configuration, which are related to the sign of the distance of WCP to the first axis A1. A boundary condition of each configuration set represents one type of singularity for the robot. This is another way of identifying the robot singularities besides using the Jacobian matrix, as described above. To put it another way, the singularity occurs when the arms are in a position where the configuration cannot be determined. Hence the up/down configuration set is associated with the inline singularity, the flip/no-flip configuration set is associated with the wrist singularity and finally the front/back configuration set is associated with the overhead singularity.
For robots with an inline wrist, flip/no-flip configurations involve only the wrist axes A4, A5, A6. That is, angles of rotation (θ1,θ2,θ3) about axis A1, A2, and A3 remains the same. If the flip configuration solution for the wrist axes is (θ4,θ5,θ6), then the no-flip solution is given by (θ4±180,−θ5,θ6∓180), and vice versa.
Hence the flip/no-flip configuration can be identified by the sign of θ5. When θ5 is positive, it is in the flip configuration. When θ5 is negative, it is in the no-flip configuration.
At the boundary point of flip and no-flip configuration, i.e. θ5=0, this is the singularity condition. This is by far the most common singularity. It is present in all five and six axes robots and for both inline and offset wrist.
Consider a straight line path that passes through wrist singularity, i.e., with θ5=0 which is the boundary between flip and no-flip configurations, as shown in FIG. 6. As shown in FIG. 7, by maintaining the same “no-flip” configuration along this path, axis A4 has to move 180 degrees in one direction and axis A6 has to move 180 degrees in the opposite direction in one interpolation period just before and after the singular point. Therefore, the fourth axis A4 and sixth axis A6 has to maintain speeds of 18,000 deg/sec (for 10 msec interpolation time) in one interpolation period. Hence, the TCP will have to slowdown, because both axes A4 and A6 are limited by their respective joint speed limits as the robot moves through the singular point. Referring to FIG. 8, the TCP speed slow down is graphically represented. The TCP speed was traveling at a slow speed of 500 mm/s before and after the singularity and drops to less than 100 mm/s during the period where the fourth axis A4 and the sixth axis A6 are limiting to their respective joint speed limits when the robot passes through the wrist singularity.
For a given Cartesian location and orientation, there are two solutions corresponding to the robot's up/down configuration. With reference to FIG. 2C, a line from the start of the second link to the wrist center point (WCP), there are two ways to position the wrist center point (WCP) to reach the desired location. In the up configuration, the elbow is above the line, whereas in the down configuration, the elbow is below the line. Note that the up/down configuration is when the second link and the third link moves in a vertical plane and is referred to as a left/right configuration when these links moves in a horizontal plane as depicted in FIGS. 2A and 2B.
Without loss of generality, the effect of this Inline singularity can be explained with reference to FIGS. 2A and 2B for the horizontal case. The singularity occurs in this type of robot when the first link and the second link are inline, i.e. fully stretched out or fully folded in. Referring to FIG. 2A, if the path passes through the exact singularity, i.e. the boundary point between “right” and “left where the configuration is indeterminable. While moving along this path 30, the first link has to move 180 degrees as it moves through the singular point in order to remain at “right” configuration for the rest of the motion. For an interpolation time of 10 msec, this corresponds to requiring the first link to move at a very high speed of 18,000 deg/sec. By limiting the first link to its joint speed limit, it takes a longer amount of time to pass through this short distance across the singular point, thus slowing down the robot's TCP speed.
Similarly, for a given Cartesian location and orientation there are two solutions corresponding to the robot's front/back configuration. Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, this involves mainly the first link and indirectly the second link and the third link. If a coordinate frame were attached to the first link, as shown in FIG. 4, the distance of the WCP in the positive x direction is in the front configuration. For the same WCP location, the back configuration is obtained by moving θ1 180 degrees from its current position, and bending θ2,θ3, backwards to reach the same WCP location.
The boundary of front and back configuration is when the distance of WCP to the first axis A1 is zero. At this point, the sign of the distance is neither positive nor negative, which results in a singularity. The first link has to move 180 degrees in one interpolation period, which means a first link joint speed of 18,000 deg/sec (for 10 msec interpolation period). Again TCP speed will be slowed to limit the first link's joint speed within its limit, as is shown in FIG. 5. The TCP speed before and after the singularity is 500 mm/s, but slows to about 100 mm/s due to this joint speed limit.
Accordingly, the related art methods are characterized by one or more inadequacies as described above. Specifically, the related art methods are unable to maintain the TCP speed through the singularity and are unable to maintain the TCP on the path through all the common types of singularities. The related art methods also do not suggest minimizing any errors between the location and orientation components while moving along the path that passes through or near the singularity. Furthermore, none of the related art methods change configuration of the robot arms to move through the singularity.
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The invention concerns a transportable stand with elements which can be assembled from individual parts and be dismounted, which comprise a supporting structure and telescopic parts and cheeks which can be mounted thereon at different angles of inclination to the horizontal, which hold step elements for installation of mounting parts such as seats and rails.
A stand construction of this type has been disclosed by a stand of the company Arena Seating.
In the conventional stand construction, cheeks are mounted to a supporting structure, which are either prolonged or shortened, through telescopic elements, at both ends depending on the inclination of the cheeks to the horizontal. The known cheeks can be used at different inclinations by providing mounting means for step elements on one cheek side and also on the cheek side diametral thereto with different separations from the respective cheek end.
To be able to offer an extended number of seats and more standing space at venues or in halls, transportable stands are known which consist of a plurality of individual parts and require a lot of time for assembly and/or disassembly. The individual stand parts are often large and heavy such that the stands, which are usually to be mounted without the assistance of a crane, are difficult to handle.
It is the underlying purpose of the invention to design stands which can be used according to the local requirements with easy assembly and/or disassembly and to reduce the number of or simplify the different elements required for assembly and/or disassembly.
This object is achieved in accordance with the invention in that the cheeks can be pivoted independently of the angle of inclination to the horizontal about a point of rotation which lies in the region of a first cheek end, and that each individual cheek has a first receiving point for the step elements which either coincides with the point of rotation or is disposed directly next to the point of rotation.
The stand construction comprising the inventive cheeks is advantageous in that step elements to be mounted to the cheeks always have a fixed predetermined first receiving point independent of the angle position of the cheeks to the horizontal where the first or last step element is mounted. Mounting of the inventive stand precludes or greatly reduces erroneous assembly of individual parts required for assembly since the screen for the step elements to be disposed on the cheeks always starts or terminates at the same first receiving point. An inventive cheek must be prolonged or shortened at only one end since the step elements used always terminate in the fixed first receiving point. The first receiving point for the step elements is also always the same, independent of the respective inclined position of a cheek. The first receiving point is not displaced in height and does not carry out a lateral motion when the angle positions of the cheeks vary. The bringing together of the point of rotation of a cheek in a different angle position and the first receiving point of a cheek for a step element further simplifies the overall construction. In total, the inventive construction reduces the number of elements required for assembling a stand and also reduces the number of different concrete designs of the elements.
In a further embodiment of the invention, the point of rotation has the same separation from the first end of the respective cheek irrespective of the length of a cheek. This is advantageous in that all inventive cheeks used in the stand construction are moved, i.e. pivoted, in the same fashion to obtain the predetermined end position of a cheek desired in the assembled state. If the points of rotation are equally fixed to each cheek, the overall stand structure is simplified.
In a further embodiment of the invention, the cheeks, telescopic parts, step parts and mounting parts can be joined to one another or joined to the supporting structure via secured plug and/or catch connections.
This is advantageous in that no loose individual parts are used for assembly of the stand and additional time-consuming screwing or wedging can be omitted. All connecting parts such as cheeks, step elements, telescopic parts, receiving heads, securing means, seat and/or rail connections can be coated with elastic surfaces and/or with elastic formations, profiles to connect the overall construction or individual connections of this construction in a sound-proof, in particular impact-sound-proof, sealed or play-free fashion. This measure eliminates noise which could be produced by individual elements under load.
In a further embodiment of the invention, the plug and/or catch connections are formed such that they are self-locking when connected which guarantees permanent secure assembly of the stand since security and safety checks are not required for a stand built with the inventive elements.
In a further embodiment, receiving heads are formed on the supporting structure of the inventive stand design, which receive the first end of a cheek and/or an end of the telescopic part.
This is advantageous in that no particular connecting elements are required between supporting structure and the cheeks to be mounted thereto. The receiving heads can securely and permanently hold the cheeks at the most different inclinations without additional screwing or bolting or wedging.
The receiving heads are formed to receive cheeks and telescopic parts which can be oriented at least at two different angles of inclination to the horizontal such that the same receiving heads can be used for any stand construction.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the receiving heads, holding a first end of a cheek, hold bolts which laterally project from the cheeks, wherein in the assembled state of the parts at least one bolt is overlapped by the respective receiving head and the bolts additionally project into a cavity which is limited by cheeks produced from a hollow section. One end of a telescopic part projects into this cavity and at least partially surrounds the bolts or rests on the bolts. The telescopic head of the telescopic part may be supported on the inner surface of a cheek for load relief and further means can be provided to connect and secure the connection to be created for forces acting in the horizontal direction.
This measure produces simple, permanent and safe connecting possibilities. The connections can be quickly formed and released with simple movements.
In a further development of the invention, recesses or mounting points are provided on an outer side of the cheek at defined separations into which profiled ends of the step elements engage or the profiled ends are mounted at the mounting points.
This is advantageous in that the step elements can be securely held on the cheeks via the most simple mounting means. Such cheeks can be produced at low cost and are easy to handle.
If the recesses are formed as openings of approximately twice the length of a width of a profiled end, laterally adjoining step elements can be introduced at one cheek. Only one opening is required at one cheek for both step elements. In a preferred embodiment, at least one of the profiled ends of a directly adjoining skeleton step or riser projects into the hollow section of the individual cheek and is immovably held on the cheek in a self-locking fashion or via fixing elements. This is advantageous in that the compelling sequence of the elements to be mounted, prevents having to work over gaps when the skeleton steps and risers are disposed on the cheeks.
The overall stand system is further facilitated if the step elements are formed from risers and skeleton steps, wherein the skeleton steps have the same step depth irrespective of the inclination of a cheek to the horizontal, and if openings are provided at the step edge bordering the risers for receiving the mounting elements. The same skeleton steps are used for any angle position of a cheek, and the step elements have openings for receiving seats or rail constructions. The seats or rails must be inserted into the openings provided for this purpose and are held in the openings in a self-locking fashion. The risers can also be simplified if they can be folded at some height and thus be adjusted to the most different angle positions of the cheeks in a simple way. The foldable section to extend a riser can be hinged to the skeleton step and/or the riser itself. For different angle positions of the cheeks, risers of different heights are provided. If e.g. cheeks of a length of 2.50 m are used for mounting a stand on a supporting structure with 50 cm height grid, and the step elements are mounted to the cheeks in accordance with the invention, skeleton steps of a step depth of 75 cm can be used for different angle positions of 0xc2x0, approximately 11xc2x0 and approximately 22xc2x0 and the risers have a height of 15 cm for an angle position of the cheeks of approximately 11xc2x0 and, for an angle position of the cheeks of approximately 22xc2x0, a height of 30 cm.
If the smallest common multiple of step depth and a grid width of the supporting structure is larger than a grid width but smaller than approximately five times the grid width, all desired angles of inclination of a stand can be produced with one single embodiment of a cheek. In a preferred embodiment, with a uniform cheek length of 2.50 m, platforms are possible after every three grid widths. If cheeks of different lengths are combined, horizontally oriented platforms can be produced in shorter recurrent separations. To provide safe escape paths with the inventive stand construction, horizontally oriented cheek lengths of 75 cm are sufficient when they are connected to inclined cheeks of a length of 2.50 m. If the angle position of an inclined cheek is approximately 11xc2x0, the cheek must be prolonged to approximately 2.55 m through the telescopic part. If the angle position of a cheek is approximately 22xc2x0, the cheek is to be extended to approximately 2.69 m through a telescopic part. The predetermined lengths refer to a horizontally oriented cheek (0xc2x0) of 2.50 m and a height grid of 50 cm or 100 cm at the supporting structure.
Further advantages can be extracted from the description and the enclosed drawing. The features mentioned above and below can be used in accordance with the invention either individually or collectively in any arbitrary combination. The embodiments mentioned are not to be understood as exhaustive enumeration but rather have exemplary character for describing the invention. The step elements can be mounted on any type of cheeks. The described step elements must not necessarily be used with the described cheeks.
If rail posts are mounted to the step elements, these rail posts can be inserted into cavities of the skeleton steps and/or risers and further fixing and/or securing of the rail posts can be effected through engagement into the openings in the cheeks. The skeleton steps and risers can also be of one piece such that a step element is formed from one single element.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to improved control systems for presses and, more particularly, pertains to digital and analog microcomputer control systems for presses.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The conventional control systems for presses have been provided with sequential circuits which are of a controlled contact or contact-less type. The sequential circuits of the controlled contact type such as sequential relay circuits are subject to wear and therefore are liable to be shortlived. Both of these types of sequential circuits are lacking in safety and reliability and therefore have been multitudinously or plurally designed. Accordingly, the conventional sequential circuits have become complex in construction, bulky in size and costly in manufacture and assembly. Also, it has been necessary and time-consuming to change the wiring and the circuit boards when it is desired to change control methods in these conventional control systems.
Furthermore, these prior art devices have the disadvantage that their safety systems often fail to work in emergencies.
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Automated banking machines actuated responsive to user cards are known in the prior art. For purposes of this disclosure an automated banking machine, automated teller machine, ATM, or automated transaction machine shall include any device which is capable of carrying out transactions including transfers of value. Furthermore, it should be understood that for purposes of this disclosure the terms cash and currency are interchangeable. Automated banking machines are typically operative to perform banking transactions such as dispensing cash, transferring value between banking accounts, or accepting deposits. Many automated banking machines are located in retail or service facilities such as stores, gas stations, restaurants and bars. The owners of these facilities often generate income from the automated banking machines through service fees on transactions performed with the machine. For example, if a user withdraws an amount of cash from the automated banking machine, the user may be charged a small transaction fee.
If the automated banking machine has only marginal use, the income generated may not be sufficient to justify the expense of maintaining the machine. For example, maintenance and service costs may consume a large portion of the monthly income generated by an automated banking machine which has low transaction volumes.
Alternative embodiments of systems that include automated banking machines may benefit from improved check cashing capabilities. For example, while some automated banking machines provide the capabilities for a user to deposit and/or cash a check, such capabilities are generally limited to persons who have an account such as a checking account and a debit card that will enable operation of the automated banking machine. Persons who may receive checks and who do not have an account and card that can operate the automated banking machine, or who do not wish to use such a card or account, are generally not able to cash a check at an automated banking machine.
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In the present human society that is driven by digital information, various types of personal information are digitalized in electronic products for transmission, transfer and recording. Through the use of cards, communication of information is more convenient. Card types that are widely used in people's daily life include cardholder's proprietary cards, such as debit cards, credit cards and the like issued by banks; prepaid cards that are equivalent to securities; and identity cards such as driver's license, health insurance card, passport and the like.
Most of the proprietary cards and security-equivalent cards are provided on a back side with a magnetic stripe, into which required information is written. And, information magnetically stored in the stripe can be read with an automatic card reader, such as an automatic teller's machine, or other manual card readers for performing subsequent procedures.
To stop easy production of counterfeit cards that cause cardholders' loss in property, a design of forming a magnetic field generator inside the cards for changing the magnetic field magnitude of the magnetic cards has been developed. Please refer to FIGS. 1 and 2. A first conventional magnetic field generator 1 provided in magnetic cards includes a substrate material 10, on a surface thereof a plurality of bonding pads 11, a plurality of connection pads 12, a plurality of bonding wires 13 and a core material member 14 are arranged. The bonding pads 11 are arrayed on the surface of the substrate material 10 in rows and columns. The connection pads 12 are respectively connected at an end to a first bonding pad 11 and at another end to a second bonding pad 11 that is located at a column the same as the first bonding pad 11 but at a row different from the first bonding pad 11 and is therefore closest to the first bonding pad 11. The bonding wires 13 are bonded at two opposite ends to two of the bonding pads 11 that are located at two different rows and columns, such that the bonding wires 13 are extended in a direction oblique to the connection pads 12 to be arc-shaped each. The core material member 14 is arranged between the connection pads 12 and the bonding wires 13.
To form the first conventional magnetic field generator 1, the bonding wires 13 must be precisely bonded to connect at respective two ends to two boding pads 11 that are located at different rows and columns. Therefore, equipment with relatively high precision for bonding wires is required in the manufacturing process. In addition, the bonding wires 13 are subject to a certain probability of breaking in subsequent fabrication procedures. That is, the first conventional magnetic field generator 1 needs improvement in terms of its manufacturing cost and yield rate.
FIG. 3 shows a second conventional magnetic field generator 2 provided in magnetic cards. The second conventional magnetic field generator 2 includes a first substrate material 20, a plurality of first bonding pads 21, a plurality of first connection pads 22, a second substrate material 23, a plurality of second bonding pads 24, a plurality of second connection pads 25, a plurality of connection material members 26, and two core material members 27. The first bonding pads 21 are arranged on a surface of the first substrate material 20, and the first connection pads 22 are respectively connected at two opposite ends to between two of the first bonding pads 21. The second boding pads 24 are arranged on a surface of the second substrate material 23, and the second connection pads 25 are respectively connected at two opposite ends to between two of the second bonding pads 24. And, each of the first bonding pads 21 on the first substrate material 20 is connected to one second bonding pad 24, which is located on the second substrate material 20 at a position corresponding to the first bonding pad 21, via a connection material member 26.
The second conventional magnetic field generator 2 formed of the mutually connected first substrate material 20 and second substrate material 23 is improved compared to the first conventional magnetic field generator 1, because electrical circuits are formed on the magnetic field generator 2 in a different manner to overcome the problem of easily breaking bonding wires. However, since the two substrate materials are independently fabricated, more manufacturing procedures are needed and material cost is largely increased.
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Chemical-mechanical planarization (“CMP”) processes are frequently used to planarize the surface layers of a wafer or other substrate in the production of ultra-high density integrated circuits. In typical CMP processes, a wafer is pressed against a slurry on a polishing pad under controlled conditions. Slurry solutions generally contain small, abrasive particles that mechanically remove the surface layer of the wafer. Slurry solutions may further contain chemicals that assist the removal process. The polishing pad is generally a planar pad made from a relatively soft, porous material, such as blown polyurethane. The wafer is abraded by the abrasive particles, thereby leveling or planarizing the surface of the wafer. After the wafer is planarized, it is cleaned to remove residual particles on the surface of the wafer that were introduced to the CMP process by the slurry, the polishing pad or the wafer itself. As an alternative to slurry solutions, the abrasive particles may be carried by the pad itself.
CMP processing is particularly useful for planarizing a metallic surface layer used to form conductive features, such as interlayer connectors and/or conducting lines. As an example, these interconnects are often formed by a method known as a dual damascene technique. Using the dual damascene technique, contact vias and conductor trenches are patterned into an insulating layer of a semiconductor wafer and a layer of metal is formed over this structure. This blanket layer of metal fills the vias and trenches and covers the upper surface of the wafer. Excess metal formed on the upper surface of the wafer is then removed by CMP to a level at or below the surface of the insulating layer.
After the excess metal is removed, residual materials from the slurry, polishing pad or wafer remain on the planarized surface of the wafer. The residual materials commonly include particles attracted to the surface of the wafer, such as by electrostatic or mechanical forces, as well as material bonded to the surface of the wafer. Residual materials attracted to the surface of the wafer may include abrasive particles from the slurry and particles of the metal layer removed from the surface of the wafer. Residual materials bonded to the surface of the wafer may include any remaining excess metal not removed during the planarization. To reduce defects in the finished integrated circuit device, it is generally necessary to clean such residual materials from the planarized surface of the wafer prior to further processing.
A common post-CMP cleaning approach is to use a slurry dispersant to first remove the materials attracted to the surface of the wafer. Slurry dispersants may include deionized (DI) water to simply flush such residuals from the surface of the wafer. Mechanical action, such as brush scrubbing or megasonics, may assist the removal of these attracted residuals. The slurry dispersant may also include materials to complex or otherwise bind such residuals to aid in their removal.
After removal of the materials attracted to the surface of the wafer, the wafer is often etched to remove the material bonded to the surface of the wafer. Such residuals generally are unaffected by slurry dispersants. As these residuals are typically remaining patches of the conductor material, their removal is also important to proper device performance.
In these two-step approaches, the appropriate slurry dispersants and etchants are highly dependent upon their respective target residual materials. Often, the slurry dispersants and etchants may be incompatible with each other, thus requiring a cleaning step to remove traces of the slurry dispersant before etching the bonded residuals. Each processing step creates added cost and the opportunity for introducing additional defects into the integrated circuit device.
In the competitive semiconductor industry, it is desirable to maximize the yield of finished wafers. The uniformity of the planarized surface and maximization of yield is, in part, a function of the effectiveness and repeatability of the solutions and processes used for the removal of residuals following CMP. While a wide variety of dispersant and etchant solutions are available, these solutions are generally specific to the composition of the material to be removed. One must also avoid damaging the surrounding materials.
As device sizes continue to decrease, designers must turn to higher-conductivity materials for use in interconnect lines and contacts to replace aluminum and its alloys. Some of these higher-conductivity materials include silver and its alloys.
For the reasons stated above, and for other reasons stated below that will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for alternative solutions and methods for removing planarization residuals in the fabrication of integrated circuit devices, particularly following mechanical removal of a silver-containing layer.
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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As is described in more detail hereinafter, a fuel valve is controlled by means of two variables: on the one hand a “peak duration” first variable which conditions a “peak current” first objective variable and on the other hand a “holding ratio” second variable which conditions a “holding current” second objective variable at the end of the holding phase.
The problem is that the relationship between a variable and the associated objective variable depends on numerous mechanical or electrical parameters that vary from one vehicle to another and can moreover vary as a function of temperature and/or time.
Direct open loop control therefore runs the risk of calculating a variable value that is too low with the risk of not producing the necessary objective variable. Thus if a peak current is too low there is a risk of the valve not opening or closing. On the other hand, if the peak current is too high, this leads to unnecessary wear of the valve.
In order to remedy these harmful differences and variations, the use of a servocontrol system may be envisaged, for example employing current regulation. The use of such a control system is very costly, however.
A low-cost solution is therefore looked for that makes it possible to circumvent these parameter differences and variations.
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for selecting a terminal equipment in telephone lines connecting a telephone and a data transmitter at terminals by detecting the off-hook operation of the telephone during the operation of the data transmitter whereby the data transmitter is stopped and the telephone is selected to connect it to an exchange center.
2. Description of the Prior Arts
The circuit structure of the conventional apparatus is shown in FIG. 1.
In FIG. 1, the reference numeral (1) designates a network control unit (hereinafter referring to as NCU); (2) designates a data terminal equipment (hereinafter referred to as DTE) which is actuated by NCU (1); and (3) designates a telephone (TEL); (11) designates a circuit for detecting a NCU actuating signal (detection of calling); (12) designates a receiving relay which is self-sustaining by the output of the calling detection circuit (11); ra and rb respectively represent relay contacts; (21) designates an encoder-decoder circuit (CODEC); (22) designates a modulator-demodulator circuit (MODEM); (23) designates a constant voltage circuit (AVR).
The telephone lines L.sub.1, L.sub.2 are respectively connected to an exchange center (not shown). The exchange center comprises a DC power source for feeding power to the telephone lines L.sub.1, L.sub.2 and a switch for inversion of the output voltage of the DC power source.
The operation of the conventional apparatus will be illustrated.
The actuation of DTE (2) is carried out as follows.
The diode D.sub.1 is turned on to connect NCU (1) to the power source, by the inversion of the telephone lines L.sub.1 and the L.sub.2 (plus at L.sub.2 side) which is caused by a calling signal from the exchange center. Then, the calling signal is input through the coupling capacitor C.sub.1 into the calling detection circuit (11). The calling signal is detected by the calling detection circuit (11) to turn on its output transistor. Then, the transistor TR.sub.1 is turned on to actuate the receiving relay (12). When the receiving relay (12) is once actuated, the self-sustaining current is fed to the relay contact rb thereof whereby the operation can be continued.
During the period of actuating the receiving relay (12), power is fed to DTE (2) and MODEM (22) is connected to the lines so as to be capable of transmission and receiving.
When an off-hook of the telephone (3) is carried out during the period of actuating DTE (2) (hook switch HS in the closing state), a step for detecting the off-hook state to stop the operation of DTE (2) is as follows. That is, the current consumed in NCU (1) and DTE (2) is remarkably smaller than the telephone current of the telephone (3). When the off-hook of the telephone (3) is carried out, the receiving relay (12) is returned to stop the operation of DTE (2) under the condition of an apparent short-circuit between the power input terminals of NCU (1) and DTE (2) as produced by the low resistance of the telephone (3).
The conventional apparatus has said structure. Thus, it is necessary to control precisely the coil current of the receiving relay (12) in the range of a non-induction current during the period of the off-hook of the telephone (3).
However, several phenomena have been observed, as follows:
(a) a fluctuation of the voltage between the terminals of the telephone is large during the period of the off-hook of the telephone because of the fluctuation of the line impedance.
(b) A fluctuation of the non-induction current of the relay is large.
(c) The current consumed by NCU (1) and DTE (2) should be remarkably small.
It has been difficult to attain stable operation because of said reasons.
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
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